001are who is uh since announced her retirement. I've uh received several emails concerning the school calendar and several emails concerning uh the conduct of uh public speakers at our at our board meetings. And then lastly, you know, we talk about the band, we talk about sports. With the war going on, we also have many high school graduates that are serving in the war and um whether they're in direct harm's way or indirect harm's way, I think it's important that we uh you know, our job as a board of ed and the jobs as as a school district is to educate all of our students whether they enter the job force, the college life, or the armed services. And you know, with what's going on, there's you know, we all probably know someone that's in the
002service now that graduated from Southington High School. I know I do. I know several of them. And uh let's just hope that they stay out of harm's way and come home safely and serve our country proudly. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kelly-K. >> Happy to have attended the Music Man Jr. as a parent of a budding star, if I do say so myself, um last weekend, but what I didn't realize um Bethany Bromley when she came out at the beginning to introduce it is that it's it was student produced. So, Bethany and Lori LaGory spent hours working with the students to teach them in lights, set, um they did all the transitions of scenes. It was hilarious, very well attended. Um so, congratulations to them and and the cast and crew for it
003was many months. When my son signed up, I didn't realize what the commitment was. Um but it was many months of of long practices and nights. So, in it and it paid off. Um And also, echoing Dan's comments on emails received about the calendar and um community um community comments. Thanks. That's it. >> Thank you, Kevin. So, I guess I'm the only one who went to Lion King Jr. Uh which I happened to go to that and the same night I went to Wicked. And I couldn't choose which one was more entertaining. I think Lion King Jr. was uh especially the young Lion King as he was helping to reset the stage uh with the with the crew. Uh right? You were there. Uh but it's really uh I appreciate the the the Stonington public
004school uh team, employees who helped put this uh production on. And the families that uh dedicated the time to bring their children there and the amazing uh children uh that made that production possible. So, I just want to recognize them for their hard work and for their dedication to producing a world-class uh in my opinion uh theater. It really was uh for for their age group, it was a world-class in my eyes. So, I just want to recognize them for that. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is communication recognition and no comments from citizens regarding items on the agenda. And this is really we received a lot of feedback uh on um this uh you know, kind of like we welcome uh community engagement. We welcome you submitting uh your opinions to the board
005or thoughts via email. Uh we we take your emails uh and and read them and and understand them and but really, we want to keep comments to items on our agenda. Uh we have a lot of work uh to do and we have a lot of updates from uh our team at the Stonington public school um especially regarding uh budget that we're working hard on to deliver to our kids uh world-class education and to our uh employees world-class environment to work in. Uh so I I would appreciate it if there are comments only regarding items on the agenda. I'm not going to entertain any comments outside items on the our agenda. Uh and we're going to keep the topic to 20 minutes. 3 minutes per person. And uh I'd appreciate uh comments from the public
006or uh of course residents of Stonington or employees of the district. Thank you. Go, Michelle. >> I don't know what's on I didn't see it. I just wanted to bring in this visual. These are all plastic that will be recycled are not being recycled. Uh this is from kindergarten one and grade level less than two months of collecting. I bring stickers to the cafeteria. The kindergarteners know that if they say "Miss Sam" and they hold up their cup, I'm going to take it. I'm going to give them a sticker. I'm trying to teach them to look for the recycling symbol. So, I bring this to you because it's April. It's the month that we serve that we celebrate Earth Day. And I just feel like we could be doing better. We're so close to the
007ocean, Mystic Seaport, the aquarium. Um we have reusable trays and I have nothing but the utmost respect for our food service um employees. They work incredibly hard, but what's happening is we have these reusable trays, and there's these little tiny cups that maybe they're so fruit or vegetable that they put on the tray. And on the other parts of the tray, there's there's food. So, I just I don't understand why we can't just put what's in the cups on the tray. I I'm sure it's it streamlines their service because they're pre-portioning early in the earlier in the day, but I just think this is an incredibly important issue. Um and if we can't do that, maybe we can think about investing in something that's biodegradable. Cuz it it's not getting recycled at the school. Cuz
