001It is 6:30 like to call the meeting to order. We will start with the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. or online. Hearing none, um I'll turn this meeting over to Superintendent Caruso for our celebration of excellence for the evening. >> All right. Thank you very much. We're excited to celebrate our validatoran saludiatoran uh this evening. They did graduate two nights ago. So, congratulations to them. U we wanted to make sure that uh they and their families had an opportunity to come and be recognized at the board meeting um for this tremendous accomplishment. did an amazing job the other night, their speeches and addressing their class. Um, the dust has settled a little bit. Hopefully, they've gotten a little bit of rest since project graduation. Um, and I
002will start with our validictorian, Kian Kelsey. Gives me great pleasure to announce Kian Kelsey as this year's validictorian for the class of 2026. Keen is a dedicated and hardworking student who has challenged himself academically through rigorous course load while remaining deeply involved in the life of the school community. Recognized as the American Legion boy state recipient, he has demonstrated strong character, leadership, civic responsibility. Keen is also a respected leader on both the hockey and soccer teams where he models teamwork, perseverance, and sportsmanship. In addition, his involvement in the National Honor Society and the Bigs and Littles program reflects his commitment to service and mentorship as he consistently works to support and uplift younger students. Kian plans on attending the University of Connecticut to study material science and engineering. Congratulations Kian to you and your family
003and our saludiatoran Tanisha Ray. It is with great pride that I announce Tanisha Ray as the class of 2026 saludiatoran. Tanisha has consistently taken and excelled in high level course work at Bolton High School while balancing time for a variety of extracurricular activities. She has served as a class officer for the past three years and is currently serving on the executive board. Currently served on executive board for student council. Tanisha's leadership carries over to all that she does, serving as captain on the volleyball and tennis teams, editor for the school yearbook, and through volunteer work. Tanisha's hard work and determination have helped her reach this important milestone. Tanisha also will be attending Yukon in the fall to study nursing and be going to school with her sister. Congratulations to you and your family. We'll get
004a quick photo op with the two of you up here. There you go. Congratulations. >> Swing around. >> All right. Can you Can you turn around? Thank you. All right. Together. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Very nice, guys. >> Yeah, you're you're welcome to leave. Enjoy the rest of your evening. You're welcome to stay. >> Go get some ice cream. >> Thanks. >> Thank you very much. Congratulations. >> Happy graduation. Next, do we have any additions to the agenda? >> Uh, yes. Uh, I'd like to propose making a motion with regard to the superintendent contract that we're going to talk about uh later in executive session. I'd like to make a motion to authorize the board chair to negotiate and execute the superintendent's contract. >> I'll second. Oh, are all those? >> Sorry. How am I
005doing? >> Okay. All right. Um, next we have approval of minutes. Um, looking for someone to make a motion for the approval of the May 14th, 2026 uh board of education business meeting minutes. >> So move. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I um next I'll move on to the board of education committee reports. Um first we have finance. >> Yep. So that's me. Um we met with our subcommittee today at noon um and reviewed all the materials that you have in your packet. Uh as of the end of May, May 31st, the budget is approximately 83% expended, which is consistent with this point in last year's budget. Overall spending is stable across all budget areas. We do have, as you'll notice, several reclassifications and one transfer to approve. You'll also notice that um
006obviously we mention every meeting that special education is an everchanging landscape. That was essentially true for the reclassification that you'll notice for uh what was an unexpected and unplanned special education outplacement. Um for clarity, I believe the amount shown and it's a pretty large amount is just for the remainder of this school year. Um there's also a food service update as you can see in the packet. uh that price increase. Uh and then the numbers shown on the food service chart, I just want to be mindful, are through April only. So it's really just ballpark projection through the end of the year uh without knowing May and June's final numbers. Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the transfer. >> Was that the owl making an owl sound? >> It only doesn't check.
