001[Music] good evening I'd like to call the the Britain Board of Education regular meeting for January 7th to order the time is 6:53 um can we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you here [Applause] here here miss she's absent she's excused Mr Jose here right here thank you um just like like to take a moment for you know of meditation for thoughts of a wonderful New Year we're starting a new season here and hopefully it's also a great start so just take a moment be grateful thank you um apparently there's no one on the list for public participation but will put out there is there anyone interested or
002wanting to speak before the board this evening offer again all right seeing none we'll we'll move on Sir you're up with a superintendent report thank you madam president it's my pleasure to bring forward Miss Bloomfield and the Chamberlain school for us for a presentation of a couple of musical members for us thank you very much to the chamber community for hosting us tonight we're so glad to be here in this beautiful Auditorium and we're really looking forward to hearing some wonderful music from the students find his [Music] you know there something tragic we our Liv to you now we found this magic we will [Music] yours yeah love WIS just believe in you [Music] see love WIS yeah love [Music] WIS the world around WS yeah love Wings just believeing you'll see how love Yeah
003WIS the [Music] world was something tragic Our Lives to you now that we found this magic we will [Music] your love yeah love just believe it you'll see love ones yeah L ones we can [Music] the yeah just believe and you'll see yeah the world around [Music] good evening again my name is Miss Shenia Bloomfield it is such an honor to perform for the Board of Education tonight thank you so much for having us thank you to our Administration we are just so excited and we hope you enjoy um this next selection we have is called everybody's going on a Sligh ride I hope you come along with us then the last song we did was love winds that was written by Diane body the former music teacher in regards to the sany Hook shooting
004um this this school is a love wi school and so in honor of what happened um in New Town years ago but um on a brighter note we hope that you enjoy slay R going on the slay with us we hope that you come along [Music] everybody's going on slide everybody's going on ride come on along and let's yeah let's over Hill and down the [Music] othering come on along and ride with us let's ride yeah let's ride [Music] the bells r on Slide the bells ring on ride come on along and ride let's ride yeah let's ride open Hill down the other side everybody's welcome on everybody's welcome on come on along and ride with Us's yeah let [Music] down the side's ride let's [Applause] R thank you students thank you miss blomfield wonderful
005wonderful so glad to have you with us tonight a couple other things for the superintendent's report tonight oh and by the way moms and dads and families thank you for being here you want to take your kids home and do homework we understand you're welcome to stay for the meeting of course but if you need to take your kids home to H workk and for dinner we understand um just a few other updates for the board from the superintendent uh report tonight I want to pay a special thank you to the students the staff of both slate and basy I know that people have different opinions and thoughts on it but we had a very successful launch of Yonder pouches uh this morning and today um I always like to put things in percentage and
006I'm happy to report that I would say we were 99% successful there were uh eight phones eight phones confiscated at slate school and nine phones confiscated at fastic school today so we're sure that you know the hard work is not over we know that there's a lot more to go there's a lot of planning so thank you in particular to the school leadership Mr Richardson uh M solette who all of whom put a lot of work in getting ready for a successful launch of the honor CES this morning um I want to take a moment just to say a little bit about the superintendent's budget we do have two sessions coming up where the public can hear more about the superintendent's budget I believe those are on the 23rd and 30th of this month um
007so it's critically important that uh families that you understand that everything we do cost money I know that's the kind of the boring stuff that comes from the superintendent but we are in a position where um we are going to need a lot of support from the city so the superintendent's report or excuse me the superintendent's budget that's going before the board for its consideration requests a 12.06% increase that's a very substantial request and I I of course take it seriously uh the members of the board know that um by and large or a large part of that request has to do with um properly Staffing our special education so I look forward to giving the board a more in-depth presentation on that I know that the number has uh I'm sure that the number
008has already become the Talk of the Town at least among the O officials of course I I would have predicted such um but I look forward to to defending the budget because it is a very very well well thought out uh document as usual before you we have an advanced copy of the district dispatch I was hoping that uh perhaps aine herself would be with us tonight because she's on the cover well we'll recognize her when she gets here so as a congratulations to her uh for being uh accepted into Notre Dame of course it's a wonderful accomplishment as always thanks to our Communications Department for how beautiful the document looks um really nice building the beacon uh um article this month we truly are becoming a model in this case uh nationally so we
009had Educators from around the nation came to New Britain to learn about our teacher Residency program uh Dr Nicole Sanders and her team of that project did a wonderful job um presenting and uh had a wonderful talk with Mr Kyle green pend in is the speech language pathologist at Lincoln School he re he received my challenge coin a few months ago uh really a standout and again receiving National level recognition so when we say we're building the beacon that's not just a tagline it's not just a slogan it's something that can take seriously and bit by bit it is uh beginning to come true so that's my report for this evening much less interesting than the kids singing um that's okay it's a tough act to follow it is a tough Act thank you sir
010all right moving on to committee reports um start with curriculum sure I again um last month and we had a presentation um from Miss Vasquez on the current state of curriculum approval uh we were at 33% uh when Dr Gasper came to the district few years ago we're now at 46% of all curc approved with addition additional 70% or 7% excuse me pending approval in 2025 versus 1% in 2022 so by the end of uh this next calendar year we should be at about 53% curriculum documents approved uh looking at uh a lot of social studies High School Middle School social studies some high school science elementary PE high school English and math and then Middle School uh music com up in the next C great thank you moving on down the road Mrs Parker
011personel yes we met we had a very short meeting only a few items um went over the um job description for the summer school supervisor or for new PA Educators and and one Mak is down hard to here and a coule memorandum for understanding that was it okay thank you next Mr Finance again it was also another short meeting uh really short than our usual Finance meeting through one letter the bed this time um do job description to contract in charity donation are on board agendas agendas all right all right so we met last month um there's two items that we have are on the agenda um one is regarding artificial intelligence and it's kind of studying the groundwork so that teachers are able to introduce it um to students as a tool and use
