[0:00] Okay. Okay. Good evening. Welcome to the October 19th meeting of the SCOTAC Board of Education. It's

[0:10] sick so warm. Call the meeting for order. Please join me in the slide to leave it for you.

[0:16] Let's not. Let's not.

[0:19] See the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for

[0:24] to stand on location under that,

[0:27] and in the middle of the road, you can judge us as the crowd.

[0:30] We're pretty walking out.

[0:34] Well, exciting start to a schoolwork meeting this year.

[0:38] Appreciate that. Thank you.

[0:41] Quick. Okay.

[0:44] With that, just quickly want to take

[0:47] knowledge that we had received a resignation this week from

[0:51] Mr. Grandinetti and want to thank him for his service to

[0:55] the Board of Education.

[0:58] At this point, could I get a motion to approve the present agenda?

[1:04] I'm on a favor. I, anyone opposed? Okay, and we have two minutes to accept. Can I get

[1:13] a motion to approve the minutes from the August 10th and the September 14th meeting?

[1:29] Okay, which one is it, the one where it is,

[1:37] the meeting opening, okay, I have to look

[1:45] back and see if

[1:48] there's anybody else has next to that night.

[1:51] Do you want to table them then?

[1:54] So we're going to have to table out just a minute.

[2:00] So we'll find those things before we introduce ourselves.

[2:03] That would be good.

[2:09] Yeah.

[2:11] I have a minute Mary Curt.

[2:13] Mary Curt.

[2:17] All in favor of that.

[2:19] So right now we have that.

[2:21] Okay.

[2:22] So we've got a motion of second and all in favor.

[2:25] So Mary motion.

[2:27] Mary and second.

[2:29] Third.

[2:30] Second.

[2:31] Second.

[2:31] and then,

[2:34] okay, thank you.

[2:39] Next is a recommendation,

[2:41] I'll let you say yes.

[2:42] So I have a small statement that,

[2:44] right through it, it's also posted on more docs

[2:47] so I'm going to be following it and create it.

[2:50] But tonight on the half of our entire school community,

[2:55] here to express our deepest appreciation

[2:58] and admiration for the incredible work.

[3:01] You do in service to our community

[3:03] in its educational institutions. As we celebrate the Board of Education Appreciation Month,

[3:09] it's only fitting that we take moments to acknowledge and applaud your unwavering commitment

[3:14] to our schools and the leadership we provide. Your dedication to the betterment of our schools

[3:20] is truly commendable. Each one of you has invested countless hours, effort and passion into ensuring

[3:26] the success and well-being of our students. Through your thoughtful decision-making, you'll continually

[3:32] we elevated the quality of education in our district,

[3:35] enhancing the learning experiences of our children.

[3:38] Moreover, your commitment to our community

[3:41] is evident and selfless hours you devote

[3:43] to listening to the concerns of our parents, teachers,

[3:46] and community at large.

[3:48] You know, the fact that as advocates for our schools,

[3:51] ensuring that they remain a quarter of stone

[3:52] of our community's growth and prosperity.

[3:56] As the superintendent, I want to express my gratitude

[4:00] to your partnership and collaboration.

[4:02] Together, we have achieved remarkable milestones,

[4:05] and I have no doubt that with your continued support guidance,

[4:09] we will continue to break you ground

[4:10] as we strive for excellence.

[4:13] During this Board of Education Appreciation Month,

[4:16] I hope that you take a moment to reflect

[4:18] on the profound impact you have made

[4:20] and continue to make on the lives of all of our students

[4:22] and our schools and our community.

[4:25] Your dedication is a service of inspiration for us all,

[4:27] and they're deeply thankful for your service.

[4:31] So thank you once again for your outstanding commitment to our schools and

[4:34] community. It is an honor to work alongside you,

[4:38] and I look forward to the great strides. We will take together in the future.

[4:42] Please help yourself to the snacks that have set up your honor tonight.

[4:47] And as Shelley mentioned, receiving the resignation from the board from

[4:53] than earlier, I would like to just take an opportunity to thank him for his and here's

[5:00] a service for a school district, wish him all the best, he's a veteran diverse.

[5:06] So happy board of appreciation, but thank you for the work of it.

[5:14] Anyone needs to be there now before we'll move on then to reports and we have two tonight,

[5:22] the first is the independent audit report.

[5:24] Yeah, so welcome. Welcome up. We'd like to welcome Hayley Fittsick, a manager from the Bonneville Group,

[5:32] and Hayley was our lead auditor. So she spent lots of time here in Skodak and working in

[5:38] business office with Ryan and his crew. So welcome, Hayley. We appreciate having you.

[5:44] Thank you. Thank you, everyone, my name and

[5:53] recently completed the audit. They went over all of our

[6:05] is your green button on. Yeah.

[6:10] First, I'd like to say Brian Jell and the dentist office of

[6:18] many of your classes.

[6:24] There are three deliverables that were provided to you. The first is your

[6:36] client's green financial statement, the whole district's annual audit.

[6:42] Timyan, I'm a financial

[6:43] statement and he is given a modified

[6:53] report that is homophobic in your basic financial

[6:59] system. This report requires us to gain another standing on your page.

[7:06] You notice that there

[7:07] that report

[7:13] is your compliance with laws, regulations, and grant contracts that non-compliance

[7:19] could lead to a material financial statement impact. And we're pleased to say that we noted

[7:25] no material non-compliance for those requirements. Next, you are limited to attaining 4% of the

[7:33] school budget and unreserved unappropriated fund balance. And as of June 30th, 2023, the

[7:40] district is under that limit at 3.9. As

[7:46] far as an overview of your financial statements,

[7:50] there are two stats, the government wide, and then the fund level financial statements,

[7:54] they both present two entirely different pictures. The government wide statements, which you'll see

[8:00] and the reports are on the full accrual basis,

[8:02] and then the fund level statements are modified accrual.

[8:07] Next, move on to the independent audit report

[8:10] on compliance with requirements

[8:12] to each major program and internal control

[8:16] over compliance in regards to uniform guidance.

[8:18] So this is the federal audit for the federal awards.

[8:22] We issued an unmodified opinion.

[8:25] Again, highest level assurance that we as auditors can give you.

[8:28] We do not identify any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in the internal

[8:34] controls over the federal programs that we tested.

[8:38] The overall major federal program that we tested, which you'll see in the report, was

[8:42] the COVID-19 education stabilization fund monies.

[8:48] Next, the extra-fast-room funds financial statements.

[8:51] We issued the annual audit of those, and that is also an unmodified opinion on those financial

[8:57] statements.

[8:59] So that's a very high level overview of the audit results for SCODAQ School of Stricts.

[9:04] Again, thank you to the business office, Brian, Jill, and everyone else involved for

[9:08] all of their help.

[9:09] They sure do help to make sure this audit goes as smoothly as possible.

[9:14] And I'm open to any questions that any of you may have.

[9:24] Thank you.

[9:25] I'd like to just take a moment to thank Kylie and the Bonne de O'Gourke.

[9:30] Thank you for your continued partnership and a great work that you do.

[9:34] I also want to take an opportunity, this is like the business office's report card every

[9:40] year.

[9:41] So, Dr. Carey sitting to my left here deserves a great deal of credit as well as all

[9:50] the folks that we have working in the business office, Jill and Megan, Lisa, Michelle, we've

[9:56] got a great team of folks in the business office that really do a great job and just want

[10:02] to take a moment and recognize your leadership

[10:04] and the great work that our business office does.

[10:07] So, thank you.

[10:09] Thank you.

[10:11] Our business office is nothing without our team.

[10:14] It's the people every day that push and prod

[10:17] and get the things that they get to the place

[10:19] before we can get this done.

[10:21] So, thank you again for your team as well.

[10:22] Thank you.

[10:23] Thank you, everyone.

[10:23] Have a good evening.

[10:24] Thank you.

[10:25] Wait,

[10:29] our second rep is the fall survey data.

[10:32] Trick work.

[10:33] All right.

[10:34] So I hope you've had an opportunity kind of just peruse the survey so there's some data that we're going to present to you tonight.

[10:46] The last couple of years we've sent out like family check-in surveys. We've done surveys that have gone out to families and that was really kind of a result of COVID.

[10:56] It's kind of like an after-effective COVID but we found that we got some really valuable information sending that out.

[11:01] You know, probably four or five weeks into the start of the school year, just really kind of gauge,

[11:09] you know, how the year is going from a couple of different stakeholder groups.

[11:13] So, as you'll notice, the family check-in survey usually goes to parents and we've got parent responses.

[11:21] We do send the survey out. We have a very short survey, like tell us what is going well and what could be better to students

[11:29] and we asked them to also rate how the school year started and then we send out a survey

[11:36] of the faculty and staff and give them an opportunity not only to use the Likert scale

[11:42] to tell us how you know the year has gotten off to a start, but also this opportunity

[11:47] to provide narrative feedback to us.

[11:50] So what we're going to do is kind of present a high level overview of the information

[11:56] and what we will do after tonight.

[11:58] This information will post on our website,

[12:01] so we'll make it available for anybody

[12:04] who wants to see it on the website.

[12:05] I know it'll live in board docs,

[12:07] but we'll make it a little more accessible.

[12:09] And let me just start by talking a little bit

[12:12] about why we survey.

[12:14] We know we have two different priorities

[12:17] and district goals that surround those priorities.

[12:20] We talk about climate and culture and communication.

[12:22] Those are two major goals.

[12:24] and anytime we survey all the different stakeholder groups,

[12:28] those surveys do give us an indication of the climate and culture.

[12:33] It gives us perception in terms of how our faculty and staff are feeling,

[12:38] how our students are feeling, and again, how our greater community with parents responding,

[12:44] how they are feeling about the work that is going on in the schools.

[12:48] goals. So I'm really reaching out and getting that feedback, really gives us an indication

[12:54] of the current climate and culture. In addition, obviously, reaching out to get feedback

[13:00] is a form of communication. We want to hear from people. And so I know the district goal

[13:05] that was shared with all of you earlier on in the year talks about a community engagement

[13:11] strategy and part of that strategy is obviously reaching out and surveying a different stakeholder

[13:16] So this is part of feeds right into those priorities

[13:21] and those district goals.

[13:25] We want to talk a little bit about what we do with the results.

[13:28] And so, you know, it's, you always wonder when you put your vulnerable,

[13:34] when you put surveys out, especially narrative comments,

[13:37] and you look for the feedback that comes back.

[13:39] And really, you know, I think we all have big shoulders.

[13:42] What we want to know, we come here to every board meeting.

[13:45] we talk to you about things that we're very proud of, we talk to you about things that we think

[13:50] need some improvement and plans for working on those things. So it's really important when we ask

[13:58] for that feedback and we ask what we're doing well. We want to take the time to honor those

[14:03] things that we are doing well. And so when parents communicate to us that they feel these are the

[14:08] things we're doing well or the students tell us that these are the things they are satisfied with

[14:13] and feel like we're doing well, and then faculty and staff, we want to take that opportunity

[14:18] to recognize and appreciate that sort of feedback. It honors the work that everybody is doing here.

[14:27] Obviously, typically ask for this piece. It's really continuous feedback for growth and improvement.

[14:33] We want to know those things that we, you know, people feel we aren't doing well so that

[14:38] we can take a look at those things and really infuse them into the work that we're doing.

[14:43] And so, you know, those things will impact things like professional development.

[14:49] We do ask for transportation and food service and some of those other things.

[14:54] So, it might involve some level of training or work on custom-

[15:01] Those types of things will take this feedback and really look at how we integrate that into district

[15:09] level work and building level work. And that's important. We've got building level committees

[15:15] that are operational. We have district-wide committees, and all of that should be funneling

[15:21] up through building, up to meet the district goals, and the district work that's happening,

[15:26] and then funnel into the board priorities.

[15:29] So this feedback becomes really important.

[15:32] And as mentioned, it does give us a really good indicator

[15:37] how the climate and culture is.

[15:39] So, you know, if we tend to score very well,

[15:43] you know, folks seem to be satisfied.

[15:45] It gives us at least a baseline understanding.

[15:48] In any survey, we can expect that some folks might not be satisfied

[15:52] and others will be satisfied.

[15:54] But the more respondents we get, the more accurate that information is.

[16:00] And again, with this information, you're going to hear a couple of things talk to you tonight.

