frame the next so there's three meetings in between committee meetings and the architects will be working on the priorities that mr. McCarthy was just asking about on June 7th there will be another public forum and the plan is to have those options three four or five different options costs concerns except strengths weaknesses prepared for a public forum just like this on June 7th in terms of going to the voters part of getting and having text on with us they can really navigate the state bureaucracy in terms of the significant reimbursement for building projects when you either renovate his new or build a brand new facility whatever we might do or do nothing or part of our ten-year plan whatever ends up happening but the there's an ambitious plan to see if we can get this to somewhere in the November range for on referendum if that happens part of that has to do with state deadlines and either waiting another year in terms of knowing if we're going to get the reimbursement or not and how fast we can move the project along that does answer the questions I certainly encouraged more the better I mean yeah of course we were you know we had the third of the vote for the library and we're concerns about we wanted to do that but then what we won't really want to do our schools so let's do it you know so I don't this is a drag on exactly quite honestly the way the our committee is is focusing is we want to make the best decisions for our children our staff for the community we are not going to be rushing this project at all we are going to be taking our time and we're going to be doing it correctly because this is going to be lasting us for quite a few years so we do have you know November in mind but again we're not going to skip any steps to get there just to get a vote we want to do it right the first time thank you hey good evening it's Lisa a snob and I'm at 10 Belden Hill in Brookfield first of all I just want to thank superintendent Burrell and the board and this committee for doing this for doing this project it is obviously long overdue and this is great information that we're learning just a couple things and I'd like to get tech times perspective on this so you guys said that were 60 plus years for average life how does that compare to other towns statewide and how about nationally is it where are we kind of on the scale are we way overdue well each community varies on average past 50 years of expect of of use I think that's that's beyond the timeframe where you would need a significant capital improvement to the structure and some of ours are what did you say it's it's 60 is the average so yeah the original construction of Center Elementary is 1937 so so there so there's the original construction of each building on average that's 60 plus years and then there's these there's I think each building has I think at least two additions some through the 70s 80s and 90s and I thought you gave a good I guess a fair representation of conditions but if you look at our conditions in Brookfield again on some of the other towns that you've seen where do we stand in comparison when you go into these schools and you go we're up here we're somewhere in the middle or we really need help and be honest yeah no I certainly will be I think you've heard in our presentation that there's not there's a lot of areas that need concern that there are areas of concern and they're passed their their their useful life I don't know if we walk through any of the buildings and we're of the condition so that that's the good thing and maybe that's what we were trying to convey is you could see that the community they added in different errors to address their concerns and they've they've tried to maintain as best you can but it's it's kind of like your home if you have a 60 year old home it's time for significant major capital improvements and and that's the challenge here and and when you add two buildings over a series of decades you hear you started to hear a little bit of the complexity of or the concerns that you have related to building systems but also like Building Code jeez can we add to the building again you can only you can only add so many times on the building code so that those layers those additional pieces to the building are all provide challenges to to this master plan that we that we need to look at so where do we stack up are we I don't I guess to be honest with you I don't I don't think they're the worst we've seen we've seen certainly worse conditions and some of the schools but I don't I don't think any one school is in good shape overall okay to summarize in a couple and lastly just very quick I heard you talk about in each of the four schools what got me very troubled was limited and outdated security and it it's troubling that that didn't show up in any of the summaries and I personally as a mom of a Brookfield high schooler and whiskey near would like that to be a priority all right not necessarily above other things but certainly in the summary that we need to address we can add that to the the summaries but I will say your schools yeah your schools do handle security like all municipalities that I go into that have schools of this age so you've upgraded the front entrance vestibule you put in the security measures that need to be there to make them safe you've locked down the exterior doors during the occupied hour so schools that have been built that are older have renovated and done exactly what you've done and it's very common throughout but we're looking for the future so that should definitely show up in the summary in my opinion thank you very much and thanks again you guys Laura orabeoni 95 Stony Hill Road I I I don't think I heard anything tonight in terms of severity of the problems that I would say is has not been echoed in the community already and you know I think we all from what I understand and what I've heard I think we all feel that something has to be done right not doing anything is not really an option so it's not just a matter of getting something to a vote right but we want to get something to a vote that the community will feel that they can support and that they have contributed to and that they buy into and so I appreciate the fact that you're doing these three workshops and looking for community input there was nothing that I'm aware of in any of the publicity for this meeting the Facebook posts in the email that said that you were going to be collecting community input this meeting was publicized has you know your presentation so I don't know if any one of the people here knew that that's what that this was one of the three opportunities for the community to come in and say what we think is important and if we don't have community buy-in it doesn't matter when we vote or what we vote on people are going to say well I didn't get to say that well I don't think this is what we should do and we won't pass anything so my question is what is the plan and I think it has to be really proactive and strong what is the plan to get the community to support whatever it is that this committee comes out comes up with and how do how can people who are invested in this project top so missus Orban the posts that went out and school messages and so forth did talk about community input I know as a committee we took a look at those and put those together so that that was part of tonight but the the other part is the June 7th meeting where viable options will be discussed as another opportunity for input and at the end of the evening we're gonna be putting a survey up as well this has about 15 different areas where people could provide their input as well so June 7th will be another opportunity in person the survey will be at the end of tonight and of course the input right now okay so I I'm gonna I'm gonna stick on this because I don't want to get to November or whenever we vote and have everybody say like they did with the library which had and my issue is not the library but tons of meetings and coffees come talk if the community says well that's that's not what I asked for I'm gonna vote no all of this work will be for nothing the Facebook posts did not say this is about community input it didn't I just looked because I'm not gonna get up here and say that they didn't I didn't know what I was talking about they didn't so no it's fine but you can't get people to come to a meeting right I mean look at how many people are here so that I think three meetings is not enough right don't we all know that people they don't come to meetings so there has to be more what else what else is there gonna be this is probably the most expensive project brookfield will do in its 10 year capital plan there's got to be more if you don't have an answer right now that so no III think you're making valid points and no that was a concern of ours we talked amongst ourselves about that and you know brought up the library as well is that you can put down there as many times as you think is enough and people are still gonna say they didn't know about it so it is a concern we will have the forums and you know we'll get out any other suggestions that you have will take and we agree we need to get out and educate the the residents okay thank you i rated stephan 11 old woods road thank you for the work you're doing and i had a question for you guys since you're doing this is basically an assessment presentation about the concerns and the areas of need and things pass their useful life and so forth all the things we've heard tonight but while I understand we're not presenting any plan tonight if some of you or all of you could kind of just summarize where you see on some priority thought give some thought to priority of what are the greatest concerns that you had about what you saw what are the greatest areas of need I'm not saying necessarily that are gonna get addressed first because of course there might be smaller things that are able to be addressed first so I'm not suggesting a course of action I'm just saying from an assessment standpoint what are the areas you saw that caused you the greatest concern building specific parts of buildings so forth from a site perspective anything that can has a health safety and welfare component to it as our trip hazard is there is there a code compliant issue those are the types of things that I would prioritize whether it's the curbing and sidewalk system they have in front some of in front of some of the schools there's integral concrete walk and curb which is a newer way of construction that's done at whiskey near and if and it doesn't cause differential settlement between the two there's ways of grinding down concrete and and maintaining it over the time that you have until you decide to go for a full replacement from an MEP perspective I would say the two biggest concerns is energy efficiency and maintenance I'm given the age of most of your systems they're you know not very energy efficient compared to modern systems and because of the age there's a decent amount of maintenance s need to be done to them if you were to prioritize building wise in that regard how would you prioritize the most at least energy efficient building that would have to be Wisconsin mostly Oh huckleberry next I'll come every second thank you one of the concerns I had the least is is the special layout the corridors Ian efficiencies when it comes to the way the spaces are arranged it's it's more I'm more concerned with the safety of the occupants so we're looking at building code issues EDA accessibility you know you want all the students to have the the same opportunities as everyone else prioritizing the schools it seems like the older schools have the most problems the newer schools have gotten the most attention and upkeep it recently so and to be clear on it you're talking that Center and huckleberry being the oldest boots yeah I was just gonna say to simplify a Senator in huckleberry from an architectural standpoint building envelope interior exterior code type of construction ability to add and modify big picture those are the two area two buildings two sites that for for me our concern great thank you very much appreciate it good evening Deborah Kerr case Meadow View Drive um I'm a little confused um I guess I didn't really know enough about the nature of how this was all gonna play out that was additional meetings I just thought it was tonight but are you all gonna be on the committee on the panel every meeting or are you all gonna be here as well or is it gonna once you've done your part