001patient we are running a few minutes behind but welcome to the Shelton Board of Education meeting we are in person this evening back from the snow it is Wednesday February 26 is a little after 7 o'clock we will call the meeting to order roll call please Joan Littlefield here aach here lorine Roser here Jason NBS here Jim is Amy Romano here Anthony smaro here James oretti here Patricia Moon here also in attendance Ken sanich Christen sanelly Jackie tuings John Calhoun Tracy hussy Glen Newman Eli El Elias and AA up okay if we could all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag United States can I please get a motion to approve the agenda move Madam chair motion made by Kate cach can I get a second second Byler R Rosner all in favor I
002okay motion carries item number three approval of consent agenda can I please get a motion motion to approve the consent motion made by James oretti second second sure my line Rosner all in favor and if everyone notices in there is the Shelton High School graduation date yay June Mrs riddle was tweeting it right now yep she's okay you can send it out you can send it out it's in there and there's some rain dates too just in case but no rain no rain June looking forward to it okay moving on to item number four discussion and possible action on the educational specifications associated with the full roof replacement project for Mohan school as outlined in the building application project um I think I will turn this over to both Jason and and SAR to um
003discuss this this evening on where we're at with this sure uh in your packet you will see the educational specs um that's required in this process for the reimbursement for the roof project um your obligation as a board is to review these specs someone needs to make a motion and that needs to pass so that it's reflected in the minutes that you're aware of this the educational specs revolving Mohan school and the need for the school roof that'll become part of the packet when we submit that uh to the state of Connecticut for the reimbursement um we're currently in process I've been working with the architect I know Jason's been involved with this as well um the state of Connecticut redid it's an entire reimbursement online system 15 months ago uh Paul Hillard and I
004have been feverishly trying to get the accounts online we again I tried today we'll try again tomorrow to be able to get that that process going online it's it's it's very cumbersome I don't know why it's taking so long for us to do this um I I do want to bring up one thing and and I me basally put you on the spot with this or to follow through with this the one thing that that we need to understand I have reached out to Bernie Simons but we he had said he was going to speak to the mayor if we're going to put in for once we get online we're doing a roof replacement you you were in this discussion I have not heard from the city whether they want to include the stanions for
005um solar because we'd have to do that now that was figured in in that uh meeting that we so we are we are figured in the we're no one communicated that back to me other than what was in so all right so we'll check the box so the way the way we have it designed it's the same way uh As Long Hill okay yep all right and again just for the board who are weren't part of the building committee and um we can put in for the for gon to do the the solar paneling that doesn't obligate us to do the solar paneling but we can't get a reimburse unless we Che the that that's we looking now if we tell if we don't we can't that later once the application submitted you know Mr
006C correct me if I'm wrong I think the $35 square foot price was with with that yeah that that was included with in and a double ply uh will be double double ply roof at 35 and that and that would carry uh and and and we're hopefully being uh below that budget that's that's we're overshooting with that number just to be safe but yes the discussion was to to install those pads in what we call walkthroughs as well for to uh inspect the solar because you don't want direct foot footprints on on the uh on the roof itself or foot traffic so unless there are specific questions relative to the Ed specs that are in your packet I think we just move forward question yes what happened to the third well uh being the architect
007um silver and Petrelli uh I mean he's done he's he's the guy who does most roofs he said he's done 700 School roofs in the state I guy does it with his eyes closed it was amazing his his uh presentation so he recommended tly for the weight and also the longevity what what the T what the uh state is doing is they're cutting back on uh on reimbursement years you know that roof was last last uh time it was done was 94 um so I think what was the cost I I worked I worked with him on two other school groups and the in the additional third ply I told you this before I I I know you did J but I'm getting to I'm getting to a point here the they want us to
