CABE Journal - February 2015 Revised

Vol. 19, No.2 FEBRUARY 2015

w w w . c a b e . o r g

Connecticut Associationof Boards of Education Inc.81 Wolcott Hill RoadWethersfield, CT 06109-1242

PeriodicalPostage

PAIDHartford, CT

www.facebook.com/ConnecticutAssociationBoardsEducation

See You inCourt

ClearThinking

AwardWinningAuthor

PressRoom

Professional learningsystem progressing

Chris SeymourReporter, CABE

PersonalizedLearning

Viewfrom theCapitol

Patrice A. McCarthyDeputy Director/General Counsel, CABE

See PROFESSIONAL page 11

SCHOOLS

See PERSONALIZED page 10

WOODSTOCK ACADEMY

With the inauguration ofthe Governor and theswearing in of themembers of the GeneralAssembly, the legislativesession has begun with aflurry oforganizationalcommitteemeetings.

With 36 newlegislators (3previously servedin the GeneralAssembly) this isan important opportunity to expand theirawareness of Connecticut’s public edu-cation successes and challenges.

The Governor’s Budget will not bereleased until February 18, which will befollowed by hearings before the Appro-priations Committee.

It is likely that serious budget discus-sions will continue until close to theLegislature’s adjournment date of June 3.

Board members and superintendentscan take advantage of multiple oppor-tunities to connect with Legislatorsthrough Area Legislative Breakfasts,CABE’s Day on the Hill on March 25th,testifying or submitting written comments,as well as informal conversations.

CABE will be keeping you informedabout the multitude of bills that will bediscussed.

Patrice A. McCarthyDeputy Director/General Counsel, CABE

Over a year ago the ConnecticutAssociation of Public School Superinten-dents (CAPSS) initiated work on a whitepaper dealing with personalized studentlearning. CABE, CAS and the RESCswere active participants in those discus-sions, which also included the teacherunions and the Connecticut Center forSchool Change.

The purpose of the white paper is toidentify the barriers to personalizedlearning in current policy, to suggest howthey can be removed or reduced, and toidentify incentives to encourage districtsto implement personalized learning.

The white paper was developed togenerate discussion at the local and statelevel, and is not another educationalmandate. Rather, it is a tool to be used byschool boards that want to explore theissue.

A personalized learning systemprovides voice and choice on what, whereand how students learn. It includescompetency based programs that allowstudents to advance upon demonstratedmastery of learning expectations, multiplepaths of study, and provides variable timebased on a student’s needs.

Among the changes to our currentsystem that would enable districts toimplement personalized learning are:

• statutory revisions to allow studentsto progress based on demonstratedcompetencies, rather than movingthrough grades at fixed intervals intime

• revise funding statutes to supportflexibility in pursuing multiple paths

• strategies for supporting personal-ized learning in teacher preparationprograms and educator professionaldevelopment

A comprehensive and collaborativenew professional learning system that’sbeen in the works could be ready forpresentation to the state Board of Educa-tion in March.

“We anticipate to hopefully bring it tothe March State Board meeting for reviewand approval of what we have got thusfar,” explained Sarah Barzee, PhD.,Chief Talent Officer for the State Depart-ment of Education (DOE).

The Connecticut Academy for Profes-sional Learning, which is composed ofnumerous stakeholders from across the

education spectrum in Connecticut, hasbeen hard at work building a vision ofprofessional learning.

“I think we are very pleased with theeffort,” said Barzee. “It has taken longerthan we would have hoped, but I thinkthat is indicative of a process where weare allowing the process to work, so thatat the other end, we end up with aproduct, if you will, that stakeholders feelthey had input and buy in into.”

The Academy for Professional Learn-ing includes representatives from CABEand CAPSS, teacher unions, administratorunions, higher education, and RESCs.Deputy Director and General CounselPatrice McCarthy serves as CABE’srepresentative for the Academy.

“We do believe that the broadlyrepresentative stakeholder group thatwe have assembled have had input toshare their perspectives, their philoso-

PAGE 5 PAGE 9 PAGE 15 PAGE 17

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEERichard Murray .................................................. President, KillinglyAnn Gruenberg ................................. First Vice President, HamptonRobert Mitchell ................ VP for Government Relations, MontvilleElaine Whitney ........... VP for Professional Development, WestportJohn Prins ......................................... Secretary/Treasurer, BranfordLydia Tedone ............................................ Immediate Past PresidentDonald Harris ........................................................ Member at Large

AREA DIRECTORSDaniel Gentile ......................................... Area 1 Director, PlymouthJeffrey Currey ............................. Area 2 Co-Director, East HartfordSusan Karp ................................... Area 2 Co-Director, GlastonburyDonald Harris ................................. Area 2 Co-Director, BloomfieldLaura Bush ................................................. Area 3 Director, VernonDouglas Smith ........................................ Area 4 Director, PlainfieldAndrea Veilleux ................................ Area 6 Co-Director, StratfordJennifer Dayton ............................. Area 6 Co-Director, GreenwichRoxane McKay ............................. Area 7 Co-Director, WallingfordJohn Prins ......................................... Area 7 Co-Director, BranfordLon Seidman .................................................Area 8 Director, EssexAndrea Ackerman ..................................... Area 9 Director, Groton

ASSOCIATESEileen Baker .............................................. Associate, Old SaybrookSharon Beloin-Saavedra .............................. Associate, New BritainGary Brochu .......................................................... Associate, BerlinRobert Guthrie .............................................. Associate, West HavenRobert Trefry ........... Associate, CT Technical High School System

COMMITTEE CHAIRSElizabeth Brown ......................... Chair, State Relations, WaterburyDonald Harris ......................... Chair, Federal Relations, BloomfieldBecky Tyrrell ...................................... Chair, Resolutions, Plainville

CITY REPRESENTATIVESJacqueline Kelleher ....................... City Representative, BridgeportMatthew Poland ................................ City Representative, HartfordCarlos Torre .................................. City Representative, New HavenPolly Rauh ........................................ City Representative, StamfordCharles Stango ............................... City Representative, Waterbury

STAFFRobert Rader ....................................................................... Executive DirectorPatrice McCarthy .................................. Deputy Director and General CounselBonnie Carney ............................................ Sr. Staff Associate for PublicationsNicholas Caruso ............................................ Sr. Staff Assoc. for Field Service and Coord. of TechnologySheila McKay ............................. Sr. Staff Associate for Government RelationsKelly Moyher ......................................................................... Sr. Staff AttorneyVincent Mustaro ..................................... Sr. Staff Associate for Policy ServiceLisa Steimer .............................. Sr. Staff Assoc. for Professional DevelopmentTeresa Costa .................................. Coordinator of Finance and AdministrationPamela Brooks ......................... Sr. Admin. Assoc. for Policy Ser. /Search Ser.Terry DeMars ............................................... Admin. Assoc. for Policy ServiceGail Heath ........................................ Admin. Assoc. for Government RelationsWilmarie Newton ........................................ Admin. Assoc. for Labor RelationsDenise Roberts .................................... Admin. Asst. for Membership ServicesCorliss Ucci .................................. Receptionist/Asst. to the Executive Director

