001[music] Good evening everyone and welcome to the Waterberry Board of Education regular meeting. And I would just like to start off by reminding us and the public about our vision for our student. representatives tonight. In our moment of silence this evening, let us remember former members of the Waterberry public schools education community who passed away. Mary Ellen D'Angelo, former teacher director, passed away on November 14th, 2025. Donna Pascuchi, former food service worker, passed away on November 19th, 2025. Ishmael Pacheco, seventh grader at Williams, passed away on November 22nd, 2025 in uh Bristol, Connecticut in the accident. And I want to uh just thank the Waterberry Arts Magnet School community for helping also raise over $2,000 for the family. Jesse Gizdola, former Chase school teacher, passed away on November 29th, 2025. And Vian Snider, former principal
002of Crosby High School, passed away on December 7th, 2025. Now we'll have the pledge of allegiance led by our student representatives Aiden and Ahon. I pledge allegiance 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 Bowen, Anthony, Vice President Ireland here, Jackson Commissioner, Brown, present. Okay. Commissioner Lopez, I move to amend the agenda to move committee of the whole item 10.1 to immediately after agenda item four, communications. Is there a second? Second. Discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Communications Commissioner Jackson on file communications as listed. Second discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. 10.1. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the Waterberry Board of Education
003ratify the successor collective bargaining agreement between the Waterberry Board of Education and the Waterberry Teachers Association for the period of July 1st, through June 30th, 2029 and recommend approval to the board of alderman. Second. Discussion. Attorney Ritters with us this evening. Hi. Good evening. Uh good evening, President Brown, uh commissioners, Dr. Schwarz, our student representatives, and our administrative team. Um for those of you who I have not had the opportunity to meet, I am Jessica Ritter with Shipman and Goodwin and I had the pleasure of negotiating the teachers contract with your administrative team, your representatives from the city and also the teachers union. Um I have provided for you a number of documents. I can just briefly let you know what those documents are and then I can briefly just provide you a brief summary
004of the highlights of the contract negotiations if that would be helpful and I can certainly take any questions. So the first document that you have that um has the shipment label on it is just a memorandum that we put together which again highlights the more significant items that were negotiated. There then is a redline contract which shows um all of the contractual revisions that have been made. Um then we have the Waterberry Board of Ed teachers salary schedule. So this is an analysis of the cost data and shows you what the negotiated settlement will cost you um on average in each year. And then lastly, I have provided you with the teacher settlements for the 2526 season, which gives an overview as to what the state average was. Um, and this was information that we
005used um in order to foster our conversations around salary. Um, if I may, I'm just happy to give you kind of a brief overview of some of the changes and then more than happy to take questions. Um but one thing that I would like to say is um I felt very honored to represent the board of education. We are uh new to this role so very much appreciated the opportunity. Um it was a pleasure working with everyone and the union. It was a very collaborative and collegial process and I think that both parties really understood that we needed to focus on teacher recruitment and teacher retention. And I do think that what you'll see here achieves that. Um well, so one I would say um we did not make any insurance changes. So you will
006see that and the reason for that is your teachers have been uh progressive and have negotiated significant insurance concessions over the year and as we all know the cost of living has significantly increased and obviously insurance costs have also increased. So, I think that your representatives from both the board and the city side were very sensitive to that. In exchange, the teachers union recognizing um Waterberry's ability to pay um or lack thereof um was also very thoughtful with respect to wages because you have um about you know 1,200 to,500 employees on average and obviously the cost is very significant. Um, so if you look at the salary schedule that we gave you, you can see that we agreed to a 12.45% over 3 years. We have um also walked you through monetarily dollars and cents.
