001All right. I I thought I wouldn't be able to figure out the microphone. For years, I've watched you all navigate it with grace. Welcome everyone and I'm happy to begin call our board meeting tonight to to order. I'll begin by taking the roll call. Joseph Abdella >> here. >> Victoria Son >> here. >> Stephanie Colnik is absent. Jesse Leeman. Angela Macharulo. Alex McNottton >> here. Justin Angley, >> Jennifer Pod >> here. >> Jane Sergeant is absent tonight. Peter Tagley, Mary Weber is absent tonight. Christine Widig may be in route but is not here yet. Okay. Um well, first order of business tonight is for us to welcome our new board member, Jesse Leeman. Jesse, welcome to the board. I know that everyone is excited about all of us working together for the benefit of our
002students and it's customary usually when a new board member comes on that they should have the chance to make a statement or make some remarks if they would like to do so. Do you care to do that? >> Let me turn my mic on. >> You'll figure that. That's one thing. If you don't hit that button and it doesn't turn green, nobody can hear you in the outside world. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> Well, I've gotten my first mistake out of the way. >> And now I'll say it's great. It's great to be here and I look forward to working with everyone over the next four years. >> I have a question. Do you know what you've signed up for? >> I do. >> Okay. Well, that's actually a a fair question, Alex. And
003it makes me think we we should thank the entire board for all the hour hours that they put in for the benefit of our kids and our community. You're much appreciated. And I will quickly say, Jesse, you're not the only first here tonight. It's my first board meeting, too. And I'll again thank this board for entrusting me with the superintendency and promise that I intend to treat the board with clarity, uh, respect, with clear communication, and with, um, a missiondriven attitude for the benefit of our kids. So, it's wonderful to be here with all of you and I know I'll learn a lot from being in your in your presence. Um, this tonight is the organizational meeting uh to elect officers um of the board. Uh, and I will start by reading the the relevant
004bylaws that pertain to the election of the board chair. They come from policy 9121. The officers of the board of education shall shall consist of a chair, vice chair, secretary, and a treasurer. Such officers shall be elected from the board membership at the annual organizational meeting, the first regular board of education meeting held each July, and shall remain in office until new officers are elected at the next annual meeting, unless such such officers cease to be members of the board of education. If there is a vacancy among the officers during the course of the year, the board membership shall act promptly to elect the new officer to fill the vacancy. The superintendent of schools or designated agent shall call the annual organizational meeting to order and serve as moderator for the election of new board
005of education chair at the annual organizational meeting held each July. If the superintendent of schools or his her designate is not present, the board will elect a temporary chair chair by a majority vote, temporary chair will preside over the meeting until the board elects a permanent chair. That clause is not relevant tonight, but I'm just reading the entire policy. The new chair will take office immediately upon election. The board will then elect a vice chair, secretary, and a treasurer. The new officers will take office immediately upon completion of all the elections. Board members shall vote by paper ballot and a majority of the total membership of the board shall be required to constitute election. If there are more than two nominees and on the first ballot no nominee receives a majority vote of the full
006membership, the nominee receiving the lowest number of votes shall be removed from the list of candidates before balloting again. Upon motion dually made and seconded, an officer of the board may be removed from office by a twothirds vote of the total board membership voting by ballot. In the case of a tie vote in the balloting for any officer, such ties shall be broken by lots by drawing lots. I now then having read that um regulation from the bylaw would um open the floor for nominations for the board of ed chairperson. >> Yes. >> Um so when you read that, did it say vote by the total board? the you need a majority of the total board not a majority of people present. So for us that would be seven I guess >> but when there's
007a a section you read that I thought indicated the entire board had to be here in order >> No you just need a majority of that entire board. No, I get I get the votes based on a majority, but I thought there was a line in there that you read through quickly that said something about elections to be based on a vote by the entire board. >> No. >> Okay. Then I then I misheard it. >> I'm looking for the exact language again just to so that I don't confuse anybody. Um okay. the board will elect. Yeah, that's for the for that. Maybe when I read about the temporary chair in the event that I'm not that the superintendent is not present. I don't think that's what's happening here. What we we just need to
