001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening. I'd like to call the Stonington Board of Education regular meeting to order on May 14th at 6:31 p.m. And I'll ask Mr. Kelly to lead us in Pledge of Allegiance. He's all decked out with LSU, so we had we had to do it that way. But I'll start with communication recognition and I will start with our acting superintendent schools. Thank you, Chairman Reschke. >> [sighs] >> I've got a bunch cuz I've got some some makeup to do. One of the things that was brought to my attention by a couple of parents a couple of times. And I finally found a way to to do it. It wasn't a delay because I wasn't hearing them. It was a delay of finding a a way to do it. Is they expressed
002a concern is that during this part of our meeting we recognize athletes and other folks who've achieved accolades. And it's usually I don't want to use the word haphazard. But it's it's what Mr. Kelly has you know either physically seen cuz he goes to a lot of games or read in the paper and he goes to concerts and plays and whatnot and so do a lot of other board members and myself, too. Um But I was looking and I think sometimes I know speaking for myself we don't recognize kids cuz we're afraid to leave someone off a list. Um and so what I've done is I have Mr. Marrone's end of season reports now coming to me so that at this meeting I can use that as a reference and recognize more kids who deserve
003recognition. So I'm going to be a little retroactive and go back to the fall season before I do the winter season. So it's it's a lot, but um we'll we'll go with it. So uh in the fall season uh the following students received ECC honorable mention. Uh Abby Mayorca for field hockey, uh Lonnie Della Barone for field hockey, Madison Hubbard girls soccer, uh Ava Twiliger girls soccer, Matteo Panciera boys soccer, Olivia Noack girls swimming, Audrey Schreg girls swimming, Ryan Dugus and Ben Thomas both for football. ECC first team honors in the fall. We just it's great we have so many. Uh Emma Meyer girls swimming, Molly Musselman cross country, Jake Wagner cross country, Hannah Lyon for field hockey, Melanie Verbridge for field hockey, Beatrice Manfredi field hockey, Simone Wosenkraft for girls soccer, Quinn Higginbotham for
004girls soccer, Gianna Terranova girls soccer, Leah DePari girls soccer, Sean Lloyd and Brady O'Neil for boys soccer, and Sal Alessio boys soccer. Ethan Green, Jack Gotter, Tommy Lyon, uh Evan West, Logan Christina, and Gabe Torella all for football. In addition, some of the folks I just mentioned got all-state recognition. Uh Molly Musselman, Hannah Lyon, Simone Wosenkraft, Sal Alessio, and Brady O'Neil all got all-state for their uh sports endeavors. And Sal Alessio uh also was named all-New England. He's one of our more accomplished athletes. So, that was the fall season. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um Thanks for adding that because that's not on his report. And this is one of those things. Um for the winter season, uh ECC honorable mention Addie Cadmus from the girls basketball team, Brady O'Neil from the boys basketball team, Aisha Robinson
005for cheerleading. ECC first team honors, Leah for girls basketball, Sophia Hoinasky girls basketball, Elijah Cornell boys basketball, Wyatt Loughlin ice hockey. Max Della Rosa uh Garrett Cooper, Matteo Panciera uh Jack Wade, Austin Center, Jackson Kamara Molly Musselman, Ella Rothman Sophia Brooks, Claire Branegan, uh Luciana Evering, and Payton Linicus all from our boys and girls indoor track team. All state from the winter season, Max Della Rosa for uh in 55 m, Molly Musselman indoor track for a couple of events, and Sophia Hoinasky for girls basketball. Um I did also want to mention cuz I know what we've talked in previous board meetings about uh the successful boys basketball season, the girls state championship basketball season. I'm not sure if we mentioned the boys ECC Division III champion uh championship at that meet. Um the girls placed
006third. Our cheerleading won first place in the Kick and It competition in Killingly. Um and those are my recognitions for tonight. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Miss Okey? Nothing to add. Thank you. Thank you, Bridget. Nothing to add. Thank you. >> Mr. Kelly. I don't I don't have the list, but um I think 30 people were inducted Friday night into the National Honor Society. I was able to attend, so that was um quite the ceremony and you know, we just highlighted all the athletes in their those that got all ACC or all state or what have you. Um one of the parents that was there on Friday night said that he goes on the way over he goes I told my son that that was more important it meant more to him than any pitching duel
007you had on the mound or any hit you got playing baseball was the academic part and um you know, that's one of the things that uh you know, makes Stoneton great is we do all right athletically, but I think we do better academically. Um I have an LSU shirt on and an LSU hat with me um in honor of our student rep on the board who made decision day to go to LSU in the fall. Um I went there for a weekend. Had a great time. Love to go back. Um in front of uh Finn is three time capsules that Steve and his uh people up at the high school found on the shelf somewhere and um I'm good for it. I got dinner or lunch. Um so, we can do that. Uh got an
008email very important email just the day or two ago from a Mrs. Rothman um concerning some uh issues that affect the whole community. So, I'll be following up with that and then um we had a and I'll talk about it later policy committee meeting, but we did not talk about the um recycling policy or the need for a recycling policy that Ms. Mania brought to our attention at the last meeting, but it'll be on the agenda for the next month. And I think that's all I have for now. Thank you. Thank you, and congratulations. Finley. Zack. Congratulations. Nothing else to add. Kevin. Well, thank you. I just wanted to uh thank the administration for their hard work on uh and Bridget for joining the team from the administration and the Stonington Public School uh workers
009for uh the assistant superintendent uh interview committee. So, I just want to recognize them for working hard for a couple of days on that. So, thank you all. Uh next item on our agenda is a board presentation, junior project. And if you're ready, the podium is yours, ladies and gentlemen. >> For folks at home, we just have a technical difficulty with the microphone. We'll be right back with you. Thank you. Hi, we are the class of 2027 and we are presenting our junior project. My name is Lauren DeCastro. My name is Isabella Giuliani. I'm Elijah Sullivan. I'm Gracie Clairvaux. I'm Kate Renzel. I'm Alexa Kecky. I'm Sienna Hershorn. I'm Emmeline Spelman. My name is Jamie Halloran. And I'm Hannah Feik. For our junior project, we have selected to revamp our courtyard. If you don't know,
