LaBrie Schiano from huckleberry a new huckleberry principal and by the way said her last name correct like very proud of that that's it that's great and I have my two teachers here who will confirm that he did pronounce my last name correctly because they speak Italian fluently hello everyone I'm Melissa LaRoche Ianno I'm the principal over at huckleberry hill it's been an incredible start to the school year prior to the school year even starting just having so many of the huckleberry Hill families and parents and students and community volunteers come in and paint the beautiful murals on our halls has been a true labor of love and the children are truly benefitting and taking notice every day as I walk the halls I hear students commenting as they pass by how beautiful the murals are and how it looks so different it's like a brand new school which is really fantastic for the beginning of the new year there are so many thank yous to all the people that helped Steve and I transition into huckleberry hill especially the staff the families the secretaries the custodians we really did a lot of work this year in the office reconfiguring the office space the custodian said that they had to lift and move filing cabinets that have never had to be moved before one day I was in the office next door and I think maybe Chrissy was Elvis Trini was with me and we heard this humongous banging and the custodians were trying to move the filing cabinets but not realizing that they were the 500-pound cement brick ones that house the special education files so it was a little curve learning curve for everyone that day and when we place them Gregg Wendy said we will never be moving these filing habits so we hope that you like their location because they're not moving so at this time I can introduce our new staff we did have a handful of new teachers and a school nurse this year will be joining us Marlene Ferguson our new reading teacher Gabriela intamin our new world language Spanish Lindsey Bernhard our school nurse Maggie so I have another funny story I keep wanting to call Maggie Maggie Heaton because that is Maggie hand because I used to walk with a Maggie Hearn so prior to me coming up here tonight I was like please remind me of your name I know that it's Heaton but I want to call you Maggie Hearn which I just I just did but I knew it was he and so my apologies I know who she is so thank you every morning we are excited to greet students comprised of nine second second and third grade classrooms and eight fourth grade classrooms this year we have over five hundred and thirty-five students in grade two we have about twenty students per class in grade 3 we also have about 20 students and in grade four we have 22 students per class teachers and staff are really excited to continue and/or begin the curriculum work that the district started with dr.
Alcock many of the students visited huckleberry hill the Monday before the school picnic and got a chance to visit classrooms which it was a really fun and exciting time the very first day went great you know truly as my first year as being a principal there really is nothing more exciting than being greeted by smiling children on the first day of school it's a really incredible feeling and we did have lots of smiling faces in terms of just funny anecdotes you guys should take a visit and watch dr. Pop's auskey and an action that made me a learning curve for him just going from the middle school personality to elementary and it is quite funny and a sight to see we were practicing our pause behavior recently and we were talking to the kids about where you dispose your lunch trays and so dr. P comes over to the kids and one of the little boys he goes um are you done eating and yeah and he grows to take the tray and a little boy who starts piling up and he's like you keep eating what else do you why I can't bring you my food I'll give you anything you're watching so guy it's a bit fun so anytime please stop by you're always welcome so that's really our first time first beginning at huckleberry and it's been really great well thank you sure in not a new face but a veteran face mr.
Dean rather the principal of whiskey near good evening notice I still have a time machine just saying and by the way dr. pitrowski does not do well with Craig oh that's day actually he's probably trying to steal the food we say eyes have a little joke between us about that and everyone any time a student looked and there was a little welled up in tears or anything he always turned and look to me or to miss Gordon you talk to anyway we're very very excited we have a long list I want all of the new teachers just do me a favor come over here um we have don't make sure you the 17 new staff 12 of which are new to Brookfield at whisk in here we're very very excited we got some amazing amazing teachers but I thought it'd be a little bit easier if I just maybe say their name and they want to walk forward so people can see the Malaysian or just wave alright well start let's tie with Lisa Curtis is seventh grade science Angela Bogardus is fifth and sixth grade special ed Katherine Roman is going to be our special teacher for grade seven Jennifer xuxa is going to be social studies in grade seven Jessica Reese is seventh grade literacy teryn I got a Brookfield resident is it going to be sixth grade English literacy we have seventh grade Rachel Davidson is counselor we have no Clark is going to be our sixth grade Spanish and we have Karina mates is within the district ace all teacher here so welcome to everyone I thought that'd be a little bit easier since they're so many but again I have to say as I go through my thank yous I mean really the the summer as the summers go usually by maybe the second week of August might I have my desk cleaned off my Secretary's very impressed when she comes back as it's clean my counter behind me is usually cleaned off it to the left I Italian that still didn't happen yet because we were we were doing a lot of the interviews we're doing demo lessons you know looking through all the applications and things to that nature so but even with that I gotta tell you I was we were we were all very very pleased with the teachers that we were lucky enough to get in the meantime we have two teachers we are very lucky to have Miss Thurston who retired last year for Spanish and French we are looking for us to manage French teacher still what mr.