The CABE Journal (ISSN 1092-1818) is published monthly except acombined issue for July/August as a member service of the Connecti-cut Association of Boards of Education, 81 Wolcott Hill Road,Wethersfield, CT 06109, (860) 571-7446. CABE membership duesinclude $30 per person for each individual who receives The CABEJournal. The subscription rate for nonmembers is $75. Associationmembership dues include a subscription for each board member,superintendent, assistant superintendent and business manager. Thecompanies and advertisements found in The CABE Journal are notnecessarily endorsed by CABE. “Periodicals Postage Paid at Hartford,CT.” POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The CABE Journal,CABE, 81 Wolcott Hill Road, Wethersfield, CT 06109-1242. Email:[email protected] can find the CABE Journal online at: www.cabe.org/userlogin.cfm?pp=84&userrequest=true&keyrequest=false&userpage=84

Richard Murray

2 The Journal – Connecticut Association of Boards of Education/February 2015

PRESIDENT COMMENTARY

CABE Board of Directors

Achievement Gap/Opportunity Gap

Vision: CABE is passionate about strengtheningpublic education through high-performing,

transformative local school board/superintendentleadership teams that inspire success for each child.

Mission: To assist local and regional boards of educationin providing high quality education for all

Connecticut children through effective leadership.

“Harlem” written byhis father.

Walter DeanMyers was quotedin a 1986 New YorkTimes article, “If wecontinue to makeblack children nonpersons by exclud-ing them frombooks and bydegrading the blackexperience, and ifwe continue toneglect whitechildren by notexposing them toany aspect of other racial and ethnic experiences in ameaningful way, we will have a next racial crisis”. Thisquote is so critical; in other words, the lack of diversity inchildren’s books is detrimental to all kids.

The March 2014 New York Times essay by Christo-pher Myers states: “Theapartheid of literature - inwhich characters of colorare limited to the town-ships of occasionalhistorical books thatconcern themselves withthe legacies of civil rightsand slavery but are nevergiven a pass card totraverse the lands ofadventure, curiosity,imagination or personalgrowth”.

Chris goes on to saythat a consequence forchildren of color is “agap...in the sense of self-love that comes fromrecognizing oneself in atext, from the understand-ing that your life and lives

of people like you are worthy of being told...and cel-ebrated”.

Walter concludes his essay with, “then I am told thatblack children, and boys in particular don’t read. Smallwonder”. “There is work to be done”. ChristopherMyers recently said of his father: “All his books wereabout rendering the invisible visible”.

Walter Dean Myers passed away in July after writingthe words “there is work to be done”. So, it really is upto us to continue the work from our end by making surethat the apartheid of children’s literature will not exist inour school districts.

We need to insist that the few ethnically diverse booksthat have been published are indeed in our schoollibraries and classrooms and these books are being readin all of our public schools by all of our children.

By ensuring that public schools have some booksfeaturing African-American and Latino children we canhopefully put more pressure on book publishers to printbooks by increasingly diverse authors with more diversesettings and characters and just maybe we can shrink andor eliminate this opportunity gap.

By the way, I have re-read several of Mr. Myersstories in preparing for this Journal. He is truly a verygifted writer. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the shortstories of kids growing up on 145th Street in New YorkCity.

The phrase “achievement gap” is one of my leastfavorite in public education. I have maintained for sometime that the phrase is nothing more than code fordisparities in standardized test scores between kids livingin poverty and those who are not.

I believe that “opportunity gap” would be a moreaccurate phrase. One example of an opportunity gap is inthe March 14, 2014 Sunday New York Times, Week inReview. The issue features two op-eds, one written byWalter Dean Myers and the other by his son, Christo-pher Myers.

These opinion pieces were in response to a study bythe Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin which stated: “Of 3,200 children’sbooks published in 2013, just 93 were about blackpeople”. The study also determined that of those “3,200books for kids, 57 were about Latinos and just 48 werewritten by them”.

At the same time, the number of non-Hispanic whitestudents in this country has fallen to below 50%,according to the National Center for Education Statistics,the actual number is 49.7%. I think these statistics mightreflect an opportunity gap.

Walter Dean Myers wasborn in 1937 and grew upin New York City. TheTimes described him as adistracted, disruptive boywho also read voraciously- Mark Twain, . . . CharlesDickens, . . . Honore deBazac, James Joyce - evenafter he dropped out ofhigh school. Myers saidthere was something miss-ing: “I needed more thanthe characters in the Bibleto identify with, or eventhe characters in ArthurMiller’s plays or my be-loved Balzac. As I dis-covered who I was, a blackteenager in a white-domi-nated world, I saw that these characters, these liveswere not mine”.

Mr. Myers stopped reading and eventually joinedthe Army at age 17. He continued to struggle afterthe Army until he read “Sonny’s Blues” by JamesBaldwin. Myers says he was “lifted by the story thattook place in Harlem, and it was a story concernedwith black people like those I knew. By humanizingthe people who were like me, Baldwin’s story alsohumanized me”. He went on to say that Sonny’sBlues gave him “permission” to write about his ownexperiences.

Walter Dean Myers would eventually write more thana 100 books for Young Adults, (YA). He wrote novels,poetry, biographies, and a memoir. He won two JohnNewbery Medals, the first ever Michael L. Printz Award,six Coretta Scott King Awards for Authors, three times aNational Book Award Finalist, and numerous LifetimeAchievement awards. Mr. Myers’ personal mission wasto: “to create literature about the people whose storieshad been left off the shelf.”

Christopher Myers graduated from Brown University.He is a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Chriswon a Caldecott for his illustrations in the YA book

“. . . it really is up to us to continuethe work from our end by

making sure that the apartheidof children’s literature will

not exist in our school districts.We need to insist that the few

ethnically diverse books that havebeen published are indeed in ourschool libraries and classroomsand these books are being read

in all of our public schoolsby all of our children.”

Robert Rader

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMENTARY

The Journal – Connecticut Association of Boards of Education/February 2015 3

School Boardsexist to add common sense

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EASTCONNEDUCATION CONNECTION

LEARNUnified School District #1

Over the holidays, which seem so longago, I read an interesting article online(thus, it must be true!) about the effect ofall of our laws, regulations and policiesdesigned to regulate how we do things inour society.

