001[Music] minut they ready okay good evening today is Thursday March 21st 2024 this is the regular board meeting of Waterbury Board of Ed I'd like for Eric Estrada and Sophia Nan to come to the podium so that you could be recognized for the beautiful music that you guys performed for us [Music] is there someone else that's it okay come on up and introduce yourself Miss case has been with us for many years thank you so this is Sophia ngwen Eric eses Eric is a senior here Sophia is in sixth grade here I would love to say that I taught them everything they know but they came to me with it and I just want to thank them because it was kind of last minute but they stepped up and did it it was very nice
002thank [Music] you yeah go ahead yes I miss case before you leave I you know I'm trying to keep her but miss case is also going to be retiring at the end of this here it's a huge loss for Waterberry Public Schools want to thank you um publicly for your service um program has thrived with your uh leadership and your uh F musicianship and you will be dearly missed and of course um um with the two wonderful students Sophia and Eric are examples of the wonderful ways that you have impacted children in Waterberry so thank you Dr ren do you have any membrances tonight yes president Hernandez we do in a moment of silence this evening let us remember former members of the Waterberry Public Schools education Community who have passed away Rose Pion retired
003teacher at Washington ele uh Elementary School who passed away on February February 29th felma Williams former Board of Education commissioner from 1992 to 1995 passed away on March 11th Dolores Gran atck retired food service worker passed away on March 14th Michael arono retired director of Elementary education passed away on March 16th let us keep them in thought and prayer along with their families can I have the student representative Kelsey lead us in the prge of Allegiance [Music] 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 thank you vice president Brown here commissioner C commissioner Ireland here commissioner Jackson present commissioner Navaro here commissioner obri here commissioner Oro here commissioner SOS here commissioner van
004Stone president Hernandez here here thank you commissioner O'Brien will you make a motion for Communications I motion to receive and place on file Communications as listed second second discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries go ahead Melissa public speaking a motion to suspend the regular order of business to hear from the public second second discussion all in favor I I all speakers are encouraged to submit prepared written statements to the Commissioners comments shall be limited to a maximum of five minutes there will be no responses to this evening to any questions or concerns raised they will be referred to the administration for review and response thank you first speaker is Roberto chiso sorry if I messed that up good evening superintendent R and members of the Board of Education uh public I'm here
005tonight to lobby for and ask you to consider naming or renaming a school here after the late Reena Weller karifa smart Reena grew up on Bishop Street in Waterbury and in 1945 she exceeded everybody's Expectations by being the first African American woman to graduate from Yale Divinity School um she went on to become a theological witness on the world stage when mentors for women of color were rare as a retired teacher I learned the qu the value of the quality of Wonder and I'm sure there are people who would wonder why someone like me would want to nominate a an African-American woman as a teacher I value Rising above anyone's expectations uh my relationship with the black community started when I was a young boy growing up in the 50s and 60s uh being Italian
006um Italians in the black community in North under Waterbury worked side by side and lived side side by side so at a young age I gained an appreciation of the of the culture and I think as a teacher we're supposed to involve ourselves with other cultures and respect individual differences um I also learned that in Waterbury there are only four schools that have been named after women Mary Abbott Margaret Croft Mary roella and Margaret jali um in my life I've learned that woman's spirit nurtures and I think that as a school um and it's an important quality to to nurture um students now recently after reading of Mayor peris's vision for what to do with the Sacred Heart property um my own personal experience in the Life Choices that I've made you I ended up
007homeless and so I gained an understanding of what it is to be homeless and how to rise up above being homeless and I think the mayor has a has a vision and a dream and to to work on that Vision to make the dream come true you have to have a certain uh um Quality about you to go forward with that so I think that I would recommend naming uh the Sacred Heart property after uh Miss karifa smart um because it's that aura it's that Spirit of the person that would transcend itself down more so than just academic rigor uh it's the quality that we all have and like I said earlier to respect individual differences and to help each other to rise up so that's why I'm here tonight and that's what I'm asking
008you to consider thank you next speaker is Michelle Elgato Hi how are you sh got a Waterberry hello commission speak a little oh sorry yeah okay hello Commissioners mayor Dr ruffen um Mr Mayor during your campaign you spoke about how you wanted to work with Dr Ruffin the the education department and the Board of Education one thing you wanted to do was put a liazon to help build a partnership with City Hall in the Chase building building but have you done that you have been in office for 3 months and if you really wanted to if you really wanted that connection to work why isn't there liaison I would think that would be one of the first things you did if you really cared about the staff and the 19,000 students the superintendent is in
009charge of but yet you don't want to give Dr Ruffin a three-year contract what is the just cause for that how are we the people who voted for you supposed to believe that you will do what you say if you can't even stick to your own campaign promises what's next or not next thank you next speaker Kevin Eagan thank you all good evening um just here to tonight to briefly go over sub results that uh the WTA survey we initiated this week just a couple days ago in response to us realizing that you were going to have a conversation about the superintendent's contract tonight so we thought it was important I know you hear from me all the time but I thought it was important that you get a quick snapshot of what our members
010are thinking and what they're saying and in just two days we got around 700 responses I included a copy for all of you to follow along but just a couple uh points to bring out to you um that some of the results were were really overwhelming and quite alarming uh is a superintendent and effective Communicator who promptly and effectively addresses district-wide safety related issues 80% 560 votes no uh my employee morale as a Waterberry educator is high average or low 60% low 3 33% average has a superintendent created a work environment that makes you want to stay in waterburry as a teacher 87% 61 votes no 12% yes the superintendent Fosters an environment that allows School administrators to handle student discipline issues in an effective Manner and to capably ensure teacher and student protection in
011the classroom overwhelming 86% no do you believe that current student discipline policies and protocols ensure that uni your students are safe in the classroom 86% 600 votes no do you feel that teacher protection and student safety is a priority of the superintendent in the school district 85% no 596 votes and lastly if our teachers were to assign a let grade to the superintendent's overall performance and you have to choose between a b c d and f we have uh 37% that would say F 33% would say d and 20% would say C now no doubt out that these feelings that many of my members are having are the result of a lot of the issues that we've been discussing um in response in my discussions with with the with our teachers it's the same thing
012they feel that there's a lack of communication consistency and accountability from the superintendent's office they we have an overinflated central office staff that continues to grow with salaries in the millions I stand corrected I said a million in the in the article uh we continue to EXP experience a mass accidence and continued shortage of teachers with extremely low morale administrators that fair retaliation and who continue to leave the district a bilingual Department that uh has now we we see classes exceeding 35 students no still no director in place and a budget last year that included hundreds of thousands of dollars in overages that were never addressed until late we still see stagnant test scores no doubt due to non-certified sub substitutes in classroom a special Edge Department that struggles to have consistent leadership and also
