Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
September 13, 2023 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
Yes. Hi. Yeah.
Know. I'm gonna have to just stay here like this. Is it ever gonna is it ever gonna break, buddy?
It was supposed to be cool today? Yeah. Like, in the next ten days? I mean, I think it's day of weather.
It could dry out. The mushrooms really dark. Everything's disgusting. Yeah. It's just gross. Yeah. Mushrooms are very delicious. Very delicious. Very in every I'm not writing anything like It's just a. Oh, and it's not. I've been through category ones before. You
know? Whatever. Just roll with lunch. Literally, I need to watch all the. We have hail in Westinbury. What happened? Like, No.
Yeah. Saturday at 11AM, we're supposed to hit. Yeah. It's weird because it's just it's like those little pockets. Yeah. Those cells. Yeah. But for some reason, I've had amazing luck of hitting every single, like, flash flood white out storm pocket while driving in the past three days. Yeah. Doesn't matter where I was. It says 07:00.
Ask And now tell me where you're gonna be, and then I guess you won't be there. Yeah. Yes. Okay.
Good evening, everyone. It's 07:00. We're right on time. I'm calling to order the 09/13/2023 regular meeting of the Andover Connecticut Board of Education. Thanks to everyone in attendance for being here this evening. Thank you to Board of Education members for volunteering your time to the town of Andover to serve on this board. Please stand to the front. Please. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic, over to the sands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Chris. Comments from the public. Brianne. Have you any comments? Can you hear us? She's on mute. No comments. Thank you. Kim Persaud. Nothing right now. Thank you.
And hello? Do we have anybody else in attendance? No. Communication. Does anyone have any to share? Hearing none, we'll go on to the approval of the minutes. And first, we'll approve the minutes for regular meeting of 08/09/2023.
I need a motion. We'll move that the minutes for the regular meeting of 08/09/2022
be approved. Thank you. Do have a second? Second. Thank you, Chris. Any discussion? All in favor of approving the minutes from the regular meeting of 08/09/2023, say aye. Aye. Have to I have to abstain.
Anything you have to abstain? Anybody else? I'm sure. You abstain too, Steve? Correct. Thank you. Special meeting of 08/21/2023.
We need a motion, second, and a discussion and a vote. I'll move that the minutes of the special meeting of 08/21/2023 be approved.
Thank you. Is there second? Second. Second. Okay. Thank you, Caitlin. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor of approving of the minutes from the special meeting of '20 of 08/21/2023, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? One. Thank you for that. Okay. Are there any additions or deletion?
I I have one, Jerry. Yes. I would just like to add an action item to item number B I'm sorry. E3 for the 7E3. I'm sorry? 7E3? Yes. Thank you. 7E3. Okay.
So you want to just add that as an action item? Correct. Okay.
It won't take off Instead of action needed no action needed, we'll take off the note then. They won't be there anymore. Sure. Okay. All in favor of that?
Well, I mean, change it. Just friendly amendment and change it to what the others read as to possible action. Right. Yeah. Right.
You called for a vote? Yes, please. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. So we're passing. Anybody else have any additions or deletions? Hearing none, celebration. Does anyone have any celebration?
I guess I guess it's more feedback than anything, but I would like to celebrate our principal's hard work in trying to change the curriculum for the upper grades. I've heard some great feedback from multiple students. So Awesome. Very good. Thank you.
And I would like to celebrate the opportunity to come in and lead to the students. It was a lot of fun again to see. And
I love the book. Yeah. It was a good book. Yeah. And in my oral report, I was gonna mention thanks to you, Taylor, for the opening day efforts that you put into making it really special. Thank you to the volunteer people who came in to read. I know I really enjoyed that. That was a wonderful experience for me, and I I truly enjoy doing that. And I thank you for opening that up to people coming to do it, to me. I also wanna thank you, Shannon, for the work you've done on the policy review. I I could tell you put a lot of energy and effort into that. Yeah. It was terrific. Thank you. We'll talk about it when we get here. Excellent. And, Celestia, I wanted to thank you for your work on taking over the parking lot. Welcome.
And I appreciate your efforts and Thanks, sir. Energy on that. And, Caitlin, I wanna thank you too for your taking on to trying to get us all together for the board meeting with other two boards of town. Superintendent's report. Valerie?
Yeah. I don't have too much. I know Taylor's got the good stuff. Just a couple of quick things. We have been invited well, actually, invited is not the right word. We agree, actually, to host the forum for Joe Courtney to come and speak with the regional recipients of the school mental health grants because I had two towns. He his his people said, you know, but we can go to both. I said, we'll host you here. So I said actually, I said, we'll put out the good towels and give you some coffee. And Julia McGrath said that would be wonderful. So they will be coming. Really, the focus of it is to look at trends in school mental health and, how we expect to spend the funding, to impact these trends and to really look at, the, those are the neighbors that will be coming. Let's say we have Marlborough, Columbia, Coventry, Scotland, East Hampton, and Southampton, England. And so they will all be joining us, and they just kinda wanna see if everybody is facing the same trends, you know, and and will they spend it the same way?
So I think it, you know, would only definitely help our pause in this region, because I think the plight of the smaller districts is different than the larger districts, not only in terms of funding, but in terms of what we are seeing. I've I've also been asked by the state to present, at their performance matters forum, which is October 12. The Connecticut State Department of Education has a very large event that, does also look at trends. But since it's a Performance Matters, they have what they really have is about 12 breakout sessions, hour long sessions that run three times during the course of the day. The one that I would ask to facilitate with John from the state is about, writing and implementing effective summer enrichment programs and moving forward with the state, what would that look like,
you know, how best to fund it, what the criteria should be, and, you know, how we went about implementing certain things and and results. So they've been following us, remember, for three years now. So, next year will be our fourth summer. So, you know, I said to tell her, don't know if that was honor because, you know, you can't really say no. But I think it'll be good to to kinda see some of the other things that are gonna be there that day as well, you know, at a state level. So so that'll be good. We'll look at other educational trends and information there. Before you go before you and I forget, when is congressman Courtney going to Next week. Yeah. What time and what date? On Monday. At what? Yep. 09:30. K. So you're in the gym? Or Nope. In the cafeteria. Okay. So
Yeah. And who who's involved in those meetings? Like, for each district?
The school administrator, the mental health specialist. Okay. So whatever Right. Social Whatever you're spending the money on, they'd like to talk to those people. So I know one of the differences, for example, between Scotland and here is we have BCBA services that we are spending the money on there, and that so the person that would be coming from Scotland in addition to the principal will represent, you know, those mental health needs there. Here, we've asked Jenny because fair amount of new needs here pertain to preschool and kindergarten. And so that's Jenny, and we've also asked our school psychologist. And I do have a call in specifically to invite Mhmm. Because that's who I'm partnering with over the summer, and Marver is a recipient. Right. So so they'll be there as well. So they'll probably be about total, probably about 30 people. That's really great. Yeah.
So others invited? No. But if there was a board member that was interested, let them know. Okay. You know? But it isn't no. So it it definitely was, you know, a panel of the the towns. But, again, if there's a board member that wants to come, please let me know. So so that'll be interesting, you know, for us to find out what's going on there. So and, yep, you guys already thanked her, but we had an amazing opening. And, I mean, I I tease Taylor. I always say to her, you know, she's got her team here, her miracle team there. She calls the dream team, but she Taylor does a really good job of making sure that things are done collaboratively here. You know, I've seen that in the past year more than ever before in making sure that the job gets done because everybody gets in. It's so much easier to see the success when when that happens. So and
thank you, Kim, for bringing up that curriculum because, you know, as you'll see from Taylor's presentation, we are really on the right path, and we can thank her for that. So that's it. Thank you.
Alright. So, Valerie, do you have any questions for Valerie? We're hearing none. Principal's report. That's a bad presentation.
Yes. Michelle, Kelly. Yes. I'm excited. Well, thank you all for the support for the opening of the year. It's day 10. It's the kindergarten teachers keep track, so they tell me because they chat. Day 10 today. And and I really think across the building, people are this is our smoothest opening. Yeah. I mean, just kids just came in, like, ready to go. You know, they were excited to be here. We it's like, are we able to make a lot of changes, and yet it almost feels like no changes, hopefully, to kit you know, like, in good ways and and subtle ways. So we're excited. Some people in shifting positions and really all of those little moves to kinda make what we hope to be a really successful year. So we can finally kind of talk about SBAC. I'm gonna share a little presentation and just give you some highlights of where our data looks from the past spring and kind of where we're gonna go forward. Let's do
forget I'm on Zoom too. Alright. So everybody knows, but just so the Public Care Smarter Balanced assessment, so those are the statewide assessments that we take in the spring in grades three through six here in Andover, and we take them in math and in ELA, English language arts, and fifth grade takes them in science. So we had a 100% participation, which is awesome last year. So what you're looking at is our full student body of last year. So these would include now our fourth through seventh graders just as we're thinking about that. So as we look at grade levels and breakdowns, just kind of remind yourself of that. What's really neat is at this year and a little bit of even the year before, as students are taking this test, we are actually getting data pretty quickly in real time. And while it wasn't, like, official well embargoed, you know, all those fun state, things, it helps teachers, like, right away. So they were we were already able to plan in May and June into September,
which had a lot to do with our four five six, the way we were kind of switching classes, offering some enrichment. We didn't have to wait. We used to with CMTs and everything. Wait until now to even be looking at it. So our teachers were able to kinda jump off right away, already having seen this data, and I'm not first day of school saying, no. Let's let's look at it. Let me let this person.
Alright. So the first screen, I try to make the numbers as big as possible, so I apologize. There's so many. This is just our achievement. So the straight achievement, it's the state of Connecticut is our top line. So you'll see I've grayed out kind of the past years just for focus. So in ELA and math, the state average is forty eight point five and forty two point five. That's the percentage of students meeting proficiency, meaning a three or a four. SBAC is four, one, two, three, or four. Then you see Andover, and we're at nothing if not consistent. Sixty two point two and sixty two point two. How last year exactly the same as well. But so we're at almost, almost a 10 percentage point jump. So really an exciting direction uphill closer to where Andover was averaging and certainly above the state average. We'll talk about growth scores, and and I think it's important that we always hem and haw and even internally on comparing ourselves to other districts. But I know it's on everyone's mind, and and it is one piece of information to take a look at. So I did wanna provide that to you. I did Heber and Marlborough. I chose Bolton and Columbia just because I feel like they're around us, and sometimes people are curious just to help you kind of see maybe a percentage comparison. Now one thing to know, and as we always talk about, we'll see in the next scores, are because we are the smallest of these five in third grade, I believe it was, one student was 4%. So had had two more students been proficient, we're looking at 70%. Right. That's on two students. Right? So
it's hard because these numbers are great to look at, but we just always have to remind ourselves of perspective taking kind of when we because we are so small versus some of the districts, and none of these are huge, obviously, but still 80 students versus, you know, 300 gives you different spread in percentage points. So you can just take a look at that so you have a sense of where we are this year, and we'll kinda come back to what that can look like. So I broke it down by grade just to take a peek here. Often in every school, you see different trends at different grade levels, and it's just that cohort.
