001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening everyone and welcome to the Waterberry Board of Education uh regular meeting. Uh happy May everyone. Um we're going to begin this evening with a silent prayer. Thank you. I would like to ask our student representatives to all lead us in the pledge. What? Oh, I'm sorry. Huh? Do you have remembrances? We do. I'm sorry, dear. We have some remembrances. So, we'll go back to the pray. We'll keep praying. Okay, superintendent. Nothing wrong with a little extra prayer. So, uh thank you, uh, Vice President. In our moment of silence this evening, let us remember former members of the Waterberry public school education community who passed away. Leroy Thurman Jr., lunchroom assistant at Gil Martin Elementary School for 15 years, passed away on April 18th, 2025 at 86
002years old. Anne Provost Buckley, retired teacher at Kingsbury Elementary School, passed away on April 18th, 2025 at 85 years old. Now, if we'll stand for the pledge and we could have our three student representatives lead us in the pledge. 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. Roll call vote, please. Roll call. Brown here. Commissioner Anthony Ireland here. Commissioner McCoy Ireland here. Commissioner Jackson, Commissioner Lopez present. Commissioner O'Brien here. Commissioner Orso here. Commissioner Serrano Dorno. Commissioner Van Stone present. President Hernandez. Thank you. Communications Commissioner Latoya Ireland. I motion to receive and place on file communications as listed. Is there a second? Second. Discussion. All in favor? I I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries.
003Thank you. Public address to the board. Commissioner O'Brien. I motion to suspend the regular order of business to hear from the public. All speakers are encouraged to submit prepared written statements to the commissioners. Comments shall be limited to a maximum of 5 minutes. There will be no responses this evening to any questions or concerns raised. They will be referred to the administration for review and response. Oh, we need a second. Second. All in favor? Discussion. Okay. I haven't done this in a while. Sorry. Okay. The first on the list is Lewis McConnor. Please state your name and address for the record. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Louisis McConnor. I live at 77 Bing Street. I'm 18 years old and I'm a senior at Willby High School. I'm going to cut to the chase.
004My transportation matters. I find it really unfair that I go to a school with equal, if not similar things compared to Whams, but they don't have the same benefits that I have at my school. When it comes to transportation, Williams plays for an a different amount of sports, whether it be like football or soccer, and they play for different amounts of schools, but transportation is a major issue for them. Whether it be taking time out of their parents day to get to to their sport meets or having to take out money for themselves to take an Uber to their sport meets to go to those different schools due to the bus company not either giving them the buses that they need to get to those places. And that seems rather unjust. All that can be
005changed if they invest in us. If they invest to do give us transportation for those sports because Willby has that for everything whether it be like robotics or they do it for track but Williams doesn't have that at all. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Next is Manis Morrison Harris. You're passing. Okay. Uh Donnie Burton. Good evening. Good evening, ma'am. Uh good afternoon, members of the board of ed. My name is Donnie Burton. I'm 17 years old and currently a senior at Wubby High School. As students, we are currently at war. I would have to say it is because of dress code and expression. Ma'am, at Wubby High School, the rule has always been a Kelly green shirt and a nice pair of slacks. But to be truthful, most students don't have the money to afford that.
006And even if they do, some stores near us don't even sell that shirt. Ma'am, at first glance, you may think that's a big part of the issue. Some of us just don't like to listen. To be honest, ma'am, the bigger problem of dress code is that it takes away I personally feel it takes away our sense of expression. It could be just because how we currently wear our clothes, whether it's this or this, is how we express our culture, how we express what we like, whatever. I feel like wearing dress code, ma'am, it makes us all blended and it tells us not to be ourselves. We're not asking to have any rules taken away. I just think that there should be some limits and I ask that you guys give us some flexibility wearing our
007uniforms. We want to be heard. We want a dress code that makes sense for us, one that respects both the school environment and our right to express who we are. Thank you for your time and giving me the opportunity to speak today. Thank you very much. [Applause] Jabari Hendris. Good evening. Good evening. Um, hello everyone. My name is Jabari Hendris. I am currently a freshman here at Williams. Due to the lack of changes with students, athletes not being able to take the buses for practice. I do not want to join any sports just because I do not feel like I don't feel safe taking the city bus across town to Crosby. It is not fair that athletes are not supported by the board here at WHS. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] And your honor Hris.
