2026-10-27 - Board of Education

# transcript-source: whisper; whisper.cpp=1.9.5; model=ggml-small.en-q5_1.bin; vad=ggml-silero-v6.2.0.bin; language=en; transcribed=2026-11-10T05:06:42.695Z; job=tx-1794281332032-8nlt7e; source=https://cityofstamford.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=16338

00:01.03] >> Okay, good evening. I would like to call to order this meeting of the Stanford Board of Education to, yeah, where am I?

00:14.15] It's Tuesday, October 27th, and it is 7 p.m. and we're getting started right on time.

00:20.15] And we have a quorum, we have eight on the floor, and we have Mr. Tonga attending virtually.

00:26.11] So the first is to salute to the flag if everybody will stand.

00:33.47] >> Okay, Ms. Koch, would you read the mission statement?

00:50.86] >> The mission of the Stanford Public Schools is to provide an education that cultivates productive habits of mind, body and heart in every student.

01:01.06] >> Okay, thank you.

01:04.71] Though we have board salutes on the agenda, we don't have any to announce tonight.

01:08.77] So we go right to the special performance of the Stanford All School Musical.

01:15.60] >> My name is Nancy Freeman, I'm a producer of Stanford All School Musical, which is a wonderful after school musical career program sponsored by the Stanford All Schools.

01:35.99] We are in, don't mind spread notes, we are in our 19th year.

01:41.98] We started in 2007, and our first quarter then was in 2008 when Andy Son was the archiliner and our ocean of energy.

01:51.97] Oh, Oliver.

01:56.15] So this year we are pleased to present Christmas for any of you that don't have a full postcard from the members of the public who would like to grab a postcard on their way out.

02:07.62] The purpose of tonight, we are doing two songs for the show, we have three of our presenters. This is by Andy Stewart. So the All School Musical is a program that's believed to students in grades five to 12 from public and private schools.

02:27.92] This class features over 80 students in the class program representing 16 different schools. So it's a wonderful program for students from other schools to put together.

02:40.11] We have siblings in the class, we have presenters, students that haven't seen each other since elementary school, through school.

02:48.14] We all come together to post-school production for the first two weekends of December. We hope that you all will be here, we have the 16th professional architecture, beautiful sets, we go all out.

03:01.19] You can get tickets online, Stanford, all school musical.org, we put a website, please support theater in the schools.

03:11.33] Just out of curiosity, how many people here have seen a Christmas book, the movie?

03:17.44] How many people have seen a Christmas story, the musical?

03:24.71] The movie came out in the 80s, which seems like 20 years ago, but it's not 20 years ago.

03:34.71] The musical was presented on Broadway in 2012, and a musical to be developed by the dynamic duo of Ben Chappasic and Justin Paul, who also of course here at Princeton created Schumpen,

03:48.77] and Paul threw up requests from the local void succeeding. So the musical is great, the musical makes the movie even that much more special.

04:00.48] So I encourage you all to see the musical versus them without further ado.

04:07.01] I want to thank you for allowing us to come and present to you. It could be a really special show.

04:13.94] I've been a part of the musical for 12 years now.

04:19.23] My son was in the musical for many years and says it's the best part of his childhood.

04:25.45] And he pursued the musical theater after on his graduate school. And so I couldn't stay away.

04:32.88] Nancy has built such amazing programs for students who wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing full-scale production.

04:43.50] So thank you so much for being here. I really love this cast this year. They are killing it.

04:50.62] It's going to be a really, really fun show. So I hope you enjoy it.

04:53.62] Okay, so why don't you welcome with me?

04:59.43] So my name is Alumi Sosa, I'm a senior at West Oak and I'm playing mother.

05:04.42] Hi, my name is Angela Pinedy, I'm in 7th grade at Stonefield Magnet Middle School, and I play Ralphie Perners.

05:11.37] Hello, my name is Daniel Dr. I am a junior at West Oak High School and I play the old man in the Christmas story.

05:20.23] All right, so we're going to start with Dylan.

05:28.38] Dylan, you seem to be a cowboy.

06:00.55] No, you're not a hero just by galloping up in the sun.

06:07.76] You really need to be a cowboy, fearless, cheap infant.

06:13.76] It's trampling on the road.

06:17.76] Is there red red or car buying action? Be begun.

06:23.44] You may stand to guard up at my pitta. I'll protect the neighborhood so alums are always out on at apple bottom from that pitta.

06:39.34] Show those diesels, apple bottom, when it's my son.

06:46.26] Benning, Benning!

06:47.26] With a red red or car buying action, be begun.

06:50.25] My teacher could be kidnapped by a pack of boots.

06:56.81] My class might be invaded by our kids.

06:58.81] And kids would hurry down the hall as tigers tried to eat them while the day would be okay.

07:06.67] I too fit and saved the day.

07:10.01] And the girls would die and say, "Oh Ralphie, when you're being brave like me, no fooling can ever be won.

07:17.83] My mom is crying, "Cowboy Ralphie!"

07:20.83] While my daddy is yelling, "That's what it is, he's my son!"

07:26.89] With a red red or car buying action, be begun.

07:32.98] But it's almost nearly getting full. Counting down the parking set, don't know now, don't know who, but all I know is I've got it yet.

07:41.77] Oh red red or car buying, stop to the help is, red red or car buying action, be begun.

07:49.17] You know I play Ralphie Parker, and he is a boy who is dying to get a red red or car buying, be begun for Christmas.

08:14.57] And he is trying to convince his parents that he can do wonders with this BB gun.

08:24.27] This song is kind of him's persuading of people like, "This is what I can do."

08:31.51] Even though all of them are saying that you're going to be in danger, this is not a toy for little kids.

08:37.60] But he is just hoping and wishing that he'll get it.

08:40.60] And that's kind of what the song is about, just like wishing and like, just, yeah, good job.

08:49.84] So I'm the old man, and yes, so basically, his entire life, all he has ever craved is a thought of weight.

09:18.28] However, he's kind of a loser. He has lost every single thing he has ever done, and he's gotten so close in so many instances.

09:27.99] The thought of winning is in the palm of his hand, you know?

09:33.18] So this time around, however, he is in these semi-finals for a crossword puzzle competition.

09:40.50] And so he finally, finally has just, this is the closest he's ever gotten. He would be a winner.

09:49.38] He is scared, but most of all, he's excited and daydreams of the fact that he could be a winner.

09:57.05] And actually, mother, and throughout this whole thing, she's very, like, dismissive of him.

10:02.36] She doesn't think that he can really win whenever he thinks or talks about winning.

10:06.36] She's just like, "Hey, do your thing."

10:08.32] So when he's sitting here trying to win, trying to beat his crossword puzzle,

10:12.51] she's suddenly getting so out of it, and he thinks that in all my self, really, it's all thought of.

10:18.63] ♪♪

10:34.85] ♪ The wheels of my mind just keep staying in him ♪

10:38.85] ♪ Another exhausting climb of health ♪

10:42.91] ♪ I always come close to the wall ♪

10:45.91] ♪ Just focus and think practically then ♪

10:51.04] ♪ You're getting a village little square ♪

10:56.06] ♪ Be the genius of the universe ♪

10:59.53] ♪ Have an intellectual elite ♪

11:04.68] ♪ A bit more ♪

11:06.71] ♪ Try to free from all the sea ♪

11:09.71] ♪ And give you magic back ♪

11:11.65] ♪ The genius of the universe needs ♪

11:15.90] ♪ The guy that ever's won on it ♪

11:19.70] ♪ That mental machine ♪

11:21.69] ♪ The genius of the universe needs ♪

11:23.73] ♪ Little people ♪

11:26.17] ♪ People ♪

11:27.81] ♪ On brimming the brains and skin of me ♪

11:30.81] ♪ I'm a village ♪

11:31.81] ♪ I'm hardly a health trauma average child ♪

11:34.81] ♪ So I didn't come from some kind of village ♪

11:38.81] ♪ But if this could work for me ♪

11:40.81] ♪ Well then I could go ♪

11:42.81] ♪ And parker the chirp ♪

11:44.83] ♪ To parker the frog ♪

11:47.83] ♪ I'd be the genius ♪

11:49.66] ♪ I'd be wet and streamed ♪

11:51.66] ♪ But rather jack the candy feet ♪

11:55.40] ♪ Saw smart, it's obscene ♪

11:59.07] ♪ The genius of the universe needs ♪

12:04.09] ♪ Danish prince that Shakespeare hanged ♪

12:06.60] ♪ Staffed and poisoned in the air ♪

12:11.07] ♪ Apparently ♪

12:12.07] ♪ Captain Bookling must destroy ♪

12:14.86] ♪ Tinkerbells found forever of a point ♪

12:16.86] ♪ P-E-T ♪

12:18.83] ♪ P-E-T ♪

12:21.15] ♪ I'm Peter ♪

12:23.74] ♪ Peter Pan ♪

12:28.22] ♪ Mr. Parker ♪

12:29.30] ♪ You're the best ♪

12:31.30] ♪ No question ♪

12:32.30] ♪ You're the best I've ever seen ♪

12:34.30] ♪ What a genius ♪

12:37.73] ♪ I'm Cleveland Street ♪

12:39.73] ♪ A genius ♪

12:40.73] ♪ I'm Cleveland Street ♪

12:41.73] ♪ The wisliest puzzle is complete ♪

12:44.73] ♪ Before I send it in ♪

12:46.91] ♪ And somehow I win ♪

12:49.20] ♪ They'll see ♪

12:52.20] ♪ I'm the genius ♪

12:54.20] ♪ I'm Cleveland Street ♪

12:56.20] ♪ A genius ♪

12:57.20] ♪ I'm Cleveland Street ♪

12:58.20] ♪ Who won't go down in defeat ♪

13:00.20] ♪ Let this be it ♪

13:02.48] ♪ Let this be the one ♪

13:04.48] ♪ For the genius ♪

13:06.43] ♪ I'm Cleveland Street ♪

13:10.37] ♪ I'm Cleveland Street ♪

13:25.02] Hey, great.

13:26.97] For my new December 5, 6, 11, 12, 13,

13:39.44] a rip-off, if you do not want to miss this,

13:41.44] it's just a little taste.

13:43.50] All the shtick that's in the movie is on the stage.

13:46.50] It's going to be the little, then you all are back.

13:49.50] And the money's the goal for today.

13:51.50] So please support our students, and thank you so much.

13:54.50] (indistinct)

13:59.62] Thanks so much to you.

14:01.62] (indistinct)

14:20.19] Okay, thank you so much.

14:21.19] Thank you, Nancy.

14:22.19] And thank you, Bru, from "Christmas Story."

14:26.53] (indistinct)

14:29.33] All right, we move on to time for public to be heard.

14:34.21] So I'll turn it over to our secretary, Mr. Floyd.

14:36.21] I'm sorry?

14:38.01] Oh, Superintendent Floyd.

14:40.33] Sorry about that.

14:42.71] (indistinct)

14:46.90] Yeah, right.

14:48.05] (indistinct)

14:49.05] The sugar high from the ample crazy.

14:51.05] All right, Superintendent's report.

14:53.36] Sorry.

14:54.66] Mr. George, members of the Board of Ed,

14:57.06] and the Stanford community,

14:59.05] I start my comment tonight with sadness.

15:02.08] One of our students, Ahmaud Basin,

15:05.17] died in a traffic accident on September 22nd.

15:08.19] As this is the first meeting since then,

15:11.41] since his passing,

15:12.41] I've wanted to inform the Stanford community.

15:15.59] Ahmaud was a former student at Stanford High School

15:17.66] before he transitioned to our adult education program.

15:20.66] I ask that we take a moment of silence

15:23.04] and honor the phone.

15:24.04] Thank you.

15:33.07] Tonight you will hear that AITE is the recipient

15:37.19] of a request from the estate of Ms. Eve Jeanette Gray

15:41.19] for the amount of $32,000.

15:43.15] Ms. Gray, a former teacher at AITE,

15:46.27] included this donation,

15:48.27] as well as a prior one in her will.

15:50.27] Back in 2022,

15:52.78] the district received $120,000 from her state

15:55.78] to be used to establish scholarships in her name.

15:58.78] We are grateful to the funds

16:01.06] and how they will support student scholarship.

16:03.06] Early today,

16:04.89] the state released next generation accountability data

16:07.89] for all school districts across the state.

16:09.89] For Stanford,

16:11.27] there was some information about which we can be proud

16:14.27] and some information that creates opportunities

16:16.27] for us to improve our results.

16:18.27] We should be proud of the following.

16:21.42] English language arts, or ELA,

16:23.77] and mathematics achievement increased

16:25.77] on both of the last two years,

16:27.77] both for all students and our high needs students.

16:30.89] College and career, course participation,

16:33.24] and exam passing also increased in each of the last two years.

16:37.24] The percentage of ninth grade students on track

16:40.87] to graduation increased significantly

16:43.87] in the 2526 school year.

16:45.87] And the four-year graduation rate

16:48.60] rebounded strongly in 2526.

16:51.60] Science performance and several student outcome indicators

16:56.07] remain concerns.

16:58.48] Gaps between our results and the average results

17:01.48] for Connecticut,

17:02.48] including science achievement,

17:05.64] where we had 55.3% versus the state 63.1.

17:10.64] Mathematics and college and career exam passing

17:13.93] and physical fitness.

17:16.09] And physical fitness,

17:17.09] we are students who are only at 30% passing

17:20.09] versus 50% of the state.

17:22.59] And finally, chronic absenteeism is slightly higher

17:25.85] than it was last year and higher than the state,

17:28.87] where we are at 19.8%, where the state is at 16 points.

17:34.76] We will do a full presentation to the Board of Ed

17:36.76] in December, but I felt it important

17:39.76] to share this information then.

17:42.20] And finally, the month of November,

17:44.20] which is a very soon next week,

17:47.46] is National Native American Heritage Month,

17:49.46] a time when we honor the history,

17:51.46] cultures, and contributions of indigenous people.

17:54.53] Our schools, in their own way,

17:56.87] will be celebrating this month.

17:59.16] I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Church.

18:02.31] - Hey, thank you.

18:03.42] Now it's time for the public to be heard.

18:06.75] I'll turn it over to Ms. Foy.

18:09.07] - Thank you, Mr. George.

18:10.13] So the rules for a public comment are as follows.

18:14.13] Public comment portion of the Board of Education meetings

18:18.10] affords time for the public to express their opinion

18:21.01] on current agenda items or issues

18:23.10] relevant to the Stanford Public Schools.

