001forever no breakfast yes everyone good over here Amber how are you you look tan Florida for a break it's not on the agenda that's correct um all right good evening everyone we will uh call to order this meeting of the Rocky Hill Board of Education April 20th 2023 7 P.M in the Rocky Hill Town Hall council chambers uh this meeting is being live streamed to the Rocky Hill public schools website if everyone could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God and indivisible with liberty and justice all right uh good evening everyone uh before we get started with tonight's agenda I would like to entertain a motion from the board to move item 18 assistant uh superintendent for curriculum and instructions report up to
002item 1A could I have a motion there's a motion is there a second seconded by Mrs Manila uh superintendent's report will Now assistant superintendent's report will now be item 1A miss listro the floor is yours good evening everyone it is my pleasure tonight to present to you an update on how our focus on promoting diversity in our schools and our community is going and tonight's presentation I'm pleased to invite the students who are a part of this initiative to come forward and speak on behalf of their clubs first up will be the GMS cares club with their advisor Sandra shelvoy all right and we have students Isabella loffredo and Natalia presenting good evening I'm Isabella alfredo and I'm Natalia Goss um we are Representatives at GMS cares our mission is to develop an appreciation for
003diversity in our community recognize the unique roles that our students play in making our schools and communities safe and most importantly a place for our students to show their leadership creativity and passion for our schools and community this year our club has participated in several events in support of our school and Community such events included West Hills Spirit Night sock Drive gift wrapping for the seniors adopt a family and Valentine's Day cards for troops via boxes to boots we are currently sponsoring a food drive for the Rocky Hill food pantry and will be participating in upcoming activities such as the spring cleanup and planting at the town garden and the health and wearing Wellness Fair on April 26th we are looking forward to seeing you there on January 12th we had the pleasure of meeting
004with Mr Eric Crawford as a group we discussed a variety of ways that we as a community can make the transition for all students as meaningful and welcoming as possible for example students discussed and shared ideas pertaining to transitioning and adjusting to a new school expectations school schedules time management homework on team making friends socially in extracurricular activities thank you thank you next up is the justice for all group at Rocky Hill High School with their Club advisors Ms Vivian Guzman and Catherine Mader a um good evening everyone my name is Janelle osei tutu I'm a senior at Rocky Hill High School my name is Nicholas shokel and I'm a junior at Rocky Hill High School and we're the presidents of Justice for All Justice for All is a group dedicated to promoting diversity and
005equity in our school we focus on providing a safe space for everyone discussing topics that are often neglected in today's societies focus on educating the community about marginalizing oppressed groups in order to create an environment that is positive for everyone regardless of their race gender identity sexual orientation or disabilities in the past year we've had a productive meetings that have discussed topics such as privilege mental health and much more additionally I've done displays throughout our school for Black History Month in Asian American Pacific Islander month we recognize the diversity in our community and the large steps our community has taken the past few years to create a better Community however we also recognize that there is a still long-winded there's still a long way to go in order to create a space that is welcoming
006for all students working alongside the National Honor Society to host an International Event during our school's annual holy event we are hosting a cultural Spirit day coming up May 12th to allow students to feel comfortable come to school expressing their cultures our school struggles with promoting diversity so we're actively working to combat that we are excited to see the future of justice for all Community thank you foreign our next Club is girl up at Rocky Hill High School and their Club advisor is Miss Lisa urzo good evening my name is a Barry basock and I'm a junior at Rocky Hill High School and my name is Grace tatuno and I'm also a junior at Rock Hill High School and we are presidents of girl up our club's mission is to promote gender equality and Empower
007women in the Rock Hill Community this year we did a period product Drive which raised 42 boxes containing over 1 500 individual feminine feminine hygiene products for the Rocky Hill Food Pantry during our club meetings we have important discussions about women's right issues body image and political issues and more our club has also created videos explaining important Women's Health topics that will be shown in high school health classes we are also involved in school events such as the holy event hosted by the National Art Honor Society taking place next month celebrating many different cultures we have also made numerous displays throughout the high school for National Women's History Month the women's career panel which took place on International women's day last month was a huge success we had a diverse group of 12 women from
008different career Fields such as education Sports Medicine politics and more over 50 students attended this event where they brought questions for the panelists in a q a session which is followed by a reception where students could talk individually to specific panelists they connected with students are able to see themselves in the panelists and saw what the future holds for them after high school this event was planned by Mrs Guzman miss urso miss listro and I after this success we plan on having this event every year on International women's day thank you for having us tonight [Applause] next is the pride Alliance Group at Rocky Hill High School led by their Club advisor Ms Maureen Krauss and Dylan ducos good evening my name is Colin LaMontagne and I'm a senior I use he they pronouns and
009thank you for having us I'm not from Rocky Hill but when I came here I had never felt accepted until I joined the rhhs Pride Club in middle school I was bullied and treated differently and I was scared to be myself I came to RHA chess in September of 2020 and I joined the pride Club after Mrs Krause talked to me about it I met amazing people and kept going for three more years I wish I had the chance to being at a club like this years ago the club is a safe place for the lgbtq plus community and allies last year we participated in a Day of Silence to commemorate those in the community who have been silenced and we also participated in the first town wide Pride event we have six officers including
010me and back to make sure everyone feels safe and hurt as their year wraps up I am preparing to become a high school graduate as well as some of my peers and I import contributions to this club will leave a mark on the new officers once we pass on the torch on to them thank you for your time hi I'm Beck Markowitz I'm also a senior at Rock Hill High School my pronouns are they them along with last year's National Day of Silence we actually are hosting another one tomorrow and I brought an example of a pass for that event where students can choose to take a vigil of Silence in honor of those in the lgbtq plus Community who feel silenced because of their identity here at rhhs the pride Club is a great
011space for those in this community us included to share their identity and feel safe doing so when sometimes in an environment where we don't really have that opportunity so we're really grateful for the prizes Pride club's existence and we hope to do many more events in the years to come [Applause] our next after school club is the model United Nations the model un Club their advisor Mr Mike dudas could not be here tonight but I understand there is a representative who will be speaking on the club's behalf great [Laughter] good evening honorable chair and fellow delegates my bad that is how we open a speech at a model Yuan conference without the support of the Board of Education we would have never heard this race at Rock Hill High School thanks to you all we