008Hi, good evening everyone. Uh my name is Yonique Hendris. I'm a parent. Um I have two of my children that's here in at Whams and I just want to echo what the students are saying that yes, Whams, the arts magnet school is phenomenal in the areas of arts, but you have the students who also want to particular um participate in sports. So, as a parent and my um daughter has been here since middle school to 6th grade, I have had so many barriers as a parent to make sure that the school is providing the transportation or even the communication between the schools to give her the opportunity to actually go out and want to socialize and partake in sports with within the city of Waterberry. So, again, with the school bus company, I even have
009to call here. there's so many barriers and I just feel that we're taking away from the students their opportunity to actually participate with other students. Um, and it's a disadvantage. So, I hope that you guys reconsider providing transportation for the students here because then we're having students not want to participate who may just be naturally talented and it's an opportunity for them to get scholarships to go to college. when we stop that, it's an increased burden on parents, the community, their family members, and I just feel like it's a disadvantage or disjustice for the students here um at WAMS. So, thank you for your time, and I hope you consider just thinking about the transportation options for the students here. You may will see an increase with student participation coming from WHAMS, participating with other
010the other high schools here or the middle schools. So, thank you. Thank you. [Music] I wonder if you could tell us what your sign says. I can't see that far away. Looks like you have a lot of information. So, what the sign says is that it goes in depth about what students need for transportation, how they can obtain it, and the support that we could need and benefit from. We could pass around. Would you like me to pass it around? And yes, that would be great. Thank you for taking the time to do that. Is it the next one? Okay, the next speaker is Amari Bradley. And company. Okay. Good evening, distinguished members of the Waterberry Board of Education. My name is Amari Brantley. I am a 22-year-old resident of Waterberry, Connecticut, and I reside
011at 175 Runford Street, Waterberry, Connecticut. I live with my mom, and I'm very happy to not pay bills, but I have the privilege of serving as the youth engagement coordinator and one of the LI advisers to these great members who stood before you today. Uh, today, two months ago, we embarked on a journey to find to start a project that could really change the lives of the young people in the city of Waterberry. This was an entirely youthled project. I just kind of facilitated some workshops and let them tell me what they wanted to see. And they chose issues that reside with students in their communities and their peers as we have one very I call her a phenomenal athlete, but Destiny Hendris, she didn't get to speak to you all today, but she's phenomenal.
012Um, and so she's one of the the main student athletes here at Whams who falls victim to having the privilege of playing a sport, but not having the opportunity to get there. Um and when we talk about a journey uh as we all know in a city like Waterberry who is so college and collegiate educated uh and driven, we know members of the board of education like Commissioner Ireland who got the opportunity to play a sport in college. We know what that can do to our students and we know the impact that that can have on our some odd 190 athletic or athletes here at Whams and Waterberry Arts Magnet School. And so we want them all to have the opportunities. Uh a few weeks ago at our meeting, uh one of our members, uh
013Maddie Harris, she came in, um and although not an athlete, she understood what took place at school. At 1:40 p.m., right before dismissal, there was an announcement on the speaker that said, "All student athletes who take bus 6, please do not report to bus 6." Um, and so what that means is that with 10 minutes left in the school day, with 30 minutes before practice, if you had to go to your sporting event at Crosby or Kennedy or wherever your designated district school is, you have about 25 minutes to kind of find your ride. Now, when we think about what that does for children, especially while they don't necessarily have their cell phone there, we have to think about how distraught that could actually be for some of our students and how they're trying to
