 Welcome back to Senate Education, 3.38 PM on Wednesday, April 21st, and we are returning to H106 work that we started on have already done some work on. This is an act relating to equitable access to high quality education through community schools. And one way of thinking about this bill is it. Well, we know it's a pilot. We know that it's would fund positions a position in schools that qualified or were approved through an application process, and that these individuals would work on wrap developing wrap around making certain that students have what they need, as it relates to a number of different areas, whether it's mental health, physicians, dental, all those kinds of things. And I think I have been having a lot of conversations with the appropriations I think they there are some perhaps some reservations there, given that schools are paying $400 million right now. And people could try these pilots right now with some of those dollars. But I think they would certainly my inclination also is that they would support, or at least take our opinion quite seriously, if we were to advance this this year. And that will continue our, our path and see what where we land so with that. Mr. Demera, is there anything that I missed in that little overview pilot program goes to. I'm not sure how many schools could participate but basically, we're talking about schools being able to hire someone that again can work and create these wrap around services, and also, these individuals as I remember from some of the earlier testimony they could start to develop ways to continue the work that they started in other words, they can look for different funding opportunities either within local government, state government, federal government, perhaps private funding that sort of thing. That's correct. Yeah, that's correct. The appropriations mentioned 3.4 million from SF3 funds. Yep. And you asked for a couple of changes, which I've done for you to work in some literacy language. Yes, I did indeed. I give some literacy language that I would love to actually if that's okay. Do you mind if we put that on the table now and see what senators are thinking. Okay, I think for me I'm just looking if there are ways to tie literacy into even this kind of work, if it makes sense. I would love to do so but so Mr. Demera, do you want to share some of those ideas. Of course, I don't know if you've emailed us anything or if you want to just bring it up. It should be, I emailed it to Jean, I think. I might be on the website, I'm not sure, but I have it here. Right, if you don't mind bringing it up, I think that would be, that would be great. Okay. Okay, for the record, Jim Demera, that's a console. So, Jack, 1.1 of your draft amendment to H106. It's a strike all. And the changes are in yellow and only three areas of change here, all around literacy. So the first changes in the findings. I have a new finding that says, recognizing that literacy proficiency is a foundational learning skill. Community schools can advance the state goal of improving literacy for all students in the state. Achieving the school will require a multi-year and multi-dimensional effort, and I'm going to continue to focus by the joint assembly, the administration and school leaders. Community schools are an important component of that effort. That's the finding. And then we go on to, there are four pillars for community schools, just to remind the committee. So the definitions here, sorry, here. Community school program. And so the first pillar is integrated student supports. The second is expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities. The third is active family community engagement. And the fourth is collaborative leadership and practices. So on the third one would be adding a shell. So in terms of the definition of active family and community engagement, which brings students families in the community into the school as partners in children's education. It makes the school a community hub, providing adults with a facility to address, to access, provide education opportunities they want, which shall include access to evidence-based literacy instruction, and may include a number of other things that are unchanged. And lastly, the changes about use of funding. So use of grant funding. The fourth was one a, which is to hire a community school coordinator, or if you have one to further develop your plan. Now we're adding a B. So shall be used for to develop a plan to improve literacy outcomes and objectively assess those outcomes. So two of the changes to work in literacy into the film. So those are just some thoughts we can hear from our witnesses, but it's just another avenue perhaps some of that work will likely be getting done through our other work, but seem like there might be some some areas for improving our work. Any questions are at this point. Okay. Ms. Mayor, am I pronouncing that correctly? You are. Perfect. Welcome to Senate Education. We know that you testified on House Education on this bill. Glad to have you here and look forward to hearing from you. So the floor is yours. Great. Well, thank you chair champion and thank you to the other members of the committee. I did enjoy the conversation with the House Education Committee and I'm happy to be back to talk with members of the Senate Education Committee. My name is Anna Mayor and I'm a research and policy advisor at the Learning Policy Institute, which is a nonprofit and non partisan education research and policy organization. I'm working out in the Bay Area so I'm enjoying seeing pictures of beautiful Vermont in your virtual backgrounds. I am here today because I have researched community schools extensively, which includes lead authorship of a 2017 review of the community schools evidence base. And I have entered that into the written record in the form of a research brief. I have written testimony with this committee as well. And I am delighted to see that findings from this evidence base are strongly reflected in H106 and I'll talk more about that briefly today. So I will share some information again about that evidence base. I'll give an overview