And we did review some of the suspension and expulsion data recently. And I just want to reiterate that also a lot of the suspension issues that we had dealt with in the last 10 years dealt with cell phones and taking pictures and uploading not so nice comments. And so I know for pretty much all the people standing behind me and Dr. Fentes, we have had several hours if not days of just going through cell phones and going through all the different things that have been negatively impacting schools. And so with the um plan in place, I've seen a huge dramatic positive change. Even Mr. Mosley mentioned uh the Chromebooks. I had been at uh Sierra Mont maybe a year or so ago and just saw the kids. They weren't playing with their watches or phones, but they all had their Chromebooks out. And I was just kind of like mentioning it to Mr.
They are helpful as being a space that's available for students to just take a break if need be and need a little space or mediate problems between friends. They continue to um, share how supported and welcoming their staff is from their entry in the office, around campus, with yard duties, in the cafeteria, with our nutrition services, librarian, so the whole spectrum of a school day, they're feeling supported and and respected by the adults on campus. Some of the recommendations they gave this time around were to spend some more time within our PBS and focus in on gossiping and how we can attack that, as well as good sportsmanship and being a good friend. They also made a recommendation that we could utilize some older students kind of as ambassadors to support younger students out on the playgrounds or when they're having challenges. And then in regards to behavior and safety, again, they feel very supported by staff, that they're addressed kindly, they're given reminders when they're starting to creep away from some of the expected behaviors on campus.
It's going to be costly. I I understand you can't piece out the two different times companies. But >> the reason why we would recommend doing it all at once right now is because it was kind of peacemail before. So if we do this all at once again, we have that seven to 10 years at least for switches and ads. >> There might be some that go out three, some that will go 10. >> I think the longest end of life we have right now is 2028. So even if we don't do it all, we will have to very shortly. But on top of that, um it was all piece of mail before. So we get you rate every five years. So the goal is if we do need to get new switches or new APs in five years, the funding will be available by then.
You guys want to turn your mics on, you're welcome to. You got to hold the button, Sam said, for three seconds on the bottom. So, I've got some questions and I'm just going to ask them. And um just I'll uh first of all, if you guys want to just kind of introduce yourselves, what your current role is um and just a little bit of your background, I guess. So, there is a tiny button on the bottom. >> Yeah. >> Sorry, Mrs. >> What am I doing? I'm sorry. introduce yourself, your role, and a little bit of your background. >> Perfect. Um, I'm Aubrey Aert. I am the elementary principal uh right here across the way. I've been here for eight years um at Clinton Central now, four years as the assistant principal and then this is wrapping up my fourth year as principal. Um prior to that, I worked in the community schools of Frankfurt as an instructional coach and then prior to that a classroom teacher um in Carol County at Carol Elementary, which is where I'm originally from.
There's a back throws him over. They're at one, two, three percentages. >> Oh, now 133 and 161. Corblin unfortunately could not take out the Samus. That's a shame, I will say. So, yeah. So, regretfully, I will say Lakeland is uh is winning by one stock. It's seven stalks to six. So, going to have to see who they who they bring out to uh take this uh Samus down. >> Yeah. >> But on the bright side, since the Samus has been playing so long, I'm pretty sure they've got a great idea of what to do. >> I bet so. >> Mhm. I'm willing to bet so. Alrighty. So, it would look like like Jaden maybe. >> H >> Jaden maybe. Yep. It looks like Jaden is going to be working on taking out the Samus. And I know Jaden has played against many a Samus. Heck, he's played against many a character.
>> Good. Thank you, Jody. Dustin, >> um, Miss Thirstston, Miss Lur, thank you both. Uh, it was an honor to read at Read Across America. I got to hear about Theo's half Nelson and double leg he's been working on. So, that was great. and then to share, oh, the places you'll go. Like, that was just so fun. So, thank you very much. The student leadership team, I wrote that down. Like, that's awesome to get your students invested in the school and make them feel like they have ownership. I always think that's cool when we hear about things like that. So, thank you guys. That was a good presentation. I thought also neat tonight was a wide range of students we honored, FFA, music, sports, academics. It just shows like how well-rounded of a school corporation we truly are. So, I thought that was neat tonight.
It just is. We have fixed income or fixed revenue sources. Uh we have expenses that aren't fixed that we just don't know what may happen from day to day. We have federal funding that we just don't know if it's going to be there. Uh we have unknowns such as out-of-district special education costs or out-of-district costs that may be incurred because of of movements. These are all things that are happening and and it's very fluid. So, what I want to share tonight is uh a little bit of what I shared last night. Um I will put all of this on the website for the community uh as well as publish my budget book tomorrow as well, right? So, so there's a number of layers here and I want you to stop me uh if you have questions, specific questions with regard to this presentation. Because it is a little different.
