001[Music] Oops. Uh, I'd like to call the Stonington Board of Education U regular meeting to order June 12th at 6:33. And I'll ask Hayden to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Uh, first item on our agenda is communication and recognition. And I'd like to start uh by recognizing Hayden Gothier for uh her hard work on our board and putting up with us for the whole year. So, thank you. Congratulations on your graduation tomorrow. uh we would like to recognize you for your uh participation also in student government and uh along with your participation as the president of student government. Right. So uh uh she Hayden was a part of the UNICEF Unite club and the voice program at the elementary school and also participated in the internship program at Deans Mil School
002in the first grade uh class and Hayden will be attending the University of Tennessee Knoxville uh majoring in psychology and minor in business. wish you best of luck on your future endor. And as a also a thank you, the board uh put together a card here for you. We hope you have uh you just wanted to say thank you. Um that's okay. Hayden, anything you want to say? Um, I would like to thank as well as on behalf of student government, um, the opportunity to have a student representative representative on the board of ed. Um, it's definitely really unique and important to our student government and the school as a whole. So, thank you all for having me, of course. Um, and I also want to recognize the one and only 2026 uh teacher of
003the year and Marie Hoo, who uh so we are pleased to announce that she was named Stonington public school educator of the year and she began her tenure in Stonington in uh serving as a classroom history teacher at the high school where she remains today. And Marie is an invaluable asset to Stonington High School and the Stonington public school community. Her ability to create a meaningful, enjoyable learning experience in her classroom is impressive and I know that by experience from my kids. Um, so Emory uh creates a supportive environment where her students feel comfortable engaging in classroom conversations, taking risks and experiencing and growing from mistakes as she fosters a love of learning. And Marie demonstrates her leadership and collaboration skills through her involvement in numerous activities. She is the Stonington High School varsity softball
004coach, senior class advisor, graduation coordinator, link crew coordinator, districtwide voice coordinator, takes part in the activism club advisory, women's empowerment club advisory, community civics advisory club, and heads the allnight graduation party. senior prom and the motherdaughter banquet. I was tired just talking about how many things she does. So overall Emory's uh contributions to Stonington High School and the broader school community is immeasurable and she clearly uh goes above and beyond to support her student colleagues like as well as the entire community. So on behalf of the uh Stonington represented by the board of education, thank you for everything you do. Thank you. [Applause] Um we also would like to recognize Allison Rogers, our 2026 PAR educator for the year. Congratulations, Allison, on uh your selection as Stonington Public School Par Educator of the Year. Carison
005was surprised by this honor at an old school assembly uh Westine and Allison significantly contributes to the overall success and supportive culture of Stonington public school through her tireless work, ethic, compassion and collaborative spirit. As a par educator, she goes above and beyond her daily responsibility to ensure that all students feel seen, valued, and capable of success. Congratulations [Applause] Um we also have some retirees here with us tonight. So uh we're uh we're very glad uh that we get to celebrate you and get to thank you and congratulation on your retirement. And I would like to read a sample resolution that represents all these uh resolutions that we'll be uh giving to the retirees that are with us tonight. But the board of education of Stonington, Connecticut at its regular meeting on June 12th adopted
006a resolution respect to and then the retiree whereas this individual has completed 40 or number of years of faithful and uh conscientious service as an employee of the Stonington public school and has now retired. And whereas this individual has devoted much effort in his her job assignment to the extent uh that he or she is held in high admiration uh for his or her dedication and personal contribution to the varied uh needs of the Stonington public school to the to the extent this person is held in the greatest esteem by all and resolve that the board of education and regular meeting assembled on this date attest to the valuable service rendered by this individual to the cause of education in town Stonington and be be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be
007spread on the minutes of the board of education and that a copy uh be presented to this honored individual as a testimonial of his or her of the broader sincere appreciation of loyalty, character, and service and signed by all the board of education member. And I'm going to ask uh the assistance of uh our secretary Kevin Agnello and our uh superintendent Marian Butler in reading the retirees and I'll be Vanna White and hand over those resolutions. All right, I'm up first. First up, we have um Carlos Batello for 20 years of service as an SHS custodian. Carlos has been a dedicated member of the SHs custodial team and school community for the past 20 years. Carlos's efforts to keep SHS clean and well-maintained are commendable. Many of us are especially appreciative of his friendly demeanor,
008kind mannerisms, and occasional pranks. As Carlos plans his retirement, he is excited to spend more time with his family and grandchildren, relax, travel to Portugal, and enjoy life. And as a side note and congratulations, Carlos Batello was just ordained as a deacon at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence, Rhode Island. [Applause] Next up, we have Deborah Whitmer. 28 years of service, and I have a story here to share. Uh, it says her recognition is it was only one year, but we appreciated her focus on what is best for students. We never uh experienced the treadmill work prior to this year and she was always a wealth of knowledge and we wish we had more time with her. Congratulations Deborah Whitmer. [Applause] Next is Suzanne Diana with 16 years of service
009as a teacher at Deans Mill. Susie has also been a member of the Deans Mill staff for many years. After a brief hiatus exploring her passion for teaching intervention at West Vine Street School, we were thrilled for Susie to join us back at Dean's Mill this year as a grade three math and science teacher. Susie has also taught many grades during her time and always gives 100% to her students and grade level. Susie has had an extensive background in reading, special education, and elementary education and uses all of this knowledge to help meet the needs of all of her students. We know she will enjoy her retirement years with her family and look forward to her visits that she has promised us. [Applause] Next is Tracy Oli. Tracy is so funny I get to read
010this. I've known Tracy for about 30 years. Um, Tracy has dedicated 30 years uh of experience. Um, so congratulations Tracy. Tracy has been an instrumental part of our school community at Deans Middle School. She has taught a variety of grades from our earliest learners in kindergarten up to fourth grade and currently uh is a third grade teacher teaching ELA and social studies. Tracy cares deeply about her students. She always advocates for what they need and works closely with families. In fact, Tracy often jokes that many of her current students parents were her former students. Tracy has always been sharing her love of running as one of our coaches with the Girls on the Run program. She works hard to help students to develop strong values and meaningful relationships. Tracy has also dedicated many years of
011service as a union officer for the SEA. Tracy will be missed tremendously at Deans Middle School, but we know that she will fill the time with her love of the outdoors and spending time with her family. We wish her the very best in her retirement and hope she will visit us for years to come. Congratulations, Tracy. [Applause] Next is Connie Tacius for 25 years of service as a PAR educator. Connie has been with Stoington Public Schools for 25 years. Spent 11 years at the high school, 10 years at the middle school, and four years at the elementary schools. Connie has been a valued employee at the Sonington High School and we have truly appreciate her dedication to the school and students. Congratulations uh Connie. [Applause] We have four uh retirees in Absentia and I'm just
012want to read and recognize um their their kind of contributions to our our district. The first one is Laura Victoria. She's only been with us at West Vine Street School for one year in the position of art teacher. Um, but her building principal appreciated her love of art and her desire to expose students to all of the content standards within the art the art world. Also, she was recognized as being able to get all of the stu students to do a similar activity but and to approach it at their developmental ability. So, thank you Laura for your service. Um, only one year but happy retirement. Good for you. Uh, next is Ernesto Carrero. 42 years as a custodian here in uh at West Fine Street School. Um, he was noted for his uh cleaning the
013the the the building uh in an impeccable way. Um, he's most appreciated for his friendly face and his positive energy. Next is Sandy Taceri. Uh, 24 years of service at as a district office administrative assistant. So, she kind of saw it all. Sandy suess successfully navigated many changes, supervisors, and hurdles in her many years with Stonington Public Schools. She took with her a wealth of historical knowledge that we certainly miss. She was always quick to offer a cup of tea or a kind word on a tough day. And finally, one of our absolute treasures, Dr. Lori Lori. 37 years as a school psychologist at Quakatuck Middle School, Stonington and Stonington Middle School. Lori embodies all that it is to be a mental health support in a public school setting. Her ability to find a balance
014between a supportive, kind shoulder to cry on with a hard-nosed, realistic approach makes her the perfect fit for all students. For almost four decades, she's been helping Stonington students through the toughest middle school years. Her institutional knowledge and experience is an absolutely ir irreplaceable asset to Stonington Middle, and she will be greatly missed. Uh, one of her colleagues says, "My only regret is that I will only be able to spend one year working with her, but I did my best to pull as much knowledge, experience, and lessons from her as I could in that short time frame. Best of luck, Lori. Whether you're playing tennis or cruising around the world, I'm sure that you will get out of the most of every moment as you did during your career with Stonington Public Schools. Thank you
015for everything." Oops, I lied. There's one more. Sam Piccolo, Jr., 24 years as a high school custodian. Sam has been a dedicated member of the SHS custodial team and school community for the past 24 years. Sam's efforts to keep the high school clean and well-maintained are commendable. He's noted for his occasional pranks. However, most impress impressive was his time served on a tour in Iraq. I don't think that's the prank. Um, a brief talk with Sam immediately reveals his love of his job and the people around him. When asked by what his favorite part of his job was, he responded that it was the students. Being in a high school keeps him on his toes. It's a big building filled with teenagers. You know what guys are always up to doing something. Sam's been living
016in the Westerly Stonington area for all of his life. As a kid, he worked after school. He discovered the love of history that he carries to this day. He says that another upside upside of working in the high school is the library. I work in a building with 15,000 books and I love them. I am, if you're wondering what he's reading, he says he has a love for archaeology and history. So, thank you to all of our retirees for their contributions to our schools and uh our students. [Applause] Next, we have a rather special uh recognition uh and I'd like to recognize Mr. Anthony Lombardo who contacted Katie Garia earlier in this year on behalf of the class of n 1952 Stonington High School and he provided us with much of the history of behind
017the Stonington Bear. Um but also left us with a a major mystery of how the bear became named and how the bear became the mascot in Stonington schools. And the class of 52 has been really um a proponent for this particular mascot being recognized. So, um, our first select woman could not be here tonight, but I would like to read a commendation on for Brute the Bear on her behalf. So, Mr. Lombard, I hope you're watching. A commendation be it hereby known to all that the first Luckman offers her sincerest appreciation to the Stonington High School mascot, Root the Bear. Where history meets tradition, Stonington High School has long embraced the bear as its beloved mascot, a symbol of strength, perseverance, and unity. While no formal reference has been found as to how the bear
018became to represent the school, its presence has become an undeniable pillar of the school identity and spirit. For years, students, faculty, and alumni have rallied behind the bear, making it more than just a mascot, embodying the passion, pride, and resilience that define the Stonington community. Through victories and challenges, the bear has been a source of inspiration on the field, in the classroom, and beyond. School spirit is at the heartbeat of Stonington High School. It fuels teamwork, fosters tradition, and creates lifelong connections among students and generations of graduates. A strong mascot unites the community, bringing people together to celebrate collective achievements. Brute the Bear has done exactly that, standing as a beacon of pride, motivation, and unwavering support for students past and present. In recognition of Brute's enduring legacy, it's fitting not only that Brute be
019formally honored as the permanent mascot of Stonington High School, may the Bear continue to serve as a symbol of excellence representing the values and determination that define the school and its students. Go Bears. Given on the 12th day of June, 20ou 2025 by Danielle Cheeseboro. I will uh be giving this to Miss Dah uh at the end of the meeting for it to be displayed at the high school. So, thank you Mr. Lombardo and the class of 52. I'll continue with some other recognitions. Um I just wanted to uh give a shout out to the class of 2029. I just came from their promotion ceremony at the high school and it it you hear that number and it's a little daunting. It's like oh my gosh. Um, but they were did a great job. Uh,
020and the the middle school administrators got the ceremony down to under an hour, which is pretty impressive to get folks in and out of there. And we're hoping for um nice weather tomorrow night for the seniors like the like the eighth graders had this evening. Uh, recognizing our our spring athletics. We have quite a lineup uh to congratulate. Girls lacrosse and boys baseball, both ECC division champion uh this year. Boys tennis and baseball state tournament semi-finalists. Boys track and field CIAC class M state runners up. Boys varsity crew CPSR state champions backto-back third time in his in the school history. So congratulations to all of our Stonington Bears appropriately following Brood the Bear. Uh I'd also like to give a shout out to Stonington Middle School and thank our um our our officials and dignitaries
021that came down from the state of Connecticut. this secretary of state actually um and folks from the red, white, and blue uh committee gave an award and a check for $1,000 to Stonington Middle School in recognition of their encore program that is uh an exemplary civics program entitled Stonington Public Service Safety and Health. We had about 25 of our um public health safety and uh dignitaries from the town including the first sele and I think uh many parents as well. uh attend that Stingrays um assembly and it was really something to to see the honor. I also have learned that we may be invited to present at the state board of education and also at the state social studies uh convention occurring this fall. So quite an honor for Stonington Middle School to be a
022leader in civics's education. I'd also like to thank Jen Bow for applying for the grant the honor and uh Duffy Grace for bringing the these the class to life. Um, and then we have so many parents that um have been stepping up and helping us with the bond and uh budget and things like that. But I I also wanted to give a shout out to who I think the is our board of education most valuable player parent Ashley Tulle. I'm surprised she's not here, but somebody that we can depend on to always um be there for us and and whether it's about curriculum or a financial support, I just want to tell her how much we appreciate her dedication to the school system. And just for communications, I just wanted to mention that Bruce is
023here tonight. Bruce Yarnell. Um I I did hear from the SEA about a calendar proposal that you'll be entertaining tonight. Um and that came at the request of the teachers. So that's it. Bruce, um I would like to thank all the educators, administrators, and board of education members for another great year at Sternville public schools. We cannot do this without community support, and we receive that in abundance. So, thank you. Of course, every day you pick up the Wesley Sun or the day paper and you read such great stories about um what our current students have been doing and and uh today was if you hadn't had a chance yet to take a look at the Wesley Sun, three of our students are highlighted in there and uh their parents there. the students themselves should
024be proud as well as their parents, but I think our whole community could be proud of the um that they're representing our school system. And then when you look on the I don't know what column it is, but it lists all the former students that um are in college and you see them on the deans list here, the deans list there, the graduation list there, the graduation list there, or you see a Facebook post where uh class of 22. The kid just became a just passed corporal school in uh the Marines. And next step is a sergeant in the Marines and he's out at 29 Palms or a class of 23 graduate that uh recently completed boot camp for the Marines and uh it's just you know it makes sitting up here and sometimes longer
025meetings than usual or what have you to see you know what we're doing and then to recognize all the uh teachers and custodians in Paris tonight on their retirement whether it was one here. What was the longest 45 years or something? Just unfathomable. Um and what they do and it's um mostly goes unrecognized and uh unappreciated, but they should know that it is appreciated and um if we could recognize them every day, we should. Um then under communications, uh we had a couple emails um that we received and I was just wondering if uh the super the chairman or the superintendent have reports on those. was the one um from Trina Fulton uh talking about the recent um middle school soccer program change and the one from uh Katie Quinnland talking about uh the library
026uh program at the elementary schools and our resolution from last month where we uh voted to reinstate the or not voted to reinstate but voted to keep the elementary school instrumental program at the expense of uh the library and I'm not sure if it's too late to you know my question last month and I guess would be a question this month as well would be um you know could the cuts have come someplace else as as opposed from the library uh assistance. Um so that's all I have. Thank you. And I will not be there tomorrow. My nephew is graduating from uh Wheeler and I'll be there. I missed the my my niece graduating or promoting from eighth grade today, but my mother-in-law has been very busy attending all those and uh she loves every
027every part of it. She's a class of from Stonington High School, which was uh where just where the middle school is today on on Field Street. So, she was uh so people refer to it as the old Pacuck Middle School. I refer to it as a former Stoneington High School um because originally that's what it was when my mother-in-law went there as well as she did with uh Ruth Buzzy who recently passed. So, thank you. I just wanted to thank all the parents and community members that came to the recent board of finance meetings about the bond and the portables. Um it was a packed room. I've never seen that room so packed and I know that it was a long night. Um it was amazing. I also want to especially thank um Miss McClennon's
028daughter who spoke um in favor of the portables despite the board chairman trying to stop her. So I really appreciate that. I think that everyone has really shown up in this town a lot lately and I know that it's a lot of work at a busy time. So thank you for that. Thank you to everyone as we approach the last day of school again. And I see classrooms moving. People are packing. The PTO's are going well beyond on field days. There are bouncy houses. I was lucky if we got like a spray with like a hose to stay cool. And they have the mist with the music and it's everyone. It was amazing. Um and I know that Dean Mill also mine was at West Fine, but I know Dean Mill did great. I know
029all the schools do great. Um, and so I just want to really appreciate everyone involved from the Paris to the teachers to the secretaries to the personnel and just everyone who makes this possible for our kids. Um, one of which is mine and really enjoys her school. So, thank you all very much. I was um thrilled to attend um pop into one of the senior presentations about Bear Bites and I walked away. Okay, I have not stopped talking about the professionalism, the the just such high caliber and I was definitely not that professional at 18 years old. So, um they they were so knowledgeable. I loved watching their teamwork. Watch loved watching that presentation and I know that that was just, you know, the tip of the iceberg of what's going on at the high
030school. So it it made it very exciting for me to attend that and really you know be there and and kind of see you know what we hope um happens in high schools. Um and also looking forward to graduation tomorrow and attending. Um I just want to recognize uh Mr. Yarnell Bruce for your communication and commitment to um the Stonington Education System and thank you. Yes, we I did receive your email today. Um, I just want to recognize uh Mr. Kelly's comments on budget. Budget is voted and passed. We can't turn back and undo that, but we did not eliminate library. Just for clarity, we blended STEM with library as a as a position. So, um, I also want to recognize Miss Baker for her service on the board of education. Uh, I met Sarah
031a few years back here in Stonington. I met a tenacious, strong, uh, devoted uh, person to advancing uh, u, you know, good causes in our town and empowering women in our town. And I've witnessed it firsthand on many uh doors we knocked together, many walks we did together, uh campaigning for uh different variety of positions um supporting uh Democratic slates. Um but Sarah has um Sarah's moving out of town, so we're going to miss her and we're going to lose her to the West Coast. U but we understand family comes first. Uh but um we I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your service to the community. Thank you for service on the uh DTC, Democratic Town Committee. She's the chairwoman of the Democratic Town Committee was the chairwoman. Uh and uh
032I just want to give you this as a thank you. [Applause] Um, I also want to plug a town meeting this Monday, June 16th. Please show up. Um, check-in starts at 6:30. It's Stonington High School auditorium. 7:00 is town meeting. U, there is a resolution to establish a K through 12 uh committee. Uh, we would love if we have it. you have to we have to vote on this, right? So, we need um public to show up and and support uh the resolution in establishing a K through 12 uh committee uh that would look at on the uh for the you know with a focus on the middle school but really comprehensive uh review of all our municipal buildings especially the the sto the public school buildings not municipal. So, please uh if you're listening
033or if you're here, um Monday, June 16th, uh at the high school. Um and I just want to also recognize uh the Stonington crew. um they've had been working very hard and uh I believe there's a path forward to uh building the park on the Mystic River now that we have all the monies needed to build that park and I know that the Stonington uh crew have uh raised enough funds to build that boat house on the Stonington River and um this is a personal recognition I guess but I want to recognize that that program has graduated great talent and great athletes. Um I'm privileged to have one of them who rode for four years in the division one for Syracuse and he just raced in the national uh championship and he placed six. And
034we have uh George Rogers who rose for Penn also a graduate of Stonington. Uh, and he he unfortunately George was injured for the IRAs, but he did race the Eastern Sprints and he raced on the 2V boat and I think they came in fifth in the nation. So, well, Eastern Sprint, so Easter, you know, the Eastern Schools, but I know that Penn also places up there. So, uh, two great talents out of that program, uh, that and there's many more to mention, but those are the two kids that I I know raced in in the national championship and to place that high in the country, you know, and I I went for four years uh, and all these kids that race in the national championships come from prep schools and I bragged about our public
035schools that put two kids uh, in national championship level and to you know for those who are geeks and Bruce is a geek but they're they're rowing you know at six uh six minutes for 2k is incredible. Uh so these these you know this uh Stonington crew is a fabulous organization and I just hope everybody can support them in building uh their boat house in Stonington and let's house uh and let's grow let's house that talent on the Mystic River or let's grow that talent out of Stonington because I can tell you that every family I met at the uh at the IAS spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their kids to reach that level and you're getting it here as part of what they do in our public school is incredible. Is incredible.
036So, uh that's my plug for the Stonington crew. Mr. Kelly, uh one plug that I missed was um we have a uh graduate from two years ago. I think he's a sophomore at Yukon and he's out in Oregon now. Uh nationals talking about nationals. He's in the division one decathlon tournament out there and today was day two of the decathlon. I'm anxious to see how he did. He did well yesterday, but um and his mother I think is still a parah so uh positive. She's out there. Oh, I hope so. Hope she hopefully she got the days off. Um but uh yeah, Josh Mooney is out there representing Yukon as well as Stonington High School and the decathlon. And I remember Maryanne when we we got the kid a escort a couple years ago up
037to the dinner or something where he was getting recognized that Maryann's like Olympics someday. I'm like well we'll have to wait and see but one step at a time. So so proud of our kids and and this would not happen without uh the community of the employees of the Stington Public Schools. So our hats are off for you for your hard work and dedication to raise that generation. So thank you. Um, we can we can we got we got a lot of good things to talk about in Stonington. Um, but I don't you know um so um next item on our agenda is board presentation and I'll turn it over to our juniors to share with us our project. Right. You can come up here and turn the mic and go for it. We'll turn
038on the this the presentation for you. Perfect. Okay. Um good evening everyone. Thank you for having us. Um Stone Public Schools Board of Education. Um we're all happy to present the class of 2026 junior project for student government. So thank you so much. So, for our project, the uh our junior project, the 2026 student gov reps decided to revamp the outdoor student section. Uh we plan to add decorations to the student section that would raise school spirit and encourage more students to come to sporting events. And we feel that having school spirit is important to our community and it creates unity amongst students and staff. First, we will be buying two banners from Printing Plus, and they will be going on the top and the bottom of the bleachers to make sure everyone can see
039them. Uh, next, we will be buying two flags from Amazon, and those will be customized to also show school spirit. And finally, our goal, as Ella said, is to make sure we're getting people to uh students to our games and showing their school involvement. and also to support and motivate our sports teams. So, this is our visual representation uh kind of just a preview of what we have planned and what's going to go up. Um so, we have the signs that S talked about previously. Um just the don't poke the bear is kind of like our motto that we're trying to go for and the bear cave obviously. Um, kind of nice to hear about Brute the Bear and all of that tonight. So, um, we also have that it's three feet tall and six
040feet long per panel. So, that'll come in later. We'll talk about it with pricing as well. And then we also have the little images of the flags that say go Bears. So, yes. [Music] for our estimated cost. So our right now our plan is to have each banner as 15 feet long and three feet tall. And the price per square foot at printing plus is $6 per square foot. And then so for our total for each banner would be $270. And then for both banners, it should be 540. And then our maintenance fee for the um I spoke to the women at Printing Plus and she charges based on how much it takes her to do the design and create the banner. So it should be around 20. So, our total banner cost is 660.
041And then both of our flags should be around $12.95. And those will be customized from Amazon. So, that will be a total of $25.90, which comes to a final price of just around $685.90. So, um, to fund raise for the banners, we were planning on doing coordinating merchandise that we can sell the students. So, we're going to have sweatshirts and crew necks that are going to say, "Don't poke the bear." And then we're also going to ask the athletic boosters for a donation. For our advisors for the project, we had uh Miss Dench, who's our student government um advisor. She helped with the ideas for the project. We also have Miss Daw, who our is our principal. She helped with the fundraising ideas. There's also Mr. Stillman who is the Stonington fire chief and he's
042informed us on the fire coach for the student section. And then Mr. who's the high school athletic director. He's the one that oversees the student section during school events. He's supportive and in support of our clan and he's willing to make sure the flags and banners are taken care of during before, during, and after student events. So now for the four C's and how our project connects to them. For convince, how our high school benefit is because our school spirit has decreased these following years and we'd like to bring it back up. Um for consider why it's important it'll build and success and it'll help make our environment more fun. Like we've said for communicate um we've had many meetings among each other and like also uh Brady and Henry have said we've had meetings
043with many of our adviserss as well to brainstorm ideas and come up with this and for connect um this makes our community feel more like a community and it enhances our game day experience. Does anyone have any questions? I have a lot. I'd love to hear them. So, explain to me the the banners. Are they going on that fence in the front? Um, yes. So, there's that. It's kind of like a It looks like a double fence a little bit, but the fence that's um Thank you. So, that first fence right where it says the bear cave. So, the one that's attached to the bleachers, not like the one like the first one, kind of the second one that's attached to the bleachers, there'll be a vinyl banner with like the grommets, so be able
044to to tie or maybe something a little bit stronger up against the fence. And then our second one will be on the back fence, and we're still looking into it, but we're hoping that maybe we could find something that could elevate it, maybe with like PVC pipes or something like that, just so if the students are all standing, it can be seen behind them. And uh it do you think that the one that says the bear cave will that impede the vision of the spectators from the field or um that is definitely a possibility and something I think we should look into. Um I think typically I mean as like myself I'm on my tippy toes to get to this mic. So if I were in the front row I think if I was sitting
045it most likely would impede my vision. But um at least for when this section is used as student section, we're all standing. So um hopefully that won't be an issue. But I I do see where you're coming from how that could be an issue if you are sitting in the front row. So I think that's something we can look into. Maybe we could adjust the um height of the banner. And uh do you have a plan to take the banners like down in like inclement weather or are you going to leave them up or you didn't think of that? Um, yes. So, if we do see some like crazy bad storm or something, we will take them down as like I just I previously said, they should just be kind of something like zip tied
046and then they will go away for the winter and put back out for the spring. And uh, sorry, I'm asking all the questions. I apologize. Um, so the the flags that you expect on Amazon are one-sided flags. Is there a reason why it's one-sided? you went. Um, so we're using them as like handheld flags. Got it. Rather than like not like a they're not on a flag pole, just kind of handheld. So like students can hold them in the front or Yeah. something kind of more handheld rather than like elevated. I just have a suggestion that you can talk to Mrs. Dah. The Bear Bites senior project. They had swag made up with the logo that's on the truck and all of us who are in the audience wanted to buy them. We were like
047going to throw money. So, you might want to include that in your merchandise, but Miss Dove will have all the information on that. Thank you. Anyone else? Has the student section changed location? I thought it was always like down by the band or something. Um, yes, it has changed location. So in I think our recent years maybe one or two years ago it has shifted back towards that front entrance. I think there was some conflicts with um opposing teams. So I think this allows Mr. Ran to have a better view side of us and also room for our opposing spectators to stay on the other end. Now you mentioned that they're going to come down. Are they going to go up inside for indoor events like the basketball teams? Um, so we were thinking about
048this. I think we need to speak with printing plus because once they come inside, then the fire codes come into play. So if they are fireproof, then we are thinking about trying to find a way to put them inside. But we have to take that next step and see if they are um fireproof. But they'll be up for uh fall sports. Fall sports and spring sports. Not just uh not just the football team, but the soccer team maybe and lacrosse teams and field hockey and all that good stuff. Every as every fall and spring sporting event. Gotcha. And would you guys mind introducing yourselves so we some of you look familiar? Some of you will uh be famous someday. I'll be reading about you in the Wesley Sun or I already read about some of
049you in the Wesley Sun, especially a soccer player. So um um my name is Finn O'Keefe and then Abby Moroga, Ella Rothman, Sallesio, Maisy Aloo, Mave Oaks, Brady Torres, and Henry Cook. [Applause] Any other questions? What's your timeline? Um, so or you need money. Yes. Yes, we do need to start with fundraising. But once the school year comes to an end, I think we're going to get a jump on that and start meeting with Printing Plus, getting a finalized design to give them. And hopefully these will be or they should be ready for the fall of um 2025. And I just want to confirm that the 3x6 you put there on that slide is for illustration because you're you're Your actual banner is 15 by3, right? Um, yes. So, we are just we are showing
050the like each kind of panel how just long it is. So, it would just to get kind of an idea of like what it would look like. Great job. Good job. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. All right. Mr. Smith, you're ready. We're ready for you. Thank you. I see I see you seem to always uh violate the rule of never follow students in presentations. You always empty the room, Mr. Smith. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm used to it. It's fine. Um it is my pleasure tonight to uh give the board an overview on this year's climate survey. Uh this was year two of our uh use of the comprehensive school climate inventory uh instrument. And um I want to start by thanking sincerely all of the students, staff, and parents who took
051their time uh to answer this survey. I know it's uh it's a little bit of a bigger ask than what we used to do before, a little bit more time uh to complete this survey. Uh so I do want to thank everybody who did find the time to do that this year. So the first thing that I want to talk about is that our participation is up uh across the board in all three stakeholder groups. Our parents uh num participation numbers up 10% which was a little surprising uh to me because we had a kind of a spike last year of middle school parents because of all the stuff that was going on uh with the middle school move uh and their anxiety over that. Uh so I thought we might show a little decrease
052this year now that things had settled down a little bit. Uh but overall parents were up 10%. Students uh due to a little bit better job at the high school. Uh our students percentage was up 18% and the real increase was with our staff. Our staff was up 33% and I again want to thank Mr. Jarnell uh for that. I met with uh Mr. Jarnell and the leadership of uh SEA last year they had their own survey out ahead of ours and I thought that that might have uh affected our numbers where people you know everybody has survey fatigue and they they did one for sea. Uh so I thought perhaps uh that they that was one of the reasons why our staff participation last year was a little on the low side. this year
053uh without that uh competition. I think that's one of the reasons and one of the other reasons why I think the numbers are up for parents and uh teachers is a shout out to our welcoming schools uh folks. Uh the suggestion came from our welcoming schools groups to do the survey earlier in the school year. uh that doing it at the end of the school year, middle or late May, uh was just a bananas time in everybody's life to do that. Uh so they came up with the suggestion of really kind of launching it around the end of March in conjunction with parent teacher conferences and uh kind of worked. So that was uh that was genius on their part and I want to thank them for that suggestion. Uh Yeah, so for this slide
054I just wanted to mention that the uh although there was a little bit of variability from school to school across the stakeholders uh it is representative data. Uh in the adult behavior we tend to see what we always see with everything really enthusiastic high p participation at the elementary level goes down a little bit at the middle school in the high school it's a hard cell. uh but we have data that I believe is very representative across all four schools across all three stakeholder groups. Okay. So I'm just going to give kind of a overview about this instrument uh and its format and I'm going to it kind of move from the big picture down to the little picture. So this survey is the data is put into five big buckets. Safety, teaching and learning,
055interpersonal relationships, institutional environment, and then the last bucket that leadership and efficacy uh bucket is for staff only uh parents and students uh that doesn't apply to them. So that's a staff only category. Within each of those domains, there are multiple indicators uh from two to five different indicators within each domain. And then what everybody sees, the people who take the survey don't see these things. That's how they organize the data. What they see is the series of questions. And uh these are the questions for that first domain of rules and norms. And it varies a little bit uh the questions vary a little bit uh from the different indicators. Some indicators have uh five questions, some have six. There's one that has a total of 12 uh questions to that indicator. And one of
056the things that uh is really interesting to me is that through the stakeholder groups, students, staff, and parents, some of the questions are exactly the same and some of them are a little bit different that get to the same idea, but it's asked in a different way depending on the stakeholder group. And that's where we get what we pay for with the cybermetrics uh of the folks being able to analyze this for us. Every question is rated on the kind of standard fivepoint liyker scale. And the way to interpret the standard way of interpreting that is any score that's in that four and five range is considered a positive or favorable score. The three score is a very neutral score where people don't have a strong opinion one way or the other about the question.
057And then scores in the two and one range are unfavorable or negative uh ratings for that. So what this slide is showing you is a heat map that I put together um of the median scores. And one of the things that I I really just kind of want to say is like it's one of the good problems that we have is that our median scores across our stakeholder groups across the domains are pretty high. It makes goal setting more challenging. Uh but it's a good problem to have. Uh we we really do well. We did well last year and I'll show you a little bit about the comparison this year to last year. Uh but as you can see most of the scores uh the ones that are highlighted in pink there uh are kind
058of our our lowest scores which are in the mid to upper uh three. So they're they're neutral scores. They're they're really we don't score negatively uh as far as the medians of any of these indicators. So the way I did this heat map is basically anything that is 3.8 to 4.1 is kind of a solid good score. I kind of left those alone. Those are those are your white squares. Anything that was less than 3.8 I indicated with the pink is that this is probably an opportunity for improvement. And then anything higher than 4.2 two uh is a strength for us. Visually what you see here is our staff uh stakeholder group is super green. Green is good. Um so I was happy to see that. Um one of the other things that was true
059last year and is true again this year is looking at the data across the stakeholder groups. Um, we tend to get our best ratings from our staff. We get our second best ratings from our parents, although there's some, uh, indicators where the parents rate us higher than the teachers rate themselves, which I think is fabulous. And then we always get our lowest rating from the students, uh, which is which is pretty typical. And there's some categories where you can tell where the middle school kids are. Um, it's just it's just a thing. Uh one of the things that I'm going to do in a in a couple of minutes is that band that is pink across the stakeholders uh the indicators for sense of social emotional security. I'm going to talk about that one in
060a little bit more detail in a couple of minutes. And I'm also going to talk about the uh in the safety domain, the last indicator, online safety, which as you can see is just kind of that solid score, but you're going to see it kind of pop in a in another slide in a couple of of minutes. So the next thing I did is I looked at those median scores this year versus last year and again created just a heat map to indicate where we had growth was green. Where we didn't change or the change is negligible it's white. And where we had any kind of negative change it's pink. And as you can see all the pink numbers um they're less than 3% um and again so 3% of a liykered scale is a
061point or two a decimal point or two might have gone from 3.8 to 3.7 to represent that 3% change. Um, here's where you see in the student stakeholder group that online safety district-wide improved 5.4%. That's all the middle school and I'll tell you why. Uh but I think one of the celebrations in this is the improvement this year from last year almost across the board in every indicator on our staff surveys and especially when you get down to the bottom to the leadership and efficacy uh domain that is only for our staff to have an 8% increase uh in the administration and leadership uh evaluation on the survey I think is outst standing. Just because I know y'all like to see it, I did the school by school. Same format. These are the average median
062scores total across aggregating all three stakeholder groups. Again, green is good, white is also good. And the, you know, salmon color is something that we could look at. And the same thing comparison this year versus last year. And here again that online safety look at the middle school. All I'm saying is they got to do it in the high school. So, um, it really is super important to talk about, uh, and I I I'll get there in just a sec. Um, the other thing that I want to recognize is one of the things that you'll clearly see is that at the middle school and at West Vine, we have the most significant improvement in the staff surveys. I don't know why. No, obviously we in those two schools, we have new leaders, new principles this
063year. So, I'm hoping it's not going to be just a honeymoon period. They both made some significant improvements uh in the day-to-day operations uh in the look and feel of their schools. I think we should be very proud of that. We're very proud of them. Uh the folks have indicated that. And one of the things that you'll see is that corresponding bump. Uh 17% improvement at West Vine in that rules and norms category. That's like rule enforcement. is a another key indication for leadership. Um so again, our hats off to our middle school um and Westfine new leaders. But that being said, the change in our leadership score, both the high school and DMS had a almost a 3% increase as well. Um, so they just didn't get the new guy bomb. Uh, but what
064I'm also super excited about is in the uh collective efficacy domain indicator. What that is is those questions are to our staff about how they feel about the job that they do, how they work with their colleagues, how they get along with their colleagues, how effective they think they are, whether they have the tools that they need to do the job. And so to see uh a 7% increase across the board in every location I think is an outstanding uh achievement by all of our staff and uh administrators. So now I'll take a minute to talk about the online safety. So, as you know, our district uh entered into a research project with our friends at Yukon, and we did two things at the middle school. We locked up the cell phones and the yonder
065pouches during the school day from bell to bell, and we also did more uh education with the common sense media digital citizenship uh curriculum and returned recess. And we returned recess. There's that, too. Yes. I don't think recess made them feel safer online, but it made them better probably to each other online later because they they had a a better um so I just want to share a couple of the uh individual questions that were uh were remarkable. Um here it is. So from the student survey, one of the questions is, "My teachers use the internet to help us learn." That favorable rating went up 48%. There are rules at my school about using the internet. That indicator went up 16%. Um, the overall domain on online safety went up 14%. according to the students
066for the staff the staff questions like I help my students understand how to treat people while using social media that indicator went up 19%. Uh the question, I help my students understand the consequences for using social media. The staff survey at the middle school went up 27%. In the favorable um the overall change in that uh indicator for the staff at the middle school was an increase of over 21%. So, um, just more proof positive that it works. And I really think, and Superintendent Butler is absolutely right, the combination of locking up the cell phones during the school, bellto bell, and putting recess back at the middle school level, I think has really done a great thing for our our middle school students. So, the other indicator that I I wanted to talk a little
067bit more about was uh the um social emotional security, which is kind of a weird name for that. Basically, what that what those questions ask about is how do you feel at school as far as bullying, being picked on, being made fun of, belonging, those those type of things. So, it's it's kind of uh important that we really get at why that's one of our lower um indicators. And it's It's fascinating to me. There are six questions in that indicator across the stakeholder groups, but only three of them are the identical same question. And so those are the ones that I looked at to kind of see since it's the exact same question that we're asking kids, teachers, and parents, what are the differences? And so the first question is students in my school will
068stop students from making fun of others like you know there kids taking agency in in kind of managing behavior. Families rated that one the highest 40 42.9% favorables on that from the parents. The staff rated it the lowest, 24.6% favorable. The kids rated themselves higher than the staff did. They rated themselves 32.9. Not quite as good as the parents, but better than their teachers. And so what I hope we get to with our work on climate uh later on is I think one of the reasons for that is that for the vast majority the teachers see what happens in their classroom. And so sometimes if there's bad behavior in the classroom the kids don't interact as much because they expect the adult in the room to handle it. And so that might account for some
069of that that difference. Um, the next one that's the same for everybody is mostly the same. Students at my school are kind to each other. So in this one, same pattern. Actually, no, it's a little bit different. The teachers rated that the favorables were 73.5% favorable on that. So the teachers really think the kids are kind to each other. The parents almost almost 70% favorable with the parents. So it's close. Kids, anybody want to throw a guess? Wow, you guys are negative. No, it's lower, but it's not that that that much lower. It's 45.2% favorable. Okay, so it is still significantly different. So the adults, it's weird. The adults say, "Hey, the kids are the kids are all right." And the kids are going, "Nah, we're not." And this one is the is the most
070interesting one to me. The kids have a few extra questions and there's a pair of questions that are interesting. They have a question that says um students other students make fun of me and that correlates with the adult question of students in the school make fun of other students too much. So with the adult question, the staff only 28% and again this is a this is a reversecored question. So you want the responses to be low on this one. Um only 22.8% said that was true. As far as the staff, only 18% of the parents thought that was true. Only 12.3% of the students identified with that. But when asked the personal question, when they rated that when they're asked the personal question, students make fun of me, it was only 12.3%. But when asked,
071I have seen other students seen other students made fun of, the response was almost 50%. So, not me, but it's happening a lot. And so, that's something that at the school level start to try and and figure out how do we attack that? Okay. Any questions on any of those data points? Okay. So the next steps uh now that we have some data to work on uh we have the great fortune of having the legislative mandate to create school climate improvement uh plans and submit them to the state uh for New Year's Eve because that's what they're going to do with their New Year's Eve uh party at the state house apparently. Um so uh the good news on that is uh as part of uh our purchase agreement with this scientifically researched survey, they
072give us a number of tools to help us do that. So we'll be meeting with our school teams using this data and then over the summer to come up with the draft of a climate improvement plan. Then we'll bring the data to the welcoming schools groups and those groups will be uh our key partner thought partners in what we can do in each school to improve climate across the board. So that's where we're going and that's it for me. Any other questions, comments? The climate improve improvement plans through the state were not a requirement last year. Is that correct? It's never been a requirement. It was discussed and it was threatened and rumored, but it never really when uh well, I wouldn't put it that way. Um but no, what happened was it legislatively it
073was actually passed in legislation two years ago, but they gave us like a two-year on-ramp. So kind. Yes, it really was. Um uh but so now it's uh it's due. Uh, and that was really uh my impetus for for signing on with the comprehensive school inventory knowing it was coming. I wanted a year under our belt with the thing to give us some experience with some better data to make these plans meaningful for us. Thank you. I'll find out more at welcoming schools. Can't wait. Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you. Question. You saw it. Right. Vicki. Um, first of all, thank you for compiling this data for us and putting it out. Um, is this the same company survey that we used last year, you said? Yes. Yes. And I've heard pros and cons about
074the quality of the survey or the you you've heard pros. I've heard cons. Yeah. To be honest, Mr. Kelly, you're right. Yeah. I I've heard a lot of folks don't like it. Um, but more people did it. So, uh, I'm trying to stay sensitive to that. Um, it it is different. Uh, I think one of the problems with it, it's different very visually where with a survey monkey or a Google form survey, you get fed questions one at a time. Uh, with this, it shows the grid of all the questions in the indicator and the liyker scale up above. And it seems like a lot. um what but the numbers are uh you know obviously the numbers of people doing it is is increased pretty significantly so that's always a good thing to hear what
075people say. Yeah. Um but just uh you know to use this tool as much as we can to work on things I'm sure. Um looking forward to that. And we talked about it in a meeting a week or two ago. Is it still we talked about talking about it at the clim at the um retreat meeting next week. Is that still on the agenda? Was that something? I don't think that's on the agenda, but we can find a venue to talk about it. Um, I do think Tim, I'm correct in saying that legislatively, legislatively we have to have a scientifically researchbased based tool. Is that correct? Yeah, that was that was that was really the double impetus for me was we have to have high quality data that we can really dig into and plan
076and this service helps us do the dam data analytics. And the second part is the legislation says it has to be a professional scientifically researched. Did we did we have an idea of like how many different instruments there are out there that would be available? It came up that like people hated it. Yeah. Recently I just don't know how many are available out there to begin with. But we can we can dig that. I can I can certainly look at that to see what alternatives out there. I went with this one because it is the largest group across the nation and we do get some normed reference stuff as a bonus from them. Um, and Dan, we were going to focus on the vision and the mission statement that hasn't been looked at in a
077decade. Um, that was on there, but we can think about like what venue might be the best one to do that, whether it's teaching and learning or probably teaching and learning, I guess. Oh, don't give it to Kevin. He might get into it. Yeah. So yeah, as long as it's, you know, it's such a, you know, it's not often that we get feedback from such a, you know, all three populations that we're talking about that, you know, just uh, you know, I know you get into it and you, uh, you know, use these numbers all year and work on different things and probably you send them to different places to get worked on, but I think as a board it's like, you know, it's our annual let's talk about it and it's like, you know,
078what else as a board? So, can we do so? One of the things that I will also do is uh these are the preliminary dashboard numbers. They haven't sent me their official report yet. When I get that, we'll send that out to the board. We'll probably post it on the website this year now that we've seen it. Um the other thing, Mr. Kelly, that just make you aware of one of the things I am looking at doing, not that anybody wants another survey, uh but um the National Group of public school u communications and public relations organization has a survey that specifically uh asks parents about how the school communicates with them and that is an intriguing piece that we may do in the fall to see uh to get because that's the other uh
079love it hate it parent square uh comment I get from parents too um so if we can find ways of better communicating parents. Um, so I haven't had the chance to really look at that because again, if I if we do it, it would be in the fall, but there may be some more opportunity to get more of what's on people's minds. And uh, you know, just you said it at the beginning, I think, but just to affirm that our hiring committees that screen the middle school principal applicants and the elementary school applicants, I guess, from these numbers shows that they did a pretty good job. and our uh superintendent. They did. Okay. Yeah. Two great hires. Two great hires. We're very fortunate. This just, you know, confirms that that with the feedback that we've
080heard from parents and students throughout the year is, you know, so yeah, the people on that committee made a good choice. Absolutely. Okay. Thanks. Um, next item on our agenda is comments from citizens and oops. Hi everybody. Uh, Bruce Arnold, state special education high school. Also the local union president education association live in Westley at 19 Clark Street. Uh, quick background. uh when the original calendar came out with the January 2nd date, teachers were not happy and they asked me to do a survey on that. So we did do a survey with the teachers. None of them wanted to come well very few of them wanted to come back before Labor Day as a solution to this problem. Uh overwhelmingly they would they would they would requested that given the options we had that January
081that the option that Miss Butler put forth to you is the one that teachers are supportive of. Um that's really about it. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is update or report from superintendent schools. Okay. I have uh just some SMS and district office updates and uh if you want more detailed information, Mr. Carol's available uh if you have any questions. Uh but he's been hard at work uh getting prices for the removal of the fuel tanks at uh here at this site as well as at the high school. uh he is once again for actually I should say for a change he's saving money. Both of the estimates came in under under what he had anticipated. Um and uh this summer the tank at the high school will be removed and he actually
082is getting the paving done for that um site as well uh way under what he anticipated. And then um we'll be looking to transfer the new tank here um probably in the fall. Uh we've got a little hiccup in that the tank is full of fuel. So, we have to decide whether we're going to pay to get the fuel moved to the new tank or we're just going to burn it down and then um and then transition over. Um so, he's going to have a busy summer. He has been uh was it today or yesterday that you went out to portables uh to this morning? This morning. Um I think up to South Windsor was it West Hartford. Uh and he's going to Westport shortly to see another. So, he's just taking we wanted to
083have his eyes on the portables before we go ahead and purchase. um and sent he sent us pictures and I can put those in my weekly letter for you so you can take a look at what they look like. Um but he wants to do that have his eyes on it before we we commit to one vendor or the other. Um and then hopefully we'll start down that pathway with the board of finance. Uh just as a reminder the contingency that they put in place for us is anything over 200,000 per project. We have to go back to them with a firm quote. So once we decide on which vendor, we'll get that paperwork and the board of finance said that they would have, you know, a meeting and uh upon short notice for us
084to do that. Um he's also uh Steve is trying to get all of the paperwork for all of these different components together at the same time. So it's one meeting and not peace meal. He's also working with Jeff uh to figure out timing on the construction of the wall to divide that large classroom at Stonington Middle into two. Um, some good news is he um he and his team manually closed all the dampers in this building. So, our fire watch will com um be completed tomorrow and the fire marshall has proved that we can occupy the building now that the dampers are shut. So, if anything happened, we we'd be safe. So, that's good news and some money that we won't be spending on firewatch. Um, we are still waiting on a quote from Fen
085O'Neal for the repair of the second floor in this building. Uh just as a reminder, the entire project from start to finish will probably be about 16 weeks. So when we get that calendar for you, um it will give us a better idea too of whether or not we will be displaced because we have to talk to the fire marshall about the various stages of that. Um the actual construction will only be four to six weeks of that total time period. So hopefully it will straddle Christmas vacation or something like that, but we'll figure it out. And I just want to repeat um the commercial that uh Farooq had. Um please remember that the town meeting is at the high school 7 o'clock. It will be um a series of votes, one of which will
086be to affirm uh or not the establishment of a K12 building committee. Um and that's really important for our our uh future of Stonington Middle School. Um the team completed and I want to thank Katie. You you came out I guess to the the best visit school visit. Colchester um hosted us at Johnson Middle School. Um, we had a quick conversation with principal Parkinson and we want to get another group of different stakeholders to go see that school with to um contrast what we are our students have right now with what that school has. Pretty comparable size um so that maybe people will have more of a sense of urgency around what our students are being put through and our staff is being put through right now. So, more on that to follow. Um, uh,
087let's see. Bear Bites. Thanks Katie again for being at that um presentation. The truck has been delivered. It is being charged behind the high school. Uh you will see it tomorrow. I believe Stephanie is going to be serving bottled water off of it so you can get a peek inside. Um and she will also be driving it in the senior parade tomorrow around the parking lot. Uh it's hilarious. The first seleman already called me saying, "Is it available July 9th?" They said, "We don't even have the health inspection done on it yet, nor do we have students available to work on it, but we've gotten three requests already." And I'm like, "Wow." I mean, this is going to be something else to manage. I don't know. Uh, Bruce, we might have to talk about a
088stipend or something for somebody to manage bear bites. Uh, but the kids I saw this morning, two of the four, the gentlemen were um approached me at the senior breakfast as Mr. and Smith, Mr. Smith and I have one of the most important duties uh every year to bring the blueberries and chocolate chips for the pancakes breakfast. and they came up and said how much of a difference it made for their interviews with colleges and how much they enjoyed it and how proud they are um to, you know, be looking at it and how they are very thrilled with the um their job that the the artist did with the rap. Um and so it's just kind of neat for them to to be able to constantly go by that school and say, "I did
089that. We did that." So um we'll look forward to having that um truck available at different sporting events as well as different professional developments um offerings um for our staff. and then special obviously special events for the um this the students because it really the major portion of that will be it will be a supplemental serving station for food service. So very exciting. The next item and you have a hard copy of the the the calendars just so you can see the dozy dough that's going on here. There's two distinct changes to the calendar and Mr. Rearen is here in case you have any questions about what I'm going to kind of explain from a high level. So, you covered commencement. Oh, I did. I I have the wrong agenda. Oh, commencement. Commencement is just
090a small reminder that um Alicia Dah and I and Mr. Smith and Mr. Carol will be getting uh together at 3:00 and making the call if the weather looks like it's iffy. And the message will go out um through Mrs. Dah's uh office one way or the other to avoid the confusion that we had three years ago. Um we had a beautiful evening tonight for the middle schoolers. We're keeping our fingers crossed, but my motto is when in doubt, chicken out because we don't want to be out there and have what happened to other towns three years ago with the graduates soaked to the bone. So, um, fingers crossed, light some candles and, uh, send us some positive energy. And then finally, the two calendar changes that you are entertaining tonight are distinct. They can
091you can approve one, you can approve both, you can do whatever you want. Um I just want you to know that no matter what you do, there's going to be problems because we have published this calendar and people have made plans accordingly. Um my um my initial proposal was based on the request of the teachers over the years that they wanted that winter break to be extended and also to agree with the learn uh calendar. Um so that's where that came from. It does also pose some problems for people who have children who have that day um off. So um so the first change though is a change in the half days that have traditionally been for kindergarteners only the first two days of school and they allow for teacher parent conferences those days. Mr.
092Rearen brought a really fantastic idea for West Fine Street schools because there's so much um late registration if you will that it's really hard at that building. It's not the case at Deans Mill, but it is the case at West Vine Street School to balance classes with personalities and and the like. And so he's bringing a practice to West Vine Street School next year to actually kind of scramble the children over the first couple of days and let the teachers decide which chemicals store nicely next to one another and which ones don't and then those rosters will go out by the end of that week. So it's a very innovative practice. It's practical and it's best for kids. So I think that makes a lot of sense. With that in mind, he and and Miss
093McCertie had a discussion about, well, wouldn't it make sense then to let the little guys have their teachers in play for a couple days before we have the parent teacher conferences. So, get to know the kids, get to see, are they are they struggling socially? Are they making a smooth transition? You know, what are you hearing from the child at home? That kind of thing. And so, you'll see now those first two days of school will be full days for the children in kindergarten. They will come home and fall to sleep. They'll probably be asleep on the bus by the time they go home. And then those two half days will be September 11th and 12th. Those will be conferences and half days only for the kindergarten students. So Mr. Rearen's here if you have
094any questions about his past experience with this model. Um his teachers are on board. I mean he he brought this to their attention last year but because it was a late change, they needed a year to kind of wrap their brains around it, but they're on board now. Any questions for him? Yeah, it does make a lot of sense. It does mean that that's the teachers are yeah they they understand us the value of it. The second change is just the flip-flop of the Friday January 2nd um workday for the Tuesday after President's Day. So it's just a flip-flop of one workday for the other. Um I just again it's my job to bring the whole picture to you. Um, I know that teachers were very interested in extending their um, break for travel purposes
095and such. I just want to remind you that not all of our families have Christmas vacation and some have daycare issues and things like that. So, just remember when you make this decision, um, there's there's always a plus and a minus to whatever way you go. So, that's that's it. And we'll entertain any questions and your vote. Well, um further questions or conversations, I'd like to ask a motion to approve the presented school 2020 uh 2025 2026 school calendar. So moved. Is there a second? Right. Uh discussion on this or questions hearing none. All those in favor of approving the presented uh new school calendar for 2025 2026, please indicate by saying I. I. I. I anyone against? Any abstension? Got scored. All right. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Oh, I know you. All right.
096Next item on our agenda is consent agenda items A through F. And I'll ask for a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Any question or discussion? And it's a hefty consent agenda. Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to uh No, we had a motion. Sorry. All those in in favor of approving consent agenda items A through F, please indicate by saying I. I. I. Uh, that was unanimous for the record. Thank you. All right. Subcommittee report. We'll start with Mr. Ignel. Thank you. We have a handful of curricula available for vote this evening including modern world history, astronomy, social psychology, video production 1 and two, uh ECE exercise and wellness and English 10. Make a motion to approve curriculum A through F. So moved. Second. And any discussion? All those in favor, please
097indicate by saying I. I. And then a heads up for our not I don't want to count my chickens, but I'm assuming our July meeting will be cancelceled. Um, so uh because of that, we chose today's teaching and learning committee to wave first read of the curricula that we went through so that they'd be ready for second read in August so that they'd be ready to go by the start of the school year. So the curricula on the agenda at the August meeting will be a vote. Again, technically your first read, but we waved first read. So if you're interested in uh reviewing those before the vote, um they will be required for vote at that August meeting for the first time. That's it. Great. Thank you. Uh finance and facility subcommittee did not meet
098uh again today. Um so there's nothing to report there and I'll ask Mr. Kelly to update us on policy subcommittee. Sorry. Um wave the first read on uh A and B purchasing 3320 and P 5122.3 assignment of homeschoolers. I so move. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Um any discussion? All those in favor of approving set policies, please indicate by said I. I. I. I. That was a unanimous for the record as well as unanimous vote on the previous teaching and learning subcommittee. And then uh policies for repeal wave the first readin. Um policies A through double E. Again, these are uh policies that have been either uh superseded in other policies or these have been outdated or no longer um necessary. And uh but they all uh can be repealed. Some of
099them have been moved to other sections and incorporated in other um policies like I said. So I uh so moved. There is a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving repealing such policies, please indicate by saying I. I. I. That was unanimous for the record. Thank you. And unlike uh the teaching and learning committee, I think the policy committee is going to have a meeting in July because we have so much work to do [Laughter] on the beach. policy just moves slower. If it's on the beach, I'm joining that meeting. Uh, next item on our agenda is welcoming schools layers on report if any. Okay. Uh, we met May 20th for our last meeting of the year. Um, kind of
100just debriefed the year. there was a um social media presentation that we hadn't debriefed. Um and I think we all kind of talked about looking forward to the climate surveys and um making plans using those next year. It'll be interesting for me to be there next year, not as a Deans Mill mom, but looking forward to staying on. Cool. Thank you. And Lauren, shouldn't have turned it off. I was um sad to miss today. I had conflicting Zooms. Um, but I know it's tough. It's tough being me. It's tough being me. I almost put two up thinking like, should I just do two at the same time? But no, no, my brain doesn't work that way. So, um, I will report back um later this summer. Great. And, uh, retirement board any any reporting? I
101actually last missed the last quarterly meeting, but at the board of finance, Tim O'Brien reported uh just that markets are very uncertain, but that our um pension accounts are very healthy. The rule is leave them alone. Um next item on our agenda and I'm sorry, any questions on the time or any other um monthly reports? Uh you have global uh for May student government and enrollment. Um anything you would like to report? You're good. No, we read it. No, don't worry. Um any board comments or any items for future agenda? I just wanted to extend my gratitude to the folks at this table to the folks who so that these tables are our big circle. Um it's truly been an honor and a privilege to sit here. Um but to work with you all specifically
102um I know that this board is in excellent hands moving forward. we have the right leadership at the helm um in both our superintendent and and our chairman. And I wanted to thank my chairman for his patience and his grace uh with me and really with all of us. You're always available. You're always accessible. Uh you hear us out. You give us space to be ourselves. Um and you don't always see that in a a chair. Um, you see a lot of people that try to rule things with a very iron fist and that has never been your style. And I think that's why your style is so impactful and and purposeful and and what we need right now when we're dealing with with education. I couldn't think of a better person to be in
103your shoes. Um, so thank you for your leadership and I wanted to thank our secretary as well. I mean, you two are are a dynamic team. Um because when when you aren't able to be here, uh Kevin is able to to fit right in and also has an incredible leadership style that is open and accessible and just for the people and I don't take that for granted these days so so often. Um Kevin, I am so disappointed that I will not be here in November to vote for you. um that you have my vote, not that I can give it anymore. Um for anything you want to do in this town, whatever it is, um I would I would support and back that 100%. And I hope I hope folks in this town know how
104lucky and special it you are and like where you're going to go in the next 10 to 15 to like 20 years here. No pressure. No pressure. But it's just it's um I'm able to to step back and like transition into my new life knowing that there are just so many good people here who are doing the work. And it's it's really beautiful and and I I appreciate both of you um and helping me become a better leader and a better member of of this board. I've learned a lot from both of you. So, thank you for that. Um yeah, today is a really interesting day. My partner started his first day at the job at Seattle Symphony. Um so, he's probably in his break between all the orientation and then they have a a
105concert tonight. Um, so he's taken the first step in our new lives tonight while I take a last step in in my old life. Yeah, it's um it's interesting. Um, but it's I had planned to have many more years doing this, but you know, plans have a way of changing and finding different directions. But um, I just wanted to say thank you to everybody and I will miss you all very very very much. I won't forget this. I want it on the record that when Sarah convinced me to run for the board of ed years ago, she did not mention that she'd be leaving two years into my term. Also, she's leaving on my birthday this month, which is like an extra just knife. And so, I want it like I I want it recorded
106that I will not forgive her for this. And when I go to visit her in Washington, I expect the best of what that wine country there has to offer in apology. We all blame Kale. Um, all right. Anything else? Nothing. One last time, I'd like to motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? There's a second. All in favor? I I