008there was a blue bin in the cafeteria, and I was teaching the kids, "Oh, look, see the symbol? It goes in here." And I asked one of the custodians, "Is it getting recycled?" And he told me, "No." So, that that's all I wanted to say. >> Thank you, Michelle. >> Thank you. I appreciate your time. >> We appreciate you. And as a point of reference, Michelle is our Para Union President, and she had asked to address the board regarding Earth Day, so I appreciate that. Thank you, Michelle. >> Thank you. I'm from California. >> Yeah. >> take the girl out. >> Well, you're also the Para Union President, so. >> Previously, I'd been taking it home and recycling it, and I thought, "Oh, I need to bring the visual." So, I appreciate your time, and
009I will now leave with my >> Thank you, everybody. >> Any other comments to items on the agenda? Hearing none, we'll Oh, please. Please make sure you state uh your name, your address, and list them on the document up there. >> Yeah, my name is Robert Perry. I live at 1 Geyser Street in Mystic on the Stonington side. Um, I have a question that's actually not supposed to be brought up, but I I question whether there's a plan to put solar panels on our schools. I'm asking you this because it's being done it's been done already in Groton, Ledyard, North Stonington, and many other schools. This could reduce our carbon impact. It'd be it'd be a good idea, I think, for all of our citizens and be a good example for anyone who lives here.
010Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. As a point of reference, we have proposed the Board of Education has proposed solar panels and we're working with our town administration to move that project forward and we have a member of our Board of Finance sitting here in the audience and and who is a a he a a a huge supporter of the Board of Education and the mission to uh, support solar panel in our schools. So, we'll continue the on that project. And we usually don't really do a this back and forth with with public comments, but it's today is the day. So, we're working on it. Thank you. >> All right, thank you. >> It is it is topic not on the agenda. Thank you for reminding me, Mr. Kelly. >> Two for those.
011Thanks. >> Next item on our agenda is report from Superintendent School. >> Again, thank you, Chairman Reschab. First thing I want to talk about, nice segue, is the budget. Uh, our Board of Finance did restore 50,000 of the $300,000 cut. So, our uh, initial ask for our budget was only cut 250,000. I feel that our dialogue with the Board of Finance was was much better this year. I think it's a fair shared sacrifice. I know many other departments in town didn't get their full ask either. The biggest thing we need to do now is wait for the results of the referendum vote on the budget. So tonight I'm not going to give the board any kind of formal presentation on how we're going to meet that new bottom line. Partially because we'd have to redo
012all that anyway should uh things not go our way at the referendum vote. But I also just want to reassure folks that I did meet with all of the building principals and the positions that they asked for in the proposed budget and at the middle school level Mr. Parkinson made the played the dreadful game of which would you rather with me and he wanted to put his eggs in the basket of the science position and he was willing for this next year to forego the social studies position. So with that save it puts us in a great position and I have the confidence with my director of finance that we can meet the rest of the cut from other line items that it don't will not directly affect personnel. So what that means is as
013long as we have a positive outcome on April 28th with the referendum we will have our librarian at the elementary level. That's kind of my bottom line. No matter what we're doing we'll we'll we'll get that. But we'll also be able to focus at our areas of greatest need with funding a additional section of preschool with a preschool teacher and paraprofessional. A first grade an additional first grade teacher at West Vine and an additional interventionist at West Vine and our position to support district wide uh, education for our English language learners. So, all of those things we believe we can accomplish and still get to that bottom line with the social studies position and some other line items that will be uh, taking a harder look at uh, moving forward. Item B segues off of
014that in that uh, we are going to be advertising for a number of positions. Many of the positions I just mentioned will be new positions so we'll have to advertise for that. We also have a handful of retirements and our commitment is as we move forward, we've heard uh, the community and the Board of Finance's concern that we haven't done uh, as good a job as we could with declining enrollment and really evaluating what positions that we need. Uh, we also know that we're committed to moving the district forward. So, my commitment is we'll look at all those positions and see do we need to replace this teacher or can we use that position to further the career pathways and some of the other alternative offerings that we want to do or whether we can