The title of the article is “Red Tape IsStrangling Good Samaritans”. It is writ-ten by Phillip K. Howard, an attorney at alarge firm, who has written often aboutthese issues.

Howard gives examples of the effect oflaw, which “is essential because it safe-guards citizens against misconduct andabuse” and enables people to have thefreedom to “act spontaneously withoutundue defensiveness.”

He writes, however, that law’s “properrole is now seen as instructing people howto make daily choices. Instead of provid-ing the framework for freedom, law hasreplaced it, creating a legal minefieldrather than an open field for free choice.”

He cites “everyday examples”:• Teachers are “told never to put an

arm around a crying child.• Principals are “required to suspend

students who did nothing wrong,such as the seventh-grader who had‘possession’ of a pill for one secondbefore immediately rejecting thesupposed gift.”

• Employers no longer give job re-commendations.

Each year, the “rulebooks get thicker. . .Did something go wrong? Write a rule.Did someone find a loophole? Clarify itwith another rule. Is there ambiguity?Write a regulation… Legislators get cred-it for passing laws, not pruning them…”

Since we assume law is good, the morelaw the better. “Our dream society liesjust over the horizon, once lawmakers andregulators figure out how to make theintricate pieces fit together.” The result?“It drives people to distraction by divert-ing energy to mindless legal compliance.All these rules have an opportunity cost;complying with immaterial rules uses upthe discretionary time and energy of doc-tors, teachers, social workers, and mana-gers of all sorts. It is often counterproduc-tive.”

Howard believes that our society has“reached a tipping point… where Ameri-cans are now trained to look to the rulesinstead of their own judgment. Instead ofasking ‘What is the right thing to do?’ weask, ‘What does the rule require?’”

And, the right thing to do “requireshuman judgment.” Common sense mustfigure in how we do things. “For anythingto work, including law itself, there mustbe ample room for individual responsibil-ity.”

While Howard’s views and solutionsare radical (the “legal jungle must be bull-dozed, and replaced by radically simplerframework and principles…”), it is an

interesting take on our society and howwe govern.

I asked CABE’s Senior Staff Associatefor Policy Vincent Mustaro what hethought of Howard’s ideas. His response:“I get calls from districts all the time ask-ing if we have model policies on issuesthat should be determined by the judg-ment of individuals, especially, knowl-edgeable administrators and other mem-bers of the staff. Not everything that canbe put in a policy manual should be. Dis-cretion and the use of good judgment arecritical if we are to operate school dis-tricts successfully.”

Now, Vin is not saying that policymanuals should be the size of a thin note-book. On the contrary, all of our districtsmust have required policies and regula-tions and, of course, they must follow thelaw and regulations. But, in trying to de-termine the best possible policies in yourdistrict, you must take into account thenecessity to make judgment part of theequation.

Vin also has had administrators askhim for a virtual “cookbook” of how tohandle situations. “The key”, he says, isfor them to “use their best judgment, in-stead of ending up with a huge policymanual.” And, for Boards to back admin-istrators, rather than prescribing strictprotocols on… everything.

Boards and Common SenseThat’s why school boards count for so

much. The very idea of developing over-all policies for the district is left to citi-zens who have been elected. There is nonecessity that they be individuals withexpertise in education or finances, but theexpectation is that board members willheavily consider the judgment of theirsuperintendent and the rest of staff, butmake decisions based on their own inde-pendent thinking and good commonsense.

As Bill Daggett said at the 2014CABE/CAPSS Convention, school boardsnationally and in states are the “voice ofreason” in the room when discussingeducational issues.

Our Founding Fathers were wise whenthey set up committees during the Revol-ution, which set up the policymaker (theContinental Congress) and implementers(the Continental Army).

This system was later used as a modelfor boards of education, keeping policy-makers accountable through elections andexperts accountable to the laypersons.

While common sense may not be allthat common, it is exercised by schoolboards all of the time. We have askedthat the Legislature allow boards as muchflexibility as possible when they dictatethe rules, just as boards generally providelatitude to superintendents in carryingthem out. We maintain that the bestdecisions are made as close as possible tothose who are implementing them andthose who are affected by them.

I have heard some people scoff at thisidea of “local control”. However, that“local control” provides the kind ofaccountability and wise decision makingthat someone like Phillip Howard wouldprobably applaud. And, sure, there aresometimes mistakes and course correc-tions, but those cannot be zeroed out inany human-run organization.

Howard’s ideas certainly have rel-evance for the Legislature and the Con-gress. Let’s speak to our legislators andensure they understand the needs andconcerns of local boards. As Lighthousetraining suggests, they should start asking“why” they are writing laws (?) andboards should handle the “how.”

Our 2015 Legislative Priorities askslawmakers to “reduce constraints on thedelivery of education and remove man-dates that fail to promote student achieve-ment.”

While good common sense is not apanacea for the myriad of concerns ineducation, it sure is a good place to start!

The Daily Beast article can be found atwww.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/27/the-red-tape-strangling-good-samaritans.html?source=socialflow&via=twitter_page&account=thedailybeast&medium=twitter

“While common sensemay not be all that

common, it is exercisedby school boards all of

the time. . . .Wemaintain that the bestdecisions are made as

close as possible tothose who are

implementing them andthose who are affected

by them.”


Policy clarification: Meeting conduct/public participation

Vincent A. Mustaro, Senior Staff Associate for Policy Service, CABE

The Policy Corner

Boards of education have significant discretion inestablishing policies and bylaws and determiningprocedures for conducting meetings. The public has aright to attend the meetings of the board of educationbut a board of education does not have to permit thepublic to participate in the meeting. A board ofeducation meeting is a meeting that must be held inpublic, but it is not a public meeting.

However, most boards of education, through policyor bylaw provide the public with the right to makecomments to the board, usually in a “public comment”agenda item at the beginning of the meeting. How-ever, there is no legal obligation for boards ofeducation to do so.

Interested persons may be allowed, through apolicy and/or bylaw, to appear before the board toaddress the board on board business. Usually, a timelimit is imposed, such as thirty minutes at the begin-ning of the meeting to allow members of the public toaddress the board.

The reasoning behind the time limit is to allow theboard time to carry on its normal business, as delin-eated in the agenda for the meeting, and not be“filibustered” by individuals with narrow interests. Inaddition, boards usually allow the public to speakearly in the agenda to keep those persons from havingto sit through long hours of board business beforebeing allowed to speak.

If a board of education chooses to hear from thepublic at its meetings, it must do so in a constitutionalmanner. A board of education meeting is a publicforum. Therefore, free speech requirements apply topublic statements made at board meetings.

A board of education that has made the decision tocreate a public forum by allowing public commentsmay not pick and choose from among the speakers onthe basis of the viewpoint they express.