of the national landscape of state funded community school initiatives with an emphasis of what the strategy can look like in smaller and more rural settings. I'll provide some examples of how community schools have responded effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. And I'll try to keep my remarks brief and happy to answer any questions as best I can. And, oh, I did also want to just acknowledge that there are already great examples of community schools that are present in Vermont. And I'm happy to see Andrew Labarge on here today. I really enjoy hearing about the Molly Stark School and the Wynuski School-based health centers when I was testifying with the House Education Committee. And so my understanding is that Vermont is well positioned to support this work because there's a strong tradition of schools functioning as centers of the community. So in terms of the community school's evidence base, as was just noted, the four pillars of community schooling are mentioned and defined in each 106. And those are integrated student supports, expanded and enriched learning time, active family and community engagement and collaborative leadership and practice. And I'll just share briefly a bit more information about each of these pillars in the associated evidence base, which does show that community schools can make a positive difference for students' educational outcomes. So first, the research team with the Learning Policy Institute and the National Education Policy Center identified the four pillars by reviewing a core set of studies that were examining places that were calling themselves community schools. And we were analyzing the common features of these schools across a set of studies. And what we found is that the first pillar, integrated student supports, sometimes known as wraparound services, includes supports like dental care, counseling, physical healthcare, housing access, transportation of food assistance, often facilitated by a full-time coordinator who can manage partnerships with the next students and families to services. And I do think that's a really important point that's obviously a focus of the bill. And just to note that there is a lot of federal funding incoming to schools. There is a flood of resources. The coordination is a really, really important part of that because, as we all know, educators work very hard and have a lot of responsibilities. So everyone at a school who can really dedicate their time and focus on bringing the school community together and making sure that resources are accessible to students and families and well coordinated can make a really big difference to implementation. The second pillar is expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities, which includes things like academic support enrichment and real world learning opportunities things like work based learning internships and project based learning. And these can take place after school over the weekend and during the summer. So with the discussion I just heard around incorporating literacy that's actually where I would see literacy most strongly reflected is in the expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities pillar, because that really is about expanding and enriching the curriculum as well as extending the school day and the school year. One reason I was afraid to put it there but I'm happy to for you to correct me on this is I was afraid that, you know, I really want to make sure it's all happening also in schools during the day and I didn't want people to think, oh, they'll get it later. You know what I'm saying later in the day. Yeah, make sense. It does and I'm glad you're bringing that up because I do think that when we talk about the expanded learning time pillar that the we we often think of after school programming and perhaps summer programming. The reason why our team has defined this as expanded and enriched learning time is that we're also talking about the curriculum during the day as well. And so a really well functioning community school is going to have community a community based approach to learning, which is unified during the school day as well as during extended learning time. And I'm happy to answer any other questions about that now where I can keep going with my remarks and questions right now. So, why don't you continue. So those are the first two pillars integrated students supports expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities. So really what opportunities students and families had during the school day and during extended learning hours. The third is active family and community engagement which you know is certainly about engaging parents and family members, really inviting them not just to volunteer or partake in services at the school which is important but also to serve as true partners in educating students, and that leads directly into the fourth pillar which is collaborative leadership and practices, which is really about establishing a culture professional learning collective trust and shared responsibility for outcomes and strategies that can support this pillar include having a site based leadership team, employing a community school coordinator which is certainly reflected in the bill, and supporting teacher learning communities. So it's really a piece of this is about what governance structures and positions you can put in place to facilitate collaborative leadership and decision making. So those are the four pillars and again those came from the research review that we did. And after identifying those four pillars are research team reviewed over 140 studies of both community school initiatives and, you know, looking at studies affiliated with each of those pillars. And we found that there's no one size fits all approach to implementing the pillars. So each school and community is unique in terms of its assets and needs and therefore each community school will look a bit different. The programs and services may vary somewhat across schools and across communities, and with those pillars in place that you still can have a consistent community school strategy, but