013believe that discipline is implemented consistently throughout the district it is not and an investigation from the Department of Jus Justice that went largely ignored which resulted in unsafe schools and a no arrest policy that does nothing but decrease school safety and increase School chaos I would ask you Commissioners to take a long thought tonight about this conversation think about tabling this conversation until you have an opportunity to digest the results of this survey what we've said and I'm also aware that the administrators did a climate survey uh on behalf of their members let's not rush to any decision tonight think about what the teachers and what the administrators are saying because at the end of the night I would say is this what we want for our students for the next three years thank you
014next speaker Athena Wagner good evening everyone good evening good evening in regards to renewing the superintendent's contract what I just heard is it true or not who knows who authorized the surveys why were they done at the 11th Hour at this time I'll tell you why because Kevin Eagan the teachers union President is on his racist Shenanigans to get rid of the current black superintendent Darren Schwarz just got his Doctorate he's their good old boy who will lick the boots of whoever to get what he wants I hope the Department of Justice sues the devil Right Out of This Racist District we fought hard to get the superintendent here and she has done a phenomenal job with diversity equity and inclusion she fought to decrease student arrests as an unwarranted means of discipline instead of
015a la instead of a last resort she's accessible and supportive of staff and has raised the expectation standards to ensure a quality education for our district students and families with much resistance from the whites in power Kevin Ean she secured much Educational Funding for Waterberry and quite successfully led the district through one of the worst pandemics yet they want to get rid of her I am sick and tired of the continuous blatant attack on our good black Educators in the dirty water in contrast someone devised a survey that was sent out to the Waterberry teachers union and the school administrators union members with a deliberate intent to possibly use as leverage against Dr Vera ruffen it was sent out yesterday with a deadline of today for submission or day before yesterday with a deadline of
016yesterday however Dr Vera ruffen has already been evaluated This Racist attack down our good black Ed Educators just doesn't stop in waterb there were no surveys of this nature conducted for our former white racist superintendent that lost a high-profile discrimination lawsuit and cost the city Millions Brown versus Waterberry Board of educ ation as a matter of fact the former superintendent was actually given a substantial rate and her contract was automatically renewed Kathleen olette the former Waterberry superintendent who came here from the Manchester School District was ultimately fired slashed allowed to resign this is no more not to renew her contract exemplifies to me no more than the existing DNA of Waterberry of the city of Waterberry and the Waterberry Department of Education that is rooted in racism thank you commissioner Island may I have a
017motion because there are no more speakers a motion to return to the regular order of business second discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries superintendent announcements thank you president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary Sano Orono Commissioners mayor perusi it's a pleasure to be able to share with you some of the highlights in Waterberry Public Schools today you remember well last board meeting was a little bit long so we didn't get a chance to cover some of the wonderful things that were happening at that meeting and then we've added some more so you'll be hearing quite a bit tonight and um I will start with Wishing every single board member uh a a happy appreciation month and uh the celebration here this evening was just a a slight uh celebration just a little token
018of our appreciation for the work that you do uh your tireless work that you do and uh I I sincerely appreciate you uh as a board and appreciate you as uh Servants of the community and the voices for the people that you serve in your various districts but most importantly for what you do collectively for all of the children in Waterberry Public Schools so congratulations to you and I'd like the audience to give you a big round of applause thank if you'll notice the behind the um Reception Area there are signs there are notes there are messages are created for you by the students of Waterberry Public Schools take time to read what some of those messages say uh as well as um prior to the actual meeting you will see a little bio about
019you and uh your long-term or short-term service to Waterberry public schools because we do have some new members uh all of you are appreciated for the collective work that you do and I also want to thank you for your dedication in um being responsive to um yesterday's uh uh meeting to learn more about some of the things I will talk about later on this evening the students have also prepared some goodies for you you have a goodie bag and they're from students and schools across the district um all 33 of them recognize and appreciate you we are very happy that Roberto Clemente International dual language schools principal Thomas Cella and the 2023 teacher of the year Mrs crw was able to appear on labomba and discuss the 50/50 instructional model at International as well as
020to share our school mission for the school the interview Focus uh was on a alerting prospective students and parents of the up upcoming Lottery at International I want to commend the school for their um their critical thinking through how to get more people to understand what a dual language school is um we have a long waiting list for international school but the waiting list is predominantly english- speaking and it was critically important that the school thought about ways to be able to communicate effectively what the real purpose of this school is and they were able to deliver that message in Spanish uh so our parents could understand that our students attending this dual language school will 50% of the students already speak Spanish and 50% of the school doesn't speak Spanish at all and it's
021a totally merging program whereby students at the international dual language school will leave by the time they are in eighth grade totally um biliterate by bilingual they will be able to read write and speak and communicate effectively in both languages and who knows what it will develop beyond the eighth grade for this amazing group of students so uh they were able to convey that in such a way that our parents were able to understand the benefits attending of attending our dual language immersion school and um I think you're going to be very pleased with everything that has been done thus far moving to to third grade and then next year of course with our fourth graders going to International dual Language School Roberto Clemente International dual language school we have some more highlights with WCA
022winning the ngat talk Valley League Championship WCA boys basketball team won the nvl championship for the second consecutive year uh WCA ranked number eight in the state in the state poll and are in their ninth season as of Varsity program congratulations to the team and their coaches for an amazing season and success [Applause] yay Wallace Middle School girls basketball undefeated in junior NV Wallace girls basketball team um had a season of 14-0 and Wallace captured the championship and claimed the junior nvl regular season and tournament titles and finished with an overall record of 16 to1 congratulations to the team coaches for their amazing season and success Maloney Magnet School read Across America day um read Across America day began on March 2nd and um if you'd like to follow along you're going to see some
023pretty amazing pictures that are on those um on the um boards here as well as the um probably you can access that electronically as well but several of our board members and board leaders and Community leaders sto in at Maloney to read to several classrooms uh readers included our Deputy superintendent Dr Schwarz uh state representative Jerry Reyes and Waterberry Police Department Waterberry fire department as well as other members of our Waterberry uh staff and um I believe the mayor went there too went to a lot of yeah we did a lot of schs uh hope Elementary read Across America National read Across America began on March 2nd as I previously said and several board members and leaders in the community were there to be able to read at Hopeville to celebrate in several classrooms uh