However, the board can limit public comments to aparticular topic or to items that are on the meeting

agenda. In doing so, the board creates a limited publicforum. The creation of a limited public forum in thismanner is a way to prevent public comments that couldinclude charges or complaints against an employee of theboard.

It is permissible for boards of education to adoptreasonable restrictions as to time and manner of speechat their meetings. Boards of education can require thatspeakers sign up to speak, and they can adopt a rule thateach speaker be allowed no more than a certain numberof minutes to speak, usually in the range of 3 to 5minutes. The board, generally acting through its chair-person, can also require that speakers adhere to reason-able standards of decorum.

“Robert’s Rules of Order” provides that the chairper-son may require that speakers be courteous, avoidpersonal attacks, and refrain from the use of vulgarityand the like. Such requirements must be evenly imposed,without regard to the viewpoint, as opposed to themanner, of the individual’s speech. No speaker at ameeting of the board of education has a right, under theFirst Amendment, to be disruptive or rude.

Policy ImplicationsBylaw #9325, “Meeting Conduct,” pertains to this

issue. In addition, policy #1120, “Public Participation atBoard of Education Meetings,” also pertains to thistopic.

An issue has arisen with the following language whichpreviously appeared in CABE’s sample bylaw #9325,which has been adopted by many boards of education:

No oral presentation shall include charges orcomplaints against any employee of the Board ofEducation, regardless of whether or not theemployee is identified in the presentation byname or by another reference which tends toidentify an individual. All charges or complaints

against employees shall be submitted to theBoard of Education under provisions of Boardof Education policy.

Such language is considered inappropriate if theboard through policy or bylaw language has created apublic forum, as described previously, for publiccomments. In such a case, the board cannot restrict anindividual’s comments.

However, if, as stated above, a limited publicforum is created by limiting comments to specifictopics or to agenda items, such language, as above,would be permissible. Alternate language to considerregarding personnel complaints if the board hascreated a public forum would be:

Speakers may offer objective criticism ofdistrict operations and programs, but theBoard encourages members of the public toaddress complaints concerning individualdistrict personnel through the proper chainof command. The chairperson may directthe member of the public to the appropriatemeans to address concerns brought beforethe Board; however the Board will notrespond with action but will take commentsunder advisement and direct the commentsto the appropriate staff member to addressoutside of the board meeting.

Samples of this bylaw and policy have beenupdated. One version permits public comment on anysubject that lies within the jurisdiction of the board,thereby creating a public forum.

Another version of the bylaw limits public com-ment to items on the posted agenda for the meeting orto particular topics, thereby creating a limited publicforum. These samples are available upon request fromCABE’s Policy Department.

Readers of the CABE Journal may have noticed thatwe have focused more on diversity on school districtteaching staff and boards of education over the last fewmonths. As we move towards a society where themajority of students will soon be members of a minoritycommunity, we need to be sensitive to their needs andconcerns.

In From Intention to Action, Koya LeadershipPartners and Education Pioneers examined racial andethnic diversity and inclusion in 44 education organiza-tions across the country. In almost every organization,its leaders “think diversity is supported at their organiza-tions”, but only a third “name diversity as a core value”and only 31% even have a definition of diversity.

Except for a few, the organizations which took part inthe study were not identified. A reading of participantdata indicated that over 80% of the organizations werelarge, with budgets above $5 million. Almost half hadstaffs in excess of 100.

On boards of directors and advisory boards, thenumbers were striking—nearly the same as one nationalstudy of school boards found: African Americans total6%, Asian Americans total 6%, Latinos 4%.

The “few” organizations that appeared to be success-

ful “recruiting and retaining leaders of color shared threefoundational elements:

• A clearly articulated vision for diversity wasembedded in the organization’s overall mission.

• Single-point accountability was assigned to anexecutive team leader for all diversity activitiesand goals.

• The executive director/CEO and board of directorshad voiced diversity as a clear mandate andstrategic priority.”

The study also discussed best practices for increasingdiversity, including the organization being aware of topsources for diverse talent; offering anti-bias training;mandating a diverse interviewer on search panels;investing in recruitment and retention; and has “diver-sity-specific interview training”.

These are certainly issues that should be considered asschool districts and organizations consider how toincrease diversity.

The study is available at www.educationpioneers.org/impact-insights/from-intention-to-action.

Robert RaderExecutive Director, CABE

Diversity (or lack of it)at education organizations CABE presents

Discipline andDiscrimination:

It Can Be a Fine LineThursday, February 19, 2015

9:00 am - 11:30 amRovins Conference Room,

CABE , Wethersfield

By attending you will learn: how to make the pro-cess more fair and guidance to help steer clearof discrimination pertaining to discipline.

For more information or to register go to theCABE website www.cabe.org/page.cfm?id=922&start=02/20/2015&verbose=220

See You in Court – The Nutmeg Board of Education

The Nutmeg Board vs. the Nutmeg Board of Finance - who’s right?Thomas B. Mooney, Esq.Shipman & Goodwin


The Nutmeg Board of Educationmakes many mistakes. The latest imbro-glio created by the board will be reportedhere each issue, followed by an explana-tion of what the board should have done.Though not intended as legal advice,these situations may help board membersavoid common problems.

After the trauma he suffered during thelast budget season, Mr. Chairpersonvowed that this year would be different.“The Nutmeg Board of Education is anindependent agent, responsible for imple-menting the educational interests of thestate,” he announced in an email pep talkto his Board colleagues. “We must do theright thing and make our decisions in thebest interest of the children of Nutmeg.”

Red Cent, another Board of Educationmember, forwarded this email to SeymourDollars, long-serving Chairperson of theNutmeg Board of Finance. Seymourresponded to Mr. Chairperson in an emailto the entire Board of Education.

“In response to Mr. Chairperson’sdiatribe, let me make one thing perfectlyclear. The Board of Education is power-less without the funding the Board ofFinance provides. You are anything butindependent, and we expect you to listencarefully to us.”

Mr. Chairperson was upset by thethreat implicit in Seymour Dollars’response, so he called up each Boardmember and encouraged them to hangtough and support the Superintendent’sbudget. “United we stand,” he concludedeach conversation.

At its next meeting, the Nutmeg Boardof Education received the Superinten-dent’s budget, and Mr. Chairperson askedfor a motion to approve the proposedbudget immediately after Mr. Superinten-dent concluded his presentation.

“Wait a minute,” responded veteranBoard member Bob Bombast. “I thoughtthat we are supposed to pick this budgetapart. Isn’t that why we were elected?”

“As we all discussed, Bob, I think thatit is time for the Board to show solidarityand not kowtow to Seymour Dollars andhis threats. Is there a motion?”