ozan came back is something for us in that position and then also we have an eighth grade special ed position right now that miss power who was one of our special teachers years ago is back helping us out in the meantime so we were very lucky lucky to have them um just some thanks not too obviously there's so many people that make in the summer you know anybody when I talk to people like Oh what are you doing a summer do you even work I'm like yeah we do we have a lot that goes on I need my open my own son says what do you do there's so much that goes on but obviously it couldn't be all done without the help of so many people the secretaries you know all the scheduling students registering paperwork so on and so forth custodians working around the summer school Park and Rec programs and just to make sure that the classes are cleaned and the floors are waxed and clean windows etc so it looks perfect for the first day the Parks Department outside did a great jobs looking great with the hedges in the mulch along with our new paving circle which is very exciting then Caldwell for scheduling all the necessary checkups over the summer button but importantly also getting to the work I know that was done with the paving project and also with the roof projects it's a lot that goes into that so you're a big THANK YOU to him I have to say our front circle looks really really also for the past week of the really hot weather that we've had at want to make sure to give thanks to him because it's never easy to to please everybody with the temperatures in the classes and I have to tell you a funny of the other day one of the staff members his class was a little bit too more if we want to say so they fixed it and I walked in there and it was it was cold and he went to say some the complaint I went stopped it's cold we're sweater but it was a good funny thing you were talking about it not but I really want to thank him for all the workers I know that's something that was very important it's much appreciated Debbie Jones and the crew it all start seems like every single year we have one or two kids that missed those for a few days missed the bus but we were able to sneak him on to another bus with the help of Debbie and people that all start to the staff at WMS again that helped with all the interviews that we had the I mean it was it was it was an amazing accomplishment for all the staff that we were able to hire and again how amazing they really are lastly to miss Gordon mister Bednarik for all the help with all the above that was there and also any more that they helped out with this summer to dr.
Birol doctor who we've dr. Cipolla mr. post was my garlic and salvus training for all their help in doing scheduling and also with the interviews was extremely helpful and a little shout-out to grace Collins Gabby Muscatello and Victoria angels they also did some painting in whisk in air in the bathrooms some inspirational quotes that they put up on the in the bathroom so that was a pretty exciting enrollment we are at eight hundred and eighty four students right now at whisk an air down from last year's in a large class move up to the high school but we are up twenty three students from previous end of your numbers of those classes that came in to us the biggest class I could say is sixth grade we had 23 new student registrations that came in we had nine go out but we're up fourteen in that grade level and the means I've ended up is that's a class that when they came in to whisk inator were around I think 190 195 and right now they're up to 214 our biggest class is 245 in grade seven right now we also just I always like to say students that came from that 17 of those students happen to come from 45 all together but 17 came from AAS st.
Joe's and Brookfield in CLA so I think you know within the town then obviously areas schools the Milford Bethel damage so on but we had as far as Florida Ohio but then really far Japan in the Dominican Republic we also had students come in from so that was exciting PDF I won't talk much about the PD that we had similar to what they said below with rial Kaka and Aaron's but also I think the most important thing for at least for whisking areas were working with ruler and we're going to be talking a little bit more about that at the next board of that meeting and when we send a parent nights for more information on that but we did develop our staff charter from last year and then this year the classrooms started to develop their own classroom charters so I know that's something I'm very excited to share with you at the next Board of Ed meeting and the first day those things that happened the first week went well I know Ivy I love to see the big smiles on the students as they come in the excitement that they have and they come back to school the fifth and sixth grade is you know are usually beaming as they're walking in the front doors seventh and eighth graders a kind of dragon you know from getting up early again and I and you know I'd like to rip them a little bit I had a great summer thanks for asking and they're walking by but I heard a lot about some great summer vacation spots or camps as students went to but as one student said to me when I was asked would you do summer he said I just chilled and play fortnight a lot I told him I was jealous I missed those days anyway I also see the handful of emails from parents at different grade levels saying you know we're good start to their child's it's a school year and how they love the teachers but one mother send an email to to miss Gordon their child loved the first day and actually loved his teachers and was so excited because miss Gordon in the cafeteria told all the students that they were her peeps and that she had their backs he thought that was awesome so thank you great start to the year whisking here Thank You Dean and mr.
