001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening. Tonight is Thursday, October the 2nd. This is a workshop. We're going to start out with a silent prayer. Vice President Brown, can you lead us in the pledge? I pledge algiance 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. That's my mom. Okay. That's all right. Show what's up. We just started. Are we doing principal? Principal's report. Lisa Areola Samois. Thank you. Good evening, Madame President, Vice President Brown, Secretary Srano, Adorno, commissioners, our student representative. I am Lisa Ariel Samoas. I am the principal here at State Street and I do cover our expulsion program in the evenings. I'd like to welcome all of you here to our program. I've been
002here since 2001 as a teacher and now the building administrator for the last 15 plus years. Um, and so I'd like to take you through a quick walk of our program. Our mission here at the program is through collaboration with families in the community to prepare our diverse learners as a whole to meet the challenges of our everanging global society. So our mission has been changing as our population and students have changed. Our program services students kindergarten sometimes as young as preschool through 9 through 12th grade. So currently we have 109 students enrolled in the program. We operate under the opice of score which is our students are all safe. They complete their assignments. They own their behavior and they are respectful. They follow our district's electronic policy and that has been in place for
003a long time. The data collected on that is what we use to support our students through their transition both in and out of the program. So when our students start to explore options in less restrictive environments, we use that score platform for them to measure the the their successes. Here are is everybody in my building who makes it all happen. I couldn't do it without them. We are a united front. We have a team of four clinical social workers, a school counselor, behavior counselors, special education teachers, and paired professionals. We have access to our literacy facilitator, our brand new art, business, and construction teachers. Thanks to Carly and Marissa, um our physical education teacher, we have a hall monitor, and then we have speech and language, um our ESL teacher, our school psychologist through CRE,
004our parent liaison, our school resource officer, and our OTM and PT staff who support our students through their IEPs. Most of what you're going to see through this PowerPoint is going to be some of our students and highlighting their hard work. Miss Sculfani is a brand new art teacher who came to our program with many years of experience. She's been super excited to work with our student population um taking both the curriculum and the art curriculum, blending it together and giving kids opportunities through multimodal approaches. Um we have access to a um library media specialist, I'm sorry, Miss Jones, who comes to us on Eday for our elementary friends to do maker space. And then we have a music teacher who we share on Bday from Hopeville who comes over and works with our elementary
005friends as well. Mr. Graasso is our PE and health teacher. He works with all of our students pre-K through 12 on all different pieces of the physical and health education programming. As you'll see, we were able to open our business program as well with Mr. Drifac this year. Um, giving our students opportunities to work on personal finance and financial literacy. Staff and students really work on the relationship. So, most of our kids do not come here for academic struggles. They come here for social, emotional, and mental health needs. Um, and so building relationships, creating school as a safe place, and building those relationships with adults seem to be our foundation, and that's really what we strive for. Our pair professional staff work with our students through all of our academic classes. So, every classroom has
006an assigned pair professional who travels with that class to the unified arts and throughout the day, supporting students in any way they need to. We've been very fortunate over the years to build great community partnerships. Um through that obviously celebrating our Hispanic Heritage Month, we have access and on-site staffing from Clingberg Family Center who provides our um counseling in addition to our licensed social workers. They have family sessions and take referrals for both our day program and our evening program. So part of the expulsion piece as well. Um you'll see that the fire department, the police department all contribute to being part of the students days through giving them positive interactions and opportunities. We have a care closet for our friends who need things um that we take donations from and local businesses help to
007support. We've also had the opportunity to travel with our friends. Mr. Albini is although I nag him gives me the opportunity to have vans and supports to access to different things. So we've been able to go to the state capital, different sporting events and follow our peers in other environments. We have presentations from different people based on what's available to kids and their interests. So we had staff come from Danbury Federal Facility to come down and talk to the kids. Some kids wanted to be correction officers and see what it was like. So we had them come down and talk with us. We do have access to a part-time parent leazison that we share with Enlightenment, Miss Maldonado. She offers a variety of family sponsored events. Um, she does a lot with our students as
008well as the day-to-day things like the coffee cart, um, creative activities for students, opening book bingo, uh, family sponsored things at night to do workshops in during the day. Anything that we can do to kind of engage our parents in becoming part of their child's educational system. Um, a lot of times when our friends come to us, the family is not as in engaged as we would like them to be. Um, and so we really try to foster that healthy relationship with them, meeting them anywhere in the middle that we can. Kind of building that bridge, taking down those barriers, um, and really welcoming them into the school community, which works miles in for us. We are excited to have Chef James join us this year. Um, our students have learned to make pasta, have
009opened up baked goods. They are working on the world of work on top of the actual culinary experiences. So, the foundational pieces to owning and operating a business, the health and hygiene behind keeping a kitchen clean and what needs to happen, and then the exposure and experiences of things that they can take back with them into the real world. So, they've had a great time. For those of you who had the opportunity, he's upstairs and he does have a a spread out for everyone with the kids that made. We do have a full-time school counselor, um, Miss Matthews, and she joined us, and she basically works with our students and families to take interest inventories from students, explore what their next steps are, provide access and opportunities for all students to see what the real
010world has outside of them. So anything from barber and trade exploration to Zion Bank coming in and working with our students and giving presentations to open savings accounts to you know health and hygiene to you know pretty much anything at this point. Um she has got junior achievement who does mindful Mondays with our students. The career and tech schools come and do presentations. We've had students go off to both Nagatuck Valley and Central in the last year. So we're very proud of all of them and the work and it really couldn't be done without her and the staff's support in making those opportunities possible. This year we welcomed Mr. Torres. He was the carpenter foreman for the city. Wanted to kind of start working with students and giving back. He has opened our construction classes.
