001have to do anything. I just have to talk really loud. >> Good evening. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the board of education for this evening, March 12th. It is 7:02 um p.m. and we will be recording this um meeting to post on the Rocky Hill Public Schools website tomorrow. Uh first agenda item is the pledge of allegiance led by some drama school drama club friends. Please stand. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for its one nation. >> Thank you. I can't finish. So our second agenda item this evening is a special recognition. Um we have uh the recognition of Steve Slatterie who is our former board chair. Mr. Flattery, would you please come forward? >> Thank you for coming up. I'm
002going to say a few words and then we'll turn the mic over to Dr. Zitto. Uh, so I just would like to take a moment to recognize Mr. Slatterie for his years of service on the board of education. Serving on the board is a meaningful commitment, but serving as chair brings a unique set of responsibilities. The chair has many roles such as helping to guide conversations, keeping meetings focused and ensuring that many different voices are heard. It requires patience and thoughtfulness and really good time management when it comes to scheduling meetings. The board service is also something that's done voluntarily. It is an unpaid role where individuals give generously of their time, energy, and attention because they care deeply about their community and the schools. The hope is always that through this work, we can
003make a positive difference. Mr. Slatterie, I know that the role wasn't always easy, but thank you for your leadership, your dedication, and the time that you have given over the past four years, especially the three years that you served as chair. Your commitment to our students and the district is very much appreciated. >> Thank you, Mr. Fredo. I just want to make a couple of comments. This board has a very nice tradition. They present outgoing board members after their term of service with a commemorative engraved school belt. So, you'll find a spot for it either in your law office or your house somewhere. Uh, but it's a nice little token of the appreciation that the board has for you. Um, for those of you that know Steve, he has three kids enrolled in our school
004system. He served on the board for four years from 2021 to 2025 and served both as the vice chair and as the chair as Miss afraid mentioned um I've always found that Steve was a strong advocate for our local school district and brought his legal expertise to the board, always looking at issues through an analytical lens and I think always doing what he felt was best for students and putting them uh at the forefront of his leadership. Uh Steve, on a personal level, I'm I am very grateful for the uh support that you provided to me in my role as superintendent, uh particularly during your time as chair, and I'm very grateful for your service to the school district and uh the community at large. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um I didn't prepare
005anything, but um let me say it was an honor and a pleas Well, first of all, it's an honor and a pleasure to be here now. Um, thank you for inviting me and thank you for the um, uh, for the bell. Um, it was an honor and a pleasure to serve the community and to serve with um, all the members that um, who were on who I was on the board with. um we didn't always agree on everything, but I mean that's part of the purpose of the board is to is to is to work through those difficult issues and um always keep the you know at the forefront of our minds what's in the best interest of our students and um remember that these students are our future. And so, um, it was certainly,
006uh, an honor, not always a pleasure, but it it was certainly an honor, uh, to, uh, both represent the community, um, and and to, uh, participate in in the process. Um, you know, to everyone who's, uh, on the board that I work with, thank you for, um, all the conversations that we had. Um, thank you for all the uh, experiences uh, that we had. Um it was also an opportunity for personal growth for me. Um I really learned a lot about myself both serving. Uh it was my first time in public service. Uh my first time as a chair um which does come with a lot of responsibilities, a lot of things um scheduling and um meetings. Um you're at every meeting. You're you know always always a lot of phone calls. Um so uh
007it was a great opportunity for me uh also for personal growth. So, um, I think Rocky, Rocky Hill is a tremendous town with a tremendous community and I think our school district is is amazing. Um, you know, I've been at the local sporting events since then. I had the opportunity to coach the fifth grade girls travel team. Um, and just anytime I'm interacting with the community, I think we're so blessed to be where we are and to have the people that we have. Um, and so, uh, thank you all for your continued service. Thank you uh for um having me on the board and thank you for having me back today. I wish you all luck. Thank you. I'm sure I'll see you all around. So, thank you. Agenda item number three is audience participation
008and this is where our meeting is open to the public. We ask that you um if you choose to come forward, please come over to the podium and we ask that you state your name and address for the record and try to limit your comments to two minutes on any topic that you come forward with. Is there anyone that wishes to address the board? Okay, Mr. Slatter, you had your two minutes. Um, okay. Seeing that there is no one here that would like to address the board, I will move on to our report of student representatives. And we have members of the high school student council first that will report on activities at Rocky Hill High School. Good evening everyone. Um, I hope you're doing well. It's been great that the weather is starting to
009transition warmer. Um, and I've been enjoying it very much. Um, I'm Ratisha Satish Kumar, one of, uh, the board of ed members from the student council. Um, and I'm here to give you a brief update of the high school. Um on March 5th, uh RHHS hosted the women in action event where women panelists from different career fields such as engineering, nutrition, photography, etc. came in to talk about um talk to students about their journey. Um students also got to personally interact um with them and ask questions to the inspiring representatives. Thank you, Mrs. Guzman and Mrs. Erso for putting this together. Um the following day on March 6th, the RA's drama club performed a song from the upcoming spring musical, The Little Mermaid, during the PD meeting. Um teachers from all schools in Rocky Hill
010uh got to experience a snippet of the musical that would be held this month at the high school. Uh from March 2nd to March 6th, the student council held a book drive where students donated books for the public library um in their home rooms. To make it fun, we uh made it a competition with the home room with the highest number of books um where the highest number of books got rewarded with donuts. Um a total of around 500 books were collected and donated. On March 9th, students took the DESA assessment um to help assess their skills. The result uh showed like the top skill of each student and it provided activities to help develop uh lacking skills for each student. And to wrap up the past month's activities, our winter athletics have come to
011an end and we have begun the transition to spring sports. Shout out to our ice hockey co-op and girls basketball teams who are representing well as high seeds in their respective state tournaments and they're looking to make deep runs. With that, I would like to conclude this short update. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you. Additionally, we have representatives from the drama club that will also come on up to the podium and talk a little bit about the upcoming production of The Little Mermaid. Good evening and thank you for having us here tonight. My name is Cece Mo and I am the vice president of drama club. My name is Bella Lefredo and I'm the president of drama club. We're excit sorry. We're excited to share a little bit about our
012Rocky Hill School drama club. >> This year we are proud to be presenting The Little Mermaid, a production we've been working on since the beginning of January. Over the past few months, our cast and crew have dedicated many hours of rehearsing, building, and preparing what we hope will be a wonderful show for our community. One of our goals this year has has been to grow the drama club and expand our reach within the school and broader the community. To help accomplish this, we've created a drama club board. The members of the board were nominated and elected by the rest of the club, and we work together to make decisions and support and benefit everyone involved in the production. For example, with the help of Miss Freay Tag, we were able to add a third performance