Blandon from the high school please come on up good evening last my new staff to come on up and stand here so I can introduce you so come on up patiently waiting so we've also been busy interviewing over the summer doesn't necessarily reflect that here with only four people and Chris counts too because Chris is also here as well in our building but we also have some other people who couldn't be with us tonight one person in particular is Chris Hill Minsky who's our new owner of new English teachers he couldn't be here tonight unfortunately but I do have here with may J Webb who joins us from Virginia he's on board teaching art here this year next to him is Mary Hodge now ski she's in the English department we have Terry Roberts in Spanish world language we have ELISA Barkin in special ed and as you heard before Chris Caretti who's also here in the mornings first period every day so welcome to our new staff we're very excited to have them on board so thank you you know it's it's always tough going last cuz everybody settle the thank yous and got them out of the way but you know there's certainly things I want to certainly recognize in one person I definitely wanna recognize is Dean Miranda who again for the second year in a row has hosted the high school programs it seems like last summer was a roof project and Dean hosted our summer enrichment program and summer school and this year I thought we're good to go and then we have a water project so then we have to go back to the middle school again so Dean create state without even batten and I says well fit him in we'll find the space even though they had a roof project and construction needs been fantastic so I just I thank him and his staff are really being so cordial and helping our uh sow custodian set a bang-up job given the amount of time that they had to get through this short summer to get this big building clean they did a great job we had a let interview teams here over the summer working to hire new people and just special thanks to my support staff and my sister principals who worked hard all summer quickly about enrollment numbers we're at a total of 878 students right now the high school as of today there's 213 12th graders 208 11th graders 228 10th graders and 229 9th graders so that gets us to our 878 last year this time we're at 866 so we're about 12 but interesting again the ebb and flow since July 1st we've had 18 withdrawals from the system from the high school and 20 new enrollments with 4 in process today so we're gonna be up another 6 students essentially so it is it definitely is growing continues to grow what's going on I kind of incorporate a few things from PD and a few other things going on in the building we're continuing the process of developing a building-wide standards-based curriculum that's happening across multiple subjects here at the high school the first couple days reviewed we have a renewed focus on instructional practices including gradual release of responsibility in SRB I specifically best practice for Tier one instruction it's going to be a focus of ours this year thank you the board for the addition of the science teacher which has been a great help with some elective classes we have this year and restructuring of the building leadership team to create a stem curriculum specialist so we're welcome glad to welcome back Andrew Hill who started an earnest his work to really oversee science math and technology and create a true STEM program we're really excited about having him on board we'll be working with the school improvement grant again this year some big trains coming up we're working with the Center for Applied linguistics to do some PSYOP training which is sheltered instruction observation protocol for some of our ell kids so they'll be coming up from Washington DC and doing some training here on-site as well as working with Linda mode Bell for some brother struggling learners and some of the programs they have for reading big thing coming up next week is Rachel's challenge so on September 11th you know ACR know in the auditorium we're gonna have Rachel's challenge Rachel's challenge we're having two student assemblies over doing a student training and a parent event so the purpose of Rachel's challenge I want to make sure you you heard about this if you haven't already and they used to do this at the middle school I believe a couple years back it's stimulating social-emotional learning by focusing on the connection between students faculty and staff using the remarkable story of Rachel Scott the first victim of the Columbine High School tragedy Rachel's challenge awakens hope desire and purpose which in turn promotes safer more connected school communities so really excited to bring this program in you know well-known person and education Robert Marzano for those of you that are in education now might have heard that name before he is works with Rachel's challenge and has actually supported this and really gets behind it so it's got it's got some teeth and it's got a really good program we're looking to create some real social action moving forward for this for this community I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that our knee ask which is our 10-year decennial visit happens Sunday December 2nd through Wednesday December 5th and that's were right now in the last portions of our self-study and getting ready for the visit to come 416 members of the New England community high school community come to send um Brookfield high school for those four days and do a full evaluation so we're getting ready for that too funny stories one's not sat well Friday I heard a little bit of screaming on the buses at this missile time before kids even get out there so is a little confused I ran out turns out that there was a chipmunk on the bus that's so delay and the bus drivers are trying frantically to figure out how to get the chipmunk out a lot of screaming running back and forth they did eventually get the chipmunk out before the kids got on board so that's lucky because that would not go in a while it was skinnier I imagine or even Center chipmunk was still there my funny story that I think the funniest story I had just actually happened yesterday 10th grade student who I developed a little bit of a relationship with say hi to in the hallway you have kind of a joking friendly relationship so I said to him you know in my joking manner hey welcome back you know you look a bit older than when I last saw you you're trying to be funny and he looks at me deadpan and says so you but at least my best years are ahead of me I laughed it was fantastic that's kind relationship I have with this kid it was great but um it's been a great great start to the school year and thank you thanks everybody question mark wait did you say Rachel's challenge was September 11th and is the parent session open to the public or just to the Harris thank you okay I think we actually moved from intro certified staff members to opening day report yes so we can go to public comment how is there anyone here that would like to speak Republic okay written correspondence [Music] Howard Lasser regarding the school facilities steering committee project Ron Jaffe shared an article and had an email regarding the school website calendar and rich calva check e o finance concerns approval of Board minutes recommend a motion that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended board retreat on August 15th 2018 and the regular meeting on August 15th as well circle I actually have a correction to the August 15th minutes under subcommittee reports strategic steering us strategic facilities I spoke briefly about that and then asked if we could speak about the building and facilities committee where mrs.