012it in their planning um and also to be able to use it in an ethical manner um and then there's another policy that speaks to the graduation requirements from for the class of 2023 and Beyond um and that was taken from some of harford's policies C and Shi okay board reports anything folks want to comment on yes Miss um just Community uh well first I I just wanted to say thank you to our school district leadership I put in a very I say small request but it's never a small request I wanted to know what our um key and briges programs look like and we actually took a t of the Key Program Center and we were here at Chamberlain and I can't say thank you enough to everybody that joined the company and then
013also wave and that we we just really had a good time so um I I thought we were just rocking ring right and just like off so it which is great so I can't say thank you enough for that the students that we met the staff that we met um and just the programming and the details of it so I thank everyone who participated that event shook my hand and smiled uh it's important for us as parents to be able to see it as board members to be able to see it just as a community to be able to see what programs will and that they really are impacting this lives every day um I did want to just make a really quick mention about this weekend's event for Three Kings Day we did have
014one camel who really just put dug his hubs in and just was not going to move and were at St Mary's and I don't know if maybe he hadn't gotten memo and the other two were walking and he said no and stay there so it was three wise men split up amongst two camels there was nothing you know nothing beautiful about it this is just the reality of what H happens but I will tell you that the other animals that were brought did show up show out um and were having a really good time I'm just saying those goats never had it so good A little cold but they were really having a good time um and so it was a wonderful Three Kings Day event happy um Epiphany for everybody we had a wonderful
015Hanukkah in my house and then also of course Christmas and everything else and New Year so happy holidays thank you hi I just want to refer back to our performance here you guys did a wonderful job we have back had two good thank you pleas um I just wanted to give a public shout out to transportation department and Miss parlo over at Hal uh son had a spill ice skating uh the last day of not in school but the last day of school broke his ankle and he had a bus transportation by the end of the first day you know just was very very smooth I didn't even remember the call and it was just taken care of so I was very impressed with how Qui that was address without even me having to talk
016to anyone about it so thank you and I just want to give one more comment about this um we kind of that she got here as well I want to give a shout out to whenever I see not only the fact that she's going to Notre Dame she ride I mean here there one of our students one of the best in the country that's more than bragging for the h so we need to effort brag about for our school students so definitely we need for letter congratulations it's called Indiana I'll tell you it is all right anyone else okay student represented for report ument for my voice it's a little cracky today I got to talk about is the on the building um most of them around the building um um we can have evidence
017that um their is on the second floor and that second floor water we've been working for years so I think that's a problem because we have to go to farther water to water bottles and um years to do to so I would like to um I think that's thank you hope you get your voice um that's i t around the high school addition of the M the to I said I sorry here you're saying your issue with the water problems is it and the bathroom itself not work saying sorry if I cut out not for water fountains um they're just not working like they're there but they're just like um for bathrooms they're just like locked so students can't use them throughout their day um and it's it's there's a reason for it but it's
018just not for the other students who need well I understand the map with being locked for a safety and the security other reason but the water that's that be an issue it's not it's not just it's multiple and the the temperature and the water the water po to they not OPP some are warm and some are like very cold thank you thanks okay so mix and Lar MH um we have Kate Murphy M Murphy is here to provide us with a um presentation regarding the Food Service program and the federal guidelines and goals good evening board so I hopefully you've got a copy of the packet um so I'm just going to review some things so just to give you an idea of how many meals we actually serve in our school district we serve
019close to 900 ,000 meals since the first day of school in our district on average about 11,700 meals every day that's just breakfasted lunch and in some of our schools we also serve supper um I conducted 18 official school lunch site monitoring visits um while I was there I look at all aspects they looking for how are they serving their meals are they serving full meals to our students are all the components of the meals offered um are the Staffing following all the federal regulations um I also do suggestions while I'm there um some things that were suggested were more variety of fresh vegetables available for the students every day and increase their batch cooking meaning that they should be cooking in between every lunch wave monitoring how many meals are served um and are
020we running out of something should we do we need to cook more um I did not observe any spoiled or expired food while I was on any of my lunch sight visits I also conducted 12 breakfast site monitoring visits um there is breakfast in the classroom at many of our schools and I went into classrooms and observed how the teachers are serving the students meals um I reviewed the rosters that the teachers are using to check off when they serve a meal to a student and I did find some compliance issues with that um we are working very hard at transitioning our breakfast service out of the classroom hands of the teacher and moving it back into the hands of our food service staff um we've already transitioned two three schools now and we're working
021on transitioning more and we will continue by the end of the school year um have all the schools transitioned to no longer um having the teachers serve the meals it'll be served by cafeteria staff either at a kiosk in the hallway or through the cafeteria line um we've had some student advisory meetings um during the student advisory meetings I did some taste tests with new product Bo of breakfast items with our students to get their opinion on it um I also during these meetings explained what a meal is um we talked about likes dislikes concerns new things they'd like to see on the menu and we've already started implementing some of those things on the January met breakfast menu and lunch menu I'm working on developing a parent advisory committee we're looking to have two
022to three representatives from every school meet um we'll meet maybe once a month for about about an hour it's all I'm starting right now to get the logistics together but I've reached out to the principes and we're going to start identifying parents that might want to be on the committee um the next thing you'll notice on page one is what is a breakfast I want to explain to you what a meal is so here's pictures actual pictures that I took of what the students get for breakfast in the morning so a breakfast bag will contain their entree um 100% juice carton and they can also so right there in their breakfast bag that's considered a complete meal um by USDA guidelines um but they're also offered additional fruit and milk to add to their breakfast