013this year, a Saturday matinea at 1 p.m. on March 21st. This additional performance makes the show more accessible for our younger audience members and families, while also giving our cast another opportunity to perform and share their hard work with the community. We are also working working to connect with our younger students. This coming Monday, March 16th, we will be visiting the elementary schools to perform short preview and answer questions from the students. We are excited to show them what we've been working on and hope that it inspires them to come see the show and maybe even convince them to join drama club once they're in high school. The Little Mermaid includes many familiar and recognizable songs, but this version of the musical also features additional music with large ensemble numbers. We are especially fortunate this
014year to have a larger ensemble which allows us to bring even more energy and excitement to the production. As our program continues to sorry to grow, we are also expanding our opportunities beyond the school. This year we are we will be participating in two theater award programs, the Halo Awards and the Time Awards. These events give our cast the opportunity to showcase their work and connect with other theater programs and also bring recognition to the dedicated and talent of our students. As we prepare for opening night, we hope to continue building support for the drama club, not only for this production, but for our future shows as well. The growth of the Rocky Hill High School drama club is very important to us and we hope it continues to thrive for the students who will
015be part of it in the years to come. Our goal is to make drama club an even stronger presence in our community and to inspire others through the arts. We hope you'll consider joining us for one of our performances Friday, March 20th at 7 p.m. or Saturday, March 21st at 1 p.m. or 7 p.m. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. And we will now come around and give you a flyer for our show. Thank you. Thank you. >> Obviously, you know, I don't need one. I already I already I'll be here. >> I know. >> Thank you so much to our Rocky High School members. um of the student council and of the drama club. Thank you so much for coming on up to the podium. Next, we will move
016on to the report of student representatives from Moer School. These seats here. Yeah. Good evening, board of education members, central office administrators, and the residents of Rocky Hill. My name is Amelia Whitaker, and my friend next to me is Wesley Rory. In this presentation, we will share some highlights of the many events and activities happening at Moer School. Throughout the year, we have continued to honor students weekly with our Friday Raptor raffle. Two students are recognized each week for displaying Moer's core values, respect, responsibility, and pride. They are the eye in kind. In November, the student council partnered with the Rocky Hill Police Department and Griswald Middle School to host a turkey drive at Moer School. Together, Moer and GMS helped raise a total of 106 turkeys. An amazing an amazing accomplishment that made a
017real difference in our community. The Moer community truly rocks. December was a very busy month at Moer. Mrs. Stevens and the fifth grade course performed a magical winter themed show. The gym was filled with music and joy. One of our favorite songs from the performance was hot chocolate. Who doesn't love a nice warm cup during the cold winter months? A civility assembly for fourth and fifth grade students was presented by Mr. Jamal Thompson and focused on the theme words matter. The program encouraged student participation and taught the importance of using kind and respectful language. The assembly emphasized that choosing kind words helps create a more respectful and supportive community. To wrap up the fun, several students even got the chance to play musical chairs with Mr. Thompson and take their own shots at the basket,
018ending the assembly with lots of laughter and cheer cheers from the crowd. The Moer community continued its generosity in December when student council organized a toy drive to support children in need. We truly value our community at Moer and are thankful to be part of such an amazing place. The number of toys donated help many make many children feel special. Before winter break, we also had a little fun. We hosted a spirit week for all students to participate in. Each day, the school was filled with excitement and school spirit, even some ugly sweaters. During the week, students had the opportunity to wear holiday colors, crazy hair, and everyone's favorite, PJ Day. We are also incredibly proud of our CCMC PJ Day fundraising efforts. This year, we raised an amazing $1,470. We had a special PBIS
019assembly to honor students who exemplified Moer's core values, respect, responsibility, and pride. Congratulations to all our outstanding Raptors. We were also treated to fantastic performance by the Rocky Hill High School Corral and Chamber Choir along with Mr. Traver who filled the air with holiday cheer. Students really enjoyed the performance and left with smiles on their faces. Our hardworking students in the connections program have been actively learning and participating in whole group lessons and activities. In January, they had the opportunity to create snowman with real snow during one of their lessons. That was before we had multiple snowstorms, including a blizzard. Now, we wanted all just to melt. We are so proud of the work they do each and every day. During our lunch waves, our amazing SRO, Officer Carol, hosted a trivia event. We worked
020with our classmates and answered questions. We enjoyed this special event during lunch and can't wait for Officer Carol to host trivia again. Next time, we'll invite Mr. Cassell to join us to see if he's smarter than a fifth grader. Officer Carol has also taken time to visit our classrooms and read books related to our monthly PBIS themes. He's not only dedicated to the Rocky Hill community, but also is an invaluable member of the Moer community. Thank you, Officer Carol. Thank you to our Moer families for your incredible generosity during booster thawn. We raised over $14,000 to benefit our Moer community. The G the Glow Run was a massive success and students had the opportunity to have fun with their classmates. We were excited, energetic, and will remember these moments forever. We can not thank our
021families enough for your support. Because we reached our goal for the second year in a row, Mr. Cassella will not be getting slimed, but he will be getting dunked. We cannot wait for the opportunity to dunk Mr. Cassella over and over again. What a time will that be. Our monthly theme for February is kindness. Our student council members spread kindness and cheer in February by brightening the days of our staff with a kindness and coffee cart. A good cup of coffee always brightens your day. We also hosted our third annual kindness gala at Moer School. We cannot thank the community enough for your support you gave us for this event. The gym was beautifully decorated and it was a huge success for all the students who attended this year. We had pizza, ice cream, and
022even two popcorn machines. We also had face painting and a henna station. How exciting. The students at Moer School are constantly spreading kindness and this event truly showed that. We had a blast celebrating together. We are also proud to show off our Moer magazine club. Mrs. Lynch and Miss Grimmaldi have helped create a magazine that is made for the students and designed by the students. Members meet monthly to edit submissions and turn student ideas into a wonderful magazine for our school community. We love our magazine. Congratulations to Raan Rafur and Samya Amed for being our CAS art award recipients. Both students were recognized by Mrs. Shear and Mrs. Stevens for their accomplishments, citizenship, and dedication to art and music. We had a great time celebrating these two students with their families at the art ceremony
023and dinner. A big thank you to Mrs. cheer our students and everybody who supported the art show this year. The turnout was amazing and it was heartwarming to see our community come together to celebrate creativity. Student art pieces included circle weaving, snowy silhouette paintings, beaded belts, and cardinal paintings. All the students put so much hard work and dedication into the event, and it truly shined. In March, we celebrated Reacross America Day. This year we participated in one book, one author, one community experience from March 2nd through March 6th. We enjoyed reading the wish tree by Katherine Applegate. Students completed activities connected to the story and thanks to Mrs. Shear, we even had a beautiful lifelike wish tree in the hallway where students could add their wishes. In addition, we are also participating in Moer March