008have a majority of the total members of the board. For a 12 member board, it takes seven votes to elect an officer. >> Right. >> Okay. Sorry about that. Okay. That being said, >> please ask. Were you going to ask for nominations? >> I am opening the floor to nominations for the chairperson of the board. Okay. >> I would like to nominate Jen Pod. >> Are there any second? >> I'll second them. >> Okay. Are there any other nominations? And I ask a second time. Any other nominations? Um and a third time any other nominations. Okay. Um would anyone like to speak about that nomination including the person being nominated? >> Okay. So, we were all here uh last year with the exception of Jesse and Jen took on the role. I think she did
009a phenomenal job. I think the students, administration, the parents uh would all agree. I think this board would agree that she did uh a phenomenal job. But she's obviously only just beginning. And I think that she will continue along the path that she started last year and I would like to see her be able to do that. >> Are there any other uh any other commentary from anyone including the person nominated? I just want to second what Angela said and I want to go further by saying that not only are am I personally impressed but I've heard from multiple people within the community how impressed they are with the job that you have done over the past year and they are so excited to see what you're going to continue to do for our region
01012. >> Awesome. Thank you. very well the other things you tell me. That's really nice. Thank you. Well, I feel honored to um to give you my microphone. Um, I feel um very honored to have the support of all of you and um I really feel that last year in particular was a real collaborative year and um and I think that the reason why it it was so successful was because of that. I feel like everybody rolled up their sleeves and really uh contributed in such a big way. And um I just feel that it was a big year especially with hiring um Dr. Shells, hiring a new principal, um starting the intermunicipal uh committee. I think we did a lot of big things last year and I think that it we it was a
011big ask of everybody. I think everybody really stepped up in a big way and I don't and I think that was that was the secret sauce. I just do. So, um I just want to thank everybody for for that. So, um so I think that that's the reason why it was such a great year. So, thank you. >> Okay. Um once and Angela just to so that I don't uh if I was in article in the way I read it, I did find the exact language which reads that not that you need the total board to be voting, but you need a majority of the total membership to constitute an election. So, we're okay. All right. Um, once again, just for the record, are there any other nominations? Okay, hearing none, then I would now
012entertain and invite a motion to close nominations and um to vote for a board for the board chairperson. Okay, that's moved and seconded. Um, do we have to vote on that? >> Yeah. Well, I mean, do we have to vote on your motion? That's one thing I'm kind of new at. Yeah. >> So, all in favor of Alex's motion to close nominations and move to a vote. >> I Any opposed? Okay. All right. So, then I would ask now for ballots, please, to be distributed for the Oh, okay. So, you you should have colorcoded ballots and the color should help you. Okay. All right. And that should help you determine which and then they will go uh to the recording secretary to be tabulated. >> And please make sure to sign your ballot. >> Need
013somewhere to collect them and bring them. California. >> Okay. So the report Okay. So the we can now announce the uh results of that vote of that election. It was eight votes for Mrs. Pod. So I'm happy to announce that M P is the um chairperson of the board. And now, as the procedure dictates, I will turn the meeting over to her to moderate the rest of the elections. >> Thank you. >> Here's your G. >> Thanks, guys. >> All right. Here we go. Next is Office of Vice. Do we have a nomination? Can we have a microphone, please? >> All right. I would like to nominate Angela Matulo. >> Okay. Can I have a second? Second, Joe. Uh moved and seconded. Any other nominations? Going second time. Any other nominations? Third time. Okay. Um
014is there a motion to close nominations? Second. I so second. All those in favor? Opposed? Extensions. Past your vote. Angela's canary yellow. >> Angela is canary yellow. >> Better than being hot pink. >> I didn't like yellow. Like both of us. >> Yeah, you're right. >> Make sure you sign your name. Oh, did you see did you see me already looking at this? M A C C H I A R U L O. >> Can I just put Angela? >> I was >> Did you just write Angela M? Alex kind of really good >> from our annual pen. Our annual gift of a pen. Jesse, did you get your pen? It's our annual pen. >> Oh, sorry. >> One a year. >> Okay. So, hold on to it. They're crappy. >> I like it. I
015think it's a good pen. This one >> snap after a while. >> I love I love this pen. >> Love it. >> That might be That might be a U issue. >> It is true. He's not wrong. He is not wrong. Have the um committee she I didn't print it. Okay. Okay. You're welcome. Perfect. We pass it around. So, okay. >> All nine for Angela. [Music] Really? Okay. Well, congratulations to Angela for being our vice chair. >> Thank you, Angela. >> Okay, moving on to the next office of secretary. Do we have a nomination? >> Hey, Justin. >> Justin Angley. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Do we have any other nominations? Do we have any other nominations? Is there a motion to close nominations? Second. All those in favor?
