Waterbury Board of Education Workshop - May 7, 2026

001[music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Good evening everyone. one and welcome to the Waterberry Board of Education workshop here at the beautiful Wallace uh middle school in Waterberry. Uh we're going to begin tonight with some Wallace students leading us in the pledge of allegiance. I forgot to do the silent prayer. United States of America to the republic for it stands nationy andice for all. >> Thank you very much. And I skipped the agenda, so we we'll do a silent uh moment of silence, please. Thank you. Uh Mr. Basamo, principal's report. Thank you for having us this evening. >> Absolutely. Thanks for >> Did now were students doing anything right now or after? >> Yeah. So, we're going to start out with a performance from our school band. Uh then I'm going to share some data

002with everybody just on the school updates and our student council is going to do a little presentation about some student experiences. So, uh I'm going to invite our uh student band to uh come on in. Mr. Tully. Go to the left if you don't mind. Okay. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Mr. Tully. I'm the proud band director of the Wallace Middle School band. We're going to play one song for you. This is a uh famous R&B ballad you might have heard before called Love Me. And this arrangement for a band is quite loud and exciting. So, get your ears ready. >> [music] >> One, two, three. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Wow. WOO. [applause] [applause] AWESOME. >> [cheering]

003>> Thank you. >> I think we should cancel the meeting and have more music. What do you think? [laughter] >> Thank you so much. >> They were awesome, huh? >> Yes, absolutely. >> Just kept thinking the the poor wind players in the front just uh I was getting it up through my body over here. here. I can't imagine what they were getting. Well, uh, thank you, um, to the board commissioners, President Brown, Dr. Schwarz. Um, we're delighted to have you here at Wallace Middle School tonight. And, um, I just want to provide a little bit of an update about our school and then our student council is going to share some um, of their experiences. Um, I always like to start the day with our vision and mission at Wallace. We talk about all Wallace

004students will be ready to succeed in high school. And we aim to educate, empower, and inspire. Those three words are very important for us. Uh responsible citizens and lifelong learners through positive relationships, rigorous and engaging learning experiences and a supportive environment every day. And our Lion Pride core values are positivity, respect, integrity, determination, and excellence. Just a little bit about our school. As you're aware, it's a 48 school predominantly grades six, seven, and eight. We have a fourth and fifth grade class in the academic academy. Uh we're predominantly Hispanic and Latino, but very diverse uh backgrounds of our students. And this is just a little bit of a snapshot of who we are as our student body. We're incredibly proud of the progress that we've made over the past six years being a part of

005the commissioners network and we really tried to highlight that last column uh where by the end of uh the year last year in every single category from the state department of education we were either proficient or exemplary. Um so incredible job to our students, our staff uh over the past six years to see that growth. I love that chart. Uh this is our nextgen accountability uh comparison uh over the past few years. Um everything in green represents an improvement. Lots of green and everything in blue represents a doubledigit improvement. So lots of blues and lots of greens. Awesome to see. Again, incredibly hard work from our staff and our students have been responding the past few years on their state testing in an incredible fashion. Just a summary of our academic milestones and exit from

006turnaround. So officially we were removed from turnaround status from the state department of education November 2024 going from a turnaround school level five to a focus school level three. Uh ELA we've seen uh double digit performance index gains over the past two years. Significant gains in my math and science. And then literacy growth um double digit gains there. And we actually had 30 students exit the bilingual program last year when a typical year is 15. And so uh ex excellent excellent performance from our students. Uh attendance trend. We all know what happened few years ago in COVID. Um and that was a tough tough times. Uh but we've seen quite a bit of recovery and every year we try to beat the prior year. And so our current year-to- date uh chronic absenteeism trend is

00717. Uh but we're trying to work on even getting that down further for the rest of the year. Suspension trend data is also very good. So, uh, we're working on, um, looking at alternatives, restorative, uh, options, um, and, uh, working with our student body, uh, to more educate, empower, and inspire them, uh, to make better choices as they move forward. Um, the climate survey that came out, it was many, many, many questions um, but we wanted to highlight a few. Uh, here's three questions. Um, and I wanted to point out that the number of students that disagree or strongly disagree to these questions is is very small in proportion to the the overall percentage. And so, um, you know, we're not quite there yet where we want to be, uh, but we're making tremendous strides

008and making improvements in our school climate. And then the climate data from our staff, again, pointing out that the disagree and strongly disagree, very small wedges. Um, you know, it's nice to see the staff are reporting. I get along with students at my school. I get along with other school employees. I can manage instances of challenging behavior and our school supports the social emotional well-being of our students. All great stuff. We do have a plan for the next three years. Uh we call it our school goals map 2025. So as we exited the commissioner's network, um obviously we want to uh build on the work that we did and and sustain the work that we did. So we do have that map. It's linked in there for your review if you want to take a

009closer look. We've made many updates including this media center. I didn't have room to put it on on the slide. Uh but we this year we uh added a culinary classroom. It's fully operational and serving our students. Um we have a renovated band room. You heard the excellent band and so they're taking advantage of that new band room. Uh we've made some improved safety measures in our new park our parking lot down the lower lot so that uh students getting dropped off is much safer. A fresh painting was done a few years ago in the hallways and so um it just gives it a fresher look and um there was some wood plank floor tiling installed in the main entrance. So I like to kind of say it's it's like kind of walking into a

010luxury hotel now in [laughter] the in the front entrance. We really work to try to supportive environment. So there's there's many many things that we do u but just uh we've looked at Finn's mission this year and uh health heart healthy initiatives. Uh we ran l Ramadan lunch groups uh during the month of Ramadan and uh then we're also um looking at the composting program. I mentioned uh we we work to educate, empower and inspire and we make those words really try to come to life every single day. um did a lot of work with trying to empower our school community. Our PTO has been amazing. We've gotten the PTO up and running. There's some PTO representatives here tonight. Um they did a paint night. They did a pasta dinner during the the um stu

011the parent teacher conferences uh to offer families and and staff a bite to eat. Uh done incredible number of jobs with fundraising and donations. They've been doing many many things this week for teacher appreciation week. We have a car show coming up on May 16th on Saturday, May 16th, if you're interested. And they're also helping um us sustain our testing incentives that we've been so successful with the past couple years. Our school governance council does a quarterly data review and it's a way to get us some community input. And our student council um is great at uh student voice and leadership and school activities. And so at this point, I'm going to turn it over to them because they're the stars of the show. So, I'm sure you want to hear more from them than

012me. And so, they're going to talk about their experiences and activities here at Wallace Middle School. So, thank you very much. And uh I'll be back in a minute. [applause] Hi everyone. Okay, so I just want to get started and [laughter] all right, let's get this party. >> Lowkey kind of nervous, you know. Anyways, um most people think that empowerment is something you're given, but the truth is you either take it or you never have it. Empowerment starts with one thing, being heard. It isn't about being the loudest voice in the room, but rather knowing that your voice deserves to be heard. At Wallace, empowerment is rooted in four key ideas: access, inclusion, being heard, and opportunities that are presented to all students. Uh student council is a strong example of these ideas being put

013into action. Here, students are given space to share ideas, be heard, and make an impact. uh making it one of the clearest symbols of empowerment in our school community. Hi, my name is Angela Kandai. I'm a seventh grade representative. Empowerment isn't just a word, it's a feeling. It's students knowing their voices matter, that they can make a difference, that they have influence in their school, their community. Empowerment builds confidence. It gives students the confidence to speak, lead, and take initiative. Because before students can lead, they have to believe they can. My name is AA. I'm in seventh grade. Um, most schools expect students to follow the system. At our school, students help build it. And that's what makes us different. Ideas, they aren't just that. They don't stop at inspiration. They turn into action. The

014students, we identify our wants and our needs, and we do something about them. We help de develop plans, organize teams, and empower ourselves. And our teachers support us each step of the way, but the actual execution, that's all on us. We have many um clubs here at Wallace. And many of them like the newsletter, the dance club, life skills, book bunch, they're all made by the students from students ideas and they plan the meetings, they plan how it's goes. They gather the students, they make the forms, the docs, they plan everything. Um, a special thing that happened today was the gem conference which Jeremiah attended. Um, sorry. For those of you who don't know, the GEM conference stands for generationally empowering males. Uh, at the GEM conference, they had a they had honored 100 young

015men of color. The GEM conference focuses on leadership and building leadership through workshops and overall recognition. I was happy to say that I was one of the 100 honore honores and overall was a pretty good experience. >> Wow. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> Another really unique club here at Wallace is the aquaculture club which Felix is a part of. >> The aquaculture The aquacultural club is where many students from different schools gather throughout different activities to help improve life learning skills like leadership and cooperating with each other. >> Great. Um to adding on to the GEM conference, there are many other awards that our students have won like um essay contest, speech contest and many other awards like a lot of our student council members have won them. A lot of other students in Wallace have

016won them. And um we have a lot of other clubs more than what's listed on this slide because at our school we don't wait for change, we are the change. And what you've seen and will see in this meeting is proof of that. Hello, my name is Kiara and I'm in eighth grade. I I take on the role of equity chair student council and I'm the leader of the No Place for Hate Club. The No Place for Hate Club is a club that spreads awareness, helps build a community of respect for others, and combats bullying and discrimination. Things No Place for Hate has accomplished is a schoolwide check-in. We basically sent out a survey to see if students were getting bullied, how they feel about the school, if they were getting treated properly, took that

017data and, you know, tried to make a change. We did a Black History Month where we sponsored an Black History Month spirit week and they the students in the club created a slide about black figures in each school subject. Upcoming events are a poetry contest. Um, it'll be the start of something new. We plan to have a whole YouTube channel about it and that's amazing. And we're setting the foundation for our culture day next year where It appreciates and celebrates different cultures while teaching students about others culture. >> Thank you. >> Hello, I'm Elizabeth. I'm an eighth grade officer. I'm communications director. Um, as you may have seen when you walked in, there's TV spread throughout Wallace. Um me and my committee, we take photos from like events like pep rallies and field trips and

018we put them in either ca we put them in Canva and we decorate them and then we put them into Google slides and decorate it and we try to make sure and we also do like bulletin boards like for Black History Month we did a bulletin board and women's history month um we try to like convey messages to students clearly and yeah [laughter] >> hello um I'm the treasure current treasure of student council and the student talking about the student council the student council is one of our school's biggest symbols and biggest clubs the numerous leadership opportunities aren't just provided but the students themselves create them me I have as a treasure I have a f committee called financial task force um my committee helps plan fundraising ing events, counting money we raise, and deciding

019how we spend the money. I try to keep everyone in my club informed about our current funds and how we how we're going to plan events. >> My name is Jeremiah. I think that was already said, but I'm just going to go over some of the events that our student council has held. And I believe that's a direct result of all of our progress and work that we've committed over the past like 3 years. I would say this year we're having our second annual talent show. I'm not sure if any of you guys were there last year, but it was very good and we're able to set that tradition and we're hoping it will move on to next year. That should be the current date is June 5th. We have a lot planned and we

020hope that it's going to be great. We plan on auditions and that's mainly the ba biggest part of it. And this what the talent show does is it really reaches out into our school community to ensure our students feel recognized. Like the talent show directly recognizes our students and that was that's what makes it so great. Another event that we do is our monthly dress days. We earn about 500 from these dress days. But it's not just about the fundraising. Our dress down days allow our students to truly express themselves on a true level and they're highly loved by our students, highly engaged in. And overall, that money helps us the student council. We've used some of that money to improve school environment. In years past, we've donated that money. This year we ran the

021winter pep rally. We often have pep rallies, but that's probably our biggest one. this year. It was pretty revolutionary overall. It was probably our best prep rally. It was mainly like 90% ran and planned by the student council. A lot of student input was put into this and it truly shows how much our how much voice our students have. And we really took what we know our students want. We asked them about what they want and we turned that into a truly amazing experience. You can see two pictures from the that winter pep rally. The top one is when we had hungry hungry hippos when they would push another student on a cart and student would grab the balls, bring them back, and then we had wig snatching where the goal was just to snatch

022everyone else's wig. Very entertaining. Students loved it. And then the final thing I'm going to go over is testing incentives and motivation. Motivation is a big thing at at our school. We don't we want to ensure that our students know what they're doing is good and we want them to feel excited to do it. Our testing incentives overall have grown our growth. If you see what Mr. Bosamo had showed you earlier through our growth, testing incentives have proved direct growth to our overall testing scores. And we over the years have gotten amazing student feedback from that that they love the testing incentives and truly motivates them. Testing incentives raised from the last they range from the last couple years to from field trips. This year we are planning a Sunday bar and field day and