So we would love to be asked um and and also just going back to um the question about fifth grade. I I would really really like if if um folks would come by and and see what's going on in the middle school, fifth, 6th, 7th grade, any lunch or recess. Um we're very proud of what we're doing there. Um, and I think it's it should be seen and celebrated. >> All right, member Deniv and then member web. >> Thank you all for coming. This is a question for Miss Fenomar. I'm sorry to talk about instability after you have so eloquently uh asked for stability, but in our redistricting conversations that have taken place over many years, moving the fifth grade to the elementary again was only one side of the coin. So, I'm wondering if you've had any conversations about what would happen if 8th grade moved back from the high school to the middle school because that is the other side of the redistricting that we were talking about.
No. Do not move them back. Uh I don't know why we would. I don't know how that would benefit them. Um and it's nothing to say that there's anything negative about going there, but the reality is it's appropriate, um and I think they're placed well, and they're doing well where they are. So, I would not move them. Thank you for speaking to that because that was really what we talked about when we did all of that redistricting work over several years. That was the main thing that we were planning on and that's what we voted to do. So, to hear that things are different and that changes have been made or you're experiencing different things and through a different lens, that's really important and maybe we need to revisit all of the listening sessions and have new new listening sessions in this new span of time with the new data that we have so we can see where you all are at.
We have one retirement. We have one generalist who left us back in November. So, we just hired uh two new generalists to uh tackle the team and the onboarding. It's really nice that we get to hire them now so that we can do it while we're looking at a little bit of a slower time. Kelly's keeping us busy, but um just doing that in a really thoughtful way. How do we do that? What does it look like? Freeing up some of Kim's time for uh other things. So, that's been really nice. But, I'm really excited to be here. Thank you. All right. >> [clears throat] >> And next up we have Miss Mary Gregory. I know she does not look familiar at all if you are from the Danbury area. So, go ahead, Mike. Thank you. So, Mary Gregory, our new director of Academy Partnerships.
Mosley, and he's like, "Yeah, well, it's gonna change soon." And boy, has it really changed. >> That's that's good to know. And um I did see some feedback, I mean push back from parents. I saw those comments and I obviously there will be some uh push back, but uh I I think this is for the greater good. I'm sure the community will they'll understand that it's it's uh for the best of their students as as well as the community. Um so it'll be good to have like per periodical updates like this for the sake of the community so they know positive things are happening. You know several good things have been happening at at Morel and Smons. So it'll be great to see more of that. Uh my last question would be for the uh uh so Mr. Mostly there about 45 phones are on campus.
They didn't feel that bullying was a a big problem, it was more along those lines of gossiping and just kind of not being kind. They feel that they're learning tools to help resolve problems amongst themselves as well, so not always having to go to an adult, but what they're gathering from those lessons are helping to keep things safe. They would again, another theme that's happened earlier in the fall, they would prefer more supervision at recess, especially on fields and basketball courts, so that they could be running games appropriately with I think you know, NBA style refereeing. And then again, the the the the want to have stricter rules enforced and and an increase in consequences for students who continue to make similar mistakes. And then we did ask a question on artificial intelligence just to to dabble with how are they feeling in this world that they're exploring.
But there should be no issues with I mean we have warranty, support, everything for I think six years with this. So we have no issues. >> I think I think your question is something I wrestle with literally almost everything we do, whether it's projects, HVAC, whether it's even just curriculum whether it's buying a a Dubai I mean I say this all if we do it all now it all breaks the same day you know I mean or you have to redo it all the same I mean >> yeah I mean yeah right you replace all your kitchen appliances well they're all going to go bad in about you know the same but I don't really my wife probably wouldn't care to have a peace meal kitchen right you know what I mean like you know whatever so I think it's that same thought process and and again I kind of defer to Sam and ATTE and fivestar and all those folks and when it comes to the technology piece Yeah, cuz part of me is like, well, it's it's easier to budget for, hey, let's do this and we'll do a little bit this, we'll do a little bit this, and then that's what we'll get to here later is when we look at our master infrastructure plan is, okay, but if we say it's our servers, and then it's our wireless network, and then it's student devices, and then it's staff devices, then it's this, and then you just start it over again.