016I opposed extensions. Pass your vote. Justin is purple. I should have asked whether you take the job again. >> I kind of asked. We didn't even ask if you wanted it. >> You're Barney Purple. And now we have Justin Angry as our secretary. Well done, Justin. Thank you. Okay, next is Office of Treasurer. Do we have a nomination for treasurer? >> Nominate Alex. >> I second. Um, great. moved and seconded. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? No more nominations. Is there a motion to close nominations? Second. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Extensions. Cast your vote. Don't make me give you a nugie. Really? Oh my goodness. All nine for Alex. Well, congratulations to Alex. >> Great. Well, thank you very much. >> Looks very familiar. >> Familiar for sure. Um, okay.
017Now, moving on to the consent agenda. Um, the minutes of June 9th. Hard to believe. >> Wow. >> I know. It >> was a long time ago. >> It was a long time ago. Does anyone want to take anything off the consent agenda? >> Alex is the one that reviews. >> Alex. >> Okay. Anyone else? Hearing no from anyone. Uh, these have been adopted. So, we can move on. Yes. Yes. Great. Great. So, I'm going to give my apology um to Angela. I gave it earlier that if I were to be um voted in as chair, I have a rather lengthy board report, which is not usually my thing. I usually like to keep them short and sweet, but you know, making up for a little lost time. >> Trying to withhold my vote. I'm
018sorry. >> My apologies. At first, I'm going to pass around while you have something to do while you listen to my boring report. Um, I'm going to pass around the committee signup sheet. This is uh for you guys to review. Look at the um committees. If there's something of interest to you, just sign your name. Uh if you're interested in being chair as well, and then just hand them back to me. I will review um and then uh I will review the committees, appoint the chairs, and then over the next few weeks I will email the committees to everybody and then you will know. Um first I want to welcome Mr. Donald, Dr. Donald Shells. I feel like there's so many names for him, but I just want to say welcome. >> I don't know
019what she means by that. All those charges were dropped. >> Um but I just want to officially welcome you. We're really so excited to have you and it's nice to have a familiar face in this new role. Um I >> even when the face is made for radio, it's nice to have a >> No, it's just really really wonderful to have you here and so um we're just excited uh to see all of the wonderful things that you're going to do. No pressure. Um but we are excited. So welcome. >> Well, on a serious note, thank you very much. And I feel welcome. I feel supported like everybody else in this district feels supported by this board. That's part of the reason why we're ready to jump high. When I when I spoke to you
020that evening accepting the position, I said we've got our feet planted firmly on the ground and we're ready to jump high and this board is the bedrock that we're standing on. So, thank you. >> Yeah. No, we're just very excited. So, welcome. We're excited. So, um I you know I've been thinking a lot uh over the last couple of months and um and poor Justin has had uh listened to me a lot. I've been very reflective over the last couple of months especially due to the um the board of ed elections. It has left me feeling a uh a lot of different emotions. So, I've been writing down a lot of my feelings and thoughts. And so, um, here's my chance to share a lot of what I've been thinking and feeling over the last
021few months. I want to start with a little bit of what I started with with my uh speech in Washington, which was my reason for running this time and why it was different than my reason 12 years ago. My why 12 years ago was I was a young parent running because I had young kids and I felt that um you know my passion was uh because of my children and um now my lens is a little wider and my perspective is very different and I feel that I'm very different than I was 12 years ago. Um, and I think that um, uh, my feet are a little further away from the fire, which allows me to see things uh, very differently than I did when my kids were little, which is actually a really good
022thing. Um, and we did have three board elections. I would say that Bridgewater was the uh, quieter of the three. Um, and I would definitely say that Washington was the roaring one of the three. Would you agree, Christine? Yes. Um, and it really showed me a range of perspectives in our small but mighty communities. And I would say that the last three months had left me feeling frustrated at times. I would say angry at times and al at the end overall just filled with gratitude too. Um uh but there's so much emotions that come from all side which is a good thing because it means that there's just a lot of people who care regardless of from which side that you come on come from. Uh and I also saw a lot of division in
023our in my in our my town in particular. Uh which I guess I was naive to think that we had such division. Uh which was unfortunate. Um but I was wrong. So, there's a few things that I've thought a lot about that I just kind of want to share to for all of you that were a reminder for me and maybe will be helpful for you, but um things that I think are important for us as a board to remember. Um, one, we are a non-political board, period. Regardless, I don't care what side of the aisle, uh, we are one of the few left in the state. And I feel personally that that is our superpower. uh we don't run as a Republican and we don't run as a Democrat. So, uh when we come