011Um he's done an amazing job and giving the kids real world experience. He asked me on the first day if he could do something extreme and dramatic. I said sure. took a built a pretend wall, put a sledgehammer through it, and was like, "We're going to learn to sheetrock." And I was like, "Oh my god." And the kids had a great time doing it. But as you'll see, they started to work on projects throughout the building, kind of repairing and doing the things that they need to do, and then learning those real life skills like how to fix a lock, how to change a doorork knob, how to fix sheetrock, how to hang a TV. And so, he works diligently with the kids. Um, both our male and female students love his class. You know,
012they're constantly asking to get into it. So, we appreciate that opportunity. As we transition from our day program, we work on our evening and expulsion academy. Um that process is very unique. So students who are put up for referral for the expulsion process go to a hearing where a hearing officer determines their orders of expulsion, whether they will be expelled, whether they won't be expelled, and what the conditions of that expulsion will look like. Expulsions are no more than 180 school days. Um, and so sometimes and what we're finding with some of our friends is they want to stay a little longer. We are encouraging them to transition back and we work with the ILP process which is their individualized learning plans to transition them back to their district schools with supports and services. So
013as we start to do that, our students have access to counseling, a school social worker, transition services, all the things that we offer for the most part during the day are offered in the evening as well. We've had close to or a little over 45 Imagine Learning courses completed since we opened on January 23rd. So that is half and full credit courses um giving students the opportunity to move closer towards graduation, work on that credit retrieval platform for kids who may have missed points of their education, fill those gaps. Um so 45 courses have been completed and as of today we have an enrollment of 34 with six carry pending cases we believe. Um and so that number will fluctuate. We do have a handful of students who will go back to their district school
014over the next month or two. Um but the enrollment is constantly rolling. So one of the things that we were tasked to do last year because obviously Expulsion Academy has a stigma to it and the name Expulsion has a stigma to it um was to rename and rebrand the program. Um, and in doing so, the kids were kind of creative in their own way, but they really liked the name Expulsion Academy, which we were kind of like, they're like, "Yes, it is what it is." And we're like, "Yeah, but no, it's not." So, we really want them to see what the vision of the program is. And while it is a serving and expulsion period, um, there is a vision for the program. Um, students are going to work diligently to brain, you know, to
015brainstorm this new name, they have come up with options. We've created a vision and a mission to the program. Um we have worked on the personal growth and accountability measures that are established through it. We are continuing their academic support through both the imagine learning and on-site teachers as well as Google classroom. Um they have their social emotional development platform with both the school counselor and the school social worker as well as access to Clingberg and any of their providers. So we have a ton of support from like juvenile probation who comes over their CGR clinicians who come over. People pop in at night to kind of support the students through that process. Um and again we are working on creating a safe and supportive school environment. Um our goal is to vi provide success
016and ultimately our goal is to provide a smooth transition for our friends when they go back to their district schools when their expulsion is over. So once they've completed their 180 days, the goal is to transition back to their least restrictive environment in the most appropriate setting. Some of our friends go back to their comprehensive sites, some of our friends have come to State Street, and some of our friends have returned to Enlightenment depending on what their needs are. Um, and it's going to be very individual based on kids, what their needs are and the requests are. So, we were very excited about it. It seems to be successful. It's open tonight, so if anybody wants to walk through it, you're more than welcome to let us know. And I think that's about it. Thank
017you. [Applause] Does anybody have any questions? Commissioner O'Brien. It's not a question. I just want to congratulate you because I've after walking around with you and hearing the changes in 25 years. It's a big step and a positive step forward. So, I congratulate you and I thank you for all the endeavor you put into it and your staff. Thank you. We really couldn't have done it without the support of the board, Darren, and my staff, which is top-notch. So, I appreciate everybody. Thank you. Commissioner Lopez, I also don't have a question. Um, just walking through this building, the the last time I was in this building, it was enlightenment and it was one hallway. Um, seeing this different Oh, yeah. Completely different. And I commend you for leading the change. Um, and the staff, amazing
018what you guys are doing and keep up the amazing work. It's It's truly astounding. Thank you very much, Vice President Brown. Good evening, Lisa. Kudos. I love the name because I never like the name expulsion, but I guess the kids did. That's so They were okay with it. That's interesting, huh? I did have one question, though. Out of the number of students who are expelled. Yep. And I know it's not a one point in time, they get expelled different times. Are the majority coming to the school? would you say? Yes. So, the majority are okay. A majority are coming to the program. Some factors contribute to like whether or not that placement happens. Um most of which are here. Obviously, some students are on probation based on whatever the offense is maybe during that 180day
019period or um some kids are accessing like a very like a hybrid model, right? So, if they only need English to graduate, then they would come in for the English component and they would work on that piece. So, we're very strategic in the kids and what their opportunities are when they're here because, you know, there's a whole picture that we look at and it's not just that one academic piece. We want them to have the opportunity to be employed. Some of our friends are working during the day um or in the evening. Some are required to still attend programs and groups. So, we try to take into consideration all of those pieces that they need during that window, but most are here on site. Thank you. Excellent. Thanks, Commissioner Lopez. Sorry, now I do have
020a question. Okay, that's okay. Now, um you know, we they have such a great time at the crossroads, right? Mhm. They probably like that smaller classroom setting. Yes. Yes. What do we do when they don't want to return back to district school? Lots of coaxing. Um so, a lot of the times we have great conversations with my colleagues and we talk about what that could look for like for kids, that point of person and contact. Um you know, us going up and supporting them. So, like we have a friend who will return tomorrow morning to one of the comprehensive schools. And my first question to her tonight was is like, "You ready to do this?" "Nope." "Okay, so what are we going to do?" "I'm going to be there." "Okay, what time do you want
021us to meet you there?" "6:15." I'm like, "Still beauty sleep?" "Nope." And I'm pretty sure the school's not open at 6:15. Um so, we go out and support them. We help build those relationships with the staff at the other sites. And then we work to make sure that transition is smooth. We're always our doors always opened. So, while we don't want the kids to return to us through that process, our doors are open for questions, concerns, support, staff relationships, um, and still kids from last year whose expulsions have ended have checked in with us. So, I think that relational piece is huge. Again, making that point of contact with the district schools going to be huge and starting to help foster that relationship. Thank you, Dr. Schwarz. Thank you. I just want to say um
022you know in terms of the State Street program and the Crossroads uh program uh just want to thank you Lisa for your leadership and Ben of course who's a big part of that that that uh success here but also with the uh the crossroads that's I'm going to mess that up. I know I'm going to call it something else but um you know just want to give kudos. I know a lot of people worked very hard on opening that. So, you know, not just Ben and Lisa, but Wendy and and Nyrie and and Jan and even human capital office and Juan and Jean and uh just the recruiting also that you can see now switching back to the stage tree program, but you can see the culinary you can see these these these positions that
023were really important for us to fill. So the Marissa and Carly's of the world working in the human capital department really kind of pushing um and finding uh these gems of teachers and of course uh this wouldn't happen and and you know things like the crossroad uh academy they don't happen without collaboration with um WTA saw. So I see uh Kevin back there. I want to thank you for working with us on that as well because it does take an entire district working together to to work these things out. And so I want to give kudos to you, Lisa, and to the team here and just ask I know um I don't want to take your shot, but we usually ask if there's any staff here. Yeah. To have them stand. So go right ahead.