They're often just made up differently. So you may see, as you could probably stand out on first glance, our grade five students last year, were a pretty high performing cohort. And then you can see kind of how that varies. So the green, obviously, is a three. Blue is that four, which is above grade level. Yellow is that two, approaching grade level, and one is called the below standard, which means you're at at least one year below one to two years. So you can see that 4% if you look I'm get confused with my mouse in here. Right here, that's where you can see two students is 8% here on this particular cohort. So Mhmm. And this is the data that break we down further and further and further because we're so small. I can't break it down too much for you because it would pretty be identifying of our students, which I wouldn't wanna do. One of the neat things we can also do is when we look at these 10 students, say, in grade four who are approaching, we can actually see their standard score and how close it is to a three. So those 10 students performed very differently. There may be one or two who just edged into a two, and there could be seven who were two questions away from a three. And if the state has done a better job of giving us more of that information rather than this because this doesn't drive our instruction enough, but we actually can drill down. They will also drill into different standards for us and say, is the
domain where most of your kids did really well. This is the domain. So that's really helpful for us curriculum wise too because we can see, oh, I'm making this up. If fractions wasn't area of weakness, obviously, that would be something we would focus on.
So I wanted to show you this again. Sorry. It's a lot of numbers, but I'll explain it. So growth is really important, and it's an important state measure that we use. So there's two kind of ways we track growth. The first is growth rate. And so in this column right here, I've I've done yellow into r this year. So Andover, Marlborough, Heber, and I figured we can't look at any more numbers. That's enough. Growth rate is how many students met the target that SBAC set for them. So every student we have little Joe in fifth grade. He scored a 10. It's not a real number. SBAC says, well, if he's on track to meet proficiency, he should score an 18 next year. Something like that. Right? And so this is how many of our kids meet that goal. However, little Johnny scored a nine, his goal might be he needs to score a 26. You know? It it's personalized to each student based on their growth. You can see right here, the state average is pretty low. I I should have put it on there. I apologize. But it's a it's an exceptional improvement here in ELA and across the board,
pretty close, if not a little above, where the rest of our our, region is. This one, average percentage of target achieved, we worked really hard on. So then you say you have about half of the students meeting the goal, but what how much of the goal is the average student meeting? And so in here, I mean, this is, as you can see, if you look back through the years for Andover, our highest growth, that the average kiddo is hitting at least eight almost 82% of their growth goal.
Hard to wrap your mind around a little bit, but if that makes sense. So half of them are meeting it, and of that half, 82 purse they're meeting 82%
of the goal. Close. So half are meeting it. Like, they hit that 18. Of all of them, including the ones that met and the ones that went above and the ones that went below, our average, we're hitting about 82% of the goal. Okay. So if the goal was a 10 and we were at a zero, most on average, we get to an 8.2.
Okay. And one of the biggest I know just because we haven't mentioned it is Yeah. Obviously, nineteen and 20 is missing due to COVID, and we can see a huge drop Correct.
On most of those, and then we've almost fully recovered. Yeah. So I'm excite I was we were really excited about this. And, yes, we want our proficiency. We talk about as a staff. We're not shooting for 75 where we were. We're shooting for a 100. Right? We want every student proficient. But this is what we're using as our metric to be like, okay. We're on the right track. Kids are growing exponentially at, like, rapid enough pace where we can get there. We know the recovery is gonna take more than a year. We weren't gonna hit proficient in a year, but at least we can see, okay. We're moving in the right direction. And that's, you know, just another comparative here. You can see, on average, even for all three, you know, know, we were living in the fifties and sixties, and we really And this isn't a specific grade. This would be the you're talking third through sixth. Together. Correct. Yep. It's the average of all of them. We could pull it by grade. Questions about this part? That's true. Yeah.
Yeah. Science, they I can't put our official science. They won't report it because we're so small on the state website because as we only have 18 students in fifth grade, they don't wanna identify kids. But I can pull it for us to see. Again, fifth grade was a strong cohort for us, so we did exceptional at 67 plus 17. 87%. Right? Eighty Eighty
seven. Okay. Say it. Say it. I'm not taking the math test. I'm sorry. 84%. So our proficiency was high in science, which is is spectacular. And what we look at, just for your information at the science, we compare it often to the ELA test because we wanna see we wanna see the reading skills. Is that correlating kids? Are there kids doing exceptional in ELA and math, but not in science? Are there kids because I'll show you. I actually put a sample up here of a science question because I think people wonder what it looks like, and it really requires both sets of skills. You have to be a strong reader, which can be hard. Some kids who aren't strong readers excel in class in science, but they won't necessarily excel on the state test because it requires so much reading. So they they only take that in fifth grade? Eighth as well. Fifth, eighth. Okay. But it's not it's not as often. Okay. Could be allowed to jump on that.
Taylor Taylor on that one? Sorry to interrupt you. Yep. What's significant about this for our kids too is, you know, how we always talk about those skills that aren't tested? The kid's ability to problem solve, the kid's ability to figure things out. They need that for this test. Mhmm. And so those what everyone says are untested skills, twenty first century skills, they have those. That's clear. Right. Because they have to actually problem solve. There's no big memorization that could take place to do well on a science performance task. And then, yeah, the no science standards. For how well our kids think.
Yeah. And and the new science standards don't tell you you have to study bats in fifth grade. They say you have to study how living things interact with the environment. So we as a school might pick bats as our, you know, area of focus, but we're teaching that critical thinking skill because you don't know if you're gonna get you know, saw a different whales on the test. So it's not about that kind of memorization that when we were kids. Did this, like, the science testing not see as much of a dip COVID related as a math and EIA? Like, it looks fairly consistent there. In the statewide, yes. And over because we're so small, it's just we're only testing 15 to 20 kids. When I track our science back, we do see some of this. Yeah.
That's just kinda I love the makeup of the individual. It's really difficult.
Right now. Yeah. I'd like we're trying to get that consistent third through sixth, but science is hard when they're only testing some you know, spot. Yeah. You know what, Sarah? Mhmm. I was wondering what the science curriculum looks like grades
a through Sure. Six. Is it is it hands on? Are they Mhmm. Doing experiments? Are they
Yeah. Solving problems? Are they Yeah. It's it's a lot of it's a lot of questions. So there is some phenomenon, we call it, that they study. So it could be roadkill is the phenomenon. And so they show a picture of roadkill to launch the unit. And you can imagine kids have 50 questions about roadkill. And we might know what we're gonna get to is how things decompose, right, and what that does to our environment, to our soil. Maybe that's the long answer. But kids are generating questions, and almost always, they generate the one you want. Right? And so there's a lot of buy in to kids, and then they're kind of going off and doing a lot of modeling. So you actually see kids drawing a lot on science. Yes. Hands on. But it all it ultimately leads to a lot of modeling where they're kind of trying to map out some phenomenon, some science thing that happens, and then adding to it as the unit progresses.
So that's, I would say, the general structure. And then, you know, you certainly the younger grades, you see them outside. If it's environmental science, we have missus Hazen. If you're familiar with her, she's subs for us, former science teacher. She if she subs, she goes, please, I'll be writing the science plans. Don't leave me plants. So she'll come in. She brings animals in. Even during school, she'll do some specials, in the classrooms, but then she does doing some after school programs too. We use the CREC bundles right now. We have science units that we, many years ago, most districts, every district I've been in has the same ones because NGSS was so new. They were the first ones to kinda put something together. But as especially in the April, as we start to departmentalize a little of Katie Dixon teaching two sections, she'll start to become more of the expert in that area, right, and and continue to develop. So
So whatever you do seems to be worth it. Yes. Yes. Yes. So
just to kind of finish, I don't wanna take too much time, but what are what are we doing? What have we done? What are we still focusing on to continue to rise these scores? I don't explain it to you because I know this board supports the idea that SBAC is not the end all be all. I know you believe our kids are more gonna test for, and I also know that you believe this is a a dipstick. Right? It's a measurement of where we are in time, so it does matter. And I believe our staff represents that belief system as well. So we are focused on acceleration. And I I couldn't almost, like, think of a sentence to write to explain it well enough, but what I mean by acceleration is there there was this model of thinking of, I'm gonna teach multiplication. Okay. I'm gonna go up in the front of the room, and I'm gonna show you how to do it. I'm gonna give you a problem. I'm gonna walk you through it. Now you try
Now the way we teach multiplication is we put a word problem up and say, go ahead. Go work with your partner and see what you can do. You'd be shocked. Kids typically have already so much to draw on that they're they were actually 14 steps ahead of where you were gonna start. Now the teacher at these six groups of work to do, and you're like, okay. Now come back. Come back. Okay. So here's where you at. Here's the next step. We've actually one, we've engaged students, and they're doing more work, and they're into it. But two, we're eliminating some of that teaching that we do because it feels like we've always done it, and we're accelerating meeting kids where they are and moving forward.
So that's great. Intervention, we know we've talked about, but having our three interventionists has been amazing last year. It contributed to a lot of this success, and we're excited to continue it. With Jenny, of course, we've kind of just structured those positions now that we know more and where we need them. But remember, putting that time and energy into k two will translate up to SBAC as we go. Curriculum, as Caitlin mentioned, we are doing a ton of curriculum work, and we're really just starting. Just that real audit of what are we doing. You know, we believe in teaching to students, not in fidelity to a program, which is great, but takes a lot of time and attention. It's easier to teach the textbook lesson than to say, well, what actually is valuable from here and what's in front of our kids? So we're doing a lot of that work. And then finally, practice. And sometimes people will say, oh, we don't teach to the test. True. However, the test represents the common core standards. And sometimes you just have to put on your philosophical, we believe that, what the state says. If those are the standards, then we're not teaching to attest. We're teaching to the standards. However, how we present information to kids matters. So I just before I stop, I had to just give you two examples because I sometimes I think we forget. This is a third grade math problem, and I wanted to just draw it's the first one on the practice test. I swear I didn't even look for one that was, you know, especially. And you at first, when you look at it, one of the teachers is Tim's teacher. One is Sue's teacher, all the books. Tim's teacher has 26 more books than Sue's teacher. Who is Tim's teacher?
Now you are now eight years old. Woah. Right? Think of the amount of language on that problem. It's like the two trains leave the station, and and I It is not asking. Every third grader in this school can do a 172 minus one forty eight. We're sure of that. We teach that. Can every third grader answer this question, though? They have to know a lot more. Right? They have to know how to attack it. So even last year, small things like grabbing problems and, the state gives us a a million practice and all that kind of thing and embedding them into our units, not saving I'm not talking the week before SBAC. I'm talking that continuous, like, let's look at our own assessments. Is this how we're teaching math? Because this matters. I don't hate this problem. Right? Because in the real world, when you do math, it is often in this way when you're decision making. So I you know, we want them to have those skills, but you can see now, how come I could get a 100 on their test, but they're getting a two one s back? This happens if we don't do this continuously.
Just a soccer, soccer, a science, example. So one thing to notice is I this scrolls this scrolls so often, even the technology alone, kids have to navigate, especially in ELA. Usually, all the passages are over here that they're scrolling, and then all the questions are over here. And not only are they typing, but they have to figure out how to use arrows. I did this these beauties. So they're getting a lot of information and then talking about how the flow of matter. There's no guarantee, and it's unlikely we taught phytoplankton in fifth grade. That did not come up. Right? And that's kind of what Val is saying. They have to be able to do the critical thinking to then go ahead and do diagramming. So it's it's not just like a multiple choice test anymore. You know? It really is which we applaud in a lot of ways. It came a long way from CMT, but you can't put a third grader on this and just expect they're gonna, like, and that's part of using Seesaw this year. We've talked briefly our new, platform provides more examples and more opportunity for kids to just in one of the second and third grade classes, the combo the other day, they were doing the math exit ticket on their iPads. And they're you know, now that's that's a way that they're getting more and more comfortable already reading, doing work on paper, transposing it back into a computer. So all in moderation, but I just wanted to give you guys a bit of a a taste of some questions.