are you releasing it to us and then we go according to your findings how is that gonna play out so this is one component to this master plan we'll be here participating working with the community and the committee through the design options and prioritization of what to you know of options of what to do in the community through the master planning so to answer a question related to a previous question related to the uniqueness I think what's unique about this town and your approach is that you had the foresight to look at all the schools master planning and that's also part of our job so it's not just about the first project it's about trying to place priorities and in the long range plan so that you have a kind of a game plan for the entire future so yes we'll be here through design options also according to what school would be worked on next I was kind of expecting to hear you all tell us what the worst school was and this is what needs to be done right now but I get the feel that obviously they all need some work we know that and then a lot of it is going to be our public input on which goes next is that how we're doing this I just want to get some clarification on that because I'm a little confused on what's going to be next like is it going to be whisking near school and then this is what's going to get done or is it gonna be center school or whatever school like I'm a little confused on the process sure sure so the idea of this evening is we thought it was a good stop point to share what we found in the existing conditions so yes we are are part of our work is to trial prioritize our concerns and proposed remediation of those concerns the other piece is the programmatic piece the state reimbursement piece so there's probably about a half dozen dozen other elements that we have to work into great it's not just existing conditions we're gonna take all of that prioritize it develop options and come back okay only because we know that structurally you know they're sound as of right now our children are in there but obviously things are outdated and windows are outdated I'm just surprised that no further other findings like this the only findings that you tested for or is there gonna be additional tests because like you didn't speak of any environmental findings such as there's been no lead testing mold spore testing radon testings in any of the schools so we know that things are outdated in terms of the heating system well you know electrical systems and stuff like that I'm just surprised that no other further testing was done on what is caught what's going on environmentally in those schools to help make our decision you know and what school needs to be addressed first you know yeah I understand your point and your concern and it's a valid one and we'll take it back to the committee our charge was to to take a look at each school visually observe the conditions and give an assessment of the various different components of the building and then as far as security also I can tell you right now my child goes to center school and the parent pick-up line I have no choice but to pick up my daughter for our own household scheduling purposes and I can tell you that I'm literally chopped on that line sometimes up to 30 minutes trapped when I say trapped if I'm not trapped going in then the bus's block us off so aside from that I find it a big humongous security breach what goes on in the back of that school there's kindergarteners they're like they're waist-high windows there's air conditioning units that are in the windows anybody could just bust through there the fencing is dilapidated and falling down there's a dilapidated structure that backs up to the backyard there anybody can be living in there for weeks nobody would know that's a huge concern to me also where huckleberry school playgrounds are not only huckleberry but center school is well a stranger can literally drive onto the property and face to face with a child on that playground so that is a huge concern for me as a parent also whisk in here when I say environmental findings the portables over atmosphere my son is turning there and during the winter he saw mice daily in the portables going back and forth so I'm very concerned about the health of what goes on there I know that there are 16 ators I have spoke with the principal the teachers have never seen mice themselves but they said they've seen evidence of Mice and mice droppings so that's a huge concern for me as well as a safety concern of there's a big disconnect from what goes on there safety wise in the portables over at whisk and air so I'd love that to be addressed right away thank you for coming up and talking because this is exactly why we're here tonight and exactly what we needed to hear thank you thank you I just wanted to echo that that's exactly why I asked for the microphone I you know to to piggyback on what Laura said maybe there was a miscommunication about what the purpose of tonight's meeting is but that's exactly what we want to hear we want to hear from all the parents who are in and out of the schools daily people who are in the PTO or in the school for conferences or volunteering we you know you're in the school's day in and day out and these are the things the Tecton folks need to hear so thank you very much buzzing in and passes and things like that all of our schools they do an amazing job checking out everyone's ID so I don't want that to be you know that to be taken that way because that's not the case I just the overall updating of just the layout of our schools and extra security I think you know we know what goes on today and those things need to be addressed oh as well as read on I would like it that because we live in a lockdown world today that their lockdown where the closets are are right by doors I would like for coat closets to be in interiors of the classrooms so that got for a bit of lockdown in a serious situation those children are not lines up in front of a wall they're lines up in an interior wall where they're protected thanks mrs.
Cooke Kayson you know it's it's interest had some of that discussion the other day we were talking about those things so just so you know we weren't discussing that and thank you for for all that detail input that's really important I do have to at this point I think it's very important and mrs. case just mentioned that the the staff maintenance staff custodial staff our teachers administration they really do do the best with what we have and we know we have aging facilities and they have to be complimented on that as we talked about it's through programming that we secure our facilities we have harden them over the last few years for sure and for schools of this age it's very very good what we have but it isn't modernized for that for that particular topic people have said it's kind of sad to me and I know it's not a typical to Brookfield but of the nearly 2700 children in our school system there are maybe 75 parents here at most so how do we plan on getting public input on these important questions from the other people not only the other parents who aren't here but the rest of the community actually Thank You um for that and Laura thank you for bringing that up - that is something that definitely the committee has to sit down and discuss we do have a brand new Facebook page that was started recently and a web page that we're developing if you have any suggestions again we're going to be handing out a survey and you know this is really we do this is your our community your kids go to the schools our kids go to the schools and this is something that we want to work with you together on we don't want you to come back and say you didn't listen to us because that's not what a community is about so I would welcome you know the input as ways that we can reach out I know that the Brookfield school system did send out announcements or I was told they were sending out announcements to the parents through their communications I'm open we're open we're happy to talk about it and that's why we're here the other point is just sorry the committee meetings are also public meeting so anybody could come to those those are noticed and posted there's there will be three and I think it'll be up on the slides again and this this PowerPoint will be posted for everybody after the meeting this evening the other pieces is the June 7th will be another forum and then while kids don't go to school in the summer the committee will work in the summer so there's no more opportunity for community input in that kind of a thing - and the staff there are wonderful we're very happy we moved to Brookfield for the school district we didn't move to the other towns you know specifically but there are some serious security concerns that I've seen and I just wanted to emphasize to you if you could take that into account even when talking about if it gets to redesigning classrooms but what she said about hi I'm Jamie clavin's 11 we'll run I just I don't know if you are in huckleberry at what time you were in huckleberry but if you were on the first floor of huckleberry later in the afternoon then you might have gotten a better idea of the plumbing in huckleberry because those bathrooms especially the boys bathroom backs up more at that time I think then it's let's say you were there first thing on Monday but the bathrooms in huckleberry I wouldn't call them bathrooms I'm a parent my kids my son is in his last year of huckleberry but and I work in the schools as well as a substitute but not just like the mice and everything there's a lot of ants in the classrooms now so more in more classrooms have ant problems so know that wants to be addressed I know they try and get rid of them but they keep coming back in very big clusters and these are not dirty teachers or dirty like kids but they seem to be coming back and it's not just like one or two like it's multiple multiple classrooms sorry but I did get louder I did I did get I do have an idea for reaching more people and you know because this is not going to cut it for a vote and we saw that with the library because everybody has their own ideas and it becomes telephone and everybody you know is like oh that's not what I heard I didn't know that and that's what will happen with this but if we can somehow go live with this meeting on Facebook then those who like to post on Facebook can't post anything but what they're hearing instead of what they might want you to hear this is being streamed live right now it doesn't matter they're not watching the stream but they're on Facebook oh and they're writing okay and they're commenting and they're commenting on comments and then it becomes like a big game of telephone well we we do have that and that's a great suggestion and I have met with Eric Conklin who is our technician for the web pages and and things of that nature and we are going to put a link on the Facebook page and we will be putting a link on the web page but again we just started doing that and but great suggestion because then you can tag people and people can know corrected join yes and you can have you can even have high schoolers come in and monitor certain comments so people can feel like they are contributing and their questions can be heard even if they're home with a child who has 102 fever or you know at the soccer field or whatever but they could still be part of it absolutely absolutely that was really it for me thank you just a quick aside there are monthly pest management visits and check-ins and logs filled out custodians are on top of that much of it comes to the staff behavior and the allowing of snacks in classrooms that lead to certain issues where you do have pests so we are on top of that and maintain that and immediately if we ever saw a rodent we immediately would address it and do address it so you know I need to make sure you're aware that our custodians and maintenance staff are really on top of that the other piece excuse me I'm sorry the other piece is I asked the Board of Education if they would work with me and support an ad hoc security task force a committee is another subcommittee of the board last month at our last meeting and so we're gonna talk a little bit about that at our special meeting on Monday night which is April 2nd and that's a makeup meeting from the March 21st cancellation due to weather it's been one of those winters and so if we can get that subcommittee going we'll be working with our police chief I see Jay over in the back there as well as getting