18:25.10] We appreciate your input

18:27.25] and require the following rules to be observed.

18:29.25] Ones, sign up to speak by 6 p.m.

18:32.53] at the day of the meeting.

18:33.53] Each speaker is allotted a maximum of three minutes or less,

18:37.59] depending on the number of sweepers.

18:39.90] 30 minutes is set aside for public comment,

18:41.90] but may be extended at the discretion of the Board.

18:44.90] Disruptive or uncivil behavior will result

18:47.87] in the speaker being muted if online

18:49.87] or asked to take their seat if in person.

18:51.87] If you cannot be present,

18:54.06] you can email your comments to the Board.

18:56.06] Tonight we have 11 speakers.

18:58.25] And so our first speaker this evening is Vlad Landras.

19:02.25] Please come forward.

19:07.13] There's a microphone right here.

19:08.13] - Thank you.

19:16.71] - Yes, sir.

19:17.60] - Thank you for inviting me.

19:31.90] My name is Vlad Landras.

19:36.44] We live at 119 Wildwood Road.

19:39.44] My wife and I are longtime Stanford residents.

19:45.14] We and our children attended Steel Meadow,

19:51.38] Koonan, and then West Hill.

19:53.73] So we are big supporters of public education.

19:57.99] And we're always concerned about the quality

20:00.23] and the availability of public education.

20:03.23] Also about the curriculum,

20:05.26] making sure that the curriculum is accurate

20:07.26] and even cited.

20:09.26] We like to review all the materials

20:14.74] from various meetings.

20:17.53] And recently we listened to the recording

20:19.53] of October 13, TLC meeting.

20:23.81] Part of the meeting agenda was the discussion

20:29.01] of the upcoming Arab and Muslim studies curriculum.

20:35.90] My understanding is that it's still under discussion.

20:40.83] And we were a bit confused based on the recording

20:44.80] or whether this curriculum and pertinent materials

20:48.99] will be available for public review and discussion

20:53.08] before they are adopted.

20:55.14] And that's question number one.

20:59.00] And question number two, similarly,

21:03.30] we would like to know if public will have a chance

21:07.13] to discuss the materials and whether the public input

21:11.80] will be taken into account before the materials

21:16.31] and curriculum is adopted.

21:18.31] Thank you for listening to my question.

21:22.23] - Thank you so much, sir.

21:23.23] Thank you.

21:33.63] Next speaker is Natasha.

21:35.63] I'm sorry, I apologize.

21:39.84] - Thank you for inviting me.

21:48.00] And good evening to everyone.

21:50.82] My name is Natasha Constar.

21:52.82] I live in Stanford.

21:53.82] I've been a long-term residence.

21:57.94] And my kids went to all public schools in Stanford.

22:01.94] Similar to the previous speaker,

22:04.64] I have similar concern.

22:07.53] So recently, I learned about the Connecticut legislation

22:11.07] concerning African-Islamic studies in public schools.

22:13.98] And that the state is developing a curriculum

22:16.10] for these new studies with CARE personnel

22:18.10] on its advising team.

22:20.10] So CARE stands for Council of American-Islamic Relations.

22:24.71] And that raises concerns,

22:27.35] giving CARE a controversial history,

22:30.43] including documented connections between some of its founders

22:33.66] with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

22:37.96] According to the reports,

22:38.96] individuals associated with CARE have been identified

22:42.92] among those involved or recommended

22:46.17] for Connecticut's new Islamic and Arab studies curriculum

22:49.17] development process.

22:51.17] My question to the board are,

22:54.08] and I will email those questions to you.

22:57.16] I have four questions.

22:58.13] First, how will Stanford ensure

23:01.73] that any proposed curriculum needs standards

23:04.73] of historical accuracy, academic objectivity,

23:07.73] and religious neutrality?

23:09.73] Second, what specific review process will ensure

23:14.20] that instructional material distinguishes

23:17.20] established historical facts

23:19.32] from contested interpretations,

23:21.38] present multiple perspectives where appropriate

23:24.38] and comply with constitutional requirements

23:26.38] regarding religious instructions in public schools?

23:29.38] Third, will independent subject matter experts

23:33.87] review these materials before they are introduced

23:36.87] into Stanford public schools?

23:38.87] Fourth, will parents have an opportunity

23:43.13] to example the proposed materials

23:45.13] and provide feedback before any adoption decision only?

23:49.13] How children deserve education and not indoctrination?

23:53.41] They deserve facts,

23:54.33] not political narratives presented as facts

23:57.51] and the freedom to think critically and independently.

24:00.54] Thank you.

24:01.64] Thank you.

24:03.78] Thank you.

24:06.22] Next speaker, Rachel Angel.

24:08.22] No, no, no.

24:16.32] Ruth.

24:17.76] Ruth.

24:18.76] She's online.

24:19.76] Okay.

24:20.76] Ruth Hamler.

24:21.73] Thank you.

24:30.55] Good evening, members of the board.

24:31.55] My name is Ruth Hamler, long time Stanford resident,

24:34.74] former school social worker with two adult children,

24:38.12] graduates of Stanford High School,

24:40.12] who have become successful citizens of the world.

24:43.12] Tonight, I'm asking the board to do their homework,

24:46.75] to conduct a careful and transparent academic review

24:50.20] of the proposed opt-in Islamic and Arab studies curriculum

24:54.20] that the state will be handing to you

24:56.20] before it is introduced in Stanford public schools.

24:59.29] I want to be clear.

25:00.41] I'm not opposed to teaching students about Arab history

25:03.41] or Islamic civilization

25:05.41] or the contributions of the Muslim people.

25:07.47] Every culture deserves to be taught with respect,

25:10.66] and every curriculum deserves to be examined with rigor.

25:13.66] My concerns revolves around how the curriculum has been developed,

25:18.52] who has influence over it,

25:20.61] and whether students will receive

25:22.61] a generally balanced academic presentation.

25:24.61] I believe that Stanford already teaches the growth of Islam,

25:28.05] innovations in Islamic world,

25:30.05] and that it is one of the major world religions

25:34.05] taught in middle school social studies.

25:39.31] So, I maintain that parents should have a legitimate right to ask,

25:43.31] what will this new curriculum add?

25:45.31] What materials are being used?

25:47.43] Who selected them?

25:48.43] And who is advising both the state and district?

25:50.43] I would specifically ask the board to be cautious

25:53.78] about giving any advocacy organization,

25:56.78] whether representing Muslims, Jews, Arabs,

25:59.78] or any other constituency, a privileged role

26:01.78] in determining what public school students are taught.

26:05.26] For example, if the Council on American Islamic Relations or Care

26:08.26] is being considered for an advisory or consulting role

26:12.29] as they have at the state level,

26:14.24] I believe the board should conduct a transparent review

26:16.29] of its history, mission, funding affiliations,

26:19.29] and public positions before giving it influence over curriculum.

26:23.58] Review in your time that you have

26:25.58] what occurred in New Jersey, Washington State, Virginia, Maryland,

26:29.58] Chicago, Florida when guiding such curriculum.

26:32.99] Therefore, I'm asking the board to consider four points.

26:36.21] First, to make the complete curriculum and instructional materials

26:39.21] available to all parents before implementation.

26:42.68] Second, to identify publicly every organization and individual

26:45.68] involved in developing or advising the curriculum.

26:49.02] Third, have the materials independently reviewed

26:52.22] by qualified scholars and educators

26:54.22] representing the relevant academic fields,

26:56.22] 30 seconds, have the advocacy organizations alone.

27:00.18] And fourth, evaluate the curriculum for historical accuracy,

27:03.22] age appropriateness, and balance,

27:05.22] especially concerning contested political theory.

27:08.13] We should not protect our students from difficult history,

27:11.37] but we need to ensure that we do teach difficult history.

27:14.37] We teach it completely, accurately, and fairly. Thank you.

27:17.37] Thank you.

27:18.75] Next speaker, Steven Gorver.

27:21.93] I appreciate having the liberty to speak.

27:39.90] A culture of people and ideology

27:47.69] that teaches and preaches intolerance.

27:52.23] Why would we open our arms and welcome this

27:54.23] to be taught to our children?

27:57.09] An ideology that teaches it's good to lie,

28:01.37] not to tolerate, to rape, to kill,

28:05.25] all for the global spread of this ideology?

28:09.85] No.

28:11.23] I say, keep this away from our children.

28:15.19] If you want to teach this, teach the truth about this,

28:18.47] that you should fear this,

28:21.11] we and you should keep this out of our schools.

28:29.91] In terms of the honesty,

28:32.64] the way social studies works in our schools,

28:37.24] students learn about Athens, ancient Greece,

28:41.74] Rome, the Romans, the Egyptians,

28:46.42] in terms of the great things that they gave to our society.

28:52.57] What do our children learn about Israel, Jerusalem?

28:59.73] It's not in the curriculum.

29:01.88] If the curriculum is incredible, incredible teacher,

29:09.84] might cover the trust, the Jews are left out.

29:13.98] Obviously, the Jews are fundamental to our society,

29:18.32] our culture in positive ways.

29:21.95] And then you started off by saying something about indigenous people.

29:26.90] Arabs and Muslims are not indigenous

29:30.66] to so much of where they live right now

29:34.22] and where they will be living a year from now.

29:37.22] And then two years from now, this is left out of the curriculum,

29:42.39] the way they are squandering people in African nations.

29:45.93] I don't need to go on,

29:48.09] but I have the liberty to say that without being interrupted.

29:54.03] Thank you.

29:55.03] Thank you.

29:59.23] Next speaker, Hilary Ho.

30:06.14] Hi, my name is Hilary Ho,

30:11.27] and I'm a member of the Mayor's Youth Leadership Council

30:15.27] at Samford High School.

30:17.27] During the recent legislative season in Hartford,

30:20.27] we supported legislation that was signed into law

30:23.27] as a part of a large education bill.

30:26.27] The law requires the State Department of Education

30:30.24] to publish a curriculum and other material

30:32.24] in support of an Arab and Islamic Studies class,

30:36.24] which school districts are encouraged to offer,

30:39.24] but does not require the class as a standalone course.

30:43.58] As Amy Baldotti, the district's Chief Academic Officer,

30:47.78] noted during the October 20th meeting

30:50.78] of the Board of Education's Teaching and Learning Committee,

30:53.78] Connecticut law often prescribes courses of study

30:56.78] that integrate the history, culture, and contributions

31:00.78] of diverse global and domestic communities into public education.

31:05.97] Ms. Baldotti did a great job

31:08.97] of placing the Arab and Islamic Studies course

31:11.97] in the context of similar courses in our district,

31:14.97] such as Asian and Pacific Islander Studies,

31:17.97] Native American Studies, and African American,

31:20.97] Black, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies.

31:23.98] We appreciated Ms. Baldotti's statement

31:26.25] that the class material the Department of Education

31:30.59] has provided to us is high quality and vetted

31:34.59] and typically worked on by professors

31:36.59] from UConn and other professors,

31:38.59] as well as some of our strongest teacher leaders

31:41.62] from across the state.

31:43.87] I look forward to this school district's review

31:46.87] of Arab and Islamic Studies material

31:48.87] that the State Department of Education

31:50.87] makes available in January 2027.

31:53.79] Thank you.

31:55.63] - Thank you.

31:59.16] Next speaker, Teresa Linzer.

32:01.09] Oh, I apologize.

32:05.99] Alexis Farrow.

32:13.80] - Alexis, can you hear us?

32:14.80] - Oh, I'm sorry.

32:16.75] Can you hear me?

32:18.00] - We can now, yeah.

32:19.00] - All right, perfect.

32:20.00] Thank you.

32:21.00] Sorry about that.

32:22.00] Firstly, thank you for having me tonight.

32:23.00] I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Taylor last night

32:26.00] at the University of California,

32:28.00] and I was able to answer some of the questions I had,

32:32.00] but I just wanted to follow up

32:33.99] and just get a little more information.

32:37.99] Firstly, I am a Stanford resident.

32:39.99] I am a graduate of Stanford Public Schools.

32:41.99] My son is currently at a Stanford Public School.

32:43.99] He's at Turnip River.

32:44.99] This is actually a full circle moment for me,

32:46.99] as I was one of the lead actors

32:49.99] in the first all school musical directed by Mr. Andy Knapp.

32:53.89] I'm involved in the Stanford School community

32:57.62] and always have been.

33:00.00] I graduated in 2011, so it hasn't been too long

33:03.00] since I've been out of the Stanford Public School doors.

33:06.00] And just sitting here listening to the conversation

33:11.09] and the dialogue about the curriculum

33:13.09] is kind of leading me to feel how I feel

33:16.09] in regards to mental health with not just our students

33:20.06] and our families, but our staff.

33:23.06] To hear that just learning about a different culture

33:28.28] can cause so much confusion and outrage,

33:33.28] it honestly makes me feel like

33:37.63] we need to be more diverse within our schools

33:41.63] and within our community.

33:44.95] That goes for teachers and that goes for families.

33:48.15] Mental health is important,

33:49.61] and I feel like it really needs to be looked at,

33:52.61] only with our students, but with our faculty as well.

33:55.66] Different views, different backgrounds, different cultures,

33:57.77] that's what makes Stanford great,

33:59.77] but it also needs to fit and work for our students,

34:02.77] for them to be able to learn.

34:04.99] How would, I mean, an ARAP student,

34:08.99] I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing it wrong,

34:10.99] but if they were sitting and listening to this meeting tonight,

34:13.99] I'm sure that they would feel very uncomfortable

34:15.99] just being an ARAP student in the Stanford Public Schools

34:18.99] because to me it almost seems like the curriculum

34:21.99] is not wanted because of what it's teaching.

34:24.95] So I did write something,

34:26.95] I hope I have a little more time.

34:28.95] This more so goes into evaluations for staff members

34:33.95] in regards to teaching our students,

34:35.95] but I also feel like it needs to be for our families as well.

34:39.95] Last month, my child came home visibly upset

34:41.91] and shared an experience of an interaction with the teacher

34:45.91] that raised suspicions about their ability

34:47.91] to handle classroom dynamics effectively.

34:49.91] This story isn't unique to my family,

34:51.91] I've heard it from other families about similar concerns.

34:56.51] The stories and concerns highlight a pressing issue

34:58.51] in Stanford's educational system,

35:00.51] ensuring that anyone entrusted with the responsibility

35:02.51] of shaping a young mind is not only professionally qualified,

35:05.51] but also personally suited for the role.