the details of the particular programs and services may not be identical across sites. So overall we found benefits associated with a wide range of community school models. This research again is cited in my written testimony. We saw improvements in everything from test scores and grades especially in mathematics and high school graduation rates to students attitudes towards school. And we also found some evidence that community schools can help to close achievement gaps for low income students English learners and students in special education. And I cited those studies specifically in my written testimony. Of course, program effectiveness is related to the intensity and quality of services that students and families receive as well as the length of time the strategy has been in place. And in a sense implementation matters greatly for achieving positive results. And I'm just going to share a few thoughts on what those elements of high quality implementation can look like. One key element is having a community school coordinator or manager as I said previously, who can increase the capacity of school staff to work in partnership with students families and local community members. It's important to understand this coordinator does not work in isolation. So another key element of effective implementation is establishing a site based leadership team that has a broad range of stakeholders from the school and community, which may include students depending on age appropriateness families community leaders, teachers, administrative staff and members of partner organizations. And it's really together that the coordinator and that did that collaborative leadership team can work on a third element of effective implementation, which is conducting an assets and needs assessment. And the purpose of that is to identify resources that are already present in the school and the surrounding community. And as well as the needs the school community has that can be addressed through existing and new community partnerships. And I'll just say that having worked with community school initiatives in different parts of the country. It's really amazing to see that, you know, sometimes even knowing what services are already in place or which students are receiving those services is not always a given. But there is an element of making sure that the existing resources are being used effectively and efficiently, and then also having a community conversation about you know what are, what are the needs within our community and you know what are the resources or partnerships we may want to establish to address those needs. So just a thought around, you know, the plan to assess literacy outcomes. One way to think about that might be that actually a broader needs and assets assessment could include an element of literacy within a community how students are doing what supports are in place and what what additional supports might might be needed. But I think this, this is about making sure both that the community has a voice in decision making and also that that the existing resources are being used well and that new resources are really hitting the mark in terms of what what the needs are. And then I'll just say briefly in terms of the national landscape that many states, both large and small are investing in community schools. And my written testimony has some more detailed examples but New York provides funding for community schools in high need districts through its school funding formula. And in addition to state funds three regional technical assistance centers for community schools that work with those small and large schools and districts. And those TA centers are working with in more rural areas of the state so they've worked on community schools in Rome, New York that has a population of 34,000 and the Sina, which has a population of 13,000 so it's not just New York City that has community schools. The total comes from New Mexico, which has funded $50,000 one year planning grants and $150,000 dollar annual implementation grants that are on a three year cycle, similar to each 106 total funding was $3.3 million in 2020 so very similar to what this committee is doing. The grants go to schools and districts of different sizes, including Cuba independent school district, which has 550 students in K 12 and is in rural northern New Mexico. And Cuba is using this funding to offer expanded learning programs focused on Navajo culture and partnership with local tribal leaders, as well as integrated student supports. And finally, West Virginia passed the State Board of Education resolution in support of community schools and has provided technical assistance through the state education agency. This includes the reconnecting McDowell initiative and McDowell County, which is an innovative public private partnership in an area hit hard by the declining coal industry and the opioid pandemic. This includes other government agencies, local business teacher union and nonprofit organizations to offer enrichment programs integrated student supports and economic development activities in the local community. So we're really seeing this, this work is happening in different parts of the country in different contexts. And the last thing I wanted to hit on is just COVID-19 response. This is also emerging that community schools are well positioned to respond to the pandemic. These schools have strong relationships with students and families they have a coordinated infrastructure in place, and they have partnerships with community based organizations and government agencies that allow them to quickly and effectively respond to student of family needs. One example is that there's there was a community school coordinator at Dona Anna elementary school in New Mexico, who staff the help desk to field calls from parents and was able to connect families to mental health and social support services over the past year. Oakland Unified is a full service community school district out in California. They kept three school based health centers open during the recent shelter in place that we had, which so that they were able to provide