015forego that uh, based on enrollment. The one lesson that we did learn is that there was a period of time where we didn't advertise for new positions until after the referendum vote. And with the referendum vote usually in that last week of April, first week of May, what we found is being last in the marketplace for new employees really limited our potential employee pool. So, we changed our the way we did business on that uh, a few years ago with much better results. So, we are going to advertise those positions prior to the referendum uh because we want to attract quality candidates. Uh I also believe that getting out in the marketplace earlier will also give us some of the flexibility with being able to hire people at rates lower than the people who are
016being retired and that will help us meet our our obligation for the bottom line. Um And item C on my list, again, a hiring uh situation. Just want to update everybody on our search for an assistant superintendent. We did post that position. We as of this morning, we had 14 completed applications. There's a whole bunch more that have been started. We did get 14. Fift- Five of them are uh probably not the best. Uh Well, we you know, typically when we post these things, when we we get applications the same night we post it, it's folks who apply for every position uh that that is out there. We I recognize that some of the folks that applied have applied for every admin position, regardless of level, over the last couple of years. I get it.
017People want to come and work in the district. I know I sure did. Um but I have I'm with the 14 already completed, I'm expecting kind of a surge on the vacation week uh where people have more time to get their letters of reference and all of the documentation together. So, I I believe we're going to have a very robust uh applicant pool. The timeline is the the posting closes on April 23rd. We'll do our first round of uh candidate interviews on April 30th and our second round in the first week of May and I my goal is to have candidates selected and ready to onboard prior to the next board meeting in May so that we can move that process forward. Item D update on portable classrooms. I'd like to ask a rhetorical question
018that Mr. Carroll can answer. You got to turn your mic on. I want to give him the honest not a rhetorical question at all. Mr. Carroll, do we have a signed contract for our portables? >> Yes, we do. Absolutely we do. It we signed it today. So the contract is signed. We'll be issuing a PO or through the town. I've been in contact with we have a project timeline. So I've been in contact with some of our the schools vendors that will be doing the schools share of the work and giving them timeline dates so they at least get get them on the calendar. So. >> Do we need to we need to go back to the Board of Finance for approval, right? >> So we were actually just talking about this before the meeting.
019During the public hearing the chairperson of the Board of Finance said that we didn't and that it was already approved but that wasn't our understanding. So we're going to touch base with the Mike Carroll at the town Jim Sullivan tomorrow. >> Let's send them an official email to make sure that we notice them that we really need confirmation. We really need to move that project forward now. It's been stuck in legal for very long time. We really >> Yeah, I'll send that out tomorrow morning. >> Thank you. >> And just to add on to what Mr. Carroll said, we do have a semi-official project Gantt chart uh mapping everything out. The signing of the contract is within spec right now. It was supposed to be completed. We're a few days behind, but it's not uh
020that problematic, but going forward with all the things that have to happen to the site and the delivery and the things that need to be connected once it's on site, the official plan calls for that all to be completed if everything goes forward on time for August 19th. So, we really only have a couple of weeks before the start of school for anything that may delay the process. So, we have We're on track for absolute completion for August 19th, but we need to uh make sure that everything moves along uh according to that project schedule to meet that deadline. Uh the last thing on my list is just an update on our maritime collaboration uh efforts with the Seaport Museum, the Aquarium, uh Stonington's public schools, and we were trying to do uh a partnership
021with the University of Bangor in Wales, and we had applied for uh a grant through the University of Wales for um money to investigate what a future collaboration could look like, a kind of a seed grant to get that work. Unfortunately, we found out that the government of Wales changed some of their criteria for these grants, so that's not going to happen. It's a bigger uh let down for the Seaport Museum and the Aquarium than for us. Uh our part of the project so far has been to collaborate with the Aquarium to offer a new course at the high school next fall called the Blue Economy with that same model that we've done with the seaport museum at the middle school where educators from the aquarium will come and co-teach with our science teachers at