024Thank you, president. Appreciate it. Just in case. My shine. Take that shot. I've done it a few times maybe. Um any state street staff here? Yes. And some are still upstairs working. So thank you [Applause] I yield my time to the president. Oh, yeah. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you. Item number one, committee of the whole, new school year registration. Mr. Albini and Mrs. Romano. Romeis. Romero. See, I'm going to get a text. this for a second. Good evening, President Hernandez, Vice President Brown, Secretary Serrano Adorno, Board of Education Commissioners, Board of Education, Student Representative, Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. Thank you so much. Um, if you remember a couple months back, we had reports from uh many of uh my departments and we we asked that we waited until October for a little bit more information. If
025we gave you that information in uh September, August, it wouldn't re really reflect um what really goes on in the welcome center. There's just a lot of activity down there. Um and so uh I I ask that we wait till today. Uh Miss Romero, Mrs. Romero will uh present and we have of course uh Miss Davis with us who oversees a lot of this as well now. So um we wanted the three of us up here for this, but uh Sanjandra will take take over and give a good portion of this and then we'll take your questions. [Music] Thank you, Nick. Good evening, President Ernandez, Vice President Brown, Secretary Sarano Adorno, Commissioners, Student Representatives, Superintendent Dr. Schwarz, and members of the Waterberry community. I want Yeah, that'll be great. I want to start off with
026um providing you guys an overview of the welcome center. The welcome center of mission is to engage families and community members as partners in building supportive and collaborative environment. Here you can see the five departments, six departments that are currently added welcome center. Uh we have the bus transportation registration records McKini Vento attendance coordinator in the multilingual department. Between the months of July 1st and September 30, we received 1,372 in-person visits. This is now counting the incoming calls that we received. Just want to point out that the in-person visits can come in from one department, but it can end up being a visit for other departments as well. A visit can last between 10 minutes to an hour depending on the needs of our families. My next slide uh provides you those visits. I broke
027it down for you guys for between those three months. As you can see, uh, August it's our month with the highest visits, of course, because it's the month, it's the month of when school starts. Uh, we received over 700, we received 738 visits. September, as of yesterday, we were uh 400 visits. At our welcome center, we speak three different languages, which is English, Spanish, and Portuguese. On my next slide, I broke it down more in depth for you guys based on the departments of visits. Um, you can see registration is most often the primary reason families come in at the welcome center. However, however, in some cases, the purpose of this visit may shift after staff gathers more details about family um needs. The other uh it it the way we collect the data is
028based on the parent signin sheets. uh we got it. We're going to be tweaking it a little bit more to go to have uh more accurate data for us to see and to make informed decisions. But the other consists of it could be an event or registration. But some of the visits that we have been receiving had been questions around asking support to translate documents to provide information to families seeking housing. Uh we have families coming in um letting us know that they want to purchase a house and they want to ask like what school district they belong to and how the bus transportation works. So it varies all the kind of questions we we have at our welcome center. This slide provides you an uh report on on kindergarten to 8th grade applications we
029have received. Um you can see kindergarten received 237 a total for for between the month of July and September 1st uh I mean September 30 is 762. Next, we want to share with you the applications coming in through the office of early childhood. We received 279 and high schools 226, a total of 505 early entry kindergarten tools. Um, you know, we students tested between with birth dates between September 1st and um December 31st. We Waterberry public schools 11 of them enter in kindergarten. tested by OEC 96, 44 came in into kindergarten. Community 98 and 72, a total of 127 kids that came in into our kindergarten grades. Here is a report between uh for our welcome center. Um, as you can see, currently at um September 3rd, we had 12,218 students between the grades of
030kindergarten to 8th grade. Uh the wide this the district-wide enrollment we're currently at at 17,482. This number is as of yesterday. We all know how important uh family engagement uh is in the crucial life of of our students. Uh Lisa just talked about the engagement at the school level. Uh we currently have uh 29 parent leaison at our school and three vacancies. And these are the schools we have vacancies at which is Buxo, Anix, Kingsbury and Regan. As we continue to build family engagement at the school level, we are working together to increase parent involvement at the schools and we are doing that through our parent liaison. You can see that at the school level we have 27 um no I'm sorry 27 PTO I'm talking let me take that back. the parent teacher organizations
031we have 27 no PTO and then we have um five with PTO school governance council which is another uh important um avenue for parents to support our school levels we currently have I'm sorry this is so tiny I should have it's 29 no school governance uh and three there you go and three who have a school governance at a school [Music] As we continue to work on strengthening family engagement, um we're excited to share a series of upcoming events and initiatives designed to help our families feel more connected to our schools and communities. Um the ongo on ongoing registration events at the welcome center. We want to host uh events at various school locations to make registration process more accessible and convenient for families. similar to popup events. Um we also parent workshops. We are
032going to be offering workshops at the welcome center focusing on parents and practical tools and strategies to support their child's learning and development at home. One that I'm looking forward is to providing social emotional learning uh workshops to our families. Volunteer opportunities. We're developing volunteer opportunities for families to volunteer at the welcome center, including leading workshops and sharing their own skills and expertise with their families. I have come across families having key skills that it will be beneficial for them to, you know, lead those workshops and for their parents, you know, to be able to learn from parent to parent. Um, and then community partnerships. We will continue to collaborate with local community organizations to bring additional support and resource to our families. So, part of the work that I've been doing is connecting with
033our our organizations um in just inquiring what service can be offered to our families at the welcome center. Uh, one of the goals is for our welcome center to be the the the home of the families to come in and to feel comfortable asking any questions they may have and then we be able to redirect them to the organization that can provide those need support those needs that they have. And then family engagement at schools. Um, as a district we are going to be providing training for parents and principles focusing on the collaboration with PTO and school governance. These train the trainings are going to be strengthening leadership and promote family involvement at every school. Um same thing uh volunteer opportunities but at the school we recognize that parents you know want to come into
034the schools they want to they want to participate not not necessarily for PTO or school governance but they want to come in the schools and help like bulletin boards help out with classrooms or we're looking into the possibility of having that and of course making more meaningful connections with family once they arrive our school community. Something that we have um tweaked a little bit is that when a family arrives at the welcome center, we try our best to connect with the parent leaison and inform them that that family is coming to their school so they'll be able to receive them. So that hands off is very transparent and smoothly for our families. Thank you, Mrs. Romero. Thank you. Are there any questions? Commissioner Arreland. Yes. Latoya, this isn't a a question. It's just a comment.
035I'm glad to hear so much about the parent engagement, including parents and the activities in school, not only out of school, but inside the school. So, I'm really happy to hear that parent engagement is really being um noticed and recognized. Thank you, Commissioner O'Brien. Hi, thank you for the report. Um my concern and question is in regards to your upper grades, not kindergarten, but when a parent comes in to the city and comes to the welcome center, if they have a special needs child and they bring their IEP, what happens to the parents in that IEP after they've been with you if it happens? So at our welcome center, we register kids K through 8th. uh the high school they the high school students go to their high school to register. Yeah. So I I
036haven't come across that. Um you don't have any children coming in from out of district or out of Waterberry for high school kids? No, first grade through fifth. So our process is when we once we received our students with IEPs, we connect with our SPE department because they they have that area of expertise and they will guide us into you know instructing us what school that we we place the student at. Um we don't we don't go into the deck with the IEP. No, but there are steps in place. Yes. Okay. So they come in, they provide the IEP. One of the things that our staff does is very look at the IEP if it's expired. Um because we also want to educate our parents. Sometimes our parents come with IEPs and they're not aware