urgent in person care and also virtual and, you know, kind of touching on what this can look like during the school day teachers at the UCLA community schools in Los Angeles adapted their curriculum to guide students through relevant project based learning. So for example, they had students who were looking at it to did a 10 week inquiry unit on the way that COVID-19 was impacting communities of color did disparately. And so the teachers were are really part of that community school and they're thinking of their curriculum the context of their community as well. So taken together I think these examples can show how community schools are well positioned to adapt their approach and effectively support students and families and times of crisis. So I thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Committee question center lines. So, these all these programs look absolutely amazing. To say the least, and are these all pilot programs or any of them now in place in perpetuity, so to speak have they become part of the school culture and this will the school continue with the programs that are currently in place. Yeah, I mean I think well so first of all the New York example that I cited that is part of this the state funding formula and Maryland has also put community schools into the state funding formula so that is ongoing funding. I think what we're seeing with some of the I mean some of the grant programs like the New Mexico grant programs newer so I can't make a claim as to what we're going to see. So what we often see with grant funding is that over time, you know, part of what a coordinator does is that they establish new partnerships, and that allows for the blending and braiding of different funding sources school based health centers are often able to to build a medical or sorry medicals in California Medicaid. So they're able to build you know federal health dollars after school funding sources from federal and state can be very helpful in supporting this work. There also is research on Albuquerque community schools the showing that shows the return on investment for having a coordinator at a school is $7 and benefits for for every dollar invested. So there's so there is some evidence that you start to see a cost benefit savings from this approach, which then often doesn't incentivize schools and districts to continue funding those positions. And I think it is the coordinator is key to this work but of course as I said it's that they don't work in isolation but to have stable funding for that position is is important. And people find a way to make it work through different funding sources. And the other thing I would just say is that there's a number of districts throughout the country, including New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland. These are obviously all larger urban districts that they have had long standing initiatives in place. Thank you. I very much like the idea of, you know, whatever schools were to we were to move in this direction and I think appropriations would probably, you know as we're sort of figuring things out and making an argument to them. I think they couldn't in some ways identify, or make sure that the schools that need this, the most get these dollars and right now I think the only criterion in there is free and reduced lunch at 40%. Is that accurate Jim. No problem. I think this, we're just talking about the, the, the only thing that would really, you know, in terms of identifying if I'm interested in making certain in the committee is interested in these dollars going to the neediest schools the ones that are due lack, you know the mental health services that dental health care. The only thing that this is really saying in terms of qualifications is, you know, you have to at least have 40% of your students receiving free and reduced lunch to sort of get you into the application pool is that true. That's correct or you if you need state support. If you're on a. There's two criteria. The other one is around here. Yeah, we have to identify for comprehensive comprehensive equity support. I'm looking to Senator lines a little bit now on this center lines. One of the things I know health and welfare has worked on for a long time, and I know we've heard about it in this committee. And that's dealing with trauma dealing with, you know, helping kids who, again, you know in schools and we've heard it, you know, don't have those supports and I'm wondering if you feel from where you're sitting and also I look to health and welfare and everybody on this but center lines has been working on this for a long time. And I think there's enough in this that really makes certain that the dollars are going to those schools that really, really are going to need it the most if that makes sense. Well, that's a very good question and actually while I was reading the bill I started thinking about that exact question so I would, I would think we'd have, we can go through the bill again and then identify some places perhaps for improvement but Yes, and I think you saw the article I sent out sometime last week about the economy as being or poverty being so important as a social determinant for lack of success. Yeah. And I just I'm just looking to make sure like our other work that it's, it's, it's strategic it's targeted that it's going where it's most needed so that in three years if we had 30 schools that needed all this wraparound services the most that we would also be working to continue this work in other words, as Miss Meyer mayors saying, you know, three years and then how do we get them to continue. I think is is really important. Other questions or comments at this point. Okay, Miss Meyer I don't know if you're able to stay with us or if you need to to leave I know it's only one o'clock there. So I'm excited to hang on. I can also, if it would be helpful, I can share some information California also funded a grant program using Esther funding a competitive community school grant program in fiscal year 2021 and we did structure things in a way we just speaking as a California. But things were structured in a way that did