Board of Education ---February 19, 2026

001I'd like to call to order um our meeting tonight for Board of Education. Tonight is February 19th. It is 7:01. And um our first agenda item is the pledge of allegiance. Do I have a student representative tonight that would like to lead us in the pledge? You can come up. >> We would love that. We just need to get you to the microphone. So, that would be great if if you come over to the podium and you pull that microphone down. Thank you, Dr. Diaz. We can get you to say the pledge. Please stand. >> The flag is on this side over here. >> Are you ready? Ready. Go for it. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under

002God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Nice job. Thank you so much. Okay, our second agenda item tonight is special recognition. We have uh Griswald Middle School Civility Awards and Rocky Hill High School Civility Awards. I'm assuming that I'm going to have Griswald Middle School go first and that is Principal Jason Masars. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you for having me here tonight. First want to say that was the best pledge of allegiance ever. Great job. I can't wait to see you at the middle school. You're coming soon, right? >> What grade? >> Second. Just skip third, fourth, fifth. Come right to sixth. We got room for you. >> Okay. It's truly an honor tonight to present to you um two really spectacular kids. Um but before I do that, I do want

003to acknowledge the families of these two amazing kids. Um because we know full well that these kids don't show up on our doorstep just like this. You've done a lot of work to get them to this point and you've modeled what good citizenship is and what kindness truly is. So, thank you to the Whiters and the Draps for creating such amazing kids and sending them to us. We are grateful. So, I'd like to call up our our recipients, Nora Drapu and Bennett Whitaker. We did not audition this yet, as you could tell. We're working on it. Um, I also want to acknowledge as they're up here, um, the amazing GMS staff, um, who've really established an incred incredibly warm and welcoming and inviting environment. Uh, and they work so hard to acknowledge kids like this

004that do great things and model what it is each and every day to be a great citizen. So, kudos to the GMS staff. So, I'll start with Nora. Tonight we recognize Norah Drapu, an eighth grader at GMS. She is a thoughtful leader, a kind-hearted friend, and an outstanding citizen of our middle school. Norah shows up every day with kindness in her words, and courage in her actions. She listens when others need to be heard, stands up for what's right in a quiet and subtle manner, and makes our school a place where everyone feels welcome. Norah's service, whether helping classmates, organizing group projects, or simply offering a smile in the hallway, which she does often, reminds us that small acts build a stronger community. Her integrity, generosity, and quiet determination inspire peers and teachers alike. Nora,

005thank you for leading by example and showing us that citizenship means caring for others and taking responsibility for our shared world. We are proud to recognize you tonight. Keep being brave, kind, and true to yourself. The world needs more leaders like you. Please join me in congratulating Nora Drapu. >> Okay. Bennett Whitaker. Ready, Bennett? >> Okay. Tonight we celebrate Bennett Whitaker, a compassionate leader, dependable friend, and outstanding citizen of our middle school. Bennett shows respect in his words and responsibility in his actions. He steps in to help others, listens with care, and encourages classmates to do their best. Whether showing a new student around the building, engaging a friend in a friendly conversation with staff or students, or keeping our halls welcoming, Bennett quietly models kindness, teamwork, and has a positive attitude. His strong sense

006of fairness make our community safer and stronger. Bennett, thank you for your dedication, your integrity, and the thoughtful way you treat everyone at Grizzle Middle School. You remind us that citizenship is shown in everyday decisions. We are proud to honor you tonight. Please join me in congratulating Bennett Whitaker. Congratulations. I'm going to turn the mic over to Mr. Fod. >> Mr. Carly, I think >> it's a tag team tonight. So, uh, Mr. Dwar's done a lot of work with the civility award. So, I'm going to give him the mic and he can take over. >> Thank you very much. Good evening. Uh, I'm going to call up Shrevani Wahill and Sarah Jo. They want to come up. I'll read what we prepared for them. We're very impressed and thankful. So, good evening members of the

007board. Tonight, we are especially proud to recognize two outstanding students. We're going to present them as a pair as recipients of our school civility award. As you're aware, this award honors students who show a consistent commitment to kindness, accountability, and thoughtful regard for others that exemplifies our school district's core values. Through their actions, our recipients foster a secure, inclusive, and an uplifting environment in which every individual feels respected, supported, and valued. After school about a week and a half ago, during a club activity time, a significant medical emergency occurred. In a moment that could have caused panic or confusion, these two students demonstrated remarkable quick decision-making, calmness, and compassion. They immediately attended to the individual in distress, ensuring that that person was not alone and was cared for appropriately. At the same time, they had

008the presence of mind to seek out trained staff members located in another area of the building, clearly communicating the urgency of the situation. What stands out most is not only that they acted, but how they acted. They remain composed, mature, and focused throughout the entire incident, maintaining a level of calm that many adults might struggle to sustain in such circumstances. Their ability to balance empathy with responsibility ensured that help arrived quickly and that the situation was handled safely. Through their actions, these students embodied the true spirit of their civility award. They demonstrated that civility is not simply about polite words, but about stepping up when it matters most, showing kindness, responsibility, and care in ways that protect and uplift others. We are deeply proud of these students. They serve as role models for our entire

009school community and remind us that character, compassion, and courage can make a profound difference. Please join me once again in congratulating Sarah Jo and Shvani Wahil for this well-deserved recognition. Thank you so much and thank you for our students to our students for showing up tonight. We appreciate um hearing about everything that you do in our schools, especially this particular civility award. We are very proud of you. Um this next agenda item is audience participation. Um so we are going to open our meeting up to the public. This portion of the meeting um is specifically set aside for comments from the public. Speakers are asked if you would like to come up and make a public statement that you please speak your name and address into the microphone and try to limit your comment for

010two minutes. Um the board will not be responding to you. So please just be aware of that. Is there anyone here that would like to address the board? together. >> Sure. >> Okay. So, Adant Bos 28 West Drive. Um, first of all, a month ago, I came here to speak to you guys, asking you guys to come and um, support us for the Boston Model UN trip that we had. Um, I'm proud to say that we came back and we actually won four awards um, at the Boston Model UN trip. So, uh, us, all four of us won awards. just wanted to, you know, come out and celebrate and show you guys um kind of where your investment is going. And um first freshman year we got one award. Uh junior year we got two

011awards and this year four awards. So continual growth and um that's kind of the way the club has been going the last four years. It's growing in a rapid fashion and just want to come out here and thank you guys for all of your support. Uh special thanks to Mr. Fod, uh Mr. Dudis and Mr. Papsak who are also on the trip. they've been such a backbone to our team and um they allow us to do what we can do best is you know go to these conference prepare and execute and that's what we we like to do. So if you guys want to make any other comments feel free to do so. >> Uh so I mean Adon really said it all. So I guess I could share like a few anecdotes from the

012committee that was in. So I was Canada in COP 30 so you know a lot of climate change this and preserving the environment. Uh and so just like I do think it was a great experience. So thank you so much for contributing to our trip. uh because you know we learned a lot of things especially when it comes to leadership. So I was in charge of a block that focused specifically on ensuring neural networks to kind of track and make sure that biodiversity loss doesn't happen. It's a lot of complicated stuff but I mean overall it was just a really fun leadership experience and coming out of it with an award coming out of it with a lot of you know things to learn and talk about in the future. I think it was overall

013just really great. So thank you so much for contributing and supporting us. Um to add on to their comments, my name is Suhan Wasu and I just want to reiterate the thanks for this board. Um this is not an isolated opportunity. We've had the chance to go on numerous such conferences in the past. Um like you do mentioned um some of our club members are able to go to Boston um in the freshman year. Uh we also went to Yale earlier this year and Boston again this year. Um and we are continuing to create these opportunities for others as well um in our own Rocky Hill High School Moduan Conference. Um, so we'd like just to thank the board um for giving us the opportunity to a compete and giving us the chance to spread

014the opportunity to other high school students as well. >> Hi everyone, my name is Anvi. I was also given the amazing opportunity to attend this conference for the third time. Um, and you don't really realize it until you get um back in that committee room where you understand, yes, we might be uh role playinging as different entities and countries solving these, you know, imagined issues. Um, but it really starts to matter when you talk about things like civility. uh we just are honoring all these students for doing this good community work. Um I was able to represent it wasn't a country. I was actually Plato in a philosophers round table. So our idea was to try and uh create this utopia um where a world where everybody is happy. Um and we ended up failing

015really really poorly. Um we we did a very poor job um at actually creating this utopia. But within um all these conversations about what do people need, what are people desiring, what compromises need to be made. Um it always reminds you of what we're working towards as this club model UN. Our vision with creating this and making it available to all these students is a place where they can um envision themselves being real leaders, creating real action, learning the skills that they're going to need um in their futures. And as you can can tell, we're all so grateful to have this opportunity. Thank you so much for supporting us and we hope we can continue this legacy for far after we have graduated. So, thank you. >> One one last thing, March 29th is the

016conference day. Keep that in your calendars. 9:00 a.m. uh is our opening ceremony time and our keynote speaker should be announced pretty soon. And this is also to members in the community. Feel free to come out um and support us. We love it. Quick 9 to 9:30 is our opening ceremony. And hopefully our keynote speaker should be announced soon. So, uh keep an eye out for that. But thank you guys so much for your support. Um and um I think we're heading in the right direction. So, thank you. >> Thank you and congratulations. Is there anyone else that would like to address the board? Come on up. >> Good evening. My name is Adora Cobb. Um, I am the proud parent of a fourth grader at Moa Elementary and the proud parent of a first

017grader. I know he's tall. I wonder where he gets it from. Um, I'm here tonight not to bring a complaint, but to share a story of how our school community showed up and showed out in a truly beautiful way. A few weeks ago, my son experienced an upsetting incident during recess. It was a difficult moment for our family, but what followed is what I really want to highlight. From the very beginning, Principal Cassello and assistant principal Mrs. Moore responded with care, professionalism, and a genuine commitment to doing right by both students involved. They kept me informed. They listened, and when I expressed hope that the boys could eventually reach a place of understanding rather than just separation, they made it happen. Mrs. Mo facilitated a restorative conversation and with the full cooperation of the other

018students parents uh these two boys sat down together uh spoke honestly and found their way to peace. I cannot express how proud I am of both of them. The courage and maturity it takes for children to sit across from one another after a conflict to be accountable to listen and uh to extend and receive grace is remarkable. I am generally in awe of them. I want to recognize the students who witnessed what happened and had the courage to step in and the parents in our community who reached out with kindness and concern. Our community is not without its challenges. But tonight, I wanted to stand here and say loudly, there is so much good happening in our schools. Uh thank you to the Moer administrators for turning a hard moment into an opportunity for growth,