[16:07] What will help us to, you know, future planning and potential resource allocation.

[16:12] So if some of the feedback requires like the purchase of something to fix something else,

[16:18] Maybe in the area that students might have indicated as being problematic, but we need to pay for something to solve that.

[16:28] Resource allocation becomes really important in future planning if it's a really heavy expense.

[16:35] So we're going to jump in and ask my team to help out.

[16:41] So when what you're going to see is at the beginning of each of these,

[16:45] we've got students, parents, and faculty, and staff all indicated on the graph here,

[16:50] and this is really from the Likert scale. One being I am very dissatisfied and five being

[16:56] I'm very satisfied with the way the school year started. So three being right in the middle.

[17:02] You can see the number of respondents. We had 103 students respond at the elementary school. We do

[17:09] not ask all of the elementary school to take the survey. We really focus on grades four, five,

[17:14] 5 and 6 to respond to the survey.

[17:18] We had roughly about 300 parents respond, I'm sorry, 200 and some odd parents respond

[17:26] and they're asked if you took the survey, do I have kids at CES, yes, if it takes you

[17:32] to the CES survey if you answer no, I just have kids at the high school you don't take the

[17:36] CES question.

[17:37] So we had 135 parents of elementary students respond 31 faculty and staff members at the elementary school and so you can see how those different groups replied to the start of the school year.

[17:55] I've asked James and Kara what they're going to do we're not going to talk to all of these bulleted items we would probably be here until about 11 o'clock tonight.

[18:05] What I did, attached in board docs, and you should have seen the addendums.

[18:11] The addendums, you can open those up.

[18:13] They go right along with parent, students, faculty, and staff.

[18:17] And there's a brief explanation.

[18:18] And what we did is we took all of the narrative responses and looked for major themes.

[18:24] And so the themes that were generated here are listed for you in bulleted points.

[18:30] and if the public has any interest, if you want to know what smooth operations is like and

[18:35] we don't talk about that tonight, go right to the addendum and it'll kind of give you a brief overview

[18:40] of what that is. So that will also live on the website for our public to see. So let me turn it

[18:47] over to James and Cara and you guys can walk us through the CES data. Thanks, Jake. As far as what's going

[18:54] Well, a few highlights that we want to note from the parent side of things probably more than anything communication was recognized as being a positive.

[19:05] It's something that you know starts every day with the homework folder that comes into school.

[19:12] I think that's a big piece of it to that homework folder going back at back home at the end of the day with you know a backpack mailing and then it extends to the technology that we use.

[19:22] whether it's CSO or Canvas and then obviously teachers will use email and pick up a phone

[19:28] and make a phone call to talk to parents but we want to know if our parents appreciate

[19:32] the communication that comes out of CS and I think I want to think the district office

[19:36] too they're great about pushing blast texts or messages out to communicate things that

[19:42] we have going on in the building or information that we want folks to have but it really

[19:47] resonated throughout the communication was important to folks and that they appreciated

[19:51] what they were getting. Teacher quality was another trend that we saw throughout the responses.

[19:58] Parents were very happy with their students' teachers and the communication and the work

[20:06] and the back and forth that they had. So those were our two highlights that we wanted to hit there.

[20:16] Students, things are going well, positive feedback about their teachers,

[20:20] it kind of resonated in the same fashion.

[20:23] Students were really excited about their classroom teachers,

[20:26] their special area teachers, the folks that they were working with,

[20:30] and then overall passion or enthusiasm for learning.

[20:33] Kids were excited to be back in school,

[20:35] kids were excited about what was going on in the classroom

[20:38] and what they were starting to learn already in the year.

[20:41] Hopefully that continues through June.

[20:44] And then last but not least, from our faculty and staff, support and collaboration, we pride

[20:51] ourselves of being a family down at CES, and everyone is there for each other, for the students,

[20:59] for their colleagues. They expressed support from administration, from support service providers,

[21:05] co-teachers, special area teachers, you name it was just a good overall theme.

[21:13] Schedule in an organization was another one.

[21:16] The schedule was a beast in any building,

[21:18] no different than the high school.

[21:20] It plays a huge impact in our students day

[21:23] and in our teachers day.

[21:25] And I think that where we are right now with our schedule,

[21:28] things are going really well.

[21:30] Teachers like what we have in place.

[21:33] And those are those room for improvement.

[21:34] But I would say at this point,

[21:36] we did not do a ton of tweaking from last year to this year.

[21:38] And I think teachers appreciated that.

[21:41] That kind of knew what they were getting into as a school year started and didn't have

[21:45] to make a lot of changes or adjustments based on the time of day.

[21:50] Morale and focus on climate was another area that we just wanted to highlight.

[21:55] Folks feel as though the school years off to a good start.

[21:58] People enjoy working with each other.

[22:00] They enjoy being at CES overall.

[22:02] It is a really good place to be to work from our student perspective to go to school.

[22:08] We're really jumped out at me, too, just in terms of things that are going well, you see support pop up in different categories, which is it's a telltale sign that, you know, parents feel like if they have a concern, they can reach out that concern is being addressed.

[22:26] The teachers are taking good care of their kids, they're helping them after school, they're doing those things.

[22:32] And, you know, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't say there were some really great

[22:38] feedback on the support that comes out of the main office with the building leadership

[22:43] with James and Kara.

[22:44] So, you know, just overall some really great feedback from the elementary school, for sure.

[22:52] Any thoughts or questions on any of those things before we switch slides?

[22:59] Just one question on the initial slide with the respondents, when you looked at student

[23:04] response ratio of 103, grades 4, 5, and 6, what's the total number of students with

[23:09] the percentage of respondents?

[23:11] Well, I couldn't say the percentage of that in my head, Kurt.

[23:16] Our total student population for that band would probably be about

[23:23] 170 times 3.

[23:27] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[23:28] I didn't say 180, but half surprising.

[23:37] The other thing is, one of the positives

[23:40] and one of the negatives,

[23:41] I know it's touched in the addendum,

[23:42] which is kind of surprising is,

[23:44] because the communication portion of it for parents,

[23:48] it's both a positive and an area for improvement.

[23:51] In the area for improvement, very specific,

[23:53] just being particular about the type and timing

[23:57] of the communication and sort of content.

[24:00] Yeah, you know, I just I remember seeing that in the parent feedback and one of the things they

[24:05] said was that they wanted to know things sooner like they wanted to know things more in advance.

[24:09] That's one of the things I remember taking away from the feedback. So they appreciated the amount

[24:13] we communicated, but there was a couple of responses that indicated they wanted to know things sooner.

[24:21] Like an assembly was coming up. They wanted to go further and advance when the assembly was

[24:25] happening. That's one thing that's six out of my line.

[24:27] And just just one more question. This is on from the student

[24:30] perspective on the area for improvement. When it mentioned

[24:34] balloon, do we know the number of respondents are the hundred

[24:38] and six that were replied to how many actually responded with

[24:41] that bullying?

[24:42] And get that for you. Yeah, I mean, not having it in front of me,

[24:47] I don't want to care to guess. But we definitely can follow up

[24:53] and get your response to that, for sure.

[24:55] Thank you.

[24:56] I'd say just off the top of my head more than one,

[24:59] but less than 10 probably.

[25:01] That was something we were gonna talk about

[25:03] when we get to the, I think it's the next slide or.

[25:07] Yeah, and just a comment on communication.

[25:11] It's the end-of-the-end with communication.

[25:13] We always feel like we, you know,

[25:16] we do a great job communicating, but it's always a goal

[25:19] because we know we can always be better at it

[25:22] And, you know, we'll see a separate category of communication and how folks feel we're communicating a little bit later on in the presentation.

[25:40] 52.28%.

[25:41] I was going to say 180.

[25:44] About half.

[25:48] Well, circle.

[25:49] About that.

[25:52] Yeah, that's your role over here.

[25:54] Yeah.

[25:57] Thanks.

[25:58] We'll move on to the next slide which the feedback could be improved at the elementary

[26:03] school.

[26:04] Yep.

[26:05] So it is for improvement from parent perspective.

[26:09] You know, I just wanted to point out was outdoor playtime.

[26:13] We typically will get feedback from parents or questions from parents, you know, how much

[26:20] time do they have outside?

[26:21] You know, there's a way for more.

[26:24] And certainly love to have more outdoor playtime for students.

[26:28] It's hard. You know, if we are having more time outside,

[26:32] it's less time in the classroom, outdoor space,

[26:36] how much space do we have to accommodate more kids?

[26:38] We would probably need to have more kids outside at the same time

[26:41] to increase outdoor time.

[26:45] But more and all kids get outside.

[26:48] and you know, there's parents that, you know, have come through CES with me as a principal

[26:52] and I've shared with everyone of you, our goals to get kids outside, and if we do a really

[26:57] good job of it, you know, rinse, let's know, or else sometimes, we're outside.

[27:01] If it's cold, we're watching where it's at, but kids bundle up and we send them out.

[27:06] If it's a light drizzle outside for 20 minutes, if it's safe, we're probably going to send

[27:10] them out.

[27:12] We do pay attention, we don't want anybody to get hurt.

[27:14] So certainly if the weather is not conducive they're not going to go outside.

[27:19] But I think we do work hard with that and teachers will take opportunities to take kids outside at the end of the day for extra recess time.

[27:28] We try to do that during times that classes don't have their scheduled recess time so they might go for a walk around the building as opposed to play time on the playground or things like that.

[27:39] But something for us to pay attention to, I want to note reading curriculum, reading has been a big

[27:46] headline catcher in the news in terms of the science of reading and then also

[27:52] Heinemann and Teachers College and we do use Teachers College framework and our building

[27:58] and we have paid attention to literature behind the science of reading and currently work towards

[28:05] that balance of what is best for our students between a workshop model of education and also

[28:13] embedding phonics in teaching the students to read. So, I think there was only one comment

[28:19] about that, but I wanted to highlight that one as something to address.

[28:25] Again, communication,

[28:27] as Jason was saying, it's, you know, we do really well, but we always can improve on that,

[28:32] And that's something that we pay attention into and we will continuously look at and see how we can make that better for folks.

[28:42] From our students, areas of improvement.

[28:46] I wasn't going to highlight it, but I keep jumping out at me too much gym time.

[28:50] I do imagine that that comes from an elementary student.

[28:54] Typically not something we see, but you know, we're mandated by state requirements.

[28:59] And we actually, we do a really good job of meeting our state requirements where there's schools.

[29:06] It's even bad day. You know, we even get out and dodgeball and, you know, loud environments.

[29:14] I want to highlight that one. This is one that I didn't expect to hear from students,

[29:20] but we heard it a lot from students in terms of really our cafeteria, our cafeteria can get noisy.

[29:26] It's not the largest space in our building, but we fit the most kids in there at one time.

[29:33] And it can be a little bit noisy, but it's also time for students to have an outlet.

[29:37] It's the one or one of two times a day that they get to converse back and forth with peers.

[29:43] And we are definitely going to look into ways to soften the space with some acoustic panels

[29:50] or things like that.

[29:51] that's, you know, when Jason talks about allocation of resources, when we budget

[29:55] plan, we'll look at, you know, how do we get some things into that space? There

[29:58] might be a time in here where we

[30:00] We can see that we have money and we can do it sooner, but that's definitely something that we want to address. And then currently, in point, the bullying behavior came up a few times. And one of our major focuses this year was addressing behaviors before they started, whether it was in the cafeteria or outside at recess, and on the bus where we see the majority of our behavior issues. Traditionally, we don't see them in the classroom itself.

[30:25] It's those spaces and Mrs. LeCarrie has done a great job of getting into our cafeteria to talk to kids about cafeteria behavior meeting with every classroom about recess behavior.

[30:39] We've got morning assembly coming up in February. We're going to bring our transportation staff in and be a part of that conversation.

[30:47] Mrs. LeCarrie and I have both written buses this year to help support our drivers and make things better on the bus for students.

[30:55] And then faculty and staff, areas of improvement, substitute teachers and student behavior,

[31:00] again, even if you're again, I'm not going to, you know, speak to it too much more,

[31:04] but paying attention to that and what can we do to be proactive and, you know, address

[31:10] situations before they occur if possible. Substitute teachers is a tough one.

[31:16] We are doing our very best to hire folks and get them in the building to sub.

