B. Carlson inquired about the December board meeting agenda and whether or not it had already been published and/or needed to be amended. J. Scalice indicated that it had been published as a standard agenda and did not need to be amended. C. Sneed noted it did not need a motion or vote, to move forward with the standard agenda. Committee agreed to move forward with the set standard agenda items.

J. Scalice noted that for the upcoming board meeting, he would review the academic committee report to be submitted, which includes an overview of our current data related to beginning of year benchmarks and interim assessments, completed at the end of November for ELA and Math.

J. Scalice shared that these are Pre-assessments, done prior to students engaging in upcoming unit on core standards measured on the SBAC assessment. The school found strong results in moving towards growth goals, and there were some pretty strong results; students were testing close to where they tested on the SBAC exam prior to learning new material. 

In the first 8 weeks students have already recaptured any learning they lost over the summer, showed gains in other areas, and a move from students who were in the well below benchmark into the approaching benchmark area. More detail during tomorrow's board meeting.

We will also be talking about the RFP process for the consultant, to allow the board to ask questions and discussion about it is we are looking for, the purpose of the consultant, and the RFP process in general. J. Scalice noted that the RFP will be uploaded today, to include the edits that B. Carlson sent over. J. Scalice noted what that'll do in having conversation we had about the business separation mindset, it changed the way J. Garrett, L. Hubbard and J. Scalice discussed it and changed how we went about drafting the RFP. J. Scalice shared this thinking also allowed us to broaden our search and give us more flexibility and not narrow it down to certain areas of expertise that might not be needed to engage in the separation process.

We will also upload our traditional data, like attendance, chronic absenteeism, and student discipline data - if there are questions we can address them tomorrow during the executive review.

L. Hubbard shared that she would be providing an update on teacher certification, noting there has been little movement in that regard. We have also hired several new teachers in the past month, so as we are bringing them in, we are having to go back through the certification process again, but I will share my update with the board at that time.

Facilities update - we are still on track to having the remediation work for the second floor done, which should take place over the break. The school boiler will be replaced over the break as well.

L. Hubbard will also have an update regarding the child nutrition program; they've been asked to provide a corrective action plan for because they had an excess balance last year of $3,934. They were surprised that they'd need to write up a CA plan for it. L. Hubbard gave a brief explanation of why they may have over ordered/gone over budget with the purchase of food. The state wants the number to be $0, so L. Hubbard is working on a plan to submit to the state to ensure that doesn't happen again in the future.

C. Sneed asked if they're suggested we ordered too much food even though we are covering a portion of it. L. Hubbard said yes, but they expect to see us under the budget, but transitioning from pandemic/hybrid student population, it's challenging.

L. Hubbard expressed that when that budget is exceeded they just want to be sure we have a plan for the future, and we do. L. Hubbard said reviewing month over month of meal claims, she doesn't see this being an issue in the future.

C. Sneed is curious about the claims process and how it's handled/how it's monitored; L. Hubbard said they want to ensure we are tracking the number of meals kids are eating accurately and we are not over ordering. We have to take the over ordering risk because you don't always know what kids are going to eat, it takes a while at the beginning of the year to figure that out.

C. Sneed asked about second meals (for kids who are hungry, etc.) and L. Hubbard noted that when we have extra meals, we give them to kids, but we cannot claim more than one meal. So this excess, we know was not excess and it didn't go to waste, but the state sees the dollars and that's how they track it.

J. Garrett reviewed the changes to the handbook after attending a training with our law group. She added the CROWN act as a protection for employees; reviewing marijuana/drug free workplace section; adding note on TitleIX as well.

C. Sneed how updates are distributed to current employees and J. Garrett shared that any updates to the handbook is pushed out through Paylocity and employees have to acknowledge they've received it.

We briefly discussed FMLA with the board concerning specifically CT FMLA and what employees pay in/don't pay into for FMLA.

No updates from the Board Chair at the moment