001e e e call to order this meeting of the Board of Education the town of Rocky Hill February 20th 2025 the time is now 7:05 Rocky Hill Town Hall council chambers if everyone will uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible all right welcome everyone second agenda item for tonight is uh special recognition this is recognition of our crossing guard for exemplary service Dr zo yes thank you if I could have Mr William Quinn come on up here join me at the podium over here so um just a quick story um about something really amazing that Mr Quinn did um Friday January 17th he reported to his uh crossing guard station at the intersection
002of elm and Maine it's a fairly busy area if you know Rocky Hill right out here on a silin highway uh when a young woman uh not a student woman probably we're guessing in her early to mid 20s uh was crossing the street and collapsed in the crosswalk and uh at that point the lights turned green and you know people are focused on getting from point A to point B and don't always you know they see the green light and they go Mr Quinn uh without any regard for his own safety placed his body in front of the young woman held up his sign to alert the oncoming traffic to stop uh this was all witnessed by Gina Munch in our office she had a dental appointment that day so she was coming in and
003said Market was unbelievable I I saw this gentleman out there he's holding the cars back he's he's BAS basically trying to Shield this young person and um she witnessed it and called 911 and you know by by a very fortunate twist of fate that was an exam day because you would not have been at the post uh at 10:00 that that day unless we had the High School exam so on a regular day who knows what would have happened but he wouldn't have been there to help her so uh you know we we're just really appreciative you guys um you're the unsung heroes crossing guards you know people aren't always friendly sometimes drivers are not pleasant with our crossing guards but they're there to protect kids and and regular uh citizens as well so you
004know you put your life on the line that day we're very appreciative I just have a small certificate here for you um awarded to Mr William Quinn school crossing guard by the Rocky Hill Board of Education on February 20th 2025 for his exemplary and selfless actions on January 17th to help a fellow citizen in danger so sir I I uh respect you and I appreciate you thank you you you'd like to say anything to the board well I just like to say My Heart Belongs to Two Towns now I grew up in weatherfield and I love my job and helping somebody makes it even more you know satisfying that's that's just about it thank you sir thank you sir thank you very much thank you thank you for everything that you did thank you for
005the hire that's for sure Mr Quinn is uh supported tonight by some longtime family friends we have Diane Krauss who some of you know works on our payroll office she handles payroll benefits her parents it's a long relationship with the Quinn family but they're all here to support him and and just real proud of uh William stepping up that day and really really putting his life out there and without regard to his own safety's doing the right thing so we appreciate it thank you thank you Mr Quinn on behalf of the whole board I you know it's uh you all everyone hopes that they'll act appropriately or act rightly when something happens and um to be put in that position not only be attentive enough to to realize it but then to immediately act uh
006is is commendable so thank you very much all right agenda item number three is audience participation this is the portion of the meeting that's open to the public is anyone here to address the board tonight seeing none anyone here to address the board tonight hold on give him a second what do you think all right come on you can do it please just state your name Ryan Martin Ryan [Music] Martin I'm here for my Petition of to end homework I love that that the history of homework in 1905 when homework was invented by Robert nelvis of the 19th century an Italian teacher he gave homework to kids that didn't demonstrate their best in that school day statistics 95% of the grade school children get homework Every Day 70 4% of the students St homework is
007a source of stress defined as headaches exhaustion sleep deprivation weight loss and stomach problems high stress high stress levels 56% of the students considered homework a primary source of stress according to the survey data 43% view tests as a primary Str Professor well 33% put the pressure to getting good grades in that category how does homework affect students in mental and physical health first and foremost exe excessive amount of homework can be um demal to students mental and physical health it can lead to increase stress and and anxiety as well as sleep deprivation and other health problems when students are overwhelmed by too much homework they become burnt out and lose motivation to learn overloaded schedules the Stu the students already go to school all day then they come home to lots of homework which
008sometimes can move into people's schedules with not having enough time to do extracurricular activities Sports Arts Rel religions and most importantly family time research has also shown that kids need to be well-rounded of and have other extracurricular experiences outside of academic tasks into homework based on my research homework is either used as a form of punishment or cause grade students stress and which doesn't help students to learn therefore let's say let's put an end to homework thank you for taking my proposal into consideration Mr Martin that was a wellth thought out articulated argument against homework um and I think the board will take it under advisement and I do know that if the student body was here uh to listen to that they would have erupted in cheers when you finished thank you very much
