Danbury board prepares five items for CABE delegate assembly, including AI language and Alliance funding protections
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Summary
Danbury School Board members agreed to refine and submit five pieces of proposed language to the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) delegate assembly: edits to digital citizenship to add AI awareness, a new AI steering-committee resolution, Alliance/ECS funding protections (COLA/hold-harmless), charter-financing clarifications,
Danbury School Board members met remotely and agreed to send five items for consideration at the upcoming Connecticut Association of Boards of Education delegate assembly, focusing on digital citizenship, artificial intelligence oversight, Alliance district funding protections, charter/magnet-school financing, and a child-neglect resolution.
Michael, a board member who led the session, said the CABE process includes a 46-item consent calendar and a separate 'blue book' of proposed resolutions that delegates debate item by item. "If anyone has an issue with even one item on this, they can raise their hand and say, 'I'm sorry, I have a problem with item 1‑x,'" Michael said, explaining how pulled items move into discussion at the assembly.
Why it matters: the delegate assembly helps set CABE's whole agenda for the coming year, which in turn influences what positions the statewide organization will advocate to the Connecticut General Assembly and the State Department of Education. Danbury’s delegation wants to ensure the district’s priorities — particularly funding protections for Alliance‑designated schools and clarity on how charters affect local services — are represented.
What the board will propose. Members agreed on these five priorities:
- Additions to a digital-citizenship resolution to include "AI awareness" for students and parents and to support state study and pilot programs of AI in schools (Kate, board member, helped draft suggested edits).
- A new resolution asking the General Assembly and the State Department of Education to convene and fund an AI steering committee to meet quarterly, review developments in AI, and engage experts to guide policy for student safety and teaching.
- Language to maintain full Education Cost Sharing (ECS) funding to all districts, including Alliance districts, and to create separate grants for Alliance reform efforts — with an explicit request to protect existing Alliance funding from being eroded if designation rules change and to include some form of COLA or hold‑harmless mechanism for salaries tied to Alliance grants.
- Clarifications addressing how charter and magnet-school funding plans should avoid shifting transportation, nursing, special-education and ELL costs to local districts; board members asked that the resolution specify services that can create financing pressures.
- Consideration of a child-neglect resolution submitted by CABE’s resolutions committee; board members said they will ask the assembly for clarification on the scope and intent since schools already have legal child-protection duties.
Next steps. Members asked Michael and Kara to refine text for the Alliance/COLA language and for Kate to finalize the digital-citizenship edit; the group set a deadline to circulate revised language before an in-person community relations meeting on Wednesday for final review. Michael said delegates could still submit new language to CABE if it is 'fully baked' before the assembly.
The meeting adjourned after members approved a motion to close the session.
