001[Music] h [Music] but they do there's a lot of things they do there good evening came here and I thought it's not good evening that is so raw that isong so many l today is December 7th 2023 this is a workshop for the Waterberry Board of Ed I would like to welcome our newly elected commissioner to the board Miss Jackson you're [Applause] welcome we will now have a silent prayer we have the pledge allegiance of the flag Michaela would you mind doing to the flag of the United States of America the stand na indivisible liy and justice for all secretary Sano andoro can you give us a motion for public speaking motion to suspend the regular order of business to hear from the public second all in favor I I opposed our first Speaker tonight
002is the senior Taylor can you state your name and address please um Lucien Taylor 228 new Ridge Avenue hi good evening superintendent Ruffin and Waterbury Board of Ed Commissioners my name is Lucen I'm a current student at Kennedy High School and a student organizer with race this evening I'm here to speak for establishing gender neutral bathrooms in the Waterberry Public Schools I can't stress enough the importance of having bathrooms accessible for transgender and gender non-conforming students as a transgender boy with an appearance that can be seen as masculine or feminine I'm at risk when I enter the girls or boys bathroom while I've been using the girls bathroom during my years at Kennedy I've gotten away on Skate because it's easy for me to shave my facial hair or change the pitch of my voice
003I shouldn't have to do that and not everyone has the privilege or want to do so here I have the testimonies of two of my closest friends who couldn't make it today please listen to them with an open mind my name is Fred I'm a senior at Kennedy High School my gender identity is complex I'm a black woman I'm a non-binary person I'm a gender flued man I'm anything except for comfortable when it comes to public restrooms I don't belong in a gendered restroom going into the men's or women's room feels like I'm being intrusive as if i' be unsafe and unwelcome in either furthermore I don't feel like arguing with faculty or students about my gender identity each time I need to relieve myself so I've resigned to using the bathroom that everybody else
004is comfortable with me using walking into the woman's room feels nearly shameful like have been forced to recognize that my expression and self-understanding can be dismissed or ignored my assimilation is deemed more important than my comfort additionally I resign to choosing the woman's room each time because I know it's safer for me in there I fear the anxiety and harassment that would come if I tried to use the wrong bathroom this is this fear essentially CS from being an outsider everyone can experience being alienated when forced into an unfamiliar homogeneous setting being unaccepted or unrecognized in such environments can be dangerous or at the very least uncomfortable I would not feel as uncomfortable in an ungendered restroom there are gendered neutral bathrooms everywhere such as in our homes anyone who needs to use the restroom
005in your house can regardless of their gender as it is a room that is defined by its functions and the Privacy it guarantees not by the gender at Services furthermore having ungendered restrooms is not the same as asking for the removal of gendered ones people should have the option to choose whatever bathroom they would feel most comfortable in introducing gender bathrooms within Waterberry Public Schools is a necessary implementation that would provide an option for any student especially queer students to feel more welcome safe and comfortable in their schools and communities another transgender student at Kennedy my friend T is non-binary and has an androgenous appearance they were able they were unable to attend today du the transphobia from their family I would like to point out here that possibly one of the reasons The Bard
006of Ed hasn't quickly Advanced with gender neutral bathrooms is because of the chance of adverse reactions from parents Tori as well as myself and countless other students is living proof that trans students still exist even if their parents don't accept them going solely by the wishes of parents and not considering the students themselves who go to school every day and experience discrimination every day based on their transgender identity will be completely ignoring the trauma and constant conflict students are facing here is tor's testimony my name is Tori and I'm a senior at Kennedy High School I do not belong here is what I think every time I enter a gendered bathroom one of the last times I used the school bathrooms earlier this year I had an anxiety attack in the Stalls I had entered
007the bathroom when it was empty and before I knew it it filled up with other people skipping classes I sat in the stall for around 20 minutes silently panicking and hoping everyone would leave eventually my friend came to get me and I quickly ran out of the bathroom in fear of everyone's judgment this experience has caused me to double down on not using the school restrooms until I can finally have the one simple solution to my dilemma a gender neutral bathroom doubling down has caused issues for me holding it is unhealthy and can be painful as well as very distracting when I'm trying to focus on my work but for me I'd rather deal with the consequences of that than giving myself Relentless anxiety each time I even attempt to use a school bathroom this
008isn't how it should be if the district truly cared about the mental health of its students if this District truly cared about the students like me who suffer silently from the fear and dysphoria of having to use a gendered bathroom if this District truly cared about the students who see school as the one place where they can be themselves then surely District district would listen to our please and Implement at least one gender neutral bathroom at my school and all the others in our district if not for me then for the younger generation the younger generation who hopefully won't have to feel close off as I did the generation who should be allowed to present themselves however they may wish without fear we are in an era of progression and this progression should continue to
009persist as this world becomes more and more accepting of people like me people of any and all genders and identities I want us to sit with that for a moment can you imagine being terrified to use the bathroom I don't think any cisgender person has even thought of the chance that they'd never come out of the bathroom because of a hate crime and I understand that sounds extreme but with the current climate in our schools it's a significant possibility fights already happened during school and teachers are by contract not allowed to interfere the bathroom is a vulnerable area students have to visit daily with the attend concern the board of bed has expressed with preventing violence between students I'm appalled that you haven't taken serious action in creating gender neutal bathrooms trans students have already
010experienced intense hate how long do we have until it turns physical in fact how do we know it hasn't already students are endangered and always have been by the lack of gender neutral bathrooms in schools I hope that these testimonies as well as my own have given you a better understanding of the current need for gender neutral bathrooms in waterburry public schools there's only so much we can say so many times we can beg without repeating ourselves and I hope that we no longer have to thank you for your [Music] time I have NX jimnez is they're all the same yes okay hello all right um good evening Dr ruffen and counselors of the Board of Ed um my name is Nick Jimenez and I'm here representing and a senior at wiby high school I
011came here today to ask you why is it controversial how we label the people that toilets are supposed to serve would the best way to resolve that controversy be just to leave it up to individuals to decide what toilet to use consider the situation of transgender and gender non-conforming people which toilet designated for which cisgender category should they use how do they feel about having to make such a choice how do cisgender toilet users react when the the spot a GNC person in the same toilet these issues offer to why it is controversial how we label the people that toilets are supposed to serve while trans and GNC persons have always existed there is now increased Consciousness about them bring them these issues to the four at stake in this controversy are the recognition of
012the dignity Liberty and equality of transgender and GNC persons the Safety and Security of toilet users and the appropriateness of enforcing and reinforcing the gender binary Visa fees gender equality in berky and conservatism through my own experience as a transgender woman I can tell you that I've gone into the boy's bathroom to avoid laughing and mock in the girls bathroom and not knowing whether I will come out of the bathroom alive I've gone into the girls bathroom to feel comfortable and safe but even in that bathroom I identify with I was met with aggression because of the community I live in and the fact that it isn't accepting to the kind of woman I am it took me speaking to a teacher about the death threats and hate messages I was getting online to even
013be told that there was a GNC bathroom in my school which was the safest bathroom for me to use at the time however I was disheartened to find we have a singular GNC bathroom in the basement that is no better than a secluded hole in the wall so now I'm thinking well if there are two gendered B bathrooms per floor and yet only one gcy bathroom all the way in the basement how does that make any sense you as the Board of Ed have the role in making decisions for us and show us that you don't fit the position time and time again we get surveys all the time about mental health which is amazing great but none of the questions you should be asking us are asked there isn't even a sign showing where
014a GNC bathroom is or what it is it is easily passed as a storage closet if and that's only looking at willby I can only imagine what the other waterburry public schools have going on in their schools with all of that being said thank you for your time that's all ash deito good evening my name is Ash deito my pronouns are they them I'm a senior at Crosby High School and I'm here today to talk about the need for gender neutral restrooms in our schools when presented with this issue your response was to add a single bathroom in each add a sign to a single bathroom in each school and I'm here to tell you that you should be embarrassed by this what you have not considered is that these bathrooms are inaccessible to students
015and that there's only one bathroom for all students in the school who wish to use it trans or not you may think that this is progress but it is not and I will not stand here and congratulate you for doing the bare minimum this is a lazy fix that shows that trans students are not a priority so that being said congratulations for confirming the belief that every trans trans student in waterburry already holds the belief that our issues are not important and that the comfort and convenience of CIS people should be prioritized over the rights and safety of trans people I hope that me being here today makes you all uncomfortable I hope it makes you realize that despite your efforts to make Waterbury Public Schools a safe and welcoming environment for for all students
016students are still being discriminated against and made to feel unwelcome and often times the only safe space for them this fact should make you feel uncomfortable and if you do not feel that way you should take time to seriously reflect on what values are important to you the fact that students need to be here today to advocate for something that is already required by state law shows just how little you care for for your trans students and for those who feel that this issue is not important you should take time to seriously reconsider your career in education because as an educator you're responsible for all students well-being not just students who are straight in sis as a trans student myself I feel that I have been repeatedly failed and pushed to the side by our
017school system for a school system that Pro that Prides itself on being welcoming and inclusive to all students I can say for a fact that myself and many other trans students do not feel safe and welcome in our schools I myself have always felt out of place especially when it comes to bathrooms using the woman's restroom gives me gender dysphoria but if I would use the men's I risk being harassed or hate cried I'm one of many trans students that feels that way and having an accessible gender neutral bathroom in our schools is a great solution to this issue trans students are not the only ones that will benefit from gender neutral bathrooms in schools these benefits could benefit other LGBT students who have been who have also been harassed in single gender best restrooms
