[0:00] Okay, good evening everyone. It is
September 10th at 7 o'clock. Um, welcome
[0:05] to this board retreat for the Greenidge
Board of Education. Please join me in
[0:10] rising for the pledge of allegiance
[0:16] to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it
[0:21] stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice
[0:27] for all.
[0:32] Okay. Well, I think we should just dive
right in and thank you so much for
[0:36] providing the materials in advance and
the videos. We had a little bit of a
[0:40] snafu with some of the technology
because we've moved over to Diligent.
[0:44] Um, so it's a little tricky loading some
of the videos, but I was able to do it.
[0:48] So, just in case the public actually if
anyone is trying to do it that way, you
[0:52] know, they should reach out to Michael
and Tonachio if they have trouble
[0:55] loading the videos. Well, well, I'm
confident that of the 12 views,
[1:03] » mine's not.
>> Oh, no. I'm confident of the 12 views
[1:08] that we had as of 2:30 that each one of
you is one of those views. So, uh, as
[1:13] long as you've had an opportunity, I
think we can engage in a meaningful
[1:16] dialogue. Uh, welcome. Thank you so much
for having us this evening. Obviously,
[1:21] this is not just my presentation, but
uh, it's the hard work of everyone
[1:25] seated. not only next to me but behind
me and in the schools. So, it's a
[1:29] privilege to be able to represent all of
our educators in the Greenwich Public
[1:32] Schools and our administrators. Um,
tonight I'm here to talk to you about
[1:35] the assessment report and the assessment
calendar which is located on our website
[1:40] under teaching and learning and
assessment. Um, there's four key
[1:43] highlights that I would like to bring to
your attention. And then if you'd like
[1:47] to go into detail on any single uh item
that I raise, uh we have the entire team
[1:52] here that can go into a little bit more
depth for you. So four things that I
[1:56] think the public should know and the
board should know. Uh and I'm excited to
[2:00] share. The first one is that we're
finishing our three-year transition
[2:04] where we have been phasing in the NWA
assessment and phasing out the link
[2:10] assessment which was our Greenwich
benchmark assessment. And the reason why
[2:14] we've moved to NWA map is because we get
much more actionable data at the teacher
[2:20] level and the alignment to the SBA is is
much more um specific and uh reliable.
[2:27] So the NWA transition is going to be
complete at the end of this year. It was
[2:32] a three-year phase in. I believe when we
when we transition that you should
[2:37] always kind of scale up and so we
started slow to make sure that we
[2:41] monitored whether or not we were going
to have any hiccups or issues and then
[2:44] we slowly scaled on and brought more
schools on board and uh received
[2:49] feedback from those teachers and
administrators and really uh this was a
[2:52] no-brainer for us. The second thing that
I wanted to bring to your attention
[2:56] again is we're expanding our use of
dibbles. Currently, we have it in place
[3:01] at K 1, 2, and three. We're expanding
that into grades four, and five this
[3:06] year. This particularly reinforces the
district's multi-tered support system of
[3:11] support, and it ensures a better
progress monitoring of foundational
[3:16] literacy skills. And that leads us into
um the third highlight, which is one I'm
[3:22] really happy to share. Because we have a
robust assessment system that includes
[3:27] the NWA map and the unit assessments and
dibbles, we're able to eliminate running
[3:33] records in grades 2 through five. And
anytime we can eliminate or have uh a
[3:39] chance of eliminating testing
redundancy, we certainly take advantage
[3:43] of that because we want to be sensitive
to the fact that, you know, there's only
[3:46] so many school days and we don't want
kids to always feel like they're being
[3:50] tested. So, that's a that's a positive
right there. And then the final thing,
[3:55] and um I'm sure Dr. Mike is listening at
home. This was something he pushed for
[3:59] for a couple of years. We now have a
universal reading screener in grade
[4:03] nine. and that is the uh educational
vista's degree of reading power power
[4:09] and so that's being implemented to all
9th graders and that's to provide early
[4:14] identification and support for students
performing below grade level and so
[4:18] we're really excited about that. So
those are my four big takeaways from the
[4:22] assessment uh report and uh
presentation. Everything else is pretty
[4:27] much status quo uh and a carryover from
last year. Um, can you talk about the
[4:34] last one first? I'm really interested. I
I know I know it's too bad that uh Dr.
[4:39] Mackant Anthony is not here for this
because I know he was super passionate
[4:42] about it, but can you sort of give us an
overview of how does it work and what
[4:45] are you seeing?
>> Yeah, I don't want to steal Bridget's
[4:47] thunder because she really did all of
the hard work on researching this. So,
[4:50] I'm going to have Bridget come up.
>> Great.
[4:57] So when we met last year, we were tasked
with finding a reading screening for nth
[5:02] graders and um we do have when we have
nth graders coming in, we do have lots
[5:07] of data on them as you've just heard and
we have all the SBA scores etc. But we
[5:12] wanted a universal screener to give us
another angle on just make sure there's
[5:18] there's no student who's not been
identified who is going to have reading
[5:21] struggles. and I worked with Jocelyn
Buckman who's our K12 reading specialist
[5:26] and the reading specialists at the high
school and we talked to a number of
[5:30] purveyors of universal screeners and
what came out to us and a couple other
[5:35] districts in our area using was the DRP
degrees of reading powder was a um good
[5:40] measure. It's not uh lengthy 45 minutes
the kids can do it. It's online. It's
[5:46] quick and it should reveal. What we
liked about it was it's going to tell
[5:50] you a student's comprehension level. And
if you're an English teacher or a
[5:56] science teacher and you have a text
that's at this level of difficulty and
[6:00] you're asking a student to read that,
it's going to be valuable to realize for
[6:05] for that student, you're going to need a
lot of scaffolding and a lot of help.
[6:09] Other texts they can read completely
independently and do very well. most
[6:14] comprehension. So there it's it's going
to give us good information. When I get
[6:19] um those scores quickly, the
turnaround's digital, so I'll quick turn
[6:23] around and can see the scores. When I
see students who are low, I will um look
[6:28] at the other scores we have on those
students. By then we'll have the ninth
[6:32] grade PSAT. We'll we'll have the still
the eighth grade data. And a student
[6:37] could have one bad day on any of those
tests. But if there's a pattern of this
[6:41] is a student who's scoring low across
the board, then we're going to target
[6:44] those students. Teachers will work on
that. We'll see what else we need to
[6:48] know. We'll let the house teams know and
then we will test them again mid year
[6:52] and see the score gone up. Was that an
aberration? What's it what's the
[6:58] situation?
>> And when is this assessment happening in
[7:01] the school year?
>> Should be very soon. We're still we just
[7:05] we picked it. We select, we put the
order in, and I'm in um and I'm in
[7:11] communication with them. So soon as we
have the goal, we will do it. Teachers
[7:14] are ready and to know
>> and all ninth graders are doing it,
[7:19] right? All nth graders. So that's kind
of also really interesting data set to
[7:23] have of all ninth graders. So we can see
sort of the whole range of
[7:28] comprehension. And this year, for the
first time, we're going to give the
[7:31] ninth graders have taken in the fall for
years a um PSAT when the when the um
[7:38] juniors take it, for them it's the
critical thing. And it's great great
[7:41] practice. And anybody who knows SAT PSAT
stuff knows the more you take it, the
[7:46] more accustom you are to it, the the
better off you are. And we're going to
[7:51] also the ninth graders in the spring
didn't take it again. They we did tasks.
[7:55] They did activities. this year. They're
going to take it again in the spring,
[7:59] the full um test. It's shorter now. It's
not the fourhour operation it used to
[8:05] be. So, we're going to give it again in
the spring for those kids. Teachers will
[8:08] compare how they did in the beginning,
how they did at the end. And so, we're
[8:12] happy to have that as a as a real
benchmark. It's objective. It's
[8:16] interesting. And that just gives us
another data set.
[8:19] » Thank you. That's so great. And while
you're here, could we talk about the
[8:23] freshman English a little bit because
that was also a new
[8:25] » Oh, sure. change.
>> So, um, this year is our first year. We
[8:29] had three levels in the past. The 113A,
113, 112. We moved, um, last year we
[8:36] moved to having two levels. We have
nine, English nine. We got rid of
[8:40] numbers. We're humans. And we went to
English 9 and English 9A, which is
[8:45] accelerated. And, um, teachers spent
some summer work to differentiate a bit,
[8:50] realize where they have to scaffold,
really have to pace. And so far from
[8:55] what we had PLC's yesterday and we went
around to the PLC's to hear how's it
[8:59] going and all the nines for English sat
together all the nine A and I said how's
[9:04] it going and the um re reaction is is
good so far the um students who may have
[9:10] been in the lower level who were a
little less
[9:13] didn't have maybe the scholarly attitude
are seeing oh get our homework out oh no
[9:18] so the it's been good and I think
they're really finding ways together in
[9:22] the PLC's How do you differentiate? How
do you scaffold? How do you make sure
[9:25] you're still challenging students but
also holding those kids that are so so
[9:30] far so good.
>> And what's the split like in terms of
[9:33] the freshman class? What's what
percentage are in nine and what
[9:37] percentage are in 9A do you think?
>> I think it's 58%. Is that right, Lucy?
[9:42] » Yes.
>> Like 58% are in nine.
[9:46] » Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Um Karen, did
you have a question?
[9:49] » I did.
>> Uh yes, I did. Um first of all um great
[9:53] news on the NWA roll out. Uh
congratulations and thank you on that.
[9:58] On the assessments I wanted to see if
two things were possible. One about um
[10:04] the speed at which we get back to
parents and and two the granularity that
[10:09] we provide. So on the SBA tests I had
heard the schools had the results in
[10:14] July. I think I saw an article in one of
the local papers last month. Um, as a
[10:21] parent of of two kids, I'm still waiting
for the results. And if they were
[10:26] available in July, I would have loved to
and I'm sure other parents and I've
[10:29] talked to other parents would have loved
to have seen that because there's all
[10:32] that time over the summer if there are
any gaps to remediate. We could have
[10:35] done things at home. Um, it feels a
little late. Uh and then on the
[10:39] granularity,
my understanding is there's really rich
[10:43] data from the NWA.
And I think as a parent, I just see some
[10:49] pretty summary level scores. I mean,
maybe it's because I'm a data geek, but
[10:53] I I think other parents too would like
to see more if we're allowed to provide
[10:57] that to parents.
>> Well, let me let me start with the first
[11:00] question and I want to clarify this for
for all of you and who might be
[11:03] listening in as well. We did not have
the scores that um in July for for
[11:09] release. Uh we wait until the state
actually lifts the embargo.
[11:14] Internally we have the ability to see
results and we start building internal
[11:19] data charts so that we can get ahead of
the achievement report but they're not
[11:24] released until what is it almost
>> the 31st of August.
[11:30] » Released when we're at leadership.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, late August and then
[11:34] there's a a mailing when when we are
allowed to release the letters and and
[11:39] scores to parents. So, definitely not
July. Not sure where you heard that.
[11:43] » I heard the schools had them in July.
>> Um,
[11:46] » they're embargoed. What does that mean?
>> They have them and they just don't want
[11:51] to give them to us. Is there some sort
of Are they checking to make sure some
[11:55] of the questions were correct? What
What's going on there?
[11:57] » Because took the exams in May.
>> Yes.
[12:00] » So, it's four months. That's a long time
for a test that's electronic.
[12:04] » Yeah. Yeah.
>> So, to be honest, getting them in August
[12:07] is a real celebration. They used to come
in like October. I mean, it's it's
[12:12] earlier than normal. Well, you've got to
remember though, they're doing the whole
[12:15] state. And so, they're looking at cut
scores. They're making sure there's not
[12:20] an error on the assessment. They're uh
they want people to verify data. Do we
[12:24] see something like did they miss a whole
subset of students? I mean, and and with
[12:28] the testing process, it they can it can
be long. I mean, I think about the one
[12:33] year they lost our AP scores. Um,
[laughter]
[12:35] you know, and that went on for a couple
months trying to figure that out.
[12:39] » So, it is hard. So, we can see behind
the dashboard like and we think we know
[12:45] where we're going to fall because we can
see it as we can see when kids are
[12:49] completing tests. We can see the data.
So, we can start planning like, wow,
[12:53] what happened here? even though we may
not know the score exactly, we kind of
[12:57] know where it's going to fall. But until
they put the scores up, it we can't do
[13:01] anything. And they email us and let us
know. They give us the first look. And
[13:05] that's just because all the
superintendents complained a couple
[13:08] years ago that we did not want it to be
in the paper and we haven't even seen
[13:12] them. So now they embargo them and it's
usually a very short window where
[13:16] they're embargoed and then they give it
to all the press.
[13:19] » Yeah.
>> And then the granular data on NWA. Yeah,
[13:24] I I think we would have to go back and
talk to NWA, but but Tara, in terms of
[13:28] what we can turn on at this point,
>> yeah, our ability to share parent
[13:32] reports via NWA, now that we're
districtwide, will be able to upload
[13:36] parent reports to the parent portal. So,
parents will be able to log in and see
[13:41] the basic family report. any uh parent
who did want more detailed information
[13:46] about skills or topics where students
could either reinforce or continue to
[13:50] develop, we do have another layer of
granularity that we can provide to
[13:55] parents. That data upload is not
something we would do for the entire
[13:59] district because it is you're looking at
30 to 40 page PDFs depending on the
[14:03] assessment. But the general parent
report we do go ahead and upload into
[14:07] our uh link parent portal. So you will
see that this year
[14:15] Jeff, go ahead.
>> Just real quick, uh the GHS reading
[14:18] screener, how are parents notified and
when are they notified of those results?
[14:23] » There is a parent um there is a parent
report. So once the screenings happened,
[14:28] the report will go out and I'll put out
my information. Someone could easily
[14:32] contact me and I can explain them. But
the handbook will have pretty clear um
[14:36] definition for the parents.
Paul,
[14:40] » just housekeeping. It goes along with
Jeff when we can expect stuff, but uh
[14:45] now that I understand the um PSATs for
the ninth graders are going to be in the
[14:50] spring. I don't think that's on the um
assessment calendar. So, housekeeping
[14:54] will get that on the calendar and people
will know when those come out.
[14:58] » Yeah, we just we just finalized the date
for that on Tuesday. So, we'll go ahead
[15:03] and add that into that spring window.
It's a March date.
[15:08] Bob,
>> I'm sorry you're getting a lot of
[15:11] questions today. That's okay. Okay. Um,
how exactly does the midyear follow-up
[15:15] work? And if you do find a student uh
that might have to be moved somewhere,
[15:20] » how uh what are what are the steps in
place to avoid embarrassment and avoid
[15:23] like kind of keep anonymity of the
child?
[15:26] » We won't have to move any child. So, if
they need followup, it's we'll see if
[15:31] they need to go to more extensive MTSS.
Um, they may need to have a reading
[15:36] class. We have really great reading
teachers. Maybe they need just to take a
[15:39] fluency class in reading. Maybe they
need to get something more intensive,
[15:43] but we we would never single out a kid
and you're over there. So, but um and
[15:47] for for the most part, our reading
classes are enjoyable. Kids don't have
[15:51] to take them. They take them. And so, I
think no, we'll follow up and just the
[15:57] house will know if this student is and
then we'll move in on it.
[16:00] » That was the answer I hope to hear.
Thank you.
[16:04] On that same note, um you know the sort
of through line here that I'm I'm
[16:10] sensing is how is communication to the
parents as you collect each you know
[16:16] sort of element of this data um being
delivered in an actionable way so that
[16:21] parents can be responsive to it provided
they so desire to.
[16:27] Our primary mode of communication is
going to be that parent portal and we do
[16:31] have updated links for the parent
portal, how to sign up for your account,
[16:34] how to log in on the Greenwich Public
Schools website under the parent portal.
[16:38] I think that's what the tab is actually
called. And what we do is as soon as
[16:42] those reports are available and into
link it, we'll send information via
[16:46] school newsletter s'mores or even Dr.
Jones's Friday note when information is
[16:50] available. So we do attempt to be as
transparent as possible.
[16:55] I guess I'm curious, you know, where's
like the big big red flag that sort of
[17:00] says, hey, you know, parent, you want to
jump on this?
[17:04] » Yes. When a student is flagged for a
concern that would require an MTSS
[17:08] process, meaning an additional level of
support, there is a parent letter that
[17:12] is triggered within the process that
does get sent home immediately and then
[17:16] parents are engaged in that process and
get to um be updated every 6 to 8 weeks
[17:20] on progress monitoring. So that
information is also shared within the
[17:23] MTSS process.
[17:30] » Um can I ask about Dibbels now?
>> Sure. Miss Paladino.
[17:34] » So
thank you Bridget.
[17:39] » Hi everyone. I'm Kim Paladino. I'm the
Ka coordinator. Nice to meet you.
[17:45] » Hi. Thank you. Um so just if you could
describe a little bit more about rolling
[17:49] it out. sounds like the fourth, fourth
and fifth grade like what is that going
[17:53] to look like and sort of what is the
support that like we're hoping to
[17:58] achieve by having the dibbles in there
and how frequently are we using them?
[18:01] Can you just describe it a little?
>> Sure.
[18:03] » Before Kim answers that, Kim, maybe I
think it might be helpful because we
[18:07] keep talking about MTSS and it's an
acronym
[18:10] » and I don't like when we use educational
jargon because a lot of people don't
[18:13] know what it means. So, do you want to
talk a little bit about our multi-tered
[18:16] system of support
>> and what that really is in layman's
[18:19] terms?
>> Sure. So, a multi-tered system of
[18:22] support is a way for us to identify
students that are in need of extra
[18:27] support academically, socially,
behaviorally, speech and language, um
[18:32] any area in which is getting in the way
of performing academically. So, we have
[18:37] a district-wide MTSS handbook that
outlines all of um our mission
[18:43] statement. It's available online for
parents and for the board. Um that
[18:48] outlines our process of first
identifying students. How do we identify
[18:53] a student that's at risk? Um so, our
reading screener in high school is our
[18:57] one for for 9th graders. Dibbles, which
we'll talk about in a second, is our
[19:01] universal screener for elementary. Um,
and once we identify a student that
[19:07] might be in need of support, um, our
teachers, our classroom teachers are our
[19:12] first line of defense. They are the
first ones to see that universal
[19:15] screening data and they start thinking
about, well, what is going on with this
[19:20] student and develop like a plan within
the classroom to target that area that
[19:25] has come out as a need. and the teacher
will work um with that student whether
[19:31] small group one-on-one or within the the
general classroom targeting that
[19:35] specific skill with that student and
then we'll take progress monitoring in
[19:39] tier one a tier one intervention like
we're talking in the classroom once
[19:43] about every 3 weeks if a student isn't
making progress on that skill that the
[19:48] classroom teacher has identified they
will request a meeting um at their
[19:52] building level or their house um to talk
more about the student and um the areas
[19:59] in which they're concerned about that is
a a bigger team that's usually has an
[20:03] administrator. It has usually whatever a
specialist that is involved in that area
[20:09] of concern. Um uh and so other people
that can speak to that and then we look
[20:17] as a team together to decide do we need
to up the level of support and maybe the
[20:22] frequency of support. So, in addition to
whole class instruction, they're getting
[20:26] some specialized instruction from their
their um classroom teacher, but maybe we
[20:31] need a literacy specialist to get
involved or a math interventionist to
[20:34] get involved or we need a consult from a
speech and language pathologist or we
[20:38] might need some support from a social
worker um at the school level and then
[20:43] that would they would also have a plan
with that student and potentially see
[20:47] that student at a higher frequency and
also progress monitor. The idea is that
[20:51] we're trying to identify early and close
gaps um so we can get kids back into a
[20:58] grade level kind of scenario.
Everyone Anyone have any questions about
[21:03] MTSS?
So, Dibbles is um one of our pieces of
[21:09] our MTSS program. It is it's considered
a universal screener. It's this
[21:14] assessment, a quick reading assessment
that we give to all students so that we
[21:19] can compare across. Um we implemented it
three, we've just finished our third
[21:24] year um in K3. Um the K3 portion is a
requirement by the state of Connecticut.
[21:30] We had a various number of assessments
we could choose from, but we had a
[21:34] committee 3 years ago that chose Dibbles
as our as the best one um in different
[21:39] grade levels that identifies target key
foundational literacy skills that that
[21:45] we want to see if our kids have. And if
our kids are missing some of those
[21:48] skills, we want to identify them as soon
as we can and go through that MTSS
[21:52] intervention process to close those gaps
and to fill those holes as as early as
[21:56] possible. Um, so we've been screening K
through three. In the last couple years,
[22:03] we've had um our fourth and fifth, our
fourth through 8th grade students that
[22:08] have IEPs that have reading goals have
had that screening and progress
[22:13] monitoring available. Um, the last two
years we've included our students in
[22:17] MTSS in that process, but now we want to
just have all of our fourth and fifth
[22:22] grade teach uh students screened. In
fourth and fifth grade, there's two
[22:26] subtests. One is oral reading fluency,
which is a 60-second probe where kids
[22:30] are reading a grade level passage and we
want to see what their risk factor is
[22:34] for fluency. And then there's a
threeinut on the computerized maze
[22:39] assessment which basically sees how a
student can silently read
[22:45] uh look at semantics of a sentence, fill
in vocabulary words. It is a quick these
[22:51] are two evidence-based subtests that
really give us a high predictability of
[22:56] risk. It doesn't diagnose anything but
it tells us who out of the whole
[23:01] population we need to like maybe get
some more information on and who could
[23:05] be struggling. So we want to give that
to it. It's a easy lift for really nice
[23:10] information that and then the nice part
about dibbles is we can progress monitor
[23:14] with those quick dipst sticks in
specific um target areas so that we can
[23:19] see progress and close gaps quicker.
>> How how frequently would you be doing
[23:26] the dles?
