So we looked at the whole and some question you can see the the statement that we staff is responding to here is I feel I'm sorry family I feel valued by my child again this high school is on a five scale to look at see bit of a drop from last year. It's kind of interesting because if you look at 23 24 and then we had a huge jump last year um and in 2025 so slightly down from where we were at last year. We're not sure that major increase in family participation in the survey maybe >> more than doubleies >> amount of families participate. I I' I've noticed that you just going to middle school. >> Oh, um that's true. The more you have an increase in participation. >> And then um the other one we looked at um for families was my child's schools a friendly similar question.
Hearing none, the measure is adopted. Thank you. Next up is HB 2088. This adds the requirement that a written consent to adoption be notarized. Recommendation here is to pass as is. Questions or concerns? If not, HB 2088 recommendation to pass as is. Any no votes or reservations?
First one I'm going to talk about, unfortunately, is not here. Uh kind of chose some people based on some of our core values. And uh the paraprofessional we chose, her name is Lisa Rich. And the reason why we chose her is because of her dedication to um our program. She's kind of like a Swiss Army knife. Um when you walk into the classrooms she's in, she uh is a support in our math classes most of the time, but you'll see her in the resource math class, and she's sometimes up there teaching. Um kids really, really like her. She has fun with everyone. And for her tonight, she said, "Hey, I can't make it. My kids have softball." So, um I I think that that that's pretty neat. And I know that Mr. O'Neil has something he wanted to share about his interactions with her. Yeah, Ms.
And uh we truly appreciate the time that you have taken out of your day and uh to attend this uh board meeting and we would we really really appreciate uh you guys coming here. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Good afternoon, members of the governing board, district leaders and guests. My name is Kate Reeves and I'm a member of the leadership action team on student lighthouse. This year we had an amazing opportunity to take part in a participatory budgeting pro- process. We used our leadership skills to be proactive and begin with the end in mind. As we work to make our school an even better place, it was exciting to see how our voices can make a real difference in our community. Now, other members of the student lighthouse team will share how the voting process worked at Santan. Hello, my name is Breanna Montoya and I'm a member of the academics action team on student lighthouse.
And I am going to stop there so that I can the team and I are available to answer any questions. I don't know if anyone is saying anything cuz I can't hear anything being said, so. I have questions. Okay. Um I'm just conscious of how often I talk first. Um can you all hear me up there? Can you hear me okay, Dr. Z? Yes. Okay. Um I'm just going to go one by one. I think that'll work. Can you share where you are with the commit the hiring committee or the interview committee for the director of student services? I know you said that Is that in process? Is that committee developed? Um I'm curious if I'm on the CPAC list and typically they email out when there's a hiring committee and I haven't seen that, so I'm curious if there's involvement from CPAC. So yes, this um I can tell you that they actually sent a name for the screening committee and I think they submitted a name for the inter- I'm not sure, but I know they submitted a name for the screening committee.
We can can play with those numbers, but um that's a pretty big number and if somehow that's cut at the federal level, there's some risk there. We have some real risk. Uh we do have Sorry, going back. We do have some balance in our circuit breaker account that we could use if we needed so. Didn't want me to go back a slide. So, then we go back into a lot of the same items from before. The first slide you just saw is budget offsets. Those directly offset the budget. These next category reduce the assessments and they all do the same thing. They reduce the overall assessments that the town pays. They just sit in a different place in our budget. So, I try to recognize them separately. So, chapter 70, chapter 71, most of this the the items with stars come from the governor's budget.
At Kent Middle School, we have very high standards for it. Students chosen for this award must show a willingness to take on challenges, a concern for others, and the ability to make the community around them a better place. Rihanna and Matthew certainly demonstrate these qualities and are very deserving of this award. And so first congratulations on being one of our cage student leaders. Bi and Matthew again. Congratulations, Briana and Matthew. Return to your seats. Thank you. And if I could have Stella and please Stella Corbin and Anukica Olsson are being recognized this evening as CAS scholar leaders. So CASS is the Connecticut Association of Schools and each year that organization seeks nominations for the CASS scholar Leader Award. Another Cton Middle School's most prestigious honors. CAS scholar Leader Award recognizes students with the highest level of academic achievement all who also have a positive impact on the school of climate by showcasing dependability and integrity.