023if they want to on page two this explains what's for lunch so our students are offered um an entree which consists of usually a grain and a protein they're also offered fresh fruit fresh vegetables and a milk Choice students must take three components and one of them must be a fruit or a vegetable in order for it to become compliant with the USDA regulations these are pictures of actual meals that are served at the high school I went and during lunch on surprise visit and started taking pictures of some of the meals that were offered at our high school we have the pizza station that does a three varieties of pizza every day plus Specialties like elzon and and and pizza pops um we also offer sushi at the high school there's a picture of
024that um there's Asian taco bar which is in the World Market selection they also have a grill station um and a daily Panini station that is located on their Del on page three this is some pictures of what we have hanging in all of our schools to explain to students what a full meal is they um they must take certain components to be considered a USDA regulated meal um and this is just a little bit of an explanation um of what but just like lunch breakfast is the same thing they have to have a fruit Andor veggie but we offer fruit juice is the most popular fruit item so we have that in every single Breakfast Bag available for students on page four I want to talk a little bit about the social media concerns
025that we had so as soon as it was brought to our attention I immediately met with um Woodson staff the manual and John to review the pictures um Smedley pulled some video for us and we spent we had hours of video that we looked at to look at the quality of food was there anything that stuck out to us I did not see in the videos the health department came in and conducted in inspections at three of our schools it and and there were no findings of moldy or expired food um by the health department I performed unannounced visit site visits to the high school palaski Slade Brookside Smith and SMY I did not myself serve any um moldy or expired food as well I also reviewed invoices to see when the last time peaches
026and nectar Rings were were um were ordered um and the last time we received black trays on our order we didn't have black foam lunch trays um I went back to all the way to July looking at invoices and we had already transitioned away to the compostable um lunch trays at that point is it remotely possible that there were some lunch tray somewhere in a store room that maybe one of the employees grabbed yes it could be possible um but we have not ordered those um or the peaches or nectarines um since the fall so some things I wanted to let you know that we're doing um to ensure better quality of food I have weekly meetings with witson management um John Manuel they're the on-site management staff here um I review menus and recipes
027with them um I'm holding the student advisory meetings to get feedback we're also going to be putting together surveys for the students as well as looking at doing surveys for our parents as well um we're starting the parent advisory committee um we're also starting to attend um School nutrition Association conferences to see what other school districts are doing to to go to food shows to find um products that might better suit our students and we're also doing training and retraining of food safety and food quality uh for our staff in our district on page five is the RFP process so the state of Connecticut requires that every 5 years if you have a food service contract company that you put the the contract out to bid so that we are coming to the end of
028the contract with witson um it uh witzens have been in the district since 2003 and their most recent contract started in Ju July of 2020 the process for the RFP um we have to attend a man a mandatory staff train uh training by the state of Connecticut on the RFP process and that will be held on January 30th um we are required to go out to bid every 5 years and with a one-year contract but with four renewals so this is a overview of the process for the RFP um we're going to attend the training and then we'll put together the RFP that is given to us by the state the state gives us the template for the RFP we put in what is unique to our school district and things that we would like
029to see in our school district we then have to send that RP back to the state for their approval the state will review it if it's approved we'll send it out to we'll publish it for at least 45 days um after that we are going to we would review them and then award the contract on page six we had a this is a overview of our state of Connecticut Child Nutrition administrative review this is held every 3 to 5 years um it is very detailed very indepth what they look at they look at every aspect of the of the meals program um we had some findings and we were given some corrective actions that we're working on so some of the corrective actions fall under meal counting claiming we need to develop procedures to ensure
030accurate meal counting in the classroom um so that came back to looking at the teachers rosters when the teachers were passing out a meal a breakfast meal to a student did they necessarily check it off some of the rosters that the state reviewed had every single student checked off every single day well is that accurate were they using it as attendance and not necessarily what they passed out breakfast so we're coming up with new procedures on retraining um staff um retraining our teachers needed as to how to serve a meal and how to claim the meal but like I said we're going to be transitioning away from having the teacher sered breakfast in the classroom and get it back into the hands of the food service department um meal component and qualities we they asked
031us to revise the peanut butter and jelly recipe so we were giving a um a meal package I guess you would want to say there's a there was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a cheese stick and graham crackers um USDA regulations say that gr crackers are a a dessert based grain and we're only allowed to serve those two days a week so they asked us to revise the recipe and not serve Grand cracker Scooby Grand crackers to the students every day with their peanut butter and jelly sandwich so wion is getting um the larger peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the students they asked us to change our chicken salad recipe we were using a raw grilled a raw piece of chicken and Grilling it and the state was unable to see how that
032credits towards the proper protein for a student so they're asking us to just change the recipe and change the product the chicken that we're using um offer versus serve um we're going to be providing training for students so offer versus serve is we offer all the maal components to a child but they don't have to take off B them if we were served we would serve them every single thing and they would have to take it so one of the things the ladies at the register were saying go grab a fruit when they already had a vegetable on their tray so the state said you don't have to they don't have to take a fruit we encourage them to take the fruit and the vegetables and all the components of their meal because then they'll
033be Fuller um throughout the day so we're working with staff just to remind them that they're not forcing them to take it just a gentle reminder if they'd like to add more meals um more components to their meal uh revenue from nonprogrammed food they ask us to develop procedures for pricing of catering and how the steps will be consistently followed so Woodson's put together um a plan of how they are going to char do billing for um all the catering events food safety they asked us to update and include food safety procedures directly on the recipe there is a um food safety um book that they have with all the steps for how to properly we do things but the state um requested that we put those steps directly on the recipe so the people