022the high school. Students will do some of their learning in our classroom and a lot of their learning uh hands-on at the aquarium. So, that course is scheduled to be up and running. We already have 12 students who've enrolled for it. Jen Bausch and the folks from the aquarium and the science teachers are meeting later this month to kind of firm up uh the schedule of when the kids are going to be uh at the aquarium and what those activities are going to look like. Our goal is to have 16 to a max of 20 in that class. More than 20 makes the aquarium piece uh harder for them to handle. Uh so, we're pretty confident by the by the time we get to the fall, we'll have 16 to 20 kids enrolled in that
023course. And that's all I have for right now. Thank you. >> Questions for Mr. Smith. >> Uh yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Um question on the budget. Did you say April 28th was the referendum date? >> I believe that is the referendum date. Yes. >> Anybody know if that's the for sure? April 28th. >> It is. Yes. >> All day? Or is that a night time thing at the >> It's 12:00 to 8:00 is the polling time. >> Noon to 8:00. >> Yep. >> At two polling places? The bureau fire station. >> And St. Mike's. >> I'm sorry? St. Michael's? Same They don't vote at Oh, yeah, they do in the basement. >> Yep. >> So, April 28th, noon to 8:00. Bureau fire station and St. Michael's school the only two polling places. Um as
024a board member, we're not allowed to advocate for a yes or no vote, but it's very important to know that if you support the budget, you go on the 28th and you vote. If you don't support the budget, you can stay home or you can go to the vote voting place and vote no. Um, but so April 28th, I just want to make sure that that's the you know, people get out there and uh support it. Uh vote, not support the budget, but to vote. Um, on the assistant superintendent search, does the qual- does the qualifications do they have to have the same degree that superintendents have to do whatever that >> So the the way we posted it, Mr. Kelly, was they absolutely need an 092 certificate. Uh that's the Connecticut teaching certificate that
025allows someone to have any admin position up to superintendent. And then for a superintendent, you need the next level, the 093. So we added to the description we prefer the candidates to also have that 093. It's not required, but we posted it as 092 required, 093 preferred. >> And and who's the Do we have a search committee or interview committee or do or is that your job solely? >> Um, I have been putting together uh an interview committee uh for that. >> Which would consist of I refresh my memory. >> So it's uh in >> board member representatives from the schools. >> It's across all stakeholder groups. Correct. >> Teachers. >> Correct. >> Got you. >> Yep. >> Um and then would something is it possible or are you envisioning someone getting that job with
026the possibility of taking your job? Or is that like asking too much to Well, he's No, he's short he's short time and he's out, you know. He's I was just wondering if that's one of those things in your grand plan is to find someone that can go from there to there or if that's asking too much or >> Um, time will tell. >> Yeah. >> Uh, it's really going to depend on the on the candidate pool. Uh, obviously uh, one of the aspects of having an assistant superintendency is a little bit of redundancy. You want someone who's capable of running the district while the superintendent is away if he ever takes a vacation or I don't know takes up golf in the afternoons. I'm thinking about that. Um you know the question is is you
027know, is there a candidate out there who is uh, an experienced assistant superintendent who is on the track to become a superintendent who could make that transition in that short of an on-ramp. Um we're certainly going to keep an eye out for that. Is it going to be a deal breaker? Again, it depends on the applicant pool. >> Right. I'm not a Sometimes in-house is is is good for us and sometimes out of house is good for us. Um you know, I know uh our previous superintendent, Dr. Riley, was out of house and that worked out okay. Um, but then after he brought Mary in and and then she was able to step up and then after she decided then you were able to you know, it's just helps in the process, I guess. More
028easier transition and all that stuff. Less uh anxiety, I guess. Um, and then finally on the portable classroom, I assume obviously the contract's done. Like we didn't put any incentive or any penalty clause like it's done August 19th. If it's done August 20th, then you owe us $10,000 or if it's done August 15th, we'll give you $10,000. I assume that's not in the contract, or is it? >> No, it's not, but it it is the date presented in the contract for completion, so there is no penalty for not making that date, but it is part of the contract um that they agreed to you have the portable ready for that date. >> I don't know what your history is and others, but it seems like contractors always something comes up or it rained on Monday
