Farmington Board of Education Meeting - 05/11/26

001[music] >> Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the Farmington Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, May 11th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. Can we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you. Welcome everybody. Next item on the agenda, item five, approval of minutes. Item A is approval of the minutes for the April 7th, 2026 Board of Education regular meeting. Can I have a motion? Yeah, I move to approve the April 7th, 2026 Board of Ed education regular meeting minutes as presented. Second. [clears throat] I don't know. You decide. Second. All right. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

002Abstention? Um all right. Item B, approval of minutes for the April 27th, 2026 Board of Education special meeting. Can I have a motion? Yeah, I move to approve the April 27th, 2026 Board of Education special meeting minutes as presented. Um any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Motion carries. Um next item, six, consideration of superintendent's report. Item Next item on the agenda, item six, uh B, summer curriculum process projects. So, you might think that uh the school district is a quiet place in the summer, but here in Farmington, it's quite a buzz uh as our curriculum is a living document, you might say, and so there's quite a bit happening. And our director of curriculum instruction, Eric Martin, is going to walk us through just uh an overview some of the programs

003that are taking place this summer. Absolutely. So, we're going to actually play a game, Let's Make a Deal. >> [laughter] >> The reality is we have made a deal already. So, um I'll explain. Summer is a really busy time in Farmington Public Schools. Um as Mr. Giannini said, you know, we we consider our curriculum to be living documents that we're constantly inspecting, revising, reviewing, strengthening all the time um in terms of emerging pedagogy to meet student needs. The process of submitting summer curriculum projects really begins in the fall around budget formulation season. So, through our department leaders, our coordinators, um this this process we continually undertake of assessing our curriculum, they submit in the fall curriculum projects that they hope to be able to work on the following summer. And we use those project submissions

004to formulate uh budget requests that would then fund those projects. So, we ask the town of Farmington to make a deal. Um and then we kind of hope with fingers crossed that the budget passes and that those projects are funded and um this is a really important time of year because the budget having recently passed, the deal has been made. Um so, we now kind of forge ahead with the process of pushing out for sign up all of those projects that we've been waiting with with bated breath and fingers crossed to be able to engage in over the summer. So, I think one of the things that sets Farmington Public Schools apart is we're not the only district that uses a summer curriculum writing and revision model. We're a little bit different in that a

005lot of districts will dictate a given summer to be a certain content area or two's turn, right? So, you might say like, well, this summer it's science and math's turn to write or revise curriculum. In Farmington, we don't follow that model. Summer season is open season for any content area to submit projects of need or of want. And so, another thing that sets in that kind of summer curriculum writing model where it may be science and math season, it creates some challenges. Summer is always a little bit of catch as catch can, which teachers want to work over the summer versus which choose not to or may have other competing commitments. And in a model where you're kind of designating only one or two content areas in a given summer to write, it could be

006three, four, five, six years before that content area's turn comes around again. And you know, I I made this analogy in curriculum subcommittee earlier tonight that if you thought about curriculum as like your house, to ignore your house for five or six years, by the time you get back to working on your house five or six years down the road, you're going to have some pretty significant projects on your hands. So, we believe in, you know, constantly reviewing and strengthening our curriculum every summer season through our process of reviews. So, I think that's one thing that sets us apart. Another thing that sets us apart in Farmington is we have crazy teachers here that like run towards summer work. Um, >> [snorts] >> not just because the pay is good. The pay is is they

007they are compensated well for the work, but I think because they sign up for these projects with intention to strengthen the curriculum and to improve our students' experiences. This summer is no exception to that. We have 58 total project offerings that have been conceived and these aren't conceived like out of thin air. They're based on need and it's usually based on intentions that our teachers have signaled in the fall that hey, if funding exists for this type of project next summer, I would love to work on it. So, these 58 total projects will literally capture the efforts of hundreds of Farmington public school teachers over the summer to to see through to fruition. And they really span all content areas, all grade levels, and they are mostly in the area of curriculum revision or curriculum

008writing. But we also fund special projects. So, I'll give you a snapshot of some of the offerings that we have. We're going to go through all 58 projects. No, we are not. But you can see on this list, this is just a snapshot. So, Summer Institute is a two-day intensive professional learning experience that we offer all teachers and administrators this year in grades 5 through 12. We're anticipating about 60 attendees at that Summer Institute. It's two days right at the end of the school year. So, when you can imagine like many teachers elsewhere wanting to kind of go right into their summer, ours are saying, "No, we're we're signing up actually for two days of intensive learning on some pedagogical improvement that we can think about over the summer and bring to bear for our

009students the following year. Our K-12 library media specialist audit their collections and they're going to be coming up with a process for curation and alignment with some new policy. Just looking down the list, our elementary schools are working together to develop an elementary version of student council and what that might look like for our students in grades K through 4. The types of projects they would undertake as they look to make civic contributions within their school community. And then you have curriculum revisions like Civil War unit developments. You'll notice the presence on that bulleted list up there of several of the courses that this Board of Education approved for pilot for next year. So, our teachers will spend this summer laying out the the curriculum foundations for those courses. Um our AVID program, which is

010an executive functioning and organizational uh program that helps students um develop the skills they need to be successful in high school. That program's going to undergo some refinement this year. Um part of a regular cycle of review. So, you can just tell by this short list, which isn't all 58 projects, but just some of the variety and scope of the the work that's done over the summer. Um in very, very short order uh later this week, all of these projects will go out for sign-up to teachers, which is something we're now able to do with the budget having passed and the funding been secured. Um teachers receive half of their stipend for the project at the beginning of the summer, and then the second half is actually paid out next spring. And the idea is

011these are really um all of these projects have a certain scope to them that often times precludes the work from being completed over the course of a summer. What our teachers will tell us is we like to lay out intentions and designs and plan for the work over the summer and then beta test it during the school year such that by the time we get to next spring, the work is proven. Um and we fund these projects We value these projects and we fund these projects based on deliverables. So, each project yields a deliverable that's value add to the district. Something we don't possess currently, a revision, um a new curriculum map, something that's going to help to strengthen teaching and learning or to strengthen the programs that we offer our students. And so, at

012the onset of these programs, teachers sign on for to these projects for uh contracts, and those contracts are based on a deliverable that's used to to value the project. So, that's a little bit about our our summer process and some of the projects that we'll be offering this summer for curriculum writing and and and other related special projects. Um again, just an overview, as Mr. Chinni said, and I'm happy to answer any questions from the board about it. Erica. Go ahead. Um thank you. Um Avid Yeah. >> Uh love that that program. Um I know when my kids were doing it, it had started at IR. I I don't know if that was like a pilot at that time or and and then it continued on to high school. Is that I I heard you

013say that Avid is going to go through some refinement and is there intent just uh high school or are they still providing it at middle school? Um primarily Avid right now is offered at the high school. Um it's most uh the enrollments are most robust in 9th and 10th grade. Um and it's really a transition to high school program. Um our counselors do take recommendations from IR teachers about which students would best be served within that program. But yeah, it's it's a primarily high school offering. Yeah, I know it it I I think at one point it was being piloted at IR cuz I know my kids went through it, but um I I think it's a great program. It's a great curriculum. So, I'm happy to hear that they are looking to refine it.

014Yeah, and while we don't have Avid um per se at IR, within Crew um at IR, they do teach a lot of executive functioning and organizational lessons to students. Other questions? Eric, thanks. I always appreciate your presentation. Just just a process question for me. Um you said the lead times in the fall for the summer, right? 7 8 9 months. I don't know if that's long. If it was shorter, would it be more beneficial? Is anything the the can do to help shorten that window for you, or is that is that not a necessarily a factor? No, I mean, we always you know, we we budget based on the proposals that come in and then a little bit of a cushion to fund projects that arise during the year. It's not to say that we

015always have the foresight in October or November to know every project that's going to be needed over the summer. Um, but [clears throat] generally, you know, trusting us to make good use of the funds that we propose in the fall to support curriculum revision, curriculum writing, and special projects with this board year over year does a tremendous job of just stay the course. It's super, super helpful and we put that money to extremely good use. So, thank you. Thanks. Um, what happens if like too many people sign up for um, one of these projects or nobody signs up for a project? Yeah, great question. So, um, these project, like I said, the proposals don't come out of thin air. A lot of times it's actually teachers approaching their DLs and coordinators with project ideas or

016DLs and coordinators soliciting their people for project ideas. Um, so it's rare that we have projects for which no one is signed up, but also, you know, plans change. Someone might have had intention to work a project and then their plans change over the summer and they may not be available. So, sometimes we'll look at are there ways to accomplish that program during the school year with things like release time or department meeting time, or is it something that we can push out till the next year's summer project offerings. In the event that too many people sign up for a project, we typically draw up the projects with a number of positions available. So, for example, we'll say for any given project, there are up to three positions available to current fill-in-the-blank teachers, FHS world