023I think it was a a book of coupons that students can use to redeem draft days. So just to wrap it up, all of these events and proceedings have showed direct results to our school and how students think of our school, what they feel like about going to school, and overall just student life. And it's a great thing that we can have these. Thank you. [applause] >> Commissioners, do you have any questions of our esteemed uh panel? Commissioner Roco Orso, >> it's more of a a statement. First of all, I I want to compliment uh Principal Balsamo and his staff and what a great statistics that we saw today and all the improvements of the school and also the great job the band did. But I am so impressed by these students right here. >>

024Yep. They are they are amazing and and just you know it makes your heart you know we just do a little you guys do a lot and and and we and that's why I like coming to workshops and going to different schools so we can see the students instead of just being in a room voting on things you know so I I just want to say how impressed I are I am of you and continue the good work. >> Commissioner Ireland. >> Thank you Madam President. Um it's not a question actually it's a comment and I also um want to piggyback off of my colleague just it's good to hear from the principles but it's a different it comes out different when we hear things from the students um and they talked about empowerment and

025just seeing how they are today and how they spoke and the many programs that really shows empowerment um I was really enthused about the clubs that they have the gym the MPFH you you know so I'm really encouraged and I was just thank you students and keep up the good work. >> Thank you so much. Any questions to Mr. Basamo? >> I just want to echo >> Superintendent. >> Thank you, uh, President. I want to I'm assuming our Crosby students, do you think they're think they're they're on their way? They're ready. >> I think they are. I I saw you kind of aruck at some of the things that they're doing. [laughter] So, eighth graders, I think you're more than ready to move on to that next chapter. And I'm going to go back to

026your mission about preparing students for for high school. You're doing more than that here. Um this is more than just about preparing for high school. You're preparing them to take leadership positions in life. That's evident by all the students here today. I'm so proud of you as superintendent. Absolutely. >> Congratulations to you and and I know you were going to do this at the end, but since we're wrapping this up, uh can you just ask your staff and and recognize them because I know that was coming up on the slide. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, um, we're lucky enough that it is teacher appreciation week and I just want to recognize all our staff that came out tonight and, uh, if they can stand and step forward, uh, and also recognize all of the hardworking professionals

027in Waterbury, uh, on teacher appreciation week. Thank you for everything you do. [applause] >> [applause] >> And just a quick plug, we do have a car show coming up and a career day if anybody wants to help [laughter] out. So, thank you very much. Have a great evening. Great job, students. >> Yep. Thank you all. >> Okay, we're all inspired. Okay, number one, presentation overview of Education Rising program. P P Flamia Waterberry Career Academy advising students. >> That was awesome. >> Good evening, President Brown, Board of Education Commissioners, Board of Ed student representatives, and Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. My name is Cori Rodriguez Rodriguez and I am proud to serve as the 2025 2026 assistant to the president on the state student cabinet for educators rising. I'm mostly student at Waterberry Career Academy. Joining me today

028is another incredible state student cabinet officer, Rosen McClin, who serves as the vice president of his service. She is also a proud student at Waterberry Career Academy. Today we are so excited to share the new initiatives and accomplishments for our educators rising chapter, the impact we have made within our school community and the goals we are working towards this year. Thank you for being here and for supporting educators rising. Thank you Ki. I would first like to explain the benefits of advising to the district and that is that it creates the next generation of leaders and educators and exposes them to the profession. Our role as a CTSO career and techn technological student organization is that it one provides opportunities for students to build/practice strong leadership teamwork and career skills through activities, projects and events

029related to what they learn in school. And two, it helps students interested in the field of teaching and education develop devel development and learn the skills needed to be a good educator such as professionalism, communication, and leadership. Finally, some examples of student opportunities and program impact are leadership positions such as state or national ambassador or student officers for the ed advising student cabinet and outside field experience working with children through internships or school visits. Next, I would like to present what new things we have done at WCA. Through educators rising at Waterberry Career Academy, our students have expanded their impact through service, leadership, and professional growth. Some community service we have completed are donated toiletries and clothing to safe haven of greater water berry coat drive for St. Vincent the Paul snack drive for Anna

030Gavin's foundation at St. Mary's hospital and we also hosted a spring blood drive. Some fundraisers we have done are bake cell dress down daves tape a teacher and karaoke at field day. Some student opportunities we recently partnered with Maloney Magnus school from prek to3 classroom activities. Also, I would like to say that 10 of our students competed at the advising state conference at Southern Connecticut State University in the following categories. Inside our schools, children's literature, exploring non-core teaching careers, public speaking, and lesson planning. Next year, we will have our own WCA student cabinet. Um, our last announcements are that our administrator of the year for educators rising has been our vice principal, Mr. Flameia. Mr. Flameia was selected as the 2026 school administrator of the year by Connecticut Educators Rising and also educators rising champion

031award as the national administrator of the year. >> Wow. Congratulations. [applause] Um, last week we recently had our college signing day at TPC River Highlands for those that have committed to education and seven of our students have committed to education. >> Nice. >> And that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. [applause] We hope to see you in Waterberry Public Schools in a few years. >> Thank you. >> I already recruited. Oh, he already recruited them. All right. Okay. Number two, Waterberry Promise. >> Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, President Brown, commissioners, student representatives, and Dr. Schwarz. So happy to be here this evening. Uh my name is Kean Deal, and I'm the executive director of Waterberry Promise. Um and we are in our fifth year, four years of operations. Um and next to

032me, I have Earo, uh Leo, uh >> Pmplona, uh who is uh a graduate this month from Central Connecticut State University with his MBA. So, he did a 4 plus one. Wow. >> Which is really exciting. And then to my right, I have our passionate director of development and community engagement here with us this evening. >> Um, I want to uh thank you for thank you all for your continued support uh and the work uh of our mission and serving Waterbury public school students um and our graduates of the city and just an extension of support uh through our scholarship and comprehensive college access and success program. um that include wraparound support services, of course, our scholarships, career readiness, and preparing the next generation of college graduates for the workforce in Waterberry and beyond. We

033are at a milestone year uh since our inception in 2021, we will have four-year graduates uh from our inaugural cohort earning their degrees, moving on to M's programs, and beginning their careers. uh because of your support, because of our partnership and our work, ensuring we lead the way and showcase what a public and private partnership uh looks like and also diversifying and we are leading the way of actually showing what that looks like here in Waterberry. Um and you know making sure that we diversify our funding with uh private partnerships as well and heads will be talking a bit more about that as we go on in our presentation. Um, but we are among four promise programs in the state and we are one of the largest. Um, and and you'll hear about that. I'm

034sure you saw the slides already, but we have 880 students in our program attending 23 different colleges across Connecticut. >> Um, there are four programs, three of which um are in are in Connecticut. So we have New Haven Promise which is in New Haven and they have the support of Yale and they receive a lot of funding over 43 million. Um Hartford Promise uh was definitely instrumental in our launch and they receive um funding from corporate insurance companies. They have the they're the insurance capital in Hartford. So they have that in their backyard. Uh and then we the newest program is Bridgeport Promise and they just launched this year uh with local government support. Um today my goal is to share our latest video showcasing our impact and um that we are more than just

035a scholarship. Um and we are removing barriers holistically to and through uh completion for higher education for our scholars and we are doing that together. So I will move on to the video. Um if you haven't seen it already, we should be able to play it here tonight. They say never make a promise you can't keep. Promises carry weight. They set expectations. They demand belief and [music] action. But here in Waterberry, a promise was made. A promise that every Waterberry student, no matter their story, deserves the chance to go to college, [music] to learn, to lead, to build a future that reflects their potential through strong partnerships, [music] dedicated donors, and a community that never stops believing in its students. That promise is being kept. >> My name is Jaylen. I go to the University

036of Connecticut [music] Stores campus. >> I currently attend Quipak University. Hit Valley Community College. I attend [music] Yukon Stores, University of Bridge, >> Central Connecticut State University, >> attend the University of Connecticut at Thor's campus. >> I am a first year student at [music] University of Harford and I'm also a Waterberry Promise Scholar. >> That's what keeping a promise looks like. This spring, the first Waterberry Promise scholars will graduate. The first to achieve what once felt out of reach and many the first in their families [music] to earn a college degree. Whenever you need any counseling when it comes to your classes or maybe scholarships or internships, they help you with that. [music] >> I needed a laptop and Waterberry Promise was there to support me. Had they not been there, my classes, [music] my

037grades, my GPA would have been at risk. Water Promise has supported me financially, but also with job opportunities, friends, [music] and for my long-term output, how to support my community and how to support those around me. Waterberry Promise really highlights the best of Waterberry. Waterbury students, they're filled [music] with that ambition to succeed. And it's scholarships like these that are helping students to get the tools to become these successful leaders. >> Waterberry Promise is more than a scholarship. It's mentorship. It's opportunity. It's a movement reshaping what's possible for generations to come. There's strength in every student, hope in every future. And together, there's power in our promise. Nice. >> Um, that video makes me tear up every time. [laughter] I know. That's beautiful. >> And many of them are actually graduating this year, which is

038exciting. Um, but I really wanted to take a a couple minutes just to really talk about uh college success, right? We can get students to to college, right? That's college access. But are they persisting? Are they staying there? Do they have a sense of belonging? Do they have support? Can they navigate college? um we learned really quickly um they need more than just our dollars. Um so we've worked really hard to make sure that we built programming around success and career readiness over the last four years. We also incorporated a um emergency funding through um private donations to support uh laptops, books, um transportation, um food and security, things of that nature when students are having hardships on campus. Um and we've we've dispersed over $30,000 in emergency funding um over the last couple years

039and we continue to see an uptick in the need. Um so we continue to fund raise for that as well. Um but we work directly with our high school counselors um and your director of college and career naruset and making sure that students know what the opportunities are. We have partnerships. When we started in 2022, we only had one uh one college partnership and that was Yukon. Upon my arrival, we partnered with Eastern, uh we partnered with Quinnipic, Post University, all giving a matching $5,000 grant opportunity on top of ours. Um and then also UNH, uh University of Bridgeport, um and most recently Alberta's Magnus College, uh and Western Connecticut State University and Southern Connecticut State University. I'm actually just received our for Western. They want to give a matching $5,000 as well. Um, so

040the financial piece, trying to eliminate those barriers to access to college and making college affordable, um, we are doing just that, but also making sure that we help with FASA completion, making sure that we send students on tours. We actually pay for busing through grant opportunities to send our high school students to our partners um, and actually tour tour on campus. So, we're eliminating some of those fees for Waterberry Public Schools as well. Um, we hold info sessions and we support the transition to college to make sure students understand what it means uh when you're on college campuses. We also have one-on-one coaching. Um, we have grown over the last four years. We have a we're a staff of six now. Um, and that includes college success coaches who are working with them to support

041their financial aid packages in in understanding them, connecting them to the right people on campus in those departments. They support them academically, goal setting, making sure they're meeting with their academic advisories. Um, we also support them socially, emotionally, uh, making sure that they feel well connected and have a sense of belonging on campus. Our staff is on campus um, here at Yukon Waterberry. Um, also at CT State Nagatuk Valley and travels um, to the campuses to be on campus with students. Um and we just want to bring our scholars together whether it's community building, social events, um and networking opportunities. Um and then we realized within two years we should start thinking about are they prepared for the workforce? Do they have those skills? Um you know are they ready for job shadowing? Are they

042ready for internships, uh mentorships, making sure they have a a working resume and a well-written cover letter? Um and we partner with Yukon and Waterberry uh with those workshops and we host a career fair uh every year at the at the Marriott right downtown. Um as you know to to receive our our scholarship and become a Waterberry Promise Scholar, you need to be a resident all four years of high school, have a 3.0 GPA upon graduation, a 90% attendance rate. Uh you need to complete the FASA. We do support students who complete the ACIS as well. Um, and you need to be enrolled in an accredited Connecticut college or university here uh in a two-year degree program or a four-year uh degree program. Um, and you have access to up to $20,000 in in scholarship

043dollars um up to four years. Uh, students that do attend CT State, they do get free tuition, but they can use their scholarship for the winter or summer courses and also their scholarship can follow them. Um so we work really really hard to make sure um students are engaged, students are in class, um they have the support they need. Our retention rate is 93%. So students are staying in the program and our persistence rate is 95% which is which is amazing. Um meaning from freshman to sophomore year, they're metriculating um to their sophomore year. And studies show that if they can get to their s through their freshman year and go on to their sophomore year, it's it just get it gets easier and easier to completion. Oh, there we go. Um, this slide I