Any questions for me?
Just the one that I that I know I've asked before. Specifically looking at the sixth grade, I know comparing to other districts isn't always best metric, but we feed into a high school or middle school with two other districts. Yes. So are we making what are we doing to make sure that our kids are at the same level or above where
their cohorts will be next year? Yes. I actually met with the principal at Ram last week. I think it was a week before Michael, the the middle school principal, and asked him those exact questions. And he had nothing but kind things to say about Andover was, do I know if he says it to every district? I don't know because this was not a numbers game, but he he definitely talked about how we come in. Typically, he said even socially, emotionally, very prepared and ready. I think Jamie Weber does an excellent job of kind of balancing that line of urine in elementary, but this is what it's gonna be like. He then talked about they just added a new curriculum position there. And don't quote me if it does ELA and math, but he talked about how one of her goals is to, start doing some more meetings between the three schools and looking at curriculum wise and looking at that data. Not to say gotcha to one of us, but to say, are we all kind of coming in with the same skills and how are we being prepared? So we are having that conversation.
It was hard for him, and I was like, what? Do you have test scores you could show me? You know, like, he in the moment, he was like, no. But he certainly, you know, spoke highly of our students and said that that was something he wanted to support is making sure we were all on the right track. So, Taylor, is SPAX still computer adapted? Yeah. So, yes, and that's how you end up getting a four or two or a one. A little bit less so in the summative assessments because they do wanna test all the grade level comment, but, yes, content, it is adaptive. And then we also have what's called the IABs, which are the interim assessments that we can give, just like the SBAC. They are the same, everything for the kit, and we actually get the results that minute, you know, pop up, so we can kind of track. We've talked about I Ready here, our other, assessment, and we also align it to, I Ready to make sure that we're those are are tracking, and so that that makes sense to us. And if not, why? You know, at the end of the day, we're we are dealing with small children. So every kid has a day when they're not interested in taking that computer test, but try to make it feel more comfortable so that it's not, like, high stakes that day up.
Thank you very much. And then does anybody else have any questions for Dale? Not on the aspect, Taylor, but just getting back to the compliment that Caitlin gave you. Can you just give those of us who don't have kids in here just a general understanding of the curriculum changes? Sure. Thanks. So
we'll start just in four, five, six, probably the biggest shift, what we've done is and I hate to use it department wise because not completely where every teacher is doing just one subject. However, every teacher has different subjects in different grades. So all the students are all switching classes. Fourth and fifth grade switched twice, and sixth grade switches to all three. And then in addition, we've added a four five enrichment math class and a four five I'm sorry. Not four five. Five six enrichment math class and a five six enrichment ELA class, which serves, many purposes. One, helps to meet the individual needs of students. It also makes our class sizes a touch smaller up at the five six, which is nice, as those tend to be our biggest classes. And that so missus Fraser and missus Lateska, library and math intervention, are teaching those sections. In math, we are piloting illustrative mathematics. I know you might the board might have seen we piloted I Ready. Very expensive and did not give us what Enough to feel like that was an investment. Illustrative math is open source, which means it is free to us, free to any district with, the goal being every student in Connecticut has access to high quality curriculum. And we're very pleased so far. We've done some training in that. In reading, we're still we're still on the wait for our magical waiver from the state. Yeah. This one has come. I'm sure that's coming any day. You know, the rumors are maybe by Christmas now. But as always, we forge ahead. So we continue in our work to follow the signs of reading and adjust our practices based on that. So we're doing a lot more of explicit phonics instruction at the lower grades,
still building in you may hear if you're kind of hearing the the reading wars, that love of reading and that independent reading, we value that because we value kids loving books and wanting to be in them. However, we don't wasted time with kids who can't read and are just sitting, like, looking at the book or not engaged. So we're really balancing that with more explicit instruction. And we are looking at the approved programs that the state has provided in because we we just we don't know if the waiver gets denied and we need to utilize grants that the state has, put forward, then we will. And if not, we'll continue to supplement our current instruction with what what is needed.
What what is illustrative illustrative math? Excuse me. What what is that? I started with things so fancy. Right? It's a curriculum. So if
you think of your math textbook, it had an McGraw Hill probably on the threads. That there we go. It's that, but its name is illustrative. Okay. And so and there is no textbook. So I would say if I had to sum it up for you, it's a lot of that we call it productive struggle in the math work math world up front where we're just saying, what can you do and wrestle with this? And then we'll go ahead and scaffold and fill in what you need to move forward. Things like number talks, a lot of fluency, some mental fluencies that we're working on. And so that's we're piloting in 02/03. It will build into four, five, six. And then in k one, we plan to stay with our teaching to the standards. We have many programs to draw on, but as we do more play based learning, and I feel we're actually very ahead of the curve in k one of the state, there isn't a program that meets our needs. So we have highly competent teachers who plan,
to the standards. Thank you. Mhmm. Anyone else? Thank
you all who came to read and supporting us in the opening.
Yeah. And it was great to see in the enrollment report that we're up to two zero six. Yeah.
That's it. Not to steal your thunder. Sorry. But, no, that was fine. Recruited them. Well, I mean, I get that. Yeah. But I just from other channels. Thank you. No. Just great to see that. You know, we had a there's some big some houses selling, and Yes. We're our pre K is too full to the brim. I mean, we we are Yeah. That's great. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Taylor. Absolutely. Alright. Karen?
Towards the back of your packet is the financials for July and August as of the time I ran this report. Did anybody have a chance to go through it? Are there any questions? I mean, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but if you have questions, by all means. I just have one question for the the special ed outplacement. It looks like we're at about 50%. Is that
wherever that's being paid, you pay for half the year? Well, I already yeah. I got the bill from one of our outplace students already for the the I and I encumbered it for the whole year. Okay. That's that's where the 50% is. That's my question. Dependence.
If I know about it, I encumbered I know it. It's better. Yeah. Because that way, it gives you a more accurate reflection. Yeah. Exactly. It's encumbered versus paid. Yep. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Any other questions? Okay. Is everybody okay? I think so. K. Then we'll move on. Okay. You're up to item number one for discussion. We can talk about. Okay. This is your project. I'll be going on it. So
I apologize. Those who were here last time actually got a handout. I thought they would be included in the packets. They weren't. Otherwise, I would have emailed them to you, but we'll have some show and tell right now. Mhmm. And those of you who had it, last time, you know, already have copies of the policies. So what I did was start off with the 1,000 series policies. And before going any further, I wanted to make sure that I was providing it to you all in a format that you wanted to see. Caitlin had an excellent suggestion, so that's how I provided it last time, which was don't just show us the changes you've made. Show us, as they have been incorporated, show us the changes that you actually made to the policies or are proposing you made for the policies.
So, for example, this is the new 1,000 policy, and the time last time, unfortunately, we didn't provide you with color copies. Otherwise, you would know, you know, the changes that were made, whatnot. Not a lot to this policy. What I did in pairing the policies is to go back and compare our policies to the ones that are provided by Cave. Mhmm. Cave has a core policy manual. And then spoke with Valerie who, as we talked about last time, made excellent suggestions. Won't say talking off the ledge again. I'm just teasing you. She did. Mhmm. And basically said, just consider this, and I think all of us need to consider this. Policies are are things that exist for a very long time. If you look at these policies, they were last updated in 2009. So, there are only certain things about which we want policies to be made. So in looking at the core policy manual, it doesn't mean that we have to adopt all of those policies. One of the policies, for example, that I decided or in conjunction with speaking with Valerie decided that I didn't necessarily think we needed, and Taylor just alluded to it. You know, we've gone through different programs just with our different curricula. Well, this is a program with regard to the parent portal. Well, we've gone through different programs with regard to the parent portal. So is it really something that we wanna create a policy about or just let our administration do their job? So for example, I didn't put in eleven ten point two as a policy that you all might want to see included.
If you think we need a parent portal policy, acceptable use and safety policy,
I can provide it to you, and you can take a look and see if that's something Shannon, real quick before we go any can you just, allude to anyone listening? Yeah. The 1,000 series covers what? What is the purpose of Community relations. Community relations is the entire 1,000 series.
So it's communicating with the public, distributing printed material, communicating with media. How is that all supposed to occur? Now the interesting thing about policy is policy is one thing. That's what we create, the board of education. Then anything about which we create a policy is up to the administration, typically the superintendent and or the principal, to create any regulations that would put into place what the policy requires. So you have to pay good attention to anything we say shall or will or does it direct anybody to create a regulation. And the final thing that I mentioned last time, although it's very strange, is they don't simply paginate the pages from policies. So even though it looks like it's a parenthetical a, it actually is page one. So page one is parenthetical a. Page two of any policy is parenthetical b. And at the bottom bottom of every policy, it will reflect the last time it was adopted and any legislation that's referred to, with regard to what the policy is bringing about. So, last time I gave so first, I guess, question is, do you wanna see as it was provided last time, the changes that I'm proposing, and as far as future policies that I'm gonna give to you? Like, should I send them by email? Copy of that via email because I wasn't here in the August meeting. That's what I should have done. Right? But I'll send it by email. And Did you didn't you send them by email? I did. You did? Okay. Alright. Okay. But send them, and then you'll see them in red. I think Valerie may have forwarded them. I don't know how they came about. Okay. It's okay. I'll I'll do it for the future ones. But remember. So we wanna see the changes. Is that correct?
Yes. I would also ask that if we're going to be voting on it, perhaps we can send it to Taylor so we can have it on the screen to share as we're discussing the policy. Okay. I'm not in that way. In the package, it's also up here. So if anyone can see it. Sees it, has a question, or wants to provide input. Steven, I don't have the ones in college. No. She's No. I'm saying in the future. Maybe not today, but if we Okay. So I think you got that's what you got. I don't have what she's referring to. Okay. So she's gonna have to We'll figure it out. This is what was sent. And I'm just saying in the future, if we can do that so that way we have it on the screen, everyone can see it. I think that makes more sense. Great.
Just making notes. And,
I I mean, I I would question. May I understand well, no. I don't understand why Cave is doing the pagination the way they are.
But do we want to is that something we have to do? Is this something we think we should follow, or is it gonna create more confusion
with those individuals who are going to read the policies like parents? And should we not follow that that standard?