[31:22] I sub today for about a half hour in classroom at a great time, but ideally we would have a substitute that could come in and do that. It's just not always the case when when we need it.

[31:37] And then last one, at least space and facilities teachers, you know, I've shared this sentiment the last couple of years about space at CES and how we're maxed out.

[31:47] It's pretty full and I think teachers feel the same way about it and they've

[31:51] voted and this is that new. The space for them to go and have lunch or time away from their

[31:59] classroom. We just don't have that in the building anymore so we don't really have a faculty

[32:04] lounge at this point and that was noted in the survey as well. So anything you want to hear?

[32:10] What I thought was interesting, there were a couple of respondents in the survey that

[32:17] talked about parent faculty interaction and that was really surrounding like social

[32:24] media and Facebook.

[32:26] Teachers and really kind of expressed that some frustration and challenge with kind of essentially

[32:35] you know, getting beat up on Facebook and express the desire for, you know, if there's an issue,

[32:43] please call. We're always willing to talk through that issue and help folks understand. And, you know,

[32:49] there was a call for, you know, taking a look at policy in that area. So I just highlight that we

[32:58] deal with social media as you know with kids constantly and this was the first time we have

[33:05] kind of in a survey had some results, multiple results from teachers that kind of indicated

[33:11] that they wish that could be a little bit better. So any thoughts or questions on any of the

[33:19] items that are listed here?

[33:25] I think the data is helpful and great but it's hard to look at it

[33:30] as a snapshot. Do we have, do we ask kind of, we'll call the money question, you know, how

[33:34] far are you at the start of school year over year so we can teach trends and see how we're doing?

[33:39] We have all of those. I didn't put those together, but the last three years of information we have

[33:45] where we could do that. I think that'll be helpful to kind of see how we're

[33:50] yeah. Yeah, and what I would and I would ask you to recognize surveys closed on Friday.

[33:57] Okay, so we gathered and did an analysis, it takes a little while, but I definitely can

[34:05] follow up listed as something that we can gather and certainly share out and we can

[34:11] post that stuff on the website as well.

[34:13] Thank you.

[34:14] So the only thing that I would say to that is it wouldn't be skewed because our environments

[34:24] have changed over the last three years as well. So the teaching environment, the learning environments

[34:29] have been different. And the last three, yeah. So I don't know how it might be skewed one way or

[34:37] another. And maybe we need to know that. But on the other hand, we just have to recognize it.

[34:43] Sure. And we can list it as like COVID years, hybrid, whatever we can open and we can do that.

[34:49] But about if we do it at multiple checkpoints during the year to get over the, I'm just

[34:57] if you wanted to look at survey data to see how it went from beginning versus the end

[35:01] and not meaning to push more work.

[35:04] We have actually looked at, so one of the things that was asked for us to meet with Jason

[35:09] about was sort of different presentations and things.

[35:12] And so there is in our, the matrices, a couple checkpoints of data.

[35:16] Yeah.

[35:16] So.

[35:17] Yep.

[35:18] Do you want to give Mr. Gover your shout out at dinner tonight?

[35:21] You are recognized as a fun substitute today.

[35:26] I have a sound dampening idea.

[35:30] Move that.

[35:31] Lost and found into the cafeteria.

[35:33] It will absorb.

[35:35] It's a great idea.

[35:37] It might be a good buffer.

[35:38] Maybe some of them will get picked out probably not.

[35:40] I don't eat you like a, like, can you have parents come out? There's no label on it.

[35:48] Highest bitter gets in. It's like, but like, it's at the food anchor or something.

[35:52] I think it doesn't have to donate it.

[35:57] Yeah.

[35:59] Yeah.

[36:00] That I knew.

[36:01] We do give everybody an opportunity and we try to, we will not be highlighting it as this morning assembly,

[36:07] but we try to keep it out in the open and let people find what belongs to them.

[36:14] So I'm not going to stay sweet.

[36:16] The ones that kill me are in the classroom, not to go off topic, but like one thing,

[36:19] and 20 kids, it's not mine, but it's okay, but it's okay.

[36:27] So as we move the elementary school, we'll jump into the junior senior high school.

[36:32] But as you review that information, should you have any questions at all,

[36:36] don't hesitate, reach out to myself and we'll get you some answers.

[36:42] So when we look at the junior senior high school, you can see the number of respondents here

[36:49] are students.

[36:50] We have 216 parents, 110, and we have 27 faculty and staff, and you can see how those responses

[37:01] shook out on the Likert scale.

[37:03] So I'm going to ask our from high school, if you guys want to just jump in and go through

[37:11] what's going well at the, all right, thank you, we'll start with what's going well

[37:18] through the parent lens and it's actually going to kind of combine with the students and

[37:22] both elements they talked about are teachers.

[37:26] I know I for one have had the privilege of working with a lot of amazing teams and teachers

[37:31] in my career and honor to say that the team at the high school or the junior senior high

[37:36] schools is heads down the vest that there is. They care about the students. They're willing

[37:40] to do anything for them. And if there's an option to help a kid or do something that could

[37:46] be creative to kind of change things and shake things up a bit, they're so willing to do it.

[37:50] And I think that's very clear in both the parents and the students there. They're after school.

[37:57] They're early. It's really it's an honor to be able to work with them. And

[38:01] And I, for one, I'm very happy with everything they do every single day.

[38:05] So, I also address communication piece.

[38:09] We are trying actively, very similar to CES is both positive and in negative.

[38:14] In some capacities, we are trying new platforms.

[38:17] We're using Canvas a lot more.

[38:19] We had Ed Finney create 7, 12 classroom for us so that way Hillary and I have more of a

[38:25] direct route to talking to parents kind of updating them as best we can.

[38:29] we're trying to work through some of the kinks on that, but it's certainly something we're

[38:33] trying to do so that way there's more coming from our offices to them and increasing that

[38:38] communication level. So I'm going to return over to the next part.

[38:41] Yes, great. And I just wanted to talk about the improved engagement and safety that parents

[38:47] noted within our building. So after the sliding incident that occurred during the last school year,

[38:53] we wanted to make sure that we took time over the summer to really take an overall look at the

[38:59] procedures and measures that we have within our building and we took this summer to review

[39:04] and update our evacuation procedures just to make things a little more efficient and we've

[39:09] shaped a couple minutes off of our evacuation drills this week or so that's a great improvement

[39:16] and we also have brought in the need and group a couple of times over the summer as well as just

[39:20] a couple times this fall so far just to go around and check each classroom to make sure that any

[39:26] additional measures that we could take as far as safety and safe spaces within the classroom

[39:31] that we were taking those measures. So there's been a lot of work done in that area.

[39:38] The students have already touched upon that with the teachers but the classes are also something

[39:44] that kind of jumped out and not just the teachers in the classes but the availability of the different

[39:49] courses that they're able to take. That is our course catalog is pretty remarkable for the size of

[39:56] our school and we're able to offer students really and getting them ready for college and career.

[40:02] The seventh grade skills courses is really kind of coming along very well.

[40:06] And what we offer to our students that's really outside the boxes is just pretty spectacular.

[40:12] And if they have a course that they like, they can pretty much take it with us, which is pretty great.

[40:17] So and I will turn back over here.

[40:19] And for students, they also wanted to let us know about the amount of clubs and after school

[40:25] activities that we offer, which is tremendous also for the size of our school, and I have to

[40:30] commend our faculty and staff on that because there are so many adults in our building that are

[40:35] a part of those clubs and activities and they are always willing to help students that want to

[40:40] create new clubs. So this year we are working on streamlining that process to make it a little

[40:45] easier for students to create new clubs. We already have a couple on the docket that are going to be

[40:50] really exciting and will advertise those. And last week we had a club fair, so everyone

[40:56] 7 through 12 was able to come down and get information about every club and activity

[41:01] that's offered and sign up for them if they wanted to. So that's been, been going really

[41:06] strong.

[41:08] And finishing up this section is the faculty and staff. I feel very positive for the first few

[41:16] months that we're kind of going through this and our student and a lot of what we're hearing

[41:20] from our staff is that student behavior has greatly improved in that a lot is you know

[41:25] presence but there's really two lanes when it comes to discipline you can either have

[41:29] discipline that's action or discipline that you instill in our student body is very receptive

[41:34] to the latter. They respond pretty well to the conversations we have and it's really

[41:41] straightforward to say this is not what we do as a wildcat and they seem to be taking it on pretty

[41:46] well. And on that scene, when there's a lot of support from families regarding this

[41:51] matter too, so I think that has a lot to do with it. But overall, it seemed pretty

[41:55] positive in the first two months here, and that's generally what we're here in-house and

[42:01] also through the survey.

[42:02] And faculty also are very happy with the collaborative and engaging environment amongst each other, and

[42:09] I will also commend our faculty for that as well. There are so much plus curricular activities

[42:14] going on, you will always see our library in Islamore in a lot of ELA and even social studies

[42:20] classes, as well as Mr. Finney, assisting with technology in the foreign language classes,

[42:25] and there are so many opportunities for collaboration, and that's something that I know when I was a

[42:31] teacher, as a science teacher, I crave that, and it's really hard to do in science, but our teachers

[42:36] have found a way to make it work and really thrive. So they are doing a phenomenal job with that.

[42:40] So I think it's also important to just point at, if you look at the column in the parents,

[42:49] you'll see principal leadership in the faculty and staff, you're going to see positive atmosphere

[42:55] and leadership, collaborative and supportive environment, visible and approachable principal.

[43:02] You know, certainly I think in presenting isn't comfortable kind of giving himself accolades

[43:10] down there and the work between Rob and Hillary to provide that leadership over at the high school.

[43:16] It really is a credit to their work that they do every day. And as you know, this is Rob's first

[43:22] principalship and to get that type of feedback from faculty and staff and parents, really he deserves

[43:32] a lot of credit for the work that he's done and how visible he has been. And when you see things

[43:36] like enforcement of policies and improved behavior and effective communication.

[43:43] You have to give the leadership and the building, both Robin and Hillary, a lot of credit for

[43:48] the work that they do over there. So I just want to make sure we note that as well.

[43:52] I wanted to echo that as well. I was writing down words that I saw like positive visible

[43:57] structure and consistency. And I know you're being modest, the two of you, but

[44:01] And I know it's not a data point, but we think back to a year ago we had groups of parents

[44:06] in here talking about the climate and culture in the high school building in a negative way.

[44:11] So I just think it deserves a really big shout out that in a year's time, the two of you have

[44:15] really turned that culture around. And it's recognized amongst all those different stakeholders.

[44:21] So kudos to you guys. Thank you.

[44:27] Any other thoughts or questions before we move on to what we

[44:31] could improve?

[44:37] Okay. So with the improvement part, vaping is kind of the first thing that

[44:44] we'll address to say that it's not a problem, would not be truthful. We do. Like every

[44:52] school and societal problem, we do experience that. I will say it's not taking place in the

[45:00] Classrooms not happening in the hallways like we do struggle with the bathrooms and really what's happening more in the last month as kids and parents are reporting it to us. So when we hear it, we respond immediately. We'll look for patterns, right? Whereas it happening. And how can Hillary and I put ourselves there? It's nice that we're the deal that we are for a number of reasons, but with the ability to get into the bathrooms and make sure that kids are in there doing things that shouldn't be. So it's certainly something we're struggling with.

[45:29] And as much as we can enforce it through disciplinary measures, we're also looking through team

[45:34] and V as a program that I can have with our social worker or school psychologist trained

[45:39] in.

[45:40] And it is more of a sort of approach.

[45:42] We combine traditional disciplinary measures with restorative and it's this program that

[45:48] really teaches them the dangers of it, the impact of it and trying to educate on why it's

[45:53] an issue.

[45:54] And really, the kids I talked to, we've had about three or four issues with it, which

[46:00] isn't exorbitant, but it's still an issue that we want to address.

[46:03] They are consistently saying they can't stop.

[46:05] And it's true, right?

[46:07] There isn't addictive nature to it, and that's part of what the team intervened.

[46:11] And we're also looking at thisstone millennium online kind of platform program.

[46:15] Then if a student does get caught, they're in ISS, but while in ISS, they have to do this program.

[46:20] It's an education-based program for it.

[46:23] But the problem is that we could confiscate a vape in the morning and they can order one

[46:28] and they have it by the night.

[46:30] Like, it's a really challenging issue and they can be very creative.