So these are a combo question. So high school again up from 23 24 but last year a little bit down >> but then if we look at the percent >> for that same section this is high school again and family survey so this is parents I feel valued by my child's school 59 9% were positive responses and my child wondering if that in amount of families have really >> um we were again using that same statement. I feel valued by my child's school. You can see this is really pretty much sometimes the bars look farther than they are. 3.35 3.53 and this looks down but it's actually from last year.53 kind of not a big change there in middle school. Um this one my child's um school creates a friendly environment there is a real clear positive trajectory from 24 to 25amilies and so with those same% positive responded by my child% of My child's learning environment statement I feel valued by my child's school and this is a family survey.
Hearing none, the measure is adopted. Thank you. Next up is HB 2096. Clarifies and expands procedures for aggravated aggravated circumstances determinations in Child Protective Act proceedings. Uh, the recommendation on 2096 is to pass as is. Did I skip one? Yes. 2093 What was the last one we had? We voted on 2088. Yeah. 2093 you skipped that. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Here it is. Uh, sorry. Moving on to HB 2093. Provides for the temporary sealing of certain medical records and professional evaluations filed in guardianship and conservatorship proceedings pending a judicial determination on the need for continued sealing. Uh, recommendation is to pass as is. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice On HB 2093 SD1 recommendation to pass unamended. Any no votes or reservations?
Rich is amazing on our campus. We appreciate all she does to support the students in all the classes. She's never afraid to to help out a student need, whether uh they're an A student or someone who just needs a little bit more support. So, we appreciate everything that she does on campus, and could be prouder to give us give her this award. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> So, I I like you, Chad. I brought notes. I don't know if I'll use them, but I have them here. Um our volunteer, uh Ms. Linda Smith. >> [applause] >> So, first, you tell us who's here with you. Pardon me? Who is here with you? >> I have my daughter and my granddaughter here, and the girl that got me into the gig is homesick. >> [laughter] >> So, speaking about the gig. So, uh you know, Chad said it, too.
To get started, we collected ideas from students across our school. We placed a suggestion box in the library so everyone had a chance to share their ideas since all students visit the library. This helped us seek first to understand what our school really wanted and needed and made sure every voice was heard. Hello, my name is Madeline. I am a member of the academic action team on the student lighthouse. We've received hundreds of creative and thoughtful ideas. The lighthouse team worked hard together with staff to review them and narrow them down to five proposals. During this process, we had to think win-win and synergize by combining ideas and working as a team. Our final proposal included recess games and equipment, new library furniture, STEM activities for our makerspace, math games, night activities and an outdoor music garden. Hello, my name is Madeline Reeves and I am a member of the academic action team on student lighthouse.
Um so I don't know what process they use because I I've I've asked, but um Okay. It's also possible I missed it with other updates. I just wanted to understand where you are. Thank you. Mhm. Um I'm going to ask this question and might be told this is not a question for this meeting, but I am curious if the region is able to prioritize siblings or to prioritize students who have attended one of the the regional elementary districts. Is that possible? I want to let Alex know that. Answer is no, but Marta can explain. I think Marta, we do not prioritize um when it comes to school choice for the region. It's the same process. We're not supposed to prioritize that. Correct. I thought siblings can be Can I Well, when it comes to Sorry, I'm sorry. I can't I don't have my my camera on.
Um if we had an updated budget from the house, um which is the next round, I would try to incorporate those numbers. Uh but we don't. So, we're not able to incorporate those yet. >> [clears throat] >> So, as we get into this, we talked about we've sat down with the budget and we poured over it with administrators. We tried to listen to as much feedback as possible. Uh Berlin, [clears throat] um we really got to the point where um the the town uh listened to a lot of what we talked about. Um the select board supported our original sort of budget with some cuts. We did make some cuts to get there. Um but we're in a we're in a a place where not making tremendous cuts. We are making some of the risk cuts though, right? So, you'll see there's some oc- occupational therapy contract services.