>> So in um we use our universal screener
[23:29] is three times a year. beginning of
year, we're in the window now, middle of
[23:33] the year around January, and then end of
the year, end of May, June, and then
[23:38] teachers or interventionists have the
option if we're instructing in an
[23:42] intervention and we want to progress
monitor, we could use one sub like all
[23:46] the subtests are about 60 seconds, we
would give a 60-second subtest um to
[23:51] that student to see how are we doing?
How is our instruction meeting the
[23:56] child's needs? and we want to see that
that that that target line is going up
[24:00] like they are making progress.
>> Got it. Thank you so much. You're
[24:04] welcome.
>> Bob,
[24:07] » I just wanted to say that we were lucky
enough uh the newer board members to get
[24:10] into the schools at the beginning of the
year and see some of this in real time
[24:13] for the K through three. So, I'm really
excited. It's going to be in fourth and
[24:16] fifth grade and perhaps we could do it
again with Mr. Soka and uh and John as
[24:22] well. I hate to take up your time. I
know your time is for the students, but
[24:26] um I guess I just really want to get
back in the school. So [laughter]
[24:29] guilty.
>> Thank you.
[24:34] » Does anyone else have any other
questions on the assessments?
[24:42] » Can move on to
>> Okay. So, we'll switch gears and and go
[24:46] to the summer uh curriculum institute.
And uh Miss Fogle, you might have
[24:51] noticed, narrated this uh video for you.
I thought I'd give you a break from just
[24:55] listening to me all the time. And and
and since I gave her the power of
[24:59] narrating the video, she actually said
before the meeting, um I don't think I
[25:02] need you at the table for this one
because I really want to be able to
[25:05] bring up the coordinators and showcase
the work that they did this summer. So,
[25:09] I'm actually going to step aside, let
Miss Fogle uh run the show and bring up
[25:14] each coordinator as you see fit to ask
questions about the work they were able
[25:17] to accomplish this summer. And and it
really is um it's it's it's a testament
[25:23] to how uh how dedicated they are to get
teachers and and I'm speaking about our
[25:27] administrators and our teachers that
they give up summer time to come in and
[25:31] do this work because I I'm a firm
believer that I want teachers in front
[25:35] of kids as much as possible. There are
days when teachers are sick and they're
[25:40] not going to be in front of kids and a
substitute is just not the same as a
[25:44] teacher. And in years past, uh, before I
took this position, we used to pull
[25:48] teachers out a lot to do curriculum work
and I just never felt comfortable doing
[25:53] that. When I was a principal, I saw the
impact. And so my motto has always been,
[25:58] we will address this in the summer. So
they have aggressive timelines, but they
[26:03] get very dedicated teachers to work
alongside them to get quite a bit
[26:07] accomplished as you can see uh in the
presentation and the report that we've
[26:11] prepared for you. So um I think you'll
be happy to hear all that we were able
[26:15] to do. So Tara, I'll let you take
>> Yeah, thank you. I think um Mr. Demo
[26:20] summarized that pretty well. What we
want to shout out first and foremost is
[26:23] the teachers who work 187 days during
the year and then do dedicate their time
[26:28] during the summer to continue to tweak
and modify curriculum as necessary to
[26:32] meet the needs of students. I know Miss
Cross, you spoke a little bit about
[26:35] those scores that are available
internally to staff early on. And what
[26:39] that allows us to do is use those
internal preliminary metrics to support
[26:44] some of the summer curriculum work that
we do. And while the assessment calendar
[26:47] only had 12 views, I believe at 2:30, we
had about 18 on the summer curriculum
[26:52] work. So perhaps we are quite well
verssed in that information today. So I
[26:56] thought it was a best use of our time to
start with each content area and just
[26:59] bring up the coordinators and house
administrators and facilitators who led
[27:04] that work and we can go question answer
style. I'd like to start with ELA and
[27:08] welcome up um introducing to some of you
Miss Kimberly Paladino, Miss Bridgette
[27:13] Barry, and ALP facilitator Bonnie Orian
who supported some of our advanced
[27:17] learning work from the ELA standpoint.
Perhaps we'll start at the K5 and if you
[27:23] have any elementary ELA questions, we
can go there.
[27:30] [snorts]
>> Great. Does anyone have a question? I
[27:33] don't have one right now.
Are you present? Are you going to do any
[27:38] kind of presentation or
>> We recorded the video, but I'm happy to
[27:41] summarize some of those slides if you'd
like.
[27:44] » Yes.
>> General question more about everything.
[27:47] » Okay,
>> we can start with that.
[27:49] » Um, first of all, uh, you you've clearly
been incredibly busy um, this summer. I
[27:55] see a ton of activity. Um I'm quite
interested to hear how you will
[28:01] assess the effectiveness of these
changes on educational outcomes. Are
[28:06] there particular metrics that you'll
look back at say a year, two years from
[28:11] now to determine whether these changes
had the desired impact on students?
[28:17] » Yeah, I think that's a great question
and some of our most clear metrics are
[28:21] be will be the ones that we present to
you on October 8th in our achievement
[28:24] report. And when we're looking at
sustained growth of students and the
[28:29] need for tweaking curriculum, we look at
the curriculum management plan as our
[28:33] north star. So all of the materials that
you watched in the video or read in the
[28:37] report that we worked on today are
aligned to needs with the curriculum
[28:41] management plan. And our curriculum
management plan helps us to understand
[28:46] where we can implement resources, both
personnel and financial resources to
[28:50] support any sort of shifts that we need
to do in our curriculum. what you may
[28:54] have seen on the curriculum management
plan last year with some of this three
[28:57] through five reading for example. So we
did uh invest a large amount of
[29:01] professional learning time for this
school year and then the need for
[29:04] teachers to come in over the summer and
support their colleagues with materials
[29:08] that would help them implement those
resources over the next 2 three years.
[29:13] We hope to see the continued growth
we've seen in English language arts as
[29:17] evidenced by results on the SBA to
continue to grow. So, I'd say our
[29:21] standardized tests are metrics, but we
also collect feedback from our staff,
[29:25] from parents. We're constantly
surveying, you know, you see our survey
[29:28] goals as our strategic plan. So, those
are all metrics to evaluate the
[29:33] effectiveness of our curriculum and our
instruction as is and then providing us
[29:38] more detailed information about changes
that may need to be made.
[29:43] I'm wondering if um Bonnie could talk a
little bit about the ALP science um and
[29:48] like the changes you're making there and
the enhancements you're making there.
[29:52] » Actually, I want to
>> Yeah, perfect. We'll bring up uh Dr.
[29:55] Beckley.
>> Yes.
[29:57] » Yeah.
>> He led that over here.
[30:00] » Okay. Sorry. Thank you.
>> No, that's okay. We can do musical
[30:03] chairs for a bit.
[30:12] Good evening.
So the could you repeat the question
[30:15] again please?
>> I just I was you know in the
[30:18] presentation in the video they talked
about sort of enhancing the ALP science
[30:22] in the elementary schools and I'm just
wondering if you could talk a little bit
[30:24] about what does that look like like give
if you could provide some examples.
[30:29] » Sure that's a great question. So for our
students who are in the ALP program uh
[30:33] heading out for science instruction, one
of the things that we do in the ALP
[30:36] program is we compact the curriculum and
so they have a um the ability to you
[30:40] know take on extensions or other
activities. We had some ALP teachers
[30:44] engage this summer and the work and they
worked on designing activities for
[30:49] students. For example, um our first unit
is the view from Earth and we're dealing
[30:54] with the brightness of the sun being the
closest star to Earth. They designed a
[30:58] very unique opportunity for students to
test using their iPhone and a tool on
[31:02] the iPhone to pick up the uh brightness
of flashlights at different distances.
[31:08] So, they're actually able to use tools
in real time, which goes well beyond
[31:11] what they would do in the normal
classroom. Um another example would be
[31:14] at our second unit this year we have um
our ALP students building a terrarium to
[31:19] basically take a look at how the
interacting sphere so the hydrosphere
[31:23] and the atmosphere and the geosphere how
they all interact and basically they're
[31:27] running through a water cycle as one of
the activities as well. Um so students
[31:30] get a chance to have more in-depth
conversations they're doing more
[31:34] investigations uh and they're doing more
complicated modeling.
[31:39] » Thank you. You're welcome. And is there
an opportunity to kind of take the
[31:42] what's really successful in ALP and then
feed it back, you know, so that there's
[31:47] that it's iterative between like the
general classroom and ALP and like oh
[31:50] that worked really well. Let's do it for
everybody or you know I'm just curious
[31:55] about I hope they're not too siloed.
>> So um the science curriculum in general
[32:02] runs parallel and so what ends up
happening is every single student is
[32:05] entitled to their general curriculum
first. So everyone has an opportunity to
[32:09] have high quality instruction. What the
ALP does differently is that they
[32:14] sometimes are accelerated in how fast
they attain the standards and so we give
[32:19] them the opportunity to uh explore
further and go deeper at their grade
[32:22] level to um be able to again engage in
sometimes the students even come up with
[32:28] some of their own learning. It's great.
Um they suggest things to their
[32:30] teachers, but that's the outside of it.
In the classroom, we're still engaging
[32:35] in the science and engineering
practices. students are still
[32:37] investigating. They're still doing
modeling. They're still engaging in um
[32:42] uh they're engaging in arguments for
evidence. All the practices that we have
[32:45] to do, they're doing in both the main
classroom as well as the out classroom.
[32:50] » Thank you.
>> You're welcome,
[32:53] » Bob.
>> Yeah, I had a question going back to
[32:55] ELA. Uh sorry.
>> Thank you.
[32:58] » When the music stops. Um just about the
student resources uh the the grade six
[33:03] to eight grammar the creation of
studentf facing grammar materials and
[33:06] assessments. It sounds so interesting.
Could someone talk a little?
[33:10] » Well, I have to say that Bridget was
here a couple two summers ago now
[33:15] talking about um summer work that they
had done in the in terms of grammar.
[33:20] They were seeing some holes that needed
to be filled at the high school um in
[33:25] terms of language standards. And so they
created um a robust um resource for for
[33:31] teachers in order to and a progression
of skills that they wanted to make sure
[33:36] kids were solid on before they left high
school. At the same time she was doing
[33:40] that work, we were working at the K5
level and really looking at what our
[33:45] grammar progression looked like um from
foundations. There's grammar embedded in
[33:50] foundations. There's grammar embedded in
our writing units of study in starting
[33:54] in second grade. Um our we just um last
year implemented new 3 through five
[34:00] writing units that have grammar like
more grammar embedded. In addition to
[34:05] grade four and five, we have grammar
workshop for sadlier. So, we were
[34:11] finding and fine-tuning each summer as
we got new resources to make it work for
[34:16] teachers to make sure our students are
getting the best um lessons and hitting
[34:21] all of the important skills. So,
high school was filling. We're building
[34:26] from the ground up and now we had six
through eight. And I keep, you know, in
[34:30] in going into my fifth year in this
role, we've had lots of conversations
[34:35] with our middle school teachers about
grammar and about the importance of it.
[34:40] And what we found is we needed um
teacher clarity about what skills to
[34:45] teach in what grades and which skills to
hold kids accountable. We did a lot of
[34:50] work this summer to look at our state
standards, look at the SBA assessment,
[34:56] look at um some of the sample
assessments that we that we get for the
[35:00] SBA like our IABS or our FIABs and see
what those assessments are asking of our
[35:05] students and then think about how do we
put that in a progression and how do we
[35:09] hold kids accountable. So the work that
we did this summer was to create the
[35:13] progression. We we used a lot of the
work that the high school had done um
[35:17] and brought it to middle school. We
created resources, teaching resources
[35:22] for our teachers. How like how do we
teach this skill? What are some
[35:27] resources I can use to teach this skill?
We came up with student um practice
[35:33] opportunities. I'm really leveraging our
platform that has all of that already
[35:39] embedded for teachers and students. And
we created a pre and post assessment on
[35:44] EXL which teachers can disagregate the
data really quickly to know what skills
[35:49] do kids already know or what skills do
we need to teach. And so they're in that
[35:53] they're doing that assessment right now.
Our program meeting next week is to
[35:56] disagregate that data and use it to
inform instruction. So we're really
[35:59] trying to target those really important
skills so that our kids can be not only
[36:04] great oral communicators but great
written communicators. and we know how
[36:07] important it is for our standardized
assessments not only in middle school
[36:10] but the SAT as well. So, um we're really
excited about it and um we'll see how it
[36:15] goes this year.
>> And we're very excited at the high
[36:17] school because we know when there is
consistent work there that we can see
[36:22] the framework of then we can take ours
where we are starting from and move our
[36:26] goal post a little bit further along.
So, we're we're happy about this.
[36:30] » So, I can't remember with the PSAT do
they have a grammar section? Um the PSAT
[36:38] um English part is called evidence-based
reading and writing. Well, there's no
[36:43] essay. When we took the SAT, well, I
[snorts] don't know some of you
[36:46] youngsters, but when we took the SAT,
you wrote you wrote an essay. There's no
[36:51] writing. How are they calling it
writing? Because there are many
[36:55] questions
threaded through that test a student's
[36:58] grammar. And if you don't understand how
a sentence works, you can't answer it.
[37:03] And we we really um we are spending time
as you'll see our summer work at the
[37:07] high school on the SAT not just because
that's a an objective test that the
[37:11] state looks at. But you won't find a
teacher that doesn't recognize it's a
[37:16] it's measuring something real. It it's
measuring reading close reading. And if
[37:21] you don't follow the sentence that has a
transition and you think that sentence
[37:25] meant this and you're duped by the
sentence. So it really does help build
[37:29] close reading skills. So we realized as
we looked closer that if you don't
[37:34] understand the grammar of it you can't
you you can't compete. So that has
[37:38] infused our work and once we found the
Khan Academy which was gamified and
[37:43] interesting and individualized we
thought we can make this not the tired
[37:47] stuff of the past grammar we understood
we could teach grammar in a more in a in
[37:51] a you know more efficient way and better
for students and so that took us off.
[37:56] » Okay that sounds great. Thank you
Karen. Yeah, sorry. Just one more
[38:01] question on ELA. I mean, great to see
the focus on on grammar, on vocabulary,
[38:06] reading, writing. The one thing that I
don't see in here is spelling.
[38:11] » And I remember studying my vocab, my
spelling lists and then having a weekly
[38:16] spelling test. Neither of my kids who
are both in elementary school have ever
[38:20] brought home a spelling list and it
shows. [laughter]
[38:25] Is is that a not a thing anymore? So
spelling is actually embedded within our
[38:30] foundations phonics systematic approach
to teaching reading. So not only are
[38:35] kids learning to decode words like learn
letters and sounds and blend them
[38:39] together to read words, they are also
expected to encode words. So how do I
[38:43] take that word separate it by by phone
and and and match the graph theme to
[38:49] them. Um there are assessments embedded
within foundations in which we are um
[38:55] especially at the first through third
grade level the assessment is a spelling
[39:00] and coding assessment. It it impacts the
the
[39:05] if kids can write the word they can read
it. So we test them on you're not going
[39:10] to see a spelling list in which you're
memorizing words. um those kind of
[39:15] processes have been a little debunked
over the years because we remember we
[39:18] studied those words and then you ask
them to spell them two weeks later and
[39:23] they can't remember. We take a really
systematic approach looking at different
[39:27] syllable types, different spelling
patterns and that's how we're um
[39:31] assessing spelling within the thing. Um,
so if and you you can see the home
[39:37] letters that come home if there's if
there's there's opportunities if you
[39:41] want to see it in action in your own
house. Um, the foundations has parent
[39:45] letters that go home at the end the
beginning and beginning of each unit.
[39:49] And there's opportunities for you to see
what spelling patterns are being covered
[39:53] in your class. Um, there are
opportunities for dictation at home and
[39:56] different practices at home. Um, kids
are learning words that are regularly
[40:01] spelled. They're also learning words
that are irregularly spelled. So, um
[40:05] that is and and kids that um you'll see
some of that flag on Dibbles, too. If a
[40:13] kid is is struggling, you're going to
see it come out there, too. So, um it is
[40:18] embedded within our systematic phonics
program. We could talk later though. If
[40:23] you have a specific if [laughter] you
have a specific question, I see the
[40:25] faces. We can talk and I'll give you
more details or specifics if you if you
[40:31] [laughter]
>> Jonathan, I will not embarrass my
[40:33] children further.
>> Jonathan, [clears throat] you have a
[40:35] question?
>> Yeah. Um, I have a child in second grade
[40:39] and uh I hear endlessly about Lexica.
Lexia Lex Lexia. Um, and it's it's
[40:46] created a little bit of tension at home
where there's way more enthusiasm for
[40:50] the iPad Lexia learning experience than
for, you know, the reading. Um, and I'm
[40:57] sort of curious as we've been talking
about like reductions in phone use and
[41:01] screen time sort of where does that fit
into the, you know, sort of forward
[41:07] path? Is that is that a long-term
commitment? Is that something that is
[41:11] being traded back with iPad reduction?
Are you talking about Lexia in general
[41:17] or are you thinking are you talking
about screen time in general?
[41:20] » Both. Yeah. Like the gamification, the
Khan Academy, you know, reference sort
[41:25] of and fine at the high school level. I
think that that
[41:30] » the attentions really need to be
competed for more. But um
[41:35] » yeah, it it the screen time reduction.
I'm interested in hearing like the
[41:39] roadmap for that and also how Lexia and
those sorts of I hear popular programs
[41:45] but the students are built into it.
>> So so Lexia it's an interesting to
[41:50] understand what the platform does and
why um it's part of our comprehensive
[41:54] approach is Lexia is a um adaptive
computer program which will meet kids
[42:04] right where they are. So, if your kid is
having struggles with phonics or FMIC
[42:10] awareness or vocabulary or any of the
five pillars of reading, it's going to
[42:14] identify that and scaffold them. Um,
every move, every every move they make
[42:19] on it, it will give corrective feedback.
It will help teach and it will trigger
[42:23] to a teacher if they're having some some
trouble. Lexia is an at inschool
[42:27] program. It's not an atome program. Um
the typical um recommended time for
[42:34] Lexia is 20 minutes a week. So it is not
um and and that recommended time equates
[42:40] to a certain number of units that we
want kids to get um per week. So some
[42:46] kids finish it earlier, some kids um you
know maybe take a little bit longer, but
[42:51] typically it is finished in that 20
minutes a week. And what we do say is
[42:54] like when they meet their minutes for
the week or their units for the week
[42:57] that they're not going they're not doing
more. It's not a more is better thing.
[43:02] But the the beauty of Lexia is that it
it will take our some of our even our
[43:08] top students and give them the next
level of instruction that they may not
[43:12] be getting in their core curriculum. I
remember sitting with my own daughter a
[43:16] couple years ago and she was she was
telling me about, oh, you know, bio
[43:20] means blah blah. I'm like, where did you
learn that? because I know you haven't
[43:24] done that yet. And she was like, "Oh, I
learned it in Lexia." So, we have an
[43:28] opportunity to meet kids where they are
um and really use it as an intervention
[43:32] um and an acceleration. And we get a lot
of good data on the back end. Um so,
[43:36] we're not we're not pushing them to use
it outside of school. We're not pushing
[43:40] them to use it more than they need to.
Um it is a very systematic way of of
[43:46] prescribing an additional level of
support for students.
[43:50] » Um well, I appreciate that. Um, I'm
curious because
[43:55] on the subject of gamification, um, my
daughter comes home with those fullcolor
[44:00] certificates, uh, you know, from her
Lexia accomplishments and I have to
[44:04] assume she's doing quite well, maybe
relative to the class with it. It does
[44:09] seem like it's teaching her to value and
be excited for a gamified learning
[44:14] experience over the pleasure of reading.
Um, and so I'm curious about balancing
[44:20] that, but I don't need to put you on the
spot. I'm just
[44:23] » No, it's fine. I think I what I will say
is Lexia is the only digital platform
[44:27] that we have in ELA at the elementary
level that is a required part of our or
[44:32] like a part of our comprehensive
approach. Our kids have real books in
[44:36] their hands. They have real pen and
paper. Pen and some of our kindergarters
[44:41] like to use flares. Um, but they have
real writing instruments and real paper.
[44:46] We um have invested [snorts] a ton of
money in real books. Um it is not
[44:52] replacing that instruction, but there
are certain basic skills that are
[44:58] necessary in order to read those books
that we're trying to build um from both
[45:03] ends, right? And so um
I I think if you asked most teachers in
[45:10] our district, they would they would say
Lexia is a really important part. It's
[45:15] not a babysitter. It is not something
that we just put kids on. There is real
[45:19] value in it and and and and they see
that that progress. So, um I think
[45:26] there's a balance. Um but that is the
only digital thing that we have as part
[45:31] of our approach in K5.
>> Paul, you had a question.
[45:35] » Thank you.
>> I had a question, but I think it's so
[45:37] far back that we're Maybe we'll just
skip it. Maybe not though. I was
[45:41] interested in knowing
what
[45:45] um what criteria gets something into
that summer program um to be reviewed.
[45:50] Is it uh you know among the teachers? Is
it databased? Things like that. Um but
[45:56] she went on to explain how you um uh
Karen had asked about the back end of
[46:02] that, how you you uh measure that and
its successes. I have to suspect that
[46:07] those same measurements um are based on
other things. But that's the question I
[46:12] had. I think I I had enough answers. But
what I wanted to do was more of a
[46:15] statement. You had said something that
was very interesting. Um and there's a
[46:20] lot of people very critical about it and
I'm one of them. And it was teaching to
[46:25] the test. And the way you you um uh
expressed it was uh refreshing. I mean,
[46:34] I can't tell you how many um parents and
I mean, just everyone is told, "Oh, the
[46:40] they're just teaching at these tests and
you know, we're wasting this time and
[46:45] we're taking a classroom time out of
it." And by the and I I feel that way as
[46:50] well, but what you're saying about the
SATs as it relates to these are really
[46:54] good measurements and I have to expect
now that that can touch other tests and
[47:01] teaching to these tests might actually
be, you know, milestones that are that
[47:08] are important. And I just wanted to say
that again because there are it's a it's
[47:14] said a lot. it comes to me a lot and I
am critical of it and your statement
[47:19] related to it made me feel a little bit
better about it.