019connection, and healing. This is what it looks like when a school truly lives its values. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to address the board? >> Good evening and uh thank you for your time. I'm Henry Vassel and we're located uh well I'm with the Rocky Hill Education Foundation at 761 Old Main Street, Rocky Hill. I have some brochures to hand out for the Harlem Wizards game. Everyone could take one and pass it down. And I left some at the back table, too. Um to refresh everybody's memory about the education foundation, it's made up of 100% volunteers. We all volunteer our time and 100% of the money raised is donated back to Rocky Hill to further Rocky Hills education. Uh to date, the education foundation has donated almost $200,000 back to the

020schools. Um this Wizards game, which is going to be our best one yet, um is our largest fundraiser and we need your support. Um and what can you guys do here on the board? Well, you can share our Facebook page and make sure you bring all your friends to the game. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be our best show yet. Um, the Rocky Hill Dream Team is made up of Rocky Hill teachers and educators and I'm just going to run down this list because I got to tell you it it is very exciting and uh we think it's going to be a great showing. From West Hill School, we have Cara Foucher, Cara Quinn, Travis Godley, Matt Kataja, Glenn Nelson. From Moer, we have Betty Joe Stevens, um Tom Cassello, Brian Sanford,

021Galani Sharer, Jessica Lynch, Caitlyn Moore, Matthew Apollo, Victoria, the Cadian. Hopefully I got that right. Um our three SRO's which are just phenomenal. Sarah Raymond, Keith Baker, and Brian Carol uh from central office, Danielle Gallagghan. We have Wendy Duran, Scott Nosik is participating with us. Uh, GMS, we have Tanya Adorno. From Stevens, we have Stacy Miller, Magda O'Brien, Laura Montgomery, and our faithful coach, Mr. Dudis. Um, tickets can be purchased through our Facebook page, which is on Facebook, the Education Foundation. You can click right on that link. And do you guys have any questions for me? It's on March 27th, 7 p.m. the game starts. And it is going to be money well spent. It is for those of you who have been exciting. >> Okay, >> everyone good? >> Thank you so much for

022your time. >> Is there anyone else that wishes to address the board? >> Um, hello board once again. U my name is Suan Wasu of six fawn run and I came in earlier to speak about model UN but I also wanted to come in form the board about other opportunities occurring at RHS. Um a lot of my classmates as a part of the class of 2026 have brought numerous opportunities to Rocky High School. Um and that is not limited to model UN but also two new organizations that have been founded. um HOSA and DECA which are organizations contributed uh who are dedicated international organizations who are dedicated to bringing education of medical of medicine and business to students all around the world. Um I myself am the president and founder of the DECA chapter along

023with the hard work of Mr. Brett Frank and a little assistance from Mr. Dudis. And I want to recognize a fellow classmate of mine um President Manis G who has worked alongside Alen Schneider um to bring those clubs to our school. Um they have truly been um wonderful opportunities to the students um getting them exposed uh career opportunities shadowing keynote speakers. They have brought truly wonderful information to the kids and allow them to explore their careers early, understand the positives, the negatives and the work it takes to um go to those wonderful professions. Um I do not want to speak on his behalf but so I'll speak to DECA and what the activities of the club are. Um this next week on Thursday we are going to the state leaders the state career development conference

024where our students will showcase what they have been preparing for and their business acumen as they go to experienced investors, business teachers and other industry professionals to present their knowledge and on exams and business scenarios. Um I just wanted to come and bring uh to the attention of the board uh the accomplishments that um our Rocky students are bringing as a result of the opportunities brought by the class of 2026. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to address the board? Okay, seeing no one, I'm going to move on to the report of student student representatives and we are having some members of the high school student council reporting tonight. Um, hello everyone. I hope you guys are doing well and staying warm. My name is John B. Patel and I'm

025here to give you a brief update on what's been happening at Rockill High School over the past few weeks. A few days after returning from winter break, students began their midterm exams, which took place from January 20th to January 27th. This is always a busy and somewhat stressful time for students as they wrap up their first semester coursework. Shortly after, we transitioned into semester 2. It's honestly hard to believe that we're already in quarter 3 and the school year is moving by so quickly. On January 28th, the school hosted its 8th grade freshman orientation for parents. During this event, parents were given an overview of what to expect in high school along with detailed information about course selection. This process can be both exciting and overwhelming as it plays a big role in shaping students

026academic paths moving forward. In athletics, our winter sports teams are beginning to wrap up their seasons. And overall, it has been a very successful winter. Many teams have shown strong performances and great teamwork throughout the season. In particular, our hockey and girls basketball teams are looking very promising and are expected to make a strong postseason runs. Finally, to close out our month of January, the RHHS and music department held their cabaret concert on January 30th. This concert, this year's concert, followed a decade's theme featuring a variety of songs from the 80s, 90s, and the 2000s. It was a great opportunity for students to showcase their talent and creativity, and it was enjoyed by everyone in the attendance. Overall, it has been a very productive and exciting start to the new semester and we're looking forward

027to everything that's ahead. That's all for now. Thank you and have a great evening. >> Thank you. We also have student representatives from Griswald Middle School tonight. Come on up. >> Good evening. Good evening. My name is Bonnie Sandu >> and my name is Janna Palazo and we are here to share some news from GMS. Booster thon is coming to GMS with the help of our parent advisory committee. We are kicking off our Griswald bash tomorrow, February 20th. Students will spend the weeks leading up to the March 3rd main event raising funds for student activities while enjoying fun challenges and earning cool prizes. Then on the big day, they'll participate in a high energy schoolwide celebration. Our eighth graders recently had an exciting preview of what's ahead, enjoying a pizza lunch, followed by an informative

028tour of the high school. To prepare for freshman year, students spent the afternoon learning about the wide range of elective courses, exploring opportunities to get involved in high school athletics and having their questions answered. High school counselors visited GMS in January to review the course selection process as eighth graders looked ahead to this exciting transition. Spring sports are right around the corner here at GMS and the excitement is building. Beginning in April, GMS offers baseball, softball, and track. Our baseball team is coached by Mr. Powitz. Our softball team is coached by Mr. Delera. And our track team will be coached by Mr. McKinnon and Mr. Saunders. We wish all of our teams a safe, successful, and competitive season. Go GMS. >> 14 GMS students were selected to compete in the Hartford chapter math counts competition.

029four students to represent GMS as a team and 10 students competing individually. Our team consisting of eighth graders Ashi Deo, Melissa Lobo, Andrew Nuen, and Aishman Sharma placed in fourth place out of 10 total teams and qualified to compete in the math count state competition at Yale University on Saturday, March 28th. We also had student three students placed in the top 25% of all individual competitors. Andrew Nwen placed sixth overall. man Chararma placed finished ninth overall and seventh grader Mason W finished 23rd overall qualifying each of them to compete in the upcoming state competition on an individual basis. In the music department, 15 students were accepted into the Connecticut Music Educators Association Northern Regional Music Festival. Students learned audition music and auditioned for vocal and instrumental instrumental honor ensembles. And these accepted students will have

030the opportunity to participate in the music festival in March along with other student musicians around Connecticut. >> This winter, our GMS unified sports team has been enjoying a lively cornhole season. Players and partners meet each week cheering one another on, practicing good sportsmanship, and building friendships that extend beyond the game. We're excited to announce our next gathering, a combined unified tournament with the unified programs from across Rocky Hill. The event will take place on February 26th at 3:15 p.m. at Rocky Hill High. It's a chance for our athletes to connect with peers from other schools, showcase their skills, and celebrate the inclusive spirit that defines unified sports. Looking ahead, our largest fundraiser of the year is coming up. On April 24th, we'll host a mobile penguin plunge right here at GMS. A water truck will

031be brought to campus and brave teachers and students will take the plunge to raise money for Special Olympics Connecticut and our unified sports program. We'll share more details soon, but we're already buzzing with excitement about the energy and community support this event will bring. Thank you for supporting GMS Unified Sports. Your encouragement helps create meaningful opportunities for our students every season. GMS student council members recently had the chance to participate in the Connecticut Association of Schools Middle Level Leadership Conference at Southern Connecticut State University. There we met with students from across the state to increase our skills in promoting acceptance, making a positive impact at school, stepping up to challenges, and practicing positive social networking. An added bonus was attending sessions presented by student leaders from Rocky High. The experience inspired us to return to

032GMS motivated, energized, and ready to put these leadership skills into action within our school community. >> This spring, our students will be hosting a Pause for a Cause ice cream social. It is a school community focused event centered on creativity, service, and student pride. Art students have been working hard to design, create, and glaze ceramic bowls that guests will purchase prior to the event and used to enjoy a scoop of ice cream. All proceeds from the event will be donated to local animal shelters, a cause our students are especially passionate about. Eighth grade students from GMS have been given the opportunity to join the Rocky Hill High School drama club for their production of The Little Mermaid on March 20th and 21st in the Rocky Hill High School auditorium, gaining early performance experience and helping

033to strengthen ties between our schools. The high school drama club also supports GMS's fall performance by assisting backstage, creating a year-round district-wide community of theater that fosters teamwork, confidence, and skill development for students at both at both levels. Believe it or not, we are already making plans to prepare the current fifth graders for middle school. We have several events planned. Mr. Mazars and Mrs. Beaver will be visiting Moer on April 29th and presenting their annual a day in the life of a middle schooler to all the fifth graders. That will be followed by sixth grade family orientation night in early May. Our incoming sixth graders will learn about all things GMS, get a tour of our school led by student volunteers, and go home with some GMS swag. We look forward to welcoming our newest

034students to our school in the coming months. >> Thank you and have a great evening. >> Thank you so much, student representatives. I do have to say I think this is our favorite part is to always listen about what's going on in our school. So, thank you so much for coming up to the microphone and sharing. Um, I got a little ahead of myself before I was so excited to have our second grade friend lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Um, but at this time I need to pause for a moment because I need to make an um amendment to our agenda. I'd like to ask the board if we could move item number 18 to next, which would be 3A. Um, can I have a motion to move item agenda 18, which is