some members of the community on that committee for what we could do in the here-and-now obviously in concert with what we're finding from the from the architects study thank you hi mark and Jane row 11 Rachel a farm Road I have a couple questions for the architects my first question I understand this is a long term process well my first question is basically since you've walked all the schools you've seen and commented on multiple different types of systems throughout the schools did you come across any immediate life safety issues and if so did you present them to the board for immediate review instead of waiting six months or eight months to get funding for a larger project short answer is no we didn't see any immediate life safety issues related to any of the topics and categories that so none come with you I mean you've said you explored for instance like a doors that weren't closing for instance fire or electrical panels that were past age or almost near past age right none of that is any of a concern right now well sure it's a concern well concerned from now until when we estimate that the funding would be you know say six months from now is there anything that you would consider a life safety issue and you need to be addressed now instead of six months from now it's all I'm asking from a building system standpoint I didn't hear or wasn't notified of any immediate concerns that have to be completed today okay and my second question is um can you explain a little bit more about the meeting in I guess it's gonna be June where you're gonna present your recommendations and if and when you print those present those recommendations are they gonna be multi-layered in terms of we're not just gonna get 50 million for a new school or 25 million to renovate a school are we gonna get multiple projects multiple layers in terms of pricing and different sources you talked about different sources of grants is that all gonna be in June we're expecting that out yeah there's a lot of work to do between now and June the purpose of the June meeting is to present options and those options will include either additions renovations isolated renovations to each school and it'll have not only the scope of work it'll have order magnitude costs it'll also have projected state reimbursement under their current regulations potential timeframe on when renovations additions new whatever they may be when those projects would take place and it would be in an ideal world each option is going to show the impact of all the four schools so that's so again it's a comprehensive and that's the June yeah that's the intent and again the intent of the June public forum is similar to this we want to hear the feedback we want it's not like there's one preferred option that's presented we're gonna say this is what we think are some options may be out of that June 6 meeting grows another option which is completely okay okay and that's the intent okay thank you sure hello Irene Korea 45 West whiskey near Road I wanted to know well this presentation be available online somewhere ok ok great ok one my three daughters in the school system so one thing I wanted to bring up is at whisk in year I know when you walk into the portables I can smell the mold immediately walking in and I'm very sensitive to that so I think those are beyond their useful life the traffic I live on West with skinnier drop-off pickup it's right the traffic to do parent pick-up is the most confusing thing I've ever experienced ever you have to wait for the buses to go you definitely needs a new flow plan for you know pickup drop-off and with the buses in huckleberry the plumbing in the bathrooms is terrible I know a lot of other parents have said that even for the teachers I've used the adult bathrooms and I know one of them has I don't know how anybody could turn around and early you have to open the door stand behind the toilet it's it's pretty bad um and there's also some of the classrooms have sinks for the kids those all look really tired and old so when you're thinking about not just the main bathrooms the classrooms the facilities in the classrooms I need to be updated also a suggestion to get on some feedback I remember when they did the four corners they put out a survey like do you like this construction this lamppost maybe something like that where you can maybe list your priorities there might be a good idea so good luck thank you for this it was very important okay okay it's gonna be electronic the survey will be available this evening I don't have it ready to go and we'll have the address for it and then we'll email it out and we'll post it and all of that so people can participate in that okay great excellent thank you and in addition to that I'm sorry we will have hard copies available tonight for you to take home you could fill out now you could take it home it we there is also in Town Hall we're going to have the surveys available with a box that you can put them in there also okay okay great thank you Victor Lopes 42 up to throat South kind of a million thoughts and maybe some humble suggestions so thoughts aspirations don't envy you for the process it sounds ridiculously daunting the library weather was voted down or approved it was disappointing that we couldn't sort of rally around the concept of a library I certainly hope it doesn't happen with the schools so when I say aspiration I guess what I'm thinking is it's hard for me to conceive how you will get you know 15 16 thousand residents to think about we're gonna compress two schools into one school or four schools into one school or three schools into two or whatever the configuration may we're gonna fix the tiles here and the sinks there and the who knows what I mean it's just a very daunting process so thank you all for undertaking this I think sort of following on that I do hope inclusivity and again I don't know how you achieve it entirely I do know I didn't live here or five years ago or whenever the four corners project was started the stuff that I saw the outputs I saw from that what I saw as the lead up to those outputs were a number of workshops where community folks were brought in and actually walked through concepts and ideas I think that's what happened maybe it was just a really good YouTube video I don't know or pictures that someone doctored but anyway I thought that was really good I would also suggest that the committee while I know it's a significant commitment and most of the people here are already serving on different boards I would strongly recommend more at-large involvement whether those are parents or non parents sorry I've actually been through all the schools I have three kids I am a bit of a pessimist at times I'm not particularly optimistic that my youngest who is about to start kindergarten will actually benefit from any of this I hope I'm wrong but I'm super supportive of whatever it is we do I hope we take the same pride in the school plant that we've taken in our fields which all seem to get very high marks a couple of my kids play sports some don't some prefer to act I don't know but it's all important and I guess I'll finish off by thanking everyone when we chose Brookfield part of it was around education I disappointed at the physical plant not gonna lie a bit embarrassing I grew up in Danbury I find that a lot of the schools in Berea are actually in much better condition than the schools here which is a bit sad but the the support from the teachers curriculum administration etc had been top-notch super so we've been super happy on that front which kind of softens the blow on the other stuff when in the end is more important so anyway my a couple of suggestions thank you hello sorry I've got a cold oh hold on a second I got to do a selfie my daughter's lunar and Venus attend high school here one of the things that I often complain about in a winter time it's I said parent you want to have your kids go get all dressed up for winter in a winter time but when they come to class they have to take off all their layers because it's like boiling hot in those rooms especially the music room - also they would like to see they just tweeted me by the way they did not they're not here because they're tweeting me but they want to see a more kid-friendly more teen a friendly high school brought vibrant colors some of the classrooms the teachers cannot put anything up on the wall because there's no poster that will stick because of the heat it will just melt off the sticker off the wall and they got just a plain white wall playing Brown wall there and another thing in the library here at the high school they would like to see more outlets or to plug in or USB or to charge up as charging station or they can be a more friendly IT friendly to download books on their iPads they would like to see that as a mom I would like to see not just I'm glad at the Board of Ed is here and Board of Finance select women I'm very proud but I also like to see the president of the high school here the student body president I'm surprised they not here because the kids are are also helping make into the decision to help some feel good I just came back from Washington DC with a group of kids from heart for hi and I was just so amazed at how much kids really want to be involved in the process if somebody would just listen give them that opportunity so when you guys come up to your next meeting or such I'm sure kids do surveys but they also like myself I often talked to my daughter bite through tweets rather than through text sort of phone calls and that's how it is I'm just have to adjust it to talk to my kid and I'd like to see more kids involved in the process here thank you very much live stream good evening I'm Jess Jessica from Longview Drive and as a teacher myself I I wanted to thank you for the observations you made particularly about building safety front entrance safety is very important and I I will say in my limited experience in the Brookfield schools my oldest is just in kindergarten I think the principal and the staff in that building do a great job with what they have to secure the building and to keep the kids safe but I'm a teacher myself and and I have kind of the inside perspective about what it means to really keep kids safe inside the building and just from the 15 years in this school that I'm in I know you know as as you think about building safety and you go ahead with whatever plans and renovations you're making just ask that you you think about the interior of the building and particularly ask yourself the question okay so how easy is it for whatever adult is in charge in this classroom to lock this door in my own classroom and my school it's very easy for me to lock the door I have the key if there's a substitute if there is another teacher covering the class because I'm often out at CSE meetings or professional development my kids aren't safe and I think as parents and as a community and as educators we have to really think about as violence unfolds in a school building the front entrance is very important but it's also very important to think about classroom doors and how easy it is to have access to a key for all adults who might find themselves in those classrooms so if you could just keep that in mind and at the top of the priority list I would appreciate it thank you hi I'm Steve Dunn 24 Lindenwood Drive just two things one can you discuss a little bit the plants who incorporate both the teachers and the students in this process I think it's critical as we're changing the way we teach our students that they be involved and I think that is part of the process if you could talk about that a little bit and before you talk about I just wanna make one more comment over the past couple months we've seen through Facebook primarily fake news coming out about projects and things that we do in town I saw one post that said a new library is gonna cost you three thousand dollars a year that is simply not true it's just simply not true there was a post last week which drew 50 people to our Town Hall because someone posted on Facebook that your social security number is being posted on the town website that was just a lie that's not true so I would ask you when you're communicating with the residents and the staff too on your website be very clear be very upfront here's where we are here's where we got here's the truth and that way people can go to that use it as a reference when they get on Facebook okay thank you but if you could talk a little bit about that thanks mr.