024to the table, we're not divided. And I think that allows us to really come here for the one reason and that's for the students. Uh there's a lot of you that I have worked alongside of for years and I don't know what your political affiliation is and quite frankly I don't care. And I think that that really allows us to just work uh in a in a uniform unified way. And um what I had um and I and I've been really disappointed to see uh a few of our towns starting to sort of uh town committees sort of affiliate one side or the other uh um uh endorsing people and that concerns me deeply. But as a board for us, I really hope that we can remind our town leaders and our communities that us
025being a non-political board is a strength that we really should uh continue to move forward as. So for me, as we go back to our towns, that's something that I really feel is something that we should continue to enforce, talk to our first selectmen, and talk to our communities about because that's something that I don't think that we should be um shifting towards. That's my personal opinion, but I think that that really proves why we're so good at what we do together personally. Um, and I also want to remind us all that there is no room for political banter at this table. And I will be reminding us all of us of that. And I will be also making sure that um those that are not at this table will be watching this um board
026report because I just want to make sure that we're all reminded of that. There is absolutely no room for political banter in any way, shape, or form because I want us to be the examples of that at this table for our towns. So, that's really important. Communication. That's the other thing that I was a takeaway for me in the um board election. At our Washington Board of Ed forum, we were all asked a question. If we were elected, what would be our first priority? And that was um a question that I thought about and the first thing that came out was communication. And I it's something that I've talked about with Justin and it's something that's um has been frustrating for me uh especially for the last couple of months because it's something that um
027I feel that um is a disconnect interestingly I think and it's something that Don and I have talked a little bit about how we're going to move forward and it's something that um Ben I tried to talk to Ben about before but Ben and I are going to talk about this too. when my answer was to the person who asked me was that I want to work uh more with communicating with our communities and what that looks like to me is a little bit different than I think what maybe you would think it is. So starting with I want to start emailing the board of ed agenda every Friday through the Friday eblast to the three towns. So that means that for the fan, for the people who get that Friday eblast in Washington, Roxberry
028and Washington, they will get it through that eblast. Whether they click it or not, that's up to them, right? But they'll get that and hopefully they'll feel that, okay, oh look, it's on there. Maybe they'll come to a meeting, maybe they won't. But I think that that's one way of letting them know what's going on at the at the board of ed meetings. But what I've noticed too is that um I've heard a lot of people talking about for example the budget. You know I Lori, Dr. Rodrigue, and Nicole spent a lot of time going to the PTO meetings at the four schools and the board of finances and the three towns sharing about the budget. They spent a lot of time and a lot of energy. And yet people didn't know a lot about
029the budget. And I found that to be really curious to me. And then there was a lot of misinformation, but then there was a lot of information on social media and then that information was being shared. And then when I would talk with people, they would get information wrong. Sorry to put this on you, but it was the superintendent salary was incorrect. And then people were talking about other things. And I found that to be interesting to me that you were it was much easier to hear other people's misinformation than it was to go and listen to what Dr. Rodriguez was sharing or what Nicole was sharing than it was to just listen to friends banter in the parking lot or at their at the on social media. And I I I don't understand that.
030And I feel like at some point we do our part, but we have to encourage our communities to do theirs and we have to figure out how to make that happen. And so how do we do that? How do we educate our community and to involve them to be able to meet us halfway? We certainly can't go to people's houses and sit down at their kitchen tables and have Dr. Ro, have Dr. Shells or Nicole sit at their table and share with them. We know everybody's busy. We are busy, but we have to educate the community to make sure that they're meeting us halfway. And I feel really strongly about that. So, I think that there's ways that we can educate the community to meet us halfway. And I'm and this sounds really uh interesting,
031but I don't always necessarily know where our committee meetings are on the website. I don't know where I'll always necessarily find our board of education meetings. Um so I want to work with Ben to be able to create um an information uh flyer that we can work on where those links are shared with our communities and not just our parents, but our stakeholders and our three towns where we can send those to them. here's the link where you can find where our committee meetings are, where our board of ed um agendas are, where our minutes are because I think that that can allow them. Will they click it? I don't know. But that's not for me to decide. That's for them. And if they don't take ownership in that, that's up for them to do.