035approval of the Rocky Hill High School varsity baseball team field trip to Boston. Can I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. May I have a second? >> Thank you, Mr. Addie. All in favor? Hi. Hi. >> Hi. Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Um, so I'm going to ask at this time for um, principal John Fod and coach Eric Frank to come on up and speak about uh, the baseball team trip to Boston. >> Thank you. And excuse me, thank you and good evening. Um, I would like to introduce Coach Frank. Coach, >> if you don't know who coach is, coach has been coaching a long time. Um, so every year coach is really big on connection. He wants to make sure it's a great experience. This year he has

036a special team. He had a special opportunity and he wants to create some special memories for the baseball team. So, um, even though, uh, he's a Red Sox fan, um, he has had a wonderful opportunity to go to, uh, Boston and to, uh, play a scrimmage game against a local team, stay overnight, and then also be able to go and tour Fenway Park, uh, walk be walk behind the scenes of the Green Monster, and then also sit and watch an afternoon matinea game. So, uh, when he presented this to me, I said, "U, are you going to take me?" He said, "Absolutely not. Um, you're a Yankee fan." So, um, I kind of smirked at him and but I did sign it. And, um, I wanted to see if we could get approval for his

037team to, uh, kick off the season the right way and, um, you know, bring us a great entertaining season. And I can feel any questions you might have. I'm going to open up to the board for any questions or comments. >> I have a question. Go ahead, Miss Manella. >> Um I I noticed that you do have three chaperones. My um next question would be, are parents allowed to come on this trip at all? >> Yeah, if parents want to come and go to the Red Sox game, they can. Or if they want to attend the game that we're going to be playing, we're going to be playing Newington High School at uh Boston UMass. They uh they have a a field that's a replica of Fenway Park. So, if they want to attend that

038game, they're more than welcome to come. Um if they wanted to stay at the hotel, they could as well. And if they wanted to to attend the Red Sox game, they're more than welcome. >> And the trip is totally um funded through the booster club. >> Yep. >> Through fundraising uh with the booster club >> 100%. And the transportation was uh donated. >> The donated by transportation. Uh we just have to pay the driver tip. >> Oh, so that's what the price is there. >> It's500. >> That's for the driver. >> It's $500 for the Yeah, for the driver. >> Any other questions or comments? >> I just go ahead, Miss Manila. Regarding the number of students attending, are are these all for are these all varsity players or is it a mixture of JV

039and varsity? >> It's a varsity players. >> Yeah. Be 16 varsity players and three coaches. >> Okay. So, one co one one autumn train one bus will be taking um >> the 19. >> Yep. And then also Newington's coming with us on the trip. We're going to play them uh in the scrimmage game. >> Okay. So, I'm assuming they're going to share in the cost. >> They're going to split the expense of the bus with us and the uh field expense as well. >> Okay. >> And and they're going to ride with the two teams together on the bus. >> The two teams >> together. Yep. >> Okay. So, then you have the obviously the rooms that are shared and it says there's two per room, >> correct? Yep. Correct. Y Okay. I'm the only

040one asking questions tonight. >> Is there anyone else that has questions? >> My question is, are they playing the Yankees? >> Yeah, >> I am also a Yankee fan. I'll put that on record. So, >> I knew I liked you, Miss Manella. >> I believe James back there says, "Yep." >> Yep. Mr. Addie, do you have a question? >> Yes, I do. Uh, this is actually more of a parliamentary question maybe for Dr. Zitto. Um, I don't know if my son's gonna be on varsity, quite honestly. So, do I have do I have to abstain from voting on this question or it's I'm not monetarily >> gaining from it. So, >> no, I don't there's no conflict uh regarding that issue. Typically, when board members abstain, it's because there's a >> monetary. Okay. You know,

041if your wife was employed as a coach or something and was getting an extra stipen to do the trip, >> but I don't see a conflict. >> If I was to pay coach to put my kid on varsity, that would be >> your coach. You did not just say that after our meeting, right, Mr. >> Oh my. >> And just uh just again, Ro, that ro that varsity roster is not Matt made me mate. He has a trial period and he determines who those 16 kids are. So that's not all set. >> Any other questions? Okay. So, seeing no other further questions, um I'd like to um have a motion to approve the Rocky Hill High School varsity baseball team trip to Boston. >> Thank you, Mr. Costco. Can I have a second? >> Second.

042>> Uh Mr. Clemens, thank you so much. All in favor? >> I. >> Very good. Motion passes. Congratulations. Have a fun. >> Thank you very much. Thank you everybody. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. >> Moving on to agenda item number four. Um >> is district celebrations. Um I had asked um after I received an email from uh Cab um I had uh asked Dr. Zto, if we could possibly um participate in um the I support my Connecticut public schools uh I guess agenda that CAB has on their plate currently and that involved making uh a video about what is going on in our schools. It had to be a minute or less and uh Danielle Gallaghan came to the rescue and produced quite a beautiful video highlighting our schools and we would like to

043play that now to share with everyone uh tonight. It is uh due to cave tomorrow and I know they've already sent it along but I want to share tonight at our eating Heat. Heat. Certainly there we could fill an entire video hours of all of the wonderful things that go on in our schools, but uh Cave told us we had to keep it to one minute. So, uh, but I again I thank Danielle Gallagghan for pulling that together and also all of the, um, schools in district, uh, that were asked for pictures and just information to kind of put into that video. So, I'm very proud of that. Um, and I'm going to turn the microphone over to Miss Manella, who is going to talk a little bit about our outstanding achievements in ceramics. So,

044we have some very exciting news to report. Um, we do have some outstanding achievements in ceramics. We received a wonderful email from Bri from um the Rocky Hill High School art teacher um Brian Wazano and uh I would like to read his email. Um it was great news. So it says here, "Dear staff, I would like to share some positive news about several ceramic students who were recently recognized for their artwork at both the regional and national levels. Two students were recognized in the regional scholastic art and writing awards, a competitive program that recognizes student creativity and artistic skills across Connecticut. Rian Nelson Rihanna Nelson received a silver key for her constructed ceramic jacko'lantern titled Autumn's End. And um due to the strength of her artwork, she was also offered a $23,000 per year scholarship

045to the um Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, totaling $92,000 over four years. Cameron Lubie also received an honorable mention for her ceramic sculpture titled Crushed Crush Can. She was also recognized for her work and offered the same scholarship opportunity from the University of Harford. Both students demonstrated a strong effort and dedication throughout their creative process. In addition um in addition to the two students were two students were also recognized in the national K through2 ceramic ex exhibition um foundation competition. This national exhibition highlights outstanding ceramic artwork created by K through2 students across the country. This year, 151 artworks were submitted and only 150 pieces were selected for display. Ryan Miselli was selected for her ceramic sculpture titled The Last Can of Paints and True Peterson was selected for her constructed ceramic heart

046titled A Vessel of Feeling. Both students showed strong craftsmanship, creativity, and attention to detail in their work. The National K through2 ceramic exhibition is connected to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts and the conference which is one of the largest ceramic art conferences in the country. The exhibition is displayed alongside this conference allowing student artwork to be viewed by professional artists, educators and ceramics from across the world. This year the exhibition will be in Detroit, Michigan. Um he we will also like to recognize and thank um our follow his fellow uh colleagues Eileen Schneider and Daniel Hol for their continued support and collaboration. Their dedication to the arts helps shape and guide our students as they grow into confident and skilled artists. And we have a wonderful team here. These recognitions reflect

047the hard work and artistic growth of our students and highlight the strength of our art program. Please join us in congratulating Rihanna, Cameron, Ryan, and TR on their accomplishments. And we've um there's we also received attachments of their work to the email for all their hard work. Congratulations to you all. And I I kind of wish there was a video of their artwork. Oh, you did? >> Oh, thank you. say board members have this in their packet. You have print outs of all of the um artwork. >> Okay. >> And Miss Manella is also going to take just one breath here because I know that was a lot, but uh she's also going to recognize students uh from who have received the NCWIT award. Yes. So, Gabby Rosowski had also sent us an email um

048regarding the award. So good morning. She's excited to share that several of our students have been recognized by the Connecticut affiliate of the National Center for Women in Information Technology Awards. These students are being honored for their demonstrated interest and aptitude in computing and technology. The leadership that they have shown in the classroom and their aspirations to pursue technology in ways that solve meaningful problems and positively impact humanity. Their strong academic performance, leadership, and forwardthinking mindset make them exceptional representatives of our school community. Please join me in congratulating the following students. So for the national winner, we have Ashika Chararma. And Ashika has been named a national winner and will also be recognized at the National NCWIT conference. For our Connecticut affiliate award recipients, we have Tanisha Saul and Ray Ramesh. And then honorable mention,

049we have Puja Prashant Katimani and Sanvi Pavala. All of these students listed above will attend the Connecticut Affiliate Recognition Ceremony on April 22nd to celebrate their achievements. We are incredibly proud of these students and the way they represent Rocky Hill High School through their innovation, dedication, and leadership in computer science. Please feel free to congratulate them when you see them. Thank you for your continued support of our STEM programs. My best, Gabby Brazowski, and also from the board. Thank you so much. Great work. Um, so proud of our students at the high school. All right. Moving on to agenda item number five, approval of minutes. We are looking at minutes from January 15th board of education meeting. January 27th board of education budget workshop. January 29th board of education budget workshop. February 5th board of

050education budget workshop. February 10th we had a board of education safety committee meeting. And February 10th board of education policy committee meeting. Um, does anyone have any questions about any of the minutes that are on the agenda this evening? Okay, seeing none, um, can I please have a motion to so move approve the minutes? Thank you, Miss Manella. Can I have a second? Thank you, Mr. Shabra. All in favor? >> I thank you so much. All right, motion passes. Moving on to agenda item number six, correspondence. Dr. Zto. Yes. Uh, we have two items of correspondence. Two, um, veteran staff members have just informed me that they are retiring at the end of the school year. Kathy King, who is a elementary school teacher, teaching grade one at Stevens School, and Elaine Malispini, who was

051our high school library media specialist, u also worked at Stevens before her assignment to the high school. Uh, two veteran staff members, well respected throughout the district. and uh they're going to be missed, but they're looking forward to uh spending more time with family, doing some traveling, and uh moving on for a well-deserved retirement. >> Very good. Thank you so much. Number seven, we have nothing currently on the consent calendar. Is that correct, Dr. Zto? I don't see anything listed. Okay, so I'm going to move on to uh our committee meeting reports number eight, curriculum. >> Uh no report. We have not met since our last meeting. >> Facilities. >> We have We have not met. >> Is your microphone working, Mr. Masker? Sorry. >> It is. It is. Is it? >> It is. You'll