037that it has expired. So they come very like asking like when the service is about to start we we explain to the parents like we have to connect with our expat department. They will they will have to be involved as well. They will have to communicate with us. So we try to one of the things that we are trying our best our welcome center is to all be consistent and align to the message that we're communicate we're communicating with our families. Um so those are just kind of examples. IEP I used to work with IEP. I know the process but you know my role is to ensure like the SPE department is part of the process and but to me it's being more transparent to the parent because parents can become very frustrated you know
038they come with this document with you know asking for services that you know they're entitled to but there's process here that we have to follow and we want to make sure that they know about it as well. Okay thank you commissioner Lopez. Um you mentioned in one of the slides it talked about other reasons why they come into the center and you said that they sometimes come in for housing. Um so it sounds like they there's a lot of needs in their community. How do you direct them to those resources? So we have the McKini event of the department. So our our expertise there par um Shenia Paris who is the liazison for has a lot of resources that we're able to connect um to them too. But every case is different right? So, we
039have to understand what the situation is to be able to refer them to it. We do have a resource guide that we use. Um, I'm a social worker myself, so I try to do a lot of a lot of research on where can I refer the families to. Um, but the piece that I I I want to make sure like we're we're aware is being very patient and being very transparent with the parent because sometimes parents come and they're like, I need housing, I need a shelter, I I need you to be placed like you know. So it's like getting the resource and one thing I try to do with the staff is giving accurate information not just passing along the information because we're not doing a good needs for the parent just passing on
040information. So I myself have always called like the resource just checking in if that's accurate and who to connect them with. So we do have resources I'm always open to getting and I'm always researching like you know who can I you know get on board and make that connection to pass the information to the family. And then um there were only about five schools that have a PTO if I remember the number right. So I started the school year as as going back to my conversation building relationship and maintaining those relationships. So we that you know one thing we working with the parents and this to pick up from where we left off and you know at the end of the school year unfortunately in the summer you know parents disconnect so it's building them
041back again engaging them back into the school and you know every school community needs is different. So it's I you know I am I'm a strong believer by probably the next month and a half we're going to have strong PTOs and school governance councils. Um that's why I said about volunteer opportunities. Some parents will be interested in PTO some parents will not be interested in PTO. So it's creating those opportunities also for volunteers not just PTO and school governance but I'm a strong believer we'll have almost all of them. Dr. Schwarz. Yeah thank you. That's a great question and as uh we talked through the even the process of as becoming the superintendent here you recall we talked a lot about parent engagement and so there's already been discussion with administrators in the August professional
042learning about the PTO's and SGC's and I sent another message last week about the upcoming training that they're going to have to have and so Linda Riddick Baron who's really um worked hard on school governance councils in the past with uh Maryann Merrill if you remember Mary and Merrill and so we dug out all the resources that we've had and um and because really it it kind of eroded more during the pandemic time and so some of this is refreshers but we also have a lot of new administrators uh running buildings and so they're tasked uh Jackie and Sandra and the team are uh collecting all of those artifacts so that they can provide a more robust training for administrators to understand not just the differences between the PTO's and SGC's but their structures and
043how to best um not just create a meeting for the sake of a meeting but create something that is meaningful to the school. So I said I just don't want an SGC so I can say we have 100% SGC. So I said it's okay to go a little slower in certain instances at certain schools that may need a little bit more help. Um other schools might just need the documents and say oh yeah I know what to do. Let me let me take care of it. So, we're going to be strategic and uh I can say for certain we'll have 100% SGC's PTO's by the end of the year, but there are some schools that might need a little bit more support and training along the way to get them up and running. But the
044goal for this year is 100% all the way through the district. Thank you. I have a question. Vice President Brown and then Secretary Srano Dorno. Good evening. Thank you for the presentation. I had a question in terms of uh partnerships um and some some families. Is there any um when they come in, is there any opportunity for them to learn about our school-based health clinics and um our library, you know, helping them get library cards or, you know, even even linking up to maybe there's play groups that they could join with their younger children. So, I'm just wondering what the what the width uh is of the community partnerships because we're having a hard time getting people to I mean, we've got beautiful healthc care uh school-based health clinics and they're not utilized. They're just
045not utilized. So, this may be an opportunity to get them when they first come in to learn about them anyway. So, I don't know if that's if you've thought about that. So this summer we were very lucky to have Elise on for the school bus for the schoolbased health center downstairs. I would love to keep her there. Um so over the summer we she was our connector when a family expressed during registration that they needed a physical vaccination. We would connect her to her immediately. I also had a community helper um a community um person that help us with health insurance. She's also she was also there on Tuesdays. I wish I could keep her every day. But, you know, we we were able to plan this this um summer to be able to to
046have those services available for them on site. That is the goal to have it on site rather than sending them to the schoolbased health center. I have met with the department of health um to talk about schoolbased health center and we're looking at things like, you know, hopefully have a clinic there on the second floor. Say we have a family that's expressing in need of a physical in need of vaccinations and we can refer them upstairs and they can come down. we can finish registration rather than sending them off to to the schoolbased health center. Um we do have flyers of the schoolbased health center the the the the instructions around how to register. We have helped them with that as well. Um you know locations just sending but it's also like I said taking
047time to explain to the parent like the clinic is inside the school because sometimes parent misinterpreted like I'm not going to that school that school doesn't belong to my district but explaining to them now that is where the clinic is at. Um, another thing we have add-on and we try our best is to call the person at that clinic and to make sure that they know that this parent is coming over to them. So, once again, the hands off, being very transparent and very very empathetic cuz some families, you know, they they they're new to Waterberry, they don't know where the clinic is at, just getting to that place and saying, "Hey, I'm looking for Sandra because Sandra referred me." It's it's it's something that is very helpful for the families. That's amazing. I'm so
048glad you're doing that. And how about the library? So a lot of the so I have the we have a table at the welcome center where we have all those resource listed there. Um when a family comes in if we try to one is give creative by package the schoolbased health center flyer the calendar in colors um library um if there's workforce places if they're in need of jobs we have two bulletin boards at the welcome center where I have displayed that in multiple languages mostly main uh English and Spanish um so a family upon are having conversation they're expressing those needs we're able to prepare the package for them and and and give it to them that's great thank you so Secretary Serrano Adorno. Thank you, Madame President. I have a few things, Darren,
049and I think you answered um one of them in cards to the school governance council. Um I will say there's a lot of families who speak other languages that want to be involved, but then they sit there and there's no translators. So, you know, to attend either the PTO's or the school governance council. And I agree. I think after co the numbers just kind of dwindled down because I thought it was like a policy to have them. So I'm glad I'm I'm looking forward to see the the growth. But I would maybe recommend um you know always having things in different languages sent home and you know even if they sit at a table they have devices whether it's headphones that can translate. I know they have it at my church service something to be
050able to engage more families. Um, so I I hope that that something like that could be done. Um, now I know there was a couple things I have called Darren about uh at the welcome center. I will say I work at the clinic upstairs on the second floor of the health department. We are in the process of hopefully opening up um mid November to start off with flu vaccines and then eventually we'll be able to help the schools with the welcome center for those kids who need other vaccines and physicals. So, it's baby steps. We're not quite there yet, but hopefully in the next couple months we will be so we can help offset the welcome center. They can make an appointment right at the second floor, get it out the way, and they're ready