024included was the deputy superintendent assistant superintendent Dr Johnson um our director of human capital Jean uh our um uh vice president of the board um Miss Brown our state representative Jerry Reyes congresswoman Johanna Hayes um and representative Megan Perry and we had WFSB news three anchor Noah ason and the Waterberry fire department and I'm certain that we had other staff from Waterberry public schools to stop by and to read to the children at hope will as well at Roberto Clemente International School read Across America day um mayor prusi stopped in to international school and to read to the class and I think he had a good time as evidenced by the pictures here I think he was having a blast and I had the privilege of going to the school as well as other members
025of our staff Kennedy High School robotics team uh we visited the uh the Kennedy High School robotics team with the supervisor of Career and Technical education Mike Mora the robotics team showcased the short circuited Eagles robot and while there we received jerseys I love my jersey you can see me they were wearing it for the robotics team and the RO the robot competed at the New England first robotics competition and came in 14 with 17 wins and five losses I was really proud of um of this team I'm proud of both um the Kennedy team as well as the uh Wilby team for participating in first robotics a very importantly is that for a period of time the Kennedy team didn't exist anymore it used to be one of the strongest ones and then it
026didn't exist anymore and then they resurrected themselves and got a lot of Community Support alumni came back they supported the school and they were able to get back into the game with the with the robots so I'm very proud of Kennedy I'm proud of wilby and uh next year we're working on Crosby and we're working on WCA as well thank you nice Rotella showcase uh the student artwork was absolutely amazing so our fifth grade student Chase bugs uh stop stopped by Waterberry hospital this week to view his artwork which was exhibited in the hospital Chase has 30 pieces of artwork on display in the main Corridor of Waterberry Hospital Chase is also this year's superintendent student recognition recipient at Rotella uh we invited folks to visit Waterberry H hospital to check out his amazing work
027and we want to congratulate him for sharing this amazing talent with our community wow we want to congrat I mentioned this last week but no and you know he's actually I got to show the slides today so congratulations to Deputy superintendent Dr Schwarz on receiving his doctorate degree we're very proud of you Waterberry Public Schools The Source podcast episode 3 aired on March 8th and it was exciting uh I think the more of these that we do with students the more excited I get um Waterberry The Source um aired on March 8th uh highlighting and spotlighting Student Success agency special guests included Dr Wilson who is the vice president of Partnerships Student Success agency and two of our Wham students um nadina and Eric uh the podcast will be be available and is available now
028on YouTube and Spotify and will be shared and has already been shared on um parents Square the video is really amazing and if you were to listen to the two students experience uh their experience with Student Success agency I think you would be very pleased with um the impact that this resource has had on on students in Waterberry we are very excited about our 202 24 teachers of the year um the celebration will be held on May 21st at The Palace Theater the names of all of the teachers and their respective schools are on are displayed we are so very proud of them while we have amazing teachers in Waterberry Public Schools this is an opportunity to recognize at least one teacher every year for the amazing work that they do within their school which
029will culminate in identification of one teacher of the year and that teacher will be recognized in Hartford later on during the summer as well we also recognize other um outstanding leaders within the district and various other occupational fields in Waterberry public schools and we will be doing that at the same ceremony on May 21st we have 30 Waterberry Public Schools uh High School juniors visiting multiple out ofate colleges and universities by partic participating in the gearup Waterberry New England College Tour gearup Waterberry is a partnership between Connecticut state colleges and universities um in Waterberry and the Connecticut State Community College ngat talk Valley it's the goal to improve the number of City students prepared for and ready for success in college campus tour is a very important feature of that program the students chosen for
030the trip completed a rigorous application process through GE up and the students that attended were students from Crosby Kennedy Waterberry Career Academy Waterberry Arts Magnet and willby attendees needed to achieve a minimum cumulative simple graypoint average of 3.3 to meet attendance standards and to submit an essay explaining their postsecondary plans it was an overnight tour which took place February 29th to March 3rd participants visited out of state institutions such as Bentley University Boston College Brandis University Brown University Bryant University and Providence College our school visits which took place yesterday um School visits allowed us to chat with administrators students and Educators at Crosby Wallace um Chase Buck Hill and Bucks Hill prek those were the schools we were able to visit yesterday we have two other schools that were on the the agenda we could
031not get to because we had a very tight schedule but we plan on visiting many more schools and um having more dialogues with our administrators which I already do and I'll continue to do uh some extra good news that is not up on the slides but I want to share with you we uh we've already shared that with our Board of Ed but I want to share publicly that we are opening a class um at uh Walsh to be able to assist in our growing number of bilingual students in Waterberry Public Schools we know that that is a a growing number it could grow tomorrow and it usually does grow almost on a week- toe basis and it has caused us to have um uh to rethink how we could possibly find a teacher and
032the space to open up another classroom through the collective work of the uh school teams um my central office staff was here and others uh certainly the principles of the schools we were able to identify students that live close to or in closer proximity to Walsh Elementary School that would help the students to be able to get to their bilingual class much easier and for the students that don't live as close we would be able to provide transportation and we have been able to uh hire someone who will be able to teach the class which will begin on Monday March March 25th so we're very pleased to be able to do that we're still going to continue to look at different ways that we can expand the spaces in Waterberry public schools to accommodate the
033growing enrollment that we have in not only our bilingual programs but also other programs that are very popular but also because our enrollment continues to increase so the classes at uh Walsh uh the uh parents will have an opportunity tomorrow to actually visit the classroom with their new teacher uh in addition to that the uh the classroom is all set up and all prepared we've been working on this for a while but it was very important to communicate to the parents the why because it's very difficult to be able to take a child from a school in March to relocate so that Personal Touch was very important and it has been provided to all of our families so that they know uh and they they are comfortable with why this change is occurring in March
034we also have a lot of plans for the 2 uh 24 25 school year which includes how we could potentially expand prek which is also growing and um we have plans to be able to open some classes at Kingsbury for the 2425 school year those plans are underway it will require some minimum uh uh construction which our team here in Waterberry will be able to do we're very pleased to announce that those are things that are on the a way to be able to accommodate another growing number of students which is our prek I want to be clear that we're not only growing in Pre but we currently have at the prek center students that are attending only part-time and for some students especially students that are preparing to go on into kindergarten it's really
035important for them to be in school uh full-time we're not able to provide those Services right now because we have a limited space um but we are working towards creating a multiple spaces with limited space available to create an environment whereby students who are the most vulnerable students in preparation for kindergarten which is a very important year for them to be able to have the maximum education before they can be moved into kindergarten and that's part of the challenges that we still face but we uh will be mitigating some of that next year but it will not be over there's still a need to continue to expand pre um our enrollment does continue to grow in Waterberry it is one of maybe the only Urban District in the state of Connecticut that's growing many urban