018one of my best friends who is a CIS gay man and also a senior at Crosby High School has asked me to share his experience with this issue so I will now read his testimony during the middle of the school day while trying to use the restroom three boys came to my stall staring at me through the the crack while yanking on the door and yelling at me in Spanish this this made me feel very anxious and paranoid so I proceeded to leave the restroom shaken up after all of this I went and told my English teacher but otherwise the school did nothing about it having gender neutral restrooms in my school would would definitely have made me feel more comfortable as it would have prevented this from happening it would allow me to use
019the restroom without the fear of being harassed by people who do not like my sexuality or how I present myself I hope after hearing what I my best friend and everyone else speaking on this issue tonight have had to say about this issue you will begin to you will begin the process of implementing these bathrooms in all waterb public high schools in a way that is accessible to all students who wish to use them I hope that hearing everyone's perspective will influence you to make the changes that need to be made and to change the way you handle these issues moving forward so that we can create a safer environment for our LGBT students thank you for your time Rob [Music] Goodridge Robert Goodridge good evening president Hernandez superintendent rufford and the rest of the
020Board of Education members my name is Robbie goodr and I'm the executive director of race a youth organizing the advocacy outfit here in waterb first I'm going to read a testimony from another student who's given me their permission to express their concerns this is from Gabriela oo from a senior at Kennedy High School first they would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to them today and it's nice to see you all here I'm here to speak on behalf of the LGBT community as an ally while gender neutral bathrooms may not affect me personally I believe all students should feel safe and comfortable in the school environment I am here today to say I support having gender neutral bathrooms and would love to see them in our schools as soon as possible
021thank you for your time and hope you all have a nice night now some of you may know our advocacy around this issue started in 2021 and with the support of commissioner Brown and then commissioner Harvey we were able to work collaboratively and have a new policy put in place in October of 2021 it has now been 2 years and there's been very little progress and what we have now is a set of expectations that students have lgbtq students to have greater access to gender neutral bathrooms and ultimately a safer School environment and what they have is very little access in an increase and the lack of safety on a daily basis but the expectations of academic performance stay the same now this is we are clearly speaking as an organization and as students are
022to the Board of Education Commissioners this is a governance issue you are required to ensure that the policies are being followed now initially we asked for $2 million to be used from American Rescue plan funding to implement gender neutral bathrooms professional development and other supports for lgbtq clubs and activities for students now what we know now is that only 5,000 has been spent in over 2 years it took took us 10 months to get that information we requested it in January of 2023 we received it in septe late September stalling these efforts allowing more time and space for lgbtq students to experience unsafe conditions in school we're requesting that immediate action plan be put in place and that a minimum of $25,000 per school be allocated to make sure that there are physical spaces professional
023development support for staff and that so that lgbtt Cubs are and activities are fully supported in the district essentially you have a rights issue right now as Commissioners you're required to make sure that student policies are enforced I also want to go take a little bit deeper dive into the public narrative um that there's been little change in the school district and it's Miss it's unfortunate that this narrative is sort of taking precedence in the media we know as an advocacy organization that works with students that this Administration took on at least four major issues one was budget austerity from the previous executive leader of this city a robust uh School of prison pipeline that he NE o Larry implemented in our schools in our city a teacher hiring Scandal and covid and we know
024from direct experience there's been significant change from this administration's willingness to engage with students and community members what we're asking is that the board and the administration come together on this issue and make sure that these students that are here pleading you for Safety and Security in the schools they're not asking for fancy cars or clothes or sneakers they're asking for safety safety I think it's very important that you all take into consideration what our recommendations are and put forth an immediate action plan that allocates funding as well as direct supports to the schools so that these spaces are created and they become accessible it is abhorent to think that Nixie has to go to the basement to use the bathroom would any of you want your children to do the same would anyone here
025want their children to feel unsafe walking into the doors or to risk having bladder infections I don't think so it's a moral obligation and we expect that you take action thank you very much next up is Karen Jackson get my paper out take your time um please state your name okay my name is Karen Jackson um I'm new to waterburry in many respects I just registered my son in one of the public schools here high schools and it was a heck of a time to do that and that's one of the issues that I wanted to talk about um I I refuse to um show my private information of my private bills in in in order to um adhere to residency um the federal law says that I could do that that I can show
026proof of residency which I did the state law says that but the policy of the Board of Education doesn't say that so it took me two days to register my son he he he goes to school tomorrow but it took me two days to get to that point um going back and forth from from the school to superintendent's office so that policy needs to be changed the the second issue is um I came across um I came to a meeting I forgot at what school and I spoke to the secretary as a matter of fact um as I said I'm new to Waterberry and um I'm used to seeing um public meetings on one agenda which is a Clerk's agenda so when you when you look at the Waterberry city of Waterberry at the clerk
027you see all the public meetings except for the board of education so I asked her why isn't it isn't it not there well they do theirs weo ours like no that's not how it's supposed to be according to foyer um as a matter of fact I brought the law here it says um meetings under foyer foyer recognizes three types of meetings regular special and emergency um each must be open to the public unless 2third of the members are present enter I'm sorry vote to choose to go to Executive session um um and it says table one each type of meeting and it shows the requirements now it says that the agenda in a regular meeting at least 24 hours before the meeting must be available online which it is but and but it also says
028number two it must also be filed with the town clerk now the ter town clerk is supposed to stamp your agenda then you put it on your website and that's that's not being done at all and then when I address it when I addressed it I was ignored and told well that's the way we do it here that's not the way it's supposed to be legally done so that has to be changed okay so the third thing and last thing um I'm driving through I don't know what the name of the street is but um but it's by rigs Elementary I'm driving through the the public road I see a Caucasian woman in the middle of the street doing this to me to telling me to stop I'm like why why are you telling me
029to stop so I yell out the window why are you why am I stopping she turns her back to me and doesn't explain why I'm stopping in the middle of the road so I go around her this is Waterberry I don't I don't play games with somebody in the middle of the street I go around her so I go towards the stop sign some staff people from rig School run into the crosswalk and then um tells me to stop they're doing arthy I said I don't give a darn what you're doing you can't block a public right away you know that's it so um and they were blocking my ER I said I use experti I said get that out of my way you're blocking my path so they took a copy of my license
030plate called the police officers and then they came to my home at 7:00 p.m. at night telling me that I try to run them over in the crosswalk which was a lie so they called in a false police report on me so this is really a great introduction that I've had and I just want to make that clear that now it's become a legal matter that I'm being I'm given an infraction for something I didn't do because I I'm supposed to know that some Caucasian women in the middle of the street doing this is doing a fire drill how am I supposed to know that there no demarcations there are no cones around to block any public car from coming through how would I know that but but but I get I get the Waterberry
031police knocking on my door saying that I have an infraction so that has to be corrected somehow because it will become a legal issue I don't need to be introduced to this public school system in this way at all as a parent and I find out that the school that my son is going to has no parent group you know [Music] and okay one thing at a time I I just need those things addressed the superintendent's office has my phone number my name I've called so many times I I don't have to repeat it all right thank you very much there are no more speakers motion to reach to the regular order of business second all in favor I opposed motion carries principal's report by Mrs Lanza good evening president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary
032adorno Commissioners student representatives and Dr ruffen my name is Erica Lanza and I am the principal of Hopeville school I would like to welcome you tonight I would also like to thank our incredible student leaders who did a great job representing Hopeville and provided some of you your tour this evening thank you to Gabby Daniela Jacob Alanis Louisa aan azania amantel Amir diani Jaden Isabella and Pablo of the many things I am proud of here at Hopeville the one that I am the most proud of is our school climate and culture our classrooms are Community oriented and we have amazing staff and students here with our goal of making our students feel loved and supported so they can recognize their potential and see that they can achieve great things and this is an example of
033our turkey trout we did last November we start the year off with our students setting their own academic goals for themselves and then we celebrate their progress towards these goals with progress parades after our Benchmark testing and math and literacy we are very proud of our students hard work to achieve these goals we have a strong focus on family and Community engagement our community partner and school governance member South Congregational Church has become more like family over these past several years Vincent kiano and his team support more than 150 of our students with food bags to take home over the weekend throughout the school year and we cannot thank them enough we had our first annual Multicultural celebration which included our families and Community Partners and was a huge success we look forward to continuing
034it to grow even more this year aside from our school climate and culture family and Community engagement I am also extremely proud of our hard work towards student attendance for the month of November we averaged our daily student attendance rate at 93.5 4% which is in the top four for elementary schools here in Waterbury year to date our average is 94.1% we have an amazing attendance team who have worked tirelessly with many of the incentives we have in our school as well as providing support to our families we have have members of our school governance Council here tonight and our Focus for our Council includes the areas that we previously highlighted intentional planning um academic areas including math and literacy family engagement and attendance as I close I would like to thank the board and
035the superintendent for your support of our school I would also like to thank the members of our school community in attendance here tonight and ask that you please stand as as we recognize you our hopef [Applause] [Music] students Hopeville staff Miss Crow our assistant principal members of our school governance Council and hopeful parents and families thank you for allowing us to host tonight's meeting and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you commissioner orsel good evening I wanted to thank you with an excellent presentation but I just wanted to personally thank my escorts today that gave me the the tour of the building and the library so I learned a lot tonight thank you very much thank you commission vice president Brown uh good evening uh the increase in attendance