044just wanted to give you a snapshot of eligible scholars. It's been consistent over the last uh four years. We're seeing over 400 uh scholars eligible across the district. Um, also Kmart Tech and Holy Cross. Um, and and then I wanted to give you a breakdown of um how where our students are coming from. So, as you know, Waterburg public schools, uh, we have over four 444 scholars in our program attending colleges across Connecticut. Um, so you are our largest, um, feeder and and we send our scholars, um, to so many schools across Connecticut. I actually um had a print out that Carrie gave you that gives you um a breakdown of all of our cohorts and which schools they're coming from and high school and then also a breakdown from all cohorts um across which

045colleges they're going to. And then I also provided a breakdown of um students who may have taken a semester off um gender and also race just for your reference. We continue to um grow each year um and we've we meet as a board yearly to talk about our strategic goals and you know this this upcoming um year and always continuing to do this work. Um our strategic goals are continued fundraising, right? We want to make sure we have financial stabil sustainability and also programming. um as we continue to serve more students, we want to make sure our programming um is is in tip-top shape and and we have the appropriate staff to be able to do that. Um and then also our partnerships. Our partnerships are very very important. When we started, we had four

046partnerships. Our founding champions, which is Waterberry Public Schools, the city of Waterberry, the Connecticut Community Foundation, and the Sigma Group. Um, and I'm going to turn it over to my director of development, community engagement to talk about um, our community partnerships um, and career readiness. >> Good evening, President Brown, board commissioners, student representatives, and superintendent Dr. Schwarz. I truly appreciate the opportunity to come before you this evening and I want to first mirror Kanda's comments that we are beyond grateful for the board of education's extraordinarily generous investment in our scholars. We simply could not do this work without you. As you've heard tonight, our program continues to grow in size, in scope, and impact. And we frankly recognized very early on the need to diversify our revenue, as Kelanda said, in order to keep pace

047with our exponential growth and to ensure the program's long-term sustainability. We understand that we cannot solely rely on you to fund this life-changing program, especially as each cohort we add is larger than the last, and all cohorts moving forward are eligible to receive scholarships of up to $5,000 per scholar per year. That means cultivating relationships with new corporate and foundation partners and stewarding uh existing ones, writing new grants, scaling up our fundraising events, engaging with additional local businesses, and building new relationships with individual donors. And that is exactly what we've done. In addition to the state department of education that has seen the value in investing in Waterbury Promise scholars, we have acrewed more than 30 partners over time. And as Kanda just mentioned, in addition to the the four founding champions that launched us

048and these include many of our local banks like Thomas Ion and Webster, local businesses like Toco, manufacturers like Harvard Hall, St. Mary's Hospital, nonprofits like the United Way, quasi public agencies like Chifa, and several regional foundations. Since our inception, the program has brought in more than $ 1.5 million in PI million in private dollars alone. I should note that these partnerships are honestly not just about securing financial support. These foundational relationships are also actively leveraged to provide our scholars who are frankly studying everything under the sun with invaluable job shadowing opportunities, internships, mentorships, and paid part-time and full-time jobs across a variety of sectors to ensure they are career ready to fuel the next generation workforce. For example, with so many of our scholars pursuing degrees in health related fields, we recently launched a very

049exciting mentorship program with St. Mary's Hospital to provide scholars with hands-on experience and individualized guidance while they complete their degrees. This initiative expands upon a wonderful partnership with the hospital that has included job shadowing, financial and program support, and leadership engagement. Thomasson Savings Bank has been another exemplary partner whose investment has grown over time and now includes scholarship support, grants for the expansion of our scholar emergency fund that Kanda referenced before, annual sponsorships of our signature fall fundraiser and staff who sit on committees and now on our board through our connections with Thomasson Savings Bank, Aaro has actually landed a summer internship at the bank and parlayed that job into uh sorry parlayed that uh internship into a job for nearly three years. Our scholars have also been hired by Webster Bank, FD Community Federal

050Credit Union, OMG Industries, Carmony, Torren Sandic, and Hennessy, the Waterberry Button Company, Hoverard Hall, Travelers, just to name a few. I also want to mention that our development strategy includes adding new events to raise dollars and awareness. And in FY27, we have four planned fundraising events. A new charity partnership with the Eversource Harford Marathon for the race in October, and thank you to Dr. Schwarz for being our team leader. Our annual fall fundraiser in November, Give Local in the April, and a jazz benefit concert in June. So, thank you again for your time tonight, for your incredible partnership, and for helping us keep the promise that we've made to Waterbury youth. Thanks to your support, college is possible. Just ask the more than 100 scholars who are graduating this month. Thank you. >> Thank you

051very much. Would you like to say a few words? Our scholar in residence. [laughter] >> I just want to show my gratitude towards the program and everybody that have been helping me through all these years. So, it's been a long four years college um journey that I've been through. I went to CCSU and their support helping me secure the first job at Thomas Savings Bank helped me towards my four years degree helped me with money assistance. Thank you guys for providing that assistant as well and everything that brought up to us brought me to here as I now actually just landed a new job big boy job was like to [laughter] say and then as I'm graduating now my masters they always helped out for me always looked out so they are my point of

052reference when it comes to academic um um path whenever I look towards schooling job opportunities I always look for them they always been great for me always looked out so anything that they've done that you guys is helping with. I'm just completely grateful for everything that you guys are doing for us and the community as a whole as they a lot of people do struggle to go into college. A lot of people are sometimes they don't feel like that's the right place for them. But with programs like this, Harford, just having you guys look out for us, help us out and guide us in the right way, it really means a lot to all of us. >> Well, congratulations to you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you again. And he forgot to mention he's

053a Waterberry Career Academy graduate. >> Oh, okay. [laughter] Extra points. >> Any questions for our guests? Commissioner Van Stone and then Commissioner Ireland and then Commissioner Jackson. Commissioner Lunes. >> Thank you, Madam President through you. We chatted this afternoon. Uh we had a nice chat. Um and I let I went into some of the concerns I have. the program itself and your mission, it it's wonderful. You know, we're showing we're seeing the signs of that tonight and congratulations on your first college graduating class. But when it comes to the uh outreach that we heard about with financing, it's it's a major concern of mine. We're your largest contributor with all the companies that you mentioned to me and are on some of the slides. It's still on us that we're the most we spend we

054send the most money to you. Uh and that that concerns me. I get it. We don't have a Yale. We don't have the insurance companies. Uh but there are major companies in Connecticut that probably should be looked at like I retired from Loheed Martin because you mentioned $1.5 million you have received from your private donors. That's less than we have given in that same time frame. Last year we gave $750,000. That is money out of our operating budget, which is what we try to run the schools on. This year, we went over across the street to the alderman and the mayor to try to raise our budget by 11 million. And probably if it wasn't for the uh state coming in late last night. Um it would have been a very difficult conversation on what

055stays and what goes, but we can't take advantage of that money and just keep on throwing it around. and throwing it around is maybe too harsh of a term because you guys do good work. However, it should not be up to the board of education to take out of our operating budget that we need for our schools. Um, you know, or this year we'll depending on what happens with the budget, we'll go over $2 million that we've sent over to you guys in five years. Um, that's that's a hard hard bill as well. So, I really think um you need to do a better job getting corporate sponsors because we can't keep doing this and I don't know when it's going to end. Uh your second most donor was Sigma we talked about today and

056they have stopped this year. They will not be part of the program. grants end and you guys really need to wear out some shoes and get some corporate sponsors because we we just can't do this. Um and I would love to see the program secede. uh but uh you know on our operating budget it's uh just very difficult but again I do congratulate you on your first graduating class uh especially the student that came here uh also attending career was a good education for you and just the last thing that I talked about with you and I want to make sure you keep it in mind is true pathways for students because you you only go the college route And right now we need to look to send our kids to post high school technical

057trades and I and there's colleges that do offer that. Yes. But there's also trade schools that are not colleges. Uh and I and I really think that needs to be brought in. And I also mentioned to you about other high schools that are in the city that don't seem to be getting recognized. So I I hope you look into that as well. Okay. The Hebrew school downtown as well as uh Chase Aces at Chase. Okay. So, you know, I didn't want to bring it down. I probably should have went last because it was a beautiful presentation and yes, it feels great when our students are successful. Okay. So, but we need the program to continue. We just have to find dollars from somewhere else. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, >> Commissioner Ireland.

058>> Thank you, [clears throat] Madam President. Um, just quickly, I love the I love the data. I love the success. Um, and I understand it's it always comes down to budget. Um, but I notice I just want to figure out or do you guys have any plans um to be able to increase those matching dollars? I noticed it was increasing it up to 20,000, but like you know, what are you guys doing, you know, in the future so we can be proactive and potentially offer more matching dollars? Do you guys [snorts] have any plan? >> Are you referencing the colleges giving the matching the colleges give the matching dollars? >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. So, my goal is to continue to increase those partnerships um across the state and right now we have nine of

059them. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Commissioner Jackson. >> Yes. Thank you. There we go. Um I was wondering about um you talked about a gap year for some of the students. How long are they able to take time off? Like, does the scholarship expire? >> They can only take up to two semesters. >> So, they can take a gap year right out of high school or they can take one or two semesters off while they're in college. >> Okay. Is there any process for like hardship or students who may be in the military who get called away through no fault of their own that might go past those two semesters? Uh there's exceptions on a case by case, but I haven't seen anyone get called in for the military, but we did have

060students um go to training and they took a semester off and then came back another semester. >> Okay. Thank you. You're welcome, >> Commissioner Munes. >> Hello. Thank you so much for your presentation. I truly appreciated it. Um, I'm originally from New Jersey and we have the educational opportunity fund and it was specifically made for students like students like Waterberry students and myself who did not have the ability to afford to go to college and it is because of programs like Waterberry Promise that I am able to sit here today. So, honestly, I almost cried because it was a similar experience that I had. Um, and I wonder, and I, it's okay if you don't have the answer, but I wonder if Waterberry Promise, Bridgeport Promise, Hartford Promise, I wonder if you guys came together

061as a coalition and go through the state because the Education Opportunity Fund was formed in New Jersey and they became a coalition with Pennsylvania and New York and they get their funding through the state. Is there something like this that is possible to make you guys sustainable? >> So, we're currently um I'm on the was on the promise task force along with other presidents from the three programs, New Haven um Hartford, myself um and Bridgeport um just launched, so they weren't part of the task force, but yes, we came together as a task force to present the board. Um I'm sorry, not the board, the our legislators, um the importance of promise and wanting to expand uh new promise programs across the state, but also support um existing promise programs. Um and through this short

062session, um within that report, it's it's public. You can go on to the higher ed and employment advancement committees website and see the report. Um it was about opening up a post-secondary office of post-secary education office hiring consultants and also supporting um technically on how other towns and cities can do exactly what we do. The model works right we have the impact we have the success stories across all four all three promise programs. Um but this session it was in the budget that they would open up the office and allot $400,000 toward new programs. um we will most likely advocate uh come together as as a as a force and advocate for um additional funding in fiscal year 28 and on uh what that could look like for all existing promise programs. So to your

063point, yes, we are working um together to try to get support from the state, but right now we're we're the only promise program receiving state funding right now. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for all your hard work. >> Thank you. Uh, next we have uh the year calendar, Dr. Schwarz. >> Oh, >> nice job. >> Good evening, President Brown, commissioners, our student representatives. Um, usually at 6:30 a lot of people leave, but they might want to stay around for this. I just had a feeling possibly. I don't know. So, uh, as you know, legislation was passed, uh, that allows the board of education to make the decision tonight to reduce the school year to 176 days. that would uh I provided the calendar uh for you that uh if

064approved by the commissioners tonight would uh allow the school year to end on June 18th uh essentially having graduations then on June 17th and 18th for our five major high schools uh um our comprehensive high schools at the um uh Palace Theater and um what that would mean for employees because some of our employees have specific speific work days and work years in their uh contracts. That would be negotiated uh if voted on tonight uh really starting immediately uh tomorrow with human capital, human resources and their union heads uh to discuss um to make sure that uh there is little impact on uh employees based on this decision. So um I've already met with uh all of those entities, the mayor's office as well. um all of us under agreement to ensure that if this

065decision is made by the board tonight that uh it would have uh it wouldn't have impact on uh those uh employees. So uh that would be our our commitment to be able to work with them on that as well. So really what you have in front of you tonight is an updated calendar with June 18th as the last day of school. >> Thank you. Any questions? Commissioner Van Stone. >> Thank you madam president through you. Well, I'm one that always wants to see the kids in school. I don't like any days off. Um, but in this case, I don't think we can get much more, you know, extenduating circumstances than we went through last winter. It wasn't just the fact that we closed schools. It was it was a very very difficult time for uh

066families including going to work and etc. Um, so I I'm I will approve this because I just think it's an extraordinary situation. Uh, if we tried to limit or uh, you know, discount days earlier in the school year, I might have had a little more push back, but at this point in in the school year, you know, we're pretty much wrapping things up anyway in the classroom. So, I'm pretty good with it. And as far as the negotiations for the unions that at the time would have had to utilize, you know, either sick day or vacation day, what have you, >> I don't think it should be in negotiation. I think it should be a done deal and we should just take care of those folks. >> And if they did use vacation or sick

067days during the school year to compensate themselves during that closure, they should be reimbured for those. And I I I get it. It's a union. Everything is a negotiation, but as far as I'm concerned for me, my opinion is it it it should be a quick negotiation because we should just make good for those employees without any hesitation. There's no reason uh that they should lose out. Uh they shouldn't have lost out in the first place, but I understand as a union contract now under the situation, they definitely should not lose out. We should just make good for those employees. We owe it to them. Um that's my two cents on that. So thank you. >> Any other questions for comm superintendent? >> So I guess that same thing just said I'm all for it.