051to go to school. With that said, um, are there still vacancies in the welcome center? Because I know, Nick, thank you for approving overtime and stuff, but there was a lot of, you know, parents that were reaching out to me that spoke different languages or or not even even if they spoke English, but they were having trouble um, getting their phone calls returned or their emails. They're like, I've been waiting for two weeks and I know you guys were short staffed. So, has that position been filled or what steps are going to be in place for next school year to kind of help bridge that gap? Thank you. Yes, we still have a vacancy for sure. Uh, just one. Well, or several. I'm not sure. I don't know. There's a there's um I'd like to
052say there are two. I'm told there's one, but I'm trying to get two. But the thing is is we tried to hire two and only one took the job, changed their mind. So now we're back out again trying to not go down that same list but try to interview again, post an interview again. Very difficult to get employees. Um um in the in the summer we did, as you know, we brought in three parent leaison. Uh then we paid overtime. They were working Saturdays, they were working nights. Um the 800 applications that you saw 794 I think you saw for August it was probably the last two weeks of August and they don't come in five a day come in they come in 20 a day and it um it's a long process when you
053ask for all the documentation the transfer uh IEPs if they have IEPs immunization shots to translate it it just is a long and they think if they came in and they submitted their child's name, they're registered. So, it it's just it's just a very cumbersome process. Um, I've been working with Dr. Schwarz and Miss Davis and Sandra, and we have some planned changes, some improvements. It looks like from uh August, July, I'll say July to the 1st of October, excuse me. Yeah, 1 of October, very busy. Uh, but then it's not. Yeah. Then it's very manageable. So, do we look at um I don't want to use temp because then they have to be trained all the time. So, we're thinking maybe part-time workers. We're trying to figure something out like that so we can
054help um in the morning and then a different person in the afternoon uh try to contain our costs. Yeah. And and I agree with Miss Romero. I think even if she were able to get a parent liaison there, they can have the student or the parents know how to sign up for parent square, how to sign up for power school cuz a lot of them struggle. I don't know how to use it. I was like, I don't know either, but it I think if if that's a potential that maybe the welcome center can have one that can help the the families. Some of them have multiple kids. I think they need their student ID. I I just heard it's complicated. So, I don't know if it's in the budget or something or I you know,
055or maybe the opportunity of a parent volunteer, a parent that knows how to do it and then then can train other parents. I'm not sure. I just um I I get a lot of those families that just don't know how to use or even the bus app, you know, for Yeah. I mean, they may not be technology savvy. They may not be able to uh use that. So they come in but now they have to wait to get a a computer and to go through the process. They still may not understand us. So they still want to talk to a person which I totally understand. Uh but there's not always a person available at that moment. And so it's a frustrating process but we have some ideas that we can streamline and improve uh in
056this coming year. Thank you. I appreciate it. And Sandra, I know you're working very hard. I I love the partnerships and the opportunities that the families have to even volunteer. Some of them may be daycare workers at other like, "Oh my god, I need that." Or whatever the the case may be. I think that's really crucial. Um, so I applaud you for that. And then hopefully, like I said, in a couple months we can get our clinic up and running to get these kids in school. Thank you very much. Commissioner Harland Anthony. Thank you. Um, yes. I just want to give a compliment to Miss Romero. I know we've we when we talk about partnerships, we've actually we've actually done a partnership in the past with a few of our mentorship programs. So, that's something
057we want to continue to do and continue to offer for our community and our kids. So, you know, you'll be hearing from me and my team and and we want to continue that. So, thank you. Looking forward to it. Sure. Hi. Um, nice to meet you. Um, I think that what you're doing with the welcome center is really wonderful. Um, I one thing stuck out to me which was the you mentioned you wanted to do like family engagement and like social and emotional learning with the families and I was wondering like what that would consist of because it sounds like a really productive thing to do. So I've been trained in parenting journey. It's an eight-week session where we provide parents with tools around how to support their child's social emotional learning. So, I I
058would definitely be speaking to Nick and Jackie around bringing that to the welcome center. Um, that is actually a it's a it's a curriculum to, you know, to help their parents reflect on their on their um growing up and how that can impact in the in the lives of the children. So, that's just one of the workshops that has been sitting in the back of my head that I want to bring at the welcome center. Our welcome center is an amazing place where we can bring parents but that just one. There's definitely more that we will I want to offer there at the at the welcome center. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Parenting journey journey. Any other questions? Thank you. And while I'm here, I would like to introduce our student representative, Melan Tumba from
059Wilby High School. [Applause] [Music] Okay. Human capital department and talent office. Jean, Carly, and Marissa messing up. Hello. Uh, good evening everybody. Uh, I see uh New York Yankees bag there. So, I know there's an there's a game at 8:00 I think between the Yankees. Jean, see me after this meeting. I'm a Red Sox uh fan. So you for for a raise, I guess. All right. So, uh we'll move very quickly. Uh uh good evening to all of you. U madam chairwoman, distinguished members of the board of education and uh all guests, Dr. Schwarz. Uh I'm joined tonight by Carly Carpenter and Marissa Waters who are individuals who are known to you. They serve as our human capital talent and professional uh development supervisors. We're going to be presenting our annual uh staffing update to
060you. Um, but I do want to take a moment uh to pause and just not miss this moment to recognize not only the work of Carly and Marissa, but also the uh incredible leadership of Juan Mendoza who was the um assistant superintendent for our office for 5 years. So, uh we want to thank Juan. I get the pleasure tonight of kind of filling in and presenting the information, but the work of these three people are what you're about to hear is the fruit of their work, both strategic and tactical, and the numbers are going to blow you away in terms of how remarkable they are. Just before we do that, speaking of Deputy Superintendent Mendoza, we have a special guest with us because if you know, for the last four years, he has presented with
061us. He's obviously not up here this year as Jean just said, but we're having a little separation anxiety. So, he's with us in spirit. But in all seriousness, um we just want to thank him for his guidance and support. We could have we would not have been able to do this work without him. Um so, thank you for your leadership. And anyone else who's having separation anxiety, his photo will be in our office anytime you need it. Take your leg. That's a lot of adoration for one. They told me they were going to do that, but they let me be in the picture at the end. So, well, actually, I'm not in the picture and I'm the picture in the end. You're okay with that? Yes, that's true. So, without taking more of your time,
062let's get into the data of the evening. Currently, we have 52 staff vacancies. Only 15 of those are classroom teachers, which is down from 69 just last year. That's a 78% decrease. That's amazing. And it's not here on paper, but to give you a reference, when I started in March of 2023, one of the first things that Juan said to me is that we were somewhere around over 200 vacancies. Consider what has been done in the last just two years. We also uh track our resignations, which as you know is just one indicator uh of staff turnover. Again, we have good news. Um, there were 89 resignations, which is a decrease of 62 resignations from last year's 151 resignations. That's a great sign that WPS continues to be a place that our staff wants to
063be and stay. Another staff turnover indicator are retirements. This year we had 33 retirements, which is a decrease of three individuals. We certainly wish each and every one of them well in the next phase of life. Um the chart on this slide shows our reduced vacancies highlighted in light blue along with the current numbers in our hard to fill areas. Uh as you may know special education teachers remain in high demand not just in Waterberry but across the state and nation. The district has currently 27 uh sped vacancies. But even with these 27 vacancies, the overall news is positive. This number is down from 37 just last year. At the same time, another data point we'd like to share with you is extra classes. Uh this is when a teacher in the secondary level teaches