Dunn the so what we were talking about community involvement tonight and mrs. Orban thankfully brought that up is making sure we have the support in the community that we call those the the external focus groups and external work we need to do internally when this project was initiated about a year and a half ago we set up a number of different internal focus groups so we had the the teacher group custodians nurses administration all the way down the line our paraprofessionals and we set those up and we have collect we collected all that data summarized all that data and that was provided to Tecton because Tecton was not part of that at the time but they have that information as well so that'll be part of the prioritizing and in synthesizing everything yeah I did it that get posted yet on the Facebook or the website we have it although Aaron's gonna post all of that for us absolutely hi I'm Jen barzak I'm at 48 Meadow Brook Road three things I'm sorry if I'm asking you to repeat something did you say you were forming an ad hoc committee about school security okay thank you I think that's on Monday night we have a board meeting and so that would hope that's on the agenda so hopefully it is established at that meeting okay I think that's really really important and I think if you really want to grab the public's attention at large state that publicly put it on the newspaper put it all over Facebook send out mailers you're gonna get you're gonna get me Julia did you hear that Julia from the news times is right there Julia did you hear that okay we're establishing a security task force Monday night April 2nd yeah you're gonna have people showing up for that very important number two I think you need to or if someone needs to reach out to the senior citizens in this town they vote believe me they vote they talk they vote I believe something should be planned maybe at the Senior Center again mailings you know not all senior citizens the senior citizens that I know born and raised here in Brookfield there are teen years through Brookfield schools I can tell you not all computer-savvy certainly not on Facebook you want to reach them send out mailers but you're definitely going to want to take their pulse on this they they pay property tax they don't have children in the school system and they have a lot to say you're gonna want to address that and the third thing and I know I'm following somebody actually so I'm just going to kind of repeat your words I think it's really important that you have to involve the children the students this this is their school you want to have brutal honesty ask the kids they're gonna tell you what's wrong with their school they're gonna tell you it's right with their school you're probably gonna get a whole lot I don't like my teacher whatever but like these are the kids that are in these buildings every single day and believe me they're gonna give you the truth so just some insight Thanks thank you I'm Joanie Park and I want to say thank you I think it's long overdue to be looking at the structures that you're looking at and you've done a great job I have one concern and that is that I would like to know what the Board of Education is doing on taking a good look at your curriculum and how the curriculum will fit in with whatever these gentlemen come out with in terms of a program so that they Mel so we're talking about where our children are going to be if we need to close the school if we need to be destroy a school and build a bigger one and expand it are you working together on this and I would like to know further what you're doing thank you great question about education right not just that not just the facilities so thank you for asking so number one part of those that was just referring to mr.
Dunn's question about the internal stakeholders so we did a lot of that with our educators already matter of fact dr. ruby our assistant superintendent and our director of instruction mrs. farías met with me and Jeff from tacked-on yesterday and we really went through programmatic and what the future might look like and we talked about all kinds of spaces flexibility science technology all of all the things we're working on as a board of education we have a cape committee that meets almost monthly on the stands for curriculum and program and evaluation and we we work on curriculum and instruction and adopting new programs and full development of redevelopment of our core programming in terms of the language arts science math in the social studies and then we're moving into next year we're moving into working on our other programs the arts technology areas and the like and we've just done some revamping on health and PE as well so we're really working on our crab major overhaul of our curriculum in terms of adjusting to the common core standards and so forth and the Connecticut standards that we have out there in purchasing new materials and in alignment with that so there's a lot of exciting work in that area going on um I had to have to thank the board for all their support on that so thanks for asking that question me again Scott McCarthy um I was hoping that does someone asked the question that I had forgotten but they they didn't so I figure to come back up part of I'm being very optimistic that we're gonna have some major renovations are gonna be happening in the near future and part of that part of those renovations will obviously have to occur when students are still learning so how will that be addressed in who is addressing that will it be from the recommendations that your firm will be doing will be a combination of the ad hoc or where would that be specifically you know at huckleberry if it was to renovate huckleberry in a major way obviously there's how do you continue the learning when you're doing major construction so short short answer is yes we will address it typically we address phasing phasing plans things like swing space within the options that we study because it's not just about money it's not just about the scope it's the impact to the students impact to the staff and act to the community so those issues that you cited will be addressed in phasing plans that will show the sequence of the project and how we would go about minimizing the impact and disruption to the school students and will be a financial impact to that obviously I think it would probably be cheaper to renovate an empty school as opposed to one with students in it so will you give some sort of financial gauge if they're certain things is there certainly is a financial impact because it takes longer which means longer condition general conditions and more costs so yes time is and the construction side time is this equates to mony so yes that'll be an impact so you're kind of illustrating some of the options that will come up where new takes this long edition renovation takes us long what is the benefits and concerns and that is one that we would discuss great thank you thank you hi my name is Linda frame and I live at for Kimberly Drive and a lot of questions were stirred from this and I thank you for doing this and to to the woman who spoke and she actually left with her kids that she was tweeting with Marc bland our principal here was not here because him and I have worked I'm the president of the PTO here and I've been here nine years not the president of the PTO but he was at st.
Baldrick's and I think mr. dr. Barilla was there as well and what my PTO meeting was supposed to be tonight and I we worked very hard where he went through his schedule and again people are all on different committees you've seen my face I've seen a lot of your faces trying to work together as a group and I said well we can't have it the same night and again I'll make a comment I'm looking out here in the audience and if people have asked me how many people are here I said 30 is that a reasonable amount for a town this big for such a major thing that's gonna be happening here I'm really disappointed in this I expected a lot more people here I was at my booster club meeting we talked about our fields that's great everybody in that meeting I encourage them to come here they are not here because they're with their kids doing sports or what-have-you this facilities is something that we need to look at I'm primarily now at the high school I have two high schoolers I've got one in college and one out of college my 16 year old now back in the day when he was four or five I had envisioned not what I'm looking at right now for him a whole facility of the concessions all that we worked on I was on the board with that that was gone I feel like I'm rewriting this rodeo I say with my husband all over again when my 23 year old came here as a freshman they were paving the outside of this pavement here to get this work done and that was the addition that you said was plan 2006 but it was actually 2008 this addition was supposed to be ready for the bubble class that graduated 8 2010 they lived through this addition it was not ready for them so one of the other things that came up that I have on my list about the demographic study we did one once before have we done one now we need to do another one for sure and be on target with this that's really crucial to me I'm not sure if it was done or you've had a plan for that we also talked about the asbestos in the mold I don't know if the asbestos was brought up when I also looked at the dates of the building's 1937 1960 1970 and 1959 you know you can only use duct tape so long that's my dad's favorite phrase and man we've abused it we've abused it and your job you know like I think my husband said that a few other people you were really nice to us but I think you were too nice okay when they were talking about huckleberry in the smell I know that small I haven't been in that school for years but I knew it back then okay the portables it was skinnier my senior now who was in fifth grade my in-laws went to do a presentation on Ellis Island the whole thing you know the immigration with my mother-in-law's Italian her father came from Italy perfect timing they live in another state she came back asking me when is the edition gonna be done it was skinnier because of those portables these are the things that we have to do something about not for anything but we should have even taken off portables from huckleberry a long time ago I did reading counts there with people I've been in there there several reading programs they should just be off the property and to go back to the whisk in your portables those portables when we move them from where the addition was to where they are now they were exposed to rain for how many days I don't know if you knew that okay they were slapped right back together god forbid I don't even know what snows a loss okay back to the high school we are up for our knee a survey and I talked about this a lot to people it's our 10-year accreditation John you know I've talked and talked and talked about it when we look to move here Bethel was on probation not because of their academics because of their facilities and the property values struggled and they struggled for a long time I don't want to see that happen here so are you working with getting us ready because I recently they look at that on what we're gonna do what's our game plan so we have to really put this in a fast forward pace we say we might be ready for to vote on this November no we have to be ready for the high school for this survey for our accreditation for ten years and people need to understand that part so I don't know if you're familiar with that what else yeah just when I look at the date having it in black and white when you guys put that out there that's it's you know where I feel like we were just looking at huckleberry now I'm really questioning even this edition that was done in 2000 and 2008 we had to bite the bullet on that edition we were supposed to expand the cafeteria to fit more students in there we didn't expand on that at all we bought smaller tables and chairs for the kids to sit on so we really really didn't do that correctly there was a lot of stuff that went on with that one too so anyway I know it's not an easy job and again listening to all the little bits and pieces meaning she said mentioned