068But I do um listening some of the par the paras and stuff like that them losing out is definitely one of the reasons why I feel that there shouldn't even be a negotiation. I think you know the stress um wear and tear on them from all the days. I think definitely um we should find a way to make sure that they do get paid and compensated. So that's all >> and just a um >> you all agree to that. >> Yes, I that's why I I think we all agreed that no impact obviously, but regardless of our feelings, you're still going to have to have MOAS with all the unions to make sure that this is nonprecedented setting. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, next number four, request approval of an education affiliation agreement at no

069cost with Trinity Health of New England Corporation, Inc. to provide students with certified nursing assistant training clinical hours. Uh, Jan Frenis, >> Good evening, President Brown, commissioners, student representatives, and superintendent Dr. Schwarz. The academic department respectfully requests approval of a 5-year contract between the city of of Waterberry Department of Education and Trinity Health of New England Corporation, Inc. This is a nocost contract that will allow our certified nurse assistance assistant students to continue to complete clinical hours at St. Mary's Hospital to meet the Department of Health CNA requirements. >> Any questions? Thank you very much. And you're up again. Number five, the academic department respectfully requests approval of amendment two to the agreement between the city of Waterberry Education Department and FI Delta Kappa International Inc. for educators rising curriculum. The original contract was initiated

070under RFP636. Under this contract, PDK International provides education pathway students with standardsbased curriculum. It also includes professional learning, instructional materials, resources for student clinical experiences, teacher leader training, support, and student micro credentials. The purpose of this amendment is to extend the agreement for one additional year in order to avoid a gap in curriculum while the district develops our own curriculum. The agreement will be funded by the Carl Perkins grant in the amount of $20,000. >> Thank you. Any questions, commission? Commissioner L. >> Thank you, Madam President. Yes, you said that you want to extend it so there's no gap year until you develop your own curriculum in the city. How does that look right now? >> So, the program has been growing and you saw a presentation tonight. Mr. Flammy was here. the actual teacher

071who's been really grown this program was sitting in the back row. She has a lot of ideas about um how they've been using the curriculum and and how they can how we can write our own. And so we'd like to take you know that gap year so that um they can form a committee and through the guidance of the CTE supervisor develop that curriculum. They've already been supplementing. So as as the school year is ending now, we go through we do it year with them and then the following year we're going to have our own in place and we're ready to go. >> That's the goal. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Did you have the question? >> I was just pending approval of the curriculum committee.

072[laughter] >> Okay. Uh, number six, request approval of a contract with 4ERunner Technologies LLC for voice over IP maintenance and support services. Mr. Zuda. >> All right. >> Good evening, President Brown, commissioners, student representatives, Dr. Schwarz. Um, before you tonight asking for your approval of five-year contract. This is one is with um the above reference contract for $591,884.15 for voiceover IP maintenance to support services between the city of Waterbury and 4Erunner Technologies. This contract was initiated under a request for proposal process RFP number 8663. Evaluation committee reviewed the revised proposal for two qualified vendors and selected 4Erunner Technologies LLC as the most responsible and economical bidder. The five-year agreement will ensure the continued reliability, operations, security, functionality in of the existing Mel Vo telephone system originally installed in 2021. This contract includes Mel premium software

073assurance, call accounting maintenance and so and support, full hardware maintenance and support, existing SIP trunk services for 2,800 phones, 35 controllers, and five servers. All request service classific clarifications are included at no additional charge. This contract is structured on a 100% annual payment basis with no upfront or lumpsum payments. The total cost of the project is as follows. annual cost each year is years 1-5 at 118,37684 and the 5-year total contract value of $591,884.15. This recommendation delivers a savings of approximately $144,776 compared to the other qualified biders while meeting all city requirements for annual billing. Any questions? >> Thank you, Will. Okay, Commissioner Vansstone. >> Thank you, Madam President. through you. I was looking around if any of the hands went up. I was a second. >> Han, did you have a question or you

074were just stretching? [laughter] >> Mr. Zod, good to see you. >> You too, sir. >> Um, I do have a couple questions because it was an old RFP that we basically uh used, right, for the statement of work, etc. >> It was um Yeah, based off the existing RFP. >> Exact. That's what I mean. So, I didn't have the RFP in my backup. So I just other than the bullets you provided here u when it says their maintenance and support what is it they actually are they on-site do we have a uh labor charge if a maintenance person comes to do any work for us or is it all inclusive >> it's all inclusive so these are total charges the the charges for support are $47,000 per year the rest are licensing for the mel

075that we we have to p we have to pay for >> comes out to like um $14 a day or something like that, you know, >> but it's inclusive in person. >> It's all inclusive, right? There is no cost. They'll they'll replace refurbished devices. They'll um provide handsets. They'll come out and do call call attendants. They'll come out and troubleshoot. They'll help rebuild servers. They'll do software upgrades. They'll do all the maintenance upgrades. Um any troubleshooting issues, we just call uh if they can't do it over over the phone or remotely, they'll they'll send somebody on site. Part of the RFP process was that they somebody need to be within 45 miles so they could respond within two hours. >> Okay, that's that's good. That's uh I was going to ask you about the response

076and how you felt real world. How did you feel about the response, their expertise? Did they always send the right person? >> Did it take three different service people before you got the job done? >> This is a new company. Um the last company, so the last company was connected communications, but they were hired. They were $150,000. We had a we had great great luck with them, but they were $150,000 higher. So, this is 4Erunner. They are a Mel platinum partner, so they're at the highest level with Mel as far as um support and service. They we called um references. They're in the New York City. Uh they do all of New York City. Um trying to think of school systems. They do um Wallingford and um there's another district outside of Harford that they

077do in Connecticut. >> So, they work in education. >> Yeah. And exactly. And they have regional offices um I think 14 regional offices across the nation. So they're a large um corporation. >> Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. >> Okay. You're welcome. >> Okay. Thank you. I think you're up for the next one, too. >> I think we had another question over here. No. Okay. Okay. Yep. >> Number seven. >> Yeah. Okay. This contract is for copier print management services. I'm asking you tonight to approve the of a 5-year contract with Canon for our district-wide copier and manage print services. Um $394,197 per year, total of $1,970,985 awarded through a competitive RFP process. This isn't new spending. It's a continuation of a partnership that has already cut our lease cost by 57% versus the previous vendor.

078Reduce printed waste by 36%. That's about 6 million copies a year that we were able to reduce through the follow me printing services and we it supports about 123 million copies that we printed over the past 5 years. This contract was initiated through the RP process RP number 8654. After evaluating se several biders, Canon was determined to be the most responsible bidder, offering the best value and the lowest total cost for the water public schools. This contract will provide the water reholder schools with a cost-effective copier lease program and managed print solution, replacing an aging fleet of 175 copers, delivering significant cost savings that through the competitive cost per copy pricing, provide a comprehensive maintenance, parts, toner, and staples. Improve visibility, control, and security over district-wide printing and activities. >> Okay. >> Uh, any questions?

079>> Any questions? Commissioner L. >> Thank you, Madam President. So, my question will be the same as, uh, Commissioner Van Stones. As far as response time, how long are we looking at is something goes down like those wrong, how long? >> Yeah, Canon is the current one. They've been with us for 5 years. We've had they've been very very responsive. I think within usually within an hour they send somebody out um to for any type of repairs. Um if they can't repair it, they'll replace it. That's part of the lease agreement. That was how that was written in the RFP. Um we've been very lucky, very successful um and reducing, like I said, print costs. We do print a lot. I mean, you saw that number. 23 million copies is a lot of paper, you

080know, so over five years, we know um by doing follow me print, which allows you to scan your badge >> and then it starts printing. So it does just doesn't just print out, you know, that's that's 30 million copies that were reduced because people just never went to get them and they expired after 24 hours, meaning they printed something they probably we didn't want. So >> no, thanks. I mean that's what we want to make sure they get there, you know. Okay. >> Guess we need a school without a printer. >> Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Okay, thanks a lot. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next we have number eight, uh, Mel Devar Barona. >> Oh, Jan Fennis. Okay. Did you change your name? No. [laughter] >> Good evening again. Uh, the Department of Education respectfully requests

081approval of amendment three to the professional services agreement between the city of Waterberry and Linguistica International for for phone and virtual translation services. The original contract was for three years ending in June 30th and was not to exceed $50,000. Uh the first two amendments when we entered this contract um for translation services, we never had anything like this before and and we thought $50,000 could cover three years. But what we found was the schools were using the translation services so much we had to go in and amend it in years one and two to add additional dollars so that we could continue to support families. So we're coming back once again. um they're holding the price. They've never increased the price, but we're asking to increase um the contra the amend amend it once again

082for another year so that we can um go to do an RFP in the fall. So, we know we need these services. I think it's about time we um see what else is out there. We're also looking to add um some written translation services which is not part of this contract. And so that's why we, you know, we do want to do another RFP, but we don't want to lose those translation services while we go through the lengthy process of a new RFP. And so we'd like to fund another year through the bilingual grant in the amount of $30,000. >> Thank you. happy to take. >> I know it's a much needed service and I do hear that it's very important to the families. So, thank you. Any questions? Commissioner Vanstone, >> Commissioner Ireland, >>

083so generous. Thank you, Madam President. Just one quick question. How many languages does it translate to? >> So, um they they're live translators and they say they have over 100 languages. So we mostly translate in Spanish, Portuguese, um, Albanian, but we do have families who speak Mandarin or do um, very important when a principal or a teacher needs to communicate with parents or if there's an important meeting like a PPT or even an expulsion. The only time that we kind of struggled with the language was um, I believe it was car it was Swahili. Um and and there was a little bit of a struggle in that case, but I that is the only complaint I've heard. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome, >> Commissioner Bandstone. >> Thank you, Madam President. Through you. Um

084last count, I thought we had 51 languages and dialects in the city. So, yeah, the service is absolutely needed. But I'm going to talk about the money side. >> It doesn't add up. I mean, we in order to get through 24 and 25, 25, 26, we had $50,000 not to exceed and on two occasions added $25,000 and that makes it $100,000. But somehow we're going to continue this through June 30th, and you're only asking for 30. So, it it I I can almost predict we'll be back here in six months uh adding more money to this. So is is there any did we do our real homework here to say 30 is the right number? >> Well, we have increased it. We haven't used it all up yet. What for what we've from the second

085amendment, but we know we'll run out. We can't we don't want to wait till we get to that point. >> When do you think you'll run out? >> Well, it's hard to say, I guess, but >> it is hard. We're getting towards the end of the school year. >> That's one of my things. Yeah. >> And and so we really use it a lot more um during the school year. We will use it some during the during summer school, but it does slow down. >> Okay. >> I think I think we'll be okay. >> I'm just looking at planning purposes. This is one case where I think we're asking for too little. >> I won't say that too often. You should take advantage of that. But um >> well, >> and so this has been

086funded through the bilingual grant >> and this was uh what the multilingual supervisor felt was left in the grant for now. So we can't [clears throat] >> we get a new bilingual grant we can't >> is my point. Mhm. >> I mean, if we have to come back, we'll have to come back, but he can't. So, within the bilingual grant, we can't >> please, >> I I'll tell you what, >> spend money from the next grant. >> Let's get the RFP on the on the street, right? So, maybe before this even runs out or June 30th, 2027 arrives, maybe we can have a new company on contract. There is almost no shot at getting an RFP done by June 30th in in through the board's you know the process has been >> um pretty slow

087lately and it's been taking us at least six months. >> We're going to have to get Rocco out of retirement [laughter] and >> which is one of the reasons why we you know are asking for the amendment. >> Yeah. uh we knew that we weren't going to get that done by >> still the sooner the better to get it on the street. >> Sure. >> Even more so with what you just said. >> Okay. And I understand uh >> Yeah. getting >> No, we know we have to have a new agreement in place and I think it's really important that we start getting some written translation services because we're not able to keep up as well as we should with that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Commissioner Munz. >> Hello, Miss Fes.