014chase their dreams, right? In a day where middle mental health has been so key to the support of our students, we have to think about the expression that they're able to have by having the opportunity to be an athlete. I ask that you all take a second and think about whether you were playing a sport, whether your family member was playing a sport, your son, your your granddaughter, anyone who's an athlete, and just think about the joy that they have. even if they were playing the sport recreationally or on a varsity team. Think about the opportunities that are displayed when enjoying that sport. Now, think about the shortage of transportation for our Waterberry Public School students, especially here at Lambs. Our students and I believe that they should have the opportunity to at least be
015the best athletes that they can be without the mental hall of transportation. A second issue that was brought out today was the issue on expression versus dress code. While working on this project, we actually were able to do a a study of what took place in New York City in New York City public schools and we found that 57% of the dress code regulations are actually sexually biased and implicit towards women. Right? And that's only one issue when we get down to affordability uh with schools such as Willby High School and other schools when we talk about specific colors, specific types of polos with the economic situation that we see here in the city of Waterberry. And so we ask that you one think about how the dress code affects the students here in the
016city of Waterberry and what changes we can make not only to allow them to flourish with expression and creativity as we all want to see our next the future flourish with creativity and expression. And we think about the affordability of the dress code and how we can kind of scale back some of those biases versus men and women within the classroom and how we can get that transportation problem solved so that we can see our Waterberry public school students and our WHAMS athletes be the best students that they can be on and off the field and hopefully see some collegiate athletes come back and be great for Waterberry. Thank you for your time. Thank you. [Applause] That concludes the public address. May I have a motion? A motion to return to the regular order of
017business. Discussion. All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you, Dr. Schwarz. inter I mean superintendent announcements. Yeah, I've been asked that awful lot uh in the last week or so. Interim superintendent or superintendent. So, just in case you know, I I I keep it as interimm until I have a contract signed. Just a personal choice that I've made, I guess. So, uh thank you though, Kennedy. Last week I had an awesome opportunity to attend Kennedy's first schoolwide poetry reading. Uh they held it on May 8th. Attendees enjoyed an evening of original poetry and spoken word performed by our talented students and staff. The students also created a literature magazine and designed the beautiful cover which launched during the event. Uh uh special guests were uh the Kennedy High School's award-winning band, the Silence
018Bronson Library, Shakespeareians, Mind Evolution, and Charmont Influence Little, the poet laurate of New Haven, Connecticut. Um, so it was a great event and actually we don't have it in here, but I was also able to attend Kennedy's super senior uh supper. This is was very popular. So, it was a night where uh those that have met certain criteria throughout all four years of high school were a uh awarded an evening where the teachers and staff cooked and served the students and um talked about their great accomplishments which I thoroughly enjoyed as well because they have some great staff there who certainly know their way around the kitchen. Great great night. Uh, the Police Athletic League PAL of Waterberry awarded two of our students scholarships to attend the overnight summer school program at TAF this summer.