009for that presentation that was excellent [Applause] all right moving along uh report of student Representatives first up tonight we have members of the high school student council it's a report on Rocky Hill High School um good afternoon G of board of um members it's hard to believe that we're already more than halfway through the school year time flies when you're juggling test projects and of course keeping track of which day it is but here we are at the second semester and there's a lot happening firstly in January our students finished their midterm successfully it was great to see everyone's hard work payoff especially the incoming freshman right after we also began our second semester on January 22nd we held our marching band banquet for those who have been involved with the hard work the band
010put in so far including parents the staff members the students everybody it was a very relaxing it was very relaxing for all the participants to relax after a long season congratulations to all we also had an exciting event where we hosted the eighth grade elective Fair it was really helpful for all the students and parents to meet with each department and learn and learn what they will be going into the school year next year not only did they get a great overview of how our school runs they also learned about opportunities we offer such as clubs classes and team sports this was also ran the same exact day that um us students in the high school had the elective fair and it just all leaders got to like take partake in fun and meaningful activities
011for next year in early February our Coral Department music department led by Tri and music Honor Society hosted Cabaret a chance for all members of concert choir Corell and chamber choir to Showcase their talents it was a great event as their year's theme was collaboration with teachers all all those with musical Talent were given the opportunity to showcase their abilities at this show we had numerous collaborations and arranged from the guitar by Mr Russell to the piano by Mrs Morgan and so many other teachers overall we had an excellent turn now and absolutely enjoyed the wonderful experience and seeing the musical Talent our school holds finally for all our Sports we are thrilled to say that everything is going excellent wrestling is heading to the state finals and girls basketball is getting ready for the
012state tournament which I'm pretty sure it's he today we're all cheering them on as they represent our school with pride all these great events have taken place at our school only in the past month with our students and staff accomplishing incredible things each day we're excited to present more great news next month thank you so much for your time thank you moving along uh next we have representatives from Griswald Middle School good evening my name is and my name is chido Ki we here to share with you some news from G middle school on Friday January 10 the GMS Unified sports team was recognized as a Special Olympics National Champion School GMS received this National Banner recognition for its efforts to provide inclusive Sports and activities for students with and without intellectual disabilities schools receiving
013this award have met 10 national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion advocacy and respect Mrs Barbara horn and Mrs Carol Bowski of the CIA were present at the ceremony to award the banner to the GMS teams from the 2023 2024 and 2024 to 2025 school years the banner is now displayed at half court in the GMS gymnasium next to their Banner for winning the Michaels Cup in 2023 congrat congratulations to all all the students coaches and support staff for obtaining such a high honor coming up in March language classes will participate in a virtual visit with bestselling author Alan grat hosted by book break students will discover how Alan grat researches historical events in a variety of eras as he shares about his novel Refugee which inters historical events with fictional narratives offering
014a deep exploration of the refugee experience and a uniso human struggle for dignity and belonging a schoolwise scavenger hunt and puzzle activity will follow therein students will be able to use what they learned during the author's visit to answer questions and complete activities to win a price our GMS technology education program extends it its sincere gratitude to the Board of Education for supporting the addition of a laser engraver to our wood shop classroom this incredible tool has sparked creativity and excitement among all of our students allowing them to enhance their wood shops project in truly innovative ways one of our eighth grade students who has taken a special interest in the laser has created gifts for each of you thank you for your continued support our cops are thriving and offering students a range of
015opportunities to explore diverse and interests and get involved Common Ground Lego Club and M CS are some of the activities happening after school we also also have lots of in student interest in the you to youth Coalition and the you equin Club offered through Rocko family and youth services a new activity at GMS is the library social begun by Miss Len a way to encourage students to unplug and interact with each other in a positive way students are allowed the opportunity to play a variety of games work on puzzles color and other offline activities the program is offered to all grades once a week during on teams the friendships that have formed and all the interactions observed have been impactful to students and rewarding for all involved in sports our basketball and wrestling seasons have