007What that is going to mean for the board of education. Now, one thing that this salary settlement does is it is below market, which I think is a very significant concession on the behalf of the teachers. But that is why we also didn't have any insurance changes because we wanted to make sure that when they received the increase that they deserve, it actually means something to them. And so I do think it was a good give and take between the two parties recognizing the economic realities for both entities. Um so the average state settlement is in excess of 13% over three years. Um the increases have gone up significantly over the last couple of years. We've seen a lot of increases postco because everyone is dealing with a teacher shortage crisis and obviously going back
008to the theme of recruitment and retention. Um that's why we have seen a significant uptick with respect to settlements. Um the other things that I just briefly wanted to um talk to you about were just some of the language changes. Um we also had a modest increases to our stipens for coaches and adviserss. 2% in year 1, 1% in year two, and then another 2% in year three. Um, we also made some changes with respect to our department heads, which would give our department heads um an increase depending on how many classes that they're teaching in recognition of the fact that they are undertaking a significant amount of work. We also looked at the curriculum revision committee um and did increase that rate recognizing that our teachers um that's a critical role that they play
009and recognizing that that hourly rate had not been increased for some time and it was important to increase that and remain competitive. And the same thing for the contractual hourly rate which really talks about some of the summer professional development activities that happen outside of the school year. [clears throat] And then lastly, we had some non-economic contract changes that you can see on page three of the memorandum. Um, one giving teachers half day that is unencumbered teacherdirected work period. I know that that was a significant priority um of the teachers union and I know that Dr. Schwarz and the administration felt that that was something that they would be able to accomplish. Um, we also increased the prep time for our K through five and our K through8 teachers. Obviously, we know that prep time
010is a very valued uh commodity for our teachers. Um, and we felt that we were able to add an additional 15 minutes at that level. Um, we also addressed the ratio of teachers to students at recess, which is obviously an important safety initiative. So, the ratio used to be one teacher for every hundred students and the union agreed to reduce that to 75. We also um looked at the ratio for purposes of safety considerations with respect to the teacher pupil ratio at bus duty coverage and we were also able to accomplish ratios that I think um meet some of our safety objectives. So that those are really the highlights. I'm I'm more than happy to answer any questions if there are any commissioners. Any questions? And I want to thank uh Commissioner Vance Stone and
011uh Commissioner Orso and myself who participated in them uh long one long night that's all. So that was good. [laughter] It was a very late night. Yes. Seeing no questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you all. Happy holidays. Take care. So there is a motion on the table to approve the contract. All in favor? I opposed. abstain. Motion carries. Thank you all. Okay, we'll go back to the regular. Okay, now we're on item five public address to the board. I motion to suspend the regular order of business to hear from the public. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. All speakers are encouraged to submit prepared written statements to the commissioners. Comments shall be limited to a maximum of five minutes. There will be no responses this evening to any questions or concerns raised. They
012will be referred to the administration for review and response. Amalia Benas, welcome. Hi, good evening and I want to thank you so much for everything you do for the city of Waterberry. My daughter attends Welby High School. She's in the 11th grade. Her dream is to go to college and obtain a good job. And I hope that you will help me help her achieve her dream. Jane is an honoral student. Jane is taking AP classes. Jane is involved in her community. But on November 26th, she was attacked by another student at a prep rally, violently assaulted, cowardly assaulted, and um I only ever call a call from the principal once to let me know that there she was being taken to the emergency room. and another call he returned after he I was forwarded the
013video of her assault that is circulating through the school. He said he could put me in for an appointment the following day if I wanted to discuss anything further and if I wanted to create a security plan. Those all happened on Wednesday and that communication didn't happen till 2 days after. I was not going to send my daughter into school without a security plan. Uh those are the two instances I've gotten communication back. My daughter has seen a concussion specialist. She does have a concussion. She did get a um a report of her status. She did receive a document regarding her recommendations for school and I have not heard back from anyone. Her safety plan expires soon. What is going to happen with my child? Is there a plan in in state? No one has
014said anything to me. There's accommodations for her taking a test in a quiet space. There is um accommodations of her not being or um allowed to not go to large gatherings within the school and so on and so forth. But I have not received any communication from the school that they have received my email with various emails they could contact me with my phone number. I have received nothing. I want to know what is the plan. What can I do as a mother? Now, I appreciate the staff when this attack occurred. There was teachers, well, I'm not sure what her name is or what her status is in the school, shielding my child with her body. I was told this is a teacher shielding my child with her body, trying to remove her from the
015situation. And the teachers have been very good. My daughter is a good student, but I haven't heard from the school. Thank you very much. I'm sure that uh Dr. Schwarz will have someone look into it immediately. Thank you for coming. Good evening. Anybody else? Any other speakers this evening? Okay. Return. Yeah. Motion to return back to order. Second. All in favor? I Okay. All right. Okay. Superintendent's announcements. Dr. Schwarz. Oh, thank you again, President Brown, and again, commissioners. Good evening and our student representatives. Uh another uh week in Waterberry where we were we were tested but we were we had resolve. Uh if anything I've learned we are resilient. So I'll get to that in a moment. Uh I was very uh um I was overwhelmed with the invitation. CIRC invited me uh to an
016education innovation cohort meeting with representative Leaper who heads the uh the ed shares the ed uh at the at the state level and it was one of the most amazing group of educators uh from across the state superintendent of larger cities the the executive director of CRE um uh a few politicians and and just thought thought partners just to talk about where we are as a state and state of Connecticut uh what's going well, what could be improved upon. And I just appreciated the opportunity to be in the room with others and talk [music] about uh some of the things that I've seen over the last, you know, 22 years in education and specifically 13 in Waterberry to talk and and advocate for what I believe our students need, which is um obviously more funding,
017more opportunity to be able to access those things that I know other students in the state have easier access to. [music] And you can even see tonight when students have access to programming, they are amazing. Um over and over again, our students have proven that. And so we talked a lot about um a lot of different ideas, some some wild ideas, but that's might that might that might be what it takes to change uh how we do things here in Connecticut. But I appreciated being at the table. [snorts] I also had a great uh uh opportunity to go to the 2025 CABE new board member orientation and uh I was able to to join uh the board of ed President Brown and uh uh Secretary Lopez and board of ed commissioners Munz and Hayward Bowen.
