001[Music] good evening everyone welcome to the shelton board of education regular meeting in person at the board of education office on longhill avenue and today is wednesday february 23rd 2021 and it is 7 05 p.m i'd like to call this meeting to order roll call please [Music] here thank you and for the minutes we'll reflect um present at the meeting is john calvin todd hufflefinger carol pinozzo ken serenige rachel camiglia sanjana jane and kristen santelli and fred and fred stanton okay thank you all right please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay agenda item two um may i have a motion to approve the
002agenda please motion made by kate coutas do i have a second okay any discussion all in favor i opposed abstain motion cares number three the approval of the consent agenda we just promotion a motion to to approve it okay do we have a motion summary motion made by k crew test do we have a second second by lorraine rosner any discussion all right all in favor opposed abstention motion carries all right number four we're moving right along here uh presentations and recognition mr superintendent so we do have one presentation this evening i was trying to sneak it in as a surprise presentation because we are going to honor one of us amongst us in the board tonight we'd like to recognize one of our student board reps sanjana change for those of you who are
003unaware sanjina was honored last saturday february 12th by senator murphy she was a participant in his annual martin luther king jr essay contest there is over 1200 essays that go to that essay contest from 170 different schools in the state of connecticut and sanja was recognized as a winner so congratulations so you'd like this you can present it just tell her i framed it on behalf of the board of education we'd like to present sanjana with his recognition for his childhood come over here how can't they get in there [Music] [Applause] madam chair that's all of our presentations okay so now we're on to um student board of education representative report okay who's going first hi everyone um so recently we had rachel can you pull the microphone closer to you please thank you so
004recently we had abs and that first started on december 16th and 17th but the last date had to be pushed so they did it on february 11th and 12th and i went one of the days and it was really fun all the grades performed very well and the crowd was really engaged adding to that they're starting the spring musical and it's going to be this musical this year we also had around 94 percent of students participate in clubs this past month which was a really high turnout in recent years so that was really exciting and for sports the winter sports are ending and a lot of them are over and track had over a dozen people go to the class l championship and a lot of them won medals and they also a couple of
005kids made it to open and for wrestling two people placed in the class l and both of them are going to opens and tomorrow we actually have the unified basketball tournament at the high school also spring sports are starting up and there's 11 sports going on and for seniors a couple new things are coming up the cap cap gown and diploma orders are on march 10. that's all that's really determined right now thank you okay so some more things that we have we'll first thank you for the certificate and the flowers and so two things that we haven't had since in like two years because of covid were midterms and the fashion show so midterms definitely like the student body as a whole thought it was hard to get back into the routine of having
006to study for such a big test which is like five months of our work but overall it was helpful to really be able to recap everything and it'll only help when it comes like finals and ap exams and then for the fashion show that was put on by deca and the theme was hall of fame so we had like movie stars or sports walk and it was a great way to get the student body excited and come all together you watched your friends you participated or you helped out um for the junior rachel talked about some senior events for the juniors we have the sat on march 23rd and we have the junior book and achievement awards with that goes junior and senior prom dates were decided so that's been something that everyone's really excited
007about for junior prom on may 21st and senior prom on may 7th so those are some two things to look forward to and then lastly we have our robotics team we have our first competition on march 12th in waterbury so that'll be live streamed as well and we've just been putting together our robot finishing the programming and then getting ready for competition that's really it i shall connect thank you very much you item number six public comments for board policy numbers 9323 and 9325 five minutes allotted to each speaker no board event employee student or community member should be defamed within public comment any members of the public who wish to speak briefly before the board must only comment on matters associated with the board of education business persons wishing to address the shelton board
008of education are limited to shelton residents parents of current shelton students and employees of shelton public schools or service contracted providers of shelton public schools is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak oh we have it right right here the first person sherry rizzo okay ending some mandates is not the end it's merely the beginning in shelton look at the voting record it's shameful nobody votes voting is not getting into politics it's making a choice on who is going to act on our behalf two weeks ago governor announced his plan to free us of mass mandates an actual quote from his speech was i think this is something we earned connecticut this is the governor that has isolated our children to their homes forced them to learn on computer screens often alone emotionally
009scarred and drained them into wearing masks like robots afraid even to get a cold stripped us of our religious exemptions for all vaccines they have forced our teachers staff in some cases students to get covet 19 testing and vaccines which still have not been approved and under emergency use authority authorization only which means the force of these mandates go directly against the nuremberg code particularly the part where it says all participants need to consent without cohesion consent is absolutely essential and i'm paraphrasing hoping that people will look it up i would like to remind parents and the board that no human in the face of the earth has ever earned freedom including which includes body autonomy we were given natural rights from god to be free by our creator not by government governments are not