The reason why you keep that standard is because as Shannon mentioned earlier, every single district's policy book looks different. So one eleven point zero may be the same in everybody's, but if they paginate them on the bottom, that may be page 12 in this district, page 20 in another. So they want you to look at the thing on the top. If it's three pages of one eleven, it's one eleven point one. And as Shannon said, in everybody's policy book, the first one will say a, the next one will say b, the third section will say c. So that is why they do that because not every district takes any sort of recommend they sent thousands of recommendations for policies, you know, over the course of five years Mhmm. Which is great. But now every district does,
bring them in as their own. So that is why you see a b c rather than agitating the bottom of them because that is the universal. And I know when, like, when Taylor had done when we've done all the updating to the website, we talked about having them posted so that you can go to a particular one. Mhmm. But also so that you're a parent who wants to read the policies, you can print the whole thing out instead of having to click on
I click a single clicky. Right? Well, we're gonna have to change the website because as it stands now, they're in word format, and the only way in which you know, then you have to accept accept, read only or all that kind stuff. So we what we need to do is hopefully adopt changes in the policy Mhmm. And then put them on as PDFs. Yeah. Yeah. And Cave think would make the most And then they can be changed and whatnot. And and I did forget one of the parts of that, Chris, in that explanation is Cave is the wonderful source of potential policies, but they are equal in the state with wards of ed to the ones that shipment puts out. So a lot of districts that do have shipment as their attorneys take and pull Shipment's suggested policies. Not 11 o one would be the same, but Shipment versus, Cave are two separate suggestions. So when I was looking at Cave, I didn't know about Goodman, I would pull together they often have three different templates for what you might put in as a policy. Hopefully, it's okay that I'm doing the work to look at those three different templates and then proposing to you all what the language might look like. If you all wanna do that work, that's fine. But that's what I'm trying to do to take a look at cake policy. Else wants to I
I I do I do enough policy work in my day job. Well, I'll just give it all to you because that would be good. Okay. But in addition, I think it provides some consistency with the way that they're read. Yes.
Got it. So the final thing is a lot so bottom line is the policy number and the pagination are uniform statewide, which is why it's done. It seems very strange to me, and I didn't learn about it because anytime I read a statute that's eleven ten parentheses a, that's the subsection of the statute eleven ten. So I had I had to read that in the policy manual. And bottom line, the 1,000 all the series are the same throughout the state. Okay? So what I also tried to do is, you had a really good question, Steve. What are the 1,000 series? Some of our policies didn't put at the top of everything, what the series was, so I tried to put in community relations on every single one of these. Okay?
So what we've got for consideration today, we had it last month, is, the changes to 1,000. Yeah. Sure. Oh, and the other thing I wanted to mention is, as you can imagine, there are school districts with 10 different schools within the district. Mhmm. It was hard enough to keep with school district because Valerie is the supervisor of the schools, which sometimes can incorporate looking out for students once they get to Ram, for example. So it's not necessarily her purview or but it is it can be considered a jurisdiction for an AES student, to follow along and whatnot. So it kept school district to school district, but anytime we refer to school or a principal, that's Andover. This is, again, to try to keep it uniform.
That's that's what we're voting on today? Yep. I think so. Yeah. And
because we did the first read on the last one. Correct? Last one. Yep.
And then another one we're voting on tonight is a completely new one, which why it wasn't all underlined and whatnot. That's 11:10, and that's all about the distribution of printed material that's encouraging the relationship between the board of education and the community, providing for a website, providing for inviting the community to public events and whatnot, and the requirements of staff members to keep everybody informed. The final thing is a statutory requirement, which is as as Donald knows, I was looking at the The requirement when board minutes are required to be put around and then when the voting and that's why each vote must be tabulated and provided for the public if the public wants. So this is a completely new one. Then last time, we also got the parent involvement. That was 11:10.1. And there was so much red that I also provided 11:10.1, without all the changes. Okay. I didn't wanna see it. Okay. And then the final one was 11:12, which is, media access to students, which is when they can come into the school. As every parent in here knows, yeah, I can do them all. We can we can do the changes later. That's a new policy. These are two together.
So we're looking at one thousand, 11:10 one, and what's the 1000, 1110,
1110.1, and 1112. And Just for right now. Is the same as Yes, sir. Yep. Didn't make any changes since I sent them out last time. So the final one, as you know, is basically, as far as media access to students is as you'll see in the handbook every year, you either have to enroll in or enroll out and say, I don't want they have to negatively say that they do not want their child to be in any photos or have any media access. So that's recognized in here. The other thing that's recognized since we last updated our policies is the required two parent teacher conferences to be offered per year, and they also added in after COVID what had to happen after at least three weeks of remote learning. So that's that. So now knowing what how you want to be presented and what we need to do with regard to getting it to the public, I'll go forward with updating further policies in the 1,000 series.
Okay?
Shannon? Yes. Does can you put on anything beyond those binders? Are those binders still being used, or is everything electronic? Both. Both. So when they add a new policy, they send the paper once for them?
They typically send it to the school. They send the suggestions. Yes.
But what I'm looking at, this isn't the suggestion. This was the one that was originally adopted. So this is our adopted policy manual. And I do believe that at least somewhere, the school should keep a hard copy printed and updated at all times. It is in Diane Haines' office. And mine. She I'm I'm figuring that that, but I'm thinking into mine as well. And if we're gonna keep this in the library and on there, then this one should Yeah. Diane I guess we update it. She I noticed I already said 2022,
everything, so that's why I'm not bringing. So the final thing is tomorrow, I just got an email about it. There is, a meeting of the policy, heads or whatnot for each board of education with, and I intend to participate in Zoom. Hopefully, I'll learn more and be able to Definitely. You all, next month. Thank you, So I guess I will propose that we change, or update policies 1,000, policy eleven ten, policy eleven ten point one, and policy eleven twelve as proposed by me. K. No.
Nothing. There has to be a second, and then there can be discussion, I guess. That's what that's gonna be our question. So when can I actually Well, why don't you second any of them? We'll discuss it, Michael. I mean, I would be happy to. Great. Yes, sir.
So in I guess, if I'm looking at $11,010 a Yep. Distribution of printed material You know? Because last time you presented this, there was two questions you want us to ask. Should we have this policy? Correct. And should we commit to this? Correct. So I was looking through some of the language in 01/1110 a. And second paragraph says the board encourages public input into the decision making process. And to this end, the board supports and encourages various means such as publications, press releases, open houses, websites, public events. And, like, I circled four of them. I circled publications, press releases, open houses, and public events. And I know that the school itself does these. But as as a as a board, do we offer any publications? Do we offer any press releases? Do we offer any open houses to the community? Do we have any public events? So is this something the board The is going to commit to, or is this something we're supporting the Exactly. The school is doing? Exactly. That's my point. Read it I read it and proposed
it as the board supports and encourages, meaning we're supporting and encouraging
the fact that these are disseminated by the school. Alright. So it's not just the board of staff coming up with it. I just wanna make sure that since if it was wasn't and there was something we were putting on, that's something we're committing to, I wanna make that clear. No. That's good. Next thing I have is so I would say three paragraphs down. So staff members Yep. Shall be kept informed of community relations efforts, and their support and participation in such efforts shall be sought. So the way I read that is that the teaching staff, the staff support Mhmm. They're gonna be encouraged. They're gonna be informed. They're gonna be They're part of our community. Right? So my question is is that I don't think contractually there's anything in their contract that says they have to participate in anything outside, like, open open house. There's certain elements they have to participate in. So if we're putting that in a policy Mhmm. We're kinda setting expectation of teachers. So, like, my question is if that's an expectation we're gonna put on them, is that something we're going to expect them to do without being paid?
No. All I'm seeing it as is keeping them informed. So we have an obligation to keep them informed because many of the teachers are part of our community. Well, they're part of our community, but many of them live in the community or surrounding areas. And that in coming up with community relations because one of these defines our community relations program and how we're committing to that Right. Then we need to seek the input of the teachers as far as what community relations efforts should be made. Right. I guess I might I don't think it's anything above and beyond what their contract requires. Right. So I think my concern is from the teacher's lens is that if if I'm my participation in such efforts shall be sought. If I'm having my time Oh, I understand. Okay. Out Yep. And I'm participating in those I understand what you're saying. Then, like, feel welcomed.
Yeah. I I was like so because I'm participating outside my contractual hours. So we would take out participation. Competitive. Yes. Absolutely. So language wise there, I just wanna be careful with Very good point. What we're saying. Yep. So but I think you you either changed
that or you changed Shelby sought to, like, we'll be We'll be encouraged. Welcomed or would be Right. Like, to say that we would like their input Right. As opposed to required.
Right. Because I would hate to put teachers in a bad position. So, like, you know, if if certain ones do participate versus others, like yeah.
Yeah. I guess what I was seeing is, you know, just looking back at the language, that we would be required to seek out their support. Right. But it wouldn't be expected that they participate. So how to say that? So let's make sure. Do you have anything more? Because I think you can read that both. Right? I'm seeking out. There's the You see, your support. You are more, Mike, because I'll I'll just figure out some language. So I was not on that policy. I have some others on the the next policy. Question on that one. So where you you wrote what was it? This one's What was it about?
You what is. It's about properly written like, including properly written and signed communication.
Oh. And they With the public, maybe? The regular two way and meaningful? No? Okay.
Oh, this. The board will place on its meeting agenda any properly signed written communication from a citizen or organization. Is it is it proper to have that be vague that you're not defining what properly signed written communication is? Yeah. Because in this day and age That's why I've written it up. It's It
has. Like, you don't use anonymous, but also in this day of But, like, it's a safety email or okay. Yep. But it does have to be acknowledged to sending. So that is yep. That's why I said it that way. That's what I figured. Just wanna make sure. Yep. Did anybody have anything more on November? Okay. So So just Why don't we just change? Staff members shall be kept informed of community relations efforts, and their support and participation in such efforts shall be encouraged. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, welcome. I don't know if that's I like welcome. Well, welcome. When you said that, I think that Yeah. So it does sound like it's it's back. Welcome. Excellent. Change one word. It's really healthy. Yes, sir. Any changes on 11:10.1?
I just had a couple questions. So point one out of the six on the bottom, communicating Yep. Communication between home and school should be regular two way meaningful. Mhmm. Some of the language there, I just want to discuss. So, it says such communication may include monthly newsletters, electronic communications, required regular contact with all parents. So from the teacher lens, what does required regular contact mean?
That was in the proposed policy. So I'll ask our administrators if there is such a requirement. I believe there is by law. So
So there's not like, I don't say four times per week, you must email each teacher. So there are the things like monthly newsletter. There are parent conferences that are required. Yep. Report cards are required, sounds but as a communication. And then grade levels build consensus around, like, pre k and k today said, once a week, we're all gonna agree to at least do one picture and caption. And then once a month, we'll do a newsletter. So but that varies upon grade level bands as they get older. Notification of testing scores,
notification of PPTs, notification of, anything related to the child. They are required. Right.
Is there a reason we're going deeper into the as opposed to just leaving it with home as, you know communication is regular two way and meaningful by adding all of those things that feel like we're tying ourselves into, and that's realistically up to the administration on how to make it. Just kept the language that was in there with Kate because That was okay. In our previous one, we had removed that, and I'm not sure that I think it's important because I think it's, you know, I think it's important to acknowledge,
number one, what's statutorily required, like the parent teacher conferences.
Statutory, I like what I what what makes me I don't wanna hear that well, it says in our policy that we're supposed to be sending out a monthly newsletter. And about the newsletter.