Greenstein stein had talked about the painting so that just needs that slight correction if you don't mind place thank you any other discussion I had a another question also on the subcommittee reports the report the board had a retreat for domestic goals I thought we're going to do the self-evaluation right to make the tools later yeah Sweeney's are just discussed self-evaluation now it's Gloria if you discuss another self-evaluation yes thanks great other discussion so we'll be voting on the minutes as amended all in favor okay next we have the superintendent's update Thank You mrs. Turner so I'm gonna just briefly go through a couple of bullet points and then as a proud superintendent of our principals who just reported I'm gonna invite dr. Cipolla and mrs. Farris to just share a few words about some of the summer work they were engaged as well as part of the report but in terms of some projects the facilities kind of capital projects report I'm gonna ask mr.
Caldwell to come to the next meeting and provide a PowerPoint presentation for us but just briefly and you'll hear about this over and over again and I'm not sure if the lights are actually on out there tonight they are so if there's a moment you could look out and see the lights are on our new ball field lights are working totally operational they were finishing up some site work today actually when I was out there talking with the football team just oh they're just beautiful and also the water project is mr.
bland is spoke to we have a 15,000 gallon tank that was installed the area known as the pit where everything it's not doesn't have a positive connotation I think we could call it the Taj Mahal now it's got all brand-new specs it's got a pill code door and stairs instead of a dangerous ladder to enter it doesn't have any drainage issues all the valves have been replaced it really is great in our water is up to code and and servicing the school paving if you haven't had a chance to get over to whisking here probably on the weekend would be best because there won't be as many cars there but the paving circle has been redone as well as the sidewalk it just looks gorgeous and actually the there's arrows painted now for the circle so it's less confusing for people and the angle of the parking spaces are better it makes more sense for everybody so it really really works well and then also mark mentioned the roof for whiskey near was also going on we had through insurance from the storm we had when the roof had to be fixed and replaced so we had that project as well so Dan we'll get into those in more detail but those were the heavy projects over the summer there were some questions about the storm damage on the CES playground fence that's been repaired we submitted again for cave communications Awards you may recall we had five awards slash recognitions from cave last year for all the communication work the board does and so we submitted a number of projects that the board in the superintendent we worked on together such as newsletters budget presentations the capital improvement plan from from project from April the reorganization PowerPoint a number of things with social media so it's pretty exciting matter of fact Eve the strategic Eric and Lisa and I put in the strategic facilities committees website Facebook social media that little piece that was a really nice you know with joy and Deb and mechanic really really tremendous so that that's been submitted just today Lisa put that FedEx that up to to Harford we're beginning to schedule my public office hours I'm looking forward to meeting at different places in the community I actually met with VFW this afternoon prior to our executive session but really getting out there and setting up times where I'll just be available whether it's office hours out at different locations or restaurants or whatever the case may be or hold some office hours you know at that central office and have some coffee and prepared the final thing I wanted to look two more items I want to let them court know about is enrichment planning as a big part of our budget push for this year Nicole y Kunis from Yukon will be coming down on September 20th and the principles and some other leadership will be meeting for the day and our kickoff meeting to take a look at talented and gifted identification enrichment school-wide in Richmond how things fit with our curriculum were pretty excited about this and that'll be a process over the next couple of months and hopefully we'll have some it might not they might not be final decisions but areas where we know we're going to impact budget for planning for 1920 and so I'll come to you in December and share that with you we'll have some reports during Eric's technology report later tonight but we're in the process right now of replacing our old copiers and Printers and the new Canon we've contracted with Canon they're going to come in they've dropped off all their copiers printers everything it's being hooked up people are being trained at the schools through the end of the week and so far so good and there's a there's also significant savings with that since I've gotten here there was a couple of contracts we were hoping to to be able to renegotiate and move forward on and we've achieved that finally it's taken a couple years the art of the long view but it worked and then I know I just want to mention before I ask Deb to come up I know we're going to bring up and a little bit the air conditioning heat unit in the auditorium has failed and so we need to talk about that as well and I just want to make sure I put that out there for everybody and maybe later we can if we could bring that up at a later point in the meeting so if there's not any questions for me right now I'd like to invite mrs. various to come up with all those new teachers we have three days of onboarding and orientation training that we do with our teachers and ask them to just come up and share a few words about some of the things we did with the teachers to acclimate them to Brookfield so missus various art director of instruction thank you dr.
brill and good evening everyone so all school systems have the incredible responsibility and in service to its community to attract professionally develop and retain dedicated passionate educators and welcome them to their learning community new teacher orientation provides us with that onboarding platform so this year as you all see we welcome 17 newly hired teachers at our three-day orientation that took place as dr. Brill said from August 22nd August 24th dr. Birol started the first morning off you know with welcomes and an overview of our strategic coherence plan framing the learning really for the remainder of the program including maybe of 13 staff members that presented on subjects such as the gradual release of responsibility the cognitive model of reading teacher evaluation plan FERPA and mandated reporter training standards-based curriculum development and navigating PowerSchool and working on some website design all of this content was purposefully selected reflecting the district identity and goals and as articulated in our strategic coherence plan we also included an opportunity for the administrators to join us on the second day to mingle and begin building relationships with one another and with the building leadership special thanks go out to the following folks who contributed and facilitated in the meetings such as Christina Paula dave osofsky Edie Bednarik Liz Spencer Andrew Hill kemon Holly Terry Cavanagh Michelle kinsman Beth Squires Eric Conklin Denise Walsh Kathy Keller Vito and Steven Clark as director of instruction I have the incredible honor and privilege to work alongside with the assistant superintendent dr.