010the courtyard is outside of our school building. It kind of is in between um the school, but we feel that although it's used sometimes it's not being used to its full potential. So, in order to reach that, we want to plant new plants, add new furniture, some outdoor games, and other decorations or interactive elements for our students. Having a place to enjoy outside and enjoy the sunlight is very important for our student body and will allow us to interact with the building even more. Okay. There we go. Okay. So, as Kate previously mentioned, um we're going to have a lot of outdoor games outside. We're planning on getting giant Jenga and cornhole. Um, this will allow the courtyard to be utilized more frequently by staff and students alike. Um, we're going to also add decorations
011such as flowers and we're going to do a mural of kind words um, along sort of the outside ground um, which we've talked to one of our art teachers, Ms. Jaquila, about and she is planning on helping um, and getting students who want to participate in painting those words out to get more artists in the community as well. Um, it's also just going to encourage students to plant more flowers and greenery and to get some more vitamin D. And so this is a visual representation of our courtyard. It is in centered in the middle of our school. Um, the little drop marks are our entrances to our preschool, cafeteria, like and then our entrance near guidance, our entrance near the preschool. Um, our games we're planning on having spread out throughout where the tables are
012and then we're going to store them in our storage bin, which is that little blue rectangle. Um, and our furniture, which is our tables that we currently have and the umbrellas that we currently have, we're going to have those stay in the same places. Our main Our main goal for the project is to create a space where everyone can enjoy themselves outside. So we will keep the same tables, so we will have some of those same furnitures here. And we also have the white bins that are outside right now and they are not being well maintained for now. So if we get a like an approval for the project, it will be our duty to make sure that they are clean and that there's always someone keeping an eye on them. And then where this
013area we probably can't see where I'm pointing, but the third image we would like to plant some flowers there so it's more cheerful and someone else will cover that. Thank you. For some more visual representation, as you can see in the photos, the one on the left shows the wall where we're going to have the flowers planted which Amy and Jamie will talk about later. And in the photo on the right is where we're going to have the perennial plants that are easier to maintain for our staff during the summer and winter seasons. Um these are the outdoor activities that we have selected. There's the giant Jenga which was mentioned earlier. We have a connect four board. Um a like floor mat, checkers and tic-tac-toe. And then there's also cornhole boards which we're planning on
014customizing ourselves and painting them so that they're on Stoneman theme like with the Stoneman Bears or Stoneman High School. To store these items we're planning on getting two storage bins. One is a bench which provides not only for storage but for comfort as well for the students. And the other bin we're going to have along that fence for storage. They're very durable for the weather so we won't have to worry about moving any of the games or the storage in and out of the building and it will make sure that we can preserve the games that we're using and um they won't get damaged. All right, so of these specific plants we're talking about, we're talking about specifically perennials because they will be easier to upkeep as Sienna had said earlier. And some specific perennials
015which Mr. Carroll had helped us approve would be asters, purple cone flowers, and day lilies to really brighten up the area. As well, we wanted to add hydrangeas because they are Ms. Dow's favorite. They would look very pretty out there. Um to bring some wildlife out there, we wanted to add a bird feeder or maybe a few, and we had an idea to get a garden gnome with a bear on it to also go along with the Southington Bears theme. Um to keep students involved in this project and make sure it stays up up held, um our student government has a specific position called the parliamentarian, and we wanted to give them their own committee committee to help uphold this and keep it going. And along with that, they can involve other um Southington High
016School clubs to get everyone volunteering on this project. Another thing we would like to focus on is the trees in the courtyard. At the moment, we have three tree planters that um previous students had planted trees at, but over the years they've been replaced and re-rooted to the point where these trees now look bare and unappealing. We want to replace these trees with ginkgo trees because over the seasons, um the leaves stay relatively full. Um Mr. Carroll gave us this great idea, and the leaves also don't shed as much as other trees, so the upkeep would be a lot simpler throughout the winter. And since leaves don't shed as much, it would look just more appealing throughout the seasons. So, a way that we would like to raise money for this project is to have
017a community and school-wide fundraiser where we would have students and community members be able to sponsor a plant, um a few flowers, and we would plant them in their honor with like a little name tag to signify their purchase. Or we could have students and or the community paint rocks, which would be approved by us and then be put in the the um flower beds. We would also like it to be a volunteer opportunity, so we would like work with the the career fair Okay, sorry. My I'm sorry. The career center and we would have other clubs and so the students can also help plant for volunteer hours. We have made a budget of how much we would need to spend for the project in total and it was It was a thousand and two
018seventy-five dollars and we will Our goal is to raise three fifty dollars and we will be provided a thousand dollars um with the student government account. Hello. Um the four C's are something that us students at Stonington High School always like to consider when we um complete projects. The four C's are convince, consider, communicate, and connect. For convince, we ask the question, why will Stonington High School benefit from this project? And we feel that that's because the courtyard isn't being used to its full potential and it's such a great area for students to get outside during lunch, especially um where they can socialize with their peers. Um for consider, we ask the question, why is this project important? It more of the same, so students can get outside, connect with their peers, and just play
019games in the courtyard and have a little bit of fun in their school day. For communicate, we ask the question, what does What communication does this project involve? Um us student government members have communicated um thoroughly throughout this, um, planning. And, um, we've also communicated with Ms. Dench, Ms. Daw, Mr. Stillman, and Mr. Carroll, um, to make sure this project met, um, the standards. And for connect, we asked the question, "How is this important to the community?" Um, obviously, the fundraiser involves the community, and, um, it fosters a sense of community among the student body. Thank you. For this pro- For this project, we had a lot of, um, administration and staff help us, um, make sure that the project was the best it could be. So, first we want to thank Mrs. Dench, our
