Simsbury Spirit Sub-Committee Minutes

Community For Care

SPIRIT Council

DRAFT Meeting Minutes

October 24th, 2019

Eno Memorial Hall – Old Court Room

Attendance: Gertrude Banks, Carol Clark-Flanagan, Cheryl Cook, Meg Evans, Kristen Formanek, Christina Garrity, Mary Margaret Girgenti, Rebekah Hatch, Chris Kelly, Nicole Kodak, Grace Lee, Nkosi Lee, Sue Homrok-Lemke, Joan Robichaud, Sean Robotham, Sharon Thomas, Jennifer Wilson, Diana Yeisley

Meeting Called to Order at 6:00

No Public Audience in attendance

Introductions were made

New Business:

Proposed calendar for the upcoming year was approved

Minutes were reviewed from September 26th, no noted changes

Kristen led a discussion on the format, structure, and membership of the group.  The group is in agreement regarding the presented structure and format.  We had a brief discussion regarding membership and participation.

Nicole led a discussion on our mission and vision statement.  The group agreed that the two do not need to reflect problem identification as that has already been done.  We will focus on problem solving, moving forward, and focusing on success.  Overall, the group has decided to use proposed mission statement #2, with some modifications.  It will not be fully adopted until our next meeting as members want more time to consider the proposed changes to formalize a final statement. 

Chris led a discussion on identification of our top three priorities.  Presented possible priorities were based on the problems previously identified with the exception of those that are being addressed with the BOE through the Equity Council.  We decided on three with a fourth to be tabled.

Everyone voted on our top three priorities.  The group will focus on:

Creating a town wide campaign with a positive slogan

Outreach to organizations, citizens, and groups in town

Determine and expert resource to partner with Simsbury; possibly conduct an audit

Create culturally inclusive events

We broke into smaller groups to begin to identify how to work on the top three.  These smaller groups with identified leaders have continued to work on their areas over the next month and report back to the Council in December.

Committee Reports

Sum Homrok-Lemke provided us with an update on the work being done by the Equity Council.  At each meeting the group will be provided with an equity experience. The Council has in engaged CT Center for School Change as a consultant.  They are currently working on an equity statement and will begin taking a look at possible curriculum changes.

Old Business

No further business discussed

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.  Next meeting to be held on December 5th, 2019.

Respectfully Submitted

Kristen Formanek and Nicole Kodak

SPIRIT Council

Co-Chairs