008replace within 20 years 25 years so so the cost of the extra ply makes no sense for us for for some strange reason it's it's it's backwards to that they want us to replace or uh replace within somewhere within the 20 20 to 25 years it's really not backwards it's because they're paying out so when they do a reimbursement the state is paying out so much and there could be a lot of damage so if we maintain our buildings and do it in 20 years then it's less they're going to reimburse what I mean by that is our our you know everything now is even better technology if we if we if we got over 30 years of a roof then I'm sure you know now there's all there's all new sign pitches water can't
009stand on a roof as much there's backup drains um so there's a lot more in so again that's that's why heed toly what was the cost for the for the additional uh that I don't know I would have to John do you know that did you get a cost for the additional apply I mean we're going to be spending what Millions on this roof Milli correct me if I'm wrong and again I'd have to refer back my notes with that wasn't there something in terms of um the state's ability to refund in a warrantee by going with the third ply didn't they have that discussion at the building Improvement committee meeting remember where he made that this topic got brought up at that meeting and there was something relative to the reimbursement from the state
010or when you can replace something later on if you were to select three ply as opposed to two and that's why Dean suggested and has done with other roofs the tly because of the value you get back from from the process I just want to know the cost for the third ply we did two previous roofs and the cost is in the Millions for an a roof and the third ply was like an additional $25 50,000 per roof and to me it makes no sense whatsoever not to put the third ply on I would like to know what he was asking for what the cost is now I mean if it's if it's gone up substantially where it's over 100,000 200,000 then okay maybe I could see that but to add a third ply onto
011the roof guarantees you uh more more of a sealed roof and U I don't think that long hill or Elizabeth Shelton has leaked at this point we did those roofs over 10 years ago you're doing and we have the same architect yeah same they're the same footprint same plan and I remember pointing out that we should defitely go for for the third did you end up doing the thirdly cuz basically absolutely we did a thirdly because it was ridiculous not to put a thirdly things have changed in the last 10 years I know I hear I hear what you're saying about the warranty it doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever I just want to know what the cost you know what I'll send Dean an email and I'd like to know what cost for
012the third FL is absolutely ridiculous about to put it out we still have to work on the application and send it out anyway so we have some time we get the send the email get the price listen we have such a problem we're placing roofs on here you're looking at a 20-year roof we don't put 20year roofs on seems like we're putting 50-year roofs on I want the best coverage we could get you know where I'm coming from John I think I think we all want the best Ro right I I want I want to know if it's ridiculous not to spend an extra you know4 $50,000 you would certainly do it on your home I don't care what the and the state goes about and they go about changing these regulations they we finished
013the we finished the two School roofs we did the pitch on it we did the center drains we ripped it all and the state all of a sudden they turned around said you don't have to do that anymore because Trumble went and sued them so they didn't have to do it now all of a sudden they're back to putting Center drains on in the school Center drazy there's energy code and there's actually a backup drain because there was a flood I don't know where but on the roof and like and the guys were there we did the two roofs you're not you're only supposed to walk on the footprints John what do we have guys up with snow blowers two years after we put the roof on interrupted with snowblowers did they damage the roof
014I hope they didn't Hades on there to my knowledge no but they're supposed to do that so I would I would like some more I will get you that answer but I I I remember I remember speaking about that and there was a reason why he didn't design it that way thank you Jim all right Mr or um Mr n will get that for J any other discussion otherwise we will I will accept take a motion to approve the educational specs so that we can move on with the project as it doesn't need to go out to bid I'll make that motion okay motion made by Patty second by Kate all in favor great okay okay moving on presentations and recognitions it says None but I am adding one this evening um tonight the Board
015of Education would like to recognize our superintendent this evening after many long hours evenings and weekends our superintendent has received his do Doctorate in Education this is a remarkable accomplishment and we are very proud of him for his dedication hard work and perseverance getting a doctorate is a very significant accomplishment for not only him personally and professionally but also for Shelton public schools to have our superintendent continue his journey in education and strive for success is the exact person we want at the top as a role model for our students congratulations Dr serich your dedication to your studies is truly inspiring for our student we have invited Ken's family here tonight as well as staff who is in attendance of course to join us this evening in a celebration after the meeting we have a