020student government advisor. Um, she helped us guide the decision-making process and make sure that we were abiding by our budget and representing student government's ideals well, and come up with ideas. Um, we also want to thank our principal, Mrs. Daw. She was a very helpful audience to many of our first runs of the slideshow, as well as, um, giving ideas and running things by her to make sure that they fit school rules. Uh, we also want to thank, uh, Mr. Stillman, the Stonington fire chief. He informed us on the fire codes and how we could, um, follow them properly to, again, ensure that this project would also, um, ensure the safety of the students, so we wouldn't do anything that would endanger anybody. Um, and lastly, we really want to thank Mr. Carroll. He helped
021us, um, find the best plants, and he advised us on how to better our ideas and suggested where to place things, and he was just a really good, um, role model for us during this. So, thank you to everybody who helped us along with this project. Does the board have any questions? I know you spoke to the art teacher about the mural when you talked about the mural immediately thought of few years ago someone painted the outside of the concession stand out there. That was I think a senior project for one of the students so, you know, it could that falls into place that's a great idea but um No, excellent. Um if you could expand a little bit more I noticed the other day where there's a the bricks outside and then the cement
022around the bricks are falling is uh falling apart so but I think that's outside your scope but thank you. Thank you. >> great job. I have a few questions. Um what is this strategy to sell the flowers as you were describing to raise some funds on the flowers? What's the sales strategy like how are you going to market that? Well, we would have like for the school we would have like to first spread the word for flyers and posters and then I would also like we have student square that would be a big thing to also reach out to the parents and then that would be the community members and what we would do is roughly have maybe a week or two and we would collect the money that people have and we would get
023the flowers and us as student the student government or any volunteers that we also have in this period of time would plant them outside. And do you know what's like rough square footage of that courtyard? Did you have any measurement when you were trying >> itself or where where we we would want to put the fundraiser flowers the flower beds? >> The the area of you were describing on that map. We did not get a square footage of the exact courtyard but um Mr. Carroll walked out there with us and he said that we could plant a few um beds on the side. We wouldn't use that entire space and obviously not blocking any of the exits, but we would make little flower boxes, like a few of them along that wall. I think uh
024it would be an excellent uh math class project to determine the area because I know why they didn't because it is a it's almost like a gerrymandered voting district. It's so irregular in its shape. Uh but I think we're going to have to assign that to one of the the math faculty. It is it's a tough shape. Zach, you have questions? No questions, just a couple of great comments. This was fantastic. I'm really looking forward to the garden gnomes. We need to have more than just one. Um That was your idea? I respect that. I respect that a lot. Um I also wanted to say that the storage bin bench is a brilliant idea. Um we we always look for ingenuity on how to save money in the district and that's that's a great way
025to uh have a multi-purpose item, so that's really fantastic. Um and then um for the you you mentioned that the goal was to have like the the parliamentarian of the student government kind of act as like a point person. Um are there any clubs that you can think of that might want to take a lead on this project and how would you partner with them to maybe um best plan for moving forward? We have an environmental club at the school and uh we've talked to uh Gracie here is one of the members and she said that like this is right up their alley and that the advisor would be interested in doing stuff like this and that it really aligns with their goals. So, that's just one example um of a club that would like
026easily fit into this. And oh, and Interact is interested cuz it's a volunteer-based organization. So, clubs that align with like the goals of this courtyard project um would really easily get involved and incorporated and it would give more things for the school to cooperate on. I want to commend you on thinking of that space cuz I agree with you it's underutilized, but I'd like you to keep two thoughts in mind after you kind of like leave here is uh what's that upkeep cost look like? And can you consider a like I I saw that you were considering the plastic box. Can you consider something different other than plastic? You know, is is there a wood option alternative? More environmentally friendly option. And uh it might cost you more, so you might need to sell more
027flowers. So um but you know, think think think of that because I heard so one of you is on that environmental club, so that I don't know if a plastic thing is the best choice. I mean, I'm not against it. I just want you to consider that. With our um flower fundraiser, we wanted to kind of keep that an annual thing. So I think that will hopefully like make some more money for us, but just to continue to keep the community involved, we want to keep that going each year. Great idea. I think it was a really great presentation overall. Um sticking to the environmental theme, I would challenge you and Mr. Carroll to maybe come up with all native plants and trees that could be planted just so that that ecosystem could really see
028the benefits as well, not some of the ones ones on your list were, but not all of them were. Um so that might be something to look into. Thank you. I do like trees that shed less though cuz I got to rake all those. That's This this shrub is leaves falling like one day. One day spray. >> It's not It's not an oak. Any other comments or questions? I'll thank you very much. Great job. Thank you guys so much for the opportunity. Thank you. No. Next item on our agenda is comments from citizens regarding items on the agenda. Please keep your comments limited to 3 minutes and 20 minutes per topic and make sure you mention your name and residency and write them down when you go up to the podium. Thank you. Hi, my
029name is Riley. And I really like my school, DMS. She just wanted to throw that in there tonight. I asked her if she had anything to say and she said she wanted to let everyone know how much she loves Dean's Mill. Thank you for sharing that. >> teacher? Um That's a hard one, huh? You have lots of good ones. You want to pick one? >> Probably so far, Ms. Stan. Ms. Stan, yeah. She's fantastic, huh? >> [clears throat] >> So, this is the reason why I come. This is one of the reasons why I put in the time and energy um to come to the meetings and into the district is for her and her brother and the other students here because that's why we're all here. That's the reason that we all do this.
