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Seuss do not cry because it is over smile because it happened patty is well respected by her colleagues at the elementary level I trust her high school and by her students and their families she will be missed by many we wish patty peace good health happiness and love as she embarks on this next phase of her life in August of 1989 Chester public schools hired an ambitious health teacher in Donna B for the past 31 years Miss Bates has taught students helped that have included everything from the human body drugs and alcohol the AIDS epidemic and many more controversial issues that Miss Bates has navigated with our community over the years a tremendous resource and wealth of knowledge Miss Bates has taught our youth without opinion or bias and presented all of her knowledge with Grace and kindness will miss you Donna before it's difficult to replace some on part of our family as a valued member of our staff you provided a voice that embodied all that God stood for and more importantly always supported our students Donna you we miss greatly and I wish you nothing but the best and happiness during your retired years we'll miss you we are honored to celebrate our second retiree miss Deborah so icky Deb started teaching in North Haven in 1976 at Clinton Hill school as a special education resource teacher which included special education instruction for students and consultation with regular education teachers as well as a diagnostician she taught in North even for 12 years before arriving in Chester in the fall of 1988 as a special education resource room teacher at Doolittle school she arrived at Highland school in the fall of 2004 as a teacher of grade 4 and finished her career in the same position sixteen years later for a grand total of 43 years of teaching in that time she embraced many challenges that occurred in the teaching profession including embracing new technology instructional practices and curriculum content that's to the years her passion and creativity shine through as she found ways to make learning fun for her students Deb has always believed in lifelong learning and through the many years of teaching as enjoyed learning from her colleagues students in their families he always engaged in professional learning with a smile on her face and a funny anecdote to tell she will be dearly missed by all on behalf of the Highland school and Cheshire community Hugh good luck and all the best in your retirement it is an honor to share some words to recognize the amazing career mrs.
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does that work for everyone and that would be the workshop at 5:00 yeah do you think a half hour is good enough for the workshop probably not meeting the six workshop at 5:00 meeting at 6:00 does that work yeah do you good with that Doug you okay with that yeah Arnie so we'll have that set all right last thing motion to adjourn and we adjourn all right all in favor Cory burgers I Brandi Dubois we are adjourned you
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and then on march 25th most of our employees began working from home in line with the governor's stay safe stay home executive order so to a large extent the 1.2 million that we didn't spend in our budget is related to savings you know from that period and um you know not to rehash uh because i know all the board members have heard this but the areas where you know we saved the most money were transportation the cleaning costs you know uh you know wages for additional hours and overtime the coaching stipends because there was no spring sports season and then we also had significant savings in electricity in particular that that savings was around 200 000 uh as well as our heat and energy accounts um the few things that i want to highlight also um [Music] which are final expenditures or encumbrances that we made and i i'm sharing this because it puts some good perspective around what we're planning for at least for the first few months of the new fiscal year so you can see here we have eighty four thousand dollars you know dedicated to purchase and install plexiglas shields for the school offices the nurses offices areas such as the library counters we also in that 84 000 are anticipating purchasing student desk shields which are you know cardboard devices that actually sit on a student desk that have polycarbonate panels so that the student can see out and you know assuming that we go ahead with this purchase you know it would enable students to be seated at their desk not necessarily having to wear a mask so it allows them to work comfortably but without having a mask also in that 84 000 signage and floor decals you know signage would indicate you know the rules social distancing wearing a mask you know if you have a temperature please don't enter the building some of that signage is up but we need to purchase a lot more we're also working with you know one company in particular to uh install floor decals so where we have hallways that are two-way hallways you know we would have signage on you know applied to the floor you know in the elementary schools we're anticipating putting footsteps to point the direction of movement in the hallways again this is all covert 19 protective measures we're planning on we've got 55 050.
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patty I Anila Patty has been a valued staff member of Highland school for the past 37 years she joined the Highland staff in 1983 starting as an intern student teacher and instructional assistant to becoming a revered and highly respected classroom teacher for the past 34 years patty inspired her students through excellent instruction and well-planned and creative lessons always do their best and reach their potential patty was always happiest when surrounded by studium students providing them with personalized support she was not afraid of a little bit of tough love always with the goals of motivating children to do their very very best patty models for the staff and for the students each day out of persevere when faced with a challenge despite her own physical and health challenges patty continued to give 150 percent right up to the final day of her career over the years many of the students you stopped are now parents of her current students patty understands the value of forming forming partnerships with her parents and guardians for the benefit of helping her students grow she was a role model for many including a myriad of student teachers and interns she mentored many of the staff look patty seeking advice about student issues parent concerns or looking for a creative idea for planning a lesson patty has also served as a student council advisor science quest facilitator principals Advisory Council representative and school climate representative among many other leadership roles over the years her positive influence on our staff students and families is immeasurable and will have a lasting impact on our community we are thrilled that paddy gets to look forward to her new home and daughter's wedding this fall on behalf of the entire Highland School and the Cheshire community I wish you good luck and all the best in your retirement it is my pleasure to speak on behalf of Michael early after teaching in Cheshire for 38 years at every school except for Darcy school Michael early is retiring Michael spent nearly 10 years at Norton 10 years at Chapman and 2 it dog before coming to CHS he spent the past 16 years at CHS and for the most and for most of that time he served as the district art department chairperson Michael is a is truly a dedicated educator he taught all of his students to value the process of making art the thinking structure composition and concept over the final product his students learn to deliver and accept constructive criticism and they also learn how to see the beauty in shape proportion shade and color Michaels creativity extended into every aspect of his work at Cheshire high school and the student work he shared with all of us brought beauty and joy to CHS and to the entire community of Cheshire what you may not know is in addition to his degrees in art and teaching Michael has an associate's degree in landscape design if you follow him on Instagram you can see images of his beautiful gardens at his home in Hamden Michael shared that he plans to spend the initial months of retirement unwinding decluttering and gardening you will also need to train himself not to collect anything recyclable that has potential for an art project which I'm sure his wife Christine will be delighted to hear Michael looks forward to spending time with his family his wife Christine and two sons Justin Zachary Michael we will miss you and we wish you inspiration relaxation rejuvenation and all the very best that life can bring in your returns congratulations and best wishes in September of 1974 Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford starred in the movie the way you were which also had the soundtrack that became the number one song of the year also called the way you work if you are familiar with the song lyrics I think it's appropriate to relate mr.
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allocated for purchasing of ppe um as well as disinfecting wipes and sanitizer containers for all the learning spaces this is only about a two month supply the fifty five thousand dollars um we're not sure if the state will provide some of these items we're waiting to hear back from uh cirque which is you know a quasi governmental agency to to provide some group purchase price um discounts for these items so you know we know we're going to need this we also purchased 10 portable hand wash stations to be used in our schools so this will supplement you know what we have available for bathrooms these uh stations hold seven and a half gallons of water basically you put them anywhere you know near an electrical outlet is all they need it has a seven and a half gallon container of water and it's got a seven and a half gallon container for waste so as people are washing their hands it's it's basically you know an item that you know uh all that our maintenance staff would have to do is fill the water and empty the waste water on an as needed basis unemployment um we do have 75 000 allocated for unemployment costs you know we we finally were able to get our hands on the april bill for unemployment you know from july through march our total unemployment claims were four hundred dollars uh april's bill not surprisingly was thirty one thousand dollars and we're anticipating about the same for the months of may and june so we've got that set aside for unemployment um i did want to give an update also the food and nutrition services i had explained as we were going through grab and go that we may need to provide a reimbursement for the food and nutrition department um they did serve 155 030 meals to 20 768 students in 25 serving days and we all know that that program went very well so we did have to provide a small reimbursement this 7365 to the food service department and also in accordance with state requirements the border vet is responsible for any unpaid school lunch balances owed by students and parents so we write a check to food and nutrition but they are continuing to attempt to recover against that sixteen hundred dollars and any recovery that they get gets reimbursed back to the board of ed's budget by food and nutrition the sixteen hundred dollars uh is you know it that that balance is aggressively worked by you know madeleine dyker and her food service staff so we've had years where that balance at the end of the year was over four thousand dollars on the sixteen hundred dollars you know we're estimating is probably when it all is said and done to be about half of that maybe a little bit less last year was under 500 as an example and then the last entry that um we made yesterday to balance out to that 1.247 million was 30 863 was added to the medical benefits reserve um i'm not going to go through this other than to say that you know we do have uh routine maintenance and summer work planned and you know much of that is already underway i have a couple of quick photos here um this is how we did our bid openings this spring and early um early part of of the summer i suppose we did them outside and you can see that you know it's that greyhead guy is me and then that's a couple of vendors that showed and that's rich clavette our facilities manager uh this is the ppe distribution these are the uh chesapeake employees this is cheshire high school they've been doing ppe distribution to other health districts every tuesday the uh you know this is an impressive picture this is darcy school that's a 10 000 gallon underground oil storage tank that was removed this is a panoramic picture you could see darcy school in the background uh that project is going well there was no soil contamination i'm pleased to report uh this is our sign pro representative with our staff you know walking through highland school preparing for the plexiglas shields and the floor decals those are the items at highland school that have been collected its books its textbooks and its chromebooks that will be sorted through and prepped highland we're redoing the gym floor and finally this is cheshire high school this is the high school window replacement project that is underway so i think um i'm gonna stop sharing for a minute there sorry that took so long but i it's about as quick as i could go to to give the board a sense of you know where we are with the fiscal year end um the projects that we have and the money that we have parked so that we can you know start off the the new year in this pandemic mode you know somewhat prepared at least for the purchase of the items that that we need to purchase uh thank you vin um i see there's a few questions out there i'll kick it off with my own um i saw in your your list of um final expenditures um there because i have a little bit of knowledge in this um there seem to be um three items that a lot of your ppe purchases and a lot of the items you're using to prepare the schools for the fall may qualify for fema funding and or additional cares funding and i was wondering and i know that sometimes towns can apply individually and i wasn't sure if cheshire had begun the process to file for uh reimbursement for any of those expenditures it looked to be about 000 i was wondering if if the town and or the school system can independently apply or are we tied to the state as far as what they're choosing to dole out so on the fema reimbursement specifically like other past fema reimbursements we work with the town finance department and we submit our claims you know jointly honestly i'm not sure what qualifies and and