look at coven related disparities as one of the competitive criteria so I'm happy to shift to follow up by email and share that for consideration of that cell phone. Yeah, if you wouldn't mind sharing that with our committee assistant is low and then she can share with the committee that would be great. So we have that. Well thanks for sticking around with us. Thank you for the barge. How are you. I'm great thanks for inviting me I appreciate it. Yeah, I really enjoyed the commentary today. And especially in between meetings it was really quite quite enjoyable. Yeah. Well it's great to have you with us really appreciate it you work at a school that really was a pioneer in this area. I'm sure that aren't aware. Molly Stark School started looking at wraparound services with a grant that I believe he was then congressman Bernie Sanders and Sue McGuire who was a well known principal in educational leader in this area and in the state. That was some time ago and really created a wraparound service model that has has worked and I know it's not what it once was. And I'm just wondering if you wouldn't mind taking us through your experience I don't know how long you've been at Molly Stark now. This is my seventh year teaching at Molly Stark although I had a couple years where I taught so count of eight years there was a big gap where I actually left the state taught in my home state of New York and they came back to teach in Bennington again. So so eight years but my my history of Molly Stark goes back to the 15 years ago right at the end of the model and I'll just tell you a little bit about it. So let me introduce myself I'm Angela barge I'm third grade teacher at Molly Stark. This is my 17th year teaching I like I said I I started teaching when my kids were young and I went back to school got a degree. My degree is through Goddard University in Vermont so my first license was Vermont and that's where I started my teaching career. So I am planning on retiring at Molly Stark it is a great place to be and just a really great school. Let me give you little details we have about 350 we've had as much as 400 learners enrolled at a one time. We're K to five the district has a middle school that houses six seventh and eighth graders but some of the elementary schools only feed their seventh and eighth graders. So we're one of them that where they leave us when they're six graders but Mount for a long time the school districts went through sixth grade. So that was kind of during that model. Molly had again Sue McGuire kind of initiated this but there was also a really great assistant principal who's retired with 47 years in the district. Just a wonderful person and a really big mess but her role in kind of creating this community school and what she did. You know you would drive by the school on the weekend she'd be parked out front you know she was working all weekend. And in things like it was just amazing she knew every family she knew what needs they had. She would be calling on the phone and supported if there was a reason and it was just really kind of became it's definitely more than a one person show but it was something that she initiated and as the assistant principal role as well. It kind of is really a difficult thing to handle. So that's why it is so important to have somebody to coordinate all these things. Now in our building we have an audiologist one of the pretty good facility because I know I've had a learner in the past who went all the way to Dartmouth for a hearing appointment. And they said you know you should go see Dr. Lloyd Scott. She's in Bennington it turns out she was just three doors down in the hallway from our classroom. So having those services in the building are huge. They also before COVID the community members elderly could come into the facility during the school day and attend the facility. But so we mentioned those wraparound services. This meant that if there was an issue with a learner and possibility maybe a hearing disability we can have that analyze and take care of right inside our building. They wouldn't have to go to referral outside the school take a day off of school etc. So that was huge. Another really big part of those days was our dental facility. We had a great dentist in the area who would spend a one full day in the building and kids would come to see him during the school day. He'd come to my knock on my door I need so and so and now he would go and down the hallway to the dentist. Again you know that's a huge benefit for parents to have those kind of services right in the school itself. I just want to interrupt for a second. So when Dr. Brady and others were doing these were these services had they been coordinated in a way so that they were free or was it just that they were coordinated and then families would be billed. Yeah. So I'm looking back at some of the old the old website which was kind of about the Molly Sark family center and it was primarily based on Medicare. So if if they were they didn't have a dentist or they were qualified for Medicare they were eligible. But the services also kind of extended as his dental hygienists would actually offer a classroom visits teach about cleaning their teeth and all those things that you would get from a hygienist. And so not just the kids that were high needs but everybody was able to experience it a little bit. So but you're right that is something that I'm not sure if they can do it for every learner in the school in the school my size if you know to to incorporate visits you know cleanings and things like that for every kid. But it was something that's definitely again about need right it's really about need so families that can't do it on their own could could get that in the school. I'm thinking on the pillars that's really important is is the extended school day. And we have had an early ed program housed in our building that three and four year olds can attend. And that also incorporates a morning drop off and an afternoon. And you know after school care so that parents could could drop the children off at seven. Then they go from the early ed center to their classroom