The other Board members wanted toavoid the embarrassment of further publicconflict between Mr. Chairperson andBob, and they quickly proposed andpassed the motion, with only one “no”vote – Bob Bombast. The Superinten-dent’s budget was thus submitted to theNutmeg Board of Finance unscathed.

Seymour Dollars was incensed by theimpertinence of the Board of Education,and he called an impromptu meeting ofthe Board of Finance at his home thatevening. “These people just don’t get it.We are still in hard times, and we need toshow the Board of Education who is bosshere.”

With that, Seymour and the othermembers came up with a laundry list ofcost-saving measures to recommend tothe Board of Education, including layoffof all maintenance workers and allocationof their work to the Town maintenance

The Eighth Edition is finally here!!

A Practical Guide toConnecticut School Law

by Thomas B. Mooney, Esq.Shipman & Goodwin

The Eighth Edition was substantially rewritten to reflect statutorychanges, significant case law developments in state and federalcourts. Some of the numerous legal developments and update are asfollows:

• School Safety and Security • Bullying Law • Teacher Evaluation and Support• Teacher Tenure Act • New Requirements for Professional Development• Budget Issues • Prohibitions on Electronic Notifications of Referenda

• Minimum Budget Requirements • FMLA for Paraprofessionals• Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Requirements

• Uniform Regional School Calendars • Excusal • Student Assessments• Pool Safety • Concussion Prevention and Education• Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention and Education

• Administration and Storage of Epinephrine • Excused Absences• Student Free Speech • Employee Free Speech

Order your copy TODAY by going to the CABE website:www.cabe.org/page.cfm?p=749

The Guide comes with a CD which provides hyperlinksto many cases and statutes and will permitord searches as a supplement to the Index.

department, consolidating the IT functionunder Town control, and adopting apolicy of hiring teachers only on the firststep on the salary schedule. Seymourthen sent this list of suggestions by emailto the Board of Education, and he de-manded an answer within seven days.

At the next meeting of the Board, Mr.Chairperson read aloud the list of sugges-tions from the Board of Finance, and thenhe asked, “Who wants to serve on acommittee to review these suggestionsand to explain to the Board of Financewhy they make no sense?”

No one volunteered, but Mr. Chairper-son quickly appointed three Boardmembers to a committee to review thesuggestions and report back to the Boardof Education and the Board of Finance.“Take your sweet time,” he concluded.

Do you see any problems with theBoard’s response?

The Nutmeg Board of Education isdealing with a statutory change thatschool boards confronted for the first timeduring last year’s budget season.

Conn. Gen. Stat. Section 10-222, asamended by Public Act 13-60, now addsto the annual budget process the followingrequirement:

“The board or authority that receivessuch estimate shall, not later than tendays after the date the board ofeducation submits such estimate, makespending recommendations andsuggestions to such board of educationas to how such board of education mayconsolidate noneducational servicesand realize financial efficiencies. Suchboard of education may accept orreject the suggestions of the board offinance, board of selectmen or appro-priating authority and shall provide theboard of finance, board of selectmenor appropriating authority with awritten explanation of the reason forany rejection.”As stated, the fiscal authority must

make its suggestions for consolidationand efficiencies within ten days ofreceiving the itemized budget estimatefrom the board of education.

The board of education must respondin writing if it does not accept thoserecommendations, but interestingly thereis no similar timeline for the response.

Here, the Town made two suggestionsthat fall within the scope of this newstatutory requirement – consolidation ofmaintenance work and the IT functionwith the town. However, the first recom-mendation has serious labor relationsimplications.

Bargaining unit members currently

perform the Board’s maintenance work,and any transfer of that work to others,union or non-union, must be negotiatedwith the exclusive bargaining representa-tive, a process that can take months oryears and may or may not be successful.The consolidation of the IT functionraises more practical than legal issues(unless of course the affected employeesare unionized as well). But those practi-cal issues are significant.

Who will supervise those employees?Who will make hiring and firing deci-sions? Who will set priorities for these

employees? Perhaps most important,what will happen if the arrangementdoesn’t work – how would the Board getthe money to pay for IT back into itsbudget? Clearly, great caution is war-ranted.

The third suggestion – hiring teachersonly on the first step of the salary sched-ule – is big trouble for two reasons. First,hiring teachers is clearly the Board’sbusiness, and it falls outside the scope ofthe new statutory opportunity for the

Board of Finance to make suggestions asto how the Board of Education “mayconsolidate noneducational services andrealize financial efficiencies.”

Moreover, a policy of hiring onlyinexperienced teachers is questionablefrom an educational perspective, and italso may be illegal. The courts have heldthat such policies may operate to dis-criminate against older candidatesbecause inexperienced teachers are oftenyoung.

Finally, as usual there are FOIA issueswith the actions of the Nutmeg Board ofEducation. Mr. Chairperson called eachof the Board members to urge them tosupport the Superintendent’s budget. Byitself, those conversations are not aproblem.

However, if Mr. Chairperson sharedinformation from other conversationsamong a quorum of the Board (as may beinferred from how he closed each conver-sation with “United we stand”), he mayhave conducted an illegal “seriatum”meeting.

Moreover, it appears that the “im-promptu” meeting Seymour held was notproperly posted. Political issues comeand go, but the FOIA is with us always.

Attorney Thomas B. Mooney is a part-ner in the Hartford law firm of Shipman &Goodwin who works frequently withboards of education. Mooney is a regularcontributor to the CABE Journal.

“. . . the fiscal authority must make its suggestions forconsolidation and efficiencies within ten days of re-ceiving the itemized budget estimate from the boardof education.”


CABE-Meeting

CABE-Meeting is a user-friendlyonline service offered by CABEspecifically for school boards. Userscan eliminate unnecessary paperwork,increase efficiency and reduce costswhile enabling board members to utilizethe latest in cutting edge technology.Using CABE-Meeting, the MeetingManager can create and electronicmeeting from developing the agenda tocreating the minutes and everything inbetween.

When the meeting is ready, theMeeting Manager emails your boardmembers and designated administratorsto let them know they can log in. Userscan login from the comfort of theirhomes or work place. With a mouseclick, agenda and related documents areopen and ready for viewing. Using thesearch features, administrators andboard members can easily locateinformation from previous boardmeetings. No more time consuming,tedious searches through mounds ofpaper!

What Else DoesCABE-Meeting Offer?• Secure login access for board and

district staff• Password protected access for

certain features and audiences• Access from any location with

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related items in a flash.• Ability to download and print

attachments• Option to provide a public link to

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Your CABE-MeetingSubscription Provides:• Access to CABE-Meeting• Initial and ongoing training• Support and maintenance• Upgrades to the service

CABE MemberSubscription Information:Initial Subscription Fee – $3,000Annual Maintenance Fee –$1,500

If you have an interestin this service,

contact Lisa Steimerat 860-571-7446

or [email protected].

to order the FOIA bookgo to the

CABE Online Bookstore atwww.cabe.org/page.cfm?p=749

Understanding theConnecticutFreedom of

Information Actand

Access toPublic Meetings

and Records- Fourth Edition

Available fromThe CABE Bookstore!