019Congratulations to Valerie Espinosa Westside Middle School and Jeremiah Dleon from Academic Academy at Wallace Middle School. We're proud of your achievements and look forward to hearing about your summer at T. Um and Mr. Haxi, educational liaison and members of our mayor's youth advisory attended legislative advocacy day in Hartford on May 8th. You can see the group in the photos there that senator Joan Hartley along with state reps uh Napoli and DJ Vanc Carlo and Reyes uh Junior joined the students during portions of the day and events provided a tour of the Capitol building among other things. What a great learning experience for our students who uh came back from the event. Uh certainly excited and with some big aspirations to be once again possibly sitting at the legislative office serving the Waterberry community. Early college
020high school students, we have graduates amongst us. They graduated from Post University on May 10th. Uh we had 16 students who graduated with their associates degree. We are extremely proud of your accomplishments and congratulations especially to someone sitting over here Sinclair. Uh nice job. It was a great event. Uh and uh and a great day. And just for the record, they were already set up in that wonderful formation in that picture and the only way I could get into it is they told me to go lay down in front of them. So that's I didn't want to mess with their vibe. Love the socks. Wow. Yeah. You like that? Congratulations, Sinclair. Bucksel prek achieves NYAK accreditation. This is no small feat. Uh this is a lot of work that goes into NYAK accreditation. And so
021congratulations to Amy Sims and the entire staff at Bucks PreK for this wonderful accomplishment for keeping our young students safe, healthy, and committed to their learning. Waterberry Public Schools, we have great philanthropy teams here in the Waterberry public schools. we uh were able to raise over $2,000 uh for the for National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April and that comes from uh everyone working together to raise those monies for a good cause. So, thank you for everybody who was able to contribute to that. Teacher Appreciation Week was Monday, May 5th to Friday, May 9th with May 6, 2025 being the National Teacher uh day. And we uh wanted to say thank you all for the teachers uh in our district for everything that you do day in and day out for our students. Uh President
022Hernandez, myself, Mayor Penarooi were able to create a a video to send out to all the teachers thanking them uh for all of their hard work. I have to give a special shout out to human capital department uh Juan Mendoza, Marissa Waters, Carly Carpentry for reaching out to local businesses who graciously provided uh discounts for uh that week for our teachers and just to give you an idea uh if they showed up to Amalfi or Amy's Aroma Joe's, Brooklyn Baking, Duncan uh Fashes Chocolates, Frankies, Pepes, Grand Street Tavern, Canoon, Lakewood Lanes, Nardelli's, San Marino, via Alparezo and Zeni aesthetic. Uh they were able to receive discounts that week. So um I think there was a lot of Duncan and pizzas being eaten by our teachers. So uh and one last shout out to Tanya Bombbero
023and Sydney Molina and food service department who were able to not just uh get the cookies but deliver them to all the teachers as a special gift. And I think we had a sign on this there, a sign on the on the cookies that said, "No matter which way the cookie crumbles, you're always you're always uh you're always in it for the for the students." So, thank you. And thank you to all the teachers who have chosen Waterberry Public Schools as the place to work. We also celebrated school lunch hero day, which was Friday, May 2nd. So, thank you for all the food services staff. Sometimes they're the unsung heroes of the district and everything that they do for our students. and our school nurse day was Wednesday, May 7th, who um obviously as school
024nurses are integral in making sure our students are healthy and on track to to to stay in school. So, thank you to our school nurses as well. And one last uh update uh because I think this is our last last time seeing some of you, but in general to the student representatives on the board of education, I know um speaking for myself, it's been an absolute pleasure listening to you and hearing your insights throughout the year and and for some of you more than one year. But I want to especially give a shout out to our senior members, Dante Meyers from Crosby. Let's give him a round of applause. Sinclair Hudson from Crosby and although they're not here tonight, Vadia Sagenorf from Kennedy, Jaden Greenlaw from Whams, Tiffany Rodriguez from Career, and Tamia Mitchell from
025Willby. Thank you for your service to the board. And I want to just take the privilege of the superintendent or interimm superintendent's comments tonight uh to just shout out Dante because uh Dante Meyers has also received the CABE student leadership award which we're actually recognizing as a board on June 5th together as a group but Dante can't make it that night. So since he's here I just wanted to shout out congratulations to your Cape Leadership Award from the board and uh just give give you another round of applause. So congratulations Oh, I have the award. Where is it? Oh, this is what that is. We have something for you, Dante. Why don't you come Why don't you come over around and shake everyone's hand since that's what you would have done that night. It's inside.
026Yeah. Well, I figure myself out here. Okay. Awesome. [Applause] [Music] And that concludes my report. Okay. Thank you very much. Um I just the president's comments. No comments tonight, but I hope that uh President uh Wanita Hernandez is having a wonderful vacation. Welld deserved. Uh and we hope to see her back soon. Uh student representative comments. Uh Sinclair, you're starting. Okay. Good evening, Vice President Brown, Board of Education Commissioners, and our newly appointed official superintendent, Dr. Schwarz. Hey, my name is Sinclair and I'm representing Crosby High School in the early college high school program through Post University. This year, I am a senior and I will be attending Western Connecticut State University in the fall where I will be majoring in political science and minoring in African-American Latino studies and international relations. Whoa, good job.