when the school day starts and then they can go back to the after school area after school. We also offered after school for all learners even the ones that weren't in the after school or after after hours program I guess is how it works. And that usually went from three to four three thirty about when they start to four thirty so they actually would get about an hour and a half. They would eat a snack and lunch from three to three thirty organize and then we had teachers and community members we have some college kids come in and offer after school programs. And you know everything from movie making to I offer to chess club and you know really great things that the kids just they really would just rather be at school. And in a lot of the cases you know leaving the school is causes them quite a lot of anxiety and you know who's going to be home and if there's going to be food and those so the longer we can keep them in the school. I think that that's really helpful and beneficial. I actually taught in a charter school for a few years so I am our school they started at seven fifteen and went till four fifteen that was our regular school day. And that was actually because the public schools would bus in and out at different times so they had to best bus them in before and then bring them home after. So it gave the parents about two and a half hours extra where the kids were in school but so the extended learning time is really important and that certainly would help literacy. You know having the access to books and library and programs you know both after school and before school really help but during the day. Obviously you know we we high quality instruction we've done so many things we're we've been kind of identified for a long time as a school that you know is it meeting all the academic standards. But it's it's it has a lot to do with you know having the services for all the other things. So we also have two school guidance counselors in the building that are employed by the school district. And then we have a counselor that comes in from UCS that again for our kids that are identified or have serious traumas things like that. They can take those learners during the school day and talk to them and help with things that are going on in their lives. So that's really important. Let me see if I cover them. Oh and another great thing that was really cool and it hasn't happened since COVID I really miss it actually happened right outside my classroom. So it's a little distracting but every Wednesday twice a month at 7am the food truck would pull up to the parking lot. And the families from the area which I kind of forgot to you know there's three or four housing developments within a mile of the school. So a great deal of families would come wait in line and didn't get food produce eggs butter things like that. So really great and it was called the veggie Van Gogh. So again something that would have to be coordinated with and it takes a lot of time to do that. We had a what we called a sorry I was talking about it a school leadership group but it incorporated the community members some teachers some administrators. And they would call it the shared decision making team so they would talk about things like you know how can we put literacy nights in here and fund those things. And so the members of the parent teacher group were in there. That was a really good couple of years in the last few years that's changed. We've had a little different leadership change as well. So things kind of you know as you go from one principal to another again. I think things have changed. The needs are still there. Obviously it's worse than it's been you know in years. I hear stories every day and I just you know it's hard sometimes to like hear what's going on in their lives and try to hold back tears. But these guys they they need to have services available to them and it's and it's just that so many families just don't have these things. So the more we can offer in the school the better I hope I'm touching on the things I honestly wasn't as prepared for this as I was for the house. Appreciate you guys. You're doing a great job. And this is this very helpful. It's giving I think everybody a sense of you know some of the real opportunities here. Even more than I think at least speaking for myself than I was thinking about you know in terms of engaging not only medical mental health professionals etc. But people that might come in and give a talk or a college student comes in and does you know a conversation or work on literacy night all those kinds of coordinating. All those possibilities I think are are huge food without a doubt the veggie van go van. I mean I think what I'm the only area that I keep kind of returning to in one just make sure that we hit is what I mentioned to Senator lines is. You know I would just love to make sure that we're getting those schools and those children that just need it the most and a couple of worries right now for me. For one is that we're asking people to apply just knowing again people have so much money right now that are coming into the schools and I just want to make certain again that we is involved in a way that says. Listen we know you're crazy busy we all you know we're recovering from COVID on so many different fronts. We know you have a lot of money, but we also want to help you. Set this up and identify those schools and work with them center lines. Yes, you know, thank you, Mr. LeBarge that was terrific and as you were as you were talking I'm thinking about the years that you've been in education, the changes that have happened and the understanding about a trauma informed and what we consider to be adverse childhood experiences but it sounds like the culture you've developed as a culture of support that helps to move kids away from trauma so that you know it's just terrific what what you've been doing. And actually my question is both for Miss Meyer as well as for Mr. LeBarge and that is, I went as I'm reading your testimony. Miss Meyer you're talking about or I don't know if that's the proper way to address your name but that's good okay