010designed to allocate freedom they're designed to protect it that's the very foundation of america what we need to do in shelton is what we should have done a decade ago we need to start paying very close attention to what these people are doing unless parents start getting involved in meetings like this doing their own research getting to the bottom of things and demand change we will continue to move in the same direction we need to teach our kids american foundations examples like the declaration of independence the us constitution the federalist papers have all you need to know about diversity equity and inclusion we don't always love our past and sometimes aren't proud of it but it makes us better adults parents children of god and americans this governor has controlled us every way he could
011get away with but it started long before koben this was our fault we all consented in one way shape or form if anything because we've said i don't do politics this is a theory that prohibition could have been brought into reality because somebody figured out if you can teach a third grader a new ideology well enough that they believe it as fact you can change the next generation so third graders were taught that drinking was wrong and with in a generation it was illegal the third grade class of today will become the leaders of our city tomorrow if we don't like the way we've been governed the past few years we better make sure that this generation knows knows where we lacked in knowledge where we were not brave enough to stand up for what
012was right so when they are presented with the same same situation they will recognize it and stop it at its inception we are foolish to think kids are resilient enough to get past this what we've done to our children the past few years is going to have negative repercussions how will our children turn this around on us i ask that the parents in sheltered and our board of education will make it a goal this year to take back our rights as parents going forward as we as taxpayers and parents should decide on curriculum that is part of our children's foundation and it needs to be absolutely transparent in addition we need to take back our rights for religious exemptions and medical freedoms as always if we stand united and speak united where one parent falls
013short another can pick up our children will be put back on track and we we just need to do this together thank you okay next we have mr orizetti james horizon 81 william street shelton i'm making these comments here tonight because the last board meeting uh it wasn't uh wasn't happening uh i was unable to attend the teaching and learning meeting and uh these are my my thoughts along with mr pagliero mr rizzo and myself we fully support mrs romano's initiative of reviewing and auditing curriculum and publication material this is something that happened last month it was got to be a big item we believe it is the board's responsibility to represent our parents in the oversight of material being distributed to our students it's an absolute in reviewing comments for justification of a publication
014in question the statements were of psychological and sociological defensive nature i did not read the book but it led me to question the proper venue in the placement in our english curriculum maybe it might have been better off in a psychological psychology class or a sociology class mr romano as a parent and a board member herself deserves not to be censured as these false allegations have implied she was implicating there was never any discussion of a censuring a book never but but to be but she does deserve to be satisfied satisfactorily answered as i hope all our parents are when asking a question again we the board of board of education represent all the students the parents and the taxpayers and if you don't believe so i don't know what you're doing here i had
015to make these comments here from this from this state from this position i would have rather had a discussion at a board meeting or at teaching and learning but again i was out of the country for the teaching and learning meeting and i it was unable to express my myself mr rizzo mr paglero and myself and and of course i believe miss romano with also mr rosetti are you speaking are you speaking as a board member and you are representing you have everyone's permission to speak for them yes ma'am okay thank you i'm speaking i'm speaking for myself as a as a clarifier okay are you speaking at for yourself or are you speaking as a representative let's say i'm speaking for myself but i'm also including i also have the permission to include these
016other folks okay all right all right i mean that shouldn't be a big issue you know again i believe that board members should not be regulated to speaking at a public portion as i am right now i mean most agendas most agendas was at two minutes most agendas including southern connecticut state university the city of sheldon who actually we we are under the guise of the city charter have a unfinished business in a new business section where we can have a discussion amongst ourselves as it is right now there is no discussion other than than what is placed on the agenda so as previously uh as previously done but it is it is our it is our responsibility to review curriculum one minute left okay all right thank you very much that's all i wanted
017to say very simple all right i just would just to address your thought about madam chairman i i believe that the public the the board of education is not supposed to respond to public abortion i believe that the chairperson may respond can i ask the attorney to adjust your decision on the i think you came out with the ruling on unfinished and uh new business on our agenda yes i did issue an opinion letter that prime minister origetti raised the issue of the agenda not including categories of new business and unfinished business those two categories are not required but it certainly was in the discretion of the door to categorized agenda items agenda items have to be specific as to what is going to be discussed under the freedom of information evidence but you could