016come to a close coach Gilbert LED his varsity basketball team to an eight and four record while the JB team played hard earning four VNS coach libera reports that the g girls basketball team had a great season varsity team had 11 wins and one one loss the JB Team B 9 and one capping off another amazing season for the GMS lady Grizzlies our wrestling team consisted of 12 players nine boys and three girls in grades six to eight we had five matches the team performed very well and improved throughout the season winning matches and experiencing success as beginner wrestlers they received some great coaching from the high school staff and players they were eager to learn and showed great commitment to the program Jim with cheerleaders had an amazing season cheering on the bo both
017the boys and girls basketball teams coached by Mrs Mack they were able to perform a halftime performance which included a t tumbling section and a dance we even had a Grizzly's mascot present thanks to eighth grader Roberto Leon GMS volleyball season is off to a great start the boys team is coached by Mr patrae and the girls team is coached by Mrs xiaoy volleyball remains popular at GMS between the two teams we have over 80 players years the teams play 9 versus 9 instead of the traditional 6 versus 6 and compete in six games total during the month of February our HHS volleyball players are joining in on practice and during games to assist with the fundamentals and extra support as needed go Grizzlies believe it or not we are already preparing for the next
018school year recently our inors took a tour of the high school they were instructed on how to sell courses invited to explore elective classes and introduced to all of the amazing extracurricular activities that are offered it was a terrific experience for our e8th graders in addition we will be welcoming our incoming sixth graders to GMS in the late spring Mr mesar and Miss beaver will be visiting Moser and presenting to the fifth graders a family night will will also be held at GMS for the sixth graders and their families it's hard to believe we are already Bel over halfway to the school and already thinking about next year thank you for giving us an opportunity to share a few things about our school with you tonight and we hope that you enjoy the personalized token
019of appreciation that we have given you thank you Hanah have a great evening thank you for that wonderful update and thank you for these cool um gifts very nice very cool um at this point we'll take a quick recess uh I'll entertain a motion for a a we'll say a two-minute recess um and we'll keep it to two minutes just so that people can take pictures if they want and anyone can sneak out if they want to sneak out uh so you don't have to stay here for the rest of the meeting um with that I'll entertain a motion to uh for two-minute recess motion for two-minute Recess moveed by Miss lafredo do I have a second seconded by Mr shabber all those in favor say I I all right passes 90 we are now
020in recess for minutes at 7:20 very e e e call back to order that did end up being five minutes but we say you say two minutes so it can get five if we do five then it's 10 so that was a win that was a win I agree all right uh moving along to agenda item number four approval of minutes uh for for today for tonight we have January 16th 2025 Board of Education meeting uh minutes January 28th 2025 Board of Education special meeting January 28th 2025 board of education budget Workshop January 30th 2025 board of education budget Workshop February 12th 2025 Board of Education school safety committee meeting February 12th 2025 Board of Education facilities committee meeting and February 12th 2025 Board of Education special meeting does anyone have any correction deletions um
021or changes for the minutes seeing none I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes motion to approve the minutes as listed on the agenda uh moved by Miss Tucker do I have a second second seconded by Miss Mora all those in favor say I I I I all those opposed say nay any discussion the eyes have it 90 all right moving along agenda item number five is correspondence Dr zto yes um actually four items of Correspondence um retirement announcements so uh we have three um administrative retirements Mr Joe Horvath our athletic director has been employed in Rocky Hilson September of uh 2012 he'll be departing at the end of the school year in June Mr Edward msia assistant principal at the high school he been with us since July of 200 7even he will be
022leaving in June and um Mr Chuck edigin assistant superintendent for finance and operations will also be uh retiring um on in July he'll be leaving on June 30th he's been here since 2010 uh he did have one brief sabatical uh in h Farmington and then he came back figured he liked it better here so came back to us in 2014 but uh Chuck will be leaving so uh Joe Ed and and Chuck are all in uh pretty critical administrative roles and they're all all retiring so uh we congratulate them on a well-deserved retirement and then also um she's not here she's uh traveling with her husband but Christine Flynn uh my executive assistant will also be uh retiring at the end of the school year she's been in Rocky Hill since 2008 so uh Christine
023was very helpful to me when I first came here she'd already been in the role for about four years when I arrived so uh major changes uh coming for Rocky Hill uh and we certainly uh appreciate the dedicated service of each one of those individuals uh the other resignation another important person too uh those of you that may have had children grow through West Hill U Ali bendett is a teacher at West Hill school she is resigning to stay home and raise her family and we uh commend her for that decision uh I never find fault with anybody who puts their family first thank you Dr zitto any questions for Dr Zito all right on behalf of the whole board I know that these retirements don't take effect immediately but I think it's appropriate to