so I thinking. You said that different models would be accepted as your as folks are looking at these community schools and they for me would be fascinating to look at some recognition of a trauma informed environment and currently our schools are developing our PBI. And whether or not that type of assessment or inclusion in in the application process would could be made. Certainly, as the other things as you're talking, both of you so I've asked a question. But but as you're talking, you're identifying kids who have significant terrible problems and we know the child of a single parent is more at risk than others and we know that children in certain areas of poverty are at risk greater than others all of those things but Do you directly intervene, since you've got family members participating in these programs as one of the four factors that you've listed. Do you have a system of intervention to help move these children away from the trauma they experience or at least to become more resilient to it so big question. For both of you and I you know it seriously be helpful to hear if there are schools out there doing this or if Mr. Labarge if you have that at your institution. Senator lines thanks for that question and Miss Meyer I just want to touch this because it is really something that our district has really pushed really hard to inform us that you know, to be in a trauma informed school isn't just to say your trauma informed really understand what trauma is we've had the privilege of having Dave Melnick come down and offer a number of professional learning opportunities I took a couple of his classes that were through Castleton. It really changed how I how I teach and how I approach like you know behaviors because when I when I have a learner who comes in and he's crawling under the chair and you know I'm trying to teach him how to understand vowel consonant consonant vowel break and realizing he's not getting my instruction and the other kids are actually getting distracted but but when we sit down and talk I realize that his brother was punching him all night and they they didn't sleep because they didn't have anything to eat all these things went on in his life so we build relationships we and then we we help them you know that Dave's talks about having them be able to sorry to you kind of you have to get them off the ledge before you can actually help them to recover so so there's no way that like consequences will work in the case where a learner's in a in a case of where he's not in in the state of mind that it will level to function so so we help them with that we've got great you know teacher support so if I have a learner I you know he needs some he needs to go and have a walk and talk with somebody that that there's someone available you know having having those counselors in the building and even myself I I'm sorry I had a learner just the other day I could see that the para educator was struggling with him he was in the hallway she was asked to kind of kind of take him out for a walk a little while and see what's going on and he was climbing on on the the paper a pallet and so I had known him from summer school we had a little conversation we started talking he says well his his you know his stepfathers sit or his father is sick he hadn't seen him in 10 years or since you know forever right and now the stepfathers had this conversation we walked back to his classroom and that you know when he went in the classroom he was smiling again so he they need to have the support in their lives and so teachers have to be trained to do that and it's really really hard work. Thank you for that because it what's refreshing to hear is how it sounds very natural to you and for the teachers in your school to be doing that where we hear from many schools that that's not my job. We need to hire counselors to do that work so this is refreshing and I'm wondering if this is consistent with other community schools and and then maybe you could comment, Miss Meyer about that about happy to all of this please. Yes, I do see it as really consistent and something we've seen with a lot of community school initiatives is that they are also focused on implementing multi tiered systems of supports and or PBIS and as well as at the school level oftentimes coordination of services teams are part of the work that a community school coordinator may be leading. And so I think it is very much about increasing the capacity and really having someone at the school site who can really think systemically about what systems and processes can you put into place to really support amazing teachers like Mr Lovars who are, you know, going out of their way to really take a trauma informed approach. The other thing I would add to is that one of the potentials with a state grant program is is the potential to create a learning community among the different grantees and also to provide some technical assistance and support around best practices. So I think you can go farther with high quality implementation within network than if each person is trying to reinvent the wheel on their own. And so that you know like I think I heard you say Mr the bars that there was some training around how to take a trauma informed approach to instruction. And so there's a potential to provide that training to grantees and also for the coordinators to, you know, to train train the trainer models to that's what we see a lot with a lot of technical assistance is working with a network of coordinators who can then bring back back to their school community. I would certainly I think center lines and you know you touched on something that I would love to kind of pursue. Not sure who you know that would be great and I'm wondering center lines if you might even think about who we might bring in to continue this conversation about trauma, because I think tying that into this would be would be great as we continue to sort of work with a we to see if they can target schools and then again how can we we get at the trauma issue. I'm happy to work with you to do that. I've been right I just wrote down a couple of organizations that the