036districts are declining Waterberry has shown growth substantial growth this year and I believe if the data is correct we probably grew in bilingual more than any other area within all of our um student enrollment groups I'm very very pleased uh to also announce that we will be um adding another component to our alternative school um I want to thank the team for working on that um we had we had um jade gopy worked on it um um Lisa arolo um Wendy Johns Darren Schwarz uh Juan Mendoza um we had uh Jan fenis um all of the and and of course we have to we we always do that in in collaboration with um uh our finance department but this was already something that we had in the budget we were we were holding on to
037that with for prosper for success but the need for the alternative school at this point uh will allow us to be able to move as quickly as we can find two teachers U it's an it's a it's a different kind of program so I want to tell everybody to be on the lookout for the advertisement because it's not something that occurs during the traditional day it actually starts at 2:30 in the afternoon and so uh to advise staff as as as well as maybe some retirees who are interested in coming back to water bearing um we are going to be advertising to fill those positions which will also include counselor and a social worker and a behavior Tech to be able to work with the teachers in a virtual and an inperson environment so students
038will get both so stay tuned because our staff will be advertising this and they will also be sending out reminders for people who may be interested in creativity and joining a team who's very much going to be creating this this program which will afford our students who are the most challenged behaviorally an opportunity to be successful and graduate on time by providing this virtual learning as well as in-person learning environment for the future um this concludes my announcements for today um as U commissioner Aro has told me I've talked enough and so uh I didn't let you forget that thank you very much oh commissioner Tonto dno oh God she didn't know my name didn't know my name my goodness Monita we'll talk after I don't know Dr Ruffin thank you so much for the
039updates these are probably one of my favorite things that you can probably see I have them all in my binder because I like to always go back and and I've always said this I like to celebrate the small little victories and accomplishments that our districts and our students and teachers make um you know with that said I know yesterday during yesterday's meeting and and I'll say it again I want to thank your entire cabinet and yourself for always thinking outside the box and trying to find alternatives for our students you know you're giving them Second Chances or to some maybe the last chance um and you've always find a way to think for the greater good of our students and our families and and even thinking about um finding alternatives to fulfill the needs as
040far as the preas and the bilingual so I just want to thank you so much you know you're very visible in the schools I love that you're constantly visiting and maintaining that open communication that even though some say that you you lack I I personally do not see so I want to commend you and I appreciate everything that you each and it's it's Board of EDM mon but you know really we wouldn't be doing all this if it wasn't collectively so I'm very proud to be on this board thank you Dr R thank you madam president you're welcome any other okay I'm going to take my mask off for this so I could be heard first I'd like to apologize to several schools and its students kingsbery Hopeville and Maloney magnet I was unable to
041attend their Dr Seuss event and Black History Month door decoration contest due to being ill moving forward please don't hesitate to invite me to your school events I would also like to thank principal Eric Brown his staff and students for for the lovely get well card it was a nice reminder of what we do for everyone and that it's a little bit appr appreciate it I also want to congratulate Alderman Mosley for being African-American mayor for the day which I also missed I was able to attend Waterberry career Academy's event which always is something to experience they had dancings recital poems um a parade of attire from the countries that they are from the diverse staff population they had they also did the school drum corp I even got to dance with the students which
042a few of them were shocked so thank you for allowing me to participate last month was Black History Month we celebrated the res resilience courage and achievements of those individuals we have sh who have shaped our A's cultural social and political Landscapes as Educators and leaders in our communities we have a responsibility to to ensure that the stories and experiences of African-Americans are not only recognized but also integrated in our curriculum and educational programs year round as we honor the past let us also look to the Future and hope with hope and determination for a better future for everyone amen there have been some there's been something said about this board's unwillingness to speak to people and I think that I can speak for all the Commissioners on this board we do not take this
043position lightly and we respect it but as we also have lives with that being said it's if someone cannot get to a question because there is always a deadline or they are unsure of an answer and seek the correct one before giving an answer that should be respected as well our responsibility to the 19,000 students their parents and staff are ensured we are transparent and putting the correct information out there for everyone this district has a lot of positive things going on our students are amazing let's sign some light on them and think of positive things this concludes my report thank you you're welcome student representativ comments introduce yourself and hi I'm kise um I didn't have anything prepared for tonight so that's okay I'm sorry I don't have any comments welcome welcome welcome can
044I say yes you can doc you may not have anything prepared for tonight but I do remember when you were asked a question not very long ago um and we asked that question about wil me and you chimed in and you had so much to say U the experiences that you had from when you first entered to where it is now so you do have a lot to say and I appreciate that do you want to say some or go right ahead okay she's okay all right let's go I really um everything's good in school everything is um normal the way it should be and I'm glad because you know that's how it's supposed to be thank you you're welcome does anyone wish to remove an item from the consent calendar item 9.1 committee on
045finance request approval of amendment two to the professional service agreement Rubicon West LLC on for online curriculum and lesson planning Warehouse 9.2 committee on building and school facilities use of school facilities by school organizations and or city departments 9.3 committee on building and school facilities use of school facilities by outside organizations and or waiver request commissioner Navaro may I have a motion a motion to approve consent calendars item 9.1 through 9.3 as read second all in favor I I oppose discussion motion carries committee on finance commissioner Orel Madam president first of all I'm glad you're here tonight I'm glad you're feeling better thank Youk item 11.1 ladies and gentlemen committee on finance moves at the waterb Board of Education approve a Construction contract RFP 79330 with silktown roofing for Kennedy High School roof replacement second
046discussion all in favor I I oppose item 11.2 ladies and gentlemen a committee on finance moves at the Waterberry Board of Education approve a Construction contract RFP 7932 with silkon roofing for spray Elementary School roof replacement second discussion all in favor 11.3 ladies and gentlemen the committee on finance moves at the waterburry Board of Education approve a Construction contract RFP 7931 with silkon roofing for Tinker Elementary School roof replacement second discussion all in favor I I motion carries committee on policy and legislation vice president Brown thank you Madame President uh 12.1 request approval of new policy number 41153 coaches evaluation second discussion uh would somebody she did somebody this say second Dr Schwarz is g to explain it okay or did you is there somebody else I said discussion now good evening mayor panuski president
047Hernandez vice president Brown secretary Serrano adorno our Board of Education me Members student representatives and Dr Ruffin um yes this is a uh mandated policy for us to pass it comes from Connecticut at General statute 10- 222e and requires annual evaluations done for all coaches and uh those will be done by our athletic directors and if an athletic director is not available would be the administrator of the school and the other the other thing I would add is if I if I correct is this makes us compliant with the state law now yes it does yes okay who who does the evaluations the athletic directors okay and if they're not available then the administrator from the school okay thank you I didn't hear you if you said that earlier any other questions one commissioner Rell