034that are cooking the food and serving the food don't have to go to the manual they can actually just look right directly at the recipe and see what they need to do also our Professional Standards for tracking we need to update our spreadsheet and then we also have to finish um training all of our staff and teachers that are serving breakfast in the classroom on civil rights is it does anybody have any questions well I do but does anybody else thank you Mr uh just a few questions uh first comment which is the breakfast kios that have been rolled out I've heard really great feedback on um I know the transition's probably be Rocky in the first week or two but um once the new um process is in place it seems like um the
035staff are affir better flow um so that would be great to get it out to all the all the schools um I had a question about the fresh fruit and vegetable program can you um talk a little bit about how that's being utilized our schools the fresh fruit and vegetable grant program program okay so this year we did not receive the grant every year the district has to apply for the grant and this year we did not receive the grant so we don't have the fresh fruit and vegetable snack program available in the school district this year this year will we apply for it next year yes we will perfect okay thank you uh one more question um what schools serve there and how are they chosen um off the top of my head there
036are 15 sites I cannot name all them I think all of the elementary the high school we also do boys and girls club and there is one more that is not in a school and I just can't remember the name is it based on after school programming yes so the supper program has to to can only be held if there is um curriculum based programming happening in the school um and for the most part all of our schools have either Park and Rack or um YMCA has programs and those are curriculum based in the afternoon so we're able to provide meils for the students thank you thank you for you my my question really is because I heard you I heard everything you said and I completely appreciated the experience downstairs and the only thing
037I keep thinking of is for the kids who uh have trouble with your behaviors and have sensor issues um and going through a right let's say they're not able to get what they should be getting because they're having a challenge or you know just a moment how do you guys make sure that they also go get their nutrition so a lot of times I see that a parel will come with the student and will put the things on the tray or they'll come up afterwards after they've been seated and say they missed their food they missed their vegetable and they're more than welcome to go back and up get it um you ever get where the kids are just let out refusing they don't want to take a I know V yes they're okay with
038just the milk you're still checking them off for whatever it is that they are getting so we I I did see this at a couple of the school Sor I didn't two so I sat with the student and I asked them if they would just try it for me and I went and sat with them and I said I'll try it if you try it so it gets them to try it more so in the experiences that I did see that at the schools I tried to work with the students and say let's just try it you might like it okay no no no I'm just trying to make sure that that information kind of is get to where it needs to because it does impact uh their learning and then the oh yeah sorry
039I had written down the first part of question was like um and then when a parent threeways that they're having some challenges with I don't know a particular like it isn't that they have an apple Aller it's not Aller apple as well how are they able to relay that to you so on the cash register student comes up we have um serving line notes that come up um and if the student doesn't like apples there are other items that they could take so there's not just one set fruit for that day or one set vegetable we um through working with Wiens I suggested that we do a rainbow tray so a rainbow tray of vegetables and a rainbow tray of fruits that way the student has more options that it's not just you know kale
040that's on the menu today what if I don't like kale so there is going to be they just started this week since we came back having a rainbow tray of fruits and vegetables available so students can try it Mr King um how accommodation for for different religious um menus um good combinations allies I know look at the menu itself we through the is that if I have religious restrictions I will start questioning my head can I eat some of this food has everybody ever brok the subject to one of the schools you know I have a religious consideration our accommodations ever made so we do have more than one variety available for students so there's not just if Today's Pizza it's not just pepperoni pizza there are other options available for students there's I do
041believe three or four options available daily for our elementary students I think about 20 options available at the middle school and approximately 30 options available at our high school so if there is something that they don't want or don't like or can't have for religious reasons there's an alternative entree that they could have um for food allergies we have it on the cash register so when the students come up their their name or when they punch in their pin number um a little popup screen says allergic to milk so the cashier looks at their tray and identifies if there's that item on their tray and if it is they'll substitute it out for something else can I just ask another question expending on exactly what um teacher Dr Kane was saying what Mr Kane was
042saying was um and so I am curious about that because the only option that has been available to parents uh through no fault of my children's own and got you know just kind of the way that families happen through no fault of my own either um it just so happens that we cannot eat pork so now for years what I was instructed to do was to put into the parent portal for each student because I have my kids on the dashboard comes up you're um in power school you're putting it in but that information never seemed to stick so that I don't know I would have to do a little research on that to find help that's okay but my kids in 12 grade so I'm just curious when we're going to get there so
043I do know that the popup is for allergies I don't know if religion um preferences are on there um I just only because there's been so much chatter out there i' I've got some questions and I and I think I already know the answers but I want it public I I want it out there um so our food program is federally subsidized yes students pay for their lunch no all meals are free to all students okay there are specific guidelines in order to have federally subsidized meals there are certain guidelines that have to be followed yes by any agency that comes in to serve these meals yes okay again I'm I'm just listening to Social Media or watching social media and there's seems to be misinformation so I want to make sure there's a lot
044of things that are clear and on public record and on camera so everybody can go in and View later on question about the parent advisory group how does one get their name on said list and and involved in that so it is in its infancy right now I'm putting it together now to see how we're going to choose we're going to you know when we're going to meet how we're going to meet how often we're going be and for how long so I'm developing all of that okay now so once that's develop that will get it'll notice will go out to all the schools the parents and whatever that they can if anybody's interested in actively sign up and get involved become a big part of the solution if there be a problem or an