state has worked with in the past for special ed or other areas and think that they may be able to provide insight into the bill that we're working on. Mr. LeBarge also had a suggestion too. If you have a suggestion Mr. LeBarge. You're muted, Andrew. I'm not sure what my suggestion was. Mr. I think you talked about someone by the name of milken who came down to oh yes. Yeah, from the up in Burlington the Institute, and are you talking about district. Are you talking about NFI or NFI. Yeah, that's who exactly who I was writing down. NFI just so I know so we can have genie reach out to them. That's stands for. Okay, don't ask northeast family Institute I think that sounds good. And it's Dave. Dave Melnick. I know that name. Yeah, and there's another another person who works there of who I've gone to visit with many times and talk with about this so we'll get somebody here. Well this this feels like we're we're getting we're getting. It sounds like people are excited and that we can maybe continue to work on this, you know tomorrow where we would again hear from perhaps Mr. And a couple of other people work a little bit with AoE to to sort of help them make sure that they're identifying the schools that are going to need it the most. I would love to add some literacy language and also just again beef up the criteria around who would best to qualify for this. And I hate to see the school actually end up applying just because a lot of the schools that we're looking to have to do this work. And it's just on the time and energy to do this work, you know, to apply to set put together applications and we've heard this we even heard this with literacy, you know people, you know they're doing the work that Mr. LaBarge is doing and others are doing and you know to ask them to put together applications for things I think it hits. There has to be a, I think a happy medium in there so that people can get what they need without taking away from, you know, their duties and responsibilities if that makes sense. And I don't want to throw a wrench in things but I do want to reiterate that the Mexico grant program that I mentioned does have planning grants as well as implementation grants. So that is one approach that other states have taken to kind of recognize that people, you know schools maybe at different places in their journey and they need different things. So one advantage of a planning grant is that it can be a lighter lift in terms of an application process and then, you know, it's a smaller amount of funding but it's a year really do some of the planning together with support. Is that does the name Mr. Goldberg does that ring a bell with connected to the Mexico planning grants. No, okay. Is it greenberg. I do know of Mr. Dave Greenberg in New Mexico. Yes. It may be he that I think someone from the NEA recommended that we perhaps reach out to. Yeah he's been a local community schools leader in New Mexico and is now supporting the implementation of the state grant program and I think he would have a great perspective to share with us. I think it's my myers is my connection at NFI. Okay. Great. One more about that. What Dave did actually was the district initiative was to train a group of teachers and administrators. Of course we didn't know that going in but that was kind of the initiative was we want to use you guys and then and then we brought it to our schools like so. And it was it was quite challenging like like she was talking about having time to do things like where do I find the time to plan that to do that, you know, with our schedule a little bit different now this year with we have all my kids back now which is really exciting. But on Wednesdays we still are asynchronous so they they do a number of things we have all our meetings and all our planning is done on Wednesday so. But yeah without those days I don't I don't know how how we would find the time to do the things that that we're talking so it really does require a lot of extra time to plan and coordinate these things so. I think we're I think very helpful I think we're going to leave it there, unless center hooker do you have a final point question. Thank you I was just curious to know if you still have a coordinator and a site team that works at your school or has that kind of morphed into something else Sandra. Like I said, after the retirement that that really wasn't a position it was just something she kind of did. So I think a lot of the things and then a quote that hit so she left us a year before we had a half a year into that school year and coveted. But we still have like, so we have different people I coordinate the summer program we had after school coordinator. You know we have a school liaison who can context families and things like that, but it really it's just kind of like, it's not pieced together and that's what that person might really be able to do. Say I need so and so to do this and so and so to do this and that's really where that position but now we don't really have anybody anymore so. So that's helpful to know and maybe it sounds like you all could also qualify for for this kind of perhaps work going forward. So it might work for you. Okay, I we do we've been at this for a while I think we're in a good spot where I have some direction I'll work with genie after this to have additional witnesses in tomorrow to continue along this conversation with on trauma and wrap around schools. Thank you, Senator Lyons for those ideas will reach out to those individuals, please. And another comment, we have a trauma informed director in a hs secretary's office. Okay, this is the problem. Auburn water song left and so I always forget who the new one is but I'll try. I'll have genie. Yeah, that might be a good, a good person to link with even though it's a hs dirt no I think it's a great. Absolutely. Senators any final question we'll return tomorrow to both 106 and 426 and we'll vote on one s 100. And then that's it. Thank you all thank you, Mr. LeBarge is mayor terrific really appreciate your work and appreciate committee, everybody's work this afternoon. Have a good day. Good evening. Thank you.