024book madness. Classes will read a book each week and vote for a winner. By the end of the bracket, we will vote for the Moer book of the year. We cannot wait for the madness to begin. We would like to extend a special thank you to Judge Bio and attorney Hernandez for visiting half of our fifth grade classes to teach us about civics. Our students appreciate the opportunity to learn from such knowledgeable and engaging guest speakers. They will be visiting again later this year so the rest of the fifth graders can experience this amazing opportunity. We even got to try on the judges rope and bang the gavvel. Last week the Harlem Wizards visited Moer School and performed an exciting entertaining assembly. Joe the Jet showed off his amazing tricks and shots with the students
025and even Mr. Sanford. On March 27th, eight MOSA teachers will be playing on the Rocky Hill Dream Team in a basketball game against the Wizards. We cannot wait to see the game and even maybe one of our teachers getting dunked on. On Monday, the entire school went on a field trip to the Bushanol to see Hero, the boy from Troy. This production explored the life and legacy of civil rights leader John Lewis. It was a wonderful learning opportunity and we had a great time. Moer school is excited about all the events and activities we have planned for the rest of the school year. We will have two more PBIS assemblies to recognize our Raptors. The high school drama club will perform a sneak peek of the Little Mermaid, another STEM assembly, PGA golf lessons during
026PE class, an ice cream social, spring band concert, and field day where we will get to dunk Mr. Cassella. We will also have field trips to the YMCA camp sloper lake compounds and finally our fifth grade celebration. >> Our gift to you is a custom Moer mug and a copy of our latest edition of the Moer magazine. Enjoy a cup of coffee and some light reading. Thank you for inviting us tonight and listening to our March Moer presentation. Who else is excited for warm weather? We know we are. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. did a great job. >> Thank you. >> Great job. Thank you. >> Thank you. your rappers. Thank you. >> You did a great presentation. Well done. Moving on to our uh agenda item number four, which is district celebrations,
027and we have uh Rocky High School Civility Awards. So, we're really happy tonight to be uh honoring four students, two from the high school and from Moer. Uh want to thank Miss Leferredo. We talked about having more student involvement at our board meetings. And um as you know if you've been following the board throughout the year we've been working on a district-wide initiative to promote greater tolerance, respect, kindness, civility, um citizenship, all those important words in terms of being a productive member of a community and treating everybody else with respect. So um today actually we had our second round of uh civility assemblies with Mr. Thompson throughout the district. It went really well this morning. uh tomorrow. I think it'll be at the high school and the middle school as well. Uh this has been
028really well received by the students. I want to thank Dr. Diaz uh for taking the lead on this. She's working with uh Miss Morphia and the members on the voice committee. Some really positive things are happening. So um the plan is as we move forward, every time students present from a particular school on the board agenda, we will ask the principal of the school to also recognize two students who've exhibited excellent civility, citizenship, respect for others. uh not necessarily the best athletes in the school, not necessarily the best students in the school or the kids who get all the academic awards, but recognizing kids that at their core are just really good human beings, come to school on a regular basis, treat everybody with dignity and respect, just kind of an exemplar of all those
029excellent qualities we we want to see in other people. So, um I'd like the high school administration to come up and they're going to talk about two phenomenal kids. Tonight, we have Evans Bang and Olivia Diosi. John and Dave, if you guys can come up. So, I'm going to start with Olivia. If Olivia can come up. I know she's here. Olivia DBS. Good evening, members of the board of education. The Civility Award recognizes students, just as a reminder for folks in the crowd, who consistently show compassion, responsibility, and thoughtfulness toward others. Students whose everyday actions help make our school a place where people feel supported, welcomed, and respected. It's my pleasure to recognize Olivia as one of our students for this month for embodying these qualities. Olivia brings a positive spirit wherever she goes. She's
030known for her warm smile. There it is. friendly greetings and the genuine conversation she has with both peers and adults. Her presence has a way of lifting the atmosphere around her. Over the past several years, Olivia has also shared a unique and meaningful tradition within our school community. She creates a calendar featuring the animals from her family's farm and distributes it to staff members throughout the building while also selling them on her farm. This year's calendar stood out even more because Olivia thoughtfully included positive affirmation quotes for each month. She shared that she wanted to choose messages that more people could relate to. It's a quote. While making sure that they weren't too cringy, also quote, those small moments of encouragement became something special. Reminders to look for the rainbows and sunshine during the more
031difficult parts of the school year. Olivia mentioned that creating the calendar made her smile and I can honestly say it brought a lot of smiles to others as well, including myself. Beyond this, Olivia consistently finds ways to give back. She's volunteered her time helping in the main office. She supported community events such as creating angel trees for families and participated in various youth soccer coaching events. Through her kindness, initiative, and genuine care for others, Olivia helps make our school and community a brighter place. And before I conclude, I just want to share the calendar. I took this down off the wall in my office and I'm gonna read you. Yes, I am. I'm going to read you March. I'm going to read you March. I love it. Okay, so those are her donkeys. Without the
032rain, there would be no rainbows. >> So I see her in the hallway. And so each month when I flip the calendar, I'll catch her in the hallway. I'll try to remember what she had said in the calendar. I'll say, "Hey, by the way, did you know that life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass? It's about learning how to dance in the rain." And she'll, "Yes, that's true." So, it is my honor to recognize Olivia as one of this month's civility award recipients. Please join me in congratulating her. Evans, if you want to come up. >> Our second award w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w
033w w w w w w w is Evans Quabina Bang. It is my pleasure to recognize him as the other March recipient for the civility award. Evans joined our high school during his sophomore year and from the very beginning his quiet enthusiasm and positive present were evident. He is polite, hard-working, and genuine young man who makes a meaningful difference in the lives of those around him. Evans is the kind of student who will go out of the way to help a peer, support a teacher, or encouragement for his teammates without hesitation. Even when faced with challenges, Evan approaches situations with a smile. There it is and a strong sense of determination. Rather than making excuses, he meets obstacles with resilience and quiet strength. He is also known for offering kind words and well-wishes to others,
034often lifting the spirits of those around him through simple but meaningful encouragement. In addition to his character, Evans is deeply committed to both his academics and his athletics. He's a member of a varsity soccer team and plays competitively for the Connecticut football club. Outside of school, he demonstrates remarkable responsibility by balancing two jobs. He serves as an assistant manager for the family for the family's home care agency where he assists with scheduling, client communication, organizing records. He also works as a crew member at Duncan where he takes on the roles of cashier and barista. He has also given back to others in meaningful ways. He volunteered at Prade Trucking Company assisting workers in the warehouse as a gesture of gratitude for the support the owner had provided the family early on. Within his own family,
035Evans played an important role in helping his mother launch their home care agency, assisting with communication with the state and helping organize company paperwork. He's an exceptional young man whose authenticity, compassion, and work ethic set a powerful example for others. He truly embodies the spirit of this recognition. It is my honor to recognize Evans Quipino as recipient as well for this month's civility award. Please join me in congratulating HIM and Mr. If you could come up please. And Mr. Cassello is going to recognize Christian Sanker and Amelia Cologne. Starting with Christian. Okay, >> Christian, you want to come come on up here, please. Tonight we are celebrating Christian Sanker, a fourth grade student at Moer. Christian is a student who is a caring leader, a dependable friend, and a great member of our school community.