Ruby and together we support the implementation a professional development for all of our dedicated lifelong learner educators and the advancement of teaching and learning Lieut each orientation marks the beginning of this learning journey with us and while I don't have any funny anecdotes all of the top of my head I will just impart my final thoughts which is really that I'm just so incredibly excited and proud to be embarking on this new school year and continuing to build teacher capacity these newly hired teachers who you just met this evening are awesome additions to our team of Brookfield's best working together to reflect on and refine our instructional practices we will most assuredly cultivate in self assessing self navigating self assessing and self regulating learners who are well-prepared to create their own very exciting tomorrow's appreciate thank you and I'd also like to invite up dr.
sivana our director of special education and pupil personnel talk a little bit about the summer work and there was plenty of it yeah hello I'm very happy to have this opportunity to give you a summer update from the special services department so as you know we've reorganized the structure of the department last year we now have two supervisors of special education both of whom are here this evening Cristina Salva Streamy is the supervisor of elementary special education she oversees staff and special education programs for students in preschool through grade five Gina why Connick is the supervisor of secondary special education for grades 6 through 12 the supervisors were quite busy this summer as they coordinated coordinated our extended school year also known as es y programs for students with disabilities our summer program was a wonderful opportunity for our new supervisors to interact with and really get to know our learners yes I started on July 2nd just two weekend days after the end of the school year so I'd really like to take an opportunity to give a very important thank you to our excellent team of esy teachers related service providers and paraprofessionals they typically have a much needed break at the end of the year before the start of esy and yet this year with no real break they worked very hard to make sure that esy was a fun and positive experience for all of our students so thank you to them students in preschool through grade 1 attended the center school program coordinated by mrs.
Elvis Trini students individualized learning goals are embedded in fun weekly themes such as under the sea sports and the zoo students thoroughly enjoy learning skills through sensory activities which included water play shaving cream and water beads mrs.
Y Connick coordinated the esy program at Whiskey near for students in grades 2 through 12 students were provided with small group or individual instruction in the areas of reading writing math social skills and life skills highlights of the summer included cooking activities outings to the YMCA vocational experiences and social and problem-solving activities our leadership team is now focused on supporting staff and programs in our four schools as you've heard from the principal's we've welcomed several new special education teachers we've actually welcome to speech-language pathologists one of whom is not here tonight but Carol Spaulding is starting at center school and we've also hired a certified occupational therapy assistant Kristen Costantini Kristen is going to be working at huckleberry and whisk and year with our occupational therapist Laura Miller this is a new position that was supported by this board and is going to have a direct positive impact on students so thank you we're looking forward to a wonderful year thank you thank you so you can see that it's very easy to understand why I'm very proud superintendent our new teachers the team you can see all of them and they're different departments and all the work they've done true professionals and so dedicated and it truly was the longest year in the history probably of Brookfield public schools in the shortest summer and we got a lot done and I'm very proud of them and I'm also proud of the staff that isn't here our teachers our Paras our custodians the the first six days of school have been or five days of school whatever it's been have been very very hot and they've endured and and I've held out as long as I can on doing an early dismissal or calling an early dismissal but I just really there was no complaints everybody forged ahead took care of each other and I just couldn't be more proud and thankful for for the position I'm in with with such a great team I don't if you have any questions for me but there's a little longer of a report than usual but thank you thank you dr. pearl can you just clarify the early dismissal for tomorrow why that decision oh there's a heat advisory has been called so for our area so that's that's one piece the other piece is that we have had sustained heat now in excess of 90 degrees in the just the general air itself the rooms we can and I actually went to a couple of rooms here at the high school which is our most uncooled school and I'll get to that in just a second not only hot but but frankly stale it's hard for the air to move around a big part of that reason is we have just diminished capacity with maxing out our air conditioning systems our air handler systems things have gone down at huckleberry while we've utilized alternative spaces for example for the classrooms just the unit's went down right before the start of school they'll be fixed this coming weekend but the weather will probably break by then and we it won't be as intense of a need at center school there are window units at all of the schools but many of the window units are aging and just not producing the cold air so you know there is a replacement plan but I think we need to accelerate that frankly given some of the situation's we've had at the end and the beginning of school years lately whiskey near is our most air conditioned school and for the most part is working well where there are pockets of hotter areas Dean has you know there's alternative sites for students to go Media Center's computer labs etc teachers rotate take turns the high school is probably our most difficult school as we've talked about is most famously known our new wing the the science area does not have any air conditioning whatsoever many of our classrooms do have air conditioning but again it's an older school and so the units are not reliable sometimes they break down many times they work for the most part similar to our media center here tonight they were kind of in a mediocre fashion we're operating in what's called phase one tonight here in the media center it just won't kick on to Phase two to cool more again we have service contractors out there working but the parts that aren't always available that are doing their best in every other school system and every other you know building is has these demands on them as well and is this heat so a big part of the joy to get right back to it is heat advisory extended amount of days of heat and it's just getting so excessive in the buildings and we're just you know with equipment breaking down that can't be fixed in a timely fashion we had to make that make that decision to break early thank you thanks everyone