088>> Hi. >> Um, so I know that you guys were mentioning that you guys are currently looking into other like translation programs. Do you guys have any like at least of an idea of an alternative? Um, but or are you just waiting just for the RFP to just be put out to see those alternatives? We're waiting to I mean I've looked around a little bit but you know when you know you're going to RFP um you don't want to reach out to too many people. Um I do want to mention as well um Mr. Alini brought through Parent Square a few months ago. >> Um and the messages go out in English >> but there is a translate button. And Mr. Alini, can you remind me over 100? Was there 20? around. >> So over

089100 languages. So we do have other ways to connect with parents and I think we've done a much better job in the last three to five years. Um and so we want to keep that going. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Number nine, Na Tuset. >> Good evening. Good evening. President Brown, board of ed commissioners, student representatives, superintendent Dr. Schwarz, uh we respectfully request to extend our Imagine Learning contract to continue our services. The Waterbury public schools has utilized Imagine Learning for many, many years to provide credit recovery in our high schools. And this amendment extends our expiration date from June 30th, 2026 to June 30th, 2029, funded through Alliance for a three-year agreement amount of $515,688. >> Any questions? I just had one. How many students are participating

090in the program? >> I can't give you a number at the moment. >> Be interesting to know how many students >> I have that data. I have it by all of our high schools. >> Okay. That would be >> I'll get that to you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Let's see. Uh Mr. Begno. Wow. >> This is this is unusual. Mr. Begno, >> nice to see you, President. >> How you doing? >> Good evening, Dr. Schwarz. Uh, commissioners, uh, I'm here for the acceptance of, uh, uh, RFP 8739, uh, which is the installation for a new sound system at both Kennedy and Crosby gymnasiums. Um, we had five proposals submitted. the review committee consisting of myself, principal uh Johnston, uh vice principal Gowski from Kennedy, principal

091Verino, and vice principal Martinez from Crosby. We went through all the proposals and we came to the consensus that sound stage productions from North Haven, Connecticut uh be accepted as the vendor. Uh this acceptance will also represent uh the most costefficient of all the proposals and it closely matches the funding allocation in both schools commissioners network grant. Uh so we're here just to give you an update on what's going on with the uh RFP. >> Any questions? Commissioner Lap. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um yes, Mr. Bedo. So in your proposal it said a total of 81,000 but then on the sound stage proposal it said 562 and I seen the the next page it said alternates at 4100 and the 8500s per school. Are the alternates are like are those optional or are those

092guaranteed to happen? >> They're going to happen they're guarant I'm trying to understand like the process of writing it. Is that typically how it's written? It's written one way as far as a sound stage and then because there was a difference at the bottom it says total sum 56 and then it will say alternate. >> That's how it's written all the time. >> Correct. >> Okay. Just ask. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> Nice to see you. >> You too. >> Okay. Next we have number 11, Dr. Johnson. >> This one was very good news. >> Super good news, right? Good evening, President Brown. Good evening, commissioners, student representatives, Dr. Schwarz. I'm very happy to inform you that Driggs Elementary School was awarded $5,000 for

093technology upgrades and equipment from the Connecticut State Department of Treasury's CET Dream Big Competition. The Connecticut Higher Education Trust Dream Big Competition is an annual contest for Connecticut students K through 12 to win up to $20,000 for education by submitting essays, videos, or artwork. The winners of the school technology prize will be selected were selected randomly in a [clears throat] drawing held in December 2nd, 2025. Um, each K12 school located in in the state of Connecticut that has an eligible student participating in the contest is identified in the entry will be automatically entered into the random drawing for a chance to win the school technology prize. The school technology prize will be awarded directly to the winning school only and will not be awarded to the corresponding parent, guardian, entrant or eligible student. Uh finally,

094award of the school technology prize is subject to applicable laws, regulations regarding receipt of gifts, prizes and awards from third party entities. Winners of the school technology prize are responsible for any federal, state, and local taxes and cannot claim any charitable deductions or tax benefit in conjunction with the sponsors award of the prize. >> Oh, very good. Any questions? I just had one question. Does the money uh have to be used for a specific purpose? >> Yes, for technology, equipment, and upgrades. >> Okay. All right. >> Yeah, >> that's exciting. Great. >> Super exciting. Finding some change, loose change in the >> Did a lot of our schools uh put their schools in the competition? >> No, actually, um to be frank, Commissioner U. President Brown, we're not even quite sure which student uh entered

095us in drinks, [laughter] >> but we won the money. So, >> we got to find out. We got to have every school going after this money. >> Yes. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Thanks a lot. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. >> 12 monthly expenditure report. >> Dorene Biola. Coming coming close to the end, huh? >> Yeah. >> Good evening, President Brown, commissioners, student representatives, Dr. Schwarz. >> So, we are now in the I'm reporting on the ninth month of the fiscal year. This is through March. Um, again, as I have said all year long, um, we've been very good stewards of this money. Um, especially knowing what we were facing in the years coming out. Um, as you know, we were asking for an 11.8 million increase in next year's budget. Um,

096so we made sure that there was true necessities, everything that was quite needed. Um, the salaries will speak for themselves. Um when you turn to the second second page, you'll see the purchase services line. Um you'll see that the pupil transportation is up will be in in an in a deficit as well as the electricity line. Um the professional services line that would be for our outside contractor for our substitute teachers. Um one promising is we feel that we're going to surplus in the outside tuition for special ed. as well as the purchase services for special ed. >> So that's exciting. It is I mean and it's such a vari these are variable line items. So >> you know you could get one or two students that have to be out place for some reason

097and then these could be different numbers. But um the special ed department did a great job always like reviewing the the invoices that came in and and holding um the vendors, you know, making sure that the hours and everything um that we should be paying for we're paying for and no more than that. Um, you'll see again the natural gas that's under the supply line. Obviously, a big deficit. I'm probably going to have to change that amount. Um, we do the approved budget. Um, I don't think I budgeted enough based on what we've been seeing over the last last few months. Um, and on the last page, again, we are not going to be using any of the contingency, which is great because that offsets um in our fiscal year 27 that we offset some

098of our budget increase with. So, any questions? >> Looks like we're in pretty good shape. >> Yeah, we're in good shape with this budget. Yes, we are. >> Okay, great. Commissioner Van Stone. >> Thank you, Madam President. True. You >> what I would like to talk about, but I'm not going to the red numbers. We saw it coming. Yeah, you've been calling it all. It's not like you're surprising us. I want to give a special very special thank you to Miss Wendy John's and s unfortunately she is moving on to bigger and better things and I hope you left all your notes on how this happens because well that's nice of you to say but your leadership uh we have seen it this entire year where we've we found better situations we did right things

099with the and we're going to miss you and um >> you're going to be difficult to fill >> and um just leave your notes on how you saved all that money. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Jeremy. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. And now I'm going to call uh call the a recess for our meeting and then go into the special meeting. >> Anybody want to stand for a minute? to recess. >> No, just a recess. >> Perfect timing, Mayor. [laughter] >> [laughter] >> Okay. [laughter] >> Got you a cookie, man. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay. >> One of the girls here makes this all eyes on you. >> Thank you. >> All right. I got it. I got it. Don't go too far. Everybody >> just did the press. >> [music]

100[music] >> Board members could make their way back to their seats, Please. >> I thought they would just stand up meandering. >> I know. Exactly. >> [laughter] >> Good evening everyone and welcome to a special meeting of the Waterberry Board of Education here at Wallace Middle School. We'll begin the meeting with a silent prayer. Mayor Perooki, if you would lead us in the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Commissioner Hen President Commissioner Anthony Ireland >> present. >> Vice President Latoya Ireland >> here. >> Commissioner Jackson >> present. >> Commissioner Lopez >> present. >> Commissioner L >> here. Commissioner >> here. >> Commissioner Orso >> here. >> Commissioner Vansstone >> pres. >>

101Okay. Committee of the whole. Vice President Latoya Ireland. >> Thank you, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the Waterberry Board of Education contingent upon the governor of the state of Connecticut signing into law an act authorizing the Waterberry Board of Education to operate schools for 176 school days for the 2025 school year in lie of the otherwise required 180 school days. hereby approve the revised 2025 school calendar as presented. >> Do I have a second? >> Second discussion. All in favor? >> I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Can I have a >> motion to >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you. I will con convene from recess and we'll start with um number 13. >> Good evening,

102Mayor Perooki, President Brown, board commissioners, student representatives, and superintendent Dr. Schwarz. Um, the board of education respectfully requests your approval uh in conjunction with the engineering department and public works to approve for new task orders and purchase orders um according to their rate sheet that is already specified. This was a bid process that they had to uh submit their their um hourly wages. Uh the term will uh begin upon uh the signature of the mayor and end on uh December 31st, 2027. We typically don't use this service, but it's a good service to have on hand in the event of an emergency. If you don't have an emergency, obviously we would go out with an an RFP or an ITB. Um would highly recommend to approve this at our next meeting. would highly recommend to

103approve this at our next meeting. >> Thank you, Commissioner Vansstone. >> Thank you, Madam President. Through you and I I concur that we've had great success. I know I was questioning these a few years ago and but I know since then I know they've been successful, but I do want to ask because I remember Brenda asked, we say we're doing this in conjunction with the public works department, but it it's been like an 8020 pay and 80 is us. What is this one? Is this 50/50 this time at least? >> No. No. We would We don't pay anything unless we use them and we would follow their rate scale. So if we were to when we had this issue with the heating system at um at career uh where the boiler just simply stopped functioning.

104We had to replace it literally in one night. >> Right. Okay. That's fine. What I'm asking though is if the public works department uses this contract, are they paying for it or are we paying for it? >> They pay it. They pay their end. If we don't use it, we don't pay anything. >> And there were a couple in the past that we seem to be paying. >> Yeah. >> Even when they used it. >> No. If they uh use any of these companies, it's on them. If it's in their city buildings, if we're in the board of education buildings, we would pay according to the same rate. I hope they budgeted for it because I know that is not how it worked on a couple in the past. >> Uh I I am sure

105that we would not be and and Mrs. Biola would be able to research that when she saw something like that coming through. But no, this is only for our own >> Okay. >> facilities. >> That's what I'm asking. Thank you. >> Okay. Any other questions? Okay. >> I would assume and I'm going to correct correct me if I'm wrong. If we use them, we pay 100%. >> Correct. Public works plays nothing. If if we use a fire bill, we pay 100%. >> Yeah. >> And if they use them, they pay 100%. >> Okay. Number 15, you're up again. >> Uh the education department respect respectfully requests >> I'm sorry, 14. >> 14. Uh your review and approval of the professional services uh RFP8580 with DVM Industries. Uh the total agreement is $125,815. It includes $10,75

106for installation costs um and $6,000 owner controlled contingency. Uh to be truthful, right now when we have a fire panel, it transmits uh what they call through POTS, plain old telephone service. And we're finding a lot of problems. Uh wires are getting wet. Um and we're having problems with communication. The fire panel works, but the communication with the monitoring company is not as reliable. This is a digital system. Um and it checks itself. It'll send out a signal every 60 seconds. Even if there isn't a fire, sends out a signal every singing. So this will be installed in 31 locations. Some are counted as two and that's why 31 locations. Uh and this will uh give us much uh better service in monitoring if there were to be a fire. >> Any questions? Sounds smart.

107Okay. And now 15. >> The Department uh of education respectfully requests your review and approval of a two-year services agreement with curriculum associates for online math intervention platform. This would be at Crosby and at Kennedy. Um they are using their CN funds. Um each year is $27,513 per school. The total contract is for uh 110,52 but that's for two schools for two years. Um we always are looking for some intervention programs that would assist uh with our tier 2 tier three instruction. And this is something that um Mr. Verno and Mr. Johnson have uh researched and they'd like to put this into play. And this will be a two-year there there's two more years on on the CN monies 26 27 and 2728. This would be covered in their CN monies. >> Any questions? CN

108means commissioners network by the way. >> Sorry. Yes. [laughter] >> They were just talking about letters before. Education is acronyms [laughter] and and if I may give uh correct information from before power school, excuse me, parent square is 190 languages. >> 19. So how >> 15A has been removed from the uh agenda this evening. We're going to 16. Uh Wendy John's request approval of amendment one to the professional services agreement with Access Rehab Centers LLC for occupational and physical therapy services. >> Good evening. >> I think you're up. I think you're the rest of the agenda. [laughter] >> Good evening. Um, Mayor Perooki, President Brown, board commissioners, student representatives, and superintendent Dr. Schwarz. The special ed department requests the approval of RFP number 7611 between the city of Waterberry and Access Rehab Center LLC. This

109amendment extends the agreement with access rehab centers for the provision of occupational and physical therapy services to water students with special needs. The term of the agreement is extended by one year shift under contract end date from June 30, 2026 to June 30, 2027. The total compensation for the full term is set to not exceed more than $4,260,221. For the additional year, the compensation is capped at $1,65,5525 maintaining that hourly rate of $89.96. All other terms, conditions, and provision outlining the original agreement dated June 3023 remained in full force in effect. This one-year amendment ensures a robust pipeline of specialists to meet the diverse needs of our student in our community. This will be paid out of general funds. >> Any questions? Commissioner Orso, >> you're asking for an amendment uh for extended one year.