018Uh we uh also were greeted with from commissioner Russell Tucker discuss public education in Connecticut and just more about the roles and responsibility between superintendents and boards of education. And it was a great opportunity to learn but also to have some camaraderie there at the at the meeting. And one thing we know is that every time you go to a professional learning, you always pick up something that you can take back and be better with. So, uh I think we're modeling being those adult learners for our students. So, it's great. [music] Appreciate that. Um I had an I had a really fun time getting into three of [music] our schools. The distinction as I've mentioned before, Kingsberry, Roberto Clemente, and international dual language. um Roberto Clemente International Language School in Washington Elementary School um were
019uh recognized as schools of distinction. uh President Brown and the mayor and the principles of each school and several uh from central uh office were able to come through and celebrate [music] and walk through the school with our big banners that we bought for them so that they can hang in pride in their schools because [music] it was a huge accomplishment and it's a good reminder that we are um we have to celebrate the wins and so I uh I had a great time walking through and and celebrating with the students. also had uh um an amazing time at Westside. They're finally off turnaround status for the state. Uh their success has been five years of very hard work. And at their uh pep rally for students, they were able to uh play are you
020smarter than a sixth grader? Are you smarter than a seventh grader? Are you smarter than an eighth grader? With each group against the teachers. Uh so that was uh that was a fun time. And we were also able to um celebrate the teachers as well uh for all of their really hard it's it's tremendous amount of work for the five years. If you uh for those that weren't here, Westside out of all three middle schools actually had the lowest score the first year of turnaround. The state does come in when you're a turnaround and they do come in and they do provide you can you can kind of see it in the picture to the left. You see all those reds on the left hand side? That's like a one. That means that's that's the
021most in need. like it can't be worse than that at your school with a bunch of indicators and you can see over time how it became more green and that that is not the state being nice. They come in they they they're serious in their visits and they um they want evidence and proof that it's improving and so kudos to the Westside uh team for coming off turnaround. KC 101 came to State Street and I believe they also went to Tinker um as well uh to State Street students and Tinker students participated in Connecticut Children's Medical Centers PJ day for kids on December 12th where you could uh uh bring a dollar and raise money uh to help students who are battling cancer. And so I want to thank Casey 101 and um I wore
022my Grinch shirt underneath my suit that day. You can maybe see p pick me out there with the elf on the shelf that they had, the real live elf on the shelf. Uh I had a great time going to actually here Williams uh to meet with my student advisory council. Uh this comprises of juniors and seniors from across the city. Uh and uh I I brought them some Brooklyn bakery because why not? uh took them out of class and we discussed a couple of topics that were important to them and we're gonna work on a culminating project together to be able to work together to try to make Waterberry public schools a better place. And so they've uh they've they've gave me the ideas, they came up with the the with the concepts of what
023they want to do this year and then uh by the end of the year we'll present on on the outcomes. Um we do virtual meetings at each schools. Uh I I I I move around. I just don't do whams. My next one I think will be at um might be Crosby, but we'll go around and then we'll do one event where we bring everyone together and we'll have like a a lunchon. Congratulations to our Waterberry U graduates. Waterberry U offers WPS educators a chance to earn a master's degree in curriculum instruction and deputy superintendent in the town office was able to go around and congratulate and surprise our nine Waterberry public school educators who just recently earned a master's degree in curriculum and instruction. And so congratulations to them and thank you to the human
024capital department for consistently um consistently showing us how important it is to continue to learn and and grow as as as teachers and educators. Uh I was also able to go to Hartford on December 16th, whatever night that was this week. Uh [laughter] I think it was Tuesday, the Connecticut teacher of the year ceremony where all teachers across Connecticut go to the Bushnull and they're honored. So, our teacher of the year last year, amazing teacher, Nanichi Rodriguez VZ at Roberto Clemente International Dual Language School, was honored there during the ceremony and uh just had a great time and you can see her there with her little star uh soon to be star uh in the picture. Um, no pictures of this for good reason, but uh, many of the board of ed commissioners visited the
025command center at the Waterberry Police Department and uh, the commissioners were able to get a chance to visit the real-time crime center, learn an awful lot about all of those things that we do behind the scenes that I may not everybody always knows of how we try to keep kids safe. And uh we know that that that job is never done, but you know, we uh between Dan Barry and uh and and his collaboration with the police department, you can kind of see all the technology and the center operations and how we all work together to proactively try to support um our students and staff [music] in the in the schools. And so um I want to thank you all for co coordinating that and hopefully it was a productive day. Uh and I apologize