thank you all right moving to subcommittee reports we have just the strategic facilities here but did you also want to give a report on the Facilities Committee meeting today because it has to do with are we gonna do that because it has to do with the work we're going to be doing that later do you or yeah I mean whatever time I think the board wants to do entertain that perhaps we might need to amend the agenda to have that discussion so I'm on the agenda for a new business okay okay okay I am beyond thrilled to make this report tonight this has been 20 years talked about two years working in 13 months of putting our head down to the ground and just plowing through to the end and it's a very exciting moment right now for Barfield and for our entire school system at last night's Board of Selectmen smeeting it was agreed the school plan as presented by the strategic steering committee to the Board of Education be sent to the municipal building committee as per our towns Charter the purpose of our committee was to simply gather information and opinions from the public educators various town boards for recommendation to the Board of Education it was never this committees objective to answer specific questions regarding budgeting concrete plans finalized school plan communications or definitive project costs it was our charge to be listeners and listeners only by transferring leadership over to the NBC the real work will finally be able to begin the NBC's committees role is to run the project answering residents specific questions timelines and concerns they are the committee to go to for any and all questions in the future I encourage residents to make use of the NBC and to continue to ask any in all questions even if they seem small no question is too silly this is the purpose of this committee which is going forward so please it's your money it's your children it's your community take advantage of the NBC's new committee please ask questions if you're unsure ask questions again this is going to be the committee's new job having completed our purpose as the strategic steering committee as chairperson of this committee I hereby request to the BIRT Board of Education that this committee be dissolved I would like to say thank you to Lisa Grambling who has been with us right along taking notes setting up agendas and in keeping wonderful meeting minutes I would like to thank all of the committee members I thank them last meeting I'd like to thank them again they put in a tremendous amount of time energy thoughts and each one of them added something really special to the committee which really makes up a whole and that's where we are today because of the volunteers that we had on the committee and I would also like to personally thank our state record at the river representative sorry about that steve harding steve i spoke to several times I mean he offered his help several he is really a wealth of knowledge to our town in our state and Brookfield is really lucky to have him so thank you so much Steve I appreciate your help as such this is the last report you will get if you agree to dissolve the committee tonight and it's going to be going forward and I encourage all community members please please be involved this is your town this is your school system this is your community please be a voice in in what happens and exciting things forward for prevailed thank you do you guys did you just want to maybe mention the next time when the public could be involved to get more information maybe at the next joint board of board of selectmen board a finance meeting that they're planning for around October 11 yes I'm not sure right now because right right now it's going to be going to NBC so I didn't mention anything because I'm not sure if they're going to be calling a meeting for the public to attend if they do it will be posted on the town's website if not the next meeting between the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance is scheduled for October 11th I have do one correction to your report actually and when you said the hard work now begins and I would say there's been plenty of hard work going on from your you know the strategic the series and everyone involved in it and we are very very very grateful for everything that's there and very proud of the proposal that's come forward and excited about coming forward I'm extremely proud you know concerning what we had to deal with how quickly it went how we all bonded together it's not always easy to do that with that many people who have that many opinions but in the end it was all for the love of Brookfield and the love for our children that we came to our conclusion so I'm equally as proud of our committee they did a fabulous job say something before we leave this subject C Eve we owe you a debt of gratitude for your leadership on this Iran let me just say something it's we we sat here just a year ago it was just a year ago and I think as a person a fireboard but some of you were elected last fall but we were sitting there saying as a board we didn't have sufficient momentum on this project and by the way this project has not had sufficient momentum for years and Eve you raised your hand and said I'd like to take that challenge and and I would tell you that the level of energy that we've seen here in Brookfield is a it's it's due to the committee but it's also due to your leadership on the committee to clive it forward and keep an event after event after event after event on the schedule and getting input from everyone so I want a personal thank you and I think we all thank you so much the only reason why I volunteered was I grew up in the field public school system and the schools are looking the same to me my mother was the first kindergarten student to enter center school I was the first kindergarten student to enter the brand-new whisk near middle school my daughter has a lived in this 18 years so this is true labor of love for our students and our town and I it was a pleasure it was absolutely and I think the word for putting me in charge and I think Bob so and I just I have it's just so exciting and this is what the town denuded for years and I I just know that I'm putting it my the committee's baby in the right hands and fabulous things are gonna happen thank you so thank you [Music] okay moving on that's the only subcommittee report it was a good moving on we have the consent agenda recommend a motion that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended new hires resignations retirements sticker each second if I may call it all told there's 22 teacher positions that were open this year 20 have been filled you saw many of them tonight Deb talked about 17 participating in orientation because we were still interviewing and hiring at that point many many principals and my superintendent colleagues we sigh when we talk to each other because at this time of year the shortage areas really become a thorn in everyone's side if people have an opportunity in speech pathology in special education world language they're able to maybe have an opportunity to move closer to home and things like that and so they take advantage of those opportunities because there's a shortage and there's a needed wall school districts and many schools are starting the school year without positions filled mr.