052be sorry you asked. >> Thank you. >> Number 10, finance. No report only because we've also met three times for our budget workshop. So, we've been very busy on that side. >> Very true. Number 11, personnel and negotiations. >> That must be Jen. >> So I we have not PNN has not met, so no report. >> Uh 12, policy. >> Uh yes, thank you. Um the policy committee met on February 10th. >> Um and we had a couple discussions. First, we discussed changes to um the following policies. Policy, 1100, 3,100, 4,10, 4,20, 4510, 4550, 5110, 5120, 5510, 6110, and 6151. >> Um, majority of the changes within those policies are legislatively required either through state or federal law. Um we did go one by one through each of those policies for the opportunity to ask

053questions um for clarity and understanding. Um so we're putting those policies forward tonight for a first read. Um the committee also submitted a policy memorandum to Dr. Zitto with a recommendation to reduce class sizes um across our grade levels. Um, we had a lengthy discussion about the recommendations by grade level and what potential budget implications would be if we were to phase in that policy. Um, we'll wait additional information before a formal policy change is put forward to the board for a vote. Um, and we also had a discussion around creating a board of education handbook. Um, we have looked into other districts who do this and I I'll speak on behalf of the committee at least. I think there was a shared desire to move forward with something of the sort. Um so we

054will begin discussions about what that will look like, what it should contain um in the upcoming meetings and we'll make sure we keep everybody updated, but if any of my fellow committee members would like to add anything to that, please feel free. Any questions or comments? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to move on to special education. >> Special education is not met. >> Uh, Miss Man uh, Ms. Morphe is not here tonight and she was uh, would be giving that report for Craig Council which is next on the agenda. I know she will report that out in March. Uh, also agenda item number 15 does belong to Miss Morphe as well. Uh, it is school safety. However, I happen to be at that meeting, so I will give that update um instead. Uh so it

055was a pleasure to see all of our SRO or school resource officers in attendance at this meeting. Each provided updates on the schools that they support throughout the day and reported developing strong relationships with both students and the building level administrators. At the high school, there's been a reduction in disciplinary referrals as a result of the implementation of restorative practices and targeted interventions. The SRO's also discussed their ongoing work related to school safety, including perimeter checks and noted that each assisted with the Alice drills at the beginning of the school year. Chief CL also spoke briefly and shared information about a new software system that he's exploring that could enhance communication between school personnel and law enforcement during a crisis. This topic will be revisited for further discussion at future school safety meeting. Any questions

056or comments? Okay, moving on to technology. >> No report >> and 17. Voice. I know voice has not met. Um, so I'm going to say has not met currently. All right. So, moving on to sorry. Uh, we are moving on to number 19. Discussion and possible action on the budget and CIP proposal for fiscal year 2026 2027. I am going to turn the microphone over to Dr. Zitto so we can discuss uh class size guidelines. >> Thank you. >> So at the just as a quick reminder of where we are. Um, the current draft of your proposed budget is at an increase of 8.85%. U, I was asked by the policy committee to take a look at the budgetary implications of a change in elementary class sizes. Uh, this is the slide that I initially

057had prepared. These are updated projections. uh they've changed slightly, nothing significant, but the initial budget that I brought to the board um considered developing that budget with the current class size guidelines which are reflected in the lower corner here. So the board's current guidelines call for 20 students uh no more than 20 in K and one, 22 at grades two and three, and 25 uh in fourth and fifth. And again, if you remember, your policy also indicates that at no time should these guidelines be considered absolute. So there is an understanding that there's some variation, particularly in a smaller school district like ours where the difference between four and five teachers sometimes, you know, there's a budgetary impact, but the numbers we we try to stay at the guidelines. You may have 21, 22 when

058you're supposed to have 20. We do our best to adhere, but they're not absolute. So for next year with no change in the guidelines, we were recommending this projection here that you see which would be an increase from 55 uh teachers right now. FTE stands for full-time equivalent to 56. So I highlighted there in yellow um the projection for kindergarten. And again that's based on current kindergarten numbers. We typically look at the current kindergarten. That's that I don't have a lot of information yet on kindergarten. I may get more as we get into the spring. We just started the registration process, but assuming the kindergarten numbers stayed pretty stable with the new incoming group at Stevens, we would add another section there and the impact would be one additional FTE and that's in the original

059iteration of the budget that I presented to you. The policy committee has talked about changing guidelines. Let's see if I can move the slide. I'm not able to move the slide. Is this a controller here? >> This one here, right? >> Just say the word. It will happen. >> It's not moving. >> It's It did, Dr. Zto. It did move. You're on the green slide now, right? >> Okay. >> All right. Okay. It moved magically because I I don't know how that happened. >> All right. Um, I was asked to take a look at what what the impact would be if the guidelines were changed and lowered by two students at each level. So, in the bottom quadrant there, you see KN118. I've highlighted that because another thing for you to think about is phasing

060these in to reduce the budgetary impact. um if you phase them in um the biggest impact happens with the numbers at Bosure. So phasing them in you avoid jumping to 61 teachers. If you just put these straight in, you go from 55 to 61. Um, if you take a look at these numbers, if we drop the ratio for the first year to 18 and keep the other two cut points where they are, you'll see that kindergarten again goes up six and we add an additional teacher at West Hill and at Stevens. So, the impact now for the budget going into next year is three extra teachers. We estimate that these teachers are about $113,000 a piece. That includes benefits. $226,000 increase brings you from 8.85 to 9.258 or 9.26 basically. So it's about a4% increase

061to add two additional classroom teachers. But you could see the impact there is that it reduces class sizes in first grade at both of the elementary schools. Okay. I also um then went ahead and projected phasing in the policy over two years what the impact would be. So when we roll the projections forward, we then drop the guidelines to K and one would be 18, two and three is reduced from 22 to 20 and grades four and five goes from 25 down to 23. And because of the way the way these uh enrollment uh cohorts are moving through the system, you see that two years from now, again, this is a projection. This is like saying we're going to have a big storm in six weeks. Two years from now, we we don't really know.

062But generally speaking, uh we've had pretty stable cohort um stability throughout throughout the district, meaning we don't see a giant spike from one year to the next. The grade level pretty much stays persistent. Even though, as we've noted many times, we have a lot of inmigration and out migration within our our grades, our numbers generally stay stable. And you'll see that two years out, the impact would be one additional teacher. >> Sorry, >> I apologize. >> It's okay. I thought we had somebody calling in on the class size. >> So, um, I hit. >> So, that's that's where we are. Um, so I'm happy to take any questions. You know, we just we worked on this. I I spent uh you know several hours looking at this and kind of considering the impact. Um if

063you jump into the new guidelines all in one phase, you go up six teachers because the moer numbers start to level out in the second year. So the the impact on the budget is less significant. You're already at an 8.85. Adding two more teachers gets you to about nine and a quarter. I wouldn't recommend going higher than that, but that's a policy decision for elected officials to make. My job is to execute your your policy. >> Okay. I'm going to >> happy to take questions on this, >> Miss Manila. So, um Dr. Zto, thank you so much for these numbers. These are um is very comprehensive. Um I do have a quick question regarding on the uh the second slide the green slide when you mentioned um that it will go up to 9.258%. Um

064I have notes here where where we have a retirement at Moer and then the two that you included today. So does that factor in or no? And if if it's if not it's okay. I was just wondering. >> I mean, we we we built in um we built in a couple of retirements and we I anticipated a couple. So, I would I would hesitate to adjust based on that. >> Yeah. >> Um I don't know. You know, we we assume when we do those projections for salary, we're projecting like >> sixth or seventh step with a master's degree, right? >> We're not projecting top step. So, I I would hesitate to adjust the budget based on that. If we see a a slew of additional retirements, perhaps, but I would I wouldn't I wouldn't modify

065the budget based on that. We assume a couple of retirements. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Miss Dudanowitz, >> just a comment based on um Miss Manella's question. I mean, we would anticipate wanting to refill those positions anyway, >> right? like just use the first grade teacher at Stevens as an example, we would have to replace that teacher and then these would be in addition to those. >> So they would correct they would be an increase to the budget I think regardless. >> I Yeah, I I understand Miss Manella's question though because typically when a when a person at the top end of the scale leaves, >> we hire at a lower salary, >> but we've already built some cushion into the budget. I think we built $100,000 in there that we

066removed from the salary line item to account for retirements, but I I would hesitate to reduce that further. >> Sometimes a rockstar candidate comes in, >> excellent interview, the person's, you know, got 10 years of experience, it's a great fit. I don't want to tell the principal no, >> right, >> just because I'm overly concerned about salary. So, you know, we we we try to take that into account early in the process, but I wouldn't adjust the budget now based on those retirements. fact um we had some inkling on those people but I finally got the green light from them to come forward and share the news. So sometimes we know for for a few weeks before we we share everything with the board. >> Any other questions? >> I have three question three questions.

067>> Um >> trying to do which one first. So um on the slide that's showing now you may mention that moer kind of right sizes right now because our our fourth grade class right now is larger than our typical class sizes correct grade four now. So they'll be at GMS. Are we going to have a teacher problem at GMS in two years? >> No we won't because GMS has um 10 content area teachers. So essentially 10 kind of classroom setups if you will. So class size typically levels out when they get to GMS. So >> okay, >> we had even talked earlier in the budget process. I had mentioned it briefly and talked with the the principal with Jason and with the staff about potentially going to nine teachers and using an additional teacher somewhere

068else, but the school really wants to keep the team structure in place. >> So the team structure provides 10 teachers. So typically, you know, if you look at that cohort of 216 going up, you think about it, your rotations are going to be around 21 kids per class. So, okay, >> it's really the the the school has been that particular school has had very stable enrollment. I've been here 14 years. It's always between about 600 kids to maybe 640 or so. And there's no problem with 200 student cohorts going through there for class size. the issue we talked about at the policy committee um particularly at the secondary level it's not so much the the um kind of what you would consider to be the core classes English math social studies science it's sometimes the

069electives get squeezed on numbers particularly like we see a little issue with Spanish numbers sometimes at the middle school also at the high school >> so it's some of those elective courses where we see a little increase in class size >> not your kind of typical core classes that you would think of >> okay my second question is um you talked about in the budget the cost of the additional teachers. Is there setups for these additional classrooms? So we >> Yeah. No, that's a that's a great question. So >> So that I I quoted you what the salary impact would be. We would also potentially look at setting up >> additional furniture, additional supplies. I don't know if you did any work on that on estimating what that would be for two more classrooms. Okay.