Written by:Mark J. Sommaruga, Esq.Pullman & Comley, LLC

With each new year, it seems as ifConnecticut legislators collectively agreeto the same resolution – create new legalobligations for local and regional schoolboards. This year is no different. Al-though passed in early 2014, the mostsweeping components of Public Act 14-66, entitled “An Act Concerning YouthAthletics and Concussions” [“the Act”],kick in this year.

The Act imposes new mandates onschool boards regarding the increase inconcussions suffered by student athletes.As of January 1, 2015, the State Board ofEducation (SBE) – after consultation withthe Department of Public Health, theConnecticut Interscholastic AthleticConference (CIAC), and various medicalgroups – was required to develop andapprove a con-cussion education plan thatwould serve as a template for local andregional boards of education.

The resultant Concussion EducationPlan and Guidelines for ConnecticutSchools [“the Guidelines”] elucidates theAct, delineating the components of theplans that school boards must implementno later than July 1, 2015.

Boards are expected to incorporatethese concussion education plans intotheir policies and procedures, and theplans must, at a minimum, focus on:

1. The signs or symptoms of concus-sions;

2. The means of obtaining propermedical assessment of and treat-ment for concussions;

3. The nature and risks of concussions,including the dangers of furtherengaging in athletics;

4. The protocol for allowing a studentathlete to return to athletics follow-ing a concussion; and

5. The current best practices forpreventing and treating concussions.

The Act – as expanded upon in theGuidelines — also prohibits any studentfrom participating in any school-basedathletic activity until both the student andthe student’s parent or legal guardian hasread written materials, viewed onlinetraining or videos, or attended in-persontraining regarding the district’s concus-sion education plan.

In addition, the parent or guardianmust sign and provide the district with aninformed consent form, authorizing thestudent to participate in athletics. At aminimum, the consent form – which mustfirst be approved by the SBE — mustinclude a summary of the concussioneducation plan and a summary of theboard’s policies pertaining to concus-sions.

Additionally, the Act requires coachesto complete an SBE-approved initialtraining course on concussions, toannually review any current informationdeveloped or approved by the SBE, andbeginning with the 2015-2016 school yearto complete a refresher course on concus-sions within five years of having com-pleted the initial class.

The Guidelines also set forth the stepsthat coaches must take if they suspect thata student has incurred a concussion. Forexample, coaches must “immediatelyremove” a student from participating inany interscholastic or intramural athleticactivity – including practices – if thestudent exhibits signs or symptomsconsistent with concussions or is currentlydiagnosed with a concussion.

In addition, the coach or other “quali-fied school employee” – including aprincipal, teacher, school nurse, licensedathletic trainer, licensed physical oroccupational therapist employed by thedistrict – must make reasonable efforts toimmediately inform the student’s parentor guardian of the suspected concussion,but in any event within 24 hours.

Following a concussion, coaches areprohibited from allowing the student toparticipate in any activities, includingpractice or conditioning, until the studentreceives written clearance from a licensedhealth care professional “trained in theevaluation and management of concus-sions.”

The Guidelines’ language suggests thatthis clearance may need to be issued by aneurologist, or, at the very least, by aphysician who possesses the requisiteknowledge of concussions. Although thestudent and his parents or guardians areresponsible for obtaining that clearance,there is some question as to whether thedistrict would be accountable were theclearance issued by someone who lacks

Michael P. McKeon, Esq.Pullman & Comley, LLC

Clear Thinking: The State Board of Education’s ConcussionEducation Plan and Guidelines for Connecticut Schools

For an update or more information on vacancies

go to our website:www.cabe.org

Call CABEfor your

recruiting needs

For more information contact,CABE Search Services,

860-539-7594Jacqueline V. Jacoby,

Senior Search ConsultantPaul Gagliarducci,

Associate ConsultantMary Broderick,

Associate ConsultantBob King,

Associate ConsultantP.O. Box 290252,

Wethersfield, CT 06129-0252www.cabe.org/support

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the requisite expertise.Thus, boards should consider specify-

ing in their policies and plans the healthcare professionals – such as neurologistsor pediatricians – from whom they wouldaccept such clearance.

Finally, even after clearance has beenissued, coaches are precluded frompermitting full participation until thestudent has been medically cleared forunrestricted activity and is no longerexhibiting any symptomology, although itis unclear as to who is responsible forassessing the latter.

Given the July 1 deadline, it isincumbent upon school boards to beginrevising their policies, drafting theirconcussion education plans and obtain-ing SBE approval for their informed-consent authorizations.

Additionally, districts should stronglyconsider forming a School ConcussionManagement Team, charged with over-seeing the creation and the implementa-tion of the district’s concussion educationplan and protocols.

Compliance with the Act is, obviously,a legal requirement, but it also serves thegreater purpose of helping protectstudents against the deleterious effects ofconcussions.

Attorney McKeon is a member of thelaw firm of Pullman & Comley LLC,which represents a number of Connecti-cut school districts. More articles aboutissues pertaining to school districts andother educational institutions can befound on the firm’s blog “Education LawNotes” at http://schoollaw.pullcomblog.com



This December, Hartford’s S.A.N.D.School and the Ropkins Branch of TheHartford Public Library enjoyed a visitfrom award winning children’s author,Catherine Gibson.

Cathy’s non-fiction books are basedupon her own teaching experiences at TheAmerican School for the Deaf, and theexperiences of other Connecticut resi-dents who succeed in spite of disabilities.

Amanda ArgazziReading Specialist in Connecticut

Award winning author Catherine Gibsonencourages students to find their something special

Cathy’s two “Sophie” books include thesign language translations and finger-spellings of the words in the story.

Her most recently published bookencourages readers to look within them-selves to find, “What’s Your SomethingSpecial?” Ms. Gibson shared her mess-age of love and acceptance by teachingstudents in grades K to two how to sign“Sunshine on My Shoulder” and by read-ing and signing from her books.

Her 2014-2015 booktour has taken herto schools and libraries as far away as

S.A.N.D. students with Author Catherine Gibson demonstrating their use of sign language theylearned from her books.

Make sure you are included in this year’s picture!CABE’s Day on the Hill • March 25, 2015

8:30 AM • The Bushnell • Autorino Great Hall • Capitol Avenue, Hartford

A State Legislative Network Program for CABE Member School Boards,their Superintendents and staff, PTA and PTO members, students and guests.