036is really fantastic uh because we know that chronic absenteeism is is is one of our issues as a district so what are you doing that that's so wonderful um this is probably the second year that we've really focused very strongly on the attendance it's it's a daily um push we're looking at our numbers and our student absenteeism on a daily basis reaching out to families really getting to the root of what the reasons are that um they may not be coming to school and like I said we have a great attendance team that um helped support that throughout the day and I I couldn't do it without them a lot of celebrations could you share you know in your experience with your success what are some of the issues that families are facing that maybe
037as a district we could you know do more um as of recently this year I I've encountered some issues with parents not being able to provide transportation um some students that are within walking distance um don't have busing so it's working with kind of family members and and different ways to get them in school um there's been a lot of uh parent awareness where we've had U parent um meeting And discussing the importance of attendance and and having that conversation has really opened up a lot of awareness with families which has been helpful well thank you so much thank you anyone else thank you Miss Lanza thank you I would like to introduce our Crosby High School student Representatives Michaela Holmes who's in the 12th grade and Dante Meyers [Applause] welcome committee and of the
038whole request of Representative G Jerry Reyes is he here no he's sick he's sick he's sick okay uh Commissioners does anybody have any questions about number one commissioner Orel thank you madam president as I said to uh Mr reest when he first came to us um I'm all in favor of naming the international school after Hispanic but my objection is that it should be named Roberto Clemente I think it should be named after somebody from Waterberry whether it's male or female Hispanic that did that that represents Waterberry and has helped Waterberry throughout the years I I Roberto Clemente is a is a great ball player humanitarian but I don't know if he Ste foot in in the City of Waterbury so if there's a if that schools be changed with an Hispanic name I think
039it should be somebody that has worked well with Waterberry and did everything for the community thank you vice president Brown yes uh commissioner I I do understand that sympathy but I think when we heard from representative Reyes uh that Roberto uh clti is a national an international hero uh to the Hispanic community and it really represents more than just a Waterberry figure uh like so many of our school of Kennedy High School for one represents a national figure that means a lot to people so although I I think it's a great tribute I think that the fact that um that this has come before us uh and and we we've heard support for it I would be in favor of it is there anyone else Committee of the whole midyear transportation of update Jeff's Hunter
040and Durham Transportation good evening president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary Sano adoro Board of Education Commissioners newly elected commissioner Crosby Board of Education representatives and superintendent Dr Ruffin thank you for this opportunity uh with me tonight I have um uh Mr Hunter our director of transportation and we have Mr Brad caran um regional manager uh of Durham bus services here give an update on Transportation uh I'll let them uh Mr Hunter first Mr krian and then I have some uh final remarks at the end thank you president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary adoral superintendent Dr Ring board Bard education commissioner good evening did you guys did everyone receive a copy of the facts um sheet in their in their packet no do you have an ex we have something in the so it's going to
041be the screen yeah we have something in we we do have a PowerPoint also from um Durham have so we we'll we'll begin with the PowerPoint for Durham good evening superintendent Ruffin and president Hernandez vice president Brown and board um I first want to say thank you for inviting us out tonight to share um what we've accomplished this year with Durham school service in transporting students safely in this community uh this year and in past years um this is my first meeting with Waterberry um this is a new area for me and I'm very excited about the opportunity to serve this board and Jeff and Nick uh this year and excited about what I see the future of school bus transportation with Durham school Services um over the last several weeks I've had an opportunity
042to meet just about every single driver trying to find the ins and outs of what what are our opportunities how do we how do we improve what is it that we're doing at the location and what is it going to take to to make that happen and um I we really identified several um opportunities um Staffing is has been our biggest opportunity it's a national issue with school bus transportation but I'll tell you we have some of the best drivers monitors mechanics I've met um and Waterberry and I would put them up against any community that we serve and any community in Connecticut that team is dedicated to the students they care about the students they care about delivering them home safely and it hurts them to their core whenever um they're not able to
043do what they need to do uh with our students um the the problems we have run into this year as we um as we have a new CBA contract with our Union um it came on board a little bit later in the year and our rates we weren't able to promote those um out in the community um our school bus drivers make 22 to $27 an hour now and um they're competitive they're competitive for Connecticut and um they're guaranteed 5 hours every single day that they drive their bus and um we're we're excited about what we've been able to do that um we are um we have had we have had every route able to be covered and we do but the as we've all experienced with sickness leave of absences um the very strict
044nature of the business that we're in with do uh we continue to struggle from day to day to with with the things that happen in life uh with school bus drivers and um we have hired more people this year than we hired the entire school year last year we've put 20 new faces in school buses this year that are brand new drivers we have 10 more school bus drivers that will be in service by the end of the school year which should put us in a great situation ation but if you've been around transportation for very long you know that as soon as you add a school bus driver it seems like we lose one we can never get ahead as the school year starts and we'll have a very aggressive program as we start
045the new uh school year and be in a lot better situation as we start the school year uh just going through the slides quickly I know we have a short amount of time um we the things that have been identified and they're listed overcrowding um on the buses we talked about call outs and the Staffing routes delayed to pick up students due to driver shortages and last minute call outs those kind of things um our phone system we've got a lot of complaints about our phone system um and due to the high volume of calls and being able to answer that um we have layered on additional people we've got new phone systems we've added phones we've we've gone after it to try to eliminate that as as best we can um Bus Tracker um
046we've had some parents notify us that the bus tracker is not working I'd like everyone to know that there is a Bus Tracker out there that parents um with your student ID and their name can track your students and we'd love to give that to you it helps you and you can track where your student is and we've had a lot of changes in the organization um I'm new um to this organization but it's an extra layer of support that wasn't there before we do have a regional manager that is over this area and it gives the local organ local team to have someone more Hands-On to help them assist and get them what they need dayto day we've got a new router dispatcher and payroll administrator um and you know we've felt the effects
047of those things the um some of the things we worked through and and some of the improvements we've experienced this year improved routing efficiencies and execution um we've hired 20 drivers which last year alone I think at this point we had hired nine total drivers for the entire year um at this point um we've reduced speeding and speeding events drastically um we had a 20% reduction goal over the previous year in speeding and we are just really doing a great job um with that we're well below that 20% and they'll they'll have to make 20% less than that next year um accident frequency was reduced by 30% over from year to year at this point and um that's pretty exciting for our students and and their safety we've added white charter buses and vans to
048better assist with field trips overflows and um the leadership changes that we've had with the local adding another layer for a team to be able to support you um overcoming the hiring issues we have a recruiting team um that is outside that they are able to make the calls find out where they're at the process is so lengthy it takes a real team to be able to hire we're creating a hiring center I like to call it at the location um we are taking walk-ins every day we never used to do that it was only by appointment um we've got competitive hiring rates and um we're paid training for for emplo for all of our drivers monitors and mechanics we can um for for our and for any new person that would like to drive
049a school bus you do all you have to do is have the experience a great driving record of course a clean background ground history to be able to work in our organization but if you have that and you'd like to make $22 to $27 an hour we'd love to have you um I'm going to go quickly through this and and I believe you received this presentation um the length of time it takes for us to get through a driver on boarding them could take two to four months at times and so we have to be continuous about it dot is very strict with qualifications it used to be we would have a school bus driver that was a school bus driver for ever you knew them your entire life they were we all know that
05060 70 and even 90 year-old school bus driver that that I had um that dot has become so strict it's not as easy anymore and we're hiring and training people but they really they're looking for careers and they're always looking to take that next step and we're trying to come up with ways where we can um fix that challenge starts with rates um it starts with giving them additional opportunities um to to grow with our company um there there are three pages of onboarding uh and and what that that looks like current currently right now we have 47 applicants in our pipeline eight that are working on permits 24 people that have obtained their permits we've hired um 20 people plus we have we have 10 more that are going to be hired before the
051end of the year and three with letters that we are actually um testing this weekend and so it's a process and we have continuous training where every year um our drivers have to be recertified they have to train during the school year to make sure that they're ready to go and and we we can lose drivers throughout the school year if they're unable to pass until the next week whenever um they can be retested um School startup I want to talk just about through that really quickly um School startup is always our most critical time of the year things the worst things can happen at school start up until things are leveled out um route Imports and student data were delayed a little bit this year we've worked with um Nick and Jeff we we've
052got a good fix for that and we're going to be able to make sure that the routes are are on time um we've we've invested in some additional Technologies for the schools where they have at their access all the routes the students all of the data where they don't have to wait on transportation to tell them what the student we can tell them your students in the system they can look it up they can tell what their stop is they can tell them what the times are without having to wait on an email and it also helps us be much more efficient in having to respond to emails back and forth about as a student are they ready look it up you've got the information um yes thank you I I have a question about
053that will this assist the schools the students and the families in the summer so they will know their bus route before the first day of school it it should yes it should that summer turn around that summer turnaround is so quick sometimes that it may be delayed slightly it it's and jefff and I would have to talk a little bit more about that I haven't been through the summer school program with them if you if you could do anything to fix that it would be greatly appreciated by by everyone who's waiting on the correct bus stop on the first day of school and not two or three Weeks Later gotcha I'll follow back up with that um late runs um we're averaging 54 late runs at this point um and I know that's been swapped
054up some and changed um overloads um we as a we as a bus company want to pick up every student and and deliver them home um and as as a Waterberry School District we want to get them home as well and a lot of students are jumping buses whether it's for work or for whatever can create overcrowding the buses are Su are to capacity and that can create issues that we see from time to time if we've got overcrowding it's from that process it's not because the bus is assigned with more students than that they should have all right and we also talked about speed reduction accident reduction which is very important um I'm going to move through some of this improved efficiencies there are a couple other things that we've been working through the