070So, there there would be an impact there. Um I don't think it's a massive impact, but there is a cost to setting up for for two additional teachers. >> Okay. >> To to um the point that was made earlier, some of that might be offset a little bit by potential savings in salary. So, I'm not I'm not overly, you know, if you approve the two teachers and we go to a 9.25, we'll make it work for additional furniture and so forth. It's not a huge cost. >> Okay. All right. Um, and then capacity. So, I know that we're >> That's a great question. >> Close on Stevens. If we increase, so looking at the two-year plan, an increase at Moer, I know there's room in West Hill. Do we have capacity for these? >> Yeah.

071So, yeah, that's a great question. So, Moer was initially built for for 24 classrooms, classroom teachers. So, there's never really I don't foresee a problem at Moer in the foreseeable future with two grade levels. West Hill has ample space. The issue is Stevens. U talked to Ron today. We could accommodate up to 22 classrooms at Stevens. They would they would lose some things that they currently have. Right now, the two elementary classrooms typically were preschool or kindergarten historically across the hall from the principal. Th those two rooms now are serving as a teacher workroom and a conference space. >> Probably have we we would lose some of those spaces. Uh maybe both of them. We'd also have to look within the building. There's some related service providers in some areas. They typically had offices, but

072now we've set up classrooms, but the bottom line is yes, we could accommodate 22 um you know, regular classrooms at that school with some adjustments. >> That's great. >> Any other questions? Go ahead, Mr. Clemens. >> Uh thank you. Just the follow up on Miss Tucker's question about the space. If we move if we take the we turn the two rooms the principal's office at Stevens back into the classrooms. What about the man trap? Wouldn't that kind of defeat the purpose for those two classrooms at the man trap? >> No, not at Stevens. You still have to get through the man trap to get into the main office. There's another locking door at the main office. >> Once you're inside the office, there's not there's another door to get to the office space. >> Yeah,

073Ron, you want to help me with this? But when you when you come in through the man trap, you still have to get fuzzed in to the office. There's this another door to get into the office. >> There is >> you don't get through the man trap and just walk into the office. You >> okay? >> If you if you think about you come in to Stevens, you've been in there, you walk in, you're in the man trap, you walk in again. >> When you're out of the man trap, you still have to get buzzed into the hallway and buzzed into the office. >> Once you're past the man trap, you have you have access to the entire school after that point. So, um It's not gonna those two rooms aren't going to affect will

074not be affected by the man trap in any way, shape, or form. The the student protection is still in place. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. You know, the nurse's office, all those areas are still protected by that. >> Okay. I I been a while since I've been school. >> That's okay. >> I know the door in the hallway. >> I I couldn't remember about the offices. It's also separated. All right. Thank you. >> Miss Manella, >> I'm sorry, Ron. you're gonna have to come back to the >> I have a quick question about Stephen school. So, um I know Dr. Zto mentioned something about the um not not the first two classrooms across from the principal's office because I used to teach CCD in the first uh so I'm very familiar with that hall

075but the second step the second you you mentioned there were special resources or a room I just want to make sure that we're not going back to >> and I'm going bit way back when the kids were being taught in closets And that's unacceptable discussion we had today that we we're looking at possible way >> to avoid anyone going into closets. >> Okay, >> we had we had citations from the fire marshall for that. So, >> but if you think about it, um, and you look at these enrollments, >> 379 kids at Stevens, Ron, you could stay up here. >> 379 kids at Stevens. We we were running well over 500 at that school at one point. >> Yep. >> You know, almost 800 kids at one point at West Hill. So, >> you know,

076we we we are now with the addition of Moer, which was sorely needed. >> We have created a little more space. Stevens will still be tight. It's a >> as as Ron and Tom Costa remind us all the time, the original building was put up in 1957, >> right? >> The second was put up in 1960. I wasn't even alive when when that I was close but I wasn't there. >> So I mean that's how old this uh >> this building is. So it's a compressed footprint >> but 22 is probably the max. If enrollment changed again there there would be an issue and it would introduce potentially that ugly concept of redistricting. >> Okay, >> which is a problem in communities because you start moving neighborhood lines and but it's certainly doable and towns

077have to go through those things. I would like to make a request for facilities like to have a tour again. >> Yeah, we talked about that. >> Yeah, sooner. But I think sooner than August, it would be u more optimal. Um >> so >> especially if we're talking about classroom sizes and >> I've been working with Bethany um over the last week or so about the possibility of this happening and and how we're going to make the moves with them. So, you know, we're talking about a couple of resource type rooms, maybe having them be consolidated into one. So, we're we're working on that. I think maybe a tour would be um beneficial after we have a couple of concepts. >> Um but we are working on those on those ideas. Now, >> I I

078don't like to usually interject. I like to wait till the end, but I think at policy we had actually asked if um since the rooms I think that you put in were like a conference room and I think there's now a workspace for teachers, would they be upset if those are taken back as classrooms and I don't know if there's any input they can give which could help us to make a better decision. >> So, um I'm sure they would be upset. Yes. Um but I I that's part of the conversation is how can we rework those spaces so that maybe we only have to take up one Maybe one of those gonna be a resource room versus a full classroom because having the students go through the office, you know, going to specials that

079that's very it's disruptive to the office that I mean we're trying to keep them into the school proper instead of um so we it might be that might be a a pull out place for students versus so we're we're working on that now. I have a couple of ideas. Um I'm just starting to draw things out and come up with plans now. >> Other question. This is Tucker. I'll go ahead. Go ahead. >> Um, kind of along the same lines, right? If they the teachers are upset um with losing that room, not being a teacher, I don't know how much impact one student has. So, obviously, smaller class sizes are better. I think we all agree on that. Does the impact of stu to students does the impact equal what we're the challenges that we're

080trying to do? The the answer might be yes or no. I don't I don't I can't answer that question. So is all this effort of rearranging getting things worth two students? I don't know. >> Two less students per class. >> Yeah. I mean, I think the teachers would tell you, yeah, I think it's helpful to look at >> the changes. Like, if you compare your blue sheet to your green sheet, >> the that's the impact of adding I don't know. This thing is not doing well. >> Yeah, it's like three or four >> in grade one, right? Grade one goes down by three or four students per class. >> Oh, okay. >> Just because the way the math works. because the way it's >> right the way the math works our recommendations drop two but

081because of the math it works out >> three or four back yeah so this is okay so that's probably the better way to look at your question Tucker is to look at what the impact is so >> the blue slide >> is the addition of one teacher for kindergarten and you see what that does it brings it down to 175 and then Ray if you can go to the green the green if you compare in first grade you you dropped from 19.8 to to just about 16 kids at West Hill and about 17 kids at uh at Stevens. So that's >> that's mixed. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> You know that that's that's the impact of one teacher. >> So it >> I think it's a it's a good conversation. You know, it's a balance,

082right? It's it's >> it's an increase on the taxpayers. >> It's a potential tradeoff of a little bit of convenience and space for teachers to be to be blunt. But the the upside is smaller class size which we know is a little bit bit easier on the teacher a little bit better. >> Kids get a little bit more attention just a little bit extra from the teacher. The planning is a potentially a little stressful less stressful for the teacher. >> So it's you know >> this is a tough tough decision. I don't think 18 >> is unreasonable at all. Certainly a legitimate conversation for kindergarten and first grade. Those are needy kids. We're still going to have kids coming into kindergarten at four years old >> because the state legislature. >> Kept that waiver option

083in there. So, we're still going to be dealing with four-year-old kids in kindergarten. >> That means some of those kids will be five when they start first grade. You know, that's a lot of little bodies to run around. I'm looking at the our board chair who does this all day with first graders has like a finite window. She can call me during the day before she has to go pick up kids from specials. >> Yeah. >> So, that's not unreasonable to phase it in. Um but but you know the impact three I would say three kids is fairly significant when you're in charge of you know >> I mean I know people all the time say I've got two I'm not having a third in the house. So that's just one extra kid right >>

084you think about it that way three kids might be a lot. >> Yeah. >> All right. Danowitz did you go ahead. >> Yeah. No just a question uh Ron for you. Um, do we know yet at this point if any of those um, conceptual changes to Stevens will require any or will have any impact on our capital improvement >> budget? They won't have impact on capital. They won't anything we do would be small construction possibly um, within our operating budget. Um, if if anything at all. Um, so I don't I don't I don't see that at all. >> Great. Thank you. >> Furniture. >> Yeah, >> furniture. Yeah, Mr. Costco. Thank you. I waited so all these other questions out so I appreciate all the questions first. Uh it's a good conversation and I apologize

085I wasn't able to make the policy meeting the other day so I wasn't part of this conversation so I appreciate it now. So a couple questions from what I recall looking at the future projections of enrollment which I know are projections and again like guessing the weather sort of thing but we get data from from people that do this for a living. the future is is is flatish slightly down like flatish slightly down not trending up >> again things could change there could be some great stuff happen in rock and everyone moves here but from what we see now um I'm just thinking about the anticip you know if also our population were growing up and we're dropping class size average now we're talking about future like whoa like potential more teachers but um it

086doesn't seem like that's the case based on, you know, what I've seen with future projections for the population in the future years. >> That's that's correct. And if you look at the purple slide, >> right, >> you see that when that >> it doesn't change a lot. >> Cohort of 216 exits out of fourth and fifth, >> you know, that that jump of six teachers if you implemented those guidelines for next year >> carry you. >> It it drops back to >> an increase of of four teachers. So, it starts to level out. >> Yeah. and and Moer is looking fine at that point because of that. Right. >> Yeah. And then you know if you what you have we gave out at the last policy meeting I'm I'm g I've recommended to to Miss

087Lefredo um that you set up another special meeting to discuss specifically the issue of class size as a policy >> y >> and then have a budget workshop after that. >> Yeah. Okay. I think that's the because you still have until the March 12th meeting to adopt your budget, >> but this is a really important policy decision and you you know you need to make sure >> we have nine board I've also sent her the athletic schedule for basketball and hockey playoffs >> in a in a >> attempt to avoid any quite extensive yes >> conflicts. uh she and I were trying to think ahead like >> if there's a state quarterfinal basketball game or hockey, >> you know, we're going to have board members that want to be there instead and I understand that.

