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KHS Community Forum March 28, 2022

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March 28, 2022 public meeting on providing quality education in an environment that is supportive and safe Workshop goals ● Provide data on current concerns within the discipline system ● Review laws that determine staff actions ● To gather community input on concerns and solutions

Show Transcript

good evening wow that was relatively easy thank you very much I want to say welcome everybody who showed up tonight thank you for being here for making the time to have the important conversations that are going to happen this evening no one's trying to downplay anything to no one's going to try to sugarcoat anything in a moment we're going to go through a presentation we're going to share some information with you will try not to make that presentation to lengthy because we know you want your voices to be heard you got facilitators at all of the different groups tables throughout the room I want to say thank you to the folks who have volunteered to help facilitate the conversation it'll help all of the stay on target stay on point so that we have enough time to share with one another so that were able to take that information synthesize that put it into themes and eventually well I know doctor Gallagher's going to share anyway turn it into some form of action planning some of which is already underway so without further Ado my name is Rob Malay I am the superintendent of schools I'm going to pass the microphone over to Brian Campbell who is the assistant superintendent and then on to dr. Gallagher who is the principal here at Keene high school but again welcome thank you for being here last order of business that I was supposed to do there is water available if anybody needs a drink of water restrooms out we've got restrooms in the back of the room I forgot we're in the calf so you have restrooms are in case of an emergency please exit one of the exits center closest you hopefully we won't need to worry about that thank you sir good evening folks I am Brian Campbell the assistant superintendent one of the two assistant superintendent I may be very brief before I took over dr. Gallagher for a short presentation around some of the data that we've been collecting as well as the RSA the statue which kind of guys what the administrative team can do within buildings are go for 2 they provide quality education in an environment that is supportive and safe I think we all feel that we want our students to be in a rich learning environment one where they can all be successful but they all feel comfortable being who they are and can move about their dad feeling safe our goals tonight and I'll explain more about the workshop at the end of doctor Gallagher's presentation but provide data and current concerns within the discipline System review the laws that determine action both what we can do in our limitations within that statue and to gather Community input on concerns and solutions is about being solution-oriented it is about your conversation talking about certain topics relative to what's been going on in our school how do we change and and Bill to an upward trajectory in our school so it is positive and safe so we we I'll be gathering input and then as mr. Maloney said putting that toward an action plan and in part of the conversation will be talking about some of the things that are currently underway so I'm going to hand this over to dr. Gallagher for a brief presentation do you want to my training everybody I appreciate you coming he's going to manage the button so I can stand over here and see slides with you am I in your way one of the things that I was asked to put together is the way in which our students are engaging in our community and I know that this is very hard to see will be releasing it as the out on the website to people to get the slides from us it kind of got big when you got the big screen I want you to look at the blue numbers first those blue Barstow coming down top rollerboys 692 total second row down 668 is female third row down 1358 is the that's cool wide then it goes great 12 11 10 9 at the bottom each of them around 3:40 give a little take a little that blue bar are the students not involved in the discipline at Key we're looking at Great numbers there 66% of the ninth-graders have no interactions with the admin team around student discipline those are the numbers we want to go up I'm going to use the school-wide data which is this column right here just so we know where we are 70% of our students are absolutely successful here in terms of not being involved with student discipline as it comes down what we see in this yellow which is kind of burnt orange are the students that have one two three hits maybe they could have class maybe they were sassy to a teacher but those numbers represent 26% of our population then we move into the parts that are a little bit more concerning this yellow bar are the students that are involved with 6 to 10 that means the repeat offenders I used to wear Defender that sounds bad they're repeat violators how about that they break the rules more often and then we have a small portion which is Red Witch have 11 or more this is just this year and it goes from August when we open till March 18th when you've heard us talking about that low percent of the number of students that are regularly making it difficult it is this combo mission of the yellow and the red at the school-wide level it's 4% that's mine could you squeeze that that's my banjo boy the other one was the choo choo those are my kids they just said have a good dinner when your kids go to college and they do that every night you can smile too they're good kids Brian can you go to the next let me say this those are big numbers out I'm going to go through the presentation our goal is to get your questions down there if there's a press question I don't mind stopping I tried to figure out a way once I saw how the slide stretched out to just give you the Bold numbers so what I did was I took the major responsibilities our discipline system is tracked on three here's to the ones typically what happens in the classroom teacher says you know please knock it off they have to redirect they may or may not get a email to a parent we don't do a lot of tracking on tier 1 at the high school level we don't get a lot of those. who tends to be the the situations that respond require an administrator to respond does get tiresome the repeats what we have on here are most of the more aggressive tier twos and all of the trees that have been causing us problems so about 5% of our population does repeat tier twos again this is out of 1358 so if you're looking for the numbers about 7% of