048Darren uh the valuation does the state provide the guidelines for this evaluation no guidelines are provided it would be something that uh I've been talking to human capital with and that we'd have to engage uh the union with there is some contract language regarding um coaching in the WTA contract however um that language isn't necessarily tied into evaluation but in terms of forms and process it's something that I'm pretty sure we can work out uh between human capital and the WTA thank you any other question questions all in favor I oppose motion carries 12.2 request approval of revive revised policy number 6146 graduation requirements can I get a second second discussion no discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries president president Brown vice president Brown 12.3 request approval of revised policy number 723
0490.2 indoor air quality heating ventilation and air conditioning second discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries number 13 committee on the whole vice president Brown thank you Madame President 13.1 request approval of wberry public schools increasing educator diversity plan second Juan do you have something for us good evening mayor rusi president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary Sano Doro Commissioners student representatives and superintendent Dr Ruffin I am woza ass superintendent of human capital and tonight joining me to present are Carly Carpenter and Marissa Waters supervisor of talent and professional development unfortunately Dr White was going to join us tonight but she couldn't make it however we'll share some of her insights on equity and inclusion later on tonight tonight we plan to present our increasing educator diversity plan for water public schools will divert
050your attention to our presentation while we remain above the state average in hiring certified educators of color which we have previously shared with you our goal is to continue working to cultivate a diverse educated workers that mirrors the student demographics in our classrooms under Public Act 2367 section 10 all school districts are now mandated to craft and submit an increasing educator diversity plan to comply with the legislation set forth by the connectic State Department of Education we assembled a team to assess our District's needs and initiated the development of our IED plan we utilized the Connecticut State Department of education's creating an action plan and sustaining efforts to increase educator diversity to for guidance the IED team consisted of myself Dr Darren Schwarz Deputy superintendent Nicholas Albini Chief Operating Officer Janet fenis Chief academic officer
051Jade Gopi assistant superintendent Dr Joseph Johnson assist superintendent Dr Laura White director of equity and inclusion Carly carpent Terry Talent supervisor Marissa Waters Talent supervisor Pete McCaslin principal and Carmen R's fifth grade teacher we'd like to thank all the team members for all of their time and dedication and crafting this plan we have given you all a copy of the con plan for review today's presentation will focus on highlighting key aspects of the plan while we won't delve into every single detail we aim to provide a clear overview of our strategies and objectives allign within the increasing educator diversity plan for the waterburry public schools the Connecticut State Department of Education requires all districts to identify three goals a recruitment goal a hiring goal and a retention goal goal in these next few slides we
052will be reviewing each goal along with the strategies to help us achieve these goals several strategies outlined in our IED plan have been put into action and will undergo ongoing review and Improvement the initial objective outlined in our IED plan as presented on this slide centers on recruitment our aim is to enhance our recruitment efforts by increasing the percentage of multilingual teachers and teachers of color participating in our grow your own programs annually by 10% to achieve this we plan to diversify our candidate pool through implementing new initiatives while fortifying existing grow your own programs these initiatives will offer alternative Pathways for non-certified staff to pursue their teaching certification in order to achieve our IED recruitment goal we will review and revise application questions to eliminate any bias continue to participate in HBCU and HSI
053educator Career Fairs collaborate with risis to gather and analyze data from Community focused groups to identify and remove any barriers hindering bipox students from becoming WPS Educators develop a guide to becoming a WPS educator available in English Spanish and Portuguese maintain our current grow your own programs such as the Connecticut teacher Residency program relay NextGen Educators University Partnerships the Yukon teacher Residency program and Ed Rising introduce new grow your own programs starting fall 2024 which include the central inspired teacher Residency program and our water Berry Public Schools teacher apprenticeship program the next goal outlined in our IED plan centers on hiring as previously shared our hiring of certified educators of color continues to exceed the state average of 11.8% in the 2022 2023 school year approximately 35.6% of all new hires were diverse staff of
054color representing a 10.54% increase from the previous year due to the challenge of recruiting teachers of color stemming from low enrollment in teacher preparation programs all 172 Connecticut school districts are vying for the same pool of candidates after careful review of our data Trends our aim is to sustain a minimum hiring rate of at least 25% for multilingual teachers and teachers of color annually we will ensure that the application and interview procedures adhere to the best practices of hiring educ ators with a focus on Equity to meet our IED hiring objective we will produce an anti-bias training video for interview panelists to foster a more inclusive experience for all participants sustain our WPS new teacher Equity training and conduct conduct bus tours of of school communities update and employ interview guidelines accessible via shared Google
055Drive incorporating opportunities for WPS students to engage in the interview process when appropriate simplify the onboarding process for all candidates and track the percentage of qualified administrators and teachers of color applicants successfully hired our third and final goal is to maintain a retention rate of 95% for multilingual teachers and teachers of color by the end of each school year we are committed to fostering Equitable School environments and providing career advancement opportunities where multilingual teachers and teachers of color feel appreciated secure and supported I am presenting the slide on behalf of Dr White tonight um our strategies for achieving our IED retention goals include establishing systems to monitor the retention rate of multilingual teachers and teachers of color initiating the annual tracking of multilingual teachers and teachers of color retention rates sustaining Affinity groups providing professional
056development sessions on Equitable policies and practices as well as enhancing School culture and climate pairing new teachers of color with teachers of color mentors whenever it's possible and feasible conducting Anonymous surveys to gather feedback from multilingual teachers and teachers of color in addition the diversity equity and Leadership teams will identify and recommend various topics and skills necessary for professional development and districtwide training and school Equity leadership teams will identify and acquire and offer resource training and support to cultivate more inclusive and Equitable School communities the Connecticut State Department of Education extended an invitation to all schools to participate in a voluntary 30-minute consultation session aiming at reviewing Draft plans we attended a session and received feedback from our on our plan we attended the session and received feedback from West Ed who is has partnered
057with the State Department of Education overall the consultant team praise the clarity and cohesiveness of the waterb public schools and the effective utilization of data throughout the plan they did provide feedback to clarify the identification of strategies to include ownership of who is responsible for each action and also to revise the listed progress indicators to be more specific at this time we have included all the recommendations in the plan and now it's reflected within the plan as we wrap up our presentation tonight we want to express our sincere gratitude to the devoted educators of color multilingual teachers and all of our teachers across our district who have remain remain committed to teaching in Water Public Schools your contributions are invaluable and we are grateful for your presence dedication and everything that you do for our
058students thank [Applause] you I have a question any discussion any questions thank you vice president Brown thank you very much and I think uh Waterberry is playing a real leadership role in being so Innovative in these programs I just have a question in terms of the impact of the public act that is requiring the City of Waterbury to pay 10% of any additional funds towards this effort I don't know if that's what you feel about that impact currently get back to me you can get back to I can get back to but we are working with the school business office and we have devised a plan that we plan to share with Dr Ruffin and how we're going to use the 10% it's mostly going to be invested in some of our programs like the