110Why was this done as an RFP months ago to get to get a new contract instead of just doing an RF just giving them an amendment? >> We need to continue services throughout the summer and the execution of the RFP process could not happen prior to summer school. So, we had to continue services and therefore a letter of consistency to purchasing as well as an amendment needed to occur. I understand that. But why wasn't six months ago the RP process go if it take six you saying it take six months which I I even before when somebody said that I just can't believe it takes six months but six months ago why was it an RFP done instead of going out for an amendment for how much was that money again? >> It's 1 million

111>> million dollars. I mean I I don't know. I just I'll vote no when it comes up to be very honest with you. >> Any other questions? Commissioner Lot. >> Thank you. Um the hourly rate is going to 89. What was it prior? Did it go up? Just out of curiosity. >> It's so whenever you do an amendment, you have to write a letter of consistency. So the rate and the amount from the previous year have to stay the same. So the rate is the same $89. Okay. >> Thank you. Commissioner Munos. >> Thank you through you, Madam Chair. Um, so my question, clarity question. So you're saying that it takes 6 months to be go through the board of alderman >> or through just Okay. Okay. Okay. No. Um, so basically when you're going

112through the RFP process, it does take some time. We had three additional RFPs in front of you this evening. Um but obviously we're going to be going through the RFP process for occupational therapists and physical therapists. Okay. As well as additional speech therapists. >> Okay. Okay. >> So we will be starting that process. Our intention is not to keep the full amendment for the full year. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarity. >> Any other questions? Okay. Uh number 17 And this will be the similar um situation that we're requesting another amendment for that year. So um the special department request approval of the RFP number 7612 between the city of Waterberry and the Stepping Stones Group LLC. This memorandum seems approval for amendment number one serves to extend the term of the current contract

113for speech and language speech therapists for an additional year ensuring continuity of care between water public schools and students with special needs. In June of 2023, the city entered into an agreement with Stepping Stone to provide essential speech and language therapy. The original contract was scheduled to conclude on June of 2026 given the ongoing needs of these specialized services to support students MCount and an extension of the agreement is required. Um and also just to um for speech and language pathologist that is a shortage area. So we're asking for an extension. This will also be not to exceed 1.41,456,781 with the rate of $79 and 92 cents, which is pretty low for speech pathologists. For the one year, we're not to exceed 364 mil um $364,000. >> Any questions? >> By the way, are are

114these for preschool through 12th grade? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Oh, Commissioner Ireland, sir. >> Thank you, Madam President. And I think you kind of answered my question, but are these for the outplace special ed or for our students here >> in district? >> Oh, in district. Okay. >> Okay. Number 18. >> Good evening, Mayor Perinooki, President Brown, Board of Ed commissioners, student representatives, and superintendent Dr. Schwarz. The special education department requests approval of professional service agreement between city of Waterbury and Apex Educational Solutions LLC which is RFP for board certified behavioral analysis or BCBAS for short. This agreement formalizes the selection of Apex Educational Solutions LLC to provide specialized behavioral health services for Waterberry Public Schools. This partnership is designed to ensure the district remains in compliance with federal and state mandates regarding the

115education of students with disabilities ages 3 through 22 by providing highle behavioral expertise. This RFP will provide three behavioral certified analysts for primarily our autism classrooms across the district. The RFP process had 11 competiting vendors and as the sole provider across all three projects, um this vendor actually extended a bundle discount to the city. So, it actually provided us a significant cost savings compared to the other 10 um vendors. The initial um three-year term um of this is $1,356,300 and it is paid out of IDA 611 funds. So that's a grant. Any questions? Thank you. >> Next one. The special education department requests approval of agreement between the city of Waterberry and Apex Educational Solutions LLC for RFP 820 8720, excuse me, for registered behavioral technician services. Um, Apex Educational Solutions LLC will provide us

116with RBTs as well as behavioral technicians um to be able to service our autism classrooms uh specifically for ages 3 through 22 for students with IEPs. Um through the RFP process, this had 17 competing vendors. Um they not only scored the highest um but again they also offered a bundled discount. Um through this this is a three-year term but the contract also offers two options. Um this the initial three-year term is $5,840,310 and it is also paid through IDA611 grant funds. And for your reference, the rates are on the second page. Any questions? Next, the third RFP is the special education department requests the approval of professional service agreement between city of Waterberry and Apex Educational Solutions LLC RFP 8721. In this, the partnership is designed to provide specialized behavioral health support and safety training

117for Waterberry Public Schools, specifically targeting students with disabilities ages 3 through 22, who exhibit complex behavioral needs. In addition, Apex Educational Solutions will provide board certified behavioral analysts who also are certified in physical and psychological management training or PMT for short to train district-wide staff in restraint and deescalation training. This is a three-year um not to exceed amount of 517,000 and this is paid out of general fund specifically purchased services. And again, this was an RFP and they provided us a bundled discount. >> Any questions? All right. Thank you. You've been very busy. >> Thank you. >> Next one. Number 21. >> Yes. So, in front of the board this evening is a CABE mandated policy for consideration. This is a special education 6171. In this cave mandated policy for consideration, uh the district is

118um providing a free and appropriate public education. Um this is again a mandated policy stating that as a board you will provide not only IDA um but also section [music] 504 services. Um, and as you subsequently go through the pages, um, I can walk you through the paragraphs. On page A, um, you're it's talking about providing 504 plans, also talking about IDA procedures, providing procedural safeguards to families and students. If students are not eligible for IDA, we can offer 504 plans if they're eligible underneath section 504. at the very bottom. Um, we're as a board offering comprehensive evaluations on 6171B, it talks about how special education services have to start before if a child is eligible before the age of three. The law actually states on their third birthday, they have to have an IEP.

119Uh, in the second paragraph, it talks about how students with a specific learning disability have to go through research-based interventions first. The next paragraph talks about providing special education services and the specific subsections of um the acts um as well as students in private schools. At the very bottom, this is where the board committee um the policy committee gave feedback um which deviates from the cave mandated policy. So, if you look at number one on page uh 6171B at the very bottom, the recommendation um from the board policy was to um eliminate the words and use the numbers 22 instead to keep it consistent throughout the policy. Um letter A at the bottom talks about uh the annual child count which occurs October 1st where we have to report to the state the number of

120students that we are servicing for special education. 6171C uh continues with the number of reports that we have to provide the state as part of child count. Uh the next paragraph talks about child find. In the subsequent um paragraphs at the bottom it starts talking about um how the superintendent has to give an annual report and starting with number one it provides the parameters of the report. Two and three continue um as well as what the report needs to continue. uh 6171D and E provide the legal references for your review. Any questions? Are would this with the passage of this policy I'm sorry >> Commissioner Ireland? I have to speak up down there. I can't hear you. >> Oh, I'm raising my hand. [laughter] I can't see you. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um I

121know these are mandated, but we were already doing most if not some of these already. Correct. Correct. And currently the board has 6171.2 preschool special education in place, but we need to place 6171 [music] in place um to be in line with Cape. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Mr. Albini, we're getting down to the wire. Good evening once again, Mayor Pinerooi, President Brown, board commissioners, student representative representatives, and superintendent Dr. Schwarz. The education department has received 15 requests for building and school facilities use by schools, school organizations, and or city departments as listed in your packet, and they request board of education approval. Any questions? Okay. Number 23. >> Uh, the education department has received three requests for building and school facilities use by

122outside organizations and are paying for the use. They are J. Roush Hernandez, the Kennedy Auditorium in two rooms, Porter and Chester Institute, Kennedy Auditorium and Lights, Camera, Dance, the Kennedy Auditorium and CAF. We have also received four requests. One has been cancelled. The Hispanic Coalition has withdrawn their application. So, there are only four uh that are requesting a waiver. It is nest the dugen calf for $294. Yeshiva katana will be auditorium for $378. Hang time at Rotella for $695 $695 and Waterbury nights dance group will be auditorium and calf for $1,332. We have also received two more requests for school facilities by uh for use by outside organizations and they are not subject to fees because the one event occurs during regular maintainer hours and the other one is for a field use. Catholic academy

123for the Gil Martin gymnasium and East Mountain Sports for the Willby Soccer Field. >> Any questions? Commissioner L and Commissioner Lopez. I I don't know if you're >> Ireland. Is your hand up down there? >> No. Isn't that >> Sorry about that. >> All right. Um Well, it has to do with the waivers. >> Um >> so one of them actually happened last night and it's coming before us today. [music] Correct. >> For a waiver. How does that happen? So that is a conversation I had today that and uh we had brought this up in our committee building committee >> uh that this has to stop. They have to submit in the new proposal that we have drafted and we have some copies this evening uh from our first meeting that they have to be

124submitted 30 days in advance and they cannot use the facilities until they are approved. And um the conversation I had today was just what what happens if that waiver is not granted >> then they have to pay. Right. So, um, so that's a conversation. Uh, th those are some of the things that we have that we're going to correct and through this board, we'll put together a pretty good [music] building use form, guidelines, restrictions, uh, fees, uh, what you choose to wave, what you choose not to wave, all in a timely manner with insurance, um, supervision. We put, if you remember correctly, some of the commissioners that were at that meeting is quite an extensive u packet and I have some copies that I'll distribute this evening so people can look at the commissioners can

125look on their own time. But that is correct. That is one that we do not want to see going forward. >> Yeah. The other thing that I've heard from uh organizations is that they're actually asked to put in for a waiver. So, we're encouraging for people to sign up for waivers >> that I don't know. Um, we shouldn't be encouraging it and certainly their right to request a waiver, but I always say when I speak to the people in the department, they can apply for it. We don't I don't grant the waiver. You don't grant the waiver. The board [music] of education grants the waiver. That's their power. And if they choose to, they choose to. If they don't, they don't. But we don't have that right. And then uh third question and then I'll

126leave it up to anybody else because I did see some hands go up. Yeah, I don't want to take I don't want to be Tom right now, but [laughter] >> actually we have to give Commissioner Van Stone credit for this because he has trained [laughter] me. >> You did train me, Tom. Very well. Um so how early can people put in for you building youth? because I've heard from organizations looking already at next year, but we don't see next year yet, right? >> When when do we start seeing those? >> So, that that's another part of the application that we want to discuss. What we see happening is organizations are putting it in for a year. Now, it may be a very valid reason, but it unfortunately locks a lot of people out. So we

127are looking at one of the provisions is are you applying for four months and then maybe ask for another extension. So gives other vendors renters the opportunity to use our facilities. We welcome the community. That's how we bond with our community. Correct. The the schools belong to taxpayers, right? So we just want to make it so that it's fair. Uh it's economical. it it doesn't favor one side or the other and and that if there's an injury every we are covered we are we are holdless so that is part of this and we welcome you to the next meeting uh commissioner because that will be a topic of conversation >> just want to thank you so much >> thank you >> any other questions >> love you Tom >> commissioner lot >> thank you madam

128president yeah just on that um choice awards or whatever there it says from Brford. So, they're not even from here at all. They came and got the waiver and they already went did their business in. So, Bill would be foolish. Now, >> that that is one of the things that uh you know is just not right and and we will we plan to fix that with your help. Of course, >> and then um >> the water brain knights, they're doing their dangerous idle stuff. >> That's not that's fine. Let them do their thing, but they're charging at the door. So to charge at the door and then charge for food and then to say I want a waiver on top of that. >> You can't do that >> in my eyes. I think it's not

129fair to the parents. It's not fair. Like they pay their for their kid to dance and do what they're going to do and you're charging them now again to come see their kid. But you want to waiver from us. So to me, if they're going to charge at the door, >> they have to pay. >> Absolutely. >> If it's free for the recital, that's fine. But if they charge at the door, they have they have to pay the money. Mhm. >> I mean, even practices, they can practice during the week and then they're not sub the fees or the same fee at least in the weekender. So, I get that part. But if you charge at the door, you pay the money. If you don't charge, fine. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I think we need