045issue yes okay thank you very much I appreciate oh sorry sorry one more question um this is has to do with food waste um so you know because our students have to take fruit and the vegetable um it leads to a huge amount of food waste um I know that some schools might use share tables or share bowls I don't think that's actually allowed according to policies but I'm not sure um how do you approach um reducing the amount of food waste in our schools so part of that it's offer versus serve they're required to take a fruit or a vegetable they don't have to have both these encourage them to take everything cuz we want to make sure they're eating um but they that's why the rainbow tray is important because the rainbow tray
046of vegetables and fruit cuz if they don't like this there's another choice for them they don't have to take the broccoli just because it's broccoli and that's the only choice today they meant like the carrots or the Cucumbers that are that are on there um I have seen in other school districts that there are Shar tables that cannot be controlled by the food service department um I have seen that there's a table that the whole wrapped fruit if the student doesn't want it they put it in a basket and any other student is welcome to take it but it can't once it leaves the cafeteria for food safety reasons once it leaves the serving line it cannot come back into the kitchen so someone has to be responsible for making sure that that's cleaned up
047at the end of the day and and not wasted and we also have to be mindful of what are they putting in there are they putting in milk are they putting in yogurt things that aren't control you know might might not keep their temperature properly okay thank you a question yes sir Mr King um yeah I I appreciate everything that you told us given us um the food tonight was was very good um no you no concerns or anything as far as that goes um I appreciate that you're working to get some parent feedback and parents on board um I am curious as far as we have two students here wondering what you know your feedback is and and feedback in general from students since they're the ones consuming the Food daily and um you
048know I'm sure some of it will be things like Miss Marino was saying maybe out of our control like a whole green rle but there may be some legit concerns that maybe we can address and improve things for them so would it if you don't mind sharing love he's going to say his voice doesn't work um can you just elaborate the question yeah just your experience with with the food at New Burton High School and you know oh okay well um I just get a like I stick to a certain meal I don't I don't experiment with the tree so I normally just get the um sandwiches and it's really good but the only thing is just like the lines lunch lines they take too long so um but in general the foods are really
049good um I just wish that the wine didn't take as long as it does but I like how diverse it is I like how there are um different options different variety for Foods there's salad there's um pizzas there's sandwiches there's Burgers honestly anything so I enjoy that thank you and we did start to address the length of the lines we just we saw that the the deli station was so popular there are now three Deli stations instead of just one so we're looking at how how can we make the lines go faster getting student feedback um and I go and I sit down in the cafeteria with students and talk to them and try to get their opinion thank you and there have been improvements thank you um I'm trying to talk I about the
050voice um um I just have a a question um for the the lines like talk about a laundry process um you can't just like replace workers cuz I do do see like oh what's happening in the kitchen because the line is like like right next to the kitchen and there's like a lot of ining or staff um sitting around not like prep to do anything for helping the their employees or their coworkers with the food and I feel like that could help with the process of getting food when faster especially with today my I feel like today was like the worst um when when I was getting the sandwich um I usually experiment with the food um I like doing whatever some days I like magical sandwiches whatever wings I like wings the wings are
051L the best um um today I feel like they take like a lot like a lot of time to get ready especially with putting on gloves um the the the person that was making the food she was changing her gloves but it took her more than like 2 minutes to like change gloves never understood like why did she take me so long there's there's a lot of people on ly and she just not like I don't know she just not being effic so all things I will look at thank you yeah for me that was the main concern I was just waiting for everybody's questions cuz I did have a my daughter graduated last year and she was number one I would have to fight with her to stay in line but she would voice
052to me that it t it takes too long so by the time she gets up there she's late for class so I'm glad to hear that you um at least move some things around to help out with that so I hope that you know that congestion does flow better we also opened up two kiosks that are actually in the cafeteria now where they can go and quickly grab um cold options and fresh pizza made and also the grill station so we did move some of it out of the serving area and into the new kiosks that are on the sides of the cafeteria can I ask you how many there's more than one Lunch Way there's four just and even that's pushing that's that's pushing four together okay and how many students per lunch way
053they vary there could be anywhere from 500 to 700 okay and it's been effects I from my understanding to it's been a little bit exasperating because you know when we when we switched over the block a lot you know not a huge huge impact but there's an impact I mean the move having some of us have done ctivity in that in that cafeteria I mean it's a lot to get all those kids through that time that they have that's other than add another lunch wave I me it's a tough tough tough logistical thing to do every day uh I I thinking about that just in the background as our numbers are starting to increase and tip up again to the I remember the days when we had close to 3,000 trying to get all those
054kids and just watching kids at the end never and again nothing necessarily has to do with you could you could have five stations right it's just the sheer number of kids that have to get in that cafeteria right um you know it's just it's just tough okay just trying to get a sense of what what we're talking about logistics okay any concerns I'm asking us what about the elementary in midle schools they okay mostly right any anything from the other school I have one other than all right going once going twice thank you ma'am I appreciate you have a good appreciate you taking the time and to educate us and everyone else on this thank you than you okay moving right along item a approve minutes from the regular Board of Education meeting of December
0552nd we have a motion to approve move second you and I have a second um any comments questions I I have one change on what's my page eight it was on the first page Mr King with a K motion to approve Mr K with a c not a k as secretary correct oh on the one I'm looking oh yeah oh it is there okay good the email version was wrong gotcha it's wrong with distri dispatch too okay then I I take that back all in favor opposed exensions all righty uh Item B report of personnel transactions and extracurricular appointments motion to approve so move second moved and seconded by Miss Santana any questions comments I I saw that we got we seven par Educators on there our our talent Department continues to deserve PLO for