026for not being there. I was focused on getting getting these schools up and running for today which is which is the next slide. Uh water distribution update. Uh so uh just so you know during the the the the water disruption [music] 16 of our buildings actually run off of steam heat which requires consistent water. So, I just I have to stop and I have to thank our um Mike Kopka and his department who really worked around the clock to continue to feed these systems water so that they didn't uh we didn't lose heat in schools and have worse uh situations where we lose heat and then things start, you know, either busting or or or breaking down in the schools. So, we kept heat going in in all the schools and and so I want
027to I want to just specifically shout out them that they they worked around the clock to make that happen. Um water was restored to all of the schools uh last night uh allowing all facilities to have proper sanitation today. uh school water fountains and bottle filling stations as you can kind of see one behind us [music] over there that are currently disabled will not be available for use until we get a result in that tells us that the drinking water is safe. Um, and I want to thank all of the uh, you know, Adam Rinko and, you know, whether it's DPW, the fire department, uh, police department, everybody just a lot of meetings working together to make sure we not only were managing the situation, but also anticipating what happens when students come back. And
028we were able to get uh, 40 pallets of water out to schools to have drinking water today uh, for all students. And I know they had plenty of supply and we'll continue to provide that until we get a negative result. And uh I want to thank Aishing at our health department and Adam Shaven for making sure that we had all of our uh eyes dotted and tees crossed to ensure all the meals that were served today are safe. They have done the same for tomorrow. Um and we will continue to do so until we know that we can uh use the water to cook in Waterberry. I recognize that this this this time has been trying. This this this has been a trying time for our community. Uh managing that three-day closure and waters disruption
029has been challenging, but I do really truly appreciate the patience and resilience of many of our staff and students and families. I want to thank again the city staff who worked tirelessly to fix the break, but also the maintenance staff that helped over the 30 schools, not just those with the 16 steam heat to make sure that um you know we didn't have a larger impact based on the water disruption. And then um due to the three days unexpectedly lost uh right after we uh took another day off at last meeting, we added January 2nd as a calendar day off. So that timing was interesting now that we have to reflect back on. So I do uh you know it's December 18th so I don't know if we can do anything about that at this
030point but I do want to tell so not everyone understands I did get a several emails about why are you making why are you making us superintendent make up these days that you know weren't anybody's fault. And um I can understand why somebody might un might think that. Uh but the reality is and and my my [music] feedback was to anybody that emailed me or talked to me was um it's not just the superintendent being a meanie. Uh we have a requirement to have 180 school days for the school year. That's Connecticut general statutes 10:15 and 1016. I have to abide by the statutes. I have to have 180 days of school or your school year doesn't count. So, [laughter] we want to make sure we do that. And it has to be done by
031June 30th. Don't forget, a lot of our schools also don't have central air in all of the classrooms. So, the later you go in June, the more I'm going to get on that side of things as well, uh, when it gets to that time. So, right now, we have 181 days scheduled in our calendar. January 2nd, you know, I think it's probably that that that ship is is going to probably sail for us. But we also have a PD on March 6th that we have an opportunity to maybe it's a full day professional development. We might want to consider looking at that again and maybe making it a half day of professional development. Getting the kids day in that that that takes away one day um back that we lost here. Um and we have
032not hit the snow yet. So just something for us to consider. Not something I don't think we need to pick up right at this moment right now. um unless you want to discuss the January 2nd, but I I do think that's because we just changed it and it's coming up. It's just one of those things. So, um I I'd be happy to come back in January with a concrete ask of the board for the 180 or the March 6 PD, but um that will help us maybe make up some of this time lost. Um, just one other thing with organizational considerations for anybody listening or the public or if you want to spread the word for anyone that asked you, why couldn't we have done virtual learning while the kids were, you know, home. Connecticut
033State Department does not allow us to do virtual learning. That was only an exception done during COVID times. There are states that allow virtual learning. Um, Connecticut is not one of them. So, I got a couple of emails regarding that. Why didn't you let the kids do virtual learning? Um, I saw some emails written by Cad GPT that said you can offer virtual learning, but I had to remind them that that's that's probably for other states that that right now the state department does not allow us to do that. So, um, I just wanted to let everybody know here that of course if that was an option, we would have considered it. It is not an option for us. Okay. Superintendent goals for the uh 2526 [music] school year. Well, the school year's school year
034has started, but we do have we do have some goals. I believe you know the the the president is going to talk a little bit more about this at another time with you all. Um, but in uh collaboration talking with the board president um and and others, the mayor's office and my my team here, you know, I can't I I don't have goals alone. You know, these are goals that you if we put them down, we're all attempting to achieve them, including the board. and uh uh not just cabinet and the senior leadership team but the entire entire district. So the goals are really taken from the cave model policy of how to evaluate a superintendent. So the the larger goals in red are really more defined by that document. uh it's not necessarily something