our population are insubordinate disrespectful or disruptive about 8% of our population engage in aggressive behaviors would be me being disrespectful in my words me assaulting somebody which is a One Direction will fight or face-to-face fight this one also includes and we were really hard category the category is one line and you're ready boy threats harassment and there's a fourth one what does a fourth one in there for when you're trying to have asked me to disaggregate bullying from threats from harassment which picks up the races and it's hard cuz it's all whining are PowerSchool one of our needs this year is to clean up our categorizing things and then finally we have alcohol drugs tobacco I just put them all together that's 3% and in the school safety one is vandalism those comments I might have a gun that we had we dealt with those a couple of times anything that's about the building safety so you can see again it's a small number of our population and regrettably a number of the students Crossing multiple categories when you look up at the second column on this side one of the things that's really hard about being a principal or an assistant principal is you can Dole out a ton of consequences but you can't anybody about it and there's this perception that we're not doing anything about it this is just the top of the iceberg about what we have been doing about it when you're working with when you're working kids we do a lot of counseling we do a lot of Investigation we do a lot of conversations may use you as a role model hi Mary Mary you just got in trouble we have to deal with that I can we look at your grades to and we work a holistic approach on every student so when I give you raw data about out-of-school suspension and the number of lost instructional days that's a minimal amount of what the assistant principal the rest of the administrators are doing because we're spending time with Mary who we care about passionately Mary we should trade rules you'll be the principal and I'll be the kid that's bad so I'll be both of us but I don't want Mary to feel like I'm about to walk her out of school and feel bad about it so she gave me the first time and she says Cindy we care about you let's look at your grades oh by the way you have an administrative detention I'm not going to do that okay I blow it off then she says Cindy we got to go to your administrative detention and did you get that work done don't like the teacher then she said Cindy you blew off the administration's detention twice you have to do a Saturday detention by the way I got all your work it'll be ready for you when you get to the Saturday detention and I marry taco and you and I have a great relationship now I can walk by and say hi Miss Mary how are you and you can tease me for a couple of days and then I go off and I make another bad choice you can see how we invest and invest and invest looking at our oh by the way thank you thank you guys want to thank Mary thanks Mary you did good looking out our OSS has 182 consequences of OSS / 128 kids that'll tell you that we have repeat people doing. nine students currently have 15 or more days of OSS that tells me that the consequence is not working by comparison 77 students have 3 days or less than the majority of those are one days that means consequences working because we don't see them coming back into the system when we look at the Lost instruction over six hundred days of lost instructional time the groups that we have in the building right now if you're in 11th grade with two years of covid-19 meant that you were in ninth grade when you had your last time if you're in 9th grade now with two years of Cove that meant that you were in sixth grade some of the things that we're dealing with is the lack of socialization that you get as you are in school remind you 70% of our kids are doing great this other 30% some of them are making mistakes there are other kids that haven't socialized to be a part of a community like what has to be the size of Keene we have a couple of other interventions interventions a principal or the principal staff can give up to 10 days of graduated ISS Ross for an incident anything over 10 days requires us to go to the superintendent that requires a hearing where superintendent sits with the family and the student and says what's going on we've done that the number is less than 10 I can't tell you how many cuz it's too small and it'll be too easy to identify and we have had varying results superintendent can extend for 10 more days a superintendent can extend for 10 more days and make a request to the school board for hearing a superintendent can say Administration I'm sending this kid back to you write a plan to help them succeed a superintendent might talk to an older student and say what's in your best interest so that you can move on and be successful contributor to the community and we might work out an alternative plan and take advantage of some of the other resources like tell Ted or the hiset those are all within the purview of that hearing the other thing that can happen before we get to the superintendent's hearing is his family's make choices are School counseling staff are special ed staff and our admin team really know the students they work really hard to say what is in your best interest what do you want to do after high school how do we help you get there even in the middle of a discipline crisis somebody say I can't be in this box my anxieties to high my stress is too high what are my choices that's what this last row is so we have a number of families that made choices students that were involved in the system to a different Choice than to attend Keene High full-time who also did not go to the superintendent level I'll sit there Brian alright couple of the laws I'm not going to read slides for you I'm just going to tell you some things that I've realized I joined you in the Life 21 so I'm finishing up a year-and-a-half coming up on the end of my second year a number of laws changed and lied a lot of people know they changed so they are for the heist but some of us might to legally doesn't exist anymore the first big change happened in 20 and 21 the discipline system changed their used to be long-term suspension short-term suspension superintendent suspension and a whole lot of things that could happen before expulsion now the laws limited principal can do 10 days to bring tendon can do 10 days that next day for the same event has to be a school board hearing purposes of expulsion I've been in education over 20 years and I never brought one person forward for expulsion cuz there was this other thing called long-term suspension that tool was taken away from us and expelled the kid is really hard cuz you're cutting off their ability to go to