029and we had to push it off or it it it it it couldn't get the materials cuz it >> you're talking about a million jobs. I mean, obviously there's an expectation of getting it completed by the the kids coming back. That's the goal of the maintenance department of the schools. So, I mean, obviously there'll be complications, and hopefully we can work through that and get it up and running in time. But he's I think to set a a cost negative to them based on performance, the contract was already 100 and some pages, so I don't know if that would I mean, I would I was actually glad they signed the contract, let's put it that way. You know, so not it be um too deep into it, um but I think we've got a good
030contract. There is a lot of things that have to come together. It's going to take me 5 weeks just to get a set of drawings drawn up for this building that's not been drawn up yet. Then the town's got to approve the building before we even start, so that's in the works right now. Once well, it'll be in the works once we sign a a purchase order. >> I think you guys have accomplished other tasks more monumental than this, like when this school shut down and you had to move over to the Field Street and, you know, everything that in the short period of time, so I just I just like you know, >> I know. >> got to got to get this done. I mean, obviously you wanted as probably more done than I
031than we do, but >> I don't think there's a day I don't go through a day at the school that I don't hear the word portable. So, I I'd like to get it moved on and and move on from the project. So, you know. >> Any other questions for Mr. Smith? I just want to thank you and and you know, it's good moment to recognize uh the deliberation process and the work that many of the board finance members that put in into uh putting a budget together, but I want to recognize Alicia and and her her work on this along with uh Mr. Smith. Uh I just want to say thank you for also giving this important update and ensuring uh a or assuring the community that um you know, many of their asks will
032be met. Um next item on our agenda is consent agenda. I'd like to ask for a motion to approve consent agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion or comments on consent agenda items A through D? >> Mr. Chairman, uh just looking at the personnel report, uh it's nice to see a shorter report than we've seen in the past and uh it's you know, seeing a lot of in-house part-time paras moving up to full-time paras and not seeing a lot of para openings. Seeing uh you know, I guess one thing we didn't mention was uh or we maybe did the last meeting, our football coach um not coach anymore and we've able to find a a new person that's going to do a fantastic job. Um assistant baseball coach, I personally know that
033uh you know, he graduated a few years ago with my son and uh you know, I think he'll do a great job. And just smooth transition on the hiring and on the front. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion or comments on the consent agenda? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving consent agenda items A through D, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> That was unanimous. >> So, for the record. >> Um next item on our agenda is approval to participate in the healthy food option of UHFC. Um and there's a vote required. >> Thank you, Mr. I have a very long motion that I'm required by law to read, so buckle up, you're going to hear me talk for a while. Um motion uh that pursuant to Connecticut General
034Statute Section 10-215f, the Stonington Public Schools Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organization and groups. >> There's a motion on the floor, Mr. Kelly. Would you like to say anything? Thank you, sir. Um any discussion or comments on the motion? Um any um
035all those in favor of approving the motion that Miss that Kevin read, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> That was unanimous. Is there another motion that you would like to put on the floor? >> There absolutely is a second motion that I'd like to put on the floor. Thank you. Um motion that the Stonington Public Schools Board of Education will allow the sale of students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is not Sorry. The sale is in connection with an event occur occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three,
036the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. And {quote} event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice, meeting, or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and interscholastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The {quote} regular school day is the period from midnight before but from the midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. {Quote} location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second to that motion? There's a second. Any discussion or comments on the motion? >> Just a note, it is law that we have to read
037those word for word for those motions. That's why we have to do that. >> Every year. So, uh there's a second. Uh just comments and discussion. Uh all those in favor of approving the second motion that Kevin read, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Well, we satisfied the law. Number seven. >> Um item number eight on our agenda is the Stonington Middle School Education Specification. This document was sent to you by the superintendent earlier in the week. I just want to ask him if he has any comments or >> Sure. So, first of all, I want to echo your comments Chairman Rajab thanking our director of finance for her work on the budget. She does amazing work. I also want to start this conversation by