Brenda started to mention the positions that are open are filled by two of our former teachers who used to occupy those positions thankfully there's still here in Brookfield and they're willing and interview process is ongoing so I just wanted to let you know that the other thing is while while Laura's is is back with us teaching Spanish in French she did decide over the summer to retire after 29 years so we just need to thank her and obviously we'll miss her we haven't had time to miss her yet she's back with us but of course we are indebted to her for for being with us to help us out in our time of need this fall so I just have to send my best not to Lars I second that gratitude to a senior a third land as my team for the 29 years of her field and also it is stepping up to help us out this year absolutely any other discussion all in favor okay next we have new business but it's have a motion to change the agenda at this point to put in a discussion regarding the rooftop a/c heat units in the BHS auditorium so motion to change the agenda second all in favor all right okay so we look over to Eve as the chair of the Facilities Committee and I don't can and mr.
Caldwell and Eve enjoy and and Deb met right before the executive session tonight and one of the agenda items was to talk about the air conditioning situation in the auditorium for just a brief summary brief education the air conditioning unit on the auditorium roof is 45 years old just below the deck of the roofing is a heating unit as part of an air handler system that is all-encompassing the air conditioning unit it's all 45 years old original to the building or to the auditorium the air conditioning unit stopped working and it's over it really is beyond repair the heating unit and in subsequent air handler are it's not a matter of if but when they break down as well and as we start to think about the cooler weather that well it will get here it's New England we need to really seriously consider the emergency situation we're in to replace the rooftop unit with an all-encompassing [Music] comprehensive and efficient air conditioning and heat unit on the top of the building rooftop unit would be a better way to go about that would also be modernized and when we put in all of our controls eventually here we've talked about many times how the high school controls don't talk to each other in the different wings that's a project that's on the horizon we need this project and we need to move on this quickly the Facilities Committee obviously talked about at this this afternoon the Finance Committee does meet next week but I think and chatting prior to the meeting it was important to bring this to the whole board now because time is of the essence these these units that we need to obtain aren't just sitting on a shelf they have to be custom-made for the for the school and it's about a six to eight week lead time to put the order in and then have it delivered here and then install it which takes some time so with that being said you know there's a significant cost to that and that's certainly not in our budget well I don't want to be held to this number just to kind of give people a roundabout number we're looking at anywhere from 120 160 thousand dollars for something like this and so Dan is working on getting the absolute closest estimate he can but the vendors just have not gotten back to him we are also we worked with Jerry gay our purchasing agent that we work with who also works for the town this is one of those urgent emergency type situations where we don't have to go through a formal bid process that also takes weeks because time is of the essence so we're going to you know we need to move on this wanted to give a brief update to the board on this certainly answer any questions mr.
post could answer questions and and process this with the board and kind of get some direction some guidance and some support from the board as to approaching such a big purchase like this how we might go about that I would just like to add that the air conditioning unit that dr. Birla is speaking of this has been dying for a while you know little fixes here and they are anything that could have been done to prolong its life it is well lived it's yours it's also it's a cooling unit and a heating unit come wintertime we're not going to have heat as is another concern because it's not functioning properly and I am concerned with the amount of people that we have in the school a forty five-year-old unit that has been malfunctioning and it has lasted well beyond its life we're working on borrowed time we need to it's my feeling just as a board member and the chair of the building and Facilities Committee we need to do something now about it before it's too late the one thing I would add is I highly anticipate that when Tecton provides and they're they're nearing the finalization of their report on all of the buildings that are built in condition study I'm sure the rooftop unit will be in there the planning I know they taste they did review it and they did look at it so absolutely I can't imagine it won't be in there or well it's gonna be in there now I wanted to add that this is about ironically the exact same amount that we are projecting to under run 2017-18 year last year the Board of Finance use that money and put into a non lapsing account for our use I do not I mean we don't have a 100% commitment that that will happen this year I have reached out to the Board of Finance to see if there is any sort of reasonable assumption for us for that to happen again this year to be put into a non lapsing account if so that would be the amount that we're looking at for this unit would we be willing to commit to the Florida finance that this is the sole purpose for that non Lobsang that fund because I think if we could give them that commitment it would be easier for we have to happen we don't have a choice you issue an on last thing accounts as usually oh it's a slush fund right and that's a feeling this is a very specific City what are usually do things write up an agreement which specifies what it's for it can't be for things to the board events discretion or you can specifically spell but I think they actually come together here yes our discretion would be the same as our needs so yes I I don't think we have a choice on the Union it's just a matter of determining how it's paid for and whether we try to find it elsewhere in the budget we can wait see what happens