another public school they don't get to become productive members if you expel them they have to take a full Hiatus I'm a couple of others is the changed in this is the one that I think is stretching are creating the tension in our system the very first line the discipline systems went from consequence based to now being consequences plus positive interventions families that have students in Special Ed that are involved in the discipline system historically know that there are special procedures for a student to get suspended call the manifestation. animation company if you ever heard of that word and if there's a manifestation that means that the students disability contributed to the discipline situation and a school has to then say did we follow the iacp do we do a functional Behavior Analysis do we write a behavior plan we've been doing those things for years the law now requires us to do something similar not as complex but something similar for every kid that has 10 days cumulative suspension that's a new step for us so it delays where we're supposed to go as we're coming down that's got box there when we get to the 20 days cumulative we can move into alternative plans for those of you that were following the law on the school board just passed the policy that we needed about two months ago I have some school board members here George with a two months ago I HPI so we're just starting to implement those now that means the kids can get their diplomas stay on Kings rosters but not necessarily have to be in this large school the whole time we're starting to move forward with those pretty quickly suspension 10 days I did this part the expulsion piece that's just built that just tells you what we have to be responsible for Brian went to delinquency of children this is another one that changed how many of you have heard of a Chin's petition child in need of the support all right the other part of the laws that delinquency law that's what we expect the SRO to use to take care of kids that don't don't do the right Behavior what changed in this law is that the petition you'll see it's 169-b when you actually get the power points at the not like drugs to be able to go to the laws when the law was amended it's been a number of years but when it was amended it put this glass bubble over the school and it said nothing that happens outside of the school can be handled by the police in a way that's familiar to everybody but anything that happens inside the school the school has to exhaust its resources before Mission can be filed so marry who's really really really nice and you might still be in my we can play I can move into Mary's really nice I encounter hurt Wheels Park and I Pummel her and my friends across the road here come and get me it's off school grounds they can charge me as somebody who 17 and under under delinquency I do the same thing to Marion School bsro can't do that because we have this glass bubble that says in school you got to exhaust your discipline process which means we have to give me the chance to be restorative I have to not bother Mary anymore but I don't necessarily once I serve my consequences disappear I don't get necessarily brought into the court system because the school still has to do a hollow hold what is things including the disposition of a referral for special ed if I'm not identified or a manifestation hearing if I am you can see how it gets you long-dated and now Mary's walking around school reading parents are upset because I'm back and I may or may not be behaving myself I'm sorry I wouldn't do it all right coming over here let's go to the next when you can see how delinquency was changed the other one that has changed is the use of restraints I've had a number of people say why are those kids allowed to run through the hallways swearing and yelling why won't the SRO handcuffed them why don't you I stopped them the restraint laws have changed in such a way and it's up in the stop box that the only way you're supposed to restrain somebody as if there's a substantial and imminent so when the kids walking in front of me in the hall this happens occasionally and are upset and they're looking over their shoulder and they're not saying nice words and I'm saying just keep going to an office or let's get you outside of the building for sure will calm you down and they're saying bad words and I'm saying you got to quit yelling and they're still saying bad words and we're walking there is no imminent danger cuz I'm not close to them they're just and that's hard for a community to listen to but there isn't it a restraining moment there some of the things that are confusing to folks are restrained as when we hold somebody still there is room under this restraint for an administrator to direct somebody go to your room there's room to step in front of somebody you can't do that there's way to put your arms out those are some of the things that we have to do to move people into safe places so those are some of the to come down there on the other side but I think it's really important I had a teacher say 10 years ago that kid would have gone out in cuffs well ten years ago we didn't have the delinquency law 10 years ago we didn't have the newrez 10 years ago we don't have the new discipline law that's about restorative and making sure that people learn how to be together that's hard because sometimes people like make it stop and we're doing the best we can keep going by all right here's some of the things that are happening when I got hired the district had just reorganized and had admitted ministrator the goal was to have one person be in charge of the discipline was called the dean of students position because the college give me the high school had a reputation of not being consistent and all the different houses so we brought a dean of students in and the Hope was that we would be freeing up the assistant principals to be working a little bit more teachers around academics we went through a year of that and I wasn't convinced it was the best model cuz I was hearing we were missing things and then we went through the first part of this year without Mom and we opened up with that again and when I was eight represent the data to the SAU team we were able to demonstrate that the dean of students model wasn't working so some of you will remember at the start of the second semester we went to a 3 house model that meant that we knew exactly who is responsible for each student be that was January 28th so we have all of February plus two weeks of March what I'm hearing is the faculty think we're being more responsive quicker with free admin Critters I'm not hearing student saying that things feel like they're being lost so I think that we got a game there when we went to the three house