Um, I'd like to introduce Maria Brice, who's here to talk to us about the Safe Play Park in Danbury. And thank you so much for your patience as we rescheduled you multiple times. No, thank you for allowing us to be here. So, my name is Maria Brice. I'm going to be a quick intro and then my three daughters are really going to be speaking. I'm a little shorter, so let me move this down. Um, so I am a chapter leader of Miss US President right here in Danbury. It is a non-profit organization to encourage young girls, middle school all the way to high school, to be involved civically. As an educator myself, I think there's nothing more important to get young girls to be involved in politics. And to really get them to see that they can do something. They can start a project and actually see it be implemented and then become a reality.
Um, and I think another piece really is the social emotional piece. We're seeing um because they're off of their cell phones and engaging face to face with other peers or even going to our chill zone during lunchtime, there is less of um studentto student uh how would you say it? student to student uh >> like the conflict >> the conflict >> conflict between >> conflict the bullying the the um social media and so and when it does happen um because we are working with the students we are telling them what to do coming to adults and you know expressing to us there's a situation rather than quickly getting on their phones and texting back or posting something because we have a cell phone policy where it needs to be put away during structural time >> or then worrying about what people are posting or doing on the phones since they all don't have their phones and they don't have that need to be checking and to see what's going on because well nothing's going out there their phones are away.
For those of you that don't know me, my oldest daughter was in fifth grade when one of your school's socially transitioned her without telling me. She was going through a difficult time in her life and the social transition made things worse. To this day, I am still shocked that the school did this without telling me. I am not afraid to make a stand and I will not go away. What happened to my daughter and our family was wrong. I will not scream, yell, or put others down, but be assured, I will not stop until I know this will not happen to another child or family. This policy is an overreach and dangerous. Once I filed my case against Chico Unified School District and it went public, I had dozens of parents reach out to me telling me stories of similar situations. I asked 3 years ago and I'm asking again for this school district to get on the right side of this issue.
So, and really that's it. It's just kind of a short presentation talking specifically about this bucket of money and leveraging it or certified staff compensation increase specifically on the salary schedule for next year.
um you know the wall the walls is obviously a cheaper less expensive option but it's not when when and correct me if I'm wrong if you guys understood something differently but when they were looking at like reverberation and all the acoustical testing right the the the best best bang for your buck was doing something vertical because of the ceiling echo back and forth not necess I mean the walls obviously are part of it too right so there's that it was part of that conversation of, you know, do you want to make it a gym or do you want to make it an auditorium or you try to make it somewhere in the middle? You know what I mean? And and what does that look like? And I think that um, you know, when I was in there, I know we I appreciate John coming from um, Fairchild and did a lot of work with the sound system.
Its intention is to help students be successful in the educational settings. So, if you get a call from a school administrator that says your son or has had a behavioral threat assessment ran on them today, please do not freak out. It sounds scary. It's the school trying to make sure that everybody is safe. There are several tools out there. Uh Dr. Reeves model, uh NTAC, which is National Threat Assessment Center, uh Dewey Cornell Seastack model, several models out there. The state does not dictate the model that you use. It just states that there needs to be a school safety specialist on there, a person from the safe school committee, an administrator, uh, guidance counselor or somebody with mental health, uh, knowledge, special education, um, I feel like I'm leaving one out, but there's a it's a team approach. So, one person doesn't have all the say to say this student needs to do this.
>> I saw that. That was neat. >> Mhm. And you probably also saw that it zoomed out the camera, making it presumably harder for Kirby to even see that the landmine was there. >> Mhm. >> Doing plenty of damage. The last game situation. Oh, and he manages to take manages to take a stock off of Jaden, but he's >> the Kirby's at a really high percent. And he's a really light character. I mean, you can tell by the way he's jumping around. He don't weigh much. >> Oh. Oh. >> And he sucked up Jaden and got his powers. Now, luckily, the power is just a is just Jaden's pocket ability. And Jaden doesn't have that many really good projectiles. So, I doubt Kirby will be able to use it that much, but Jaden is going to have to be sparing with his slingshot. >> Oh, >> but he isn't sparing with his dome signs.
seem to really help with we're all on the same page using the same wording. Um Michelle and Katie Brennan have just been awesome to to help us with all of this. And of course the most important part is we're building relationships with our students. So um with PBIS we are bringing our teams back. We have weekly behavior meetings with the teachers um and we have leadership groups that we are starting with the students also. But the main thing that I want to point out is our community involvement. At Riker's Ridge, we are a family and I tell the students and the teachers that all the time. We are the fam. We are a family and we need and want our community involvement. I was really impressed with um with some of the people that I reached out to and said, "Hey, this is ReadAcross America week.