doesn't qualify for free for fema reimbursement at this point in time i'm hoping a lot i'm hoping even some of that unemployment uh claim activity will qualify but that's that's yet to be you know determined and announced but we will be filing uh fema claims we are tracking you know all the costs related to the pandemic you know that include purchases um we don't have you know typically with fema reimbursements and the example i'll give you is if there's a snowstorm you know that there is female reimbursement typically the reimbursement is around overtime and labor costs some equipment costs we really don't have any any labor costs under this fema reimbursement so this is rather unusual um as far as the cares act money that you asked about adam you know that that's about 99 000 that we would expect to receive um that application i believe um has been started i don't you know i'll defer to jeff and marlene but um that 99 000 can be used for whatever purpose it doesn't need to necessarily be used for ppe it's it's not limited you know for its intended use certainly we will put the hundred thousand dollars to good use i would anticipate it might be used on the instructional side but that remains to be decided um uh well yes and and i guess for your information um i asked about the fema money because i was uh i was on a conference call for that sort of thing and fema had decided that um basically anything any covet expense such as the at least the first three items were considered uh disaster recovery good and that you could be eligible i don't know if it was a hundred percent i think it might have been 75 reimbursement for those types of expenditures so and they're running through uh demas i think they're the uh they're the uh agency that's that's kind of handling all the paperwork for that yeah just for your information i don't know if you can check on it yourself or if it's got to be the town but no really eager to to give money for covid related especially plexiglas it's hand washing all that kind of stuff yeah we've been in touch the the demas coordinator for um region two that we're in i mean demas has been providing ppe for you know our emergency services primarily we've asked a couple of times now you know if they are going to start providing ppe to boards of ed and the answer has been no so far but you know jack kasner is the town's emergency coordinator and you know we we do have a weekly call you know with jack and some of the other town officials so that's an issue or that's a topic that keeps coming up because you know the commitment to ppe you know as i as i indicated is about 55 000 that's just a two-month supply and it would be certainly better financially if the demas or you know some other state agency provides the ppe so you know we're in a it's a little bit of a dilemma for us because we can't wait too much longer to order the ppe that you know we've allocated the funding for uh we are waiting for you know a couple of the state quasi agencies cirque is um is it the special education regional council what is that research center so yeah you know we're waiting to see if they give us some better pricing i mean that right now you know i think surgical masks face shields we could get the things that are going to be difficult to get are gloves sanitizing wipes and a hand sanitizer it's okay right now so we're gonna have to start ordering some of those items pretty pretty quickly within the next i would say 10 days okay thank you let's see um i think catherine you were first thanks uh thank you so i guess my question is if first my question was should we be using more of the surplus to anticipate higher costs um that we kind of know is coming but since i wasn't really aware of the reimbursement um possibilities if we are if we do get reimbursement for like the ppe purchases that we make or whatever does that money come back to the board of ed or does that end up going back to the town i'm just trying to understand if that's those funds would then be available to you know pay for more equipment or things that were we end up needing after the first two months for example i guess that's my question yeah i mean we would certainly lobby to get those funds you know back so we could buy you know additional pp or whatever costs we need to cover um you know i will i will throw out one more thing that there is a um we've got about 200 000 in the building um capital nom recurring you know we call it the emergency fund that you have to go appeal uh or request from the town council um even though it's you know it's the building fund if if we were really in a pinch we could use that and the other thing female reimbursements generally take a long time so right we probably well i didn't know if the cares act would be you know funds from the cares act will be uh coming more quickly than the fema or whatever yeah yeah and then the other thing um just kind of on a related note when we start the new fiscal year we are as the board knows we usually start our fiscal year and we allow up to 60 percent usually 60 of our non-payroll items to be ex non-payroll lines to be expended this year we're starting at 40 percent um you know we're going out with a hiring freeze so we're going to be very very conservative for obvious reasons as we start the fiscal year and we'll you know we'll certainly have to prioritize you know the governor's document was released yesterday and you know i haven't gone through it yet but you know eric potential expenses can be in a number of places it could be ppe if we need to hire additional bus aids or instructional assistants depending on how we set up classes next year there certainly is the potential for costs that aren't anticipated and the only way we can counter that right now is start with the very low expenditure ceiling on our non-payroll accounts but but but the surplus that we're sending back to the town you know at what point can we i i find this crazy but um so we're sending a million dollars back to the town when we know we're likely to need at least some of that um and that will just mean that we have to go to the town council and ask for them to allocate it back to us at some point i mean is that how it will end up well we also have a 200 000 uh fund to help mitigate some of that uh you know i mentioned last night we're initiating our fall reopening meetings today so i think by the end of next week or the following week we will have a little bit more clarity about at least from an operational perspective wait what some of our needs may be uh and i think that'll also have to be calculated are ours our conversations with the the council uh about how to support our school system through this pandemic are not over i think that's definitely fair to say okay thank you um ann you had a comment um i just wanted to say that um whenever we come into these end of the year fiscal reckoning meetings uh i am reminded that um i need to express my great appreciation to you vin because the attention that you pay to these accounts and the magic that you perform to make this all happen it um it does help me to sleep at night throughout the whole year so um i just want to express great appreciation for what you do and um and how you keep us on track fiscally so thank you well thank you and i will just comment back you know thanks for that ann it's not magic um you know i do have some really good staff that helps with this i mean you know we had this year we had about 2 purchase orders you know i know we look at five line items in this meeting but there's about 910 accounts that those 2500 purchase orders are issued against so it's just a lot of detail work and it's always you know our budget is a series of trade-off decisions as we manage our expenditures so um i wish it was magic but it isn't it's it's just looking at it and and trying to be responsible about where our expenditures go i should have said i should have said you make it look like mad okay i'll take that and thank you to your staff as well because i know that it's not just one person yeah andrew you had a question sure uh vin you said there was 242 000 in instructional expense savings could you just highlight what some of those are seems like a lot of money i understand i mean because there's a salary line and where the money was saved and other items i was just wondering what instructional is that out of district training what is that so um the line items where we had the largest pickup in instructional um in the instructional line we had 99 99 000 of the 240 2000 came from instructional supply which is you know items that range from music art classroom supplies you know things like crayons and pencils those are primarily in the hands of the school principals so when we apply you know what we allowed the principals to expend was 80 of that line like it's one of the non-payroll lines so the actual expenditure was 81 percent of 513 000 uh the second largest savings in that group was textbooks software which was 48 000 so we did spend 89 percent of that line curriculum materials we had 25 000 in savings library media supplies with 19 400.
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Tom katulski teaching career to this ballad or it was one of the same month and year that an ambitious science teacher joined the cheshire public schools to teach science I Cheshire high school in all of his 46 years mr. katulski has made an impact on every child but has walked through his doors during his career mr. katulski made the wise decision to join middle school to teach young and impressionable teenagers about the mysteries of science and of life itself mr. katulski kind-hearted words and approach to teaching is one that could be mobilized for new teachers coming into their careers mr. katulski worked tirelessly to make science relevant and relatable to our lives as a member of the DAAD family tom was always one to have a silent voice but always encouraged his colleagues and his principal to keep staying the course when it came to new approaches in education I always appreciated his perspective as it seemed that every new approach had been tried before and tom would always tell me the historical context in which it probably failed one could say that it's cliche to say that someone has spent a lifetime of teaching but in this case I can make a slight change to say that mr.
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so that it's primarily items that we you know would use inside the classroom and inside the schools and you know i will you know comment that you know the principles when we say you can expend 80 percent what they do is what we do on the district level is they prioritize you know what are the things that they need and what are the things that they can do without for the fiscal year so i want to leave the impression that we're not supplying anything that that's necessary we're just prioritizing what we can afford okay and one other question um is there a limit so you spent about there was 253 000 if my math is correct of uh end of year expenditures for the covid is there a limit set on how much can be spent or is that just what we were able to spend by june 30th or encumber by june 30th like if we had to have spent you know an extra couple hundred thousand dollars in order to outfit the schools if we had more time could we have done that or is there a limit that's set um no no the limit in this case in this year you know which is unusual right the limit is we um needed to leave 1 million 247 600 as our year-end fiscal balance as far as what we expended it we or you know we either expended or encumbered for purchase of there there is no limit um and so if you look at the list of accounts you'll see that some accounts are under budget but some accounts we overexpended you know one of the over-expended accounts was capital equipment because you know we did need to buy additional chromebooks uh which you know i believe marlene presented to the curriculum committee and it went to the board you know we know we're going to need chromebooks for next year you know to replace some of the ones that are no longer they're past google's support period um but also to put more chromebooks into the hands of our teachers and our students in case we need to go back to remote so it's that same series of you know what are the things that we need what are the priorities you know the 75 000 for unemployment you know that was a you know we really didn't have a choice there you know we needed to encumber that money to expend it so yeah the the cap is only what we have in total to spend and in a normal year you know we we would be looking to balance the accounts to zero again this was an extraordinary year but it's the same theory you know if we over expend in you know one of the line items such as instructional supply we have to make it up somewhere else whether it's operations and maintenance or support services good thank you okay tim you got a comment um yeah okay yeah so vin thank you for all this and with regard to the with regard to the reopening you obviously need to follow the law and provide a safe environment i also just from in terms of prioritizing your spending just i want to i want you to be realistic about behaviors and what you actually can change and what you will not be able to change and i mentioned last night at the meeting that the american pediatrics some american pediatrics group is you know saying does it make sense they're questioning whether it makes sense for little kids to wear face masks because they're going to touch their face anyway and you're not going to be able to control that sort of thing and you also mentioned about i think buying the stickers for the floors yeah telling the schools which direction to go and i'm thinking really the high school where you have the the eight and i just wondered you know i think it's a i think it's a nice idea but the student who's supposed to go that way and walk half a mile to get all the way around rather than walking to the room next door just keep those just keep those things in mind before you go spending you know large sums of money on anything and then i do have a question you mentioned encumbrances with regard to do you have any encumbrances that are more than 18 months old just off the top of your head do you happen to know that no no i mean okay everything should pretty much be within the past year usually it's with only we only keep encumbrances for the first six months of the year is really our max you know so by december those incumbents have to be spent otherwise they get closed and they actually you know they do go back to the town's general fund in that case but yeah okay i just because i think the town hasn't conferences that can be out there for years but it's probably capital project related i'm not