[47:22] » Well, thank you and I couldn't agree
more. A test is one day and it's
[47:26] something the school is measured by, but
for the student, what's the what's the
[47:29] meaning and the value? And I think we we
believe that there's meaning and value
[47:33] in in reading closely and understanding
what you read, communicating well, and
[47:38] the SAT is a measure of that. And
therefore, we feel the same way about
[47:41] our AP courses. The test is one day. We
want them to do well, but those AP
[47:46] courses are rich in content. And there's
real learning that you're going to need
[47:50] for the test, for college, for your
career, for life. So, we we do believe
[47:56] that because some of the criticisms I I
get, and I imagine the other boards and
[48:00] maybe even you, Tony, as well, is, oh
yeah, we got, you know, number one at
[48:05] this and blue ribbon at this, but well,
we teach to the test. And um I think
[48:10] that we've got a amazing staff and what
I'm hearing right now um uh speaks more
[48:16] to uh educating our our our students. So
thank you. I
[48:20] » I couldn't stay away because Paul, you
mentioned something that's so critically
[48:26] important that we talk about for a
couple of minutes. there is so much
[48:29] misinformation
that floats out there in the public that
[48:34] um it really is important and and I'm
glad you you you took it head on and I
[48:40] hope we answered it well enough that it
kind of demystifies any misconceptions.
[48:44] Um you know earlier Karen thought that I
was hiding the uh results in my office
[48:50] since July. Um, [laughter]
and she really thought that, right? You
[48:53] did. And
>> a lot of parents do.
[48:54] » And a lot of parents do, but I had no
idea that that was out there until you
[48:59] brought it up tonight. And so I think,
you know, you're the conduit from the,
[49:04] you know, from the public to us. And if
you hear things that just don't seem
[49:08] right, please either email the
superintendent who will get in touch
[49:13] with one of us um or bring it up at a
board meeting because um misinformation
[49:18] sets us back. And we are trying very
diligently to not only educate our
[49:24] students but educate our families. And
so we want to make sure that um what
[49:29] we're saying is conveyed in a very
transparent manner. Uh we try to put as
[49:34] much information on the website as
possible so that parents can feel like
[49:38] they're part of their child's education.
Um I was incredibly happy to hear uh
[49:44] that our new board members want to get
out and into the schools. um you make
[49:47] very important decisions and your
decisions need to be informed decisions
[49:52] and if you don't spend any time in the
schools um then the only time you hear
[49:57] about things is either in the public
which it could be misinformation or you
[50:02] hear it at board meetings and we don't
have enough right I mean we could have a
[50:04] board meeting every night on a topic not
that anybody wants to but there's so
[50:09] much breath and depth to what we do and
so um I welcome the opportunity uh to
[50:15] answer any questions or if you hear
something out in the public, let us know
[50:20] so that we can we can you know uh put it
in our newsletter and say this has been
[50:24] this has been brought to our attention
and here's the truth on on that
[50:28] particular situation. So um this has
been very helpful. I apologize Tara for
[50:33] coming back to the table. I like being
at the table. Uh but but I think I we
[50:38] can move on now but thank you Paul for
bringing that up.
[50:40] » Thank you for bringing it up. Oh.
>> Oh, Veronica.
[50:48] » Thank you. I'm so sorry to miss you guys
and thank you so much for the
[50:51] presentation. Mark, I just want to
piggyback on what you said and I was
[50:54] even thinking actually about what Karen
said also with her earlier question
[50:57] about spelling. Um, and and I know that
uh Dr. Jones knows this really well, but
[51:02] a lot of the work that you guys are
doing is
[51:06] significantly better than what is in
many of the private schools. It's more
[51:10] consistent than what we're seeing in a
lot of the private schools. A lot of
[51:13] times they're modeling off what we're
doing. I don't think there's any of the
[51:16] the schools are teaching explicit
spelling anymore the way that we used
[51:20] to. I'm using that as an example. Um
they're now just beginning to use more
[51:24] data driven approaches, which obviously
GPS has been doing for a long time. So,
[51:28] I just want to um from even looking at
at other schools, just commend um how
[51:33] well our curriculum team is doing um
both in their work this past summer, but
[51:38] also really all the time. Um because it
it we really are an example for for the
[51:43] district and how learning should be
happening. And I just I'm so much kudos
[51:48] to you guys with all that work.
[51:54] » Great. Um, yeah, I I did want to just
say something. I agree. Like it's very
[51:59] helpful having curriculum and a system
together this way because then it really
[52:02] feels like the the point of the
assessments is to think about how to
[52:05] improve the curriculum
>> rather than like giving a student a
[52:09] grade, right? Which is how a lot of
times the parents feel or the students
[52:12] feel like how did I do? But this is like
okay well if you look at an entire you
[52:17] know grade of fourth graders and you
think okay we can see we need to be you
[52:21] know improve the curriculum in a certain
way so they can be more successful next
[52:25] year and that's just such a much more
collaborative positive approach and and
[52:29] so I echo everyone's comments. I had a
specific interest I want to hear more
[52:34] about um the outsiders a new program for
the seventh graders the page to stage
[52:40] I'm so excited. So can someone talk
about it? Yes, I'm we're really excited
[52:44] about it. Uh we uh in our ELA
curriculum, we have two in seventh
[52:50] grade, we have two narrative units. Um
they um they're the kind of units that
[52:56] we're teaching our ELA standards. They
can be uh taught with any mentor text,
[53:02] right? Like so in in ELA, we don't teach
the text, we teach the standards, and we
[53:06] pick a a strong article, novel,
non-fiction,
[53:11] um piece to teach those standards. Um a
lot a couple of our seventh grade teams
[53:17] have used the Outsiders within our
units. Um a couple years ago, uh The
[53:22] Outsiders came on Broadway. Um I think
it's been this is the third year, I
[53:25] believe. It's won a lot of awards. Um
Eastern started taking their students,
[53:30] um the first year, I think it came out.
Um, I got to go with them and see it all
[53:34] in action. Um, and we thought, well,
wow, what a great opportunity. Last
[53:39] year, Western um, like really fundraised
and like really scraped together. They
[53:46] really wanted their kids to go, so we
got an opportunity. They they they made
[53:50] it happen, but it was it was like
borrowing and stealing to get the money.
[53:55] The buses alone are are very very
expensive. Um and
[54:00] Central was like, "Well, we want to do
it, too." And so we knew that we needed
[54:05] some extra funding support for for um
some of our schools. So we went to the
[54:10] Grunch Alliance and they generously um
offered to make it so that all of our
[54:15] seventh graders could go this year. Um
so that you asked like some why does
[54:20] some summer work come to be? Well, this
was an opportunity for us for all
[54:25] seventh graders to go on this trip,
which means this book is going to be in
[54:30] one of the narrative units at each
school. Um, and we wanted some extra
[54:35] resources for for teachers that were
specific to this book. Now, while we
[54:40] don't teach the book, we know that when
we put a uh a book that's set in 1950
[54:48] in front of our students, there are some
background knowledge and vocabulary that
[54:52] we need to get them ready for. Um, and
there are um some some key things that
[54:59] would be helpful to have before, during,
and after reading that text that are
[55:04] specific to that text. So, we had um a
seventh grade teacher. We had four
[55:09] teachers, but one at least from each
school that have used this book as a as
[55:14] a as a a trade book um before and they
kind of created things, pulled their
[55:19] resources. We also um consulted with
Leah Stillman of how we can really
[55:25] integrate the arts into it. We made some
lessons for before going to a Broadway
[55:30] play. Like what are some things that you
should be looking like what lenses
[55:34] should you be looking for about staging
and blocking and choice of costume and
[55:39] choice of music and let's look at the
lyrics. Um if you've never been to a
[55:43] Broadway play before, how should like
what's it going to be like? Like giving
[55:46] them the layout, what kind of like what
are theater etiquette rules, that kind
[55:50] of thing. And then afterwards, how do we
now compare the book to the to the play,
[55:56] which is in the theater standards, it's
in our ELA standards. So, what an
[55:59] amazing opportunity for all of our
students to to be able to go right in
[56:04] our backyard to New York City to
experience live theater. And so, we're
[56:09] really grateful for that opportunity.
And that kind of sparked this summer
[56:12] work because we hadn't had that
opportunity for all of our kids to go.
[56:15] So, we needed to upgrade our curriculum
a little bit to meet the needs so that
[56:19] our teachers could be prepared and our
kids could um have a really great
[56:22] experience.
>> That's really exciting and I think it's
[56:26] great and I feel like it get it gets
some kids who maybe are more interested
[56:29] in the arts could get excited about
English, right? And kids who are
[56:32] interested in ELA are get excited about
the arts. Like, it's it's really
[56:36] exciting and I'm thrilled that they all
have that common experience going into
[56:40] the high school is fun. I'm sure they'll
be able to draw on it and their work
[56:44] that they do in the high school. Thank
you.
[56:46] » Thank you to the Greenwich Alliance.
>> All right, we have six other groups of
[56:51] people. So, if it's okay with you, are
we ready to pivot to social studies?
[56:54] » Thank you.
>> All right. Uh when Principal Healey is
[56:56] not busy opening a building, he is
overseeing some social studies work
[57:01] » and uh oversees our middle school social
studies. And then we'll also bring up
[57:05] Miss Lucia Reco. And together they'll
answer any questions you may have about
[57:08] the social studies work that occurred
over the course of this summer.
[57:15] » [snorts]
[57:22] » Bob,
>> do you have a question?
[57:23] » I was just curious about the
revolutionary America uh in that you
[57:27] were doing in eighth grade. Was that was
that already established or you you were
[57:31] you building upon something that was
already there or is it something brand
[57:34] new?
>> You mean I I didn't hear the first part.
[57:36] I'm sorry.
>> I apologize. The revolutionary American
[57:38] unit.
>> Yeah.
[57:39] » Yeah. So th that all is part of the
standard US history curriculum in eighth
[57:44] grade. Um specifically what we were
really targeting was um all of this I'll
[57:51] kind of back up for a second. All of
this work really what's embedded in it
[57:53] is um how we are tracking student um
skills more so than just reading for
[58:00] information or gathering evidence and
things like that. So, we're reusing the
[58:04] um four dimensions from the um state of
Connecticut and taking um out those
[58:10] inquiry dimensions. How are students
thinking about history, thinking about
[58:13] the social studies, thinking about
geography? Um and and what should they
[58:17] be doing through grade six or be able to
do through sixth, seventh, and eighth
[58:21] grade? Um that was work we started last
year. And then basically what we um
[58:26] jumped on this year was how do we align
that a little bit better across the
[58:29] three schools so we can make sure those
students are having common experiences.
[58:33] So specifically for eighth grade it came
down to um something important which in
[58:38] our conversations with the high school
folks much like you heard with the
[58:41] grammar and English working backward
is um engaging with and analyzing
[58:46] primary sources. So, how uh did we how
can we make sure that all of our eighth
[58:51] graders are engaging deeply with primary
sources before they get to the high
[58:54] school? And so, what we ended up doing
was looking at certain units,
[58:58] specifically the revolutionary unit and
others to say, what are
[59:03] the primary sources that our students
are typically looking at or being asked
[59:08] to analyze. So, for example, one of the
most famous ones is um Paul River's
[59:12] engraving of the Boston Massacre, right?
You probably all looked at it too cuz it
[59:17] happened prior to you going to school as
well. Um so um
[59:22] most um but the idea being um are all
kids getting that experience uh and if
[59:30] so what does that experience look like
in terms of the depth of their analysis
[59:34] or how do we scaffold that for the level
of the learner? Um so what happened over
[59:38] the summer was um teachers got together
and they basically brainstormed and they
[59:42] said let's come up with say five or six
common primary sources that we all have
[59:46] been using and we brought that back to
um the whole group on that you know
[59:51] first PD day back before school started
um and said from these let's pick three
[59:56] and they did that for every unit so that
in every single unit of 8th grade there
[1:00:00] are three primary sources that we know
every child is going to engage with in
[1:00:05] their American history class at some
level in terms of a depth of analysis um
[1:00:10] and how to draw conclusions from that,
look at perspective, um think about
[1:00:15] varying points of view, whatever the
case might be. Um now teachers can bring
[1:00:20] in a lot more and they do bring in a lot
more, but we felt it was important that
[1:00:23] there was some level of consistency to
say every student that's leaving 8th
[1:00:26] grade in the Greenwich public schools
and most of them do go on to the high
[1:00:29] school have this same experience and we
know are practicing this critical skill.
[1:00:34] So how different were the primary
sources? Like did you find
[1:00:38] » Not really. So most of them were using
some of the same common ones. So there
[1:00:43] really wasn't any vast difference. But I
think it was it's more about the
[1:00:49] consistency with which we are having
kids engage with them. So when we know
[1:00:53] we're looking at the same one, teachers
started talking about well how do you
[1:00:57] use it? What questions do you ask? What
do you have the students do with it? And
[1:01:01] how deep can we get? So we started
looking back at some of those skills and
[1:01:04] standards for inquiry and saying how can
we push that further. So for example,
[1:01:09] one of the things that we want to have
students do, right, are are um is to
[1:01:13] become very good at asking deep
questions, right? That's a part of
[1:01:17] inquiry. So, can we use some of these
primary sources to help students learn
[1:01:21] how to develop really deep questions to
think about what this source meant at
[1:01:25] the time and what was the perspective
and what would the impact be and who was
[1:01:28] the audience and all those different
things to facilitate their own
[1:01:31] discussion amongst each other as opposed
to having be the teacher telling them
[1:01:35] this is what happened and this is how
people reacted. So, I think it was just
[1:01:39] more the consistency with how we were
putting that onto the students and
[1:01:42] engaging with those materials over with
each other. So, um, everyone was using
[1:01:47] some of the same common ones. You know,
everyone used the engraving. That wasn't
[1:01:52] an argument. But again, I just think it
was important because now they can speak
[1:01:56] to each other about what they're seeing
in terms of the level of what kids are
[1:02:00] able to do. And then more importantly
for our learners for whom um this is a
[1:02:06] challenge, how can you help them
overcome that hump of you know I don't
[1:02:11] understand what they're saying because
that word is funny or whatever the case
[1:02:15] might be right and then they're sharing
those strategies as well because they
[1:02:17] can break down in those core resources
or primary sources um what to expect
[1:02:22] from kids.
[1:02:26] Um, I had a question about learning
geography
[1:02:30] [laughter]
because it was I have a seventh grader.
[1:02:33] Um, and he was doing like learning
Europe, you know, the map of Europe last
[1:02:38] year. And it was interesting because it
was different from when I was in sixth
[1:02:42] grade in the sense of just that there's
the computer and you can kind of click
[1:02:45] on it and see if you got it right or
wrong and you can do it over and over
[1:02:48] and over again. But it was actually
quite similar in a way to to how I
[1:02:53] learned it. And I was like, what where
are the advances in that? And how can we
[1:02:57] be better at learning that? Because
>> I I'm just curious. I feel like, you
[1:03:02] know, there must be better ways to learn
geography than trying to memorize the
[1:03:06] map. And and I actually was thinking of
it when you're talking about spelling
[1:03:08] because it feels like the same thing
where you memorize the map of Europe and
[1:03:13] then a month later someone asks you and
you can't remember anything at all
[1:03:16] because you just you learned it for the
test,
[1:03:18] » right? So I I think you know that that
is sort of the pendulum if you will um
[1:03:24] that we've seen across many disciplines
with this idea of memorization right
[1:03:28] like how much are we doing drill and
kill not not as much anymore. So when it
[1:03:32] comes to geography, the pendulum
definitely had gone more over to which
[1:03:37] is important as well and really what the
the curriculum is is based on is you
[1:03:41] know something more like how does a
region impact how people live? Right? So
[1:03:46] what is your geography? Is it dry and
aid? Right? Is is there a lot of water?
[1:03:51] Is it coastal? Um is it rainforest? Do
you have rainy seasons? So, it's really
[1:03:56] more looking at the element of what's
the area and how does that change the
[1:04:00] way people live, interact, their
economy, their politics, and everything.
[1:04:05] Um, but I think we had kind of gotten
away, you know, every once in a while
[1:04:09] I'm still seeing some maps being colored
by region and things like that just to
[1:04:13] get them a sense. But this idea of
really being able to identify where
[1:04:16] countries are hasn't been necessarily
the the focus or where they spent the
[1:04:21] time.
What I think we're kind of seeing
[1:04:25] somewhere come back to the middle is
this understanding that knowing where it
[1:04:29] is especially in relation to other
places is also really important. Right?
[1:04:33] So it's like seeing the forest through
the trees, right? Like you need to know
[1:04:36] where it is. So interestingly enough
that you asked this and and I get a
[1:04:40] chance to highlight the structure of my
new building in this story. So this is
[1:04:44] like thank you for laying this one up
for me. Um, so for those of you who are
[1:04:47] aware, right, our new building not only
um has these grade level areas, but in
[1:04:52] those areas, right outside the
classroom, it's a common learning space.
[1:04:56] So my seventh grade social studies
teacher actually uh let's see, today's
[1:05:00] Thursday. So this was on Tuesday,
uh came up to me and said, um, do you
[1:05:06] have painters tape? A normal question
you get from a seventh grade social
[1:05:10] studies teacher, right? And I was like,
uh, no, but I can find you some cuz
[1:05:13] there's a lot of painters around here,
which is great. Um, so we got her some
[1:05:16] painters tape and and you know, she was
like, "Come by tomorrow if you want to
[1:05:21] see something." So I was like, "Okay."
So that afternoon I saw her and a couple
[1:05:25] colleagues. They had pushed all the
furniture to the side and she was taping
[1:05:28] a giant rectangle on the ground in the
common area. So the next morning I went
[1:05:32] up there and the place was buzzing. She
was sitting back like this and you just
[1:05:37] saw kids running around with 8 1/2 by 11
pieces of paper. And I'm trying to look
[1:05:41] what was going on. She had printed out
the entire world map in eight and a half
[1:05:46] by 11 pieces of paper and she had just
scattered it around and given it to the
[1:05:51] kids the entire class
>> and said m make the map and she had a
[1:05:57] map up in her room and she could see
through cuz we have these wonderful
[1:06:01] windows onto the common areas but
basically the kids had to figure out
[1:06:05] where everything went with nothing else.
She just said that's all you have. So
[1:06:09] they started putting things together but
what was magical about it was the way in
[1:06:13] which they would have conversations with
each other right they were like you know
[1:06:17] we know China's over here and we know
Japan is close to here and then it was
[1:06:21] sort of like well you know this has a
lot of water it's got to be over here
[1:06:26] and then there was also a legend so they
were trying to figure out they're like
[1:06:29] start from the corner right so they're
like oh like like the legend needs to be
[1:06:32] in the corner because whenever you look
at a map that's where it is so anyway it
[1:06:35] was really interesting because it became
this beautiful collaborative
[1:06:38] conversation where they were pulling in
background knowledge. They were using
[1:06:41] each other as resources to go back and
look and see what was near each other.
[1:06:44] And that's what she started with. And it
wasn't like just, you know, let's
[1:06:49] memorize, you know, an acronym for the
countries of Europe. It was something a
[1:06:53] little more engaging where the kids were
actually laying everything out. And then
[1:06:56] she was able to take that and start to
have conversations about climate and
[1:07:00] zones and things like that, which now
will then feed their discussion about
[1:07:03] how that impacts the people who live
there and the civilizations and the
[1:07:06] cultures. So, I don't know if that
totally answered your question, but it
[1:07:09] was just a little more engaging off the
computer, which I loved. Um, it was
[1:07:14] literally all kids just talking to each
other with paper and pencil and like
[1:07:18] kneeling on the floor. It almost kind of
looked like Twister in a way cuz they
[1:07:21] were like leaning over each other. It
was very cool.
[1:07:24] » That that completely answers my question
and also makes me feel really good about
[1:07:28] the new Central Middle School building
and the new use of that space, which is
[1:07:32] great. Thank you so much. Of
>> course.
[1:07:37] I commend that teacher. Uh and uh also
um that does lead me to inquire about
[1:07:44] this uh go guardian implementation which
I see am I am I asking the right group?
[1:07:50] » So that's been implemented at Greenwich
High School this year.
[1:07:54] um that is um a platform that allows uh
teachers to um on their screen see all
[1:08:05] of the screens of their students
basically to asssure they're on uh the
[1:08:10] tab that they should be on um and
staying focused. It also acts as a
[1:08:16] lockdown browser during an assessment
provided every student is on a
[1:08:21] schoolisssued device because the
lockdown browser is Chromebased. Uh so
[1:08:26] if a student is using a MacBook the
lockdown browser is not going to be
[1:08:30] effective.
[1:08:36] Um can you just give me like a quick
assessment of you know sort of what are
[1:08:42] the circumstances in which um GoG
Guardian is used? You mentioned like
[1:08:46] lockdown for like I imagine an exam or
you know something like that and this
[1:08:50] general general monitoring uh makes
sense but but what is that time that the
[1:08:56] kids are on their Chromebooks?
>> Are you asking how much time are they on
[1:09:02] their Chromebooks? I'm saying like when
is this? Is this like like study hall
[1:09:05] time? Is this like midclass time? Is
this like throughout the day?
[1:09:09] Everybody's on their Chromebooks. I I'm
not I don't yet have a student in the
[1:09:12] high school. So
>> So it's our our first year with it. I
[1:09:15] think uh the different programs are um
using it differently. Um and some
[1:09:22] programs might be using it more than
others. Um in a social studies class, I
[1:09:28] I have seen it used for instance during
an assessment.
[1:09:32] um in order to uh maintain academic
integrity during the assessment. Um also
[1:09:39] uh it has been used for instance if
students are working on uh a research
[1:09:43] paper. So during class to make sure
students are uh solely on you know
[1:09:48] websites being used for research and
that they are um only on a Google doc
[1:09:54] and and uh their writing is authentic as
opposed to uh using AI or um you know
[1:10:03] another website like AI to help them
write their paper.