059teacher residencies programs and and uh also for the special education program that we have in line with Central conect University okay as well as our our teachers that come what it nextg our nextg students who are students that come from the University and they work as substitutes throughout the week and we pay them we're going to pay them through that money to get them interested in the uh teaching okay I'd be interested in the report when you have it thank you any other questions discussion okay thank you Juan Marissa and Carly thank all in favor I oos motion carries president Brown I think we did 13.2 correct no no we we on 13.2 okay request approval of a facility equipment user agreement with Conneticut State Community College second I'm sorry that's the wrong one that's
060the right one okay yep I'm sorry yeah second discussion all in favor opposed motion carries 13.3 request approval of the new position of director of multilingual education second discussion no discussion all in favor I opposed motion carries 13.4 request approval of a work site agreement with Northwest Regional Workforce investment board second hold on wa a minute okay Carrie pointed out that this is a little bit more detailed so I'll read it the committee of the whole moves that the Waterberry Board of Education approve a work site agreement with Northwest Regional Workforce investment board at at no cost to provide employment training and education services to eligible participants in the internship program second discussion well oh yes I actually um this will be my third year I applied again but I work for the Northwest Regional
061Workforce um when I I originally applied because I was um 15 so I wasn't able to get a regular job so I applied for a summer job and I was working at the Walnut orange Walsh Community Center it's on Walnut so I really like the program and I applied again even though I can get a regular job I like being able to I like being able to work in the community at like a summer camp over the summer than you thank you for that that's great discussion all in favor I oppose motion carries 13.5 the committee of the whole recommends approval and support of the January 11th 2024 request from Dr verer ruffen for a contract renewal for a term of three years further request that mayor perar rusi begin discussions with Dr Vera ruffen
062for the development of a three-year contract second discussion madam Mr Mayor thank you um thank you I want to start by being clear that I have absolutely no animosity with the superintendent I think in the three or four months that we've been working together we have had a good working relationship a collegial working relationship and I have no disagreement that there are good things that have been happening throughout the district and I don't in any way intend to denigrate those things that have been happening a lot of that is really good stuff that's been going on the Dual Language School The Early College programs that we have and other things that we have seen but I also think that there exists issues in the relationship between the superintendent and our teachers and our administrators at
063this point I think we need to understand what underlies that as I've had a couple of conversations with the superintendent about it we meet weekly we haven't talked talked about this every week but we meet weekly but as I've said I think whether they're perceptions or whether they're reality the fact is that they need to be addressed they need to be understood and they need to be fixed because we know that for all of the good things that are happening in Waterbury schools we still have a struggle with many of our students who aren't performing and there are lots of reasons and I don't mean in any way to say that that's all Dr Ruffin's fault and she's not working to try to correct that but we know those issues are there and I can
064can tell you that we are not going to solve those issues unless we have everyone pulling in the same direction and working together the superintendent's office the administrators the teachers the par professionals the mayor's office the City of Waterbury parents all of us have to be focused on the same thing and if there is an issue in that relationship between the superintendent and the folks who are working in the schools it has to be understood and it has to be addressed and for that reason because we know that that that disconnect is going to have an effect on the educational outcomes and so for my perspective I don't think that we just say that's the end of the relationship with the superintendent and there's no contract but I think we need to work on that
065and my proposal would be to extend the contract by one year and let's see if we can fix that relationship and see where we can go from there because I think that's the only way that we are going to fully succeed in addressing the needs of our students so that would be my proposal I don't think I have the ability to make a motion on this board and I don't think I have a vote unless there is a tie but I also think that I have been the person that people have been coming to and talking about some of these issues over the last few months and so I feel an obligation to bring it to your attention to make a recommendation and to do what I can to see that we get this resolved
066so that we can all move forward in the same direction with the goal that I think we all have which is to see that our students all of our students are educ at and succeed in our system thank you thank you any other discussion commissioner O'Brien um I've lived through in the city at least seven superintendents and after the last superintendent and my kids all went through this school and I felt very honored when I was elected onto this board because I have seen growth for our 19,000 students which we are responsible for I have seen a future that we've never had before I have seen many of my children's friends now teachers in this system and loving it so I listen to them they're like my own children and I have seen a communic
067ation and and our students excited for the first time with the so many different programs that we have been been able to Institute into the different schools and this is something I have never seen before in this city and I think we need to continue to move forward communication has always been a problem with no matter what superintendent we've had nobody is ever going to be happy you're going to have unevenness on always with any superintendent so I I wanted to put my sense in because that's how I feel those are the numbers I look at those are the children I talk to those are the teachers I talk to that I know and I see a lot of positive things and we have to move forward we can't keep moving backwards the city has
068to continue to move forward or our children will fail even more thank you madam president commissioner van Stone thank you m president through you I just want to make sure everyone's clear that this is strictly one vote tonight and the one vote is to renew the current contract for the next three years as is I believe one of the Clauses in that contract soend just so we understand um exactly what the vote is on the floor thank you okay commissioner Sano adoro thank you madam president um as as I have stated did several times I uh always commend Dr ruffen I think everything she has done for these several years has been exemplary um and I still stand my you know my stance on that um I know that she's had to make tough decisions
069uh as we all and I think she's done it with Grace and with passion I would like to have seen and and and I agree if there's a communication disconnect that those individuals you know come and talk to do Ruffin she she can't address a situation or try to fix something if she's unaware of what exactly is going on and I think she has that Open Door concept where anyone can come to her and there won't be any repercussions if not it'll be compassionate and understanding to come up with a resolution um because again all our Focus here we all have the same goal you know and it's those 19,000 students you know I've always commend our our teachers in the city they are heroes they've put up with a lot the pandemic has been
070so challenging and you know we're still may be dealing with some of the repercussions from that however we have grown we've learned we have grown and we continue to grow with the leadership of Dr ruffen I personally and definitely would always recommend for her to continue her three-year contract um you know with all due respect mayor uh I don't think the one year would be appropriate in this manner um but I would love to see that you know our our commissioners here when we were doing the interview in process it was a unanimous vote we're all parties and and parties aside but we all came to an agreement to hire Dr Ruffin because she was the best qualified individual for our district and even throughout the years and the evaluations there has been the majority