017language teachers, based on the scope of the project. >> [snorts] >> If more than three teachers sign up for that project, I'll then go back to the in this case, the department lead and say, "Hey, here are all the individuals that sign up. Does it make sense to open up this project to more people or do you want to hold the line at three?" If the idea is to hold the line at three, I'll work with a department lead to pick the individuals for whom the project makes most sense to work given their proximity to the work, their experience, and then we'll inform those people that they've been selected to work that project. And then for those people that have signed up and aren't selected, you know, we express gratitude for their interest in and

018um keep them in mind for future projects. You're welcome. Just a financial question. Do all teachers receive the same stipend or does it is it based on the project? Great question. So, we don't pay projects by hourly rate. A lot of districts will do that. So, they'll attach a number of hours to the project. We look at the deliverable of the project and base the the stipend on the value of the deliverable to the district. And then that's the total stipend for the project, which we divide by the number of participants working the project. >> stipends vary. >> The stipends vary. Yeah, but there are we generally consider fixed value. So, like a new curriculum map, for example, start to finish is something we may value at say $2,000. Whereas revisions based on the scope

019of the revision would be anything up to let's say $1,000. Like anything north of $1,000, we would say, "Well, you're really revising more than half of the map." That would be a new curriculum map and we would attach a a new curriculum map value to that. Okay. Okay. I would just say there's a great ROI for us as a district when you think about the amount of work that takes place over the summer and um the value of those projects and the return on that for us as a district. It's really a win-win because the teachers, the staff are are really motivated to do this work. Uh you know, hence kind of the proposal and the conversations that take place ahead of time. But when you think of how much gets done in that period

020of time, like I said, harsh good ROI and lots of motivation on behalf of the staff to get that worked on. It's easy to call your curriculum living, but the reality is you need people who want to breathe life into it. And our teachers do a tremendous job of that and a willingness to do it over the summer is just unlike anything I've experienced elsewhere in Farmington. Eric, can you comment on the um it looks like you're doing some changes to the grade nine English curriculum? There's three different Yeah, so we have a special project that we're going to be bringing that information in front of the board um a little bit down the line. So, we're looking at some in the uh curriculum subcommittee heard about this actually just earlier tonight. So, we're looking

021at some revisions to our program of studies whereby we would take ninth and 10th grade ELA offerings instead of locking students into one-year-long survey course. We would condense the survey course that all freshmen and sophomores take to the first semester of those years and then open up the second semester to more choice-based electives aligned to career interest pathways. So, a really exciting proposal. The summer project is really to kind of push that proposal forward to give it a little bit more shape um and then we would bring that proposal to the board in terms of um courses that we would be looking to pilot in the 2027-2028 school year. So, more information to come. Yeah, I know that's really exciting and just by the responses from the high school students in the audience, I think

022it's a win. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, and that I'm not a lip reader, but I thought I saw a few like, "That looks awesome. That sounds awesome." Yeah. Um you know, student choice and voice is really what we're all about. And I will I I really have to give kudos to the English Department in that this proposal came like directly from listening to students. They asked students, "What are the changes you would like to see in our program of studies?" And that message came through loud and clear was more choice, please, especially in 9th and 10th grade. Um and then the other question I had was um with the physics review curriculum review, will physics still be the entry point? Yeah, there's no intention to change change physics as the entry point, which again is

023um something of exceptionality to Farmington Public Schools and something we're really proud of and that we feel matches uh it aligns well to our math scope and sequence as well. Go ahead. I know that there's a lot of high school students here today and I just want to say, great job, guys. I just want to say, honestly, I know this is one of my favorite classes, Government and Law. It's one of my one of my favorite learning how democracy works, right? And being a part of democracy because it's your voice that's bringing about change uh to our program of studies. So, thank you. All right. Anything else? All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Aaron. Veronica. Thanks. Thank you. All right. So, next item we have item C, teacher program leadership appointments. So, I guess

024I'd say piggybacking on that idea of If you guys want to take any snacks, feel free. Go ahead. That's okay. I think the requirement was 1 hour, so >> [laughter] >> They stuck around for the end of the So, these are the extra credit students who are still They're going for 90 minutes, they get a A plus, I think. >> [laughter] >> Sorry. That's okay. Well, uh included in your packet this evening are the appointments for our teacher leaders and curriculum coordinator positions. And again, it was kind of a perfect leeway into this segment because as Mr. Martin shared, uh you know, we certainly value teacher leadership here in the district. Uh the voices of our teachers help us to co-create uh a lot of the work that we do here in district. And so,

025the packet has uh all of them listed for you to review. We won't go through go through all of them this evening, but they're there for you to take a look at. And you can see that there's numerous opportunities for our staff in district to take a leadership role with us. I don't know if there's anything you want to add, Veronica? Um uh basically took a lot of what I was going to say, but I would just add that one of the things that we really think about is not really a top-down leadership style. And so, recently I've seen it referred to sort of as a snowflake, where not one person holds all the power, but responsibility is shared and interconnected teams working together um further this common goal that we have. Um and so,

026um so again, you could picture it like this snowflake that radiates, but it radiates outward and inward, right? So, this idea that all of these people are the connective tissue of the Although, I don't think snowflakes have tissues, but you know what I mean. Like, this analogy only goes so far. Um but, you know, you can kind of picture that you can't have a snowflake without all the different parts of it sort of working together. And I would say another piece of it um is the importance of leaders developing leaders. And so, um that means that we're, you know, always in a constant effort of, you know, people who are in those sort of middle part of the ring of of uh of the snowflake um also being sort of the mediating between teachers and

027leadership and sort of playing that role and um all the things that Eric was describing couldn't happen with this level of leadership. And so you'll see we have different flavors of it and I was just going to call out the four different like department chair people who are off sometimes grades K through 12, sometimes 5 through 12. We have resource teachers and specialists who are primarily providing coaching and training and so that's what you you know many times I say a literacy specialist or a math specialist in the different schools. Then coordinators who are more essentially taking care of some logistics in schools and then team leaders which are really helpful in the day-to-day functioning of the you know collaboration of the teacher teams. So they really lead the teacher teams at every grade level

028which is why you see one for every grade you know at every school in that list. And really just wanted to say it's a yearly process so just because somebody's doing it one year doesn't mean they're doing it next year. There has been a little bit of commitment to trying to move that around so different people have different opportunities for leadership. And so those are some of the things that I would just say about this process. It's a it's a really great process. Principals are involved in it, make the recommendation to me and to the superintendent as to who should have these positions and we're lucky to have many people who are interested in this kind of work. Always building up our capacity as we go. Any questions? Erica? So as I was going through

029your through the list, you have a couple to be determined. And so the one so maybe it's you know under the what is it called the resource teacher specifically for the care team? Yep. Yeah and you know that you have two out of the four. >> That's a great question. So I don't know if you remember this uh through the budget process, but we added care team members and we'd also talked about at that time that we would be elevating that role to a larger leadership position. So, we attached a stipend at the department chairperson level um to be consistent with really a department chairperson like the special education department chair at the high school. So, sort of that level of responsibility. Um however, we have not filled as of today have not filled those

030positions yet. We're working on it. We're in the process. We're close to one. So, that can't be determined until we have the person because those are some of those positions are sort of like it's the job, but there's also like a leadership stipend. And so, that's yeah, until we have that filled and it won't have somebody in that the leadership part of it. And part of that elevation came to down um which you know, we agreed with thought it was a great move, but that state requirement to add coaching in to the student services department. And so, that was part of why we elevated that stipend as well with those responsibilities. One Sorry, one more question. Can you remind me under and I'm I'm going to put playing in a blank under the coordinator's FSL?

031Uh so, those are the family school liaisons. Um and they generally support students who are part of the open choice program. Um and so, one of the things that we've been challenged by in the past and no longer are challenged by because we have these positions are somebody to really when we talk about belonging and inclusion, somebody to really care for students who maybe there's an afterschool activity and they don't know how to navigate like making sure that they have access and all that. So, somebody who can help with the transportation for communication. And so, now we have people at every school who that's uh big part of their position. It doesn't have to be only open choice. There are also other ways that they connect with other families who need it. Um but I

032would say most of the time that this is you know, this is a big part of the work. And so, you can have two uh Noah Wallace in East Farms, so Oh, okay. So, that's what it was. That's almost like what Eric was talking about. Sometimes there's a there's like what the price is for that position, and sometimes people want to split it. And so, when sometimes if they say, "Oh, we know it's like one stipend, but we want to split it. We both want to do it. It's you know, it's too much work for one, or I know I can't do it every day, and could we share it?" Sometimes we allow that, and it works out well in a lot of the cases. But again, because it's a yearly because it's a yearly

033appointment, if it that wasn't working out, or somebody said, "That's not a really good setup," we could change that very flexibly the next year. But when it works, we we we allow that to happen, but it's not two separate stipends. They share the stipend because that role is that amount of money, whether one one person does it or two people do it. On the care team to be determined to be determined ones, um Danielle and Abby are school psychologists, correct? So, are those um leadership positions specifically for school psychologists, or it can be anybody within the care team? It's for So, we will have four care team members, and all four of them will receive that stipend. I see. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Next item is D, professional appointments, resignations, and retirements. So, I