model the peace with the school board budget we are funded in this year budget for for Hall monitors we asked to increase that number and that was voted on by the population in and we got that I appreciate it there was some excess money in this year's budget so I got approval to go ahead and post for the full 64 this year we have had only one or two applicants so when we posted we started this conversation in December we decided that if we didn't have somebody coming in soon we would start to what's the security private security firms to try and bring the extra adult bodies in and Brian and I just started interviewing forms today we just don't have the applicants for the positions we have funded positions funded positions with benefits that's an amazing thing that we're just not we don't have the applicants coming in I did interview two great candidates today but we're still have openings there the other thing that happened I'm going to come down to this one for a second and then I'm going to do a time check the board approved the creation of a new position to handle at risk and alternative education currently sitting in one of the grants again another job that's posted we have some qualified applicants for that I'm starting interviews for that this week I believe I'm so that person will be working with that group of students that don't fit in this box they're going to become their superhero they're going to put their kapaun they're going to build relationships with the Outside Agency we're going to take advantage of that I hbi policy and I still have it out there my goal is that we're going to have systems in place so that we have a hundred percent complete Earth by the time the 6th graders graduate anybody is 6th grade parent what's the class of 2028 will be in the building in 2025 to 16th and track I've been following you since kindergarten it's a great class to follow so the other thing happened and let's do a time check. V so is 7 minutes okay the video that The Faculty put together that all of your students heard today is it hot link to this it's also heading out on the Facebook so it'll be public if it's already out there in the last hour our faculty came to us and made a commitment to be active and and help us in the hallways and they stepped up today we shared a video with all the kids The Faculty wherever we're and we so appreciated having all of those people out there saying that the students we want you to feel safe we want you to feel welcome here's how you can do it in Keene High good morning I believe you I believe you you have three copies of it opened at that matter OK Google I'm going to write a math teacher in high school and I'm also depressed Vision Association the teachers union and play logic Revolt. Can I put them here today to introduce changes are going to be happening today at Keene high and you changed her and respond a lot of things and circumstances the climate at Keene high school and we're here today to talk to you all as students to let you know that we hear you if you consistently you work really hard you're serious about your academic we hear you we hear you that there were times when you felt unsafe at your school there is behaviors have made you uncomfortable and we want to work to address those if you're struggling that you need our help and we want to help you get back to class so that you can be prepared to make next step in life go out into the workforce or the military or prepare for college or technical school or whatever it is that you're the reason why things are going into After High School longtime coach for 30 years and English American studies teachers me know that you are moving toward that larger goal we already have a full commitment of the community school board administration's the teachers in the staff what we need now is to be a part of the process insurance need to bring us together to in a positive direction hi I'm Gianluca I've been teaching here at Keene high school for over 30 years I take marketing and Sports Marketing and I've coached numerous boards throughout my career. Well one of the things I'm going of the brain cage us together change the culture and make the culture a little bit better each and every day we want you to have a sense of space we want some height to be welcome environment for all students we also do want to reduce the number of Jews in the hallways in to identify students in need as well as you all have an ownership in your choices that you're going to make we will however have an adult present in the hallway and we are there for you and to make skein High come together or back here again after 99 I've walked around this area but would bring us together I just want to talk to you guys about what can you expect in student Mardel's in the hallway you going to see up with orange orange vest on a walking around with walkie-talkie and we're there for you that we're going to take a nap do you know where you going where you coming from you have a path what's your name and so on and so forth and we just want to make sure that you're getting to the place that you need to go I mean who knows maybe your directions we do have expectations for you all a student you know when adult comes up to you and ask if you know where you going you're expected to give your name expected to give them your pass on your expected to be courteous as we adults are expected to be courteous. some of the other expectations might surround the cafeteria and one and study hall one second and third law you need to be staying there and you students are not going to be leaving the cafeteria from a lunch until they're dismissed to go back to class before they have a pass from a specific teacher Education Code for study hall schedule for study hall so you shouldn't be in a study hall if you're not scheduled there and if you're leaving so you are only leaving there a pass past system is just going to work to make sure that every is when they need to be there at that we're all accountable for that teachers and students driving down the road just got licenses call traffic directions maybe you were speeding up folder Vine officer you have to follow directions when they give them to you if they have to come to your house office you need to follow those directions are go back to class or show them the path and we also expect that you're respectful as students towards your faculty members your elders and they're going to show you that same respect as well I teach various Health classes here I'm talking about I time expectations how do you know you guys can sell schedule a time that's not changing but you do need to stay I time that you're scheduled for a student who has early release schedule for an iPad for the entire eye time one person is going out to the bathroom at a