030Um So, good evening. First, I'd like to welcome our new assistant superintendent to the district. I generally wish you success in this role, and I hope that the your leadership continues to encourage transparency, collaboration, and strong family involvement in our schools. Um one of the things I feel that families in Stonington really value is that their voices matter, and I hope that that continues moving forward. Um I'm also happy to see that the district is getting ahead on hiring for our many open positions. Um hopefully by moving early on this, we'll be able to attract and secure strong candidates um who will positively contribute to our schools and support the students. I think it's fantastic to kind of see those posting getting out and jumping ahead as the school years are wrapping up. Um I
031will say I look forward to further reviewing some of the new social studies framework. Um I understand that there are state requirements that the district needs to follow, um but I hope that those standards are incorporated thoughtfully and appropriately into the curriculum in a way that supports education while continuing to respect the perspectives and concerns of families within the community. As I expect with all the curriculums, um there's a lot on this agenda for first read um in a busy time of year. So, I hope to get through all of that. Um >> [clears throat] >> I also wanted to speak tonight cuz I still continue to be disappointed in the board's failure to address concerns regarding the conduct of one of its members and the unwillingness it seems to be for the board to
032enforce its own policies. Um several months ago during the Board of Education meeting, parents witnessed behavior from a board member that many found to be disrespectful and inappropriate. Immediately following that meeting, the same board member took to social media and continued to make public comments directed at parents and community members. But what's been most disappointing, however, is not the behavior itself, but the complete lack of response and accountability afterward. While the concerns were brought forward to the board's attention by many parents, um the only response I received was that ethics complaints needed to go through the town. But my concern is broader than an ethics complaint in process as I um spoke about in my email. My concern is the board's responsibility to uphold and enforce its own policies, standards of conduct, and expectations of
033professionalism. The board's policies are not supposed to be optional. They exist to maintain the public trust, encourage respectful engagement, and establish expectations for how board members conduct themselves both during meetings and interactions with the public, and I feel the board has done a great job of that in the past. Um I think parents should be able to participate in school matters without feeling targeted, ridiculed, or dismissed by an elected official. And when the concerns are raised and the response is simply to redirect the responsibility elsewhere, it sends a message that accountability depends on who the individual is rather than the conduct that occurred. I understand disagreement is part of public service. Debate is healthy, but first and foremost, there should be professionalism and respect. Those things should still matter, especially from those entrusted with representing
034our students, families, and our schools. At this point, months have passed with no meaningful acknowledgement, no transparency about whether policies were reviewed, and no reassurance to the public that the standards will be enforced consistently moving forward. I'm asking that the board kind of reflect on yourselves seriously on the message that silence and inaction send to the community. Policies only matter if they're upheld equally and consistently regardless of the position or popularity of it. And I think that it kind of speaks to we have policies She has to go to the bathroom. We have policies in our schools we expect students to follow. We have policies of our staff that we expect them to follow, and when somebody doesn't, it's addressed, and I feel like that wasn't done here, and that's frustrating. I think the community
035deserves accountability. I think it deserves professionalism and leadership that reflects the standards expected throughout the school district. And I think as a parent who's continued to come to these meetings and be engaged that we should be able to come in a forum that we're not ridiculed and harassed and spoken down upon. Um so I just continue to ask that that be looked at because I feel like it's just been ignored and I think that is more frustrating than anything. Um so I I like a ton of the things the district's doing. I think we're heading in great directions. We have a lot of positive things happening um and this is just one of those blips that I would just like to kind of see wrapped up and put addressed, not ignored and swept under. So
036thank you. Thank you. Okay, next item on our agenda is uh superintendent report. Turn it over to Mr. Smith. Thank you, Chairman Rajab. Um I am happy to report I have a very very very busy morning uh tomorrow and uh they're both related uh at 8:00 here um we're hosting a chamber event with Bruce Flax and the Mystic Chamber of Commerce and a whole bunch of area business folks uh to look at what other connections we can make with our annex programs and some of our other educational programs with our local business people as far as some some work for our students and experiences for our students. Uh there's a ton of folks who are going to be here for that uh Kudos again to Elsa Minetan and Margo Crowley for organizing that. Very much
037looking forward to that. And that is my segue into I'll be running from that uh down the street to the Milne Center at the aquarium because uh that's the site for the Friday Cafe. So, the state of Connecticut's Department of Education has been running this program that they call Friday Cafe because they do it on Friday mornings. Uh and they they pick different locations throughout the state and the whole purpose of Friday Cafe is to uh host discussions with school districts and highlight school districts that are doing a great job with community and family engagement. So, I also have to give proper credit. Our former superintendent Maryann Butler was very involved in trying to get this Friday Cafe one time sometime here even though geographically it it's it's kind of a stretch uh for a
038statewide event. But, we we pulled it off. So, we will be hosting be the host school uh and our community partners at the aquarium will be hosting the Friday Cafe tomorrow for uh anybody in the state uh any school system in the state that wants to send representatives. And I see that she has bolted from the room. Um Ashley Tool will also be participating uh in that. Uh we will be uh I'll be doing the intro to everybody and then we'll have a panel discussion and then there are two or three different breakout groups to talk about what their districts do. And so, Ashley has been very gracious to participate both in the panel discussion and in our breakout session uh to talk about what we do here in Stonington uh for community authentic community