034guess it's fitting maybe that we're here at um East Farms this evening. We had just one retirement in this month's report, and we want to thank and acknowledge Carleen Bumsh for her 20 years of service as a third grade teacher here at East Farms. Uh I'm sure she's looking forward to the end of the school year and sailing off into the sunset and enjoying retirement. We're all a little jealous. Um and just uh that was the only appointment resignation or retirement in your packet this evening. There will be some additional coming up in the month of June including any resignations that were effective as of the end of the year. So there'll be a few more listed in that final report. Questions? Okay. Next item is E deeper learning updates. So included in your packet

035this evening are the deeper learning updates from all seven of our schools. Couple that I picked out just to mention for you this month. There was the sites, tastes, and sounds of Noah Wallace which is an event where Noah Wallace families come together to celebrate the rich cultures that make up the school community. It looks like a wonderful event. They got a great turnout. And there was a survivor survival shelter challenge at IAR recently where some science classrooms were asked to design a shelter that was temperature stable. They had to design it, engineer it, and create a prototype. Pretty advanced from I'm not sure I was doing that when I was in middle school science class, but sounds like pretty interesting and those are just a couple updates that are included in the deeper learning

036updates this month for you to review. Questions? Comments? Next item F updates. Okay. So just sure you're all aware that on April 30th the Board of Ed operating budget was approved via the referendum. This included a yes to adding the AC units to all four of our elementary schools. So Sam I think cheered and also started to his brow and think a little bit about what the next couple of school years will be like, but uh the team is excited to get working on that project and we'll keep you updated as we go. Uh just want to acknowledge the collective effort that goes into the budget development process, the many hours and of work and meetings that we've all had together, the work that the team has done, uh and just really just acknowledge everyone

037in the community that was part of this budget. It's a It's a big part of what we do as a board. Uh it's very meaningful to us as a school district and just thank you all for your support and work throughout the process and to all the members of our staff uh who got us over the finish line this year, and we appreciate it. Uh speaking of the budget, we learned this past week that uh there's some uh the state is providing some additional funding to all uh school districts and towns across uh the state of Connecticut. Uh for [snorts] us here in Farmington, we are slated to receive $148,320 for uh to be used for educational purposes. Uh sat in on a call with the commissioner on Friday because there's lots of questions about

038this funding and what it's going to mean for us as a school district. Uh it's still relatively new, so uh you know, I'm sharing the the most recent update that I have, and I'm sure we'll continue to learn some additional pieces of information as we go through the summer and move uh towards the fall. What we know at the time is that that amount will be allocated to districts in uh by October 31st. So, we expect to receive that in the fall. Uh we'll receive that the same way that the district receives ECS funding, so it'll be written out to the treasurer of uh the town of Farmington, and then we'll uh Dan and his team will work with the town team about, you know, that funds coming our way. Uh there's still some question

039about what we exactly as a district might do. We had some preliminary conversations this morning to start to think through what we might do with that additional funding. Uh where it was shared with us on Friday that the expectation is that it is utilized during the 2026-2027 school year for educational purposes. There's some different rules in place for the funding that the town of Farmington receives, so they'll be working through that on their end. But again, those are that's kind of the latest that we have at this time. There was some talk that that money might be allocated in like over 2 years, but they clarified on the call that we would receive the entire amount this fall. So, more to come on that, but it's some good news for us because, you know, it's

040some additional money we can use to support the school district here. Just have to think through about how to use it appropriately in the fall when we receive it. Questions about that? I know it's kind of fresh and an interesting one. Okay, just ask. >> Sure. So, why do we have to wait if we know we're getting the funds? Do we have to wait till the fall to decide how to allocate them or right? At the start of the school year most of our funding is spent on personnel and staffing, right? And those decisions are typically made over the summer. So, isn't that wouldn't we want to decide sooner than later on those additional resources versus waiting until the fall where it might be kind of too late to figure something out about it? Yeah,

041just to clarify, we don't have to wait till the fall to decide how to use it. It's just that's when the funding is coming in. We just have to think through where we might want to spend it. We can make that decision [clears throat] as early as we'd like. It just was pretty recent that we found out about the exact amount, so we've got to plan. Yeah. And just my last, is that is like a board decision or is it more of an administrative decision administration decision? So, we would bring recommendations to you as a board and then that would require your approval of that funding. Yep. Right. Mhm. Good questions. Just in terms of the calculation, I think I read somewhere that it was the same formula as ECS or not? That's what was

042shared with us that they use similar formula to ECS and so that's the amount that's allocated to the town annually. It's a complicated formula if ever gone through it. The state starts with a foundational amount of $11,525 or $252, one of the other. I might have that backwards. And then they apply it through three different stages, you know, taking into consideration different variables, you know, wealth in the town, the number of English language learners that you have in your community and they apply those of formulas to that amount and it gives you your new like your district's new value and that's what determines how much you receive in ECS money annually. It was it was changed a few years ago. So, Farmington was receiving a certain amount up until 3 years ago, too. >> 2

043years ago they Farmington was getting about 1.7 million and then over the last couple years it's actually raised pretty significantly to 3.7 million. Wow. Yeah, and so that money goes to the town and they use that money as a revenue source to offset the total overall budget. So, we make our proposals as a district, our recommendations, what we feel we need for funding to operate the district and then that money becomes a revenue source and offsets. So, it impact it does impact the mill rate. So, more news to come. Do Do have another question? I have thought. [clears throat] Do you remember if they changed Did they Are they I need to go back and look at the bill, the language. Of course. There was a lot of question Well, there's always every year questions

044about the changing the rate. So, to your point. And I can't remember if that They did So, that's come up. So, part of what was driving this is there's been a lot of communication, uh you know, to the legislators, but also the governor directly about the you know, the kind of the stagnant nature of ECS over the past several years. And so, this was you know, what was shared this was in response to that. And of course, the next question is is this additional funding we can expect, right? Because if we're going to plan and you know, for our budgets in the future, we need to know that. And so, of course, you know, kind of like a lot of things like that go. Uh the the response back was we understand this is needed

045and we're going to be working to look, you know, for ways that we can continue to address and adjust ECS moving forward. Anything else? Do you have any additions? I do. Yeah, so um this past week, well, actually I guess it was 2 weeks ago now. Time flies, but uh we had an opportunity to visit Farmington High School for a welcoming walk-through. Uh and so, this means if you're not familiar, a welcoming walk-through brings together a group of community members, students, staff, um and they walk through the school looking for four uh big kind of buckets of information. Um one is the physical environment. So, is the physical environment of the school welcoming when you walk, you know, up and down the hallways? Do you see, you know, is it vibrant? Does it make you

046feel a sense of uh you know, feeling positive that you're there? I think the students this evening were talking about that question about walking in the door. Does it make you feel welcomed? Uh there's also school practices. So, everything from orientation to even like uh an initial outreach. Sometimes they'll even cold call uh the office to kind of see what kind of a reaction they might get uh from the staff there. They look at culture, right? So, just kind of walking around and taking in holistically the kind of the vibe, I guess, of the place, you might say, and the interactions that they see. And then [snorts] communication, looking through newsletters, websites, and each uh the bigger group is broken up into subgroups that look specifically at those four areas. Uh there's actually a rubric

047that's provided to each team, so they score us in those areas, and then they develop a list of recommendations that the school can use uh to continue to improve and make the school feel even more welcoming. Uh so, it was a I guess a a proud moment for us because it was the new high school, so their walk-through was scheduled for last year, but we decided to bump it off 1 year with the building being brand new and kind of working out all the kinks last year. So, it was a celebration in a sense that we were in the building, looking at it already through that lens, right? We always talk about continuous improvement. You wouldn't think there was How could you improve on a brand new building? But, we walked away with quite a

048few recommendations that day. Uh and also was a celebration because I the high school is the last of our seven buildings. So, uh all seven have had a welcoming walk-through now uh and are using that information to improve their buildings, and a lot of them you'll see as the principals present their improvement plans, there's elements of the welcoming walk-throughs uh embedded within. Great day. And one more thing. So, our final There's a lot of updates. We haven't haven't seen you guys for a while, so there's a lot to tell you about. Uh so, this past week we had our last two half professional days uh in the district, the 6th and 7th. Uh no pun intended there. Sorry, the students were still paying attention. Want to make sure, but uh Yeah, I did. I know.