012hear it every day and almost every week at our model un simulations my name is Adan Bosley president of model un at Rocky Hill High School and I personally would like to thank Town Council Mr prakash for his guidance on generating Community awareness and support for the model un program Mr Slattery for getting the board approval and principal fody for providing the daily support and guidance thanks to your efforts this club has grown to be incredibly successful in the past months on our first day we had a total of 42 attendees and more than 50 percent still attend regularly we have debated various topics spanning from nuclear disarmament to World War II Marian helps students improve leadership skills enhance Global awareness and negotiation skills you never know Rocky at Rocky Hill May produce his first
013U.N Diplomat in years to come and I'll be handing over to vice president Obby Bose hi my name is Anvi Bose the vice president of this club and I know from experience how much of an impact this club has we recently had the amazing opportunity to bring eight of our delegates to the Boston University model un conference where we were given the opportunity to work and debate with students from all over the world we even had one delegate win an award in their committee attending conferences like Bosman gave us the opportunity to see how an integral part of our world relations works and the skills I was able to hone there have helped me succeed further than just in these conferences every person in model un even if they have not had the opportunity to
014attend such an event yet reap these benefits from participating in debate our efforts to teach these skills in our school club come to fruition not only at conferences where Awards can be won but in the classroom and in the world around us the Bossman conference taught us many things not only about model un but about the real world as well it was unfortunate that only eight could attend and I wish that more could have attended I see potential in our skills and among my peers and feel the need to expand the program at our school I'm proposing a Rocky Hill High School model un conference which will be open to all of our students and but also to students in surrounding towns we will need your support to make this happen we have the potential
015to become one of the greatest schools at model un thank [Applause] the next club we are going to hear from is called youth to youth Coalition it is a group of students from the middle school and the high school that work with in conjunction with our town Our Youth and Family Services Ms Lori stanzic and Miss Kelly Alia are here tonight with two of their representatives to talk about their work hi my name is Nick jokel and I'm a current Junior um I want to introduce yourself um hi my name is Natalia goth so we are the Rock Hill youth youth um Coalition I've been in this group since um sixth grade and I'm a current Junior so it was like one of the first extracurricular groups I joined and we are the Rocky Hill
016Youth and Family Services Advisory Board in the local prevention Council and we meet um every second Wednesday every month um from 3 15 3 to 4 15. our goals are to educate Mentor Advocate disseminate and provide youth leadership and community service opportunities for students in the middle and high school so we have had a lot of activities to date so focusing on prevention and education every year we do red women red ribbon and kindness weeks we do drug take back days with the Rocky Hill Police Department we have one coming up this weekend we also have done drug awareness panel discussions we've done vaping mental health opioid gambling information disseminations and PSAs with those we've done Internet safety programs violence prevention discussions Home Alone safety classes our every year we do Project Graduation which is
017a big event for for the senior class we've done collaborations with school clubs one specific is on GMS cares and the rise in the pride club we have provided pre prom awareness displays and community-wide pride events focusing on positive Youth Development which is healthy alternatives to risky Behavior we have hosted grade level GMS dances and socials we've mentored the cops and kids after school program mentored the equine experiential program we've mentored the stress Busters group the explorers and circus arts class for the elementary school students and we partnered with Rocky Hill Senior Center to provide intergenerational activities and events focusing on leadership and team building we have provided a lot of opportunities to build leadership through team building working with Empower leadership we have formed a teen Council which means quarterly to address Youth and
018family issues and we have also attended multiple conferences about prevention and Leadership and finally focusing on community service and hours for Rocky Hills High School students every year we do adopt a family for Thanksgiving Easter and Christmas which is donations to holiday baskets which goes straight to families in Rocky Hill we've hosted food drives assisted in the Rocky Hill Food Pantry garden planting and we created care kits for homeless and displaced residents as well for people in Ukraine who are currently struggling and finally we March in the Memorial Day Parade every year thank you for your time foreign group they call themselves The Roaring Raptors and their advisor is our very own diversity consultant Eric Crawford good evening we're proud to present a new program at Moser called The Roaring Raptors the goal of this
019program is to help students build leadership skills to actively participate as a mentor in a positive role model in our Learning Community this is a student-led group of 12 diverse student participants and they meet with us who achieve their personal goals learn from diverse perspectives in various cultures in addition to learning how they can contribute to the school and home environment the leadership groups meets with me and Eric Crawford to discuss their accomplishments and growth opportunities this evening we have three students that volunteer to be here to share with you their new experience as a roaring Raptor first I would like to present Adam Lee hi hi my name is Adam I'm a fourth grader at Moser before I joined the running Raptors I'll get trouble more than the usual kid but after joining the
020group I learned to listen more and participate in classes I feel supported by my school peers and teachers at the meetings every Friday we get a rubric and the next week we bring it back to Mr Crawford to show how we did throughout the week in class I wrote three pictures about Puerto Rico as one of our challenges and we only had to write one or two paragraphs but I wanted to write extra to impress Mr Crawford I find these challenges fun and they help me work hard in the group this group has taught me that lead a leader is someone who does not follow the crowd but instead leads it hello my name is Lee is it working yeah it's working hello my name is Liam and I am also a fourth grader at
021Moser being a part of the Roaring Raptor leadership group has taught me to be a better listener and to follow Direction I feel like I am a lot more confident and able to be myself since the group taught me to be a leader I would love for the group to expand so that my friends could see what we do and be able to join my favorite part of the group so far is when we got jerseys for writing about Puerto Rico and now we got McDonald's gift cards to me being a leader is when you go against the crowd and do the right thing no matter what um [Laughter] see it hi my name is Cameron and I'm a fourth grader at Mojo too The Roaring Raptors has taught me to help others and be