036Christian shows respect in the way he speaks to others and responsibility in the things he does. He is always willing to help, listens carefully when someone needs support, and encourages his classmates to do their best. Whether he's helping a new student find the way around their school, having friendly conversations with teachers and students, or helping make our hallways feel welcoming, Christian shows kindness and teamwork every day. His positive attitude and sense of fairness help make our school a better place for everyone. Christian, thank you for being thoughtful, responsible, and kind to the people around you. You show us that being a good citizen means making good choices every day. We are very proud to recognize you tonight. Please join me in congratulating Christian Sanker. And then Amelia Cologne, do you want to come on up?
037Tonight, we are also recognizing Amelia Cologne, a fifth grade student at Moer. Amelia is a great leader, a caring friend, an important member of our school community. Every day, Amelia shows kindness with her words and bravery with her actions. She listens when others need someone to talk to, stands up for what is right in a calm way, and helps make our school a place where everyone feels welcome. Amelia helps others in many ways. She supports her classmates, works hard in group projects, and even a simple smile from her can brighten someone's day. These small acts of kindness help make our school stronger and happier. Amelia's honesty, generosity, and determination inspire both students and teachers. Amelia, thank you for setting a great example and showing us what being a good citizen means through caring for others
038and helping our community. We are very proud to recognize you tonight. Keep being brave, kind, and true to yourself. The world needs more kids like you. Please join me in congratulating Amelia Cologne. Congratulations to all of the winners of the civility award. Thank you so much for showing respect and civility in our schools. We're so proud of you. Um it's customary usually for us to take a very quick 10-minute uh recess for any families that might want to take pictures with administrators. So, could I have a motion for a >> motion for recess? >> Thank you. 10 quick 10-minute recess. Thank you, Mr. Costco. Can I have a second? >> Thank you, Mr. Shabra. We're in recess for 10 minutes. What do you need? It's good to see you. Good to be here. Thanks for
039being here. I haven't vote too. Extra coffee or no? >> Oh, good. >> Extra. >> Perfect. Thank you. Okay, it is 7:51 and I'm calling our board of education meeting for March 12th, 2026 back to order. It is 7:51. We have taken a short recess, but we are back and we are going to move on to the approval of minutes. Um, for February 19th, we had a board of education meeting and March 5th, we had a special meeting. Are there any additions, deletions, or changes to the minutes? I'm just going to look around. >> All right. Seeing none, um, can I please have a motion to approve the minutes? >> Motion for approval of the minutes. >> Thank you, Miss Manella. Can I have a second? Second. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. uh, Clemens. >>
040Um, can I please have uh, all in favor? Hopefully. Yes, everyone. I thank you. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, motion passes. Very good. Thank you so much. >> All right, moving on to agenda item number six, correspondence. Dr. Zto, >> uh, two quick items. Um, staffing, uh, issues. We had, uh, Mrs. Um Megan Janette, who's a special ed teacher at Rocky Hill High School, is resigning effective March 27th to take a a position at another school district uh that she's qualified for. She's looking for a change of pace. Uh she's done an excellent job and she will be missed. Uh we have already posted the vacancy for her position. And then I also received word that uh Dr. Sharon Parker, who's a beloved high school teacher here, science teacher here at Rock High School, is
041retiring effective at the end of the year. And we will miss Sharon and wish her well in retirement. >> Thank you, Dr. Zto. >> Item number seven is consent calendar, and we currently have nothing on the consent calendar. So, I'm going to move forward to committee reports. Agenda item number eight, curriculum. >> No report, but we will be scheduling a meeting. So, I'll be reaching out to coordinate. >> Thank you very much. Facilities, >> uh, facilities, facilities committee has not met, but we will be scheduling a meeting to review the CIP and do some prioritization. CIP Chuck. Nice. Chuck. >> He's here in spirit. Mr. Costco. >> Yeah. Literally Chuck's name. >> Dr. Nosik. You're meeting with Dr. Nosik. >> Huh? >> You're meeting with Dr. Nosik. Who are you meeting? Oh, Ron. Okay. >>
042Facilities. >> Oh, we're facilities. That's right. Sorry. Ron and I got Chuck. >> Old ball guy. >> Because you're both >> Ron and I talked and we're gonna schedule a meeting for April to go through the CIP and prioritize it. I'm going to show >> Thank you, Mr. Coster. Moving on. Finance. There will be no report, but um just want to state that we will be having approval of the budget proposal later on in the meeting. Thank you. Uh agenda item 11, personnel and negotiations. No report. >> 12, policy. >> Uh agenda item number 13, special ed. >> That's me again. Uh we have not met since last meeting, but since it's been a while, we will plan on meeting in April. Uh number 14, correct council. >> We have a meeting on March 11
043>> and uh 15 school safety. >> Yeah. >> Yesterday. Um, Miss M Miss Morphe, do you want to check that date and get back to us and see because I know I know that things are are usually recorded, too. So, even if you did miss it, we can probably get a recording. Correct. >> Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Uh, number 15, school safety. >> Uh, school safety. We've not had a meeting since the last since last month. >> Okay. And 16, technology. >> No report. >> And 17, voice. >> Uh, we are actually working on getting a meeting together. to be announced. >> All right, moving on to some uh we have no unfinished business currently, but we do have some new business and at this time we are going to move to
044uh agenda item 18, which is approval of the budget proposal for fiscal year of 2026 2027. And um Dr. ZTO, I'm going to let you speak for just a few minutes and then >> Thank you. Um, so in your packet, you have two of what I call the kind of the running scorecards on the budget. I give you a lot of credit. I made some comments later in my report uh tonight, but basically this is the fifth uh public meeting where you're discussing the budget. That's uh that's good. and it's reflective of the fact that the number this year is uh quite even higher than we've historically seen in Rocky Hill for many reasons. In your packet, I also included um the most recent update from um from CAPS, which is the local superintendent association.