[46:35] How they get them and where they hide them.

[46:36] So that's part of the problem that we're dealing with.

[46:39] And like I said, our job is to look for patterns and try to address those patterns and also educate

[46:43] and also instill, you know, here are the expectations of if this happens.

[46:47] This is what we're going to do.

[46:49] But there was only so much we could do through discipline.

[46:51] We really are trying to approach it as best we can through education

[46:54] and our health classes do a really good job at trying to address it very early on

[46:58] with our youngest crew.

[47:00] And our athletes and our sports coaches are also addressing it because it's one last step

[47:04] that they could have in the game.

[47:06] If they're doing it as well, so we're trying to hit it from as many angles as we can.

[47:09] But it is a challenge.

[47:12] And I would be lying if it told you it wasn't, but we're doing what we can to try to address it.

[47:18] Something that parents also mentioned was improving focus on inclusivity and addressing

[47:26] issues of diversity and that's something that we are always working towards, making

[47:32] sure that our hallways and our students are inclusive and accepting of everybody, but

[47:37] specifically this year, a new club that is going to be started is student advocates for

[47:44] human rights. And that's going to be really the focus of that and just especially a focus

[47:49] on neurodiversity. So I think that's something that's going to be really powerful and

[47:53] really important. We're also looking at with the streamlined process of our club processes.

[48:02] We are also looking at improving and incorporating mental health and social emotional health

[48:07] into some of the activities that each club does throughout the year. So I think that's something

[48:12] that's going to be really interesting, not just the mental health and wellness committee,

[48:16] but also some other committees and clubs that are throughout the building.

[48:20] So, like wellness day, things like that, and that's such a huge undertaking that a whole

[48:24] day is devoted to it, but smaller, more manageable pieces scattered throughout the year.

[48:29] So, I think that'll be really, really powerful and help and speak to that.

[48:34] For students, one of the things that comes up is bullying.

[48:39] You know, sometimes it's a challenge in a fine line between what is bullying and what is

[48:43] actually a conflict, but, you know, it is something that we do say into the problem that

[48:49] we have, particularly at the secondary levels, we see the tip of the iceberg.

[48:52] A lot of it is happening on social media.

[48:55] Snapchat, if you tell me any good things that come in Snapchat, I would retire 12.

[48:59] I've never heard a one.

[49:01] It's also that combination of how can we address and establish an expectation that if you do

[49:07] this is what's going to happen, but how can we also educate you on the dangers of this?

[49:11] And we have planned on November 7th. There's a requirement to instill a digital citizenship

[49:16] within students. All students have to see it, but we've been working with the QuestStar

[49:20] presenter and saying here are the issues that we have seen so far this year. We really want that

[49:26] to be a major piece of that. And they're going to speak to us seven through ninth grade students

[49:29] and then our 10 through 12th grade students. And then we're going to get up and present about here

[49:33] the issues that can happen through our court of conduct and here are some of the legal ramifications

[49:38] that can happen if you're using social media inappropriately. It is a really big challenge for us and

[49:44] like I said the hardest part is it's not what it was like before. It's very much behind the screen

[49:50] and it's also a very hard ride for us if it's happening off campus. How do we address it on campus?

[49:56] And it becomes a really big challenge for us but what I also think helps us

[50:00] Aiding this is that Hillary and I are both very approachable to our students.

[50:04] I've had multiple students come and talk to us in our office and say, hey, not even about

[50:09] themself, but hey, you know, that's my idea.

[50:11] This is happening to my friends.

[50:12] Can you please step into it?

[50:14] And that also comes from what we're trying to do with like we are listening to our students

[50:18] and we're acting on what we see.

[50:21] It's a challenge.

[50:22] It's a huge time commitment for us, but it's something we have to do because there are jobs

[50:26] to be students.

[50:26] So it's a real big issue that we're looking at, but it also, you know, if you look at the whole scope of where the state's going in terms of their standards, it's about how to be a good person.

[50:36] And how do you look at an issue and how do you address that issue? And it's not just something we're doing from our offices, but it's really coming around throughout the whole educational piece of things.

[50:45] And we're really hoping to drive some points home in the seventh with some students there. And then obviously the conversations we have with them as well.

[50:52] Yeah, for you jump in Hillary, you know, you probably have seen we've launched stop it,

[51:00] which is an anonymous reporting tip line that has been launched across the district

[51:06] and both buildings.

[51:07] There was some work that we had to do with training our students in, you know, what that

[51:15] is all about.

[51:16] But for those kids that might not feel comfortable going into the principal's office and reporting

[51:21] something. There is this avenue now that is available to all of our kids to be able to, you

[51:27] know, say, hey, this happened to me or to my friend. Here's where it happened. It goes into

[51:36] like a database. We get a dashboard. We can see the reports that come in. It's 24-hour

[51:41] monitored. So not by school staff. There are stop-it folks that will engage and try to get more

[51:49] information if necessary from those things, but it is a system where we will track and

[51:56] see how many hits we get on the stop at platform.

[52:01] So something else that just another tool in the toolbox to really help kids or parents

[52:07] report instances, and we have seen a last evening on the playground at CES, you know, kids

[52:15] were vaping playground.

[52:16] So we can go back and look at the video, see if we can figure out who it is, and if necessary

[52:23] work with law enforcement to do extra trips around in the evening at the playground.

[52:27] So really is kind of a helpful tool, but I think it's important that you know that that.

[52:34] We set that up at the end of last year.

[52:36] We really got kind of familiar with the system and did a launch at the beginning of the school year.

[52:43] So is that intended

[52:51] for all kinds of things like harassment and that kind of thing?

[52:58] It's just an anonymous reporting tip.

[53:02] It could be a faculty member too.

[53:09] I suppose faculty could use them. It's really geared toward students and parents to really

[53:15] indicate that I'm sure faculty could use it if necessary. But it is that opportunity to report

[53:22] anonymously. You can put your name if we need to follow up with somebody. You can indicate that

[53:27] on there, but it's not a requirement of a report, so they can. As you can imagine, when it's anonymous,

[53:36] Some are really genuine others are not so much and so, you know, but we take them all seriously have to look into all of those things.

[53:46] Sorry, I didn't need to interrupt over you. That seemed like a good segue for that.

[53:50] And something that we saw quite a bit in the student column was the quality and options of the lunch food, which is something that we do.

[54:01] You know, we hear, and so this year every year we do have a nutrition committee that meets

[54:07] twice a year, and we always invite students.

[54:10] This year we'll take a different method to make sure that more students take it seriously

[54:15] and come on and sit on the nutrition committee and really voice their opinions.

[54:18] It's actually a really great meeting.

[54:21] You know, Brian is always there, and it's really nice.

[54:24] There's few students that do show up and voice their opinions are always, it's really great.

[54:28] So, well, we'll try a different method of recruiting this year and make sure that their

[54:32] voices are heard.

[54:35] And then kind of rounding this off is the faculty and staff.

[54:39] One thing that kind of was kind of very consistent was the cell phone usage.

[54:43] It is a challenging thing to address.

[54:47] I mean, the students are addicted to their phones, right?

[54:51] And that's the unfortunate part.

[54:52] It's not just students, most of us.

[54:54] And it's really a challenge.

[54:55] So we've tried to be very clear that they're often

[54:57] like during times of instruction and try going the route

[55:02] of we're teaching you this is a skill.

[55:04] I know I can't be on my phone when I'm driving on Route 9

[55:07] because it's not where I should use it.

[55:09] And that's kind of the avenue.

[55:10] We're also trying to take with this of like me.

[55:12] We are trying to show you that there's a time and a place.

[55:15] We can't wholesale stay no funds, right?

[55:17] They're in the building and we want to use them appropriately.

[55:20] And that's part of the skill approach that we're trying

[55:23] to take with it. And it is a challenge. And that's part of what we're looking to try to do.

[55:29] And you know, we've gotten resourceful and creative with how to approach it with students

[55:33] and staff and try to empower them to, you know, take ownership over kind of taking control of itself.

[55:40] And another, something else that faculty mentioned was TAs being pulled for sub-coverage. And

[55:46] I know Mr. Derby mentioned that is sub-finding subs is always an issue but luckily we have

[55:53] been able to sign on a couple of new subs for this school year so we're very happy about

[55:58] that and they are both actually two individuals who are looking to get into education so this

[56:04] is going to be a great experience for them and we worked with the special education department

[56:10] to modify the TA schedule so that the TA's that are specifically IP driven are not being pulled

[56:17] for sub coverage. So hopefully they're that won't continue and unless it is a dire situation.

[56:25] So hopefully we'll see an improvement there.

[56:31] Ask Jim's question. I can ask you guys a question.

[56:35] Later we got hit pretty hard with a lot of complaints from students and parents alike

[56:39] regarding the climate, the culture, and the high school dealing with senior privileges.

[56:43] I see it's back on the board again from a concern from a student's perspective.

[56:47] Can you talk to us a little bit how you do senior privileges? For example,

[56:51] do you give them senior privileges all at once, and they lose them if they do something bad,

[56:55] or do you make them earn them and get them...

[57:00] Seniors, the only thing we took away from them this year so far was the lunch periods.

[57:05] They were traditionally going outside of the open spaces that were available, but those open spaces have classes with them.

[57:13] So we allow pretty much give them kind of all of them at once.

[57:18] The ineligible report did come out and with the ineligible report we pulled back on those privileges of going to the library during lunch in the senior lounge and signing out of study halls.

[57:28] It's kind of the human being that we're trying to maintain a good atmosphere for learning.

[57:34] We're also trying to give them their privileges to do it.

[57:37] We have two senior lounges now we got our order in for the atrium.

[57:42] Most of them sit by the cafeteria, but we're trying to give that to them at once.

[57:48] At first, we were a little restrictive, like I said, with the lunch periods, but trying

[57:52] to maintain the class of the environment and the building, we did cut back on some of

[57:57] I guess the free range that wouldn't be originally.

[58:00] So if, for example, a senior does something

[58:04] that's inappropriate from a behavioral perspective,

[58:06] you're pulling that individual seniors

[58:07] privileges away and not a group.

[58:09] Enjoy, yeah.

[58:10] Okay.

[58:11] Thank you.

[58:16] I say lunch food on here.

[58:19] And there isn't, I ask about it,

[58:21] is because we have a new vendor,

[58:24] and so are they complaining about the new vendor?

[58:27] Let's see. Lunch mentioned that they liked lunch and longer lunch breaks. Not universally

[58:36] praised was kind of the overall theme. So some kids complained about much like down at

[58:43] the elementary school. Some kids complained about the quality of the food. What we'll get

[58:49] to a little bit later on in the survey. We do ask specifically about, we do ask about

[58:56] the lunch program primarily to the parents, but there is a narrative response in there

[59:02] too. It's not included in this slide deck, but we will share that with our food vendor

[59:08] and our food service director. So Brian will have access to all that information to share

[59:13] with food service director just to give them some of that feedback as well.

[59:18] I mean, one of the reasons we went with that particular vendor was because they advertised that they were going to be better pressure, whatever.

[59:26] Yeah, I think it's a very work. We're on top of this. I think to the one they do.

[59:32] to paint your food days, specifically in the high school,

[59:37] and those are really, really well received.

[59:41] But our overall participation for the food program

[59:43] is up, which would tell me that more students

[59:46] are utilizing it, paid, not just for even just paid.

[59:49] Some more students are using it.

[59:52] I think to the Hillary's, but there's always

[59:54] continual improvement.

[59:56] And that's why we do what we do, right?

[59:58] We have a...

[1:00:00] A consultant that comes in for times of year, monitoring, quality, look, portions, appeal, we meet with feedback, direct feedback to our from service director in the company, the management company, so it's a continual process. What we're the consumer today is discerning. And one of the things that this company has is the Chick-fil-A,

[1:00:28] I don't want to find the right word, but it's the name of it is yard.

[1:00:38] yard.

[1:00:40] Thanks.

[1:00:43] Well, this is what we're trying to move our program into that.

[1:00:49] Into that more of that experience, much more opportunity for selection,

[1:00:53] much more service oriented food.

[1:00:56] So I think it's a slow road.

[1:00:59] Ultimately, you still have commodities to deal with, right?

[1:01:03] We have to use those commodities, ultimately, you know, it's still being run mass amount

[1:01:12] of food goes out of here.