071um again that we've all came with the same you know exemplary um recommendations on her evaluations her communication she is out there in the community and maybe we there are things that we don't see and honestly that maybe we don't even need to see you know she is a person that she is accountable for everything she doesn't never back away from a challenge she you know goes head on and you know we're all elected officials here and our constituents voted for each of us even behind the scrutiny that me and my family faced and yet I was voted with the highest votes for my second term and I know that those con constituents rely on each and every one of us board members to do the right thing for our district and from the last
072time I've known I think we have all came to a consensus at one point that it was unanimous you know maybe that might have changed but that hasn't changed my opinion and I would love that you know mayor that you would support us Commissioners and and what we feel is best for our district thank you madam president commissioner arand thank you madam president I just wanted to uh agree with uh commissioner O'Brien and Sano oorno that um communication has always been a problem in this District uh when I went to school uh but my main concern is the th 19,000 children that we are over now including I have one in that Bunch as well uh but I have seen it turn around and I believe if the communication is a problem then it can
073get better can you speak in the mic if the communication is a problem then it will get better but one thing I do like to say is that Dr ruffen opens up that door for communication especially with parents there's a parent advisory group every other month that parents can go to uh and talk with Dr Ruffin so you know I just want to put on record too that I agree and I would like to see her with her three-year contract anyone else vice president Brown thank you Madame President you know I've been on the board for 12 years starting my 13th board and I think that um I remember a few years ago when uh we had the morale issue of the teachers come forward I I remember VI vividly we were at duin school
074yes and uh Dr uh olette Kathy olette was the was the president and we had a scathing report from the uh president of the Union about morale of the teachers uh so I think this is an issue that as the mayor said we have to address but I would say that right now we have a current president of the Union who will not meet with Dr Ruffin and has treated her in my presence very disrespectfully and I think moving forward there's always hope and I think that starting communication with the unions let's face it the whole Union is based on a a model that's adversarial it's not anybody's fault that's just the way it's set up and we are not producing widgets in a school district we're dealing with children and human beings teachers are
075not you know laborers and and all the confrontation historically that unions fought for rightly so but we have to think differently about the relationship between management and teachers it has to be more collaborative it has to be mutual respect it has to be built on the mission of is this good for our kids right and we've heard you know last time that uh Mr Egan came before us and rightly so uh rais issues about overcrowding and uh so forth but these issues are being addressed maybe not as quickly maybe not to what you want but they are being addressed it's like it's like things are happening so I think that moving forward as the mayor said we have to have a different way to communicate it can't be in a disrespectful manner it has to
076be this is the problem let's all get together and try to solve it right now I don't think we have a system set up that way when we have uh leadership refusing to meet with our superintendent that's untenable to me so I feel as if it's not a superintendent issue it's a it's a culture issue and I think we've all been around enough to know that it is personalities and it is uh we have to move forward and humbly say hey I'm not perfect I want to improve we all want to improve but we have to come into the dialogue with an open heart and not be so negative I mean the world is too negative as it is none of us are up here because we want to be negative we're here because we
077want to make a difference and we want our kids to succeed and we can't do that in an adversarial atmosphere so I would implore that as we move this contract forward that we do say say okay how can we move forward and have a a better communication a better way to address issues and know that nobody wants to not happen we don't want to sit back and say this isn't true there's kernels of Truth in all of this we know that but let's be serious here let's come to the table in in with good faith and solve some of these problems but we have we don't have a an opportunity right now to do that so I would vote on this three-year contract hoping that as the mayor said we can come up come to
078a better agreement and way to communicate and work with the teachers and the peir professionals and so that we can have that collaborative uh this and stay true to our mission which is about the kids thank you well anyone else commissioner Jackson I'm so sorry thank you just really brief L um I just wanted to acknowledge that um heavy lies the head I understand um as far as someone outside of your role this is an unbelievable amount of work to be done and when it comes to expectations there's expectations of the role and then there are expectations of the person and um one of those is a little bit harder of a game to play um if you were a different person we wouldn't even be having some of the discussions that we have so
079I just wanted to acknowledge that from the beginning I remember when they were interviewing you years ago and there was another candidate that we at the time some of us thought might have been a better choice and now I refer to that person as what's her name because I don't even remember because you have um you exceeded what a lot of people thought you were going to um you definitely uh made Liars out of um so many people you have changed um my mind and my perspective and so I just wanted to acknowledge that um you're doing things that people said could not be done thank you anyone else any more discussion I just want to say um I don't know where this District would be if it wasn't for the vision of Dr Vera
080Ruffin she has bought us out of the darkness and into the light she has made Waterberry shine Waterberry is on the map a lot of things that she has done everyone else is trying to emulate yet she gets no acknowledgement no anything for all the work that she's done we have 19,000 students here and those are the people that we work for them and their families and as of right now she has definitely definitely bought so much more the Waterberry yes communication yes if people are being told to do your job after not having to do your job for so long is there going to be problem problems yes there is is there going to be a communication issue yes there is is there going to be someone that wants something and they didn't get
081it and therefore here come they're within the lies yes there will be no one no one knows everything that's going on in their office no one I don't care how much you think you know you don't know because you never know who's doing what I think a three-year contract is more than fair for her because I don't believe with all the things that we have going on all the initiatives that her and her team have put together I don't know if anyone could come in and pick up the ball from that and I would hate for our students to take 20 steps back because people don't want to communicate because people don't want to get along because people are upset because they're being told to do their job so I will be voting yes for
082a three-year contract because I think it's welld deserved I think she's got a lot more to do for this city I think that there's a lot more Avenues that she has not even touched that she's willing to do she came in here in the beginning with a plan and in a 100 days it was done so let's give her that respect Mr Mayor I understand you you hear you're hearing things people are coming to you with stuff I'm out there in the trenches I don't hear what you're saying is being said are the teachers upset yes it's their shortage but it's all all over the place it's not just Waterberry it's not just a Waterberry thing it's a it's a national thing and we are doing the best we're we're leading the way with minority
083hiring we're leading the way with with opening up a a dual Language School we're leading the way and so much more our kids are are are receiving so much more information on grants and and just initiatives that she's put forth that her and her team because I don't want to leave her team out because they are a a vital part of what she is able to do so I'm I'm just saying I I hope that this does not it's not a a thing where where we just listen to a few and don't count on the many thank you can I just yes absolutely I just don't want to get lost in all of what's been said here and what I said at the beginning the underlying issue that is of great concern to me which