35:09.11] I understand that all of our staff

35:11.11] is evaluated by our principals,

35:13.11] but I do think they need to be evaluated further

35:15.11] and it needs to touch more on their mental health.

35:18.11] Thank you for the time.

35:19.52] - Thank you, now our next speaker is Teresa Lindzer.

35:25.92] - Hi, thank you for your time.

35:39.42] In regards to the pending changes

35:43.77] to the Stanford public education curriculum

35:46.77] regarding Arab and Islamic studies,

35:48.96] my understanding is that Stanford

35:50.96] already includes instruction about Islam

35:52.96] in seventh grade social studies.

35:56.09] My question is what specific educational gaps

35:59.09] have been identified that would justify

36:01.09] expanding the instruction or introducing

36:04.09] a standalone elective?

36:06.09] So has the district conducted any sort of gap analysis

36:09.09] on the curriculum and if so,

36:11.09] can you please share the findings publicly?

36:14.09] Thank you.

36:15.59] - Thank you, next speaker, Alicia Teitelbaum.

36:22.94] - Hi, how are you?

36:33.16] Thank you, my name is Alicia Teitelbaum.

36:35.16] I spoke at last month's meeting

36:37.35] about the chronic absenteeism,

36:38.35] which is 18 or more days of the school year.

36:41.35] October 1st is the date that Stanford public school

36:44.35] rectifies the class numbers from last year

36:46.35] to this year's student role.

36:48.35] When will those numbers be public?

36:50.35] Who is responsible in central office

36:52.63] to make sure kids who were in school last year

36:56.60] but aren't in school this year and where are they?

36:59.79] They're in another school, are they somewhere else?

37:02.95] Did they move?

37:03.95] Who is responsible for that in central office

37:05.92] 'cause obviously each individual school

37:07.92] cannot be responsible for that.

37:09.92] Who is looking for them when they are not found?

37:14.00] Are these kids just falling through the cracks?

37:15.97] The previous person who spoke says

37:18.18] he will wait till December to make a full report

37:21.18] as previously stated.

37:23.21] Why December?

37:24.53] Where are these kids now?

37:26.88] When does DCF get contacted for chronic absenteeism?

37:31.26] Are these kids being trafficked, abused?

37:33.26] We just don't know since this has become

37:35.26] consistent Stanford public school policy.

37:38.26] The LEAP program gets $350,000 grant from the state.

37:42.57] Where does it go?

37:43.83] How has it helped?

37:44.83] And is it making kids come back to school?

37:47.83] We need those numbers and we need the data

37:49.83] to make sure things are being effective.

37:51.83] My second point I want to talk about

37:54.11] is the home school policy that was spoken about

37:58.58] last meeting after the public hearing part.

38:01.58] It is noncompliant with the state law.

38:03.64] The state law says it is to go into effect

38:06.64] in 2027 to 2028 school year.

38:09.64] Not this school year.

38:10.82] Already there has been one case

38:13.26] where a family has removed their kid

38:15.26] from public school to homeschool

38:18.26] and DCF has been involved

38:20.70] and that looks like retaliation

38:23.66] for the parent leaving the school system.

38:26.72] Is that the new purpose of the DCF?

38:28.78] Is to delay withdrawal and threaten families?

38:31.78] So if DCF isn't being called on

38:33.94] for kids who are missing 18, 30, 50 school days,

38:37.94] why is it being called on family

38:39.94] who said Stanford public school system

38:42.06] is not working out for my kid,

38:44.06] whether it's mental health, whether it's the curriculum,

38:47.19] whether it's just their lifestyle

38:49.16] is not conducive to Stanford public school system.

38:52.16] Why are they having DCF being called

38:55.12] and threatened for their family?

38:57.12] We need to really evaluate this

38:59.41] and we need to understand where these kids are going

39:02.41] since 19% is not really acceptable

39:05.41] for Stanford public schools.

39:07.41] Thank you.

39:10.00] - Thank you.

39:12.15] Next speaker Monica Twall.

39:28.16] - Good evening brothers and sisters in Christ

39:30.16] of the board of education and citizens.

39:32.35] During my trips to Hartford,

39:34.35] I was met with attention by the statuesque historic figures

39:37.31] who Connecticut pays homage to since our founding.

39:41.69] Lafayette, General Putnam,

39:44.10] the soldiers and sailors arch

39:46.10] are three such robust memorials.

39:48.10] Thomas Knowlton of Ashford, Connecticut,

39:50.45] stands among the capital's hilltop,

39:52.48] known as the father of American military intelligence.

39:55.48] He served as a boy in the French and Indian Wars

39:58.70] shared in the siege and capture of Havana in 1762.

40:02.73] He took command of the Connecticut troops

40:05.05] at the battle of Bomer Hill,

40:07.31] as with his commands,

40:08.31] closely attached to person of Washington

40:11.29] and was killed at the battle of Harlem Heights

40:14.31] on September 16th, 1776 at the age of 36.

40:18.50] These are the words memorializing a patriot,

40:20.88] of the American Revolution.

40:22.84] General Washington issued orders

40:26.28] characterizing the Connecticut son's bravery

40:28.28] as gallant and honorable for any country.

40:31.28] Across the capital, grounds between Trinity and Elm Street,

40:35.85] another stern monument of our heritage

40:37.91] is proudly immortalized.

40:39.91] The spirit of victory dedicated to the Spanish-American war

40:44.39] commemorates the valor and patriotism of the Hartford men,

40:47.39] who served their country in the war with Spain in 1898.

40:51.58] The Connecticut veterans secure Cuba

40:54.93] and the Philippine islands full independence

40:56.93] and made Puerto Rico a commonwealth to the United States.

41:00.89] Leading forth, the torch of liberty raised above her head

41:04.33] yearns all to be free,

41:06.33] and in a relative degree steps in

41:08.55] to fulfill her engagement of protection and peace.

41:11.55] Upon her bodice, a sword in its sheath,

41:14.91] securely in its place for all those who take the sword

41:17.99] will perish by the sword.

41:20.01] In the angel's left hand she holds a shield firmly emblazoned

41:23.53] with the stars and stripes of the vineyard symbol

41:26.53] of where the grapes of wrath are stored at his heart.

41:29.62] On the 250th year of our independence

41:31.97] and 25th year after 9/11,

41:34.94] I call upon the board to retract

41:37.06] Ida Fatter and Juneteenth

41:39.06] for the men who since our founding fought for one independence,

41:43.15] one religion, and one people.

41:46.14] In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with man

41:49.61] of his creation.

41:51.86] Our political document, the Declaration of Independence,

41:53.86] is man's perpetual testimony

41:55.86] to our Creator, Lawmaker, and Supreme Judge.

41:59.86] It is our covenant to God

42:02.01] and our Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

42:05.33] The Constitution is the fruit of our labor

42:07.33] as a testimony of his wisdom

42:09.29] sown in justice and peace

42:11.29] for those who make peace.

42:20.30] Next speaker, Karen Halbert.

42:25.51] Thank you so much for your attention this evening.

42:37.68] Again, I'm Karen Halbert,

42:39.68] and I'm here as a concerned,

42:41.68] longtime resident of Stanford.

42:44.64] I've lived here for over 30 years,

42:46.64] and I want this evening to make sure you're aware

42:49.70] of the problematic nature of an organization

42:53.70] influencing the Islamic and Arab Studies curriculum

42:58.66] currently being considered for acceptance into our schools.

43:02.65] I know I'm not the first person to address this.

43:06.77] I hope I'll be able to share a few things

43:08.77] that were not already said.

43:11.77] This organization,

43:13.28] the Council on American Islamic Relations,

43:17.34] is actively inserting itself

43:19.34] into the process of creating resources

43:22.34] for our and many other schools around the nation.

43:26.34] This organization has long been scrutinized

43:29.84] by federal authorities

43:31.84] for its extremist connections and rhetoric.

43:34.80] A few facts, it was removed in 2023

43:39.65] by the Biden administration

43:41.65] from a list of partner organizations

43:44.65] due to the, and I quote,

43:46.68] "shocking anti-Semitic statements"

43:49.68] of its director, Nihad Awad.

43:52.65] The state of Texas designated this organization

43:56.39] a Foreign Terrorist Organization

43:59.39] in November 2025, last year.

44:03.54] The governor of Florida formally designated this organization

44:07.95] as a domestic terrorist group at the state level.

44:12.14] Even the United Arab Emirates

44:14.78] designated it as a terrorist organization back in 2014.

44:19.78] Please be aware that the Connecticut Department of Education

44:24.70] Islamic and Arab Studies curriculum design team

44:28.70] includes four selected candidates from this organization

44:33.92] that I just mentioned has been designated

44:36.92] a terrorist group by multiple sources.

44:40.92] The organization ostensibly focuses

44:43.91] on responding to anti-Muslim incidents

44:47.91] and sentiment nationwide of admirable goal,

44:51.88] but key leaders often traffic

44:54.84] an openly anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric

44:58.84] in an environment where the spread of anti-Jewish

45:03.02] and anti-Israel rhetoric

45:06.02] and the worse is proliferating around the country.

45:10.07] I ask you to please be very careful

45:13.07] about allowing the influence

45:15.07] of this divisive and dangerous organization

45:18.07] into our schools.

45:20.39] Thank you for your time and attention.

45:24.40] That concludes the list for public comments.

45:29.82] - Okay, thank you to all the speakers.

45:31.82] And again, if you want to email your comments

45:33.79] to the board and to the superintendent,

45:35.79] that's also very helpful to help us remember

45:38.79] what you've said.

45:39.71] Then we move on to the board reports.

45:43.97] I'll start with the president's report.

45:46.67] Ah, the first item is tough.

45:50.75] Our long-term board clerk, Jennifer Gonzalez,

45:56.98] has decided to resign and she got tired of the commute.

46:00.98] (laughing)

46:04.04] And it's gonna, has found a job much closer to home.

46:07.39] So again, Chen's been working with the board now

46:12.35] for eight years, I believe it is, yeah, all right.

46:15.30] And has done a great job supporting us

46:18.30] as well as other parts of the organization

46:21.36] and the administration.

46:23.45] So with that, just wanna say thank you.

46:29.29] (laughing)

46:36.79] And then I just want, the only other item

46:38.79] is really to remind people of sort of how the calendar,

46:41.79] the upcoming calendar will be.

46:43.79] And next month's regular meeting,

46:46.81] which would normally be on Tuesday the 24th,

46:49.96] is going to be on the Monday, so November 23rd, Monday.

46:53.96] And we will have to designate it as a special meeting

46:57.28] because it wasn't a notice meeting.

47:01.60] But also as a reminder, a week later on December 1st,

47:06.24] we'll be having our organizational meeting

47:09.55] as any new members elected in a week from now,

47:16.70] on election day, will be seated on that day.

47:19.62] And that's when we'll do our, it's usually a quicker meeting.

47:26.14] That's when we do our organizing for the upcoming year.

47:30.74] But then also keep that Saturday open December 5th,

47:34.85] 'cause we normally have our opening retreat on the schedule.

47:40.13] And that's where we'll cover things like

47:42.13] Robert's Rules of Order and FOIA

47:46.41] and other more internal oriented things.

47:53.46] So that's it for the president's report.

47:55.75] So I'll just quickly move on to the CES report.

47:59.16] We have at CES been able to appoint

48:03.28] a new executive director.

48:06.50] He will take, he will become the executive director

48:10.49] on January 7th.

48:12.42] His name is Jeff Newton.

48:14.78] He has the distinction of being

48:16.78] the Connecticut Superintendent of the Year.

48:20.16] So we're looking very forward to him taking the reins

48:23.16] from Dr. Chip Dumé.

48:27.05] Also, there's something quite interesting

48:30.01] that's getting a lot of discussion and press in the area.

48:35.61] It's about common circles.

48:37.53] So it's a pro, I'll read it.

48:39.77] It's probably the easiest thing to do.

48:41.77] The common circles experience combines research-backed

48:44.77] approaches from psychology with engaging accessible experiences

48:48.83] for audiences of all backgrounds and ages.

48:51.83] Designed to spark reflection, deepen empathy,

48:56.34] and encourage dialogue, it creates spaces of belonging

48:59.49] where every individual feels seen, heard, and valued.

49:03.49] CES's partnership with common circles

49:06.32] has yielded many district leadership and faculty visits

49:10.47] in support of this important work.

49:14.23] And we plan, CES plans, to continue to host visits onsite

49:19.23] that would be at the offices in trouble

49:21.23] for districts and are working with social studies teachers

49:25.26] in the region to develop and distribute curriculum materials

49:28.38] to encourage high-quality conversations in the exhibit.

49:32.38] And it's gotten fairly high marks from those people

49:36.62] who have attended or participated.

49:39.62] That is the report for CES.

49:42.29] Do we have other organizations that have a report this month?

49:46.57] Ms. Foy.

49:47.57] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

49:49.27] I have two reports, one from Roscoe.

49:52.27] Roscoe wanted to share that on October 17th,

49:56.27] they had their first event for Oktoberfest for Kids.

50:02.29] It was a very successful event with over 200 people in attendance,

50:06.29] and they're looking forward to hosting more events in the community.

50:10.29] They are also currently searching for additional board members.

50:16.28] So if anyone is interested, please reach out to Nicole Ayers,

50:21.28] who is the Executive Director at Roscoe.

50:23.28] The requirement is simply just being passionate about children

50:28.28] and kids, and especially about the programs that Roscoe is offering.

50:31.28] And they meet once a month on Wednesdays at 6.30 p.m.

50:36.28] And then the second report is on behalf of the Stanford Public Education Foundation.

50:44.34] There are just a few exciting updates on the collaborative work across the district.

50:49.34] First, SPF's Middle School Mentoring Program has officially kicked off for the school year.

50:55.36] This program pairs students with trusted, caring adult role models

50:58.45] who meet with them throughout the school year.

51:01.42] SPF provides the structure curriculum,

51:03.41] and every school-based session is actively guided and supported

51:07.41] by our dedicated program coordinators.

51:10.38] Right now, the biggest need is passionate community members.

51:13.47] So if you or someone you know can commit to spending just one hour a week

51:17.53] with an SPS middle schooler, please visit the website,

51:21.53] SPF, S-P-E-F-C-T dot org, to sign up and make a lasting impression and impact.