016wonderful cake gluten-free for him specially made so please stay and have a slice of cake with us later all right so and of course this became a little bit of a surprise it absolutely was a surprise we of course want to honor you tonight thank you okay moving on to student Board of Education Representatives report um so last week we started our course selection and we have various new courses in English science CTE unified arts and World Language um we had our winter sports pep rally on January 31st they went very well um our boys track team 4x2 won State opens and they got a new 4x2 record uh those people included Nico Romano Sebastian mate Angel Anaya and kosi uh Juliana C Scott recognized for winning the CT 2025 National Center for Women and
017information technology aspiration and Computing wow um and our winter percussion got first place in their competition um Chase galy was Game Time CT's athlete of the week yes we had two National Merit scholar finalists from the prats which included uh Seth winin Nadella and Mar abuza we had our basketball swim and indoor indoor track senior nights uh we had our athletic Signing Day where various students got signed to colleges to play sports uh we had our class L medal winners in wrestling which included Ike balberg Joe Vargas Logan Pearson and Chase galy and Logan Pearson got an astounding 100 career wins in his wrestling career [Applause] wow anything else from the high school okay okay sounds good thank you mam yes may I go backwards on recognition is that okay absolutely go ahead um going
018backwards I'm sure everybody knows with track and field right that they mentioned y y okay no I know but it's just one to let them know and you can explain more your son yeah no no no well they mentioned it but go ahead yes they did they won State open so it was very great that's above class L the whole state so that's um a a above and they're on to new englands right yes and they go on to new englands this weekend and then Nationals and like to and they set a School record in there that that they mentioned where they hold Nationals uh in Boston regie Lewis Mr superintendent it's not many rings and the the Board of Education will be purchasing the Rings for these athletes for wi their state championship okay
019wants to make sure and they also are they automatically qualified for All State and and they will be recognized at that banquet in a couple of weeks as well great yeah so it is it's a pretty great accomplishment and they're seated number two for this weekend not bad not bad see what happens it's a fast track it's a fast track inside so we'll see what happens Austin but yeah they'll get some rings and we'll we'll well Mrs riddle I'm sure we'll make sure that happens we already discussed we get a ceremony or do they just hold them up or what does that happen oh yeah so it's a while yeah the day off from school day off from school I don't know the procedure but it's great that we get to to get those for
020the for the students thank you okay moving on then to public comment for Board of Ed policy 9323 and 9325 5 minutes is allowed to each speaker no board ofed employee student or Community memb should be defamed within public comment any member of the public who wishes 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 of Education are limited to Shelton residents parents or current Shelton students and employees of the Shelton public schools for service contracted providers of the Shelton Public Schools was there anyone that was signed up nope no one was signed up to speak I will make another call would anybody like to speak anyone like to speak sensing none and then we will move on moving
021on to reports of standing committees teaching and learning that is me uh teaching and learning committee met on February 11th and the topic of discussion was special education we Dove a bit deeper into the numbers that were presented to us at budget season we also reviewed the midyear data as well including the dur comparisons for support staff ratios since April of last year we had 30 more students identified in the special education program there is a larger increase in the areas of speech and language and development delay and a decrease in specialized math and reading the data can be found in our meeting minutes if anybody would like to see the breakdown of those actual areas in comparing the ratio of special education students to teachers social workers Paras and psychologists we are anywhere from
02221 to 22 out of 23 towns of having the highest ratio um that's pretty high so we really need to continue to support special education department for more support for staff and programs if we want to get these numbers down lastly there are changes that are now being implemented for IEPs as of January 1st we are now going to be able to set goals for the students based on grade level standards to ensure our goals are rigorous and align with grade level content so that change did take place January 1 again you could find the entire presentation it was done you know virtual you could watch it on our YouTube page or you know see the meeting minutes and that is it for me um finance committee we met February 19th VI Zoom suspect account