049Well, sometimes it lands, sometimes it doesn't, but um Assistant Superintendent Rusek's just going to talk to us about some of the activities that were taking place on those two professional learning days. Um Thank you. So, I I also want to point out last week was Teacher Appreciation Week, which I think is very appropriate because one of the things that I always think is that uh teachers are really learners first. So, to have some learning days on the days of Teacher Appreciation Week, I think are is very nice. Um we um I also want to say again, this connected back to the importance of the leadership report that I was talking about before. Um a lot of this work is driven by those middle level leaders who are able to connect teachers to the the entire

050vision and that whole snowflake model that we're talking about. And so, um just generally because there would be a lot to report on all the work that teachers and paraprofessionals did on that day. Um and really at every school um everybody gets about 2-hour chunk of time. A lot of people think that these are half days, but really it's they're early release days. So, 2 hours a chunk of time um really at every building and they're not lined up either because they you know, fall at the end of the school day. So, there it's it's tougher to do sort of like cross-school collaboration in that way. Although, you certainly could like elementary could group together sometimes or whatever, but um most of the time and and this time is is no exception, really they're just

051working to further the goals in our school development plans um and our um our overall district improvement goals. Um so, one of the categories of of course is culture and climate. So, I will just report that during this time some time was taken for teachers and staff to complete a a faculty and staff survey, which you'll see you'll see the results of some of that at some point when we talk about culture and climate in the building. This is a requirement of the challenging behavior law that we adopted last year, but we think it's really important to give a little bit of time. It's not a lot of time, but a little bit of time so that we can really have like wide participation. Everybody participates. We're not leaving it to chance. And of course

052that all the results from that then feed into our new goals and objectives for the next year in our school development plans. Another area of the school development plan that you would have seen some sessions in is under the category of teaching and learning. So you would have seen continued work on task design makeover kind of sessions and work being done. And also at the high school there were some AI modules that were done to familiarize teachers more with AI and some of the ethics and practices around AI at the high school level. That needs continuous work because there's always changes and new things coming up. And so sort of having continuous understanding of what's going on in that world and you know to the point of the speaker before like when to use it,

053when not to use it, all of those kinds of questions that arise when you have this new technology that's sort of an uncharted new frontier. So And then I would say most of the flavor of the PD last week was really on academic achievement. So using data that we collected over the year to do things like inform class placements for next year. That's a big job that teachers have to do. If it weren't for those days, those would be days we'd be needing to provide substitutes for the classroom Um, because that work needs to be done and they need to do it as teams. And so, it's really nice that we have this time in May to be able to do that kind of work. Um, a lot of teachers and teams are finishing up

054their EEPD action research, so their collaborative inquiry goals, which are action research projects. Um, so all the data right now is being collected and they're pulling that together, so they need time for that. Um, and then of course, um, end of year goals for students, um, especially students who um, have support plans and figuring out whether they're meeting their end of year standards and what we could do in the last several year several weeks here, um, in order to make sure that students are meeting their goals, um, at the end of the year. So, those that gives you sort of a flavor in the three different categories of our school development plans of some of the things that were accomplished last week. So, as always, thank you for the time. You know that that's something

055that we find critical to our success. Um, so like summer work is one way that we're able to provide time for us really professional development. It's work, but it's also professional development. Um, but these early release days is another way. So, very successful two days. Thank you. Comment quickly. Um, just I want to just point out, um, the just when I was looking through the the PD, it's just really nice to see that the non-certified staff, um, get PD. Um, they're there for both days and, you know, specifically the, um, the non-certified staff were in like the district programs. Um, just bringing in different experts for them to receive PD. CCSN came in. Um, it's just really nice to see. Not every district, um, provides continuous, um, professional development to build capacity for non-certified staff.

056So, um, just wanted to shout that out. That was it's really great to see. Thank you. Um, next item seven unfinished business A budget impact budget update. Hey everybody. Um So, this is actually a I think probably a good conversation to have, you know, budget update impact things are uh looking actually I would say even say exceedingly good right now. Things are uh moving uh um you know, trending we'll talk more when we do the financials for March you'll be able to kind of see where that's going, but just letting you know that this point, you know, as as we're in May so we've got about a month left there's less time for surprises uh and types of things. And so um we are trending toward what I would probably call a pretty healthy surplus

057uh at the end of the year. Um you know, obviously a final number would be it's it's too difficult to to pinpoint there, but you know, the I would say the largest draw came from the fact that we had allocated for those three kindergarten teachers um you know, in the budget and then when we saw that that enrollment wasn't going to be there and we didn't hire uh for those positions that was money that had had been in the budget and that didn't need to be taken for you know, other either whether you know, um other areas other teaching assignments or you know, surprise capital expenses. Uh you know, I think a a big compliment to to Wendy who's done a really nice job with special services and really you know, I done identifying areas

058and really building relationships with families to be able to help kind of you know, contain some of those out of placement costs and some of those transportation costs that that that come with it. Um you know, I think we're fortunate from the state they stabilize a little bit with that excess cost. Um you know, we always kind of budgeted conservatively of what we were going to get and then with them kind of making that commitment from there that number has also helped us so that so this combination of of a few different factors is is leaving us um with a pretty healthy surplus. So, you know, as I talked with you and Jessica Veronica, you know, I would encourage some you know debate and discussion among the board about looking at how you know, what

059we do with this. You know, obviously you know, the the the two directions you as a board we can go is any money we don't use we can return to the town. You know, any money that doesn't get used gets returned to the town. Or, you know, we would be able to just allocate and move this money to a not the non-lapsing account. You know, it's not going to be so large it's going to exceed the 2% of our budget which is the the cap limit on there. Um so those are really the kind of once again just or I guess third would be a combination of you know, it doesn't have to be just all one or all the other. There could be some kind of allocation there. So, you know, a nice problem

060to have given you know, kind of where you know, I think a lot of other districts are in the in the state and and looking at that uh position. So, um that is currently where we're at. Happy to take any questions. We get that number in September, right? The final number would be in September after we kind of close that. Um so, you know, probably what I would say is any guidance, you know, through you know, the June board meeting to kind of you know, where where we kind of want to go with that and then we would kind of you know, put those final pieces in of of you know, what part we would return to town, what part we would want to put in non-lapsing and and you know, vice versa. You know,

061we'd also you know, when you have this opportunity we also kind of take a look to see you know, are there some projects you know, that that we wanted to to get done or we want to accelerate. You know, I can think of actually being here in East Farms we've been as a far as a major project we've been doing in the classrooms the the counter tops have been renovated. We've been doing like I think seven a year you know, for over the course of three years. So, what we may end up doing is we have some of that access you know, go from seven to 14 and get a jump on that which then gets us ahead of ahead of our next major projects, right? Cuz you know, it it's kind of as uh

062Eric was talking about with, you know, your house, right? If you kind of let If you don't keep doing some projects every year, it kind of builds up and and and goes from there. So, so those are some of the things we're looking at, but even giving given that I I I anticipate us still uh finishing with a with a pretty healthy surplus. Uh thanks, Dan. Um I I I guess just sort of question or a thought, right? Uh on the surplus, you mentioned, you know, three kindergarten teachers that we didn't hire. I was curious, you know, are we being too cautious or too conservative, right? Like if you think about it, the taxpayers of town are approving a certain level of service for the Farmington Public School System, right? So, they they've already been

063taxed this money for a certain level of service, right? So, are we being too conservative with staffing? We heard of comments about staffing tonight, right? And what better way to help student achievement through something like that, right? So, just curious cuz again, we left some teacher positions sort of on the table here as we're thinking about deploying services for the district, right? Obviously, one-time costs for school district are probably challenging outside of capital projects, right? As As we all know, most of the funds are people and and their benefits. So, how do we kind of get past that part of being very conservative with either ECF projections or staffing and providing the services I think parents in Farmington sort of expect, right? Without Sure. You know, you know, I get it. We obviously want a

064surplus. We don't want a deficit, right? But how to just uh kind of kind of get through that? Cuz again, we heard we heard that tonight about you know, student-teacher ratio. And And my assumption is that is a you know, a good out the good a parameter of student achievement, right? As teachers supporting our students. So, >> No, I think that's a great question. Um you know, I think we always take a look at that. I mean, even in this past year with the budget, with the enrollment numbers, you know, and that's why you know, we budget that non-deployed um you know, teacher for when some of those hotspots get there so we can can maintain those class sizes. You know, I think in this case with the enrollment at at the kindergarten level where

065we had those three spots, you know, all [clears throat] the elementary schools, I think maybe one school had a class, you know, that got to 20. You know, all the others would be there. So, it could deploying those teachers in there would have probably brought the class sizes down to, you know, anywhere between below like, you know, somewhere between 12 and 15. And so, now it's it it would have been even below kind of board policy for the numbers where it you even on the low end, right? It would have even exceeded there. So, so this was, you know, not using those three teachers wasn't an element of um "Hey, we're just going to make those class sizes at, you know, 22, 23, 24 at the high end of of what the average was." These

066were already at like really, you know, what what most districts or most schools will say are really great class size numbers. And this just, you know, deploying, you know, utilizing those would have brought it down to, you know, like I said, probably class sizes of you know, there might have been a couple class sizes of 11 and 12 if we use those teachers. And I and I'd say too, it's like this this balance of um creating these >> [clears throat and cough] >> class sizes that we feel are really appropriate and effective and meet, you know, the expectations of the community and then also balancing out that responsible budgeting piece. And there's like that happy medium, I think is what you're kind of getting at, Dan, where it's like, um you know, there are numbers