Okay. Because there are teachers that don't do a monthly newsletter. They might do a weekly what about homework hotlines? I don't know what that means. You're the parents, so tell me. I think the
the fact that it says may include is important. Like, for me, like, when I see that word required,
you know, required right at the time. As a teacher, like, okay. Like, so I need to know knowing other parents word
required. But knowing other parents on the may include, we don't know if they wanna send you aloud. Okay. Well, this this teacher sends it out, so they're the good teacher. Then leave your opts not to. So, like, they're not doing it. You just say may include some reason. Pick the things and then say based on I don't think we should pick the things. I think we should just say that they're gonna they're gonna communicate. What what was it before? Communication between home and school is regular, two way, and meaningful. Yeah. And if we wanna include them, see any statutory requirements to cover us on that The conference or whatever, then that's fine. But I don't know that I wanna tie any teachers or anybody into news because I I know parents, and I'm no I've heard well, I didn't get a monthly newsletter this month. Okay.
We could take out the whole thing. Can we just say such communication will include electronic communications?
Because that doesn't define, like, how many, how often, but, like, yes, they're going to communicate electronically. How about newsletters? Because I know we do send out news letters. I I do, but not every teacher is requesting. No. No. But that's it's not it's between the school,
not between teachers and Yes. And the school. Challenge not every principal might choose a newsletter. Yeah. But then also the point It's for you. It's only for this school.
But Sure. The college will Wait. She's asking us not to do it. They're the principal. I got it. She's asking us not to do it, but I think we need to It's just like What do you gotta say, Taylor? Electron communications.
So I think the other part of this too in using the word may include is make it make it less specific. So it's will include Maybe get then just say electronic communication, and what are the two required conferences. Will include electronic communications.
Because you're saying otherwise, if you say may include and then list a whole bunch states. We should eliminate the
No. Because they're statutory requirements. Why don't you say why don't you say and Oh, we should. Yeah. I mean, we don't have every law that we are required in the case. I think that's
Well, why don't we see specific. Will include electronic communications and two required And statutory requirements. And conferences for each Why don't we just put in we'll include any statutory That's all, Scott. We don't have to get rid of any of that. Right. You know? Can I just say something One year when I was teaching at Pleasant Valley in in South Windy Ridge, we were given a goal? We had to have so many parent teacher contact Mhmm. Yet a month. Right. Now that could have included teachers of a grade level getting together and doing a newsletter and sending it home. There's one contact with every parent. Or it could have included a test note. Your child scored a 100% on such and such an evaluation assessment on such and such a day, which included the following skills. It could have included a phone call. And it didn't have to be your your son or daughter threw another kid across the room. It it could be your son or daughter had a great day this today, and they worked hard and a compliment. So it it could take the form. They they gave us free rein. They just want us to record. It was onerous.
But I I like that, but I think that that should be given to the superintendent and the principal's discretion, not to the board of education to determine how many and what communications are made. We're not saying that. So Yeah. But if we make it a policy, we are. Can can you read it We're not saying that we just that I'm trying is such such communication will include
electronic communications and two two, excuse me, electronic communications, two required flexible parent teacher conferences for each school year, and I can't look to require because when you renegotiate the teacher's contract, if that changes, then we have to change your policy. Okay. So just get rid of the whole thing, like Steve said. We're we're keeping it working. The way we know. Oh, okay. Because That may include electronic communications, two required flexible You can't say two because, again Okay. How about required? How about just parent teacher conferences for each school year? May include electronic communication and parent teacher conferences. And then and any other statutorily required Yes. You never mind. Yeah. Yeah? Communication. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. That's why you had a lawyer doing this crazy. Yada yada yada. Anything else, Mike, that you had on I just have one last 11 promise here for last one. I find No. No. No. I'm just So I I'm I just forget.
No, this is literally a. It's important. My last thing is lots of time in. So The
point number two around that parenting, where it says parenting skills should be promoted and supported. Yep. So if we're gonna commit to this, like, as a board, we're saying in some way, shape, or form, we're going to promote and support parenting skills. Uh-huh. So that's a
it's a big thing. A biggie. Today is good. How do We used to say we would. Now we're saying good. But for me, it's It used to say shout. Yeah. It said are. Parenting skills are promoted. Now we're saying But a phone parent, and I'm reading that.
Like, I can spare the school, the district to to to
do something to yeah. It does. Just add that that is a NIAC requirement too. And so one of the things we're working on is offering some more, like, parenting classes partnering with Hebron and Okay.
And there's also a requirement for professional development for teachers to have I just wanna make sure that as a board, we're saying we're committing to this. That there's something that stands behind it. Right. Yeah. So if if if this is something we're committing to, we should keep tabs on it. We should make sure we're growing it. We're developing. We're doing anything we can to support the school and having parent outreach. Yes. It is tricky.
So the superintendent will develop appropriate regulations conducive to achieving a high level of parental involvement in the educational process. Yeah. So then that's what we're talking about policy and regulation. Right. So I just wanna We're saying that that was, like We're saying it should be promoted, and then we're leaving it up to the administration as to how that's followed through on. Right. But, yeah, we're saying our policy is to promote parenting status. That's something I just wanna really reinforce. Yeah. That's a big thing where where committing to that, you know, know, there are there are parents
in our community who who could could greatly benefit from those kinds of programs, and myself included in that, in in kinda, like, developing your parenting skills around how to both connect your home environment with the screen environment. But that could be a a really big thing we could move forward with.
Possibly taking whatever we're getting through the NIAC accreditation and signing programs. And we're also school readiness councils. We're working with you this year, and we're trying part of that is to try to cost share some of that and get more participation with the agents. They're happy to do it. Honestly, I'd be curious just because you brought up the meeting that you guys are having in terms of mental health, if any schools are using any of that to host
meetings or workshops for parents on how to talk with or work with their kids on.
Mhmm. So we actually started this summer with including the summer programming for the preschoolers before they came in. And we are accrediting kindergarten, which no one in the area has an accredited kindergarten. It's just accredited preschools. So we will have NIAC in the two preschools and the two kindergartens support of our classes here. And so with that, we will come those things. So whether that is from your policy or not, that is in our programming because we are, NAMP accredited for preschool and when we were. Did anybody have anything with regard to 11:12? Okay. But we came up with
Nobody's on there. Or no. Was that I'm sorry. No. It was a. Sorry. Yeah. Does anybody have 11:12? Twelve. Can I see that one again? Yeah. Michael,
thank you for you know, such attention to this tale and and for discussing. We're supposed to have a discussion about this. Last time when we used to go through policies, we would just rubber stamp them. So it's really important, I think, that we actually look at the language. Oh, great. See a student teacher's lens. Yeah. Very helpful. Yeah. That's why our diverse board is very Yes. Right. Media access to student.
Yeah. Is might might seem trivial, but I'm assuming on the updated one, number nine is still parents not we don't want theirs. I I feel like we should move that to one.
It looks like she well, number one is how they media has to report into the school. I just did it as a Yeah. You know, following along with the progression of how media might come into the school, then what's required, then parent reaction to that, and parents being allowed to say no contact with my kid. But in general, if it's a public event or not inside the school environments, subject to media, attention.
Eric, do wanna do you wanna see this? Because it it makes it easier. It's just all under number six instead of having it be redundant. Right.
Which that stuff hasn't come home yet this year. Correct? Student handbook? I'm sorry. The student handbook or, like, the media relations. So the media release went out online. Oh, almost everyone filled it up. The Google one?
I don't know. Same as last year. I might have done it, and I don't remember anything. Or Mike is the I'm don't know. We don't fill things out. I'll get you too. I I will try. Yeah. We gotta think it's I probably did it, and I don't remember. Yes. We have a no photo list, so it happened. She wanted to She's gone. I changed the button now. We're gone. I can send that again just in case anyone missed it.
And then this week, we'll be signing are saying. Well, two out of the four parents are saying, I'm sure I did. I'm sure. We have almost every month. So That's just because we do things right away. Yeah. Forget about them. It was with transportation. I was gonna say that. Oh, I did.
Was the same email, so you might have done both. I did pop them on and show you that. And then for student handbook, we decided to follow suit with most districts. We stopped printing a million, and so we're gonna post it online, and what you'll get home is just something that you sign in. I don't say that. Okay. You agree. Or if you we we got 10. We don't wanna say no. And if somebody wants a heart doctor, we're gonna listen to him. Yeah. That's good. I
think I did the think I did the media. I think I did.
She can she'll probably look at Tomorrow, look at it. When will the health form become not a paper?
Never. Never. So believe it or not, that was had some significant updates this year. It was simplified. I hope I never felt that way, but we did a lot of work on it. But now it's just that you have to still fill out the same thing for Yeah. You know, I fill out all the things that are generic, and then I copy it on the copier, and it fills it. Steven Fuss, ladies and gentlemen.
Freak it. Good. Fuss the bust one. It's a significant amount of money to do it via PowerSchool. Like, we're talking, like, over 10 k for real. Yeah. No. You people can keep it running. So we've been at this about Google, which would be free, but you just worry that it's Well, there's, like, certain information. Yes. So I know. Because we'd love to do it in PowerSchool, but anything is PowerSchool PowerSchool don't mess around Yeah. With their. Just same reason our enrollment is still in. Okay?
That's fine. I guess I'll call the question before you do. Anybody else who did it? Okay. You just hand me back. Thank you, sir. Thanks.
K. So we're all the questions? Yeah. On adapting these new And the motion would read? I put forth a motion that we do the we adopt the changes as proposed and as amended now, this evening during this meeting to policies 1,000, eleven ten, eleven ten point one, and eleven twelve.
And Michael seconded it. Michael seconded it. Okay. And then I just added as amended during our discussion. Alright. All in favor of adopting policies with their amendments, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?
Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Janet. Thank you for all your work on that. It's a
lot. Keep going. A lot of. Mhmm. Okay. Next item is. I've got the joint meeting plan. Yeah. Thank you for your work on it. Yes. Yeah. How's it going?
So the survey was sent out to 24 people. I've heard back from 17 at this point, which I would say is pretty good turnout. Over 50% of each board and, like, 75% of the school or town employees that were included on that. The one day that everyone said they could attend is October 12. So that's probably what we will set it for.
Something like No. It's Oh, it's a day after. It's a Thursday.
Okay. What time? Like, seven? So it Okay. Yeah. It'll be at seven, and then I don't know if it can be here or, like, location wise, what is appropriate. But the the two people that I've been working with on the other two boards is Adrian and then Joanne Heabert. So between the three of us, the the other feedback on that survey that was asked was, like, do you have any other, you know, comments or positive feedback that would help make this a collaborative meeting? And resoundingly, what people commented if they did was just that it needs to have a clear agenda, and we need to stick to the agenda so that we can get along and not get stuck down tangents or start being upset with each other because that defeats the purpose. So my hope is to work with the two of them to come up with a a pretty clear agenda for that meeting, just so that we can set the stage for how how the three of us as boards can work together to help our town as we go forward. Has there been any discussion on having a moderator? Yeah. I was just gonna People have asked for a moderator. I guess I I would and I've reached out to both Joanne and and Adrian about who we would ask to be a moderator for that. The town clerk, I think, would be
has done it before at the town meeting. And just somebody who's kind of neutral, not on any three boards who can kinda keep us on focus if the tan if we start going down any tangent. Yeah. I I think that would be a good idea.
I don't Okay. Yeah. And we just don't know location yet.
Didn't nail that down, and I haven't I haven't sent an email out to to everyone included on that. I just we were I was trying to wait to make sure that I got a significant amount of response, but we're about a month away from that right now. Okay.