Contact the CABE Office or visit our website at www.cabe.org to register.

Come to learn the latest on key education issues before you lobby your legislators on how they will impact your district.

• Legislative Leadership – The morning will feature remarks by the leadership of the Connecticut General Assembly.• Issue Briefings – Learn how pending legislation can impact your school district.• Education Rally – Make your voices heard as we gather to support public education.• Visits with Legislators – All participants will visit their own legislators at the State Capitol. The materials and briefings provided by

CABE will assure effective lobbying.• Student Participation – Day on the Hill is an excellent opportunity for high school students to gain a first hand experience in civics

by accompanying their board members and/or superintendent.

SPECIAL FEATURES

California, but we are fortunate that shestopped near her hometown of Bristol,Connecticut to work with our studentshere at S.A.N.D.

Mr. Curtis Porter, Director of Com-munity Outreach for the S.A.N.D Schoolsaid that this event “fosters our school-wide and district-wide goals to increaseparent involvement and forge a partner-ship with our city and communityorganizations”. Parents who enjoyed the

event include, Luz, the mother of Ashleyand Kimberly who attend S.A.N.D.Luz’s daughter Ashley assisted CathyGibson during her reading.For additional information on author andpublic television host, Catherine Gibsonplease visit the website:www.forchildrenwithlove.com. is gratefulto all of the staff and students who helpedher to plan this event and to make itspecial for our S.A.N.D. families.


The Media Messagefrom Ann Baldwin, Baldwin Media Marketing, LLC

PRESS ROOM: Tips for preparing for a media interviewToo many people go into a media

interview without being properly pre-pared. Whether you have five minutes,or five days, you need to take the timeto do it right. Preparation not onlyhelps ensure that your key message getsout to the public, but it will also helpincrease your comfort level when itcomes to dealing with the press.

Before participating in any interviewwith the media there are some basicsteps you should follow. Some of thismay seem pretty basic, but as a formerreporter who now helps businesses andindividuals “deal” with the media, itamazes me how many people go intointerview situations without the know-ledge they need in order to be effective. For this CABE Journal article, Ihave taken a page right out of my mediatraining program with the hope thatbefore you or someone you know isinterviewed that they will take the timeto ask the reporter, or the producer thefollowing questions: What is the topic of the interview?

How can you possibly deliver yourkey messages if you don’t know whatthe reporter wants to talk about?

Where is the interview going to beconducted? If it is a print or radio

interview is it going to be over thephone? If so, don’t do it on your cellphone! Or if it’s a television intervieware they coming to you?

Who is the interviewer? Too manytimes people get all excited about do-ing an interview and fail to find outwho thereporter is.Is thisperson aninvestigativereporter?Is theirinterviewand report-ing stylefierce orfriendly?If youdon’t know….find out!

Who arethe other guests? This especiallyapplies to the political and issueoriented radio and talk shows. Whatyou don’t want to happen is for you toshow up to appear on a program andfind your opposition sitting next to youand you didn’t know that because…You didn’t ask.

Is the interview going to be live ortaped? This is pretty self explanatory.Obviously the comfort level is usuallyhigher with a taped program because ifthings go terribly bad, there is a chanceit can be re-recorded. When it’s live,it’s live!

Once you have those answers, hereare the ques-tions thatyou need toask yourself: Who isthe bestperson tobe speakingon theissue? Justbecause youare the onewho receiv-ed the callfrom thereporter,

may not mean that you are the bestspokesperson.

What are the two or three keypoints that need to be made? Thereisn’t room, or time for any more thanthat. Regardless of the question youare asked, stick to your key messages.Prepare talking points on the issue you

will be discussing. Speaking fromtalking points will make you feelmore comfortable and allows you tohave concise answers on difficult orcomplicated issues.

Who is your audience? Who is itthat you are trying to reach with thisinformation? What kind of behavioror influence do you want to motivatewith the people who are reading yourquotes, or viewing the program?Make sure that your message fits theaudience.

Are you ready for the toughquestion? Just because you don’twant to talk about it doesn’t meanthat it isn’t going to be asked. As amatter of fact, it is the tough stuff thatyou had better be prepared for!

Finally, how did you do? Find outwhen the interview will be publishedor broadcast and get copy of the finalpiece. This way you can find outwhat the public saw or heard, partic-ularly if your interview was edited.This also provides you the opportun-ity to evaluate your performance inthe interview and perhaps identifywhat you could do better the nexttime.Remember….The media has its

agenda, what’s yours?

CABE and Baldwin Media: Partners in Managing Communications


CABE: working for YOUIndividualized Workshops • Professional Development Opportunities

Legal Services • Policy Services • Representing You Statewide and Nationally

Below are the highlights of activities thatthe CABE staff has undertaken on yourbehalf over the last month. We did this:

➤ By representing Connecti-cut school boards on thestate or national level:

• Attended State Board of Educationmeeting.

• Attended CAPSS School FinanceForum.

• Represented CABE at JuvenileJustice Task Force meeting.

• Represented CABE at MunicipalOpportunities for Regional Efficien-cies Special Education Committeemeeting.

• Participated in Fox 61 The Real Story.• Represented CABE at Professional

Learning Advisory Committeemeetings.

• Discussed education issues in the2015 Legislative Session on WTIC.

• Participated in CCM MunicipalAdvocacy Group meeting.

• Participated in discussion on masterybased learning guidelines.

• Participated in NSBA Council ofSchool Attorneys NominatingCommittee meeting.

• Participated in Jump Start FinancialLiteracy Board meeting.

• Participated in Connecticut Coalitionfor Justice in Education SteeringCommittee meeting.

• Participated in review committee ofstudent performers for the NSBANational Conference.

• Participated in Connecticut Coalitionfor Public Education meeting.

• Hosted meeting of Big 6 Coalition(CABE, CAPSS, CAS, CCER, CBIA,ConnCAN).

• Met with Erin Benham, State Boardof Education member.

• Hosted meeting of theWhatWillOurChildrenLose Coalition(CABE, CAPSS, CAS and CASBO).

• Attended farewell gathering forCommissioner Stefan Pryor.

• Met with representatives of GuidanceCounselors for Senior Teachers, JohnKowakski and Bill Sudol.

➤ By providing opportunitiesfor members to learn howto better govern theirdistricts:

• Held business meeting and plannedand participated in the CABE Boardof Directors Retreat.

• Provided roles and responsibilitiesworkshop for the Stratford Board ofEducation.

• Participated in retreat planning withthe Waterbury Board of Education.

• Provided policy information to 25districts and one RESC through 32answered requests for information orsample policies, on 25 topics.Further, districts continue to accessCABE’s online Core Policy Refer-ence Manual and/or online manualsposted by CABE for policy samples.The topics of greatest interest pertain

to wellness, graduation requirements,concussions and drugs.