039and family engagement. Uh so, it's a great honor for us and I'm really excited about it. Um and that's Friday Cafe. Next time I list uh building updates, um I really don't know what to do with this one. Um So, we'll start with the easy stuff. So, Mr. Carroll has been very busy with completing the next steps and the next steps with our portable classrooms. Uh and and Steve, feel free to jump in and uh correct me if I go astray or add some of your charm uh to this. Where we're at now is uh we needed to exchange drawings on the placement of the foundation footings and the excavation for the conduit that will supply the electrical and low-voltage uh connectors to the portable classrooms. Uh Modular Mobile did their drawing, sent it to
040us, we had it reviewed locally by our building inspectors here in the town. We've sent it back to Modular Mobile. Uh and we're good on that. Yeah, they sent it but it's it was actually CLE engineers who done the review. They just they bring it to our local codes on depth of piers. So, we they they reviewed it, sent it, we sent it back to Modular Mobile. They sent it back with a revised drawing and right now that's sitting back with CLE for a final like stamp and approval. And so, hopefully when we get that done with then we can pick a date to start digging holes uh and pouring cement, which will Go ahead. Tentative date is June uh June 5th. Right now is a tentative date. So, I it's very tentative because I
041don't have a building permit, but I'm hoping I can It's a great day. It is it will be a great day. It's a long time coming. Uh I am very excited cuz I know that the middle school parents and teachers, once we start actually digging in the earth, uh will will clearly signal that we're going to have portable classrooms for next school year. Um another building update um and this is where it it's uh a little confusing. Uh we had done one round a few months ago of bids for the repair of the second floor concrete slab here in this building at 204 Mistuxet. Uh, the bids came back wildly higher than what we had estimated. Uh, so Mr. Carroll went back to the drawing board uh, and we went out to bid again. This
042time we got three vendors who all came in with uh, much closer to our original estimates. Uh, we started down the road of selecting one. Uh, and when Mr. Carroll presented that to the K-12 building committee, they immediately wanted to question that that if until we determine what the long long-term solution is to the middle school, should we be spending that kind of capital here not knowing if we're going to remodel this building and change its configuration. Would it that be wasted money? Uh, legitimate concern. Um, the other thing that uh, transpired uh, recently is we had some Originally, our original plan here at the 204 was again uh, Allison Vennettilli had some brilliant ideas to expand some of her programming and move some of her current programming out of the auxiliary gym space at
043the end of the building into some more traditional classrooms. Originally, we were looking at the empty classrooms at the end of the first floor of this academic wing, but we didn't want to do that until the slab was repaired. Naturally. Um, and upon further review, I think it's a better idea to do that expansion of programmings and use of classrooms down on the garden level where the transition annex always is already in place. There's three classrooms down there that just are being used for storage now. It is a heavy lift and that was Allison's concern. She was being too polite. We can get the stuff uh moved out of there and that way all of our uh all of our programs are in one location and it is underneath the library in the uh safe
044part of the building. So, we could we we all kind of agreed Mr. Carolina kind of agreed and we thought the Board of uh Finance was also in agreement that we could press the pause button on that repair of the second floor and just have Fuss & O'Neill come out and continue to monitor it uh a couple of times a year to make sure that the slab was uh still viable. All the Fuss & O'Neill reports state that without an active load on that second floor, the timeline, you know, that the slab will continue to deteriorate because it's in the plenum space where air is circulating around it, but without a load on it, there's it it's not an immediate uh concern. Uh the Board of Finance uh last night had some additional concerns about
045what that would mean in for insurance and liability uh purposes. So, we're going to kind of circle back on getting some some more information about uh whether an engineering firm's monitoring of this is enough to consider occupancy in even the way we're occupying the building now to be okay. So, it's just a delay of game on that for now. Any Does that capture it, Mr. Carolina? >> Yeah, that that was a really good coverage of it. Any questions on that? Just a comment. Um and I'm sure Steve's doing everything he can as well as the district on a whole, but like I mentioned last month's meeting, I'll mention this month, and I'll mention it next month, is how imperative it is that we get these portables in and open before the um fall semester starts
046and and uh it's just you know, whatever we can do as a board to to back you guys up and push in and whatever is just you know, the the solution at the middle school is to do this and uh for the time being before the big picture is dealt with by the building building committee, but um it's just something that just we need to that's like priority number one in my opinion. So, thank you. Mr. Kelly, I wholeheartedly agree, and I feel much more confident now that we got over that initial delay with all of the legal stuff, and now we're just on to the physical planning. We have a plan. Everything seems to be going to plan so far. Fingers crossed, it's a complex undertaking, uh but uh we're all equally committed because
047you're absolutely right, we have to have those portables to relieve the overcrowding at the middle school. Okay, ready to move on? Okay. Uh last thing on my uh superintendent's report tonight is the announcement of our new assistant superintendent. Before I get into the specifics on that, I do want to echo the chairman's comments earlier and thank all of the people involved in that hiring committee. Uh it was two full days. I stole their Cinco de Mayo from them cuz we met uh into the into the evening um uh on on May May the 5th. Uh I want to start by uh and also thank that everybody involved because it was a wide variety of stakeholders. We had parents, we had teachers, we had staff, we had Board of Ed members. Uh, it was a very
048well-rounded and dedicated crew. We put the applicants through the ringer. It was a very competitive process. We had close to 40 applicants for this position. Um, of which I would say at least 30 of them were highly qualified uh, applicants. It was a difficult job to select to get the the initial list down to the number that we could start actually interviewing. It was a little bit challenging. Um, and I'm glad I didn't have to go through that interview process. It was very rigorous. Um, but um, it is my pleasure to announce Kristy Bordelon uh, as our new assistant superintendent. She's here with us tonight sitting next to Alicia Sweet Dot. Uh, Kristy has been in education for more than 20 years. She started her teaching career in the little town of Bolton, right? Okay.