time which is the same expectation as the rest of the school. if you have early release he must leave the building you cannot stay and hang around give me the next time we're closing out the nurse at the beginning of I times that they are not opening until 3:15 be open through the end of the school day please make sure that you are scheduled for every day of I time it's not your advisory teachers will be following us and if you who has an early dismissal or you have early release in your eye time schedule and be reflected at that one of them is the first 10 minutes of class last 10 minutes of class. No one is going to be in the hallway no passes the other one is implementation of one student and a time going to the bathroom out on the bathroom for those who choose not to follow clear consistent and timely consequences thank you for listening and helping us all to bring seen high school together so those are basic common expectations of a school to be able to succeed at and we greatly appreciate the faculty entertain the faculty it's the faculty in the staff it's the board's commitment and so and I'm going to thank you tonight I'm looking forward to reading all of your materials Brian's taking back over thank you Doctor g i watch that video good morning and I love all you said A Manger from Maine I mean cuz I was wicked cool and watching this morning I want to thank the the staff who worked with mr. Malay on Thursday and Friday for I know about 6 probably putting together and there are there's a large group of 15 to how many people would you John yeah his wife give me words thank you sir so why do we have about 150 or so people here tonight and in order for us to hear from each that's why you're sitting in these pods it's the tables up to with the facilitator in the series of question because we want to hear we're going to have those tabletalk conversation so you can talk with neighbors so you can share so you can share perspectives you can give feedback the facility will be asking for a note taker if no one steps up he'll be taking the nose and selves those notes will be gathered at the end of the evening and at the end of Thursday there was no to be given to an outside source to route by Theme by find the patterns and then our expectation is that within a week from Thursday evening that data those actionable steps are discuss at the with a staff level at the magistrate of Louisville and then also share with you at the community level so we're having a very short turnaround time to gather that information to to put those in buckets into Define actionable steps we are to be working for the next probably 40 minutes so facility taters is now he's being 6:40 to about 7:20 in your groups having those conversations we ask that you work with each other you listen maybe you don't want to talk okay listening is participation so maybe you don't want to orally participate but you are an active listener to the group and contributing in that manner at the end then we're going about 7:20 ish we are going to return to a full session and where do they have each dable report out on those aha moments things that they learn from each other things they want chair allowed for the rest of the community and then we're going to put those actionable steps into place excellent get to work whoop sorry man yes yeah that we scheduled in the immediate near future because we want to get their perspective also both in the staff we obviously we had 17 individuals they came back according to the full staff on Friday afternoon but we want to structure the similar form both with students in with staff so they also their voices are heard as well okay thank you Tammy Simpson with a mask on play excellent facilities you're all set you guys can begin Miss Cordell how do we do in school okay imma Go Round Table by table and when I asked you to have somebody from the group I might actually hit the mic to somebody put them on the spot not going to work Miss Malay and I'm going to ask you to get one or two highlights from the conversation do that to any of the questions but one or two highlights from the conversation at your table and I'm going to start with mister Crest group and I'mma start with this group so I think our overwhelming response at the end was that parents are here and want to help so maybe bringing back some sort of PTA PTC whatever and then moving in the student organizations to have a more combined connection and Bishop of the school Community would make us feel like there's more connection you know and pride back to Keene High School the stable headlines it is similar and we talked a lot about implementing some restorative processes and practices within the school culture that build their relationships based on respect and Trust nonviolent conflict resolution and one of the recommendations that we had that for the next video have lots and lots of students talk about the differences and I hope that video was a Cheshire career center production going to work my way around the outside Imran we had some Lively conversation I would say one of the big aha moment was really just letting the safety concerns sinking for students attend to staff community so what do you think about retention or how people may or may not want to go to school everyday and what they think before they walk through the door as a former Lawman as a parent is it's crushing so regardless of what the data says that feeling of emotions kind of rushing through and it's a little tough to swallow but on the flip side it was absolutely similar to what they stated earlier a large rally around okay what can we do typically how do we gauge with our students hubby engages parents and we gave you each other to say what can we do in conjunction with our Administration to do something about this I want to share thank you going to jump over here Mister Campbell to keep it going yeah thank you we had a great group. I think the on the opening presentation the one thing that we'd like to know is just one of the trend lines is 66% well-behaved good is it like a three-point percentage and best-in-class Steph Curry or is it a free throw and you feel really bad I would love know what that trend line is and then hope that we commit to increasing it whatever it is we what we want to do better right cuz we're all here because we're not satisfied with where we are I think there are a couple of things it kind of breaks down in Maslow's hierarchy it's like there are students who we had students participate in our group who are we do not feel that they can go to the bathroom and high school that's a problem I would think right I mean I can I'm afraid hours but I'm old so so I think there's a there's a reality to what we're hearing the teachers are in harm way they're getting injured students