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City of Meriden Board of Education News

Web Site: http://www.meridenk12.org
22 Liberty St., Meriden, CT 06450
Tel: (203) 379-2601 Fax: (203) 630-0110

We will provide all students with educational opportunities to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will enable them to lead productive and self-sustaining lives in a democratic, multicultural society.

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School Business Partnerships Meeting

May 11, 2020

I hope this email finds you and your families well. Since we were scheduled to meet this today, I wanted to provide a few updates, found below.

I know this is an extremely hectic time and am wondering if in the future, group members are available, able to and/or interested in joining a Google Hangout Meets for virtual meetings. Please send me an email with your availability or if there are any questions I can answer for you.

1. Distance Learning: The district has been busy and began distance learning on the first day of the school shutdown on Friday, March 13th. While middle and high school students were already bringing Chromebooks home, we have distributed over 3,500 devices to students at the elementary level, distributed wifi hotspots to over 100 families. Teachers have expanded their use of Moodle and Google Classroom to provide students with access to digital content and are engaging with students through Google Hangouts Meet and our parent/student communications tool, ParentSquare.

2. Personalized Learning Experiences: While the shutdown meant many students couldn't continue with their PLEs as designed, our PLE Coordinators have been collaborating with students and teachers to provide alternate means of completing the PLE. In cases where an alternate assignment is not practical, students may still earn partial credit for the work that was completed.

3. Career and Technical Education:

-in addition to supporting students and providing online learning resources, our Tech Ed teachers have been volunteering their time to 3D print face mask frames for UCONN Health Center. To date, MPS has been able to deliver about 250 frames and the printers are still running!

- We are also excited to announce a partnership with the Connecticut Technical High School System and Wilcox Technical High School. Beginning next school year, 10th and 11th grade students will be able to apply for participation in the Career Academy at Wilcox. This afterschool program will allow students to earn industry-recognized credentials and receive specialized training in a high-demand, skilled-trade area. Program areas offered include: Culinary Arts, Manufacturing and Facilities Carpentry.

- We are continuing to receive information from the state and federal government regarding the Perkins V grant. There is a 5% minimum expenditure requirement on professional development and, unfortunately, many planned conferences and PD sessions have been postponed or cancelled due to the shutdown. We continue to look for opportunities for our staff and ways to reallocate funding.

- Comprehensive needs assessment - As you may recall from our last meeting, Perkins V requires each district to complete a Comprehensive Needs Assessment. The original due date of June 30th has been extended to November 30th. I have also been in contact with our local RESC ACES (Regional Educational Services Center - Area Cooperative Cooperative Educational Services) to look at ways local districts may be able to partner on gathering some of the required data.

4. Barr Foundation Portrait of a Graduate: We have continued to hold virtual meetings with the PoG Working Group and will begin reaching out to community members for input over the next few months

Be well,

Sue

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