067where certainly we look at and we say we we don't like those numbers. We don't like to see classes starting to, you know, squeak up up into the, you know, 20s. So, if any opportunity we have to keep class sizes in those, you know, mid-teens, high-teens, that's kind of our goal. Uh and so, but I think it's it's your point in that particular case. And even even with that, we still saw many kindergarten uh classes with pretty favorable class sizes. Yeah. So, it was pretty fair. Yeah. I mean, the other part, too, that to keep in mind is, you know, you know, central office team and I, we we discussed this. Having the money there in the non-lapsing account really sets us up for for, you know, good fiscal budgeting moving forward. So, you know,

068you know, one example of what, you know, discussions that we talked about is having money there where you wouldn't need to necessarily put a non-deployed teacher in the budget. Because if we did have that need, we could just go to the non-deployed money, you know, the non-deployed account to cover for that. And so, now, when we do our budgeting, we we don't need to cover, you know, I'll I'll say, you know, for the for those, you know, these emergencies or those other pieces that built in, you'll have that. And so, now, you you can bring, you know, a really, you know, kind of responsible budget that's there without sacrificing the services, Matt, to your point, that the students need. But that said, if it would be helpful to, as we get prepared to budget in

069the future, we can bring comparison numbers so you can see where is Farmington stand to similar districts. Does the our do those numbers feel good to you as a board? I mean, we, you know, we're referencing policy here that we're, you know, we're following as a leadership team as we're putting these budgets together. Things like 19.5, which is the average of like all of them together. But, you know, certainly, you know, you've got to weigh in on that, too, and give us some guidance in the future. So, if we look at those numbers and they feel like they're out of whack or you'd like to see something different then you you know that's something that we can do during the budget development process. Sounds great. Anybody else? Thank you Dan. Next item on the agenda,

070item eight new business A Noah Wallace fund proposals. Sure so the Noah Wallace fund advisory committee met on April 22nd and 28th to review the financials and set the target for projects. The committee members are made up of board of Ed members, community members, FPS admin as well as the town of Farmington administration. This year the committee approved seven proposals at a recommended funding level of $33,273.94 for the 2026-2027 And Veronica's going to review some of these projects with us. Sure so um Again you took away my intro. >> [laughter] >> Well we're going to have to start coordinating on intros I guess. I would like to say that this I'm trying to say the boring stuff you know and it's [laughter] I like to say that this is an educational trust established in the

0711930s where an individual in the community gave this sort of seed money in order to fund projects that are for projects and materials that wouldn't normally be covered in our budget. So these are sort of some bells and whistles kinds of projects that are proposed by the schools and I will just mention it's not every school. The person who left this money did say it's for students of the first district so not all of our and not voting district just there's two school districts and so this is of the first district and that's something we're looking into a little bit whether that would be able to be changed and we that's actually why we had two meetings because there was a one of the proposals was a proposal for one school. There was a question

072on the table could all the schools benefit and I reached out to the organization and it was exactly the same price if we did it for one school or all the schools. So in that way it felt like you know it's still within the spirit of you know it's not costing extra money for the other schools but more students can benefit. So that's the reason we had two of these meetings. And so I thought I would just I mean you've seen it in the packet and so just really quickly there are several projects that are really at East Farm School. One of them are games for Spanish for our Spanish classrooms that would allow students to really practice their I mean just imagine games it has all kinds of information about numbers and so you

073could just imagine students you know all kinds of other kinds of you know topics and words and I know one of the projects was teach like place like over and under and all those kinds of words that students would be using with these games that are actually in Spanish. I think one of them is like shoots and ladders but in Spanish and so you would be using all the words in context. Another project is the Chompsaw. So this was purchased with no Wallace funds last year at another school and it was wildly popular but these this is like a little device where it cuts cardboard and you can make all kinds of engineering projects out of it and kids really enjoy it and cannot get hurt on it. It was demonstrated to me that you

074[clears throat] cannot cut your finger on this device but really in line with all of our thinking about maker spaces and engineering and students coming up with ideas and all kinds of things that are related to our vision of the global citizen. Another project is the outdoor learning at the pond. So, we are at the school where a little known to maybe everybody, but outside, uh, there is a little pathway that you can go to a pond. And you know, we've been working on outdoor learning spaces at all of our schools, and that seems like a great, uh, place where you could do all kinds of observations about nature and um, you know, seasons and what's in the pond. And um, so, uh, really there's been a proposal on the table for a long time

075that maybe we can make use of that space. But it's going to require an infusion of money. We're not actually sure this is enough money. Um, but maybe it gets us like at a start to start to do something with a dock there. Um, and it may end up being either a larger project that comes back to the Noa Wall Fund next year or would require uh, the Board of Education to make some decisions about how, you know, money that we would invest into this. Um, and then another one, um, in many of our schools, we've been really working on developing sensory spaces. And so, again, this school is one that never had enough space for it. As you know, we had to move some classrooms from here to Noa Wall so there was never

076a space to have a sensory like sensory room, um, uh, for student regulation and SEL purposes. Um, but at this point, um, we're able to expand that to here, but it again needs, um, some new equipment, um, to to be able to have that program. Um, the the project to which I was referring to before was the Cat Kid Comic Club, which is a popular, um, series. It's a sort of like a comic book, but with also, you know, the sort of the uh, graphic novel genre. Um, but they've turned it into a a traveling musical, a real musical that comes. It's about an hour-long production. Um, and so, uh, the proposal was to bring it to Noa Wall School, but we think we can bring it to the district and somehow figure out a

077way for all students to be able to enjoy that performance and certainly it boosts their engagement with literacy with a popular, you know, a popular book that many students are reading. Um another project is called access to literacy at Westwoods, but these would provide English learners with age-appropriate books in the multiple languages of students who are coming to our multi-multilingual learners who are maybe new to the United States who are still you know, looking to have maybe a book that they're reading in their class that's very popular that maybe we wouldn't regularly be able to purchase in another language. This would provide the resources to be able to purchase that in a different language. And then finally a publishing station at Westwoods. As you know, we really work on students being producers, not consumers, making

078things a beautiful work, work that they can display in celebrations of learning. And we know that the more professional that it looks and the more professional that it feels the sort of elevated status of the project that they're working on. the idea here is that they would publish it and it would look professionally bound. And so it could be on display and they're imagining, you know, those little probably have some here, right? The little like sort of on the edge of the you know, on the edge of the shelves there where actually the books that the students are creating would be displayed. So that would really enhance engagement for students and elevate the level of their projects. And so you know, what I would say is that you can see probably by the things I've

079described that these are maybe not things that would have ended up in our regular budget, but certainly enhance the educational experience and they're all deeply rooted in our VOGC. And so the processes that that committee, and I will call out the people who are on it. I would like to thank Andrea Savinski, Beth Kitner, um, and then, uh, community members Luma Chalabi, Emily Colleny, and Katherine Ribero. Um, also from central office, I'm on that committee, Dan is on the committee, and Beth Haber is on that committee. Um, and then, big thanks to Joe Swetky, who comes and tells us the health of the fund every year and tells us how much we can, uh, we should spend. Although, really it's a decision by the group to decide how much to spend, um, but there is

080a very healthy, uh, fund balance, and it has done very, very well. Um, and so, um, this year he guided us in the $32 to $35,000 range, so we're coming in between that at $33,273.94 when you total all these projects. I will also say that we didn't have other projects on the table, so we were actually able to fund, um, to the level that everyone had asked for, all the projects. And actually, to the Cat Click Kid Comic Club, we added a little bit more than they asked for, just so that the books could be then also given to every school. Thanks. So, I think that this requires a vote now. Um, and what it means that once it does get voted on, um, teachers who submitted these, uh, these proposals will get a letter

081congratulating them on, um, being successful in in, um, their proposal, um, and we'll start the work of, you know, ordering or setting these experiences up or or whatever, so that, um, you know, by next year some of these will be sort of in in progress. I I just wanted to comment because, um, Beth and I are on it because we live in the first district, So, I I've had the opportunity to be a part of selecting these projects for eight eight nine years now. And I'm just always so impressed and grateful to the teachers that put forward these proposals. Um I mean, I think Beth can agree with me that, you know, we go through all these proposals, but the amount of work that the teachers have to put in to the It's It's like

082an application and there's a lot of detail, um you know, line by line how much everything cost. And also how um how it relates to the vision of the global citizen. So, I just also want to thank the teachers for the time and the effort that they put into applying for these. Yeah, the creativity and tying in with the vision and all of that is And then they have to do the work when they get the funds and incorporate that into their their classroom. Um yeah, I enjoy it. Uh No, this is great. Thank you for that presentation. I was just curious to throw it out there. Obviously great for the first district. Has anyone ever discussed either matching funds for the second district, at least from public school perspective, or trying to talk to

083other foundations in town about trying to match so we have sort of equity on that side of town? Just Just wondering. Mhm. I think there's been quite a few conversations through the years. You probably have some history [clears throat] on that, but Joe Swepston told me that this is a conversation that has gone back 20 years at least on trying to open up um this. We have opened it up to any um students [clears throat] that um attend the different schools. I think at first it was um schools in the first district, which would really only include three of them. But then it was brought into students from the first district who attends a you know, any school, which was then opened up West Woods and FHS. So, there's really two elementary schools that are

084left out of that. And so, yeah. So, for example, something like the Chomps Sauce or something like that, [clears throat] if another school asked for it, I think we would try through the budget process to do that. There's some leeway in where people can put supplies. And so, sometimes these are also just pilot programs where somebody sort of can start something and then we decide that that worked out really well and then other places will do it through a regular budget regular budget process. So, we try to do that. And as you can tell this year, the committee itself was really sensitive to that idea and so came up with a creative solution for the Cap Kit comic musical. And so, really thinking about it as much as we can in in those kinds of

085ways. But, you know, we we do try to keep that in mind that you know, some schools have access to that. No, that's great to hear. I was thinking more separate, right? Like we have a surplus this year, right? Can we matching funds from the Noah Wallace with public funds, right? To match just again one right to make sure we're being equitable here. We do have a surplus. Um That was That was really my just question or thought, right? I get if we if we can expand the use of this fund for across the district that obviously would make sense and seem like, you know, a great response. If not that, is there other avenues to take to make sure we're we're thinking about in terms of a matching fund from surplus funds, etc., right?

