001I'd like to call this meeting of the New Britain Board of Education to order. The time is 6:01 p.m. Uh, we'd like to start with the pledge of allegiance. Miss Santana, would you lead us, 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. >> Thank you. Miss Edwards, can you do the roll call, please? >> President Diana Reyes >> here. >> Vice President Barbara Marino >> here. >> Secretary Amy Porski >> here. >> Anthony Page >> here. >> Miss Annie Parker >> here. >> Miss Hannah Patrisco >> here. >> Miss John Fina >> here. >> Mr. Richard Reyes >> here. >> Mr. Jose Rivera. And Miss Tina Santi right here. We'll
002have a moment of meditation. >> I'd just like to add for that coming into the holiday season and I don't know about anybody else, but I'm like so tired of reading and hearing about all the hate and the ugly and the stuff. This is the time of peace, love, and joy. So, I'm going to put my meditation moment to that and hope everybody else does as well. Thank you. >> Um, public participation. We have one person signed up for public participation. Donna Suave. >> Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. I am Donna Sway. I am the principal of the Catalyst Academy located at 183 Steel Street. And I'd like to first thank uh Dr. Gasper and Board of Education members for affording me just a few minutes during public participation to speak to the
003residents of New Britain. And so residents, you are invited to attend Healthy Minds, Healthy Hearts, uh the CSDMBB in partnership with the Community Health Center, Community Mental Health Affiliates, Cornerstone Counseling, Clingberg Family Centers, and Wheeler Health is hosting a community forum, Healthy Minds, Healthy Hearts to discuss the behavioral mental health services that are offered um both in our schools and in our community. This event is an opportunity for families to learn more about these health services that are available in New Britain. Families will also have a chance to speak, I'm sorry, to ask questions and to share their experiences uh or concerns. In addition to the conversation, there will be resource tables with information and representatives from CHC, CHA, Cornerstone Counseling, Clingberg Family Centers, Wheeler Health, Carolon, uh, and the Hospital for Special Care. And
004we just got another request this evening. Uh, the YW.CA will also have a table. Light refreshments, free child care, as well as translation services will be provided. Healthy Minds, Healthy Hearts will also be a livereamed event. So families, if you are looking for support, if you want to learn more about the services available to New Britain residents or you want to connect with providers, uh we do invite you to join this important conversation. Healthy Minds, Healthy Hearts will take place on this Thursday, December the 4th, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the New Britain Boys and Girls Club located at 150 Washington Street here in New Britain. >> Thank you very >> Thank you for bringing your attention to that. You're >> welcome. >> Uh would anyone else like to address the board? Would anyone
005else like to address the board? And one more time, would anyone else like to address the board? Thank you. Um, on to reports. Uh, first we have the superintendent report. Good evening, everyone. First, I'd like to thank Missy for speaking tonight and for her efforts in organizing this important uh offering to our community about how we can better partner around not just students mental health, but adults and families mental health as well. I'd also like to say a thank you for uh similar events to Ms. Evelis Velasquez, who uh coordinated in uh concert with our partnerships department um a really nice series of three family forums that took place at different sites around the community. Those were also well attended. So, thank you to both of those staff members for their work in reaching out
006and connecting with our community. As always, part of my report is your advanced copy, your special advanced copy of the latest edition of District Dispatch. It's a particularly thick uh edition this month. Lots of good stuff to talk about. Really nice cover story about the kid governor's uh campaign visit to Chamberlain School. Great opportunity for our students to see themselves in roles of leadership. great opportunity there. And I u as the board knows and as the board indulges me, I never miss an opportunity to brag about our school district. You'll notice my article um from this month uh brings attention to the fact that we continue to make slow but persistent academic gains. And that's where we talk about the fact that when uh this board hired me three and a half years ago, three
007of our elementary schools were listed in turnaround status. And as of last month, that number is now zero. Um the progress is slow and sometimes we doubt ourselves and sometimes it's easy to get distracted, but the progress is happening. Um sometimes it feels like at a geological pace, but but this is why we say the focus is on the adults and the adults getting better at what they do. 2% a day. um really nice article about um our two new assistant principles that were welcomed at the last regular board meeting, Mr. Escobalis and Miss Bernardell, who are already making a great impact at their respective schools. And I'm really pleased to say a really nice bumper crop of superintendent recognitions, the challenge coin. you've got um eight different staff members who were recognized for lots
008of different um uh points of important work. So, uh did three more today. No, four more today. Three students at Miss Turkot School. Thank you, Miss Turkot for nominating uh and and a staff member today. So, more good news to come. On page six and seven, really nice article. This has been in the board's email update. You might recall if you were on the board last year that Mayor Stewart nominated Gaffne School to participate in the uh decorating of the national Christmas trees. It's not I believe I understand correctly. It's not the one big tree as Miss Fazio explains it to me that each state has its own tree or will have its own tree within the White House and Gaffne's fifth grade uh students had an opportunity a voluntary opportunity to decorate that tree.