022kind to them while also helping them become better before I was a roaring Raptor I didn't help others but now I do and the group inspires me to be better as a group we meet and talk about all the things we can do for others my favorite thing about the group is that we meet and see other kids Inspire each other to be kinder people I would love for this group to grow so that other kids can join and we can all talk about how to be better behaved now that I am a part of the group I've become nicer and stopped interrupting in class it is nice to feel supported by a group of kids like me thank you well I'll be brief those guys are set off first I want to thank the
023parents of the kids who participate in the group we had a zoom the other night with all the parents quite a few of them so I want to thank you guys for trusting your kids with me that doesn't happen that often but in this case it's pretty good um it's just been I don't even call this work working with these kids they came to the group with a certain skill set so they they were empathetic they had a lot of core things that we didn't have to touch on so we could get right into the leadership piece of it but there was the peak the whole program is built about taking accountability for your behavior right so they had a rubric every week they had to take then they come we meet every Friday we
024sit we talk about why didn't you get to the four or five level why are you on the two and three what do you have to do the next week to get to four and five and every week it'd be some type of prize McDonald's cards Uno cards it's just a number of things just to sanitize them that when you do good you get rewarded and when you don't get do good you meet with Mr Crawford after the group so they had too many those kids they learned the first time they met with me they had to get it together but um I went to Puerto Rico I was out in Puerto Rico and the diversity piece of it was that I didn't know how many of these kids knew about the culture of Puerto
025Rico so I zoomed from Puerto Rico we zoomed right into the meeting because I was there and they were in the group waiting and the chickens were running across the road I'm showing the chickens and everything and I said hey when I get back whoever could do some research on the history of Puerto Rican Puerto Rican people you'll get a prize from me when I get back and I think it was Adam Lamb those guys they wrote like three or four paragraphs just blew it away and a bunch of other kids in a couple of sentences but we try to incorporate all kinds of things in that program and what we we want to do is at the end of the school year we're going to start preparing these kids they can go back next
026year and work with other fourth graders take the leadership stuff we taught to them then they could put it in action that's what we'll like to do at that point and also we want to continue to build our relationship with the parents I mean you were on the zoom the other night and we had a good time on the zoom and I appreciate the phone calls from the parents after we got off the zoom because we all you know the world is changing these kids it's not like when we were kids when I was kids they were like I got to school in a horse and buggy it's different now so we want to continue to work with the parents help them out help develop their parenting skills in terms of school and I think
027it's just been I wouldn't even call it work it's been therapeutic for me so I appreciate it and I appreciate you guys for allowing me in your District questions and I wore my yard go sucker we're taking them Sunday oh treat their parents to the yard Go game and we're gonna have an owner box for that day so they're going to Big Time with their parents so it's going to be a good day Friday um not Friday Sunday when we um may get an opportunity to treat their parents to a baseball game so thank you guys excellent thank you Mr Crawford that's my report all right thank you thank you that was excellent Miss listro and I think you know number one on behalf of the board thank you and it also just I think
028it shows the incredible programs the incredible opportunities we have here in the town of Rocky Hill and just the great families parents and students that we have so I think just on behalf of the board I really want to give all the parents the students and the families here another round of applause you're doing great things with that I am now going to turn it over to Dr Zito to talk about some more great things going on in Rocky Hill and we have some special recognitions tonight so I'm asking the Mr maziars our principal at GMS to say a few words about physical education teacher Terrell white she was just named the Unified sports Middle School coach of the year for the state of Connecticut wow she wanted to be here tonight she had a
029conflict she's got something going on in her community with her son but I did ask Jason to come up and say a few words about the efforts that Mrs White has made to support all of our students those are special needs and the typical peers that participate with them as well thank you Dr Zito is an honor to recognize Miss White tonight though she couldn't be here it is quite an honor to receive this award she is receiving the 2023 Unified sports Middle School coach of the year as Dr Zito said and that is quite an honor I just want to say a few words sir I'm going to show her this videotape tomorrow she she needs to hear a few good things um about her because she's just a terrific person and tremendous educator
030and a terrific coach it is truly a deserving honor and in fact she will receive this award at a upcoming banquet at the Connecticut Association of schools so we're very proud of her Terrell's been teaching in our district for over 31 years at this point which is just incredible and always prided herself in her ability to include kids in all activities regardless of their abilities or disabilities inclusionary practices have truly been the Cornerstone of her career and when I brought her into my office today and said I'm going to say a few words about you tonight and she the only thing she said was I've always tried to include every kid and she walked out of my office so that that's all she said and that speaks volumes of Tara white she's she's an incredible
031person and just and besides her long career that's his spanned over three decades as a PE teacher in our school She's been involved in Unified sports for 25 years and in fact was uh um on the first committee that started Unified sports in Rocky Hill so that's pretty impressive and she was selected as one of 10 Educators in the U.S to write Health curriculum for the Special Olympics several years back and has dedicated a large part of her career to Unified sports she's compassionate flexible dedicated and highly motivated and no one truly deserves the award more than Tara white and I hope she could wish she could have been here tonight but should certainly extend your congratulations those of you in the crowd she's a terrific person and an incredible coach so congratulations to Terrell
032all right next we're going to recognize some outstanding mathematics students see a couple of math coaches here and Math teachers in the high school you guys coming up Dr Grayson Mr zuka we've got four students who have been recognized as American region Math League qualifiers this is a national competition it is yes absolutely so four kids ranging from grades 9 through 12. and I've got some certificates if you guys want to talk about the these young math Scholars sure is it this one yes okay thank you Dr Zito thank you board members parents students administrators colleagues good evening uh this is my uh co-coach colleague and friend danchuta he uh teaches with me at Rock Hill High School and he teaches AP Calculus among other classes and um because of him the students on this
033math team enjoy much of the success that they do so he's responsible for a lot of the success that they enjoy uh the the uh the rhhs first of all you can't imagine the world of competitive mathematics that is out there you think math is just like an SAT and then you're out of there and you forget about it there is a whole culture of competitive mathematics that Rocky Hill has bought into now Hook Line and Sinker and these kids are dedicated and they want to show off how competent they are in the field of mathematics we are part of a league with 22 schools the Capital Area Math League is the oldest Math League in the state of Connecticut and for the second year in a row we finished second place doing advanced mathematics