045And what that does is you've got to you got to what Mr. Cer said, you're going to need reading glasses for this one. But you could see where we are in compar in other communities. And you'll notice u that budgets are pretty high in many places primarily as a function of increased costs for health insurance. We know that our transportation numbers are up, special ed costs are up. These are all putting significant pressure on the budget. So, um you know, if you look at South Windsor, for example, where they are, they're pretty similar town. They're in the same district reference group to us. their board has been adopted uh their budget's already been adopted by their board at uh a little bit over 8% 8.16. So pretty comparable to what we're dealing with here. What
046you have in front of you on these little scorecards is kind of a running total of where we are after the workshops. Uh we where we last left you was in an increase of 8.92%. Um what you see in there um are some increases that you made during the workshops uh to increase the kindergarten parent. Um a STEM club advisor that's the STEM uh club for the middle school. Uh a little bit of money for nurses professional development and an increase in student field trips. I think Mr. Addie had pointed out that that needs to go up because the overall transportation is going up 14 and a half%. Uh we also made a reduction in PAR educator salaries after we question. Again, credit to Mr. Costco on that one. Good questions because we went back
047and realized we need to um put in the amount we anticipate receiving from the town for the bright beginnings tuition for typical Pierce. So, after all of those maneuvers, the initial budget went from 8.9 to 8.92. I also want to note that this budget does include an additional elementary school teacher to address class size issues kindergarten and you'll be discussing that policy and potential changes to that next on the agenda. The only recommendation we have tonight is on the second scorecard. Um we would recommend increasing group insurance by about $35,000. The rationale for that is the We're running a deficit this year. These costs continue to increase at a pretty high level and it would put us at I think Scott 14% versus 13 and a half. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Where we
048are now. Uh so we strongly advocate for increasing. It does bring our budget up from 8.92 to 8.98. But given the trend and given the situation we've been in for the last two years with insurance running the deficit, we think it's prudent to budget appropriately for that cost. So covered a lot of ground there. Um I do this is something you haven't seen before, but I want to thank Miss Lefredo because she was pulling up some of the data from other districts on on a lister she's with with uh other board chairs throughout the state. And this is kind of the whole package across the state. You can take a look. We're on there too right now at the initial recommendation of 8.9, but at this point we're recommending 8.98. So that being said, happy
049to take any questions or turn it back on here. >> Any questions for Dr. Zto? >> No questions. >> All right. Um, is there any other further discussion on our budget proposal for the 26 27th school year? Okay, seeing none, I am going to take a motion um for a budget adoption. Madam Chair, I would like to propose a motion that the board of education hereby adopts its operating budget for fiscal year 2026 2027 in the amount of 60,475193 at 8.98% increase. Can I have a second? >> Thank you, Miss Mora. Um, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any extensions? Okay, motion passes to approve this budget for the fiscal year of 2627. Thank you very much. >> Okay, moving on to agenda number 19. We have um some discussion
050coming up about the policy guidelines um a policy guideline change for class sizes. Um, I'm going to ask Miss Dudanowitz, since this was brought up at policy, do you feel comfortable about talking about this right now just to clarify what changes we are proposing? >> I can ask for anybody feel free to please chime in if there is anything that I miss. Um, so the policy committee has been working on proposing reductions to flat sizes. >> I think I'm just too far away. >> I got you. >> Is that Is that better? >> Yes. >> Sorry. Um the policy committee has been working on a reduction proposing a reduction for for class sizes particularly in the elementary age levels. Um so at at the special meeting um that we had last week, we discussed phasing
051in um the current proposal which for the 2627 school year would reduce kindergarten class sizes from 20 children per class to 18. Um and then in 2728 school year uh we are proposing decreasing first grade um to 18 from 20 to 18 in 2728. Um grades two and three from 22 children per class to 20 children. and in grades four and five decreasing from 25 children to 23 children in 27 and 28. Um so again that's not all to be implemented this year. We are addressing kindergarten this year to be in compliance with what the proposal is um for 18 children in kindergarten. And so I will open it up for any additional discussion that we have based on how um Dr. Zitto wrote the the draft policy which thank you Dr. Zitto for um
052for doing that and I just want to flag that the language regarding um at no time shall these guidelines be interpreted as absolute numbers uh remains within the policy and that the district will do um will give their best effort to maintain their reasonably sized classes. Thank you. Uh if you would like to look at that um draft of the guidelines for class sizes um board members, you did have it in your yellow packet today. Are there any further questions or comments or discussion that would like to occur right now? >> Thank you. Um chart the green chart if this is going to become a document that we need to adjust. We have K through K and one down to 18. I think it's K to 18 and one remains at 20 for 2627 and
053then it changes the year after that. So it's going to become a document that we refer to. It should reflect policy guidelines. >> Yes, that is correct. I think the original proposal was to try and get uh classroom teachers in for K and one this year but um given >> just a slide you respond to that it shows you what would have happened with the original proposal >> um we didn't need to update it because you have it in front of you in the policy but I think that just so everybody understands what came out of the last meeting was to implement the change to 18 only for kindergarten next year. So, um, you know, you raised a good point there, but I I don't see that as a document you're going to use going
054forward because those projections could change in the following years. That's based on current enrollment right now. In the future, uh, we will monitor, you know, the budget gets monitored. We we watch the numbers every month. So, uh, but you know, it's a good question that you raised. It's really just a guide to show you what things might look like. Um, but I think you're making a good decision if you go with the number and just make the change for next year because you don't have to add additional teachers to the budget. You've got the one in there now. If you went all in on this new policy, you'd be adding two more teachers and that would be a cost of another $226,000. >> Any other questions, Mr. Kasper? >> Uh, thank you. And you know,
055quick shout out um to Kristen for doing the work on this thing. Um it's been a lot of work. I know you put a lot of work into kind of the research behind this, Dr. Zto and your staff. It's been super helpful. I know we had quite a few conversations about this and it's it's been really helpful. I know that the immediate kind of often people just want to say let's just reduce class sizes, right? And that's kind of the easy decision to just make that decision and sometimes it's a little harder to not make it happen as quickly as we want to. So I think I applaud the board for kind of going through the whole process very thoroughly and thinking about it and balancing um the the desire to reduce class sizes with
056also um the need to be concerned about budget. So uh as Dr. Cedto just said and and we did we looked at a lot of other school districts and we're really right in kind of the the meat of the curve. I mean we're right in the like there are there are districts that have higher class sizes on average than us. And there are districts that have lower, but you know, across the board, I think we're right in in a good spot where we're in the middle of that. Um, again, could they always be lower? Sure, they could. Um, but with that comes a cost. And, um, so anyway, so I just think it's been a great conversation and I think we came to a really good conclusion. This facing an idea, I think, is great.