[1:01:13] So I think we're trying to strive and we are making progress.

[1:01:17] I was very of one data point.

[1:01:19] My kids are all in the junior high school and they said it's better than it has been in previous

[1:01:23] years.

[1:01:23] But it's still a cafeteria.

[1:01:25] Yeah.

[1:01:25] So you're never going to please ever.

[1:01:28] Yep, I would love to add for that recently.

[1:01:31] We had a couple teachers reach out because their students and their families were concerned.

[1:01:37] They didn't know what food being offered was kosher.

[1:01:41] And that was a religious concern and they weren't sure if they could engage and Brian and the

[1:01:46] elementary team and I reached out, Brian reached out to Woodson's and it was turned around

[1:01:53] One within a week, meetings with that information, so family was immediately multiple families.

[1:01:59] Their names were met, and teachers felt really fulfilled on behalf of their students.

[1:02:03] So I do feel like communications are really big strengths.

[1:02:10] Any other thoughts or questions in the high school, Deb?

[1:02:16] So okay, there's only about 15 more slides to go, we should be good.

[1:02:20] Now the next part of the slides, we're going to kind of, I think, the real issues within

[1:02:27] the buildings. I'm just going to highlight some information quickly. Please feel

[1:02:33] free to just interrupt with any questions. One of the things we've done over the

[1:02:38] last few years is gauge feedback on Canvas. And so you can see the different

[1:02:44] responses to the questions here. We had about 150 responses to these questions on

[1:02:51] Canvas, ranging from, you know, how comfortable are you accessing information on Canvas.

[1:02:59] And you can see in that first slide that most people feel pretty comfortable relatively,

[1:03:05] accessing information. What we try to get at in the next two questions is, does Canvas really

[1:03:11] help you better understand how your kids are performing academically? So you can get on, you can see

[1:03:16] missing assignments you can see grades in the teacher grade book help us

[1:03:21] understand is it helping you achieve that goal and again you can see the

[1:03:26] results there. The next one is really focused on curriculum. Does Canvas help

[1:03:34] you better understand what your kids are learning in school the content of what

[1:03:38] we're learning not just how they are performing but what it is that they are

[1:03:42] learning. And again, you can see the responses there. Then we talked a little bit about,

[1:03:49] you know, does it, is it a good communication tool? Does it improve your communication with

[1:03:53] teachers? And, you know, does Canvas make you feel a little more connected to the school?

[1:04:00] Give you that avenue to feel more connected. And so, you can see we would love to be trending

[1:04:06] a little bit higher in the 3, 4, and 5 range, you know, this probably is the graphs that show

[1:04:12] more ones and twos and more threes than probably fours and fives. But as you know, we've got Ed

[1:04:20] Finney in a role who, again, there was narrative feedback to this, so we will take that narrative feedback.

[1:04:27] That is something that we'll go to Ed and Alyssa and our building principals. We will digest that

[1:04:32] feedback and then really if there are things that we can do better, we want to take that feedback

[1:04:37] and really be better at utilizing that tool to help bridge that communication gap and really try to

[1:04:46] make parents feel more connected to our schools. That's kind of the whole point of doing that.

[1:04:56] Then we ask questions about transportation.

[1:04:59] Again, do those of you completing the survey, do your children use transportation services?

[1:05:07] So of the 212, you can see just in a quick snapshot, roughly 85% of those parents utilize

[1:05:17] district transportation, which is great.

[1:05:18] We have all those buses, bus drivers, we want kids on buses.

[1:05:22] How satisfied are you with this for transportation services this year and you can see overwhelmingly

[1:05:28] out of the 178 responses to that question, you know, folks seem generally pretty satisfied.

[1:05:34] So when you go back to the building's transportation came up as an area of concern routing and

[1:05:41] pick up time.

[1:05:42] Again, there's a narrative response here, Brian and Rhonda will get that information, we'll

[1:05:46] process through all of that stuff.

[1:05:48] but generally on that Likert scale,

[1:05:50] folks seem generally pretty satisfied

[1:05:52] with transportation services.

[1:05:55] I'm going to, again, we're just talking about food service.

[1:05:59] You know, we talked about, you know,

[1:06:02] do, you know, does your child use food service

[1:06:05] for breakfast or lunch?

[1:06:06] We wanted to try to use this as an opportunity gauge

[1:06:08] how many participants in our breakfast and lunch program.

[1:06:12] We do ask if you don't participate?

[1:06:14] Why help us understand?

[1:06:16] we have that narrative feedback as well. Again, which meals does your student get from the

[1:06:23] district's food service? And again, you can see that lunch is of the 151 respondents to that

[1:06:32] question 65 percent by lunch, 35 percent by by both. And breakfast isn't overly utilized.

[1:06:44] And again, how satisfied are you with the overall quality of food service this year?

[1:06:49] And this kind of gives us that one quick snapshot.

[1:06:52] And again, narrative feedback, which we will take.

[1:06:55] Then we'll be shared with our food service provider and our food service director.

[1:07:01] It's really proud of this one too.

[1:07:03] I know this was highlighted in building reports, but we do specifically ask about communication.

[1:07:09] And we split out district communication and building communication because I have

[1:07:15] a vested interest.

[1:07:15] I want to know the calendar we put out and the district level information that comes

[1:07:21] out.

[1:07:21] Are we doing a good job?

[1:07:23] We know that buildings communicate with their parents all of the time and in different

[1:07:28] avenues.

[1:07:29] So we wanted to just kind of get a sense of that, how satisfied folks are with that level

[1:07:36] of communication.

[1:07:37] And so when you look at both of those graphs, it really indicates that folks feel like they're

[1:07:43] getting just the right amount of information and folks do seem generally pretty satisfied

[1:07:49] with the level of communication, which will kind of bring it full circle back to the initial

[1:07:58] slide in this presentation, which really focused on that priorities of communication and climate

[1:08:05] and culture. And so, you know, it certainly seems like we're trending in that right direction,

[1:08:11] doesn't mean we sit back and we're just satisfied with what we're doing. We know it's upward and

[1:08:15] onward and constant improvement, but it does really give us kind of an indication that we're,

[1:08:22] there's a sense that we're doing a pretty good job communicating with our families.

[1:08:29] So last but not least, our last couple of slides. This was not a fall check-in survey

[1:08:35] At the beginning of the school year, we climate and culture is another priority, and that

[1:08:42] is a focus of a lot of the work that we're doing in the buildings.

[1:08:47] And so we do have a conference day tomorrow on sure a lot of your kiddos are pretty excited

[1:08:52] that they can sleep in tomorrow.

[1:08:54] But we will be here with a primary focus large part of the day is dedicated to climate and

[1:09:00] culture just within the buildings of our employees and in each building.

[1:09:05] So, Alissa is going to kind of just walk through the next couple of slides.

[1:09:09] We're not going to talk to all of these bullets here, but she's going to just give you

[1:09:13] some highlights.

[1:09:15] So, I'll turn it over to Alissa.

[1:09:16] Thank you.

[1:09:17] So, as Jason said, we opened with this work and full district, everyone in the auditorium

[1:09:24] really talked about what climate and culture mean.

[1:09:27] And obviously it's a born goal, it's a district goal, so we want to be really intentional about everyone knowing kind of what those two things mean and how they're different.

[1:09:37] So culture being the habits, the things you do, traditions, the way things work, and then climate really being the way people feel.

[1:09:46] And so we built this survey, very open-ended, and asked every single person who was there to please do it.

[1:09:53] So we have this immediate feedback, it was completely anonymous.

[1:09:59] And so these are the big takeaways from that.

[1:10:03] The first slide is the faculty.

[1:10:07] And so you can see at CES and New Bill Hill, this jives very much so with what the principals

[1:10:14] went over in the way of the opening survey.

[1:10:18] People feel very supported by the administrators in both buildings.

[1:10:22] they feel like they have open doors, they're visible, they're there for them, and people also

[1:10:27] express that their students are continuously one of the best parts of their work. And a lot of

[1:10:34] people also named that they're small groups of colleagues like tight knit teams or departments

[1:10:41] are really positive for them and make them want to keep coming back to work. And then

[1:10:47] And when you get to the areas of improvement, it's different.

[1:10:53] The two buildings were a little different.

[1:10:55] So both are rooted in the ideas of accountability and making sure everyone's doing the right

[1:11:03] thing and a lot to do with the adults in the buildings mending and repairing their relationships

[1:11:11] amongst one another.

[1:11:12] So we really want to catalyze and lead that work as much as we can, much of tomorrow's

[1:11:19] dedicated to that and really honoring that and the fact that faculty are asking and expressing

[1:11:28] that they need relationships to be repaired.

[1:11:32] So we're really trying to take that seriously.

[1:11:34] The admin team is leading an opening session tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, the entire

[1:11:39] team, and then we are doing some circles tomorrow afternoon with every member who attends.

[1:11:47] And then slide 16.

[1:11:49] This includes specifically our teaching assistants and monitors.

[1:11:55] Okay, so not all staff who did have some responses from other groups, but the TA's and monitors

[1:12:04] did the most responding.

[1:12:05] So, similar vibes to that of the faculty, people really feeling like their immediate colleagues take really good care of them, but they have community and family.

[1:12:19] CES and Legal Hill TAs said they feel like professional development being included in

[1:12:26] PDDOs, team meetings, department meetings is really supporting their work and the teachers

[1:12:34] they work with really making them feel heard.

[1:12:37] And then areas of improvement at CES, TAs, a lot more technology training.

[1:12:43] we started that. Mr. Finney has been working with them. That started in September.

[1:12:50] And both represented and shared that they would like there to be

[1:12:56] equal and equitable treatment of TAs. And they want to be more included. And they want to be

[1:13:02] heard by all. And tears are invited to attend tomorrow. And they have been invited to attend

[1:13:08] And all of our tober after school Monday PDs, and that is grant funded.

[1:13:13] We wrote that into a grant through an amendment to make sure anyone who wanted to attend in

[1:13:17] their group could come.

[1:13:19] So we're trying to honor their wishes as immediately as we possibly can.

[1:13:24] So I'm happy to answer any questions regarding those slides or anything else, of course.

[1:13:35] So just as we close, thank you for listening to us for about an hour, it's a lot of information.

[1:13:41] But, you know, I think this goes back to transparency.

[1:13:44] And, again, it hits on so many of the district goals

[1:13:47] that we're talking about.

[1:13:49] And this is one data set with some information

[1:13:51] that was put out.

[1:13:52] So, again, we will put this on the district website.

[1:13:56] We wanted to present it to all of you first.

[1:13:57] It will live there.

[1:13:59] And, you know, this wouldn't...

[1:14:02] This won't be the last time that we come to you

[1:14:04] and are trying to elicit feedback from stakeholders.

[1:14:08] But we will continue this process.

[1:14:10] So thanks, um, it's just real quick.

[1:14:13] I, uh, while you were talking, I did a weighted average of the scores on them and the over so if we were to treat this like a customer service like survey with the, you know, the customers being our parents, the teachers faculty and the students, they were incredibly high weighted scores.

[1:14:30] So this is fun. This is phenomenal. I mean, in my work, if you do anything over a 3.5, you're doing great.

[1:14:36] and so the overall ones for CES was 4.2, the high school, middle school was 3.8, so, and then the T and then the

[1:14:45] Panpebeck was 4.1 and 4.5 respectively, so this is great, this is wonderful, so cut-ups to you guys.

[1:14:56] I just want to add to it, I know what is a lot of information, but I...

[1:15:00] I think it's really important because I was chatting down as I was listening. It really does have implications for us in terms of policy work, but there are a bunch of policy ideas that, you know, that popped up coming out of this and also even budget time. No things that our kids and our parents and our faculty are looking for. I think it's free. I know it's very time consuming. But I think the information is really important, not just for transparency, but also for us to know what kind of policies and priorities and, you know, what we did for budgeting, what kinds of things we need to look at.

[1:15:29] So, great. Thank you.

[1:15:35] Well, with that, we are our first public comment, and I don't have the big

[1:15:40] preamble, but we also don't have a giant crowd tonight. So, open up the floor to public comment

[1:15:47] three minutes if you need to. Okay, with that we'll start.

[1:15:54] And we will go into our district building

[1:15:57] and student updates. So it districts first.

[1:16:01] All right, listen to me again. So I know Rob is probably going to mention but I just need to give

[1:16:08] a shout out for fall sports weekend. You know, I want to certainly give April Kudos.