009So, Miss Fazio is traveling there uh later this week. I believe it's the third and the fourth to be present um at the lighting of the trees. So, one really nice kind of uh highlight for our school district. Um we we appreciate um Mayor Stewart who did the nominating. A thank you article to Square Peg Pizzeria who's doing really nice support of student incentives. Um, I'm not sure if the kids ate their own pizzas or not. They probably did. I would assume they probably did. Uh, >> uh, really nice um, feature article about the hurricane cannon and, uh, the gentleman who's kind of been overseeing that for quite a long time. Really nice. Another second feature article there. And then finally, the cover article about Chamberwin's fifth graders in their learning about democracy. And of
010course, as usually, the uh the addition wraps up with lots of good news that has been found on our social media um over the past month. Um with that said, I do just want to restate something for the full board that I stated at the finance committee. I continue to participate in a uh statewide but very small but a statewide task force related to special education funding and I continue to recommend that you become active with our legislative delegation. I know that Dr. Prosorski has sent a letter. Um I do encourage all of you to participate in not only talking about the special ed funding but also ECS which is also called for us it's also called alliance. Um, we're still quite worried about whether or not we have a very big fiscal cliff coming
011and that cliff could be perhaps as big as $8 million for the coming year. So, um, we plan on continuing to get that word out to uh, families. We uh do intend on doing another budget um workshop slashforum like we did last year, but it's really critical that um the state legislators and the local elected officials know that this is, you know, when we come with our budget request, um it's not about saying, "Hey, we need 152 more teachers or we need to spend money on this or that." the the budget as has been my my practice will be coming to you really as a maintenance budget um but without substantial input both on the special ed and the regular ed side um not only New Britain but a lot of districts like ours are
012looking at a substantial fiscal cliff. So I guess I kind of buried the lead. I should have ended on the happy stuff but um that's my update for this evening. >> Thank you Dr. Nasper. Committee reports. Um we'll begin with policy. >> All right. We had a meeting. We've got a couple policies on the agenda. A couple we will be pulling off. We'll be recommending we pull off the table. Um but we we're taking away at those mandated ones. I did get an updated list from K of mandated policies that have that exist since we had our audit done in April of 24. So I'll be looking at that as well to come up with a plan of attack on how we address those >> curriculum. So we had our first meeting and we had
013a um a few presentations about science curriculum and um some teachers presented and um they were very impressive, very exciting but we had nothing to vote on. So >> yeah, we just enjoyed the presentations. >> Thank you. Finance. finance met and Mrs. Sabano gave us an update on our grant summary uh updates on our grants and summaries on our major spending categories and we talked about uh consent items that was for finance and facilities. Miss Gonzalez update is on the active capital projects glassing and slave um HAVC that's with air conditioning and roof improvement and and also Smith design and New Britain High School's weight room completed on transportation. Miss Gonzalez is meets weekly with the management on our transportation and we and Mr. Proup talk to us about updating on our Chromebook history usage
014and end of life. And that's it for if finance facilities and transportation. >> Thank you. >> And personnel did meet. Uh there's a few items on the consent agenda for personnel. >> Board reports. Does anyone have a board report? M >> I was just going to speak a wonderful event that we attended. Um and I was happy to be a part of it is our kid conference. So, it's a conference of us as board of education members and it gives us the opportunity to be able to meet with other boards of education and also to um just really collaborate and see kind where we where we are at New Britain and uh kind of where other districts stand and really just have really positive discussions regardless of how it goes. It was great. On Thursday,
015we attended Diane and I were able to vote um and then Friday and Saturday attend workshops. They ranged uh different areas and what I really enjoyed this year was that they made that focus on supporting our students and learning. um and also on special education and really how we can kind of just be as supportive as we can and when we don't know to be able to ask and I was really happy to see that shipment um also held an event they held a workshop gave us more information and some data which is always really good um and that's and it gave me an opportunity for anybody that doesn't see me at a conference I can tell you that I usually bring New Britain stuff with me and this year I didn't fail Um, and