055e-link we talked about phone improvements field trips through a Google request form so that again trying to be as efficient as we can if you fill out a form and it populates an Excel spreadsheet it's going to make our team more effective and we've got the data right there we found that it's not exactly working perfect for football you know Athletics and so we're trying to figure that portion of it out but we want to be as efficient as we can so that everyone can get what they need in the moment and it's tracked instead of from a phone call or an email and then you've got to go back to 20 different emails after you've been dispatching and doing all the things that they do every day um and then some improved ad routing
056add and change request we've got a process there that we're working through um and I'll with that I'll turn it over to Jeff okay most of um what Mr K can cover the same thing in my report but I just wanted to um uh read one a couple spots here with the help of the new Transportation hotline implemented in the superintendent conference room at the beginning of the school year parents were able to call and get information about bus stop complaint busting issues number of phone calls to the superintendent office were reduced to a minimum the transportation info on the website was updated this year parent has access to the call of bus companies the transportation coordinator assistant coordinator adding to the website we did this year was a few Q&A section pertaining to bus
057initial a new routing system was implemented in September given the schools parents access to see the names bus stop helped to reduce the number of calls to the bus company imp parent and transportation department and that was some of the things that uh Mr carrian was relating to in the PowerPoint and the rest is on the um the Q um transportation service information report so thank you excuse me I want to recognize mayor elect uh Paul pusi if you want to he's the mayor mayor you're the [Music] mayor and also fa to recognize recognize we do have my assistant Edwin Ellington here with us as well that's right Mar any any questions I have a secretary s ooro thank you Madame President um two questions if I may as far as the bus tracker I've
058used it when my kids were in school loved it the only little trouble is if there's a sub right and that swab like my son missed the bus cuz I'm like oh the bus is still in the parking lot and then I find out it was a sub and so what is there something that could be done to kind of change the bus you know it it can be and um you know where it becomes really tough is when you you've got so many things you're moving in the moment you change the bus in the system but then you have to go to another system for bus tracker it's a systematic issue for us that we can improve upon we've I've been working with our team um they're doing a really really good job right
059now with that trying to make sure that they're in there before that bus gets out there if we get receive a call we can change it in the moment okay if for some reason it slipped through the cracks but because it's a manual process in the moment if the bus breaks down or doesn't um there's a sub that's driving a different bus it it is more diff difficult for us um and we're working through some things with our company to see if we can improve that so it's a one click instead of one system you change them so that we can follow the driver in track tell Mom the next system is our bus tracker okay that that would be I think very important for our families especially when it comes to this inclement weather
060if it's raining downpouring cold you don't want their kids out there you know longer than expected so thank you for for acknowledging that um also I know gotten a few parent concerns about students getting dropped off at a different bus stop is there something that uh either Durham you know tells their bus drivers to or or is there something that they keep track of to make sure try to ensure that the students are getting off at their bus stop and not at a different one is there something that either they they're aware of or they keep track do you want to speak to that because I know we allow certain go ahead but basic some something the uh question you're asking are some of the kids are hopping bus what they call hopping buses with
061and they're getting off at other stops yeah and especially on the middle school and high school level not necessarily on the elementary level but on the high school level and what he mentioned earlier a lot of them go to work they want to go to the friend's house or just in general or like the middle school high school some of our bus stops are like apartment complexes yeah I mean they big apartment complexes so multiple kids get off at those uh stops so they might they want to go home with a friend or go to another apartment complex so this is some of the stuff we are facing too so we're trying to crack down on some of that things too yeah some of the things are the concerns was that people were getting on
062the bus because they were going to get dropped off to start a altercation so it's not even about just going to work or going to a friend's house it's really for other purposes and and you're absolutely right and we're facing that um especially um particularly North End yeah you know there you know they would get on bus or somehow sneak onto the bus and meet someone at a bus stop or altercation myself and Edwin been every day we're at a bus for altercations because of that yeah thank you it's I mean I don't know what the fix if there's even you know possible um but I appreciate that you you know that that that's something that's out there and it's concerning to to a lot of families so thank you guys great present thank you
063madam president the one thing of the unintended consequences we can really hurt a lot of kids that are trying to do the right thing to prevent one thing but it we need to continue to work together to figure out what is right so that we can not have that situation thank you thank you very much commissioner van snow thank you m president through you um welcome to the district thank you thank you some many information that I've been asking for is not quite there yet so I'll give you a buy for tonight okay tomorrow there's no bu um you touched on a number of things in your bullet points that I have been asking for data on and this will be the fourth meeting uh that we have transportation in front of this board each
064time it's been requested and we're talking over a year since the first time and we still don't see the data data uh each of your bullet points is an is you had a slide that actually was issues but we don't know what those issues are we don't know what are the the number of times that's taken place what was the corrective action you know and if we see a bar chart with these items similar to your bullet points and we can go back over the tape and this is the same thing I've been saying for over a year and requesting for over a year and it's never been presented and it's well I think I'm beyond tired of it to be quite honest there are a lot of questions out there the parents are not
065happy as far as all this new communication Etc I'm not buying and the fact that we're almost halfway through the year and overcrowded buses we're still blaming the students without a solution are we are we doing our jobs what are we doing I get it with the altercations we that's some something it's very difficult to keep track of however if we were getting a solution to Bringing kids to their jobs if we're getting a solution you know we have a solution say when kids go to a daycare after school correct we we took care of that problem by having buses go to our regular after school facilities we need to find solution and if the solution is we have our daycare facilities we have the kids who are going to a job we have kids
066that parents call in for special permission to go to Grandma's today instead of home and we have those taken care of guess what the kids going to cause an altercation they're not on the wrong bus because they're not supposed to be there and we already took the kids off the bus that are going somewhere special so I'm not buying neither the letter the PowerPoint has exactly what we've talked about but there's no data there's no corrective action plan there no uh words telling us it's been corrected and this is how we did it parents have been asking to see that we're really trying to fix the problems and there's nothing to show for it nothing and his problem's been here for very long time and I really can't see blaming the kids halfway through the
067school year that it's their fault the buses are overcrowded where the adults in the room let's fix the problem okay next time we meet I certainly hope the data I've been asking for for over a year and other Commissioners has asked for it as well finally shows up because what it's telling me at this point the buses are just rolling and management is not looking at the issues I there's no other conclusion I can come up with when I don't see the data so please help us out get us the data get us corrective actions which is the most important thing that the data is going to help you do it's what we do as management please thank you madam president is there anyone [Music] else if I may sure welcome president perar rusi to
068our board uh we appreciate you being here this evening and uh if I may these are some of the daily things that I discuss with uh durm bus services both on a local level and at uh Brad's um Regional level that we need to get these drivers in because we are we can't add more Roots so we don't have overcrowding we can't add more Roots so that we can help with the students that legitimately need to go to a different location after school um we do need to reduce our time when a family moves to get that student rescheduled on another bus whether it's within that same school or outside of that school these are some of the things that we've talked about um after school programs uh much too long whether it's 21st century
069whether it's the Esser uh programs it's much too late to get students scheduled to get into the programs these are some of the things that we've been talking quite often about um that uh we need to correct we I've I've I'll be truthful I've expressed my concern and and frustration trying to get this uh but um but it is it is our topic uh a daily topic that we discuss and try to rectify thank you thank you are there any more questions thank you gentlemen thank you thank you item number three request approval of of the educational spe specifications for the following proposed projects Mr Alini good evening once again uh I'm here before this board requesting um applying for uh Das Department of administrative services for uh HVAC uh for six elementary schools we
070have eight already uh ready to go these will be the the final six uh for approval Bucks Hill Chase generali International Regan and Washington this will get us all uh 14 of our elementary schools equipped with uh ventilation system central ventilation system uh we are applying to the Department of Revenue Services for this uh at this time the projected cost is approximately 11, 700,000 um from Das commissioner van Stone thank you mam president through you uh Nick this is 24 Sesser money this is Sesser 3 correct S 3 funds so they must be allocated quickly and uh project completed by at this point December 31st 2024 that was exactly my questions thank you Nick there there may be an extension but we don't know that at this time and we're acting as if there isn't
071vice president Brown um Nick what is the time frame for this is this going to happen like spring over the summer or no unfortunately not um Madam vice president by the time the application is complete which will be in another week then we have to wait for a response from Das okay then we have to do um an RFP for each school then we have to have walkthroughs by potential companies to take a look at it if they would like to submit a bid then that has to be negotiated in a contract it unfortunately will take us beyond the summer for uh air condition conditioning but certainly is something that the sooner we get at it that's why I'm hoping that this is part of our special meeting as well so we can get going
072with the lead time thank you any more questions item number four request approval of amendment one to the memorandum of understanding program acknowledgement with Connecticut Military Department of Starbase CT Miss fenis and La life that's not your good evening mayor president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary Sano adorno Commissioners student representatives and Dr Ruffin the academic department is requesting approval of amendment one to theou with the Connecticut Military Department for Starbase Connecticut this is a no cost Amendment which will expand the current program to grade 6 to8 students at Westside Middle School in the 21st century after school program be happy to take any questions vice president Brown uh because we have new members if you could just explain what the Starbase program is it's an awesome program we've had the Starbase program in Waterbury for