the students should be surveyed people outside of the community in the sense of preschool I don't know how you're gonna reach out to them I think that needs to be done too as well as the teachers anybody who works here as well so okay thank you hi I'm Kerry Columbo 29 huckleberry Hill Road echoing some of the things you've already heard this evening I too have environmental concerns particularly my experience now is up to whiskey near Center huckleberry and whiskey near particularly with huckleberry and with whiskey near eyes scent of mold and that sort of thing that I'm sensitive to in both schools additionally another another echo of the bathrooms at huckleberry are just when you're smelling the bathroom when you're on the playground with your kid there's a real problem when there's an elementary school or a second or third grader who comments oh yeah it always smells like that over there it's a problem so we really should address that when my fourth grader moved to fifth grade and went from huckleberry to whisk and air I think we can all agree 5th grade is a bit on the early side to be entering middle school her biggest shock and disappointment aside from the joy of the freedom of whiskey near the shock and disappointment was the playground here she is a 5th grader and all she wants to do was go on a playground when it's recess time and that really wasn't available to her and I think it's really too bad considering this is a you know part of development in childhood and and negotiating social skills and such so I think 5th graders and she's not in fifth grade anymore so it doesn't matter to her anymore but I think it's important that we address those types of transitions for our children when we are in a position where we have to kind of lump grades together where we may not otherwise prefer to do it the heat at whisking air seems to be an issue I know my daughter complains sometimes about it just being either boiling hot or freezing cold not to mention having to go outside in the middle of the winter when it's you know 20 degrees to get to a classroom she is worried about safety also at whisk in air she's old enough to voice that concern my younger one at huckleberry is not but my whiskey' near child after the February 14th shooting this year and last month she commented that they're just sitting ducks she wants more tools why I should have to say this about my 11 year old but my 11 year old would like more tools to know how to survive an active shooter situation rather than just going to the back of the classroom so that if a shooter comes in all the kids are right there for them that's my 11 year olds perspective when she's going to school I'm a sitting duck mom they're just gonna shoot us we're all lined up along with that from since curriculum was mentioned and this is outside of facilities but I'll just throw it out there with the you know the me to movement and everything a you mentioned that you're addressing some health class revamping and such so I would just like to mention I think the necessity and I don't know what to extent it's currently addressed but certainly I think some time should be spent on sexual assault and appropriate interaction and behavior and healthy relationships and that sort of thing so that our boys and our girls are learning those tools and skills starting in middle school they all have boyfriends and girlfriends that starts at huckleberry so this is not a foreign concept to them but they need to have the conversation so that they can develop healthy relationships that they understand what boundaries are thank you I'm sorry I forgot to ask a question and maybe it was told tonight but I just didn't hear it excuse me we do know we don't know what school yet we're gonna dress first right so that's that's you know the plan is to go you know to have more meetings about that but I want to know is that we do know that something's gonna get addressed very soon and have we applied for any of the grants yet sure all the answer's no the grant application process you need to identify a project identify the costs and also have the funding in place in order to submit your grant application but don't you you don't need to know you don't my understanding was for a grant is that you don't you just have to prove that there is you don't have to detail the specific project but just that specifically something is in the works like there's plans for updating the schools in the works is that my no not according to filing a specific grant I know I do know that true but for school what is it called I forget the name of it now off the top of my head school updating it's called CIE school school construction grants great I didn't understand think that we needed like a specific proof of its going to XYZ school as long as we can prove that that we have you know a dire need for it in our schools and considering all four of our schools need some updating of some sort sure why couldn't we start the application process like so so the grant application process does require some more specifics to particular projects we intend to communicate our progress to the office of school construction grants so that they understand what our game plan is before before there's if there is and when there is an application submitted but for an application to be submitted typically it's June 30th deadline you do need to identify a project meeting us interrupted but our next meeting is June correct so we're kind of hitting our deadline yep so so big picture is - by June early June established some options and debate those options over spring summer identify a priority and then potentially go to referendum in the fall so that would be a whole nother year for a grant yeah there there are some you could request an extension the deadline extension which other communities have successfully completed so that you can submit in the fall is that additional funds that we have to pay for extension okay no so can we do that you could you need to have special legislation or acceptance of a deadline extension so it is possible it's been done in the past I just hate that we're missing the potential for this year to have our application in when we know that in the immediate future we have to work on some school yep yeah the funding has to be secured you don't need you need to have if if the project requires a referendum to fund the project whatever project it may be you do have to have the rest for a successful referendum vote in place in order and that is part of the grant application process there's also several or components to that like BOE approval of the educational specimen there's a whole list of items that need to be submitted as part of the eto 49 it's just the biggest piece is that referendum the funding in place okay so and then what happens is you submit that that typically in typical years you submit that grant application mm-hmm it goes into the state the state identifies a priority list I believe it's December 15th that comes out and that lists the grant applications in their priority statewide so if you're on that list then that list gets submitted to the legislation for approval for funding the following spring okay cuz I just I was just reading it quickly as I was sitting here sure and it just said the diamond that well that was for local educational agencies that demonstrate the greatest need for the funds and the strongest commitment to use the funds to provide accurate accurate resources in order to substantially raise achievement of students in their lowest performing schools but it would just read something that we didn't need to prove that it went to a specific school as long as we we proved the intention of using those funds yeah my experience has been that where you've identified more than just that he had an educational specification you had all the the components of the grant application in place in order to submit but we can certainly thank you thank you my name is Victor Busey I live at 16 Prospect Drive I just want to do that time frame with you if a child enters kindergarten in September of 2018 this year all the things that we're talking about they're not gonna see is that about accurate five six years by the time you break ground not five six years it's several years before you see from start of design through construction completion so the chances are pretty good they go through center school and get at least through huckleberry or through fourth grade or shion's of that you know pretty much yeah on average we've seen projects from where we are today to construction completion take it's a little as three years all the way up to I guess all saying like is there any shot at phases those portable classrooms we can't make as good a point for you I'm gonna tell you my oldest son is gonna be forty-seven this year I complained about portable classrooms in Brookfield when he was in school and with all of my four children that went through the system those those are terrible we have to shovel them is that true super or superintendent do we have to shovel the roofs but it's really heavy snow for the portable I wasn't here in 2013 but I mean I in my previous district with flat roofs with the weight that is something butts right yeah we had to do that it just would seem to me that they're not totally safe the only other point I want to make to you is in town we have approved 800 housing units that are not built yet but they're approved they're set to go our super our First Selectman has done a good job getting us a moratorium okay but that doesn't stop the building those have all approved they're set to go the old statistic told us that we were gonna get one child for every 13 units but that was done based on 2008 when the only units in town that were selling were 55 plus units so that I think the new situation will be more like a one to three kind of thing on the demographics thank you for the information relative to the 800 units um that is a piece in a component that does need to be looked into as far as there was projections completed I believe last August 16 and those do need to be updated and there's statistical methods to get there and then there's some outliers with like how many permits are outstanding what developments in town are planned or approved so all those pieces need to be looked at in the demographic projections so and I believe our projections have really not been all that accurate isn't that true right thank you real quick and in the primary kindergardens been off for kindergarten you can't tell and actually because some of the children go to country kids like for kindergarten for first grade you also have a problem usually but we've also had okay in recent years okay before you came here dr.
Burrell we had situations where like at wizkid ear we'd have 18 new students in the sixth grade the present in ninth grade was a good example of that where we were running class sizes 27 28 29 which not suburban school district sizes because new children came in but they came in as older children so this has been a problem for us over the years and you know and so an updated demographic study is part of tech Don's work that's a one of the sub-continent coming to the board you have to see some more the districts the schools that they have my have a granddaughter in Glastonbury and I'm just blown away by their schools they are gorgeous and I don't know that it's all that much wealthier than we are you know I think our schools are kind of an embarrassment for it's the wealthy town that we have here you know what we've let this go too long thank you so much thanks any other questions comments okay well I'd like to thank everyone for coming out tonight and for your input it's it's extremely valuable for our committee to hear everything that we have heard I am asking and if you could please fill out the survey and you know give us your honest opinion what do you envision for our school system it will just help us do our job better and come back at the June 7th meeting with good information information coming from you and it's so important also I'm sorry the surveys are going to be brought down in a moment again we are working on a website and a Facebook page in addition to the schools okay and in between now thank you dr.