[1:10:07] This sort of leads me into my next
inquiry. I was curious and maybe this is
[1:10:12] outside the scope of this meeting, but
how are we responding to sort of AI use
[1:10:18] in uh you know in these situations by
students? I mean I don't even know if
[1:10:23] chat is blocked in the school system.
>> It is I I can take this one. Um we do
[1:10:29] have a staff facing regulation regarding
AI use for staff. We have segmented
[1:10:34] Wi-Fi where staff have access to certain
um AI based web browsers and then we do
[1:10:41] uh this year we offered a studentf
facing AI platform just at the high
[1:10:44] school. So we do have a um school AI is
the platform that we're we're working
[1:10:50] with within GHS and our regulation
segments the use cases for uh students
[1:10:57] in grades 6 through 8 as well as
students in grade 9 through 12. So that
[1:11:00] regulation outlines exactly how teachers
support students in making good
[1:11:04] decisions about using AI as a thought
partner as opposed to a creator of
[1:11:10] content. And we also um have supporting
structures worked into the library media
[1:11:16] specialists at the uh 6 through8 level
and supporting middle schools
[1:11:19] specifically in better understanding
what AI can do, when there are
[1:11:24] appropriate times to use AI and what
different AI engines could support. Um,
[1:11:29] we have really worked with teachers to
better understand the best ways to
[1:11:34] support students in emerging technology.
And I think software such as GoG
[1:11:39] Guardian is more of a deterrent from
ineffective or inappropriate technology
[1:11:44] use, less of a big brother watching,
more of a supporting structure where
[1:11:49] while our teachers are fantastic
monitors of student um support student
[1:11:54] behavior and classroom management, when
you have 20 devices open on all
[1:11:58] different tabs, sometimes it's nice to
have your main screen just checking in
[1:12:01] while you can do some small group work.
Um, so AI is constantly changing and we
[1:12:06] have regulations that are keeping up
with it and we have the teachers and the
[1:12:09] administrators doing that work to
support them.
[1:12:13] » Thank you.
>> I had a question about the AP geography
[1:12:19] » class. Um, are students taking that
instead of like another AP or an
[1:12:24] addition? And how many students do we
have enrolled in it this year and kind
[1:12:28] of how is it going? I know it's early
days. Um so there are about 20 students
[1:12:34] enrolled in the c in the class. Um you
know how it fits in the schedule really
[1:12:39] depends on the student. It's available
for juniors and seniors to take. Um so
[1:12:47] uh if you are a junior you certainly
could take AP human geography along with
[1:12:52] for instance our civics requirement or
um the AP government class. It really
[1:12:58] really depends on what else the student
is trying to um accommodate in their in
[1:13:03] their schedule.
>> So and this year we have basic so we
[1:13:07] have one section
>> one section okay and it's going well.
[1:13:09] The um the teacher actually attended um
an AP institute in the summer um that
[1:13:16] was uh project based learning
essentially for AP human geography. So,
[1:13:21] I know she's trying to implement more um
projects in the class. Um and uh she's
[1:13:28] very excited about that.
>> Great. Thank you so much.
[1:13:34] » Okay. And with that lull, perhaps we'll
shift to math. I know usually um Mike
[1:13:39] and Bonnie are so excited to share what
they're doing in the K through 8
[1:13:42] landscape, but this summer we only had
math work going in grades 9 through 12.
[1:13:46] So, I'm going to invite Mr. Andrew Burn
up to share what the high school worked
[1:13:50] on both in math and computer science.
[1:13:56] [clears throat] And this is page five in
your report or slide 10 on your slides.
[1:14:08] [snorts]
[1:14:20] While everyone else is looking, do you
mind if I Okay,
[1:14:22] » go ahead.
>> Just curious about the AP cyber
[1:14:24] security.
>> Yeah, it's uh it's really exciting. I
[1:14:28] think um I just want to give a shout out
to all our teachers. You know,
[1:14:31] curriculum institute is a wonderful way
for us to refresh and renew our
[1:14:34] curriculum um in all our courses. Um but
this year was particularly exciting for
[1:14:39] me uh with the ability to uh see over
oversee the launch of two new courses uh
[1:14:46] this year at Granch High School. Uh one
of them was approved by this board many
[1:14:49] years ago with the support of Dr. Jones
and we were unfortunately not able to
[1:14:53] run it for a number of years and that is
honors linear algebra. Um but some of
[1:14:57] you that were with us last spring uh
approved uh AP cyber security which is
[1:15:01] equally exciting. Um, so we also had
some teachers uh participate in or one
[1:15:07] teacher in this case participate in a AP
curriculum institute, Mr. David Angelo.
[1:15:11] Um, he was able to go over the summer
and and learn more about the AP cyber
[1:15:15] security and uh it's really been a a
great start thus far. Um, the kids are
[1:15:20] very excited. We have about uh 17 kids
in that class this year. um and uh you
[1:15:26] know they're they're really invigorated
by all that's happening uh in in our
[1:15:29] world and and learning more about uh AP
cyber security. So I I do applaud the
[1:15:34] work of this board to make this a
possibility for our students and I think
[1:15:38] that in years to come we'll actually see
the uh enrollment grow because it is
[1:15:42] such a a timely important course um uh
for our students in their future.
[1:15:48] » Yeah.
[1:15:54] Okay. I'm wondering if you could just
like for especially for our two new
[1:15:59] board members if you could talk about
like the breadth of the math program at
[1:16:02] the high school because I think a lot of
people are not aware of of how
[1:16:06] differentiated math becomes at the high
school level. I know that's not part of
[1:16:11] this, but I just I think it might be
helpful because a lot of people don't
[1:16:14] know if they have elementary school
students.
[1:16:16] » Sure. Um, you know, we're fortunate
enough to have about 30 different
[1:16:19] courses on the books at at Crunch High
School. We have about 115 sections that
[1:16:23] are run every year. Um, and it really
does cover the breath of of all levels
[1:16:27] of math, which is really exciting. And
we do do a great job um, meeting the
[1:16:32] students where they are. And I I want to
give just a quick shout out to Mr. Reid
[1:16:35] and and all the uh, KA teachers that
prepare the students so well u for us at
[1:16:40] Greenwich High School. We are certainly
fortunate to um, get kids who are
[1:16:44] excited about learning math and and
really have the foundational skills uh,
[1:16:48] to do it at such great levels. And so um
really as you mentioned you know there
[1:16:53] is a quite a breath. We have everything
from uh skills-based courses in
[1:16:57] mathematics all the way through uh now
honors linear algebra um and uh a number
[1:17:03] of AP uh computer science and
mathematics courses that would be
[1:17:07] traditionally at any other school. Um
but really I think the other piece of
[1:17:12] this all is um the work that Dr. Jones
has done along with this board to uh
[1:17:17] really help our students um early on uh
who are I you know showing a proclivity
[1:17:23] for for math uh inspiring them and and
providing them with uh opportunities to
[1:17:28] to grow and and so um one of the things
that's I think is is unique uh to Granch
[1:17:34] High School or to Granch Public Schools
that is is our block zero. Um, so we we
[1:17:38] could have students who um are as young
I believe as uh sixth grade um all the
[1:17:43] way through eighth grade that could be
taking courses um in everything from
[1:17:47] algebra 2 to uh AP pre-calculus or even
we've had some kids take advanced
[1:17:52] calculus which is after BC calculus um
before they come to us at at GR High
[1:17:56] School. So uh that alone has really um
done amazing things for for us as as a
[1:18:02] as a district as a town and uh certainly
as a department. So um thank you u I I
[1:18:08] want to say thank you to all of you uh
for making these things possible for our
[1:18:11] students and for you know giving our
opportunities to our teachers to really
[1:18:15] um you know teach in a district where um
you know math is valued and and that we
[1:18:20] are able to provide our students with
those exceptional opportunities and um
[1:18:24] encouraging us as as new opportunities
come about to uh ensure that we're
[1:18:29] planning and preparing um to to meet
those students needs.
[1:18:34] Well, thank you for all of your hard
work, but and I commend you. I mean, it
[1:18:38] is unbelievable
the level of work that the students are
[1:18:41] doing at the high school, I really do
think it's unmatched.
[1:18:45] It's just incredible.
[1:18:49] » Jonathan,
>> yeah. Um, since you gave us that
[1:18:53] assessment, one thing I'm actually very
curious about is, you know, data science
[1:18:57] programs. One thing that absolutely
drives me nuts hiring, you know, young
[1:19:02] people out of high school and college is
their absolute inability to navigate
[1:19:06] Excel and large data sets. [laughter]
It it is it seems like such a
[1:19:11] fundamental skill set in our modern era
that uh I I don't know how it isn't uh
[1:19:17] just core basic curricula. So, if you
could speak [laughter] to that.
[1:19:21] » I don't I don't know if I have a great
answer for you, Mr. Katz. I will say my
[1:19:24] daughter is a Granch High School grad
and she is a data scientist. uh
[1:19:27] [laughter] uh right now and she would
concur with you. Um but um I do think
[1:19:32] there are courses within our course of
study that um students who have that
[1:19:36] interest um will certainly um be exposed
to it. I I don't know um from a
[1:19:42] traditional math point perspective how
we could do better with that but that is
[1:19:46] something that I do struggle with as
well. I I will say uh courses like AP
[1:19:49] statistics and honors linear algebra um
you know we're really u manipulation of
[1:19:55] data large data sets um are you know
things that students enjoy and that we
[1:20:00] need to do and find more ways to infuse
them into maybe some of our uh lower
[1:20:05] level math classes. But uh your point is
well made and I think um you know just
[1:20:09] like we're talking about cyber security
earlier it is something that um is uh a
[1:20:14] need and uh I don't know where we'll do
it but it is it is on my radar to to
[1:20:19] take a look at that in the coming years.
I would happily trade away [laughter]
[1:20:22] all the calculus that you're teaching
for the ability to manage piv pivot
[1:20:27] tables and like just in terms of like
being integrated in the workforce and
[1:20:32] and especially now with AI helping
students supplement their Excel
[1:20:37] knowledge by being able to give them
formulas and you know but they still
[1:20:40] fundamentally have to be familiar and
comfortable working with those data sets
[1:20:44] in order to take advantage of that. And
on a workforce level it's something I
[1:20:49] care about a lot. I I do as well and and
I I think the the folks that we need to
[1:20:54] uh kind of sway more are the colleges
and universities. They um you know are
[1:20:59] even though perhaps I I would argue that
uh AP statistics is more of a valuable
[1:21:04] course in the long run um they are
looking for AP Calculus BC [laughter] as
[1:21:09] part of the the uh admittance process.
So you know I think we have to you know
[1:21:14] um uh support both ends of those those
competing demands.
[1:21:20] Thank you. Yeah,
>> Mr. Catz, I think that actually might be
[1:21:23] a perfect segue because we do start with
spreadsheets as early as third grade in
[1:21:28] our science classes. And that will bring
us back up to Dr. Beckley and
[1:21:32] introducing Miss Amy Farnum officially
in her role as science program
[1:21:36] administrator at Greenidge High School.
So, thank you Amy and Dr. Beckley for
[1:21:41] being up here.
and they'll take a moment to answer any
[1:21:46] questions you may have about the K
through 12 science work that went on
[1:21:49] this summer and perhaps share a little
bit about our um goals around data
[1:21:54] literacy, data manipulation, data
showcasing and data communication from
[1:21:58] the science perspective. Maybe Amy, you
want to start with that?
[1:22:03] » Sure. So, um data literacy is actually
one of the found one of the foundational
[1:22:08] pieces of our MDSS standards. to
practice that. We we start [snorts] all
[1:22:13] the way in kindergarten. Um we have
programs where they get on the computer
[1:22:18] and begin to manipulate spreadsheets, as
Terra said, as early as third grade with
[1:22:23] Tuva where they're learning to use data
sets and manipulate variables to make
[1:22:28] the types of graphs that make sense. Um,
and that grows all the way through to
[1:22:33] the high school level where um, one of
the things that I have here that we did
[1:22:38] this summer was to create physics labs
using um, pocket lab technology and
[1:22:44] veneer technology where they're graphing
real-time data to solve challenges. So,
[1:22:50] um, they're taking their own data. Um,
one of the the really cool challenges
[1:22:54] they were making is something called an
Atwood cart where you have a string in a
[1:22:58] car and it's it's going to fall down
with a pale at the other side. And so
[1:23:03] what they need to do is try to make it
move exactly 1 meter per second. And
[1:23:07] what they're going to do is they're
going to take candy corn out of one side
[1:23:09] and put it on the other. But they have
to do at the exact rate and with the
[1:23:12] exact amount. So if it means you take
off that white little tip, you may get
[1:23:16] it perfect. And it's a challenge to see
who could get it the best. But the way
[1:23:20] that they're doing that is they're
looking at their data. They're analyzing
[1:23:22] the data and they're seeing um their
accuracy because we actually know how
[1:23:28] much a Newton weighs. So at the end we
could test it. Um so we have we have
[1:23:34] those programs all the way through. I
know in um my science class I I taught
[1:23:39] AP environmental and environmental
science. Um I'm constantly using
[1:23:44] spreadsheets and uploading it um
everywhere from local data. um we can
[1:23:48] get real live data. Um I'm going to
circle back to the maps um question. Um
[1:23:53] we can get real-time data today um on
computer programs that will show you
[1:23:58] exactly what the weather is like. Um and
we can use that to make predictions. So
[1:24:02] we could track hurricanes in real time
and we could turn off layers and have
[1:24:06] students predict exactly where it's
raining just by looking at pressure. Um,
[1:24:10] [snorts] so we use technology constantly
and we're constantly pushing our
[1:24:14] students to answer questions that um
that they're going to use data to find
[1:24:20] answers to. Um, we make them manipulate
um data in spreadsheets as well. And
[1:24:25] that gets increasingly more complex as
they go through the years. So we start
[1:24:30] with just finding an average. But by the
time they get up to high school, we're
[1:24:33] looking at um trends and trend lines and
um deciding whether it's linear or
[1:24:41] exponential, right? And our our students
are trained to do that um early on.
[1:24:48] » Thanks.
[1:24:51] » And also just to say this is my my first
board meeting. See everybody's all we
[1:24:54] have some new faces. So I just want to
say hi to all the board members. Madam
[1:24:57] Chair, Dr. Jones. Uh my name is Jeff
Beckley and I was a newly appointed uh
[1:25:01] member of the team back in April. So um
as far as again data literacy goes since
[1:25:05] we're talking about Tuva, we do use Tuva
in grades 3, four, five and of course
[1:25:08] the middle schools this summer heading
into some of the work that we did um
[1:25:12] getting ready for grade five. So grade 5
has four brand new science units this
[1:25:16] this school year. Um we're very excited.
Um, a big huge shout out to the team of
[1:25:21] teachers who spent their summer with me.
Um, going through and agonizing and
[1:25:26] making really tough decisions, but also
having a lot of fun. And again, half of
[1:25:29] the fun of science is is, you know,
experiencing science, doing the work,
[1:25:32] doing the science. And so, um, for
example, the tub of the stuff that we're
[1:25:35] doing in fifth grade, students are
looking at the hours of daylight on
[1:25:39] their birthday, and do all children have
the same amount of playtime on their
[1:25:42] birthdays? So, that's one fun activity
we're going to look at, and we can
[1:25:45] manipulate that data set. So, um, again,
uh, super proud, um, of the work that
[1:25:50] was done this summer and looking forward
to. Again, grade two was another grade
[1:25:53] level that we spent some time doing,
another, um, development of of the first
[1:25:57] unit for them. And that that was part
of, again, I have the very lucky
[1:26:02] position to inherit the work that Mrs.
Fogle, to my right, um, did for the last
[1:26:06] two years in terms of a spiraling
redesign. Uh, the kindergarten who are
[1:26:10] now second graders have had all the
realigned uh, science work up to now.
[1:26:16] So, the second graders are the
benefactors of that just like the fifth
[1:26:19] graders are the benefactors of the
third, fourth, and now the fifth grade.
[1:26:24] » Jonathan,
>> uh I'm excited about the uh the new
[1:26:28] grade 5 curriculum, especially because
my daughters aren't there yet. So, you
[1:26:32] know, hopefully it'll all get ironed out
by then. Um, and it's killing me because
[1:26:36] I'm forgetting what district uh locally
uh has been doing it, but there is a new
[1:26:42] planetarium in Stamford uh which I'm
taking my daughters to almost at least
[1:26:48] monthly since January when it opened and
it's fantastic and any way it can be
[1:26:54] incorporated is very exciting and you by
your smiles I suspect you have something
[1:26:58] to share with me.
>> So I'll go first and then I'll turn over
[1:27:00] to Amy who has something also exciting
to tell you. Uh the first thing is the
[1:27:03] Stanford Museum and Nature Center uh in
Stanford, Connecticut uh did open their
[1:27:07] astronomy center uh recently and one of
the great things that Greenwich does uh
[1:27:12] better than maybe any other district is
they provide assured experiences to
[1:27:15] students that every child no matter what
school you go to gets to partake in an
[1:27:18] experience. Grade five students this
year are all going and after the first
[1:27:23] unit is complete to the Stanford Museum
and Nature Center to partake in the
[1:27:26] planetarium on Greenwich skies. They're
going to have their school logos posted
[1:27:29] up in the planetarium when they get
there. So they're going to be all jacked
[1:27:32] up and excited. Um but also um it's a
way to cement what they just learned by
[1:27:37] looking at it in real time. The second
part of that is that they will also be
[1:27:42] pre-learning and getting some
preexposure to looking at our watershed
[1:27:45] because in the second unit they're
looking at our inter interacting spheres
[1:27:49] and again um being able to understand
how towns you know clean their water.
[1:27:55] The the phenomenon is how does it go
from a a raindrop to your cup? like how
[1:27:59] would it even do that? Um and so that's
really exciting as well. Um and
[1:28:03] additionally um I was asked to serve as
a member of the board for the Stanford
[1:28:08] Museum and Nature Cent's Astronomy
Center. So I will serve as a grant
[1:28:10] representative to be able to help
represent our district with them.
[1:28:16] » If we're talking and oh sorry
>> if we're going to talk about experiences
[1:28:20] outside I'm just wondering do we partner
with Soundwaters for all fifth graders
[1:28:24] or is that some of the fifth graders
that do that experience?
[1:28:28] So, the Soundwaters experience is a
grade four possibility. I think Leah
[1:28:31] might be able to talk about it more when
she gets up here, but that's typically
[1:28:34] an art experience even though it seems
sciency. Um, it is typically fourth
[1:28:38] grade. They have a choice. Soundwaters
is one of those choices and it's under
[1:28:41] the art umbrella for a short
experiences.
[1:28:43] » Okay. Thank you.
>> Yep. And here's Amy on Star.
[1:28:46] » Oh, how'd you get that?
>> Um, also I want to share that uh Tara
[1:28:53] actually was able to purchase uh two
planetariums. We actually have two
[1:28:57] planetariums in our district and we did
not have to compromise the pool which is
[1:29:01] what happened when we paid into that as
a swimming coach. Um so we actually have
[1:29:05] both. We have two planetariums that we
can bring around two schools. Um I
[1:29:09] brought it to summer school which you'll
hear about in two weeks with me. Um and
[1:29:13] it's it's really an incredible
opportunity because we get to choose
[1:29:17] exactly what we present and what the
students are learning and we can make
[1:29:20] our own shows. Um, in one of the courses
that I wrote um, with the team this
[1:29:25] summer, we actually incorporated
designing your own planetarian show for
[1:29:29] younger grades into it. So, we're hoping
that that can be an ass shared
[1:29:32] experience where our students are
leaders and could go present to other
[1:29:35] students um, based on what they're
learning.
[1:29:39] » Great. Thank you,
>> Bob.
[1:29:41] » You just want to take us out of outer
space and bring us back to planet Earth.
[1:29:44] [laughter]
>> Ask you questions about the horiculture
[1:29:47] and animal behavior. It sounds pretty
fascinating.
[1:29:52] Yeah, the team that um that wrote this
um this was right before I came on um is
[1:29:58] extremely excited to write these courses
with NGSS standards. So this summer we
[1:30:06] were able to finally focus on our
elective courses which didn't get the
[1:30:10] same amount of attention as our core
courses because we had taken senior year
[1:30:15] after the NGSS test. So our focus is
really on strong um instruction in our
[1:30:21] uh freshman and software engineer
classes. So having the opportunity to
[1:30:25] take teachers who are incredibly
passionate about these courses and and
[1:30:29] have the chance to um actually
incorporate NGSS um teaching styles into
[1:30:36] it, project based. Um, I know they have
plans in horiculture to kind of to do
[1:30:43] what New Lebanon did and bring a bring a
garden and have the students take care
[1:30:47] of the garden and and partner. Um, and I
know that we're also interested in
[1:30:51] looking into CTE opportunities um for
this course. Um, we're not running this
[1:30:57] course this year. The hope is that we
can sell what we did to students and get
[1:31:01] a group of students excited to take this
course next year. But we were able to
[1:31:06] strengthen the curriculum. the
curriculum really did need a lot more
[1:31:09] science and and a lot more opportunities
for students to be leaders and to to use
[1:31:13] the science and engineering um
practices. And so we're we're incredibly
[1:31:18] excited and this is going to continue
the work over the year and make sure
[1:31:21] that this class would be ready um and we
we are able to sell it to students and
[1:31:25] fill this class.
>> That's great. I'm sure if you showed
[1:31:28] them uh all the amazing things that
happened at New Lebanon, that might help
[1:31:31] them help inspire them. I I happened to
be at New Lebanon this summer and
[1:31:34] brought the team over and uh they cannot
wait to sleep to write the grants to
[1:31:39] hopefully get it in action at our
school.
[1:31:47] » Okay. Uh I'd like to bring up the World
Languages Program team, uh Christina
[1:31:53] Shaw and Dr. Jeffrey Shaker.