sure capital projects are different right but operating budget no those encumbrances have to get closed do the schools have any capital project encumbrances that are that stay out there does it go back to the town and leave the schools yeah no capital budget so let's use an example we have you know capital budget appropriation for district-wide roof repairs and usually those allocations are 125 so if we spend eighty thousand dollars to do roof repairs and we don't need roof repairs for two more years that capital funding stays in that capital account until either it's expended or until we make a request to have the town's finance department close it out and that's usually done by council action so okay yeah but we can't carry over our operating budget encumbrances uh past you know certainly past the fiscal year okay okay all right thank you you're welcome faith question yeah thank you and vin thank you to ayakoen's comments um it's really uh amazing what you and your staff can do in terms of uh this budget um with regard to the ppe then or 55 000 is for its worth of e-coverage pp equipment correct yes okay so um i mean it it you know ten months if that's uh we're going to blow that 200 000 out of the water but um is that simply covering staff or are you are we anticipating that we are also going to be providing ppe for all students and is you know 55 000 uh sufficient 20 you know 26 000 per month is that sufficient uh so yeah that's a great question um and i don't want to bore you with all the details so we put together a work worksheet um and we laid out on that worksheet by school how many students we have per school how many staff we have per school the type of staff that we have per school so if you look at that ppe what we assumed as an example for surgical mass we assumed a one surgical mass per week for everyone students and staff um for you know we don't know what we're going to go through i mean you know certainly the line i've been using is you know byom bring your own mask but we can't be in a position where we don't have a mask if somebody doesn't have a mask and they need to wear a mask which apparently is part of this governor's requirement for hand sanitizer you know we have 400 learning spaces which is classroom libraries resource rooms whatever so we assumed one container of hand sanitizer per learning space per week it's a guess it was you know a way for us to come up with what we think we need to order i'm not sure how much of that we'll use um kn or n95 mass you know we only are ordering a few hundred of those for our you know maintenance and other staff so you know depend depending on the commodity item i'll call it you know we we used an estimate um so some is for students some as staff and some as for just limited staff okay if i could follow up that's okay adam i have a just a couple others um okay okay so just initial quick read of that report that came out yesterday heavy heavy heavy emphasis on equity also for marlene and jeff are we confident that work from uh beginning in march we satisfy the equity everyone has access appropriate access to wi-fi and you know hardware and or are we anticipating that we have to go and and and provide even more um in one way or another well as you know we've moved for next year to a device per student which um you know i think we were already there in the we found a way to patch work make it work this past spring including the distribution of hot spots wireless hot spots to people who needed them and things like that so if it's impos if it's possible to even build on that level of access we have done that and we will continue to be sensitive to people who need wi-fi in the home if we're doing a remote situation but you know we want our goal as i've said before is to get every child what they need and not in our mind equity is isn't equal to everybody it's getting kids what they need um so that's what we're working toward okay okay all right and um i don't know if it i would just like it restate it again why of the i don't know um you know it's clear we need more than two hundred thousand dollars and uh perhaps i need a refresher as to why if that language regarding the special fund was up to two percent of the budget only 200 out of our 1.2 um saying if someone might be able to refresh my memory for that one yeah it's a combination of town budgeting and what we're looking at in terms of needs for special education supports and more i mean the the reality is this is really ever evolving that you know until yesterday we didn't know what exactly the needs were for uh mask wearing and things like that so it's definitely a challenge to hit this moving target and as i said you know moments ago that i don't think our conversations with the council about the resources necessary to facilitate what's in that state report to the greatest extent possible keep our kids to the group safe to the greatest extent possible as well as educate them um you know that that's evolved it will continue to evolve throughout the year and um you know we're going to need to continue contact with the council about uh any sort of resources we may need to address that i know they're they're uh is even tony said last night you know concerned about that as well okay are there any other questions for vin or jeff on this topic is their hand uh anne oh i'm sorry i missed you and go ahead no i just put it in there thank you um going off what faith uh said my question is um because this um this idea of access for all is is really important and and i thank you faith for bringing it up um but i also think that we do a pretty good job here in cheshire with that but what about uh statewide um are we getting funds are all towns all school districts getting some funds uh based on need to get all of our children in the entire state um to where they need to be with this access to internet and access to uh devices that that let children participate in school uh when we're in these emergency situations so i'm just wondering like faith's comment got me to thinking um what what's the state um funding involvement in all of in all of what we're doing um beyond peers money i mean that's and that's federal money anyway the we um cheshire hasn't been contacted about any sort of resources but i know alliance districts those are districts with uh more significant social socioeconomic needs those districts have been provided technology and additional resources necessary to provide greater equity access so there is some of that out there yeah thank you okay um i'm seeing no additional questions um so we have uh several motions here that we're sort of discussing around the periphery a little bit um uh i guess i'll read the first motion that the board of education requests that the cheshire town council deposit 200 000 of the remaining 1 million 247 600 fiscal year and balance to the non-lapsing unexpended educational education funds account is there a second second okay um is there a discussion on the motion seeing no discussion um all in favor of the motion i i uh let's see i believe that is unanimous of those voting okay thank you um the second motion um move that the board of education returns 1 million 47 600 of the 1 million forty seven thousand six hundred dollars remaining uh remaining fiscal year-end balance to the town's general fund is there a second well it's a faith we go faith seconds um is there a discussion on this motion no discussion um all in favor uh looks like that is unanimous okay thank you um there is no old business and there's a chairperson's report the chairperson is not here and i was not provided with any additional report um jeff did you have anything to add was there any additional report from you there is not okay um we had uh something about a executive session but it looks like i believe we handled this yesterday evening so i don't think there's an uh any need for an executive session uh was there any other new business that anyone wanted to bring up uh andrew i just see your hand up yeah i wasn't able to we had a school modernization committee meeting um a very brief one on wednesday the 24th that's going to put out there that um we met and we hired a firm by the name of milo and mcbroom to do an enrollment study to help with the uh facility planning so there were two bids that were received one was from milan mcbroom and the other one was from um nesdek and uh coliers who is our project manager assistant uh they um recommended highly recommended melon and mcbroom they were a little bit more expensive but the other proposals that was submitted did not have the mapping which came highly recommended by coliers that we do include that in the proposal so i believe they're under contract vin for nineteen thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars um and we'll be expecting some new enrollment studies and projections in the next four months or so correct not out there it's a very brief 30-minute meeting but they are getting some work done just wanted to provide that update to everybody great thank you andrew i i'd like to add to i'd like to add to that the the reason that the meeting was so brief was because it was just a one-item agenda for the purposes of of hiring that enrollment study but um this committee is on hiatus and will not be meeting again until uh our um the issue that we have presented to the um town council is resolved and um i so i just wanted to inform this group that um that committee is not meeting until we resolve the issue of um i guess it's personnel issue is what it's considered so but that was an emergency meeting adam your mute thank you um so is there any uh additional uh topic under new business okay oh adam jim always at the end okay tim what you got no i'm not so i don't know if you i don't know if you could elaborate on that but my question really is for andrew who did the who did the um last enrollment projection was it might want to make room or something no not ergonomics okay it's a different term okay my loaning room was chester's my little room right yes yeah and it was you know there was a lot of discussion at the meeting but one of the they do have kind of the pulse on the town they do know that the development trends they helped with the plan of concert and development where new developments may be going in order to help they really you know that experience is pretty invaluable to the to the process so okay cool thank you andrew thanks adam thank you tim um okay uh seeing nothing else i'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn anyone catherine is there a second all right all in favor great thank you everyone uh final our final final meeting of this year of course july 1st begins tomorrow so then who knows what happens after that so uh thanks everyone and we'll see you next time enjoy your day everybody
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katulski has spent my lifetime teaching Tom you'll be sorely missed by your colleagues and we wish you nothing but the best and health and happiness during your retired years thank you has anyone done the math on the total years of experience accumulated with this I do have bad data and it's really quite impressive first I just want to apologize I didn't realize I wasn't on mute when I had a coughing fit there so sorry if I distracted anything and I had to grab some water but the total in this group of nine teachers is 274 cumulative years of service to the cheshire community which is fairly mind-blowing when you add the sixth other teachers that we honored last time and there are a hundred and fifty-one years it's a total of 425 years of service that we're losing this year and it's really you know crap like I've never seen in terms of total numbers of service over my last 15 years it's hard to to get to 425 years from our retirees so again a special congratulations to all of them is Mike said at the end they're out of this year's retirement class Tom katulski 46 years of service I mean Dean 74 and when I honored him at their end of your faculty meeting I asked how many people were born after 1974 and there were a lot of hands that went up and to know that he had taught for their entire lifetime is really quite impressive so again congratulate congratulations to all of our retirees thank you for your incredible service and you know I'll turn it back to you guys on applause for our retirees behalf of the Board of Ed in touch mode schools thank you everyone for your dedication your service I think you're a great example let's create our school system and educational over to our students and the impressions you mean of them are it'll shape them for life so so thank you I don't think the board members are gonna comment on this it's always refreshing each year well sad to see such expertise leave I know it's well deserved that there's so much service so again thank you seeing as there are no Borat comments on this next up on the agenda is another three audience dr.
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stone do we have any audience communication well I think you mentioned it mister peres Jeanie at the outside of the meeting that I've received literally hundreds of emails over the course of the last like 24 hours or so it would be you know impossible for me to go through each one I mean I'm trying to read them all as they come in all in support of you know a football coach coach trust and as you mentioned it is a personnel matter that I can't comment on but I did want to acknowledge I think one was a petition with approximately five hundred signatures so I think that's also gone to members of the board as well but that is the only audience participation for this evening correct that I will just iterate what Jeff has said I think all board members are very much well aware right well this is not a you know it's a serious situation in no respects I was joking earlier today I thought my gmail actually broke at one point there today because my screen actually froze with the number of items in there so that being said please we do know that we have acknowledged all the communications received even though sent to the administration perhaps the board once you see that we see we see those two in this matter most of us through all these is to be a little while if I go throw but summarize there's a lot of support i speaking to the candor the of coach trust experiences in on a fleets in the community there's that has meant much much more so please do note we've ever seen that can i comment on that matter i will sift through these emails and if anyone's asked to s to have anything red will try this so the next meeting and the correspondence but we allow this lot to sift through we hear you thank you up sorry I lost my place on the agenda but up next I believe as a superintendents report yes Thank You mr.