the word of Finance gets back to to us and then make a determination from there but I'm not sure we have a choice over the other we're just gonna be continuing to ask for problems it's the priority that's obviously why I did it for and down and we would commit to that Bob to answer your question directly absolutely as an administrative team we would definitely make that commitment but the other plus two is now that we wouldn't have a 45 year old unit or a no energy efficient with save money in electricity j''r and we wouldn't be putting money into it for repairs and I would have a warranty in the auditorium I'd probably think me more consistent and it's you wouldn't have a unit that would drown out the entire sound and a beautiful sound well yet the other thing is you know the air conditioning for example it is it's beautiful air conditioning on days like this I mean we we get relief for where we have a broken air conditioners or we don't have air conditioning and all where teachers bring the kids to the auditorium for lessons Martin will tell you the the auditorium is used often at the high school it's not just for evening presentations or drama practice after school gets used during the school day for all kinds of assembly small and large and also sometimes like I alluded to it for actual classroom lessons so it really is a go-to space especially in weather like this on the book ends of the year the other piece is if we were in a jam and really had to make it go we can make the heat work but I don't think that's a good assumption to operate on that we could make the heat work that's just not a way to operate any kind of an organization or a school for our students who frankly we want to have a first class environment so it's it's the priority and we would commit to you know supportive finance could support us we'd be you know continued gratitude and continue our great relationship that we have in supporting one another [Music] their questions discussions okay I do need to make just a couple of comments so so as a capital project this is a capital project no matter how you cut absolutely there will be some governing guidances on the town charter that the Board of Finance will have to go through I think we're going to need an opinion from the town attorney on emergency powers because this is kind of what we're in is an emergency here normally this is a 45 day lead time and it has to go to Town Meeting etc etc etc so you know we need to rapidly I think get a clarity on the steps required and whether it's funded by the town funded by that lana opting fund or funded by ourselves right I think we still have certain things I'd insist for capital projects that have to be met so I think if I was probably organizing our work efforts I'd actually prioritize it's not higher than actually who's going to pay for it right because it's you know we have clarity on how we can act fast so and whether there's any Town Meeting required for example but I believe Bob to defend dr.
Morell we are responsible for taxpayer dollars and we all know the first question coming out of everybody's mouth is where are you getting the money from know I so I believe it's a normal reaction just to say to bring in the money I agree yeah I'm not saying you should you shouldn't ask that question I just say that it's not as simple as where's the money come from there's a whole set of procedural steps we have to work on right correct and I do think we need to make a motion here tonight offering or authorizing you to start the discussions and then probably designating one of us to be the you know the board should get one of us on the authority to be a decision maker on behalf of the board right because we won't at the time that's gonna bring it back to board meeting after board meetings I know there is a fortified house meeting I think next week next week and I am out of town next week so if we think this will be wrapping up or heading to the to to resolution next week I would probably say Bob you as board all or cosine is chair it's fine that's tricky the best bet for that okay thank you okay so then the motion would be to Board of Ed would authorize administration to initiate the process to procure the BHS auditorium rooftop AC heat unit and authorize the finance chair to act on behalf of the board with that second discussion well in favor all right thank you everyone greatly appreciated [Music] right next we have the summer technology update all right so another example of why I'm a proud superintendent you're gonna hear not only for mr.
Baldwin in a little bit but right now from our technology director and mr. Eric Conklin we're very busy in technology over the summer good evening everyone as dr. Brill did put it earlier it was a longest school year in Brookfield with the shortest summer and that stands true for technology as well a lot of ordering that gets done a lot of configuration a lot of setup a lot of different projects that have to happen in a short amount of time and frankly it's a lot easier to do when there's no students and staff in the building so it really is a time crunch so I just want to quickly share with you a couple of things we did got some good pictures up here of some of the stuff that we did first things first we got 22 new network switches for whiskey near and center this increases our network capacity wireless speeds and prepares us for a future potential phone system that would be an internet based phone system so this is kind of a stack of some of our units as we're preparing to to get them help we received as kind of a trial slash moving the district forward we got a dozen new of these interactive displays that are a multi-touch LCD TVs at about a fraction of the cost of the original smart product everybody in education knows it's smart board those run about three thousand dollars installed these were seventeen hundred dollars and then a additional three hundred less per board installed so we were able to save over $1,000 per board by looking for this new model and so far the staff loan there they're here at the high school they're mixed into the science and the math departments and this will be our trend moving forward as as we continue with rolling them out in the schools at Hogan berry we removed our first computer lab in the district after much discussion this was actually done in one of the ways to actually create a new special IDI classroom as part of some of the new initiatives that dr.