[1:32:19] So, Christina and Jeff had a team of uh
teachers looking at flesh for grades
[1:32:23] three through five and then some work at
the middle school level as well as GHS
[1:32:27] courses in Spanish 1 through 4, native
Spanish 356, and all AP world language
[1:32:33] courses as well as Italian 1 and 2. This
is on slide 17 of your packet.
[1:32:40] Can you like how how what sort of
percentage of the Spanish courses are
[1:32:45] native like native Spanish? I know
obviously it changes from depends school
[1:32:50] to school but just overall
>> do you want to take for the younger
[1:32:54] grades and then
>> so for younger grades we have native
[1:32:57] Spanish at our bilingual schools. So
that's um at New Lebanon and at um
[1:33:05] Hamilton Avenue. Um in the middle school
we have it at all three levels. So we
[1:33:09] have Spanish for native 6, native 7 and
native 8. At the high school, I would
[1:33:14] say about 20% of our Spanish classes
would be native Spanish classes.
[1:33:26] » Sure.
>> Do you want to do the
[1:33:29] » Yes, that's okay. So, uh, two things. I
think one thing that's interesting to
[1:33:34] mention is, uh, in with regard to the
fact that we're talking about what is
[1:33:38] the value of teaching to a test, right?
And that comes into play when you are
[1:33:43] teaching advanced placement courses
because the curriculum is set by the
[1:33:48] college board and the idea is that you
want to prepare the students for the
[1:33:52] test so that they score well. With that
in mind though, it was refreshing to see
[1:33:57] that the college board changed the
advanced placement test for world
[1:34:02] languages to really represent what we
want, which is students who can use
[1:34:07] their language proficiency in the real
world. And so they added a project that
[1:34:12] the students need to complete. And the
idea of the project is that the students
[1:34:17] would do research and then make a
proposal to the AP board and then they
[1:34:24] would create authentic speaking tasks
for the students. And then the day of
[1:34:29] the exam, which they haven't done yet,
they will do for the first time this
[1:34:32] year in 2027. The students will have to
give a presentation. and then they will
[1:34:38] have to answer questions that are
impromptu
[1:34:42] by some you know uh system through a
digital platform that the AP provides.
[1:34:48] So it's very exciting and our focus this
year for our AP teachers was preparing
[1:34:52] the students for that. But we are really
excited number one they got rid of all
[1:34:58] of these antiquated ways of testing our
students. If you can believe it, we were
[1:35:02] still using CDs given to us by, you
know, the testing board to put into boom
[1:35:09] boxes. You can imagine it was actually
really hard to find [laughter] the boom
[1:35:12] boxes and there were some glitches that
uh created problems for our students.
[1:35:18] So, I'm glad that they're bringing it up
to [laughter] the what what is, you
[1:35:24] know, what they're used to, which is
modern Thank you. modern teaching and
[1:35:29] technology and uh it will be fully
digital and we will have our students um
[1:35:36] working on platforms that more represent
what they will be using in the
[1:35:41] workforce.
>> So with that description so is it there
[1:35:45] it's weighted some of it is weighted
then on being a practical communicator
[1:35:49] as opposed to like pure grammar right if
you can convey an idea. Okay.
[1:35:55] » Exactly. And but they'll be talking to a
computer or something like like
[1:35:59] » right
>> it will be right because I mean
[1:36:01] otherwise it would be hard to scale
something like that I would imagine.
[1:36:05] Yeah.
[1:36:08] » Are they graded on their ability to use
a CD in a boom box? [laughter]
[1:36:16] » Just stick them in a room with those and
see what
[1:36:17] » Most of them don't know what a CD is.
They just they just hear it coming out
[1:36:22] of the the box. Um, additionally, we
were able to finish our alignment 6
[1:36:26] through 8 of our new Spanish um,
curriculum with the K chevet book that
[1:36:32] we adopted two years ago. So, we um,
started with six and seven last year and
[1:36:37] then we finished with 8th grade this
year. So, now we have alignment also
[1:36:40] working with the high school to make
sure that we have alignment with our
[1:36:44] levels at the high school that are also
using the resource and our Italian book
[1:36:48] which we adopted in the spring. Uh we
wrote our curriculum for levels one and
[1:36:53] two to be used this year as well.
>> How how many [clears throat] students go
[1:36:58] on to do like AP foreign language sort
of I don't know percentage of like the
[1:37:04] high schoolers.
>> We have a probably last year about 200
[1:37:09] students taking AP classes uh in world
languages. So, uh quite a bit
[1:37:17] » and we also have some students who are
able to a lot of our students take it in
[1:37:21] their junior year um which is actually
quite advanced. Most students take
[1:37:26] language in their senior year just based
on where language typically starts in a
[1:37:29] district. So, we do have some students
who are actually able to take two
[1:37:33] language APs in Spanish because we offer
both um language and culture and lang.
[1:37:40] Another thing that we're excited about
is that we're providing rigor for the
[1:37:43] students not through only advanced
placement but Dr. Jones did give us
[1:37:48] funding so that we could have studentu
uh students have rigor in different ways
[1:37:53] and we are providing dual enrollment for
many of our world language classes and
[1:37:57] this was always really a goal of mine to
open doors for all kinds of students.
[1:38:02] Not all students want to take advanced
placement courses, but this is a new way
[1:38:07] for them to explore rigor. For example,
our French program is going to now have
[1:38:13] a Quinnipiac
college course that they are taking at
[1:38:18] our high school this year through our uh
French six honors program. So, that's
[1:38:24] very exciting. And we also have an
advanced Latin America course taught for
[1:38:30] the Spanish students who don't want to
take advanced placement, but they can
[1:38:34] still earn a Quinnipic course credit. So
that's three credits at a very
[1:38:39] inexpensive rate. So again, I see that
as opening doors for our students for
[1:38:44] whom college may be an expensive fee. So
it's fairly exciting.
[1:38:53] » Exactly. [laughter]
[1:38:57] Okay,
>> thank you.
[1:38:59] » Thank you. Thank you so much. I'd like
to bring up Miss Leah Stillman, who is
[1:39:03] here to talk a little bit about some
exciting things that happened in the
[1:39:06] world of visual and performing arts,
including some um exciting prek work
[1:39:12] that I was quite excited about with a
three-year-old at home myself.
[1:39:15] [clears throat]
>> Hi, nice to see all of you. Um before
[1:39:20] you field some questions, I'll just kind
of after finishing year one in district
[1:39:25] and taking I can kind of give you my
thought process and my think process
[1:39:28] behind my two departments that I
oversee, which is visual art and
[1:39:32] performing art, music. Um coming into
the district last year, I really just
[1:39:36] looked at across the board where our
curriculum is and really worked hard. I
[1:39:42] have a wonderful team of teachers, but
really on the vertical alignment of our
[1:39:45] curriculum, where are we going from our
foundation up to our rigorous high
[1:39:50] school courses and what's in between?
And I saw some holes that we had. Um, if
[1:39:55] you don't know, my background is in
curriculum in addition to teaching and
[1:39:59] other things. But, um, that's a big
piece of where I come from. So, I really
[1:40:03] kind of look at that lens of curriculum
and and what that looks like, how we fit
[1:40:09] our arts curriculum in the box of
sometimes what a core curriculum might
[1:40:13] look like, but how we how we fit into
that and really teaching my teachers how
[1:40:19] to write curriculum from the lens of a
whole education, but within our our
[1:40:26] coursework. So, a lot of the work was
focused this summer on the middle. So,
[1:40:33] um, we looked at or I looked at what was
kind of missing in terms of documents
[1:40:38] and and and real curriculum that the
teachers were pulling from and it was
[1:40:43] really at the middle school level. So,
um, we started to build
[1:40:48] or rebuild or look at um, share
documents that look similar across all
[1:40:54] our courses now. So, we're using one
document for each course that we build,
[1:40:58] whether it be prek or high school. But
we looked at our 67, we started with 67
[1:41:03] band this summer and then we'll continue
with eighth grade next year. Um, looking
[1:41:08] at funding and then 67 general music and
then we'll continue into ETH next year.
[1:41:15] With our general music curriculum, we
looked at almost a a grabag of units. So
[1:41:23] if you're looking at what was developed,
it's more we don't we have requirements
[1:41:28] up to fifth grade after that we have
kids that are taking courses maybe
[1:41:32] they're eighth graders haven't taken a
musical art course in sixth or seventh.
[1:41:35] So, how do you scaffold a curriculum
that really has access to all students?
[1:41:40] And the decision that I made, and I
think the teachers really leaned into
[1:41:44] it, was, let's create units that the
teacher can pick, a basket of sixth
[1:41:51] grade units, seventh grade units, eighth
grade units that they can pick out and
[1:41:56] any student up to having their fifth
grade experience in music will be able
[1:42:01] to learn at their level. whatever that
looks like, a ukulele unit or whether
[1:42:06] it's a history or a history of rock unit
or a keyboarding unit. Those sorts of
[1:42:10] things. Some are more hands-on and and
others are a little more I won't say a
[1:42:16] little more not as hands-on, but I don't
know what the right word is. I'm last.
[1:42:20] I've been you [laughter]
my thought process. So, that's where we
[1:42:24] went with the with the middle school
curriculum and in in terms of general
[1:42:28] music. And then this I won't I won't
give away my next month's presentation
[1:42:32] but we'll look at art in the same way
moving forward with that. So we built
[1:42:37] that and then the the really exciting
part was we have a lot of teachers pre
[1:42:41] teaching prek um as our pre-k programs
grow and we have extended day in those
[1:42:45] extended day schools uh for prek. My
teachers are teaching prek students and
[1:42:52] they don't have a curriculum. So, I had
such a dynamic, awesome team this summer
[1:42:57] of um of elementary educators and we
developed a really robust prek music
[1:43:04] curriculum and art will be next. and um
to really
[1:43:09] touch our youngest learners and it's all
play-based movement using your bodies
[1:43:14] all the things that um they
intrinsically have to use to really
[1:43:22] build a foundation musically. So, and
then the other piece was of course our
[1:43:26] favorite um art history. Um, we built uh
the um Liz Vasquez uh from GHS art
[1:43:35] department wrote an incredible five unit
honors art history uh curriculum which
[1:43:40] is a one semester course and we have one
section running this first semester. So
[1:43:45] um really rich in um hands-on work from
the and this will feed into our AP
[1:43:52] course will give them a foundation. So
>> can you talk a little about like the
[1:43:57] difference between that then? So, sort
of like the the AP art history and the
[1:44:01] honors art history
>> without getting into too much detail. I
[1:44:05] mean, I know that this that's always
been a super challenging AP and we want
[1:44:08] to provide more support for our students
so they can be more successful in the
[1:44:11] class, but like what does that look like
so you're not repeating right
[1:44:15] curriculum?
>> That's a great question. So
[1:44:18] a few years ago we had they had changed
the AP curriculum to not be a
[1:44:24] lecture-based but more a uh presentation
based where the students were
[1:44:32] working on presentations and learning
about different eras in history of art.
[1:44:38] Right? And now we've kind of pivoted and
now that's what the honors course looks
[1:44:43] like. So, the honors course looks like
more hands-on presentationbased
[1:44:50] um more like a dip into each uh each
area of art going through the ages. And
[1:44:58] now the AP has almost gone back to
a more I won't say college level format
[1:45:04] but a more format more of a format that
is
[1:45:09] not completely lecture style because
that's not always engaging to kids but
[1:45:13] more of that college level classroom
style. So they're getting yeah they're
[1:45:18] getting the kind of the hands-on dip
their toes in and then they get to that
[1:45:22] AP and they can really dive in deeper.
The AP art history is one of the hardest
[1:45:26] AP exams out there because the content
is so diverse. You're talking about
[1:45:32] early early art all the way up until
modern art and there's so much in there
[1:45:36] and to be able to cover all that is
hard. So this gives them a basis to go
[1:45:40] in there and and is a lot of like
memorization the AP the I mean I just I
[1:45:46] I didn't take AP art history in high
school but I took art history in college
[1:45:49] and I mean I just remember having to
memorize you know like 600 slides,
[1:45:53] right? Like that's what you had to do.
>> Similar. It's exactly
[1:45:56] » Okay. Okay. So, it hasn't changed.
>> Yeah. It's [laughter]
[1:45:59] similar map. I don't know.
>> Maybe cassette tape. I don't know.
[1:46:04] [laughter]
[1:46:07] » Anyone have questions?
>> Thank you.
[1:46:11] » Okay. Thank you.
>> Great. Absolutely.
[1:46:13] » And last but not least, I'm going to
invite back up Dr. Jeff Beckley. In
[1:46:17] addition to what he does for K science,
he also oversees our K through2 library
[1:46:22] media specialists, a group of certified
staff educators who are quite important
[1:46:28] in the in our media centers and
throughout our buildings and a and a
[1:46:31] group of teachers who haven't had uh
dedicated coordinator support in quite
[1:46:36] some time and who squeezed every ounce
out of Dr. Beckley's stone this summer
[1:46:40] to get a lot of parent facing documents
done that he'll tell you a little bit
[1:46:43] about.
>> All right. So, I feel like I've been up
[1:46:47] here a lot tonight. Um,
this summer, uh, I had again a wonderful
[1:46:52] opportunity to sit down with some of our
very, very dedicated library media
[1:46:57] specialists. And one of the things that
we wanted to do was take all of the
[1:47:01] things that they're doing and make sure
that everyone knows what they're doing.
[1:47:05] Um, and so what we put together this
summer was a K2, a 35, a 6, and an 8,
[1:47:13] uh, library media parent or public
facing document. So you can see what
[1:47:17] your children are learning when they are
in school at those particular uh bands.
[1:47:23] Uh aside from that, um any questions on
any of that material that you guys had a
[1:47:27] chance hopefully to look at prior.
[1:47:35] » Go ahead.
>> I'm just wondering how the media staff
[1:47:40] um [clears throat] how you're feeling
about it. What's um do you have adequate
[1:47:45] staff? What's the feedback on that?
>> So the question is how have the media
[1:47:53] staff responded about staffing for
running the media centers in general?
[1:48:00] » No, we had an issue last year where we
got a lot of feedback related to
[1:48:05] staffing cuts in the media center. Um,
and I just want to I just want to find
[1:48:11] out from a fresh perspective if we think
we are uh staffed appropriately.
[1:48:17] » I I think I'll take this one just with
the historical and kind of um
[1:48:20] institutional knowledge about the
reduction of our media assistance, I
[1:48:23] think, is what you're speaking to. I do
want to clarify that we do have 1.0 FTE
[1:48:28] library media specialists in the
certified staff position across all of
[1:48:32] our K through8 schools and three of them
at the high school. Our media
[1:48:35] assistants, however, were cut through a
series of uh budget discussions and we
[1:48:40] went through all of 2526 with that cut.
I think as a new coordinator overseeing
[1:48:46] that group, Dr. Beckley is continuing to
kind of partner with our library media
[1:48:50] specialists to continue to understand
the impact of that. That means getting
[1:48:54] into our media center looking at our
circulation count of books and better
[1:48:58] understanding whether or not that has
had a an overall impact. I think from a
[1:49:03] principal perspective and the feedback
we get from our administrator group,
[1:49:06] it's that our libraries continue
continue to be bustling hubs of
[1:49:10] communication, of innovation and
collaboration in our buildings despite
[1:49:15] that unfortunate but necessary budget
cut throughout the course of that
[1:49:19] process last year. Um, I think some of
the work that happened this summer was
[1:49:24] uh not only providing more concrete
information for our parent community,
[1:49:28] but also aligning our library media
specialists about the core uh most
[1:49:32] important buckets of work that they're
doing in grade bands, allowing
[1:49:36] flexibility across the instruction
across those grade bands. I think it's
[1:49:39] important for everyone to know that
students in grades K through 1 visit the
[1:49:43] library media center twice per week at
30 minutes per session and in grades 3
[1:49:48] through 5 once per week at 30 minutes
per session within their specials block.
[1:49:52] We do have some buildings with um
smaller sections of students who have
[1:49:57] more opportunities to visit the library
just based on the number of sections in
[1:50:00] that rotation. And we also partner with
library media specialists and our core
[1:50:05] academic teachers to uh facilitate work
in our in our maker spaces. Um library
[1:50:11] media specialists have dedicated time in
their schedule to work on what we call
[1:50:15] medium management which is time in their
schedule to think about book
[1:50:19] circulation, ordering, etc. Um in
addition to some time to perform their
[1:50:23] uh general job responsibilities outside
of their planning or lunchtime. So we're
[1:50:27] doing our best to support that sta these
staff despite those cuts. um and
[1:50:31] continuing to solicit feedback and
support wherever we can.
[1:50:36] » Thank you for that feedback.
[1:50:40] » I'm tempted to engage in in this
conversation, but I if we took a step
[1:50:45] back, you know, because that's really a
trap door and I know I'm I'm going to
[1:50:48] fall right through it if I go in one
direction, but I'm going to go in a
[1:50:51] different direction, Paul, and to the
rest of the board. Um, I've been around
[1:50:55] a long time and I can think back to when
I was the lead principal for the
[1:50:59] elementary group and I received an email
from Dr. Jones saying, "I need you to
[1:51:03] pull the elementary principles." Um, we
had instructional coaches at the time
[1:51:08] and we were identifying and we try to
make datadriven decisions. We I we were
[1:51:14] um concerned about math performance at
the elementary level. And so uh there
[1:51:20] was an opportunity for elementary
principles to give feedback to the
[1:51:23] superintendent about whether or not we
should uh transition from having
[1:51:27] instructional coaches to math
interventionists. Um, and I don't want
[1:51:31] to give away too much information about
what you're going to hear next month,
[1:51:34] but those math interventionists have
been pivotal in uh our mathematics uh
[1:51:40] success over the last uh several years.
Now, I want to stress that doesn't in
[1:51:45] any way devalue uh the merits of having
instructional coaches. And the reason
[1:51:50] I'm bringing that up now is because Paul
um and other members of the board um
[1:51:56] when you ask the question, do we have
enough staff? My answer will always be
[1:52:00] no. Um I would like to have
instructional coaches and math
[1:52:04] interventionists because I think that
they're very different and distinct
[1:52:07] roles. And I think when you um when you
talk about the 900 teachers that we
[1:52:12] served and the sophistication to to
which our curriculum has grown and when
[1:52:18] you think about the data analysts that
teachers have become um having
[1:52:23] instructional coaches to be able to
provide them um ondemand support would
[1:52:29] be incredibly beneficial. But if I had
to make a choice between instructional
[1:52:33] coaches and math interventionists, um,
you know, sometimes you have to make
[1:52:37] tough decisions and I understand that
you can't have everything that you want.
[1:52:41] So, um, would I love to have full-time
media assistants? Of course I would. Do
[1:52:46] I think the uh, library media
specialists miss having their partner?
[1:52:50] Of course they do. Uh, in the absence of
having a library media coordinator, they
[1:52:56] actually worked directly with me for
several years. I don't know if they
[1:52:59] enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed it, but
I got to hear from them about um how
[1:53:04] they felt um underappreciated in the
sense that the community really didn't
[1:53:10] understand what their role their role
was. And we actually spent me and the
[1:53:15] group several years rewriting their job
description so that it better uh suited
[1:53:21] um the skills and uh talents that they
possess and and the ways in which they
[1:53:27] support classroom instruction. And so in
that process I think uh providing the
[1:53:33] parentf facing documents gives you now
again uh a look behind the curtain as to
[1:53:38] what they actually do during the course
of the day because if you think a
[1:53:41] library media specialist is just helping
kids check out books you're sorely
[1:53:46] mistaken. Um, but again to answer your
question, yeah, I I wish we had
[1:53:52] full-time uh media assistants, but then
I'm going to add I also wish we had
[1:53:56] instructional coaches and I also wish we
had one start and end time for all of
[1:54:01] our elementary schools because having
five tiered start and end times is
[1:54:05] decimating to professional learning
opportunities for our teachers. And I've
[1:54:09] said it publicly and I will continue to
say that publicly.
[1:54:14] » Veronica has her hand up, so I'm going
to Hey, Veronica. Do you still have your
[1:54:18] question?
>> I do and I'm going to happily change the
[1:54:21] subject for everyone that they don't
have to.
[1:54:23] » All right.
>> Um, doc, no, that was a great answer.
[1:54:25] But, um, Dr. Beckley, are you in charge
of or is, uh, there anything to be in
[1:54:30] charge of um, in relation to summer
reading uh, for students uh, when they
[1:54:36] go over when they go home over the
summer? Whether it's uh, I don't think
[1:54:40] we require any reading. So any
recommended
[1:54:44] [snorts]
>> the media specialists typically will
[1:54:47] work to put together lists for summer
reading
[1:54:50] » and those are by school or um is that
something that
[1:54:55] » district [laughter] wide?
>> It's it's district wide.
[1:54:57] » Yep.
>> It's districtwide. Okay, perfect. Thank
[1:55:00] you so much.
>> You're welcome.
[1:55:02] I actually I have a question about um
when you were saying teachers have to do
[1:55:06] so much more and I was thinking we
looking at this with sort of my old
[1:55:11] school perception of like a librarian
right and then I see digital citizenship
[1:55:16] and that feels like a whole different
world and I'm wondering how are we
[1:55:23] helping students not just like
think about how they present themselves
[1:55:28] online to the extent that they're doing
that but also how are they discerning
[1:55:32] discerning learning to discern
information because there's so much
[1:55:36] information out there that's inaccurate
and you know like if you're doing a you
[1:55:41] know when they search it up right and
then they find out all this information
[1:55:44] you're like where did that come from you
know and I I know they are working on it
[1:55:48] because I've heard my kids talk about it
but if you could talk about it a little
[1:55:51] bit because it's like there's a universe
of information out there but maybe 90%
[1:55:56] of it is it doesn't have a lot of value
and how are we helping them learn Sure.