51:28.69] And then second, SPF is excited, I'm excited,

51:32.81] and thrilled to host the next Books Across Stanford event,

51:36.81] which is happening on Saturday, November 14th at the Latham-Wyder Community Center

51:41.77] from 12.30 p.m. to 2.30 p.m., inviting all Stanford families with children

51:46.86] in pre-k through fifth grade to join us and choose a brand new free book

51:51.82] to help build their home libraries.

51:53.97] Families are encouraged to arrive just a little early

51:57.00] to take part in a special community rock painting garden project

52:01.19] that's being hosted in partnership with the Southland branch of the Ferguson Library.

52:06.19] And then lastly, SPF is proud to celebrate the launch of their fall 2026 UConn PEP,

52:13.41] which is People Empowering People cohort.

52:16.43] This marks the 15th cohort under the Stanford PLTI and Family Leadership umbrella.

52:23.81] And earlier this month, 16 dedicated parent leaders began this intensive curriculum

52:29.80] to hone their leadership and civic engagement skills that ensures families remain --

52:34.80] that their voices remain at the heart of our community. Thank you.

52:37.80] >> Great. Okay. And Mr. VanHort.

52:42.68] >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. From Delmas, I have the 2526 report

52:49.29] on the school engagement and middle school family advocates programs.

52:54.86] So school engagement provides services to Stanford High, West Hill, Anchor,

53:00.82] and Adult Education.

53:02.78] For 2526, there were 352 students who had been or were disengaged

53:10.11] and were identified for the program.

53:12.11] Of the 352, 93% remained enrolled all year.

53:17.11] 97% of the seniors graduated.

53:21.56] And of those, 86% are proceeding to post-secondary education

53:26.75] or have employment lined up. And of the 352 students,

53:32.10] 84% of them were in attendance on any given day.

53:36.00] These students who were previously not engaged.

53:39.13] And then for the middle school family advocates, that served in 2526, 113 students,

53:47.57] 93% of whom were enrolled all year, just like actually the school engagement.

53:54.62] And then 89% of them were in attendance on average any given day.

53:59.89] Thank you very much.

54:01.17] >> Great. Excellent. Yes, go ahead.

54:05.38] >> I didn't mean, but I just want to remind parents about Building One Community,

54:09.44] the Enrichment, Academic Enrichment Program.

54:13.44] They are in need of volunteers, especially teachers.

54:17.60] And I know if there's teachers' listenings,

54:20.54] they need at least somebody to come and help.

54:24.71] Their children are doing, they're helping them with math and reading.

54:28.71] And the commitment is from now until, you know,

54:32.80] next December and next year and the summer.

54:35.80] So if anybody's out there, have special time and love for continuing teaching,

54:42.82] Building One Community is welcoming you there.

54:49.12] >> Okay. You have a good report.

54:52.12] >> Yes. Really quickly, just a reminder.

54:55.53] On November 17th, we're going to be meeting with the Blue Ribbon Commission,

54:58.53] and it's me, Julie, Jen, Andy, Dr. Talley.

55:02.60] The Blue Ribbon Commission has a CABE,

55:05.83] Connecticut Air Association Awards event designee,

55:08.92] and that is Leonard Lockhart.

55:09.92] We're going to be meeting with Leonard to talk about Stanford

55:12.98] and hopefully advocate for some education cost sharing formula,

55:18.32] changes that would benefit districts like ours,

55:21.48] and just kind of give our testimony in that respect.

55:23.48] We have the convention coming up November 20th and 21st.

55:26.61] I think most of us, if not all of us, are good to go.

55:29.77] And then lastly, since it is election season

55:34.05] and there's an election coming up,

55:36.05] CABE does send out, and you all should receive this in your emails,

55:39.05] a memo for Board of Education members

55:42.15] to have conversations around public education advocacy

55:46.15] with legislators, newly elected and incumbent legislators.

55:50.24] It includes resources on Connecticut Public Education 101,

55:54.24] reading questions for the 2026 Connecticut legislative candidates,

55:58.37] and then issues to discuss with candidates.

56:00.38] This is going to be especially important going into the budget season,

56:03.50] coming up quickly.

56:05.47] And so I think this all helped us equip ourselves for that time in the season.

56:09.59] Okay, thank you.

56:13.86] That reminds me, relative to the CABE assembly,

56:17.85] the business meeting of CABE takes place on Thursday the 19th.

56:25.07] We're, as Stanford, entitled to three representatives there.

56:29.07] I know I'm going.

56:31.07] Is anybody else going to --

56:33.13] anybody else planning to be there on Thursday the 19th?

56:35.13] I think you're trying to be there.

56:38.37] Anybody else?

56:40.91] It begins at around 3.30, I think, yeah.

56:43.91] It's a late afternoon, then followed by dinner.

56:48.42] Okay, well, as long as there's at least one of us,

56:52.52] but maybe just let me know.

56:54.52] You just let me know if you're going to be able to be there,

56:56.52] and it'll be helpful.

56:59.45] Okay, any other reports from organizations?

57:03.81] Okay, then let's move to the consent agenda.

57:09.28] So we have consent minutes and consent resolutions.

57:12.28] Do we have any minutes or resolutions that people want to be pulled

57:18.58] from the consent agenda?

57:21.59] Okay, then we'll take those up.

57:25.43] One is a policy issue.

57:28.71] We'll take that one up in policy when we're there.

57:35.03] And the other is a grant.

57:38.03] And so that would be under fiscal.

57:49.33] Okay, so let's move on to the consent agenda.

57:55.41] Let's move on to the consent agenda.

57:58.41] Okay, so let's move on to the consent agenda.

58:02.14] Okay, so let's move on to the consent agenda.

58:05.14] Okay, so with that,

58:08.90] we'll move forward with the consent agenda.

58:12.47] A second to proceed with the agenda.

58:15.47] Thank you, Mr. Vandoor.

58:17.47] All those in favor of passing the consent minutes

58:20.75] and consent resolutions indicate by raising your hand and saying yes,

58:24.75] I see Mr. Tonga's hand is raised on the screen.

58:27.75] So that is nine people in favor.

58:30.75] Nobody's abstaining.

58:32.71] Nobody's opposed.

58:33.83] So it's nine zero zero.

58:36.05] Great. Thank you.

58:38.07] Then we move on to committee reports and we start with the operations

58:45.28] committee and there's a resolution.

58:47.53] So I'll turn it over to Ms. Bedouin.

58:49.53] Good evening.

58:58.36] Can you hear me?

58:59.46] Resolution 1027, 2687.

59:02.46] We did resolve that one of the recommendation of the superintendent

59:06.71] of school at the board of education,

59:08.71] hereby certifies that this final phase,

59:11.77] advancing project models as prepared for Biden and dated.

59:16.87] Then 1626 and the professional cost estimate completed in accordance

59:22.10] with the level three for SDM international standards.

59:26.22] He won five five seven standards classification house buildings,

59:32.37] elements and related side work uniform to for this project

59:37.74] dated 10, 16, 20, 26, 26 have been reviewed

59:42.76] and approved for this project on the day shows above.

59:46.76] And I believe that may be.

59:48.76] No, it's okay.

59:49.79] Sorry.

59:50.69] Second again.

59:51.78] I don't care.

59:56.30] Now you're good.

59:57.30] Sorry.

60:00.16] And I believe that it's going to be a presentation right now by Ms. Kateri Lobalvo.

60:15.54] Hello, I'm here as well, but I'm joined by our hardworking team at Collier's project leaders, John Coplis and Adam Levitas.

60:25.28] And I think John is going to share the slides that were presented or that were submitted earlier to you all.

60:34.05] Now we are seeking just this preface. This is Superintendent Talley referred to this previously.

60:43.58] A lot of our projects have worked on schedule, advancing our schedule so that to the benefit of cost savings.

60:53.92] So this is a phase one. This is for site work. This is for the dirt, so to speak.

61:02.71] And so I just wanted to preface that this is not the building.

61:07.76] We are going to the state for authorization to go out for our site work, which we can get done in the spring of next year.

61:18.99] And yes, it takes that long between getting our authorization from the state all the way through bidding, all the way through contracts and then all the way through to to mobilization.

61:28.96] So we're we're looking to do that here at the at the lower school.

61:33.83] And so John's going to go over the nitty gritty of all that.

61:38.23] But I just wanted to open up with that, that this is not necessarily the building itself, but the site.

61:46.11] So go ahead, John. Thank you, Catherine.

61:50.97] Thank you, Catherine. Good evening, everybody. My name is John Copless, senior project manager at Collier's project leaders.

61:57.15] As Catherine mentioned, Adam Levitas is also joining us from Collier's.

62:02.71] And I'm just going to go through a slide deck here.

62:07.00] This was shared with the group previously.

62:09.36] So hopefully you've had a chance to look at this, but I will go through this and sort of summarize what this phase one scope of work will entail.

62:17.18] The first slide here with respect to what is being referred to at this point, at least as the lower school, this school is a K through four school.

62:29.10] This is going to be enrollment of five hundred and ninety one students at the maximum count.

62:37.46] The square footage at this point is roughly seventy six thousand eight hundred gross square feet, which is the dimension to the exterior of the building.

62:46.38] And the school is a two story school.

62:49.33] The first level will contain the kindergarten and first grade classrooms, which are six total classrooms each.

62:56.34] And then the second floor will contain the second, third and fourth grade classrooms, which will contain five classrooms each.

63:07.37] The meeting tonight is to present this as far as the phase one of ultimately four phases of the project.

63:18.65] This first phase, as Catherine alluded to, will address the site scope.

63:23.61] It will be the abatement of the existing Domus facility and then the demolition of both the Domus facility and the CLC.

63:34.82] And then also there's a couple of portables there on the site.

63:37.78] So it will be the demolition of those structures on the site and then earthwork, some utilities work.

63:46.53] And then geothermal wells will be part of this phase one scope of work, as well as the initial foundation concrete work and footings for the buildings themselves.

63:58.05] This is something that is going to be approved for state review and November 12th is our PCR meeting with the state in which we will present this full package to them.

64:13.30] And following that, the phase two is going to be presented at this point.

64:19.06] We anticipate in December of twenty twenty six that phase two is for the steel component of the project.

64:25.53] And then ultimately the phase three is for the balance of the project, which is going to be scheduled in March of next year, twenty twenty seven.

64:36.33] I did mention four phases. The fourth phase is the FFE and IT components.

64:41.05] So that is considered a separate phase.

64:44.09] But as far as the structure is concerned, that comes in towards the end of the project itself.

64:52.44] The schedule of what we are looking at again this evening is to present this to the Board of Education.

65:00.15] We are already in process of getting approvals through the building department, fire department, health department in the 504 approvals.

65:08.49] We have had some meetings with them leading up to tonight, so they are certainly familiar with the project as well and have also provided their approval on some of the initial documentation and sign offs.

65:20.65] Again, in November, November 12th specifically, we will be reviewing the phase one scope of work with the Connecticut DAS office and presenting the project and the amount of work that is entailed in the phase one.

65:35.39] And then December through April twenty twenty seven, the contractor construction manager will be publishing and receiving the bids, determining the actual costs and then establishing those construction contracts with the subcontractors.

65:52.61] And then April 1st of twenty twenty seven is the anticipated start date for the abatement.

65:58.79] And then subsequent will be the demolition and then the earth work to that scope of work that will take roughly four to five months total for that first phase of work.

66:10.89] This is a project schedule that shows where we are at currently.

66:16.41] The site package is in place and that is what we are presently presenting.

66:22.33] This is the phase one here, phase two is the steel package again that will be finished next month and towards the end of November and then the site work itself.

66:33.34] We are looking to begin the bidding process in January, followed by the bidding process for the steel and then ultimately the work itself will begin in April with a demolition of the site.

66:45.63] And then following that will be the steel and then eventually the construction of the new building with the intention of having that completed by May of twenty twenty nine so that the building and site will be completed and occupied by the start of the school year twenty twenty nine.

67:05.73] For those who may not be familiar, the location of the site is here on Lockwood, the Domus facility is this structure here. These two are the Plurables here along Williams Street. This entire site will be under construction, the school itself.

67:24.60] In the next slide, I'll show you where that will be. This area here in the upper left, the northwest corner is the location of the future geothermal wells. So that will be part of the phase one scope of work.

67:37.37] And this image here is a rendering of the new site with the new structure. This north is to the right on this image.

67:51.02] The staff parking lot is located here along Frank Street. This section here is the pickup and drop off lane for the parents. The main entrance to the school is located here. And again, this is the two story structure located on the southern portion of the site.

68:10.46] And then this area here along Williams Street, this is the bus drop off. And then also on the back southwest corner is the loading dock area, which is going to be fenced and segregated from from the public and from school access, protecting that from the kids.

68:28.07] >> John, can I jump in? You're doing such a great job. I just wanted to add a couple of details for our board members. One, we worked extensively with the traffic department on mitigating traffic to the site, trying to understand the circulation patterns for arrivals and for pickups, understanding dedicated staff, a dedicated staff lot, a dedicated bus lane, as you can see, that's that pull off from Williams.

68:57.92] And then the screened loading dock, we worked extensively. Thank you so much to Cindy Grapstein, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Smith. If I start saying thank yous, I'm not going to finish all of it because there were so many people involved with working through this circulation.

69:14.61] We also received a positive recommendation from the planning board. While the school properties are often exempt from planning and zoning, the state does require us to go and make a presentation to the planning board.

69:28.75] And they looked upon this favorably. So I did want to let our board members kind of know with with that confidence that there has been a very, very high level of scrutiny on the site.

69:40.28] So although it's just the site, there's been there's been a significant amount of review, discussion, thought, exactly, because we know that we are we are in a residential neighborhood as many of our schools are.

69:56.91] What can we do here to make this the best site it can be? Sorry, John. Go ahead. No problem. Thank you, Captain.

70:07.28] The, excuse me, this slide here is showing the extent of the demolition. Again, the abatement scope will be concentrated on this portion of the site, these structures here.

70:20.58] Again, these are the portables on the far south end of the site. This will be the components that will be abated and demolished. And then this image here shows the footprint of the new school, as well as the highlighted area where the geothermal wells will be located on the site.

70:36.00] And then finally, oh, I'm sorry. I was going to say, well, and you won't know those geothermal wells are there because they're going to be underground.

70:44.38] So you can see them on this plan, but you're never going to see them again.

70:47.14] And then I also wanted to add there was a lot of thought given to green spaces, plaza spaces, active play, passive play.