056how hard they're working at Improvement sure and um you know most notably Improvement that happened correct um last year last year technically speaking technically speaking right all right all in favor all opposed abstentions all right we're we're approved okay enrollment report we continue to Trend up as you folks get questions from elected officials perhaps your older persons and when they review our budget please do note that our amendment is that's information that's information all right item D motion to approve Grant from the office of really child to create more spaces for children in response to increased enrollment so typically this would uh of course flow through our typical committee structure but because it has the potential to open up spots in uh our Early Childhood Program the matter that the board consider appr second any
057comments questions all those in favor any opposed extenstions all right motion to approve sorry Mone um motion to approve board policy 6310 artificial intelligence this was reviewed by the policy committee and move forward to the full agenda for tonight did I have a motion so second okay thank you discussion you were taking that to your advisory Council after we had policy and we would discuss that didn't didn't that go to your advisory Council we did we discussed among a number of other things there were no major concerns or changes okay any other comments questions concerns yes question on the policy itself is the mentions that um any misuse of a AI Genera work etc including use of DB which U the K conference is a gr con um which should be refer to the discipline
058code what is some possible impr possible punishments through the Cod they might recur for using AI Etc so really depend on existing board policy everything from sexual harassment which could result in expulsion to much more minor uh you know infractions but certainly de fakes are being used for very very uh disruptive reasons and and again things that could be determined as sexual harassment Andor um sex-based harassment is how how the term is used now so it would be basically the AI is being used to do what so it was being used as a to to do what type of disruptive behavior and for then we would look at the board's policy so AI us cheating for POS cheating AI the def is used to get somebody in trouble you look at that from the postive
059correct okay use for bullying bullying AI right there there's no policy for cheat right which is hopefully some future work of the policy committee and that was going to be my only comment because I know we discussed this in policy and the under the risks and ethical considerations only referencing the student discipline code that speaks more to the bullying and physical issues and concerns not um and I believe we had a long conversation and Mr esala mentioned of modification and policies I think at your in your District where um deep fi were then tied into the school discipline I.E suspensions potential expulsions all of that good stuff as opposed to plagiarism and cheating which we don't have a policy for to link into this that's why for me I'm I'm okay as for this as
060an initial starter placeholder kind of thing but I would like to see that expanded Mr King with a SE May did have a couple of model policies from cave that we started to look at we just need to bring them back as far as U cheating goes this is just Bas basically building the ground work the ground work right and and I'm good with it as a ground work thing I think there needs to be some modification or enhancements Mr K see um at the c conference again it mentioned how recommendation was that you include some poliy for you same reason address distri does it that could lead to up some other uh consequences and even colleges that I work with now who uh Yukon scsu they're including um separate policies for AI usage U
061using AI to expulsion policies now for AI usage so it might down the road we might want to have a set policy for cons any coms questions so hooks are a start it's a start right okay all in favor I opposed you saying opposed or scratching your head no I was scratch my head got sorry I can't just conf just confirming confirming okay any Obion all right very good there all right next item motion to approve board policy 614 6.22 graduation requirements with class of 2023 and Beyond um as M vas has explained during the presentation to the policy committee this is uh basically codifying current practice and also ensuring that we're in alignment with the most recent State Statute which has changed frequ do I have a motion second second second by Mr Rivera
062any other comments questions we have any students or danger of Wai if this is passed because they're not meance as stated this is codifying current practice so I don't believe the passage of the policy if that occurs tonight would change us student status the fast fion if that's State mandate yeah sorry just a question because I had seen this and I just wanted to make sure that I got something clarified because just happened no less than three times already on page what for us is 29 middle of the page number three under FS requirement for class graduating in 2027 and therea total will get it that means only one of two of them um that a waiver could be completed by a principal school counselor teacher or other certified educator that completes a waiver on
063the app with am I reading that correctly just what's written there what happened before March 15th applying to classes are you on your own or you didn't have the option of a waiver or what was the policy there I'm not clear on the question please I'm just curious that right here you just said that you were just codifying what was already in place right yeah is that correct okay so then I understand that I'm just curious where the waiver where do you get a waer sign because it's right over here written funny enough nobody seems to speak English anytime I asked for I'm just curious this is right over here cified where do you tell a parent that the information is getting to the f m blasz are you I do we're on the middle
064of page 29 in the board's packet the FAA section of the proposed graduation requirements policy but isn't this top about student in 2027 so we but this is just codifying something that's already in place right so correct to clarify thank you this the fa is a this is a new portion um the baps as a legal requirement is as a legal requirement is correct so that's not ear Cas so thank you and so I apologize if I wasn't clear so much of what's in this is just C toying existing practice and or where the where the state law has changed this has been headed so I apologize if I wasn't care about that thank you I appreciate and there are some parents who no matter how hard we try either cannot or will not or
065completely fast with their children I me I Tred we Tred in my school we Tred everything but other than knock in their door climbing on the chimney again pass his child and it's impossible sometimes be able to do it so I understand why they want to put a map out dis but they tried everything and you're probably to document some way be CED but I think conversely just um and I'm sorry I didn't did not mean to jump ahead of you I was only asking because I needed it to be expanded for um just when the left hand isn't talking to the right hand and now now you actually have it written down that's what needs to happen and everybody be on the same page my child is not intellectually able to fill it out