064beyond their fifth class. Extra classes have decreased from 146 to just 14 this year. And that represents a tremendous significant cost savings to the district. Uh we'd also like to just share some exit survey data with you. the top three reasons indicated by teachers uh for their departure, personal reasons, family obligations, salary, and relocation. So, all very um centric to their lives. It's not an indication of Waterberry Public Schools. One final data point that also reflects a positive trend. Uh we had 12 teachers who left the district and then chose to return. So, that's a good sign. Uh in my time I've had the uh privilege and pleasure to oversee the ESS substitute program and relationship. You may recall that the ESS provides us daily subs, building subs, and long-term subs across the district. These
065varied subs are a positive supplement to our staffing needs. In some instances, they also are a pipeline of talent. I can report tonight that we had six subs join us in a full-time teaching capacity. Um, three of them were elementary teachers, one ELA teacher, one math teacher, and one special special education teacher. I do want to share that we continue to collaborate. I saw Mr. Egan, President Egan here tonight with the teachers union regarding student overages and shortage areas like special education and related uh case loads. We join the WTA in recognizing the importance of having certified teachers for our student instruction. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, we have continued to provide opportunities um in collaboration with WTA for middle and high school teachers who teach extra classes through the CBA. Finally, I'd like to
066quickly share that we have used the state's very supportive temporary staffing opt options to successfully fill nearly 70 positions across the district. 10 of those are teachers that are through the Northeastern reciprocity program. 15 are long-term sub authorizations. Six are long-term parah subs serving basically they're serving they were paras that are stepping up to be in the teaching role through uh meeting um state guidelines. 28 are durational shortage area permits issued by the state and seven are general emergency generalists with six more applications pending. Oh yeah, that would help. Huh? [Music] During the 2425 school year, we hired a total of 163 staff members, including 150 teachers and 13 administrators. Of these, 28.2% were educators of color, keeping us above the state average. Additionally, 19% were multilingual. Our new hires are fluent in languages including
067Albanian, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Sign Language, Sinhala, and Spanish. These results align with our goal of maintaining at least 25% of new hires as multilingual educators and teachers of color. We remain committed to building a diverse educator work force that reflects the students we serve. [Music] This slide highlights hiring over the past three months during which we've hired 129 educators. Of these, 32.5 percent are educators of color and 16% are multilingual, keeping us on track to meet our end-of-ear goal of maintaining at least a 25% hiring rate for diverse and multilingual educators. Our goal is to maintain a high new teacher retention rate and recent data reflects strong progress towards this objective with the 91.3% of WPS new teachers retained highlighting the district's strong commitment to supporting early career educators. Among
068teachers of color, the retention rate was also high at 90.6% remaining in their roles. This success is attributed to a multiaceted support system that includes effective and relevant professional development opportunities, a comprehensive new teacher orientation, and targeted mid-year check-ins. Additionally, initiatives such as mindfulness trainings and structured mentorship have played a critical role in fostering a supportive and resilient teaching environment, contributing to the overall retention of our new educators. We are proud to share that we have filled 72 positions in critical shortage areas this year, including 33 special education teachers, nine science, eight math, six bilingual ESL, six teched, along with key support staff like school social workers, school psychologists, and speech and language pathologists. We saw 62 fewer resignations compared to last year and welcomed back 12 rehires. With only 52 current vacancies, we are
069seeing the positive impact of our continued focus on recruitment and retention. We were very excited to hire a total of 19 former students now serving as educators across the district. Many of them shown for you here on this slide. Choosing to teach where you once learned or in the community you call home reflects a strong commitment to giving back and we are proud to showcase their dedication. We have established strategic partnerships with 16 educator preparation programs and grow your own initiatives to support recruitment and retention. Partnerships are displayed for you on this slide. Through these partnerships, we are able to support aspiring educators at every stage from our high school students to adult learners including our paraprofessionals and career changers through residencies and alternative certification pathways. We continue to collaborate with Teach Connecticut to offer
070accessible, personalized routes to certification. To date, we've hired 17 new teachers through these partnerships, including educators in art, bilingual education, special education, elementary, and social studies. We are happy to report we have hired all four of our teacher apprentices, all three of our Connecticut teacher residents, and all three of our Yukon residents. This is my favorite slide. We continue to implement targeted recruitment strategies to improve both the quality and number of effective educators in our district. We bring energy, positivity, and a sense of fun to every career fair, all while making real connections with future talent. With our recent success filling positions and significantly reducing vacancy numbers, we've shifted our approach from highcost advertising to strengthening our grow your own programs, which develop non-certified staff with strong community ties and a long-term commitment, proving to
071be a sustainable strategy for recruitment and retention. We never miss an opportunity to recruit. As you can see on this slide, during the door decorating contest, we included the QR code where interested candidates could apply online. We have recruited at the hair salon, nail salon, during concerts, and Deputy Mendoza even recruited at his daughter Sophia's karate practice. Our creative, communitydriven approach ensures we're not only filling positions, but finding the right people who will grow and thrive with us for years to come. This past August, we welcomed 150 new teachers at our 2025 new teacher orientation. As part of the now annual city bus tour and visit to the Matatuck Museum, new staff explored the communities our students call home and experience Waterberry's rich history and culture. To support our local businesses, attendees also received a
072sweet treat from Fasha's Chocolates, a delicious meal from Venenzo's Pizzeria, and some WPS swag. We would like to extend our appreciation to Mayor Perooki, Dr. Schwarz, Bob Hy, building administrators, academic supervisors, directors, and WTA for sharing encouraging words of wisdom, equipping our new teachers with instructional strategies, and providing essential resources to ensure a successful start to the school year. We would also like to thank the Waterberry Teachers Federal Credit Union for generously sponsoring our breakfast and lunch on day one and WTA for providing a taco truck on day two. All right. All right. At the start of tonight's meeting, we proudly showcased our annual new staff spotlight, a tradition we look forward to as a way to welcome and celebrate the newest members of our WPS family. Each year, we ask our new teachers to
073share their why or what inspired them to join the field of education and more specifically choose Waterberry. We would like to highlight just a few of those powerful stories. LSE Clavho Parado, a Spanish teacher at Wilby said, "My decision to choose a career in education and in particular Waterberry Public Schools was based on a combination of a passion for teaching, a desire for professional growth, and the appeal of a school district with strong support for its educators, students, and the community at large." Trevor Damon Smith, a computer education teacher at North End, stated, "I chose Waterberry in particular because my first job in a school during my undergrad was subbing in Waterberry. During that time, I saw a variety of unique school structures and climates. The staff was very close-knit and offered a district-wide consensus
074of unity and community that I wanted to be a part of permanently." Treasure Coleman, a special education teacher at Wilson, responded, "Growing up in Waterberry, I've experienced firsthand the challenges and strengths of this community, which allows me to connect with my students in a way that feels authentic. I know what it's like to navigate this environment, and I can relate to their struggles, dreams, and cultural backgrounds. This connection drives me to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment where every child feels understood and valued, helping them realize their full potential. These reflections are a glimpse into the dedication our new educators bring with them. Their voices remind us of the strong sense of purpose that continues to shape our schools and strengthen our community. And just finally tonight, we just want to recognize the team
075at human capital office uh and just extend a special thank you to them for how much that they do to make all these names, all those numbers that you saw are these go through their hands. So their processing of it all. On this slide, you can see uh senior HR generalist Lisa Dunn, HR assistant Denise Gomez, HR assistant Susanna Silva, substitute liaison Donna Dvito, uh HR generalist Carla Martinelli, HR generalist Julie Ouno, office manager Caesar Mayor Melos, and senior HR generalist Christine Ferris. not pictured are Juan Mendoza and you covered and Jen Orso Marino uh who's out on leave currently. We uh appreciate their hard work and everything that they do to make it all happen. So, we're happy to answer any questions that you may have about this data or information and or if