70:55.82] And just wanted to add that. OK, sorry, John. Back to the numbers. No problem.

71:01.05] And this final slide just shows the cost associated with this phase one scope of work.

71:06.98] This is compiled by Gilbane at this point. Again, these are estimates.

71:12.50] This will go out to bid at the beginning of the year.

71:16.82] The portion of the phase one scope of work is at this point estimated at about twenty four million dollars.

71:22.90] And as noted here, this is within the authorized grant amount for this project.

71:27.78] So we do not have any concerns or sense of being over budget with respect to this portion of the work.

71:36.27] And once the contractor CM goes out to get the fine bids, we will fine tune this number and know exactly where we stand.

71:46.63] But that is that's where we are projecting potentially the cost to be at.

71:50.97] So and just to add on to that, we've as John noted, we partnered with a construction manager at risk.

71:57.73] The construction manager at risk model is the model we've taken for West Hill High School and Roxbury.

72:04.23] We have seen success to date with bidding both early packages, things like the Hall Road or we did for Roxbury,

72:11.67] the geothermal wells to take advantage of of timing.

72:16.83] And we also did just successfully bid the Roxbury K-3, the main portion of that package.

72:23.61] We saw a very high level of participation, a high level of interest.

72:27.37] So, you know, it's too soon to to report more on that, but we know we are within budget for Roxbury K-3.

72:34.71] So I just wanted to add, I know that's a bit of a tangent, but I just wanted to add that positive news.

72:39.83] And also that we've we've just found a lot of success with this model so far.

72:43.27] So, OK, that was any question. That's that's where we're at.

72:52.89] Any. Thank you so much. Anybody in the board has a question?

72:58.83] Yes, please. Did you want it right now?

73:02.41] I do things I think just so the public knows there's 60 percent reimbursement.

73:11.90] So basically the lower school is going to cost about 29 million rather than 72.

73:19.02] And the upper school is going to cost thirty four point four million rather than the eighty five,

73:27.53] because this was a special state law to help with the buildings of new schools across the state of Connecticut.

73:34.60] So that's pretty exciting news. And notice their name, the lower and upper school.

73:41.63] And I think, Amy, just to clarify this and maybe Dr.

73:45.04] Talley doesn't know this, the name of the schools will be decided by the board of reps.

73:51.71] Is that correct? When we get closer to the.

73:55.88] Yes, ultimately, the board of reps names all all the city buildings.

74:02.98] Interesting trivia for the public, because I think this is pretty exciting to see yet another rebuild.

74:09.23] And we definitely need schools on that end of Stanford.

74:13.31] Thank you, Becky. Chris, you have a question.

74:21.18] If so, we don't have any question, let's go ahead and pass the resolution.

74:28.10] So resolution ten twenty seven twenty six eighty seven less.

74:35.19] All all in favor to face one for the problem in the project.

74:40.60] Say I think you're stressed out.

74:47.23] She's there. Press up. So nine. Yeah, nine zero.

74:52.38] So we thank you. So nine two.

74:57.93] Thank you. Right. Thank you. Thank you very much.

75:06.26] Thank you. OK, next we go to Labor Committee.

75:13.25] Mr. Vandervoort, thank you. Labor Committee did not have a meeting.

75:20.33] And the topic that would normally be presented to the committee is going to be presented,

75:23.97] I believe, by Dr.

75:24.93] Fernandez to the board right now, a lot of questions.

75:47.39] And I have especially the question.

76:06.48] All right. Good evening.

76:08.08] It's a pleasure to be here this evening to present the hiring staffing report

76:12.36] for Stanford Public Schools.

76:13.86] It's been a long time since I've actually sat live in front of the board.

76:17.87] It actually feels pretty good.

76:20.24] I made you a copy of the presentation in case you couldn't see the screen.

76:25.53] And there's a supplemental document that I provided at the request of a board member

76:30.09] who had a question about some of the data in the report that I'm going to do this evening.

76:35.39] So I'm going to jump right in. I would be remiss if I didn't thank and acknowledge the work department.

76:42.73] They provided much of the data for this report.

76:45.68] And more importantly, they do the really hard work of onboarding the many employees

76:51.71] that we hire starting in the spring.

76:55.44] Gets really busy starting in May through the summer into September.

76:58.76] And I want to just acknowledge all of them and read their names really quickly.

77:01.72] Charmaine Torres, Melissa Wills, Priscilla Viana, Marilyn Thomas, Audrey Way, Yvesla Fleur,

77:07.79] Stacey Brown, Raquel Lemus, who really joined us,

77:11.29] and our temp Jonathan Walters, who's been a big help as well.

77:16.49] Okay. So going to the second slide, I'm going to do a couple things this evening.

77:21.13] I'm going to review the landscape and hiring details from this hiring season,

77:27.51] provide a comprehensive overview of our staffing levels across the unions that we oversee.

77:33.31] And then I'll review the landscape of Board of Ad Employees retention data

77:38.50] focusing on certified staff, the SCA, that's our largest union group.

77:44.08] And I also have some data that I'm going to share.

77:47.09] All of this data is from October 1, so it's a little dated.

77:51.41] Things have changed from when I collected this data to produce this report.

77:55.84] I just want to say in general, the hiring environment remains challenging, as you probably know.

78:01.15] It's getting better though, slowly getting better, but it's still very challenging.

78:07.15] There's fewer candidates for positions, and the candidates that are available many times

78:12.04] are not quality candidates that you would find five of them to go.

78:16.71] And it's particularly difficult in certain shortage areas, which I'll review if you will.

78:24.00] So the next slide shows all the employees under the Board of Ad's purview.

78:31.41] The bolded employee groups are the unions that we specifically oversee.

78:36.88] We partner with the city on our custodians and office support staff.

78:41.70] And then we have our discretionary and sort of part-time employees in the bottom.

78:48.14] We oversee 2,752 total employees, again, that's as of October 1.

78:54.42] And the Stanford Education Association is our largest unit,

79:00.43] followed by the Third Educator Union.

79:03.23] Moving on, just to give you a little data about all of our staff.

79:08.30] Roughly, of the 2,752, about 54% live in Stanford, so more than half.

79:17.01] 11 graduated from the Stanford Public Schools, which we're very proud of.

79:21.17] 7 from Stanford High and 4 from West Hill.

79:24.17] Stanford High is leading the way the last few years.

79:26.83] And then more than 50% of our staff have an advanced degree, master's degree or higher.

79:32.96] Looking at our union groups, look at this slide, I'm just gonna quickly go over these.

79:40.05] These are smaller unions.

79:41.41] This shows the position changes that were processed during the hiring season.

79:47.43] For our administrators, the Stanford administrators unit,

79:50.43] you can see 27 total position changes, 26 were internal.

79:55.77] That's even just moving someone from a interim position back to position they

80:01.85] were in or if they assumed a new position, administrative position.

80:07.04] We had one external hire at the Stanford administrators union.

80:11.24] For our security, we hired three new people.

80:14.52] And there's no open positions for the SAU or security.

80:19.10] And similarly with our parent facilitators,

80:22.58] we hired three new parent facilitators and there's no open positions.

80:27.34] The peer educators are, again, our second largest group.

80:30.18] You can see a lot more position changes processed.

80:33.84] We had 90 internal transfers within Stanford and 29 new hires.

80:39.59] If you go to the next slide, it goes a little bit deeper.

80:43.59] Of the 29 new hires, eight of them are bilingual, 17 are Stanford residents.

80:49.16] And then our open positions at the time of this report, October 1,

80:53.88] was 32 open positions, the majority at Oakwood 18.

80:59.27] And you can see we had a handful at Davenport in our ASB program and

81:03.83] a few at Apples and then various as well.

81:06.51] Those numbers have come down since then.

81:08.55] Some of those positions have been filled by contracts and some new hires.

81:15.42] Okay, I'm now gonna spend the remainder of the time on certified staff.

81:19.34] That's the Stanford Education Association, the SEA.

81:23.71] While this hiring season had the fewest new hires in years,

81:29.08] and probably the smallest workforce for the SEA in years,

81:33.80] it was a complex and busy hiring season with many internal transfers.

81:40.32] And as you recall, in the spring we had involuntary transfers that were moved to

81:45.04] cross endorsement certifications which created some complexity to the work we

81:49.07] did this summer.

81:51.38] We're going through this data.

81:53.79] You can see that there were 337.3 FTEs that were filled

81:59.83] through internal transfers.

82:02.13] Internal transfers help retain our employees by offering them new challenges

82:07.45] and growth opportunities and new positions.

82:09.94] Many times it's their choice.

82:13.07] We're filling 6.7 positions through extra class assignments.

82:18.79] Those are the point twos that you hear about.

82:21.58] That's been a very helpful process over the last five to seven years

82:26.60] in filling classes that we can't find staff.

82:31.53] We hired 52.7 new hires.

82:36.87] There's not a 0.7 of a person.

82:39.81] But there is some of these positions are part-time positions that are not

82:44.01] all full-time.

82:44.97] The total number of people we actually brought into Stanford was 58 new hires.

82:50.54] 41 of those were new faces that joined our team.

82:55.77] It's great to hire new people, bringing fresh perspectives and

82:58.89] diverse experiences.

83:00.55] Many of those were seasoned, experienced folks as well,

83:03.67] not just brand new people.

83:05.03] So it's great to bring seasoned folks from other districts.

83:08.55] They not only learned from us, but we've learned from them.

83:13.35] 20 positions, sorry, I just lost 17 of the 58 hires were returning

83:19.35] folks that were on interim assignments.

83:23.14] And that's very common year after year.

83:26.08] Let's see, we had 20 open positions at the time.

83:30.43] And you can see the list there, the area that continues to be the dreaded area to

83:34.75] fill a special education, as you can imagine.

83:38.04] Since then, those numbers have come down.

83:39.84] And believe the last I saw just this week, I think it was Monday.

83:42.64] There's 14 open positions now.

83:44.28] So we're chipping away at those open positions.

83:49.11] Okay, moving along.

83:52.27] These are our certification shortage areas.

83:55.27] There's 11 of them.

83:57.01] These areas have remained the same.

83:59.98] This is the third year in a row.

84:01.26] These have been the shortage areas.

84:03.50] The teacher shortage areas are determined by a combination of supply and demand.

84:08.38] The shortage areas on this slide represent certification endorsement areas where

84:12.74] significant vacancies exist across the state of Connecticut,

84:17.93] where educator preparation programs are not producing the graduates.

84:22.25] And that's a big problem to meet the needs of our student population in Connecticut.

84:28.16] And again, the most challenging areas for Stanford are special education

84:33.74] related services.

84:34.98] When I say related services, I mean school psychology, speech pathology.

84:39.39] And that's the same nationally.

84:41.59] I was at a conference last week in Texas, Austin, Texas.

84:45.25] And it's the same people are experiencing these challenges.

84:48.92] I know Dr. Talley coming from Chicago knows that these are the challenges

84:53.34] across the country, not just the state.

84:57.42] Looking at this next slide, this just gives you a sense of what it's looked like

85:01.50] over the last three years, these shortage areas.

85:05.71] And you can see at the top is special education.

85:08.55] That's our biggest problem.

85:10.53] That is not going away since August of 2024.

85:13.97] That remains the most difficult area to fill.

85:17.70] You see progress though, if you look down at science and math.

85:21.96] Well, you could see that.

85:23.17] That tended to be a difficult area a few years ago.

85:27.17] In August of '24, you see 5 and 4.6.

85:30.44] And this year, less than one in both of those areas.

85:34.24] So that's going down.

85:35.52] And then a school psychology and speech.

85:38.39] Three years ago, we were able to fill all those positions.

85:41.27] And now there's a few that we're able to fill.

85:46.25] So just diving into our new hires.

85:48.41] It's always good to see the faces and get to know them.

85:50.81] Again, nine graduated Stanford folks schools.

85:53.17] We're proud of that.

85:54.25] 23 are Stanford residents.

85:56.21] 50% speak another language, which is great.

85:58.57] We have many students that speak second languages.

86:00.85] So it's great to have 31% are racially diverse.

86:06.28] We hired folks, as I mentioned, at different steps.

86:09.32] New teachers, very experienced teachers.

86:11.68] You can see some of the data there.

86:14.27] And then I think I mentioned this.

86:16.51] Well, 54 of the 58 hold advanced degrees

86:19.99] beyond a bachelor's degree.

86:21.81] And you can see a little breakdown of that education

86:24.57] experience there.

86:28.03] This next slide, this bar chart shows

86:32.39] based on the first day of school for students.

86:35.27] So we try to have a common data point to start.

86:38.83] Since 2019-20, these are the number of vacancies

86:43.61] that we start in the school year with.

86:46.17] I think you can see the trend going downwards,

86:49.81] starting in '21, '22 to this current year.

86:53.05] This is our lowest level since 2019, 2020,

86:58.32] in terms of starting the year with vacancies.

87:00.32] That's positive.

87:01.65] And we hope it continues.

87:05.62] But I'm now going to jump into retention data,

87:08.10] turnover data, to give the board a sense

87:10.99] of what's happening with retaining our staff and turnover.

87:16.38] This first slide shows historical turnover

87:21.61] for resignations and retirements.

87:23.65] The green are retirements.

87:25.73] The blue is resignations.

87:28.34] This is our lowest number of resignations since 2020-21.

87:34.47] The trend is going down, which is positive.

87:37.61] Out of the 71 resignations, about half were non-tenure,

87:42.01] the other half were tenured folks.

87:44.84] And as you can see, we have 30 retirements.

87:50.16] This next data, our retention metrics.

87:53.65] I shared the type, how we calculate it.

87:57.14] That's important to be very clear and consistent

87:59.70] in your calculation and the criteria that we use.

88:02.69] The first slide shows overall retention

88:05.21] for the Stanford Public Schools.

88:06.69] We're at 93.4%.

88:09.87] That's strong, that's good.

88:11.07] I'll show some comparative results in a little bit.

88:13.99] New higher retention.

88:15.19] Those are teachers that were in their first year.

88:18.49] That's at 90.4%, and as you can see there,

88:21.45] our non-tenure teacher retention's at 91%.

88:25.71] And our regrettable turnover, regrettable turnover.

88:28.55] This is a little bit of a confusing concept.

88:31.15] But this is the percent or the number of educators

88:35.23] that retired or resigned that we wanted to keep.

88:38.87] These are good teachers.

88:39.87] These are really strong folks.