023meeting okay policy committee yes M chairman um as everyone can see uh there's a lot of policies we went through um as we're continuing on our efforts to update uh if anyone has any questions on any individual policies but per our policy for the board I'd like to make a motion that all the items listed currently on the agenda uh if listed but I believe uh 1 through 10 uh that we uh place on the table uh public review and comment as well as Board review comment I'll make the motion put on the table second all in favor hi hi hi madam chair th those will appear in the consent agenda next month's meeting next month's meeting for approval yep and that was a very um the policy meeting could be found online we were
024virtual again so anybody needs to review the breakdown was nice having virtual you could go back and watch buildings and grounds committee so uh the building committee we met in uh early December or January was it yeah in January um but we've been uh been eating other places on other items uh throughout throughout the month um Mr s point we met uh with the building committee uh architect on the roof um I also met with the mayor in the uh engineering company for the field Turf uh fourth of February kind of re-evaluated the uh design try to bring the budget down they went back to their office office re-engineered the design created a rendering uh and brought that uh front of the board of alderman on the 13th so they presented that to him with
025his budget work that goes uh mayor um we we are trying to get this roof uh out to bid for spring um architect did tell us he has a he has a a bunch of uh companies who are willing and able to get it done during the summer months uh he that being a problem so our goal is to get it done this summer know it's a necessity so uh that's uh that's where our concentration is um with the help of Mr uh uh oretti here I was uh appointed to the building committee for all of our building grounds uh Rel projects so uh had a had a great point he able to get me sworn in uh this way we can keep uh some sort of control on uh scheduling meetings moving forward for
026our side of the business so I was sworn in on the 13th uh at the of Alder so that that that's going to help us keep uh but and then oh and John Mr koun also got the robotics area straightened out for they're uh they're there and building what they build great okay that's about it may I just to follow um we just had a meeting with the robotics um just to go over a few things and they had mentioned they would like to schedule um a tour for the board to show them the now that they're up and running because they needed some time to get set and John and I and Kathy riddle we went back there it's amazing what they've done to that that space that they have there and they had
027said to me they'd like to schedule a night where they invite the board members so you guys can come see it so we're going to schedule something in the near future okay that'll be great we were so impressed when they came to see us that time and did that presentation Lord sounds good glad we were able to work out that space Forum okay moving on reports of liaison CES M gach yes CES rep Council does not meet in February oh I have no report we meet next week for March okay Cape Joan are you there can you say anything or do you have anything to report on c yeah just okay all right moving on to item number 10 superintendent's report thank you madam chair uh I just like to report on a few things
028so yesterday we successfully and safely held uh the special election in our four testing sites um determin the date and location is out of our control but we did work with the city and and under the state parameters to have the election and I appreciate everyone's cooperation in making that that possible um we delivered uh the our Board of Ed approved budget proposal to the city before the February 14th deadline by City Charter all board members have a copy of the proposed budget um it's it's been signed off and delivered to City Hall uh again I I I I thank everyone um for their help in getting that process done particularly the board on the nights that you put in um during the process and and Jackie for the work she did tying it all
029together and getting that by the charter um next steps it goes to the mayor the mayor will be presenting sometime next month in March his proposed budget for the city um once that's determined we'll be contacted by the board of Alder to have a meeting um for us to present and speak with the board of Alman on our our proposal when those dates are determined I will publish them for the board and the public and and anyone any member of the public who would like to see the full board ofed budget proposal it is listed and available on our school website they can just download it on our school website I was going to mention graduation that it's been set it's already been mentioned several times but in the consent agenda we obviously set a
030graduation by the new state statute the board has the ability to set graduation on a specific date um even though if we were to have an extend extend our school year be Beyond because of weather conditions we're hopeful though that you know the weather is behind us um but even still because that dat is the original day on the calendar as the 180th day you can lock that in as graduation we decided to to do that because last year graduation fell on a Friday and it seemed to be very well received by the community so we were going to do that again so locked in and Mrs rdle I'm sure has tweeted it so um the last thing I want to mention is completely off script because I was completely taken off guard and a