076you have anything afterwards, we're happy to answer as well. Does anybody have any questions? Just a round of applause. [Music] Commissioner O'Brien, not a question. I just want to congratulate your entire staff for all you've done because when I came on the board four years ago, the numbers were vacancies were high and I mostly specialed and I worried so much that we would never get them down below 100. So, God bless you guys. You did awesome. the entire staff including Juan back then and Gina, thank you for stepping in. Thank you. Yeah, sure. Dr. Schwarz, just kudos to the team. I I don't want to reiterate what's already been said and I think the applause says it all, but again, the team and Juan with your leadership and Gene taking over. And I do want
077to take a moment just to as we're kind of coming out of that high of over 200 vacancies and we still have a little ways to go. Obviously, we seem to be on the right track. The strategies are working. But I do want to take the time um to also thank uh during the height of those vacancies uh between the administrators and really teachers who um had to take on those extra classes or the students wouldn't have certified teachers. uh the teachers that took on dozens of overages over their case loads. Uh you know this that it was it was crisis time. It really was. And teachers do what teachers do and they step up and you know again uh working with the union but also just that's the spirit of Waterberry. That's the spirit
078of Waterberry you know teachers and Waterberry public schools. And so although we are on a different swing and I think everyone's happy about having certified teachers, um I don't want to miss the opportunity to thank all of the teachers who were uh stepping up in times of crisis to give students that extra class with a certified teacher. I truly appreciate all the work you've done. Well said. Well said. request approval of the board of education's 2026 meeting schedule. Any questions? Okay. And before I go any further, I forgot to uh welcome back Lieutenant Britain from his six weeks working with JAG. So, welcome back, Lieutenant Britain. It's good to have you here. Request approval of a memorandum of understanding, Miss Frenice. I'm not. Good evening, President Hernandez, Vice President Brown, Secretary Serrano Adorno, Commissioners, Student
079Representative, and Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. The academic office respectfully requests approval of a nocost contract with Milestone C for the opportunity for 10 to 15 Water Public Schools educators to participate in industry externships. Teachers will participate in up to three visits to STEM focused businesses for an interactive tour and focused discussion on classroom applications. Each participant will receive a $100 stipen per visit paid by milestone C. Are there any questions? Okay. Number five, J. The education department respectfully requests approval of amendment one to the professional services agreement between the city of Waterberry and Cormier Consulting LLC. Waterberry public schools entered into a three-year contract with Cormier Consulting under RFP 8118 to provide teacher and administrator professional learning to all Waterberry Public Schools, terminating June 30th, 2027. The purpose of this amendment is to add additional days
080for Kennedy and Crosby who were accepted to the commissioner's network after we had entered into this contract. So they were already in the contract I believe for 10 days of support. Now that they're part of the commissioner's network, they would like more intensive work with Dr. Cormier as the other um turnaround schools had. And so there I attached a table to show the additional days being added for them. In addition to that, Willby High School was approved for their final year of turnaround, which we didn't know at the time when we entered into this contract. Willby would also like additional days for this year. Now, Dr. Cormier charged exactly the same price per day as he's been charging for six or seven years. Uh the materials cost the same. So it's the same conditions as
081the original contract. It's just extending the contract that we have for additional time. Um all funded through the commissioner network funds. Any questions? Jan, the education department respectfully requests approval of an agreement between the city of Waterberry and Vista Higher Learning LLC for an online learning platform. In 2022, we entered into a three-year agreement with Vista in which we purchased the licenses for three years as well as hardcover textbooks. that contract expired and in order for us to continue with the same curriculum we built, we need to extend um licensing. We do not need to purchase any more books because um unusually we're able to to um purchase hard coverver books which is harder and harder to do. They gave us the 2022 pricing. Uh this was initiated under sole source because the only place
082you can get the learning platform is through Vista Higher Learning. The total amount of the contract is $292,9452 with equal yearly payments of $97,364.84 and that includes all of the Spanish and Italian licenses for grades 6 through 12. Any questions? Thank you, Jen. Thank you. 6A, Miss John's. Good evening, President Hernandez, Vice President Brown, Secretary Serrano Adorno, Board of Education Commissioners, Student Representative, Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. The special education department requests approval of amendment number one to the agreement between the city of Woodbury public schools and Apex Educational Services LLC, which originally was RFP 7610. The purpose of the amendment is to provide board certified behavior analysts certified in restraint and seclusion techniques to support Woodterbury Public School District staff with physical and psychological management training or PMT for short and to provide district-wide VCBA support
083to meet the district's restraint training requirements and BCBA support needs for up to 1,73 hours per contract year. The original three-year agreement was executed on June 29th, 2023 for an amount not to exceed which is listed there in front of you. Amendment number one to the agreement shall add a compensation in the amount of $120,000 and it will be paid through general funds. Any questions? Secretary Srano Dorno. Thank you, Miss John. How many BCBAs do we currently have for the district? We currently have under the previous RFP um they are currently providing us two under the previous contract. They're supporting just will be but districtwide we have several under different um contracts but Apex itself is just supporting will be but they have different number of BCBAs that will support our district-wide efforts. Beautiful under
084this amendment. Thank you so much. That's very important. I appreciate that. Yeah, go ahead. Dr. Schwarz. Oh, just wanted to just so the board knows the special meeting tonight is actually on this item in case so so ask your questions now because I usually we wait another two weeks to vote but because this contract is really it's timesensitive. We really need it to make sure we don't lose services. Um so I just wanted to make sure the board knew that that was uh on the special meeting later. Thank you Commissioner O'Brien. Thank you, Madam President. Wendy, when you talk about training requirements for restraints, who's getting the training? So, this will be for new staff as well as staff that had previous um training for our previous trainer um that will be coming up for
085yearly training. And does this training, restraint training, does it meet with the Connecticut guidelines for restraint? because our past restraining policies in training our people were nothing to be spoken about. Correct. So, this training does meet with the Connecticut statutes and it is actually out of Mbury, but it's does meet the Connecticut state statutes. Okay. Very much so. It's actually a nationally recognized uh training Yes. program. Thank you. Awesome. Any other questions? Nope. Commissioner Lopez, how how often are we restraining? Do we know that? Yeah. Um, we actually can provide you that data, but um we have that data. Um, we collect that if we have to use an emergency restraint. We um provide that in our CTS, which is an electronic um system. We have to provide that to our parents. Um, but we
086have that data if we through the Dr. Schwarz, we can provide that to you and through the president. Yeah, that's Thank you. Yeah, that's um that's a good question because last year throughout the year um in our cabinet meetings, Wendy um I asked her to present u multiple times throughout just to track it, just to make sure we were not peing or going above in recent years. Um the only thing that um is a little frustrating about our restraint number is that it includes the out of district numbers as well. And so even though they may not be in the Waterberry public schools, they still count for the Waterberry public schools. But what that does allow us to look at and what did happen is when we see an inordinate amount coming from any one
087place. That's when Wendy's team pays a visit and tries to find out what's going on and and digs a little deeper about that one student because obviously they're still under our responsibility even though they're outplaced. And so um that's a long way of saying we can get you the numbers but we do monitor it. Yep. Commissioner Latoya Arlin. So, Dr. Schwarz, the real um quick question. So, are out of city students that are being restrained now? Are those being trained by the same uh company who were are they being trained as well by the same um so the the trainer is for the vast majority of our own staff and then each uh program like state approved program out there where students go to are responsible for the hiring of their own staff, the training