88:41.63] So 78.4% of all those that retired or resigned,

88:46.63] we regret losing.

88:48.80] The opposite of that is at 21.6,

88:51.40] and take the converse, we're non-regrettable.

88:54.58] Meaning there's many times when you're looking

88:58.91] to get rid of a staff member for various reasons.

89:02.44] Most of the time it's through non-renewal or termination

89:05.52] or resignation in lieu of those areas.

89:09.38] And this is basically a staff member,

89:11.54] despite support that is just not making it.

89:13.86] And I think it's important that our administrators

89:16.42] do that important work.

89:21.63] This next slide just shows that over two years.

89:23.67] So now you can see improvement.

89:26.31] We improved in each of these four areas

89:28.79] from the 24-25 school year to the 25-26 school year.

89:33.88] I'm not gonna go over each of these,

89:35.16] but you can see overall retention, new higher retention.

89:37.72] That's where we saw a big bump to over 10%.

89:43.46] And then regrettable turnover again, that the people,

89:46.54] the percent of resignations and retirements

89:49.60] that are regrettable decreased, which is positive.

89:58.08] The next slide just goes a little deeper

90:00.32] into retention metrics.

90:02.38] I'm gonna focus on the lower section there,

90:04.18] the shortage areas.

90:06.29] You can see that those have improved.

90:11.29] In science, for example, from 95.3%.

90:16.73] We went to 95.3% from 88.6.

90:20.93] You can just look down to each of those shortage areas.

90:24.22] I did add student support services.

90:28.12] Ms. Foy, you had asked about retention of that group.

90:31.44] Those are our psychologists, our social workers,

90:35.37] our speech pathologists.

90:37.19] And the retention overall has been pretty solid

90:40.15] and it improved from last year to this year as well.

90:46.64] This next slide shows turnover.

90:49.86] Turnover is the rate at which employees

90:52.26] leave your organization voluntarily or involuntarily.

90:57.46] You can see the breakdown over the last six years.

91:02.84] You can see that the budgeted positions

91:05.40] have decreased over the last several years.

91:08.24] Our enrollment has gone down.

91:11.56] That has forced us to reduce staffing,

91:15.79] particularly certified staff.

91:20.62] Resignations are at their lowest levels since 2021.

91:24.82] I mentioned that again.

91:25.74] Retirements are pretty much in the middle.

91:29.87] I think what's important is our overall turnover rate

91:32.97] is the lowest it's been in the six year period at 6.6%,

91:36.59] which is positive.

91:42.22] So these are some of the reasons

91:43.58] that the 71 resignations that I shared with you earlier,

91:49.15] why people are resigning.

91:51.00] I wanna mention to the board,

91:52.28] this was a discussion a couple of years back.

91:54.98] There was a public act, 23159 that was passed

91:58.94] that required districts to develop exit interviews

92:01.90] or surveys to be completed by a teacher

92:04.93] who voluntarily left the district.

92:09.12] It also requires us to share this data with the board

92:12.52] as I'm doing this evening.

92:14.15] We have, as you can see, the breakdown is here.

92:20.22] The teacher admin in other Connecticut districts,

92:23.86] that means you went and taught

92:25.42] or became an administrator in another district.

92:28.08] The table to the right of that shows the districts

92:31.32] to where we're losing people.

92:33.96] Greenwich is, you see the most for Greenwich,

92:36.72] second most to Norwalk and then some split.

92:41.14] Most of the time people are leaving to be closer to home.

92:45.24] They're not living in Stanford.

92:46.80] That's the common reason.

92:49.06] We did do exit surveys.

92:51.86] Out of the 71 people that resigned,

92:54.91] we were able to do a survey for 17 agreed to do that.

92:59.13] I think what the board has to understand

93:00.77] is we can't force you to do that exit survey

93:04.40] because they might not want to

93:06.00] and they're just gonna be leaving.

93:08.80] We haven't proved the percentage

93:10.76] that we've done over the last two years.

93:12.78] We've done some slight changes

93:14.54] into writing this expectation in our onboarding letter,

93:19.96] their contractual letter they received

93:23.11] and then through our off boarding process

93:26.52] when we acknowledge their resignation,

93:28.88] we include the importance of doing an exit survey.

93:33.69] I'm not gonna spend tonight diving into that.

93:36.50] So I'm gonna share something with the board

93:37.90] at a future date.

93:38.86] This is really around the metrics

93:40.10] of our hiring and staffing,

93:42.62] but we're gonna have to leave that to work.

93:45.16] Lastly, I just wanna share

93:46.36] some state comparison metrics with you.

93:48.64] If you go to the website slide, the next one,

93:52.04] this is where the data's coming from.

93:54.36] I think we've all heard that say,

93:55.48] if you ever wanna jump on here,

93:57.12] the link's right there.

93:58.16] You can take the book.

94:00.99] This is really to compliment

94:02.19] this hiring and staffing report.

94:06.32] This site makes comparisons to the state

94:08.72] and then to also other districts.

94:10.71] So this first data slide

94:13.17] is from the Educator Diversity Dashboard.

94:16.13] This data's most recent data is for the 25, 26 school year.

94:21.67] This basically shows that our workforce

94:23.51] has gotten more diverse as our student body

94:26.31] has also gotten more diverse.

94:28.39] The upper bar graphs are the state.

94:32.78] The lower ones are Stanford.

94:37.10] Obviously, we are more diverse district

94:40.05] than the average across the state.

94:41.93] At seven this past year, 76.2%,

94:44.81] the state at 55.3.

94:46.95] And our staff are more diverse

94:48.99] than the staff across the state

94:51.79] at almost two times the university.

94:57.58] This next slide shows retention

95:00.10] for all certified staff.

95:04.08] The upper data is for the state,

95:07.04] all public school districts.

95:09.22] The lower data is Stanford.

95:11.02] You can see on the left side,

95:12.78] Stanford's retention rate.

95:14.66] And this is for the 24, 25 school year.

95:16.94] That's the most recent data they have.

95:19.81] We were at 92.1%,

95:23.04] all certified educators staying in the district

95:25.64] and the state was at 90.6.

95:28.39] And then you can see the little column shows

95:30.47] the percentage of staff that left the district

95:34.88] but stayed in Connecticut Public Schools

95:37.64] slightly lower than the state.

95:38.92] And then the last of our folks

95:40.28] that left Connecticut Public Schools altogether

95:43.18] and pretty comparable to the state.

95:45.10] This next slide asks the question

95:46.94] are teachers staying in the classroom.

95:49.94] This is classroom retention.

95:51.26] These are classroom teachers

95:52.78] different than all certified staff.

95:55.35] And the top data, top set of data is the state.

95:58.64] The bottom is Stanford.

96:00.47] We are slightly higher than the state

96:02.51] in this retention at 90.7 with the state at 90.2.

96:07.06] I'm gonna not go into the detail as we do that.

96:10.09] I will say that the next column shows staff

96:13.39] that stayed in the district but left the classroom.

96:16.57] Ours is typically higher than the state average.

96:19.68] I think something that Stanford's proud of

96:22.08] is we provide a lot of opportunities for teachers

96:25.74] to work in positions outside the classroom,

96:27.94] leadership and growth opportunities,

96:29.70] whether you're an MTSS,

96:31.55] whether you're a teacher on special assignment

96:35.21] at central office,

96:36.49] you're an LTSS supporting the meeting instruction schools.

96:39.57] There's a lot of opportunities for that.

96:42.69] And then lastly, I shared data on mental health staffing.

96:49.35] This is for the 25, excuse me, 26 school year.

96:53.12] You can see the state data is in the gray boxes.

96:58.45] This is for certified counselors,

97:00.29] school psychologists and social workers.

97:02.95] This is the staff to student ratios.

97:07.03] If you look at our certified school counselors,

97:09.23] the state average is one to 175.

97:11.79] So one concert for every 175 students.

97:14.83] We're slightly above that at 185.

97:17.35] And this is again, specific to high school.

97:21.82] We do have counselors in middle schools,

97:23.70] but this is specific for high schools.

97:26.03] Our school psychologist staff to student ratio

97:28.47] is better than the states.

97:30.15] We're at one to four 11 with the state at four 60.

97:36.07] And then social workers were slightly,

97:38.75] we're actually, I think significantly lower

97:41.43] than the state average at three 29.

97:43.79] I will say the recommended staff ratios

97:49.73] by the national associations for these groups,

97:54.24] school counselor association recommends a ratio of one

97:59.62] to two 50 for school counselors were much richer than that.

98:03.57] And that's the support of the board

98:05.05] and the work we do at 185 for school psychologist,

98:09.01] the national association of school psychologists

98:11.37] recommends a ratio of one to 500.

98:14.29] We're significantly lower than that ratio.

98:17.64] And the national association of school social workers

98:21.64] recommends a ratio of one to 250.

98:24.00] We are hired there.

98:26.21] I did share this second piece of data

98:29.25] that was not in the presentation.

98:33.16] This boy asked me to break down by school.

98:36.42] And to also, it's important the columns on the right

98:39.58] show staff that support mental health.

98:45.00] They don't deliver direct counseling necessarily.

98:48.48] Well, actually some do don't advocate still,

98:51.27] but they provide some of the responsibilities

98:54.15] that our social workers might do in connecting families

98:58.18] with resources in the community.

99:00.90] The FC SBHC is our family centers,

99:05.33] school-based health centers.

99:07.66] You've heard of those in our schools.

99:09.62] The numbers that you see here are clinicians

99:13.02] that work directly with students.

99:15.29] They typically take a caseload of 30 to 35 students.

99:19.24] And then our CHC school-based health center column

99:23.69] is community health center,

99:25.55] which is another organization that provides clinicians,

99:28.60] typically not in a school-based health center,

99:30.76] but they'll provide a clinician that gets an office

99:33.84] in a school and they see,

99:35.93] I think their ratios are on 25 to 30.

99:39.45] We've done a lot of work in infinity

99:41.57] that these resources to students over the years.

99:45.18] I'll share with you, I haven't got an update this year,

99:48.28] but in years past, these positions are hard to fill.

99:51.74] And even though we have the partnership,

99:55.31] we've gone many months without a position

99:59.99] under the school-based health centers for in some schools,

[100:02.63] not all, I'm just trying to,

[100:04.97] it's hard to fill all these positions as well.

[100:07.80] But again, this shows the ratios by school

[100:10.64] and then also as the community partners

[100:13.08] that we're working with supports to help.

[100:16.39] If you have any answer, any questions?

[100:22.68] - Hi, Mike, I have some questions.

[100:27.21] - Yes.

[100:28.05] - Oh, I have fun here.

[100:29.28] Overwood on slide number, they're not numbered at all.

[100:35.29] - Sorry.

[100:36.32] - That's okay.

[100:37.16] Parent educator hiring data, 32 open positions,

[100:41.64] 18 at Overwood.

[100:43.24] We have yet to, possibly that's to consider Dr. Tally

[100:46.55] and, you know, a presentation on Overwood,

[100:51.66] but 18 is a lot of openings.

[100:55.07] I think there's 45 kids there, youngsters.

[100:59.92] - I can't remember the exact number of students.

[101:02.16] - So maybe, I think down the road,

[101:04.56] if we could have our presentation,

[101:05.88] but to be that sort of, that many--

[101:09.23] - So people have this presentation

[101:10.83] about special education and (indistinct)

[101:16.53] - That SEA hiring region was the next slide next to that.

[101:24.09] You didn't mention anything about 0.1s and 0.2s.

[101:28.05] 'Cause I know that's a little costly.

[101:30.76] You have some teachers covering classes,

[101:34.79] which is about $20,000 reimbursement, I think.

[101:38.61] - Yeah, if you take a typical salary,

[101:41.99] we usually use 100,000 as like an average for

[101:45.36] middle of the road teacher.

[101:47.62] 0.2 would cost the district $20,000.

[101:50.62] Now you have to remember, there's a vacant position.

[101:53.99] So we're not paying a salary for that position.

[101:56.27] So the money is going to the teacher's--

[101:59.22] - But you didn't report on that.

[102:00.54] 'Cause is there at some meetings with me about--

[102:02.34] - Yes, it's on slide.

[102:03.38] It's not numbered.

[102:04.22] It's SEA hiring data, I shared that.

[102:05.98] We're filling 6.7 FTEs with teachers

[102:09.71] on extra class assignments.

[102:11.87] And that's the 0.2s or 0.1s, like you said,

[102:15.07] which would be a semester class.

[102:17.73] - But that just tells how many have filled it.

[102:20.17] So that means there's about seven of those positions

[102:22.89] or there's more.

[102:24.09] - Well, 6.7 positions being filled.

[102:26.53] So if we use a 0.2 for each of those,

[102:30.21] that would be six times five is 30.

[102:34.26] It would be 33-ish, 33 and a half,

[102:38.21] 0.2s that were handed out to the teachers.

[102:40.98] - And I mean it--

[102:41.82] - That's typically high school, as you know,

[102:44.10] and middle school.

[102:46.34] - And the reason I ask that,

[102:47.62] because we're gonna have to budget

[102:49.34] and that is part of the AB schedule

[102:53.38] that we do have to fill.

[102:55.81] - Well, let me just clarify.

[102:57.92] It is not uncommon at the high school level,

[103:00.44] school districts, that we will have unfilled 0.2 positions

[103:07.29] because no one wants to come in

[103:08.61] to be a 0.2 in and of itself.

[103:11.28] And so what we do is we offer teachers

[103:16.80] currently in their roles to pick up

[103:19.22] that additional position in addition

[103:21.54] to their current role as the 1.0.

[103:24.07] And so it's already budgeted in

[103:27.15] because we have these positions throughout the personnel,

[103:32.87] but we are not able to fill the 0.2 here, the 0.2.

[103:36.47] Like you'll have a 0.2 more language teacher.

[103:39.47] You just won't be able to find someone to pick that up.

[103:43.88] - I mean, but that adds up.

[103:45.89] If they're 0.1s, even 30 positions times 20,000.

[103:50.95] - Yes, you're right.

[103:51.87] However, it's already part of our budget.

[103:54.63] - Right.

[103:55.44] - Because it's unfilled.

[103:56.28] - Just for the public now.

[103:59.18] And you had nine, another slide, SEA hiring data.

[104:04.42] Nine hired at step 16.

[104:09.13] What's step 16?

[104:11.02] - That's the--

[104:11.86] - I never heard that one.