Brill the June 7th meeting our next meeting is April 4th Jeff could you go back to the first slide where you list the meetings please thank you yes if you want to write them down so this will be on the website the whole presentation tonight April 4th at 6:30 May 1st 6 o'clock in May 22nd at 6 p.m.
and again there are all public meetings there open you can come we take public comment we take we want you to be a part of this we really do so anyway I'm going to close the meeting again thank you so much for coming the surveys are on their way down oh I'm sorry for now yes yes yes it's up to the committee but you know if I give you this if we gave you 30 questions it would be cumbersome so these are the questions that the committee came up with for what we want or what we need now from you if there's also a section where you can add additional comments thank you okay meeting is adjourned thank you so much have a great evening [Music]
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the special education supporter if we can all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance please religions justice are he'll be much both of our board members here tonight dreamers are able to make it in those joining us right so first we have our very own spotlights mother agenda that is the before high school deca students and grading business yes beautiful students mr. Bhatia so it's and things that we're seeing now but really miss Nicholson along with mr. say poor was sneaking in the back over there doesn't want the recognition but he's he's his group down the technology Education Department do the high work with the laser engraving we all said a business component of this as well so our students have really taken some before and after school work and combined it together to clear their own business so I'm going to turn it over to is Italy anything to start to talk today all right looks like we'll totally tacky the presentation thank you madam chairwoman members of the board my name is Liam Ania well I'm her fondant umeri and we represent the Future Business Leaders of America Club at the high school under that we have our business which is called everything etch DZ where an etching business which was founded after the Brookfield Education Foundation give us a grant for a laser engraving attribution as a business as mr.
Boynton has said we etch different products such as his name plates wooden plaques and initially require the module which allows for us to move on around objects such as glass differently the best we'll be expanding our operations in that way some of our major customers up till this point include our very own superintendent members of the Board of Education as you can see I hang plates for a phone that we actually perform the world of finance sales marketing for the business some other students in this department of the business include by Villanueva Jack's all of them in Bernard production department of the business it's mainly taken up by Noah Lucas and not Kevin on mr.
suppose our chief operating officer officer he mainly deals with students and related machine miss necklace and cruising who's in the audience tonight is our chief financial officer and Misaka D who couldn't make it tonight is our chief executive officer so in terms of the production department we have three primary roles that are assigned to our members those rules include purchasing the wood and then shedding or on sandpapering it to the proper plaques and then also operating the laser machine so some of our members including that Cavanaugh they have laser certifications now which I'll give them the license to operate the machines in addition as the ax mentioned before we are constantly improving the technology in the finest apartment we manage the finances for the business which allow us to create sales invoices for customers updated Victoria and fire checks with the books with the school's bookkeeper we also hope to be learning since well accounting students who hope to be using automated accounting system for future business finances we make decisions on a professional manner and try to spend conservatively so that we're most a fit that we use our money most efficiently as a business thank you for this thank you very much do you have any questions for us just a comment these are beautiful I say thank you very much and I've seen a couple of the other examples of what you've done and it's phenomenal and I love the fact that you're also getting certification with it as well thank you thank you good job guys thank you very much mrs. or just as a side note the storyline was I got to be the first customer so I wouldn't even play from my desk and I told them I said I've never received a bill for this is the only time if I actually want to receive invoices they had developed and yet so they they here is everybody they really they have soup-to-nuts they do a great job right from from start to finish so guys thank you very much great thanks mrs.
Nichols encourage all the students to explore the various options not only are they in finance but if they'd like to charlie laser machine they can you know mr. Szabo and I always there miss Daugherty for supervision so he encouraged them to learn all different aspects of the business Ahmad really excited as the accounting teacher that we have requested the automated software which is something we don't have in the classroom so to really expand it outside of the classroom we're getting QuickBooks so the first small business so that they can learn that piece of it as well and really see you know what they've learned on paper and how they've actually manually done it how it automatically does it sounds right so it's exciting so they get to see all aspects and really learn how it does this gets done from start to finish so I've actually had a question so it was how many customers have you have and they mention do they end money from October as a girlfriend does it end up in the Student Activity County reinvested in their business what do you do with it I just wonder some you hear about that do you want answers answer well as for now we haven't had a huge loss of customers that you following the customers so we do need to get a report from our schools bookkeeper to see how much is in our account at the at the point when our account balances which is exactly why we want to have an automated accounting system which will help us organize the business to operate in a more efficient manner and I've asked for our earnings for the business we plan on reinvesting into our inventory by purchasing more woods that we get that laser great and then Sully and we hope to maintain a sufficient cash balance so that we can purchase new technology our startup here so when I'd rather start up here it was kind of learning the machine and how it works you know the different speeds it needs to go out what works and what doesn't work we've been getting the kinks out of inventory and and how do you embrace the customers and keep track of it and put them in alders and we set up separate emails so it's been our learning curve with all of this next year at the behavior we hope to get a website set up maybe blue shorts and flyers products so we can expand the customer base brewery we couldn't used all of you today so all the money goes back we have an account so the money goes back into the business and we purchase new things with it like the side County software and things like that hey Jackie next we have the vision program at NASA joint venture school Alliance Club presentation to say which has graciously to the failure of doing their vision assessment and scrutiny with our students and Jay rocky and kathy nelson fellow lions are here to help with the presentation okay I'm just going to give a brief introduction and then I'll let our Lions have the floor for a second this is our third Jay we've done it but this year was a very special year because well this is the first year that Joe came to me and with his sidekick and they said we would like to scream the whole school so from my point of view I was really nervous because the idea of trying to screen all 365 of our children you know they've no nervous because the year before when they screen their children it took it was not a quick thing to do for each one of our children they up until this time they were only screening our pre scores this year they they they're magic wands and we had some new technology and we're shooting this year we were able to work with our with our secretaries and with our PowerSchool software and we were able to download the names they used to have to enter the names Randall away into the to the machine well this year we waved a magic wand and we were able to get all the names out of power school gala list and I have to give a huge thank you to non-aligned to their volunteers but Lisa Ruggles is my secretary she got those schoolís together Beth O'Connor kind of spearheads this on our end and she goes through and finds all the children what we had was an opt-out permission so parents are made terminus slips she just went through called out all the children who had not given permission we had 249 children that didn't have permission to get screened so they were able to screen 492 forwarded to Berlin 49 I'm sorry children were screened and and like half the time that we had allotted for they were okay in our class I'm an underclass so I love that we have 13 referrals to me what we referred that they caught some kind of questionable and and out of that the very person coming gaze deviation they got water from the screaming the schoolers did follow up and send our own school letter so we made sure that we followed up from Center five children did did go to the doctor that we know about and to did get glasses three were told by the doctor that they were okay so that's you know from our end all right it would you Joe's gonna so here let's let me get around this way so I can face the board all right okay everything how's that all right well thanks you thank you for having us we appreciate the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about our what we call the kids site program I'll get into that in a minute but first I want to let you know that the Lions Club International is the largest service organization of its type in the world we have 1.4 million members in 46,000 clubs in 200 countries in Brookfield our club is about 70 people and it's about 35 percent women and since we started getting a lot of women list in the last 10 years or so it's really had a positive impact on the on the club yeah I can certainly say that many times so I'm not the not making that up anyway about five years ago or so we started working on what we then call the pediatric vision screening program and this is a vision screening it's not an eye test but it's a screening and over time the Lions Club rebranded that as lions kid's site USA or as we just call it kid's site the reason I say it's a screening is that the device we use looks at the eye and determines if the I is possibly deficient in one of six different categories it can identify a child with the possible problems with astigmatism nearsightedness farsightedness and other eye problems that are caused vision problems these are all things that can if identified before the age of seven and treated before the age of seven they can be treated successfully so they don't carry the child doesn't carry them into adulthood so that's why as dr.
Salem mentioned you know we started in three schools and those kids and then expanded it up in the first grade of center school one other element of it is that in this six-month the six year category those are the children most likely to have difficulty with the traditional Snellen test the e and all that cuz they don't a lot of them the younger ones in particular don't have the the skills to take the test so we can really screen kids at an early age and catch them at an early age we started the first year at about forty kids the Goddard school Allison Dell was very helpful with us and eventually we got into center school the first year we did about 40 kids as I said at Goddard last this year we will do about 4,000 children throughout southwestern Connecticut we've built quite a good team in Brookfield to do this and so we've been invited to places like Monroe and Shelton we found ourselves I pulled up the nurse at Barnum's school in Bridgewater figuring well they're nearby let's do them and then when I found out about region 12 we ended up going to washing which is a little further than we expected but so we've expanded to that level throughout southwestern Connecticut other clubs have been engaged danbury's involved in the Fairfield New Milford and this year they'll probably do about 20,000 kids in southwestern Connecticut and a hundred thousand throughout the entire state of Connecticut of the 4,000 or so that we have screened we have referred about 450 to see a doctor and that's that's our criteria we keep we keep track of the number that we measure screen and then also the number that we refer and what we refer them for so with that I'll turn it over to Kathy who will explain the devices we use and all the particulars of what we what we do Kathy has to be near to my this is the device we use which looks sort of like an old-fashioned for Polaroid camera and what I do is I put in the information what school were screening at the end of the child sometimes most regulations of that particular space happen there's a number information we're about three feet the trial just start here Oh because we're not forgetting to oh sorry behind story home insurance wonders and the child is seasoned three seconds get the results camera says I'm gonna get the results could I pass up some of the results nation I can't that's nothing what do and some of them are months old and some of them are school-age it is very interesting to work with the children it's a very simple process and we've had very very good results there have been instances for in kind of child that had a parasite and that was a very fortunate thing I picked it up to happen to her parents took her immediately joy after and after further examination they discovered it was a cancerous time so perhaps we said if somebody's like any questions are gone we want to thank you and then at the bar with us for everything only for our students but for the entire community it's our pleasure to enjoy don't hurt us and got glasses okay next we have four recognitions already poured our condition first we're going to look at me so I like to a second as a special meeting tradition we have a cake or some other going to celebrate board Appreciation Month which is March because of snow appreciation but Unitas the most difficult forward to serve on we have great work and and continuous about that this board is providing to the students families in iteration teaching staff excetera with everything that if you help initiate it's it's been incredible so I thank you and we've invested goodies over there I'm not sure if we're gonna break just yet so thank you everybody thank you thank you you want to add on to that that just for myself it's been an honor and a privilege to work with each and every one of you so thank you ditto okay I want to on question that we move to items up on the agenda just to have them before we break number one be my business so this would be 1280 move up as well as the consent agenda 11 a welcoming summer by consent agenda I would say all about to celebrate our cake and just build around how to see the my trip just to have it before we break as well solution cheese consent agenda item 11 and I see the road trip item 12 aim up to right now prior to public comment sir instead of April start with the personal trip actually so they can come over so if we stop if you come up to here we need abortion post - I'm sorry mr.
pastor Don recommend immersion at the board of privilege for the odyssey 19 to travel to means Ohio - those new team - Sunday May 27 2009 team participate in the world find this competition as requested by our seomyeon advisor Sarah Elena hi thank you board and yes that is why I'm here to ask permission yes to a second the police today you tell your dad we just needed a second bailout that's right so yes I am here to ask permission to allow the four teams that have placed first and second place at the state competition should be allowed to represent Brookfield and the state of Connecticut at the Odyssey of the micro finals in Ames Iowa we all received the exhibit that breaks it down does anybody have any questions and is our meter so it's two to two teams from risking energy from the high scores cheerful face 14 on one that's a hybrid of their high school atmosphere and then she throws mutually first into Illinois my team came in first which is the hybrid and the other three came in second just some comments maybe then thank you very much for stepping up to see mine this year and taking the Arnage is a we are greatly appreciate it and I do understand that these four teams ties us for first and all of Connecticut is the largest amount of teams sent us to them that were reckless and we tied with Stanford so if you look at just the spatula of the amount of volume population of an amount of teens that they send in yeah it's a huge accomplishment he's amazing and it's it's a it's a huge kudos to everyone involved in this a hundred is hard work it's a lot of work does anyone else have any questions okay all in favor the FCA my trip I of course okay good luck encantado next we have the consent agenda recommend emotion at the border of the items on the consent agenda as recommended new hires Judas and Minnesota Oceania and resignations Alex are you okay dr.
Bethany where we just wanted to welcome you home on the consent agenda and thank you for consent agenda there was a press release a couple of weeks ago and since then this is lepresean on has big tackleberry and visit week after school last Wednesday and she was here with her family this evening so Missa welcome brother that comes in there by a few words and then when this is coming up the PTO the bear PPO is graciously put together a reception from this Lamar Channel right before their big turnout father if their big event of bingo on Friday night so get our parents remember to see everybody so listen just what if they think you as so so very much for this really exciting opportunity next principle and pucks Berryhill last week I shared with the staff that my leadership philosophy is truly grounded and trust respect and teamwork and I just can't wait to begin collaborating with all of you all of the people that make this community so great so I can't wait for July first to begin my first my official start date and to start my work here so thank you I'm so excited truly thank you we're thrilled to have you here so welcome thank you again everyone has been so sweet and welcoming and kind through this whole process which is maybe one and even more and just really happy thank you give us okay any other comments on consent agenda in favor all right a post right we are going to break here shall we say 15 minutes for four maybe that's applied and I welcome to Moosa as well thanks Gordon [Music] thank to see a doctor back thank you very much for us where we took a break the other agenda we have public comment there's nothing to decide of the proper comment is there anyone here that would like to speak ok maybe not we have a student representative we put Dan is unable to be with us today he did forward some upcoming events which join with each other and heard on the coordinates for appeal then we have reinforcements Jeffie move some particles we need Bank is concerned about the organization and in John register we're in shortly regarding the incident Catherine Purnima regarding the incident in centre school fence chris d'elia order incident digital Cabello regarding the student manner and Allison Brown regarding security okay thank you next we have the approval of Board minutes recommend a motion at the board of names listed below is recommended special meeting on March 12 2008 team and special Nina Board of Finance on March 15th 2018 any comments questions and regards to the minutes okay all in favor we gotta post right next we have neon superintendent's update the stroke so just wanted today's the last event of the season and along with that our last day of the maze at this point in June 26th they're more interested in that I'm actually going to be talking the defensive ends about tomorrow is a whole districts in our area actually have a regular two-hour delay but they also have a modified three-hour delay and while I know that's a lot of time away considering situations actually like today and the fact that we've had you know nine snow days at this point the nine emergency days we want to look at some alternatives and other ways we might be able to get the kids in the school considering you know just the kind of winter we had so we're working on that also just a quick update on our reorganization efforts stem department chair position was posted last week so we'll be starting to look at applicants that come in and over the next few weeks begin the resume review process and of course the work we're going to do on the NW comedian mr.
Blayne will be heading that up also special education supervisor interviews are complete on this afternoon dr. Ruby and I met with finalists for the position we're going to be doing some reference checking and then hopefully letting the board know where we are in the process of selection so that's an update on reorganization Sarah you already talked about how to see the mind just a reminder for everybody for teams from Brookfield going to the world championships in Iowa this year I mean just amazing and in Connecticut and Bev sent us the rest four teams the other English school district with also having four teams well Stanford and Stanford obviously is considerably better than Brookfield so it's just incredible the work our students our parents and Sarah has our new obviously the line coach and coordinator for the district has just been amazing this year so I can't thank them enough the announcement in athletics our boys Class S swim team state championship they got another state championship for the boys coach Reef has nowadays has eight state championships and with the girls they got their first state championship last year with co-chief so ninth or state championships were broke failed in swimming just incredible work going on and that the police escort coming back to town chick-fil-a celebrations all kinds of great things going on so it's just amazing what they're doing so congratulations to the other two the boys great job Washington DC trip have to thank mr.
