001Good evening everybody. Welcome to tonight's meeting. It's April 27th. It's nice to see a full house. I always like seeing a full house. Um Mr. Angley, can you please take attendance? Thank you. >> Joe Abdullah >> here. >> Victoria Salon. Stephanie Colnik. >> Jesse Leeman >> here. >> Angela Machulo >> here. >> Alex McNottton >> here. >> Justin Hley here. Jen Pod >> here. Jane Sergeant, >> she's not here tonight. >> Okay. Pete Tagley, Mary Weber, >> I think she's away. >> And Christine Wig, >> I have a question cuz I know Stephanie's not coming. Oh, Stephanie's not coming. Yeah, we're good. >> Stephanie, >> yeah, we're good. Thank you, Alex. Okay. Do you want to start? You're doing the presentation or am I? >> Well, since it's to honor you, maybe I should talk
002about a little bit. We're going to take a brief field trip across to the auditorium to hear some music from uh our jazz ensembles uh which is part of um the board appreciation month starting with the calendars the art students provided which is another way for us to it's a small but I think powerful way for us to express the genuine on behalf of the region's teachers, students and parents um appreciation we have for our board and all the hours you put in the complicated issues that you work on all to make sure that our kids get a good education. So, thank you. And we're just going to take a short break to go hear some some of that celebratory music and then we'll come right back here and pick up the agenda. Well, that
003was beautiful. Wonderful treats. >> Just one of the small ways we want to again uh cement the idea that we appreciate our board very much. >> Well, that was beautiful. So, thank you. Moving on to Mr. Parach to honor our winter first team all state and first team all uh all state athletes for um the winter. Yes. >> Thank you very much. Am I good the way I'm doing this? >> Okay. All right. Um thank you for inviting us to recognize our winter all-star performances. We have a lot of all stars that are here. We have a lot that aren't here. Um, we're going to honor all of them whether they're here or not. Uh, just uh recognize their accomplishments. When we are on to someone who is here, I'm I'm going to call that
004person up here to stand next to me so we can we can recognize them. Uh, first we have uh ice hockey and and all of these uh statements I'm going to read were provided by the varsity coach of each sport. Um, ice hockey. Uh, we're going to recognize Gunner O who's not here today. Uh, Gunnar O was the captain of the ice hockey team and scored 25 goals and 10 assists. This season, he earned first team all SEC, SWC, and first team all state. Gunner was also named to the academic all-state team for the winter sports season. His dedication and leadership helped this team succeed, and he consistently set a good example for all of his teammates while being an exceptional representative of our school and community. So, congratulations to Gunnar. Moving on to indoor
005track. Our first indoor track athlete isn't here. It's Zeie Duman. Zeie has emerged as a dedicated and promising young leader on our indoor track team. His commitment to improvement is evident in the time he consistently puts in, often practicing his hurdling technique in the hallways. That work ethic has paid off in a big way as he earned first team all Bergkshire League honors with an impressive and decisive performance in the 55 meter hurdles. So congratulations to Zeie Duman. Next is Zeke's twin Ella Ella Duman. Ella Dumman's leadership, enthusiasm, and consistently positive attitude have helped set the tone for our entire indoor track team. Her speed combined with her ability to communicate and connect with her teammates makes her an essential essential contributor not only to her own success but to the success of the team
006as a whole. Ella played a key role in the sprint medley relay team that set a new school record and earned all Bergkshire League honors. She also contributed to another school record performance as part of the 4x200 meter relay team further hiding highlighting her impact on the program. So, congratulations to Ella Duman. I'd now like to call Natalie Orletki up here. Right here. Right here. Come right here. We'll put you front and center on the spot. Natalie Orletk's dedication and leadership have played a vital role in driving the success of our indoor track team, making her an invaluable member of the program. Her commitment to excellence has not only elevated her own performance, but it has also inspired those around her. She was a key contributor to the sprint medley relay team that set a
007new school record and earned all Bergkshire League honors, an achievement that reflects both her individual effort and her impact on the team's overall success. So, congratulations, Natalie. Next on our list is Christianne Pson. Christy Anne Pson, a firstear member and captain of our indoor track team, has quickly established herself as an exceptional leader and competitor. Her hard work and determination have translated into remarkable consistency and success each time she steps onto the track. Christianne has set multiple school records this season, including the 55 meter dash, 55 meter hurdles, 4x200 relay, and the sprint medley relay. an extraordinary accomplishment that reflects both her individual talent and her contributions to team success. She earned all Berkshire League honors in the 55 meter dash, 55 meter hurdles, and the sprint medley relay and went on to place second