049Uh, and then went on uh, in her career to be a building principal both in Middletown and Norwich. Uh, currently she holds the title as the academic and accountability officer for the consolidated school district of New Britain where she supervised and coaches building and curriculum administrators and leads district-wide initiatives to strengthen their teaching and learning. And that was one of the things that in that school district they've made some tremendous progress academically and I know Kristy has been one of the chief architects of that. Um, Kristy holds an 093 certificate for superintendent. She holds It's 092 administrator certificate. She has a sixth-year degree in reading and language arts, Master of Arts of Education from Saint Joseph, and a bachelor's degree, Zach, from Yukon. Sarah Little, Yukon. Uh she's a state certified uh reading specialist, and
050uh she has uh had some key roles in both statewide and national academic efforts, including serving on the Connecticut State Department curriculum design team and the national SBAC range finding consortium. Uh Christie was also recognized by the Connecticut Reading Association and the State Board of Education for her leadership in the area of literacy. Uh she's a somewhat local resident. She and her family, including two Labradors, um live in Niantic. So, Christie Bordelon, welcome uh aboard to Stonington. Thank you. It It was a big panel. Uh rigorous rigorous process. I'm just absolutely thrilled um to be here, and I have to say from the moment I walked in the door, the warmth and professionalism um in this community is outstanding. Um I was watching your juniors and thinking I can't wait until I know all of
051their names and their stories and say, "I knew you when you were this little." Um so, I am very very excited to be here. Um New Britain is very supportive, but not quite as happy. Um but um it's been really good work there, and I promise to bring you really good work here. Thank you. I do want to side on that is I don't know if she's aware of the last two or three uh assistant superintendents are had big shoes to fill, and uh Mr. Smith, of course, the the one recently and before that Mary Ann. So, um you know, if you can do uh close to what they did, you'll be uh doing a great job for us. Thank you. Yes, that's it for you. Thank you. Uh next item on our agenda is
052uh consent agenda items A through F. And um I'll take a motion to approve items A through F on the consent agenda. So moved. Is there a second to that? Second. Any questions or comments on the items A through F on consent agenda? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving A through F on consent agenda, please indicate by saying I. I. I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Next item on our agenda, I'll turn back to Mr. Smith. It's our revised uh Board of Education budget for the year 2026-2027. And I'm going Alicia I'm going to turn that over to Alicia Stripling, the budget wizard. That is a hand held that I could grab. >> mean this? I'm just searching in my binder of all the things Board of Education here. Um
053so, as you know, we did a retirement incentive, and that really helped us to um get to that $250,000 budget reduction um from the Board of Finance really without any impact to student programming. There was an addition in case you missed it on there when we talked about the additional pre-K program. We didn't account for transportation. So, we did need to increase it by that. There was a reduction in the pension amount because the So, the district there's two different retirement plans in town. There's a um kind of a more typical pension plan that is grandfathered in for older employees, people who have been here longer. Um And then there's one that we pay a certain percentage of people's salary every year. And so, the town every year gives me that that old-school pension number
054and it came in lower than I had expected it to. So, that was really an easy um easy adjustment there. Um does anybody have any questions about the list of revisions or concerns? I assume the mere pittance we got from the state helped a little bit. Like a minor bit, but um I guess you know, if you're if I got a couple phone calls and if you take a look at the numbers that were dole out by the the governor in Hartford uh Stonington came up with minimal, but you know, I know it's all based on a formula and based on this, that, and the other thing and you know, I guess the lower the amount is tells us the better job we're doing and therefore we don't need this big brother of the state
055to help us out and you know, those cities like Groton, New London, or Norwich that um have more challenges, I guess, need a more funding from the state, but um Is it fair? Who knows? That's something that's been argued for forever, but um But, that's already that you reincorporated that into the 42,000 or something like that. >> So, I didn't. I think it was 46,000, but close. Um so, that's the education cost-sharing, and that actually doesn't live in the Board of Education budget. It lives in the town's budget as a Board of Education revenue. Um And it it it was a very small amount of money, and it will go directly to the town. I will say though, um education cost-sharing, we've been sending messages trying to um get them to do something. It hasn't
056increased, I think, since 2014. Um from the way that the state sees it, Stonington has been overfunded for many, many years. And so, what they really want to do is take away um the money, and there's, you know, they've talked for years about a phase-in um elimination of that funding from us, which would be very, very detrimental. Um so, as I get these um calls to action, I'll keep forwarding them. I forwarded one a couple months ago, I think, to the Board of Ed to help, you know, help to advocate for that because that will really be detrimental to the community. So, um yeah, good point. We got it, but it's it's not really much. I just want to say I appreciate the work to make the money flow and to make the this cut
057in this budget come out the way that it came out. Um I said earlier we appreciate ingenuity, and this is that. So, I just wanted to congratulate you and thank you for putting together a really solid budget for us this year. Thank you, Zach. I also want to second that. Zach, I know the the hard work you put in, Alicia. Thank you so much for your your dedication to this, and I'm and I'm very happy to report to the community that Uh, regardless of the reduction in the Board of Education budget, this team was capable of maneuvering through that by creativity and uh, ingenuity and proposing a retirement incentive, which really helped us reduce our, uh, you know, liability, I guess, not liability, responsibility for payroll next year. So, um, what I'd like to ask
058for a motion to approve a $48,7150 uh, revised Board of Education budget, which is an increase of 5.13% to current year budget. So moved. There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Second. There's a second. Any further discussion or question on that, uh, motion? Or on the budget? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the, uh, Stonington Board of Education uh, budget uh, for the year 2026-2027 for the amount of $48,7150, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you all. Thank you, Alicia. Thank you, Mr. Smith, and everybody else who worked on this because I know it's a team effort uh, from everybody, from Mr. Carroll, Chris, and Allison as well. Thank you all. Next item on our agenda is a revised 2026-2027 school calendar.
059So, I'll turn it to back to you, Mr. Smith. Thank you, Chairman Meshot. So, um, in previous surveys with staff and parents that we had to do, unfortunately, because of the multiple snow days, the missing PD day, the additional closures of West Vine Street School, um, one of the the things that kept coming up over and over in the comments from people was uh a clear call for um returning to something that we used to do where we built in a couple of inclement weather days or snow days into the the school year so that we if we have multiple snow days, we just don't continue to tack them on to the end of the school year uh and keep moving further and further out in June. Um so uh like I heard it enough
060where I wanted to take another look at it. Uh so I did. Uh The other uh comment that was loud and clear from the community and in one of my original asks was because Labor Day is as late as it is this year, uh I didn't want to start have the first day of school be September 7th or 8th. Uh so we did talk about starting the school year on September 1st, on Tuesday the 1st uh to give us a little more latitude in in the school year. Uh the overwhelming response on that was yes, but uh the community is pressing me to return to the after Labor Day start. Uh everybody wants it next year. Uh we'll take a look at it. The Labor Day falls on the 6th next year and then from
061there it jumps down to the 4th, the 2nd, the 1st and clearly when we get back to that, uh it's a no-brainer to go back to the uh after Labor Day. So I don't want to commit to next year at this is at this point since I'm still talking about this calendar. I don't want to talk about the 2027-2028 calendar uh at this point. Um so what I did is I took a look at the calendar that we had already approved, kept the starting date the same, September 1st. Built in an inclement weather day. The other piece that that people expressed a clear preference for was trying to get back to an extended time off in February around President's Day. In the good old days we had school vacation week that week. We had a
062whole week off. Then we transitioned to two days off. We had President's Day and Tuesday to make it an extra long weekend. In the past few years we did away with that extra day and it was just a typical Monday holiday that week. So, what I also heard from a lot of folks with seniors and people at the high school is we had gotten into the habit of having the last day of school and graduation always on a Friday. And one of the you know, the good news on that is then it starts the weekend for graduates and parties and whatnot. The bad news is any snow days then wraps even one snow day wraps that school year around to the following week on a Monday or Tuesday, which folks seem to have an issue.
