And if it's on a public sidewalk, there's already a law that uh Nick prohibits you from blocking the sidewalk, which was my bill back in like 2014. So that one is deferred indefinitely. HB 1959 is next relating to domestic violence. Extends for 5 years certain provisions from Act 19 from session laws 2020 relating to abuse family or household members including establishing a petty misdemeanor offense of abuse of family or household members, clarifying the penalties for violations, etc. Uh Recommendation here is to pass it as is. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice Chair. HB 1959 HD2 SD1 recommendation to pass unamended. Any no votes or reservations?
Um Layla is an A A+ student who um takes accelerated courses. She's a talented musician. She plays the violin. She dances in our Cooley dance program. Um and this is not exhaustive, but she's the president of our NJHS club, the president of our WEB club. Um she's a member of the Cooley student leadership team. Uh she's a member of the student participatory budget project that won for the school, the lunchtime makeover. Um and so, those are just a few of the things, but those are all huge. WEB is a critical piece of what makes Cooley successful with our new students, welcoming in others. It's a wonderful program. Our NJHS is involved in student leadership opportunities, volunteer programs. And Layla is a leader in all of those clubs, and that speaks to her. Um but again, going back to kind of that leadership and her kindness and just being an amazing kiddo, um when we were about to announce our teacher of the year, I needed posters.
I'm a fifth grade student in our Power Ranch steering committee. We first brainstormed ideas that would help our school campus and we narrowed it down to three ideas we agreed upon. Hi, I'm Lacey Wright. I'm in sixth grade and I was part of the steering committee. Members of the steering committee broke up into five different groups for each proposal to decide how to promote it. Members of the steering committee decided to create videos to share with the whole school. We thoroughly explained our proposals for the younger students in the videos. Members of the steering committee also created posters to hang up in the cafeteria. These were our five options. Hi, I'm Emily Sexton. I'm in sixth grade and I'm part of the steering committee. The first of three options was playground power up soccer goals. This vision was adding goalie nets to the playground would make recess more fun, active and inclusive.
Um and so I would encourage like usually Mickey's the person who does this on her own and I think last year she had about four families that showed up or five families that showed up. Um I think this year teachers have volunteered or discussed the fact that they would go and help recruit, but then we're also looking at the substitute costs because now again, this hasn't been built into our previous budget. And so there's a cost for substitutes. So, there's there's a lot of great ideas and things that we would want that we want to implement um and we're working with school leadership and our district team to implement them, but we also need to understand that how does this affect our current student population in terms of instruction that's in front of them. How do we make sure that we're not leaning against a already lean budget?
Um we now have an operating budget of 25,696,973. Uh total change 1,283,583. Um you may recall when we started this process, we were over 10%. Someone reminded me of that uh today as we're meeting. So, we have sharpened pencils, we fought and fought. And I want to be really clear. Many of the line items that you will see cut um you've seen cut before and you will be seeing cut tonight represent risks, right? We are taking away any possibility of there being safety nets or, you know, we're hoping we can do this. This is This is it. There's no There's no anything, right? Um So, as we look at this, um to get there, there are some offsets. I want to be clear and I I I owe a small apology for this. I was a little aggressive in terms of um having our E&D certified.
The fact that we have such a large group given our school size like percentage wise we are blowing away neighboring towns we send a large group considering the size of our our town overall. Um, and that shows big case showcases the commitment of Canton, these students, their families, and our teachers to our music program. These students, you obviously dedicated a tremendous amount of time to honing your skills and your selection to the Northern Legion Music Festival is a testament to your hard work and you are among the best of the best and you should be very proud of yourselves. Um, I'm going to have each of you come up and the first group um is all for students who were selected for the choir, right? become for the mixed choir portion. All right. So, auditioned for were accepted and and performed at the Northern Region Music Festival Choir.
>> Then at middle school again this section describes a degree they can have collaborative relationships with their classmates and they are also on a fivepoint scale and different years. You can see we've kind of held steady. I mean down.3 we don't really consider statistically significant. So a slight drop but not not a lot of growth or decline in this area for students at the middle school. And then here are the percent positive for those scared 38% 48% I feel safe to me% again the trend not being really statistically significant but I think it is interesting to note the little bump up in safety I know we focused a lot on safety and wanting students to feel safe and so um happy to see at least that that didn't go down there when we get to elementary school is a little different because they've got an way to answer.