008at the class S meet. Congratulations to Christian Pson. Next on our list is Nikki Lights. Nikki was a key contributor throughout the entire season in both the 4x200 and sprint medley relay teams. She demonstrated a strong commitment to improvement, consistently dedicating time to refining her starts and handoffs, critical elements of relay success. Her hard work and determination played an important role in the sprint medley relay, earning all Berkshire League honors and highlighting both her individual dedication and her impact on the team's overall performance. So, congratulations to Nikki Lights. Next, we're moving on to our swimming and diving team. Our first name that I'd like to mention is Libby Plans. Freshman freshman Libby Plans had a standout first season on the swimming and diving team this year. Libby practiced with the diving team three days a
009week and trained with the swimmers only twice a week. With only two swimming practices a week, Libby had an outstanding first season and we knew that she had the talent to be a star swimmer on the team. Libby helped lead the girls team to a second place finish at the Girls Splash Classic Championship meet. Libby also became a Berkshire League All-Star in the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. So, congratulations to Libby plans. Now, I'd like to call Briana Johnson up here. Sophomore Briana Johnson played a massive role on the swimming team this year. She is one of the most coachable athletes out there and it shows. Bri became a Bergkshire League all-star for the second year in a row and helped the Chap Girls 200 freestyle relay maintain their streak of 11
010years in a row as Bergkshire League champions. Bri then went on to compete and score in the Class S championship meet in all three relay events. So congratulations Briana. Next, I'd like to call up here Molly Cadido. Junior Molly Cadido is the definition of dedication and consistency. Molly steps up and swims any event that is asked of her, and her versatility and willingness to help wherever needed was a big bonus to the team. Molly swam the breaststroke leg and helped lead the 200 medley relay to victory at the Bergkshire League Championship meet, enabling Molly to be a Berkshire League Allstar in swimming for the first time. Congratulations, Molly Sadino. >> You're welcome. >> Next, I'd like to call Vicky Bargelini up. Junior Vicky Bargelini continues to impress every time she competes. Vicki broke her own
011school record in the 100 butterfly this year, which she set as a freshman. This season at the girls Splash Classic meet, she became a Splash Classic champion in the 100 butterfly for the second year in a row. At the Berkshire League Championship meet, Vicki was a Bergkshire League All-Star in the 100 butterfly for the second year in a row. Also, she also claimed BL all-star status in the 200 freestyle relay and 100 backstroke. Vicki then went on to compete and score at states in the 200 medley relay, 100 butterfly, and 200 freestyle relay. Congratulations, Vicky Bargelini. Now, I'd like to call up Abigail Perin. Abby Parin improves every season in the freestyle and individual medley events. This year, Abby helped claim the Bergkshire League title in the girls 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay
012at the Bergkshire League Championship meet. Abby earned the title of BL Allstar in the 100 freestyle for the first time and broke the one minute mark in the 100 freestyle. Abby helped lead the winning relay of the girls 200 freestyle at the Splash Classic meet. A relay won by a dominant 9 seconds. Abigail then went on to compete and score at the Class Sate Championship meet. Congratulations, Abigail Parin. >> You're welcome. >> Nick Nunig. Senior Nick Nunig had another season to remember. Nick had an undefeated dual meet record for the second straight year. Nick followed this up with his second season claiming the Bergkshire League All-Star title in diving. Nick went on to compete at the Class Sate Diving Meet where he placed second, missing first place by only four points and earning all state
013status. At the state Open Diving Championship, the top 24 divers in the state competed. Going into this meet, Nick was seated 11th and his performance earned him a ninth place overall finish. An impressive accomplishment. So, congratulations to Nick Nunig. Our last swimmer and diver mentioned is Liam Denning. This senior, this season was senior Liam Denning's first year participating on the Chipog swim team and it was a very successful one. Liam had an undefeated dual meet season in the 100 breaststroke and he claimed the Bergkshire League All-Star title in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke. At the Class Sate Championship meet, Liam placed second in the 100 breaststroke, earning all state status. Liam then went on to compete in the state open championship at Yale University in the 100 breaststroke where Liam earned a