And so far, that data is still a 100%. So Okay. And how many people would be participating based on your current RSVPs? So 17 people answered the survey Yep. Out of 24. Mhmm. And all of those said that they could come. October 12. So I'm just looking at space as far as putting 20 people in here and the public. 24. No. The public's also invited to the meeting. So maybe we would need to do it in a community room. Or community room has better well, I don't know what has better acoustics.
I don't know. But We have better air conditioning. We have food. Yeah. Don't you say, It also has better air conditioning.
The community room? Yeah. The chairs are better. Yes. Just the chairs are No. Large and short and So we'll your own chairs. We'll we'll figure it out in our house. No. No. It's fine. Would would you be able to ask Carol for me, or do you want me to reach out to her? I can I'll take that one. I talk to her occasionally. Just just, like, every now and then maybe? K. Anything else? Required communication. Required.
It is. Okay. If there's an agenda, we'll be always see that ahead of time. That would be the hope and goal. Yes. You sure,
Right. No. I think it's my it could be a productive meeting. It it needs to have that ahead of time. So I think if any of you have stuff that you wanna email me individually that you would like to be included or if you have an idea for it. I was thinking each of the boards might come up with their own ideas about what they wanna see in the agenda. That's what I And then So that's why trying We'll do it to you and then each board. That was the whole point. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions for David?
No. No. Thank you. Yeah. No. Thank you. I'll yeah. I have it marked as, you know, ten, twelve at seven, so hopefully, we can Yeah. That'd be great. K. Next slide, on upper level parking lot. It's David. Yep.
So we do have an update. So on our last meeting, which was on the special meeting, which was on August 21, we voted to because we were told that we technologically are unable to do an ACH transfer and that we we voted to have the check payable to Constantine's and the check the town would, in a sense, kinda hold on to that check. So I did email Eric Anderson and asked him, and and I can I can read that that email? Dear Eric, I hope you're doing well. I wanted to provide you with an update on the upper lot paving project at AES. I have been informed from Terry that we will not be able to do an ACH transfer from the BOE account to the town account as we are technologically unable to do so. In light of this, would the town accept the check payable to Constantine's in the full amount that the school encumbered for this project, plus or minus a 125,000? We are working on getting an updated quote from Constantine's as we showed them the town specifications and requirements. I'm hopeful to get an answer soon. Once we get an updated quote from Constantine's and their agreement of the town specifications as an addendum to their quote, I will make sure that it is sent to you. Since this is now a town project, will you be signing the contract with Constantine, and when can we expect the issuance of a permit? So that was on August 28. And then I did receive an email from him,
basically, and I can read it. He said talk to both the auditor as well as the town attorney about how we can do this legally without audit issues. I'm attaching the town's attorney's legal opinion, which I think all of you Yes. Have. Yeah. I'm paraphrasing the conversation with the town auditor. The auditor says that these projects have to flow through the, quote, normal capital process, unquote. Given that the BOS, BOF, and BOE approved the project, he would not flag the fact that there was no formal RFP or public meeting. However, he would expect that any bids would be available for the audit. He stated he would classify this as, quote, an education related capital expense and therefore, money appropriated for general education expenses could be transferred to the town for a capital project. It is still the town's responsibility for capital projects, but on the audit, it would show as a capital item related to education. So we are back to AES doing an electronic transfer or writing a check to town of Andover. The town board of selectman slash board of finance has already motioned to put the money in the AES capital fund and expend it on the paving project. Then the boards work together to define a procedure going forward. The auditor said that could possibly be funded through the 2% nonlapsing account in the future, but you are limited on how much you can put in each year and budget extra money as a part of a normal capital appropriation.
That would be a board discussion in the future. I still need any contract from Constantine to agree to agree to agree to abide by the town's technical specifications document. So I gave him a call because there was some Constantine's wanted there's a this there's a compaction range. Mhmm. And Constantine's wanted language in there that it was a range. When I called Eric on that, Valerie had given us the state of Connecticut DOT section on it. I shared that with him. He then he said, okay. Get me that section. I gave him the section. He went back to the town supervisor and the town, engineer. And I guess there's there's two two levels of compaction. There's, like, the the first level of compaction and then the top level of compaction. So he did amend that, and then, I did send that on to, Valerie to give to, Constantine's. So the town will not accept the check payable to Constantine's. It's my understanding that Constantine's will agree to the the town specifications. They will put language in their contract that clearly says that they're agreeing to it, but we are back. The town will not accept the check payable to Constantines. They're asking that the check be payable to the town. So that is the FA. Thank you, Celeste. Yeah. You know what? So
we can make a check payable to the town then. It's been approved by every board.
Well, we have to so to do that, we have to vote to unencumbered the funds because it's a board action to encumber the funds. So I think legally, we have to vote to unencumbered.
And I know a couple of us have issues with that. I'm open to conversation on it. Although I do have a couple questions, but I will save mine for everybody else to get their questions out.
I think considering that it's a capital improvement project and that it probably should have gone through CIP to get approved in the first place, then we have been given the good grace of the other two boards for not having followed that pathway. Like I said at our special meeting regarding this, I really think we should just write the check to the town and get it done so that the parking lot is paved so that people can drop their kids off up there so that pickup and drop off can be a little bit more smooth. I I think we've found our first
agenda item for the joint meeting is to determining how these projects should move forward. Yep. And I think our lack of having a definition of that kind of maybe led us here. Yep. But at this point, everything else aside,
it's now September. The longer this gets pushed, the colder it gets. You know, we get people walking up the side of the hill to get up to the parking lot. Like, at the end of the day, what our responsibility to do is get that parking lot fixed and open. If we need to change how we go about that in but if we're holding this up on semantics on who we're writing the check to, I think that doesn't make any sense to me. And I'd be open to be open to hear why. I I honestly have struggled to wrap my head around why we wouldn't. But I think that's where we are right now, right, as as a parent, as a community member who has other parents amount of money. We will approve the funds. It's been approved by every board, and it can happen. I'm struggling to understand why we don't make it happen. And then we can fix or define policies in the future to make sure that everyone's happy with how we do it. But right now, we have a responsibility to get that parking lot open.
So please. No. I said I would go ask. Anybody else wanna go?
I would just echo that my sentiment is exactly the same as Steve's, and I'm incredibly frustrated by the process right now. I feel like we're stuck on semantics, and I feel like we are creating discord among our town. And parents can see that, and community members can see that. And it's not a good look, and it's not good for our school and our kids.
I have a question. Who would be paying for if we didn't have this money that Valerie put aside for us to do the parking lot,
would the money come from? We would have had to go to see the IP to begin with. We've had to go to the town for an additional expenditure,
and we would now be months in the making of getting an additional expenditure. So the other thing and I'll let Chris go ask as requested. It's not just semantics. It's the law. So we're not just I'm sorry. It's not just semantics. It's not just, you know, words here, and I take laws very seriously, obviously. It's the law, and it's our charter that we followed. It was money that has already been budgeted to the school. When we did the roof improvement, we involved everybody, but we didn't go through the whole rigmarole that has been followed here. And I wanna take issue with the fact that we're creating the Discord. I think it's great on October 12 that this be item number one as to how to avoid this in the future and establishing policies to go forward, But we are basically talking about giving over our right to determine what happens with our budgeted money
to the board of selectmen and the board of finance. That's not how it's supposed to go. And that's all I'll say. I understand parent. If I were a parent, I would be very upset with how this has gone, but I wanna put on the record that it has not been our fault. It is ridiculous what has happened with regard to the denial of a permit with regard to paving in a spot in our school that is under our jurisdiction that requires that it be done for safety purposes and could have been done months ago before the school year even started. So I just wanna put it on the record that I understand frustrations,
and the frustrations are not properly being directed at the board of education.
And I'm gonna echo what Shannon said. As a parent, first of all, I myself am frustrated with the fact that we have to shove everything in a lower lot and completely not using upper lot. That's frustrating. You can't get around the fact that that's just it's not the preferred option right now. But going back to the whole semantics, again, it's not semantics. It's the actual law that we have to make sure we're following. Beside this idea of Discord, look at our communications we've developed since, what, last at least last November. How many times have we said we wanna talk? We wanna collaborate. Times where we haven't even been officially acknowledged by the other boards. Our communications that we've gone through the proper channels with have not been officially acknowledged. They've been ignored. We are not respected. So, yes, this is about a paving job, but we also have to make sure that we are respecting ourselves as a stand alone board. And if something is within our right to do, if it's within our jurisdiction to do per law, then if we start backing down from that, what what really is our role then? Should we even exist,
or should the town control the school? That's all I have to say.
The one thing I really feel disappointed in is that it was July you went to board of finance? No. The end of April.
End of April. Time flies when you have a. But board of finance come to an understanding that in our budget, we had no way of budgeting for these kinds of repairs. The building isn't brand new. It's gonna have things that it needs and repairs. Where do we get the money from? Would we come up with a budget? And it's our best guess of something that's gonna happen in the future, what we're gonna need in the future. And it's great. Power approves it, goes for referendum, goes to town meeting, and then budget's approved. Now there's sometimes there's money left over at the beginning of the year. Valerie will tell you she gets grants. She's done a a really heroic job at getting money for our school, our school district, our our town. As a taxpayer, I can't appreciate her enough for what she brings in in money. And then he knows how a meeting the following year. They said, oh, you had this much money left over. You should have given that back to the town. And it can be whether she got rent money to support some of the line items in the budget. It could be that we didn't spend it all, but that money was approved for us to give. And I'm not against giving it back to the town, but if we need it for something like that parking lot, I think that it's a good thing. I mean, we should be able to go to the board and select me and boardify and say, look. We got this money. We wanna do this. Can you help us out here? And we should be able to use that as we need it for what we need. It's not it's not a luxury item.
And I feel really badly that we've gone down this road. Mean, these other people working on these other boards are just like us. They're volunteers volunteering their time. And I'll tell you, Jay. Well, thank you. Thank you for pulling this together.
But if we can't work if we can't work together, right, like, the point is those other two boards have already said, yes. We want this to happen. We're earmarking this for this. So at this point, in my mind, if we say, no. We're not gonna write the check to the like, you're then basically saying, we care more about what the law says than we do about being able to work together as a community to do something that we should that we need to have done for our school that we have the money to do. Why would we make that decision? Because it wasn't the responsibility or the right of the board of selectmen or the board of finance to oversee
a determination that are properly been made by the board of education. So when you're talking about the roles here, it's exactly what Michael said. Why should we exist? If the board of selectmen is gonna take the entire school property as under their purview and every one of our expenditures that has to deal with the capital fund and now even our own property has to go back through the board of selectmen or board of finance, what's our role?
Legally defined. To educate We're we're the only Let me ask this question, though. Boards. It's legally defined. What happens when somebody, not saying it it it would never happen, but what happens if we now cede control of the property over the board of selectmen, They say we're closing the school. They can't do that.
They can't do that. But they have control of property? They can't do that. They cannot do that. Statutorily, they cannot do that. Statutorily, they can't do what they do. You cannot you cannot close the school. You cannot close the school.
Can't do that. My my worry, though, is when people start saying what's more important and, kid, I kinda take issue with what you just said. What's more important? Actually, following the law or getting something done that we need to get done that clearly has the approval of whatever boards are necessary. Farming the law is the important thing. I mean, come on. Well, what Are we really having that conversation? Yes. I am really having that conversation. Okay. So I medicine every single day, day in and day out. I work on food animals.