[104:13.22] - In a teacher's contract,

[104:16.05] I don't know what appendix it is,

[104:18.01] it's how teachers are paid.

[104:19.85] It's essentially there's an education level

[104:21.89] and then there's a series of steps.

[104:23.73] - So they're millionaires?

[104:25.89] Just check.

[104:26.73] - It's based on year's experience.

[104:29.17] And obviously the more years you have,

[104:30.65] the higher you get paid.

[104:32.82] So we did hire a number of teachers at step 16.

[104:36.30] And I think the board should know

[104:37.66] that we've been given in our last negotiation,

[104:41.21] one of the things that the board fought for

[104:43.53] was to give more flexibility to the superintendent,

[104:47.58] to give flexibility to granting people higher steps.

[104:52.37] And this is particularly important

[104:54.29] when you're in a very difficult hiring market

[104:56.85] that sometimes you gotta pay people a little bit more

[104:59.80] to retain them.

[105:00.64] So that's something that's been helpful.

[105:03.19] But we've also, the environment has changed

[105:05.87] in that we're getting many more season of experience staff

[105:10.23] that are moving, it just seems that way.

[105:13.61] I don't have the data to share with you

[105:14.85] and it seems that way.

[105:17.28] - No, and I think that's exciting.

[105:18.92] And the next slide was about just showing the numbers

[105:25.20] that at this point, certified staff vacancies

[105:29.62] that we only had to fill 19.2,

[105:31.62] but we lost if it's 1500 to 2000 students

[105:35.97] over the last three years, I know that's part of it.

[105:41.54] And that may be something we need to consider

[105:44.02] because then the other thing I'm hearing

[105:46.29] in some of these schools,

[105:47.73] a PE teacher might have several preps

[105:50.70] where they probably didn't need that extra PE teacher.

[105:54.44] And I don't think it's consistent across all buildings,

[105:57.36] but as we're budgeting, again, we're losing enrollment.

[106:04.26] And does that mean we're gonna lose more teachers?

[106:08.14] - So I'll just respond.

[106:11.14] One, normally when you do lose enrollment,

[106:13.78] you will lose staffing.

[106:17.03] With that said, though, one of the things that had staffing

[106:20.74] are two areas, one, MLL, multilingual learners,

[106:24.82] and also special education.

[106:27.25] And so we have seen an increase in our special education.

[106:30.83] In fact, as I put in the Friday update

[106:33.07] to you guys last Friday, the percentage,

[106:36.57] even though our enrollment has been declining,

[106:38.93] our percentage of students

[106:41.25] who receive special education services has gone up.

[106:44.76] And therefore you're going to have more teachers

[106:48.80] necessary to fill those roles.

[106:50.73] And then our multilingual learners,

[106:53.45] that has overall gone up and over the last several years.

[106:56.61] It did define a little bit this year,

[106:59.39] but you will see enrollment,

[107:01.11] you will see staffing go up as well.

[107:02.79] So it is something we look at very carefully.

[107:05.47] And then finally, too, other question

[107:07.31] with regards to staffing in the schools and scheduling.

[107:13.89] One of the things that our system suits are doing right now

[107:18.65] is they will be looking for next year very carefully

[107:22.89] at all of the staffing ratios in their schools

[107:27.05] to make sure that when we have to cut positions

[107:29.49] or cut classes, we will do it,

[107:32.05] or where we have to add, we will add.

[107:34.01] It's one of the things that has to happen

[107:36.29] throughout the whole sub to very laborious process.

[107:40.71] - Yeah, and that just begs a question about special ed.

[107:46.48] We're the only district in Connecticut

[107:49.74] that does not have sped caseworkers.

[107:54.76] Is that something I don't know with negotiations?

[107:57.80] And if that's right, it's coming up down the pike.

[108:01.46] Many of the districts that I've been in,

[108:03.94] they've had the special ed teacher

[108:08.97] manages all the IPs.

[108:11.33] We don't do that here.

[108:12.17] - So let's save that question

[108:13.69] for the special ed presentation and end it.

[108:16.96] - Okay, and then my just, my last question,

[108:20.01] and I was something about the counselors, psychologists,

[108:25.25] social workers, are we compensating them

[108:28.77] if their caseload, because I'm looking at this,

[108:32.05] she is very helpful, if their caseload is off the charts.

[108:37.22] Is that, I don't know, I've not been part of some of that.

[108:40.60] Is that some of the discussion

[108:42.20] to help some of those individuals with compensation

[108:47.49] for the numbers of students?

[108:49.89] - We do not have any policy or contract language

[108:53.86] that speaks to compensation for caseloads.

[108:56.22] We do not have any caseload caps for these groups.

[108:59.30] We have been in discussion with the SCA,

[109:02.18] with John Corcoran around some of these issues

[109:04.86] because we're facing shortages and how do we manage that?

[109:08.85] But we're still in discussions.

[109:11.97] - Thank you.

[109:12.81] I just want public to know.

[109:14.21] - Let me just, let's clarify something on here.

[109:17.10] This document, it shows, yes,

[109:20.52] that you have a ratio of one psychologist

[109:24.01] in a building with 609, but that does not mean

[109:27.39] that that psychologist is seeing all 609 students.

[109:31.07] So I just want to clarify that out there for Pete.

[109:36.06] Dr. Hernandez was a psychologist in a building,

[109:38.54] but he did not see all of the children in that building.

[109:42.46] So let's just be very clear about, yes,

[109:46.44] as the overall ratio, we know, we have very,

[109:50.00] we, the fact of our school counselors,

[109:52.28] having the ratios that they currently have,

[109:54.56] is outstanding compared to what the national average is

[109:58.72] from their own organization, the professional school counselors.

[110:02.40] And so our numbers are low compared to what other districts

[110:07.14] have and in place go to.

[110:10.26] Let's go to Cara.

[110:11.34] - Well, I just, I was looking at more social worker.

[110:14.07] I'm not so worried about the psychologist

[110:16.15] 'cause psychologist, it's the social worker.

[110:20.00] Some of them have caseloads of 825.

[110:24.00] - Yeah, they're seeing all of those children.

[110:26.60] - That's the involvement.

[110:27.44] - They're not seeing all of those children.

[110:29.30] - I understand.

[110:30.29] But those tend to be the ones that will pick those up.

[110:33.66] Other, the psychologists just mourn

[110:35.50] with the special ed programming.

[110:38.37] And counselors, the other one, of course.

[110:45.54] - I just have a question.

[110:49.32] What do you do?

[110:51.11] I'm just looking anchor, for example,

[110:53.86] especially that we have the simple condition

[110:56.68] that needs a lot of support, especially the info bill.

[111:01.44] And I see 0.5, psychology.

[111:04.73] And basically this group, almost all of them

[111:08.13] in some ways will need it even more than 0.5.

[111:13.92] What happened if you had that 0.5

[111:17.48] and it's going to maternity leave?

[111:20.42] Who covers?

[111:23.37] Oh, maternity leave or, you know,

[111:26.09] some time off or something like that.

[111:29.37] I'm curious to know a little bit more

[111:31.53] of how is the covers for programs like that

[111:35.88] in the same steps in law.

[111:38.98] - Sure.

[111:39.79] - Thank you.

[111:41.46] - Typically we cover maternity leaves

[111:44.79] or leaves with retired staff.

[111:46.71] We actually have a couple working right now.

[111:49.60] That used to work with me

[111:50.84] when I was a psychologist many years ago.

[111:53.83] So that's the first way.

[111:55.11] The second way is we would contract for it,

[111:58.96] if that's possible.

[112:01.15] The other way is we would ask them on the support

[112:03.43] and I'll just say when I was a psychologist

[112:06.30] and all of our staff, all of our mental health staff,

[112:12.69] one of their days a week is considered all district,

[112:15.78] which means they have to help out.

[112:18.55] We haven't used it the way we probably should.

[112:22.05] When I was a psychologist,

[112:23.09] I had one day where I was expected

[112:24.85] to go where there were needs.

[112:27.25] And once in a while I was used

[112:29.09] and we still can do that today.

[112:30.45] So that's, I think, a final option for that.

[112:32.72] And I just want to say,

[112:34.48] while they only have 0.5 psychologists that anchor,

[112:38.49] they have 1.6 social worker

[112:41.43] who probably does primarily the counseling

[112:45.81] at a ratio of one to 50.

[112:47.75] And then they also have a school counselor

[112:50.50] and they have two Dovis family advocates

[112:52.74] that really support the family connection.

[112:54.78] So it's important that we look at all,

[112:57.69] that's why I included all this information.

[112:59.93] 'Cause when I used to be in charge of special education

[113:02.29] and we made decisions about staffing,

[113:04.53] it was looking at all of these support staff,

[113:08.37] not just one particular area.

[113:10.25] The psychologist probably just does the evaluations

[113:12.65] and the testing for the PBT meetings and IEPs.

[113:18.27] - Yeah.

[113:21.00] - Thank you so much, Dr. Fernandez,

[113:22.48] for breaking all this down for me.

[113:24.00] - Thank you. - And for us.

[113:26.04] I do have just a couple of, just one follow-up

[113:29.32] off of the grid that you put together.

[113:33.54] So for some of the schools

[113:34.89] that don't have any additional

[113:39.62] outside programming and partnership,

[113:41.45] has there been any thought or possibility

[113:44.93] of pulling that in to offer additional support

[113:50.46] to extend help and services to families

[113:52.77] and to children?

[113:53.89] So thinking about Davenport and K.T. Murphy, especially,

[114:00.01] those two schools especially stand out for me,

[114:02.41] especially when we've been looking before

[114:04.86] their academic scores and sort of like how that may be

[114:07.73] also tying into any type of like mental health support

[114:10.53] and things like that.

[114:11.37] Just wondering.

[114:12.33] - Yeah, I mean, to be honest,

[114:13.69] I haven't specifically said

[114:14.93] how are we gonna get these supports to all schools

[114:16.97] and what I mentioned earlier is very real.

[114:20.89] Even though we have the funding

[114:22.49] and we have the structure in place,

[114:24.13] we can't always fill the positions.

[114:25.98] That's been a challenge.

[114:27.12] I think it's something that we should look at.

[114:30.26] We also look at overall enrollment at schools

[114:33.30] and then also need.

[114:35.85] Some of our schools are just more needy than others.

[114:39.42] I think like K.T. Murphy is an example

[114:42.05] of a very small school,

[114:43.61] but there are high needs there.

[114:44.97] It's a lot of bilingual Spanish speaking families

[114:48.76] new to the country, which sometimes need more support.

[114:51.93] So I think it's something that we'll continue to explore

[114:53.85] as well, so I think.

[114:55.17] - Thank you.

[115:01.97] - Thank you.

[115:02.81] This is really helpful and the questions I wanna ask,

[115:05.56] I don't know if you might be the right person,

[115:07.80] but happy as a follow up.

[115:11.18] So are there specialties?

[115:12.94] So if we're thinking about like a psychologist

[115:14.90] or like the social worker,

[115:17.00] are there like specialties friends positions

[115:19.36] like depression, anxiety, PTSD, anything like that?

[115:23.47] And is that considered in some of the placements

[115:26.46] or anything like that?

[115:27.64] - Yeah, no, we don't go to that level.

[115:30.89] Some of our psychologists are also trained

[115:33.57] in neuropsychology, which allows them to do

[115:37.10] a specialized type of evaluation,

[115:40.59] which only a neuropsychologist can do.

[115:43.23] And it's very costly if you contract it out.

[115:46.31] And I'm not sure if we still have,

[115:48.56] pretty sure we do.

[115:49.40] The last few years, I know we had a couple

[115:51.52] that would support that work for the district.

[115:53.88] But I think what I would say is that

[115:57.77] they tap on each other's strengths,

[116:00.13] but we don't schedule them in a way

[116:03.28] that kind of moves their strengths around.

[116:05.81] But they meet regularly.

[116:07.53] There's a department head for each of these

[116:10.04] support services that brings the team together.

[116:13.53] There's a lot of collaboration that happens.

[116:16.42] - Yeah, and I think there's a,

[116:18.43] what I'm trying to understand is like,

[116:20.58] we're a school system, but obviously mental health,

[116:23.86] social, emotional, all of that is just factors

[116:26.80] that impact student learning, right?

[116:29.09] And so it's a fine line.

[116:31.71] And so with that considered, my other question was,

[116:35.55] with like referrals out of district

[116:39.82] or like even to the school-based health centers,

[116:44.11] how does that work?

[116:44.95] Like is there like interlifting psychology

[116:47.59] for social workers to do that?

[116:49.07] Can they do that to outside of the school system?

[116:52.45] And then like a psychologist, like you said,

[116:55.07] is our staff.

[116:55.91] So they're not necessarily charging, right?

[116:57.83] Like someone's health insurance or something,

[116:59.95] but then the school-based health center,

[117:02.83] would they then charge like a health insurance?

[117:04.63] I think that's where my mind is going.

[117:07.43] And totally understand that that's too much

[117:08.83] for this conversation we can follow up,

[117:11.11] but that's where my head is going with some of that.

[117:15.14] - Yeah, that's, I think that's a much longer conversation.

[117:18.10] - Yeah.

[117:19.06] - I think you're raising some good questions.

[117:23.78] I would just say that our staff,

[117:27.46] particularly our social workers,

[117:28.70] part of the job is working closely

[117:31.59] with the supports in the community.

[117:35.06] At Child Guidance, as an example, we have Teresa,

[117:40.77] it used to be Joe Callahan, all of us knew Joe,

[117:42.73] and now it's Teresa Magistro.

[117:45.75] - Oh, Teresa, what was it?

[117:48.94] Anyways, our new department head for social work

[117:52.99] is very connected in the community

[117:54.62] and supportive in this way,

[117:56.10] but all of our social workers are being based

[117:58.46] at the connections that we have.

[118:01.21] And in Stanford, as you know, is a community

[118:03.37] that prides itself on its community partnerships

[118:06.96] and even private partnerships with places like Child Guidance.

[118:11.31] So that is happening.

[118:12.77] Referrals both ways in many ways.

[118:16.07] - Thank you.

[118:16.91] - Yes, Ms. Julie, I'd love to talk more to you.

[118:20.12] - Absolutely.

[118:20.96] - Thank you.

[118:21.80] - I appreciate it.

[118:23.06] - Just one more question.

[118:23.90] Don't you have crisis teams too within the buildings,

[118:26.62] but you have crisis teams,

[118:29.48] which then will answer some of those questions too.