034and the yeah the one team that beat us is almost twice our size I'm not going to say who they are the teams that we beat are on this list here among others this is just a few of the teams that would be Glastonbury Avon Kingswood Oxford Hall conard Academy of aerospace engineering formerly known as Gammas Simsbury Canton Northwest Catholic he's Catholic among many others see the teams that we beat the last two years in a row because of our high performance in the in the capillarium math League we qualified to compete in the Connecticut state meet they only accept the top schools in each league and now this is in in the in the state meet there's only three classes small medium and large um and in the small class which includes private schools
035by the way and all the private schools tend to be small schools so we have to go up against them we place third across the entire state of Connecticut we were the top public school in Connecticut thank you schools that we beat from the state competition the king's School in Stamford Kingswood Oxford the Greenwich Country Day School Hampden Hall the Greenwich Academy the Pomfret School Academy Aerospace and Engineering Xavier among many many other schools a lot of a lot of schools that allocate a lot of their time and resources developing mathematical skills we here in Rocky Hill are able to take care of that and I think it's worth noting too that uh we had a lot of quality freshmen on our team three freshmen uh Envy Bose Patrick chiropish and vedant gosavi uh one
036of them will be up here in a moment uh did very very well throughout the year and in fact at that state meet vedanta gosavi who you'll see in a moment here was the fourth freshman across the entire state of Connecticut for all the classes thank you lastly there's a national competition which you can play into with a qualification round it's called the armal competition that's what Dr Zito mentioned a moment ago and we are fortunate to have four students qualify for this the state of Connecticut only accepts 45 students across the whole state public private Catholic the whole thing and we have almost 10 percent 4 out of 45 students occupying this team here they will travel to Penn State in early June to compete nationally and represent the state of Connecticut on the
037armal squad those Force actually uh vedant and ready can you come up here please [Applause] here we go they see enough of me they don't need to look at me they need to look at you guys right the four students who qualified um uh Karthik cannot be here tonight because they take uh physics at uh college level so they have class on Thursday nights Rudy takes classes at the college level also but she knows that board meetings are on Thursday so she knew not to schedule classes for Thursday night so she could come to things like this all year this is really Sharma one of our Elite math students in the building and she qualified for armor and this is freshman vedant gosabi who qualified for Armel and it was also the fourth place freshman
038across the state of Connecticut and lastly I want to thank on behalf of Mr tubesa from the bottom of our hearts the board the administration for supporting them in this endeavor which does include an overnight stay to Penn State and for getting behind this and recognizing the hard work they do they really put a lot of time into this and we're glad that you're behind it and that means a lot there's no better place than Rocky Hill really this is the best so and they know itself congratulations [Applause] so when you uh think about the major leagues in baseball you have to have a good feeder system so now we're going to talk about middle school math and some outstanding math students uh coming along so coach uh zukta coach gracer you may want to
039stick around for a second we've got some mass starts from the Middle School you guys are always looking for talent right Blue Chip recruits Miss Weaver can you come up here too please miss Weaver our math director if you could come up here with Mr maziars if you guys want to talk a little bit about the two students that we're recognizing tonight from the math house competition this is a Statewide math contest for middle school students I guarantee they will make your team these two students I just would like to call up trinabre and Tanisha sahu come on up guys gonna speak briefly I'm going to congratulate these two Scholars you can turn around and face the crowd too why not um and at first also before I congratulate these two I do want to
040congratulate all the kids that are in the crowd tonight those that are being honored and those that spoke I know typically board meetings are riveting just by Nature every meeting is awesome um but these meetings I think all would agree in the room these are the best meetings that we have I think of the whole year is when we can honor our kids and recognize our kids um so these two amazing individuals standing in front of me are members of our math counts Club under the leadership of Mrs Kennedy Mrs Kennedy wave she's out there supporting her kids she's wonderful we as as Dr Zito said we are the feeder program uh to the high school and we got some great kids to send you that math tradition that great math tradition that's at the
041high school now will be continued especially with these two joining you they participated both of these individuals in the Hartford Regional math counts competition several months ago at the University of Hartford and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend and couldn't do many of the math problems that were that these two had to solve I was so impressed only 10 students out of over 70 competitors made it to the state competition and these two individuals did so I want to congratulate trinab and Tanisha they are both true Scholars and we are proud that these two amazing students are representing Rocky Hill and GMS represented Rocky and GMS at the math counts state competition this year congratulations to these two individuals Kennedy want to recognize the coach at the middle school if you could
042stand up what good would math be without some tasty food so we're going to talk about uh the future chefs competition now so switching over to the competition at Mosher on this listro we're going to recognize four of our students who competed with distinction Sodexo sponsors an annual competition to get kids excited in the culinary arts and we have four kids tonight we're going to talk about the menus they created and I believe we have a special prize for one overall winner is lienza lafantos I am the food operations manager here in the district so the future chefs event is sponsored by Sodexo and is designed to help educate children in healthy eating habits students in grade four and five at Mosher School submitted recipes for their favorite healthy fruit or vegetable side dish and
043the competition took place at Mosher school cafeteria on Wednesday April 5th 2023. and the judging was based on the following criteria originality healthy attributes ease of preparation kid appeal plate presentation and taste I'd like to invite our four finalists to come on up and show themselves to the board welcome welcome I'd like to invite Miss darling listro to now go into the next part explaining what each student did for the recipe our fourth place winner was Isha go Hill [Applause] I apologize our fifth place winner was Madison McCall grade four her culinary Feast was fruitastic fruit sticks with honey vanilla yogurt dip she carefully cut pieces of fruit added them to a skewer to create a very creative design with a watermelon base our fourth place winner I really was a judge they all won
044in my book so all right okay Isha gohill we're gonna recognize you next fifth grader Isha had veggie puff wonders which included a puff pastry Delight stuffed with steamed vegetables and just enough spice to make this treat delectable nice job Isha [Applause] our next winner was avantika vignash grade four she made a delicious guacamole prepared with a fuse Family secret ingredients which by the way are no longer secret they were turmeric and red chili powder and she her plate presentation was amazing she decorated the plate with tortilla chips and made it look like a flower it was beautiful and then our final contestant our first place winner was Tyler Burleson grade five Tyler 's unbeatable citrus salad included the unlikely pairing of vegetables which included beets and fruit which included grapefruit and it turned out