057Um, and um, yeah, so that's all I want to say. Thanks. >> Thank you. Any other comments or questions? >> Okay. And um just for clarification, this is a first read of this um the guidelines for class size. So we will um vote on it at our next meeting. Moving on to agenda item 20, approval of legally mandated revisions to the board of education policies. This is a second read uh for policies of 1100 3100 4010 4020 4510 4550 5150 5510 6110 and 6151. Are there any other questions or comments or discussion about these policies before we go to a vote? >> Sorry, just looking around. Make sure I make eye contact with everyone. All right. Can I please have a motion for our uh approval of these >> policy? Sorry. >> Motion for approval
058of legally mandated revisions to the of the board of education policies, 1100 3100 I'm sorry. Yeah. 3100 4010 40 20 4510 5110 5120 5510 6110 and 6151 as stated from the chair. >> Thank you. May I have a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Shabra. Thank you. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any extension? Okay, motion passes. Thank you so much. Moving on to uh agenda item number 21 which is interimm assistant superintendent for personnel and student services report Dr. Diaz Santiago the floor is yours. >> Thank you madam chair. Good evening board of members and members of the Rocky Hill community. Today we began our spring civility assemblies at Moer Stevens and West Hill schools with Jamal Thompson. Mr. Thompson will visit GMS and the high school to conclude the assembly tomorrow. The focus of
059these assemblies is to move students from awareness to action by emphasizing student responsibility and bystandard empowerment with particular attention to digital civility and responsible social media use. During the assemblies, Jamal recognized several students from each school who consistently demonstrate strong qualities of civility. These students were honored as civility champions in front of their peers for modeling respect, empathy, and positive leadership within their school communities. As part of a culminating community celebration, we have collaborated with the Rocky Hill Education Foundation to recognize 11 additional students from across our schools who have also demonstrated outstanding character. These students will be honored at the start of the Harlem Wizards game on March 27th. In addition, the Dream Cafe will be selling new t-shirts featuring a student design logo. Each student contributed by designing a letter that together spells
060Dream Cafe RHPS. Making the shirt a collaborative project that highlights student creativity and pride in our program. The shirts will be available for purchase beginning next week with proceeds supporting the Dream Cafe. The cost of each t-shirt will be $25. The Dream Cafe will also be hosting its first spring fling on Saturday, May 2nd from 9 to 1:00 p.m. The event will feature student made cards, crafts, and gifts along with summer sips, and veggie dips, which will include a recipe demonstration and a mocktail bar. We're also excited to welcome musical guests from the Rocky Hill High School, Hill Tunes, who will be performing during the event. For more information, please visit dreamcafacct.com. I would like to also extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Mary Schaefer for her leadership in this year's one book, one author,
061one community initiative. It's one of my favorite initiatives in the district. She has thoughtfully connected this work to our district civility framework in support of the voice committee's efforts. Her work in bringing these themes into the class and making making them meaningful for both students and staff has been truly inspiring. I want to thank you for your continued support of our students and school community. This ends my report and I welcome any questions. Thank you. >> Any questions for Dr. Diaz? >> Okay, thank you very much. >> Agenda item number 22, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, Dr. Good evening everybody. Can you hear me? Okay. >> All right. I have a little bit more than normal for you tonight, but um I'm going to try and get through this. Uh in your packet is
062the uh regular financial report reflecting our year-to- date figures for the month ending February 28th, 2026. I've highlighted about half a dozen accounts uh and I wanted to just kind of touch on a couple of them. Um, new to the lineup I think might be line 130, salaries. Um, overtime currently reflecting a deficit due to the flurry of recent winter storms. Pun intended on that one. Uh, item 210, group insurance currently reflecting a deficit due to the changes in coverage as well as the fact that last year's increase uh those numbers come in after the board uh had adopted the budget. And then line item 561 for tuition. The inn out district is currently reflecting a deficit. Um it does include tuition for magnet schools and students with uh special education needs. The first of
063two excess cost reimbursement payments has come in. That will be reflected in next month's update, but it was for $993,000. It is anticipated that we will receive an additional check for about $250,000 in June. Uh that will leave the account with a deficit we're projecting of approximately $200,000 for fiscal year 2526. Um and again uh you can see in your report group insurance we are anticipating about $319,000 deficit for the year as well. Those two items are significant. We are going to continue to monitor all of our accounts and we'll keep you informed uh of our outlook as the school year continues to progress. Any questions about um the financial report currently for Dr. Nosik? >> No questions. Okay. So, >> next I have uh a food service update if I may. Um we recently
064received a $6,000 grant from the Connecticut uh Fresh Ed by local program. Uh this funding is designed to support the purchase of locally and regionally sourced unprocessed and minimally processed foods used in eligible USDA child nutrition programs. The program presents a valuable opportunity to support local agriculture while offsetting food costs within our own nutrition program. This is very similar to the local foods school initiative program which is another initiative designed to bring local foods to our students. We received approximately $18,000 under this program to purchase fresh fresh produce to support the uh school lunch program. We have contracts with 10 local farms, four in Connecticut, two in Massachusetts, two in New York, and one each in New Jersey and Rhode Island. All this leads nicely to the following. Uh each of the board members are
065invited to our future chef competition. I do have an invitation for you that I will pass uh pass down. Thank you. This year's theme is passport to flavor. Take your taste buds on a global adventure. Our future chefs were asked to create a recipe inspired by a country or culture from anywhere in the world. Students submitted recipes and six finalists were selected. Those students will compete on Monday, March 16th at Moer School in the cafeteria, of course, to see who will be this year's top future chef. The winner of the event will be entered to a future chef's national challenge for some great prizes. Our judges this year include assistant superintendents Dr. Diaz, Mrs. Durant, and also uh Mrs. Herald, our culinary director of the Dream Cafe, and Mayor Alan Smith. And uh that's all
066I have for the food service update. Any questions? >> Any questions about food service, Mr. >> Coster? And apologies, it's not a question about the food service about the other one. >> Okay. >> His other report was too slow >> to ask a question. >> Okay. >> Is it okay for me to ask a question on that? >> Uh that's up to Dr. Nosik. Would he like to go back? Dr. Nosik question. >> Of course. >> I'm sure you're ready for me. Um so again, it's it's the out of district placement or the tuition in and out of district um account, which I know is always tricky. I know it's really hard to predict this. darn impossible to predict and there's a lot of changes that happen throughout the year. So you guys have been
067very transparent and and clear with us throughout this budget process and previous conversations. So I think that's clear. What I just wanted to check on is I'm assuming that the reason that'll end the year um uh or well it looks there will be a projected deficit it looks like at the end of the year is the students coming in district that we weren't planning for and tuitions that we weren't planning for when we budgeted on this. a whole year. So I guess assumptions correct, right? >> It is it is correct. >> And then when that happens I guess and I'm sort of sure how this work but I'm not entirely sure. As far as the excess cost reimbursement part, what is the cut off for the student who comes in that we can still collect
068some excess cost reimbursement because obviously if the student comes in now it's too late I would assume because we just got the check as the district that kid was at they got a check for that kid. So like how does that get fleshed out and do we end up getting some reimbursement for an expensive placement for a student that comes in mid year? >> That's a great question. Uh and I say that because um we had uh we looked at this very closely. So um I'm going to give you the I am prepared for you. Um, we had a couple of students who, again, that threshold is at 93,000 or so, four and a half times our per pupil expenditure. When we uh we had a couple students that actually left uh midy year that
069did that would have that were on our list of people that we thought would get we would get reimbursement for. However, they moved before they hit that that magic number. So, one of them was just below at like 80 something thousand. Another one was 70 something thousand. Even though they were only even though they we we accumulated that cost in a few months, it doesn't matter. It goes by the year. It's not prorated. Uh so on the flip side, we also had two students move in um who are not going to hit that magic number. But um so we are on the we are on the hook for all the costs even though if you were to right um and so we had two leave and two come in. Had we had two for the
070whole year uh we would have reimbursement. Um but we don't get reimbursement for any of those four students. >> Yeah. And I know there's been a conversation at the state level about this sometimes because with other districts there's more influx and outflux and it can add up to some really substantial dollars that you have to pay and then don't get reimbursement for and two districts are both paying half. They both have to pay the fit and the state kind of wins out in that case. Um anyway, okay. I just wanted to kind of understand that. So it is sort of the the same narrative that we've been talking about for a while which is it just because kids from the district and if we happen to get lucky one year and a couple of those
071students let's say leave I say lucky and don't mean to sound the wrong way but financially if things work out financially for us and expensive placement students leave the district then we might end up in a better position but >> I I can tell you that my recommendation going into like I'm already thinking about next year's budget >> right >> which would be we did have u last year when you did this a couple of placeholders >> uh for students who might move in. As you know, our our special ed number of students has gone up significantly over the last 8 to 10 years. Um, when we were reduced by the council, those placeholder positions were removed. There were two. Um, you probably would have broken even had we kept those two in there. >>
072Thank you. >> Oh, yeah. That was that's great. Thank you. What's that the date that we can you say that out loud just so the rest of us can hear or Scott? Can you say that? >> February 20. >> So end of February of certified what the population of students are which then leads to this round of checks that all right. Thank you. >> Very good. Any other questions? >> Okay, Dr. Nosk, we'll let you continue. All right. Uh, next we have the uh the bus contract. Um, as you know, we went out to bid um this past uh fall. The RFP was issued on December 15th. The due date was uh in January. We received two bids. Um, one of them was from our current provider uh NVT and another one uh specialty transportation.