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Perry Jeanne first of all I would just want to begin by going back a couple of weeks and I give Marlene a lot of credit for conducting a dozen more interviews with our staff and we wanted to learn what was working through the remote learning period and what were your concerns coming back in Marlene talked to well over a hundred teachers in that process then we had six hundred parents sign up the following week and she and I conducted almost 30 different interview sessions with those parents and through google meets and it was interesting you know you'd have some google meets where you would see a group of parents while my neighbor or wanted to say something to and would jump in faith was very dutiful and tried to attend a great number of those and I know that some of our other board members who were parents also attended Marlene is updating me there was 38 meetings that we conducted over the course of last week so certainly we wanted to understand parent feedback where parents were at this point in time one of the biggest challenges that we face with kovat 19 is the fact that it's seemingly so fluid you know you can think that we're really trending well and for the most part Connecticut has been but then you look around you and see that the rest of the United States is seemingly in a pretty bad way and you know you hope that that's not something that we're gonna have to encounter again as the weather turns you know cooler in the fall but what happened today was that the state release this is Tony mentioned early on a document that's 50-plus pages we have already started meticulously going through that document tomorrow afternoon I know faith and Catherine will be joining me Marlene then some public health officials teachers we have parent representatives from various grade levels and town wide PTO we have staff you know teachers ia health so a high school student and so it's a fairly diverse group but about twenty people we're trying to keep it small enough that we can quickly understand the demands of the state understand is recommending in terms of you know protecting against spread of coronavirus and quickly establish some options that we can turn back toward the community in a hopefully toward the end of next week and receive feedback on so again this is gonna have to be a pretty agile group we have three meetings already scheduled the two this week and one next with the again the goal of trying to get public feedback next week a couple of key components that we're considerate of and they were that resonated through both our staff and parent meetings is that we want to try and return every student to school for in person instruction to the greatest extent that we safely can there's no substitute for the relationships there's no substitute for in-person instruction we are really working hard to do that another key element is that we want to be able to provide remote learning for students who need that one of the mantras basically through these meetings particularly parents's our goal is to provide every student what they need and for some students that might mean you know I have an immunocompromised situation I need home learning it may mean I need home learning because I have a family member who I live with who is extremely immunocompromised it could mean a lot of different things it could be related to learning or socialization but we are working to just like we do on a daily basis try and provide every student what they need obviously that's complicated by the circumstances in the world today with coronavirus but that remains our objective to try and support every student and deliver them what they need so those are a couple of the key ideas it's a little bit of the timeline it's a little bit premature because as I said it was 2:38 this afternoon that we received the the guidance from the state and so Marlene and I'll spend the rest of our evening going through that and tomorrow to prepare for our meeting tomorrow afternoon so I'd certainly you know entertain any questions if people have any I know my Leonore been all so happy to answer any questions hey Jeff you might have answered you know what I'm sorry Adam first and then I'm like right in hi Jeff Thanks um I in the the flurry of course our inbox has been very busy today I don't know if you had a chance to send us a copy I know I'd be interested in reading through it or you know to at least get a high level understanding sure I'd be happy to send that along to the group thank you Tim you had a comment yeah okay yeah I just want to know I I saw in regard to getting kids back in the school and I'm one of the parents who really wants that and I appreciate you hearing that and in moving that direction but just to sort of reinforce that I saw an article today was on there's on NPR and it was basically from the American Academy of Pediatrics it's a large organization pediatricians across us and they're basically saying they want kids back in school and there is cautioning to say there's something in here about you know even little kids don't you have to be safe but keep in mind the possibility that you know the little ones are not even wearing masks because of what we know what we understand today is they're just not as likely to get really sick or also they're gonna be itching their faces they're probably not gonna be mindful of know keeping your hands and with your mouth and stuff like that anyway it's just another another point of reinforcing where you know I as a parent like to go but it also points out that teachers are different they have they have a different you know in terms of their health they're also concerned about it so it's a it's I realize it's a difficult task for you right now and I appreciate you and Marlene working so hard on this but I just wanted to put that out there that there's some expert advice I'm guessing it's from the social-emotional it should be in school it's just my thing I forgot exactly that anyway that's it thank you I know that this group on the board has consistently been dedicated to meeting the needs of the whole child and obviously that means instructionally and and from that perspective but we are deeply committed to social emotional needs and we have to look at the that balance and I'm not saying you know we're willing to create risk in health but we I have heard from a lot of parents who say that being home has not been healthy for my child too so you know where do we strike that balance and I appreciate the point also about the masks because I you know any of us who have been to Lowe's or Home Depot or Walmart or the grocery store would ever see some adults that have a real hard time than a mask on at least even correctly for 15 minutes let alone for a full school day so we are very sensitive to that and to the health of our teachers if we don't have teachers nobody's getting remote or nobody's getting in person instruction so it's critically important that we protect their health as well so everybody who comes into our school community we're seeking to protect to the greatest extent possible a lot of times that means social distancing based on most recent CDC guidelines and so you know things like that hand-washing you know masks or face coverings will be essential as we restart school thank you with the the 50 pages of information did the State Department of Education acknowledge whether or not that the State Teachers Union had any input into the into the guidelines or is this something where it could potentially be a non-starter if the teachers didn't have any buy-in on this I'm gonna pass that off to Marlene because she spent more time with the state guidance today than and I I don't want to put her on the spot because I know you know it may be on page 48 that it says it but go ahead Marlene yeah I'm thinking more about even some of the conversation that Miguel had on the call last week and I know that there were teachers a part of this and that they they said they looked for all of these groups believes that on Thursday we heard that that group was included I know there's been rebuttal to that since then over the weekend on the news but yes in our teachers our union leadership for both for II's for administrators and teachers are all involved in this process of talking about you know what's best for return because frankly they're most likely to see some of their roles change a little bit as you know it did for teachers and remote learning in Ayase for remote learning and our administrators certainly and then you know VIN is representing all of our maintenance team the way we kind of look at this is we have this core group working together but it's got representation to be able to between meetings get back to constituents to get some feedback in this plan so I know our teacher leadership will be communicating with the teachers and administrative consideration from all parties as we formulate plans and I'll be honest you know it's a little bit like a bell curve that they're going to be you know a lot of people I hope in the center that feel really good about the plan but I acknowledge that it's going to be really you you know you're impossible to be conservative enough for some people and aggressive enough for others so you know we're really trying to broaden the to the greatest extent we can the people that feel safe and feel comfortable coming back to school so that's why it's important to get those various perspectives including our high school student I had a quick question Jeff I think you might have answered this at the last floor of that meeting but first of all it was a forty nine parent-teacher sessions counting thank you running Jeff for and those that attended especially the 600-plus parents that took part in that that feedback is incredibly helpful and I know there's a long discussions but thank you you know again I'll say it at a time and again that your feedback is it helps us shape a lotta so thank you that being said there were some parents that either could not get into the me and like I know there was a issue with one meeting where they want to be able to love to get in but I know some parents in at least three that weren't able to find a session at all and we're wondering if there will be any more I guess probably know at this point what opportunity is will to be around that if any sure thanks for pointing that out that you know we don't have more of those Google meets scheduled because we are in the phase now where we really have to start to develop a plan and we will be putting forth some options like I said hopefully by late next week in the interim however we are still taking feedback I literally received one this afternoon if you send it to CPS Cove in nineteen at Cheshire k-12 dot C T dot us it's on our homepage or if you you know contact me or Marlene Solano directly we appreciate that feedback and it's considered as part of the the process yeah we've been telling folks to continue emailing that that box it is being mined there and responded to we've also been telling parents you know they have specific questions waits they're their child's grade a sing-off their principal a teacher but by and large feedback still being collected with regards to the reopening team do we know if those meetings at least will be made public to view or visit or e to tell you yes they you know our goal is to make them available after the fact to get the scheduling for the live broadcast was difficult but the we can we are planning on recording and for rebroadcast and I just lastly under normal circumstances we would normally as a board to accommodate you know large feedback from our stakeholders we normally all hold open forums we've done that in the past and there's topics I know it's very difficult to do in this regard I do know that there are stakeholders as you know mmunity that certainly want to be able to still give some input is bore members we still received quite a bit of things I hope we can find a way once some option to terrorize and are digested if if the board can't entertain is some fashion some feedback around that that being said I do believe the Town Council is gonna resume a meeting in person to a limited audience soon other board returned to the same thing and not to discuss it tonight maybe for the next meeting or just more should consider if we're ready to resume in-person meetings although that would be a very limited footprint but if we could based on the state's guidance on number of public attendees if we could entertain such a forum although this was gonna close because nonetheless we're just trying to find the point of this is trying to find ways to interact with our community beyond just Google me so we'll figure this out as we move along as the police are they enter comments or questions from the board Tim thanks so I just wanted to reiterate where what I was mentioning before just a quote I'm gonna put one quote from this NPR article and it says the the American Academy of Pediatrics argues and this is my point is to go back to having the kids in school and supporter what you're saying Jeff the AAP argues that based on the nation's experience this spring remote learning is likely to result in severe learning loss and increased social isolation so social isolation in turn can read serious social emotional and health issues quote and here's the work gets really serious child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse substance abuse depression and suicidal ideation I mean I say I don't know this stuff that well I hope everyone bears mind as you're making the decisions of going back to school and recognizing that there is the the offsetting risk of covet there but that's it thank you thank you I'm sorry I don't see any other comments but anomie raise your hand yeah thank you um I don't know if this had been discussed already but what was the time frame as to after this committee is gonna be meeting when it's gonna be reporting back to the board with final decisions or at least final recommendations yeah we hope to have some information for you guys by the end of next week that's fast thank you yeah it's beyond ambitious but we also if we're we're really gonna move we kind of have to get something in place ASAP yeah yeah I would just be remiss if I didn't say after hearing Tim's reading of the quote we all need to be really mindful of how much our public schools do for our communities and I think a lot of what Tim said to us is reason when we come around to budget season every year we need to be mindful of what our schools do for this community it's not just education it's its health its social-emotional its safety its its many many things that our public schools do for our children and I think I saw on a Facebook forum post somebody said who's going to pay for all of this and you know there we're going to be we're talking about things that could potentially cost a lot of money to this town and we need to really weigh out you know what the worth is to keeping our children and safe healthy and educating Thank You Ann and I hear that that's the point hi there's always you know numbers driven folks and understandable but the wandering eyes just reminded when you brought that up in is just in general that we budgeted approximately two hundred thousand dollars for a potential reopening costs for the Fall and before we get into the next item and I'm sure if Jeff as well updates will get throughout too but we do have a board about the fiscal meeting tomorrow morning or child to details before the meeting is over we're gonna close out the books for the year we're still very much on track to get to provide back to the town a surplus and the range 1.1 - there's an foot-pounds should know that we also asked for and a town council approved setting up an account to set aside unused education funds $20,000 to help with some of the opening cost we don't yet know if that's gonna cover e up in cost it's gonna depend upon whatever options are off for before the board hey I wish I can be specifically b02 we don't know we shall see but most more than likely I did give chairman or Ursula town council a heads up that so when I saw in his team a border son discussed this and as soon as we have of what help we will Amy will certainly look them in I don't want the folks know that chairman ORS didn't say that Town Council's absolutely apni won't be part of the process and help out so so early but sometime next week we'll have a little bit better idea turtles wash and please stay tuned let's see where this leads us but we will be seeking your input and feedback is move forward so thank you I'm sorry Jeff was there anything else in your report no I mean that was it really I mean the we are at the the starting line here in terms of developing this plan and IA that's not even fair to say because we do have so much amazing feedback from our teachers and parents that we are beyond that we're starting at a place that we're not ignorant to the feelings of the community and it's really been important and I feel really good about where we're starting and I think it'll lead to better outcomes but that's that's it for my report tonight thank you cuz any questions on Superman's report next likely agenda I do have a motion I move that the board well actually I'm story before I get into that because I'm not sure how long that's going to last and will come out of that will adjourn this meeting we do have another war education meeting and trying to find that tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.
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it's 7:30 or 8:00 o'clock day it is it is gonna be 7:30 tomorrow well tomorrow yeah or morning same YouTube channel we have a Board of Ed and the year fiscal meeting where as a whole to discuss the financial close off of our books I believe also in the other agenda item is not an executive session with possible action to follow if needed further use of repentence Solon so I don't put that out there I'm not sure when will come out of executive session this evening that being said I do have a motion to adjourn the executive session the motion is the Board of Education adjourn to the executive session to discuss a super-dense evaluation with possible action to follow and this will include that phone to attend is there a second second am seconds Mobile seconds all those in favor thank you is unanimous the Board of Ed is now adjurned executive session mic please let me know if we're staying here and or cruising a different week and it's for ready to you you welcome back those that have been waiting this time we are moving out of executive session and back into a regular meeting did not have tune in earlier before we adjourned we are item number six on the agenda tonight which is we just completed on six which is possible executive session to discuss superintendents own valuation with possible action to follow I'm happy for that we do have action to follow mr.