063So, in this calendar what I did is I moved the last day of school and graduation out to the Wednesday of that week. I think it's the 16th. I don't have it in front of me right now, but and that is a fixed graduation date. So, the the way that everything works when we say when we publish a calendar and we say this is our graduation date even if we have snow days and whatnot, we can keep graduation the same. Such as this year we're having graduation on the 12th, right? And the rest of the high school kids will continue to go to school with the rest of us until the 18th. Um So, inclement weather day in February, I added the extra day on Tuesday and I added an inclement weather makeup day on
064the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. So, how it would work is when we get to February, if we've had an inclement weather day, we would have the President's Day and the Tuesday off and then have a school day on the Wednesday. If we haven't had any school cancellations, then we have a that really long long weekend and we have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off. As a further backstop for any late February or early March inclement weather, we have another inclement weather makeup day the Friday before Memorial Day, same thing. If we don't If we haven't had any school cancellations, Memorial Day weekend now becomes Friday off and Monday off. Uh unfortunately, I think I confused some folks based on comments on the survey is I also kind of indicated that the uh 17th and 18th of
065June could be used for snow makeup days traditionally being tacked on to the end. Just to What I wanted to do was show that we could absorb four snow days without changing graduation uh and without extending the school year into the following week. Uh some folks thought that that meant graduation would move to that, you know, along with those, but that that's not true. Graduation would stay set on the 16th. Uh so, the response I got from the survey, I put out a survey saying, "Here's the calendar A that we already approved, which ends on June 11th. Here's calendar B that ends on the 16th, but has the built-in two built-in inclement weather days and uh an additional day off around President's Day and the potential for a longer Memorial Day weekend. The response I
066got as of 4:00 today was I got 393 responses. Um of that were for schedule this new schedule B. Uh so it's 83% Um and just to give you the breakdown, uh parents responded. 80% of them were in favor of the new calendar as proposed. Uh 131 staff members responded. 88% of the staff favored that. And then we have the uh hybrid group. There's 41 people who responded to the survey who are both a staff member and a parent of a student in the district. And 83% of those respondents, I'm sorry, 85% of those respondents also uh favored option B, that that my new proposed calendar. One of the things that I asked specifically in the survey was I wanted to specifically identify people who would have seniors next year cuz obviously we've already published
067a calendar with the date of graduation as June 11th. This new calendar would move graduation and fix it on June the 16th. So we had 26 uh families identified in the survey that said that they had seniors graduating next year. 18 of those 26 voted for option B. Eight and expressed in their comments that they've already kind of made some graduation plans around the 11th. I also uh for full disclosure did receive an email from a parent today of a graduating senior next year who asked me if she needed to start a petition to keep graduation on the 11th cuz she did make some plans. Um I have not responded to that yet cuz I wanted to see how this uh this vote goes, but I did want to make you aware of that one
068communication I did get on that. Um so that's uh that's my ask. The the rest of the comments um were very very much in favor of the extended break in February seemed to be something that most people, both parents and staff and especially staff uh were interested in. So um setting school calendar is a board decision. That's why I'm asking for a vote. Um I've given you the data and now um I'll take questions or comments from board members. Uh do we typically so moving graduation to a Wednesday Yes. The logistics of it being on a Wednesday instead of a Friday. Was there any signaling of conflict there for families? No. But in uh informally uh one of the the comments that I got prior to sending this survey out talking to folks at the
069high school and people that I know that have high school students they expressed that one of the problems they have with the Friday in our community in June like trying to take family members out to dinner uh very challenging on a Friday night here in Stonington, Mystic uh in June. So they were they were all for it plus it gave them uh more time for family parties, but that's that was informal. Um Historically wasn't always on the calendar. >> Yeah, it used to always move. So, we we would even if we set it for a Friday, it could end up being in many years it did being a Tuesday, a Wednesday based on on snow days. It was only uh recently that we had the ability to fix it no matter what as long as
070it was on day you know, near day 180 when we set calendar before the school year ended, the state allowed us to keep it there. Um so, that's a fairly recent development. I think it makes a lot of sense to build in the extreme weather days. I think we will see more of that. Um and I know you and I had this conversation before. I would love at some point going forward if we figured out a way to try to incorporate some of the Jewish holidays into the calendar that put us more in line with some of what other school districts in the area are doing there. And thank you for that. I I did uh take a sneak peek ahead um not only at at how Labor Day falls cuz I didn't want to
071over commit uh cuz next year it's it's the 6th instead of the 7th. We may want to think about starting before Labor Day, but certainly in the years after that um when it's earlier it's clear the community wants to return to that. At the same time I looked at where the Jewish holidays fall because they do move cuz they're based on a lunar cycle. So, I I looked at some of the possibilities where we could get some alignment. in future years. Thank you for all the work. It's um it's more work than I I think a lot of people realized uh try and come up with a calendar that is um happy or makes everyone not everyone happy. Not everyone's ever going to be happy, but um that takes in the surveys I that was
072something you went above and beyond to do both uh parents and um and staff. So, um I'm not crazy about the September 1st start. I'm a after uh Labor Day kind of a guy, um but you know, taking everything into consideration I'm also a February vacation kind of guy. Not that I ski, but it was always nice. I remember in uh maybe it was my senior Yeah, my senior in high school due to the gas prices, which I I'm sure that the gas was a lot cheaper then or the oil prices they had a 2-week February vacation. And they shut down the shut down the schools for 2 weeks and um my father, who was a teacher, took that time to take his my mother to Hawaii for 2 weeks and left me at home