024just thank Mr Horvat Mr Mia Mr zedrin Christine and um Miss bened Miss bendetti uh for their um commitment to the district and um we look forward to um support a un your transition out of the district thank you moving along to agenda item number six consent calendar on the consent calendar tonight we have approval of installation of Vape detectors at Rocky Hill High School would anyone like anything added to or removed from the consent calendar seeing none I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar moved by Miss Tucker do I have a second second seconded by miss lefo any discussion all right all those in favor say I I all those opposed say nay the eyes have it 90 consent calendar is approved moving along to committee reports agenda item number seven is
025the curriculum committee the curriculum committee has not met since last board meeting thank you Miss Tucker agenda item number eight is the facilities committee the facilities committee had a meeting on February 12th where we reviewed our Capital Improvements program we call the CIP document uh we made sure it was in alignment with the CIP worksheet that was presented to us by the town which enabled us to kind of prioritize the projects that we are you know trying to get done in a timely fashion um we reviewed the design update on the Westell School roof project um which will allow us to be prepared to improve the building which is a town assets uh when the town is ready to start that project we also discuss another important project in our CIP which is improving the
026griswell middle school media center and Technology Labs primarily around potential changes in doing that in phases um but still want to get both done and the last thing we discussed was uh our current active project which is the upgrading of the Steven School HVAC system uh which will continue to have have more advanced building structure added uh this summer and also the Vape detectors installation uh we kind of talked about how effective a sample of that was uh in the hopes of continuing to try to reduce the Vape usage in our high school that was it thank you Mr Gavin any questions for Mr Gavin all right moving along to agenda item number nine uh finance committee the finance committee did not meet um since the last board meeting however we had two um budget
027sessions thank you Miss Tucker agenda item number 10 personnel and negotiations we have not met thank you Mr Gavin agenda item number 11 is a policy committee Mr Mr Sher uh we have not met since but we have a approval of a proposal later on in the agenda thank you Mr shabber agenda item number 12 special education committee the special education committee has also not met all right agenda item number 13 is the correct Council there was a board they had a board meeting yesterday I haven't had the tape to review yet okay thank you Mr shabra agenda item number 14 is the School Safety Committee Mr Clemens uh yeah uh Safety Committee met on February 12th uh Chief Colette joined us along with Lieutenant Smith uh they gave us an overview of our SRO
028program and our staffing and uh briefly uh give an overview of the can trust act that was okay and to be clear the Connecticut trust act has to do with the um interaction of federal immigration uh officers with uh local law enforcement yes and that's Connecticut statutes correct yes thank you Mr Clemens agenda item number 15 technology committee Mr Gavin uh the technology committee has not met primarily because Mr Gay gave us a full gave the full board a briefing of his desired uh package in the budget meetings that we've already had thank you Mr Gavin and I think that's fair to say for most of the committee meetings I mean really when we go through the budget we're kind of going through uh everything to a certain extent so um and that takes up
029a lot of the board's time U during during the month of February so thank you committee chairs moving along to agenda item number 16 approval of proposed Board of Education policy number 6200 selection maintenance and reconsideration of library resources second reading to Mr give it to Dr zto so uh the policy committee uh met on December 19th Mr shabber alluded to this earlier uh we review this U it's basically a policy for the removal of uh selection maintenance and reconsideration reconsideration of Library resources so basically outlines how a book would get removed or added to the school libraries um we had no issues with this but we did feel it was proactive we've talked about this at several board meetings now so we uh recommend that the board adopt this tonight it's I think we're
030now on our second reading so this is the third third time that's been addressed thank you Dr zto does anyone have any questions for Dr zto in regard to the policy and I think we discussed too this really kind of just putting on paper what we've always done or what was already being done it just makes sense to have something written down much like we have law in our society so that you can refer to them and reviewed by legal counsel as well thank you Dr zto with that I will entertain a motion to approve U proposed Board of Education policy number 6200 I move to approve the proposed the 6200 policy all right moved by Miss Tucker do I have a second second seconded by miss lafredo any discussion seeing none all those in
031favor say I I I all those opposed say nay the eyes have it 90 Board of Education policy number 6200 is approved all right moving into new business agenda item number 17 is appointment of assistant super assistant superintendent for finance and operations Dr zto thank you Mr slider so as the board is aware uh Mr zedig has announced his intention to retire at the end of the current school year um earlier this evening you had an opportunity to uh have an interview and executive session with the candidate that I'm recommending which is Scott nosic Scott has been employed as the principal at West Hill school since July of 2012 so he'll be wrapping up his 13th year and going into year 14 on July 1 uh when he would be moving into this new position
032uh and an outstanding principal in the school district uh for quite some time well respected throughout understands what this job entails and also holds the appropriate credential uh for the 085 which is the business administrator certificate so um he has my my full support for this position I think he's going to do an excellent job and um look forward to your action on this item this evening happy to answer any questions you have any questions for Dr zto all right with that I will entertain a motion motion to move the Rocky Hill Board of Education appoint Scott J nosic as the ass assistant superintendent for finance and operations effective July 1st 2025 all right I have a motion by Miss Tucker do I have a second second seconded by miss manella any discussion seeing none
033all those in favor say I I all those opposed say nay the eyes have it 90 welcome to central office as of July one uh Mr nosik you'd like to come up and and uh make a few comments Mr nosic putting on a spot gotta put him on the spot day one did give Chuck one last opportunity to back [Laughter] out he just get Chuck's haircut right it's coming slowly but surley don't worry about I just wanted to thank all of you including Dr zto for the opportunity uh to continue um working Rocky Hill in a central office position um yeah I'm going to do my best to uh to make you proud and um to continue on the great tradition that we have here in Rocky Hill and um it's just it's it's an
034honor uh and a blessing to to be part of this uh and continue to be part of it in a different role so thank you thank you Mr no conratulations all right and uh Mr nosic just a few words um welcome to to that position and I I personally did not have any kids at West Hill so we've never I've never really had any direct interaction with you but I will say I was very impressed in the interview today and uh look forward to you um coming into that position so on behalf of the whole board I think everybody's uh shares those sentiments so thank you moving along to agenda item number 18 discussion and possible action on budget proposal for fiscal year 2526 this is kind of like a mini budget uh session um
035for anyone who has any questions I I do we do have one hand out tonight Mr Slattery correct so uh Mr Coster gets the gold star for doing his homework and he had uh a series of questions which we laid out for you um I'm glad Tom I'm glad you took the time to do it because it's important to clarify I think if typically if one person has a question other people may have the same question so I know there was a broad discussion so I'm going to go through this if it's okay with you absolutely please do regarding the athletic trainer uh so you know in your slides you have sometimes we we look at total costs and sometimes we we break out total cost between salary and benefits so the atic trainer is
036a total cost of $1,713 and that's a breakout um between salary of 880,000 and benefits of 31713 we assume the full rate for a full family package sometimes it comes in a little less than that won't be higher than that so the overall cost is 111 713 but right now we have a contract with um select therap which is a a company that that we we pay a fee to and then they provide us Training Services so we won't need that contract anymore um we we'll keep a limited like a $2,500 contract with them just as for consultation from time to time they'll provide some PD things come up but the bulk of that contract 52,500 will go away go away so the net cost uh for this position assuming the full benefit package is
037uh a little over $59,000 now the advantage of this um is significant first of all districts uh are all hiring their own athletic trainers we're seeing this model change pretty rapidly uh we were in competition with a couple of other districts we're very happy with the current person we have we wanted to secure her services in addition the CIA changed the rules a few years ago to Rapid to to dramatically um extend the opportunities for summer coaching summer workouts uh that's why we added the strength graner position to a part-time position so um this this is going to give us significantly more time uh we won't you know she'll be on an 11-month contract and uh that means we'll get her August 1st all the way through the end of the school year and it's
038a lot more um time for the kids in terms of she'll be a full-time 40h hour a week plus because this job is usually more than 40 hours uh but it's a good thing for the for the student athletes and a good for the school district so I just wanted to clarify I know we talked about it and I I think it was a great question um Mr your second question really you you again Get an A+ for your math you were referring to uh page 14 on the slides but basically to break it down the total salary increase is a little over 1.6 million and what you had on your worksheet there Tom is is absolutely correct 1.4 million in contractual step wage or other increases like degree changes for example additional Staffing was