[1:56:01] So at the at the K5 level um and
actually at the K8 level we use um
[1:56:06] actually now 18 level we use uh common
sense media's curriculum for digital uh
[1:56:12] wellness and well-being uh and
citizenship. And so essentially students
[1:56:17] you you probably have noticed in the
parentf facing documents there are now
[1:56:19] like five topics that media specialists
are covering. One of those topics out of
[1:56:23] the five is on the digital citizenship
piece and the well-being part of it. In
[1:56:27] addition to information literacy,
essentially learning how to and what
[1:56:32] what information is valuable and what is
not. They learn how to integrate
[1:56:36] technology as part of their journey.
They also learn how to plan and innovate
[1:56:40] in our maker spaces. And they also learn
to love the library. I think one of the
[1:56:44] challenges and and again being new to
the district and hearing this past
[1:56:48] summer about the sensible screen use um
I think we've all heard that we wanted
[1:56:52] to try to come back to books and so I
think there's a huge opportunity this
[1:56:57] year for our our media specialists to
continue to teach our students our
[1:57:01] youngest children our second graders uh
to be lovers of literature lovers of the
[1:57:07] library and what that space means.
However, you are correct that there is
[1:57:10] still a digital world. It's basically an
unlimited world of information that they
[1:57:15] have to learn how to navigate. And so
part of their journey when they're in
[1:57:19] elementary school starting um in in
grade 1 is they have to learn how to be
[1:57:25] digital citizens, how to maintain
safety, how to discern information, um
[1:57:32] whether a source is is good or not, how
to uh take how to behave. I mean, let's
[1:57:37] be clear there, some of the biggest
challenges we have are how people behave
[1:57:40] on the internet. And so, they're working
on those skills in K5. In the middle
[1:57:44] school, it goes a step further. Um, they
actually get into cyber bullying,
[1:57:50] harassment, other issues that could be
negative, but also continues to open the
[1:57:53] doors for positive things, how they can
be crosscurricular. They partner with
[1:57:56] their science and social studies teams
to work on research and information
[1:58:01] gathering. Um and then also the last
part of it is in this past year and I
[1:58:06] know this is this is hot button but um
the common sense media is has recently
[1:58:11] released information specifically about
how to be a citizen with AI and that
[1:58:15] talks about how to understand your
presence on on the internet and what
[1:58:18] that means and and what AI literacy
looks like. It also is um how to
[1:58:23] recognize deep fakes and things like
that in addition to being able to
[1:58:27] understand chat bots and relationships.
And we have that curriculum that's in
[1:58:31] there for our eighth graders to leave
middle school prepared. And that is kind
[1:58:34] of the major jobs of the K8 media team.
>> Yeah. And I I think this is going to be
[1:58:40] a subject that we continually revisit.
When you think about AI and appropriate
[1:58:45] uses in schools, I think our I believe
that our thinking on that is continually
[1:58:50] evolving and how we will address that
with students needs to be at the
[1:58:54] forefront of a lot of our decision-m.
Um, my biggest concern with AI in
[1:59:00] schools is the cognitive offloading. You
know, we really have to be able to teach
[1:59:05] our kids to be critical thinkers and how
to use it as an appropriate resource,
[1:59:11] but not a uh, you know, a substitute for
uh, their own thinking. And so that's,
[1:59:18] you know, we're at a very interesting
time in education right now. And it can
[1:59:23] be very exciting, but it also could be
very scary. And we we recognize that and
[1:59:27] I think I felt that in the room when we
presented to parents last spring about
[1:59:31] the sensible use of screen time. Um we
need to be able to um narrow um the
[1:59:40] variances that we have in our
classrooms. We we certainly had teachers
[1:59:43] who were much more uh technologically
dominant in their delivery and then we
[1:59:48] had teachers who were very
technologically sparse and then we had a
[1:59:52] majority of our teachers who live
somewhere happily in the middle and it's
[1:59:55] trying to find that sweet spot for
everyone and so again it comes back to
[1:59:59] providing professional learning
opportunities for teachers. So for
[2:00:02] teachers who didn't use technology at
all, where's our entry point in helping
[2:00:07] them understand the importance and value
of having integration of technology into
[2:00:11] instruction? And I think uh you know Kim
talked a lot about how we have one tool,
[2:00:15] Lexia, and it's critically important
that teachers are using that tool
[2:00:20] because it is um you know, highly
evidence-based in that it will support
[2:00:25] um reading instruction. Um but at the
same time, when you have teachers who
[2:00:29] are too technically um
emergent into their um style. Um have to
[2:00:36] teach them ways to present information
in in in in a more traditional uh
[2:00:42] format. So uh we're working with
teachers on that.
[2:00:49] » I I had a quick question about you you
mentioned research. I'm interested in
[2:00:53] how we are teaching students how to do
research. What are appropriate sources
[2:00:59] to reference? Uh, I mean there's there's
so many sources out there now that, you
[2:01:04] know, everything from Wikipedia to AI
that are probably not good uh, reference
[2:01:10] material for research. And so, how are
we setting those guidelines and and and
[2:01:14] shaping where students are going uh, to
get source material to write papers and
[2:01:20] do research?
>> Yeah, I think
[2:01:22] » definitely a team answer.
>> Yeah, I think this is Mr. Healey, this
[2:01:24] is up your wheelhouse. Yeah, I I think
we're all very excited that you brought
[2:01:27] up this question because we understand
district-wide K through 12 across
[2:01:30] disciplines, research is a skill that
needs to be explicitly taught,
[2:01:35] reinforced, and given students an
opportunity to try it out and then get
[2:01:39] better at that skill. I think Mr. Healey
and I, in addition to our fellow
[2:01:43] coordinator Kim, and and some of our
learning facilitators, we are quite
[2:01:47] fortunate that we have learning
facilitators in the library media
[2:01:50] specialist crew. We all came together
and we identified the pain points of
[2:01:54] research as a area where we have
dedicated time to teach and a pipeline
[2:02:02] or a pathway for who teaches what
because it touches every area and every
[2:02:06] different discipline within a student's
instructional day. So, I'll let Tom
[2:02:10] share a little bit about the pathway
that we're on and how we're continuing
[2:02:12] to put time, energy, and invest um
personnel and and funds there.
[2:02:17] » Yeah. But even before uh I I I turn it
over to Tom. Real world example from
[2:02:22] earlier this evening. John Jonathan
Sopranoitz and I were going to Paty's
[2:02:26] for dinner. We got up to Paty's. I don't
know if any of you have been up there.
[2:02:30] And he said, you know, Mark, does this
have any affiliation with the Pats
[2:02:33] restaurant in New York City? And I said,
I think it does because it says 1933 on
[2:02:37] on the signage. And he said, well,
Google says it doesn't. So then we went
[2:02:41] inside and I asked the the gentleman
inside and he said, oh yeah, we have an
[2:02:44] affiliation. Jonathan checked Google
again and it actually this time said yes
[2:02:48] there was an affiliation. So I'm telling
you it's very interesting.
[2:02:54] » It's very interesting the times we live
in and that that's a true story and it
[2:02:58] happened less than two two hours ago. Uh
so Tom go ahead.
[2:03:02] » So again just just quickly to address uh
your uh question. So last year actually
[2:03:08] the summer work um was a partnership
between the media specialists and the so
[2:03:13] six or eight um social studies teachers
where um the media specialist took the
[2:03:20] research progression that they typically
lived in their realm and integrated it
[2:03:27] directly into the units of social
studies um 67 and 8. So basically uh
[2:03:33] what we have now is a more embedded sort
of authentic experience where kids are
[2:03:38] going through the entire research
process from developing questions to
[2:03:42] finding sources to evaluating sources,
taking notes on those sources and then
[2:03:46] coming to some sort of conclusion,
thesis, claim, whatever you want to say.
[2:03:49] Um one of the things that um the social
studies teachers use that's out there
[2:03:55] is, you know, we as Mark mentioned
earlier love our acronyms. Um so there
[2:03:59] is something that of course in middle
school they love as well and it is
[2:04:02] called the crap test. Um that is C R A
P. Um and basically we are teaching kids
[2:04:09] how to evaluate sources by using that
acronym. And so it stands for currency.
[2:04:14] So how current is the actual source
you're looking at? Um relevancy, how
[2:04:18] relevant is the information in it? Um
authority, how much is the author an
[2:04:23] actual authority on this topic? um
accuracy. Is the entire piece accurate
[2:04:28] to your knowledge? Um and then purpose.
What is the author intending to do? So
[2:04:33] um you can walk through a lot of uh
social studies classrooms in the middle
[2:04:37] schools and you can hear um the teacher
say something like um we're going to put
[2:04:41] this through the crap test or when in
8th grade they get to the um their
[2:04:47] capstone where they're doing their own
kind of research and they have to they
[2:04:50] have a little more freedom in terms of
the sources they're looking at. That's
[2:04:53] something that they're constantly pushed
back into is show me that you've
[2:04:56] actually evaluated the source through
those mechanisms to ensure what you're
[2:05:01] using is um accurate and relevant and
purposeful and everything else. So um
[2:05:06] these are things that really are
essentially embedded again speaking
[2:05:10] specifically to the middle schools um
but again having come from the high
[2:05:14] school in my earlier days very much the
same process and and heavy in social
[2:05:18] studies but I know in other content
areas they're also doing similar things
[2:05:22] especially with the amount of
information you can find now.
[2:05:24] » That's great. And and how young are we
start being able to teach these skills?
[2:05:29] » So again
>> you left me up here. Um the they go back
[2:05:34] to the elementary school. So, so
historically
[2:05:38] part of what was happening when kids
were going to the media center was they
[2:05:42] were learning research skills and they
were going through the research cycle.
[2:05:45] So, I can still actually envision the
the visual that this media center group
[2:05:50] had created years ago. Um, but again,
um, best practice and where this becomes
[2:05:58] way more, um, authentic and meaningful
for kids is when it's embedded in
[2:06:02] something they're doing, right? leaving
the classroom to go to the media center
[2:06:05] to learn a cycle of research isn't as
real as actually engaging in what you're
[2:06:09] doing. So, so that was really where this
was generated was number one um trying
[2:06:13] to keep up with the times. We realized
that research was kind of happening and
[2:06:16] we were sort of like putting out fires
as they came along and this new group of
[2:06:20] media specialists um really came
together and said I think it would be
[2:06:24] important to embed these more. So, so
again, I know it was happening at the
[2:06:28] elementary level through uh language
arts and and obviously social studies
[2:06:32] and science lessons, but specifically
for us, we went right into social
[2:06:35] studies and just said where can we
integrate these directly? And then the
[2:06:38] goal really is um how can we have the
media specialist become somewhat of a
[2:06:45] co-teer to that? Is there opportunities
where you know they don't have to be in
[2:06:49] the media center for a period where the
class could come down to the media
[2:06:52] center and you have one content area
specialist working on one side and one
[2:06:56] skill area specialist of research
working on the other and showing the
[2:06:59] kids how they work in conjunction with
each other but I know it goes all the
[2:07:02] way back down
>> from the elementary perspective um our
[2:07:05] research starts in grade two um at the
last unit of the year. It's an
[2:07:10] integrated unit for writing and reading
where kids um which is also kind of
[2:07:14] associated with the science unit at the
time. So, it's a really
[2:07:17] interdisciplinary unit where kids are
learning about insects, reading about
[2:07:20] insects, studying about insects,
learning how to read a piece of
[2:07:25] information, possibly do some sketch
noting, some note takingaking, how do I
[2:07:30] find key words and vocabulary, main idea
in detail, and then how do I turn that
[2:07:34] into an information piece that I'm going
to write in our new 345 reading units.
[2:07:39] Um the second unit of the year is an
integrated research unit using NGSS
[2:07:45] science standards. So um we're really
excited about that. Our team this summer
[2:07:50] spent some time creating um we created
some hard copy tech sets. So we ordered
[2:07:56] I've been a book warehouse in the
warehouse sorting books and packing
[2:08:00] books. Um our team created some vetted
resources on a Padlet. So getting an
[2:08:04] opportunity to have some vetted articles
that they can access digitally or be
[2:08:09] printed out um including some videos and
things multimedia sources that kids are
[2:08:15] using their ELA skills of reading for
gist summarizing synthesizing how do I
[2:08:23] take notes how to identify main idea and
detail. So we're using ELA skills with
[2:08:28] science content. So it is this rich
experience. Um we are also um finding
[2:08:35] ways to partner with our media
specialists in order to do some of those
[2:08:39] kind of research questions. So that was
something we've even just as early as
[2:08:43] last week said, "Hey, we have this unit
coming up. Jeff, we're going to talk to
[2:08:47] the media specialists. I've already
spoken to the medf of like how can we
[2:08:51] get at least let's get a lesson or two
in the media center. number one, how do
[2:08:55] we pick a topic? How do we make what is
our question? And then using some of
[2:09:01] their media time to find books on that
topic. Um the third bend of each of
[2:09:08] those units is a self- selected topic
versus the other two are preparing them
[2:09:12] and and and given a a little bit less
choice for that. So, we're finding ways
[2:09:17] to do that important work. But second
grade through through 12th grade, um
[2:09:22] they're using all their ELA skills and
inquiry skills uh to go through the
[2:09:25] research process.
[2:09:30] » Bob,
>> I just wanted to say some of us uh some
[2:09:33] of the BOE members were lucky enough to
be in New Lebanon and watch that in real
[2:09:36] time with the garden and how it was it
was amazing to see how you can take
[2:09:40] something uh that the students are
really invested in and turn it into
[2:09:45] trick them into learning, so to speak.
And I also wanted to mention this isn't
[2:09:49] this is kind of like side side related.
Brent Reeves also who's the director of
[2:09:53] security for GPS does offer uh hold
cyber bullying presentations having seen
[2:10:00] one at the elementary school and at at
the middle school as well. He caters
[2:10:03] them to each grade. So if anybody's
listening to the recording or one of the
[2:10:07] 15 people watching uh reach out to your
PTA and maybe Brent Reeves can come uh
[2:10:13] come speak as well.
>> Great. Thank you so much. I have a
[2:10:17] question. Our our title one students uh
traditionally they have less books in
[2:10:24] their hands, you know, less availability
for that. Is there anything that we're
[2:10:28] doing to address maybe
uh I false uh we have uh title one
[2:10:35] funding that I work very uh thoughtfully
with our title one principles on
[2:10:40] identifying uh needs. So, whatever can't
be furnished through the ELA budget, and
[2:10:47] Kim does an incredible job of making
sure there's equity across all of our
[2:10:51] schools, um there's additional funding
sources for resources like additional
[2:10:56] books in our title one schools.
>> So, what you're saying is true, but
[2:11:00] you've met that.
>> Sure. Okay.
[2:11:05] » Well, I thank you. Fair. Because you
know, we have traditionally those
[2:11:09] » Well, that's exactly why Title One
funding exists. Thank you.
[2:11:13] » Yeah.
>> The other thing that's important to note
[2:11:14] is we have an online book resource that
we that we pay for the unlimited version
[2:11:20] of called Epic Books, which allows our
students to to have access to a library
[2:11:25] of over 40,000 ebooks um and uh like uh
audio books um at home. So, it can be on
[2:11:33] a parent's cell phone while they're
waiting for their dentist appointment.
[2:11:36] It can be on an iPad or a school-based
device that gets taken home. So all of
[2:11:41] our students have access to books um at
their house um and in their schools.
[2:11:50] » All students.
>> Yeah. Yeah. We have it for all students
[2:11:53] and we pay for the premium membership so
that we can create equity um for
[2:11:57] students inside school and outside of
school.
[2:12:02] » All summer long.
>> Oh yeah. And all summer long too as
[2:12:05] well. And we we have it as a resource.
And that's an a web uh site or an app.
[2:12:12] It
>> it's a it's both.
[2:12:14] » Yes, it's both. And it is and and there
are books that are, you know, like
[2:12:18] widely known. Like you're going to find
books that you'd find at Greenwich
[2:12:21] Library or in your media center. So um
it's a great resource for the families
[2:12:24] that that that want to have that um and
that that portability um of books
[2:12:30] without maybe necessarily needing to go
buy a whole bookshelf of books.
[2:12:34] » So I sense we're closing. Uh we're
really excited to come back next month
[2:12:38] to present present the curriculum
management plan, but even more excited
[2:12:41] to come back and share the achievement
report. And I just want it noted uh
[2:12:45] madame chair uh that Mr. Reid didn't get
asked any difficult questions tonight.
[2:12:50] So I want everybody to come with math
questions based on the achievement
[2:12:54] report and really put him through the
ringer next month because he's really
[2:12:57] enjoying himself back there.
>> Okay, we'll be ready. We'll be ready.
[2:13:01] Thank you so much everyone and yeah,
thank you so much.
[2:13:12] » All right, now we're going to move to
the enrollment um update. Dr. Jones,
[2:13:17] so I I will Is this on?
[2:13:23] » Can you Is this one on?
>> Hear you, Dr. Jones? If that works.
[2:13:28] » Okay, can you hear me now? Okay,
>> it's better.
[2:13:32] So with this just as a reminder this is
not the annual enrollment report which
[2:13:37] is very thorough um that happens after
our October one which is our official
[2:13:43] date um when we have to give the count
to the state and then we collate all of
[2:13:48] that data um that goes to the state and
we have a very thorough report that
[2:13:51] you'll hear. This is just an update
coming back to school. So what do we
[2:13:55] look like uh compared to our
projections? We were projected to be at
[2:13:59] 8,270
students. We are at 8,140.
[2:14:06] So basically we're right at 98.42%
um of accuracy for our projection which
[2:14:14] is within that 1.58%. It's so our
projections are very accurate but on any
[2:14:20] on any given year you have shifts from
one building to the other and that's
[2:14:25] sometimes what you really you can't
gauge um and for instance this year and
[2:14:31] and I'm happy to read each school or I
can just give you a couple highlights.
[2:14:34] Would you like to hear the schools where
they ended? I mean it's very quick but
[2:14:38] » um sure. Yeah. Okay.
>> Why not? Um,
[2:14:43] » you get the data though afterwards. Not
tonight because this will actually right
[2:14:48] now what they're still doing I'm giving
you as of this was on uh 98 September
[2:14:52] the 8th and right now what we're trying
to do is we have to kind of go through a
[2:14:56] cleanup process because we do have
parents that move and they just don't
[2:15:01] withdraw their students and by law we
have to number one make sure we know if
[2:15:05] a student didn't show up that's enrolled
with us are they safe and okay and where
[2:15:10] are they and that takes several weeks
and that's the process we're in right
[2:15:14] now. I don't expect this to change um a
whole lot, but I'll just give you I can
[2:15:18] give you some highlights if you'd rather
have that. Um we were projected to be at
[2:15:22] 194 sections for our elementary schools,
we are at 192.
[2:15:29] Um when we look across the buildings,
probably some of the ones where it was a
[2:15:35] little bit lower, um Glennville is an
example where we were projected to be
[2:15:40] 460, they're at 434.
So, um, and that's mainly been in K and
[2:15:46] K and one. Um, and but that's actually a
great problem for us. Um, that's good
[2:15:53] because they are bursting at the seams.
Um, they are our largest elementary
[2:15:57] school and we literally are out of space
there. Um, most of the buildings are
[2:16:02] within, you know, anywhere from two to
five students um, different. Um the
[2:16:07] other building would probably be North
Miamiis was projected to be just over
[2:16:12] 400 at 401. They're at 379.
Again, not a huge swing. And usually
[2:16:18] what happens is it's either kindergarten
because we are still struggling getting
[2:16:22] good kindergarten projections. And that
is because again this year um the way
[2:16:27] the legislation was written, if they did
not if they didn't really want to go to
[2:16:32] kindergarten, they didn't. So we had 20
odd kids that didn't. But then we also
[2:16:36] had the waiver where we had families
that wanted to start early next year.
[2:16:41] That completely goes away. There is no
early start to kindergarten. So it'll be
[2:16:45] a hard date. Um so hopefully that part
will settle down. Um can I just I'm just
[2:16:51] going to interject for one second just
for Jeff and Jonathan. I don't know if
[2:16:54] you followed this but that at the state
level um historically you have to be
[2:17:00] five by
>> December
[2:17:02] » December 31 right? So, but but we had a
lot of variation in our schools. So,
[2:17:08] some schools the kids, you know, went
when they're four and other schools they
[2:17:12] didn't and you just don't know what
parents are going to decide. And so, the
[2:17:15] state has initially said it was going to
be September one then gave sort of a
[2:17:20] reprieve that they said the parents
could still decide whatever. So, it's
[2:17:23] been shaking it's been shaking out I
guess is the long way of saying it. We
[2:17:26] did our
[2:17:33] » Yeah, we did that exact process where we
had to decide whether to hold back or
[2:17:38] move forward.
>> So I think the other the other points
[2:17:43] that you might be interested in is
central as you know opening the brand
[2:17:47] new building we did the open enrollment
um this year which was new for us. We
[2:17:51] were originally at around right around
131 students. Then we did open
[2:17:56] enrollment and then we also had some
students that um either came back to the
[2:18:02] district because they were in like a
private school or outplacement or
[2:18:07] something of that nature. So now their
sixth grade is at 173 students. So that
[2:18:12] that was a a pretty big gain. Um when we
look at middle school, the good thing
[2:18:17] is, as you know, we had some students
from Western who went open enrollment to
[2:18:22] Central, but um Western still opened
with or they're at as of right now 517
[2:18:28] students, which is right about where
they were supposed to be. So even though
[2:18:32] they lost students, that was actually
very helpful for their building because
[2:18:37] they still started where they were
projected to be because they had new
[2:18:40] enrollment. And that's that's that
impact of the Glennville corridor that
[2:18:44] we're seeing at elementary.
>> Can you just explain to me because I'm
[2:18:47] what open enrollment is? Are you saying
that students from
[2:18:53] outside of district are going to a
different school or what is open
[2:18:55] enrollment?