[1:16:16] I know she's a brand new athletic director and that is just kind of a whirlwind of a weekend.

[1:16:22] It is nonstop. She had to contend with whether probably made a really good call.

[1:16:27] postponing games on Saturday and moving them to Sunday where we had really nice weather on Sunday and Monday, but tough making that call booster club outstanding student athletes seemed to have a great time. So I don't want to steal too much thunder. So I'm not going to spend too much time on that.

[1:16:48] Tomorrow there's going to be some work going on in the high school parking lot.

[1:16:52] There's some remediation work that needs to go on.

[1:16:56] They are going to come through those three different areas,

[1:16:59] they're going to dig up, look at the compaction,

[1:17:03] and then put the top coat back on.

[1:17:05] We don't need to close down the entire parking lot,

[1:17:08] which is a good thing because we have professional development day

[1:17:10] that parking lot will be utilized tomorrow,

[1:17:13] but they know heavy flow of traffic times.

[1:17:16] Current right now, they were going to come in

[1:17:19] do that remediation Friday and then come back on Saturday and do the top

[1:17:23] coat calling for rain on Saturday. So they're likely not going to come back

[1:17:28] on Saturday. They probably will look to push it out to the following weekend.

[1:17:33] So that seems to be the constant theme and story. I am really excited at the fact

[1:17:39] that the remediation work will be done tomorrow, which leaves only the the final

[1:17:46] code to be able to come in. So there's been multiple times over the course of just about every week

[1:17:53] where we're on-turner and you know really pushing them to get this job done. We're kind of tired

[1:18:00] of waiting truthfully. So and again that is the final piece of work and we are slated for audio

[1:18:12] system install right now that will be in that was the $100,000 transfer to

[1:18:18] capital work that work will be scheduled to be take place just before

[1:18:24] Veterans Day weekend like Wednesday Thursday Friday into that weekend they

[1:18:31] feel they need I really like about three days to get in there and pull all the

[1:18:35] wire and then put the new equipment up but that is the current game plan so the

[1:18:40] new audio system should be in there, and that work should be completed as students return

[1:18:47] back from Veterans Day. Just to remind her, November 2nd workshop has moved to November

[1:18:54] 8th, and that should be, we'll send everybody a reminder again, but that workshop will take

[1:19:01] place November 8th. A couple of other things, Aiden Ahmed. I think I gave it to you in a Friday

[1:19:08] update he is our student representative to the board. I'm due to the conference day tomorrow they

[1:19:13] took the advantage of that not having schoolies doing a college visit so they're traveling tonight

[1:19:19] otherwise Aiden would have been here we would have introduced Aiden to all of you but he will be here

[1:19:25] at our next meeting there's no issue with the schedule. SRO we continue to work with the town of

[1:19:37] go to act really. I think we've hammered out the details. We're just waiting on a draft agreement.

[1:19:43] As soon as we get that draft agreement, it's got to go to legal. We just don't have that.

[1:19:47] Just yet, I know it is one of many competing priorities that are town supervisors working on.

[1:19:55] We are in touch. I try not to bother him too much, but I think we are very close to finalizing

[1:20:01] that we just need that draft agreement. And then I need to give you time to look that

[1:20:07] over and then we'll have it on the board agenda for approval.

[1:20:14] As mentioned at the beginning of the meeting with Dan's resignation, the board has a couple

[1:20:23] of different options. Just talk through those options quickly for you now. It doesn't mean

[1:20:28] we need to discuss them now, but there are three different options. We've kind of been through this

[1:20:32] before for a couple of different circumstances, but I know Blake is new to the board and some of

[1:20:37] you might not have remembered. The first thing we can do is have the board accept applications and

[1:20:45] appoint somebody to that seat. That is an option that the board can consider. We can hold this special

[1:20:53] election, and we can bring out the voting machines and ask folks to come and vote, or you can defer and wait until May.

[1:21:03] Until the budget vote in election in May, and if you choose that route, three seats would be open, the top three vote getters would get three year seats, and then the fourth vote getter would have what we call the short seat.

[1:21:19] which would be for the duration of dance term.

[1:21:24] So those are some different options.

[1:21:27] You know, at some point we're going to have to talk about that,

[1:21:30] whether it's tonight or at the next meeting,

[1:21:32] but we're going to need some direction just in terms of what we want to do.

[1:21:35] So we need to do a special election or you want to appoint.

[1:21:39] We'll get some information and help guide you on your way to making that happen

[1:21:44] if you want to wait until May.

[1:21:47] That's kind of an easier avenue to take, but that'll be completely in your discretion.

[1:21:57] Any thoughts on that?

[1:22:01] Let's have it for a generous time.

[1:22:03] Okay.

[1:22:05] We can't think about it for a little bit.

[1:22:08] Okay.

[1:22:09] And then if we need to make an agenda.

[1:22:12] That sounds good.

[1:22:14] So for me, can I just ask a quick question about how the student representative is chosen,

[1:22:20] what's that process in town?

[1:22:21] Yeah, so typically we use our, we have a policy on that, and we use our student government.

[1:22:28] We actually kind of look at the, it has to be a senior.

[1:22:34] And so we put it out there if anybody is interested.

[1:22:36] it, and then we use our student body government to do an election and devote. Typically we don't

[1:22:46] have a bunch of kids clamoring for it, and so in this instance, A, who was the only student

[1:22:52] who stepped up and said he would like to do it, and Robin, I got to have an opportunity

[1:22:57] to meet with any very great and sharp young man, and I think he's going to do a great job

[1:23:02] as representative. So but we typically we put it in the hands of student council and then it's

[1:23:09] based on interest.

[1:23:17] I have a question on the capital work because I just can't remember the steps

[1:23:22] leading up to where the the gym is they're falling apart. Is that part of the that's part of the

[1:23:28] project or not. It's not part of this project. No. Okay.

[1:23:40] Aren't you building updates? I want to start at CES.

[1:23:46] So I think I mentioned that our August meeting that we had take Fisher

[1:23:50] coming into start our school year off and do a

[1:23:53] presentation at our first monthly morning assembly, which was

[1:23:56] Friday at the first full week of school. And for those of you that were there and

[1:24:01] saw it, I think we can all agree. It was he was fantastic. He was just

[1:24:04] just energizing and just save positive message and the kids are really into it and we really

[1:24:08] got great feedback from the faculty staff, the kids, the parents, the community.

[1:24:13] So that was a great way to kick off our school year.

[1:24:16] The PTO has organized a book there today and yesterday, and so that went well, overwhelming

[1:24:21] success.

[1:24:22] The kids love to purchase books and the toys and the posters and all that stuff that comes

[1:24:26] up because it's exciting for them.

[1:24:28] And then I think it was the last Thursday.

[1:24:31] Stacey Ratner brought in Angela Dietra Lizzie,

[1:24:34] an author who met with our first and second grade kiddos

[1:24:38] and then did an evening session with families as well.

[1:24:41] And I think she had, I want to save 35 plus families there

[1:24:45] to meet with the author.

[1:24:46] So that was great success.

[1:24:49] Great turn out.

[1:24:51] Yeah, I just want to highlight next Tuesday.

[1:24:54] We are celebrating 100 years of our building down at CES.

[1:24:58] like to make sure our board knows that you are all invited to attend.

[1:25:02] Well, a really nice agenda.

[1:25:04] Well, with a lot of student presentation activities,

[1:25:08] singing, things of that nature,

[1:25:10] and then we'll also be recognizing some folks in our community

[1:25:14] at that assembly as well.

[1:25:16] So we're very excited.

[1:25:19] Marker calendars, if you able to come out, 8.20 in the morning.

[1:25:23] Should last about an hour.

[1:25:25] maybe not? Well, I'll say it'll pay less than an hour. So, Mark, your calendar is

[1:25:31] going to be available. Please, please stop by.

[1:25:37] Okay. I just want to start as this is my

[1:25:42] building for you. I want to thank the admin team. There is no honeymoon period and

[1:25:46] administration particularly as being principal. And, you know, I can pick up the phone call,

[1:25:51] Derby, Stabs, any of them, and they're willing to help in any capacity. And I certainly have

[1:25:56] not the best. This is principal one of the best in the bill in the district.

[1:26:01] She's awesome. She's been really helpful to me. So I really appreciate you, Hillary.

[1:26:05] And Jason really doesn't get the credit he deserves. He's a spectacular leader.

[1:26:09] And I can call him at any point in time.

[1:26:11] He's been super helpful for me throughout the entire process of going into this role.

[1:26:16] And I sincerely appreciate it. And I cannot say I constantly say it to the team.

[1:26:21] I don't look, since I vindicate why I'm here, but they happen every day and every week.

[1:26:27] I cannot say enough at how much of a program it is to be a principal in this district,

[1:26:32] and it's a wonderful place as you already know.

[1:26:35] And again, I got to make the boss.

[1:26:37] He's been there with me the whole time through some challenging situations and has gotten

[1:26:40] me through it, and I generally appreciate it all.

[1:26:42] So that's my first bit, and I turned over here, and I'll go for it.

[1:26:46] Great.

[1:26:48] So, first we want to start off by recognizing spirit week, which was the first week in October.

[1:26:55] So, we had something a little new this year, first spirit week. It was anything but about a bag day.

[1:27:01] And it was, it was very interesting. We got to give the kids some credit for their creativity.

[1:27:06] We saw a lot of really interesting items being used to carry in their belongings. There was a tire.

[1:27:14] Yeah, it's time I want that one.

[1:27:16] Good one.

[1:27:17] You know, quite a few shopping hearts.

[1:27:19] But it was, it was a really fun day.

[1:27:21] The kids did a great job, you know,

[1:27:23] buying by the parameters that were put in place.

[1:27:25] And just having, having some fun with it.

[1:27:30] Color words on Spirit Day and Friday was, was phenomenal.

[1:27:35] And they seniors had a great time without any of the,

[1:27:39] you know, negativity was all positive.

[1:27:41] It was all really good stuff.

[1:27:42] Pepp rally was a lot of fun and then our seventh and eighth graders had their own

[1:27:46] Pepp rally and it followed it was leading up to fall sports weekend which we all

[1:27:51] know is is a wonderful time so we want to thank everybody for all of their

[1:27:56] hard work and faculty they were just they were troopers and they were in for all

[1:28:00] of it so a lot of faculty participated in the the spirit days so that's always

[1:28:05] really fun to see and the kids love it when faculty participate so that was

[1:28:09] great. Some other things that we have come down the line we actually on Wednesday had our group of

[1:28:17] students go those it's really changed their student empowerment. I had the opportunity to

[1:28:23] to state this through CAPOCs it's a really interesting program we sent five students or social

[1:28:29] studies high school team is kind of advising it and really the idea is to Wednesday was to train

[1:28:37] students on how to facilitate groups that surround talking about the

[1:28:42] challenges that are happening in their school. They meet with area schools. They'll

[1:28:46] talk collectively. Here's what's happening here in the level line, Berlin, wherever it is.

[1:28:50] And they look at what solutions they're proposing to it and then go back to

[1:28:54] their schools. And we'll talk about that with their administrators and then talk

[1:28:58] about that among their peer groups. So it's a really interesting group. I was happy to see it in

[1:29:02] and Questar, and I give a shout out to the social status

[1:29:05] team, they jump right in on it.

[1:29:07] It aligns very well to the civic engagement piece

[1:29:10] and the seal of civic readiness that came down from the state.

[1:29:14] And then what we're also starting at the high school

[1:29:16] and the middle school level are leadership teams.

[1:29:19] It's a really important idea for us to hear from our students

[1:29:24] directly as what they think is going on in the school

[1:29:28] on one of their solutions to those issues.

[1:29:30] So myself, Hillary and Jason will move with them on a monthly basis and really give them

[1:29:35] the platform to say, here's what we're seeing, you know, as, you know, 12 to 18-year-olds

[1:29:40] in school and what do they want to see? And it really provides them with the platform to be agents

[1:29:45] of change, right? So they're school, too. And that's part of what we're beginning. And we have our first

[1:29:51] means coming up at the end of, with the end of this month, early next month. We'll start to talk

[1:29:56] about them. So, one thing else I'm really excited about is

[1:30:00] All is one of our teachers, Kate Tubbs, moved from T.O. to a FACS teacher from games before school started. And she was part of her, like job title is to also work on career fairs for us. So she's been working with her and you think working on winter career fair. And it's a role is the beginning of a multi-year process to have career fairs in the building, quest our super supportive of it. The goal of this year is to have one in the one in the spring.