014spot on the podium finishing sixth out of the top 24 swimmers in the state. Congratulations to Liam. Lastly, we move on to boys basketball. First is senior Drew Ko. This senior Drew averaged 16.5 points per game, 7.7 rebounds, six assists, and four steals per game. He consistently displayed great energy and enthusiasm in both practices and in games. Drew consistently was an unselfish motivator who ran the point guard position while being an all-time elite defender. Drew surpassed the 1,000 point barrier this season during a regular season game at Thomas and he was voted a first team Bergkshire League All-Star for the second consecutive season. Next is James Kuren. This season James averaged 28.4 points per game, 8.5 rebounds, three assists, and and two steals per game. He established himself as one of the premier scorers in
015the state. James earned first team Bergkshire League All-Star honors for the third consecutive year. first team all state for the second consecutive year. In addition to all league and all state honors, James finishes his career as the all-time leading scoreer in Chapag history with 270 points. This also moved him to the second all-time leading scoreer in Berkshire League history and he setup's single game scoring record this season with a 52-point effort at Husatonic. Congratulations to James Kirsten. Once again, I'd like to thank the board for our recogn for the recognition of our winter athletes. And we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our spring baseball, softball, track, and tennis events. Thank you. >> Before you go, Mr. Pace, and for you and our student athletes, and maybe you're sick of
016this speech, but it means a lot to me. Whenever I hear your achievements as kids, athletes, coaches, Mr. Pace, every year I think the wins are nice and we get plenty of them. But what I'm proudest and happiest about is that we're helping our kids grow up and they learn sportsmanship. And I see it in the way they conduct themselves, the way our fans operate. And no disrespect to any other programs, but I have noticed when we're at other people's houses or when in a playoff season, people not normally here come into our house, I'm not sure that they have the same um type of emphasis on decorum the way we do. That leads to a culture that I think is more important at the wins than the wins. So I want to congratulate our
017athletes, our coaches, and Mr. Parach on building that climate and and please keep it going. Please carry on. >> Thank you. And you said culture. It was it was built 50 60 years ago and we're just thankful that we've been able to try to keep it going. So, thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Well, thank you so much. Okay. It's always so amazing when we see so many amazing athletes and students. um come and uh shine in so many ways here. Um we're going to move on now to uh public comment on agenda items. Is there anybody here who would like to take a moment to um come to the podium for public comment? I a minute I will. Just getting it out of the way. Anyone? Great. Okay. Um I did want to
018just I know we're going to take a moment for refreshments, but I thought maybe we could do it all at once and let our seniors do their presentations on their senior projects and then we could then do our um our celebrations after that. So, we do have some seniors here that are going to talk about their senior projects. I believe it's the three of you. Do we have other seniors here other than them? It's the three. So, I'm sure you guys are arm wrestled to see who was going to go first, but you're all welcome to decide who can come to the podium first. Great. And to obviously tell us your name so we know who are. All right. Well, uh, good evening everybody. As some of you may know, my name is Jacob Tendler.
019Um, and my project is called Spicing Up Senior Year. Um, yeah, and the main structure of my project was a uh research and development type of project. Uh, I have loved flavor like my entire life. I always liked, you know, particularly like Mexican food mostly because they have the most like the boldest type of flavor that I could find, you know, every day. Um, and so from like the also for the structure of my project, I took inspiration from, uh, projects of past seniors that I had seen. Uh, like Gavin Abdullah, he did it with Cologne and, uh, Liam Pacific, he did it with Hot Sauce. And so that was just I had a little bit of a a guardrail to to see what I could do with that as well. Um and so obviously
020I'm proud to show you that I have a very nice looking product here. Um and courtesy of lots of hard work on my end and for fortunately I was wise enough to choose a TA who was beneficial to me in my work. Um, so my TA is Dave Barrett and he is one of the founders of Nutmeg Spice. Uh they're based out of Terryville >> and they were kind enough to let me tour their facility and I got to learn a lot of uh like food safety stuff and one of them one of my goals I did a lot of research uh before I got into creating the spice blend on my own obviously um but one of my goals was to research you know the modern-day aspect of the business and I learned a