>> They're all um they're all students who
[2:18:58] live in Greenwich and they're going into
sixth grade. Generally, they go to their
[2:19:04] home school where they live and opening
a larger brand new elementary school. um
[2:19:10] central had very small numbers um for
their school, so there was room for
[2:19:14] other students to go, which could be
helpful even for the other buildings
[2:19:18] because it if some students transfer, it
takes pressure off our larger
[2:19:21] enrollment. And they did. They chose to
actually um to to ask to be um in open
[2:19:28] enrollment to attend central instead of
Western or Eastern.
[2:19:32] » And and how do we manage that with
busing? And I mean, does that create
[2:19:35] chaos on buses that have to go from
>> this? No, that was part of the open
[2:19:41] enrollment is that you have to be able
to drop your child off,
[2:19:45] » but it's worked really well and and it's
been a bonus, I think, for all three of
[2:19:49] the schools.
>> That's great.
[2:19:53] » Um, yeah. Question related to Central.
Uh, given the the the uh the increase in
[2:19:58] sixth graders. Back when we were first
talking about this, you had mentioned
[2:20:02] you had the ability to flex to two
sections if the numbers did increase.
[2:20:07] And it sounds like we're now pretty
close to where Western is and I think
[2:20:09] Western has two sections. Did we go up
to two sections uh sorry two teams
[2:20:14] rather uh in uh at Central yet they are
still at two teams. There's a little bit
[2:20:19] of cross teaming because 7th grade is
still very small in the 130s um because
[2:20:24] we only had a few students who wanted to
move. Obviously they had already started
[2:20:28] in middle school. Um but that's at all
three of our middle schools. It's not
[2:20:32] we're not doing anything different. We
did not reduce originally because we do
[2:20:36] the budget so early and the numbers that
we had last November, we would have
[2:20:41] reduced four positions in the middle
school. So it ended up impacting a
[2:20:46] little bit of that. Uh where we ended up
I think reducing like 2 something. Um
[2:20:50] but we still needed for instance like it
was either art or music a little bit
[2:20:54] more because there were more sixth
graders. So but that's just normal that
[2:20:58] shakes out across the diff district
every year.
[2:21:01] » Veronica. Veronica.
>> Yes. Sorry. Um c do you mind backing up?
[2:21:06] Sorry. Um to the elementary schools and
letting um us know what Riverside is. Um
[2:21:11] and I'm just asking because we are
working on that project.
[2:21:18] » Numbers have come out. But
>> Riverside was projected to be 423 and
[2:21:23] they are 425.
>> Oh great. [laughter]
[2:21:28] » There are no houses for sale there. I
mean, that really is part of it.
[2:21:32] » Yeah, [laughter]
>> they're pretty stable most almost every
[2:21:37] year because the housing market, there's
not a lot of housing, not a lot of
[2:21:40] rental. Where we have rental property is
where we tend to see more shifts. Condos
[2:21:46] and different types of housing.
>> Wonderful. Thank you.
[2:21:51] » You're welcome.
[2:21:54] » I don't think there's any more questions
on this, right? Are we good? Okay. All
[2:21:59] right. Then we're going to move on um to
superintendent goals for 2026 2027.
[2:22:04] First read.
[2:22:09] Okay. So you you have a copy of the
draft goals um in your packet. I'm just
[2:22:14] going to walk you through what some of
these are. Um so the number one thing at
[2:22:19] the top um in that first box and this is
really about all of our curriculum
[2:22:24] alignment and all the work that we've
been doing. But the thoughtful use of
[2:22:27] technology regulation is very important.
I think you heard the heard us reference
[2:22:32] it tonight. There's a lot of work going
on across the district. And I will just
[2:22:36] tell you as we implement this for the
first time, I'm already getting great
[2:22:40] feedback um from our PTA and and from
parents who are seeing homework shifts
[2:22:45] and what their students are doing at
home. So, I'm very excited about that.
[2:22:48] But it's sustainability. You know, we
we've got to really stay on it all year.
[2:22:53] um the implementation of the no sale
build to bell there's that sounds so
[2:22:58] simple and to be honest I think people
were very concerned like how were we
[2:23:03] going to pull it off is it going to be a
huge shift it's gone beautifully again
[2:23:07] it's going to be all about followup and
follow through um and so we're meeting
[2:23:12] on that regularly and again right now
it's going great um the secondary
[2:23:16] schedules was a huge task and again what
you're seeing in goals tonight I had to
[2:23:22] start working on these like last year.
Um because these things if you're going
[2:23:25] to be ready to start school, I start
working with all of our team very early
[2:23:29] on. Um so with the schedules, um I work
very closely with Dana Tada at the high
[2:23:35] school who does their master scheduling
and we really set a goal. We did it at
[2:23:39] the middle schools as well, but high
school it's it's challenging and it was
[2:23:44] to set a goal to have classes at 24. If
we needed to go to 25, that's okay for
[2:23:48] core classes. And when you look across
the high school, that is primarily what
[2:23:53] you see. Um, in the past, I actually had
pulled my notes out from like the last
[2:23:58] two years. We would have class sizes of
14 and then you would have 28, 29, 30,
[2:24:04] and we would have 30s in core classes.
And what I'm trying to work on as a goal
[2:24:10] and I think it'll be helpful for the
board is we are so well defined on what
[2:24:15] reasonable class size is um in K5 and
we've kind of had this mentality in
[2:24:21] Greenwich for many years that well we
just it's whatever the students choose
[2:24:26] and that's how we actually staff but
that really isn't a good model and so
[2:24:30] I'm very very focused on the high school
right now. um in secondary, I should
[2:24:34] say. All three middle school principles
actually went back in and worked on
[2:24:38] their schedules as well. Um so we're
we're very balanced right now going into
[2:24:42] the year. Um we're very focused on
access to the art uh arts at GHS. So you
[2:24:48] heard Leah mention a little bit of that
and edict at middle school and this is
[2:24:54] because we're going to do a lot of work
this year on our career tech is what CTE
[2:24:59] means uh pathway. And again, you heard
Andrew talk about cyber security. That's
[2:25:04] a CTE pathway. And you know, they have
what are the AP is actually calling
[2:25:10] Kickstarter course and that is where
you're pairing up like the AP business
[2:25:15] and finance course that's new for us
this year along with cyber security. Um,
[2:25:20] so we're we're looking at all those
different pathways and what do we need
[2:25:24] to get better at because um, CTE has not
been a focus for us um, at all for the
[2:25:30] most part. Not not a real focus um, for
the arts at GHS. This year we added um
[2:25:38] over the summer another um component
that the students really wanted and
[2:25:44] that's more ceramics because as I was
working closely uh with Dana on the
[2:25:49] schedule you know we recognized that you
have students who are wanting to take
[2:25:54] art but we didn't have enough of the
classes that they wanted. So we added a
[2:25:59] whole another ceramics um component and
we're working on that this year. So now
[2:26:04] we have another 100 200 students that
are actually able to take art and we are
[2:26:09] very it's very strange for Greenwich. We
are actually very low enrollment in high
[2:26:14] school for the arts if you actually look
at the report and it's because of
[2:26:19] aspects like that. We just couldn't fit
the kids in. Um so we're very focused on
[2:26:23] that right now as well. Um and then
focusing on high high uh level
[2:26:27] professional development. This has been
this was a goal last year. It's a goal
[2:26:30] again. And at the beginning of this
year, we had fantastic feedback from our
[2:26:36] teachers where several of them wrote
just wonderful notes to the curriculum
[2:26:40] team about what great professional
development was going on. So, I want us
[2:26:44] to be able to do that again this year.
Um, we still our PCG special education
[2:26:49] action plan was just updated again in
August. So, it's on the web and all
[2:26:54] updated. This is only the second year of
positive pathways and so that is a needs
[2:27:00] to be a focus. We are also with our
co-taught. Um this is the first year
[2:27:05] where we've compete uh completed the
multi-year plan at costub so that we
[2:27:10] have every grade level has co-taught but
we also this year made some uh changes
[2:27:15] at the high school where we implemented
co-taught for instance in chemistry.
[2:27:20] Last year we had done biology. It's
brand new in chemistry. This year we
[2:27:24] have four sections. Um and that will
probably continue to grow as well. Um,
[2:27:30] we also have that second bullet, a
hybrid learning center. So, last year we
[2:27:36] built hybrid learning at the high school
as a space. We started very small. Uh,
[2:27:41] Christina Shaw is the one that leads on
that. And this year, we've really
[2:27:47] expanded where kids can roster in high
se. You'll learn more about that as we
[2:27:52] talk more about the curriculum um
because it's hard for a lot of people to
[2:27:56] imagine, but it's the way that we
actually operate summer school for high
[2:27:59] school. And some of you that were on the
board last year may remember in the
[2:28:03] summer school report, we went from, you
know, 50 students taking summer school
[2:28:07] with us to, you know, 300 and 400. Um,
and what it does is give a student total
[2:28:14] flexibility in their schedule. It's not
for everybody, but it's a it's it's a
[2:28:18] big implementation this year. Um we are
also working on the English language
[2:28:23] immersion solution. Uh we worked on it
last year. I want to see us continue to
[2:28:27] do a lot more with that. Um and then
last year we did the first presentation
[2:28:32] ever for the board uh about the case
load and the hours. That has to be
[2:28:37] another focus for us because people are
coming to the board meeting talking
[2:28:42] about how huge case loads are and that
we're not actually thoughtful in the
[2:28:46] process. And I think it was great for
the board last spring to actually hear
[2:28:50] that it is a very very thoughtful
process. Um and then of course um the
[2:28:56] student wellness and supports down on
the bottom. And as I'm looking at this
[2:29:00] one, I'm hoping that this is actually
the right one, but I'm going to go back
[2:29:03] and check that. Um because this middle
section, we had trouble and um Mike had
[2:29:09] switched it out. So I don't know when
this one was printed, but I'll go double
[2:29:13] check that. Um so on the bottom again
onboarding of new board members I would
[2:29:18] have taken off but that is very
important for us now because we have new
[2:29:23] board members and we want to make sure
that they do have an opportunity to get
[2:29:26] to the schools and you know all the
things that we try to do. um the legal
[2:29:30] briefings last year was the that was
revived again after not being able to do
[2:29:35] that for a year or two and that's why
it's a goal we it's so helpful for the
[2:29:40] board um to have a a session on what are
the legal issues in an exe executive
[2:29:46] session but also it is incredibly eye
opening to learn about how outplacements
[2:29:51] and settlements um work um from a legal
perspective and then
[2:29:57] » when you say outplacements and
settlements. I know we were talking
[2:30:00] earlier about like um out of
[clears throat] district placements, but
[2:30:05] then we were also talking about things
like uh parents individual decision to
[2:30:10] place. What where's the distinction
there?
[2:30:14] » So, um a settlement is when a parent
moves into Greenwich, they may never
[2:30:19] enroll their child here and they go and
put them in a private school and then
[2:30:23] they want to come back and have the
district pay uh for that. And sometimes
[2:30:27] it's a parent who really wants one
setting and it's not state approved.
[2:30:32] That's going to be a settlement. Um the
do the students that we outplace because
[2:30:37] we we don't have the capacity to provide
what the student needs, those are
[2:30:42] outplacements and they are only in state
approved schools. and those situations
[2:30:48] where um the student never enters our
system is in a private school setting
[2:30:54] and then would move into our system but
there is a dispute. How does that
[2:30:59] dispute get determined like whether our
facilities are adequate to you know meet
[2:31:05] the parents needs and therefore you know
>> yeah they they they let us we end up
[2:31:11] going to mediation is what happens. Um,
and it all depends. You have mediation,
[2:31:16] then you also can go to a due process
hearing. Um, which we try to avoid those
[2:31:21] in the sense that they're very long. Um,
you know, we would like to be able to
[2:31:25] mediate, you know, with a family.
Sometimes you just can't. Um, but there
[2:31:29] is an actual process that you have to
use in Connecticut.
[2:31:33] Um, and then again, monthly check-ins.
And you know, this last one is really
[2:31:39] important. I mean, I was on the call
today with Veronica for Riverside um
[2:31:44] really being able to support in the
building committee work and um because
[2:31:49] most of you are serving now on building
committees and those of you that you
[2:31:54] know as you serve on them, they require
not only a lot of time but a lot of
[2:31:57] knowledge um and there are things that
pop up where I have to be available as
[2:32:03] as a goal like sometimes you need the
answer in the same day. Um, and I'm also
[2:32:08] responsible from a goal standpoint.
We've got a lot of committees going
[2:32:12] right now and nobody can communicate
with the Department of Administrative
[2:32:15] Services except the superintendent. Um,
it's not hard when you have one building
[2:32:20] committee, but when you get multiple, it
is. And so I want to make sure that I'm,
[2:32:24] you know, providing what the board
members need there as well.
[2:32:28] » And you had accidentally skipped over
the uh 15 schools. The over
[2:32:32] » Oh, all 15 schools. Yes. Making sure the
visits are there. Absolutely.
[2:32:39] » Thank you, Karen. Uh, yes, Dr. Jones.
So, thank you for sharing the first
[2:32:44] draft of your goals. I did have a couple
of recommendations that I'd like to
[2:32:48] share.
One is on the the balance, the relative
[2:32:53] emphasis. Uh, you know, we've got a
third of the goals are focused on
[2:32:59] special eds and other special ed and
other high needs populations. I don't
[2:33:04] see a lot here on the other call it 70
80% of our students. I think it's
[2:33:09] incredibly important that all students
receive appropriate challenge
[2:33:14] year-over-year growth uh across our you
know our sped our struggling populations
[2:33:20] are on track and are advanced. When I
look at our uh strategic plan for the
[2:33:27] seven goals are about uh academic
achievement. And so I'd like to see more
[2:33:31] of a a balance so that all of our
students see themselves represented in
[2:33:35] these goals. Um the other is about a
third of the bullet points on here are
[2:33:40] about supporting the board of ed. Um and
although it probably feels that way, we
[2:33:43] we aren't that high maintenance. Um and
and we really would rather your time be
[2:33:48] focused on students and staff.
Uh, no, but look, if you know, in in all
[2:33:53] seriousness, no, I mean, a lot of these
are are quite tactical, so maybe we can
[2:33:56] condense some of those so there's just a
little less little little less weight on
[2:34:00] the on the board of ed. Um, two, would
like to see how uh would like to see
[2:34:06] metrics. How do we measure how are we
going to measure the achievement of of
[2:34:10] these goals? So, for example, you know,
we talk about the Bell uh cell phone
[2:34:14] ban. Are we measuring
um incidents of bullying? Are we
[2:34:19] measuring some sort of mental health?
Are we measuring
[2:34:23] uh uh surveys from teachers of of how
much class time they've hopefully gotten
[2:34:28] back by not having to police this uh at
the beginning and end of every class? Um
[2:34:33] and then the third one I would say my
third one would be I'd like to see a
[2:34:37] goal around culture. Um our strategic
plan goal number seven is focused on uh
[2:34:44] increasing a positive working
environment for teachers and staff. Um
[2:34:48] and I do want to acknowledge I
understand this job involves hard
[2:34:51] decisions. Not everyone will be happy.
Um work climate matters and it does uh
[2:34:57] you know ultimately in the long term
affects our ability to attract and
[2:35:00] retain talent and you know it seeps into
interactions with students. So I'd like
[2:35:05] to find an objective way to to assess
that that climate um you know under some
[2:35:13] sort of you know third party to to
ensure neutrality rigor foster trust.
[2:35:26] Jeff.
>> Yeah. I I'd just like to add it's it's
[2:35:30] looking at these goals. It's hard for me
to understand.
[2:35:36] » What is success mean? What does that
mean in I see we have you know as
[2:35:41] measured by what does that mean? What in
that measurement are we looking for? You
[2:35:46] know in in I go back to my my military
we write in order we write commander
[2:35:51] intent and then we have an end state.
That end state is how we know we achieve
[2:35:55] success. How do we how do we know we're
we're meeting the end state? We're
[2:36:01] achieving success in these goals.
[2:36:06] » So
when you look at that far right hand
[2:36:09] side, it again looks much more
simplistic. I think when you go through
[2:36:13] the district annual achievement report,
you will see the amount of data that we
[2:36:17] actually collect that supports all of
these goals. Um and and that goes back
[2:36:22] to even our strategic plan survey um
that we give. We survey parents, we
[2:36:27] survey students, we survey our teachers.
And if you ask me, and I I probably
[2:36:31] wouldn't do it in a meeting, but if
somebody called and said, "Why did this
[2:36:35] school drop and why did this one go up?"
I can pretty well tell you exactly why
[2:36:39] and what was going on in the building.
And you can see it actually in the
[2:36:42] metrics that we collect. But now, let me
just say because this is my eighth year
[2:36:46] here. every board seems to want
different goals. So, the first year or
[2:36:50] two I was here, I I bet I had if I went
back and pulled it, I probably had 60
[2:36:55] items. And it was like, you know, if I'm
going to put it on here, I'll get it
[2:36:58] done. Um, and then the board was like, I
think it was you even you might have
[2:37:02] been on the board when it's like, this
is like way too much. You're giving us
[2:37:05] like three pages. Well, I was giving you
three pages because that's what the
[2:37:07] board at the time wanted to see. Um, so
it's very simplistic right now because
[2:37:12] this current last year's board didn't
did not want it to be super long.
[2:37:17] » I don't disagree with that, but I'm just
like as if I'm looking at the district.
[2:37:23] » If if I'm looking at the district annual
achievement report, what am I looking
[2:37:26] for in that? Because it's going to have
a lot of data in there and I'm not sure
[2:37:31] what you know what I'm looking at that's
going to indicate that we've achieved
[2:37:36] success. Well, it's going to be it's
going to be a mixture between I will
[2:37:39] update you on the cell bell to bell for
instance and we'll talk about for
[2:37:44] instance I was in a conversation I think
it was with PTA um this this week they
[2:37:51] confiscated like five phones like it was
very minimal and so we're keeping track
[2:37:56] of all that type of data now I can
expand this and put all the different
[2:38:00] metrics and things that we're going to
do but generally again like recent
[2:38:06] years. That's not what the board has
wanted. And quite frankly, one year the
[2:38:11] board was like all over the place and we
just didn't put on the agenda again
[2:38:14] because you don't even have to approve
my goals. So, I mean, it really depends
[2:38:18] if if you're wanting it to look like
something different than, you know, you
[2:38:24] just have to share what you are wanting.
>> I think Oh, sorry. Jonathan, do you want
[2:38:30] to go ahead? No, I think that um you
know, I'm sure that there's a happy
[2:38:34] middle in the three pages and the one
page. Um and and I think that you know,
[2:38:39] echoing what Jeff was saying just a
moment ago, I think we're excited to
[2:38:44] have a better sense of what data is
collected and how especially as we do
[2:38:49] novel things like no sell belltobell um
we get to capture, you know, the
[2:38:54] tangible results that we can report back
to parents. Um I'll gave an anecdote
[2:39:00] recently um of
a a child passing out at a private
[2:39:06] school recently and teachers simply knew
that when that happened in the era, you
[2:39:11] know, where cell phones were popular in
school that that young woman's photo
[2:39:15] would have been passed around among the
students. And that didn't happen this
[2:39:19] [clears throat] time because there's no
cell phones in the school. And so, you
[2:39:23] know, but that's like those sorts of
incident reports. I don't know that
[2:39:26] they're captured or aggregated or like
you know displayed and and presented in
[2:39:32] a way that has the meaningful impact
that you know we could we that we want
[2:39:38] to capture for the sake of showing the
positive achievement uh that is deserved
[2:39:42] by the initiatives that are being
tackled.
[2:39:46] So, no, I just um I think it's
challenging doing these goals without
[2:39:52] especially for for the two new board
members without having seen like the
[2:39:56] tremendous amount of educational
attainment data that we're about to see,
[2:40:00] you know, in the next month because you
see how metrics driven the school
[2:40:05] district is. And so then it's really
clear like are these scores going up?
[2:40:10] Are these scores going down? you're
looking across 15 schools. You're
[2:40:14] looking across different disciplines.
So, in my experience as a board member,
[2:40:20] there's a lot of accountability
throughout the year of getting this
[2:40:24] information back. And I think the
challenge is, and I don't know what the
[2:40:29] right answer is to this, but it's like
you could populate this with a bunch of
[2:40:35] data, you know, saying looking at SBA
scores, looking at PSAT scores, looking
[2:40:40] at SAT scores, looking at whatever, you
know, but you don't necessarily need to
[2:40:45] list all that because we know we're
going to see it and that is how we judge
[2:40:51] the performance of our schools. So I
think it's, you know, we that could be a
[2:40:54] way to address that concern a little bit
of like and it having been on the board
[2:40:59] now I guess I'm almost for 3 years you
you start to see all of the information
[2:41:04] that is fed to us all the time. I think
like the bell-to-bell thing is a little
[2:41:07] more challenging because it's going to
be anecdotal right now. So like for
[2:41:11] example that you know Dr. Jones saying
okay so you have 2700 students and
[2:41:15] you've only confiscated four phones. It
sounds like, you know, this is being
[2:41:20] enforced pretty, you know, it's going
pretty well and then you get to hear
[2:41:23] sort,
>> right? Well, I guess that's another way,
[2:41:26] you know, but whatever. So, we'll see.
You know, I think it's like you're going
[2:41:29] to hear stories. I guess the question
would be at the end of the school year,
[2:41:34] is there a way to measure, you know, are
our educational outcomes better because
[2:41:39] this the phones are away? I don't really
know. I feel like because then it's like
[2:41:43] how do you control for that of saying
okay that are the test numbers up
[2:41:47] because the phones are away or the test
numbers up because we've done all these
[2:41:50] curricular enhancements or you know
whatever it is like you never you never
[2:41:54] have perfect information. Um which isn't
to say that we shouldn't pull certain
[2:41:59] metrics and say these are ones that we
think are really important and we think
[2:42:03] tell a story but we will be getting a
huge amount of information. So just for
[2:42:08] the two of you to know you will be
inundated with data soon. I have no
[2:42:13] doubt and I I think you know while
academic performance is obviously a
[2:42:19] central focus um I think that
disciplinary issues uh in you know
[2:42:24] incidents of violence you know uh you
know um you know even just the presence
[2:42:30] of you know phones and how they can be
weaponized from one student to another
[2:42:34] like uh or used for cyber bullying
things like that um these are a reality
[2:42:39] it's like I'm sure part of what
influenced us to do the cell phone bl
[2:42:43] band bands. And so I I just I I
appreciate the opportunity to air a
[2:42:48] desire for maybe some more novel or
creative approaches to data collection
[2:42:53] um so that uh the great signals don't
get lost in the noise.