073decades I believe and um it's a stem program geared at fifth grade students they love the program it's been highly successful and they reached out to Jeff lapam who coordinates all the 21st century after school programs and they wanted to Branch into Middle School Westside middle school has a wellestablished 21st century program and so I think it's going to be a perfect fit thank you item number five new kindergarten age legislation that's you J good evening again I'm joined by Moren Bergen our supervisor of early childhood education uh we're going to give you a brief update on the new legislation and how it's impacting us um for the coming school year what just happened did the battery okay we're having some technical difficulties okay it worked a minute ago I don't know if oh okay
074so effective July 1st of this year state of Connecticut passed legislation that says students born between September 2nd December 31st first are not eligible to go to kindergarten beginning next year up until July 1st parents had a choice of whether to send their children to kindergarten in that age group or to hold them home or in prek for another year and so this legislation is going to have some serious impacts on um our program programs here in Waterbury and so it's going to affect could you do this approximately 400 students who are currently in prek either in Waterbury Public Schools or School Readiness will also affect students who are not in prek and fall into that age group in our home all parents May request early entry and that includes students who are not currently
075enrolled in pre- we have forms for them to fill out once parents request those students by the legislation must be assessed state of Connecticut has not identified any assessments they're leaving it up to the districts to decide what assessments to use okay we are going to assess all fouryear olds in all of the programs so those we've been calling them bubble students we're not asking those students to do anything additional we're using assessments that have already been used in the programs and are part of the curriculum each year um the decisions and parent notifications will happen in March while I know I've been getting a lot of questions well how many will move on we feel very strongly that it's too soon to assess four-year-olds uh 3 months in the life of a 4-year-old can
076be significant in terms of development we will hold we have to begin kindergarten and prek registration but we will hold prek seats for those bubble students so those students who are currently in prek who aren't eligible to move on are guaranteed to have a seat they will not lose their seats depending on how many students do move on One Way Or Another We're looking at a reduction of the number of students in kindergarten we do have a very large kindergarten class this year and kindergarten class sizes are around the max um and so we may be able to decrease those class sizes a little bit we may be able to pick up some additional classes for prek if if we have we will have students who remain in prek they take up seats that will
077mean that we'll be able to take on fewer new students next year if we can't find Space you so what we've communicated out into the district to parents is this process for early entry um we we're giving parents information it's out in four languages by the way um on the process to apply we've already started uh receiving applications the students that are requesting will be assessed using our approved District measures in their natural learning environment those students who are not currently in prek who the parents request we're going to set up times and locations for those students to be brought in to be assessed and the decision for the early entry to kindergarten will be based on students meeting uh wide range expectations in four of six developmental domains on their most current progress reports
078and um the district assessments could you name the domains for us I know you have them social emotional got to come social emotional language cognition math literacy physical so six domains so they need to do well in four of the six obviously cognition language go together those are very important the math and literacy are very important and the um and social emotional of course is greatly important for our students this year so i' be happy to answer any of your questions we are making multiple attempts um to R notify parents to go into out to the public the forums went home um at open house they're going into students backpacks um we're talking with bin trying to get maybe a little uh an article in the paper so that we can communicate out to those
079families who don't have students current currently enrolled in prek and are in that age group parents also were notified during conferences last night so teachers are actively reaching out to these specific children who are in the quote bubble we will do that again during conferences in March and um as Miss Rena said we'll we're going to hold seats in Pre for those children if they aren't eligible to move forward or and at the same token I also spoke with the Welcome Center we're also going to hold seats in their District school in the event that they they do move forward so there's there's a lot a lot to juggle there's a lot going on with with the planning of this but we're working hard to stay on top of it the Welcome Center is notifying
080us of families who are calling there currently we have about 25 requests from water public school students um families for early entry and we have six from the community sites they all happen to come from one school which is interesting but um we'll keep you know Christa Pisano will be on top of that and we're working very closely with the partners in the community and also we've had two parents come in requesting whose children aren't in programs anywhere so they will follow the same system we're being very careful to use the same language across all areas so minimize confusion any questions vice president Brown good evening thanks for the information because it's not only impacting obviously the waterburry school district but this is a Major Impact across the state of Connecticut and there's a lot
081of concern about the implementation I just had a question in terms of capacity as you said if we're keeping kids there might be a bad backup do we have are we looking for additional space in our schools at all or I don't know where in the closets I guess but we've actually been looking for additional space uh for prek for year um right now Mr Albini has located some space in Kingsbury Elementary School We believe We can put four prek classrooms in there interesting okay in terms of the impact on funding if we have less students in kindergarten will that impact our ECS reimbursement for kindergarten students or are they going to hold as harmless well how significant that would be would be based on how many students we lose numbers wise but I'm not
082sure you know how much of an impact that would be okay I'm just curious if they gave us any uh notice about holding us harmless or you know no okay that that's something they didn't give us a lot of yeah of information right and the other concern about funding have we heard I heard from Jim RoR who has a big program at the wi that his concern is that the School Readiness Grant will not cover a third year of preschool for some of these students so that leaves families really scrambling so I don't know if if that's been resolved or looked into or is it a concern I I believe there are ongoing talks with this with the office of Early Childhood at the state level the legislation kind of got ahead of other pieces
083to it I know in my conversations with Miss Pizano she feels everything's going to align before the end end of the year okay so that would be good yeah get uh I know my dream while I have our new mayor here uh I think we're looking at a really uh really creating in waterb a robust Early Childhood system and I think looking at the capacity and the buildings I think we've looked at you know in our uh facility study uh we really saw the need and the numbers are there for an Early Childhood Center in Waterberry so I'll put a plug thank you for the information anybody else thank you ladies that's item number six Waterberry Public Schools accountability Resort resource results Jan good evening again I'm joined by Tara Baston supervisor of research and
084student testing she's our resident data Guru and she'll be going through the first part of the presentation for you good evening I'm here tonight to discuss with you the Next Generation accountability Model results the Next Generation accountability model provides a holistic perspective on school and District performance it moves moves Beyond strictly looking at student test scores all schools and districts in the state are rated on a broad set of indicators as calculated by the Connecticut State Department of Education the indicators are listed in the presentation academic achievement and growth Arts access chronic absenteeism College and Career Readiness coursework and exams fouryear graduation rates on track in grade nine participation rates physical fitness and postsecondary entrance all of these combined give all schools and districts an overall accountability Score first looking at the district level in
085a multi-year comparison there was Improvement in the following indicators compared to prepandemic data so we're looking at data from 1819 accountability reports and then comparing it to the most recent ones that were just released 2223 school year uh the district showed Improvement in academic growth on the English language proficiency assessment the oral section this is of our e students who are now called multilingual Learners this encompasses students enrolled in bilingual education ESL ltss and students who are actually not receiving Services because their parents chose not to have that provided we also saw improvements in College and Career Readiness coursework and exams our four-year graduation rate our six-year graduation rate and arts access why this pre-pandemic to post-pandemic look is important is because the vast majorities of schools and districts across the state have not rebounded
086to their pre-pandemic results now we're looking at a single year look comparing results from 2122 to the current reports 2223 we saw Improvement in the following indicators some you did see on the prior slide uh showing that there was pre pandemic Improvement and a one-year Improvement so here we see Improvement in academic achievement in math academic growth again our English language proficiency assessment the oral section for our multilingual learners chronic absenteeism College and Career Readiness coursework and exams six-year graduation rate postsecondary entrance physical fitness and arts access the State Department of Education groups all districts in the state into something called District reference groups uh we are classified uh based on similar socio economic status of our students the district reference groups range from dur a through dur ey Waterberry is part of dur ey
087our dur ey peers are Bridgeport Hartford New Britain New Haven New London and Windam compared to our peer group in dur ey we have had some success in the following indicators from the last last year 2223 on the left hand side you'll see the indicators where we were ranked first in our peer group academic achievement Ela for our high need students on track in grade nine four-year graduation rate and six-year graduation rate on the right hand side you'll see those indicators where we were ranked number two in our district the vast majority of these we are number two behind the Windam District so the first one on the list here is the overall accountability index where it combines all of the indicators together in that single rating we are wrank number two also academic achievement
088math all students academic achievement math High needs students chronic absenteeism all students chronic absenteeism High need students and physical fitness we have had some very positive highlights at the school level and they should be celebrated first we had North and middle school that was removed from the state turnaround list they actually improved two categories from a category 5 to a three they are one of only two turnaround schools in the entire state to have exited the turnaround status in this last year waterburry Arts Magnet School improved one category from a category 3 to a category 2 I'll show you a little bit more about what those categories look like in a moment and Washington school was identified as a school of Distinction for academic growth in math for high need students distinctions represent the top
08910% of schools in the state for that particular group next up we have a graphical representation of the five categories that are reported on the state accountability indicator model schools are grouped into these five categories based on the percentage of points earned ranging from 0 to 100% first the state identifies turnaround schools this is done every 3 years they are identified as the lowest 5% of the overall accountability index using a three-year average in the entire State turnaround schools can exit if they are no longer identified for two consecutive years and make progress in the overall accountability index then they identify Focus schools this is done every year and focus schools show the lowest 10% of high need Student calculations in the state for each of the last three years of the accountability indicator reports