018if you wish to have finished an unfinished business grouping categorizing the different specific agenda but it's not required thank you all right fully aware of that i gave you two examples of where southern connecticut state university has it on their agenda the city of shelton has an honor and lots of places haven't had a job it's not that you can't have it on agenda okay next um brandi randy paulo am i saying it correctly yes thank you i'm not as prepared as everybody else here but my name is brandy paulo i'm a mother of three here in shelton i have a fifth grader a third grader and a preschooler who i decided to send to uh catholic school i do appreciate thank you so much for voting against the mass because it has been detrimental
019in my household my kids come home on a constant basis absolutely hating them so to say that the kids are resilient is not true and i don't care who you are what you think i see it from experience i see it with my children i see it with their friends and it's absolutely awful with that being said and moving forward from that are we going to bring this back to like normal school like my kids haven't had in the last two years the haunted hallway or the picnics or the father-daughter holi like holiday dances and these are all things that my kids are missing out on and it's part of their childhood so as a mom i don't understand why this became such a political situation this isn't about our health this is about our
020freedoms so if we want to bring it back to our schools i am begging you guys as the board of education of shelton make it back to normal i am from florida my entire family lives there when my my children speak to their cousins down there they're still like oh my god you guys are still doing covet we haven't done that all year everything is back to normal so why is it not back to normal here so if you're gonna tell me that it's all about health we have i think this week there was only 300 people in the hospitals and all of the state of connecticut so it has nothing to do with that my son who was in fifth grade was told by a substitute teacher when his mask fell below his nose
021that if she got covered that it was going to be his fault if she got hospitalized is that something that you should put on an 11 year old child that that's their fault that if they can cause such bodily harm to people come on we are adults here all i'm asking for is that we bring it back to our normal school in a normal school year i don't want to pull my children and put them in a catholic school i loved the shelton public school system i really did and in the last couple years i get it the first year of covet was understandable this year this is unacceptable so i please beg you guys to bring it back to normal make it worth what it was supposed to be why i moved to sheldon
022that's all i have to say thank you thank you [Applause] okay is there anyone else from the public who wishes to speak anyone else from the public who wishes to speak anyone else in the public who wishes to speak sensing them we will go on to our next item the superintendent's report thank you madam chair um i had passed out to all the board members um as you are aware february is black history month our schools have been celebrating in all different manners and ways throughout the school day during the day curriculum based special programs announcements uh what you have is kind of like a synthesized report from all of our schools because i know that was requested of me by the board members and just how we are recognizing that as part of the
023you know day-to-day teaching and learning within within the school system as i reported at the finance meeting earlier i just want to say it again at our full meeting one of the concerns that has always been a mission of mine that was brought to my attention upon receiving this position a year ago was the outstanding uh building reimbursement projects that were with the city and the board of education as you know we made a conservative effort the board and administration worked together closing out all four of them and submitting them to the state um three of them have come back and there was always still one outstanding and no one understood why i've been working with the city officials and specifically with the mayor on his request in terms of where that funding would come
024and when it would come in my most recent meeting with him um just a few weeks ago the discussion got brought up again i worked diligently with the state department in terms of this last outstanding building project to find out that the state recognized the idea that it had been misfiled with the other ones now it has been processed received and moved forward in which our city and our taxpayers will be getting the full reimbursement from this outstanding project closing them out finally so this is a very positive thing that we just want to report out and i did make sure that president glace and the mayor were aware of this so i think it's just something to celebrate and recognize at our at our meeting uh the last thing that i just want to
025talk about in my report um as the public is well aware we we made the announcement uh that effective monday on february 28th there will no longer be a mass mandate in the state of connecticut as this board has taken the position the board never voted on mass we don't have a policy here at the board unmasks we are following the mandate from the governor's office that mandate has since expired and we are not taking any action to get to extend it we are just following the mandate as it was put in place and as it was expired i want to thank everyone for their feedback that i've received from the community at large board of ed members administration the cooperation and kind of making this decision and announcing moving forward it's really nice to
026receive emails from the public to know where they stand on this to help us make these determinations and moving forward we are moving to a mask option so we want to say that it's not the idea that we're eliminating mass we want to make sure that those who still choose and decide to wear one are welcome to do so mask optional does not mean definitively yes on or definitely no off it is means app mass optional so that can mean that students and staff can choose to wear them in certain settings as if they were at an assembly or in a large congregation but then feel free to take it off when they're in their classroom sitting with the students that they're normally around there is no fat set formality to this it is an