086Cuz these obviously one-time projects as well, right? So >> the only way that teachers have access [clears throat] to funds. I would say too that we have the Farmington Public Schools Foundation, which is another way that teachers are able to do that. And then also, I think the Farmington Community Chest is is another way that teachers are able to ask for funds for these kinds of projects. And so, there would be those kinds of ways. Again, because it's Again, this is the fiscal responsibility part when when we are some of these [clears throat] are, you know, sort of um >> [snorts] >> you know, when they are really innovative and out of something that they district would maybe purchase cuz that's kind of how it's described as sort of >> [clears throat] >> that it's

087just things not covered by the regular budget, maybe something above and beyond. You know, you have to you have to weigh that against how much it costs, but I will say that over time, you know, all the schools have are have been building up the set multi-sensory rooms, you know, and and so that kind of thing. So, through the regular budget that is happening anyway. Like I can give a great example. Just recently, Union, which would be one of the ones that not technically eligible for for No Walls, recently attended the Green Efforts Committee meeting in hopes of getting some funding for some sorting tables for like the composting and things. And so, they the Green Efforts Committee was so impressed with their presentation, they actually fully funded that, the $4,500 for that project. Um

088so, you know, once again, just always kind of being thoughtful about whether, you know, Green Efforts Committee, whether it's the, you know, Farmington, you know, that the foundation, you know, things or you know, even through operating. I think, you know, to your point, that that's always something that we're very cognizant about to make sure that, you know, if these at schools got the chutzpah and then, okay, well, let's, you know, tell you what, we'll we'll use some of the surplus or we'll use just even if we didn't have the operating, we'll make sure Union gets them if that's something they want to incorporate in their curriculum and stuff. So. And actually, the sorting tables is a really great example because that did start off as oh, actually, it I don't now I can't remember if

089it was a Farmington Foundation grant or No Walls, maybe that was a Farmington Foundation, but it also started as sort of an innovative grant idea that then now has been able to be scaled up to various schools. Yeah. But, Matt, we we have talked about that in the Noah Wallace Fund Committee just about equity across all the schools and I think we're looking for more information. I Joe said that there was a lot of research done maybe 20 years ago. And just to look into the language of the Noah Wallace Fund. Also cuz he had indicated I think some to make any changes to the rules would require state state Yeah, you would need you buy ordinarily you would actually need I think it was like a descendant of the Noah Wallace to be able

090to be the one who approved it since And if there is nobody then you have to go to the state. >> to go through state and through the whole legislative process to to kind of So I but I would also say and I think I want to also maybe elaborate a little bit more. I know several of us have played roles in the Farmington Public Schools Foundation and then with the chess and I think there is significant other opportunities in Farmington where some of these things if not funded through this are funded through other and you know each of us play a role in those sort of other avenues or platforms where that is done. So I don't know I think I would maybe argue a little bit more of that not necessarily seen it

091as an equitable issue in our community. You know, in the sense I think that there is significant opportunities in Farmington where other opportunities for funding for projects like this is being supported. Fair enough. I'll need a motion. All right, it disappeared on me. You could Can you do it again? Go ahead. I move to approve the 2026-2027 Noah Wallace Fund projects as presented for a total of $33,273.94. Second. Okay. All those in favor? I. >> Opposed? Abstention? Motion carries. Thank you, Monica. All right, next item. We have 8B, policy updates, first reading. So, can I have a motion? Yep. I move to approve the policy updates listed below for a first reading. Um 3170, board budget procedures and line item transfers. And 5 5112.1. And 5112.1A, admission to the public schools to at or before

092age 5. And 6153 and 6153A, field trips. Second. Okay. Discussion. Okay, so the policy committee met on Tuesday, April 21st. We reviewed the three policies that James just mentioned that were brought forward for a first reading this evening. The first one is a business policy, so I'm going to have Assistant Superintendent Zatune just walk us through some of the changes that you'll see in your packet in that policy this evening. So, in the 3170, that is pretty much just some legislative updates that are there as as, you know, most of you know, we usually use the New York State and um model policy language. And so, the legislator updated one specific where it talks about giving a report of the use of the non-lapping account, where there was some language about us giving it to

093like the In this case, it would for us it would be the FEA, the teachers union, kind of advance. They've updated language just to now no longer make that a requirement that they get that. And so, typically when we would do this report for the non-lapping um at the board meeting, the argument is the union and or really everybody would have access to it cuz it would be public available information. So, it's really more of kind of a little bit of a keeping there. So, there wasn't really any I would say substantive substantive change in there, but just as you know, I we keep you know, like I said, following shipment model policy, this one came up and so uh it seems to make sense to to process it and and go through the process

094to to update it. Any questions? Yeah. Uh when wedding reading through it, it keeps mentioning um the meeting in May. We had our vote in April. So, these things couldn't have been done. I mean, they're talking about the first Monday in May with with the annual budget is presented. We've already voted on April 30th. So, is there any way to rewrite this so it's not so specific? That's only administrative regulations, right? >> Yeah, that's that's an administrative regulation. So, that would be something that you know, we can change. Okay. I'm I'm just saying it would make it clearer and then no one can say you're not following your Sure. Absolutely. So, we can take a look at that. Okay. Are you mentioning uh Anne where it says the Board of Ed shall hold a public

095district meeting at least 2 weeks prior? I mean, the whole thing I would just have someone look at it and try to make it use the general terms of the budget, the budget vote, that sort of thing and not mention uh months by name. Does that make sense? Yeah, I do. I I guess I read that that it was We would we would do that at least 2 weeks prior to the annual district meeting. But we do it well before that. We could we could clean that up. Yeah, yeah, we could clean that up to say you know specifically about what it is. Yeah, we could do that. Just I just a question of And are we voting on just the policy and is the administrative administrative regulation just there for our reference? Yes. Okay.

096Okay, got it. Yeah, yeah, regulation. The administrative regulation wouldn't need any board vote for us to change. We could update those anytime. I was just [snorts] reading through everything and it wasn't making sense to me. No, that's great feedback. All right. Um Number two? Yep. Okay. Uh second policy you may be aware uh but in 2023 the law changed regarding kindergarten entrance age. And so for quite a long time uh children entering kindergarten uh needed to turn 5 years of age by January 1st. In 2023 that law was amended which stated that the uh age was moved up to September 1st. So you had to be 5 years old by that date. Uh the law also made a provision within it that required districts to offer a screening process for uh families who might be

097interested in having their children start uh kindergarten early. So essentially being five between September 1st and January 1st. Uh and so Farmington like many districts adopted that policy and was following uh what was uh recommended and well, I guess required really by the state. Uh and so, just recently, that law has been revised and beginning with the 2027-2028 school year, um the kindergarten entry age is remaining five by September 1st, but they are removing that early entry process. So, districts are no longer allowed to do that in the same manner that took place in the past. Uh and so, really what you see in uh your packet this evening in terms of the redline master are some verbiage that just share that policy. Uh we were encouraged as a district to get this out because

098we know families are already planning for their uh three-and-four-year-olds. And so, just in transparency, what it clarifies for families is that this coming year, we still have an entry process which we ran. Uh it's hard to say that it's like over now. I mean, technically, we've gone through the process, but should we have, let's say, a family move in from like out of state, uh and they were to approach us, we would still, you know, engage in conversation with them and consider them. So, that's why you see that it's still in place for the 2026-2027 school year. But beginning next year, so, in the you know, right after the 1st of the year next year, we would not run an early entry process for the following year. This is a policy you would likely see

099return to you because after a year or so, we'll just clean the language up and it will just say that the entry age is five by September 1st. Um but instead of waiting and creating maybe some confusion, we just wanted the clarity in that policy for now. So, you'll also see in there, too, if you look at the administrative regulations, and again, yes, you're you're not voting on those, but we like to share them with you when there's a new policy so you understand kind of how we'll do the business of the policy. You'll see that it's stated there this will expire on July 1st because again, we won't need these regulations because we won't do that screening process and then again, we'll just eventually eliminate those right off of the policy website and our

100books. Questions? Okay, last one. All right. Well, last but certainly not least is field trips and interestingly enough, I think in my first week here I got maybe a dozen field trip requests and so I started to look through our policy and I noticed that we didn't have a separate overnight policy for trips where students are generally speaking leaving the state not always because sometimes we have day trips to like New York City or Boston but you know, we do have lots of times throughout the year where our students leave and will be spending the night and so I was also surprised because generally when you have an overnight policy you know, there's some level of board approval as part of that process and so it's just an added layer of security if you will

101because it's nine you know, individuals on the board who are also vetting our students leaving the comfort of being here you know, generally speaking close to home and they're going to be traveling again out of state overseas overnight and so what this policy proposes is some change in language which would essentially keep much of the process the same except with that caveat that if our students are going to be spending and I think the exact language says multiple days which essentially is just our way of saying overnight Um, the staff member would then uh and they're already required to bring those trips uh to us uh you know, a few months in advance. So, those trips would be proposed and you would actually give your blessing as a board prior to those trips taking place.