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white do we have any motions do you have twice yeah all right I'm closing out I'll come right back in 30 seconds okay and say and I we see you and hear you Tim but we still see a frozen screenshot of your previous session there so I don't think it matters as long as I'm not a double-double speaking oh no I lost my chats I had to close that can you send that back over to me the proposed motions sorry about that all right thank you got it thank you so first motion the Cheshire Board of Education extends the contract of Jeffrey Solon Superintendent of Schools for the period of July 1 2020 through June 30th 2023 my second discussion yes what's happening here is the the superintendent has what is described what I've heard described as an evergreen contract and basically it's a three-year contract and after every year a third following year is added on so it effectively what has what has happened for years is it it basically is always a three year contract so as soon as the first year is up it gets extended into additional year and I think that's it unless anyone else I don't know superintendent you have anything Jeff you have anything you want to add to that I would just say that you know the reason that practice exists is because of you know security for the superintendent if indeed the the performance warrants that okay thank you thank you any other comments from the board yeah I mean I can jump in I'm just gonna make my comments in relation I'm gonna make it my plan just so people understand this is after this motion I'll make another motion and I'm gonna probably just try to let my comments stand for the two different motions got it well this current motion are there any comments yeah faith and then yeah okay I just want to state my position I will be voting against the extension for this little reason that I would like to see that the board move into what I would call a clean contract in which we have defined terms in that contract we work with Jeff over the course of it we provide and scented other incentives to keep him with us be it bonuses or whatever I will be raising this later on in as we work after we reopen but it's just my stated position I think we need a clearly defined contract and that is my only reason for voting against the extension Thank You faith and I think you might have had your hand open I'm sorry no I did and I'm I put a comment sorry Owen in the chat I will be supporting the adding the third year to the to the superintendent's contract I think it sends a strong message of support for the superintendent who otherwise has does not have the job security that our faculty and other staff do with when they obtain tenure then they don't have they have that job security and that doesn't exist for these contracts and I want to send a clear message that I am in favor of dr.
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Solon staying on and and doing his good work I will be voting in favor of the contract extension thank you Thank You Anne let me check the comments and I'm sorry you had your hand up cold minutes ago I missed that did you want to be back you said Adam or Andrew and my word find a slur it's been a long apology for that thank ya I will also be voting against the contract extension mainly because of the for the reasons that faith gave I still don't support an evergreen contract I believe that then in most contracts in the world you sign a a contract for annex for whatever length that is and then as you get closer to the end you can renegotiate in my opinion that could be advantageous to to both the organization making the contract as well as the person who holds the contract that does not seem to be a an accepted position in this field but that that's one that I personally hold though but I will say is that it's been a incredibly challenging year and I think that the jeff has risen to the occasion and it's not a meant to be not as supportive it's just a philosophical difference that I have thank you thank you Adam does anyone else I have a comment to close us out and Andrews having fun with his uh water bottle that was pretty cool Thoros let me know Stan listen you know I don't think it's any surprise this year has been an unprecedented school year this pandemic is it's not planned for came out of nowhere arguably nonetheless many many public school systems across the country some were prepared some weren't I think the main reason we've done well throughout this pandemic with the school systems and that's not to say that we're on issues but compared to other school districts that I'm privy to and board chair discussions I think one of the reasons we've enabled Navigant one of the reasons we navigate through this crisis meet as much of the needs of our students our staff learn the objectives and be able to do that in a manner that you know initially took less than two weeks if they have to get ready and throughout the course get feedback improve it move it forward and know it's not the best situation you know arguably there's gonna be a second of folks that believe that worked well some that dumped overwhelming the response we've got is it worked very well the long term we shall see so I do a test at the Jeff I think in that situation heroes and I think he's been able to lead his team rather them around this that's in a dedication come through so I believe we need that continued dedication on Florida have confidence and Jeff for the fall reopening CPS and his board to get us through that so I have no no no issues there regarding the other comments with the other contract that's unfortunate kovin for many reasons I see health and safety first and foremost topics that was mentioned never materialized and the committee was looking at various contracts to see if there's different options but there are but we are in no position at this point in time we never had a discussion about that so I respect their ones opinions afternoons will simply address that so many Personnel Committee at some point can schedule it in and hopefully not get to fun on the path next year where we don't have answers to that it's worth discussion whatever comes out of that will come out of that and of course when that happens well you know my advice we can and input and so forth so so the session will happen at some point if not now they're in start next school year or somewhere between so thank you for boomers on that unless there's any other comments yeah Tony yes so I support the superintendent with regard to remote learning I give him an A for effort and I mean that I mean that in a positive way it was you know just crazy what happened and where we are where we still are our academics are strong based on based on what I've seen the information that I've seen I want the superintendent to be focused on reopening and I also want him to feel appreciated in terms of the print terms of feeling appreciated money is part of it there's other things that I definitely go into it but he is near the bottom of his reference group durg be the district reference group and in relation to that he actually asked us for for a couple different items I'm just thinking now as I'm speaking about this this is probably better left for the for the next motion so anyway my simple point is that I'm gonna support this motion and I appreciate the work that the superintendent has been doing thank you to him so barring any further comments the the motion is that the cheshire bar education extend the contract of Jeffrey have Solon superintendent schools for a period of July 1st 2020 through June 30th 2023 all those in favor this v for all those opposed - opposed motion carries flighted to thank you Tim do we have another motion or someone make another motion if you're talking you're muted sorry about the tummy thank you the Cheshire Board of Education approves a total salary of one hundred ninety five thousand five hundred twenty dollars effective July 1st 2024 the superintendent Jeffrey Solon second Kathryn seconds yeah I was just going to clarify what the increase is I was gonna do that in the discussion that's all okay okay no because I think it was just it's not the total compensation that's it gonna be one ninety four five twenty that's the base salary that's gonna be one ninety four five twenty okay you know I mean okay sorry yeah so let me make a point of order here as good clarification I know we had a bamba's back and forth so then if you can make the motion somatic talks about the base salary the Cheshire Board of Education approves a based salary of one hundred ninety five thousand five hundred twenty dollars effective July 1st 2024 Jeffrey Solon superintendent schools catherine ii yes i ii cover seconds discussion yeah so as i was just sort of moving to in the last motion and I cut myself off because this is really more appropriate as we as we started these discussions the superintendent had originally given us it had made two requests one of which was his tuition reimbursement so thank you again and congratulations again Jeff on getting your PhD your education doctorate this year he had been getting for the past few years tuition reimbursement of ten thousand two hundred dollars that to be moved into his base salary as well as a raise of four and a half percent and I think that's I think that's so the motion and so the motion that I just made does not include the it does not include any race of foreign half-sister what it does include is the tuition reimbursement being shifted into his base salary so his base salary in the current year that ends tomorrow is one hundred eighty four thousand three hundred twenty dollars and his tuition reimbursement was ten thousand two hundred dollars so the motion on the table is to shift that tuition reimbursement into his base pay and to not give him a raise of 4.5% or any raise per se in that way this year but if it feel free if anybody wants to add to that or correct me on anything so I mean and I think you can add them so there's a solely people will color around this I mean so for folks watching and I apologize it should explain little bit of history here I think we spent the last month going through some earth interview process this is a third or fourth meeting on this I think it's me number three they've run very late that's a good thing because you know the board has thoroughly discussed various aspects of just performance as we do every year so I'm very thankful the board spent the time getting feedback coming a census and a couple items one of the things that did come up there our discussions or folks that might be unaware is there's a DRG there'd be comparisons within a salaries so within Sullins ranks in there near to the bottom in terms of his peers in that category I think it's second or third I forget and I know that's all but one data point about that you know Fossum it sounds important one you know as far as we rank those peers I can't tell you if that's apples to apples and space and experience but that is a measure that often is included in every superintendent valuation likewise as our teacher salaries and other comparing districts during contract negotiations long story short there's a frame of reference here for me I I'm not going for this it's not because I don't have faith and Jeff or I think they poor job there are areas of improvement which was shared with left and in our sessions that look forward to seeing address not caring though you can't or light of the fiscal situation you know I'm concerned a number of fronts I don't know for enough money to reopen schools there's a lot of things there so from fiscal point of view that's not I don't think that Jeff doesn't deserve it I would rather try to address this in a better year when we can actually digest it but that's my opinion that being said there was a higher compensation number that why the board could not get consensus to again so but what kind of iterating is that these his base salary would increase by ten thousand two hundred dollars which was essentially Jeff's tuition reimbursement for instead college for his ph.d expenses which congratulations Jeff as always and a printed piece you could use a little bit color on here someone's gonna be wondering what that number is or any other comments from board members on this motion and thank you I will be voting in favor of rolling the 10200 tuition benefit into the base salary it's something that is in our budget has been in our budget dr.