027option and those who choose to continue to wear a mask may do so as well as those who choose to not where one can take that mask off we are continuing with the mitigation strategies that have been given to us by the state of connecticut but the state of connecticut has now changed their position as i've informed the board and administration that coven 19 will be addressed like any other infectious disease that's the position of the state of connecticut much like the flu or any other infectious disease so we'll do the same with coca-19 so some of these mitigation strategies that we that we have seen um have always been in place when we have flu season reminding students to wash their hands reminding them in terms of their their behaviors and habits that was
028something long standing that had always taken place in the school system well before covid it's just how we manage infectious diseases to keep our populations healthy um that's the way we'll be treating copen19 moving forward in terms of some of the major mitigation strategies that were imposed by the state have been drawn back such as the elimination of public water fountains those will come back again the plexiglas shields will be coming down all those particular pieces that we've been asked to put in by the state the state has now rescinded it and asked us to treat this like we would any other infectious disease and that's how we plan on moving forward as a reminder to all there is a federal regulation about wearing masks on public transportation school buses fall under the category of
029public transportation that is in place until march 18th we again just like the connecticut mandate we have no authority to override that until it expires on march 18th so our school anyone who's riding the school bus or any type of public transportation must continue to wear a mask during that time uh and that is the my report thank you very much can i just ask mr sanch a question about what he was saying sure well it would be more just an extension seeing that all of this is being lifted um and we're going back to quote normal will there be and obviously promise happening and all these things are happening so will things like um i don't know her name i'm sorry i apologize mentioned like will we come back to all the dances and
030stuff now so uh and activities as as i received the report in florida to the board just a day or two ago we had the meeting about it today i'm meeting with administrators tomorrow to discuss this and we will communicate with moving forward thank you i i included in my report because it's brand new to keep the public updated but i haven't even some of the things that i'm saying right now for the first time the principals in the background have not even heard they're hearing it for the first time as well so thank you okay all right um comments by oh communications to the board i don't believe we have any nope okay uh number nine comments by the board chair now that we've completed and submitted the budget for 2022 2023 the next
031item of equal importance is the semi-annual or mid evaluation of our superintendent these two responsibilities are the top obligations for all boards of education all board members were sent our updated evaluation form with a descriptor and rubric for each area of performance our chief of staff mrs pinozzo will be receiving the evaluations by monday february 28th and we'll average the scores as well as collate the comments for a draft copy the board will offer additional input as reviewed and then meet with the superintendent to review the final draft final draft hopefully the final copy will be all of this will be completed within the next three weeks the covet operations committee met to get today regarding the masking option that will begin on february 28th the superintendent has given you details so far and will
032continue to do so and i would imagine put it on the school system's website right the facebook page as well as each school's website right each school site or it's already um it will be it'll be on the district so i can't speak to the individual schools okay well usually they put it on we are making masking optional but also encouraging those who choose to stay masked we encourage sensitivity and respect to the choices that are made as part of an effort to continue a positive transparent and collaborative effort between our board and our city officials i represented our board at the february board of aldermen meeting on thursday february 10th at city hall our superintendent also attended the meeting was completed within an hour and new business that concerned our board was the approval
033of funding for the transversa route training for shelton student transportation services and funding for two-way radios for shelton student transportation services our vice chair kate coutash will be the board's representative at the march meeting i thank all of the board members who signed on to do this their commitment is truly appreciated tomorrow i will be up bright and early to attend not as early as mr mr um scared because he told me he gets to school at 5 30 in the morning that's not happening here anyways i will be up and i will be at a training session at shelton intermediate school for cpr this is just the beginning which i think is very exciting of a new program being introduced and instructed by mike maglione and joe lacella in getting students interested and possibly
034involved with emt volunteer firefighting and emergency services an article will be written by me for shelton life because this is in conjunction with the city and the mayor is uh very excited about this program and i think i believe they're looking to extend this into the high school in the future so i think it's a very positive thing by our city and working together with our our school system an article will be written for shelton life will detail the who what where and why of the program and the other article that will be in shelton life and i believe the edition will be coming out the beginning of april and it will detail none other than our student ref and it will contain her award-winning essay and we are so very proud of the spotlight