035that I created, but um the strategies you could see from um each one are strategies of uh either recommendations from CAVE and or um strategies that are unique to Waterberry. [music] Um, and so under board and superintendent relations, you can kind of see highlighting some of the bold face words that are important. But, um, these are some of the areas that, uh, I will work on, especially as a an officially first year superintendent, of maintaining, uh, positive, proactive communication and fostering relationships with you all and attending all the necessary meetings. Um, I'm not going to read each one [music] because I think you're going to go more into this. And number two is where we talk about educational leadership, but also continuous improvement. That's where you start talking about not just u continuous improvement at
036a at a leadership level, but also continuous improvement for our students and our student scores, growing things that are important to us such as the STEM and robotics program. Um that we we've uh taken that into into consideration as well. um expanding college and career readiness for our students and advanced coursework as well is some and and and of course strengthening our data driven decision-m school community relations um I talked about this several times but things like 100% PTO's and school governance councils we also are establishing school climate committees in 100% of schools also offering an opportunity to get feedback through a survey for how we're doing in school and community relation relations we shouldn't be afraid to get feedback. Feedback is just a good place for us to say, "How are we doing and
037what can we improve on?" So, you know, it's been a long time since we had like a survey that went out to parents and said, "How do you think we're doing?" So, don't be surprised on how it comes back. I'm just it is what it is. It's going to be a baseline for us to work off of. Um, I think it's important for us to know how people feel like we're doing. human resource development is of course strategic recruitment but retention and employment uh professional learning and then also datadriven human resource management um is something that we're going to we're going to strive for again this year um we've reduced those numbers over the year but we want to continue to see that pattern um [clears throat] organizational planning is uh there's a few ways
038that I want to show you through the budget process that we're being fiscally responsible and operationally efficient um you know with the tight budgets coming up I have no choice to do that So, it's a good goal to have. Um, but it's something that I'm looking uh forward to communicating with you more about establishing new safety and security measures, whether it's clear ID, which is uh the residency verification form, but also ident I'd love to present on uh in the upcoming months about how that's working in our secondary schools. Um, and then making sure we're creating that five-year strategic plan and aligning that to student needs. And then last one is just profession personal growth professional value. So whether it's my uh um providing um examples of uh ethical leadership and core values. Uh but
039also there are things that I I really want to take on that are a little bit beyond the K to2 or PK to 12 system that have to do with how Waterberry is collaborating together to um make neighborhoods stronger and to start from really prenatal to five so that we can reduce that number where I keep repeating is about 70% of our students are not kindergarten ready. Um, so we've already started some of that work, the Harlem Children's Zone, bringing that to Waterberry, looking at uh specific sites that maybe we can do a presentation on when we're ready to do that a little bit more. But I also uh was seeking and was able to um um um be accepted now to the William Julius Wilson Institute, which is a um a fellowship that is
040fully paid for. uh I think there's 16 superintendents in the entire country that were accepted into this fellowship and it is directly linked to the Harlem Children's Zone work and so we will get because I was accepted we'll get accept we'll get additional technical work and support for this so really excited for that as well and uh without further ado I just wanted to also say to the board and everybody listening happy holidays I hope you all have a um a great break and um hoping that everyone has a safe and happy new year as well. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you, Dr. Schwarz. Any questions for Dr. Schwarz? Lissa, it wasn't part of your presentation. It has nothing to do with that, but it it it [clears throat] did trigger uh [bell] I
041can't even hear now. All right. Um it did trigger uh there was a a point during the summer where we had the food um presentation, right? And they said something about a survey going out to the students to kind of evaluate how the menu is going. Do you know when that's going to launch? I can double check with Adam as the transition happened with Adam. Um I'm not sure if it already occurred, but I can get you that answer. All right. Sure. And it's a good reminder if you don't mind because I know with the board changing we just kind of it was I think one of the most productive meetings we had last year was the health and wellness committee and but I know all three board members that have vacated their seats were
042part of that committee but we really that's where all of a lot of that work came from and it kept us all like honest with the health department about the work we were doing. So, I would really hope, you know, I know the committees are coming out now. So, but but I think we need to continue that in the new year because a lot of that work because we're meeting regularly, it doesn't fall through the wayside, fall through with dealing with different issues. So, um it's a good point and I'll I'll work with President Brown on making sure we we get that back up and running in January, but I'll get you the answer. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh I'll be very brief. Um, I just want to thank all the members who've taken