021whole lot about uh how how would a modern day business uh especially one which is decently large scale you would say because they're pretty pretty worldwide uh in terms of imports and exports operates and lot learned lots of uh interesting things within that. Um this is my own little uh brainchild and I created it originally through many different attempts in my kitchen table. Um it took me a long time to achieve the flavor I was looking for. Uh, I didn't want to create something sp I wanted my product to be accessible to everybody. I like personally I like spicy food, but to a lot of people I know that's not appealing uh or appeasing at all. And so I knew I had to make something that could be available to everybody. Um, I created this
022blend specifically for uh chicken wings because I'm more of a drywing guy. I don't really like getting my fingers like sticky with the with the sauce that you conventionally find on chicken wings when you think about like football or whatnot. Um, and so I I wanted to create a dry a dry rub. And I did that. It took um so I I was over I did this over a couple of days. I took a bunch of different spices I had in my house and then I went and bought some new ones to try try those and see what I could add uh to create this. And so it's got your your conventional like garlic, onion, pepper. Uh, and my secret ingredient is uh actually something that is not on the label, but if you ask
023me personally, I I'll tell you. Um, and so I made it so that it is salty, savory, and it's got a little bit of sweet kick, which I uh personally thought was a very interesting touch. Um, so I I tested with this one and I was I was trying to make another blend also. My senior project teacher, Dr. Youngblood, really pressured me into trying to create uh more blends. Um, but then I I realized that it wasn't really necessary in terms of scope what I was looking for. Uh, as well as I have enough on my hands as you can see as well. Um, I when I So, I actually put the spice in the bottle myself. So, Nutmeg Spice uh was kind enough to let me use their facility uh and their resources free
024of charge, which I could not be even more thankful for. Um, however, they gave me all the paperwork. Uh, no, that's not like a joke. It's actually a good thing cuz I can see what it would have been like had I had to pay for this and then like the actual real business aspect that I can later apply into uh my advertising and whatnot. And I think that's it for me for now. That's basically what my project is. Uh if you have any questions or inquiries uh sure. >> Well, first of all, I think that this is amazing and congratulations. Is this something that you want to um is this something that you want to go forward with or is this something that you're just going to stop after senior year or is this something
025that you're going to follow through and possibly sell it in Washington market or you know in the local stores or you know >> that's a that's a good question. Uh before we started the meeting uh Mr. Tagley here he he asked me the same question and I've considered it. It's not what I'm going to to school for. I'm going to Merit University for uh sports communication, but uh I'm not The window is open to me and I'm certainly considering. Uh a lot of people suggested that I s sell it in Washington Market. >> Yeah. >> And it's a good idea. I probably will, but I what I I have 42 bottles. It's a very small size for a batch and so it doesn't it's not really effective for for wholesale yet. Um, but considering that
026I already have literally everything in place except just asking for more and buying more, uh, it's reasonable to say that in the future I can make myself a business out of this product. >> You could Well, congratulations. Sounds wonderful. >> It's great. >> Well, I just want to thank you for coming tonight and to present and um, you did a wonderful job. And also, can you please let us know when you do um sign up for your time and your date? Can you email the board and let us know when you're presenting? >> So maybe some some of us can come and actually watch your presentation. >> If anyone would like to purchase any or I I brought some uh chicken so you can try it if you want to. >> Um >> that's great.
027>> You can uh >> I was going to ask you if you brought >> you can email me or you can just let me know here. That's all all fine. So thank you >> Jacob. Thank you so much for coming. >> Wait, you didn't tell us how much you're selling it for. >> Um, so the unit price per per bottle uh for me if to make that is $4.25. Um, and I'm selling it for $7 a bottle. >> Can I send money in with my son? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Or do you accept memo? Um, hash is preferred, but >> cash is king. >> Okay. Okay. >> I'll send money in with my son. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Well, hello. >> Good evening. My name is Eva Matthysse. Thank you guys
028for having me. Um, my senior project is titled Small Town Soil and my project is making a short documentary on the history of farming in Roxberry. So, for those of you who don't know, I actually don't live in Roxberry. So, it was a little out of the ordinary for me. But, at the beginning of the year, my senior project teacher, Dr. Young Bloodood approached me with this idea and she told me that the Roxberry Town Council was looking to celebrate the 230th anniversary of their town this year for the 4th of July and the 250th anniversary of America. So they were looking for a student who would make some type of documentary or some type of story on the history of their town. And I was originally like why did my name get brought up?
029And a lot of teachers actually said that they wanted me to do that because I have a history with the TV production and broadcasting class. And I had done a couple of special projects for um my history classes. So this project does have a lot of relation to me and like my childhood because my father is a cameraman for the news. So I was always around editing and like Final Cut Pro and I was always watching his stories. So it was really interesting for me to kind of be around that. So when this idea got brought up, I was like, "Oh, this is perfect for me. This is something that I'm interested in and I have someone at my house who can help me with this." So then I met with the um first selectman
030of Roxberry, Patrick Roy, and Barbara Co, who is the uh chair on the historical commission, and they basically told me, "What do you want to do?" And I was like, "Well, I don't know anything about Roxberry." So I talked to them and I had a bunch of meetings with people on the board and I kind of honed my project down to the history of farming in Roxberry. So I went to the tractor parade early on and I went to the Toplins farm showing and I got a lot of footage there. But a lot of my project has been communicating with people, scheduling interviews with people and being out in the field and having interact with people. One of the hardest things for me to do was to go up to people and say, "Can I
031take videos of you?" because it's really awkward and nobody wants to say yes to that, but it's the most important thing for this project. So, I went back and forth with people and the school has been incredibly helpful with giving me supplies. I haven't had to pay for anything other than SD cards and flash drives. I've been using all of the equipment in the TV production and broadcasting. I was even able to borrow a computer from the tech office so I could edit on Final Cut Pro. In the last about like seven months of my year, I've been just filming. And my goal was to be editing by January, and I was nowhere near that. And so now it's crunch time for me. And I've just been editing, and I'm looking forward to having a
032final product. And I really hope that all of you guys would like to come see it. Um, I will be showing it at my final presentation obviously, but I will also be showing it at the Fourth of July celebration in Roxberry over the summer. >> Fantastic. So, >> it's great. >> Can I ask a question? >> Of course. >> Um, so I think you're Did you commit to Eastern? >> I did. I committed to Eastern. >> Are you thinking about going into >> Um, no. I actually wasn't. I'm probably going to major in criminal justice, so it's kind of nowhere near my major, but this is just kind of like a side interest of mine that I have. >> Have you been enjoying it? >> You know, it definitely has its problems. I've had a
033lot of technical difficulties and frustration, but it's a form of art, like shooting stuff, talking to people, and like learning the stories. Like, I know so much more about Roxbury that I didn't know before. and hearing all the history that lays within just the agriculture is a lot. And I think like not only has this project been like research and work for me, but I'm learning like it's been such a learning opportunity, whether that's like dealing with problems or just listening to stories and listening to people. >> And do you have a newfound appreciation for what your dad does? Yeah, it's definitely a lot of appreciation because I mean it's taken me a whole year and I'm only doing a 10 to 15 minute piece and he does this every day for his job. So
034>> yeah, >> a lot of appreciation. >> Wonderful. >> I have a maybe a question and a comment. So it sounds like a phenomenal project, but are you also documenting your process? So the interviews going through archival footage or something at the historical society because it seems like this is something maybe as we've seen uh successful senior projects seem to be passed on in a way to uh the classes to come and I'm sure all of our towns would greatly benefit from this sort of connection between the students and the history and really helping to celebrate uh the history of the towns. Yeah. So, I'm making this project. The reason why I'm actually making this is I'm doing it for Roxberry. So, they wanted someone to make something to preserve the history. They were kind
035of doing stuff on their own. And they realized that they just really weren't equipped with the right kind of stuff and the knowledge. So, they asked for a student to do it. So, like once I'm done with this, like this project is going to the museum. It's going to go to archival footage for Roxberry and it's hopefully going to be saved and be revisited whether that's for students or for the town. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Well done. So great. Wonderful. This is incredible. >> Hi, my name Hi, my name is Isaac Fitch. Um, my senior project is about learning software development. I plan on studying computer science in college. And I've always been really interested in computers and what you can do with them. Ever since I was uh very little,
036I've been making computer programs on Scratch and other things. So, I decided that since I want to study in college and it's something that's been really important to me that I wanted that to be my project. Uh so, the main purpose of my project is to learn the skills that I would need to be a professional software developer to help get me ahead in college. Uh to do this I made three main projects that would help me with different uh software development skills. And each project I started from scratch from research to final uh project and the first project I made was a cross country scoring calculator. So, I'm on the cross country team and uh every time before a meet, we would all get together and look at previous race results to try to
037figure out who we have to beat to win the overall meet. But the problem was that the best way to do that was on a website called athletic.net. But for some of the features on that, you need to pay for it. So, I decided why not make it make part of my senior project about making a uh scoring calculator that you don't need to pay for. Um, and so I made a program that scrapes the data from athletic.net, organizes it into a spreadsheet, and um, puts it in a viewable format for the team. And uh we use this multiple times during the season to get prepared for races and predict results. Uh second part of my project was creating a physics sandbox. So uh since ever since middle school, I've been really interested in how
038the how like video games um simulate accurate physics. Like think about uh Angry Birds. when the bird hits the tower, everything falls and it looks realistic. And so I've always been interested in how that works. So I decided to um make something that would do that on a computer. And um this was probably one of the most complicated parts of my project. Um I used lots of things that I learned in AP physics and AP calculus um in this project which was an important skill to learn. Learned how to implement things that I'm learning in other places and background knowledge into uh code and uh the final product came out pretty well. Uh it could definitely be used in like a video game or an animation or something. And the last part of my project
039was a machine learning model that can look that looks at handwritten numbers and identifies them. It's about 90% accurate. Uh so this project helped me better understand uh how AI and machine learning works. Uh this was the most research intensive part of my project. Uh I spent a ton of time on research and actually not a lot of time on the programming itself. um which really showed me what that software development and software engineering is more than just writing code which is probably the biggest takeaway from this project and that I was going to learn in college but now I'll be a little ahead is that um designing and making an application is much more than just uh writing the code. Um this pro the machine learning model also helped again helped me uh learn
040how to implement things I was learning in in uh calculus into code. Um yeah and that's pretty much my project. Thank you. >> That's impressive. >> Yeah. Thank you so much Isaac. And I'm also going to ask you to make sure to email the board as well when you have um scheduled your uh project as well so we can come and see yours. Thank you. >> And can I just congratulate you all on what you're doing? And Jacob, for you to have this entrepreneurial spirit and move this thing forward to me is just amazing. Uh and I you've got other projects ahead of you, but they might all involve entrepreneurial moves at one point or another. So So good for you. And Eva, this is amazing because just this morning I was thinking about this.