027[Applause] Last weekend, I graduated from Post University with my associates degree in criminal justice. As you all know, I'm involved in many awesome things at Crosby High School. I'm in the Crosby National Honor Society as our secretary. Just a few weeks ago, we had our induction ceremony for new members, which a few of you got to attend. I'm also the vice president of the Earth Club, and we just put on our second recyclable runway fashion show where Mr. V was one of our amazing models. Dante Aiden and I are here to discuss many of our school's positive things and the tremendous progress that we have made and are constantly making together. The students at Crosby have accomplished some amazing things so far this year. As I mentioned, I'm a member of the early college program
028and we are so proud to announce that 16 students in our cohort graduated with their associates degree last weekend. Wow, that's great. Our grade nine students have continued to work hard and remain on track so that they can graduate within their four years. Almost 90% of them are on track right now to graduate. I am so excited to wish my fellow seniors good luck as most of them have been accepted and have committed to two or four universities or are going to the military. I would also like to give a shout out to our community partners CJR, CHMA, CHC, Dunkin Donuts, Ion Bank, Post University, and many more. Thank you for everything that you guys do for us. Before I pass it on to Aiden, I just want to say that it's been a pleasure
029and an honor to serve as one of Crosby High School's board of education student representatives, and I hope to one day return to Waterbury and earnestly on the board with y'all. All right, guys. So many great things are happening at our school now. Now, Aiden will share a few more things about what is happening related to Crosby athletics and activities. Yeah. Uh, good good evening, Vice President Brown, board of education commissioners, and superintendent Dr. Schwarz. My name is Aiden Mia, and I am also representing Crosby High School and the Early College High School program. I have played for the Crosby High School tennis team for two years, and I am a dedicated member and newly elected president of DECA. All right. Uh, DECA is a student organization that prepares high school and college students for
030careers in business through competitions, leadership opportunities, and real world skill development. It focuses on areas like marketing, finance, hospitality, and leadership. I'm very excited and proud to continue being a Crosby representative on the board of education next year. Now, there's been a lot of energy surrounding Crosby athletics this spring. Our boys volleyball team made it to the city and the city championships, right? Representatives from our girls and boys track teams have already qualified for the state open meet and continue to place in the MVL track meets each week. The boys baseball and girls softball teams have recorded victories. And we are super excited to welcome back Crosby alumni Christopher Belli and David Goddeck who have been hired as assistant football coaches. Nice. In addition to sports, we have had many activities taking place. For instance,
031today was a busy day at Crosby. Our students were able to celebrate Springfest. Springfest was an opportunity for parents, students, and staff to come together after school and have a good time. We had a barbecue, games, music, and even a dunk tank. We also have our spring course concert tonight where we are introducing our second school rock band, which was recently formed. We also are excited to share that the there's be there will be a encore presentation of our school play this Friday, May 16th, at 6 p.m. in the Crosby Auditorium. getting there. Our play is awesome. The play is written by and directed by Crosby students. In the weeks to come, we look forward to many things. Our prom is next Friday at 6 p.m. at the Aquat. Our awards night is scheduled for
032May 27th at 5:30 p.m. in the brand new Crosby Auditorium. And we uh we have June 12th circled on all of our calendars. We will be celebrating with the Crosby High School class of 2025 as they graduate at the Palace Theater. We hope all that all of you know that without your support, many of these amazing things going on at Crosby would not be possible. Thank you very much. Exciting. [Applause] Good evening, President Hernandez, Vice President Brown, Board of Education Commissioners, and Superintendent Dr. Schwarz. My name is Dante Meyers. I'm a 12th grade student and a bank employee at the school branch and I will be going to Yukon stores with my twin brother. All right. Where I will be studying accounting. I would like to bring to your attention a specific issue related to