130to set up another meeting as soon as possible because I'd like to have this finalized be before the end of June so that we can start notifying people of the new policy and making sure that you know staff is aware of some of the changes because obviously there's been some confusion over the years. So I think if the more we can concretize the policy and get the word out and start a better system, I think I think that's really where we have to go because obviously there's some problems right now. >> Yeah, this is fruitful discussion uh to make everything fair, equitable um and right. So so it this is a great starting point where where we're coming from. >> Thank you, Commissioner Van Stone. >> Thank you, Madam President. through you. My name was

131mentioned so I get to talk right. Is that how [laughter] it works? >> Always. >> Thanks a lot down there. >> I don't see his name three times though. [laughter] >> But anyway, um yeah, the one that's already passed this this is just that's and I I don't know. The person who filled out the form is out of town. I don't know if the folks actually maybe it is or still our kids. You never know. But that would be something nice for the policy committee. Uh not policy. Uh this is facilities committee to also put in there who who is the folks actually using it. >> You know, uh >> I'd be surprised if someone from Brford brought, you know, 20 kids to do a dance or whatever this thing is. But um how are

132we going to do this in the end? Are we going to vote on these things twice? I mean, we could vote to make these people pay. They'll probably laugh at us, but and we can't vote to say they could use the facility because they already did without our approval. >> That's my bigger concern when something like this happens. >> Correct. >> Exactly. >> Put the money aside for a second. >> These folks used our facilities without our approval. >> You are absolutely correct. When I saw that today, I I was >> But that's my question, though. Are we going to vote on these things twice? one to say you could use the facility and then vote the second time to say we pass your waiver or we don't pass your waiver. >> Is that how

133we're going to have to do it? >> Yeah. >> It's the only way we could do it, I guess. Right. >> It's going to be a double vote. >> Boy, when I started this 12 years ago, I didn't think it would turn into a double vote, >> but um it's nice to have company and asking these questions, >> but it it's required. You can see that you're entitled to use it. So, if you want, >> we'll bless that. We'll pass that. You're not going to >> we do or don't fe the waiver. >> Correct. >> All right. Um and seeing the mayor's here tonight, I will throw out the part that I stopped pushing this because we pay the maintainers uh etc. out of our operating funds. But then when someone does pay this for

134their usage, it goes to city hall and not to the department of education. So I would love to see that change as well. It's nice to have dreams. [laughter] >> Nice to have dreams. >> Okay, we we are now >> under adisement. >> We are now asking for 15 million instead of 11. >> Thank you, Madam President. >> So, you're all set. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Alb. >> Madam President, >> so I look forward to finalizing all this. >> I'm sorry. Commissioner, one last pitch I forgot to mention. East Mountain. The gentleman that put in for the application lives in Walit. So, it's another thing where they're playing under that umbrella. I'm East Mount East Mountain, but you reside in Walkit. So, we need to figure out who's actually in charge of the East

135Mountain, East Mountain Athletic Association in Waterberry. That's Waterberry facilities for free or for wave, whatever it is, which you don't live here. You don't pay taxes here. Not against the man doing good good work. But still, >> it's only right. >> And and that came up in our in our meeting. You had brought that up. So it it's a conversation point for sure. >> Discussion point, not conversation discussion. >> Liz. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Liz. I I I just have so and I'm sorry I don't want to belabor this, but I just have a question. >> So if the organization asked to use the building and the meeting didn't happen, who authorized that organization to even get into the building? So I think that's a concern right there. or am I looking at it

136wrong? >> It's a concern. >> No, >> who? >> I I will I will I will get that to you, >> Madam Vice President. >> Okay. Because that means they're getting into the buildings without even >> approval or being aware made known that they were in there. So, I think that's a concern as well. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Big concern. >> Thank you. Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh, superintendent update. >> Um, would can we do the preschool project? >> Oh, is that next? I'm sorry. I thought was the superintendent. >> Yes. >> Okay. I figured you would want >> I'm sorry. 24. Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. You've only been waiting for >> I know but >> 14 years for this >> discussion. I don't want to

137appreciate uh 14 even more >> 20some. Okay. Sorry. I was trying to be nice. Uh good evening, Mayor Perooki, President Brown, board of education uh members and of course our student representatives. Uh tonight's uh another step uh in a direction that I think is absolutely necessary for the district. Um I you can see that uh chief operating officer Albini and Chief Academic Officer Frenis are also up at the table uh to help support any uh questions that you may have regarding uh general timelines and just you know why we're doing this now and and and uh we wanted to give you this uh small presentation because we also uh are um have been requested to do this at the alderman next week and we thought it only appropriate that you get the presentation first and

138then uh we go the alderman with it as well. So, uh I want to thank Carrie for putting this specific slide together and I apologize I don't usually have this many words on any slide. Uh >> short >> and this is the shortened version. Uh and uh and if you don't have a copy of the presentation, be happy to provide it for you as well. Um I believe it's in the backup, right? Thank you, Carrie. So, uh basically this is the this is the this is the timeline. A lot of people get confused on like where are we with this project and people want to know where's it going to be uh how many how many how many rooms uh you know what the floor tile is going to be made out of and we

139are so far away from that that's like picking out the kitchen cabinets before you get the loan for the house you know what I mean and so right now all we're trying to do is is ask for permission to go after this uh concept and so location building, number of windows in a room, all that will be determined a long time from now if we get approval from the boards and then all of the processes through DAS and legislators and approving it. So, um um I just wanted to kind of give you this timeline. I don't want to go through every single bullet, but I could tell you we're on like bullet one of all the bullets. That's where we are and we're requesting permission. we will go to the building committee and the board

140for the board of ed to review specs. Now, those specs are this is what we think we're going to need based on our uh work with Frier and and and um based on everything we've talked to from the early childhood people within our departments to say this is what the school could need. Um that's what we go for, but in the end ultimately uh that's also going to change as well. um um it doesn't necessarily have to meet that exact specification. You get approved for the grant with the concept. What it ends up being is uh about a year a year down the line. And so um again, we're just looking for permission. Uh and you'll see those EDS specs uh shortly uh in the next few weeks. Um and just an idea of our

141early childhood status, we do have a lot of preschools around the uh the district. Um we have uh you know from as large as Bucks Hill preschool which is the 10 classrooms and the portables uh to Maloney having six classrooms and then various uh preschools throughout the district which help help prepare our students. Really what we're talking about right now is mostly uh Bucks Hill preschool with uh two classes at Maloney, two classes at Sprag, and two classes at Kingsbury are really what we're kind of honing in on with this preschool center with the option to be able to put in some more uh uh uh preschool classrooms at this early childhood center. Next slide. Just a a heads up on where we're coming from with this. And we are going we are actively trying

142to work and organize for a time for you all to go up to the Bucksville preschool. Um also for the alderman to be able to see the Bucksill preschool really um it's kind of tough because the best time for most people is like around now. Uh but it you really need to go there with students in inside of it. I think that would make a major difference in terms of your understanding of how it's operating. Uh so we are uh working uh with corp council and others to make sure that we can we can do that. uh a facility study in 2004 that uh our clerk found uh in her piles uh it stated that Bucksill portable showed significant signs of deterioration. They were already put there in 2000. >> Y >> by 2004 this

143was this was a statement in that document plan recommends the construction of a new facility to house the existing prek program that is now housed at Bucksville to replace the series of temporary classrooms. Uh that was 22 years ago. uh facility study in 2022 stated, "Demand for preschool programs exceeds capacity. Special ed is increasing and the district needs more appropriately equipped classrooms. Overall recommendation the study was to build a dedicated prek center allowing for program expansion." So, we got that um >> 18 years later uh in the facility study. So, this isn't just like Darren's idea thinking, "Hey, this is I've just stepped on the scene thinking this was a good idea. The the studies that have been done on the district show it." um your eyeballs will show it if you go up to

144the to to the portables yourself. Um and then just multiple meetings with actually the educators over time have have shown this. Currently, Bucksill preschool alone is serving 285 students. Um, I will say that if Bucks was bigger, the there's two classes at Maloney, two classes at Kingsbury, and the two classes at Sprag would actually be at Bucks preschool. But because it's only 10 classrooms, we have six more out in the district, spreading out our resources rather than having them centrally located. 62 of those students at Bucksville Preschool are preK4 students who actually attend only half day. Why do they only attend half day? Because that's all that can fit. um because then we need the other students coming in the PM. Uh 58 preK3 students uh receive special needs at a fracture schedule schedule which

145means they come two to three days a week only half day. 15 teachers, 15 pairs, two speech pathologists, one social worker currently at that school. Um OTPT is in the halls lack space for sensory equipment. No designated room for indoor gross motor congested halls with student equipment for adaptive needs litters the hallway. Uh two total bathrooms in the portables. So for 10 students um and uh for those that have children or have remember those days with younger children, think about all those students with two bathrooms um in the portables. 10 classrooms are in those portables and as I mentioned over 25 years old. Um what we're proposing to do is to have a dedicated birth to three and prek3 for specialized service in one location. Birth to three is currently housed at 30B church. We'd

146like to bring this programs together in one specialized location where we could service over 163 general ed and 353 special ed students. We're looking for 25 classrooms, two sensory rooms, playgroup opportunities for those birth to three students. Playgroup opportunities are u the best way to kind of not only um let students interact in a natural setting uh but also play groups also help parents understand what's naturally developmentally appropriate for students uh especially ones with uh special needs. Uh so those play groups help students and the parents. We're looking for strategic acoustic systems in each classroom. Uh child-friendly lighting and colors, outdoor learning experiences, studentfriendly bathrooms in every classroom. >> Yes. And it's all about the potty in preschool. Uh classrooms built for three and 5year-olds. So when we're talking about desks, heights of equipment, the

147heights of windows so students can actually see outside, um sinks, handles, cubbies, chairs, equipment, etc. it. This is an entire building built for the three to four 5-year-old. Increased opportunities for peer interaction for students with special needs. As you can see, more regular ed students. It's good for special education students to also have uh peer interactions with students who do not have special needs. Uh full day options for pre-K4 students. Every preK4 student having that full day option. Uh not just a half-day option. dedicated large space for OTP, community use of the space and so on and so forth. There is also an idea of kindergarten transitional classroom at this uh at this site. So still some students still may need that extra year to be able to get ready for that kindergarten uh classroom.

148It's a big jump. Those are just some of the highlights of the proposal that we'll be talking about in the edspecs when we come to you. Long-term budget considerations, which is something that I think everybody is interested in. So, um, yeah, this is going to come with, uh, most, uh, some additional teachers and support staff with long-term costs, but when you're only giving students half days, uh, when you're only giving three-year-olds, uh, two, three days a week, um, it's an investment. Um, so it's a it's I said cost, but it it really is an investment. The better we do at the younger ages, the actual less it's going to cost us longer on for all the services we didn't provide and because we didn't catch them up and now they need more special ed services,

149OTPTs, uh, speech language uh, therapists for longer because we could have done it when they were younger and more malleable. Uh, we're also going to have increased custodial maintenance and uh, of the building compared to portables. So yeah, so the roof's going to have to come up at one point. HVAC systems. Yeah, that's a certainly a consideration that we'll have to think through, but we this is the next few bullets are some places where we think we're we're gaining some opportunity centralized location. So right now Bucksale Preschool is almost in Walit and you know it's like really far up there. It's not easy to get up there. There's no bus lines that run up there. We want a centralized location to be determined in the city. Uh that we can also uh now put all

150the students from Bucks, Kingsbury, Maloney and others in one location. That central location would reduce transportation costs and time uh little ones are on actually on the bus. So imagine if you live in the general neighborhood and you have to go up to Bucks preschool every morning as a three-year-old only to get back on the bus two and a half hours later to ride it for a half an hour. Increased efficiency of service delivery such as speech and language therapy. be physical therapy, occupational therapy, um if those contracts pass that uh those are those are the services. But if you think about it, if you have it in one location, um rather than spreading it out to multiple locations, then you have uh you have that centralized location and you don't lose the time that

151they're traveling from school to school. So less need for additional actually cost, increased opportunity to share staff during absences. So, lots of lots of staff in these classrooms. Um, when you're at um some of these programs that are outplaced outside of Bucks Preschool, you have one or two staff members out. You really feel it in that school. Where here, you would have a larger community to be able to pull from to support your absences. You'd also have a central location for special equipment. A lot of our students at these ages have special equipment. If a student at Kingsbury needs special equipment and at um Maloney and at Bucks preschool, that's three times the equipment where we could have one equipment, one piece of equipment students could be using utilizing at at one school. Um and