090High need students represent students who are special education multilingual Learners and those who are eligible for free and reduced lunch based on income guidelines focused schools can exit if they are not identified in two of three prior years and make progress so once the state identifies all the category four and Category 5 schools the remaining schools are grouped into category 1 2 and three based on the percentage of points earned you could see on the graphical here the number of Category 3 schools we had there were 21 schools in Category 3 then we have Category 2 we had two schools in Category 2 and category two starts at a 70 and runs to 84.9% of the points finally we did not have any schools in category 1 which ranges from 85% to 100% but it
091is important to note that only 31 schools in the entire state were listed as a category one school that's 31 in the entire State and not one of those 31 schools was in our dur dur eye we had 12 schools that showed Improvement in the overall accountability index from the prior year the schools are listed here along with the percentage of points obtained underneath that overall accountability index heading and the change they had from the prior year 16 of our schools had declines in that overall accountability score from the prior year they are noted here and this has already been spoken about a little bit tonight by Miss Lanza uh she was one of our 15 schools who had marked improvement in reducing their chronic absenteeism percentage from the prior year we have been making
092very concerted efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism at all of our schools the percent change from last year that schools decreased their chronic absenteeism percentage is shown here I just like to go through some of our Improvement strategies some of these strategies are new for this year some of them um we've been doing for several years and so first of all every school develops um yearly individual School Improvement plans so they take their accountability measures and their data and they develop this um School Improvement plan they get help from the content supervisors to identify uh assessments and strategies and monitoring uh pieces um these are directly related to the accountability measures those plans in the associated data are being monitored by assistant superintendence for Fidelity of implementation of the strategies if we don't Implement with Fidelity
093we can't determine whether or not those strategies actually are effective or not um we have improved sat and smarter balance aligned assessments this year the secondary level um uses a program called performance matters to push out their assessments and we have purchased um a suite of Assessments that are aligned to the SATs and the uh smarter Balan assessment in math science and Ela and we use these internal measures because they give us um upto-date data that is actionable um we we always look at our state assessments but by the time we get that data students have moved on to the next grade and it's hard to use you can't use it as actionable data and we have some very strong assessment pieces within the district last year we piloted something called the math 530 Club
094in high schools 530 is the minimum score needed on the SAT to be proficient in math and it went very well last year in particular uh we saw a growth in Hispanic females uh part of the incentive was if students attended all of the sessions um they would receive $300 and then if they took the test and got the 530 they would get another 230 so that they got the 530 as an incentive this year we're adding a 480 Ela club uh 480 is the minimum score needed to be proficient in the English SATs this club will run from January to March this year um and the students will if they attend all and then they get their um minimum score They will receive a $500 incentive we purchased a program last year called Atlas
095it's a curriculum platform we've begun to migrate all of our curriculum into the at Atlas platform it will be a One-Stop shop for curriculum uh it will make what we're implementing this year is curriculum implementation walks it will be much easier um for principles when they go into classrooms to monitor uh whether what they're seeing is part of the curriculum or not we've had anecdotal data for years um about teachers f falling behind and you know maybe not teaching within the curriculum but that's just anecdotal data we're going to collect real data and based on that data we're going to make decisions about whether we need to ad adjust curriculum or employ different strategies and instruction using Esser funds we purchased a program last year called Varsity Tutors uh within that program we have 247
096tutoring for all students we also had Ono one um tutoring this year we're changing that model a bit uh based on again the state made some changes any student who received a in fourth and fifth grade who got a one or a two on their Smarter Balance scores are going to be required to go to summer school if they don't demonstrate growth we won't have those scores back in time to use those to see if students demonstrated growth what we will use are our internal measures and so we're reworking that contract and we've identified in every school for and fifth grade students who will receive small group tutoring the all elementary schools have small group math and small group reading built into their schedules and so we'll be able to leverage that time so that
097when the teacher is taking their small group usually they're taking their small group and then there are other small groups of students students who are working on things that the teachers put out we've identified groups of children and this will start in January where a particular group of children will receive additional tutoring online with a tutor while the teacher is pulling another small group a minimum of two times a week I believe we worked it out for 14 weeks and then we'll use our internal measures um to demonstrate whether or not the students have improved we have a a program called Student Success Agency for high school students students are receiving tutoring through that at their request they can request any subject um the people who work with them are called agents the students can
098request Individual Services um such as SAT prep essay review even um Wellness strategies we're currently working on I'm sorry let me back up we've engaged for years in professional learning on highly effective instructional strategies those are being implemented in all schools I many of you are familiar with Dr corm he began his work with the turnaround schools about four years ago a lot of um North End success was based on his work and we've grown that and he's he and his team are getting into more schools and they're in different phases So based on some of that work we've been working with um Dr Cormier uh Great Schools partnership is another one of our our partners principales teachers uh content supervisors and we're meeting to develop a waterb public schools framework for highquality instruction we're
099going to Define what that is in water rry public schools and that document which will be ready by the end of the year to roll out for next year that's going to become how we do business around instruction in Waterberry and we're also looking at examining and and enhancing our Data Systems um all the accountability measures are based on the data that we um provide to the state we want to ensure that we're able to um capture all of the data quickly and in the best way that we can and so we're always checking those Data Systems systems one thing I left off the presentation that that came to mind we've also using Esser funds we've used about 18 approximately $18 million of the learning loss funds in Esser um on curriculum resources and student
100supports we'd be happy to take any questions that you [Music] have commissioner vanstone thank you mam president through you I'm just um going to kind of summarize as opposed to going Slide by slide um you know because because some of the the numbers actually some of the numbers weren't in there and they were bullet points just to tell us something went up um you know there's a lot of information this presentation I think really needs to be split up into different workshops because this is a lot to take in one presentation um you know and nextg it was it whether we want to promote some of the increases it it was not a good story overall um and even when you look at it closely and see that a school went up 5% but then
101you look and you see that yeah they went from and I'll make just hypothetical numbers they went from 20 to 25% so yes it's an upward Arrow however it's still not good not good at all um you know and and then as far as North End congratulations from being removed from turnaround however the other side of the coin is we're not getting that turnaround money for them anymore meaning we have to spend to keep them at the growth they achieved so that's you know and that's something the Board needs to look at I know congratulations absolutely to North End you know but it it does change some Dynamics for us um I was a little concerned with the uh rean down 16.9 that that has been a pretty steady school over the years and that's
102a big number do we know what what's going on there so if we look at and Tara may have additional content comments if we look at their individual accountability measure in many of those areas they did go down some points and so if we're looking at that chart and we see minus 16 um if that's the only data we're looking at we might get the impression that rean is a school that's really struggling in fact rean has more students performing on grade level than 95% of the schools in Waterbury so what happened if we look at the previous year Regan's accountability index the previous year shot up so much that they were named a school of Distinction exactly which is which is hard to do and so when you look at the accountability index I
103think you have to look for Trends you have to look over time and so we had a we we had a school do tremendously well the previous year and then went down in in several areas um and so we'll see what they do next year but I have confidence in rean in the administration there and the work that's being done there I was extremely surprised when I saw that and I have a hard time explaining which is maybe your data collection group that's uh maybe that's the first one you go after because rean is never the good thing about it is we never have to talk about him but this number makes me talk about him well part of it is is rean is a very small school too and a lot of the information
104in the accountability model is based on the grades three four and five so every year when the grade five moves on to grade six you've lost one-third of the students so you have a lot of variability there so smaller schools do have bigger dips and and Peaks compared to a larger school like a middle school or high school where the data is more stable over time well if that's one of the reasons we better keep an eye on it because all our smaller kindergartens going forward are going to affect it year after year after year with if you're talking about a headcount having that much of an effect so not to go backwards under presentation but there's another reason why we better keep an eye on this kindergarten thing chronic absenteeism a big thing for
105me um I'm I absolutely believe a good chunk of this chronic absenteeism uh our kids that are actually scared to come to school uh you know we heard from students earlier tonight and um we got to keep an eye on that and I know I see you know and you and I talked before the meeting on uh some of it and the numbers this year we have to understand better because there were changes in how we account mainly because of in school uh suspensions that it changed status from a couple years ago but our conversation showed that it's still having an effect on our numbers I know we be had a nice jump so but that's a good thing but I'm just wondering how much that affected it but that's okay it improved and as
106far as all your improving strategies I love them however until they're implemented and showing us some data coming out of it um you know we're just looking at a slide so uh big thing there is they sounded good but please get them implemented so we can start showing some results of those so uh overall good job but I still you know I struggle so much with these numbers for for I really don't like being compared the dur is good I'm glad we had some number ones finally I think that's a first um but as I've said before and I hope those districts aren't listening uh those in our dur are I don't feel like a champion being number one in that grouping so we need to do more work because these numbers are just just