102I did talk to uh Principal Krist and Kepczynski because the middle school and high school are generally we don't do a lot of overnight trips at the elementary level. Um, but uh you know, those are generally the schools that do travel uh in that way and one of the things that came up was occasionally we have a club like the robotics club and they qualify for a national tournament and we might not find out about that tournament that they made it until 3 weeks before. But, what they do know several months in advance is that you know, they have a good team, they're probably going to qualify and so that's why you'll see language in there about bringing a tentative approval where they could provide you know, 99% of the information to you, get your

103you know, blessing and then once they essentially qualify for the tournament, they just receive final approval from me at that point. Uh and so that is the field trip uh policy and regulations. Would that apply to something like um you know, I'm I'm just thinking of like track and field, some of those kids qualify for nationals. So, I did ask Matt about that uh and what he shared with me is our current um practice is that the families generally travel with their you know, students. So, in that case they wouldn't need to have that permission through us and because they're traveling with a family member. >> An interesting example this is you know, the uh old coach in me. Nationals would technically not be considered a school base cuz usually they're not competing at Farmington

104High School even though they're that they're there when they're doing like the New Balance Nationals, but they could apply for like say New England's, you know, like sometimes New England's is somewhere deep in Maine. And so, you know, they're going to be competing early in the morning. So, trying to get them there is they might stay overnight and and do some of that. So, you know, any type of like New England's competition would would definitely qualify or be, you know, part of this. Yeah, I think they went to Oregon maybe like last year or the year before >> a couple of them qualified. Yeah. Yeah. So. Um We're not going to jinx the team by >> [laughter] >> I tentatively I think some of them I think there was like the science bowl. This is

105like the eighth year in the row. So, if that happens, we'll bring the policy back and you can revise it to say no longer needed. Yeah, so you're good. Um my only other comment is in the existing language um it's usually superintendent, principal, or designee, but in some of the new language that you added, sometimes it says superintendent or designee and sometimes it says superintendent or his or her designee. So, just for consistency to I guess remove the pronouns to make it consistent throughout the policy. Anybody else? All right. So, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Motion carries. All right. Next item nine, consideration of Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Report. Item A is approval of March 2026 financial statement report. Can I have a

106motion? I move to approve the March 2026 financial statement report as presented. Second. So in the as we kind of talked about before with budget update impact, we are we are trending well. You can see right here as of the March 31st, we are looking at potentially finishing in the black at $134,114. Um and you know, like I said I as I anticipate with um you know, where uh dollars have been encumbered in various things. Sometimes those get released because they don't end up needing as much in in various things or just once again other savings that that we have that we will probably um I think easily as as trying to give a baseline, easily we would exceed actually the the 225,000, you know, which would be typically the average of those three teachers.

107Um you know, what if we budget like at 75,000 per teacher. So I think easily would would be there, but you know, getting a you know, even above there. So um once again, you know, um you know, a lot of kind of you know, things moving in the positive direction. You know, sometimes in a budget year, like I said, you have a lot of unexpected expenses or sometimes you have a lot of outplacements or you have some things that kind of balance it out. But this year we've been very fortunate that you know, a lot of things, you know, funding from the state that you think you're going to get and then they say you're not going to get. Um so a lot of those areas are are you know, working in the favor for

108us. So happy to take any questions. Anybody? >> [snorts] >> Just got one. Dan, just quickly walk me through again like this the subs or the private tuition, right? You have a credit there and some projected revenues applied, right? So if if the the budget is just one big cost center and the revenues sit at the town level, how do we think about like how do those revenues actually offset these expenses? And not just So the subs, we budget less but they get offset from the town side or I I don't think about that. >> No, so so those revenues and that's a really good question. So those projected revenues are really coming from um like our excess cost um you know, allocation or sometimes it's from our um you know, could be from either

109like a open choice grant or it could be from you know, other um you know, Hartford bill back um which is you know, sometimes for if we have choice student who now needs special services we would bill them you know, we would pay for it bill them and then they would give us the money back for anything that's above you know, what what the the grant number is per student. Um and so we would have that and then we would take that money and then we would just apply it to to to various you know, revenues sorry revenue usually to areas. >> like a got it. It's like a cost reimbursement versus a revenue that the town gets. Okay. Correct. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Correct. And usually with our budget like for example

110excess cost we usually budget we put in the budget what we think we're going to get right and then when we once we get that now once once we get it cuz like I said it comes out of from the from the the town side then we just put it kind of back and we just put it back into different and typically we put it back in the places where we're where the furthest in the red Yeah. >> um or other places sometimes with like choice grants we have like specific things that should be focused on students. Right? So you know, we would do it on um you know, transportation would be a common place where we apply revenue. Um >> Right. >> teachers obviously substitutes are common areas. >> Right. Excess cost private tuition

111public tuition. >> Yes, excess cost yeah private tuition transportation those are the places where we apply most of that revenue. Got it. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Anybody else? So we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Um next item 10. Report of committee chairs. Personnel negotiations, James. Yes, the nurse negotiations began on the the 30th of April. We had a quick ground rules discussion. Um but we will begin exchanging proposals this Wednesday the 13th and have a second round of negotiations currently scheduled for Thursday the 21st. Policy, Eric. We just went through all of them. Just real quick. I think it went very well. It's more I guess it's just mentioned it's aligning with state laws that have been changed and I actually it says on

112the first conversation we had in our class meeting about the field trip. But it's nice to see how detailed and I think it's very much doing our due diligence. And I just for point of clarification cuz I just thought about this for the field trips, the goal is also to get an estimate like a projected, right? I don't think you mentioned that so I just wanted to Yeah, it'll give us a sense of the cost of the trip overall. It'll also keep you informed as a board. Thank you that you know, what are the what are what are we putting out and asking of our families as we're planning for these experiences throughout the year. And the only reason I bring that up is that I was just looking going back to the budget the

113March is that there is that line item there around field trips around the budgeted 47,000. I know that just is this that inclusive of is that field trip like field trips of what we just discussed or is that like field trip for like the sports I guess. No, that one came up before. Yeah, that one came up when we talked about the budget one. That one actually had um I want to see if I can try to pull it up but it had these two unique um things that were happening. I think mostly at IAR. >> Yeah, it's not all our trips. No, dollar chips. We are still Yeah, I mean most of our field trips are still, you know, they're planned and there's some level of ask from the families to fund the cost

114of that trip. And just again, we do work with families if there's, you know, a financial burden. But these Yeah, there was a couple unique ones um that we still budget for in that line. Yeah. Do you expect anything to change on that if And I know the policy doesn't necessarily talk more about how that's sort of teased out in the budget, but is Do you expect anything like that to change? I wouldn't expect that necessarily. Um I think it's just good for, you know, information purposes so it's your understanding because I do think there's something to be said about looking and being aware over the cost of a student's experience in school. What is that ask, right? I mean, and some of these trips today have gotten um pretty pricey. Yeah. Uh when we

115think about just even again, a lot of times we're contracting out with another bus company, the fees to attend some of these events have gone up. Uh and, you know, it's not surprising. I know uh my daughter just brought home a permission slip the other day for a field trip that was like in the $75 range. Uh it gets pretty pricey over time. Yeah. Thank you. And then the only other last thing I would say is in regards to the policy that uh we just discussed around the age requirement changes and the number of the assessment of effective July 1 of 2027. For are What are the efforts that are being done? Did we talk about that? The efforts that are being done to communicate with the families in the sense of making sure that

116they are informed, aware that this change is happening? Sure. So, that letter Something will come out from us as a district, and we also communicate with like the local daycare centers and preschools, and we usually send information to them to share with their families as well because that is really the goal of this is that families can plan appropriately, and they cuz they're not tracking. I mean, young families aren't tracking what's happening um at the state level with kindergarten entrance age, and so we don't want any surprises for them. That was it. Those are it. Mhm. Thank you. Um curriculum, James. Yes, our uh last meeting of the year was uh held today um and Eric and Ver- Eric and Veronica shared an update on some of the things we we we talked about tonight,