007I think it's just now. Is there a question? >> We're also past the point of public comment unless [clears throat] that's Andrew, >> right? >> I'll second discussion. >> Any questions about the transfers conversation? I was wondering if you could um describe as much as you could about the um $52,000 transfer. >> Yeah. So, the unexpected outplacement cost um to cover tuition um is is a special ed cost as Mr. Davies alluded to earlier. Um it is an everchanging landscape and uh this is a prime example of it. This uh was unexpected for us and it is a prrated amount for the rest of the school year. Um we were able to thankfully cover it with some savings in other tuition areas. Um but yes, this is something that can and can can pop up
008at any time. Um and usually our large dollar amounts. >> When you say end of school year, that's till July one. >> Yeah. Through the rest of this academic school year. Yes. >> We have a number for now. >> Good question. Not yet. We recently just got involved in this situation and so the more we learn and try to get involved in the planning for next year, we'll know more going in as plans as the meetings happen. >> Thank you. I do think it's also important to point out that um as we get closer to the end of the school year, some of our numbers um are becoming more finalized and we do have significantly more in our revised projected surplus than we did have even last month as we come finalized the end of
009the year. All right. So, I would like we made a motion. Okay. Okay. All those in favor? >> All right. Anyone want to oppose? Abstaining. All right. >> All right. Next we have our community meetings reports and I can talk to the scholarship committee. they um were present at graduation and they I should say the students received about $100,000 worth of scholarships this year that the community has done an amazing job of helping fund the Bolton scholarship fund to help give these opportunities to the Bolton students and residents. It did seem like a lot of the graduates did get scholarships. Did Did almost everybody that applied that was a graduate get something? >> I don't know that. I heard we saw a lot of the kids stand up, but as I have an applicant in
010that I'm not part of the selection process, so I can't look at, you know, who's applying and what people are getting. >> And a lot of people have multiples. It was really nice. >> Yeah. and Chris Dave did an unbelievable job. Yes. >> All right. Any other uh I don't have calendar in front of me. I know they just had their last meeting. Um >> STEM night. >> Yeah, they had their STEM night the other the other night. I'm not sure how that went. They I was at softball game. Um I think they're they're already planning for next year. They had just done their art show, ice cream social. It was really well attended. Um, yeah, I'm just wrapping up here. Anything else? All right, next we'll move on to the superintendent report. >> All
011right, thank you. Um, yeah, winding down the end of the school year, but a lot of exciting things happening. Attended BCS field day last week. Um, I included a couple photos um of that that um activity that was fantastic. did an unbelievable job putting that on. We had a lot of parent volunteers which was fantastic. Eighth grade class night um again was amazing. Last Friday night they did a decades theme and they had each second section of the cafeteria in a different decade. Um it was it was fantastic. Really really good. Uh we had our first ever grad walk. Our seniors took a trip through BCS um in their cap and gown which I think that was really wellreceived. We received a lot of positive feedback on that. So, I want to thank the high
012school team for coordinating that, putting that together. Uh, Mr. Miselli and his team. That was uh I thought that was a really nice way to cap off their experience in Bolton. I know the teachers there were excited to see the kids. Um, so that was nice. And obviously, we had an awesome graduation the other night. Again, Mr. Misellian's team put on a tremendous event. Uh, the weather cooperated and the kids did an amazing job. It was a really nice evening, I think, for the students and their families. Uh, transportation contract, good news. uh put pen to paper today on on the transportation contract. So, uh it took us a while, but we finally put a bow on it today. Um it did come under our projected uh budget, which is fantastic. Cassaul's trying to finalize
013what that exact number is, but we know we'll have some savings there. Uh and we also were able to negotiate the buses being housed in Bolton, so that'll continue to get us generate the revenue or the property taxes on those buses. And then in year three, the buses are going to be new uh based on our contract. And so the buses will be those new buses will be worth more and generate even more income for for the town. So that's that's exciting news. Um unfortunately, the second budget referendum did fail and as a result of that, the finance committee made an additional reduction of $60,000 to the board event budget. Cassaul, myself and and the central office team and the administrators been working really hard to try to navigate that and see how the pieces