016I did bring our so the district dispatch that we received for last month and that's what I was showing to other towns. Um, and I also made it my business to meet with other alliance districts. So listen, we all code together. How can we help each other out? Um, and so that was my thing this year and we had a great time and I can't say enough about it because we all learned and then coming to us at the end of the month and just enjoying with um, our kids in our school district. Don't forget High School has current teacher conferences on Thursday. I'd like to see more people in the pathways corridor. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> I can jump in. Um, filing on the presentation of CAVE. It was my first
017one. Um, and I was like amazing. I went to the AI u and education panel on the heels of uh Eevee's presentation because I my curiosity was peaked. Um, and the focus was on AI literacy. So, I thought that we could have some like fun conversations about bringing AI to the classroom and then also how to like engage students with regard to literacy as well. Um, Dr. Gasper was honored for 10 years of a super as a superintendent. So, congratulations. Um, but I did want to take this time to update on my letter of writing campaign as you u mentioned. Um, the same week that my union wrote to me about the fact that the governor had a $500 million surplus surplus and was meeting with our state delegation, I also got the update from
018Dr. Gasper, as we all did, about this fiscal cliff, um, the end of alliance funding in 2026. So, I wrote a letter to our electeds, making sure that we were on their radar. Um the governor's special meeting was asking the delegation to think about how to spend that money and none of it uh was for public education. So my letter didn't reach our delegation in time for that special meeting, but I heard back from Senator Rick Lopes, from um Representative Dave Defrano to say that they were on our side. So um stay tuned. Um I will not let them forget that they promised to support New Britain Public Schools. Um, and then the last thing I wanted to say, speaking of our representatives, I also learned that it is now um required of all institutions
019of higher education to offer ECE pathways and CCSU is on board with that. Um, so Dr. Gasper and I are meeting with the coordinator, the facilitator of that at CCSU next week. Um, I think you know I'm a little competitive. I always get a little like itchy when I hear about all the great things Yukon is doing, but CCSU has the benefit of getting students to take classes at CCSU. So, that's one of our goals. Two classes maybe for a cohort. One could be a writing class. Um, but we'll know more after our meeting next Wednesday. So, oh, and maybe someone else will talk about this, but I was able to attend two community events and I'll be at the healthy minds one. Um, they were so well attended. Joan and I were at the
020one for middle school and Eevee, you were so great of about absorbing all of that angst of the parents. That's the what I took away most um from that one. But I also learned more um about the um the new standardsbased report cards from that conversation. So, thank you to everybody who was a part of that. >> Yeah, it was really good. Really good. And the parents really had some good questions. >> Anyone else? >> I just have two teeny tiny things. Joan and I were talking about um right before Thanksgiving um Mr. Pierce had students come up and do a video about what they were thankful for and it was absolutely beautiful. It was so wonderful on Facebook. So um >> kudos to Mr. Pierce for thinking of that. And it was just a
021beautiful way to honor um the holiday season coming up. And then I always have to plug the magicals because their magical feast is this Friday and Saturday. And if you haven't gotten your tickets, go online and get them. I think there's still spots, but it's those kids work so so so hard. They're there all this week. They've been there for months. So please come and support them if you can. It's well worth it. Thank you, >> Mr. Pay. >> Uh in addition to that, um there's lots of concerts coming up. It's concert season including high school, middle schools, although I think a lot of the middle schools are having them after uh January 1, so they have access to the high school auditorium. But um football team has a home playoff game for the first