There are plenty of drugs that are not approved for use in food animals. They are illegal. Do I give those drugs to food animals sometimes because they're someone's pet, and that's what's gonna make them get better when they're very sick even though it's illegal?
Yes. I do because that's the only choice I have. Well, and that that's fine. That's your decision. My the same situation. My decision is that if the law says that we need to follow something, then as in that as a board of education
that is sanctioned by the state, I'm I'm applying that law. Okay. But what law what law are you talking about? What law are we referencing here? 10Dash221. Correct. Because I have it. I have 10 dash two. I printed it out, and I read it. K. So here it is. It's right here. K? If anybody wants to look at it, it's right here. Duties of the board of education all the way through, and then it says right here, shall have the care, maintenance, and operation of buildings, lands, apparatus, and other property used for school purposes and at all times shall ensure all buildings and all capital equipment contained therein against the loss in the amount not less than 80% of the replacement cost. Okay. Is that the law that we're talking about?
Yep. Okay. Alright. Did anybody watch the board of finance meeting from May 24? Okay. Because I watched it, and I took notes on it. And I watched it, and I took notes, and I looked at their agenda, and I looked at their meeting minutes. And it talks they just they discuss opening up an AES Capital account to address they talk about additionally discussed the separate fund for capital for school capital, save funds towards capital plans. The Board of Education would need to provide a capital plan before any account is established in the 2425 budget year. Mhmm. Eric shared his screen with the town attorney and got the legal opinion on the matter. So then Eric Anderson says, you know, they they should have a capital plan. We should look at it year to year. Mhmm. CIP, there's a BOE member for the charter. Review it. So we're supposed to be supplying a capital plan, and it has to have to go through CIP. And Mark Brinker said we should request the BOE for their capital plan. Mhmm. So Mark Brinker restated his motion. The board of finance approves the creation of a school capital improvement fund and recommend the board of selectmen likewise approve,
also transferring the balance from the school expansion fund, which was, like, ten or fifteen years ago into the newly created capital improvement fund. So they took the $8,000 that had been hanging out there for about ten years, and they put it in this plan. And then Bill DeRozier speaks up, and he says, okay. But time out. If the school, at the end of their budget, at the end of their fiscal year, puts money into this, can the town then say, we're gonna take that money, and we're gonna go use it for something else? And everyone on that board said no. They said no. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It it this would be this is for the school, and they talked about, well, who would have, you know, purview, what you know, whatever. But Bill spoke up and said, okay. So once that money goes in there, the town can't just use it for something else. Fine. So
then I watched the board of selectmen meeting, which was on
June 12. Excuse me, Celeste. My recollection because I did watch that meeting. I didn't take your copious notes, but my recollection is that that's not in fact what the board of finance ultimately voted on. It is. They created a capital expenditure fund. Yes. That's called the Capital Investment Fund. The account yeah. The you're I was at that. The board of finance did vote to open a new account Yes. And to take the 8,000 from the general fund of the board of selectmen's account and move it over. When it went to the board of selectmen meeting, the board of selectmen voted to open an account that would be overseen by the board of finance and the board of selectmen. They never opened a new account. What they're asking for is for that money to now be put into that existing, like you just said, old line item of the general fund, which is overseen by the board of selectmen. I disagree. It says right here, discuss creating capital fund for Andover Elementary School. That account was never So so this
as first. But at their at their next meeting, specifically, both Celeste and I asked the question of we need to talk about the creation of this capital improvement fund. And Mark specifically said, yes. We do. But right now, we need to pave your parking lot. Let's get this done, and then we'll address that. How long does this take to open that account?
I I don't think that that had purview to this conversation right now. It doesn't But this fund exists. In in my reading of this, it exists.
They created a capital fund They did not and they did not do it, number one. And number two, it exists not through the board of education. It exists through the town and the board of selectmen. Right. That's not what the we asked the board of finance to do. We asked the board of finance to create a capital, my understanding, a capital fund much like the 2% nonlapsing account that would then be ours to use for capital expenditures. Well, that's not what was created. Exactly. And an account wasn't opened. So once again, we're dealing back with the purview of the board of education, the board of finance, and the board of selection.
And I would like to point out, so now I will speak. So
and we operated when we when when we encumbered that money for the repair of the parking lot, we were in last year's fiscal year. Mhmm. And we we pulled the money out of operational funds. We were operating well within Connecticut general statute within our capabilities. Mhmm. So why do we get stopped? They're they're so because here's what happened. When we originally made the request, all of a sudden, oh, it's a planning and zoning problem. Planning and zoning said, nope. Not ours. Okay. It's a wetlands problem. Wetlands said, oh, not ours. Then all of a sudden, we now since we passed those two hurdles, we came up with this list all this list of other things we had to do. Great. We got that done. Now we've said, okay. We'll write you a check, Constantine's. And the auditor did not say that we couldn't do it, that that that if you watch the meeting from the other night, this is a workaround. My frustration.
And I get it. I understand. I I am so I'm so annoyed by the fact that it's so hard to get this bloody parking lot done that I I had a steamboat who did it myself. But, anyway,
my frustration is that we followed the law. We followed the proper process. We followed the proper charter. And I have asked, and no one has told me, what is, within town of Andover, what is the bloody freaking definition of a capital project? Point me to something in writing that says a capital project is over this amount.
I believe it's over $5,000, but I don't know if that, in fact, is outlined in the charter.
That's what we have used at CIP when I'm reading it right there. It's 3,000. On the website, it says 3,000.
So now anytime we buy smart TV, that's a capital item. Mhmm. Anytime we buy bleachers, capital item. Anytime we buy desks, capital item. That's all those are all capital items now. I understand. That that that, in my mind, is a challenge and a problem because now that effectively takes control of the school outside of our our our realm of responsibility. And, Celeste, and and Kayla, I I get it. I understand. My my other concern is and you said it in Eric's message. It's a capital project, but it could come out 2% nonlapsing fund.
No. It is. He in that message if you read that message, he's talking about in the future. He means in the future. Yeah. He's no. He didn't mean he said in the future when we're looking again, I think we need to define a process following this.
But But we can't go to January with people walking up the damn hill and falling down and suing us because we didn't do our job. We keep making up rules as we go. My understanding I get it because we don't have it. My my but my understanding of the 2% lapse in account is it cannot be used for capital thing. Why? That is not what it's for per the definition of the account. But yet, all of a sudden, that's not that's a different opportunity for the future. And I agree. Going forward, we should go through CIP. But we operated within our responsibility and our role of control as of when did we make that vote? May? June. June 14. June 14. We were still in the school year. If it had been July 15, whenever our July meeting was that we made it, I would agree. We were completely out of our budget season. We were outside of our scope of control.
But the vote we made in June was well within our scope of control and within our operational responsibility, and there's case law states that. So
I I don't know what we're gonna What What do we do we do? What do we do? What do we do?
We're running we're running out of time as far as paving. We don't know when we're gonna get our Constantine schedule just because they agreed to it. If we say yes today, they could say Oh, now we have other projects. Right. And we close it for safety reasons. Make a motion. I'm gonna move that we approve
to change the check value and somebody can make an amendment to 120 or whatever the actual number is payable to town of Andover as indicated
in Eric's the city manager town manager's email to complete the paving project. And, Ted, can I add to that? Please. So just and, Terry, correct me. You have to unencumber it and then Can we unencumber something from this year?
How how does that happen? Keep an encumbrance until the end of this fiscal year. 2024. So, yes, it's still encumbered.
And and that's okay. And once I create the check because it's still going for the same It's still for the same expense. The same expense. So when we follow all the paper, it's gonna be to pay the parking lot. Right. Well, I think Which has already been approved by both the board of finance and the board of selectmen to use a $120,000 to do so. Well, I think if we vote to unencumbered that amount, it would automatically fall back into leftover funds from last year, which then will automatically But do we have to unencumbered don't have to. Because it was encumbered for the parking lot project, which it is still being designated to. I disagree. I think we have to vote to encumber it because we voted to encumber it as a board. I think we have to vote to encumber it. I mean, it What did we vote to what was the language in on what we voted to encumber it for?
The paving project. Has to be For the paving project. So we're sending it to the town for the paving project, which they've are because they've already approved No. That fact. It has to be unencumbered,
and the money, as Eric's email says and as he said on Monday night, you have to give that money back. They have to put it in their general fund, and then they have to spend the money. It becomes their money first. That's what has to happen. So that means that our budget is we literally spent a $125,000 less. So keep that in mind. Will have a surplus at the end of the year going into the next budget season.
I don't I don't I don't I that does not make sense to me because I've watched these these meetings, and they have established this account, which I They have not opened a new account.
I don't it says right here, establish a capital fund for AES. They said they said they were gonna do it Celeste, but they never did. But the auditor so in the auditor who
that's you're you're saying that that is incorrect what they have said? Yes.
I spoke to the auditor after Monday night's meeting. And I said, can you tell me what it is we need to do? And he said and I did anybody watch Monday night's meeting? No. It's literally one minute. That Eric speaks about it. So if you don't mind, I'll get it up on here and show you. Okay. If the auditor was asked, since all three boards have agreed to this, how do we move forward with moving the money from the school to the town legally? And Eric says, I'm here that the auditor said, well, you don't normally do it this way. This is not how you do it. But if you wanna do it, the school has to give it back to you as a surplus. That money has to go into your general fund on the town side. You then claim it as an expense that's an educational expense, and you pay the bill.
So our audit, when it gets done now, will show a surplus of a $125,000. So
However, everything's And then it will show exactly what it goes for. What it goes for. Price. And
and and I'm gonna say it because I guarantee it's gonna happen. Your solar project is gonna get put on hold. One sec.
Why? There's no potential in solar project. What what about the Still consider a path to improve them. I bet you. Well,
then we go through the process and make them publicly say that we're not gonna do something to save the town $35,000. What I I don't care about like, even with the solar prep. What I am and I know it's not you said inconvenience. It's I mean, I know people are walking, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. Tell me I'm wrong. People aren't walking up this hill. We're getting torrential downpours. When when somebody falls down the hill and gets hurt, are we all still good sitting here saying, yep. This is this is what we wanna do? I'm
not. When when that starts to ice over and they're walking up because that's where our main office is, we're still good. I'm not. This is final night in case you're interested. Actually, the treasurer is area finance department. The answer from the auditor and the treasurer relating to movement of money from the Board of Education related to the parking lot?
We did. I got both the legal opinion from Dennis, and I got a I had a long conversation with the author, and then today, again, with the treasurer on how we do it. And the the bottom line is the author said he wouldn't even though we're not exactly following our own purchasing procedure to do this. He said, essentially, the board of education was signed off on it. The board of selected and board of finance have signed off of it. So, you know, he wouldn't issue us an audit finding, you know, for transferring the money. He basically said in the way he views it is that that is an educated
education related capital expense. And so it's the town's obligation because it's a capital project, but it could be funded by a transfer from the elementary school. So the auditor's okay with it and as is the town's attorney as long as the money is transferred back to the town, to the general fund, and then both boards have already agreed to move that to the the capital fund for AES.