014of the puzzle are going to fit. Um there are a lot of variables with the budget process. There's a lot of moving parts and so we're trying to take pieces and put it all together. Um we have a third referendum this upcoming Tuesday from noon to 8. Uh the participation was better in the second referendum and we hope the participation will continue to increase and we'll have even better participation um on that day. Uh it is a early release day for our students. So perhaps the timing will work out nicely where parents on the way to BCS to pick up or on the way after they pick up can swing by the polls and do your voting. Um that would be nice. Uh and like I said, hopefully we get really good participation um for
015that. uh we know we we're made aware that we have to we're going to be required to do a PAS water testing. It's testing a specialized laboratory process designed to detect per and poly fluuro substances often called forever chemicals because they never break down in the environment or the human body. Um I was made aware that this is going to become mandatory by other superintendents. So I contacted John Bachramovich and of course because he's awesome he said we're already on it. We've already had these we've been proactive and had these tests. One of the tests at BCS has come back and there are no elevated levels and waiting for the BHS one to come back. Fingers crossed there's no elevated levels there also because mitigation um systems are costing other districts tens of thousands of
016dollars um to remediate this. So hopefully fingers crossed that the next test result comes back positive for us as well. >> And that's it for my updates. >> Great. Thank you. Any unfinished business? Good job. All right. Next, we'll move on to new business. Um first we have the BHS band and choir trip uh for April 2027. >> Like to invite Mr. Air up to the podium. All right, good evening and thank you for having me here to uh propose this trip. We're really excited um to hopefully offer the same type of trip that we did in April 2023 to Virginia Beach, Virginia. Um the trip dates would be April 22nd to April 25th, 2027. That's a Thursday to Sunday. So um students would miss two days of school and then it would continue into
017the weekend. Again, it's the same format as we did the last time we did this trip and it was really successful. Um, hopefully you got a copy of the trip proposal that I sent to the superintendent's office, but um, I want to highlight a few details about the trip and I happy to answer any questions you have afterwards. Um, the trip uh, the educational piece of this is an adjudicated music festival through the festivals of music and um, that would be each area. It's usually hosted at um a local college or university. So, the students get to perform in a nice venue, a nice uh auditorium, and work with two uh expert adjudicators that are usually um from the collegiate level for the band and the choir. And they also get to participate in a
018clinic with one of the adjudicators. So the the judge actually comes up on the stage and works with them on some of the music that they performed for about 15 minutes. Um so they get some really great feedback right on the spot from the adjudicators and then they also get um recordings and scores that we get to share with them after the event is concluded. Um we would be staying for three nights at the Windom Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotel. It's the same location we stayed last time. It's right on the beach. It's a um a a really nice, clean, very safe, familyfriendly location where we can take the students right down to the beach and and have some time down there. The weather's nice. Um and then it includes most of their meals. Um and
019uh two hours at a place called Motor World, which is one of the largest outdoor go track carts in the country. Um so the students always really enjoy going there. and we'd have a day at Busch Gardens on that Saturday. That's where the awards ceremony takes place for the festivals of music. Um, it includes a security officer at the hotel each evening uh from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. So when everybody's sleeping, we know that everybody's safe and secure. And it also includes uh on call service from Perkins Travel. And uh so we can call them at any point in time if we need any assistance. We've worked with Perkins Travel in Bolton with our music department since before I was in Bolton and I've been here since 20 um 2008. So we have a
020long history of working with them and they they provide great service for us. Um, so we're still working on customizing some of the package details based on our needs, but what we're looking at right now, uh, as an estimated cost is $1,029 per student. And that's based on, uh, total of 40 students with four students per room in a sweet style hotel room. Uh and then we also included in that package um right now three parent chaperones that would pay $500 each. So that would keep us at the uh the 1 to8 board of ed ratio of chaperones to students. Um and then we would modify that as needed if our numbers change. Um we also would encourage all the families participating to purchase a cancel for any reason travel insurance. Um, we found it's
021difficult to require families to purchase that because they have to do it on their own. It's not something that the travel agency will include in the package. Um, so we have to send them a link to do it on their own. Um, but we want to strongly encourage them to purchase that policy because it covers um up to 75% of the non-refundable expenses. um and it is good up to 48 hours prior to the trip departure. So um so we would encourage everybody to take advantage of that. We also want to make this opportunity available to as many students as possible and we don't want the cost to be prohibitive to that. So we are working with bold music works to uh provide a lot of different fundraising opportunities and that fundraiser participation would be