Hearing none, the measure is adopted. Thank you. Next up is HB 1961. This prohibits persons from interfering with another person's access to or from a health care facility or disrupting the normal functioning of a health care facility. Makes violations a petty misdemeanor and establishes a private right of action. Uh recommendation here is also to pass as is. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice Chair HB 1961 HD2 SD1 recommendation to pass as is. Any no votes or reservations? Vice Chair votes no. Measure is adopted. Thank you. Next is HB 1962 and establishes This establishes an exemption for mediation in parentage proceedings where there are allegations of domestic abuse. Clarifies the exemptions for mediation in divorce proceedings as relates to domestic domestic abuse. Recommendation on 1962 is to pass as is. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice Chair. HB 1962 HD2 SD1 recommendation is as is. Any no votes or reservations.
I had an idea, and so I wanted to make some posters. And I pulled Layla, and I was like, "Hey, I need like three posters. Just, you know, celebrating teacher of the year. You got this. I got paint for you. Here's paper. Tell me what you need." Um an hour in, there was like, "I needed M&M's. I needed all kinds of things." I think the M&M's may have just been for them to eat, but they did end up on the board. Um so, by by the time we made the announcements, I didn't have three posters. I had like nine. And they all were themed. They all had really funny slogans. They felt like almost like prom proposals, you know. Um they were amazing, and and that was, you know, a huge part of that leadership that Layla shows because there was a group of them, but Layla was kind of my my starting point, and just she was so excited to celebrate her teacher, um Ms.
Goalie nets would allow more students to play soccer safely, practice skills and work together through teamwork and fair play. Hi, I'm Eden Randall, a sixth grader and part of the steering committee. One of the top three projects was Chillville. The student vision was that it's so hot in Gilbert, Arizona, student council thought it would be a good idea to put a misting system around the awning in the front of the school where students wait for parent pick up. Additionally, the budget allowed for portable misters as well. The vision Another top proposal was Together We Play. The vision for this was for students to have recess equipment such as new basketballs, footballs, kickballs, as well as games for students to play. Hi, I'm Emmy Hill. I'm part of the steering committee at Power Ranch Elementary. After the students knew all the options we had an assembly in the gym.
I know we're talking about the budget from next year, but our current budget did not build in a lot of the things that are we're being asked to implement. Um and then usually in July is when we have the school choice lottery. Um if there are more students than the seats available, we have a random it's a lottery's random minds. So for example, like I said if in first grade, we said we only have five seats, but we have eight first grade school choice applications, we would do a random lottery for the five seats. If we had in second grade seven seats, but we only had six applications, and those six individuals would automatically, I think, get their seats because then we would have closed our process. Um and then Margaret asked for us also to expand on the sixth to seventh grade transition. Um in 2019, DESE issued issued updated guidance around we used to move children who were choiced into a district immediately into our regional school district.
Um and I included E&D in our last um item. Uh I have spoken with DLS. I've been speaking with our auditor. Um something has changed at DLS and they are asking for a lot more detail on capital accounts, right? And you'll recall we have some of those issues with the debt service portion. So, I'm having to I've met with them the other week. We're going through that. We're walking through it. Technically, I can't put E&D on the table until it's certified. I believe we will have a certified number. Um we're working towards that and I will provide a better explanation um ideally at the next meeting. I know we've been like pushing out um but um you know, the it at the end of the day, we are blessed to have some money in our school choice account. So, I am just for the time being using school choice as a placeholder.
The >> D'Angelo Olivia Angel is Victor Dantis and last from the choir, Dylan Kim. And then the following students again learned, auditions, were accepted and performed in the Northern Region Music Festival for the band. First, Matthew Gang. >> Also, Michaela Collins I don't see Juliet Greenaw not here tonight. Thank you. Please and card. All right, thank you very much. Um, your seats. Thank you. But Finn, congratulations. I had Ben Finn Carly stay up here because we're going to uh continue and talk about some individual outstanding musical accomplishments that he had this year. So um back in the early winter, Finn submitted an original instrumental composition to the intermediate division of the CTSB, that's the American School Band Directors Association. and um he submitted his original instrumental piece called Crack and Fire. He was the winner of that competition and it was performed his pre premier performance was on Wednesday, November 17th.