043the time out of their busy schedules to attend the cave leadership uh conventions and opportunity. It's just been a pleasure to uh go to the meetings and in the camaraderie and the openness and I really look forward to working with everyone. It's it's really exciting for me. Um, also I really want to thank Darren. We're trying to get the board kind of back on track with the new members in terms of really looking at goals and getting the input from the board and and kind of really staying on track. So, I really appreciate uh the um presentation tonight and it's really based on the the the big categories that are in our current strategic plan, but also in the superintendent's evaluation. So we've aligned the goals under the same categories as the superintendent's evaluation to
044make it easier. So as we move forward uh I think will be more uh as we've learned in for many many years aligning you know the work is very critical to being able to measure and to uh reach the goals that we're we're all looking for. So, I'm very excited and uh look forward to um digging in and um making making this happen. And I'll just end by it's really interesting. I was thinking of December and uh mostly every major religion celebrates a holiday a religious holiday in December. The Christian, the Hindu, the Buddhist, Kowanza. Uh so I mean and we look at our student population and all the multicultural traditions and religious traditions. So uh it's very you know I give a heartfelt uh you know shout out to the parents and the the
045students to have a wonderful holiday and really cherish their own religious traditions and holidays. Thank you. Okay. our student representative comments, our Crosby High students. Aiden, I believe you're starting. Okay. Here we go. Take it away. All right. Good evening, President Brown, Vice President Ireland, Board of Education Commissioners, and Superintendent Dr. Is it not close enough? Oh, I'm sorry. Hi. My name is Aiden Mahia, and I am representing Crosby High School and the Early College High School program. I am the president of DECA, a club that teaches high schoolers the art of entrepreneurship and strengthen strengthens their skills in key subjects like marketing, finance, leadership, career development, and hospitality. I have recently been accepted into Colombia University. [applause] All right. [applause] Yes. and I am very excited to serve my last year as a Crosby
046representative on the board of education. Ahan and I are here to discuss many of our school's positive things and our tremendous progress that we have made together. Although the past few days have been challenging for our community, returning to school today felt comforting and supportive. We were warmly welcomed by our teachers and administrators in the main lobby and it was uplifting to feel the energy and excitement upon our return. Nice. The students at Crosby High School have accomplished some amazing things so far this year. The culture and climate of our building has to be one of our greatest strengths. School pride is at an all-time high as evidenced by our participation in our spirit weeks, attendance at sporting events, and the great amount of attitudes displayed by students on a daily basis. Currently, over 85%
047of our grade nine students are on track receiving passing grades in six or more of their classes. More students are coming to school on a daily basis. Our chronic absenteeism rate is the lowest it's been since we came back from CO. Staff celebrate attendance achievements every month with rewards like refreshers from Duncan, cupcakes and the calf and goodie bags delivered to classrooms. Our seniors have begun getting accepted into colleges and universities all across the United States and we are so proud of them. Mr. Verono announces our acceptances daily on the morning announcements. Awesome. This year we have seen so many upgrades as a result of our partnership with the state of Connecticut. We are excited to see our new outdoor classroom, learning center, and upgrades to our student bathrooms throughout the school. I would also
048like to give a shout out to our community partners, CJR, CHMA, Dunkin Donuts, ION Bank, Post University, and many more. Thank you for everything you do for us. Now, Ahan will share a few more things about what is happening related to Crosby athletics and activities. Good evening, everybody. Good evening, President Brown, Vice President Ireland, Board of Education Commissioners, and Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. My name is Arhani Isily. I'm a 12th grade student at Crosby High School. I am actively involved in various activities within my school community. I serve as the president of Best Buddies, a program where you help students with intellectual disabilities, intellectual disabilities, making new friends, and fostering meaningful connections. In addition, I am the student council president, a member of the mayor's advisory and superintendent advisory, as well as the captain of my
049swim team. Next fall, I will be attending Quinnipak University to major. [applause] [applause] All right. Where was I? [laughter] uh to uh where was I? To make a positive impact within my community, we're excited to share some news related to Crosby athletes and activities. In sports, we have a successful fall sports season. Our volleyball and soccer teams won multiple games in which our brand new fitness center that our brand new fitness center we are already working out preparing for next year. Here in the winter, we have an ex exponential turnout for our winter sports. Uh the boys basketball team as well as our swim team is and our indoor track team is off to a great start. [snorts] Uh we believe that we have so many talented athletes in our school and we are truly
050blessed, believe it or not, to have a building and the foundation of victory uh that is paved for many other students at Crosby. In addition to sports, we have many activities taking place. Our winter concert took place last week. We had 200 people attend. Our band performed at halftime at the Thanksgiving Day football game. The National Honors Society planned and hosted a trunk retreat for Crosby community. Uh we had a schoolwide pep rally to celebrate the progression we've made and to kickstart the school year. And the Jerotc program is thriving. Our cadetses and their instructors do so many great things for our school community. Of course, highlighted by their annual fall breakfast [snorts] in the weeks to come. We look forward to many things. One that our principal can't stop talking about is our Winterfest.
