October 20, 2016 at 7:00 PM - Bethel Board of Education Regular Meeting

A reminder that The Connecticut Association of Schools will be presenting Bethel Middle School their official award as Middle School of the Year on October 25, 2016.  If you are planning on attending, you should arrive by 8:15 AM.  The award will be presented in an all school assembly, which celebrates the talents of the student.   Please let us know if you will be in attendance.  

Mr. Troetti has been asked to present on the Pathways at Bethel High School to the Student Advisory Group of the State Board of Education.   

Gift to School System:

$3,500 of school supplies, Bethel Middle School, from Wal-Mart of Danbury.

100 Backpacks filled with school supplies, Districtwide, from Social Services, Town of Bethel.

As requested, Mr. Troetti and Mr. Daponte will be providing a brief joint presentation on their School Improvement Plans for the 2016-2017 school year.  The purpose of the presentation is to provide the Board with an overview of the focus of the school.  The major components of the plan were presented at open houses in September, so parents could have a similar overview.  

The middle school and high school administration will be presenting an overview of their Theories of Action, their student learning outcome measures and major strategies/action steps to achieve those outcomes.  We began this planning process as a district in the summer of 2015.  Previously, all improvement plans were primarily developed by administrators.  These plans were collaboratively developed by teams within each school.   Please note, all of the fall data is not yet available.  Specific targets will be set within the next couple of weeks, so you will not see them in the plan.  I can forward the Board and updated copy once the targets are set.  

I included a reading from the District Management Council which explains the use of Theories of Action and alignment to strategies and resources from an education perspective.  I thought the reading might help provide context in your understanding of the work our teams engaged in to develop the plans.  

The first correspondence is a letter from the State Department of Education informing the district that we have met all of our outstanding ADA compliance issues.  

The second correspondence is a letter from one of our NJROTC parents, Chrissy Sholtes who outlines the importance of the program.  I believe it goes without saying, the administration strongly agrees with her perspective.  

On September 20, 2016, Dr. Gangi emailed the Board of Education and district administration regarding her concerns about SBAC and the CCSS.  

A resident from Washinton, CT, John Buonaiuto emailed the Bethel Board of Education regarding projected STEM Agri-science numbers.  

Current district enrollment is exactly 3000 students.  Mrs. Yonsky will provide an overview of our current percentage of students who qualify for free and/or reduced lunch.  

As some of you are aware, the New York Times will be doing a story about Bethel in their Real Estate Section.   I provided information regarding the schools. In speaking to the reporter, the article will run on November 6th.  

Committee Dates for November

Sponsorship for Turf Fields 

We have a group of students who are making a series of short videos on the renovation projects.  They would like to include BOE members in the video.  Please let us know if you would be willing to be part of the project.  

Dr. Brooks has had a request for a trip to Montreal/Quebec for Columbus Day weekend of 2017 from the World Language Department at Bethel High School.  As this is an out-of-country request, it would need to go to the full board.   Some members have requested a review of policy on international travel.  I am looking for guidance if the Board would like to have this request to Canada go to the Curriculum Committee as is protocol for approval or would you, as a collective group, prefer that the policy is reviewed prior to any international trips go forward to Curriculum? 

Connecticut's Growth Model for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics will be released likely in November.  This will also be included in the school accountability indices for Johnson and Bethel Middle Schools.   I have included a PowerPoint from the State Department of Education to help you understand how the scores are calculated and how the information will be used.  

As discussed at the last regular Board of Education meeting, I provided an update on the need to add district provided student emails (for instructional use only) as a component of Directory Information.   Student email is the foundation of our Google Platform and some other online software programs.  By providing the email as directory information, which parents can opt out of, we are in compliance with FERPA (student email is not deemed personal identifiable information).  This helps to maintain compliance with the new Data Privacy Act.  

A reminder, the policy dictates that the administration can control who receives the Directory Information.   By placing restrictions on student email, for instructional purposes only, it would limit the scope of the requests. For example, because it is for instructional purposes only, we would not give it to an outside organization to advertise directly to students.  

Dr. Vose has done extensive work on the development of a district webpage on the new law.  I would encourage you to review it ans it may provide helpful background information.  

17a-101q Statewide sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention program (as amended by Section 415 of the June 2015 Special Session Public Act 15-5) requires the Board of Education to develop a policy on awareness and prevention programs.  

This program was developed by the Connecticut State Department of Education and the Department of Children and Families.  For your information, I have attached the guidelines.  Mrs. Budris and I are pulling a K-12 Committee together to conduct a curricular cross walk with current courses on October 25th.   We will also be drafting a parent "opt-out" letter.