Okay. And it's just as a side So don't lose it to the capital fund? General fund. Capital fund in their general fund. It is not another I thought he just said the AES? Maybe it's a capital fund for the AES. That is if you look at the audit, that is that money that's existed on the downside since the expansion. Right. There was 8,000 in there. That's not our money. That's their line item in their general fund that's existed existed there, as you said, for Does anyone believe that they're gonna take this $120,000
and not pay for parking lot? No. No. No. But that's not the concern, Steve. I mean, that really is not my con I mean, I'll I'll speak for myself. That's not my concern because that that would that would put them in a bad light. Okay.
So if you guys are are saying you're gonna vote no and you don't wanna write the check and you wanna stick your feet in the mud and stand there strong, what do you propose as an alternative, as a go forward to get this parking lot paved? I don't know.
So until you have a a a good alternative that will get this parking lot paved, I don't understand how you can vote to not do that. So I'm gonna go back to my original vote. I think we got a second. I don't know if there was an amendment, but I'm gonna vote that we transfer the money to the town. I'll second. Is there any discussion? I think we've had a lot of discussion already.
Oh, I understand everybody's issue here. I think I do. And I can see both sides. But the one thing that I would probably need to see and and as far as people walking up and down the hill and sliding down here, I I think we did. We went up and just opened it up. We used it last year like this.
We'll use it this year like this. But but, Jerry, not to interrupt you, with all due respect, we publicly said that the parking lot is not safe. So now we open it back up, and all of a sudden, it's safe. But we haven't done anything. We can't do that. We can't
do that. No one is required to walk up and down. I was just gonna say I just wanna put that out there. No. I mean It's if they all They haven't That is not a wanted to safely How do people enter the building?
So during mid if it's arrival and dismissal is down here in normal hours. However, if a student is late or needs to be picked up early, they pull right up to the front in that top lot because security wise, we need to buzz them in the way we would typically. So the top lot doesn't say that you can go in there. There's a bunch of cones and everything. Yeah. But it has got one opening. Parents are aware. So It does say, like, all the same. Yeah. How much visitors How much feedback have you received from parents and other people thus far asking about that? Very limited. I'll be honest. There's been two emails about our our one about arrival, one about dismissal, and just some concerns, and then asking when it would be open.
You know, I think most people are aware that it's not necessarily a a me decision, you know, that I'm not kind of in in the driver's seat of it, so I have not heard a lot. Certainly, you know, people are getting used to our new system, but we're we're keeping it in relative time wise where we were before, and we adjusted for Google. So I just I just wanted to say publicly no one's required to go up and downhill. Of course, I, you know, I can't control every movement of what people decide to do. But during the school day, if if a visitor needs to come into the building for some reason
We gotta let them go up into the parking lot, but we declare them safe.
Correct. For security. Also, there's there's not a lot of time you need to open up a bank account. And I think that if they opened up the bank account as we were totally would back last spring, And we just do what we were intending to do. Put it into that bank account. Let them spend it out of there. That's what I can Because that's what the that's what the bank I mean, a bank go into a bank tomorrow morning, and you can have an account.
We have an account that says AES Capital Expenditure Fund. We put a $125,000 in it, and we pay the check to Constantine's. And, therefore, it is not the town's money. It's still our money. We don't have to do anything with regard to We'll never get the permit. We'll never get the permit. Then who's that up to, Celeste?
That's the that's the crazy mess there. Permit. We'll never get a permit. We're right back where we started.
And whose fault is that? I'm gonna move the motion.
You think about it? Yeah. K. I vote for it. I vote to write the check, get it done.
Karen? No. Steve? Aye. What? No. What? Aye. Chris? No. I think you're the tiebreaker, Jerry. Yep. I
I personally don't feel good about the way it is now. I would really like to see if we can come to an agreement with with Dow and I establishing that account. It doesn't take long. We put the money in the account. And if they wanna give us a bill when this is all said and done, give us a bill. We'll make it out to the town. Can we do that? We can't. We gotta spend it directly to the payment. I don't I I just don't see what's wrong with doing that. I'm afraid we're set a precedent here and there. You're never gonna get out from under. And I think we'll never get our account
unless we insist on it. Well, then let's insist on it. I mean They've already been joining the meeting. Like, they've already been trying to work on this, and they already approved it. Whether or not they've created it, they've approved it. There's a policy that Eric sent us about it that that I looked at, that we that that we as a board never ever never ever addressed. So there is there is this policy that Eric sent to us about how He said this is maybe how you could start it. You should finish it. But we but we, as a board, never talked about it. So I feel like we're also at fault that we never pushed to have this account formally opened. But but they it is in it's been made publicly that this money is gonna be used for this project. And then going forward, let's put together a policy on how this this account will go forward. But but to now hold this project up because this account doesn't technically exist, it it's they've talked about it. They've they've everybody wants this to be done,
everybody. Okay. Fine. I'll change my vote to yes. Thank done. Good.
No. I I mean, I'm done. I I'm I'm off.
I'm off anyway in November. So there. You got what you want. That that's that's not the point, Preston. And you shouldn't be taking that position, quite frankly. I'm I'm not doing it to We're not we're not gonna move forward. Stopping my feet and making a big deal. But what I'm trying to to to tell people here is that the town, the board of ed, the board the board of selectmen, and the board of finance, they're they they want they want this account. They they they want to work with us. I mean, I've watched those meetings. I took notes. They wanted they they want they they want us to give them a capital improvement plan. We did that in the past. We handed them a capital improvement plan. I went through meeting notes from from 2017 where where we handed the board of finance and the board of selectmen a capital improvement plan. Why can't we do that again? We used to do that.
Who created that? The question is is why is there not a capital improvement account for Andover Elementary
School? And why if it was approved in May May. Why don't I have any information on this account? Because I don't think we ever agreed on a policy, Terry. That's why. And we didn't press it. And that's We asked for it, Celeste. That's the only reason I didn't heard. But we didn't press for it. We didn't press for it. Didn't press it because it was approved. I see that. The the the board of finance the board of finance directs that. Can I see that, Celeste? I don't know what it the account. This is what Eric sent us. That was the policy. That's the draft policy that he sent us. Are we
are we done voting then? Or No. We never got voting. We never got it. And
Chris changed his vote. Yeah. Right. I mean, in all good faith, Valerie asked for this account in the spring. Is it in the respect, the motion is already to a vote. We're we're we're going back and forth on the same
Jerry, what's your vote? I mean, I I I changed my vote, so we're we're good to go. You can vote however you wish. I don't know. Sorry.
I will tell you that, however, though, when this comes back and spikes us in the world, the real error in.
So just looking at this, Celeste, just so we were very clear and put it on the record. These funds shall be maintained. It's paragraph three. These funds for the nonlapsing capital fund and 2% nonlapsing education fund shall be maintained for capital expenses for annual elementary school and shall follow the town purchasing policy that was enacted last December. That's the problem.
K. But when this is the first time we covered this I wasn't done. Thank you.
Then you look at our charter. K? Sections eight zero five, eight zero six, and eight zero seven all say, excluding the board of education. So we're either gonna follow our charter, and we're gonna follow the laws that apply to the only board that is statutorily required in this town, which is the board of education, or we're not. But And that's the first item of discussion, and I'm done too. We're doing that. We're putting that We're putting that up policy. We're done. So yeah. But it was four to three. That was a draft. It's done. That was a draft policy. That was it was a draft. He's right. No. This is the policy, right, that he's proposing, and therefore, it's all backed up. No. No. It's not. He didn't he didn't get it. I'm done. That's it. There's nothing hey. There's nothing on the table. Done. Discussion's over. We had our vote. It's not on the agenda. No.
CIP didn't meet last month. Excuse me. It didn't meet I don't have a report. Let's put it that way.
K. Can I just ask a question? Did the motion pass, and what is the next steps?
We issue a check to the town of Andover. Yep. Thank you. Do we have a quote from Constantine with regard I have money encumbered
from the last quote I had, which I believe was $1.22. If it's more than that, then they're all I'm sending them is what we have encumbered. Well, the other only thing I was asking in that regard, Terry, was,
I don't know that we have a subsequent quote with regard to all of the other requirements that town put on it. I haven't seen a new quote. That's what I was asking. I have not seen a new quote. So we'll send him what was quoted, I guess. Okay. And what we agreed to encumber from our last fiscal year, which I think was up to a 125,000. It was 01/25. Yes.
I believe it wasn't even at 01/25 at that point. I think it started at 01/17.
No. No. No. That we passed was doing Was it up to 01/25? Yes. Well, I didn't come to 01/25.
Okay. That's that's fine. You guys that's what we've passed before. So I'm just here to do whatever you're going You're well within it. Until we have an updated
quote from Constantine to incorporate all the town's requirements, I don't think Is You can write it. I'll talk to Valerie about that. We can move forward. Thank you.
Comments from the public on agenda items. Is there any more update?
I'd like to go back to the talk about the curriculum changes and some of the other changes that have happened this year, especially with the younger kids. I think that Taylor and Val really have a a great view of what we need to do for those little kids, and I think it's gonna reward us well. So thank you.
Thanks for being here. Brie. Brie, are you there? And they can come back to you. Kim? Nothing at this time. Thank you. Thank you for being present.
Good evening. Thank you all for your time. Love to see the curriculum conversations happening and the numbers that we're putting up performance wise. Thank you all for your hard work in supporting our students. And as someone who is just a parent, is it appropriate for me? Can I make a comment on the paving situation? I see both sides of the coin as well. However, as a parent solely and a member of the community, I think that you guys did the right thing in passing the motion to fund the project because, unfortunately, I think that you've gotta give the board of selectmen the opportunity to bury themselves. I mean, if they don't do what they've promised to do, then the constituents need to just be aware of what's happening, and then we can move in the future, you know, to vote in a different direction. I know that was a struggle. I was with you guys on the journey, and I thank you for taking a look at all angles.
Thank you, Thank you for your comments and for your presence at this meeting. Brie? Sorry.
No. I I think what I see here today is that there's some clear relationship building that needs to happen between all boards in the town, and I hope that your upcoming summit or meeting can, bridge some of those gaps. Thank thank you, Britney. Melissa's awesome. Melissa. All set. Thank you.
Thanks, Melissa. Caitlin, can I ask you a question? Is the public invited to that meeting? Yeah. It has to be. They have to be.
They can. Okay. Thank you. And thanks, Upcoming meet other action items. Are we ready? Okay. Upcoming meeting. Regular board meeting is 10/11/2023, and I assume we'll have our pre board meeting on the following day, Thursday, October 12. Yeah. One other thing that is that meeting yet?
95%. Yes. Okay. One other thing I don't remember if either of you mentioned it, the the back to school night. Yes. Next week. Next week. Okay. Just so that everyone is aware, Ram's is also that same night. The high school?
Yes. The middle school. The high school. Yes. So I don't know in the future if there's a way to have those not conflicted. It'd be really awesome for those of us that have to be at both. We do. Yes. We do try, and the the best we got this year was at least not the middle school where more of our families have both kids, but I I hear you on that one. Any items for next meeting?
I'd like to thank you all for showing your strength and trying to be nice to each other. And I know it's an emotional, and it's frustrating. And I think we're all feeling the same things about it. And, I appreciate your preference in handling this. Thank you. Meeting adjourned, need the motion? I'll make a motion. Second? Second.
Thank you. And the vote, all in favor, aye. Aye. Any vote? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.