117the summer projects process, um a preview of the summer institute, which um which was a little bit new to me, which was great. Um an update on the uh early kindergarten admission admission, and also the exciting um update and proposal from the English department in the high school, which I found to be pretty fascinating. I think Matt and Haley would agree. So. But all all in all, really good stuff. Um I love what Eric said earlier about, you know, the analogy that he used about um constantly iterating and constantly just finding things to continue to work on, and we're always always a work in progress, and I I find that uh to be um indicative of what we do here, and um a really good trait of this district. Thank you. Communications, Beth. Um yes,

118so I don't have a meeting to report on, except that um Jess and I did touch base recently. We talked about getting the committee together, we hope um prior to the end of the school year, um and to kind of take a look at potential goals for the committee um for the upcoming year. Um and then we have the usual communication that goes out to the end of school year, um that that usually hits mailboxes um for everyone in the community during the summer. Um but to help in our discussion, we hope to have a representative from the Walker Group, which is our as you call them, our website designers, Mhm. vendors that do that, um to kind of take a look at that as a means of communication and how that's going, as well

119as um doing a review of other samples of different kinds of communication from the previous years so we can kind of look at how we're doing and how we can do better and that moves us forward. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Um Next item is 11 report of committee liaisons proc. Erica. Yeah, it seems like I think the executive director of that sent out a notification about you know they um uh they did well this legislative session. They [clears throat] had some concerns. I think there was some risk of losing some of significant funding but they actually ended up doing very well. >> [snorts] >> Thank you. Um extended learning opportunities Matt H. No report. Okay. Um superintendent's interscholastic athletic advisory committee James. >> Um no report. Okay. Um Farmington public school foundation Haley. No report.

120Okay. Uh health and wellness oh Angela's not here today. I mean she did ask me to jump in on that one if you want. >> If you if you'd like to yeah. We met on April 30th. That was the last meeting of the year and just want to compliment Angela Vasser who is one of our who's a department leader in in health and wellness and physical education. Um she's really been trying to shift the name I mean it's called health and wellness um and then including focus but she's really trying to change it to whole school whole community whole child's committee um and so that is a model out of Yukon that has 10 different um parts to it. Um and so she's really organized a very large committee um where different people are responsible

121for each one of those 10 parts and sometimes it's more than one person. So this is a pretty large committee and every time we meet they report on some new, interesting, innovative thing that they're that they're working on in that direction. So, you know, for example, there's you know, in the in the let's say the category of employee wellness, you know, somebody there was there to describe the we have a healthy Oh, what is it called? Oh, we're in our healthy era. And so, there's different kinds of organized activities that are happening for teachers in order to keep teachers healthy, for example. And so, you know, the idea is that as you do these things, everyone's working on a different piece of these like 10 facets, you're improving culture and climate, you're you're helping, you

122know, mental health, wellness, and all of that. And I'd also like to say, I know that we had a public comment today. I know we don't normally comment on that right in that meeting, but I would just like to say that you know, that is exactly the kind of what the the person who was speaking about technology and the impact of technology and the rewiring of the brain, those are the exact kinds of topics that would come up there and we encourage community participation in that group and that would be that is a an avenue that we have asked, you know, individuals with those kinds of ideas to come. We're looking for all different kinds of ideas and perspectives on that committee. So, a very very large, robust group doing lots of work. Yeah. I

123think you've shared some stuff in the weekend update, too, about like movement activities with the kids. >> Yes. So, >> health and wellness with the faculty and staff. Yep, those are those are driven by that committee, too. So, they and and what's great about that, too, is Cigna provides funding for the district. And so, many of those staff wellness activities that we're running are reimbursed from them. So, it's nice because it's not an added cost to anyone and it's just all, you know, steps they're taking to promote overall wellness for our staff here in the community. And one of the report outs was actually the activity we engaged in when we were at Westwoods. Um you know, that was part of their sort of campaign to um educate the Remember how at the beginning they

124made us get up and move? A jump and squat and stuff [laughter] like that. You know, that that again, that is sort of an organized effort. That was this committee really um making sure that we're educating the community about health and wellness and how we move our bodies and nutrition. And so, you know, we have the person in charge of um Joe um in charge of Chartwells um who's on that committee. So, sort of all community members, school, all these like related services all working together um to think about the health and wellness and whole child, whole community, um whole school uh commitment that we have to all to all of our adults and children. And I'm just going to jump in on that. Um I know you mentioned about public comment, but just you

125know, timing and and talking about committee liaisons, one of the um asks uh we also have a group here in town that looks at technology and how are we integrating that into our classrooms. And so, um Eric Martin and I met recently to talk about how we could get members of the technology committee together with the wellness committee so that they could, you know, we're not looking cuz you know what happens sometimes in education, the pendulum swings too far one way or the other. So, we're not looking to villainize technology, but we're also very cognizant that we have put a lot of technology into the classroom and there is research that suggests, you know, too much, just like too much of anything is not a good thing. Um and so how can those two groups

126advise one another um with really the goal of finding a healthy balance. So we're preparing our students, right, well to to exist in this technology-rich world and remain competitive as we always have and be mindful that there might be times where uh we don't want to just use technology to use technology. So more news to come on that, um but we thought those are two groups that, you know, make sense to get together and find some uh ways to move forward on behalf of our students here. Thank you. Um cafeteria advisory, Anne. No report. Um green efforts, Matt D. So we met last week and Dan uh he uh gave some details already about Union School. Um so >> Stole your thunder. >> Sorry. Sorry to interrupt. Everyone's doing that [laughter] tonight. Stealing my thunder.

127You're making me feel bad. But yeah, um Union School uh requested funds for uh composting station and we voted unanimously on that. And I just want to give a shout-out to everyone that contributed to the town-wide cleanup on April 25th. We collected over 2,200 lbs worth of trash. So I just wanted to say, you know, thank you to everyone, especially the high school students. They came in and they almost made it a competition to see who was going to collect the most trash. They were going out there, coming back, and then just going back and forth. It was great. Okay. Thank you. Um Community Council for Equity and Inclusion, Erica. >> So I I had a conflict but I couldn't attend, but I do know that they had a their last meeting of the academic

128year at AR IAR, excuse me, and uh they were focusing more on the teaching and learning and got some feedback from the high school seniors um around uh that area. Okay. And then Building Committee, FHS, Beth. Is it still going? >> [laughter] >> It's built. The community is still meeting. I see the um you're you're welcome to attend. Um So, we still get those notices and I followed up with Devin and the town manager's office actually today. He said, "You know, initially when we went to this scaled-back model, we talked about late April, early May for like our final meeting." He said, "We're not quite there yet. We'll keep you posted." But Okay. All right, and then next item is um 12, report of the board chair. Um So, I just wanted to um wish

129all the moms, my fellow moms, a happy Mother's Day. Yesterday, I hope everybody had a had a nice day celebrating with your families. Um also, you know, in recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week last week, I want to extend my uh deepest thanks to all of our teachers on behalf of the Board of Ed. Um you know, I want to thank them for their extraordinary work that they do every day for Farmington students. Um our teachers do far more than just deliver lessons. Uh they encourage curiosity, build confidence, create belonging, and help students grow academically and personally. Um so, to all of our teachers across the district, thank you for your dedication, your patience, and the care you bring to your work each day. Um we are deeply grateful for all that you do for our

130students and for our community. Um Then, let's see what else do I have. Um I think we were all invited. FHS has their awards night next Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. if you can attend. Um it's always a really nice night recognizing a lot of um student achievement and accomplishment across a lot of different areas, not just academic excellence, but you know, extracurricular community service as well. Um let's see. So, with the budget passing, um I believe Jess and his team have already um been receiving applications for the special ed supervisor. Um so, we will have two board members sitting on that interview committee. Um the date for the interview uh is Friday, May 22nd, um from the hours of 8:00 to 2:00. So, it's a pretty quick turnaround. Um so, if if you're interested in

131serving on that committee, could you let me know by tomorrow so I can get names to Jess, um and then the interview, whoever's chairing that interview, can get information out to those board members. Um and then Just some save the dates. Um graduation is June 10th, and IAR promotion is June 17th. If you are planning to attend, I think um the FHS administrative I think it Who's asking for the RSVPs? Forget. That was IAR today. Yeah, IAR. Well, my daughter's graduating, so I know I have >> [laughter] >> Oh, that's right. Ann's got grandson, too. So, um and then uh lastly, just our next meeting uh of the academic year is uh June 1st, Monday, June 1st. I think at FHS, right? I believe so. >> so. Yes, and that's our last one. And I

132think we Question? Mhm. Jess, did you get any information on when uh the school started charging for parking. I would I would just say that that's I mean, I can't really call it, can I? A point of order. I just I don't know that we would bring that up right now. I do think it's important to talk about it, but probably when it's on the agenda. Okay. All right. Um so um with that um I guess motion to adjourn? I move to adjourn at 9:34 p.m. Second. All those in favor? Okay, we're adjourned. >> [music]