Um, I live in Little Lakes now, right here, um, outside of town with my husband, Paul. I have a 5-year-old son, Bo, and a new baby that's four months old, um, named Banks. So, that's me. >> Hello, I'm Jason Blake. I'm the junior senior high school principal. Um, this is year 32 for me. So I started out at Western then I was at Northwestern then McConnell for 24 years and then this is my first year here at Clint Central and during that time I've been a I started out as a substitute teacher then a an instructional assistant then I was a classroom teacher for about 20 years and then five years or four years I'm sorry four years as an assistant principal and then this is my first year as a building level principal but the vast majority of my time when I work with students with special needs.
With with how long he's played the game, you can pretty much guarantee he's played he has a decent strategy and knowledge of what every character can do, at least at a base level. >> Yeah, Cyber Tigers can count on him. >> Yes, they can. We're going to see. All right, looks like he looks like he selected his character. So, I guess we're ready to start. He's currently uh pulling up some ambient music, uh playing through his headphones. I'm pretty sure he's still playing the Minecraft cave noises. I mean, hey, if they work, they work. >> That's right. >> Yeah. So, Samus is going to have to jump off the ledge twice and Jaden is going to have to take one stock. >> We're planning. And it looks like they've already decided on their last charact on their last player as well. The Cyber Tigers have already selected their last character for for tonight.
Um, kind of slid on the radar, but officially Muny's coming down. So that was voted tonight. So El Muny's coming down. That's going to be a heart puller for a lot of people that went to Muny, but we're certainly excited about the early learning center and it coming up and and the future for Madison and our and our little ones. So it's going to be an exciting couple years for sure. And also I think the last thing I have to say is you notice Mike Scott's absent tonight. Uh thoughts and prayers. The Mike Scott, he's been deal dealing with some health stuff. So everybody, please just keep them uh in your prayers and thoughts. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dustin. So want to thank Rogers Ridge. Great presentation. and nice hearing all the great stuff that's going on up there. Of course, I love the country schools, a little bit smaller area and stuff.
I I changed quite a bit from last night just based on feedback I heard last night, too. So, I wanted to make sure I included a lot of this stuff. But, I But, I want to really emphasize this budget that I'm presenting is not about adding to our budget. It's about trying to fix a you know, a a deficit, a structural deficit that's going to exist forever based on funding formulas at the state level as well as at the town level, right? So, we can't just go out and create revenue. And the challenge becomes how do you then look at your population, which is our community and our students, to ensure that they have the best chance for success? That costs, right? It costs money, it costs other resources, and we have to do our best to ensure our students are getting what they need.
So, I'm just wondering if you've begun any conversations about that or or what you think that would look like >> or if it's possible at all anymore. >> Um, I'm unsure of what that what that would look like. Um, I I really haven't had much much thought or talking about that side of the coin, but I do know that that is is something that people are interested in talking about. And I don't know, Mike, if you have any any thoughts on that? >> Yes. >> No. Do not move them back. I don't know why we would. I don't know how that would benefit them. Um, and it's nothing to say that there's anything negative about going there, but the reality is it's appropriate. Um, and I think they're placed well and they're doing well where they are. So, I would not move them. >> Thank you for speaking to that because that was really what we talked about when we did all of that redistricting work over several years.
So, I really appreciate you coming in and telling us um that the information has changed. Thank you. I'm Annette. Thank you for being here. Um this is more for Mr. Brownie and Ms. Fontamora. I know that when we were doing our tours, we got to see some of your really cool shop exploratory shops. I was hoping that you could give more about what you are offering for UAs at GHS level and for Ms. Fontamora, what you guys are doing for UAs at GMS. I mean, I know there's makerspace which is a a favorite of my child. Yeah, so we have to begin with, we have the things that have been there for a while, right? We have our culinary um we have our um Bosch room teaches both uh construction as well as sustainable energy um sustainable agriculture rather. We also have our um a few different art um classes that are provided and they they kind of vary through the years, but there's um there's ceramics as well as graphic design.
I'll be brief because I want Mary to to talk a little bit about her accomplishments, but she comes to us with tremendous experience for the 25 years in the greater Danbury area with DSABC here in our district, also with Girl Scouts of America, number of 501c3s and nonprofit experience that we're just very excited to have her on our team. So, I'll let her take over. >> Thanks, Mike. Hi, everybody. Most of you are all familiar to me. >> [laughter] >> I'm so thrilled to be back with Danbury Public Schools. For those who don't know me, I had about a 13-year tenure supporting Danbury Public Schools as executive director of DSABC. I've gone on to hold executive leadership positions, major gift fundraising, philanthropic, and nonprofit board leadership in the past 10 years. But, so thrilled to be back in this capacity and um grateful for the warm welcome I've received thus far as I wrap up day three.