066more assist me I can not going to get to that step so I car about I appreciate the superintendent for expanding on that I really honestly do out of every I appreciate it yes Mr King um another matter just a minor typo on page 26 Civic should be 5 credits not five credits just to make sure that that gets that's important oh you want more all right any more comments questions the modification those in favor opposed exensions hello attorney rder hello how are you good evening so because attorney rder will be here with us for a matter that will occur in executive session we thought it was an opportune time to have attorney rder give the board an update I think the board will will call from uh a recent meeting um where I mentioned
067that the administrators were going through quite a lengthy training process for new title 9 requir um and um you might recall I mentioned that those requirements or those responsibilities by the board and thereby the school district of course now beyond the school day um so we're glad to have attorney this tonight to give the board a brief overview of uh how this federal law has changed executive session on sep thank you man hello okay unless you prefer to sing from the rise or turn either way I'm flexible um so thank you all for having me Happy New Year I'm Jessica R Shipman and Goodwin um nice to see you all I've been asked to give a very brief highlevel overview of the 2024 Title 9 regulation changes the reason why I say brief is because
068the actual training for your central office and all of your administrators is an annual requirement that takes about 3 hours and and then for all of your other staff it is now an annual requirement that takes about 1 hour given that we have other things on your agenda um I will just briefly go through the slides that I gave you just in about 10 minutes happy to answer any questions but just so we all know just for our background obviously we know that title 9 comes from the educational Amendments of 1972 as a public school district you are recipient of federal funds which means that you cannot engage in discriminatory conduct on the basis of sex because you receive those federal funds um interestingly enough prior to 2020 there were actual there were no actual
069Federal Regulations um covering sex discrimination there was just guidance from the office of civil rights which is the federal agency that is charged with overseeing sex-based discrimination and and um looking into complaints of sex-based discrimination um in 20120 we actually for the first time saw actual Federal Regulations regulating sex-based discrimination that was a sweeping change which many of your administrators and your staff were trained on um it was a very daunting task we now fast forward to 2024 we have additional sweeping changes that now our staff are going to have to be familiar with and I promise you I will probably be back here in a year because I think the pendulum is now going to shift back to what we're seeing in 2020 so we've already heard some Rumblings about that so what I
070am sharing with you tonight probably will change within the next 6 to 12 months um so I just want everyone to be clear on that point um so what you have in front of you shows us what the uh main highlights are from the transition from 2020 to 2024 so these regulations were issued and I'm on page one of the um slides that I gave you on April 19th of 2024 they took effect on August 1st of 2024 so this is important because if you receive any information related to an incident that happened prior to August 1st of 2024 because there are no real statute of limitations for such complaints your Administration is going to be required to assess and review the matter under the 2020 regulations if anything happens um after August 1st of
0712024 the complaints alleges that the conduct happened after that we have to implement the 2024 regulations now what makes this even more confusing though is there is a pending um federal court case the moms um for Liberty they have brought forward um a claim indicating that the portion of the Amendments that pertain to the lgbtq plus rights of students and staff members is unconstitutional and violate certain religious views that they have as a result of that there are several school districts across Connecticut that have been named as parties to such complaint I don't know that any of our New Britain schools have been named I don't know Dr Gasper you would have received notice if they had otherwise there's a very obscure website that we can go on to that is not up to date
072that would show us whether or not any schools in New Britain have been named as a plaintiff I am not aware of any and I don't believe that Dr Gasper has received any notice which he's required to receive that would mean though and if you do receive that that if that happens we would likely have to let's say if the conduct here was alleged at the Chamberlain school we would have to assess the conduct under the 2020 regulations versus if the conduct was alleged at the high school and the high school had not been named as a party to the lawsuit we would look at it under the 2024 regulations I say all this because it's very complicated and obviously if you are dealing with these types of issues certainly we are here um to
073assist you in that yes because it is very complicated right now and as I said I think that we will be um making some very significant changes in the coming year but then if you turn to page two some of the major highlights so under the 2020 regulations we had a definition of sexual harassment that is now being coined as sex-based harassment so we have a much broader definition of what sex-based harassment is that includes things like sex stereotypes sexual characteristics pregnancy or related conditions sexual orientation and gender identity um so again that's a far more uh broad definition than we saw in 2020 the other very big change and I think that this is going to be helpful to your Administration is that in the 2020 regulations they had a very complicated grievance process
074that required basically a tripartite panel in which you had to have a investigator then a decision maker then an appeal person and what was so complicated about that is that those three people within your District could not speak to one another about the process that they undertook to arrive at whatever decision they arrived at so it was a very complicated procedural process a lot of eyes you had to dot a lot of tees you had to cross um they have now stre streamlines this process in the 2024 regulation so we see a much more effective streamlined process where we can go back to a more traditional way of investigating misconduct so now we can have one person serve as the investigator the way that we would for any other type of misconduct whether it be
075racially charged um or um you know based on my religion I would be looking at it through a very um similar lens more streamlined approach but we still have to have an appeals person under the title 9 regulations but this is certainly been met um with uh I think some relief by many of our administrators because it is a far less arduous process than it was under 2020 however since we no longer have the same litigation type process we do have a far more um like I said expansive definition and there also is a larger perview for our Board of Education so under the um 2020 regulations and I cover this on slide four of what you have in front of you if something happened off campus or it was not at a school sponsored
076event or if it happened outside of the United States the Board of Education had no obligation to investigate it so in other words someone could allege the misconduct they could have said it happened on a um an offse trip in Italy let's say or it happened on the weekend and it wasn't a school sponsored event it had nothing to do there was no Fingerprints of the school districts on it you could simply say it doesn't meet the definition of Title 9 you could decline to investigate it under title line but you may have had an obligation to investigate it under different policies such as bullying or your student discipline policy this has changed so now it covers off-campus conduct that you have discipline authority over so that's extremely broad that certainly is going to Encompass