051The Winterfest will be taking place in February. Winterfest is an opportunity for parents, students, and staff to come together and have a great time. There's food, games, music, and many different activities for families and students to enjoy. Each season is a different festive style planned in partnership with the Ward family. Hope I said that right. Uh, we will take our midterm exam starting January 12th and hope to convene convince, excuse me, hope to convince Mr. Vanov to allow us to have another schoolwide pep rally for our accomplishments. Before I conclude, we wanted to bring something up uh for your consideration. The senior year expenses are a lot. Uh, is there any way for the district to provide schools with funding to lower the cost of prom, senior trips, and other activities? As student council president
052and members of the student council budgeting and committee plan, we fundra all the time, but still some students are unable to partic well unable to partake in the activities. Our school administrators have agreed to assist with us. Could you consider helping us as well? Thank you for taking the time to hear us, me and Aiden. And uh one special announcement is go Crosby. Go Bulldogs. [applause] Uh superintendent. Now that was a setup because you all get into these great colleges, then you ask for some money. That's smart. [laughter] I really like that. I might have to try that one day. Um we will certainly uh thank you for that excellent u excellent update and uh we will certainly have a discussion about that uh tomorrow with our chief financial officer and and Mr. Bayer know
053and of course we'll look at all the high schools as well because I'm sure if it's at Crosby I'm sure there's multiple schools. So we'll definitely take a look at that and if uh Aiden you need any help around 116th Street I spent a good amount of time up there so let me know. I'll let you know. Thanks. Great. Thank you. Okay. Um, moving on to number nine, consent calendar. Does anyone wish to remove an item from the consent calendar? Okay, we'll read the uh c the consent calendar. 9.1 request approval of the 2026 2027 school year calendar. 9.2 Two, transfer of a portion of property located on Pier Pont Road to the city of Waterberry for the intended purpose of relocation of Firehouse 5. 9.3 Committee on Curriculum requests permission be granted to Cynthia
054Machal Waterberry Arts Magnet School and four chaperones to take 40 students to England, United Kingdom from April 8th, 2028 through April 15, 2028. 9.4 Four, request approval of the 2026 2027 tuition rate schedule. Uh 9.5 committee on building and school facilities, use of school facilities by school organizations andor city departments. Can I have a second? Second discussion. Commissioner L. Thank you, Madam President. Um had a quick request. I'm looking through the request here for the uh school facility usage on some of the forms. I know people have repeat forms for different locations. I just add that they made sure that every box is checked off. Like there's um one that has two buildings. One insurance is checked off and the other one is left blank just to make sure that everything is done the right
055way and consistent. Just make sure it's checked off before we go ahead and approve anything. Um and then another question on the schedule there for 91. What let him talk. It's okay. Oh, that's okay. I had a question on on the dates. That's all. I did say discussion. I know she's reminding me there's no discussion, but that's okay. You can raise your question. Go ahead. I just want to know typically how much time in advance do you need the schedule done for the school year? That's it. Like a high school schedule, just the school schedule in general, the school year calendar, like how much because I know you have other districts because the madness schools and things of that nature. Just how much time and events do you normally need to kind of give everyone
056else? There's no like there's no there's no right answer to that, but we try to do it early in hopes that some of the smaller towns that haven't set their schedules, they're kind of waiting on us so they can align their calendars to our calendars and so we try to try to get it done around this time. Okay. Thank you. Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Uh consent calendar passes. Okay. Commissioner Latoya Ireland, may I have a motion? Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the Waterberry Board of Education ratify the successor collective. Is that the right one? 11.1. You did that? Yeah. 11.1. No, I don't have that one. Number 10, right? I don't have 10. I don't have that. We did 10.1 that was a teacher's contract. So I don't have 11.1. She
057doesn't have 11.1. That's Yeah. Oh, that's Commissioner Van Stone. Okay. I think we're on track now. We did 10.1 and now we're going to the committee on finance and commissioner Van Stone is uh going to present. Thank you, Madam President. through U item 11.1. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the Waterberry Board of Education approve a transfer in the fiscal year 2526 capital improvement budget totaling of $580,000 from account 547000 capital improvement board of ed unallocated syncing fund for $580,000 to account number 545013 school security improvement for $430,000. and account number 543000, the Kennedy pool repair for $150,000. Can I have a second? Second. Discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Uh 11.2 Two, request approval of a memorandum of a agreement with Joseph Begno for consultant services to implement commissioners
058network plans. Can I have a second? Okay, go ahead. Who? Oh, this is all under finance. Okay, I'm sorry, Tom. Go ahead. I'll second it. [laughter] Read it. Go ahead. Item 11.2. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the Waterberry Board of Education approve a memorandum of agreement with Joseph Begnel to provide con consultation services to the effectively implemented commissioners network plans. Second discussion Terrence. Thank you, Madam President. Just had a quick question on regards to um the consulting of the commissioner's network plans. I was reading over some of what appeared to be the job description and um exactly how many other districts use consultants [music] in this manner? I could answer that but then I think traditionally what we've had is it's a grant funded would be a grant funded position. Okay. And these are,
059you know, highly uh skilled people who help the schools who are getting into the commissioner's network. I believe uh you want to finish answering that. Okay, go ahead. Good evening. Uh he can tell you exactly what he's going to do. Thank you, President Brown, Board of Education Commissioners, Crosby High School students. Congratulations to both of you. Uh Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. So, uh, the commissioner's network, um, has several components, commissioner, um, a lot of it is academic, some of it is infrastructure, some of it is a lot of reporting to do. I certainly help out with a lot of the, uh, infrastructure uh, because it still comes through the school inspector's office. So, we want to know uh, what's being done there. uh academics is one of the schools or the high schools are the schools
060I oversee. Uh but this is a lot of the reporting a lot of the vision uh that the principles have that takes it off their plate. They can implement some some uh enhancements. These reports that we that they submit to commissioners network representatives from the Connecticut State Department of Education are quite uh complex. So we have two principles who have never been through this before and one who is a a brand new principal. So we want to make sure they're successful and this assistance what helped them done them greatly. Okay. Um how long has this consultant been with us as far as in this capacity? So he's been there for several years. Um you know uh previously with the previous principal this is the final year now. This is the last year of this consulting.