038thanking a large group of people who contributed to this document. Our middle school teachers, staff, admins. We had a group of dedicated parents who went on school tours with us and contributed to this. We had a night time event with some overlap, some of the same parents, but some different parents who walked through an activity with us in the library at the high school and we took all of that information and compiled this very comprehensive document. The other thing that I want to say about this document is that it's not intended to be an 100% complete and exhaustive list of everything. It the design of the document is to clearly outline what we feel are the educational specifications for the learning spaces that are most appropriate for modern day middle school experiences. And that's why
039we went on those school tours to see three recently built or renovated middle schools to see what the trends are as far as the detailed list of some of the fixtures and equipment, all of that down the road once the building committee decides on what avenue they want to take there will be all of the normal process there with an architect and a project thing and a lot of that stuff will be revisited, redefined. So, this document is really a starting spot, not an end end point. Uh and uh if the board supports it, we can turn it over to the board uh the K-12 building committee uh for their discussion. Uh I did we did meet with the board uh Tuesday. And uh Mr. Carroll took them on a tour of Stonington High School.
040So, the K-12 building committee has done an exhaustive tour of 40 Field Street, this building here at 204 Mistuxet, and the high school uh to really see what the buildings need, what their possibilities could be, and now they're going to start the more challenging work of deciding what to do. The good news on that, and I want to commend that group, is they ended the meeting Tuesday with a discussion of in- increasing the cadence of their meetings. Instead of meeting just once a month, they're going to try and identify some items that they may be able to do uh every other week just to try and they they have a great sense of urgency to move this uh process forward. Uh so, I commend them for that. And >> Thank you, Mr. Smith. Um I'd
041like to entertain a motion to approve the education specification uh for a future Stonington Middle School. >> So moved. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> There is a second. Um any comments or further discussion on this? >> I just I know there's at least one building committee member in the room, and um I'm sure the rest are watching but uh they have a task ahead of them and I'm it's nice to see that they're going to try and get as many meetings in. This is you know pretty monumental uh goal that we have is to decide what we're going to do with our middle school. And um I assume most people and it was Plainfield I guess they're in the process of they just got approval for
042the magnet school. I I think that's you know I just read the article briefly today and talked about uh you know they're one of their focuses is going to be um a screen free environment and you know and I know it it's something we've dealt with before is trying to get the kids off the screens and you know trying to do some interpersonal education communication so I don't know if that's on the agenda for them or not but I'm sure that I'm sure everything is. Thank you. >> Thank you. I think what to to Mr. Smith's point this isn't you know ever this is a live document that will continue to evolve as time passes. Not sure what the timeline looks like for the building committee or the uh you know Board of Finance in
043terms of ability to finance a project like this so this document is just the the first building block I guess. >> Correct. >> That was a great report I mean there's so much >> Yeah it is. >> a lot >> All right um any other comments? >> Katie? >> I just wanted to note and I I put it in an email that the background information that was provided at the beginning was so critical even for somebody who I feel like we're we're in it a little bit more than the general public but that background info is is so important for people to read and kind of what got us here and what do we have now and what are we considering. Um so well well done and just I I don't know if that's standard
044in an Ed Spec stock, but I thought it was very comprehensive. >> So one of the things Well, thank you first of all for that. One of the things that we did is when we first started the process, we looked at a model Ed Spec, I believe from Farmington. It was a fairly recent one. And so we kind of cheated off their homework a little bit and copied their their format, but I did add that forward section just cuz I thought we needed a way more context before we started the the conversation. So that was a deviation from the plan. Um but I thought I felt it was important. So thank you for recognizing that. >> Um and the just uh hit off of what Katie was saying is public document available to anybody. Is