032But I do think it's on us to be able to educate the community on what their part is. And and that's really a dialogue that we could create. But I do think that that's something that we can start because I know that for me I I still don't always know how to do that. But I do I did hear a lot of this lack of transparency. That's a trigger for me because somehow when I hear that there's a lack of transparency that somehow we're hiding something. We're not hiding anything. There's nothing to be hidden. There's no gotcha moments. We're not trying to be sneaky. It's just that we're try, you know, if there's a question, you just need to know how to ask the question. You need to know where to ask the question. If
033you're a parent and you don't know something, you ask. Where do you ask that question? So, I just think that there's ways that we can communicate the Q&A that we can share with families, stakeholders, community members. Where can they ask those questions? And hopefully, we can start a dialogue that can educate the community when they have a question. if they're hearing in misinformation, how can they get the right information? Sometimes it's really easy to listen to a group of people. Sometimes you just want to get away from that group and make sure you're getting the right information. So, I just think that the communication that I want to share is really teaching people how to be independent, get their own information, and how to do that. Um, versus just thinking that if they get it
034from social media or if they get it from a certain group or however it may be. So that's my goal. Um, and that's something that I feel really strongly about. Um, I told you this was long. My apologies. Uh, let's see. The other thing I want to start doing in terms of communicating is start sharing links from our YouTube, from our meetings, the important links, the things that um that we think are vital that maybe we don't see a lot of people uh coming to but that are really important. Whether it's Carrie Snowden talking about a snippet from the curriculum or whatever it may be that we think is important, we can share those on the um eblast to the town as well. And however that may look um Ben, I always defer to you
035to make it look creative and lovely. So um we can talk about that as well, but also sharing the celebratory parts too that I think are really interesting and fun and creative uh that I think that are important. So those are the things that I really want to focus on and work on to share with our communities. Um so those are the things and then the other thing I'd like to share is um we uh the intermunicipal commu committee which is our elementary school committee that we um have been working on since I believe November of 24. Is that right Alex and Joe? Yeah. It's been a long time. We've worked really really hard on creating uh in uh information and basically what this uh uh committee is it represents all three communities including the
036three town leadership which is our three first selectmen um it includes um uh community members, board members um and what we have done is and um uh please help me um principal Don Oiri, Nicole, uh, uh, Don, there's like 18 of us. And the goal really here is to have, uh, primary schools, grades K through five, each in each of the three towns. And it's, uh, the last large scale renovations were in 1990. Since that time, there have been some repairs um, and improvements to the physical buildings, but there are long-standing issues that need attention. So we created a survey and boy did we work really hard on that survey, didn't we? Um and so I um we created a survey on Survey Monkey and we just ordered Did Did the cards come in because
037I think they were supposed to be delivered today. I don't know if they did or not. 2500 um postcards. We got a we have a QR code and um we are going to blast it out to the three communities. We want to try to get as many people to take the survey. We want uh to have people um take the survey and the questions are please feel free to chime in on this part of it but basically what it is is that it's uh to uh with the intention of taking action that will keep our schools competitive in the future and our communities viable. We feel that it is vital to get community's input and guidance with regards to the type and scope of improvements so that we can procure accurate cost estimates. So basically
038what we want to do before we start getting cost estimates we want to know how the three communities feel about their school right because we have in the future and in the past rather we've spent a lot of money assuming how the three towns feel about their schools you know whether it's not consolidating whether we spend money on uh on you know uh spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on um uh engineer designs for the schools and then they go we don't want that we want this. So we really want to get a sense of how the communities each of the three communities feel. So then we have a direction of how to spend the money for engineering plans to move forward and we can't do that until we take a temperature of each of
039the three schools. I see your brain Turo. Yeah. So when these go out to the towns, yes, are they only commenting on their school? So the residents of Washington will >> they will be asked on the on the survey. So all of this has been flushed out at Nauseium, >> okay, >> with the the committee, you'll be asked that question. What town do you live in? >> Okay, >> all of that is in the question. So when you come down, it will ask you what >> are you a region 12 parent? Do you do you live in the community? Are you do are you a community member? Do you not have kids? Do you have kids? Okay. >> So, you'll have there's lots of different questions to be able to quantify who you are. >>
