001Call to order this meeting of the uh board of education, August 21st, 2025, 7 p.m. in the Rocky Hill town hall council chambers. If everyone will please stand for the >> pledge. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, welcome back everyone. I hope your summers are going very well and winding down nicely. I know I'm ready for the kids to go back to school. Um so moving along to agenda item number two, audience participation. This is the part where the meeting is open to the public. Is there anyone here to address the board tonight, Mr. Addie? All right. Seeing no one, we'll move along to agenda item number three, approval of the minutes on
002the uh on the agenda tonight. Actually, it looks like that throws off the agenda item numbers, but um number three is approval of the minute. So, on the agenda tonight is uh June 11th, 2025 board of education special meeting, June 12th, 2025 board of education special meeting, June 23rd, 2025 board of education special meeting. And July 23rd, 2025 board of education special meeting. Does anyone have any corrections, deletions, or additions for the minutes? With that, I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve the minutes as listed. >> Moved by Miss Tucker. Do I have a second? >> Seconded by Miss Lefredo. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. All right, that carries 70. Moving along to what should be agenda item number four. Um, correspondence. Dr.
003Zto. >> Yeah, we have one item um tonight. Kila Parsons, who is a uh high school science teacher, has taken a position as a part-time teacher in West Hartford, which is a little better for her in her opinion in terms of life balance. So, she um has left the district and we have posted for a full-time science teacher at Rocky Hill High School. I think Annabelle is uh coordinating interviews tomorrow with some of the high school administrators that >> Thank you, Dr. Zto. Any questions for Dr. Zto on that matter? All right. Moving along to so I have a corrected agenda now. So that was agenda item number four on the corrected agenda. So we're going to move along to agenda item number five committee reports. Agenda uh item number five is curriculum committee. >>
004We did not meet over the summer. We are um looking to meet the end of September. There's a few items on the agenda that we want to discuss over um the career pathways. Um a second round of textbooks ordering forward language and more discussion on the expansion of potentially for community service hours to include job shadowing opportunities as the agenda so far. Um so a date will be coming out shortly. >> Thank you, Miss Tucker. Any questions for Miss Tucker? >> Seeing none, we'll move along to agenda item number six, facilities. Mr. Gavin, >> the facilities committee has not met uh since the last meeting, but is going to give us an update on the facilities projects over the summer, and we'll determine from there when our next meeting will be scheduled. >> Thank you,
005Mr. Gavin. Any questions for Mr. Gavin? All right, moving along to agenda item number seven, Committee for Finance. That is Miss Tucker. >> We have not met over the summer. >> Thank you, Miss Tucker. Moving along to um well, no questions on that, right? Uh moving along to agenda item number eight. Uh personnel and negoti negotiations. Mr. Gavin, >> uh we have not met. >> All right. >> I don't believe we have a reason to for a while. >> Correct. Thank you, Mr. Gavin. Number nine is policy, Mr. Shabra. >> Well, we have not met over the summer. >> We did have some a few uh meetings uh prior to our final meeting. So, um, we got our work in before the before the break. >> Hold on. >> Correct. >> Before school ended. >>
006Correct. Uh, moving along to special education. M. Tucker. >> We have not met since break, but uh, we're looking to have a meeting potentially in October to um, get an update which will also include updates over the Dream Cafe. >> Excellent. Any questions for Miss Tucker? >> All right, moving along to number 11, school safety, Mr. Clemens. >> Uh we have not met but uh need to schedule one either late September or early October. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Clemens. >> Actually, one more thing. Have you heard from the police as far as hiring a new or appointing a new um resource officer? >> Yep. Uh we have a new SRO. I will um actually don't have his name with me. I did meet him very briefly. Um I will get his uh >>
007Thank you, Mr. Clemens. And thank you, Dr. Zto. >> Moving along to technology number 12, Mr. Gavin. >> Technology committee has not met. Uh we're going to give Mr. Guay some time to get the year started and see how things are going before we schedule our next meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. Gavin. And number 13 is correct. Council, Mr. Shabra, >> uh nothing over the summer. I will reach out to them, find out the next meeting. I believe it's coming up after the school starts next >> after they start. That makes sense. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Trevor. >> For Mr. Clemens, it's officer Brian Carroll. Met with him right at the end of the school year. Nice guy, significant law enforcement experience. I think he'll be a good good addition. >> Thank you.