073The contract term is of course for three years. possible extension for two more. New Brit Transportation, the annual cost in year one is uh $2,778,000 um with an annual escalator of 4%. So that's 4% per year. They add on to that. Specialty came in at $3,388,000 uh with an annual escalator of 5%. So my based on the evaluation of bids, um new bridge transportation is recommended as the most responsible and and uh responsive vendor. >> Any other discussion as far as the bus contract? >> Mr. >> I'm sorry. I just wanted to point out because I think again, Dr. Nos, I appreciate the work on it. It's it's a it's a large increase, but just to be fair, the the bid from the other contractor was way higher. I know you said the numbers quickly,
0743 million and change and 2 million and change, but >> you know it was a huge difference. So I think though the price is up, >> it's incredible savings compared to the second >> 14.6% for New Britain transportation and 39.8% special. >> I just want to point that out. Thanks. >> Thank Thank you, Mr. Costco. You're right. Those numbers are pretty very much different. So, um, and we and we did talk at length about that. So, um, right now I'd like to take a motion to approve the bus contract. >> Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion that the board of education approve the award of the student transportation contract to New Britain Transportation at an approximate annual cost of 2,778,000 for a term of three years with a board option for two additional
075years effective July 1, 2026 subject to final contract execution by the assistant superintendent for finance and operations. >> Do I have a second? >> Second, >> thank you, Miss Mora. Um, all in favor? >> Any opposed? Any extensions? >> Okay, motion passes. Thank you very much, >> Dr. Nosik. Does that complete your report? >> It does. >> Thank you so much. All right, moving on to assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, Miss Durant. >> Okay, good evening everyone. Um, earlier this evening, our high school student rep shared a little bit about the women in action event that took place here last week. I was fortunate to be able to attend that event. Um, and I wanted to point out that that is an event that we do pay for through our open choice grants. Um,
076I also really to take a minute to extend my sincere gratitude to both Vivana Guzman and Lisa Erso who um are the two club adviserss whose leadership make this event um as impactful as it is. Um you heard the details, 10 different women professionals that came and it was it was an astounding event. So um kudos to them. And then um moving on, I want to mention that our um teachers across the district participated in a productive vertical discussion focused on curriculum alignment and coherence on Friday, March 6th. This collaborative session provided valuable insights that our district and building administrative team will review and use to inform future professional learning and curriculum work. Our professional development and evaluation committee um PDK convened this month to synthesize feedback from committee members at each school. This work
077has enabled us to begin constructing a professional development schedule for the 2627 school year, ensuring that our PD offerings are responsive to teacher needs and aligned with the district goals. We have another meeting scheduled to continue the work in May. Our elementary schools will host parent teacher conferences um next week from March 18th to the 20th, providing families with opportunities to connect with teachers and discuss student progress. I want to commend our staff for their ongoing commitment to meaningful parent engagement. On March 20th, while the elementary schools host conferences, our middle and high school will conduct a half-day professional development session, allowing staff to participate in collaborative work. March is Youth Art Month and our K12 student artwork will be on display at the Rocky Hill Public Library. It's actually already on display um from
078March 2nd to April 3rd. Next Thursday, March 19th, from 6:00 to 7:30, um we will be hosting the opening reception. There will be music by the Rocky Hill High School jazz band and food food from our culinary program will be served. I actually I have some invitations I'm going to pass down for board members to this event. Um and we hope that you can join us. Last week our district celebrated one book, one author, one community event. Dr. Diaz mentioned this earlier. It is um definitely a highlight of our school year and uh critical to that week being what it is is um Dr. Schaefer who is here with us this evening to um present the happenings around our district during this special week. So I'm going to let her come on up and share
079more information with you about the event this year. Good evening to the board and staff and community members. Um, as Dr. Diaz mentioned, this is really a collaborative event. I may be standing here speaking to you tonight, but it takes a lot of people to put on this event. Um, I'm delighted to report on the success of our annual ReadAcross America celebration. Yep. We've we've been struggling with that all night. Um, anyways, our annual one book, one author, one community event um that we celebrate K8, preK through 8th grade. This year marked our 12th year bringing students together to build a shared love of reading and literacy. This event truly reflects the spirit of our community. Its success is a testament to the creativity and dedication of our administrators, reading staff, teachers, and specialists. We
080are deeply grateful for the many volunteers, including board members, the superintendent, assistant superintendent, fire and police, Cora J. Beldin, the mayor, and a judge who helped bring joy and excitement to our students. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the celebration so meaningful and to the families for their support. This year's book and author selections were carefully chosen to align with our vision of the graduate the civility framework and the work of our voice committee. The books and their celebr and and their authors celebrated themes of perseverance, personal growth, acceptance, and kindness. Our prek through grade three students enjoyed books from the Jory John food group s series including titles such as the sour grape, the bad seed, and the good egg. Moer students engaged in shared reading and discussion and discussion of Katherine
081Applegate's wish tree and even created a wish tree which you saw a few images of earlier today. All students prek through five received their own books to take home and share with their families. board members. You also re received some copies of those books that you can enjoy with your families. Um, at the middle school, students participated in a book talk by author Linda Sue Park to spark their interest. They engaged in interactive guided book walks of park's most popular titles and worked as literary detectives to uncover details about Park's inspiration, writing process, and real work world connections to her stories. The following presentation highlights all of those volunteers and participants, many of you who were there. Um, so please enjoy. Hopefully we'll get it I think it'll have to back up. It's going to
082kick in randomly. If it doesn't mean What I was reading there So, I just want to thank everybody for being a part of it and making it a great day for the students and staff. >> That was a great presentation. Um, How about that? >> Maybe you can send a copy to the board members at some >> that way we can take another he got at it. Sure. Perfect. All right. Um thank you Dr. Schaefer. I appreciate that. Um and the time that you put into putting that beautiful video together highlighting the day. Um Mr. Rand, are you um all set with your report? >> Yes, that concludes my report. >> Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Dant or Dr. Schaefer? >> Yeah, >> no questions. Just a quick shout out because