152then uh um I mentioned earlier increased infective services at a younger age will decrease long-term costs. And the really the most uh compelling uh reason of why now uh never mind uh if it I believe is just the right thing to do for our most vulnerable population, our youngest students and special needs. But it's also um we typically get about 79% reimbursement. Uh but if we act now, act while they offer stands, uh this the state is uh providing an extra 15% for early childhood centers right now. uh this would ultimately save the city millions of dollars if we again if we go through this process and awarded that very good chance we could go through this they say we're not going to give you that 50 15% we don't have to build the school

153we could right back to where we were we have to make that decision there's actually an opportunity and I don't want to jinx ourselves it could be even more than 94% I don't really want to but there's an opportunity it could be we can't have it we can't get 105% we can't get money back but um there is an opportunity to possibly go up to close to 99 to 100%. If we get qualified uh for all of the boxes we're checking in our application, I mean, this could be something for very very low cost, but for right now, we're comfortable saying 94% seems to be a really uh high high bar, but I think um it could be as high as 99 uh to 100. Um, but we won't know that until we apply and

154then we get that um information back. And again, that doesn't lock us into do it. The the the the district in the past did try to build a school. We went through this process uh school three or what was it called? >> New elementary PreK3. Was it supposed to go at the park? >> No. PreK >> at the park, right? >> Or the other location? Yes. >> Veron Avenue. So we we we went through this process ultimately couldn't decide on a place we just said thank you for giving us the project we ended up not doing it. So there's history here where that's happened and so again uh approval here is also just get get us through the process. Let's see what kind of percentage we're going to get and then let's see what kind

155of locations uh uh come our way. you're the board of education. Uh so I know uh you you're you're well equipped in this area. Um I won't read them all, but I think it's also pretty obvious of what the impact of high quality uh early childhood would have on kindergarten readiness and just not just kindergarten readiness, but just future success for students. Um more ready for kindergarten, which allows the superintendent to have less students in uh those intervention classes. You advance. Any kid that attends a high quality preschool has advanced on is advanced in language, reading, writing, and math skills. Positive impacts on social emotional development. Larger benefits for children who are most in need, specifically low-income and children of color. Statist statistically significant reductions in special ed placement and grade retention. Decreased high school

156disciplinary measures. Strongly predicts four-year college enrollment. um higher rates of high school completion, college attendance, employment, and long-term health benefits for uh students that go to an effective early childhood uh center. So, u with all that being said, again, this is very similar uh if not exactly the same unless we get some feedback of what we'll present to the board of alderman on Monday night. And uh we're all here to answer any questions that you may have of us. >> Any questions? Commissioner Vanstone. >> Thank you, Madam President. Through you, you know, when we discussed this at the meeting and and we actually approved it already >> to go forward to the board of alderman. >> Uh I only mentioned the dollar piece. I know the need, >> you know, I've been we've been doing

157this building thing for a long time. And actually for avenue, it was not the board of ed saying we're not going to go through it. It actually went to referendum and was defeated. Mhm. >> We absolutely we were 100% as a board committed to build that school up there. Um >> and the referendum was defeated and that's why it went away. >> Mhm. >> Um I don't know what's going to happen this time. Maybe I shouldn't have said that because now someone's going to try to do it. But um my concern is and it's not in here is about the bonding. >> Mhm. >> Where we actually bond for the entire amount of whatever this may be, which could be up to $100 million. Um, yeah, the mayor could probably speak better at that. >>

158I just want to make a point. So, what you're what would happen is the board of alderman would be asked to authorize bonding up to the $und00 million. >> We're just throwing that number out. Yeah. >> No. No. Right. But it's not it's not bonded. And the way the process works is B with that number going forward, if we get approved, it allows us to enter into contracts. We get the money back from the state. We would never issue a hundred million dollars worth of bonds. If it were at 94% it would be six million if it's a higher number. So it's just an authorization to go up to that number. But if we don't get the funding approved by the state, we're not going to go forward ourselves with a hund00 million bond authorizations.

159I >> I appreciate that clarification because I purposely stay away from the bonding conversations because we don't do that. That's not our business. Um however, we're going to throw it over there to say it needs, you know, to be uh authorized for a potential. But yeah, you know, we're looking at if we go from the original 80% which is the typical that's been forever as far as I know. Um I know we did it on all the previous buildings we did. That's anywhere on 100 million. Anywhere from 20 million to if we got 95% 5 million. So we're still looking at a decent number that we're going to be looking for uh as our contribution. I mean if you get 99% I mean I I will be amazed. Uh my mind I'm preparing for the

16080 >> because we just don't know about this early childhood and seeing you have all these bullets of what probably people have put in your ear for what we should do on this campus. I'm going to only put one. Find room for enlightenment. Just throwing it out there. Okay. Thanks, Madam President. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Any of more questions? Okay. Thank you. What time is the alderman meeting as we're we're at the excellence thing? >> Yes. I will be running from there to the >> Oh, that's too bad because I would have liked to have been at the board of alderman. >> Well, it's at it's at six o'clock, but the excellence should be ending at 5:50 p.m. >> Okay. All right. >> Okay. Now, we can move on to the superintendent's

161update. Okay, thank you. Uh, I'll make it quick tonight. Uh, had a great time at the Kingsbury Career Day. I, uh, we all had to bring a book of what we do. And then since there is no book of how to be a superintendent, I had to make my own. Um, and the kids were amazing. Kingsbury, Principal Sam, uh, everyone there did an amazing job. and um tried to make the superintendent as cool as being like some of these other people like Freddy brought like big trucks and police officers came and you know EMTs. So I did my best uh to to to try to convince them that superintendent is a cool job. Um State Streets at it again their bake sale with culinary selling. So I just want to keep highlighting them. They're just

162a amazing group of students and and great teacher and um really uh just love having them uh in the in the in the building. uh superintendent advisory council of my juniors and seniors who applied uh they came to the uh Chase building and they are finalizing their topics of college and career readiness and high expectations for all of how we can be a better district in those two areas. They're creating a project and uh they'll be proposing uh their uh uh their final uh product uh within the next month. Uh they also were able to sit at my desk as you can see in some of these pictures either read the books I had sitting around or just acting like the boss or the superintendent for the day. So uh there it is and state

163street helped out that day as well. Uh we I want to congratulate all the GLI uh students who were at the global uh leadership institute presentations last week where 12 of our students collaborated with 12 TAF students uh who developed uh this um this great presentation about uh how they want to either impact or change the world and they actually did like a community service project where they uh where they highlighted their their efforts. So congratulations to our July scholars. Um, we also are continuing, you might remember last year, uh, the governor's prevention partnership mentor update and we're doing that at Whams where we have three mentors from Webster Bank working with five students who are working on any areas of grades, goals or personal life, and we just want to thank them for their

164continued uh, work for mentorship with our students at at Williams School. Uh, you probably saw the email that waterway public schools received the Yukon Provosts Award. We're being awarded the 2026 uh award for excellence in community engaged scholarship in the community partner category and I look forward to celebrating with you all in the fall >> um with Yukon. uh we are in the month of April we worked with the exchange club and the blue ribbon campaign uh to support children in our community and it's really in the recognition of child abuse awareness month and uh we were able to raise uh um I think a good amount of money it was a couple hundred dollars for uh could have been up to a thousand for the water exchange club and their blue ribbon campaign and

165I know a lot of our schools participated as well many of us even though one person ran away from the table and couldn't get in the Sure. >> You weren't there. We were we were yelling your name and nobody could see you in the entire >> I just told you. >> Yes. So we we missed you in the picture. However, we knew we knew you were there and uh just wanted to highlight all the students who received the scholarships that night. Uh really inspirational and uh thank the board for for attending that event. Gil Martin had an amazing multicultural night uh last night where uh many of our students and we can see our supervisor uh Manuel Zaldar there uh munching on something delicious. I also heard that principal Lanza and uh school inspector Mikea

166showed up showed up with their Polish shirts on matching Polish shirts on. So uh they were there representing the multicultural night for our students. So congratulations to Gil Martin. And speaking of Gil Martin, principal Eric Lanza was selected to serve on the CAS leadership board uh through the Center for Leadership and Innovation, which supports Connecticut school leaders through leadership, development, mentoring, policy, advocacy, and the promotion of innovative school practices. So, congratulations to Principal Lanza for that award. Um, lots that came out of this legislative session, way too much for tonight and for this slide, but I was just looking at the funding. So, as mentioned earlier, we um we did request $1.8 million. is we did get a special uh the city will be getting a special fund of educational aid for 14,775,836 that will

167be required to be passed through uh the city to us uh to be able to support our uh efforts for next year. And so we're very grateful to all the representatives, everybody in the Waterberry delegation who really fought hard uh for our students for Waterberry to receive this funding. It's much needed. I know someone at that table was very relieved when she saw the final number. Uh it was [laughter] Yeah. So, uh and and I think she let out a woohoo. So, um uh but it was it's great and then and but it also reminds us how finicky these budgets can be. You know, we are uh obviously going to have more conversations about this, but we are looking at other losses. We're looking at title three losses. We're looking at um we're looking at

168school improvement grant from um from the state. So with with with the good news also comes also news where people uh either whether it's federal state funding that has been reduced as well. So we'll have further conversations about what that means for us. And then Roberto Clemente International Language School was approved. Uh the estimated project cost was 38 million 755,000 and with the 79% reimbursement that we got for that the estimated grant would be for over 30 million. So, we are going to continue with that uh process now that it's been approved and um wanted to make sure everybody was aware of that. >> Great. It seems like it was a short time frame for it to be approved. That was great. >> It seemed Yeah. Well, and and well, we're moving to sixth grade

169next year at Roberto Clemente where we can we can just fit and um um we won't have the entire uh new edition put on by the time the seventh grade comes in. Uh if there's a way to do it, we we'll figure it out. uh but if not there may be a need for some swing space for those students for for seventh grade because and then uh for completion uh should be completed by the time they get to ETH. >> And of course we just want to thank all of our administrative professionals. Uh happy administrative professionals day. I know we celebrated with some uh Portuguese uh custard cups and paste donadas and uh different pastries from there. And then uh we bought lunch from San Marino for our administrative professionals because they do so much

170for us. Uh it's a small token of appreciation uh um because they're amazing and we have so many administrative professionals in the district that really are the glue to many of our offices. So, I want to thank all of them for everything they do and including our bus drivers who work really hard every day to make sure our kids get to and from school uh and um I want to thank them for their efforts in protecting our students and providing such an important service. There's also happy school principles day on May 1st. So, we sent out a nice little thing out uh little message out for our school principles who are obviously the leaders in each school. And of course, it's teacher appreciation week and many of us either we recorded a message and uh

171we sent out some letters and we have uh some local businesses are actually giving teachers um some hefty discounts this week. So, we want to thank all the local businesses that are participating in our teacher appreciation week. We just want to send a shout out to them and for everything that they do for us uh and for our community and for our students. And of course uh uh our nurses who uh are not to be forgotten. Uh they uh there was on May 6 was uh school nurse day and I know Asing did a nice job of celebrating the school nurses and having a nice lunch for them as well. So I want to thank all the school nurses and one final uh reminder to follow us on social media. >> Wow. Always a busy

172week. >> Always >> great stuff happening. Commissioner L. >> Thank you Madam President. Uh superintendent just asking a question regards to the education aid. Was that ECS number changed at all or no? >> Yeah. So the that way the educa the ECS uh money did not change. It's it's going to be a special like aid that goes to the city that goes to the education. >> So next year we'll be kind of in a similar >> So we get we get this 14.7 for two years in a row. So we get 14.7 this year. It's planned to get 14.7 the year after that, which is a really good point to actually make because as you know with contracts and everything else, >> 14.7 this year is not the same as 14.7 next year. So when

173we talk about asks and where we're going with things, you know, this year we're covered, you know, next year will be a different conversation. >> So you're talking about 2028 though, right? >> Say this year. >> Yeah. So yeah, so the 2627 we're getting the 14.7 million uh which is going to cover basically the gaps uh that that we had the next year after that which is 2728 we also get 14.7 million again. Uh but you can assume with contractual raises and all the other costs you know it will it will look like an additional 10 million after that. Um just eyeballing it right now just because that's what contractual raises in transportation and special ed costs usually go up by. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And we we also see uh superintendent uh information

174to the board. Any questions there? 26. And then we have Commissioner Lopez. I move to convene into executive session for discussion com concerning pending claims litigation and discussion concerning the appointment employment performance evaluation health or dismissal of public officer or employee >> second discussion all in favor >> opposed to stay motion carries into executive session >> around to the right Are we bringing our