[2:43:00] » Yeah.
what I was hearing from you sounds like
[2:43:04] a a districtwide
like um
[2:43:09] evaluation. Um and I think that what we
what we're trying to look at here is how
[2:43:16] to how to evaluate the superintendent on
a on a more, you know, administrative
[2:43:22] level. Like all of that data that you're
talking about is something that we're
[2:43:26] we're looking at, you know, every year.
And I recognize that everything that Dr.
[2:43:30] Jones does it such a top level is going
to affect everything um from from you
[2:43:34] know from top to bottom. But if we're
going to have goals, you know,
[2:43:41] they should be defined and measurable. I
I think that's what I'm hearing.
[2:43:48] » Yeah. I mean, if you want metrics with
them and I'll give you like even in the
[2:43:51] second section is measured by the threat
assessment data. That's exactly what
[2:43:55] Jonathan was talking about. Um the 504
data. Um, there are all types of metrics
[2:44:00] that I don't list all of them on here,
but certainly as we go through the year,
[2:44:05] you I I will make sure that what's on
the goal sheet gets done. And if it's
[2:44:10] not if I'm not going to do it, I'm not
putting it on here. I I just don't
[2:44:13] because, you know, we have a very robust
strategic plan. We are performing better
[2:44:19] than we have even precoid. And so, you
know, I I want to be sure that whatever
[2:44:24] goals I'm presenting, I want, you know,
I want the board to support them. And
[2:44:28] certainly, I don't mind tying the
metrics. We can expand this um and go
[2:44:34] back to what we used to do. It's again,
this is guidance from the board at the
[2:44:38] time that wanted it like this on one
page. Um, you know, when I look at like
[2:44:43] the culture goal that you're mentioning,
Karen, to me, that is the strategic
[2:44:47] plan. We spent two years putting the
survey together so that we were
[2:44:52] surveying staff, parents, and students.
We want the same metric year overyear so
[2:44:57] we have a benchmark to compare. Now,
this year and next year at whatever
[2:45:01] point the board starts again, we've got
to get ready to have a brand new
[2:45:04] strategic plan. That's when you would
change the metric because you don't do
[2:45:08] that in the middle of a strategic plan
and especially when we're getting really
[2:45:12] good data.
[2:45:16] Um, I'm wondering if we could maybe
since this is the first read, if there's
[2:45:21] an opportunity for you to make some
suggestions of like, okay, here are a
[2:45:25] couple measurable data points that I
could, you know, provide to the board
[2:45:30] underneath like sort of in your third
column. Do you see what I'm saying? And
[2:45:34] I know I mean I feel like maybe with my
first year on the board that we had a
[2:45:38] goal for a a better graduation rate for
Greenwich High School, right? So that's
[2:45:43] like a very clear measurable thing of
like, okay, we're at 96%, we want to be
[2:45:47] at 98%.
>> But it's in our strategic plan,
[2:45:49] » right? No, and I know it's in the
strategic plan. So I I'm wondering if we
[2:45:52] could just pull some of those across
from the strategic plan to put it in
[2:45:56] this. And I I do appreciate like the
culture of the board shifts continually
[2:46:00] as we have new members on. But it sounds
like there's an appetite with the
[2:46:04] current membership that we would like to
have a you know maybe I don't know three
[2:46:09] three metrics per cell or something like
that that we're saying these are the
[2:46:13] ones that we want to track.
>> Yeah. And I I would say you know I do I
[2:46:17] I this is pretty but I wouldn't let
PowerPoint constrain you. I think if
[2:46:22] look if a word document and Excel
whatever works you know let's whatever
[2:46:27] works for the content let's not
constrain ourselves to that. I I
[2:46:31] appreciate that you got very different
guidance in the past. Um but I I just
[2:46:35] wanted to reiterate I really want to
make sure that there are goals aligned
[2:46:40] to all of our student populations.
[2:46:47] » Do is there something that we should be
take responsibility for? I mean it
[2:46:51] sounds like the feedback I'm getting
from Dr. Jones is that she's had you
[2:46:55] know this been all over the place,
right? doesn't really know what to
[2:46:59] present because she doesn't know what we
want as individuals and she set up so
[2:47:03] many different you know boards but
sounds very open to you know like tell
[2:47:07] me what you want and we'll talk about
it. So what I would say the
[2:47:11] responsibility of the board is you have
board goals and the eight years I've
[2:47:14] been on the board I'm not sure we've
actually met them maybe once like often
[2:47:20] we don't even review them and and
there's a lot of thought that goes into
[2:47:24] those um because we have to work
together my goals don't work if I don't
[2:47:29] have support of the board
>> and you guys went
[2:47:32] » we're working finance board goals
>> yeah yeah
[2:47:35] » so I mean and this this is just a
challenge of a of a changeover right And
[2:47:39] I I think it's true like I'm sitting
here and I'm thinking I'm actually the
[2:47:43] only person who was here last year when
we did this process of of of the people
[2:47:47] in this meeting. Um so who participated
in last time with the superintendent's
[2:47:52] goals. So um that's part of the
challenge, right? So this is really like
[2:47:57] a fresh a fresh look at them. And we did
do the board goals in the spring, but
[2:48:02] again we have two new members. So and
they're I'm sure not familiar with them
[2:48:07] at all. So, I'm happy to circulate those
as well. And um certainly the board
[2:48:12] goals need to align with the
superintendent's goals which need to
[2:48:14] align with the strategic plan, right?
So, all of those three things have to
[2:48:18] match up so that we're all marching in
the same direction. Karen
[2:48:24] » Yeah. I just wanted to
>> Karen Karen
[2:48:28] » Karen Karen Veronica. Okay. Yeah. I look
I just wanted to echo I under I
[2:48:33] understand the challenge. I mean, you
know, certainly we've all had situations
[2:48:36] where we get a new boss with different
expectations. Uh, you know, the
[2:48:38] superintendent has eight bosses um who
who think differently and those bosses
[2:48:43] change every couple years. So, I I do
recognize that uh you know, it's an
[2:48:47] unusual situation. It's also kind of an
unusual situation for an employee to be
[2:48:52] asked to propose goals as opposed to an
employer to set goals and is an unusual
[2:48:56] setup that we
>> that we have here at the moment.
[2:49:00] [snorts]
>> Yeah,
[2:49:01] » totally agree, Veronica.
Um I Sophie if you circulate the board
[2:49:07] goals I remember that in the spring um
and I don't know if it was ever finalist
[2:49:10] you and I think it was with Dr. Jones
and maybe Michael Joseph were working on
[2:49:15] um like people who are sort of going to
target different goals based on our own
[2:49:20] areas of expertise and experience let's
call it um and so would we be able to
[2:49:27] see that so then as board members we
knew what we should be working on and
[2:49:32] Jeff to answer your question you can
search um for old documents and old
[2:49:36] board meetings um in what's now diligent
what was board docs and you can find
[2:49:41] them
Okay, great.
[2:49:43] » Okay.
>> Yeah, I I'll recirculate it, Veronica. I
[2:49:47] think Yeah, Michael Joseph was going to
be sort of assigning people. So, we can
[2:49:53] go back and take a fresh look at that
now that we have two new board members.
[2:49:58] » Thank you.
>> Everything Everything from board docs
[2:50:01] moved over to Diligent. So, it's it's
from a couple meetings ago. It's on
[2:50:04] there.
>> Um All right. Thank you. Does anyone
[2:50:08] else have anything else? Nope. Okay. So,
we're going to move on to the calendar.
[2:50:14] Um, school year calendar first read. Dr.
Jones.
[2:50:21] So, this is the proposed 2027 2028
calendar. It is very similar to the
[2:50:27] calendar um that we have this year. It
was a little bit easier actually just
[2:50:31] because there weren't as many holidays
that fell. And if you look at like
[2:50:35] October, you know, we're only it's
there's one day there where schools are
[2:50:38] closed. and we put our professional
learning day there which is a little bit
[2:50:42] different. Um that full professional
learning day what Mark was referencing
[2:50:47] today is when everybody does
professional learning on the same day
[2:50:51] they can all start at the same time and
so it really becomes a very valuable
[2:50:55] opportunity for us. Um what you'll
notice is where February break falls
[2:51:00] again it's that's not highly unusual for
us. We usually back up to President's
[2:51:05] Day which gives that extra kind of long
weekend. the community likes that. Um,
[2:51:10] in April again, it's falling where it
generally has. If you remember last
[2:51:14] year, we either moved it earlier or it
was later and then the board ended up
[2:51:18] changing it back. Yeah. And we didn't
get good feedback from the community.
[2:51:22] Um, so what happens is when you get into
June, like the last day for staff, if we
[2:51:29] didn't have any snow days, and to be
honest, after this summer and all the
[2:51:34] rain and the crazy weather across the
United States, I'm very concerned about
[2:51:37] snow days this year. Um, so if our last
day with staff and students could be the
[2:51:43] 22nd, 23rd, if it if we ended up using
five snow days, um, and we always look
[2:51:49] at that. So, we're already into that
very end of June, which is can be
[2:51:54] challenging. It's challenging for, you
know, families that are going on
[2:51:57] vacation. It's challenging for summer
camps, uh, because we get out later and
[2:52:02] so some students can't go off to their,
you know, summer course. They're a
[2:52:06] sophomore and they're taking a summer
class at Harvard or wherever. Um, so we
[2:52:10] try to be thoughtful about when we are
ending. Um, so, and you will have
[2:52:16] requests, um, for sure. You know, we
hear from the community every year. We
[2:52:20] we don't have the day off for religious
holidays, say like to Wall-E, uh, which
[2:52:25] I know the board heard from a community
member. We're not off for Veterans Day.
[2:52:29] We haven't been in Greenwich like for
years. And to be honest, our veterans, I
[2:52:34] think, are very supportive of what we do
because we make it so important. And
[2:52:38] it's our kids probably get way more
being in school than they would if they
[2:52:42] were out. We had to make a decision uh
several years ago that if we're in
[2:52:46] school on Junth, are we going to have
school or are we going to push back
[2:52:51] again to that last week into June? And
we chose that we we're going to have
[2:52:55] school and we're going to approach it in
the same way like we do Veterans Day.
[2:52:59] And we have slides, we have it as a
teaching opportunity so all of our kids
[2:53:04] learn about Junth. And generally when
when our community realizes that if I
[2:53:09] get an email and I let them know what we
do, they're actually happy with that
[2:53:13] because they know that the vast majority
of our students probably wouldn't go to
[2:53:18] like a ceremony, the vast majority where
this way all of our students are having
[2:53:22] some really great um learning
opportunities. So because we have a full
[2:53:27] February and we have a full April, our
our calendar becomes challenging. The
[2:53:32] other thing you will hear from,
especially new board members, is
[2:53:35] generally why do you start on Thursday
or Friday? That's annoying. And but if
[2:53:39] you push back again, you're pushing two
days somewhere else back in the
[2:53:44] calendar. Um because we have the
orientation day, which is on a Thursday,
[2:53:49] and that's for transitional years. Your
kindergarteners uh come in and visit.
[2:53:53] Sixth graders have their first day of
school at 9th grade, so that they can be
[2:53:57] in the buildings when nobody else is
there. and it's, you know, just really
[2:54:00] helps with their transition. Friday, we
bring everybody in which is actually
[2:54:05] very helpful because like in secondary
for instance, they get to run their
[2:54:09] schedules on a Friday. They come back
and they're ready to go. Um, so
[2:54:16] we're happy to take feedback on it or if
you have questions about why we do
[2:54:20] certain things on certain times of the
year.
[2:54:25] » Karen,
uh, yeah, a couple things. So, one, I
[2:54:29] really like what you did with the end of
the school year. I think that's really
[2:54:32] clear. I hope that we'll say we'll have
the room on the page to do that, showing
[2:54:35] the last day and the last day with snow
days. Um I would suggest that as we've
[2:54:40] done for uh Veterans Day and a number of
the holidays that we also write schools
[2:54:45] open on June 19th, Junth to to
acknowledge uh to avoid the confusion
[2:54:50] and acknowledge that we'll have a
program that day uh for that holiday. um
[2:54:56] on the K through8 conferences. It was a
couple of years ago that we switched
[2:55:01] from having written comments in the
report cards to having I think twice a
[2:55:05] year uh 15minute parent conferences. So
I've uh
[2:55:11] are we are we locked into that based on
the latest GA contract or do we have
[2:55:18] some flexibility there? Uh, and the
reason I ask is that I I've spoken with
[2:55:22] some parents and there's a little bit of
a question of whether is the is the
[2:55:28] trade-off worth it. So, we're we're
losing two half days in December, two
[2:55:33] half days of learning in March. Um, and
the and and you know, which is which is
[2:55:38] a loss of learning of of two days, but
it's also uh it's also hard for parents
[2:55:44] uh who work and they're getting a
15minute conference twice. Um, is it
[2:55:50] worth it?
>> Well, let me say when we first put the
[2:55:54] second conference in, it was feedback
from our parents um that wanted it. So,
[2:55:58] when we put middle school conferences
in, it was feedback from our parents who
[2:56:03] also wanted the middle school
conferences. So, you know, that it it
[2:56:07] was driven by parents. Certainly, we can
always survey our parents again. Now,
[2:56:11] we've lived through it for probably I
think about four years. you know, if
[2:56:15] they don't want the second conference,
but would we need to work with GA on
[2:56:19] what comments would look like? We have a
brand new report card. I'm not sure.
[2:56:24] You're never going to get a narrative
like you would like when I was I was in
[2:56:27] private for five, six years. We just did
a whole narrative. You didn't get any
[2:56:31] grades and it was all narrative. That
would never get through here. Um, yeah.
[2:56:37] So, it would be a matter of you would
have to probably give them more time to
[2:56:42] write the comments than what it takes to
actually have it on the calendar here.
[2:56:47] » Got it.
>> Yeah.
[2:56:52] » Any other comments? Anyone?
>> Can I um I do have a quick question.
[2:56:57] Sorry, but I I would I already asked
this to Dr. Jones and I said it's sort
[2:57:00] of in passing, but I would actually like
to defer to other board members and hear
[2:57:04] their thoughts and opinions. But um we I
thought that maybe and also having just
[2:57:11] lived it that the Friday before Labor
Day weekend, which would be the end of
[2:57:16] that first full week of school uh that
the kids have uh be a half day. Um and I
[2:57:22] brought it up with Dr. Jones and she
made a great point and she said, "Well,
[2:57:25] it's like our first full week of
school," which I appreciate because the
[2:57:30] following week's only a 4-day week and
then we fall into some of the holidays
[2:57:33] where there's no school. Um, but my
thought was actually that, you know,
[2:57:38] after an entire full week of school,
granted my kids were little, they're
[2:57:42] exhausted, the teachers are exhausted
just coming back in, you know, energyy's
[2:57:46] high in the building. Um, that maybe,
you know, to to settle into the weekend,
[2:57:50] and I know that the Friday afternoon of
Labor Day weekend is not always a super
[2:57:55] busy time um in uh for for people, you
know, a lot of people have that time off
[2:58:01] or leave early. So anyways, that was my
only um thought on the calendar that I
[2:58:06] would I don't feel that strongly about
it. I would just defer to everyone else
[2:58:10] having just experienced it.
[2:58:18] » Crickets. Okay.
>> Yeah. Sorry. I I don't think there's a
[2:58:21] lot of support for that. I hear what
you're saying, Veronica. I feel like I
[2:58:24] think it probably is different when you
have older kids. And Frankly, my concern
[2:58:28] would be if you give people a half day,
then you're going to have a lot of
[2:58:32] they're going to just not go to school.
>> And yeah, and and honestly, like I
[2:58:37] always find September to be tricky
anyway because there tends to be like,
[2:58:41] you know, we have two days like you have
Labor Day, then you have Yonapore, like
[2:58:45] you know, and so it's like you're trying
to get into a rhythm.
[2:58:48] » Um, and anything that breaks up the
rhythm, I I don't know. I'm just, this
[2:58:52] is me speaking as a parent, but I, you
know, as a board member, I feel like if
[2:58:55] you do a half day, you'd have a lot of
kids not show up, and that probably
[2:58:58] wouldn't be great.
>> No, I was wondering on the um attendance
[2:59:02] if there was any appetite for the idea.
I was just wondering on the attendance,
[2:59:05] but if if it's not a if it's, you know,
not going to land, then, you know, don't
[2:59:10] pull it. It's not worth it.
>> Yeah. I think going [clears throat] back
[2:59:15] to the comment about the the half days
for the 15-minute conferences, I think
[2:59:20] that, you know, my wife and I have shown
up for each of those conferences. Uh I
[2:59:25] do appreciate the sort of frank nature
in which people can just speak freely
[2:59:29] about what's going on. Haven't found
them to be like too very substantive. Uh
[2:59:35] but but at the same hand, you know,
there's this part of me that would just
[2:59:39] love to figure out a way to have the
kids playing in the the recess for the
[2:59:43] back half of that day and then still get
on their buses and, you know, not create
[2:59:47] child care problems for those who it's a
real burden for. I'm not sure that
[2:59:51] there's a practical solution for how to
do that, but you know, uh, you know, put
[2:59:56] [clears throat] a big fence around them
and just let them go.
[3:00:00] » Yeah. it what what really the problem is
again it's it's they have to be where
[3:00:06] they're not supervising children and you
can't getting that many subs for 11
[3:00:11] elementary schools to cover even if you
tried to kind of spread it out number
[3:00:15] one it would be expensive um for us you
know to add sub coverage but you just
[3:00:20] couldn't get the subs I mean it's hard
to cover subs as it is
[3:00:28] » just on that point though just on that
point though I we it is a financial
[3:00:32] burden on on families as well.
>> Well, you know, this is the first read,
[3:00:38] so I feel like that maybe that's
something that we can all think about
[3:00:41] and and try and problem solve for
because I think
[3:00:44] » Yeah. Go ahead, Dr.
>> Yeah. And I do just want to add there's
[3:00:47] there's a couple of early releases that
are on here that previously we didn't
[3:00:51] necessarily have like the collab time
that and again it's very difficult to
[3:00:58] try to meet the expectations of
everybody. So our teachers say all the
[3:01:02] time they don't have enough time. They
don't have enough time to meet together,
[3:01:07] you know. So that's why we've added
those collab days on here. Um but we
[3:01:12] haven't had those in the past. So, you
know, that's where we have to analyze.
[3:01:16] If parents think there are too many
early releases, then maybe we can't do
[3:01:21] that even though we want to do it. And I
think the board has to to weigh that.
[3:01:25] And in the past, we have sent out a
survey, you know, um, you know, to
[3:01:29] parents like, do you support this time
and see what they say? And it can be
[3:01:34] very helpful.
>> Yeah. I'd love to get the data so it's
[3:01:37] not anecdotal.
>> Didn't we we did we pull a day from um,
[3:01:41] vacation last year?
[3:01:46] Yeah, we did. It was like March 8th or
something. We pulled one. We pulled one
[3:01:49] back because we had we had so many
snowtorms.
[3:01:51] » Professional learning day.
>> We moved it to the very end of the year.
[3:01:55] So, we took when we had bad snowfalls
last year. That was that was me. Um but
[3:02:01] » yeah. No, no, but it's like, you know,
you get these bad snowfall and you don't
[3:02:04] know if there's more coming. So, it's a
it's a hard thing. So, I think the point
[3:02:07] I was making when I asked it is this is
a really tight schedule. I mean, it's a
[3:02:11] it's a it's a tight schedule. It's hard
to manage and I think, you know, looking
[3:02:15] to put anything else in there, time off,
unless there's a holiday that that
[3:02:22] presents itself that
that causes the Greenwich public school
[3:02:28] system not to be able to operate, right?
Like we have so many of our of our
[3:02:34] teachers or students that just aren't
going to show show up. They're going to
[3:02:38] take uh that holiday. That's the
barrier. You know, I I I don't want to
[3:02:42] be insensitive to to the other holidays.
So, I want to take a very practical look
[3:02:46] at this. This is a this is, you know,
holidays are based on when they really
[3:02:52] interrupt the ability to to to to run
the system.
[3:02:57] » Yeah. And and again, we've talked about
this, I think, you know, every year that
[3:03:00] I've been here. It's hard putting a
calendar together that meets the needs
[3:03:03] of everybody. And one of the, you know,
the statements the board has tried to be
[3:03:08] responsive to is how do we run the
schools safely? And there are holidays
[3:03:13] where it's a smaller smaller minority of
of individuals and they get the day off.
[3:03:19] We honor that for them. But then we also
have some holidays that it's a large
[3:03:24] portion of our staff and our parent
community. And that's why our calendar
[3:03:30] doesn't necessarily look like, you know,
another region even of Connecticut. They
[3:03:35] may have a different holiday um based on
what their community looks like. And we
[3:03:39] also have to look at it from the staff
perspective.
[3:03:46] All right. I think if there's no further
comments, then are we done with the
[3:03:50] calendar first reading? Okay, great. Um
can I
[3:03:55] » Okay. Okay. So, send comments to Dr.
Jones. Um, can I entertain another
[3:04:00] motion?
>> I'll make a motion to adjurnn.
[3:04:03] » Okay. Would anyone like to second?
>> I'll second.
[3:04:09] » Okay.
>> All right. All in favor?
[3:04:12] Okay. Meeting adjourned. Thank you
everyone. Good night.
[3:04:15] » Thank you. Good night.