[1:30:30] long-term looking at how can we get those on a monthly basis and different trades, right?

[1:30:35] It can be the health industry, it can be exclusion, it can be in business fields, and we

[1:30:42] will be ideas to expand this over the course of the next few years where we're supporting

[1:30:46] both the academic lens of things, but also looking at careers. And then the goal for

[1:30:51] spring is to also incorporate some businesses, not just for students, but also for the community.

[1:30:56] It's a, it's a, you know, the end of it's a big undertaking, but Kate is then a good

[1:31:02] job at trying to move ahead that and I'm really excited about where that's going to go.

[1:31:06] So, and then quick shout out to 21st Saturdays for, of course, but he's filled the bus.

[1:31:13] We're using CES because in theory, our parking lot's supposed to get paved, so, really hope

[1:31:20] so.

[1:31:20] And so we'll be there from nine to 12 frame of shine.

[1:31:26] And so and then we have our school dance on Saturday.

[1:31:30] So I will hopefully rock the Western years.

[1:31:33] What's the second?

[1:31:35] So.

[1:31:37] All right.

[1:31:38] Thank you all.

[1:31:40] Yes.

[1:31:41] I was just wondering the student empowerment group,

[1:31:44] which I think it's possible to have sort of like a report out.

[1:31:48] maybe it comes from our student rough

[1:31:49] in the future of sort of the things that are emerging

[1:31:52] from that group.

[1:31:54] Yeah, it's very secure and more about it.

[1:31:56] It's on our high school version of it.

[1:31:58] So yeah, he could certainly talk about that.

[1:32:00] And yeah, absolutely.

[1:32:01] Yeah, maybe we could put the student update.

[1:32:09] Okay, with that, we're gonna move into our policy work.

[1:32:13] And just before we jump in,

[1:32:16] we've talked a lot about

[1:32:19] through our board.

[1:32:23] Retreats this summer and just this fresh start that we have envisioned which includes some policy work that needs to be done and some of the things we talked about the last meeting are from my understanding and I'm going to pass it up here, but being really intentionally thought about in that they might not be ready right now, but that's because the policy group is working with stakeholders to get more information and really hear from them what we need for the to have a policy nailed down as well as we can.

[1:32:53] So the ones that we have up tonight, a lot of work went in and I'm going to kick it to one of the policy committee to discuss what you've got going on here.

[1:33:01] So I don't know who wants to be the spokesperson.

[1:33:09] Okay.

[1:33:10] Would you like me to do it? Sure.

[1:33:15] So we considered three policies at the at the board's request.

[1:33:21] really rules of order, pretty short policy, communication between board members and employees,

[1:33:27] which really kind of just spells out what that communication should look like and how you go about

[1:33:33] interacting with employees, and then communication among individual board members really does the same,

[1:33:40] but spells out how that interaction should look from board member to board member.

[1:33:46] Just to piggyback off of what Shelley was saying, the policy committee is really committed

[1:33:52] to doing some work really in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is going to be

[1:34:00] engaging with stakeholders to really inform their policy work, which I think is admirable.

[1:34:06] It takes a lot longer to do it that way, but folks get to hear right from different stakeholders

[1:34:14] others in terms of their thoughts and desires as they begin to shape that policy.

[1:34:19] And so, I don't think the board wants to just be as thoughtful, I think, as possible,

[1:34:27] that committee to really develop good policies.

[1:34:30] So we appreciate your commitment to that.

[1:34:34] Angie?

[1:34:37] I will speak as one of the policy committee members.

[1:34:40] I was taken aback once she asked someone to speak so I didn't jump right in.

[1:34:44] But we are very super involved in the policy committee.

[1:34:50] We have taken a lot of extra time to thoughtfully review all of these policies, review,

[1:34:56] review, meet, remit.

[1:34:58] So we are really taking everyone's concerns and opinions into account when we are reviewing

[1:35:05] all these things.

[1:35:06] And I think I haven't been on the board a long time, but I think in the year and a half that

[1:35:11] And I have been, we've already done a lot of policy work, like active new creation policies

[1:35:18] and I think it's a good thing and we're heading the right direction and we always want

[1:35:23] to hear from the public for what they feel is needed and I think we are listening and

[1:35:29] working hard.

[1:35:32] I just want to add to you policy wise, the three that we sort of chose to prioritize tonight

[1:35:37] I think was because we really wanted to honor the work that we had done this summer.

[1:35:41] Most of these policies aligned with what we had talked about in our retreat, but it was

[1:35:45] now putting them into place.

[1:35:47] And then just to mention to you on top of the DEI work, the other one that we're being

[1:35:51] very thoughtful about is self-own use and want to make sure that we get a lot of input from

[1:35:55] stakeholders on that as well.

[1:35:57] So those will be sort of the two that we're looking at deeply coming out of this.

[1:36:04] So when we talk about stakeholders, can we elaborate on what we're encompassing in

[1:36:11] that?

[1:36:13] When we talk about stakeholders, I want to make sure that we're including parents members

[1:36:16] of the community, not only just students and faculty and whatever.

[1:36:21] So we will look at ways to engage parents and community members and getting some responses

[1:36:29] on that.

[1:36:29] we just have to think differently about how to do that, but the start will be current faculty

[1:36:37] and staff that are engaged in that work already, and then we talk about student empowerment and

[1:36:42] leadership, those individuals we will bring right into the fall. So I think the more challenging

[1:36:48] pieces, how do you engage meaningfully, thoughtfully from parents and community? So we're going to start

[1:36:57] with what we have access to and then look for ways to engage folks directly.

[1:37:03] I think it is important to just recognize that the conversations we've had and the

[1:37:08] public who have been here and had them with us, that information should have been thought

[1:37:13] about and included. The emails that we've received, I've treated those as public comment because

[1:37:19] our public comment policy does refer to both here in person and written comments, so everyone

[1:37:24] that we've received when I respond, we received this.

[1:37:27] I hope that that policy committee is acknowledging

[1:37:30] those in their conversation.

[1:37:32] So we are.

[1:37:33] So as the committee needs, we take it all

[1:37:35] and put that we get from either in public

[1:37:38] from oral communications written or electronic

[1:37:40] communications in the perspective of what we're developing.

[1:37:43] Not only that, but we also look at the perspective

[1:37:45] of the people on the team.

[1:37:47] We're also looking at different opportunities

[1:37:50] that different policies have written

[1:37:51] by different districts.

[1:37:52] look at those and see how they may or may not apply, taking the good and the bad and

[1:37:57] working through it. It is a lot of work. It does take time, so we appreciate everybody's

[1:38:03] patience as we go through because it is, we do have to be thoughtful. It's not looking at

[1:38:07] just one group. The policies we develop are for the entire population, whether it's guidelines

[1:38:13] for students or for teachers. We can't just look at a small group. It has to be, I've been

[1:38:17] changes for the entire population.

[1:38:21] It is definitely work. And you guys have been meeting

[1:38:26] pretty regularly for my understanding. So thank you. Those of you Angie.

[1:38:32] We can also consider the fact that we have this huge survey with all of these parents responses

[1:38:37] and input as you know parent participation as well. I think we can take that into account

[1:38:43] as well when we're doing some of our policy work to some of it.

[1:38:50] And with that, it gets run through legal channels too.

[1:38:55] So, you know, I think some of the policy we heard that was mentioned in the survey.

[1:38:59] You just have to ask if you can even do it.

[1:39:01] It's really hard.

[1:39:02] The social media piece.

[1:39:03] I understand the stress that that puts on all of the different groups and the teachers express that.

[1:39:09] Um, that becomes really hard.

[1:39:12] We have to be mindful of first amendment and things like that.

[1:39:15] So, yeah, freaky.

[1:39:16] Yep.

[1:39:19] Okay.

[1:39:19] So with that, um, I get a motion to approve the first reading of the three policies we have listed.

[1:39:28] So moved, Mary.

[1:39:31] Mary Angie, is there any discussion?

[1:39:35] No, I don't think I want to say about this, as this is stuff that we have in practice

[1:39:41] in doing for a long time, but it was never written, and so I think it's a good thing.

[1:39:48] Yeah, codifying things that definitely makes it more firm and more reliable.

[1:39:51] You can't question it.

[1:39:53] No.

[1:39:54] All right, well with that, all in favor.

[1:39:57] Hi.

[1:39:58] Anyone opposed?

[1:40:00] Anyone abstaining?

[1:40:01] Thank you for your work on this and your continued work.

[1:40:04] throughout the year, do you have a lot on your plate?

[1:40:07] All right, finance.

[1:40:09] You have put a lot of things here, Brian.

[1:40:13] Yes. So with the audit coming to a conclusion,

[1:40:15] we were able to get our numbers to finalize the

[1:40:18] Treasury report, auditors report A and B for July and August.

[1:40:22] We have to get those numbers solidified before we can do that.

[1:40:26] You're going to be not asked to approve a couple donations.

[1:40:30] One from Amazon for eight backpacks.

[1:40:33] and school supplies, they were nice enough to bring to us and then one from ComSoft to company

[1:40:38] that's gone completely remote. They gave us two hand dryers that will be used to replace

[1:40:45] ones when they can fault the bathrooms. You'll see them again next month because they gave us

[1:40:50] the beginning of some office supplies as well. I'm asking for the approval to declare

[1:40:56] library, library books from CES. It's the first weeding of the year, and multiple contracts,

[1:41:04] two for Hillcrest, one for a summer student, one for all-year student, and then Bob Hughes

[1:41:08] was doing professional development on two days being paid out of one of Mrs. Grants.

[1:41:14] And also the final piece of this is that the board has to accept the audit report that was discussed

[1:41:20] today and also put into the presentation so I can then push that out to the state tomorrow.

[1:41:26] and as the final file audit for the extra election.

[1:41:32] So with that, I'm going to get a motion to approve finance sections A through F.

[1:41:37] Motion, chair, please.

[1:41:41] All in favor?

[1:41:42] Aye.

[1:41:43] Anyone opposed?

[1:41:45] Okay.

[1:41:46] Any abstentions?

[1:41:48] Other actions, we have special education recommendations for approval.

[1:41:56] And then can we just move to the next couple of sections together, so I don't think we'd do

[1:42:02] recommendations. Okay, so we have some staffing actions. Do we need one to discuss those?

[1:42:09] Kind of just kind of typical beginning of the year stock for resignations and appointments,

[1:42:23] and then add appointments of advisor coaches.

[1:42:27] Too early for requirements.

[1:42:29] Yes.

[1:42:30] I get a motion for items eight and nine for approval.

[1:42:38] Second.

[1:42:41] Angie, all in favor.

[1:42:43] Aye.

[1:42:44] Anyone opposed?

[1:42:45] Any abstentions?

[1:42:46] Aye.

[1:42:46] Okay, second public comment,

[1:42:51] closing second public comment, we're going to move into our

[1:42:55] new section here of agenda planning board member comment.

[1:43:00] So I asked to just kind of put the think until now for agenda setting and planning about

[1:43:10] the seat.

[1:43:11] Is there something that anyone wants to comment on, do we need to put it on the agenda?

[1:43:15] the, some of those options would need to have that happen.

[1:43:21] So like, can you just ask the question, what was done last time?

[1:43:27] We waited until election, because it was close, it was after the midpoint of the year.

[1:43:34] So we waited until the election period, wouldn't they?

[1:43:38] It's also the easier zone.

[1:43:40] Yeah.

[1:43:40] So that is my preferences to wait for the easiest, but also be I think we've done a really

[1:43:45] large amount of teamwork on the board right now and I want to kind of keep that flow going.

[1:43:51] And then that way the public gets a, you know, any full vote and food. Let's see.

[1:43:56] What else to on this point? I mean, support of a special election. I think the time frame

[1:44:01] between now and May is too great to go without another board member. Can I ask a question

[1:44:05] about the special election? Is that by petition? People need to pick up petitions for a special election?

[1:44:12] I believe so. Okay, it would be just like a vote. Okay, so I don't know off top of my head, but if what we could do is look at those options and get that from legal and send it all to you.