[118:33.28] - We do, every school has staff that are trained

[118:36.68] in physical management training

[118:38.28] that serve as the crisis team that respond to students

[118:41.40] that might be in significant distress.

[118:43.88] It will either self-harm or inclination to harm others

[118:48.36] and they respond and support in those cases.

[118:51.17] And then, obviously, they might reach out to 211,

[118:54.57] which is an organization that supports the health issues

[118:58.08] and then obviously partner with Stanford Hospital,

[119:00.68] whatever the issue may be.

[119:04.60] - Any other questions for Dr. Fernandez?

[119:07.12] (laughing)

[119:10.34] All right, thank you very much.

[119:11.38] - Thank you.

[119:12.71] - Good work.

[119:13.55] - Thank you.

[119:15.16] - Share it back over to you.

[119:17.66] - Great, thank you.

[119:18.50] And thank you for the presentation, Dr. Fernandez.

[119:21.89] And we're just going late, Jen,

[119:23.25] just to make this a memorable meeting for you.

[119:25.65] (laughing)

[119:30.24] All right, so next is a fiscal committee.

[119:33.72] Is Prasad still on?

[119:36.61] Does Mr. Tonga want to share?

[119:39.06] - I'm here, Andy.

[119:41.17] I have no report.

[119:42.01] We just approved a few contracts last week.

[119:45.01] So, but nothing special, yep.

[119:48.31] - Okay, one resolution that was pulled by Dr. Hammond

[119:51.15] is financial.

[119:51.99] Do you want me to handle it here?

[119:54.51] - Yeah, please.

[119:56.06] Okay, then we're talking about resolution 77.

[120:00.00] It had been moved in the consent through the committee. So I guess I'll just turn it time to discuss. So I'll ask Dr. Hammond, if she has any discussion before we vote.

[120:14.31] Right. And I've asked this before. So we have a grant here, which is except excellent. But are we going to do an evaluation at the end?

[120:22.54] And so we'll know why are we funding something like this? And are we going to get our bang from our buck? Because it's about two hundred dollars per student if you look at numbers.

[120:34.17] But we need to do an evaluation. We rarely get to hear the evaluation part. And is this something we're going to do every year?

[120:43.33] So let me let me clarify this a little bit. The fifty thousand dollars is actually to support a coordinator of the tutoring program.

[120:55.17] As I played on a Friday update regarding this, we were very happy to receive the fifty thousand dollars. It really supports the coordinator that will support all the tutoring that will happen across several schools.

[121:08.35] I believe it's five different. And so that's the purpose of this of this one. And to your other question, though, more specifically regarding the the return on investment.

[121:23.16] We would have to look at what has been done in the past. And so we can provide an update to you on that.

[121:31.47] I was looking at board goals and part of that is achievement. And so we would hope that we can have some type of evaluation and see if it is effective.

[121:40.72] And I know last year, you know, with four by four, we had a lot of problems with the math program. So this should be our problem.

[121:52.97] Okay. Is there any further discussion? Okay. Hearing none, then all those in favor of passing resolution 77, they syndicate by raising your hands. Okay. And besides up.

[122:06.47] So that's nine in favor. Nobody's opposed. Nobody's abstaining. It's nine zero zero. It passes. Okay. Thank you.

[122:15.15] Then we will move on to the Teaching Learning Committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Teaching Learning Committee.

[122:23.25] We have two items that were approved. One was for the Stanford High School trip to Italy, as well as the magnet school operation plan for AITE.

[122:38.38] So, Ms. Baldani gave a presentation regarding our state assessment data, as well as a very thorough and deep dive into different action steps that take place in order to support all levels of learning, and especially looking at tier one interventions

[122:59.40] and different steps that the school district is taking in to ensure that there is best practices, as well as reviewing targeted feedback from teachers and staff.

[123:16.91] And also the conversation which brought out people this evening regarding the Public Act 26-1 Section 24 of the Arab and Islamic Studies that was passed by Governor Lamont on July 1, 2026.

[123:33.92] As of right now, there has not been any type of curriculum put into place, as that is really at a state level, not at a school district level.

[123:45.02] So what I will add as like a piece to from some of the public comment this evening, that while I speak for myself, while I appreciate the public comment from our community, I do think it would encourage those same individuals to bring that same energy to the state

[124:04.00] and have that conversation and share that information and concern at the state level, while it's still being, while it's still in process and hasn't even really gone to the table yet as far as the curriculum.

[124:17.13] We as the school district are not creating the curriculum, it comes down from the state. So I think it's really important to use your voice and advocacy and share that with your legislators, your representatives, and bring that up to the state level up at Hartford.

[124:32.66] And that is all for my report tonight. Okay, great.

[124:37.51] Then policy, Ms. Cook. Thanks Mr. Chair, we passed on a policy, two policies on one professional development for board members and the other one on remuneration.

[124:49.23] So that's on the consent that we passed for first read, and I believe we also have resolution 70, our policy on parent managed learning, which is a new policy that we got pulled.

[125:01.82] Dr. Hammond I think, do I need a second for that, Mr. Chair? No, it's already been seconded.

[125:09.59] Alright, so we're good to discussion for resolution 70, parent managed learning. Right, and again this is another Hartford decision that was made, and you know at this level we can't do much but I do find a discrepancy.

[125:26.21] On the Stanford packet you contradict itself, because in the explanatory memo it says no changes for 2627, while the policy that you attached requires an annual form for that year.

[125:43.55] Technically, those folks don't require it for this current year, 2627. So that may want to be looked at when you, even though we may support it or not support it, that it was not required for this year.

[126:00.96] And that's one point I wanted to make. Unfortunately I'm not going to be supporting this, because it's very punitive punishment for the healthy families to have to go through Department of Children and Families.

[126:19.52] Just doesn't make sense. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good point. I think, looking at, just to be clear, the policy that we are passing tonight does not go into full effect until July 1, 2023.

[126:34.92] You can see the way it's written, it kind of, sorry, 2028, excuse me, 2027.

[126:43.07] That's work. I'm sorry, that's work stuff.

[126:48.16] So effective July 1, 2028, excuse me, this is when the policy will go into effect. The policy before us was crafted in a phase in.

[126:57.29] And so, that's why you'll see a separate section for 2627 school year and then 2728 year, and then this is a new policy. So just want to clarify that for the record.

[127:10.23] Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of passing Resolution 70, Parent 9 is voting, please raise your hand.

[127:19.81] Two, three, four, five, six, seven, Persaud. Persaud, we have seven in favor. Persaud, are you in favor?

[127:31.82] Yeah. Okay, so we have eight in favor. Any abstentions? Nays? Thank you. One opposed, so the policy passes 8-0-1, and that's it for policy.

[127:47.44] Okay, great. Thank you. At this time, I want to, we have planned to discuss this board goals and the board norms.

[128:01.65] They are in hard copy. They were in the packet, the last two weeks they were in the packet, but they're in front of you now.

[128:10.72] So I'd like to, as they're not on the agenda, I'd like to move to amend the agenda to allow discussion and possible approval of the board goals and the board norms.

[128:26.09] So I will make that motion. Do I have a second? A second from this board. Any discussion? All those in favor of amending the agenda to allow this item to go forward, please indicate by raising your hand.

[128:40.59] Okay, we have, okay, we have all nine in agreement. Nobody's opposed, nobody's abstaining.

[128:45.90] You have any discussion?

[128:47.90] Yes, we're now getting a discussion. So the agenda is amended, and we have the goals in front of us, so I will entertain discussion on the goals and the norms.

[129:03.05] Just as maybe as a preparatory, what I tried to do, I know our goals in prior iterations were more in a rubric style.

[129:15.40] What I did was look at a number of sources, materials from CABE, some examples from other districts, and tried to just sort of come up with, I thought, something that was a little more friendly, a little more understandable than sometimes our rubrics tend to be.

[129:34.90] So that's just as a... I'll just say, Mr. Chair, I think these are very comprehensive. I particularly appreciated the inclusion of community leadership and advocacy, especially in my capacity, and we'll be geared that towards the budget process and being advocates of public education funding.

[129:56.54] And so I really appreciate that part of the goals that you set, and the expectations I thought were also very well outlined as well.

[130:06.13] Thank you. Any other? Yes, Dr. Inland?

[130:10.92] Just, I'm moving at this second page, and number five, again, we've discussed this before, but I just think I'd like probably to hear one board, one voice, support board decisions, dissenting members should avoid public opposition after a vote has been taken, and collectively, not individually.

[130:33.50] I just want to point out our state elected officials that work in Hartford, they can have disagreements, but they don't have that rule. Same at the federal level.

[130:45.89] We're operating in a state where there's a super majority, and so a lot of these policies that are coming down are not, they're not funded either.

[130:55.89] And what happens when you have that kind of approach, and because we're a 6-3, I think we're hopefully going to move away from that, but it seems to be sometimes when decisions are made, democracy is left out.

[131:12.06] And so that's why I feel it's important, even though it may be one voice, and I just give the example last year, there was a lot of frustration because decisions were top down.

[131:24.22] Dr. Talley definitely has changed the tenor in what's happening in the district, and I want to compliment him and thank him, because when we work together with the teachers, the students, the parents, we will have a much stronger district.

[131:44.47] And so I guess I, you know, I would like to say I like to act collectively, but sometimes when decisions tend to be concerning, and it becomes a caucus over what's right for kids, it's problematic.

[132:01.66] So I don't know, it just, I don't feel comfortable with that. I think democracy has to be there. And sometimes we cut out voice, and last year, voice was cut out. So I felt that this would not work when some of those decisions happened.

[132:21.74] Well, again, I think we there's, there's writings, both in state law and also in our own bylaws here in Stanford about supporting the decisions.

[132:35.23] You know, once the board has acted. I think the time to, you know, let your opinions and your position be known is when an item is being discussed.

[132:48.90] But once the board is acted, it's what we're saying is you shouldn't be publicly opposing it. I think the clearest example would be the budget, you know, once the board has passed the budget in February, and given it to the Board of Finance, and then the

[133:12.18] Board of reps, we shouldn't board members shouldn't be out actively criticizing the budget or encouraging Board of Finance members or Board of reps members not to pass the budget that that would be an example.

[133:28.38] And so I'm, again, it's it's going to be a case, Dr. Hammond, we pass this as a norm. If eight people agree that this is a, you know, that this should be included, you disagree.

[133:44.51] I don't know what to say other than it's a board norm and then you have to decide whether you're going to adhere to the norms, or whether you're not.

[133:52.19] And sometimes it's okay to disagree, because even that budget became partisan because of some of the decisions that were happening. So I sense great things for this board, it may be a non issue, but that has not been the case in some years.

[134:13.00] And I have even spoken out against the budget because what has happened, it has become partisan, rather than what's best for kids, I get it. So if we agree to disagree on some of these, it may have to be, but I really need to put my foot down, I fell, because

[134:33.46] I didn't sense the best foot was being put forward for kids. Well, I think the point of this kind of norm is that you express that disagreement before we take the vote.

[134:47.43] But once we take the vote, whether it's 817254, whatever the majority has decided you and you know you agree to, basically, we act as one, that that's the nature of this norm.

[135:09.13] Thanks Andy I just wanted to comment on one thing because I think one thing you said Becky about just like our decision making process like as a board as a team, how we go about these conversations and I think these expectations as written don't hinder the conversation

[135:26.81] that we can have hinder, you know, we might all have different opinions but at the end of the day, you know, I don't know, I don't believe that these expectations are going to disallow us to have our own opinions like you know, if I want to post an update

[135:43.27] about a board event meeting and say like you know hey this is what happened or this is where my views on it go I think we all have the ability to do that but I think when we do act as a board, the only person that can speak for the board.

[135:57.37] What we need is, is Andy through Andy we can all have that conversation on how we communicate that but as written you know it says dissenting members should avoid public opposition it's not you know like a mandate on anyone.

[136:13.03] We do that a lot of these things aren't even enforceable to an extent right because we're all duly elected and so in my state statute where we have a mandate to be a board of that too so you know I think all of this is really just in the spirit of making sure

[136:28.62] that as a board, we are entrusted with an important work, and we're going to keep that at the forefront and keep whatever noise that might come with being in a public position like this with a, with a mic in front of you, at least a few times a month, that we can just

[136:44.81] get that to the side, and really focus on what needs to get done and I think the spirit of Andy is drafted well in here. And so I would just encourage our colleagues to see it that way and support.

[136:59.20] I think what's a good set of expectations for us in goals for at least the next year, which is what this would be for one year. Well, yes, yeah, these are the, these are the goals, essentially for a year, or until, if not renewed then I guess they just sort of continue.

[137:16.30] Any other discussion about the goals, boards, norms, the expectations.

[137:22.29] Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I just want to quickly. I appreciate Becky's points. And also, I think the piece Becky, what you said about, we have, we've turned to turn the page we're in a new chapter.

[137:37.79] And so on starting this year so you know, I think that this is the perfect document, you know, to guide and to lead us, you know, since I've been on the board.

[137:48.78] We have not had goals, right and expectations since I've been on and you know so I'm going into my third year and so to be able to even have this, you know, sort of laid out for us and in discussion and conversation I think is really helpful.

[138:03.84] I appreciate your points but I also appreciate how we are just moving in a different direction of, of being more focused and having these these norms and expectations that will guide us and kind of be like our, our North Star, whenever we do TVA, you know, to kind

[138:21.85] of help bring any of us back to what we're really here for and what our focus is. And I like the first page where it says vision, focus on achievement.

[138:35.42] That has never happened here, since I've been on the board for six years. It has not about it's not about improving teaching and learning I have sensed that this time we are on in route to that and I, I cannot say enough great things about that I was persecuted, because

[138:56.06] I would even talk about test scores or achievement, and because I was told they don't matter. And I know it's one piece of the picture, but I just thank you Andy for putting this together because it's a very nice document and I appreciate Gabby saying, you know, in the spirit

[139:17.56] and that's what we're going to move forward with. But that says a lot to me, because that's our purpose is to improve teaching and learning. Thanks. Yeah, okay.

[139:30.75] If there's no other comment or changes, then let's move it to a vote to approve these goals and these norms and expectations. All those in favor of adopting them has written. Okay, we are on a roll here, nine in favor, no opposed, no abstentions,

[139:57.86] zero zero zero it passes we've got these goals and norms. So with that unless there's any other comment, let us move for adjournment and anybody opposed, we stand adjourned.