041I had gotten a call all the way back probably in August from first selectman, Mr. Roy, trying to partner with the schools on the, you know, the 250th anniversary of America, 230th of Roxberry. And we sat down and chatted about it and I think we had a plan. You know, you're driving in your car and you think, I don't know why this morning I was driving in and I thought, is this going forward? Do I need to call Mr. Dennis and Mr. Roy and just check in and see what's happening? I'm so gratified to see that it's you doing it. And as a student of history myself, I feel that part of our humanity is being a keeper of memory. And for you to be a keeper of Roxberry's memory and help it um live
042on, I think is really important. And then Isaac, for you to have this technical facility and develop these things that to me seem magic, but to you are, you know, science and um to make to make things that are either going to entertain people or make their lives easier, I think is also amazing. And um I just wanted to say congratulations and thanks for coming to all three of you. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Thank you. And I also just want to say I really appreciate all of you coming out tonight to share your project with us. I know that it can feel a little daunting to come up in front of a group of people. Maybe it doesn't because all of you seem pretty comfortable in front of a group of people. Um but it
043really does highlight to all of us all of the hard work that you all have been doing all year. And it just shows how remarkable um all of our students are in all the areas that you all shine. And I just I am so proud of all of you for coming here tonight and for um sharing your talents and your skills with us. So um thank you. And with that, I am I think it is time for a cookie break. So we're just going to take a quick recess just so we can celebrate a little bit and um there's refreshments behind us. So we'll take a quick break. I was like, "Okay, are we ready to come back?" Okay, guys. Let's all come back to the table. That was better, right? Yeah. >> Listen, if
044I were home, it would be a totally different thing. >> Dinner. There is no dinner anymore. That ship has sailed. >> No, he graduates on the 17th. But I do need to ask you a question about soccer. Are you're not still on the soccer board, are you? You are, aren't you? Oh my god. No, I was just going to say he was going to do he wanted to do a clinic um this summer during the week, like at night, like not at night, but like in like a like a like a four to six. Well, I he was we were gonna kind of think talk about that, but he didn't want to I just wanted to make sure it wasn't stepping on the soccer club's toes or if it could be >> is doing >>
045Who is >> Oh, okay. Is he doing middle high school, middle school? >> No. >> Of what? >> Let's talk. All right, let's talk. >> Let's talk. Let's talk. All right. Okay. Let's all come back. Do I have everybody? >> Okay. >> Should be fun. Well, Vicki, I think that the chicken wings outdid your popcorn the other night. >> You're gonna have to step it up now. >> Okay. >> So, moving on to the consent agenda. Is there anything in the minutes of April 6 that anybody has anything to change? Alex? >> Nope. Fine. I have no markings on my copy. So, >> okay. Anybody else? Nothing. Okay. So, we can move on. Uh moving on to uh my report um which I was going to read but I'll just read it from my phone
046because um I I I had emailed it to myself. Um oh actually just got it. Um, I basically I see that um we have first selectman Eric here. Jazelle, I was uh just going to briefly talk about attending the Bridgewater uh town meeting last Tuesday. Um they had a town meeting uh at Burnham School um about uh a community town meeting that was about the future of region 12. Um, and I think really just talking mostly about um, had the impact that it was going to have on their town in particular. And I just really just went to just out of curiosity to see what they were um, the town leadership was going to be discussing. Um, and let me just find here where I said. So I attended last Tuesday and um to see
047what they were sharing with their community uh based on the future of region 12. Um there were no region 12 administration that was present. So um but they did u send a list of questions to uh the central office to be answered. I believe that Don and Nicole uh spent Nicole spent a lot of time um answering uh many questions. Uh I didn't know what direction they were going. So I just was really curious just to hear uh what the information um that they requested and what they were going to be um sharing with their community. It was a a well- attended uh meeting and Eric and Jazelle and Carolyn Dwire led the discussion just mostly to inform the community of the challenges that they were facing with the increasing enrollment and with that comes
048increasing costs and looking at the Prada's report which we all know that they've come here to discuss with us uh focusing on their increasing enrollment and uh focusing specifically on Washington's decreasing enrollment. over the next 10 years. They also um talked about the intermunicipal committee that both Eric and Carolyn are on as well. Um and also creating an ad hoc committee specifically for Bridgewwater to explore additional avenues for their town and their elementary school and possibly to also explore other options for uh the region as well. Um and they shared a list of the um people that are on that ad hoc committee for people that can take the list home and share any questions or um interests with them uh if they wanted to. Um and obviously they felt very um encouraged to want
049to work with the board of education to work with our superintendent and with our director of finance as well as the other two towns. Um they didn't talk about specifically what that uh looks like yet. Um they didn't talk about, you know, what they want to do. So that's I think to come. They did talk about the percentage uh wanting to change between the three towns. Um and that was really it. It felt like a a relatively um the tone was very positive in terms of what they were discussing and um and that was really it. I mean, I obviously have questions that I walked away with, but overall it felt um it felt very um there was a lot of questions that their community was asking them, but um like I said, there weren't