084is implementing all of these changes through the people who work in the schools and and I don't know that there's been a disagreement that there's an issue with that relationship going forward that needs to be fixed there's no question it needs to be fixed or we are not going to succeed exactly that's the point I'm trying to make we may disagree on how we get there but the point is it needs to be fixed we need to concentrate on it I don't think I think we get there quicker if we do a one-year contract than we do if we do a three-year contract the fact that there's always been communication problems may be part of the explanation for why this District lags so much and as I said I know it's not all there's a
085lot of different things going on but 20% of our third grade students read at grade level in Waterbury that means 80% don't read at grade level if you're not reading at grade level at third grade you're going to struggle now there may be reasons why that's happening doesn't fix the struggles that go on into the future it is not going to solve our problems of poverty and homelessness and crime if we don't fix fix that problem and if we're not all working together as a team we're not going to be able to fix that problem that's what my concern is that's all I'm interested in I've got four years as a mayor to try to move the city forward and education is one of the key issues to moving the city forward and I'm very
086interested and very dedicated to seeing that happen that's really the thing I'm most interested in and I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page and pulling in the same direction and if we don't solve this problem which has been around for a long time we're not going to get there so I know there's a lot of issues I know there's a lot of things that have been happening but as I say all the time a large number of our students simply are not succeeding we need to fix that and we're not going to fix it if we're not talking to each other the people who are in the classrooms are not talking to the people making the policy there is no way we can fix the problems we Face here
087in Waterberry that's what I'm it's not personal it's not an issue of attacking it's not an issue of taking sides in 37 years as a lawyer 22 years in politics there are two sides to every issue anyone who's raised children know there are two sides to every issue the concept for us for me as the mayor for you as the board of education is to bring these folks together and make it work so that they're talking to each other understand the problems understand the distrust figure out how we can make it work sometimes although we think we're being perceived in a certain way we wish we're being perceived in a certain way we're not and no matter how much we hope that's true if the other party doesn't perceive us that way we're never going
088to have that communication we need to figure out what's keeping what I want you to believe about me from being what you do in fact believe about me and maybe we can never get there maybe we'll conclude in a year it's never going to happen and we'll have to figure out what else to do but we've got to focus on it over the next year that's my concern and without that all of the rest of the things we've talked about tonight are going to come to nothing that's my concern and four years from now 3 years from now six years from now we'll be having the same conversation I want that to stop I want the conversation to be different in the future and at the end of the day I probably am the person
089at this table with the least amount of actual authority to make that happen and I am going to be the person who's held most accountable when it doesn't happen and I understand that so I'm going to do everything I can to try to make that happen and I believe that this is the best way to do that for right now I'm not saying don't extend the contract I'm I'm here saying extend the contract for for a year and let's try to fix this problem and if a year from now everything's better we're all in great shape we move forward if not we've got to figure out what we do at that point I think three years from now we're going to be having the same discussion if we move forward the way you want tonight
090I I honestly believe that's what's going to happen and it's not going to be in anyone's interest so having said that I know Mr uh commissioner van Stone had raised the issue of the motion can someone repeat exactly what the motion is that's before the board tonight that's going to be coming to me I'm out of order no okay the committee of the whole recommends approval and support of the January 11th 2024 request from Dr Verna D ruffin for a contract renewal for a term of three years further request that mayor perusi begin discussions with Dr verer R ruffen for the development of a three-year contract second R roll call vote vice president Brown yes commissioner Fus yes commissioner Ireland yes commissioner Jackson yes commissioner Navaro yes commissioner O'Brien yes commissioner Oro yes commissioner Sano
091ooro yes commissioner van Stone no president Hernandez yes motion carries 9 to one M president Commission Sano adoro thank you madam president I think that while we're here in this discussion that clearly we're all passionate about we have Mr Egan here on the floor that I would like to recommend that sometime before the end of the night we all have the best interest to set up a meeting with Dr Ruffin and respectfully have the conversations that we all think that she deserves so that we can move forward and come up with a better resolution thank you thank you item number 14 superintendent's notification to the board commissioner Jackson may I have a motion um I motion to receive and place on file the superintendent's notifications of board um let's see items 14.1 to 14.7 Second
092discussion all in favor I I oppos motion carries item number 15 do any Comm Commissioners have any going on that you want to discuss and let the rest of the board members know like uh liaison meetings task force is that no yeah yes just for uh Bridge To Success there's a early care and education resource fair that will be happening April 6th at the North End recck uh for ages 8 to zero and again that's an education early care and education resource Fair uh the time will be 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the North End rack anyone else okay I'll just say vice president Brown yes uh from the policy and legislative committee uh through the efforts of uh cab and uh the district Dr ruffen we have been testifying at the state capital
093on the budget the state budget and we are hearing that the uh additional $150 million that was earmarked uh is going to be okay but it's still early in the session the session uh ends in May um there's some other other bills that we are tracking and that we have testified on uh there's one especially that I think we did Kill uh Senate bill3 which would have required the districts to pay for uh transportation of students from Waterberry who were not attending our schools but attending Kor Tech or one of the tech schools they we would have to pay for their transportation it sounds crazy but that was a bill so we were able to kill that bill so be vigilent commissioner Sano ooro thank you madam Pres president um I do just want to
094make uh a note that this Sunday March 24th is World tuberculosis day uh working for the health department actually the tuberculosis Clinic um a lot of people don't realize how much you know we we do are you know or Expos the potential uh tuberculosis s Laten tuberculosis uh currently 75 million lives saved since 2000 by global efforts to end tuberculosis 10.6 6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis in 2022 1.3 million people died of tuberculosis in 2022 uh currently the City of Waterbury we have uh three active tuberculosis cases um they are under direct Observatory treatment they are in observations um they are following the proper protocols according to the dph and the health department um so we just ask individuals um to please you know get tested use precaution um you could always call
095us at the health department if anybody needs any screening if you're traveling overseas and so forth um so just wanted to let you know that Sunday is World TB day thank you well commissioner Fus thank you um Madam president so on April 3rd um there's going to be a Statewide action where early educators will be participating um here water is going to be um I believe at the green around 9:00 in the morning it's called morning without Child Care um it's from the childcare for Connecticut's future um organization um that is actually Coalition um so I invite all parents and all early Educators and all of all of you to participate and be present that day anything else all right number 16 commissioner fius can you make a motion to adjer I motion um to
096conven in sorry no the next one a motion to adjourn discussion we are adjourned thank you everyone e for