045it going to be linked on our website and or could it should we link it on our website if there's you know, people on the I'm not sure if the building committee people were I guess they probably already saw the report or or sent or after we got a vote on it tonight and >> So first thing No, they have not. I didn't share this document with them until you guys voted on it. Unfortunately, the timing just was terrible. They met Tuesday, we meet Thursday. I wish it was the opposite way around cuz then it would have moved it along. Obviously, uh the building I'm sure the members of the building committee since it's a live link on our agenda tonight, I know some of them well will probably have already clicked and started looking
046at it, but I'll officially transmit it to them tomorrow uh assuming that you vote in favor of it. And um that's a great idea, Mr. Kelly. I'll I'll talk about, you know, whether we uh put it on the website and if we create a like a feature page for all of the upcoming middle school information. Might not be a bad idea. So, I appreciate that. Any other comments? Hearing none, I'll ask for a an approval for that. There was a motion, there was a second for So, all of these all of those who are in favor of approving uh the Stonington Middle School Education Specification, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> That was unanimous. >> Unanimous for the record. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is subcommittee reports, and I'll turn it
047over to our teaching and learning subcommittee chair. >> Thank you. We do have a handful of curricula up for uh full board approval as a second read. They are listed under agenda item 9A-I. So, may I entertain a motion to approve the curriculum listed under agenda item 9A-I. >> That was a first Mr. Kelly is a first motion. Is there a second? >> Yes. >> He made the motion. >> He said entertain. >> I said entertain. Yeah. So, yeah. You're right. Yeah. >> Any discussion? Or questions? >> Can I take a look? >> You can. >> Okay. >> Um all those in favor of approving the curriculum, please indicate by saying I. >> I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. There are a handful of curricula listed under uh agenda item two underneath
048the subcommittee report for uh teaching and learning. Those are first read, they will be available for second read and vote next month. As well as uh the committee today waived first read on approval of um some economics uh materials for um an economics course in order to pay for those materials with grant money and to expedite the process a bit, we waived first read. They'll be available for um or approval will be uh next month as second read on your agenda. That's it for me. Thanks. >> Thank you. And we have a brand new finance and facilities subcommittee chair. Madam Chair, any comments or reports? >> Um well, we already talked about the portables. The other big update is that we have the first of the electric vans, which is outside. Um and Mr. Carroll
049can ask answer more questions about that. Um and that is it. >> Thank you. So, and and thank you, Mr. Carroll, for uh leading the way with electrifying our fleet or the first electric van and hopefully many to come and let's get rid of all those gas usage. Thank you for the inspiration from the board of uh head. Uh policy subcommittee chairman. >> Uh no meeting, no report. >> Thank you. Any welcoming school liaison reports? >> I had a quick one. Um I had welcoming schools this week at West Vine. Um we have honed in on uh one goal related to our climate survey results that we did get back and we just gave again for this year. Um we want to start identifying ways to hopefully remediate some results that came back in the
050climate survey related to our goal. And I think we're lined up for our June meeting to actually do a walk-through of certain things at like the school to identify where like are we posting rules um and other um signage, uh handful of other things to in all an effort to make the school more welcoming. Um so, we're going to do like a walk-through scavenger hunt type of thing um and even maybe register a student through the registration process to check at that process to make sure we are being as clear as possible and as helpful as possible for families and community members out there that need to find materials um related to the school. Uh that's it. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Uh Dean Snell welcoming schools committee met last week. Um we're continuing to
051work on a revamp of the community agreement, which um is a little bit old at this point. Um, but Um, Tom and Kristen are working with the staff to kind of do a full launch of a new It's It's the It's the DMS wish now. So, they're going to be working on something new and different using the maybe the mascot. Um, but a launch in the fall. >> Great. Thank you. While you're at it, learn. >> Uh, while I'm at it. Um, we There was a meeting this morning. Um, I had to leave a little bit early, but there was a great presentation from the principal, um, of the Thames River Middle College Magnet School. Um, just about the programs that they have, um, and and very comparable to to our offerings here. >> Great.