Goodness. Yeah. replace those with with phones that are not constantly radiating. >> Um it it was appalling once you you get the proper equipment to measure what comes off all of these devices >> and and it's easier to to um take that step and disable them when you can truly >> hear um >> what what they're emitting. Turning that inaudible electromagnetic field into an audible sound. And then it it's um much more convincing to those that don't believe, >> right? And it becomes like a scavenger hunt. And I was so honored that back in 2016 when I figured out there are radio frequency radiation detection meters because like you say, it's invisible. How do we know where these signals are coming from? I went after a grant in my town in Ashlin, Massachusetts, and we became the first in the nation to put a radio frequency radiation detection meter on loan.
Um all of that was were were requirements of the project. Um and with with regard to the materials, they had in the beginning of the year learned about different materials and what works well and in holds heat and what, you know, um reflects sunlight and what um so they really did every step of this and and it just really they did an amazing amazing job, including being including being out in the courtyard measuring it when it was very very cold luckily before the snow but they were really out there taking the measurements and they did this from start to finish so really proud of all of our seventh grade engineering students. >> Yeah amazing yeah thank you for sharing that with us this is like the best part of our night when you seriously you should see what we have to do later it's Like what does it in a good mood and we're so impressed and we're so happy and and and proud that you're getting that education and that you're coming in and sharing what you're learning with us so I I do get a lot of questions from students of like are we going to make I mean I I think you've got some really good ideas for sure so thank you so much >> is it's really great to see this the project base element of the engineering class I just love it I was saying to Marcy this in the earlier presentation we had earlier this year from the business class this is such incredibly productive learning and I love it it's you guys did such an incredible job so well done I want to see these come to life these look great I have a backyard if you need practice This is this is all based off of the one courtyard that right when you walk in kind of goes from the Awesome well thank you have a great night we appreciate Have a good night thank you Okay next up Caring Cade the composting program proposal for the Paid-Away School hello Let me get the right one for you here Yeah Yeah, no I had it.
So, um, you know, while that speaks to a great, um, sense of success and progress with the school, um, we understand that there's lots of things going on, um, below that sort of, uh, um, uh, number, you know, and that achievement that, uh, there's still a lot of growth to be made, um, and a lot of work to be done. Uh, I'm fortunate to be working with a wonderful staff, um, of teachers and IAS and, uh, and others. Um, and speaking of staff, just to give you a brief overview, we uh we are nearly fully staffed. We've been working hard all this year. Um, uh, we are still looking for one special education teacher. Um, and otherwise, uh, we have a couple of different, uh, unit C positions, uh, building base substitute and an IIA that we are still looking to bring on board. Um, but we've hovered right around that full staffing.
Uh, I'm fortunate to be working with a wonderful staff um, of teachers and IAs and and others. Um, and speaking of staff, just to give you a brief overview, we we are nearly fully staffed. We've been working hard all this year. Um, we are still looking for one special education teacher um, and otherwise uh, we have a couple of different unit C positions building base substitute and an IA that we are still looking to bring on board um, but we've hovered right around that full staffing um, and it's been very difficult uh, to uh, to locate that special education teacher, but we're in a process where we think we have some viable candidates and looking to um, bring somebody on board real soon. Um, with that I'm going to tell you a little bit about our school improvement goals. Uh, I've had a a great experience so far working with our school council.
And that's what my girls right behind you did. They started a fundraiser, they started a project, and they thought, you know, "Hey, it's not really going to actually happen." And then our community in Danbury made it possible. And they're going to tell you about that because the Rotary Club, Modzelewski, and the Danbury Police, and a group of organizations actually wrote a grant and made it possible. So, they're here, they're going to talk, and then I'll kind of just summarize a little bit at the end. All right, they're really nervous, but they're going to do a great job. Good evening, and thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak today. Our names are Brooke, Iza, and Anaya. And we are here from Miss President US, who are passionate about making our community safer for kids. We are here to share an excite an exciting project called the Safe Play Park.
So >> so all in all we do see a positive uh change in the culture um plus also just the increased time in academics and instruction during the school day. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Good evening. So, since Murell started two years ago, this is our first year of our implementation. So, you might hear some similar uh to what uh has went on. So, same cell phone policy. All cell phones are and smart watches are placed in their backpacks uh at the beginning of school and they can't come out to the end of school. Uh so as is bell to bell 7:55 the first bell rings that's when they should be putting their uh phones and watches in their bags and then once the 235 or 111 bell rings they can come back and get their phones. Now how implementation hit we started in January of 20 25 uh going over PTSA schoolside council uh it was announced I did a video and uh shared with parents as well uh during uh was that music events anywhere there was a audience of teacher excuse me of parents they received the information on what's upcoming uh the cell phone policy we knew how important and how incredible that the cell phone is to our students.
You have wasted enough of our tax dollars fighting me in court on this case. Please end this. Parents must be allowed to have a say whether their children are socially transitioned at school. It is true that some parents might be abusive, but there are already safety policies in place for abusive families. The fact that some parents might be abusive is not a good enough reason to keep all parents in the dark. This is a time when a child will need their parents the most, even if it may be hard for a child to communicate their feelings at this time with their family. You should be facilitating a way to help bring them together, not creating a wedge between them. Keeping this secret is so damaging to a child. It was especially in my case. In my opinion and many others, the secrecy policy is absurd.
So, >> you take any questions? >> So, this isn't a one time shot. This is for now on. Is that right? Can you hear me? This will be ongoing. Yeah, >> ongoing. Okay. >> Any other questions for Tyler? >> What what does that raise our total base pay for a a teacher at a high school system? >> Are the B Mr. Mr. President, Mr. Go if I can answer this title. Correct me if I'm wrong, but on average the the per pay period, the base salary increase the big number is from ML. That's not being touched, but the base is going pretty much from 9421 to 11,000. So, every certified teacher staff member is going to see an increase in and $1,579 to the base pay. >> So, what did the teacher Angelina, what's the what would be the lowest paid teacher now coming in off of starting with no experience that would increase the >> it would starting >> 46,000 total the M amount and the 11,000 amount would be 46,000 >> yes >> and it goes up to as high as 58,000 >> so before years ago it was 35 to 47,000 so Now you can see everyone's going up on each level and the lowest is 46,000 with the highest being 50.
What a couple three Fridays ago now. I feel like it's been two Fridays ago. Um, when we had a home game and got things adjusted a lot better. And, um, I know Katie and Amy were up there. They were texting. I was like, "Scale 1 to 10 now down now. Scale of 1 to 10 now." So I could hear it from different places. But um but you know the thing that John noticed when people were in the gym, sound systems on, they're playing. I mean he's like I'm hearing it more vertically. Not I mean yes this this makes a difference, right? But so there's that piece too that >> you know if you go in and do some kind of a treatments on the ceiling of some sort, you know, you start grinding all the paint and all that you you hate to go put it up because it's all going to get filthy.
The team decides it. the court case that she was referring to um I'm assuming was probably from Oxford, Michigan from earlier. Um it's it's a telltale sign. This is what we're trying to prevent from happening and I wish I had a little bit more time to kind of go into depth with some of this stuff because that case is very interesting and shows you the need for behavioral threat assessments. So, please do not freak out if you hear this. We have digital threat assessments. Digital threat assessments are arguably probably more common anymore than behavioral threat assessments. We were talking about uh earlier about threats coming in. I think that one of the things that we need to talk to our students about is reporting instead of reposting. We see students take a a image from Snapchat, from Facebook, and then they re-upload it so that all their friends get to see it.
Look at that. >> That was big. >> Sending Kirby to the top. And you're right, that was pretty big cuz that means the Cyber Tigers have won their first round. Wow, >> that's awesome. So now, so now we got to wait to see if our opponents we got we got to see if our opponents can um if they want to counterpick a stage. Maybe a a stage that gives them a different layout, so to speak. >> How many different stage options are there? >> There's about seven or eight different stage options in terms of it. >> All right. And while we're waiting for them to actually choose, while we're waiting for them to actually choose the stage, why don't we shout out Otton it? So, I got a question. Do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea? >> I can't think of one right now.
We'd love to have you in our schools. Would you like to come to our schools and read?" And it was just I'm not everyone is on here, but I mean it was just amazing the number of people that said I would love to come read to your school. Thank you, Mr. Ben. They really enjoyed that, by the way. Okay. And we will continue to invite um community stakeholders into our school whenever possible. So, we have a lot of a lot of people that had a lot of good time reading. Awesome. >> So, I just want you to know we are so proud to be Riker's Ridge. We are we are so proud of our school and our students. they are just thriving. Um, and we just we are just proud. We're just proud and we're going to continue to grow. So, thank you so much for your time and I appreciate you allowing Miss Lori and I time to be here this evening.