040Okay. >> In the community. >> Okay. So, let's say so someone from Washington cannot make comments on something in Bridgewater or >> you're being asked based on your opinion. >> Okay. My fear is and I just Yep. You know what I'm going to say. My my fear is is I don't want any cans of worms open from years ago. >> Towns >> have built this survey. >> Perfect. >> That is why is the intermunicipal committee. >> Okay. >> All three towns, okay, have buy in in this survey. Okay. It is the only way that this survey would have been created. Okay. Only way. Okay. So, it's just a nugget in order for us to then make the next to take the next step. That's it. It's just the beginning phase. Okay. It's just taking a
041dipstick to then decide what we're doing next. So, we're just in the beginning phases. Now this survey was a huge project. >> Sure. >> For just a tiny little temperature. Understood. >> But um we have >> I have sorry I also have a question. Uh will the rest of the board members get to screen the questions before the survey goes out? >> You can screen the questions when you um the when you take the survey? >> Uh okay. No, I guess I will reword. So there is no further ability to edit. No questions. Okay. All right. No, >> there was some ability for the >> mic. >> Well, I mean, not re not for the board. >> Yeah, the draft the board was asked to review it and get the king out of >> Well,
042because you're on the committee. >> Yeah, you're on the committee. I didn't >> Not the board. >> Yeah, I for for the future. I think it would be helpful if the rest of the board members, even if we're not on the committee, could see it. >> Well, I think >> before it goes out to the general public. >> To be really honest with you, Christine, this committee is a community um based. So I think because there's 18 people on the committee including the three selectmen I think that it's it was more important that it was a community based on the three towns than it for me personally than it was about the boards because there were there board there are there were there board members on it. I think for me personally if we it
043was if it was brought to the board then it would really be getting into the weeds. >> Yeah. No. Well, okay. I think and I don't mean to belabor this but at the end of the day the board will have to be the one that is executing on the results of this right >> interpreting and executing on >> it's the town too though >> too but I mean I I just think for a future especially something of this importance it would have been helpful for the entire board to at least have had the chance to see what the questions looked like >> because you know my my concern and I haven't seen the questions but my concern is context is everything. >> Yep. >> And so um you know have confidence that all of you
044>> long and over >> and I have to I Yeah. And I would have to say and I appreciate what you're saying and I would say normally in every other context I would agree with you. I would say that I would say that the town Go ahead, Nicole. >> So, just being a part of the committee, I just wanted to speak to Christine's concern because I think if you're outside of the committee, it's a really valid concern, but maybe if you're more in the fold, just to kind of assuage your fears more. This is a preliminary survey, >> very preliminary. Yeah. Just to give the committee a direction to go, >> right, >> before they decide what recommendation they're going to get. >> So, it's so preliminary. I think it would be >> that we're
045not making any decisions. >> Yeah, there's no decisions at all coming out of this. It's just like a dipstick to say what is it? What are the communities feeling so we can decide >> what to recommend the board spend its money spends its money on >> in order to put together plans for people to then >> That's right. >> Right. But okay. Yeah. Look, we we could take it upline, but my point is the results of this survey will dictate what consulting services we're bringing on board or engineering services or any of that. No, >> no. >> Well, it just said what we're spending the money on. No, >> no. It's literally just giving us an idea of h of what direction we're going. Like, are we going to do are we going to uh
046do three? Are we going to get plans for three schools? Are we going to get plans for one school? Are we going to get plans for >> But that drives the cost of this study. >> We we we're not even looking at money. >> Okay. All right. >> There's no there's no there's no dollar amount. There's no there's not even a dollar amount on this. >> How about this? Just this dialogue, I think, indicates that it would have been helpful to inform the rest of the board on what is going out to the public because we are still on the front lines, right? people will ask us questions, >> which is why I'm telling you right now because this hasn't even gone out yet. >> Okay. >> Um, >> so I I can't share anything
047with you until we literally just got this approved and so I'm sharing it with you now. >> Okay. When is it going up? >> Um, when we get the when we get the cards ordered. Well, we just ordered them. So, I will be sending it out >> like in weeks, months. >> Oh, this hopefully this week. which was why I was sharing it with you today. >> So if we scan that QR code, you could see what the survey is, right? >> Absolutely. >> And 18 people literally took us 6 months. So, and then if we had all of us then trying to figure out then on top of that, it would have taken us another probably year and a half to implement this one part that we were already 4 months behind in. So,