Wender dr. peplau ski and all the parents that put the trip and also we have to thank mr. Baldwin for long time to shop around the trip we had a great time three beautiful days beautiful cold days in Washington DC and we really got to do a lot and the kids I think got a great deal on them and in fear just wanted to make sure we announce that we have a Board of Finance as a talent meaning tomorrow night I'm sure joy you might be announcing that we'll be there tomorrow night to answer questions and things like that regarding the budget that's all I just want to check on a little bit in regards to the food finance public hearing tomorrow because I don't think we have met as a as a board since the budget has moved through so just kind of discuss here and to say to the public where we are as far as the budget is is forthcoming we did have a reduction from the Board of Selectmen of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and that reduction was moved forward by Florida the Board of Finance as well but with some collaborative work the Board of Finance is really working with us to help mitigate this reduction we did this year with the the 2016-17 audit that was just completed in addition to having a clean audit and that'sa kudos to Ken and all of the administration there was an to run from the Board of Education of $79,000 the Board of Finance is agreed to establish what is called a non laps in front with that money so per state law we can take this money put into a non laps in front and then identify where we want to use that for and this would be identified for the offset to offset the 2018-19 budget so we will be able to address that with the hundred eight thousand dollar cut in addition to that there was a sixteen thousand dollar savings that we found with the Student Activity Fund in a miscellaneous account that through Council has recommended we are able to take that in apply it to each specific school for books and purchases that we can have a budget reduction so the actual amount that we will have to identify in our budget is eighty four thousand four hundred and thirty two dollars we will do that at a later meeting that won't be today on it is a special meeting and we can't really insert anything new in here and in addition to that I just want to ensure that the non-obscene firm goes forward so no exam what we're looking for sorry I jumped into eventually show you an update with that mutated perfectly thank you for so collect is an on lapsing funding that we we have to spend it next year we can't carry it on to an on lapsing into a dozen reps as long as the Board of Finance keeps it and as long as we keep money in it it does carry on but in the spirit in which it is will be formed or the money is put in there to apply to the 2018-19 budget the Board of Finance was fairly vocal in the fact that they would like to see this ongoing that if we do have under ones year to year that they would put it in and we might be able to identify what we wanted year to year it is something that the Board of Finance has to approve every year to take the money put in that's not an automatic transfer of year while we're in our budget deliberations because usually god it's completed by June anywhere this year the audits very late because of the availability of the audit from so if we had an under one and we're sitting there we could be talking to the Board of Finance relatively or only in the cycle which makes it a lot easier I think I did want to also mention I'm sorry I forgot that the Board of Finance in recognizing them we did have a valine budget and there was really no place to go if it did put fifty thousand dollars in contingency for the Board of Education if there are any unanticipated costs you know this year was prime example with all the special education increases but if there is any unanticipated cost that we weren't able to absorb within our budget as well I had a question about the calendar update yes a couple parents approached me and asked if there's any flexibility with the last day of school they were asking you know could we take away a day like at Memorial Day weekend or could we shorten our 182 days to 180 is that something that is an option mid-year or is that something that would have had to pay a greater poverty the state law is that students have to go to school 180 days right the field has a contract with the teachers for you know hundred eighty seven days 182 of which our student contact days and that's something we've worked on to get over the get get back over the last couple years and realize maybe and we now we're at 182 it was the my first year here we were back to 182 the bird has the option to have that discussion and if they'd like to take a one or two of those days off and just have the 180 in any given year can do that that we just put that out there to everybody that wouldn't mean in automatic savings that you wouldn't have the teachers working extra days that contracted and they would have to work we would have plenty to do and but there'd be a savings on transportation small savings on transportation if that was the case but that isn't something we can really have a full conversation about but it can be done is your question the questions really didn't save those over the questions routed and is going to later I think people had plans or camp or you know things planned for the week of the 25th sure that was you know we're planning on being done by the Friday before maybe issues I understand that Bethel they made a decision as a board that would their superintendent they work together they're at a point about a month ago if there was going to be one more snow day which I think actually had happened for them the way it worked out they were going to hold school on Good Friday and the very powers scheduled for 181 days and I think they're only doing the 180 now because of that extra day so there's a local district that made a decision they had a conversation about and decided so however we want you to have conversation or not we can well suddenly disappoint the best thing if parents are concerned about it would be to email the board and ask insist on you know that kind of decision is rests with the board Authority and I could do whatever research you need me to do or find out I've come up with a recommendation okay if that is all be removed to a subcommittee reports first we have finance okay so the Finance Committee on that on March 12 we've talked about some of the items so I'll go both ways passed those quickly we went through the financial reports you know now that we've adjusted our budget to reflect this huge real spending and the special education costs even looked at the financial reports or the very few items that stood out as outliers and they were small and we talked about them and talked about whether with all this snow we were gonna have problems with of heating right and and doesn't look at this point like there's a major issue but women are doing it there are a carefully as we're going through the next month or two as all those it bills land we went through the check registers and there were no issues and the check registers that were identified they were no questions remember Committee on those we did go through a tremendous update and the staff is going through training on the bank reconciliation module in Venus now that they have some free time after getting that massive pay well implementation Don Bernardo develop skills and some of the other areas that's going on both from the town side of a school aside and in fact the town side have some recommendations reckons bank reconciliations in the audit the school side did not which was kind of an interesting change up we talked about the operating budget but mrs.
Stern you just had you just addressed most of that discussion we didn't discuss what when should we go through the budget and look at the cups and we really do need at least get through those public hearing and know what's going to referendum before we even consider it I think the board's in the past to sometimes try to make a decision before the referee they're often the lot they wait until after all the referendums have landed means once the decision will need to take as a what do we want to go so I'm addressing that we ask the dr. Bell and mr.
post estar thinking about what are the areas we would have to deal with so we could find something which is hard very happy to hear that since then we had this non Hobson fund option come up we do talk about student activities that's where some of this money and some of them you know the types of monies that we were talking about that we may be able to put back in for like school supplies and things like that were things like library fines right that didn't out and up over so they were not student money but the realistic connectivity funds they were more process in all the types of money so identified someone I we had through their discussions will the border finance about that as we went through we're talking about payroll and accounts payable and the prior meeting they talked about the business controls over the signature keys and and the check stock and mister post on the staff took some actions to make sure that they were locked up very carefully and separated so that there was never a situation where someone had blind checks and the signature of key at the same time so that's that's a good thing we talked about the balance sheet accounts they're set up in unis this is something the Board of Finance wanted we needed to wait for the audit to be completed so we could get the opening balances and I do you have any updates on now that the audits complete cameras Lee the opening balances and John put them in the system okay so we'll be able ever seen on a regular basis that's great now we ought to tell you know take the boat of finance through it at one of their upcoming meetings they'll be glad to hear that so we didn't talk and the audit was I then actually arrived in the next I think the next day or the next couple of days after the Finance Committee meeting actually had the audit report meeting and very happy to see the quality of the audit and the compliments that came about the schools or bookkeeping so it was very different than we had seen in prior years so kudos Thank You kudos and that's our that's a so any questions on the Finance Committee now next we have strategic facilities sure sure Eve was not able to be here tonight so I'm just gonna read a couple notes from her about those strategic facilities steering committee we had a meeting last Tuesday March 27th the public forum regarding our school facilities study that's happening right now being orchestrated by Tecton architects we had 52 people attend the meeting 51 people were live-streaming it and as of last night there were 396 online responses to the survey we also have heard guppies of the survey is located in the front of town hall those will be collected and tallied and headed into the online responses the steering committee is meeting again this Wednesday at 6:30 that offices in town hall and Tecton will be at that meeting so that we can keep moving forward on the project big announcement from the building and facilities committee the huckleberry hill portables are coming down and will be completely removed during spring break thank you any questions for Debbie how many say 96 online servers Facebook post updates and we can do a school message you're going to continue to get it out in front of people and hard copies are coming into the the box that we have it down as well I don't I think if people want to work around that they probably to it to be honest with you I think I remember Eric saying it was gonna be by email their IP address we have it that way but I'm sure people figure does the community have like a collective email address it was in the presentation I don't remember I don't have it with me I did notice it wasn't on like on on the Facebook page it wasn't it says email but then it says like I'm not available or something like so I don't know if punctures our elevator you know why people were asking like how to get in touch they thought like we were all on the committee and it was a little bit confusing I think for some people so okay yeah could we please your line to anyone that may be watching of how they can access the survey tips up on blind or there's a Facebook page for the committee do you remember what it was I actually thought you would be PSS embassy that's the Facebook one yeah okay VPS I'm glad you actually go to go for fuel oil Israel if you want to tag it that's what you thought that you would put so I think it's another way to if you go to go vote for your finals website and you go to the board section as a town for strategic facilities committee and there's a big online actually on it that's why I open up my computer it's right there please fill out the survey and it's in Big Shot a big plant so it's really easy to find and on Facebook it's bps you can type in bps for Brookfield Public Schools strategic facilities committee and it'll bring it to the Facebook page where the survey is and I know Eric's working with the tech folks on the town side and seeing if there's a way to thank you and to link it to the town website as well that there's a way to do that so it really can get out there for everybody so one another plea if you haven't filled out the survey please do we very much look forward to your input as we have moved forward through the additional surveys this is just the first of many some might be more specific topics about building my facilities of reorganization but there will be many and I think one of the things we're going to talk about at the meeting this Wednesday is what kind of focus groups can we design and hold prior to the next June public forum we'll get some face-to-face input time and tech think it helped us organize that knows what right thank you any other questions all right we will move on to new business be setting to the graduation date for the BHS class of 2018 recommendation that the board set the graduation date for the route for high school class of 2018 for Saturday June 23rd 2018 at 5:30 the arena Center Western Connecticut State University second second all right thank you I believe and lightly came Vermont commissioner Wetzel that dollar yes 15 passes up with the abnormal liberal closures this year went and he gives them guidance to districts as to how to set graduation 182 so right now the 180th day of school is Friday June 22nd if I stayed long the earliest that our students can graduate would be after the 180th day so June 23rd 2018 we are good we need that so we're all set there so the board agrees do that it'll be a the abuse center as it has been for the last several years we have a 5:30 start time reserved July 1st of 2017 at about 12:00 or 1:00 a.m.