045to be delicious and all of us that judged Mr zedegrine was also a judge with me Ms Louise Adamo and we were unanimous that that taste combination was delicious Tyler and to celebrate [Music] Tyler has one Tyler has won the the grand prize of a bike this year as well as many other prizes that all of our contestants got on that evening so we hope you get many many miles out of that Tyler okay um so uh Chuck zettergren Louise Adamo and Darlene lestro served as our judges for the competition as always um the I'm sure Dr Zito in principal Annabelle Diaz who were also in attendance in support of their students would agree that this was an enjoyable event for everyone and their recipes are available at the back table if you'd like a
046copy as you exit you can grab one they really were delicious wouldn't you say Mrs Diaz yes yes very good congratulations [Applause] we're all set with recognitions and again congratulations to all of the students and your families for all of their various recognitions this evening I will entertain a motion for recess so we can congratulate the winners or allow them to clear out for the evening promotion for a five minute recess there's a motion is there a second second by miss loffredo all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye five minute recess thank you everyone you gotta make it yourself go get the recipes [Music] so great I'm sorry congratulations [Music] I'm loving that so because yeah um foreign thank you yeah all right okay we can now call this meeting in the
047Rocky Hill Board of Education back to Otter we will start with uh audience participation anyone here in the public tonight wishing to address the Board of Education see how quickly the room clears out afterwards huh all right a report from student Representatives do we have anyone from Rocky Hill High School tonight Mr jokel how are you it's your third time up here tonight sir do you need that little stand to stand up um hi I'm Nicholas silkel a current Junior um so the past few the past month and the upcoming month is very busy for Rock Hill High School um in the beginning of this month from March 31st and April 1st almost foot Lisa musical I was in it over 800 people attended between both shows it was a massive hit um also the
048day after that was Terrier tough and that was money raised for the student council which goes to the school and there was 45 plus teams that's where the students and outside participators it's an obstacle course and lots of mud it was really fun I participated in that too and then the World Language Honor Society induction occurred the week that that week of April 2nd and the SATs were at the end of March as well upcoming within the next week we have Scott Driscoll coming in to talk about digital safety to all the grades the Athletics for spring are currently mid-season and those are growing good Junior prom is coming up on May 5th senior proms on May 19th and the class night for the seniors is on May 31st the senior picnic is on June
0491st and um the senior Awards nights on June 6th that's where seniors are recognized for their scholarships also coming up is a jazz band pasta dinner and the Triumph Honor Society which is a music Honor Society induction on May 16th and the National Art Honor Society induction is on May 24th and finally the spring concert for band in courses on May 23rd the years coming and to an end quick so yeah a lot of events but thank you excellent thank you [Applause] we'll now move on to the report from the student representatives from Myrtle H Stevens good evening everyone I have two wonderful student Representatives here this evening to share with you all the great things that are going on at Stevens School and they are Carly Russo and Grant Hoffman so please join me
050in welcoming them [Music] so and I'm a third grade student at Stevens school I'm excited to share with you some of the things my classmates and I have been busy learning and doing since the fall good evening my name is Grant Hoffman and like Carly I'm excited to share all the great things happening at Stevens since we presented last we have a couple more PBIS assemblies and want to thank Board of Education members for attending the December assembly where we highlighted kindness and gratitude our student council hosted a fun spirit week before winter break and we had fun sharing our crazy socks PJs and just for Success were just a few of the themes that week we really loved these Spirit weeks right grant yes we do Carly we also love being rewarded with special
051lunches for good behavior the LED lights music and small treat really motivate us to remember our respectful behavior in the lunchroom Grant do you remember that we had a summer reading challenge goal that if Matt Mrs Duran would get slimed oh yes I remember and when we found out we didn't meet the goal and we're giving given a second chance we read like crazy to make sure we met our goal the second time we failed the bucket with Husky Heroes and loved watching Mr Ram get slimed the party continued at Stevens school when we returned from winter break our PTO had their big fundraiser husky glow dance booster Boosterthon they had raised enough money to purchase new stage curtains and new risers for future performances the glow dance was so much fun since we met
052the fundraising goal we earned a camping day where we read throughout the day in our tents with our flashlights partnership with Rocky Hill Youth Services has provided students the opportunity to participate in the art explorers after school program it has been so popular with students that they are offering a third session to students beginning this week everyone in town was talking about the Harlem Wizards when they came to visit our school they had the crowd pumped up for the big game this spring every grade level is hosting in a school assembly as well as a field trip outside of the school walls kindergarten enjoyed a visit from the Hunger Ford Nature Center our first and second and our first second and third graders have had a visit from Mad Science and Beardsley Zoo will also
053be visiting the spring read Across America is always a fun week and this year was no different we had many local celebrity readers visit classrooms to share stories the Rocky Hill Police Department fire department the mayor and a local Clinic Connecticut judge all came to visit and share their love of reading the visiting author this year was New England Patriots Super Bowl champion and author Malcolm Mitchell we all received a copy of his book The Magician's hat the show included a magic show that was incredible and we left all excited to keep reading and growing as readers Mrs O'Brien helped our third grade class create a uniquely creative Performance Based on literature the concert was developed around the book the perfect square it included song dance and instrumental performances Carly have you noticed how so
054many of the things we are sharing are connected to reading yes Grant we love to read at Steven's School Carly did you go to this year's District art show yes I did I've never seen such a packed house the Arts are really alive in Rocky Hill and Steven school had great representation in the show Miss Miller did a nice job selecting Works to share with the community but the big show was this week at Stevens school yes it was Grant our school was transformed into an art gallery we really have a lot of talented artists at our school there are about seven weeks of school left in our school and PTO have so much still planned for us to enjoy we are really lucky kids Carly yes we are Grant we will soon be taking
055the S back test but then we'll be rewarded with our Field Day event board members and District administrators are invited to join us on June 2nd to see the fun yes and as third graders we have New Britain B's game to look forward to as well as the pto's end of year social that they are planning for us Grant and I want to thank you for inviting us here tonight to share with the Board of Education all of the wonderful things happening at Stevens school we are very grateful for learning made fun at Stevens school thank you again and have nice evening [Applause] great job told you they were good they are good excellent okay go yeah I just wanted to make a quick comment Nick before you run out you were a little humble