022optional for students but we would as in the past track their profits on an individual student basis. So for example if they we have alignment orchards pi fundraiser um whatever profits a particular student raises on their own we would keep track of that and that would go towards their individual trip. Um, we're planning that fundraiser in October. We're planning one through the Spice Mill in Manchester in November. Um, a coffee house in December. And then Bolt Music Works is willing to support us if we need additional fundraising opportunities. And they may also be able to help us do some of the overall trip costs in other ways, including in the past they've purchased a meal for everybody on the trip. And so that reduced the cost for everybody. So depending on what resources are available,
023they're willing to help us with that as well. Um, do you have any questions for me? >> This is a fun trip. We did this when I was in school, too. Uh, is it banned and chorus? >> Banned and chorus. Yeah. >> Do you know how like approximately how many is like half the student population in in the school? >> Um, yes. So, we're estimating about 40 students on the trip. um that's that's what we budgeted for, but you know it could be slightly more or less than that. So that's you know a a good percentage of our our small student body. I think it's worth mentioning when we welcomed the eighth grade students from Horus Porter and Bolton Center School here um I heard some of our Bolton High School students talk about this
024trip um and how it was a highlight of their VHS experience. Um, they they seem to really like this trip. >> There questions. >> So, could we have a motion to approve the VHS band and choir trip for April 2027 to Virginia Beach? >> I'll second. >> S have any other questions or comments? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Anyone opposed or abstain? Enjoy. >> Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Thank you. >> All right. On the 2026 27 lunch prices, we have a sheet. >> Yes. So, um, we have a minimum requirement to raise lunch prices, um, because it's not we're not allowed to use it to subsidize full paid meals. So, um, one positive for next year is we will be looking at free breakfast for all students. I don't know if
025that's officially been signed by the governor. It has. Um, so we'll be all students will receive free breakfast. Um, and students that currently receive reduced lunch will receive free lunch. Um, and so we are required to raise the price of lunch by a minimum of 10 cents. We can raise it more if you like. Um, the recommendation here would be to raise it to 10 cents. I know there was a a little bit of a jump last year. Um, and so we saw that we felt that 10 10 cents would be uh a reasonable amount this year. Where does that put the lunch prices at? >> So, have you had the lunch prices off the top of your head? >> Lunch prices right now they're 375 and $4. >> So, that'll open it up to
026385 and 410. >> Yes, sir. >> That's BCS High School. >> Yep. Um, could we have a motion to raise the 2026 2027 launch prices by 10 cents each? >> So, move second. >> Um, any questions or comments? >> No. In the past, they were always operating. they've had a shortfall. Do we have the number for or where they're at this year in terms of that? I think they had presented it, right? >> Yeah, we've been projecting that. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Where is it? As you saw um in budget status, we are conservatively um projecting $120,000. Um I do think it'll come in less but that's based off you know April numbers so May June >> and the number of lunches sold this year has increased right so that that metric is moving in
027the right direction so any other questions or comments All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed or abstaining? All right. On to the meeting schedule, which we also have in front of us. Some may send to us on the mail. We can we have a motion to approve the 2026 2027 board of ed meeting schedule. So, does anyone have any questions or comments or observations or anything? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> All opposed. hang Brad really put me down. Um, on the resignations, >> we had two resignations. Uh, Bolton Center School Daily Substitute, uh, Nasherie Spence has resigned. We wish her the best of luck and thank her for the service to our our school and our our students. Um, and a central office administrative assistant, Megan,
028has also resigned. U, she's going to be starting a family and moving on to other things. All right. Do we have any future business? >> Um, now we are looking for a motion to go into executive session uh and invite Superintendent Caruso to discuss the superintendent's evaluation and contracts. >> We added that to the agenda. >> No, this is the motion session. Sorry, you already did >> the back public session. >> Oh, okay. >> Sorry. >> I'll make a motion in exact session invite the superintendent. >> Second. >> Questions? All those in favor? Please say I. >> I. Any oppose? Abstaining. Thank you for coming. All be But that's