039up 736 th000 but then we decreased positions uh to the tune of about 51,000 so again there's a lot of moving Parts in the budget but the overall that that was your breakdown I think you were driving it just like big categories how do we get to the 1.6 million my last question was probably the the the uh the one that required the most detail in terms of responding but recall that we did eliminate um in the budget to behavioral specialists the overall cost is 94 778 actually on slide 14 we reflect the cost is like 85 something because that's only the salary it doesn't count for medic Medicaid contributions that we have to make and so forth so the overall cost of these positions is 94774 and you you know there's a tendency we
040all do this to try to tie it to out placements uh but what we indicated here was that overall tuition next year is projected to be up 168,000 that that's the result of many factors Rising tuition rates changes in placements and as I talked about we typically um build in a mythical placement for a student so that we're not caught off guard because the past experience shows us that there are typically some move in so we need to have a space budgeted um and I talked about that at length in the budget letter and also during the uh the the budget workshops but this is the most volatile section of our budget so you know kids move in and out of town uh Tom you know this with your experience a PPT meeting can result
041in increase services or an outplacement U so there's a lot of changes it's a very unpredictable part of the budget and uh the two Behavior Specialists were added during the school year Sean I know you asked me numerous times um and we had several conversations about three basic things you need to think about with budgeting the approved budget from last year then the actual budget and then next year's projected and hopefully approved budget and the reason why that middle column in my mind actual is important is because things happen during the school year students move in uh in in a couple situations we had some exceptionally physically aggressive behaviors going on where I had to hire some additional Specialists to work with kids uh these things are going to happen uh sometimes it happens in
042regular I think there's been a couple of times I've added teachers during the school year that were not in the budget I just have to figure it out because enrollments has gone up so these things occasionally happen uh but you can't really just tie them directly to a couple of kids who who may be outplaced uh really what I want the board to understand is that we we have to have the management right the administrative right if you will to just respond to these changes situations for the benefit of of everybody in the school district so hopefully that answers the questions again I appreciate you taking the time and the detail that you came to it with so thank you very much thank you thank you Dr zto thank you um Mark uh Mark Tom
043for your for your uh for your email and for the questions anyone else have any questions comments um proposals with regard to the budget I know I'm still looking at it um I mean we don't have to adopt until what March March 13th that actually is in my my comments at the end of the meeting but yes I'll say it now March 13th so again if if stuff comes up um by by Town Charter you need you do need to adopt your budget on March 13th so uh in the interim if things come up I'll continue with the same format I'll respond uh without a meeting scheduled I I would we had this meeting tonight so I wanted to pass this out I would just respond to the full board you know this question came
044in here here's the answer but uh again you know please feel free to continue to work on the budget and you know with your books and bring your questions to me prior to March 13th yeah that way because you do have to um adopt before March 18th and with the board meeting being on the 13th um any questions if we can answer them ahead of time that'd be greatly appreciated there's a crazy snowstorm we we're going to have to have a special meeting you know if the state is shut down on March 13th we will have to figure out a time before the 18th to have a special meeting to have you adopt a budget certainly and if some issue comes up we can always uh have a special meeting as well so that's always
045that's always something that's possible Mr cker question it's just a quick thing while while we have you here and you don't have to answer it now but maybe get it to us later because you mentioned I didn't think of it earlier the strength and conditioning position yeah I don't remember about 35 ,000 there you go yeah thanks and and that's what what percent so we have to what percent is that on the budget no no no no uh point4 6 part time it's roughly 15 to 20 hours a week roughly ass with that because it's it's it's under 30 hours but it's again to me that was a very efficient way of responding to the CIA and this year round type training that's going on they said you know let's focus on having one person
046that can work with the athletes and the coaches and said some of these districts are going out and they're creating additional salaries for every coach which would really expand the budget so we felt this was more cost effective thank you and to be clear to anyone who may not have who have kids who who play sports do high school sports prior to this past year the CAC would not let them practice as a team over the summer so the the the change that Mark uh that Dr zto was referring to is the fact that now they're allowed to uh during the summer and so year round kind of took the breakes off everything it's kind of if you're not in your so if you're a softball player you could be practicing softball in the middle