056saying that you were in the show he was the star of the show and he was fantastic he blew me away and honestly I think it was the best show Rocky Hill ever put on since I've seen and that includes the four I was in here so you were fantastic great job [Applause] you are more than welcome to leave unless you want it we usually don't have anyone in attendance though thank you for coming they did a great job all right moving on uh we have four sets of minutes we have the March 9th 2023 Board of Ed meeting minutes March 13th 2023 Board of Ed's special meeting March 22nd 2023 Board of Ed curriculum committee meeting and March 22nd 2023 Board of Ed facilities committee meeting would anyone like to request any edits deletions
057or revisions to the minutes hearing none I'll entertain a motion so moved motion for Miss minell is there a second seconded by down there okay we have a motion Miss Ralph we have a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions motion passes nine zero thank you all right correspondence Dr Zito we do have some correspondence uh first of all we have four uh staff members that are either retiring or resigning um for various reasons uh in terms of retirements Mr Fourier long time English teacher at the high school and Mr moganiki a social studies teacher at the middle school both have been with us for a long time and they've reached that very uh kind of mixed feeling on the on the Milestone where they
058are they're excited about leaving but they're going to miss us so we will miss them as well we wish them all the best also uh Taylor Friedman is leaving she's been in the district about eight years to start a family and uh is going to pursue that at this point doesn't plan to teach may come back at some point and then another loss is Miss Colleen Martin who if you recall started the dream Academy she's relocating to South Carolina with her family so she'll be missed and we will be looking to replace these folks as we move uh past the budget in May and get into the spring and summer excellent also along with correspondence I sent out two messages in the last few weeks we've had two of our administrators who successfully defended their
059doctoral dissertations at the University of Arkansas Miss Mary Shaffer I had the honor of serving on her dissertation committee and Dr Darlene listro so they both just completed the process and congratulations work that those two ladies put in and I'm really proud of their efforts and it was an honor for me to serve on Mary's committee items and correspondence all right moving on to the consent can calendar approval of the special education Ida Grant non-renewal of employees long-term and building substitutes and approval of the recommendation for the change order execution for the Griswold middle school science labs would anyone like anything removed from the consent calendar hearing none I'll entertain a motion move to approve the consent calendar motion for Mr Slattery second seconded by Miss Tucker all those in favor signify by saying aye
060aye any opposed any abstentions motion passes nine zero thank you committee reports uh curriculum Miss Tucker the curriculum committee met on March 22nd to discuss the um a piloting program of the composition initiative so there were members of the sustainable Rocky Hill task force that reported to the committee on sustainability initiatives being considered in the town the task force would like to extend its work into the schools and suggested potential ways to manage food waste in the schools including composting initiative the committee agreed to the pilot program at the high school would be appropriate start a place to start but that additional subcommittee meetings will be scheduled to discuss the next steps of implementation all right excellent any questions for Miss Tucker I have one have we heard any more about this initiative and possibly
061next steps for a meeting or not I know we're getting some feedback right have we heard anything yeah we're reaching out to a couple districts we think conversations Mr Lamontagne a fall kickoff would probably be appropriate with everything that's going on now at the high school so we can work with the uh schedule a follow-up committee okay excellent I just if someone could Circle back with that I guess it's Mr Caleb is that his name I know they were very interested in this initiative okay facilities Mr Gavin we had a meeting on March 22nd where we discussed the middle school science labs that were just passing the consent calendar and we also got an update Angela montane regarding the HVAC project at Stevens School and the outline of that work to be done this summer
062that's it that is it excellent any questions for Mr Gavin looks like it's going to be a busy summer right roof science labs some AC and whatever other repairs we need to throw in there right yeah busy summer all right uh Finance Miss Tucker finance committee has not met yeah we're still in budget so pnn Mr Gavin I don't believe you've met I've not met uh but we are looking to schedule a meeting after the budget excellent policy Mr Slattery policy has not met okay special education Mr Slattery special education has not met okay correct counsel Mr Desai just waiting for my turn all right here we go Mr Desai yeah so correct monthly meeting was held on April 19th it was a short meeting policy committee presented various revised policies for council's approval uh
063Craig budget 101 president presentation was shared by the executive director Greg Florio he highlighted that the Early Childhood programs are growing and includes Head Start budgets are based on receiving in terms of fees tuitions and grants another source of revenues to support there was also discussion on leadership budget which will be adopted in May with an increase of about five hundred and ninety thousand dollars Mr Floria also reminded that Greg's annual meeting is on Wednesday May the 17th and school superintendents are invited to join and one more thing I want to add is uh during the crack meeting Rocky Hill Boe received Kudos by correct chairman for efficiently moving through the budget process and adopting the budget in a timely fashion some of the towns are still working on it so again I want to
064thank Dr Zito and his team and also the boa members that's all for me thank you thank you Mr assai any questions for Mr Assad on school safety Mr Slattery school safety has now met uh anticipate all right that is it anyone have any questions for any of the committee reports I know the the budget honestly takes up most of our time during this part of the year so hopefully after adoption we can uh focus our efforts on uh committees all right moving on Old business uh there is none correct Dr zero all right and new business item 15 the annual healthy food certification uh Dr Zito or Mr zadagram who'd like to start well is here to answer questions this is an annual uh motion that the Board needs to take for healthy foods
065and also the exemptions for food and beverages in order to be eligible for the state and federal monies that come in so um one of you has to read both of these motions we take them separately and it's got to be read into the record so that we can accept the finances so I don't know if you have any questions this is an annual thing we do no this is this is the uh Joy of being the vice chair every year so you're reading so we do have to read this uh motion into the record Miss minell is smiling because she's heard it about 20 times yeah um so uh I will enter open the floor to Mr Slattery to read the motion into the record please move on behalf of the rocky Board of
066Education pursuant to Connecticut General statute section 10-215f Board of Education or governing Authority certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the into schools under its District under its jurisdiction and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1st 2023 through June 30th 2024 this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines School cafeterias culinary programs and any fundra fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups we have emotion is there a second seconded by Miss Manila any further discussion all those in favor signify by