083I know you mentioned the women in action uh committee and one of our students here, freshman Ashida. >> Say your last name. >> Bosley, um was a key part of that group and I just want to shout her out because she's here number one and and the rest of the group. should give credit to a lot of the other students that were part of that and also she's been here for a lot of the meetings and the length of the meetings so she doesn't just leave when we have intermission she sticks around so I just want to give her a shout out >> thank you for that >> all right um moving on to superintendent report Dr. Zita. >> All right. I don't know if anybody has other current information, but the Terriers are were
084up one nothing after the first period. >> Two nothing. Okay. So, that's good. Um, the girls play tomorrow night for girls basketball. So, you already had your sports updates. Couple shout outs um and updates. The Harlem Wizards event is Friday, March 27th. We had a meeting with the Ed Foundation uh last evening. They're still looking to push the ticket sales. It's a great uh charity fundraiser uh sponsored by the Ed Foundation. It's really um a fun family event and we're hoping for a large turnout and the proceeds from the event are used by the Ed Foundation to support schoolwide uh initiatives that can that generally go beyond what can be accomplished through the operating budget. So, we're very grateful to all the members of the Ed Foundation and it's usually a great time. So, I
085encourage people to think about getting a ticket going out. It's a nice way to spend a Friday evening. Um, that's on March 27th, the weekend prior to that, as you heard earlier, The Little Mermaid presentation. They're doing, they came tonight. They're going to be doing their annual performance. Uh, they have a matinea scheduled at 1:00 on Saturday, March 21st. Their evening show is at 7 o'clock on the 21st. If you can't make it on Saturday, Friday night, they kick off everything with their evening performance Friday, March 20th, right here in the auditorium. Um, so come on out and see the Little Mermaid. In terms of uh other updates, really, I just want to thank the board. Like I said earlier, this was your your fifth uh evening where you deliberated the budget. Um I think
086it just lends, you know, gives you a sense of the gravity of a of a 9% budget. It's very significant, but I also think it meets the needs of uh what the school district has to do to serve the kids. Um we've historically had some very lean budgets. Um This addresses a little bit of class size. You're hopefully going to adopt that policy at your April meeting to start making progress on lower class sizes. And as I talked about during the budget presentation back in January, uh we are now 19th in spending out of 24 districts in our Durk. Uh on a per basis, we're in the bottom 20% essentially statewide with excellent test scores. uh there may be concern and complaints about 9% but the other argument that I would make is that it's
087it's time that uh the budget was coming in at a higher level to kind of make up some of that ground to be 19th in spending certainly means we're efficient and uh I think we can make a strong case why where the 9% budget is justified for the kids in so with that being said uh that is my report. >> Thank you Dr. Zita. Moving on to my report. Um again, um the board of education tonight we adopted a budget that reflects our continued commitment to meeting the needs of our students and supporting the work that's happening in our schools each day. And as Dr. Zto just stated, um, the board spent more than 12 hours in discussion, carefully reviewing proposals, and weighing priorities to ensure our decisions reflected both student needs and professional recommendations
088of our school leaders. Um, so I would say that every request within this budget um was discussed um and received with thoughtful consideration. Most of the important areas of the discussion centered on class size and the board again spent considerable time reviewing enrollment data and discussing the needs to add teaching staff in order to alleviate higher classes across the district. These conversations were robust and reflective of the board's commitment to maintaining learning environments where students receive the attention and support that they need to succeed. As a result, additional teaching positions were included in the 20 were included in the 26 27 budget, school year budget, and the board of education will continue to monitor class sizes closely moving forward with an outlined proposal of additional teachers in future years. Student wellness was also a central
089focus of this year's discussions following our January voice meeting. The board revisited the needs shared by students and families and considered how we can further strengthen and support systems in our schools. In response, this budget includes the addition of a social worker at the high school and a guidance counselor at the middle school. These positions are vital to supporting the social emotional well-being of our students and will help advance the important work started by interimm assistant superintendent Dr. Diaz Santiago in our words matter campaign which emphasizes kindness, respect, and a positive school culture across the district. In addition to these critical supports, the board also approved several smaller program additions that will enhance student opportunities. These include the addition of a dance team coach and freshman volleyball coach at the high school and the HOSA
090um I think it's a a group a committee or after school committee >> club. Thank you so much. Um supporting expanding extracurricular opportunities for students. I want to commend all of the board members sitting up here for their dedication throughout the process and for the collaborative spirit that guided our work. Together, our board remains focused on providing the resources necessary for our students to learn, grow, and thrive. Dr. Zto will be presenting this budget at a town council meeting in the next few months where he will go into more detail about every line item. And again, um we do have some wonderful events coming up. Um, as Dr. Zitto had mentioned, the Wizards, I know, um, many of you will be there. Um, I will be there as well. I haven't decided whether or not
091I'm playing yet. Um, but I will definitely be there to, um, root on our teams at our schools. Um, and again, thank you to the Rocky Hill Drama Club as they came to present tonight a little bit about the Little Mermaid. I know that they are excited to be able to go out into schools and um see younger um students and uh hopefully get them to come along as well. Tonight, I think we received many different dates in front of us as well as far as um things that are going on within our community and how we can support our schools. And um I know that board members do try to attend those events. So, thank you for giving another evening of your time to support the students in district. And with that, um, I
092believe that we can take a motion to adjourn our meeting for this evening. >> Motion to adjourn. Thank you, Miss Manella. Can I second? >> I'm sorry, who said was that, Mr. Clemens? >> Thank you, Mr. Clemens. All in favor to adjourn, >> please say I. And any opposed or abstensions? No, there never is. All right. Very good. Thank you so much. Have a good night.