047of winter I mean it's it's kind of a year round they really kind of took the breakes off the whole time so so having the trainer for that with that kind of flexibility is really adaptive to that change um as well is the fact that I think she does a great job and uh she's the athletic trainer and then and then the strength and condition so we think the combination of those two works out well it's gonna work out well yeah um all right any other questions for Dr zto with respect to the budget just the one question kind of pick it back on the CIA thing CIA uh ruling so let's say softball you brought it up yeah softball coach decides I'm going to work my team all year there's no additional pay for
048that correct if they want to do it it's on their own well in some districts they are paying that's point I was trying to make that we're not doing that so other districts we're having conversations about augmenting salaries you know that would dramatically increase the budget so our solution was to make sure we have our own trainer and and have a strength and conditioning person that can kind of coordinate those efforts so if the football team wants to have the kids on a weight training program after school they they can get in there all winter and lift weights if you're if you're a football player and you're Sports football you know you can get in there every day after school and get in the W room instead of hiring the coach to go in there
049we've got coach asadorian actually he the person we hired for the position so he's he's working oh I know where where I just wanted to clarify because you know you brought up about the softball coach again example how they could run their team all year they run a team all year that's great they're getting paid for Rocky Y for the actual soft season that is correct anything extra is on that coach that is correct right it allows them essentially to delegate that off the- field training to you know to to the train strength and training coach or now again if they want to take the kids to the batting cage and the parents want to take them to the the rules have kind of there used to be very tight rules you know this when
050you coached hockey you could not it was half it was half your starting roster I was allowed to coach two and a half kids in the off where I get a half kid from but I wasow to coach two and a half kids so you would have coaches from schools that were friends trading teams you know I'll I'll I'll work with your kids all summer you work with my kids all this stuff was going on people I I got the sense a lot of rule breaking was occurring so they just said we're not going to try to manage this anymore yep that was the right move all right good question Mr clums are good comment um anything else with respect to the budget I encourage everyone to keep working through it um I know you
051know often times at least since I've been on the board after the presentation we'll kind of say like oh cut 100,000 or cut I mean I'm struggling just because and the reason I keep reviewing it is you know it's a very transparent budget um and it's very lean and I don't see where those cuts would come from if if we made that mandate or if if if we uh did that so without directly affecting services to students so um I'm still you know working through that um and um as Dr zitto said we don't have to um adopt until March 13th or really until March 18th but our meeting is March 13th so um encourage everyone to keep doing that and as Dr zitto and the um Administration have shown they're very responsive to the
052questions and will continue to be I presume so thank you Dr zto thank you Mr zigrin all right moving along find my agenda here agenda item number 19 assistant superintendent for personnel and Student Services report Dr zto uh thank you very much so miss Stevenson uh is not here she is doctoral class uh this evening and uh Mr Rand also is not here uh simply because the two of them um are going to a leadership conference in Fort Worth Texas and they leave tomorrow from Bradley at 5:41 so they have to be up fairly early to get a 541 departure uh so I said I will handle your your stuff tonight um Wendy actually has really no report for this evening Amy had one quick update um she wants to recognize Amy Thorne who's a
053par educator at the dream Academy Miss Thorne had the idea of um bringing the greeting card initiative to fruition so she uh worked with Aaron Emmons The Culinary director at the Dream Cafe and the students created handmade Valentine's Day cards which generated over $400 in sales uh it was so successful that they're going to be rolling out birthday cards anniversary cards all kinds of cards for other special occasions so uh please continue to patronize the cafe look at their selection of cards we'll continue to inform you I know a few of you at least were interested in the Valentine's Day cards and again I I just want to recognize Miss Thorne because this was a really creative idea and again it just kind of speaks to the creativity and balance of our staff that they
054you know somebody has a good idea and we run with it and she gets a lot of credit for it so we're really proud of her and uh you know some really cool stuff is happening in that place so it's good to see um you know I'll put a plugin now uh Tom you may have the date Steve you might have Challenger days is coming up in June and I've already been asked to uh there you go June 7th see and uh so that's the Saturday before the last week of school uh Challenger day and again we'll involve uh the Dream Cafe like we did last year um GNA see if the wood shop can help us out with putting some of the Plinko board stuff together and things like that so again creativity but