107not good even when we're in first place on the Durk okay thank you thank you m president have question vice president Brown yeah I I appreciate commissioner van Stone's uh comments and I think we all feel that we're making progress but you know we really need to uh find out what's working and really put the effort into that because certainly the numbers are somewhat stagnant I just had a question about the the chart here what do the colors mean the red the green and the yellow I think I can guess but yeah I I probably should have put a legend there so the the red is a decline from the prior year the the year directly before um the green is improvement from the prior year and the yellow would represent the exact same number
108so we put a comparison here the district to the state so you can see the trends that the state is having over time compared to the district over time okay thank you I thought that was it and I just I was just curious uh physical fitness um why why would physical fitness be so low I mean that's not really academic is it I mean I don't know the performance dropped tremendously after covid um you know students not being in school were not getting the same amount of physical education time that they had in the past um and we really are rebounding before we were actually above the state now we're just slightly below the state and I'm sure Mr Gorman would would expect that number to go up again and that we would be overtaking
109the state again soon so a lot of that was due to covid and students not having physical education every single day okay I would hope so because that would be something I would think that we could shine on and the other one is Art access what does that mean because I thought we had art programs uh so Arts access is based upon 60% of the student population taking an Arts course every single year at the high school level they don't actually look back like if it's a senior they don't look back to if they took an Arts course as a freshman or a sophomore they look at the student enrollment every single year and they're expecting 60% of our population to take an Arts course uh so if we make that requirement then we get
110all the points uh but we're falling a little bit short uh schools typically say the the answer is you know space and Staffing they they don't have the space to offer more courses nor do they have the staff to offer more courses well that may be an area that we could get outside experts because we did pass the law that says that someone who's an expert in their Area Arts included uh does not need a teaching certificate to to provide that course so maybe that's something to look at it could be an after school program or it could be you know uh it just seems like that may be something because art certainly is something that the my experience is that all the kids are interested in so I think uh I think that's something
111that we should look at uh and try to you know figure out if it's a staffing issue we do have that flexibility now and I'm sure that we could get um you know Community Partners uh to help us out there so uh those seem like two things that you know our students really should be excelling more at uh to my mind but anyway uh and the only other comment I have is that uh and maybe you could tell me what was the impact on the legislation regarding our reading program I saw that we did get the waiver what does that really mean so the fact that we got the waiver means that Dena mortensson put together a strong enough reading program that the state approved and said we can continue to use that program okay
112until we're ready to go out and use the grant money to purchase a new program so um I was surprised to learn that there were many districts who did not yeah who did not get that um they still 19 districts got the waiver well so the new legislation is 17 17 yeah there are right now I think seven approved reading programs and they have to be based on the science of reading Dena was on board with the science of reading 10 years ago and built a program that does align with that so we were kind of ahead of the game so now we have the luxury to be able to take a little time wait for some more things to get on that list and then really look at um what we want to use
113for our next program or or as a resource for our next program that's very positive to Kudos for the hard work of uh Dina and everyone for for making that happen I guess I I'm not a believer in a program I believe that teachers need the skills and knowledge to teach reading and I hope we're able to invest in our teachers because you could have a book a program does not teach a teacher teaches so I hope we're we have we're able to use some of those dollars to really invest in our teachers so um Dena Dena built that that program and it's not based on a specific textbook she did buy a textbook so that they would would have reading resources but the curriculum really is built around the science of reading and that's
114what she intends to do again she's not going she knows she's not going to find the perfect program in her eyes and just purchase one and follow you know the way that program is laid out good thank you very much wel superintendent thank you madam president I I do want to add that uh we were one of the first five districts in the state of Connecticut to implement the size of reading and we have a team that has been attending on a regular basis with the other districts that are implementing the science of reading and um it includes teachers and we are monitoring that and we are learning and it is a continuous professional development in addition to that in terms of art access I I'd like to speak a little bit about that um
115we do offer Arts throughout the district I want to add that we probably offer More arts now than we've ever done and we continue to do that it's not only a matter of the teacher shortage it's also a matter of the amount of time that you have during a school day to offer all of the various subjects that are mandated by the state for students to graduate uh I want to also add that in physical education and in uh in that is also capture data on a specific given day in a year so while students are going to be participating in physical activity the data that is collected that will give us the accountability measure is measured over something that a student may be expected to perform on one day of the year so I
116just want to add that for clarification because it does add to a complexity of a state account accountability system that I don't believe everyone understands no thank you thank you doctor commissioner Sano ooro thank you Madame President um I just want to say thank you ladies for for this presentation and you know I know as most Commissioners here have already stated you know their concerns about the low scores I I like to celebrate the small victories I like to acknowledge that there are some improvements on certain things and yes we already know there's work to be done and so I want to acknowledge that you guys are aware and that you're working on trying to you know Implement Improvement strategies and other ways to maybe possibly change the curriculum or see how we can better
117improve our grades so um I I love commissioner uh vice president Brown some of her recommendations and stuff like that um and again I I just want to really point out you know the victories you know and and we thank our teachers and the teacher development and all that stuff that really makes a difference um you know as I I know that a lot of kids have different ways of learning some are visual some are you know but I think those small group settings are you know crucial in the development of each student so I love that you guys are able to somewhat Implement that and again you know thank you for this data I mean it's something that we definitely need um and be held accountable for it but I just want to thank
118you guys um and continue your hard work I know it's not going to be easy but I think that you know slow and steady you know we can we can definitely get there I'm I'm really proud proud of our district you know overall thank you thank you madam pres you're welcome anyone else thank you ladies item number seven request approval to apply for the 2023 24 Carl D Perkins Grant Miss Brown Jan Mike moradi good evening president Hernandez president vice president Brown secretary Sano adorno through Representatives Commissioners and Dr ruffen Mike Mora supervisor of Career and Technical education I'm here to request approval to apply for the 2023 24 Carl D Perkins Grant the state of Connecticut Department of Education has announced the wury public schools 2324 allocation in the amount of $ 59,4 67
119I'll be happy to take any questions any questions I have a question oh ah no no I don't I was just pointing uh Mr miotti uh I know this is a recurring Grant are there any anything new we're doing with it or is it we're just keeping uh building on what we have any new new things so we're always looking to obviously upgrade facilities equipment supplies um specifically um we're going be purchasing some new computers uh for game design development courses that are running and expanding for next year um so that's pretty exciting and new um so the funding is going to be well spent and honestly there's a lot of improvements across uh a number of areas our culinary program uh new equipment and supplies as well as as there um uh manufacturing uh
120Career Academy purchasing another uh a large leth for um College CR ready practices um so there's a lot of exciting programs that are available curriculum um and looking to uh expand some computer science practices as well within the school district thank you I was also curious to see uh if we're looking at the expansion of the career opportunities in the trades is that part of this grant or is that a different system no it is um it Career and Technical education it's across uh 12 different career clusters and encompasses a wide variety of um uh career options and Pathways and that is included in one of them as well um there's some Automotive uh uh from what I can recall um there's some diagnostic tools that some of our Automotive teachers are looking to uh
121upgrade their shops to be more modernized uh that are aligned with more current um current practices in the field great okay thank you anyone else item number eight request approval of amendment one to the professional service agreement with Varsity Tutors of schools LLC for elementary math and reading virtual T tutoring Jan last one I promise that's okay the academic Department respect respectfully requests your approval of a no cost contract Amendment with Varsity Tutors for schools LLC the amendment includes all previous services with a new option for small group instruction which I had spoken about earlier uh that will be targeting fourth and fifth grade reading and math any questions thank you Jan thank you item number nine request approval of a statement of agreement with capital regional educ ational Council cir for parent teacher home
122visiting program implementation Miss Brown good evening Mr Mr Mayor um president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary adoro Board of Education and Commissioners Dr ruffen student Representatives um I am here requesting approval of a stat agreement with CRA for the parent teacher home visiting program for implementation in four of our schools um the maximum award is $188,000 at no cost to the city and a City match is not required the four schools were um are Dougan Reed Kingsbury and Wilson school not sure if there are any questions that I can answer at this time any questions what could you explain what the program is absolutely um the parent teacher um home business visitors program is a partnership with c and the C Connecticut Family School Partnerships um it's basically an opportunity for uh two teachers at
123each of the four schools I mentioned to do 20 home visits um in the first semester or second semester and ending in the spring semester the opportunity to build um relationship uh parent engagement and also to improve um attendance with our students to build their relationship very nice thank you thank you any any more questions thank you m brown thank you item number 10 request approval of a Construction contract with all trades Industries LLC for kitchen renovations at Crosby and Wilby high schools Mr Alini good evening once again if I may I'd like to correct myself mayor perusi president perusi like may elect how quickly we forget I'm so sorry the education department respect respectfully request your review and approval of the Construction contract for the renovation of culinary classroom program classroom at Crosby at
124Wilby uh the total of of about of $345,000 $182 92,93 for Crosby 10 12,100 for will be it is uh there will be a $60,000 owner control cons um contingency and the project is being um funded through Esser 3 it'll take approximately 150 days to complete this is not a kitchen renovation this is a classroom renovation which will allow uh the school to have another culinary classroom offering in each of the schools great next I apologize I was doing sign language with the with the students item number 11 request approval of Construction contract with new England masonary and roofing company for gutter repairs at Rotella magnet and Maloney magnet schools Mr alpini the education department respectfully requests your review and approval of the Construction contract with New England masonry and roofing company for gutter repairs