088So, >> but I that's my recommendation that we that we set something up probably for the first week of March. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate that. That's great. And so, that answers that first part, Jess, I might just sort of a follow-up question is I was thinking about the timing actually because as we think about this, I go, okay, now let's say hypothetically this all happens, right? and we do decide make changes in policy and we decide to change budget requests and and God willing we get approved for certain amounts you know and and and we're sitting here in what is it April by the time we get our budget back from town council so May >> May so now we're waiting until miday >> ish >> to understand whether we have the green light

089to hire so I guess my question is is >> how is our timing impacted I know this happens a lot every year like posting and hiring ing and when you're looking at we're not hiring one, we're hiring three or four. >> I'm not concerned about elementary schools. >> They're a time a dozen. I don't I don't I mean there's a flood of applications. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's plenty of applicants. >> High school chemistry, physics, I would be a lot more concerned. >> Elementary school teacher will have a lot of interest in this in this district. >> Awesome. Cool. Thank you. >> Uh Mr. Addie. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um well, Tom's a very smart guy. That's why we tend to think alike. So, uh, you you took a couple of my questions. So, um,

090just to piggyback on what he said, yeah, we have this fancy report that we probably paid a consultant to throw some numbers in a chart, but none of them match up with what you're producing here. So, and from what this NESDEC report is saying is saying that over the next four years, we're going to be losing 139 students projected. Uh and that's uh in K through three and four and five. Your numbers for um uh K through three for 2627 for the budget we're reviewing now is 726 students. The the projected report is saying 688. So there's a 38 student differential. You can just tell me that the that report is really just not anything worth reviewing. >> No, I I mean, but again, if it's 38 kids spread across 38 teachers, that's a difference

091of one. >> Well, but but no, but you have to think about when when you look at it, I don't I don't have that report in front of me, but if you're thinking about you just stated like K through five, 38 kids, that's six grade levels. So it's, you know, seven kids, six kids per grade level >> reduction, >> six in a grade level spread ac across two schools. We're talking a difference of three kids at each school. So that that report I have found that report has been a little more uh pessimistic about enrollment or optimistic depending on how you look at it in terms of it trending down and our experience has been pretty flat, >> very flat actually. So, um, they may they be might be missing some factors. Um, NASDAQ, they

092don't charge us much at all. We're a member district. It's a very low fee. They do a good job producing these enrollment projections for us. Um, they were very helpful um, years ago when the district enrollment was skyrocketing. We were probably the fastest growing district in in the state. And that's why we needed to build Moer School because we literally had I think the top was 788 kids at West Hill School and over 600 I think at one point right around 600 at at Stevens. >> So we had 19 portable classrooms if I'm not mistaken >> between the two schools. I mean that so and you know it was a point like are you going to start lunch at 9:30 in the morning because the >> cafeteria is fixed space >> 800 kids you have

093to feed them all. So, >> u they were helpful then. I, you know, we I still look at them. Um, but these numbers are actual bodies in classrooms in Rocky Hill. >> And I'm only projecting one year out and two years out. So, I would go with these is a little more reliable. >> Yeah. Well, I hope it doesn't >> because that's based on kids. This is this is our enrollment right now. These are the kids we have in our school district. >> I appreciate that. Uh, two other things. Uh, you asked about the timeline. So, I was concerned about voting and and approval of this. This isn't a policy change, correct? This is just a like a recommendation. >> No, what this to me what I'm doing tonight is is responding to a request

094from the policy committee that under the budgetary item, what would the potential impact be of a change in board class size guidelines and that's the report I'm preparing. So, I'm showing this to you. Like I said, it's a it's a policy decision for the elected board to make. Uh but I think it's prudent for the board to ask what the impact would be before making any decision. So, I'm sharing with you what my best assessment of the impact would be. And if you do go ahead as a board and change your class size guidelines, I'm recommending that you phase them in over a couple of years. Because if you jumped right into the change, the proposed change going from 20 to 18, 24 to 22, and 25 to 23, you would need six new teachers

095next year instead of just two. So the impact of that, you know, it's another $460,000 roughly. That's another almost, you know, another point8 on a budget get you above 10 at that point. So I think a more conservative course of action. It also um you know, it just to me you also would have the furniture issues and the classroom supplies and everything now for six teachers versus two next year. So that's what I would recommend. Obviously, the board does what the board wants to do. >> Okay. All right. And then my last question is is how how do our recommended guidelines for classroom size um compare to other schools in our DUI? >> Well, I don't have u that information in front of me. We can certainly get that if we have a special meeting

096and we can give you an idea of what surrounding communities look like. >> I I was going to comment on that. Miss Dudanowitz did an excellent job doing some research at our policy meeting and I'll make sure that everyone has a copy of that so that you can see the research that she did and she can include um some information from the Durk as well just uh for the next meeting. >> Um Miss Miss Manella >> I just yeah I just want to make a statement that's all a comment for Mr. Addie. Um, I will say looking at these numbers, um, so when my oldest son was in kindergarten and I go back to my pictures or whatever of their class with Mrs. Skelly's class or whatever, I mean, there were literally there were 16

097kids in his class. And what's happened over the past 10 years or so plus, those class sizes have increased. And to have these primary grades at levels of 22 students, I I mean, I'm sorry. I I I feel sorry for those kids because my kids grew up in a primary time where they had the smaller classes and I'm sure your boys were in that bubble, too. And what's happened over the years, it's just increased over time. And that's where that's what we're facing right now. And I would like to see them um back to what they were back in let's say 2010 or so. And that's it. And I don't think that the uh projection uh request of taking a look at the class size guidelines moving from you know 20 students in kindergarten and

098first grade to 18 is outrageous. I don't I don't I mean I of course I'd love to see that lower, but um we're talking about trying to um pay attention to space and how many teachers and furniture and things like that. So, it does become costly the lower you go, but I don't think 18 students um compared to the 20 is an outrageous request to try and move. So, any other questions on class sizes tonight? Go ahead, Mr. Addie. Uh, in response to Miss Manila, um, yeah, I'm totally all for less kids the better. Um, so I just want to make that statement that I'm not against or saying that the situation that we're in now is is is good, you know. So, um, but I just I'm just looking at it from a standpoint

099of when I'm looking at projections of 4% less students over three years, you know, almost 100 plus students less. Yes, it it's a it's a good fix for the situation. now to add six employees, but if the numbers are going down by a hundred or so over three or four years, well, who's going to be the one to say, "I'm sorry, you don't have a job because >> But you're always going to have retirements, too, like we saw this year." So, >> yes. So, >> early retirements typically there might be. >> Yeah. No, but but that's a that's a good question. But the answer is is I agree with what Miss Lefredo said that you have we experience a a handful of retirements a year. U one of the reasons you know we look back

100if you remember on your staffing sheets that I gave you some historical data. I think at one point we might have had um we were over 60 elementary teachers and uh in the effort to keep budgets reasonable. When people retired, we were consolidating some positions through attrition. Still staying below the guidelines. We never really shot excessively over the guidelines at all. One or two kids here or there, but that does happen. So I'm not overly concerned about changing the guidelines and then having to do layoffs because There's always movement in a dynamic district with 260 something certified educators. You have a combination of people leaving for other districts, people retiring, people going on maternity leave. One of the one of, you know, our elementary school teachers, you know, some of them are at that age

101where they're having children and each year we're dealing with it with three, four, five maternity leave. So this problem, I'm not overly concerned about it being an issue of having to like a mass layoff if enrollment dropped. Now, if something crazy happened and enrollment dropped by 400 kids, then we would be looking at reductions in course, but I don't think that's going to happen. >> We haven't even brought in the Cword concierge yet. >> Well, we have we we're going to report on that later tonight. And the good news is the third uh building 200 is now open. So, Scott has a lot of detail to give you an update on what's going on there. Uh but the you know again just to give you kind of information there there's 129 students that live in

102those five buildings and it's spread across 13 grade levels. So even the impact of a couple of if those if every one of those families moved we're looking at >> you know a very small drop uh of students overall 129 spread across 13 grades and they're not all moving. So in fact three of the buildings are open now. So I don't project a huge impact on enrollment uh even though that's a very unfortunate situation. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. So uh we will what I probably will do is ask the executive board to uh look at some dates that once Dr. Dr. Zto and I um sit down and look at the sports calendar um and see if we can get a a date out where we can have um the policy meeting to

103um again talk about any concerns or questions, make sure that everyone has um the uh writeup that Miss Dudanowitz um had for the policy meeting and we can continue to talk and then that same night we will also try to um finish talking about the budget unless anyone has any burning questions. questions that they'd like to ask about budget tonight. I'll open the floor to that since we are on the same topic still. >> Burning budget questions besides class sizes. >> Prepared for that. >> No. Okay. I Mr. Addie, go ahead. >> Yeah. Just a concern. Um, so I was I attended a board meeting um prior to being on the board. I think it was probably September or October, maybe even August, where uh there was a family that um from GMS, I believe,

104that came up and um a well spoken woman uh who was talking about how the difficulties her daughter was having in school at GMS um because of a change in program or a change in in something. Not sure what the um um what what the program was, but it it stood out to me as a member of the audience because it was very, you know, tangible living proof of of a a situation of a change. Uh, is anything that we're doing in this budget cycle, what we're doing or proposing, going to improve upon that situation or make it go back to the way it was, where it was better or there's something that jumped out at me the other day and I was like, I never really asked the question before. So, >> can I

105can I be honest? I'm not quite sure your comment or question actually fits here because I'm trying to talk about the actual operating budget right now. I think that might be a question um for Um maybe possibly a committee meeting like curriculum. Dr. Zitto, would you >> I think we discussed this at a curriculum >> meeting position or something like that, but okay, that's fine. I appreciate >> Sorry, I just want to stick to the topic that we're on currently. >> Um any other questions about budget for the operating year of 2026 2027? Mr. Costco. >> No, I don't have any questions, but just I appreciate the the plan that you guys are making to have a future meeting because I think these are there's pieces that I wasn't prepared tonight for this conversation. So,

106but will be for that next one. So, I think that's helpful in absorbing this class size stuff, which is a very robust and good conversation, and then the other things and impacts around budget that we all need to do. So, I think that's great. So, that we're ready for our March 12th Whoa, sorry about that. March 12th meeting. So, thanks. >> Right. Just just as a reminder, we do need to adopt that um our operating budget on our next board meeting uh which is March 12th. Correct. >> Right. >> Okay. Seeing no other further questions, I'm going to um move on to agenda item number 20 and uh as um which is the approval of um the legally mandated revisions to the board of education policies uh which Miss Dudanowitz had already stated. Uh this