073alone. And I behaved myself for 2 weeks. Not really, but self-disclosure. But, yeah, so you know it is what it is and uh June 11th graduation to June 16th, as long as we don't kick the can down the road anymore and say June 16th is graduation, I think other people will be able to make changes that they have to make in order to attend graduation. Thank you. So, would you like to make a motion, Mr. Kelly? So, moved that we approve the calendar presented tonight with the students uh school start date September 1st and a graduation date final day of school on June 16th as presented by the Um thank you so >> I wasn't on the mic, but That's okay. I'll I'll go ahead and repeat the motion. The motion is to approve the
074Motion to approve the account calendar as presented to us by the superintendent with a start date of September 1st and a graduation date of June 16th. Thank you, sir. I so move. There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Second. There is a second. Any further discussion or comments on those? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the revised 2026-2027 Stonington school calendar, please indicate by saying I. I. I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you very much and thank you for the hard work on that, Mr. Smith. Next item on our agenda is subcommittee reports and I'll turn it over to teaching and learning. Thank you. There are seven curricula on your agenda there for first read. No vote required on those. I do want to call out the one
075item under section two that where it lists it's eight items under there. There's seven curricula that are up for approval tonight as second read. The very last item, the economics textbook, is this is technically the first time it's been on the agenda. The committee waived first read last month in order to pay for that textbook with grant funding. So that that textbook is on the agenda for the first time even though it's listed under second read. We waived first read. So at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the eight items listed under agenda section XA2 for approval. So moved. There's a motion. Is there a second? Further discussion or questions on that motion? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the curriculum, please indicate by saying I. I. >> I. That was
076unanimous for the record. Any other thing? Nope. I'm all set. Thank you. Finance and Facilities Subcommittee, Madam Chair. Um we did not meet this month, so I do not have an update for you. Thank you. And I'll turn it over to Mr. Kelly for Policy Subcommittee. The busy Policy Subcommittee. Policy Subcommittee met on the 7th of May and um myself and uh Zach were in attendance and um we have a list of uh policies for repeal first read, no vote required. These are all policies that were outdated one sentence long um part of it is they're not mandated and I guess whatever policies that we needed are incorporated into the other policies that we've passed over the last few years. So um these are either uh insufficient or um superseded by newer policies. Uh there's
077a whole list on uh the agenda. Um some go back to 1995 others to 2021 and I will uh read them all and make the motion and then uh you can have your second. So, my motion is to not You don't need a motion. It's just a first read, no vote required. Sorry. Um just the PSA, public service announcement, if there's anybody at home or what have you that um are curious to what policies are being um or bylaws that are being um deleted or repealed the on the Board of Education website or the Stonington District website under the Board of Education under the agenda there's hyperlinks to all of them. And you can uh uh see them through there whether it's um emails. I think they refer to uh um dial-up service on the
078on the on your rotary or on your email connection or something. So, um So, this is the first read. At next month's meeting we'll have a second read and a vote for all these uh bylaws and then um So, if you have any questions, take a look and get back to me. Thank you. Um Next on on our agenda is welcoming school liaison report. Any welcoming school liaison reports? Okay, and uh learn board liaison report board uh our learn board representative is not here tonight, so we'll move the next item to the retirement uh board report. And I know Alicia's there on the retirement board and Mr. Kelly is the newly appointed retirement board Board of Education representative. Uh the retirement board met on uh Tuesday, this past Tuesday, and I was there as a
079audience spectator cuz I was not appointed yet. Um I was appointed yesterday by the Board of Selectmen to be the Board of Education representative to the retirement board. Uh I don't know if that's because I recently retired I got to get appointed to that board or not, but um a lot of uh what they talked about was um I needed translation for uh they're they're talking in Alicia's language and uh fiduciary language and governance and all that stuff. So, um I don't know if Alicia needs to add to what we talked about. I can speak to it a little bit. Uh they basically explained that our portfolio continues to do uh really well despite volatility in the market and some downturns at the beginning of the year. Um our funded ratio is about 10% higher
080than our um counterparts municipal counterparts throughout the state, which is really good. Um they did recommend that we drop off two of our fund managers who had been on a watch list for a while, and so the committee voted to replace them. Um And that's it. Great reporting. Thank you. Succinct. All right. Next item on our agenda is monthly reports. Any questions on monthly reports A through C or if our student government rep has any comments on her report? So, this week we're finishing up AP exams, so that's a relief for a lot of our students. Uh we also had a career and job fair this past month, which is always great. We have so many organizations and different, you know, like organizations they come, businesses, and you know, they advertise to our students, so
081I think it's a great way to get more students involved in the community. Um for student government, we are finishing up our version of the time capsule, which um [snorts] we'll send updates and pictures when that's completed, but and then we're also excited to take this next step, so thank you all and give Mr. Carroll for helping us find these. Um we appreciate it and we're excited. Uh we also have wellness week coming up, so that's a fun week for us. We do a lot of mental health activities. Uh we're planning on like outdoor time, phone-free time, and you know, other things like that to kind of relieve our students at the end of the year. I think this weekend on Saturday we had we're hosting a Pride Jam at Stonington. I think it starts
082at 6:00. That's held by the Alliance for Acceptance Club and it's a great fundraiser. It supports their club and also the Trevor Project. So. Yeah. Was the volunteer day was that just a couple weeks ago and if can you tell us about any experiences on that? Oh yeah, we did yeah, we had volunteer day. That was that was great. There was a lot of students involved. I personally I went to the Pawcatuck Little League or Stonington Little League now. Um we did a lot of work there. We mulched and cleaned the fences and stuff, but yeah, it was great. We had a lot of students help out with that with so many different things. I know all the students enjoy it and I think it's definitely pretty helpful for our community and tonight's. Any further
083questions? Move to adjourn. There's a motion to adjourn. There's board comments and items. We'll take the motion after that. >> That's that's my comment. Comments from the board. Yeah. Uh hearing none. Zach? I move to adjourn again. There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? There's a second. All in favor? Aye.