050um any region 12 administration there to answer any of the questions on behalf of the region. So, it just was a um interesting to be there to have those questions not being answered by region 12 community uh uh admin there. But other than that, I think that they definitely seem wanting to work with us, the board, and with our administration. So, that was all I have to report. And that was it for me. >> Thanks, Jen. Thanks for being there. >> Yeah. Um, for my report, the first two things are there were two out ofstate field trips to notify the board about. One happened on April 21st, one will happen on May 20th. On April 21st, our AP Spanish students went to the um, Museum of Modern Art in New York City. They do have
051a unit in AP Spanish on European and modern art and the tour was led in the Spanish language. So, they were able to uh, develop greater facility in the target language, but also make a study of relevant culture. And then we have a trip on um May 20th going down to the Walter Care Theater, Broadway in New York. A lot of the students that were involved in our productions here, the fall play, the uh spring musical, the middle school play, typically as a celebration, they go and see a production in New York to further their experience on uh drama and how it's constructed. Um, there are things going on in our schools this time of year more almost more than uh than ever as you get to the end. Uh, at Washington Primary School, they
052had a green week which was all about environmental awareness. I saw the littles outside learning about how energy is used for electricity and um, how to be more efficient with that. Gee, it's lucky we have an expert on the board about that that can probably guide that going forward. At the pro at Washington Primary School, Felix Hec and Norah Sheik were recognized statewide as Lichfield County winners in a firerevention poster contest. Um, at Chipog, they had a successful senior trip to Boston. And I was able to attend the um revitalized world affairs forum a week or so ago, which was really interesting. They had an expert in Ms. Ree who worked in the UN uh and her project was um ethics in international business and trying to create systems um and controls that incentivize corporate
053um presence corporate organizations around the globe to think about human rights in what they're doing and try to be more mindful of that. and we had a panel of students who uh spoke on topics about international human rights. Uh and there the audience was there, the group room was full and the audience posed questions. It was a really nice experience. Um now at Booth and Burnham, there were K5 concerts this week, which always nice to see the arts, performing arts happening. There was a week-long celebration of neurodeiversity, including a guest speaker with autism who shared his lived experiences and talked about the challenges and the triumphs that he's experienced in the course of those um uh those experiences. They had puppet theaters where um I think it's related to the flock theater where they come
054in and it's a pretty neat thing. They it's connected to how uh to literacy. They learn a story, they construct narratives, and then they carry it into this theater where they learn how to make it into a puppet show, which gets the kids more excited and more involved in the curriculum. And they also had Earth Day activities at Booth and Burnham and which were funded by the Bridgewater and Roxberry Land Trust, and we're grateful for that for those for those experiences. Now, um it it's that time of year where we produce our publication. And you know, we've gotten in the habit over the past several years of producing um a professional publication that highlights our priorities and typically it connects to one of the strands in our strategic plan. And in prior iterations have touched
055on um powerful learning and on innovation. This year I asked our staff and administration to curate stories and experiences that relate to community engagement which is the third prong of the of the strategic plan. So, I've got the sort of prototype here that I can pass around if you want to look at it, a draft. Um, and that'll be coming out soon, mailed to every house in the region. And then, um, last thing is a technical thing. Um, we have sometimes folks who are on one-year contracts and, um, uh, at the end of the year, we just let them know that that one-year term is up, but also that they're free to reapply for any positions that might be open going forward. So, it's not at all a negative reflection on performance. And in fact,
056in all the cases that I'll cite, these are folks who we hope are going to apply again next year in cases where a position will be open. So, the one-year contracts that got this notification were uh building subs. Um Samantha Dunar at Shepog, uh Suzanne Jacob Mucino at uh Booth. Katie Kousme is an elementary teacher. She's in a one-year position at Washington Primary School. And that one-year contract is ends at the end of this year. Emily Lane, building sub at Washington Primary. Bailey Pod, building sub at Chap. Skyler Shab, building sub at uh Booth. And Michelle Wennis is an elementary teacher in a one-year position at Washington Primary School. Um that's my report. >> Thank you. The treasures report. Alex, >> I have no report. >> Okay. Committee reports. Agra Science Committee. That would be
057Mary and she is not here tonight. Curriculum Justin. >> Um, nothing new. Our next meeting is May 18th. >> Thank you. Wow. Ed advance. Joe, >> uh, nothing new to report. Our next meeting is Thursday the 7th. >> Thank you. >> Finance and operation, Alex. >> Yeah, our next meeting is uh on Monday at 10:30, I believe. >> Uh what it was 5:30. >> Oh, 5:30. You're right. It's it's the evening one. And uh we haven't had a meeting in quite a while, so it'll be probably be a lot on our plate that day. >> Okay. Thank you. Labor negotiations. >> Nothing new to report. >> Thank you. >> Policy Justin. >> So, we just had a meeting earlier um earlier tonight and it was to go over um a change to a state law.