107is a first reading. Uh 1,100 3100 4010 4020 4510 4550 5110 5120 5510 6110 and 6151. I do believe that all of the board members received copies correct. They were all nicely sticky noted. Thank you to Sandy in the back. Um so are there any questions right now? Even though this is a first read, I did want to have um give the ability to ask a question if you so um desire to ask a question about any of these um board policies. If not, then we will um you will see it again on the agenda for March. >> No questions. Okay, very good. Excellent. We are moving on to agenda item number 21. Interimm assistant superintendent for personnel and student services. Dr. Diaz Santiago will report. Hello, Dr. Diaz. >> Good evening, board members and

108the members of the Rocky Hill community. Uh, congratulations to this evening civility award recipients. Your actions strengthen our schools and set an example for all of us. I would like to share a brief update from human resource. Last week, we interviewed several candidates for daily substitute positions and we anticipate and onboarding a number of them in the upcoming weeks. We will also be attending the Central Connecticut State University School of Education Career Fair uh next month and these efforts reflect our continued commitment to recruiting strong educators who will positively contribute to our students learning experiences. We will continue our civility assemblies this spring with Mr. Daml Thompson to further engage our students in meaningful conversations around character, leadership, and community. This concludes my report and I am happy to take any questions this evening. Any

109questions? Okay, seeing none, thank you so much. Moving on to agenda item number 22, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, Dr. Nosk. >> All right, good evening everybody. Thank you. Um I'll echo that congratulations to all of our students and uh I'll I'll be honest, it was really nice to have uh students thanking us for giving them the opportunity to go to those places, the Model UN. Um that was uh I'm sorry they left. I wanted to catch them before they went, but that was that was a really nice thing for them to do and uh I I do appreciate that. Um, in my role as in in operations, I wanted to kind of update you on uh what's happening at um you know with the concierge update. It's been exactly two weeks uh since

110the uh the news broke. Um and just want to let you know what we're doing to try and mitigate um the situation. In your board packets, you have copies of eight emails that we've sent out in the last two weeks um from central office. This doesn't count all the correspondence from the schools, the principles, um, teachers reaching out to families. Um, but I did want to kind of update you. I'll make up for it on my financial report. I'll try to make that one a little bit faster. But I did, this is, you know, this is kind of unprecedented for us. I did want to kind of take you through it, explain some of the emails. Uh, and and you can kind of tell just by the the size of how much I blocked out

111how many people went to. So, some went to a lot of lots of people, some went to a smaller group. Um, so let me let me just walk you through that. Uh, on Thursday, February 5th, we had uh word that buildings 400 and 500 were deemed unsafe and that the residents were told to leave. This impacted 63 of our students across four different schools. The next day, uh, we met with town officials in the morning and then learned that buildings 100, 200, and 300 were also deemed unsafe. So, another 66 students were added to the list, bringing the total to 129 students. We did reach out and email the uh residents of concierge offering our support, providing them with information on various food pantries and snacks being provided to the schools. This was coordinated with

112the human services department at the town. I did want to give a shout out to Mr. Kenisonson for quickly providing us with a list of students residing at the concier's apartments and in turn we were able to quickly provide the schools with a list of impacted families uh in their buildings. The thought at the time was that buildings 400 and 500 might be um able to return by the end of that weekend. Um but that didn't happen until Tuesday. Later on Friday, Dr. emailed the entire school community uh with an update and information because we had a lot of people that were reaching out asking what they could do and so that those instructions were included in the um in the email as well. On Sunday, uh February 8th, we sent an email to impacted

113families letting them know that we still had not received information on where families were staying despite repeated requests from the property manager uh on Friday and throughout the weekend. After speaking to the fire marshal uh to make sure we wouldn't be entering or creating a hazardous situation, we emailed families Sunday evening and told them that we would be running our regular routes on Monday from the concierge buildings if that was easier than transporting uh kids directly to the schools. On Monday, February 9th, we did receive a list from human services of 17 families who were placed at the Sheridan. Uh unfortunately this was not acquired through the property management company but through Melissa Hicks the director of human services. Uh this happened kind of almost by accident. She was asked to stop by the Sheridan

114and when she did she was provided a list of our students that were staying there from the families themselves. We then worked with NBT our transportation company to get students to and from the Sheridan the following day. uh an email communication to the families of those 17 students was sent out Monday afternoon informing them uh of this and then a second email to those families in the evening provided them with the bus numbers and pickup and drop off times. On Tuesday the 10th we were notified that buildings 4500 would be allowed back in and that reduced the number of displaced students from 129 down to 66. On Thursday the 12th, having waited almost a week for the list of displaced students um that was never given to us, we sent a survey to all the

115families in buildings 100, 200, and 300, asking them for their current location and how long they expected to stay there. We received 23 responses from approximately 60 families, so just a little bit over a third. And then I wanted to share something with you that uh I know that I had not fully considered. Uh staying in a hotel under these circumstances is not like staying at a hotel when you go on vacation where you book a room for the entirety of your stay. Many of these families would spend a night or two in one location and then have to leave for other accommodations. This makes it even more challenging to try and set up transportation. Usually it takes us a couple days to get a route together and by the time the parents let us

116know where they were staying, say on a Monday, by Wednesday they were somewhere else. >> This stability no matter how long is very important to families. Uh for example, Dr. Zitto and I had called the family who was staying in a hotel in another town and Dr. had offered to get her and her child into a hotel in Rocky Hill. With buildings 400 and 500 reopening, there were presumably more rooms in town available, and we are trying to get people closer to to town. However, the parent politely declined the request to come closer to Rocky Hill, stating that that she was already in her third hotel in six days and that she was guaranteed at least a full week in her current hotel if she stayed there. She didn't want to move into a fourth

117hotel and not know how long her child would able to be staying there. On Wednesdays, we used the results from the survey to set up transportation to five Rocky Hill hotels. I have to say special thanks to Jason Hughes and New Britain Transportation for making this happen without adding any cost to our district. Using existing buses, he added five stops for each tier of our bus schedule. bus numbers, pickup times, and drop off times were communicated to families via email. And that service started today. One thing that I wanted to also share and point out is to run a bus to a hotel sounds like, okay, you're going to run a a bus to a hotel. However, this impacts four schools, three different start times. So, it's we run on three tiers. So the the

118bus going to the Sheridan didn't just make a trip to the Sheridan. It made a trip to the Sheridan for the kids that were going to school at Rocky Hill and GMS. Then it made another trip for the kids going to Moer. Then it made a third trip for the kids going to West Hill. Multiply that by five hotels in town. What New Britain did was really, quite frankly, very impressive. Um on February 19th, that's today, we um again using the results of the survey and working with MBT, we are using two existing vans um to transport. We had six kids uh staying in one hotel um out of town because they all six kids were in the same hotel. We were able to use two vans. One to pick up the high school kids,

119there were three of them, and then one to pick up the Westill kids because there were three of them. So, we're able to get two additional hotels on our list using existing vans. And that service actually starts tomorrow. And then one of the things that uh again, kudos to Jason Hughes for doing this. When kids go on a little kids go on a school bus, they don't need booster seats. When little kids go on a van, they do. So Jason went out and purchased three booster seats so that these three kids could be picked up in a van in a different town and be brought to school starting tomorrow. As of 3:00 this afternoon, residents from building 200 are allowed to come back home. So this leaves us with 37 students from the 129 that

120are still displaced. Of those 37 kids, 26 are receiving transportation from us or could if they wanted to. So, in other words, they live or they're staying in town in Rocky Hill. Uh, another student is staying with family. Seven are still out of town. Um, seven out of 129, which is really not too bad considering. Um, and then we have three family or two kids, sorry, two families with three kids who we have not been able to reach. Uh so again I appreciate everybody's efforts uh and cooperation from NBT to the schools um to the town especially human services and the fire marshall's office we've been in touch with them if not daily than every other day. Uh and I would say that you know moving forward should something like this happen again at least

121we know we can set up stops at each of our hotels in town um without too much difficulty. Um the only cost and again concierge is supposed to be paying for this. The only additional cost that we have incurred uh since this started is one van and uh one aid to go pick up a student out of town. Um that's a cost combined cost of $369 uh per day. Um, and so NBT is keeping a separate invoice from what they normally bill us just for this additional charge to make it hopefully a little bit cleaner so we can simply give this to the concierge management. Um, and they don't have to sort through, you know, any of the other buses and vans. So, it's it's pretty pretty straightforward for them. Um, and hopefully, you know,

122you know, with any luck, buildings 100 and 300 will be back. But, you know, we're prepared to support them, you know, wherever they are at the moment. >> That's all I have for concierge. I don't know if anybody, you know, has questions or um >> I can jump into the financial report. >> I I have a hand up, Mr. Cleven. Go ahead. >> Uh, thank you for that detailed report and uh thank you for New Britain Transport for all their help in this. You threw a lot of numbers out, so forgive me if I'm wrong about the end. You said there's three families with kids. We haven't heard from >> two families, three children. >> So, haven't heard from us. They're not going to school this entire time or we just haven't heard back where

123they're staying. >> We we haven't heard from where they were living. The principal >> um I don't know if they're going to school. Um we track attendance. I get attendance as a whole. Um right now we're at about 84%. that family. We I know the assistant principal um called uh we've sent emails. Um I've sent a bunch of emails. Um we haven't received any word from anyone and we haven't been able to reach him by phone. >> My concern is now we're on what week two going on week three. >> Two two is two weeks today. >> Two weeks today. And I mean obviously it's a lot of miss school. These kids are in fact missing school over this. Um okay. Thank you. U Miss Manila. Um Miss uh Scott, thank you so much for

124that very detailed report. It was um I very eyeopening. Um I do have a quick question regarding transportation. Um the buses going to the hotels to pick up um the children. Did it affect the routes at all for um drop off or pick up? Like a domino effect, I guess. >> No, no, it's a great question. Um before we put it in place, we looked at the times um and they're all within within um that you know that 10-minute window that you have. So it didn't shift them anybody by by more than that. So we're within the 10-minute window. >> What he looked at when he was building the route was we have a lot of buses that would go by there. >> So rather so whatever bus was closest, that was the bus that