008>> Excellent. >> Thank you, Dr. Z. Old business number 14. No old business tonight. So we'll move along to agenda item number 15 and new business update on summer facilities project. Mr. Lantine. >> Good evening everybody. >> Good evening. >> So I know you've been uh waiting all summer for this. Um, I put together a a highlight of what's been going on in our buildings. So, we'll get right to it and then I'll open it up to any questions you might have on what we've been doing. So, um, this summer um, obviously we we've had one large capital improvement that we were working on. We've created some new spaces and um, we're preparing the schools obviously for the new school year. And actually, this would help me if this was on, but do it this
009way. So, for capital improvements, we um we did we did the Stevens HVAC. Um I was working with um on the other two projects that are in in the can right now for for for upcoming projects. So, this summer, Steven's gym was very busy. So, this is um our contractor is removing the old 1976 units from the building. Um here's some of the progress. we had to trench for new electrical in that building to supply power for the new equipment, the new condensers in place. And then in the right hand side, you can see the fence um that's covering those four condenser units and the piping that's actually going up leading into the building to operate the interior. And then in with the new stuff. So, um we got everything in place. Um new duct
010work. Um the original equipment only just blew out the end of the air handler. Um the new equipment is ducted across for um better ventilation um and air distribution. We are scheduled for the official factory start up on Monday. Um so we are right on target for getting this ready for for the start of school. Couple of other things I've been working on um over at West Hill. um completing the documents um and the design for the grant application for state plan review. Um as Mr. Gavin indicated, we'll be we'll be having some facilities committee meetings to to start discussion of moving forward with the the town resolutions and and and what you folks need to do to to get our money reimbursed for next year. So, we can go out to bid probably late
011February and have a contractor in place ready to go as soon as the school buses leave at West Hill on the last day of school next year or this year actually, sorry. And then I've been working with Castle Booms Associates to finalize the conceptual design for the media center and teched spaces. Um, it's ready for you all to review and have a look at it and um see if we want to make any changes before we actually do a complete design for construction. Um, over the summer we had an opportunity to create some new spaces in our buildings. um with a lot of the the room moves and and whatnot, we and some other needs that came up, we started to to uh utilize some of our spaces the best way that we can. So,
012as you know, the Bright Beginnings classrooms move over to West Hill this year. Um so, we have three there now. We have two new spaces there for Bright Beginnings at West Hill. Um as part of that move, um part of the moving, um we consolidated Kip. So the learning center at Stevens actually relocated to the old kit classroom. It was better suited for them. So we moved them over. Um we were able to give um our physical therapy um space a larger space this year. Um they were in a very small room. So this is actually much more spread out, full classroom size. So we we had an opening. They're actually in the old learning center as part of the Bright Beginnings move. Um, we utilized the old Bray Beginnings room in the main office.
013Um, we gave Stevens a larger conference room. Um, the existing conference room is actually very tight as Mr. Ram can can let us know would let you know. And, um, we gave the teachers a work room um, for pretty much the first time in many, many years. Um, all their equipment has been spread out throughout the building in closets and and whatnot. So, we know this might be shortlived depending on what happens with enrollment and having to take those classrooms back over for students, but it was better than leaving them empty. So, um it's also the teacher workroom is also going to be a carryover space um for uh lunches and whatnot for the teachers. Right now, there's two tables in the the teachers lounge at Stevens. So, we were able to give them some
014more space to eat lunch. So, we had a need to create a satellite nurs's office at Stevens. It's actually um really close to it's right across the hall from the learning center. We have some medically fragile students. Um one who actually has a one-to-one nurse. Um so now his medical needs can be met right across the hall from where he is during the day. That the room that he's in that this is in actually has been many different things. One to one room. It's been a seclusion room. It's been the custodial office probably 20 years ago. So, we were able to uh and all this work was done in house. Um we added a sink which was never there. That was done by our in-house plumber. All the flooring was installed by our guys. Um
015I actually utilized some attic stock from this um GMS science classroom. So, this really was a nocost project for us to do for you. Um the new career center. So, it is a work in progress. It's close. Um, furniture was actually delivered today. It's being installed Monday. The technology is is just about there. We have to um make a couple changes on on um some of the TV locations for the monitors, but we will have it set up and ready to go before the students arrive next week. Um Mr. FOD asked us to reconfigure the library and media center um so it would flow better um be a little more inviting for the students to actually utilize it and the tech actually let me go back one so in the upper left is the old
016tech center which is now the new career center we had to relocate them somewhere um that's where a lot of the students would go and if they had Chromebook problems they would go right into that room Chromebook exchanges and that sort of thing So, if you look in the upper right hand corner of this picture, the tech center is actually part of the media center now. Um, so it's actually going to push the kids into the media center a little bit more so they can utilize it. Um, so I'm going to go over some of the highlights of what my guys do during the summer. Guys and gals now, but yes, during the summer. So, we did a lot of district-wide corridor and classroom painting. Um, the portables at Stevens were cocked and repainted. Um,
017so hopefully they're skunk tight and bug tight at this point in time. Um, that was done in house as well. Actually, all this work is done in house. Um, here's just a screenshot of the camera. The guys were replacing some damaged cove base. So, you know, all our all of our staff doing this work. you know, we, you know, the typical window washing, regular highback maintenance, um, carpet extraction. We actually have a very nice, um, camera system where I can start pulling a lot of the stuff from. The guys don't really know it, but >> I was going to say, do your guys know you're sharing this picture? Can't do pictures. >> They do. I actually contemplated putting like the smiley face emojis over these guys, their faces. But, um, the high school parking lot
018light replacement. So, back in April, we started losing lights. Um, they started fading and then completely going out. We were about 50% out. So, unfortunately, we had to spend a little bit of money. Um, roughly $26,000, but uh the good part is that we utilized um grant reimbursement money from security grant we had had sitting there. So, it didn't come out of our operating budget. Um, so that's actually what those programs are for, so we can keep rotating through projects. Um, and I thought security and lighting are go hand in hand. So you can see the difference um, significantly. It's it's he should be finished up probably by next Tuesday. Um, that's the teacher lot. Um, he's working on the student lot now. So bigs. I'm sure we're going to maybe hear from a couple
019of neighbors that it's bright again over there, but you know, but you know, better be safe than sorry. So, here's um here's some of the guys in progress. You know, they're they're they're that's the high school cafeteria. This is this is what they do. And you can see the difference moving forward. And I couldn't resist this next slide. It um if you're a fan of the greatest movie of the of the 80s um So, you know, Mr. Miyagi would be proud that we are ready to welcome our staff and students back to school for the 2526 school year. So, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer anything you have. >> Thank you, Mr. Lament. I'm always amazed at at what you can do with um just with what we have and making it
020work. So, um thank you for that. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Lati? >> Mr. um Oh my god, >> Costco. That's okay. It's been a long summer. Um >> just thinking about some of the uh the reconfiguring. I mean, you mentioned that nurse's office that required some sort of I say buildout, but you know, sort of more permanent things. Were most of the other things more furniture, dividers? You know, I noticed a sink in that teacher's area. Like were there other things that were more more permanent versus just I just want to get a sense of what what you had to do that was more permanent in nature >> districtwide? >> Well, no, just some of those like renovation things like that like reconfiguring stuff when you're reconfiguring. Is it mostly literally just
021moving furniture? >> Um, sometimes it is. I mean, in the past we've actually had to build um we have built-in cubbies for DTI spaces um in in our KIP classrooms. Um so um actually the learning center is using those DTI. That's why we moved them over. So that that's permanent. So, you know, it depends on the project overall. Um but the but that that satellite nurses room, you know, you we see that being permanent. >> Sure. Okay. >> Um but anything is possible. I mean that thing can come out tomorrow if you want if you ask me to do it. I was just getting a sense of like as you said like when enrollment changes and all of a sudden we need a classroom. We got to take the teachers you know >> so so
022part of it like with the with the teachers workroom we had we had to run electrical I mean we we put a copier in there we put a laminator in there the poster maker. So you know things that >> weren't there before needed power. So there you know those are permanent >> and obviously the lighting is permanent hopefully. Right. Right. So >> thank you. No it looks great. I mean thank you. >> Got a lot guys got a lot done. So, thanks. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Costco. >> Any other questions for Mr. Lantine? >> All right. All right. Thank you, Ron. >> Moving along to agenda item number 16. First, uh, welcome, uh, Dr. Diaz Santiago. Your first board meeting as the interim assistant superintendent for personnel and student services. >> Thank you. Good
023evening, everyone. Um, so I'm going to give a few updates this evening and we're going to start off with the Dream Cafe. Um, so the summer goal for our students was to keep them highly engaged through many science experiments and kitchen activities. Um, they learned in about allergies and dietary restrictions, focus on non-edible crafts and experiments. So, they really did have a treat. They also participated on cafe duties, uh, busing tables, using the cart, the wall-ally cart to clean and sanitize, high and low dusting with Swiffers, sweeping entryways and dining spaces, dishes and stocking the kitchen, watering the plants, and organizing inventory. So, they also did a lot of uh crafts and activities like rock painting, shrinky dinks, and cookie decorating. Here you see Justin, Dylan, and Chloe enjoying their time. They did a gummy
024bear experiment, um, which is really neat. So, we see Gavin, Chris, Dan, Daniel, Chloe, Juliani, and Alex. Um, so they were able to experiment with the gummy bears using room temperature water, salt water, and sugar water. And they were able to see whether the gummies expanded or they shrank. Um, so that was something neat that they were able to observe. They also worked on lemon volcanoes. Um, and there was some vocabulary development with a lot of these experiments. for example, you know, learning about reaction and learning about fizz bubbles. So, that was something that they really enjoyed to spark their curiosity. Another experiment, Skittles, rainbow plates and peppermint swirls. Um, they were able just to see how the colors expanded and either created a rainbow or the swirls with the peppermint um to create that
025swirly pattern. the bouncy egg. This was something that I didn't even know to be honest. Like I didn't know you can put an egg for 48 hours in vinegar and it dissolves the shell. So, um, and it creates a rubbery membrane, which is really neat. Um, so that was something that the students really did enjoy doing and observing. uh the dirt cups and beach cups. They enjoyed these wonderful treats, making edible science memorable. And this is one of the most exciting pieces for us from the Dream Cafe. Uh the website is going to be launched this school year and we can have a sneak peek into the Dream Cafe website. Erin did a really, really nice job putting together the website for us. Looks great. >> So, you can order catering. Um, there's photos, even
026outreach, calendar, and we can contact Erin. Um, so this is this is big for us and it's exciting for our district. We're going to go and transition to the special ed programming over the summer. So, ESY at West Hill, grades preK to six. So, here we have our preschoolers. Um, I had the opportunity to visit all of these programs over the summer, and I really did enjoy the little the little guys, especially the preschool classrooms. They were so cute. Um, first and foremost, I want to thank the administrators, the teachers, the paras. Um, you know, they they really put together a really nice program for our kids. This is our learning center with Miss Vigorano. And as you can see, this is Lucas. I had the opportunity to meet Lucas. Uh really uh nice young
027um young and sweet boy enjoying his uh arts and crafts here and the kids enjoy movement breaks. The connections program this was run by Miss Lionese and they enjoy theme base each week. Um here they're making an ice cream craft after a week of ice cream themed and learning and exploring. So lots of explorations during these summer programs. Here we have uh the dream academy along with grades seven and eight and they did a lot of collaboration with the science uh experiments. Um, so it was nice to bring both cohort groups together to learn during the summer. And here they're working on their vocational skills. And we have Kaden and Daniel um going out, you know, to the store and enjoying at the end their little leisure time at the end of each day. They
028close out with the social group. So now I want to transition from the programs to the staffing updates. So we hired 21 new staff hires. So we've been really busy over the summer and we currently have nine vacancies as Dr. Zetraham mentioned. Um we are hosting or we have scheduled excuse me uh interviews for tomorrow. We have five candidates that we are bringing in to interview. Um, so it looks really promising. And last but not least, mandated training. All of the mandated training for the district and also for the state was all sent out on August 18th. And I will be sending out information on our new frontline absent management system to all staff. And we have this one centralized system for staff members to input their absences where we can manage them. And that
029is it for the updates and I welcome any questions and I will try my best to answer them. >> Thank you Dr. Dia Santiago and again thank you for uh stepping up to fill the interim position. Um does anyone have any questions for Dr. Dia Santiago? Mr. Coster, >> just one brief question just on the vacancies on the you had three paras and five tutors. Just where are those spread around the district? Um >> where are those positions just to get a sense? >> They are they are spread around um I don't I can get you that information. >> No, I don't exactly but they're spread all over the schools and I just because that's five tutors is a bunch. You know what I mean? So >> yes, >> I would imagine until those get
030filled that's you know kids not getting that service. So, it's a little, you know, tough, but but yeah. Is that are there uh people applying for those jobs? Like, how does that look? What's the the prospects look like to fill those positions? The tutors and the parents? >> We the prospects look good. We will um fill those positions. Um you know, it's just it's just a matter of going through the process, but >> Okay. I mean, obviously you've been busy. I see even a lot a lot going on this summer. But yeah, just curious as far as if there's there's people applying and there's >> because it's late obviously in the in the cycle to be most people are in their positions already, you know, >> but I you know, in comparison to other districts,
031we are in very good shape. You know, we all of our students have certified teachers in front of >> you see the numbers in the news. Yeah, we're in really good shape. >> Really exciting. Yeah. >> Yeah. those those other positions that are non-eing there's a high level of turnover >> anyway rightually especially tutors tutoring pair professionals turn >> may I jump in on this as well one of the delays in hiring for those tutor positions is that many of those positions are paid out of grants >> and so we had to wait for those funds to be before we could post >> so had that not happened we would have posted sooner so that that did cause somewhat of a delay, but we do have applicants and um interviews have taken place. So, a
032lot of it is just the final stages of the hiring process. So, we we should be in pretty good shape. >> No, that's great because I just know over the years we've have really good success having our positions filled, especially even those pairs and stuff. We've really been in good shape. So, yeah. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Any other question? Thank you, Mr. Kosker. Any other questions? >> Seeing none. Thank you, Dr. Santiago. >> Number 17 on the agenda, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, Dr. Nosik. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Thank you. Um attached or included in your board packet was the financial report reflecting the year-to- date figures for the month of ending in July. Uh there is limited expense activity in the report due to the
033fiscal year just beginning and the start of the new school year um coming up on the 28th of the month. Uh I do want to point out a couple of things. If um included in your um in the object summary for the financial report lines three and four appear to be um in the negative. So just wanted to explain that uh that's a product of our year end rollover. And so some people um who were in those positions as paras or substitute teachers when we did the rollover their names they they continue to get rolled over and they show up in the encumbrances. So, um once we clean up the uh the uh position run, which we did, uh 3 days after you got your report, um so so you'll see that in the next
034month. Um those are not in the negative. Those are just people that just hadn't come off the rolls yet and so that's why they ended up as encumbered. Um I did go back and check to see if this was an annual occurrence and it does appear to be. Um last year for the uh for the report in 2024 we had a salary for substitute non-certified that was also appeared to be uh in a negative again due to the rollover. Thank you Dr. Nosik and also I guess um welcome to the this is your first full board meeting with us. Yes. So welcome uh Dr. Nosik as well. Um any questions for Dr. Nosik? All right, moving along to agenda item number 18, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instructions. Doc, uh, Miss Duran. All right, good
035evening everyone. I hope you all enjoyed your summer. It's great to be back and I'm very excited for the start of the 2526 school year. Um, it was a very busy summer at central office. Uh, we had a total of 50 584 hours of curriculum writing completed by 58 teachers across the district. um some of them are in the room this evening and um I would like to thank all of those individuals who um took time out of their summer to complete that important work. Tomorrow we have our um new teacher orientation and we are welcoming a very small incoming cohort of teachers. We only have five new hires. Um, and two of them were here uh for part of last year. So, um, we have a great day lined up for them tomorrow. And,
036um, part of that will include our uh, tour that we started last year and lunch at the Dream Cafe. Uh this past year, the board adopted new goals and that is going to drive much of the professional learning that um staff will engage in throughout the 2526 school year. Over this summer, our leadership team met for five full days to develop um our our own relationships. We have quite a few new building administrators um in the district. And so it's been great for everybody to get to know each other and um engage in professional learning and strategically plan for the school year using your goals that you um developed to drive their work. The main focus will be to continue to provide high quality instruction across all grades and content areas and to prepare our
037students for our everchanging world. So, one focus across the district will be to support learning that is differentiated and scaffolded to meet the growing needs of our students. Um, I put this slide in here because we've talked about it at several uh board meetings throughout the year last year. Um, we continue to outperform the state average in ELA and math on our standardized assessments. However, when we look at our multilingual and special ed population, which we know is growing, um there continues to be ongoing opportunities for growth. So, that will be one of our focuses for this school year. Um the work that the administrative team participated in this summer has prepared us to implement the components of the safe school climate legislation. Um through through this work we will address student needs including the
038differentiated instruction to support both academic and social emotional growth. Um we did have a full day with an ASUS um trainer and we have our we had our administrative staff trained in restorative practices. It was a really wonderful day. Uh we everyone walked away feeling really um positive and confident um about the work that we engaged in throughout that day. Um the presenter was excellent. So um next week we have a presentation for our staff on the new legislation and they're going to be working um with their building principles to introduce the components like and here are acronyms that I've been kind of talking to you guys about and you're becoming very familiar with. PBIS, restorative practices, MTSS, as well as other systems and protocols to ensure compliance with the components of the new legislation.
039This year, the curriculum office will continue to support the transition of hardware across the district to docking stations and laptops while also introducing several new technology platforms for instruction, workflow, and parent communication. Teachers will be learning about those programs next week when they engage in their beginning of the year professional development days. And we will be continuing the work we started last year with the state AI grant. We're expanding training and usage to staff at the middle school and high school for the start of the school year. We'll be implementing the usage in phases, continuing to meet the plan with the AI committee, and engage in a full day technology PD later in November of this school year. So, as a board, you have supported and um Mr. Lamontine spoke about this, the creation of
040a career center, which is coming together. Um really excited for you to see the finished product. Um but it will emphasize the development of students as citizens, communicators, leaders, thinkers, and lifelong learners. It will be a hub for resources and support helping our students to explore those career pathways and develop essential workforce skills. Um we're really fortunate to have Jordan Chagel who's going to be leading this initiative. He brings passion and expertise to this initiative. Um he worked with Mr. FOD, Mr. Lamontaine, and myself over the summer to not only get the physical space, but the curriculum ready for its opening. And we are planning an open house this fall. Um, we don't have it all set up yet in the date, but I will make sure to get that date to our board and
041we hope that um many of you can attend that. So, as I stated at the beginning of the report, it's been a really s busy summer. Um, and I speak for the leadership team when I say that we feel excited and ready to open the school next week. So, I entertain any questions that you may have and I thank you for your support. >> Thank you, Mr. R. Any questions? Mr. Clemens? >> Uh, yeah, just being naive. What is sheltered English? Okay. So, um, sheltered English is a another term for a teacher of the multi or our EEL students or multilingual students. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Language other than English is the primary languages at home. >> Gotcha. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Clemens. >>
042Any other questions for Mr. On behalf of the board, I want to say thank you. This sounds like a tremendous amount of work um that you guys did. Uh, thank you to you. Thank you to the staff, the leadership team, all the teachers. Um that's a lot of work. So, thank you. >> Thank you. It was it was actually very invigorating. So, I think we we really uh walked away um from the summer feeling like, wow, we just completed a lot of work, but we feel really proud about the work that we completed and ready to get the year going. So, thank you. >> We love hearing that as a board. Thank you. All right, moving along to agenda item number 18, uh, number 19, superintendent report, Dr. Zto. >> So, a lot of, uh,
043good information's been presented already. Uh, tomorrow, as Wendy said, is the, um, new teacher orientation. So, you kind of in my mind on the calendar that kind of kicks off the official start of the school year is when the new teachers report. Um, Wendy touched on a little, she went over a lot of things. A lot of curriculum writing occurred in the summer as well. and uh see some uh representatives here from the teachers union. The two Michelle's are here tonight. Thanks for coming out. Um very good vibe uh throughout the summer. A lot of a lot of teachers were in um as recently as this week working very hard um on curriculum. So we really appreciate the teachers that don't have to come in but willingly come in and really want to get a
044jump on a year. Uh as you could see the uh central office stayed very busy this summer. on. Thank you for for all you do. The facilities look great. Um throughout, you know, the hiring process, the enrollment registration process, payroll, the rollover for all the training. Uh everybody's worked really hard. It's been a been a busy busy summer. Uh but people are focused on the tasks at hand. Very been very pleased with Wendy, Annabelle, and Scott uh moving into their roles. Wendy, year two, obviously. Uh but everybody's got a good focus this year. The retreat um as you said, was was excellent. Good vibe. two days with the whole administrative team. Uh very good vibe in the air and people uh really excited to to go forward. Um on Monday when we kick off um
045convocation with the with the teachers uh we we we'll spend a few minutes with them. Uh they'll have some time to meet as a as a union uh the RHDA officers can meet with their group and then we've got about an hour and a half set aside for a legislative update for one of the attorneys Julie Resnick with Shipman. So, uh, a lot happened at the state legislature this past spring. So, we want to make sure that the staff is fully informed and our, uh, our attorney from Shipman will be here to give everybody kind of a comprehensive overview on the legislative changes. So, u, summer is kind of in my mind officially over and we're we're ready to roll. The kids probably don't want to hear that, but they'll be here on Thursday and
046uh, I think we're positioned to have a very productive and enjoyable uh, 2526 school year. That's my opinion. >> Thank you, Dr. Zita. Any questions for Dr. Zita? >> Just one thing, and I don't know if it's premature, but I know the summer is always this flux with enrollment. Do you have any sense of enrollment where we're up down? >> I check it frequently. I I always give an update in September. >> Okay. But but we are uh we're tight. We're tight in some areas at the elementary level. I don't you know, nothing excessive, nothing we're ready to go. as you know, was a difficult uh spring with some of the reductions to the board's request, but uh we'll be tightening some spaces. Kindergarten at Stevens is is close to 100, right around that number.
047>> Um but I'll give you a full report. It's still kind of in flux right now. >> That's what I thought. I wasn't sure it was pretty much question. >> Uh and it'll it will continue to be a little bit in flux until we get the school year. Typically, uh I'll come to the September board meeting and give you an update on where we are and then you'll get a full uh October one report as you do every year. Uh at the October board meeting, that's where I'll go through slides, enrollment class by class, level by level. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Costco. Any other questions for Dr. Zto? >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Zto. Moving along to agenda item number 20, which is my report. Um, I hope everyone's
048summer is uh winding down uh pleasantly. Um, I was able to catch about 20 minutes of the first Rockill High School um soccer scrimmage this morning or this morning on the way on the way here in between the office and um the meeting and I know I'm excited for uh everything to get started back up. So, um I hope you all are excited as well. Um a couple things to touch on. Um I know at the end of last year uh we had talked about having collaborative meetings with the um union reps, the central office and um the executive uh committee of the board. Um happy to report that we have uh gotten the first one scheduled for the first week of September. Um we're looking forward to that um as a board uh and
049as a district um to you know continue to have the open and open and honest communication transparency that we uh that we have always had in this way. You know I think that that'll go a long way to um making sure everyone has a seat at the table and and everything's everything's in the open. So uh looking forward to that. I believe it's uh September 4th if I remember correctly. Um and uh I look forward to it. Um if anyone's been paying attention to the town council meetings, obviously the uh subject of shared services has come up. Um and so a couple comments on uh the shared services. Uh first off, I think it's important to address uh as as a preliminary matter that for as long as I've been on the board and based
050on discussions with prior board members um probably for a long time before that, the board of education and the town council have always worked together in collaboration with an I towards what's best for the for the um residents of Rocky Hill. So when you're hearing about shared services, please do not confuse collaboration with uh shared services. Long before the idea of shared services um came up, the board of education as a deliberate body as a deliberative body and the town council as a deliberative body have worked together for the betterment of Rocky Hill and we will continue to do so. Um the idea of shared services services is different uh from collaboration in general in that is a concept of potentially sharing resources between the two deliberative bodies and fulfilling their separate responsibilities. Um so
051just as a preliminary matter I just want to make sure everyone kind of understands that. Um the concept of shared services is certainly something that piques interest and is worth uh further discussing as a board. The real the reality is that it's one pool of money that's collected by the town and uh that reality is not lost on me or any on any of the board members. Um when I hear shared services and finding efficiencies, my ears perk up twofold. First, as a taxpayer, my ears perk up because saving money as a board and as a town presumably has an impact on the taxes we pay uh every year and ultimately should save us all money as taxpayers. Secondly, my ears perk up as a parent of children in the district and as a board
052member. Yes, for that same reason, saving money. We're all stewards of the of the um residents of Rocky Hill Hills money in the decisions we're making here. uh but also as to the potential effect of shared shared services that may have on the board of education uh in its duty uh in handling the administration of education in Rocky Hill. So under Connecticut law um the duty and responsibility of education is delegated within our district to the board of education as an entity independent of the town council. Our school district is currently incredibly efficient with its spending while at the same time achieving pretty fantastic academic results. The data shows that our district is ranked 17th out of 24 towns in our district reference group in spending per pupil. Uh meaning we spend less per pupil
053than roughly 70% of the towns in our district uh reference group. Um additionally, we're ranked 119th out of the state uh state's 166 school districts in spending, meaning uh we spend less per pupil than roughly 72% of the district statewide. All of this while consistently ranking at the top of the district reference group group in academic achievement on all measured domains. It's unclear at this time what if any services would be in consideration uh for the shared services model, but it is absolutely paramount that we exercise our due diligence in evaluating this proposed idea uh through the lens of a board of education with an acknowledgement and respect for the independent body that we are and the unique purpose we serve in this role. education. As I said, the concept of shared services with the
054town council is certainly something to consider. Our position on the board dictates that we exercise due diligence in evaluating this idea as a board. With that in mind, I reached out to Mayor Marada earlier this week to get the contact information for I believe it is Mr. Ziplo uh who presented Monday. Um Mr. Costco, you were there. Mr. Clemens, you were there. um presented to the council with regard to shared services uh with uh the indication that I' I'd like to invite them to a meeting with the full board uh to do a question and answer session based on his presentation that he presented to the town council or potentially present to us as well. But it is available on YouTube if you haven't seen it yet. Um I we could also just have uh
055all board members watch the video and then just have a question and answer with uh with him. Um, additionally, I think it makes sense to schedule a meeting as a board to deliberate after the question and answer session so that we can deliberate um with a with everyone present uh and have an open conversation about the um the idea. Um there are may be some areas where shared services with the town can effectively uh even in light of our unique role um uh even in even in light of our unique role as a board of education uh where we can share some resources uh without it affecting um our deliberative process on education. Um, with that in mind, we look forward as a board to looking into shared services where it makes sense. But rest
056assured, irrespective of where the shared services discussion ends, we will continue to collaborate with the town council for the betterment of Rocky Hill just as we have in the past. Um, so I just want people to be clear as far as general collaboration and shared services are two different things irrespective of where we end up on the shared services discussion. As far as sharing resources, we will continue to collaborate as we always have with the town uh for the betterment of Rocky Hill. Um also, I think it's it would be prudent to schedule a meeting to and I intend to schedule a meeting to discuss um the HR vacancy um that was created at the end of last year. um not to discuss uh any kind of permanent replacement at this time, but I think
057we need to have a discussion as a board as to overall how we want to structure um that vacancy or or how we want to deal with it. Um so, uh keep your eye open for that. Um other than that, um everyone enjoy the remainder of your summers and um I look forward to a another successful and exciting school year. Does anyone have any questions for me? All right, with that I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Moved by Miss Tucker. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Shabra. All those in favor? All those opposed? All right, we are adjourned. 70 at 750.