022time in about 20 years. So that's Wednesday evening and if they win, they'll play in the semis on Monday at home as well. If they go games and >> Yes, please. Yes, I I I attended the um my first meeting with the wellness committee and um they are putting together uh a wellness bimonthly newsletter and they would like to come to the board and do a presentation sometime in in the next in the future probably around February to um let anyone know about their newsletter. Um and that's what I have. >> Thank you. Thank you. So, we do not have student reports this evening. Um, on to new business. The first item is to approve minutes from the regular board of education meeting on November 3rd, 2025. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. Does anyone
023have any questions? Any changes? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. >> The next item is the report of personnel transactions and extracurricular appointments. >> I just I have one question. I was looking at the the resignation of the art teacher. She's at what like four different schools. Is that >> So that probably means she was itinerant. So um oftent times our elementary schools need one full-time art or music teacher plus a little bit. So in order to provide that little bit rather we if we could afford a whole extra person we would do that. But instead they typically have an itinerant that gets shared among the schools. >> Do I have a motion to approve that? >> So moved. Sorry. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed?
024Any abstensions? Thank you. Um, next we have the enrollment report. >> As you can see, it's down just very slightly in the the larger chunk at the top, just down 22 students out of 9,200, but up somewhat strongly in the prek ranks at the bottom of the report. That's pretty typical that as students um who are three or four years old are identified as it being in need of services then they would enroll in those services at one of our preks. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Um, next we have the 2026 board of education meeting calendar. I know there were they were looking for a change for January's meeting.
025So January's meeting is scheduled for January 5th, but it's not a school day because the next day is um Three Kings Day. So, they were looking to change it to Monday, January 12th. >> A motion will change. >> Is there school that day? On the 12th. >> On the 12th. Yes. Yes. I know there's another day off. >> The following Monday. Okay. >> That's why we meet on the next one. You look at curriculum and policy is the Tuesday. Okay, >> cuz that Monday we're off. >> We don't need a motion to amend Louis since we have not adopted yet. >> We haven't adopted, right? >> So, we can just change it and change. >> So, do I have a motion to approve with the change of January 12th? >> So, second. >> All those
026in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. The next item is the consent agenda. >> Madame President, I'd like to remove item F and G. >> Thank you. >> We'll review um item F, board policy 6172, program adaptations, alternative education programs. Yes, I'd like to note that we table this to review because there's some additional items, cross reference policies that we don't currently have that were written into this. So, we want to take a look at that. And and to be honest, for item G, the same thing. >> So, I'd like to make a motion to table those two items for and return them to policy committee. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda um without items F and G >> second. >> Um any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. And is
027there any any other business? >> Only a question about because we were talking before about setting up some time after the first of the year through the holidays after the first of the year special meetings. I know Dr. Gasper mentioned doing a budget which was in February or January. >> Really that can be at the advice and decision of the board if if we choose to try to do another form like we did last year >> be January because you got to turn it in by the 30th. >> Yeah. So, it's really does the does the board want to do that before or after it makes what I would call it preliminary decision. Right. We all know that the board's hardest decision comes in the springtime. >> Correct. >> Um so, >> but we have
028to vote to send it to Paul. >> Correct. So, so would the board prefer to hear from uh the community um earlier in the process knowing it's going to have substantial was likely to have substantial changes later or later in the process if pardon my my term when the rubber really meets the road. I think it's important to um make the public aware of of things earlier if possible because if we need we need voices to speak up, it's better for them to know ahead of time. >> Okay. >> So, so we'll be looking to set up a special meeting in January at some point to >> to do that. And then I know we were talking about doing something with us. >> Yes. Well, after that >> just um to to discuss a couple
029things. We were talking about the educational programs and whatever, but then also we've got to look at Dr. Gasper's goals upcoming correct >> for July. So, okay. >> Um any other business? Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> All those in favor? I >> Thank you all. Thank you everyone.