125was assigned. So it was really kind of like >> a quick you know pit stop in and out. um didn't really add it a lot of time on. >> Good. Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Dr. Nosek, I also want to say thank you for a very detailed report. I know I've been in pretty much constant contact with you and Dr. Zitto. Um I also want to say a thank you to Jason Hughes for really working with us and um I think he's gone above and beyond buying booster seats and things like that. So, he's um probably will be getting a thank you note for me. Um but I I thank you for keeping families um in the loop. I appreciate the amount of emails that you have shared with us um to kind

126of keep us updated on this um crisis situation and hopefully it will die down very soon. >> Thank you. >> Uh also in your packet you have the regular financial report reflecting year-to- date figures for the month ending January 31st, 2026. Uh I've highlighted a number of line items for your review. These are the exact same line items that we have been over um the last couple months. Um subteers, uh Medicare, group insurance, pension, and then tuition uh in and out of district that tuition. Hopefully by the end of February, we'll have our first check for um excess cost grant reimbursement. Um and then we're continuing to monitor the accounts um as we go. Any questions about uh Dr. Nosik's financial report? Mr. Clemens? >> Uh yes. Uh just about the port law 14, the

127subs teachers. Um I believe it was Dr. Dia Santiago mentioned you interviewed a few subs. How would the hiring of those subs impact this budget? Uh well, let me just say that getting the subs for the classroom teachers is extremely important. Wearing the hat that I do, I was like, really? You going to hire more? No, but we needed them. It is going to drive it will drive us the you know, if we have uh additional subs uh that are paid out of that line, we'll continue to go, you know, under in that line. Um but those are you know those are you know necessary um you know we need to have subs in there but yeah your your thought process is correct that we are going to continue to go negative in that in

128that line >> but just because we're hiring that doesn't mean that they're all working at the same time. So, as we hire daily subs, we maintain a list of subs and they know you'll get hired and we'll do the onboarding with the condition that it's an on call. Um, so they know that they don't work every single day. >> So hopefully we'll have a really good pool of subs available and not need >> and a good pool. Yes. Of subs. Thank you. >> That is wishful thinking, Dr. Nosik. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you very much for your report tonight. Uh, moving on to agenda item number 23, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Miss Durand could not make it tonight, but Mr. uh, Dr. Zto is going to read um her

129report. >> Yes. So, thank you very much. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Dan's under the weather, so she asked me to pinch it for her tonight. So, um, she has a handout for you that you should have received in your packet. Um, but I'm going to share her comments uh first and then uh address the handout. The district wellness uh professional development day that took place on Friday, February 13th was a wellorganized professional learning experience for staff. The day began with a district-wide wellness presentation in the high school auditorium followed by a rich menu of optional sessions throughout the district. A wide variety of sessions were offered throughout the day covering physical activity, mental health, creative arts, practical life skills, and mindfulness. allowing staff to select learning experiences that supported both personal well-being and classroom practice. Sincere

130thanks to the many staff members who volunteered to lead sessions and share their skills. A special shout out to Stephanie Malcin, our high school su school psychologist, who began the day with an inspiring presentation on wellness that was filled with valuable information staff members can incorporate into their daily um life skills and practice and the way they approach their life. Uh we appreciate her expertise and commitment to staff and student well-being. Uh we also want to give a shout out to u our drama club adviser Julian Fryag and her students who uh you know to get high school kids to come in on a day off you got to ask a lot and uh these kids were great. They gave a a sneak peek. They did a little scene in their uh in their t-shirts

131uh for the the Little Mermaid production. U added a lot of joy to the day. Uh it modeled student involvement. I' I've commended Wendy um in the last update. She's really made an effort to involve students in our professional development. Typically, it's our high school kids. Uh couple months ago, we had a district-wide PD day where kids uh high school kids came and talked about the impact of AI in their lives. And it was really interesting to kind of see the perspective of 16, 17, 18 year old kids. So, I want to commend Wendy. It's the first time we've done that to to set a portion of the day aside for kids when we have our staff together. And I like it because it it grounds us in the work like why we're here. We're

132here to support kids. So it's really cool to see that. Um so those kids from the drama club did a great job and I think it was a good good uh kind of a sneak peek on their performance which which I think will be fantastic uh in March. Um she wants to share some information on some upcoming events and reminders. Um the uh full production for The Little Mermaid is scheduled for March 20th and March 21st. So save the dates, come out and support the kids. Uh we have one book week scheduled for the first week of March. Uh the K through five schools will highlight books by Jory John, including The Good Egg, The Bad Seed, and others that center on kindness and acceptance. These messages align with the board's voice committee work and

133our district's focus on social emotional learning and respectful school climates. March 6th is a half-day professional development focused on curriculum and vertical alignment. And then the parent teacher conferences are scheduled for the K5 schools. Remember a few years ago the board added the spring parent conferences to this to the uh calendar and those dates are March 18th through the 20th. And then um there's a handout here kind of covering what went on during the wellness day. Um and you could kind of read that on your own but but I know um our board chair had an opportunity to be there and saw Miss Malcin's presentation and uh the kids as well. It was a really really good start to the day. So, uh, thank Wendy and all of the people, uh, who who got involved.

134You've got a whole list here of staff members who led sessions and I'll I'll mention them by name as well. John Petrae, Terrell White, Cat Mater, Kim Antl, Leah Olirri, Leanne Zenapontis, that she's with um, Sedexo, Brian Jacobson, Leslie Fuches, Ryan Ellis, Dr. Erica Kessleman, David Darly, Eileen Schneider, Jen Paragon, Tanya Adorno, Lori Cavanda, Tracy Banani, Meg Myers, Alice Quinn, Steve Patterini, Kim Lane, Steph Malcin, Dr. Brian Graca, Michelle Stevenson, and Lisa Kley. It's a really good group of folks and uh really good job by Wendy putting this together last weekend on Friday. >> Very good. Thank you so much. And moving on to agenda item number 24, superintendent report. Again, Dr. Zto. >> So, a lot I've already spoken a lot tonight. Um, I want to thank Scott for his uh herculean efforts to

135address the situation at Con. It's been been difficult. I also want to commend uh what I've seen from our colleagues on the town side, the the town uh building department, building inspectors, fire marshall. Uh they've been really really good. uh we are getting our information from town officials, not from television reports or other people speaking on the issues. We're getting the information from fire marshall, building inspector and so forth. And we've also seen an amazing job with our colleagues in human services, Melissa Hicks, has done an excellent job responding to really what is an unprecedented situation. 544 homes were disrupted. That's a lot of people when you think about it. over 2,000 residents in those complexes. Uh thankfully, three of those buildings have been re reinstated at this point. Uh but again, Scott has has

136done a great job uh working with our colleagues from the town side to get the word out, communicate, and like you mentioned earlier, we're running uh six buses into a couple of different towns, plus we're dealing with a couple of special education issues. I won't get into the weeds on that, but individualized transportation further away. We're working with these families. Um, and I'll tell you what, the families that I've spoken to, um, they're appreciative. They have thanked the school district for the efforts. They're not angry at us. They're appreciative. Uh, I know that Cara Quinn worked with her colleagues, some other principles. I see Jason here tonight, uh, to do an event for the impacted families at West Hill School last Saturday. Uh, we didn't have a huge turnout, but but the families that came

137out really expressed appreciation. I know Wendy had an opportunity to go. Um, I did ask Miss Lefredo to represent the board at that event and she uh showed her appreciation to the staff. We had a large number of staff show up to support those families. And really the concept was just to give those families a little bit of a break from the drudgery of hotel living. You know, this is not a hotel in the Cayman Islands or sitting, you know, Disney World for two weeks with your kids. This is two nights. I mean, we the parent I called from my office. two nights at one Sheridan, two nights at another hotel, and then shipped off to another to, you know, a homewood suit in Wallingford, like constantly getting moved around every two or three days.

138It's not glamorous hotel living. So, the effort that that those staff members made to give those people a little bit of a break from that hotel drudgery uh is greatly appreciated. So, shout out to to Cara and the other principles who really stepped up to to help out that day and their and their teachers. Um, and really the only other kind of quick item is uh today I returned a check to the town. We got a reimbursement check from Sigma for $164,459 and that was uh a final close out on our old insurance plan as they went through. That's the last um kind of settling of of the account if you will. That that has to by law be returned to the town. I returned it to Mona McKim the town treasurer today and uh

139we have a request to put that into the capital non-recurring account. So uh believe that request is going to be acted on or has been acted on already and that that money will be there to support boards the board's capital expenses. >> Thank you very much. Uh the last agenda item is my report which I will make very quick. I just would like to begin by recognizing the outstanding work of all of our board members during the recent budget workshops. They were very long and demanding evenings uh yet very thoughtful and thorough and respectful questions that you asked um and it really demonstrated your strong commitment to the fiscal responsibility and student centered decision-making. Taking this time to methodically work through our operating budget is essential and your diligence truly showed. I'd also like to

140appreciate um the district administration, Dr. Zitto, his staff along with the building principles and vice principles who supported the budget conversations by being present at these very long meetings. As you may notice, have have noticed um we're making some several intentional updates to our board meetings and these include inviting students to lead us in the pledge of allegiance which I thoroughly enjoyed this evening um with our very brave second grader. Um and we are beginning the meetings with celebrations and shoutouts. And um believe it or not, so it was something that happened during our um budget workshop where um Mr. Clemens, you started us off and uh with some shoutouts about sports happening in district and it really just I felt put um a great um kind of a positive spin on our evening. So

141I wanted to continue that. Um, so thank you for um reaching out and letting us know that there were some celebrations that we needed to announce and we will continue doing that. So please feel free to reach out and let me know if there's something that you feel we should celebrate. Um, and last week we dedicated some time um at the policy meeting to the development of the board handbook and um once it's complete I hope that our current members um that they find that this handbook becomes a valuable reminder of our roles, responsibilities and statutory obligations. And finally, Mr. Vassel was here tonight to talk about the Wizards. I also was going to just talk about it again very quickly. I did buy my ticket. I do expect hopefully the rest of you will

142be there. I know Miss Dudanowitz, you probably wouldn't be playing, but you can sit in the stands and support everyone. Um again, it's Friday, March 27th at 7 p.m. at the high school. And I do have to say, um I had talked to Mr. Vassel um recently over at West Hill School when he came to speak um to the staff there to try and um get them all on board to play and um he brought to my attention that the foundation has contributed $178,000 um to the Rocky Hill public schools and it really truly is a incredible testament to community support and the generosity of the educational foundation. Um so I do want to make sure that we get out there and support them. All right. And with that, I'd like to take a motion

143to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you. A second, please. Mr. Shabra, thank you so much. All in favor? I