055a lot of good things going on and the dream Cafe just continues to shine thank you Dr zto any questions for Dr zto Miss morfa no just a comment those cards were beautiful a bunch they had birthday cards um Valentine's Day cards that's really awesome they they were gorgeous yeah I was really surprised that they were handmade and reasonable compared to Hallmark oh yeah I bought everything they had that's that's why there were none left when I went actually it is they I took I went the 13th for Valentine's Day and there was nothing left although and they also got to plan a little better than I know I don't plan very far in advance they also had one of the students was doing photography and he's using some they're using some of his photography
056to do cards more like postcards almost like like sort of blank little greeting cards so those are on sale there as well and they're they're quite impressive so all right continue to be amazed by the um the stuff that comes out of the Dream Cafe it's just a wonderful um experience every time all right so moving along to agenda item number 20 um Mr zedrin assistant superintendent for finance and operations report yep so in your board packet uh is the financial report through the month ending January 20 25 um I have highlighted some of the line items that uh we need to keep an eye on as we progress through the year uh we've had discussion um just prior to this uh about the adoption date uh being March 18th so that and uh also
057discussed any questions please send those so we can uh answer those questions before the March 13th meeting um also I just wanted to give you a heads up in accordance with uh USDA and Connecticut State Department of Education guidelines uh school districts who use uh utilize a management company to run their food service program are we required to go out the bid every five years um our management company as you probably know is sedexo uh so we are currently in our fifth year and we're in the process of putting together uh the documents required for the RFP um we will be out to bid soon and once the process is complete will be bringing a recommendation forward to the board of of who we'd recommend going through uh with at that point in time but
058it it is a lengthy process so I anticipate uh we'll probably bring that forward at the June meeting thank you Mr zedan any questions for Mr zedrin seeing none we'll move along to well agenda item number 21 is uh assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction report Mr Rand who as Dr zto indicated is not here because she's traveling tomorrow and I don't believe had anything to report correct okay so we'll move along to agenda item number 22 superintendent report Dr zto so we've already talked about the budget at length um so thank you you know again email Chuck and me if you have any questions uh prior of the board meeting on March 13th just a reminder again that we've moved the June meeting to uh Thursday June 12th the last day of school will
059now be the following day June 13th because we have the snow day on February 6th and then graduation is U coming up on Monday June 16th so we are uh all the students spoke about it tonight but it is amazing that we're closing in on late February at this point this sipping by and uh best of luck to all of our athletic teams those that are qualifying for state competition I know we have some board members that eagerly follow are our very talented girls basketball program you know last year those playoff games were packed in that gym so look forward to that I think it's something that the whole Community rallies around so it's really exciting to see so uh those are my remarks I'm happy to take any questions any questions for Dr zitto
060seeing none thank you Dr zto move along to agenda item number 23 which is my report I will keep it brief as well I was going to comment mostly on the budget process which we talked about already um and um send out another thank you to Mr Horvath M mizia Mr zigrin um Christine uh Flynn and um ali uh bendetti uh also want to um I guess promote the girls basketball team I have been uh attending uh the games um and they are really exciting to watch um I don't know Amber do you know when the next game is I don't have it on it's going to be March 2nd which would be our first round of States excellent should be home okay cool yeah excellent so I would encourage anyone particularly if it's a
061home game um to uh anyone who's available or able to uh to get out to see them they're uh um Amber's daughter does play on the team and they're fun to watch they're fun to watch ice hockey I believe Saturday night has their senior okay I did not know that isaki has their uh senior night Cromwell Saturday I will uh send the invitation out in the board update because they they sent out a special invitation inviting people to their absolutely say that again once a DAT ice hockey when is it I think it's Saturday yeah and uh on that note I will say uh tonight is USA Canada game and the four nations face off so anybody who's interested um try and catch that game as well um any questions for me that's all I
062have for tonight along just along those lines we do have a student who was invited that is a hockey player at GMS invited to that game uh Canada versus the United States tonight so he is representing Rocky Hill which is really cool he'll be out on the ice so that is very exciting um Kylie did mention that I'm glad you brought that up um that's super exciting so a Rocky Hill connection to what's uh I'm sure going to be a very cool game um I don't know if anyone caught the first game that they played but there were three fights within the first nine seconds and uh it was a lot of good hockey so uh on that note I will entertain a because I think they're starting right now as we speak so I'll
063entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn all right move by Mr CER do I have a second seconded by Mr shabat uh any discussion all those in favor say I I I oppose nay the eyes have it 90 we are adjourned at 805