Torrington School District committee meeting, date not confirmed yet
2 h 45 min · 0 public speakers
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What happened
What happened at this meeting
Committee without quorum discusses roadmap toward technology use policy by June 6:37
- The committee did not have a quorum, so it could not vote, and the dress code item was pushed to the next meeting. 6:37
- The committee went through a technology roadmap that a staff member described as a process toward an appropriate technology use policy by June. 12:34
- Discussion covered usage data from Lightspeed, parent sign-off on whether children use a screen, and whether a classroom cart model should apply to grades 7-8 and 9-12 or 7-12. 1:21:10
- A staff member said the next meeting will be another working meeting, and the dress code is also set for discussion then. 2:40:40
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Item by item (12)
- Opening and lack of quorum 6:37
- Roadmap goals and grade separation 12:34
- A staff member said the goal was to use the roadmap as a process for reaching an appropriate technology use policy by June. 12:34
- One board member said grades 7-8 need to be separate from 9-12, especially for maximum instructional screen time. 15:47
- A staff member said state guidelines for technology use in Connecticut schools separate middle grades 6 to 8 from high school 9 to 12. 16:30
- Public comment and data privacy 17:01
- A speaker at public comment compared screen use in schools to an experimental medical procedure and asked that facts be separated from opinion. 17:01
- One board member said that if teachers use ChatGPT or Claude, information such as a child's name is stored by the model, and the school needs to know whether the tools it uses are protected. 19:42
- A staff member read a proposed rewrite of the roadmap's vision and purpose describing a balanced approach to technology use. 22:53
- Usage data and device sign-offs 24:32
- A staff member said Lightspeed data collection was implemented this year and had been collecting data for only a few days. 25:19
- A staff member said students receive computers only after parents complete the Student Device Loan Agreement, handed out on ParentSquare. 25:53
- Gary Eucalitto asked what the classroom alternative is if a parent does not want a computer, and a staff member said students without computers receive paper copies of assignments. 26:17
- Vision and purpose discussion 33:09
- A staff member said the roadmap's language about rebalancing toward in-person learning is not an accurate representation of where the district is. 33:34
- A staff member said walkthrough data from last year found screens up in 75% of rooms visited. 34:48
- A speaker at public comment asked for a weekly log of student computer use, and a staff member said the district can look at data weekly. 36:09
- Phase 1 status and monitoring 39:54
- A staff member said YouTube and generative AI have been shut off and that tracking screen time with monitoring software will continue through the year. 41:26
- A staff member said communication on the device agreement could state that parents have the right not to sign it and what would happen if they do not. 42:28
- A staff member said the district shut off student-to-student email, YouTube and sharing of Google Docs. 53:43
- Phase 2 data and cart model feasibility 54:30
- A staff member said a full year of data would account for heavier device use during testing periods. 56:09
- A staff member said the roadmap calls for assessing the feasibility of a cart model for grades 7 through 12, not moving to it by the end of December. 1:04:15
- A staff member said that by December there should be enough Lightspeed data points to decide on a direction and provide a cost analysis. 1:22:31
- Stakeholder engagement and computer labs 1:30:39
- A staff member said the district should give all parents an opportunity to share their views, such as through a forum or survey. 1:30:39
- One board member said a computer lab is the answer and described a lab that could teach COBOL, Excel and AI use and ethics. 1:39:32
- A staff member described it as an assessment that looks at media centers in the different schools. 1:41:33
- Weekly instructional screen time limits 1:49:07
- A staff member asked whether the roadmap's screen time numbers are peer-reviewed or research-based. 1:55:38
- A staff member asked to wait on the minutes until the district has its data. 1:58:01
- One board member raised concerns about prohibiting screens at lunch for high school students who want to do homework and said study halls need to be specified. 2:09:24
- Policy exceptions 2:15:20
- A staff member raised concern about ML learners, and a staff member asked that a colleague help craft appropriate language for that. 2:15:37
- A speaker asked whether courses lacking materials or funds, such as meteorology, would be covered, and another speaker said the specialized courses bullet would cover them. 2:16:39
- Timeline and stakeholder input 2:17:17
- A staff member asked that alternative programming include full online courses, and another staff member asked that the K-3 timeline allow limited use of programs such as Lexia while data is collected. 2:17:52
- One board member suggested a ParentSquare request for parent input and randomly choosing parents per grade level to join, plus a K-3 representative. 2:31:40
- A speaker said the policy committee would not expand beyond the people present. 2:35:52
- Next steps and adjournment 2:39:30
Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.
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Video: posted by the district as “Torrington Board of Education Policy Committee Meeting”