Stella and Hanukkah are absolutely deserving of those compliments in this award. So, congratulations on being a cast scholar leader, Stella Corwin and Anal. over here. I just wanted to say thank you to the parents for all the work that you do because behind all these great students are great parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents to get them where they are. As you can see, we thrive and we excel at academic achievement. sports, arts, usage, all that is because of Vince Cuba people what you do as parents. I end all my correspondences now with can is a great place to grow and learn. It really is because of all that we have here. It's a great community what we do here. And in order to keep that going, I have to make one pitch for our budget that's coming up at the end of this year. I mean, at the end of this month, May May 14th, actually, is when we vote on it, we can really use your help with that because we want to be able to keep supporting the academic achievement that we have, the arts, the music, the sports that we have, and continue to honor our students.
So this is still on five point scale. Um so you could see from here we were kind of pretty again. So again I think our increased family participation >> across the second statement my child school creates >> and you can see again >> you know indicator >> there was still kind of a merger. >> I think this is helpful to look at a different way of looking at it. >> The percentage of positive responses of parents to those two high schools were not combined. So they came together There's a trend we're saying because they don't have a belonging theme. But for staff, we looked at describes how staff members are self. This particular statement, my school positive work environment. So that was the statement staff was responding to all see this as a real area that they've got a positive um over the last >> I think they're still um emerging have a lot to do with really I don't want to say get along but work together.
Hearing none, the measure is adopted. All right. That brings us to HB 2096. This clarifies and expands procedures for aggravated circumstances determinations in Child Protective Act proceedings. Uh, the recommendation here is also to pass as is. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice Chair. HB 2096 AC2 SD1 recommendation to pass as is. Any no votes or reservations?
You You can't function as a school without people who are supporting you. And so, for us, Linda is amazing. Uh her talents, you can see, is in our theater programs. Uh whether it be uh when I walk down there, I see her sewing an outfit for some kid, having a conversation with a kid, they're running lines, etc. But, the way they look, how they act, the things that happen are mainly because of the things she does for our kids. And she's here all the time. Um I know I'll walk through the theater when we're uh you know, they're practicing, and she's there. Uh just giving up her time for our kids. and I just want to read a couple of things that Miss Bird said about her. Linda has been a consistent and dedicated volunteer in our theater program for many years giving her time and talents to support students.
Scorpions Synergy City focuses on adding new playground equipment. These activities are designed to help students stay active, build teamwork and have fun during recess. This project really represents synergizing, working together, including others and building strong relationships through play. Hello, my name is Dallas Wright and I'm a member of the academic action team on student lighthouse. The scorpion meeting den is designed to be a calm and comfortable space. It would include flexible seating for reading, learning and working in small groups. This space supports students as they put first things first by focusing on their learning while also giving them a place to collaborate and share ideas. Hello, my Oh, wait. Hello, my name is Lauren and I'm a member of leadership action team on student lighthouse. Wait, no, wait. Our STEM lab is a hands-on makerspace for students. This is a place where we can build, create and solve problems using STEM.
>> No problem, Marta. Go ahead. Yeah. So, yeah. So, we can given you know, given spaces, if there are enough spaces, we clearly could if there was a decision to be made, we could prioritize. That's one of the school choice um recommendations by DESE, but it you know, there are very specific ways around it. So, yes. If they can be you know, we can contemplate that, but we have to follow specific instructions. So, yes. >> right. So, it's not as easy as yes, we're going to prioritize that. >> No. No. But, we have like So, yeah. So, I I don't want to put forth the perception that because you have a sibling, you automatically get in. There is suggestions on how to prioritize by DESE, but I just do not also do not want to say that. And I know when I came in last year, there was a situation in um another district that that where they talked about we just transitioned from automatic enrollment.
And that's usually there in case we have extraordinary needs, significant needs outside of our ability. We're really just going to need to try to work within our current um OT staffing. Um and and that's just based on some numbers we've seen in the past. We had in there and we've carried we've carried that over to support that. Um I've done some deep dives into a few things. I've worked with Joe. We did renegotiate uh our Xerox copy, so we took down our copier. Uh and we did agree to take some cuts at the central office. Um these are net cuts, so the the FTE count to Berlin looks small and and it's not an extraordinary cut. We don't have a lot of staff at the central office. But we're looking to cut some finance office, my department, uh as well as some staffing in Joe's office.