033our afterchool student involvement. It would be great to have an outdoor community basketball court and space for teenagers. Here at Crosby, we are always looking for something to do and during the school day, we open up our courtyard right next to the cafeteria. Students love it. Wouldn't creating a place for students to play basketball or other sports outside increase the amount of students that will come to school daily, maybe even a beach volleyball court. Just a thought. I would like to thank everybody for having me on the board of education for the past two years. And go Crosby. Thank you very much. Excellent. [Applause] I just want to ask thank you all all three of you. Uh Dante, just a quick question. Is this community basketball court your recommendation or Mr. Veronos? Oh, okay. I
034just want to I just want to ask because you know he he does play a little basketball. Okay. Excellent job. Thank you. Excellent. Good suggestions. Okay. Where's my Okay. Okay, next on the agenda is the consent calendar. Is there anyone who would like to remove any item from the consent calendar? Seeing none, I will read it. 9.1 Request approval of a memorandum of understanding with Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. 9.2 request approval of amendment two to the agreement with Aspire Living and Learning, Inc. for Special Education Program Students. 9.3 request approval of a amendment one to the agreement with Ben Bronze Academy for special education programs for students. 9.4 request approval of an agreement with the following for educational services in accordance with the students individualized education program or IEP. Agreement with American School for the
035Deaf. Agreement with area cooperative educational services corporation. Agreement with Aspire Living and Learning, Inc. Agreement with Ben Haven, Inc. Agreement with Milestones Behavioral Services, Inc. Agreement with St. Vincent's Special Needs Center, Inc. Agreement with Waterford Country School, Inc. 9.5 Request approval of a transfer in the 20242 general fund budget. 9.6 Six, request approval of amendment two to the professional service agreement with Linguistica International, Inc. for phone and or video ondemand translation services. 9.7 request approval of an agreement with the Waterbury Young Men's Christian Association to provide truency prevention services. 9.8 request approval of amendment one to the agreement with Waterberry Symphony Orchestra, Inc. for music mentoring services. 9.9 Request approval of a construction contract with Creative Landscape Design LLC for playground resurfacing at Carrington Elementary School. 9.10 Request approval to accept Bunker Hill School Elevator
036Project State Project number 151-0305 CV as complete. 9.11 request approval to accept Washington school elevator project state project number 151-0304 CV as complete 9.12 Use of school facilities by school organizations and/or city departments 9.13 Use of school facilities by outside organizations andor waiver requests okay that's it May I have a motion I I'd like to motion to approve consent calendar items 9.1 through 9.13 as read. Second discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Uh one abstension. Okay. Now number 10, no items were removed from the calendar. Number 11, committee of the whole. Commissioner O'Brien. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the board of education approve a nocost concurrent enrollment agreement with Connecticut State Community College Nagatuck Valley for student participation in Perkins v. College Careers Pathway CCP program. Second. Discussion. Discussion. Commissioner Van Stone.
037Thank you, ma'am. Vice President through you. I was just curious if this Perkins mentioned in here is the Perkins grant. That is the Perkins grant. So it is and it is a no cost act because Perkins grant has money and we send it out to these associations. So uh this is a a no cost agreement. Yes. So the purpose of the agreement we've had basically the same agreement with Noguck Valley Community College. They are now changing their name and their contracts to read Connecticut State Noagatuck Valley. And so it's the same agreement, but we had to go through the process of just changing over the names. And so it it's basically the same thing and kind of a formality. And just for clarification, it's Perkins 5, right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, madam. Okay.