067saying aye aye any opposed any abstentions motion passes nine zero now round two Mr Saturday behalf of the Rock Hill Board of Education make the following motion regarding combined food and beverage exemptions the Board of Education or governing Authority will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221q of the Connecticut General statutes provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of regular school day or on the weekend two the sale is at the location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting
068or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and interscholastic debates or events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales Chuck zettergrin assistant secretary [Laughter] all right we have a motion is there a second second by Miss Manila any further discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions motion passes nine zero Chuck did we do all right very good thank you so much thank you all right moving on we have the assistant superintendent for personnel and student services Miss Stevenson how are
069you I'm good all right all right what do we got well first of all I just want to say congratulations to everyone it's amazing I love seeing the kids and all the awards and congratulations to Darlene and Mary and just a lot of really exciting things and then I get to talk to you guys about C2 sets so there's that um so I'm sorry that it's not as exciting as all the other things that came before this but it's still very important um so I'm just gonna give you an update on where we are with CT said so we're almost at the end of our first year and for those of you if you're not sure CT saids is the new IEP and 504 system that Connecticut has adopted so prior to that we had
070something called IEP direct and we had that for many many many years the staff was all very comfortable with it and we made a change this year and it was a pretty big transition so I'm just going to give you an update um at this point in the year all of our students are in the new system so we're no longer using IAP direct so we've definitely made the transition and I do I want to thank the board because we could not have done this without Jesse Herman Sarah St Pierre and Sandy Mall those three people are just integral to this transition so I'd love to be able to take some of the credit but I've been really busy doing a lot of other things and they've been the ones that have really been Hands-On
071with the staff so thank you for Jesse and Sarah and Sandy are very talented people they're great with working with other people and very knowledgeable about CT said so they've been amazing with this transition um Sandy and Jesse are attending weekly virtual training sessions to just kind of troubleshoot the issues so that's been happening all year we know not to bother them when they're on they have their headphones on they're in the virtual sessions and that's been going on all year Sandy I think I told you the Sandy mall has been going and doing office hours in the schools so she's in the schools every day traveling around and the state gave us a grant fifteen thousand dollars and with that money we've hired building Subs so that they can cover so the teachers can
072go get freed up to go work with Miss mall and work on the IEPs and troubleshoot and do all of that so that system's been very very important into really getting the teachers the help that they need and the support that they need so that's been great and then you know just to kind of give you an idea the most challenging aspect so there's a vendor it's PSG and that's the vendor of CT saids and I think they bid off a little bit more than they could chew I don't think that they fully understood what this really was all about so there's a lot of glitches with the system with IEP direct we used to be able to just call IEP direct and say hey we have a problem we can't get this to work
073and you to actually get like a person and they'd go oh yeah just press this button oh thanks okay that's not how it works anymore you have to put in a ticket you have to wait for that someone to get back to you so what that's causing is anxiety because you can't get the problem fixed so that's really the articles that you're reading in the paper the frustration that's really what that's about is because there's no longer an easy fix and then sometimes we're out of compliance because as you know you have to you have a timeline to get the IEPs finalized into the families well if you can't get the vendor to fix the issue you're out of compliance so then people have meltdowns because they don't want to be out of compliance with
074the federal document so that's really where a lot of the issues are stemming from there's nothing we can do about that we just continue to put in tickets do the best that we can and work with the vendor and you know we're just doing the best that we can but we're in a pretty good place I did talk to some staff just to kind of say hey how you doing and they said you know it's change it's new it's not awesome but it's not the worst thing in the world we're getting by we're getting through it it's going to be okay so that's where we are I don't know if anybody has any questions but I anticipate at this time next year it's all going to be good all right any questions for Miss Stevenson
075yes so um it's like how helping not getting out of compliance so you don't get in trouble so you have the proof of the state yes the state is aware so we're not getting citations we haven't gotten any citations um in the beginning of this whole thing we were like so you have to get an IEP out you have like five days to get it out it was like three weeks and then we weren't hearing back from them and it was not good but luckily our parents understand that our parents attend ppts here we have almost every PPT parents attend so they know what's going on they're invested in their you know what I mean so we don't have these parents that have no idea what's going on and rely on that they know so
076we're in good communication with families so we're not having phone calls about where's my IEP so we're we're in a good stable place thank you yep thank you guys your whole group yeah no they're really amazing really good good people good hires so thank you anything else I just wanted to mention that and I've been saying this through the year we have just really been steady with our you know our retention rates of teachers and we've had you know I know Dr zero mentioned a few resignations a couple retirements and a couple people relocating or you know leaving for to start a family but we're still completely we have all of our positions filled certified non-certified it's been really great so I just continue to be I think it's because there's really good working conditions
077here we have great facilities we pay our teachers well and we just it's a great place to work so that just that continues when unfortunately other districts continue to struggle with that I anticipate the few positions we are going to have open for next year we're going to get great candidates and Phil with no problem so um so I just again commend you for on the board of a district where people want to work so I think it's great all right good thank you um moving on um assistant superintendent for finance and operations Mr zetegrine hey and your board packet is the regular financial report uh reflecting here today figures for the month ending March 31st in this report I have highlighted some of the accounts that we um are currently in deficit and we'll
078keep a close eye on as we progress through the end of the year okay getting close to that on an overall basis I do end up I do see us ending the year with a decent Surplus however as you probably know the town manager has recommended a cut tour 23-24 budget requests of approximately 507 000 so um I'm sure we're gonna have a lot of conversations as to um as we move through this process and see what the Town Council does with that recommendation so there's going to be a lot of discussions that will be taking place within the next couple months um we will continue to monitor the various accounts in our budget and give you feedback on updates on you know how we're progressing as Dr Zito has mentioned in his board updates