061That's correct. Yeah. Okay. And is it just Crosby, Kennedy, and Wilby? Career and Williams are not a part of that. Correct. Yeah. And if I can just jump in because it what is it? It's approximately we get about $3 million for the three schools approximately. Um uh we it's it's a little bit less, but approximately. Yes. Approximately 3 million. So the the state Crosby and Kennedy are in their first year of three years. Um it's only a three-year grant and then it's over. Um actually that's state law has gotten rid of turnaround. We're the last two of the last schools to get in. Kennedy is in their fifth year and this is their absolute last year where that money won't be won't be available anymore. And so this is uh this is a grant that
062um was very helpful going back to the three turnaround school, the three middle school turnarounds. They got that million dollars a year to help support their efforts. the board some of you were on uh when this originally started at the three middle schools where we actually hired a full-time chief turnaround officer with benefits um Matt Brown who was fantastic is a great educator um to kind of help do all of this additional planning paperwork support when um the state comes and uh see through with the projects so that the principles aren't mired into the paperwork and all the things that have to go into this this work, but also to help kind of lead through this work as well. So, uh, Matt was very, uh, helpful. I did not fill that chief turnaround officer position
063again because with salary and benefits, it's approximately $250,000. Um, so uh, you know, historically other districts do have they they've had chief turnaround officers or something similar or they've hired assistant superintendent to do this work. Um, so right now we'd be um not necessarily hiring somebody full-time and paying benefits, but we would be hiring the consultant to to to help with that work that historically other members have done. Um, but we didn't fill our positions. Yep. Yep. That's absolutely correct. So, Crosby and Kennedy only have three years for a commissioner's network. Willby was part of a five-year plan and this is their final year. So we're trying to make the most of this where they can certainly benefit from this assistance and support. Uh and the principal really appreciates it. Okay. And just to make
064sure you said this is the year one of year of three years or the last year of three years. This is the last year of a fiveyear for will be will be the first year of a threeyear for Kennedy and Crosby. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for the uh explanation because for the new members it was very helpful. Thank you. Okay. Where are we now? Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. You're abstaining. Yes. Okay. Okay. One abstension. Motion carries. Okay. Building committee on building and school facilities. Vice President Latoya Ireland. Number 12. I move that the Waterberry Board of Education approve the use of school facilities and or waiver request of various groups and organizations as listed subject to fees and insurance as required. Second. I have
065a second. Second. Second. Discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Okay. Who else is abstaining? Margaret's abstaining. Okay. Margaret and Latoya. Okay. And Anthony. Okay. All right. Motion carries. Okay. Uh Latoya, are you doing 13 as well? I'm not, but I can. I motion to receive and place on file superintendent notifications to the board items 13.1 through 13.7 as listed second discussion all in favor I opposed abstain motion carries okay all right are there any uh committee chair reports Commissioner Van Stone. Thank you, Madam President. Through you, I just wanted to give the board a an update as far as ACES uh as a whole, not just Chase, but it's a big part of our programs or or our students for Chase. If I didn't have enough fun picking a superintendent recently, we'll be picking a
066new executive director of ACES soon. The current is uh getting ready to retire, so that process has just started. very similar position as a superintendent, a lot of different duties just because of the the if you would business model of what ACES is between their special education services. Uh they actually own a network of uh charging stations for electric buses, school buses. So, it's it's a much different model than just a superintendent, but that process and I'll keep everyone updated as we go. We just had our first meeting about it today. Uh the job posting will go out shortly. Uh but that does affect us because we not only have ACES at Chase, we have special education students uh that we utilize their services for. So more to follow. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. And
067I really want to thank you for accepting to be the liaison to ACES. Really appreciate it. Any other committee reports? And and I think moving forward and as Darren had said uh we would like to invite the committees to come and present to the board. Uh I I met with Margaret recently. She had I thought it was a great idea. So we're going to work that. So we if you're a liaison to say I'm the liaison to the good jobs we'll invite the good jobs uh people to come and present or if you're the health department or whatever you're the liaison do so that the board gets a sense of what's what's happening so thank you Margaret it was a great idea okay uh there's no executive uh committee meeting tonight can I have a
068motion to adjurnn second discussion all in favor I opposed. Abstain. Okay. Have a great holiday, everyone. Huh? I know. I know. I got to go pick up my little one. My wife has her. That's good. You probably haven't been. No. This is This has been