035that she's shined on our school system and community and that is my report next reports of standing committee teaching and learning committee teaching and learning because of our new alternating schedule we meet on march the 8th i think i look down yes and our topics will be nwea results and the seventh world math program thank you finance committee finance committee met at six o'clock tonight so some just some quick updates regarding the reports i know this was a concern that amy had brought to our attention we're going to be adjusting next month the monthly reports to kind of show year to date so we know where we're tracking according to the budget two areas that we continue to watch are special ed as that continues to be a moving target last month i think we
036learned that we had 89 youth students enter into special ed either moving into the district or just getting services that jumped to 93 this month so we ended up last week as of last week so we've decided to make a regular part of the meeting and update on the number of special ed kids so we can kind of track um to see how that affects our budget um health insurance is the other thing that is a moving target right now um per todd we are check tracking okay on that um as far as paid to participate todd noted that 30 000 was taken out of that account to use for spring sports needs equipment referees cones various things like that the cafeteria bidding process is starting this year that's a big one and todd and
037catherine actually had to go to training for that it's apparently quite the big deal todd continues to participate in casva which is the business exec say executive business officials of schools they meet regularly so that's something i think we haven't had before so that's nice that todd can solicit from other towns different ideas that type of thing track and field the bidding we got the specs ready so the bidding process is going to start the biggest news i think ken touched on was the last reimbursement that is coming from past projects that we've done that goes to the city for from the state that last one was being held up and ken i think harassed everybody up in hartford and finally tracked down and found the money so that's going to be that's the last
038piece that's coming we went over the operational audit that was done there were recommendations and the staff has put together a spreadsheet and every month we're going to get a new spreadsheet as far as where these recommendations and where they're tracking we had a q a on that and the last item we just want to remind everybody as far as legal fees we're trying to keep that down as a group we had a bill for 500 for unauthorized contacts so we're just asking everybody to lever leverage other sources such as cave and ken's expertise as well and that's it thank you policy subcommittee meeting was held virtually on tuesday february 8th at 4 30. the primary agenda item was continued discussion of bylab 9222 which is resignation removal and censure the subcommittee continued to review
039and revise the original submission of the suggested updates to the existing bylaw although the update now appears to be appropriate the lack of a clear process within the bylaw was questioned suggestions have been made to clarify the process and now a subcommittee working session may occur after the next teaching and learning committee meeting in order to make a revision so that at the next policy committee we'll have something more concrete to present just to kind of streamline and make sure we're working efficiently and the next policy meeting is tuesday official policy meeting is tuesday april 5th at 4 30 central office in person thank you um buildings and grounds all right uh we get those was canceled in february through the life of attendance that night uh and i believe we're gonna work on a
040new date with ken to probably have a meeting in march okay thank you very much yes we we had a lack of quorum so we're looking at a date um reports of liaison ces council does not meet in february next week thank you very much okay among the many things that cape dubs does for boes across the state one of the most important things is the advocacy they provide for legislative priorities cave currently is advocating that the state removed the cap on special education access cost reimbursement grant which is at 74 percent which is we are not getting 100 and that's causing our problems with our budget cape is asking the legislature to remove the cap so that districts can have a predictable reimbursement special education programs and placements are federal mandates but more importantly
041they are moral obligations to provide the education a student needs to succeed and i think everyone on the sport agrees with that thank you all right agenda item 12 for your information attached in your packet vacancy report stack and stipend actions enrollment report and bus data log number 13 celebrations yes mrs crouton i just want to say i was tracking uh mrs martin's work with their cereal bus collection from 100th school oh wow that was great great and then the cereal was the boxes of cereal went to the uh went to the food bank excellent thank you great job all right anyone else at the high school in the cafeteria we've had some um signings of athletes choosing their colleges and getting scholarships the herald group has done a really nice job on reporting about
042that so and i apologize to mrs riddle and the sports community that patty and i have been negligent this winter in attending um and various sports events due to hibernation by me and we hope to resume this in the spring okay and and before we adjourn i just want to brag about my my adopted school mohegan school held their jump rope for heart and they raised over 27 000 which they gave to the american heart association congratulations mohegan thank you as mrs santilli always said mohegan school is the school with the heart right and um i just have to comment because diana uh did send me a little message about my good friend jack goode who i've never met but i always comment about the his accomplishments and it seems like he is once again
043all-state jazz ensemble guitarist and this is the first year that he is going to appear in person right yes so congratulations to jack and his family and it is on a bottle drive this weekend up at the high school for everybody if you have cans and bottles the band members because they didn't have it in december yeah so hopefully it is 7 44 and we are adjourned thank you everyone i keep forgetting [Music]