058And so, the state law says that on July 1st of 2026, in order to enter kindergarten, you have to be 5 years old by September 1st. So in years passed we were able to or parents were able to ask for and receive a waiver if their child was not five by September 1st. Um that option still is available this year but it will expire um for for the following year. And then the other thing we did was um for the next meeting we're going to bring the policy to the board for a first read. >> Thank you. and I have nothing to report for the long range planning committee. So, thank you. Now, moving on to new business. Um, do we need to consider if appropriate to approve the non-renewal for staff positions for 2627?
059>> So, >> can I have a motion? >> Second for Joe. Thank you. Um, any discussion before all in favor? Anyone opposed? I'm going to abstain. Right. I'm going to abstain. And um, great. Moves on. Um, thank you. Moving on to the next one. Do you want to discuss this a little bit? So, this is just highly technical, although it's uh you've probably all lived through it before, unless you're a first year board member. Jesse, you and I are probably going through this for the first time. So, we're in a we participate in um health and wellness, healthy foods program that the state requires. And it's so it's just so in the way we have to do what we're about to do, which is the board has to approve our continued participation in that with
060the language verbatim that's included here. And Billy, usually we don't worry about, you know, strictly ver verbatim minutes, but in this case, and I'm going to make it easy on you. I'm going to hand you a printed copy of it so you can memorialize. Okay. What was said in in the minutes, but here here's the way it works. We're going to read the language into the record. I'll summarize it in a minute, and then you're going to vote to approve it or not. I recommend that you approve it. Uh and then at the next meeting when you approve the minutes that happened here that transpired here with this language once they're approved then we have to take that and hand it to Ed advance and they pass it on to the state and if there's
061a semicolon out of line it's a problem. It's that kind of thing. So um that's why I'm hitting it so hard. So the idea is to to make sure that you're all aware of this language. You want me to read it, Jen? You want me to actually read the >> If you want to. >> You sound like you're excited to read it. >> Oh, I you know what? I would love to, but you can. >> No, let you. >> All right. Okay. >> That's so great. >> Do I What to What do I owe this honor? Um, >> go for it. >> Okay. Okay. So, you're going to be considering um pursuant to the statute cited that the region board, the region 12 board of education will certify that all food items offered for sale
062to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1, 2026 through June June 30, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from re reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups. Um, >> okay. So well >> and now the second part of it is we're also going to allowed to have some small exemptions and I'll read that in a second. Uh if you want you can um approve that and that the exemptions are
063going to we'll read them at length here but the executive summary is things that happen on campus after school hours and in that meet the condition other conditions laid out in this paragraph. So this next thing is exemptions that we'll allow from that policy. So, we're going to consider and if appropriate, the region 12 board of education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in the statute referenced, provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. and three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school
064store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity. For an for example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. So I guess Jen now you'll ask if there's any discussion and then if not you'll solicit motions to approve that verbatim language in each case as I just read into the record. >> So we usually make a motion second then we ask for discussion. >> You're in charge of that. >> So we can
065I have a motion. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? It passes. >> And just to be clear, the motion is for >> for the first one. >> Okay. >> Right. So, now we're moving on to the uh second. Correct. >> Yes. Exemptions. >> Exemptions. So, that would be I'm looking at the wrong one here. So, we're looking at Can I have a motion to Thank you. May I have a second? Is there any discussion? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Abstensions. It passes. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Great. >> Oh my gosh. Um, >> so >> covered under an exemption. Alex, you're that's good. >> May I have a motion to adjourn? Second. All in favor.