079we will be presenting our budget to the Town Council on Tuesday May 2nd at 5 30. um well that should be interesting um we are in the process of finalizing the security Grant application that is due next week and we are also in the process of finalizing the least agreement for the additional space for the dream Academy restaurant um that's nearing its end uh Mr LaMontagne has been in touch with the contractors on the GMS roof and science classroom projects that will begin once school is out this middle process is taking place and we should be in good shape to start those projects immediately upon the end of school um within the next week or so we should begin our open enrollment process of our benefits packages for all the staff and they'll be making
080those selections so it's just a busy time of year it's a lot going on but if anybody has any questions I'd be glad to any questions from Mr Zager Miss Manila I have a question do you have any updates from this from the state regarding um the lunches for next fiscal year that process from my understanding is still ongoing they they haven't um fund put any funds aside from a budget standpoint for the state to fund any of the school lunch programs the original legislation that was passed didn't provide any funding as well so I'm sure there's conversations going on but I don't I don't know what that final outcome is as of yet I don't think there's been a bill that's made it out of committee right for that yeah I think it's just
081it got approved and then just now it's moving sideways yeah okay yeah I assume we would have to go to Appropriations for for funding so yeah yes Carrie Wood did at the Town Council mention it she said she's been fighting hard for it to be fully funded to us at least this year because it's kind of not fair to throw down us yeah um yeah with our budgets already being but right now it doesn't even look like it may pass legislation it hasn't made its way out yet so it yeah so I mean it may be a moot point funding or the Mandate both the program and the mandate to have the program and the associated funding yeah I know she's been very hard not to get anything else thrown on us yeah yeah especially
082this year yeah so yeah absolutely yeah it makes you feel perfect all right any other questions for Mr zedegrine hearing none we will move on um Miss lystra where should I say Dr listro is there anything else that's it for tonight all right okay back to Zito too many doctors [Laughter] all right a couple quick things as Chuck mentioned the Ford's budget will be presented at the Town Council on May 2nd it'd be great if we could have you there for your support I know in the past a number of board members have attended um one positive development from the town manager's presentation was he's recommending a third full-time SRO so they would remove the overtime shift but we go up to three sros which is a really good step in the right direction and
083I know the Safety Committee was looking at that and then uh Nick jokel pretty much took away the rest of my report tonight Junior and senior prom coming up in May yeah May 5th at Clements Castle Cortland that's Junior Prom Aqua Turf 7 June May 19th and then graduation is at the Dunkin Donut Park um on June 17th that's a Saturday graduation rain date of Sunday June 18th any board members with seniors this year I don't think so this year right so uh that's the report I'm happy to answer any questions you might have them both of them any questions for Dr Vito hearing none okay we'll move on to my report um uh as Dr Zito mentioned uh our budget presentation is May 2nd um currently the town manager asked for post a cloud
084of approximately five hundred thousand dollars to the board um I think any board members that can be there to support the board and its efforts um it would be greatly appreciated I think the sport has been very fiscally responsible over the past two years especially with the um arpa funds that were distributed um it's interesting that you read in the Paper Towns looking at 10 increases cutting teachers because you know the Bottom's falling out now that you know the S are in the federal coven money has expired I think we did a very diligent and responsible job managing our coveted funds and our budgets and that's why we have the increase that we have this year I think it's very responsible and respectable for what we're proposing and Dr Grace's comments tonight about what's going
085on I was not even aware of the highway level of math competition going on at this high school and you know those are schools that we talk about year after year we compare ourselves from s.a.t scores other Testaments and Matrix of where we fall with them and then here we are we have our math teacher saying how we're beating those schools in Statewide competitions um on a side note I wrote to myself to have Dr uh Miss Dr Zito incorporate Mr Grace's presentation into our budget presentation because you know that shows the high value and the leverage of Education in Rocky Hill that the cost per pupil for us is so much lower than these communities and our students are going out and making comparable or greater achievements against those towns when we talk about
086educational achievements and programs so I think that was just great to hear include that one of the slides we put in a few because you're at all of these with me because we put highlights from the district yeah well that's usually you know we'd like to show the college admissions and then these these types of academic highlights for sure yeah that's just I was just so impressed with that presentation tonight um but yeah so that will be May 2nd obviously the more board members that can come to support the board and its budget it would be appreciated and one item that Dr Zito didn't mention that I thought some board members may want to be available for is believe I may first we're going to have the dedication for Holyfield May 1st I will turn
087it over to doctors so the Rocky Hill Historical Society has asked us to locate the original Whitefield plot it's been refurbished touched up we're going to rededicate that new beautiful field it's at Mosher so for years it was the old Moser was closed and I think Hoy was like a t-ball field basically yeah and now it's it's really impressive the way it looks with the board's new design and Terence Hoy who lives in Glastonbury I think this gentleman is maybe in his early 80s Ron 82. his little brother Jimmy hoy's who the field was named after Jimmy was a Rocky Hill Little League player who died like in middle school or something he got an illness tragically and they dedicated the field to him there's a demuro that's involved in this story too if you
088go on the Rocky Hill uh I think Mr chickenello sent us the link yes he did in the weekly update yeah but the moral field also has a connection and that gentleman passed away as well when he was maybe a freshman in college so they named these two Fields after these guys but on May 1st is the dedication for the new hoyfield and the guest of honor will be Terence hoy Robin Rocky Hill who's putting off his trip to Florida he's been asking me when are we doing this this week what's the schedule his vacation around this time and what we're trying to do is uh set up a little league game right afterwards on the field so we could do the ribbon cutting because it'll be a quick ceremony and then have a couple
089of little league teams out there to play so thank you for reminding me no that's that's going to be a great event it's a wonderful thing that's all I have with that I will entertain oh we're in trouble Miss Flynn what do we miss um Teacher Appreciation Week provides breakfast at each school during that week and then just wanted you all to know thank you Miss Flynn [Laughter] thank you no that's a that's a great reminder you know um our teachers are certainly the foundation and backbone of the great results we get in Rocky Hill so um well deserved for them thank you with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn Mr Slattery is there a second second Miss Tucker there's a second all those in favor signify by saying aye
090all right meeting adjourned 8 35 thank you