048the timeline would have been significantly longer. >> Again, closing this out, we had the committee formed. I knew I wasn't on the committee. That isn't the problem. But again, I think it's not about consent. It's about information. Yep. >> So that when we're asked questions, we know what's going on, >> which is Yep. Absolutely. And I'll share that with you when it comes out. >> Yes. >> Just wondering the success of this survey will be that the most number of respondents share their opinions. >> Yep. What can we do apart from telling everyone we know that they should take this this moment seriously? That they should really invest in this survey so that we get the the best quality data, the most data from the community. >> What should you do other than tell them
049to take the survey? >> I mean, is there anything else we can do >> other than just tell them to take the survey? >> Okay. So, everyone we know. >> Yeah. Okay, that's it. >> And it's not just family, it's community, it's everybody. Um on here we I've notified the three um s uh today actually the three um senior centers to make sure that they have their seniors um take their surveys because it's electronic right so it's techn the techn technical part of it um to help them take the surveys as well. So that's important too for them. So all three uh senior centers are um up and ready for any help if they want to. So yeah. Yep. And lastly um we are going to be having I'm working with uh Tom Mooney for
050a board retreat for September. So uh just like last year early uh Saturday morning. I don't know a date yet, but it will be sometime in September. And then that's it. Any other questions? I think that was my lengthy one, so I'm done. >> Okay, great. Please. So, for the superintendent report at the front end, there are a lot of personnel matters to inform you about, a lot of appointments to begin with. Elizabeth Acriman will be a new elementary teacher at Washington Primary School. Haley Arvatel will be a social studies teacher at Chapag. Margaret Dary will be our district's social worker. Desiree Een will be a special education teacher at the Burnham School. Caleb Easten, PAR educator, school placement yet to be determined. Caitlyn Kousmir will be an elementary teacher in a one-year position at
051Washington Primary School. Bernardet Lamontine will be a world language teacher at Chipog. Don as a bit a par educator at Chipot. We also have some resignations and retirements. Mabs actor uh who was the administrative assistant to the director of teaching learning and assessment um resigned effective August 19th. Cheryl Brinkerhoff, par educator of Booth Free School, um resigned effective June 13th and Michael Ep's SRO resigned effective July 9th. There are also some transfers. William Hosking will be a math interventionist at Booth and Burnham School. He was an elementary teacher at Booth School. Jennifer Rotunda will be an elementary teacher at Booth School, had been an elementary teacher at Washington Primary. And Serena Ryost will be a special education teacher um at Chapag. She had been at Burnham. There are two field trip notifications on the agenda.
052The first one looks familiar to you. I'm sure it's the A trip to the Big E. Uh if students go out of state, we informed the board. And there's also a cross country meet. Uh you'll see on the agenda at the Washingtonville High School in Washingtonville, New York, which is a standard event for our cross country teams to go to these meets. But again, if they cross state lines, we inform the board about it. My understanding is we seek an actual board approval if it's an overnight out of state trip. These are just out of state day trips. And then just a couple of points of update uh from me. First, you know why we're in here. It's because their library is being renovated and it's still in the early stages, but you can already
053sense what's to come. I walked through there today and the colors are exploding and popping. They're all different colors all over the walls and I can't imagine what how that's going to accentuate the new furniture and the space. It's not just about aesthetic appeal. Although aesthetics are part of what motivate people to want to work and learn and collaborate, it's also about the functionality of the space and when we're done uh we're going to have um a true library learning commons where the space can be configured in ways that privilege students working together, collaborating, innovating, and doing all kinds of activities that make the space um what what it should be. And uh my last point to uh report to you is we had our annual administrative retreat this past week um offsite the leadership
054team was able to gather for three days and talk about things that are really important to our upcoming year and to our development and we were able to spend a day talking about our strategic plan and what the year 2 deliverables will look like and how we'll get there and visioning how we're going to create a plan forward that honors the strategic plan. We were able to spend a day talking with some consultants about how we're going to get better at implementing our evaluation plan, particularly supporting teachers in developing meaningful and rewarding professional learning plans. And then we had a day dedicated to um restorative practices and how we're going to roll those out in our schools because we do have a new climate policy. We do have a new restorative practices policy that's true
055across the state. And these ideas are not brand new in region 12. Our schools have been doing things like that for a long time, but we've been getting training and will be providing more training as the statute requires, as the policy requires, but also as good practice requires. More training to help us double down on the three Rs in school relationships, relevance, and rigor that are the ingredients to a healthy climate. And uh that's my uh report. Great. Thanks. I think that's it. I guess we can just have a motion to adjurnn. Oh, no. Guess we're done.