038Thanks for the clarification. Okay. Item 11.2. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the board of education approve a co nocost education affiliation agreement with Benchmark Senior Living LLC to provide certified nurse assistance clinical hours to Waterbury students. Okay. Uh we needed to vote on that one. I was going to call them all together, but we'll do them individually. Okay. Can we have a motion? We have a motion's there. Second discussion. All in favor? I I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Sorry. Go ahead. That's good. Which one are we on now? 11.2. Okay. 11.2. I move that the board of education approve a nocost education affiliation agreement with Benchmark senior living LLC to provide certified nurse assistant clinical hours to the Waterberry students. Second. Discussion. All in favor? I I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Thank
039you. 11.3 Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the board of education approve a nocost memorandum of understanding with state education resource center CIRC to support implementation of youth prevention efforts. Second discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Astain. Motion carries. Thank you. Number 12, Committee on Finance, Commissioner Orso. Item 12.1. Ladies and gentlemen, I move that the board of education approve of 31 transportation micro grant agreements with Noruck Valley Council of Governments for the purchase of bicycles and equipment for student incentives and rewards. Second discussion. All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Number 13, Commissioner Van Stone. The motion to receive and place on file the superintendent's notification to the board items 13.1 through 13.9 as listed. Second discussion. All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Uh number 14. Are
040there any uh committee chair reports this evening? Commissioner Van Stone. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Through you. Yes. Just so everyone can get a heads up, uh myself and uh the uh curriculum department will be meeting and then we're going to be having some curriculum meetings coming up. Nothing necessarily to uh go through and send to the full board for voting on. There's some updates that we have some uh renewal of some contracts to spit with like math curriculum, that sort of thing. And I just wanted to get the curriculum committee together so that when they do come before the full board, the the committee will understand and know what's uh what's going on with some of the curriculum, but it's really an update. Okay. The date TBD. Great. I haven't even told Carrie, so.
041Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Any other reports? Bridge to success. Nothing. Okay. Okay. I just had a couple of uh updates on the policy committee. We've been following the legislature. You know, they're almost finished. Uh in first Wednesday in June, they will be finished. There was a big uh public hearing about homeschooling and new regulations that has been uh no action was taken. They're going to be continue studying that. There was a big crowd of homeschoolers up at the capital if you saw them. Uh the second thing um that might be of interest to us is that they did pass uh legislation uh by 2027 there will no longer be any waiverss for the kindergarten entrance requirement of 5 years old right now. Uh and there'll be another year you'll be able to uh provide
042waiverss. I I had a question Darren. Um, right. Current law, if a child, if you don't, if a parent in the school doesn't feel that they're ready, is there a way that they don't have to go to kindergarten? Yeah. So, the current law actually doesn't require you to send your child to school till after age seven. Okay. But you do have to request uh a waiver from the school district to to to have that done. Okay. And um also you're probably also aware and thank you uh uh Dr. Schwarz for keeping us updated on the federal requirements around their um their interpretation of programs around DEI that's still pending. what we're seeing uh and and I will pass this out. Uh Cab has done a uh a summary for us uh on what's happening throughout
043the United States in terms of of districts and their responses to the uh executive orders to stop all uh DEI programs. So I will I will we'll be sending that to you. But of note is um 20% of educators in districts of 10,000 or more students said their district had decreased its emphasis on programs incorporating DEI since the start of the second Trump administration compared with 9% from districts of 2500 to 10,000 students and 4% from districts of fewer than 2500 students. So every district is responding and uh for the record there is no definition no legal definition of DEI. So stay tuned. Uh I'm hoping that Waterberry public schools will not be uh uh cited for our Waterberry Promise which tries to help low-income students and and there are other programs uh geared our
044tutoring programs and anything that goes to help people help students um who might be facing barriers um might be subject to investigation. So I just think it's a very serious issue and we need to keep apprised of it. So, mad madam vice president, if I may make a point of order, I don't think advocating from the our tables is something we should be doing. So, between announcements and emails that I've received, I think we need to be careful on what we do officially as commissioners. Thank you. Noted. Okay. Thank you. Um, any other reports? Okay. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Is the meeting over? Yes. I would have to address before this meeting. I'm sorry. It's over. I can get your information. We can
045Well, if you want to just give us your information or what you were No, I I would like to say now I'm concerned about this shooting. I mean, what are we shooting? You're sorry. The meeting is adjourned and you know we'll be glad to talk to you off record. Thank you. Can I show you?