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Solon has achieved all that he can achieve in terms of his education and I believe that his he needs to be rewarded for that in addition dr. Solon has brought our school district in four years that he's been superintendent from a very good school district to the top School District in the state of Connecticut and that's in addition to what was achieved how nimble we were able to recuperate when Kovan hipped hit our school district that he was able to do I believe in compensating people for their hard work so I will be voting in favor of rolling that tuition reimbursement into the base salary thank you thank you yes thank you so I you know I echo what and said in my view the performance of our district our student achievement numbers pretty much say it all and our focus as a Board of Ed should be always on you know sort of what's best for our students and what is going to help them achieve at the highest level and Jeff has shown himself to be pissed and talented and he's you know led his team to a point where as Ian mentioned we are a top performing district in the state of Connecticut that's not a mistake that's not luck that's that is from the top down you know I I think he has his focus is laser-like focus on are the most important goals for our community the complex thinking and social-emotional learning are it permeates the entire school system everybody is on board with it it is showing we are getting some great results from that and to me this is a time to celebrate Jeff's performance and you know I personally would have been in favor of increasing giving Jeff the 4.5 percent increase over this roll over of his tuition reimbursement it's it's not a huge amount of money and yet it is something that we could do to really show our support and our you know our satisfaction with what he's been able to accomplish so you know again as an mentioned this money is already was already in the budget basically and so it is not as much of a fiscal issue that as it might be in at another time and he's worth bass he's worth every penny so I fully support this motion and as I said I would have gone higher had I been able to but I'm definitely supportive of this increase thank you Thank You Katherine anyone else seem as you know there are no other comments the yeah yeah apologize all right as you know I get my no no no it's okay so yeah I reiterate what I said before I support the superintendent as Katherine and and maybe others just said I don't recall our academic achievement is strong I want to show the show Jeff that I appreciate him we appreciate him he is at the he is near the bottom of his turd Derby you know what is that Jeff about 20 is it about 20 school systems or something in that in the Derg I'm sorry yeah they're 1921 that when you drop out I dropped out in that comparison districts that weren't k12 and I dropped out Fairfield County because Fairfield County's kind of a different base scale so I'm second from the bus this the proposal would have made me second from the bottom I don't know what I am right now okay okay maybe last I do want you to feel appreciated you you would ask for four-and-a-half percent raise and in light of the you know the current economic situation I cannot support that right now nonetheless I don't first see any raise likely any significant raise happening in the next few years I don't care what the composition of the board of that is I think it would be difficult to get any serious raise you also the you're the superintendent there's no promotion for you so I'd like to take the opportunity to recognize you for the degree that you got similar to what similar to what I understand is in the teacher's contract where if they get a fifth year or six year above and beyond what they had they get a bump built into that so I am in support of moving your tuition reimbursement into your base pay it spiking up Jeff I acid ask a couple is to put things to quantify a number as two things unfortunately it don't have that district compared in front of me now a different name ballerina top salaries $20,000 $30,000 of pop your head talking Jeff it's like the our mute my apologies after the earlier coughing fit I incitive about muting myself so this is actually the list in front of you here this is the group I'm in red at 184 on the current base pay total comp 200 so the top of that to 55:41 240 um the average count was 242 without without oh I guess 295 273 the average compensation is 242 without Cheshire in there so right now my base pay is last and my total compensation second-to-last got it it turns our percentage increased him to the salary like this is a $10,200 that salary lying about 500 or 5% yarm you all right yeah B I mean it's just over 5% cuz it's 10,000 on 184 but I can do that for you really quick yeah yeah you know we can I'll just take you guys probably 5.2 forgives me whenever I'm going this is the offer folks wondering what the percentage is and has a range from you know literally zero to over 13 percent I think you know based on the salary so we ended up somewhere almost in the middle I guess or it is a just over 5% increase in salary the folks are wondering what entails so that's why I'm sorry to cut you off earlier but that was just opened at numbers feel more transparent as long I think we got that sure no it is a big bump but it's it's Jeff as Jeff had said you know I think it is fair to look at it as part of his compensate Jim that already exists sure so got it and that's not going away that piece lessons videos so I think it said any comments from the Board of Ed have this any further all right seeing as there is none if it's a great notes on the motion the motion before the board is that the Cheshire Board vacation approve a base salary of $195,000 from one ninety five thousand five hundred twenty dollars effective July 1st for the superintendent schools Geoff Solon are those almost a favor or favor I'll post your opposed the motion carries four to three thank you I am running out of steam tonight I don't we don't have any other board read business on the agenda for this evening I do want to thank the board dr.
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Solon for working through this process over the last 3-4 weeks we have a lot of work that one forward some some pretty big deal to work out with schools reopening which may be kicking off today that being said there is a Board of Ed fiscal meeting of the hall tomorrow morning at 7:30 it will be on YouTube live we're reviewing the status of our imbalances as alluded earlier there we were on target to move two hundred thousand dollars into a bore education role of our account to use towards reopening cost response school year and I believe we are on target to surplus based on savings on items identified couple months ago about we willing to change exact numbers will be shared tomorrow morning during a meeting for those that wish to attend the agenda is on our website I will post a link the forums I normally do if you can attend please do at this point forward we begin paying careful attention to the budgets going to next year especially in my other code reopening expenses whatever they may or may not be so please stay tuned and always will try to shares once you can around that any questions as always you can contact the Coppa 19 email address will shed earlier on this agenda that's still live for parents that have concerns or questions about the reopening please send your feedback through there you're not getting response to that let us know which I fell for you there are no other committee meetings that there's no other board of business meetings scheduled for the immediate future if that changes I'm sure we'll just based on the nature of these meetings reopening we will post leader in there ahead of time we'll be on a website we got available and quite as much possible opportunity for public comment as possible to normally do that being said do I have a motion to adjourn Katherine first sorry face she beat you to it all those in favor is unanimous thank you team thank you Jeff thank you everyone that's stuck around I don't know how many we have and the meeting is officially adjourned thank you thank you they
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or after reviewing the agenda is there any item that point to take out president hon individually or shall we follow along the entire consent agenda if there's someone I'd like to take anything out I am ocean to approve the consent agenda accidental check at second second all in favor thank you next item on the agenda is Republic's business I've three point one recommendation to review and approve the publication proposed expenditure budget for 2021 that's just well America's number them are they or that personal on board there's no questions only to the next time agenda 3.2 this is a discussion social distancing phone calls with status to that so we have a motion to proceed to get the approval to post the budget for 2020 to have emotions a posting have a second part and all in favor was thinking okay I have a three point two [Music] the question state you're feelin looks like you [Music] so special thing [Music] my daughter's over she's tired [Music] we do have teachers that are very sensitive to each other carry the face and so we clear things up [Music] you should hear about that sex bro this saying is the safest possible on our campus physical distancing from outside kitchen of mark and I think the teachers are concerned American and of course now teaches another to make sure that we're taking steps to try and ease the tension especially in the lower grades where those kids are more active you can't exactly what the minister or the state it's a good question 2,000 students police's and 51 of start in person so you know you really have seized time and 50 for the entire Hispanic can control that makes marble generous if disease is especially these days [Music] so when some teachers be shifted or locations of classrooms we change that we discuss that to ensure a larger amount of students being able to attend classes where like my high school for example say so that's one question I asked in the or 80% of all day four days a week five days a week and in order to meet those meetings when we take a couple of to your night teachers to kind of pop them to sixth grade and also how do we in effect allow us to be small great but then also cover that's enough compete because there's a lot of parents that will need daily instruction or kids that we daily instruction so then the Flex our teachers based on so never post much is still that [Music] yes [Music] this really excites me there's no further questions about this part of the route to the next item on the agenda three point three which we've already into just doctor will let you take over [Music] those experiences differences to the conference because if you look at unique advice it's too early to tell how the recent definitely up it's been faculty tutors that's Montini so this might be Elena especially a 72 that we have they have a half the kids to personally [Music] examine the patient is important over here to for the partnership [Music] to ask if the products and that's what we have to talk about substance so we set up a competition for teachers and also do some panels there are things with indiana's the expectations are higher this is not [Music] trying to smooth that Gina hi they treat some deformities to be oddly kids there have a chance to to simply and anticipated periodical commodity and how set those expectations now suppose teachers within the transportation confused to be the most challenging or the social business simply walk carefully come on it's impossible even after we spoke that we have the parents are going to be no two kids six feet apart 50 feet apart anymore they are recommended procedures like the attention given to constantly protected [Music] temperatures all those and we got to make that happen and so the word TVs and the times the school is gently and that was a consultation and the power dissipation occurs beyond the impossible recess I understand ensure the process [Music] the students read as the kids get out the car this piece of cell transport so that's the other scheduling system obviously for startling number characters and honestly it makes no sense a lot to recommend I mean [Music] so this [Music] at least not RCT kids come on [Music] to help teach basic sorority [Music] because so everybody misses the conditions and so I thought people to start out we do know the virus is being trapped and I started the typical and the salary of different evangelization the numbers dissipation and possible I think I've covered the [Music] and so we have music at 12,000 truth is breaking and teachers in custom tile speaks [Music] our school did it everybody is so you know it was amazing no my kids it's my mom so commend some kids at my moment about me getting rain Ivanova surviving really but this way this attraction-system other teachers that's better yes it's still I think most teachers the worst thing was they said you know we're not used to teaching we can't see somebody's reaction until I would say even with the zoom kids were ask questions then they're just sitting there looking waiting for somebody else to say something maybe they'll get used to that [Music] teacher each week where we can have a virtual and ask questions and get explanations directly from the teacher not just my stuff so it's a conversation because she said that won't happen I guess I'm here thanks to face and I'm around reading it and trying to you know understand in that way so if we could use one of those extra days where kids can do that and even turn call we can do something so that they have a review and they're actually having a discussion with a real person that we create thank you lastly on communication today and all sorts of activities has been most bombed released August 17 so how dramatic the fall sports before County on the previous digital and so especially outdoors most things everything 80% of respondents said personally as sports music 40% and that was parents that were especially G nominal of I was able to have access to the Chandler school district that serves about 15,000 kids 52% of the parents said if you have no forced entry so it's been a very good it's a big thing not just here it's better I think my kids wanting lots of also obviously that opportunity just dissipates I think that's kind of ironic because even the ballet can even up here outside and now that's the most right appreciate that information thrown so much appreciate that so much next item on the agenda at three point four which is announcements and the only that's what we have is that the regular army governing board meeting next month in July 14 time o'clock in this building we to join we need a motion to adjourn the motion from Jennifer have second favorite adjournment returned at six