[1:44:35] So I know I think the next time we meet is November 8th and then we're kind of turned around

[1:44:43] right the following week for a business meeting the following week I think on the 6th, 16th.

[1:44:49] So we can gather that all the different options and parameters for each one of those options.

[1:44:58] We can do that.

[1:45:00] I don't know that I don't want to give you that information now. I would rather get all of that from legal and get it to you. So you have time to consider that. So historically, and I'm going to say I can go back at this 12 years.

[1:45:22] One time we did a point, we solicited applicants, and then we appointed Ken Flot,

[1:45:35] you're looking at me like you don't remember that, that one.

[1:45:39] That was Mr. Charsky. He ended up being the position we appointed him.

[1:45:48] another time we let it, another time we let it go to the end of the, to the regular May,

[1:45:53] because it happened in February.

[1:45:57] And Mr. Peter was, as the result of his election and it

[1:46:02] took effect in January and then Kyle to, as well, but Kyle was after, was in the, in the winter,

[1:46:11] and then it's like February or something like that, and we waited until the May vote.

[1:46:23] I wonder if there's an option to just, well, I think that would need to be either a special

[1:46:32] election or an appointment where we would advertise for that for a period of time, because

[1:46:41] I know that this past vote, there was four seats, four people in one and three seats.

[1:46:53] And that person on the out was, I don't know, that person would still be interested.

[1:47:04] Angie.

[1:47:05] I would be reluctant to do an appointment.

[1:47:09] No, I know.

[1:47:10] So I'm just saying my thoughts just because how do you do that and I wouldn't want it to just be the eight of us deciding without the public vote.

[1:47:22] I do want to just be mindful if we do special election of the amount of time and we're doing a lot of work and a lot of detailed work as a board.

[1:47:33] the amount of time if it is the process of petitions and then they get the

[1:47:37] opportunity to speak at a board meeting. There has to be a public, do they, do they

[1:47:41] have to have that public meeting of introducing them. I probably have to do the

[1:47:44] whole process. I don't, I don't. We're talking maybe three months anyway. So I just

[1:47:50] want us to be super mindful once we have, once we learn those parameters. And it

[1:47:54] might be shorter depending on what they let's can we agree that November 8th we'll

[1:47:59] some details and then I just don't think we have enough information but I'm sure we can have

[1:48:03] before November 8th too.

[1:48:07] It was a workshop but if we need to have a business meeting just like we

[1:48:10] did when we were at the building. We can do a business vote and do the workshop so but

[1:48:16] that's an action item. I've got plenty.

[1:48:23] Anything else on that? Sure. I don't know if it's on that but part

[1:48:27] of board member comment, I want to say that this has been a very positive, respectful meeting

[1:48:33] and haven't seen one of them in a long time and I wanted to kind of take notice of that

[1:48:37] and appreciate all of you and thank you on board appreciation day, I suppose, or week whatever.

[1:48:43] But didn't you appreciate today's meeting and thought that it was very productive and useful,

[1:48:48] so just want to take note.

[1:48:55] Any other agenda planning or comments I would like everyone to have

[1:48:58] opportunity. Third. Courts, comments.

[1:49:02] I have a couple things. The first thing is a question now. I do a lot of volunteering in the community. You guys probably see me.

[1:49:10] A couple of sporting events I went to. I've got a concern. Why is there a reason why we're not playing the national anthem at the start of the games anymore?

[1:49:20] I don't have any answers to that. I'd have to look into it. I don't know.

[1:49:26] I was at basketball, but the volleyball and the soccer and stuff that I went to there wasn't a pause or wasn't a comment. There was nothing that's a little concerning for me.

[1:49:37] The other question I had as I know, last year's budget we had on a line item for the expansion of the huddle system that got removed.

[1:49:46] I'm curious, is the other system still functioning?

[1:49:50] We have huddle for, I believe we have it for basketball, boys and girls, and volleyball

[1:49:59] by request of the coaches.

[1:50:01] I think volleyball was new this year at request of the coach for volleyball.

[1:50:08] And I do believe Mr. Bentley had worked with all the coaches

[1:50:12] is to see who would be interested in that as a coach

[1:50:17] to be able to man with that.

[1:50:19] Thank you.

[1:50:20] Yep.

[1:50:21] One more question.

[1:50:24] I know it's a little bit early, but have we

[1:50:26] thought about starting up conversations on budget talks,

[1:50:29] how we're going to present, what we're going to present

[1:50:31] earlier?

[1:50:32] Yeah, actually, our budget discussion

[1:50:37] will begin at that mid-November meeting

[1:50:39] we're going to do department presentations really from transportation, IT facilities,

[1:50:46] we're going to get our first round of department presentations mid-November.

[1:50:52] I don't believe we did, I think it's about a month earlier, so it gives us a little more time

[1:50:57] for discussion. Brian and I have sat and kind of mapped out how we can garner more time,

[1:51:03] so it doesn't feel as pressed. I know last year we just some feedback that we didn't have enough

[1:51:09] Conversation times on some of those priority items in the budget. So we're working to make sure that that happens this year. Thank you.

[1:51:17] Jason, can you say that's that map of what it looks like?

[1:51:20] We can.

[1:51:20] Yeah.

[1:51:23] For the year.

[1:51:25] Budget.

[1:51:26] Budget.

[1:51:27] Budget map.

[1:51:28] Okay.

[1:51:28] It was like a.

[1:51:30] Like a politicalist.

[1:51:32] Actually.

[1:51:33] Yeah.

[1:51:35] That's what I was just going to clarify.

[1:51:36] So was the nationally, was that an action item that will be followed up to that or was

[1:51:41] that just?

[1:51:41] Oh, yeah.

[1:51:41] Okay.

[1:51:42] Yeah.

[1:51:42] I'll look into that.

[1:51:43] My mind started wondering and I'm like, what happened up?

[1:51:46] Thank you.

[1:51:48] Thank you.

[1:51:48] I guess.

[1:51:49] Tally.

[1:51:49] I just wanted to do one shout out.

[1:51:53] I know the public wasn't with us on the school bus a couple weeks ago, but I just wanted

[1:51:58] to thank Rhonda and the admin team for taking us.

[1:52:00] I know myself since COVID, I have not been in the buildings a lot, so it was nice to see the spaces, especially CES, and we get to see how limited their spaces and the faculty room they're working with and the bus for just not something we see often.

[1:52:15] So I appreciated that time that was what it was showing us around.

[1:52:23] So that's what I was going to comment on too. Just thinking no, no problem. No, it was a good time to see the buildings and we really haven't in my five years done that at all. We did the bus garage, like in August of my first year and we never went to buildings. So I appreciate that.

[1:52:40] That will be every October from here on out.

[1:52:43] And Rhonda drives the bus very well, so I think she wanted to give us all turns.

[1:52:49] I wasn't going to take that.

[1:52:54] Any other agenda items or comments, Jason?

[1:52:59] Yeah, I just wanted to comment on the national anthem as we look into that.

[1:53:04] that reminded me, we received two prisoner of war flags

[1:53:10] donated by our local VFW that they had called

[1:53:14] and asked if we could fly those on our flag poles

[1:53:17] and at each of our two school buildings.

[1:53:22] So those were distributed to the buildings

[1:53:25] and will be flying those flags as well.

[1:53:28] So I just wanted to thank the local VFW,

[1:53:30] not only for their service,

[1:53:31] but they're contribution to those flags so that we can fly them in honor of those individuals.

[1:53:39] So thank you.

[1:53:41] And I had one other thought too.

[1:53:44] Okay, you'll notice under board member comment we asked for the committee reports just to be listed so that if there was now the audit committee doesn't really need to comment because we already except the audit and the policy committee.

[1:53:55] We've done a lot of work.

[1:53:57] Some of the other committees I don't think they've even kicked off yet.

[1:53:59] I will acknowledge that Alyssa hosted the Professional Development Committee meeting today,

[1:54:03] and they are ready to rock and roll tomorrow.

[1:54:05] So I hope that everyone has a really great day because once again,

[1:54:09] it's a great lineup plan.

[1:54:11] So looking forward to hear the feedback that you guys have tomorrow.

[1:54:15] Anybody else wants to jump in on the others?

[1:54:17] I don't know Angie, do you have an Isba update?

[1:54:20] Or when you get really back next time.

[1:54:22] Yeah, so that's coming. Yeah, so this is where you'll see that and if we have something

[1:54:27] I'm just going to ask that we we present it as much as I love hearing from our administrative team.

[1:54:33] You guys do a lot of work and this was to engage us with you. So we'll try to do our best to give our reports

[1:54:41] or our participation. And if we mess up, if we don't say a great thing, just correct us.

[1:54:47] So just so I can come in on the audit community we did meet with the folks from and she presented

[1:54:56] and I didn't say anything at that point. We did find one I did bring up one problem,

[1:55:00] which we were not able to get corrected before it had to be finalized to meet our deadline tomorrow.

[1:55:07] So it will be noted and that had to do with the amount of money on the capital and how it was

[1:55:13] described, not not any material number, then members were correct, but it was how it was

[1:55:20] described as being all for the roof on the gym and it wasn't. So that was that was the

[1:55:26] correction I wanted to have made. So I went back and forth and with Alan and we talked

[1:55:38] on the phone and I said okay, well we have to make our deadline. So that'll be noted for next year

[1:55:43] and they will make sure that it's complete corrected. So that was for the capital reserve, right?

[1:55:53] Use the capital reserve. It's been put in the other money for the major project of this year starting

[1:55:59] last year's a notion out there. So great catch deep into the deep into the I read it. That doesn't that I read the thing.

[1:56:13] Andy two things one minor so just so we know if you don't write no report.

[1:56:19] Expect someone from that committee to committee to speak at the meeting if you have something.

[1:56:25] Right. Yeah. So we know. Okay. I think this was the first time it's been here. So it was maybe to remind us which committees we sent me saying.

[1:56:33] Keep us accountable.

[1:56:35] And then my last thought is I had the opportunity to attend both the CS community fair and sports weekend.

[1:56:44] and they were both amazing.

[1:56:48] The community, the people, the employees,

[1:56:50] the faculty were great,

[1:56:51] and I just want to comment for Kara and Rob

[1:56:55] to be so new in our community

[1:56:58] and to be there and seem like they had been there

[1:57:01] for years, like, you know,

[1:57:03] between the kids being familiar with you guys

[1:57:06] after, you know, at that point,

[1:57:08] only six weeks of school

[1:57:09] and your familiarity with the grounds

[1:57:13] and the building and the kids and the names and the parents and you just, it was like you guys had been there for years.

[1:57:19] So, kudos to you guys.

[1:57:21] Great.

[1:57:22] Thanks.

[1:57:23] You're welcome.

[1:57:26] Thank you.

[1:57:27] Good.

[1:57:30] Good.

[1:57:31] Good.

[1:57:32] Good.

[1:57:37] Good.

[1:57:40] I mean, you probably were 10 different past that day.

[1:57:45] Like, he would jump, you know, depending on the time.

[1:57:48] Yeah, he figured that out.

[1:57:49] And if no one knew, if somebody needed to,

[1:57:51] he had that out.

[1:57:53] Like, it was, you know, Sarah.

[1:57:55] You know, I think Derby offered for Sarah.

[1:57:58] No, no, it's cold.

[1:57:59] I don't think we're getting that though.

[1:58:03] Yeah, yeah.

[1:58:05] for the kids, right?

[1:58:09] It's not Robin there, though.

[1:58:11] I don't think it's Robin there, though.

[1:58:14] I think there wasn't one other employee of next year

[1:58:17] so I want to show people who love that.

[1:58:19] It's wonderful.

[1:58:21] You can tell right now.

[1:58:25] All right.

[1:58:28] Anything else before I.

[1:58:31] Okay, take us to executive session for me.

[1:58:37] All right, with that, we're going to,

[1:58:39] I need a motion to enter into executive session

[1:58:41] to discuss SAA, C-S-E-A, and S-F-A negotiations,

[1:58:46] a personal matter of a particular person.

[1:58:48] So I'm going to marry.

[1:58:50] And give a second.

[1:58:51] So, Anna Cherry, all in favor?

[1:58:54] Aye.

[1:58:54] I thank you all for joining us tonight,

[1:58:57] and we'll see you next time.

[1:59:00] next time.

Untitled meeting

Transcript