031little um lost for words but I I want to thank the board for their kind words um I want to thank everyone who supported me along in this process was a long three years um but it's something that I've dedicated my professional career on uh as I've said all along you know um I chose to be the superintendent in Shelton because I believe in Shelton and my my professional development in pursuit of my doctorate is to just make Shelton a better District uh my dissertation was written on um the struggles with uh public education and Staffing shortages um an issue that we are completely dealing with as a district and the state is dealing with as well um the rules by behind dissertations you can't use I can't use my district as a testing so
032all my work was done with other districts in the state of Connecticut which has allowed me to make um numerous uh connections with other districts that are with the same struggles we are that I can hopefully bring back those learn skills to this District to make this District the best District that it can be um thank you so much uh I would be remissed if I did not might recognize Andrew dauto who also received her doctorate just a few weeks ago the two of us were Kinder Spirits sharing the agonies of writing a dissertation so it was nice to lean on her and call her every now and then to you know be reentered and uh and most of all it's my family who I'm surprised they're here tonight but you know without them my
033wife particularly who was my number one editor during this process and uh who was my first reader who led the dissertation first um without her um I wouldn't be where I am today and thank you Tera for everything you've done for me and I just looking forward to to taking the learning that I have done and bring it back to this to the city of Shelton the Shelton Board of Education and again make Shelton Public Schools the best District it can be thank you [Applause] Madam chair through the chair to the superintendent um were there any incidents of any level reported with regards to uh voting at the as you uh there were not it went it went seamless there was um traffic issues I'm going to say um but that is not anything that
034impacted inside the school our kids and staff remains to day I know it's it it causes an inconvenience obviously because were limiting areas for the kids um but I've spoken to the principles at the voting sites um and with with the exception of of the traffic is issues that that took place it was as smooth as possible there were efforts on our part and we did work with the register of Voters in attempts to try to relocate testing sites um but we were told by the state of Connecticut that that's prohibited because it would be tampering with polling and you know such and such whatever the regulations are on it so it had to be at the four voting sites that were determined by the city so and again so I thank you not only
035the register of Voters and the staff but the parents as well everyone who helped make this possible because um it was an important election that needed to happen and and we got it done so my only second no no no I wouldn't want to nor um I wanted to be authentic work and besides I mean again as as we do in our school system they have all these anti-i aspects that have to check and double check and run through everything yeah you hear that kids you hear that see did not do it did not cheat well there's a sense of Pride when you when you write a dissertation and you know it's your authentic work so you you know you can bring that it today for position gotta tell you in less second I had
036a old but a computer will never replace the authentic instruction that a teacher can offer he it thank you okay moving on comments by the board chair I do not have any comments because I was debating on when I was going to surprise our superintendent but then I felt well should I do a here there and I just ran with it so I will save everybody um time of me talking again okay we'll move on to celebrations does anyone I mean there was so many celebrations tonight I mean we could have put this like anywhere celebrations all over the agenda tonight any last ones because I had Andrea But Ken mentioned her and stole my thunder we did track you's birthday was yesterday oh be a board meeting without recognizing we do we try to
037the birthday this is true yes we do happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday that's great well stay for some cake yep we got the cake you can help me cut it because I have no idea how I'm doing that yet uh all right Communications to the board there is none but I guess this is a communication we have something here from The Long Hill PTO they've decided to send us a nice T re board we could also open that up and eat it it was very nice of them nice good pass along our thanks um to them please all right let's see moving on for your information of course there's always Staffing report attached and enrollment report and then we I will get a motion to adjourn second anyone second okay motion made all in
038favor i y