are being bullied I think they're just some some gravity to What's Happening Here so it was super helpful to hear that initial presentation but I think a lot of our conversation or is around how can we take the 25% that were in sort of the 1-2-3 offences and make them part of the 70 right so I can we focus there to get them as opposed to focusing all the attention on the three to 5% and so I think that was really a rallying cry with this group and I want to thank them for their input it was great Mitre Similac hi I'm sore takeaway is that this is really a relationship that has to exist between parents students and the district thank you my turn hi everybody first of all I would like to say thank you to the 50 students that stood out front of the school that brought us all here tonight they're all suspended why should it take them being suspended and risking their academics cross to have to come together like this one of the things that we thought was important if any of you have had to try to get a hold of the administration here it's an email puzzle it's not an easy first letter last name at sau29 it's a form that you have to go through I think something else we we feel like the student council here needs to be more accessible to the kids I may be more representative and diverse to where kids feel comfortable going to their own peers that then have a link to the administration nothing else you feel like you got 16 that's all we've got for now thank you hello we have five points you just want to mention one is Echo that's engaging student voices we think that's so critical and in whatever form that takes also the word accountability is a buzzword that we talked about but sometimes it needs to have more of a positive been about what accountability is versus Houston's consequence will know we I think it can be taught a little differently in a little and presented a little better are we agreed that it could be presented a little bit better with a positive spin to that until the positivity we do enough as a district school to shine the light on all the positive things we noted very recently on some of the social media we saw the Art Exhibit mrs. down in class and we see other things but there isn't an of that that happens and that might be a societal thing but anything that could be done really shine light on the positivity will go a long way rewards for positive actions again we talked a lot about punitive things up here by you know the more we reward the good behavior that will be I could be seen his incentive that could be seen as a an affirmation that a student belongs here and we really felt strongly about that and then on terms of consequences what are they what is you know as we said that you need an if-then statement if this happens then what and I don't think that that's clear for our students I don't think it's clear for the parents so what's the five things that we talked about came back over here I think one of the biggest aha moments as you said is that we all kind of came to grips with the fact that every student in the cool and Peter and staff member basically of PTSD after the last two years and we kind of just threw him back in school and expected everybody to go along and be along like they had two years private previously a lot of these kids went home to abuse Holmes a lot of these kids went home to parents who work all the time worst we got to work we got to keep that roof over their head weight and I'll stay home during covid antibodies kids forgot how to be in school and some of the teachers forgot how to get into that guy 2 and the combination of all of that and the masks for the first most of the year I just added to that PTSD portion so we need to stop acting like these kids are the kids from 2 years ago cuz they're not they're totally different scene with staff they've all been through stuff and we need to treat them like that and then the other thing that we talked about over and over again that kept coming up is the communication piece that we've heard I know I've tried to call email I work in and when I try to get ahold of somebody I don't know if anybody else does stuff like that you don't just call them and leave a voicemail if you call you leave a voicemail you text them you email them and you send a letter out you make sure that there are four different ways that you're reaching out that you know at least one of those ways is going to get through right now we're lucky to get one of those ways so it's not always getting through voicemail boxes get full emails don't always go through it happens and we need to make sure that that communication pieces happening we should be able to know what's going on you shouldn't have to wait 3 days to find out why your kids not allowed to go back to school thank you high so our group some of our highlights that we mentioned and has been touched on a little bit here but just to make sure that all stakeholders are at the table and I know being here tonight we see some positive signs around that but make sure that we're really pulling in our staff and our students and our administrators all collaborating together to find Solutions and obviously our community at large on the importance of that and just talking a little bit just making sure that students also have an Avenue to be able to confidentially share maybe what's happening for them here so we're having a public forum here tonight we've heard from teachers and know that there's meetings that have been happening but also to make sure that our students are my voice or an Avenue for that and I think one other thing is just more specific to some of the questions that were posed to us we all really recognize the challenges around covid and the lack of Staffing lack of subs and just like how that impact the building and trying to find Solutions you know in real-time when you don't have coverage for classes but just hoping that we are very concerned about the that's been addressed in terms of study halls and just that that's a lot of time for kids to all be you know we have a 90-minute blocks here sometimes it could be multiple blocks a day where students are sitting in an auditorium and I get we totally understand the lack of laughing but just maybe there can be some other creative ways to really address that the students aren't sitting in a study hall for those length of time during the day and kind of what that's feeling so all right for our group back here they depended on me the facilitator that's okay so I'll try to capture what you guys had a great conversation not to repeat a lot of has already been said so far one of the major thing this area was talking about was the sense of pride in in school sense of pride in their just academics and sports things that are happening around Keene high