So when you're looking at based on so you can see for elementary the trend is definitely and you can see manual in the 82nd percentile and this is where California is >> correct correct the percent and the top are And so these are the um statements or questions that this elementary students respond to and feel like an important part of your school. Are students friendly to you other students? So again, this is a different way of looking at it. This is this is the percentage of students that would put a three because they only put you one, two or three. So the positive response is yes, I totally agree all the time. Um and then you can see the trends are holding steady or bumped up a little bit. And again it's slight but you know this did go up. just kind of stay as Adriiana noted that in youth group they don't have a had to do with families and staff.
Hearing none, the measure is adopted. Thank you. Next up is HB 2078. This requires the Attorney General in consultation with Criminal Justice Research Institute to submit annual reports to the legislature. Um, I'm sorry. This is having to do with habitual violent crime. Uh, the recommendation on HB 2078 is uh to require reports to contain only aggregate information and exclude personally identifiable {slash} confidential confidential information. It does have a bad date still. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice Chair. HB 2078 HD1 SD1 recommendation to pass with amendments. Yes. Any no votes or reservations?
A, who was our teacher of the year. And she was just really excited to celebrate her because um that's just who Layla is, is somebody who cares about others. And one of the posters ended up with glitter on it. I didn't even give them glitter. I was amazed at where it came from. So, um Layla, congratulations. You're a phenomenal student for Cooley, and we're so proud of you. >> [applause and cheering] >> And now, not Cooley Middle School, but Williams Field. And so, if we could have Mr. Dolan and Mr. O'Neil come up present the points of pride for Williams Field High School. It's on. This thing on? I don't know how you follow that. So, uh I'll try. Um President Wade, board members, uh Superintendent Lotspeich, cabinet, thank you for giving us the opportunity to share with you some of the great people that we have on our campus.
The assembly was our present Jazlyn giving our Panthers a quick recap of the options and what they could benefit our school. After the assembly, the students went back to class and voted on Google Forms and picked their favorite. Then the winner was chosen. My name is Kenley Bottomfield and I'm in fourth grade and part of the steering committee. And it was time to answer the big question. Which proposal was the chosen one? And the winner is TOGETHER WE PLAY! STUDENTS WERE EXCITED for this because it adds better variety of options for students to choose during recess. Before Before we say a big thank you, uh as part of the school the steering committee, I'd like to uh share that we truly appreciate Oh, wait, never mind. Uh I enjoyed listening to the wonders and questions into the creation of the SPB project. Everyone in the student council has a different preference and we made everyone feel involved and we made sure everyone's palette was full of great decisions.
2019, that was updated. Um our former superintendent did issue a letter to families um stating that that that that would not continue. I think they gave a time frame, and this is that year. Um and so every school choice application, it's listed on there, it's a line on there. Um in March of this year, our regist- not March. I had the date, and I and I'm seeing it wrong. But um our registrar did send an email to families reminding them of the guidance and the fact that this is that last year, and they will not automatically go into the region. Um this was sent to all families, all four towns, so that individuals understand this and that they know that they would not automatically transition. Um we will work with our middle school and high school to identify choice seats, same process, um and then walk through what is available and not available based on seats.
So, it's going up. I can absolutely assure you I can share that with anyone who wants to know that we are putting based on um budget numbers from the state and actuals that we are putting 200,000 into E&D this year safely. So, as we work through that, I would not take money out for operations that we weren't already putting in cuz that would be non-sustainable. And I don't want to come to you with a an entirely non-sustainable budget. I may be a little aggressive, but I'm not going to be non-sustainable if I can avoid it. Okay? Um so, we get into these direct offsets. We also have the IDEA grant. Um I am hopeful, knock on wood, there are some people who are concerned about cuts to some of the federal grants. Um that is not using our full grant um necessarily to offset. There are some other things that sit off budget that get funded out of that grant.
A huge uh task that you undertook and to win is a huge honor. So we congratulate you for that. But additionally, this spring, our entire our jazz band, this is a Yukon jazz festival, uh performed in front of judges and professors and got feedback and the entire jazz band was uh shown to be exemplary and uh and outstanding. But f at the entire out of the entire Yukon Jazz Festival was recognized with the best soloist award. So for these musical accomplishments, congratulations Finn and Charlie. Congratulations. All right. Could I have Rihanna and Matthew up here? Rihanna and Matthew. So, we're now like to discuss the recipients of the Cave student leader award. So CAD is the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education and each year they solicit nominations for one of our most prestigious awards, the Cade Student Leadership Award. We take this recognition very seriously.