➤ By providing servicesto meet members needs:

• Facilitated a town meeting planningsession with the North StoningtonBoard of Education.

• Met with and then served as host toSteven Armstrong, new SDE SocialStudies Coordinator, as he and otherspresented a webinar on the new SocialStudies Frameworks.

• Participated in teleconference for theEducators Preparation AdvisoryCouncil (EPAC).

• Participated in meeting of the CABE/CAPSS Convention Committee.

• Completed the audit of the policymanual for the Hamden Board ofEducation.

• In the process of auditing the Port-land Policy Manual.

• Entered into an agreement to do anaudit of the policy manual for Region14 Board of Education.

➤ By ensuring membersreceive the most up-to-date communications:

• As part of the development of newpolicy manuals utilizing the CustomPolicy Service, materials wereprepared for Avon, Branford,Bloomfield, Columbia, Stamfordand Thomaston.

• As part of the Custom UpdateService policy materials were sent toEast Windsor, Marlborough andWest Haven.

• The second edition of the PolicyUpdate Service publication wasdistributed to subscribing districts.

➤ By helping school boardsto increase studentachievement

• Worked with CAPSS on roll-out ofPersonalized Learning white paper.

• Provided Lighthouse training sessionfor the Vernon Board of Educationand discussed Lighthouse trainingwith the Stamford Board of Educa-tion.

• Sent out three issues of PolicyHighlights via email listserv coveringtopics that affect student achieve-ment. This included student internetuse and data privacy concerns,advanced placement courses,immunizations, E-rate programs,grade retention, and the use of schoolresource officers.

➤ By promotingpublic education:

• Held first CABE/CAPSS ConventionCommittee meeting of 2015.

• Met with CAPSS Executive DirectorJoseph Cirasuolo about ConventionExhibit Hall.

• Presented a workshop on the role ofDirectors to the Maine School BoardsAssociation.

• Answered questions about the currentlegal issues facing boards of educa-tion. “HOT” topics this month were:Teacher evaluations, personnel searchcommittee, student records, accessrights, minimum budget requirement,and coaches and school volunteers.

The CABE/CAPSS Convention Committee met on January 13, to debrief on the 2014 Convention and the begin the planning for the 2015 CABE/CAPSS Convention. Committee members in attendance were: Gary Brochu (Berlin), Lydia Tedone (Simsbury), Pat Perugino (Plymouth), RobertRader (CABE), Donna Leake (Retired Superintendent), Committee Chair Elaine Whitney (Westport), President Richard Murray (Killingly), LisaSteimer (CABE), Superintendent David Erwin (Berlin), Patrice A. McCarthy (CABE), Doug Smith (Plainville), Denise Roberts (CABE), Bonnie Carneyand Nick Caruso (CABE) not pictured.

The planning has begun for the 2015 CABE/CAPSS Convention

Personalized Learning(continued from page 1)

• developing examples of formativeassessments that help teachersdetermine if students have masteredcompetencies

• developing portfolio data systems totrack student progress through apersonalized learning system

The full report can be accessed atwww.cabe.org/uploaded/Book_Reviews/CAPSS_Whitepaper_FINAL_12-30-14_.pdf


“This is really intendedto support how districts

can enhance their currentsystems of professionallearning and intersect

them with theevaluation system, . . .”

Professional learningsystem progressing(continued from page 1)phies; it’s been a very collaborativeprocess,” furthered Barzee. “All of thestakeholders around the table are reportingthey feel very confident in both theprocess and what is going to come out theother end.”

The Professional Learning AdvisoryCommittee (PLAC) is a subcommittee ofthe Academy, and it features a representa-tive of each stakeholder group thatattended the Academy. “We have hadincredibly fruitful and productive meet-ings at the PLAC level,” explainedBarzee.

Patrice A. McCarthy, Deputy Directorand General Counsel for CABE and amember of the Academy and PLAC,echoed that sentiment.

“The members of the PLAC and theAcademy are committed to the challeng-ing task of developing a definition,standards and guidance for a ProfessionalLearning System that supports botheducator and student growth and develop-ment and is sustainable,” said McCarthy.

Richard Murray, the President ofCABE and a member of the KillinglyBoard of Education, also serves on theAcademy.

“The Academy for ProfessionalLearning has been a ‘real learning

experience for me,” observed Murray.“It has been an honor serving with

education professionals from Connecticut.The process has been collaborative andintensive with directed facilitation fromfolks at the Learning Forward, a profes-sional learning association.

The Academyhas worked hardtrying to defineexactly whatprofessionaldevelopmentshould be and howwe can get therefor public schoolstaff. I lookforward tocontinuing thework when wemeet again inMarch.”

The finishedproduct that comes out of the Academyand PLAC process will ultimately serve to“provide guidance to districts,” accordingto Barzee.

“This is about more sustained, ongo-ing, job embedded opportunities,” saidBarzee of professional learning. “This isintended to provide guidance to districtsand let the learning and work begin tohappen at the district level with support.We believe we have built a robust systemof support because we have put so many

people in the room together.”All those people in the room, the

stakeholders, have worked on numerousitems, including developing a definitionfor professional learning as well as a setof standards for professional learning.

“This is really intended to support howdistricts canenhance theircurrent systems ofprofessionallearning andintersect them withthe evaluationsystem,” saidBarzee.

In the first twoyears of imple-mentation, themechanics of thenew system foreducator evalua-tion and support

were “so complex and you can only learnso much and throw so much on people atonce,” explained Barzee.

“Now that people understand the fourlevels and they understand the system of45-40-10-and 5; now, we believe, it iscritical that we design the system thatsays, ‘This is about supporting educatorgrowth and development, using educatorevaluation as one piece of the informationthat informs professional learning—butnot the only piece,’” added Barzee.

According to the Chief Talent Officer,the plan is to provide guidance to teamsof practitioners in districts “to cometogether and figure out how to providerelevant, timely professional learningopportunities that support growth anddevelopment,” said Barzee.

Barzee hopes that the days of “one anddone” professional learning experienceswill soon be a thing of the past.

“It needs to move and be a wholecoordinated system across a continuumfrom awareness and information to skillbuilding and then, ultimately, building thecapacity within an entire system, like ateam, like a school, like a district. So it’snot just individuals,” added Barzee.

“Be comfortable in your ownskin. Know who you are, thegood and the bad. And findthe courage not just to beyourself, but to be the bestversion of yourself. Theseare the foundations of self-leadership, and all leader-ship starts with self-leader-ship because you can’t leadthe rest of us if you can’t leadyourself.”

– Rex W. Huppke


Documents

CABE Journal - February 2015 Revised