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there's no person or in your 40th day medium numbers for 2021 so to enjoy or mitigate your funding swings so what we did dr. writing I decided to do is that tonight from quizzing that we're going to use the 108 numbers because if we have a reduction in enrollment at the 48 big numbers we don't want to preserve that because if it's low then we don't want to kind of coordinate give you a low numbers we want to go ahead and use the 108 numbers or the 1920 here and what's going to happen is the way we read that we read the Arizona cares plan it's going to be on a reimbursable basis so tonight there's one presented in May of the budget to you it's going to peel in a reimbursable basis and so whatever they increases up to we're going to have to submit an application of some sort probably through the grants management system that misstates from Germany versus up to the 90 meter syllable so that's two change instead of going on currently funding for the base level it's going to be on grants yourself so that's a big change on the base level super website so and then the gate repeatedly requirement is still we still need to follow that this is the information that we still we still need to follow the teacher in Greece was telling to post on our website this is the information that we've had to provide to the public and provide to the state since they might need to eat we had to provide this information that shows how much of an increase we provided to the teachers here it shows that from FY 22 FY 21 the average teacher salary has gone from forty eight thousand four sixty one to now fifty two thousand one hundred fifteen dollars so in coverage and critical and down on five six it shows that from FY 18 all the way through FY 21 we've given a total of percent increase of 25% again this is a state and ended requirement we have to have this on our website they increase we received to our base level as with most people in writing for teachers and this is just another requirement we have to provide it on our website and it's just information providers really page four it is the information that calculates the base of what level calculation this is the information that compares the last two fiscal years in Leyte and 20 and this is the information that shows the estimation for FY 21 + FY 19 it shows that we had 1500 30 students and FY 20 this is the 100k numbers that I was referencing earlier we had 1,800 students online in 3d this is the estimation for FY 21 I shall 1000 meter nine students and then we add a little bit more for my students these are this is my students online program this is how many students may dissipate coming into the so a total of 1,800 11 students is what we estimated for where the students that that are going to walk through that door the table down on the bottom shows that different support level ratings for each one of these categories 11.45 for the school disability 188 students and one point two six nine twelve students so over one thousand eight hundred nine students if you lean that out and we get we get funded for 2166 to the analyzed students that are greater and more carefully on page five is the grouping on those are the different categories we get additional funding for the first two lines are for k3 categories we get additional funding for KC and the cave three categories we get some additional funding for those two categories the third line is for for the yellow students and the last few lines are the spread categories yes when testimonies were the special ed categories those are called collisions some additional add-on categories on page 6 the actual teacher experience index the district does receive some additional monies for having more than experience for the teachers that rich state years experience for teachers as 9.5 initiatives average for teachers is eleven point nine for that reason the district receives five hundred and seventy thousand dollars for having those additional years of experience honest service expenses to wait $3500 the district actually receive reimbursement from the auditing Spence's we've spent in two years ago so that's reverses initiative and then visually who sees an additional eight thousand six hundred eighty four dollars for the case and we have the next section because of transportation support level this if you go back to that second page it used to be based upon prior your funding but because of the fact that we have an epidemic and we stopped taking transportation route miles in March of course we're going to lose out on transportation about miles what this day is nighted to do is they're going to allow us to use transportation route Ostrom 18:19 so for that reason they're allowing us to use the route miles from back here in Maui was to use 1282 those are the routes that eighteen ninety year because if we had to use the nineteen twenty miles we only would have received one thousand eighty six miles and by doing that and going through the calculation reaction thirteen thousand six hundred twenty six months or six thirteen thousand six hundred twenty six dollars the number of students in action on the bus was 831 so approximately forty six percent of our students friends of us which means a request for transportation for district additional assistance we still get funding placed upon Priory or ATM this money has based upon the 100k numbers for 1920 the reduction to continues but it's based at twelve percent reduction we received a reduction of $34,000 the district additional assistance allocation is now seven hundred forty eight thousand six hundred nine dollars and one of the things that we're doing differently this year is we're transferring two hundred and twenty five thousand nine hundred fifty five dollars from the district officials this one into M&M to make that energy and water savings lease payment because of the reduction that we're seeing due to the failure of the new which is a reduction of six hundred and sixty five thousand dollars we wanted to make sure that we had enough budget capacity left other expenditures we decided to transfer that so because of that reason would transform that money and again we're supposed to receive full funding in 2022 that's the general budget limit means seven to meet that determines of our it's an operation and the unrestricted capital budget limits so the revenue control of it which is driven by the number of students is eleven when an eight hundred and fifty six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars on the district additional assistance five is seven seven hundred forty eight thousand six hundred nine dollars here the ever no override is now at ten percent versus the 15 percent it's now 1 million one hundred the eighty thousand one hundred and thirteen dollars again a reduction of six hundred and thirty one thousand dollars tuition in revenue for McNary Burnham and cons with elementary school districts plus appeared the school is three hundred and seven thousand two hundred and fifteen dollars on the other side and thirty two thousand two hundred ninety dollars lot of capital site the budget balanced carry fork which is just an estimate from 1920 is three hundred and sixty thousand six hundred and eighty dollars and again the increase for energy and water savings the payment that we need to make for the twenty twenty one year is $295 again we're transferring that capital into M&O to make that payment the problem is reading which is the additional funding that the governor came out with back in 2016 that's just an estimate it's just an addition of ninety thousand six hundred twenty one dollars and the reason why I have two question marks next to it is based upon the email we received in April we don't know if that's going to continue or not because that's a right now the governor has not indicated whether or not will receive a blanket format so that when they may disappear again based upon news of the state so based upon all those calculations that M&O budget limit for 2021 if thirteen million seven hundred and fifty two thousand one hundred and seventy nine dollars and then Greeks 0.3% and on that unrestricted capital sign is five hundred and fifty four thousand nine hundred and forty four dollars I think that the last page which is page 10 which is calculated to tackle Plus recyclin the unrestricted capital budget limit is six hundred and seventy two thousand thirty nine dollars this includes carryover of 107 mm $95 which is carried over from 1922 the as I mentioned at the last board meeting we're carrying over because of the computers that have not come in yet or carrying over 117,000 into the fiscal year because of that carry over our budget capacity to company six hundred and seventy two thousand dollars and then on the brought through one side as part of the new legislation to expiration being on time is now to twenty or forty one so fund eleven it's two hundred and thirteen thousand 469 and again it's tied to salary so we're looking at about one thousand six hundred and forty one thousand six hundred fifty one dollars per teacher average plus benefits on the performance side you're looking at about three hundred three thousand bigger than $2 per FTE plus benefits funding routine we're looking at about six thousand seven hundred ninety seven dollars we're looking at about three thousand two hundred and thirty seven dollars per FTE which is average of bus benefits again this one includes about one point four five percent increase for the teacher salary increases as part of the sample under the state equalization assistance which is the cash one of the things I want to point out to you is for the twenty one here we're looking at receiving from the state approximately two point nine million dollars the last two lines you'll see where we were saving about twenty five instead evils a shipment next year so we'll need about 75% from property taxes last year we received about 23% in stated before me and stabilization received about 77% property taxes so because of the changes in the way you know the stick is rising some plants well I don't receive about 2% less in property taxes versus versus mixture so let's go to the last page this shows some estimated taxes the property tax is the primary taxes for vegetarian estimated for the primary tax rate looking at $3.58 FY 2021 versus the three dollars of 82 cents for the to the nineteen twenty year so we're looking at a decrease of about twenty four cents and then on the secondary rate which means where the override and the bonds were looking at that decreasing going from a dollar eighty two or two seventy dollars and seventeen down to a dollar you need to do so if you add those two together and you're looking at a reduction of about 58 58 58 they want 58 cents and taxes [Music] are there any questions questions Thank You Ben this is the speediest journey will begin the next meeting our regular schedule or meeting at this time that's at 5:07 a step platform we'll start with
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welcome to join a conference now please enter a meeting number followed by pound if you are the meeting host please enter your pen otherwise press pound to continue right do you have her already gavin do you want me to wait sheila can you hear me sheila i got it i had to do it twice no problem okay you're good all right i'm not sure if i'm good or not but that's okay you're good you're on already okay good evening sorry for the delay this is june 30th for a special board meeting we also have a need for an executive session and the information is as follows item 1 1.01 call for executive session pursuant to ars 383 0.03 a and 1 to discuss the potential appointment of dr joyce meyers as executive director of talent management human relations there is a need for that executive session is there a motion dr santa cruz i'll move that we move to executive session thank you mr carr is there a second second thank you ms eugetti moved and seconded any discussion seeing none we will take a vote those in favor of moving to executive session please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries 5-0 we will move to executive session of first floor conference room and reconvene or convene the board meeting upon our return our return thank you [Music] hey test test thursday friday beautiful [Music] is okay uh oh okay [Music] miss you jenny are you on the phone miss you jetty mr jetty miss you jetty can you hear us just having a couple of technical difficulties but we'll go ahead and get started miss eugetti is out of state and we will connect with her shortly she will be calling in i'm sure there'll be a bit of an interruption as that happens we apologize for the delay we were just in executive session and so i would like to call this meeting of the gilbert school governing board to order it's tuesday june 30th this is a special board meeting miss eugenie can you hear us can you hear me now yes i can hear you yes thank you okay thank you so we've called the meeting to order we will start with a moment of silence and then i will lead us in the pledge please remember cindy wood teacher from desert ridge junior high school as you engage in your moment of silence please stand as we engage in that please join me in the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america the united states of america for which it stands with liberty and justice for all very good thank you for that we are now at item 2.04 the roll call miss wilson would you please help us with that miss laurie wood here mr reed clark here michela eugetti here miss jill humphries here dr charles santa cruz here mr president all boar members are present you have a quorum thank you ms wilson please add item 2.05 to your agenda we need to approve tonight's agenda that is not listed for us i will entertain a motion for approving tonight's agenda dr santa cruz i motioned that we approve tonight's agenda but in doing so move item 6.01 uh ahead of item 3.01 thank you mr car is there a second second thank you mrs humphries any discussion seeing none we will then take a vote all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda moving 6.01 to just before item 3.01 please signify by saying i i those oppose the same hi motion carries five zero four members we will move to item 6.01 prior to the presentation dr mccord do you have some introductory remarks i do thank you dr santa cruz governing board members tonight i bring to you as a recommendation for the executive director of talent management for human relations dr joyce meyer dr meyer has been principal at mesquite high school for this past year before that she was in chandler and before that she was here in gilbert public schools where she started her career as well as was a parent of two graduates from gilbert schools so she's our recommendation thank you dr mccord item 6.01 is before you board members we'll entertain a motion i move to approve the appointment of dr joyce meyer as the executive director of talent talent management human relations for the 20 20 21 school year thank you mrs humphries ms eugetti i would like to second that thank you it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion seeing none dr santa cruz i would comment i don't know if anyone in the public comment has requested to address this particular item but if they have i think it'd be worth acknowledging the public before we make the vote thank you and i don't see any requests to speak to that item dr santa cruz would could i so go right ahead miss i i would like to just say that i i am so glad we are having this position and we could not have anybody better than dr joyce meyer you we appreciate that additional remarks or commentary seeing none we will vote all those in favor of approval of item 6.01 that is the appointment of dr joyce meyers as executive director of talent management human relations for the 2020-2021 school year will please signify by saying i i i those are those opposed the same motion carries five zero we'll move to item three points dr santa cruz can we have miss dr meyer oh yes i wanted just to roll right back i know i appreciate that i know she was okay with it too congratulations dr meyer my apologies i was just in a hurry there who do want to hear from you congratulations thank you i just want to take this moment to thank you dr santa cruz and the governing board this is an amazing opportunity and i look forward to serving gilbert public schools i do want to thank dr mccord for his trust in me and his leadership i've had an amazing year at mesquite high school so i can't leave without saying thank you wildcats and i'm forever a wildcat so great place to make my last school stop so thank you thank you mr myers [Applause] and thank you for the interruption there dr mccord we'll now move to item 3.01 a plan to reopen schools a presentation for the 2021 school year dr mccord would you want to introduce that thank you dr santa cruz governing board members first of all to everybody welcome this evening thank you for attending our special board meeting those that could be here in person i know there's several people online this is a very highly anticipated uh presentation before we get going i'd like to just read some remarks that i was thinking about um over the last couple days and i wanted to put them on paper just so um everyone could hear uh this evening we'd like to present to you our reopening plan for the 2020-2021 school year but first i'd like to take you back to monday march 9th that was the day when reality set in for me as superintendent regarding the coronavirus it was spring break and i just finished putting up some shiplap on my island in my kitchen uh everything was right in the world i was pretty proud of what i accomplished and is feeling pretty good about my woodworking abilities i remember sitting on the couch that evening and the news was on the newscaster was talking about the potential widespread of the virus in arizona this of course piqued my interest because just before spring break we called our crisis team together to discuss preliminary plans if the virus hit arizona likely to hit the state of washington or the country of italy at that time i'm not sure anyone in the room really thought it would be something to worry about when i went to work in the morning on march 10th i knew things were going in a different direction as we made our way through the week i knew the clock was ticking and we had to make a decision regarding starting school up again after spring break on friday march 13th we decided to close down the district it definitely wasn't a popular decision nor an easy one but i believe it was the right one a couple days later governor ducey closed down all the schools for the remainder of the school year our teachers support staff principals technology department teaching and learning department all stepped up to create the best remote learning experience for our students as we possibly could given the amount of time we had to put that in place the experience wasn't perfect by any means for our students or our staff but it was close to perfect as we could get our operations department and nutrition services department sanitized our schools and fed our students while we were closed as a superintendent i don't know if i can remember a time when i've been more proud and honored to work with such amazing people we made it through the rest of the quarter and even had a virtual graduation which wasn't perfect either we knew that we had to focus on reopening our school system come august 5th so we assembled a task force comprised of 130 administrators educators support staff and parents the goal of the task force was to offer options for opportunities to learn when we returned to school many hours many lengthy discussions a few tears and even a few laughs went into the making of the reopening plan our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning dr barbara newman headed up the task force and has been the glue that has held all of this together we've reviewed this presentation modified it reviewed it again and modified it again and reviewed it and modified it again and at noon yesterday it was ready to go then at 3 pm yesterday governor ducey held a press conference regarding an update on the pandemic in arizona cases have been steadily on the rise and that has been concerning for many including our students staff and families during governor ducey's press conference he announced an executive order pertaining to schools here's a portion of that executive order states all schools shall delay the start of in-person classes for the year that begins july 1st 2020 until august 17 but schools may begin the year on their regularly planned start date prior to august 17 2020 through distance learning now obviously this executive order made eyebrows go up and jaws drop this executive order threw a wrinkle into what you may hear tonight but it doesn't change our approach to what we can offer students when we return before dr newman starts a presentation i'd like to say this to our students you've been through so much in the last four months and as a father as an educator and as a superintendent i wish i could change all of that for you i'm truly sorry for what you've had to endure but i'm very very proud of your resiliency and your grit and to our staff thank you thank you for caring about our students thank you for going several extra miles to get the job done and thank you for your unselfish hearts we know that in times of crisis everyone reacts differently it's human nature what i want you to know is that i've heard your thoughts concerns or your lack of concern your fears or your lack of fear please know none of your words have fallen on deaf ears our plan that we will present to you tonight will not be perfect but i promise you we will do all we can to make our students educational experience and our employees work experience as safe and as gratifying as we possibly can we won't have all the answers tonight but we will do all we can to get those answers to make everyone feel more at ease i love this school district i love our students and families and i love working with some of the most amazing people in the world gilbert public schools has been around for over a hundred years it's been successful for one reason and one reason only and that's the people it works with and serves now here's dr newman thank you good evening dr santa cruz governing board members and dr mccord thank you could you speak into the mic a little bit more please sir thank you good evening dr santa cruz governing board members and dr mccord what we have for you here is as dr mccord mentioned the plan that we have created and the reason why we created it is because we want to provide the best educational experience for our students and also choices for our families dr mccord mentioned 130 more than 130 committee members we had our advisory committee we had subcommittees in addition to that we had just under 26 000 survey responses we had additional feedback whether that be emails or that be meetings or phone calls conversations a lot of conversations with teachers and administrators techs and support staff tonight's presentation um different than before is going to be more of the sharing of the plan instead of subcommittee reports which we had considered previously our guiding principles through all of this work was to be sure that we were and everyone understood that we were obligated to find ways to serve all of our students even during times of disruption when remote learning requires them to connect from home we're responsible for the needs and meeting those needs of all of our students whether that be from low-income backgrounds students with disabilities and our english language learners we know that decisions are best made by consulting those closest to the problem including school leaders health officials community leaders and of course our community and our parents we added a fourth guiding principle as we began and we worked through our work and that was resource limitations to include product availability and funding levels must be considered to ensure that we operate in a fiscally responsible manner so through those guiding principles we determined what our commitments were to our community and to each other we wanted to be sure that we're ensuring the health and safety of our students staff and families provide a high quality education for all of our students ensure the social emotional well-being of our students staff and families we wanted to offer choices based on what's best for our students academically and for their health and wellness which includes both in-person and online learning options provide support to students who experience a disruption in their learning due to sickness or future closures and also we've added our last commitment which was create a plan that is flexible that could be modified as circumstances change and as you already know plans have already changed and so our plans are fluid so due to that disruption whether that be a disruption for an individual student whether that be disruption for a classroom for a campus or an entire state we want to be sure that we're able to safely run our services and also abide by local or state orders miss newman can i ask a question on that slide i appreciate the intent but i want to clarify that when we say we're going to ensure the health and safety of our students staff and families that's not something we truly can do we can do everything we can to mitigate the risks but we're living in a global pandemic and we simply can't promise that everybody will remain healthy so i understand the intent behind the word but i don't want anyone to misunderstand the intent on that thank you for that as we've mentioned previously we want to provide choices for our families and we have three delivery models for those choices the first option would be full time in person our our students would go to school five days a week and they would receive their education in their campus classroom another option option b would which is what we call our flex option that's a combination of in person and online and i will go into more detail a little bit later but our students would receive some of their instruction online and some of their instruction in person and then option c for families that feel as if it's safest for their children to attend just online instruction we have our gps global academy and that provides the option for our students to receive full-time instruction from our gps global academy teachers we want to be sure that whichever option the family chooses we were providing a quality education for our students and also that we had support for individual student disruption if that were to occur dr newman can i just say i think there's been a little concern that maybe we're just going to focus on we're only going to offer one of these like if there's going to be we have to settle on one of these not that we're going to be able to offer all three of these concurrently that's the plan that we would offer all three of these and that families would choose what works best and i know you're going to go through that but i just wanted to kind of if you want to address that a little bit make sure we do that absolutely the plan is all-inclusive and we are um we have plans in place we are ready we're willing and we're able to provide all of those three options for whichever option the family chooses for his or her children and um we will be able to do that due to the fact that we will if we need to and as the presentation continues we'll be able to do that because we will make sure that we have teachers and staff in the places that are most appropriate to be sure that all of our kids are receiving the educational opportunity in whichever option that they choose so they will be working at the same time concurrently yes thank you for that i guess except when we have when we have an executive order that says we can't be in person so we'll have to work through that yes so our plan is to be sure that we have everything in place that we are able to do that and then of course when something outside of our own um ability to make those decisions then that would happen but we would within that provide disruption time so for example our full-time in-person campus classroom our students for example if there is a disruption or a closure our students would continue to receive their instruction with their classroom teacher so every single option would remain it would just look a little differently during that disruption so we thought it might be helpful to go through each of the three options and explain a little bit about what it might look like for a student and then as well talk about what are some ways that it will also how it will look for some of our staff and also some of the precautions that we're putting in place depending on what those options are so our option a school campus with safety precautions our students would attend school five full days per week there will be social emotional supports in place for our students there will be accommodations and support services provided whether that be for our ell students our students with disabilities will our title students will continue to have support for them at our title campuses our students because they're going to campus five days a week all day long they will receive their elective classes they'll attend their special area classes as well desks and tables would be facing in one direction in rows whenever possible during that time there might be marked tables and areas so students know where the safety areas are for them to be to make sure that they're not in too close of proximity whenever possible classroom visitors would be need to be scheduled we would not have visitors just showing up on a campus and going into a classroom they would schedule that to make sure that they're adhering to guidelines there'd be hand washing sanitizing multiple times each day classroom when our students arrive on the campus they would report directly to their classroom there would be controlled student movement throughout the campus as i mentioned there would be support during disruption periods so if a student was sick the student would continue to be supported by his or her classroom teacher the individual student supplies would be what we would utilize whenever possible and any other items that would not be able to happen that way we would make sure that they are sanitized we would have class size considerations so a very careful review of their master schedule and making sure that we're leveling classrooms so that we're able to keep our class sizes in a at a number that is most appropriate and best for our students and our teachers with that too there's some cleaning and disinfecting that will happen there will be increased daily cleaning and disinfecting of high traffic areas doors counters sinks and other horizontal surfaces the restroom and health office touch point areas will be disinfected twice daily guidelines and supplies for cleaning the desk and tables provided to each classroom teacher there will be use of hydroxyl ozone machines to disinfect larger areas there will be signage for safe hygiene and hand washing posted throughout the classroom sinks and rough restrooms and our water fountains would be closed as a result of making sure that we're adhering to safety guidelines in addition for cafeteria our salad bars would be at this moment initially eliminated at the start of the school year choice is going to be provided to our students for meals but those will be prepared in the morning and packaged to facilitate placing on student trays to minimize clean up and spillage cafeteria tables will be marked decreasing table capacity sometimes by 30 or 50 percent as we are able to do that to minimize proximity to other students additional garbage cans will be provided for disposal of completed meal packaging and leftovers and after each lunch period tables and seats will be wiped down for the next group of students there's some health considerations and plans in place that we want to be sure that you are aware of we will have a parent at a station form that parents will review the list of symptoms daily that expectation is that our parents will screen their students before school each morning to make sure for example has their child experienced any of the following a fever 100 degrees point 100.4 degrees or greater cough muscle aches shortness of breath diarrhea questions about if the child recently has been in close contact with anyone who's tested positive for cova 19 or if anyone in the household's been diagnosed with coca-19 and then they would if as they go through their their testing that if that none of those are the case then they would send their students it would be safe for their students to be at school in addition there will be district health protocols for students and staff stringent health office requirements for students returning from illnesses so students when they return after being sick they would be checking in with a nurse and the nurse will be going through a protocol to be sure that the student is well age-appropriate education on good hygiene including what constitutes close contact making sure that staff is educated on signs and symptoms to help identify students notification to our staff and parents of positive contacts there's a student letter and a parent letter face coverings we will be utilizing base coverings per state and local agency guidelines right now that is for all students first through 12th grade they are required to wear space coverings as of today we will continue to follow our state and local agency orders and there may be an exception that will be documented health concerns to be handled the same as we do with our vaccination requirements that will all be handled through our health office in addition there will be a suspension of chronic absenteeism notification and reporting due to coven 19.
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here I'm in need I'm the director of Family School community partnerships and so this is a important part of the work that we're doing is wanting to talk more with Julie students and families about their feelings their thoughts fears anything you want to tell us about coming back to school in September so I'm gonna let dr. Walzer through also in June a little bit of welcome to and then we'll jump into how do you raise your hand tell us a little bit about what school you're in and what grade and your thoughts so mr.
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in session to hear from all of you about your thoughts about reopening and dr. Tsao will talk more about that happy July first beautiful day beautiful so if everyone would please mute themselves that would be wonderful and that will stop any of the background noise so our protocol this morning will be after dr. Sal's introduction to what we were doing and what we'd like to get out of this session we will then break you into groups you will be into in groups for about 20 minutes answering one key question we will be asking you to assign a person to be the recorder for your group on the blue lips sheet that I've shared with everyone and that you can manipulate and use and then also to assign a reporter to your group so when we come back to a larger group you can give us your top three ideas for reopening schools so again welcome and I'm going to turn it over to dr.
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