052Good to know. Next item on our agenda, our monthly reports, A through C. Any questions or any comments from student government representative? >> Yeah, so right now at student government, we're in the process of creating our own time capsule, which has been really exciting. We're trying to include as many students in on it as we can. So, right now we're collecting letters, and we're going to have a day dedicated to it from uh, many different students across all grade levels with kind of different topics and prompts. And we're going to include some like items of memorabilia, photos, and hopefully our HBI program can construct the box or the capsule itself. Um, yeah, then our next project is wellness week, which is super exciting, and that's a just a week dedicated to supporting our students' mental
053health. So. >> Do we have any new knowledge on the old time capsule? >> Uh, so as of right now, we do not. Um, we are not sure it's still with us. So, for our plan is we're not going to bury this capsule. We're going to leave it in one of our trophy cases at the school so it can be seen every year and hopefully not forgotten. >> Where is the buried capsule? >> So we found a newspaper clip and it was originally um like sealed in a sign that was in the front of the school and I just don't think we have that sign anymore. It was 50 years ago from now so yeah. >> So did you hear that Steve? The old sign it was in the cuz you weren't here last month's
054meeting either so I don't know who was your position when this happened that it you know if I don't know it just seems like Yeah our chairman is new to knowledge to this so maybe we can someone's got to know something about it in this town. It's such a small town that >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh a bonus or a complimentary dinner for two at a anyone that can come up with information reward. >> I'll I'll personally pay for that. It's okay. It's okay. Great. Thank you. Other board comments on items or for future agendas. >> With uh Miss Mania presenting with the recycling is that something that maybe we can send it to policy committee and ask the I don't know if we have a policy on recycling and ask our uh operations person and
055maybe the food service person. >> Um Yes, we can send it to policy committee. >> And then um last month you missed a great presentation on entrepreneurship and some of the inventions that some of the kids I'm sure you watched during the in the meeting on TV. >> was on the other side. >> Yeah, it was yeah. >> But and I'm missing it it's always nice to see at these Board of Ed meetings to have presentations like that. So, I don't know if that's something that there's other groups in the school district that want to show off their style or show off their what they've been working on. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kelly. We'll take that in advice and um next item on our agenda is executive uh closed session. >> Uh motion
056for the Board of Education to enter an executive closed session for strategy with respect to collective bargaining um and may we invite uh Director of Finance Alicia Stripling and Superintendent Smith. >> There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Um has comments uh on this uh Mr. Smith 5 minutes, 10 minutes to come back? >> Five. >> Depends on how many questions you have. It'll only take me three to explain it. >> But five uh five minutes This was discussed in the finance subcommittee. So, the board members who are not part of the finance subcommittee might have questions. So, we'll we'll advise that we will be back here at 7:35 to resume our Board of Education meeting. So, that's 7 minutes from now. Uh all those in favor of going
057in executive session, please indicate by saying I. I, that was unanimous for the record. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Motion to close it. >> I'll ask a motion to come out of an executive session. >> So moved. >> Excellent. So that that's the record reflect 7:37. Uh thank you. Um next item next is I'll ask for a motion based on our executive session meeting. >> Uh yes, I'd like to make a motion to approve the early retirement incentive as discussed in executive session. >> Um comments or or questions? I just have a comment. It's a Did you suggest early retirement? Retirement incentive, yeah. >> Okay. So, the motion is to approve retirement incentive. And there was second. Any other comments or questions? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the retirement incentive as discussed
058in the executive session, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. Uh next item on our agenda is adjourn. Zac's not here. >> No, I got it. >> Motion to adjourn. Is there a second to that motion? All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye.