001thank you it's just when when is it happening I'd like to call the Stonington Board of Education regular meeting to order it's uh June 8th at 6 33 pm and first order I'd like to ask Leah to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands foreign absolutely there's usually no Rhyme or Reason who who leads us but tonight to see us last meeting right so thank you for your service times next item and our agenda I'll turn it over to our superintendent school for communication recognition thank you Farooq um we have quite a list in a lot of celebrations um and I'm before we get to our cake and our retirees I just wanted um inform you of some other celebrations that we
002need to recognize the first Communications is uh was from a Middle School Parent who was applauding the um Stonington middle school jazz band select chorus and win Ensemble and the Stonington middle school music teachers for the children's Behavior at the Fantastic Festival which was a way trip where they performed in May and the parent was just over the top pleased at not only how the students performed musically but also how they conducted themselves as fine young people so it's always nice to get good letters and positive news as far as recognitions we're excited to announce our educator of the year is West fine Street Reading interventionists and Coast coach Faith McDonald and today we surprised para educator of the Year West fine Street paraprofessional Karen lindenborg so it's been a banner year for West fine
003Street School from Connecticut elementary school of the year to the the educator of the year in the pair of the year so it's pretty exciting news for congratulations to those professionals and I'm going to steal Dan Kelly's Thunder probably announce all the exciting athletic news I just like to recognize ECC division titles girls and boys tennis division one baseball division two softball division three boys and girls lacrosse division two ECC tournament runners-up the girls lacrosse team ECC tournament championship softball division two little boys lacrosse ciac runners-up girls tennis Class M ciac state championship Boys Tennis Class M and some other recognitions that went quietly probably not noticed by many but the crew team The Varsity boat 2 won the state championships and the boys novice team also placed one at the state level for individuals
004Conrad tobiason and Tucker Callahan ECC Boys Tennis doubles champions friends see Margo I can't I'm it's a tricky one I gotcha I'm so sorry and Lauren Buckley ECC girls tennis double Championship Champions and then the once in a lifetime athlete senior Joshua Mooney three ciac Open Championship events uh the 110 meter hurdles the 300 meter hurdles and the javelin he broke the state record in the 110 meter hurdles he broke the ciac Class M records in both 110 and 300 meter hurdles and he's been nominated for the Connecticut track and field athlete of the year um so on a on another note for those of you who don't know the Stonington bear will be unveiled tomorrow at 2 30 at the high school if you'd like to attend that so this is the new Statue
005he is snugly wrapped right now in hibernation but if you have a few minutes um he's yeah he's overslept he's overslept so I'm going to turn it back to furu um I'll I'll continue I know where we're going to go to our tour the more you know a very important uh recognition of our staff retirement but I want to make sure that no other recognition or communication on Mr oh yeah uh so I just wanted to congratulate all the sports teams like there's too many to even name that did great this year either won the championship or got all the way there and I just wanted to uh congratulate all the graduates um coming up this upcoming week and um you know congratulate everyone on a great year um and and thank the para Educators
006coming again showing up again in the meeting um they uh they show strong attendance and we thank you for all your hard work silicone awesome sir um yeah um I was surrogate parent for my grandson this past week and because his parents weren't in town one of the responsibilities I had was going to the kindergarten evaluation and we both entered nervous um I think I was a little interview PTSD he just didn't know what was going to be happening and we left um quite bold and happy and um I just want to do a shout out to Dean's Mill for supplying these very happy and confident giving introduction to this next chapter for young kids and their parents and the grandparent um this past week thank you um it is about our year for Westland
007so congratulations and I want to recognize uh our educator of the Year prior educator of the year and or School of the year for Connecticut so we're very proud of you um next item on our agenda is our staff retirement and it's uh it's you know it's it's hard to read these names because it's people that I grew to know for over the years they've been a great part of my family my kids education and and my my work on the board but we have a resolution to every one of those individual signed by the entirety of the board the resolution reads that the Board of Education of Stonington Connecticut at its regular meeting on June 8 2023 adopted this resolution in respect to each individual retiree whereas this individual has completed eight years for
008number of years of faithful and conscientious Service as an employee in the Stonington public schools and has now retired and whereas this individual has devoted much effort in their job assignment to the extent that they the he or she is held in high admiration for his or her dedication and personal contribution to the varied needs of the Stonington public schools to the extent this person is held in the greatest esteem by all resolved that the Board of Education in a regular meeting assembled on this date attest to the valuable service rendered by this individual to the cause of Education in the palestonington and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread on the minutes of the board education and that a copy be presented to this honored individual as a testimony
009of the board sincere's appreciation of loyalty character and Service Board of Education is stoning in Connecticut signed by all board members and we have a small gift of recognition that our superintendent myself will give to those individuals so when your name is called if you wouldn't mind coming up and fruke is going to deliver your resolution as well as your gift and I first want to say you know I look out and um we're gonna miss you you all have and some of we are we already missed I'm looking at Linda I haven't seen in months now um but you do look younger and happier so we can see you know those of you who have yet to leave just turn around and say see it's gonna it's gonna all work out but again we
010can't thank you enough for all of your service and your various roles um we're actually getting Margo Crowley back because it's like Hotel California you can check out but you can never leave um and uh just to know that we appreciate your work but also not only professional um professionally respect you but you've been great friends and uh colleagues as well so we hope that you will stay in touch and that we we won't be strangers so we're going to go in uh years of uh the lowest number of services and then figure finished it off with our Lifetime Achievement Award um here so Margo if you would come up Margo's currently the assistant principal of uh guidance at the high school and uh has been serving in that role for eight years which I'm
011sure seems like it went by in a blink of an eye but she'll be back she'll be back um with our children in the annex next year and we're so happy to have you have you retired be happy but have a nice schedule that's going to work for your personal life much foreign next we have Linda Kuja who is visiting us from her new home in Florida that's why she looks so good uh she was a special services Administrative Assistant for 14 years um and has was a great colleague here at central office and a kind of a historian as well as new kind of a lot of the things that uh some of us newbies needed to be filled in on so congratulations we miss you because next up we have uh Sue Warren
012from Stonington Middle School she was a para educator for 17 years for those of us who have for those of us who have Middle School experience we understand that that's an interesting time of developments and so uh it really if you did it in dog years it's probably more you know reflective of the actual experience so thank you thank you sue um this one's this one's especially tough uh um really the first face you see at Stonington High School is Carolyn Chapman I've just been a receptionist for 22 years up there and she's really always gives the Nordstrom treatment to our families and our staff and we're going to dearly miss her we'll get her back to work soon um uh the next honorary retiree could not be here this evening is Nancy Sullivan um
013a middle school science teacher for years and years actually served for 23 years in that role um in two middle schools and uh we'll be missed as well a woman who's very passionate about her content area and uh kind of a long-term Stonington uh educator so she will be missed as well and we'll get her her resolution and her her gift come on down Larry Larry retired earlier he's another one of these people who looks well rested but we miss you a custodian for pocketek middle school for most of his career but also served at Stonington High School for 35 years so thank you very much and then finally I would like to say we saved the best for last but Mr cream and I don't know the Lifetime Achievement Award come on up Mr
014Michael Freeman foreign 36 years in the classroom both at the middle school level and uh High School level uh SCA president and um people don't know but he's actually very warm and fuzzy it does so he just doesn't like to show it and so we will miss you I know he doesn't believe that but congratulations okay so we just we do have a lovely cake and it is tradition that we take about 15 minutes or so so that everybody can mingle about congratulate each other and have some refreshments so please join us all right there's the agenda right we know that so let's get the links oh yeah but with the business foreign thank you videos thank you dollars foreign again it's okay thank you I was like as soon as I had some of
015that frosting I was like give it a hot water in 15 minutes yourself thank you practices two seconds thank you um foreign [Laughter] is ready I did read several of these and underlying them I just like I was um because I just thought attention brings attention attention attention the retirings we need a photo op in front of the screen if you wouldn't mind Anna just wants to capture one of you all together uh we'll bring back the meeting to order please thank you for the retirees we appreciate you and uh we look forward to seeing you to the remainder of this year next item on our agenda is actually a recognition for our student government representative who who we are you know we wanted to show a recognition to will uh Mr Fike has uh
016always been committed to uh showing up to our board meetings here and uh regardless if he sat here or he said in the audience he was always here so um Leah our student government representative and uh both of you we we want to say thank you for your commitment thank you we're very proud of you we're very proud of your accomplishment we want you to know that we do what we do to see you like you graduate high school with honors like the way you did and we're very proud of you and we cannot wait for next Friday to see you walk down that uh that graduation aisle and and throw that hat in the air but we want to say thank you to the both of you because we appreciate you and these are
017just a couple of thank you cards and gift cards and to just show our a small token of appreciation we're very proud of you and I was in Dartmouth uh two weeks ago and I thought of you so good luck congratulations guys uh I was still in there that's me over here sorry oh hi uh sorry um just real quick um while you're doing all this uh retirements and what have you I didn't realize that uh Mrs Sullivan wasn't going to be here today and that's where most people refer to her as Mrs Sullivan and I had the pleasure of Walking The Halls of the middle school and and watching her do her thing and to see her in the classroom I couldn't witness a lot of the other teachers or pairs or whoever but
018to see Mrs Sullivan do what she did in the suit in the classroom with all of her students and I was just like you know amazed and she just did it you know it's just one reason why stolenson school system has such a great system is because of teachers like her and Mr Freeman um but uh she was she was able to do it and then she did what did she do like uh the girls in science or something what was I forgot the name of that group Science Olympiad and just you know it's it's it's not an easy subject and it's not an easy subject with girls um and she made it that way and uh just wanted to recognize her and also my fellow co-worker Sue Martin who uh is retiring and moving
019on so I can just personally testify to what great people they are and that they're going to be missed thank you thank you Mr Kai next item on our agenda is comments from citizens regarding items on the agenda I'd like to remind everyone that comments are limited to three minutes per individual 20 minutes per topic okay next item on our agenda is uh uh report from our superintendent of schools thank you I can't believe it's our last board meeting of the year it just seems like it went by and have a link of an eye and I I thought because I'm I like to have bookends on things that it would be appropriate for me to give you a very high level report on where we are with our four District goals if you remember
020the first board goal was academics and the State Department of Education did something different this year they're actually releasing their score our scores in a slow drip fashion rather than in one report that becomes embargoed for a short period of time before it goes public so we have an idea on officially of where we stand I can't give you again specific numbers because they're not all in yet but we do have some good news in in two disciplines two of three disciplines and that's Science and Mathematics and we do have some direction on some work that we need to do in language arts um especially around our our folks at the higher end of the um the performance that we need to improve their growth scores so that's I just wanted to give you a
021report because your first goal is actually on academics we do know that we are recovering on the academic front from the pandemic however the social emotional needs and the behavioral needs of the students have are still escalated and I would tell you that there when we get to talking about a little bit later about the Esser funds uh there's a there's a definite need to support students in that Arena and we'll be looking at not only that work directly but also leveraging the new supports that we have with our school-based health systems at West fine Street School in in the high school as well as our before and after school program uh your second goal again was on just uh diversity equity and inclusion we have built on this work over the years but we
022also know that we have seen uh behaviors this year that we know we have more work to do on that and so the assistant superintendent and I will be working at um finding some Professional Resources to work with not only our our staff but also our students to make sure that we can do a better job in that Arena and we'll continue to expand uh programming that has been so successful such as the witness Stone program we will be providing students an opportunity to investigate and learn and educate the community again this year about another enslaved person who's local and probably has a story that has not been told uh our voice program will continue to expand we'll be looking at developing new encores continuing the empty bowls and expanding our hbi program um and
023again uh we will look to family Partners we've had some conversations recently with Pro family members who want to help us grow that Dei work in a very different fashion and so we we look forward to partnering with them goals three and four revolve around family and Community engagement um we had a pretty successful year with our welcoming schools team many tangible projects and ideas are going to be coming into play next year as a result of those and uh I can tell you that Tim and I attended almost every one of those meetings and they were really constructive happy positive meetings with tangible outcomes which is one of my preferred outcomes of any meeting we will be looking at again providing the community service day that the high school students involved and were involved
024in this spring we had over 150 students spend about a half a day volunteering at about 30 different non-profits in the area and that was enormously well received not only by the students I think we'll could we'll report it on that but also community members I got a lot of emails from them just saying how wonderful it was to see our students working alongside of them and they really welcomed that opportunity I'd also like to thank the following organizations and I hope I don't forget anybody but um they've partnered us with us throughout this year and they will continue to be to be strong Community new partners as we move forward legrua Center Como the YMCA both Mystic and pocketuck Ness Mystic Seaport Mystic Aquarium the yellow Farmhouse Stonington Historical Society the child and family
025counselor centers all of the fire departments especially Pawcatuck fire department I have to give Byron a plug because he lets me ride in the truck and pull the fire alarms so he gets he gets a special shout out and also both chambers of Converse most the Mystic in the ocean on the State Chamber have been amazing partners and I'd like to publicly thank you the Board of Education the select women the board of Finance the Stonington police department for the Myriad of ways we've all partnered to keep our students safe well educated and mentally sound so thank you because it's been a really interesting year we've done a lot together and I couldn't have done half of it without your support so I appreciate that as far as summer school goes I just wanted to
026give you an idea of of where we are it's bigger than I thought it was going to be with such a late start we have 72 students enrolled at the elementary Summer Academy level we'll be partnering again with yellow Farmhouse to provide some on-site and off-site experiences for our little ones our Middle School summer Academy our award-winning Middle School summer Academy 109 students are currently enrolled and the majority of those students are enrolled for all four weeks of the program let me give you an idea of some of the courses work that they'll be engaged in Spanish Culture Club jewelry making murals math and art Integrations International Sports health and wellness introduction to the guitar playing around with plays so you can see why the kids are interested their High interest experiences for the students
027to become engaged in in addition to that Nora Sellinger received a grant to provide a transition program for our incoming sixth graders that will Center on Executive functioning skills which Mr Smith will tell you after cleaning out many middle school lockers there's a lot of room for growth and executive functioning at the middle school level and then finally I just wanted to give you an update on our air quality issues you know do you think you get through a pandemic and then they throw a Canadian Fires at you it's just always amazing but I want to give Danielle cheeseburger a nod because she got together we've been talking since Tuesday night when the the conditions really started to deteriorate and she got a team of us together on Wednesday morning ledge light the rec department
028Town Representatives Peter myself on there so that we could craft a common message that would go out from the town in the schools we really have been working very closely together monitoring it on an ongoing basis I want to thank Megan Winslow for being our um update like I feel like she gives us quarterly four times a day we get air quality today is Orange it's now red and it does change that quickly so related to that I just want to let you know that our field days that are planned at the elementary and middle school level the principals have decided to use the rain dates just to give the the air quality a chance to improve it should be drastically improving by Saturday but we figure the middle school was planning on doing their
029field day tomorrow why not just use the rain date and make sure that it's it's a little bit of a healthier condition for the students and the staff also for our commencement exercises we just wanted to make you aware we will still be doing the live streaming that has traditionally taken place so folks remotely can watch the the ceremonies we will also provide a space inside the high school that will also allow people who will have underlying conditions or just don't feel like they want to take that chance of being outside for that extended period of time they can watch on-site and then celebrate immediately after with their their graduates so um that's it you know the details on that Arrangement will be broadcasted by principal Daw next week saying I don't know if you
030have any questions on any of that that's the end of the bookend for this year great thank you um next item on our agenda is consent agenda I know you have approval of contracts and conditions of employment as part of your consent agenda so if you want to remove or vote on the entirety of the consent agenda is up to you when housekeeping note on the approval of contracts if you have any questions um we have to keep them in general not the specific position out of the eight positions if you wish to speak to a specific position at the eight positions we we would like to go in an executive session for that and I'm happy to go into executive sessions so you can speak to a specific position so what's your what is
031your preference I just have a question so we're basically voting on um contracts that are already in place continuing them through next year right I just want to make sure what I was voting on yep in the memo that was attached gave you the range of what those raises would be those increases would be for those different persons concerns yes sir can we move into the executive session of course please yes um so motion there's a motion to move an executive session is there a second I'll second that um so we'll move an executive session right uh superintendent school to join the board and we'll uh we'll uh all those in favor to go to an executive decision please indicate by saying aye aye foreign in a minute foreign for these two new um Health
032Centers yes have the record reflect that we came back from executive session at 7 24 um in the item on our agenda that was in discussion is consent agenda may I have a motion to approve consent agenda items a through d motion to approve is it motion is there second second any discussion on the motion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye eyes have it was unanimous um next item on our agenda is subcommittee report and I'll turn it over to Mr like no teaching and learning thank you uh today at our teaching and learning committee uh we received some results of a small teacher survey regarding their uses and thoughts around Ai and chat gbt and its uses in the classroom uh leadership plans on discussing ways to provide professional development on
033AI and Ai and education this summer for sometime next year a very exciting discussion uh today we have one curriculum and a book to go with that curriculum on the agenda as a first read and we'll be up for vote uh as a second read and approval at our next regular meeting that's all thank you thank you pattern s thank you Kevin any question for Kevin all right next item in our agenda is uh Finance facility subcommittee report Chris all right so we had a pretty uh long agenda today uh one of the first things we talked about was uh the remainder of the Esser funds um just to let you guys know the deadline to spend that is by September 30th 2024. um so Marianne and Alicia came up uh with ideas how to
034allocate the Esser funds Alicia's not here tonight so I'm going to have Marianne go over after talking to all the administrators from the different schools what they came up with thank you Chris um this is the sheet that I handed out to you so if you'd like to play the home game and follow along I'm just going to walk you through um what are I our thoughts are behind the use of the remaining supplemental Esser money uh remember that this money was specifically earmarked for addressing uh the consequences of the pandemic and the impact on our students and so uh after that all of those lengthy discussions about air conditioning at the middle school and that kind of crashed and burned we've regrouped so what I wanted you to have in front of you is
035the the kind of carryover money in other words at the end of this year what do we project having to move forward with before not only next school year but also up until the September 30th 2024. um so you you can see here we went to the building principles and said you know if you could have anything back and um what would it be we also had some conversations about where do we see needs not only for support in remediation and intervention but also in program growth we understand that these are one-year funded positions we understand that next year we're going to have to have some tough conversations about what goes in the the operating budget the general budget and what we're going to have to live without we keep repeating and repeating to the
036building leaders because you know once they have something they just want more which is understandable but again this is an opportunity we don't want to give any money back it's an opportunity to give our our students another year of special supports and also grow some programs so at West Vine Street School we had a conversation with Kathy because if you remember in the general budget she was actually going to lose two of those Esser positions she was she was and she was looking at cutting back out of her um Regular programming a kindergarten teacher and a fifth grade teacher this will allow her to have four sections of kindergarten next year uh Allison has informed us that her intelligence right now on the Pre-K students that are coming through our program but also through other
037preschool programs um are going to have some heavy needs and anticipating that some may actually end up having supplemental Services through our programming so it will be benefit it will be a benefit to have that fourth section and keep class sizes small uh at West Vine Street School She also asked for to the return of one of the academic interventionists we're leaving them termed as academic interventionists in hopes of that we can get people who have both reading and Mathematics skills tools and that we can have some flexibility there but we'll see what the job market provides the funding again would allow for an academic interventionist to continue at Dean's Mill in the same fashion uh it would allow for Stonington Middle School to have an additional interventions they did not have they did not
038enjoy the benefits of any of this Sr money and when we look at some of the academic the the growth scores and things we know that they could use a little bit of help there uh we would we want to use uh some of the money uh to return a dean of uh Dean to that school Deanna and Tina are flat out um if you've ever been at a Middle School uh or if you've gone to Middle School uh and you remember the behavioral challenges um at that particular time in people's lives and then you put on that a layer of what is going on as a result of this recovery and some of the social um components that are are new to relatively new to us we think it would be a really good
039use of these funds to give those ladies some some extra help with the behavioral issues so that they can actually get into classrooms and talk about teaching and learning and not just behavioral issues we would like to use the funds also to grow the hbi program we've doubled the enrollment in one year already I'd like to call DC and talk to Melissa C down there who was the person who gave us the grant that will expire at the end of next year and see because we have been ambassadors for that program she said that frequently that maybe she might have some Financial incentives for us to expand that program so we could have an additional year for students to pursue more pre-apprenticeship hours accumulate some more hours whether it's in carpentry or whatever it might
040be so we would really like to grow that program the reason is framed as coordinator as we're looking at this person maybe having a different kind of role beyond the classroom and then maybe doing some work with trades people and actually taking smaller groups of kids out doing some work in the field with uh our local trades construction trades people uh if you remember again we we lost one full-time science teacher at the high school this year out of the general budget when we were making our Cuts this would allow Alicia to have a half-time science teacher return what that would do for the students is would allow for the return of more of the electives right now we've narrowed some of those down to give as much Choice as we possibly can but it
041would allow for more of those electives to be offered next year or more sections of electives to be offered next year Chris do you want to give a commercial for your help desk he can explain it more artfully if you remember you have a 0.5 General funded help desk person but you tell the story of what what's happening with the person who should really be doing cyber security right so we had funded in the upcoming fiscal year uh the help desk administrator position to start in January so it was a happier funded position we're going to be leveraging some of the Esser funds to hire them a little earlier we have not used any of the SR funds for technology so this will be sort of our Fourier to that the help desk administrator is
042going to help um in that they'll be the direct supervisor of all the computer technicians which will help alleviate that role from our current systems administrator we have many projects last summer I think we're around 23 right now we're at about 18 and Counting so a little more than I was hoping for this summer but the the technology needs the district are ever growing and especially with cyber security policies procedures uh just making sure that we're keeping our students safe and secure is becoming an ever increasing burden of the district so this is going to help alleviate some of those roles so this will allow us to get that person in place from the get-go rather than waiting until the year's half over so again from a from when what people don't see because it's
043not a person in front of students or in a school but critically important to the safety of the district and then the fringe benefits speak for themselves and then on the next page the summer program programming the instructional supplies and eastcon I I would describe this as squishy money in the sense of we can use that money if for instance something unexpected happens in Peter's department and he needs extra money for facilities we can we can move back on that and recapture that money and repurpose it but right now these these are our intentions of how we would like to use those funds and then again you can see the the last little over 800 000 is for the high school boiler correct and then we still have a carryover IN Zip to cover the
044Middle School boiler cost so that's that's where we're at I think it's a really good plan we went over it with the the principles this morning and you would think it was Christmas um we had a lot of happy faces so um we hope that you uh you also support this but I'm happy to answer any questions any questions on that so we have 1.9 that we have to spend is that the carrier correct correct that's that's giving you a balance of like as of June 30th that's what our projection is is that what's going to be quote unquote left over to spend down by uh September 30th 2024. and then these two pages are [Music] telling you how you're going to spend that um I guess one of my comments to start off with
045is just because we have it doesn't mean we should spend it um especially if it's uh money that Washington wants back um but I guess a couple questions would be on the academic interventionists um lines one is at 90 000 and the other 268 000. is there a difference yes because outside of 20 because we believe that we have a person in-house that will be in that position and they cost more than the right right the other ones the other ones are unknowns if you will so it's it's a capturing an average yeah go ahead uh so about that uh the 90 000 so it's someone in half house already they got more qualification like right it's based on right years degrees that kind of thing yeah tenured then on the dean of students position
046is that um that would be based on the contract Dan for an entry level at that position that's just the lowest wrong on the contract what do we have there now we have a principal and a vice principal correct at one point Tim do you want to give the history on what you had and why take us back in the way back machine Mr Smith oh you you need a you need a mic yeah see okay once upon a time in town of Stonington there were two middle schools uh each Middle School had a principal and an assistant principal full-time in the consolidation uh well in the year prior to consolidation uh we all thought it would be a great idea for one of the Middle School principles to be principal of both middle schools
047at the same time and to help out with that uh the we hired a temporary dean of students for Pawcatuck Middle School to help out Deanna picoli as the assistant principal who only had a halftime principal because he was bouncing back and forth so then when we Consolidated the two middle schools we kept that entire admin team together so in the first year of consolidation we had a principal two assistant principals and a dating students and then the following year we went from four to two and the plan was Stan that to go from four to three and then evaluate whether three to two is going to be a smart move and it was not at that time supported by the board so you went from four with this whole new culture right and then
048boom the pandemic hit and then to two and then the pandemic hit and then only half the kids were in the school at a time so of course you didn't have the same issues because you had a whole different Dynamic going on and now we're back to the exactly the situation we knew was going to happen having three people was that I think the combining of the two middle schools it was a likelihood that there would be support Insurance behavior that sort of thing so it makes sense to add the third books but it was very excited that some of the board supported it but not it wasn't enough to convince the entire voice of the position of the style I remember hearing of some of the discussion of of when it went from four
049to two um but now we're going back to three on the hbi program coordinator we um what happens next year if we're not able to put that in the general budget is that going to impact our clubs make some other choices and there's probably some other areas that would be better choices of eliminating than that especially especially Dan I have to check the state of the final um legislation that went through because there was a bill in play that we would get I think it was a thousand dollars maybe it was more than that for every child that got through one of these courses we would recapture money between and that's not saying that 35 000 is going to pay for the entire position but it's a big hunk right um and then again let
050me pursue a little bit more with hbi because I I do believe there's grant money funding out there um but I think that's where we need to go we need to provide more non-traditional opportunities for kids the other thing that that would do is free up Dean right now who is teaching all of the a you know he can he he's been doing a great job it would also help him go back and offer more of the electives that he traditionally had had offered you know graphic are things that we've been trying to parse out to other disciplines uh and he he really has kind of the I want to say more of the media Tech kind of things that we could bring back in full form and supplement the hbi with this other person
051he could still do some of that tier one um groundwork course and maybe this other person could do the next layer of that year two offering because if we if we double those numbers already this year to accommodate those kids that means we have to eliminate some of those electives that Dean's offering already because you can't you can't teach at all so um I think strategically that's a smart thing to pursue uh substitute teachers the 156 is that just a um we move that to make our number when we had to make the cut goes let's take it out because if you remember that line for subteachers is like half a million dollars which is really really high but that was a way again to get to our magic number without touching any of the
052classroom any further in the 246 the same well yeah taxes and insurance right right so like those are like budget shortfalls and or will they be associated with these positions right right but uh these are well the subs wouldn't be Associated right right and 246 000 the benefits would be associated with those uh yep the insurance benefits yes and then the HVAC is right that's the high school and then remember the other piece of that because if you remember like to get to that total of what we need the other piece of that is what's sitting in sip that has just been sitting there and that would be for the Middle School thank you for your explanations I mean I'll do we have to vote on it no no all right so yes reallocation actually
053has it has to give the community the uh opportunity to give input on these changes to the SR fund allocation um and we'll take any questions from the community please address them to uh the plan will be posted um for I think two weeks we have to do it by law for public comment and then the narrative will have to change um because again our plan has changed for the state you're welcome I'm not uh just to be clear so that the building the building principles um and the the people we're bringing in are they they understand that once the Esser funds go away yeah I just just want to make sure the expectations are set up right sure any other questions on that so I'm going to move uh to Peter he's got to
054update on uh the boilers for us here we go um so we're going to be heading out to bid for the boys and that's all I got for tonight any questions for Chris none Mr Kelly you want to give us an update on policy subcommittee yes policy subcommittee met and we have a first read tonight which is uh they're all linked on the agenda if anyone at home watching this wants to link click on them they can see what these policies are um all the fellow board members have received those and had a chance to look at them and three of us on the policy committee have already voted on them the first one is just the first read is a non-residence attendance um where it's been issues year after year after year and not
055only in our school district but in other school districts and you know it's just a so this gives us a more defined policy on what happens if there's a non-resident from another town uh attending our schools and the policy on uh District uh the child attended the school in their districts and not uh I guess it only applies to elementary school and not going to a school out of District without permission and with the whole policy of uh when to apply and what the deadlines are Etc so that was the first read on the non-resident's attendance um and due to uh urgency we waived the first read on the next two policies one being registration requirements and one being stability we want to get the registration requirements in so that that way they're now active
056and would be applicable to the next school year um and then on the civility unfortunately uh it's civility not in the schools and not with the students but more of uh with adults and uh how people conduct themselves when they're interacting with our Administration and and superintendent and uh it's just a you know everyone keeps saying oh times have changed and what have you and and times have changed but our civility doesn't need to we can still maintain our Civility and we can still have appropriate interactions between uh the parents and other members of the public with our Administration and this is pretty much just to help back up the administration to say you know as the kids would say I don't even know if they'd still say it or not but chill out let's
057you know let's if we have normal appropriate conversations we can hopefully agree to disagree or agree on certain policies and procedures and certain whatever without having to you know be uh uncivil about it so that's what why uh we waived the first read and the second read is for transportation volunteers and evaluations of coaches which are just uh enhance and updating and uh Improvement on policies that we already had in existence so I would ask for a motion on the five policies that require a vote I'll move is there a second any discussion yeah I just wanted to ask about the civility um it all makes sense to me but um like when I read it I was trying to get the gist of it so it's basically for like um public meetings and stuff
058like that and is it talking about school children too or it really takes into account all of the stakeholders that are involved in our school system but I will give you some specifics so that it you'll be clearer is sometimes when people are heated um and they're not their headspace isn't in the right place to continue a conversation in a manner that's going to bring a productive outcome um the administrators or a teacher may have to shut down a conversation and that can be then it can come to my office and I get so-and-so hung up on me or this teacher did this or that and and it's really because the conversation wasn't going anywhere and so now we can say oh you're in violation of of a policy that says we're going to behave
059this way people like us do these things right and so uh it's not a silver bullet but it sure is helpful to know that we are in agreement that you expect all of us the board members the administration the the educational staff um you know the the non-educational staff to behave like grown-ups and to behave and be respectful of one another um and give us an opportunity to have some space to say if if something's not going in a productive manner we have a policy that says you're you're not supporting that and we need to regroup when you're ready to come to the table and we can come to a decision uh in the best interest of whatever child or children are involved got it thank you you're welcome we have a lot of discussion
060all those who favor approving the five policies please indicate by saying aye aye that was unanimous that I have it thank you any other questions to Mr Kelly no sir thank you monthly reports next item on our agenda they have the global report and on behalf of Felicia don't get too excited there isn't that much money left so uh it's just that it's to the end of May so just be aware of that that is not um there isn't those amounts are not incumbent yet uh we have our in our monthly report our Student Government reports so it's your final report do you have any updates or are you good with it or hello um I just want to congratulate um we also have a great executive appointments yes I was there for the ceremony
061and very exciting congratulations to Kate and thank you for our representatives for the year any questions on the monthly reports from the board members next item on our agenda is board comments and items for future agenda I gotta I gotta comment if I may I want to thank everybody for another uh great school year um and just you know remind us to look forward coming up um you know we we we we did a really good job making um good relationships with the board of Finance this year and um being being responsible with the budget and um I just want to remind everyone that we're gonna we need to stay vigilant going forward um because you know with the S are going away and everything like that we're gonna have to find creative ways to
062continue giving the best education possible without putting the burden on the taxpayers and I look forward to doing that with you guys for the rest of my term thank you Chris any other comments comment um this thing on there it goes uh do we need a motion to uh cancel our July meeting it's a regularly scheduled meeting and I would entertain I would make a motion to um traditionally that meeting is not held and I make a motion that we cancel it July meeting there's a motion on the floor is there a second to that motion I'd be so happy to second that motion is that a discussion is there a comment from Marianne and you have anything against canceling the meeting um no uh Allison no no um any other discussion on canceling the
063meeting for July all those in favor by for canceling the meeting for July please indicate by saying aye aye that was that was unanimous guys habits I think Anna was the most excited one counselor and unanimous um any other comments from board members and just to be clear that if there's a reason for us to reconvene we're available to reconvene and have a special meeting or whatever but and I want people thinking oh they're taking this summer off or I want to recognize the board members who have shown and tremendous commitment I've never served on a board that everybody showed up for every meeting like you do ladies and gentlemen so really I've so impressed uh that everybody shows up for every meeting and regardless you've met last week you're meeting this week and I
064know your meeting next week and I just want to say thank you for your commitment to the board of education and to the children of Stonington uh it's huge I've never never have served on a too many boards and I've never served on a board that everybody shows up every meeting so thank you yeah so canceling July is a is no big deal uh I'm sure the kids will forgive us we're not meeting in July motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn second the second all in favor I even well voted on that one see you in August