school things that are happening out in the community one of the other major themes that they were talking about his consistency again that work has come up a few times but consistency around consequences Behavior making sure that it's clear and transparent as far as what's happening why is it happening maybe not necessarily saying it to every person but so if somebody gets a consequence of some kind that in my be the same for somebody else and may not be in understanding why you know that they was coming over here was saying and there's that clear understanding of what's happening when how do I know what's happening to my own child and why is that happening did I capture everything that you guys were saying stakeholders of the other piece was making sure that we reach out and communicate to all stakeholders to try to find out if there's anything they can do to help us if there's a p that's missing for and maybe there's an opportunity for funding maybe there's somebody out in one of the stakeholders that may have an answer that the school is missing I think I may be at today kyo-ya the other piece of it was looking at the progress or the long-range statistics to we saw the the data that doctor G presented their squad around wall what was it like 2 years ago 3 years ago five years ago what was the progression of that data how did it change over time but okay yeah that's right in the quarterly report getting that data out I'm late so that the stakeholders and everybody the community can see it and have access to it I am Jeff we got like three categories that are repeating here so add that the consistent theme was accountability and along with that be consistent the need for consistent in timely consequences the communication theme also came up one area that we talked about a little bit that hasn't been mentioned is as this plan comes together the role of technology and cell phones needs to be considered and we even took a little straw poll at the table about what to do with cell phones cuz it is such a major contributor in this whole scenario and there were some that voted I'm that they should go and I know that won't be popular with parents but that has to be better than this hi when we got together we start that we should also think of the 70% of the kids said here and not just the fenders because of 7 percent that are coming in here a lot of them don't want to be here because they're afraid to be here my son doesn't go to the bathroom every day because he's afraid to go there so we're worried about that we're worried about how their grades are dropping because they're thinking about that instead of their studies we want to know. Do we have the resources to aggressively deal with the issues that we're facing right now and we went out how can we help how can we help make it better I just wanted to see if I could have had something we've had a lot of great discussion and someone made a statement about how things have changed with PTSD and things of that nature I'm just trying to actually compose myself because truthfully this is it to me one of the biggest issues I think we have as a district seeing how both my boys handled the closed down school to go forward I have a sophomore right now who I think was high pretty resilient terms with the fact you got banged around pretty good didn't get to finish eighth grade in anything that he wanted my work for the city of Keene things that I've seen I've actually done a lot I work with a PTSD and resiliency and I honestly think with the things that we've talked about and that is probably one key element not only for the students before the staff is that somehow someway I program or selling used to come in and speak because we're not used to the fact that we have no socialization we've been wearing masks we don't want to wear out to one of my mask our kids. know how to handle that adults do not handle that and I say that because it's trying I work in the community I if I said I work for the city of Keene As A Firefighter and EMT and I see I see my own family I see friends but I think that one key element that could help amongst many other things is perhaps some resiliency, station some talk about because there's no doubt at all that there are kids that are in teacher that are suffering from PTSD or just not even PTSD post-traumatic stress we had two years of just complete it's weird and I mean it's like lighters went by I don't mean to just continue my conversation but I do think that this is important and I just think that of all the things that we talked about no chicken phones from the kids and respect and why not I didn't kids and teachers and like don't quite know how to overcome the fact that we've had two years of isolation so maybe that's another piece that we can throw in there like so actually one of our takeaways that adds to your point and the point that you made that we are kids are not the same kids from 2 years ago was we talked a lot about root causes that we can put a lot of things in place but if we're not really passing the root causes of what's causing the disturbance is here we're not going to get anywhere in that you know somebody that might mean looking at our resources nose and it came out that we were thinking about was just is that first part of the presentation was we got a overview of everything but how how much are your hands really tied does an Administration to take action and and you know if we are looking at this in a smaller group of folks I heard you know escalating things so often are we are you able to do more specific interventions that Becky to prevent them from going down that path like sliding down that Hill service earlier interventions but then also you know what are you doing for those that smaller group to you know to try to turn that around and stop the bleeding essentially mr. Hayward Mike and I are the facilitators again that's poke people on a lot of the same things though just my teacher empowerment student our men making sure the social emotional needs of the 70% are dressed as the kids were really struggling also talked about what we talked about consequences the kind of three strikes you're out there like having consistency with these are the steps like if this happens in this happens that same type of idea never mention about you look at the schedule cuz I know what the block schedule having Skinny's that's been a discussion has been around for years but having smaller chunks of Time for Kids possibly to I just getting that you know the support that you can Randy alluded to we all feel you know we need that's just kind of getting back into a normal socialisation of a society is that a bigger things we can't control but controlling things we can with the resources we can muster day today so I think it's my comment is that I see good you know ideas coming on that the other teachers wanting to step up and you know it was concerned might be we don't put too much on the teacher's butt having them involved working consistently together as a team would be a real positive step mostly a lot of things that have already been said previously just to reiterate the the fact that the 25% that we on the yellow need to become part of the 70% part of that also needs to be a culture of respect and I think you can look at universally our society today this is a big one it's not just an issue right here Keene High School communication I think the school district what were the comments were not me but the comments were controlling our own news cycle so Keene high school or the school district is pushing me well the positive information that's out there so we don't just see what the Keene Sentinel puts out but it's not just what is on social media either it is controlled by the school pushing all the positive that are happening within our school district I think we they do a good job but this opportunities there and I know we've had that conversation at the city as well we want to know will there be a report bags on the action towards goals that were talked about tonight to the school board to know that tonight we've been heard I think this is really important I've participated in things in the past and said this is a checkbox thank you very much and I don't want that to happen again and lastly support the teachers without the teachers it all falls apart most of what we talked about his I've been mentioned we agreed with the hundred percent support for the teachers consistency and discipline transparency and in communication with a couple of things that we talked about that haven't been mentioned yet there's sort of this common theme of accountability we keep hearing about accountability and what we're not seeing is a demonstration of the fact that accountability is a top-down process and I keep hearing that kids are being asked to be held accountable teachers are us to be held accountable parents are asked to be held accountable and I'm not seeing Administration I'm not saying find said we're part of the problem and we need to own our part of that the other thing that we talked about is that it seems like right now there's no middle ground we have these kids who the number show the same kids over and over are continuing to struggle in the school which to me means that their environment is not serving them they're coming here and they're not being educated and they're stopping the education their peers and so they either have this environment that doesn't serve them or out-of-school suspension and in either case they're not being educated they're not being served and there's no middle for them to be met where they are and pulled back into the the public school system as a part of that Community where they can be productive and where they can flourish and not every kid is going to be able to survive and and thrive in that environment and there has to be another environment for them where they can reach their own best potential we wanted to know what the funding came through for is that the new position the alternative Ed coordinator is that going to be a program is that going to be a person who is going to be you know working individually with the kids within the school is that going to utilize the north campus what is that going to look like and how long would that take to get up and running so that these kids have a play where they can be moving forward instead of languishing at home or disrupting the the general School community I think we got it cable did we not all of this input is not going for Waste this is not going to be a checkbox Andy this is not the end of a conversation nor should it be needs to continue and it needs to continue to move forward and more frequently you know it's absolutely does before we go any further and wrap up I do want to pay a special thank you to Alex Trombley in his team for streaming us live I'm Alex what was the total count the high count about 175 watching at home while we were here today so doubling our capacity what we had so thank you very much want to say thank you to Shannon Hundley Jenna can you please waive life is sweet and it was made sweeter tonight because of the gifts that were given to us in the center of the tables by Shannon and her organization down in Central Square so thank you very much and really appreciate you again we've got another form on Thursday night folk started signing up I think just after noon today we're collecting everybody's input there are no this is not the end of a conversation this is not a checkbox this is not okay we did it we heard everybody know let's go back to business as usual that is not how change happened but getting that I didn't put so that we're able to get multiple sources providing that feedback so that we can get it all synthesized put it into a workable action plan reviewing it with the school board the staff the students the community that parents the families to make sure that we're going in that direction that we all feel good and comfortable about is the next steps that we need to take this is not the end this is a this is our sky and I've heard it from students I've heard it from Dad's heard it from a table of alumni over here this is our school and we care too much about the School in the kids are walk through these hallways and into these classrooms to not do something you've all heard people say well this is happening in all schools all over the state all over the region all over the country but doesn't mean we have to accept that just because it's happening somewhere else doesn't mean that's okay and that we should just sit idle so I want to say thank to all of you facilitators could you please stand up please you deserve a round of applause of the paperwork that was that that you have information on that you want to make sure gets included please give that to the facilitators so that we can get that to the folks that are going to process all that organized so that didn't end yes so I turn dr. Gallagher real quick the question was the incoming 9th grade tours that were scheduled for this week have been canceled for now but they're really not being canceled their being rescheduled to another time and that will that new information will be communicated for everyone okay but please make sure your papers that you want to have included so that your voice your input your feet that is not lost thank you for being here please drive safely on your way home and will see the next group on Thursday night

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KHS Community Forum March 28, 2022

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