077your bullying policy it's also going to Encompass your student discipline policy so it is going to require you and potentially your non-discrimination policy so it is going to require an administrator who receives this complaint to work closely with the title nine coordinator to determine whether or not you have disciplinary authority over such conduct so again a more streamlined process with a broader expansion of what falls under Title 9 and also a broader purview where the board does have to become involved um in addition if you look on page six I had talked about the scope of Title 9 and how um it has become more comprehensive some of the definitions have also become more comprehensive um you'll also see that there are now specific terms defined in the final regulations under 2024 regs in 2020
078what they did was they cross reference things like quid pro quow hostile environment and specific offenses now those terms are actually specifically codified in the regulations um as we know a quid pro quo is a form of sex-based harassment that would be um you know if if you want this I will give you this for that right so in exchange of I give you something favorable in exchange for an unw welcomed sexual contact UM also a hostile environment would mean that the conduct was so egregious that a reasonably objective person would look at that and say it was so severe and pervasive such that that child or that employee can really no longer actively participate as a colleague or as a student in educational programs because of the conduct because it has been so um
079um impactful to the victim and then there are also specific offenses that are part of sex-based harassment and those are sexual assault Dating Violence domestic violence and stalking so clearly there is a very large responsibility here on all of your um School staff obviously if they are made aware of any of these complaints they have a legal obligation to inform the Title Nine coordinator or to work with their school building principal um on page seven I Do cover the training and the policy requirements that are required um I I don't know where New Britain is on their training but it is going to be very important that once annually all of our administrator so I would say anyone with an 092 certification and anyone at the central office cabinet level engaged in the 3-hour training
080and then the rest of your staff has to engage in that 1-hour training we have um modules ready to go we have webinars so we don't even have to come to you to do that um but certainly as a client we can make those webinars available to you so that you can ensure that you are complying with the training requirements and then obviously this requires you to update your policies and your administrative regulations to ensure compliance so it's a very high level overview again there are a lot of significant details here but I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them um at this time I'm just going to say thank God you're around to help us through this yes any questions or anything that folks might have for turn okay well thank you
081all very much and I'll see you in a few minutes for the executive session thank you okay so she snuck in a little while ago and've been busy doing things but congratulations I told the rest from Indiana gets really cold I know really really cold midwest winter are nothing to sneeza we're very proud of you yes absolutely all right moving on to a consent agenda motion to approve consent agenda so move second any questions questions comments I should have asked first is there anything that anybody wants to take off the consented agenda not okay any questions comments concerns regarding any of the items all right all those in favor opposed extensions okay all righty on of f stuff executive session uh motion to go into to Executive session to discuss contract negotiations with locel 871
082motion and inviting attorney Ritter Miss Manning and Dr Gast motion second all those in favor I I any opposed extensions okay y all right we are back everybody's back yes okay back all right um so can I have a motion to approve contract for with local 871 Britain Federation teachers second second second any discussion N I think one of the things that we talked about um has to do with in comparison of other districts we feel that the what has been negotiated and agreed to Mr M chairman public take session the words we talked about sorry we feel that what is put forth here in the contract and what we're accepting here in the contract um is fair and um in comparison to other districts with around us is is reasonable so any other discussion
083questions all those in favor I any opposed extensions okay next can I have a motion to accept contracts for the UN Affiliated central office administrators motion than any comments questions all those in favor I opposed abstentions opposed oppos extensions all right any other business I have one very small item Madam chair I asked Mr smidley for an update on how many water PS are currently out of operation at the high school uh one that our department knows about uh the rest and I had a conversation with the student Representatives after you all left for executive session I believe there's uh misconception there are some water fountains that are abandoned because they're not handicapped accessible and those are the water fountains that you'll notice that are built into the wall or recessed into the wall but
084if you look adjacent left and right of those there's normally another water pountain within 100 ft um and uh the response I got back from them well maybe someone should tell us that and I said you're student bre be in the morning minutes uh and as far as the the comments regarding the bathrooms as you know we just remodeled four of the bathrooms at the high school two of the trophy case two in front of the auditorium um those are roughly $100,000 a piece to renovate uh we hope to find uh some budgetary Capital money at some point in near future to do the first floor bathrooms for the students but uh Mr Pierce uses a a lock schedule for the bathrooms uh because of the amount of vandalism um and misuse of the facilities
085that does occur um and I did reaffirm that to the student Pro fig that was a reason why we do the same thing I like the idea of coming to a school tonight I saw was very crowded a lot of people participating um but one General obervation I had I already shared with Miss Edward getting into the building was kind of hard um the office staff I came in you're like who are you um while you're here um but then sound system it was very hard foret us and speaker um I had a hard understand the food presentation some points U kind of Muckle to the sound and even M's presentation was kind of hard to understand it so there to account when we're doing our U school presentation the S system the Acoustics do
086we maybe have a monitor on pointed back towards us yes I I will'll have that added for I do apologize I forgot to add a monitor here here tonight and there will be signage posted outside of the next building of where for meeting thank you they said know we're coming she like do you know who we were they knew we were coming yeah well those were good questions right was it ask me that too secure you who are you why you here so one point of order that may not have been our regular office staff that might have been after school program staff no it was the uh lady that was standing with um Mr Anderson didn't you I could have the button to bring in but that's just me okay any other new business
087just one question where are we do next time palas and then the high school I think correct short drive for me yes long D me all right motion to adjourn mot second all in favor thank you [Music]