088of their own staff. And so, no, we're not responsible necessarily to provide training for um other organizations, especially organizations that have their own ways of hiring and and doing their own work, but they are required to also follow state legislation. And then again, like I said, while we um follow those numbers, it allows Wendy and her team to go out to see if there's anything that we need to look into as well, but we are not responsible for training their staffs. Um, we would be training the entire state of Connecticut if we were. So, okay. But that still has to be documented that they're they have to document their own work. They have to document who they're hiring, their staffing. A lot of this is also, just so you know, has been discussed quite a
089bit at the state legislators uh in and Hartford because of state approved programs and what does that mean and who's responsible to making sure they're state approved has been a topic of deep discussion over the last year and a half. too. And so they they're they're also helping us um in a way that makes sure that those programs are high quality because they don't fall under our purview to we don't have anything other than sending students there to like hold them accountable for having high quality staff, but the state does. And so they are looking into that. They're partnering. I know um um state rep Napoli and others have been really working hard and pushing making sure those programs are high functioning. Thank you, Miss John's. Thank you. Number seven, request approval to accept Window
090Cross prek to 8th grade construction. Mr. Albini, good evening once again, President Hernandez, Vice President Brown, Secretary Serrano Adurano, Board of Education Commissioners, Board of Education Student Representative, and Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. I'm here before you this evening so we can begin the process of accepting Wendel Cross PreK8 school as complete. Uh this is similar to when I was in front of you um just a few meetings back accepting our roof projects as complete. Um it is a little bit different um roof projects if you will. Elevators are non-priority, but schools are prior priority grants and they hold a substantial amount of money that is owed to us. So, we want to file our uh 049F with the state telling DAS, hey, we're done uh what you uh promised to give us in money. we have
091completed and we can get our balance returned and then we can start that process uh for the next it takes a couple years so we'll get audited and they'll look at our expenditures were they eligible were they uh not eligible so we want to start that process uh while the everything is fresh people are in their place uh they remember the project this does not affect the lawsuit that is in place with the problem that we had on Christmas Day that somebody's many people in this room's Christmas day was ruined with that water break. So, um we just want to get this started that stays in place, but we want to um uh tell the state that the project is complete. Any questions? Number eight, Mr. Albini. use of school facilities by school organizations and
092or departments. Good evening, honorable Board of Education Commissioners. The education department has received 10 requests for building and school facilities use by schools, school organizations, andor city departments as listed in your packet. Uh and they request board of education approval. Any questions? Mr. Albini. Once again, good evening, honorable board. Uh, the education department has received five requests for building and school facilities used by an outside organization. They are the City Youth Theater for Crosby High School auditorium, Waterberry Knights for the Career Academy Gymnasium, Waterberry Ballers for Generali Gymnasium, AAMC Albanian Group for the Maloney Gymnasium and Five Classrooms, and Special Olympics uh who request career Kennedy Westside Middle School, Dougen Reed gymnasiums and caps. They also uh the education department has received four requests for building and school facilities use by outside organizations and they
093request waiver of fees by the board of ed education. Connecticut Royalty Bucks Gymnasium, Connecticut Lithuanian Club Gil Martin Gymnasium, Historic Overlook Neighborhood, Kingsbury Calf and Bridge to Success Wendell Cross Calf. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Albini. Thank you. [Applause] Number 10, superintendent update. Dr. Schwarz. Thank you. Good evening, President Hernandez, Vice President Brown, Secretary Ronaldo Adonar, our board of ed commissioners, and of course, our student representative um and our uh principal of our student representative, Mr. Pierre Saint. I didn't intend to wear my will be green, but I'm glad I did. Thank you. That's right. Um, I just want to uh uh congratulate uh we've got four schools uh that received a competitive uh grant to do uh after school programming, North End, Hopeville, uh Kingsbury, and Wilson. Only 95 uh applications were submitted for
094the state. 41 were accepted and we were able to receive four of these grants. So, we look forward to providing that opportunity for our families and our students. I want to shine a spotlight on Manny Zeldavar, a multilingual supervisor. Uh he is now being recognized in Washington DC in the Milin Center for Advancing the American Dream. This prestigious institution is dedicated to showcasing individuals and programs that exemplify the four foundational pillars of opportunity, health, education, entrepreneurship, and finance. Manuel was featured in a special exhibit highlighting inspiring individuals who achieved the American dream. A remarkable and well-deserved recognition for his dedication, leadership, and impact. So, congratulations [Applause] We had a great day for the gathering and I saw many of you there. So, thank you for being able to come out and president and I like
095to walk together with a few of our um children or grandchildren and tow and um and and I know a lot of the cabinet was able to make it. So, thank you uh for coming and uh I just thought it was a great showing from the Waterberry public schools. I know we handed out Mr. OB was two over 2,000 tickets uh to for for lunch that day and so uh I'm pretty sure uh we heard a lot of good compliments regarding several different schools showing up float showing up. I was really impressed by some of the teachers getting into it and wearing different gear and I I certainly saw people at Chase wearing the the cheetah costume and and so Mr. Pier Saint, you were there with the drum line. Just, you know, just a
096great time had by all. Really uh appreciate everybody showing up and showing out for the gathering. So, I stole your shine earlier. You could you could you stole mine now, so we're even. I just want to welcome back First Lieutenant Joseph Britain uh from the US Army Reserve Jag Corps. We are very proud of your uh your accomplishment and your ongoing service to uh not just our community but our country. All right. [Applause] [Music] Uh just a just a quick uh thank you to the to our all of our maintainers. Uh they're sometimes the unsung heroes in our district. Uh they get a lot of they get a lot done on a daily basis all the way from Mike Kopka all the way down to the maintainers in the building. Today is National Maintainer Day
097and we want to thank them for the work that they do. They probably don't get thank yous enough. They probably get more complaints and um that's unfortunate because we know how hard they work and uh schools don't operate without um all all and you know when a kid gets sick guess who gets called. Um, and when kids don't uh always treat certain areas of the school correctly, you know, this maintainers get called. So, just thank you for everything that you do for us. We really appreciate you. And then, yeah, absolutely. And then uh just a quick funding update because I I've sent some information out to the board, but I think it's important for the public to know that as of right now, even with the government shutdown, you know, we are in solid financial
098footing at the moment. Um right now, we don't have um anything in sight that we should be nervous about. We're get we're getting reimbursed for our meals from September. Um if the government shutdowns goes into November, um there is uh there has been discussion whether or not the federal government has three they usually have three months in reserve to pay for even the national uh for for the lunches and the breakfasts. And so uh we're not quite sure yet if they have those three months in reserve. Uh we haven't been informed of that, but we um we know that um Harford's also talking about what happens if it goes into past that deadline. Um the city is talking about it in case we need to step in as well. Um all of our federal government
099uh uh grants, title entitlement grants are all here. Uh we've been informed of that from the Connecticut State Department of Education. So we're not in fear of losing those as well. So as of right now, um you know, the good news is is that it doesn't seem to be impacting uh any of our core functions here for the Waterberry public schools. And of course, I'll keep you updated if anything changes. And just a reminder to follow us on social media. Thank you. Superintendence notification to the board read. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Two seconds. special meeting. [Music] We could just start right now. Yep. Good evening. This is a special meeting of the Waterberry Board of Education. We will start out with
100a silent prayer. Can I have my lance do the pledge of allegiance? I hear mom 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. Thank you. Vice President Brown, present. Commissioner Anthony Ireland, present. Commissioner Latoya Ireland here. Commissioner Jackson. Commissioner Lopez, present. Commissioner O'Brien, present. Commissioner Orsa, Commissioner Serrano Adorno here. Commissioner Van Stone, President Hernandez here. Item number four, Committee on Finance, Commissioner Latoya Arland. Ladies and gentlemen, I move to approve amendment one to the professional services agreement RP7610 with Apex Educational Solutions LLC for board certified behavior analyst services. Second discussion. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Motion to adjurnn. Second. We are adjourned. Let's go Yankees. Let's go Red Sox. Let's go Yankees.
101Turn off the mic. Wrong. I haven't heard Maggie Gadell in a meeting.