125at Maloney and Rotella schools um Maloney will be $2,723 Rotella 72,3 And1 $1 this is funded through our capital budget and services will be completed by April 1st 2024 any questions item number 12 request approval of Construction contract with National Equipment and facility Solutions Incorporated for bleachers and bench Replacements at two schools the education department respect request your review and approval of a Construction contract for removal and replacement of existing pool bleachers at Kennedy and wiby and locker room B benches as well in Wilby for $61,200 6 uh this will be in the wilby and the Crosby nitorum as well as the boys and girls locker rooms at Wilby any questions item number 14 request approval to apply for the Connecticut Department of energy Environmental Protection Public Utilities regulatory Authority public education and governmental programming
126and education technology investment account Grant 2024 I'm sorry that's all right the education department respectfully requests your review and approval of a Construction contract I think we skipped 13 did I skip one skip you skipped one I apologize number 13 request approval of Construction contract with srao Mechanical Services Incorporated for havac Replacements at Crosby High School and Wallace Middle School I apologize the education department respectfully requests your review and approval of a Construction contract for a HVAC replacement at Crosby High School and Wallace Middle School complex for $1,250,000 which includes uh owner controlled contingency of 1365 this is an Esser 3 project and all services will be completed by December 31st 2024 any questions I have a question it cost1 million for Just Two schools Elementary were 11 yeah this is this is two very
127very large complexes with a lot of rooms very uh expensive wow okay and the schools will be air conditioned they are these are replacement that have caused nothing but problems over the past few years of repairs and um unbalanced air conditioning and heating some parts of the building CO others are very warm okay I no I just 11 million so between the other HVAC uh projects so we're we're talking good a lot of money here 22 million 23 million and those are vrf systems which are a little bit different a little bit smaller scale than this I see okay all right thank you now number 14 I will not repeat it just start um the Connecticut Department of energy and Environmental Protection uh this is a fund for Rotella a grant excuse me for Rotella
128Kennedy State Street and Adult Ed uh the network has been upgraded to 10 uh gigabytes uh however it does need some additional upgrading uh the request is for 50 approximately $3,200 no matching funds required for this Mr zuda is here that can answer all the specifics any questions number 15 thank you thank you guys thank you by the way I want to compliment everybody loved the Kennedy High School auditorium they were saying how beautiful it looked thank you um they all do I can't wait to show the board the pictures of all these rooms that are are being renovated the auditoriums the natatoriums the Kennedy one looks spectacular after the doors are completed uh I was in front of you for approval uh a lot of great improvements yep thank you Mrs Bello good evening
129thank you president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary Sano adorno Board of Education Commissioners and mayor Paul panuski I'm here to give um my monthly updates um so first I usually start with the uh Esser AR and ARP Esser um monthly expenditure reports Esser one as you know has been completed since last uh since September of 2022 has been fully liquidated out um Esser 2 uh the $ 41.6 million Grant we received ended September that just passed 23 um we have fully expended and and have encumbered the funds but we are still liquidating um the remainder of this out till the end of this month ARP S3 uh will end September of 2024 that's uh close to the $90 million Grant to date we have 37.9 million um expended or encumbered uh with 51.8 million uh
130still to remain um expended or encumbered um but that'll go through next September uh as you know and as many um um item agendas that Nick has brought up here um you'll see that money is getting spent down but it there's RFP processes walkthroughs through a lot of the projects and they're still on the academic side a lot of things still happening um but I'm pleased to say that we will definitely meet the learning loss um requirement to this grant which is 20% of it um we should if not exceed uh over the 20% can I ask a question so any questions on this vice president Brown good hi yes thank you for the information I just had a question in light of the information and the students uh presentation tonight in the works at
131all is the uh the the uh gender neutral bathrooms for our schools is have we used s funding is it is is Esser 3 at all looking at allocation of any of that money at the present moment was not budgeted in ARP Sr 3 that was used with other funding sources but not our professor okay so there it is in the work somewhere presently it is not because most of this funding is already spoken for okay all right I think I would I would request that we we look for uh you know alternate funding to try to make that happen for our schools thank you thank you I will move on to the next item which is the October expenditure report um this is the fourth month of the fiscal year um we expect to
132spend down during I'm I apologize superintendent I'm sorry Dar I I do want to respond regarding the um gender neutral bathrooms um it's not allocated in Esser but it is allocated in our budget oh okay I just want to be clear it is allocated we are working and have more work to do but I don't want anyone to think that it's not budgeted just because the answer is it's not budgeted in ESS thank you for that clarification good thank you super I'm sorry go ahead D worry thank you uh this is the fourth month of the fiscal year um as you know we monitor uh the accounts very closely we work with um City officials and provide um this expenditure report to the city Side as well we plan to spend down and use um
133most of this money so far um when we get more into the November monthly report um you'll see a a little bit more action um when I report it next time any questions so uh my last uh item is a budget transfer from the capital Improvement fund um this will be a $3 million transfer from um the capital Improvement fund for the Board of Ed unallocated syncing fund to be moved to Capital funds for the six vrf schools that we will will be applying um for the state application for the HVAC indoor air quality this will be the 25% match um the state will be covering the 75% for the total is 11,705 348 our local share with this transfer would be 3 million and the state share of the 75% will be 8.7 million
134um any questions on that thank you dor thank you thanks dor item number 16 superintendent update Dr Ruffin thank you president Hernandez vice president Brown secretary s ardona Commissioners it's a pleasure to give you a a very quick and most recent update I'm sorry mayor perisi I'm I'm not used to seeing you here on the right here thank you yes um I'd like to share uh some updates and some celebrations and specifically for what's happening with our our wonderful students here in Waterberry one of the first things is that we have authors in the house our Bunker Hill preschool students became published authors and illustrators 18 students students of the 2324 pre kindergarten class at Bunker Hill School have become published authors and illustrators uh with the assistance from student Treasures publishing the students in
135L Line Silver class produced a cookbook titled our favorite foods the four-week publishing process included brainstorming selection of recipes illustration and creating the final copy the student student authors held a book signing event on Friday December 1st and to purchase the copy of our favorite foods by Bunker Hill prek please visit this website that's um located on this presentation and for those of you who are um are are listening to the board meeting https colon studentreasures.com sorder copies we want our students to really be Cate celebrated in such a great way that's great Waterberry Arts Magnet School teacher has been named dance education teacher of the year we are so proud of ingret how green uh she is a sixth grade uh a 6th through 12th grade dance teacher at Waterberry Arts Magnet School she
136has been named this wonderful title uh bestowed by the Connecticut Association of health physical educ ation Recreation and dance according to the fall conference program book Howard green approaches teaching with thorough research while interacting with students in a caring and nurturing way performances by her students are constantly Innovative meaningful and memorable beyond the classroom ingred has supported students extracurricular activities chaperoned events in and outside of school as well as holding after school dance clubs for students to gain more training how green is in her second year of teaching at whams she previously spent 12 years in canel Magnet School of Performing Arts in Hartford and this marks the second consecutive year that Waterberry Public School staff has been recognized uh for this prestigious award and our previous recipient has been Joe Gorman who is the
137Water bearry Public School supervisor of health and physical education so congratulations to ingred how green I also like to especially thank my um I I have two wonderful groups that I meet with I have a student superintendent student advisory that I meet with approximately once a month they are absolutely fabulous uh they're range anywhere from 25 to 37 students that will serve on this advisory and they have lots of solutions I think if I listen to the students I we just can soore moving forward but they're absolutely amazing and they have lots to offer and I will be capturing some of their recomend recommendations over the last two meetings that we've had uh for uh to share with um with the board likewise I have a parent advisory the parent advisory is very steady group
138of parents it's gotten to the point where I almost know all of them by name and I was so happy that commissioner irand was on the U on the zoom meeting that we had with our parents they were absolutely insightful they have so much to share um you know both advisory serve as uh an Advisory Group to the superintendent because it's very important that I hear with our parents and our students and our community has to say and this parent group has a lot to share uh in recommendations as well as things that they appreciate from the district and things that they would like to see um moving forward uh we did spend a little bit of time talking about the kindergarten age change and we spent some time talking about other various programs within
139the district and they were were very interested in addition to other things about the apprenticeship programs that we are starting in the district which will afford our parir professionals as well as our students as well as our current staff an opportunity to return to school get certified in teaching and be employed by Waterberry public schools and I hope that maybe out of my parent advisory group I might have some some potential um hires here in the future this concludes my announcements for today thank you oh I'm sorry commissioner vone I forgive you thank you m president to you Dr I just have one question because I did hear from a teacher on this um I think it was just the uh grammar schools had parent tonight last night I don't know if the high schools
140were included I'm sorry I my mic's not on yeah never used a need mic is that better great we didn't have to laugh at that M mayor uh last night at least the grammar schools had parent teacher night correct parent teacher conferences conferences last night was it only to grammar schools it was in person it would yeah but it was only the grammar schools not the high schools or no I think we had it in in um middle school as well okay and and high school or was it Elementary and high school ele Elementary and high school okay I did receive information from a grammar school teacher she only had five parents sign up for conferences and she had zero show up so you know I don't know what the magic Elixir is to to
141bring parents you know to be involved but um you know you I just wanted to bring that to your attention at there and I'm sure there was others you know and the numbers just seemed so low and I just don't know what to do you know well I think it it's it's been an ongoing ongoing issue but I will say that it very disappointing I'm certain it's disappointing for the teacher uh and maybe disappointing for the parents because we don't know why they weren't able to show up but I will tell you this um we have um for the last two years held parent teacher conferences virtually and it was a a mixed opinion from various people that we needed to do more in person because people really wanted to come and see the teacher
142and this time uh we made it in person it doesn't mean that the next one is going to be in person I think we have some favorable comments for virtual and I think we may have some statistics that say more people participate virtually but again for that Personal Touch which has been missing for the last two years that Personal Touch of a teacher coming I mean a parent walking into a school which they were not always able to do for two years or more I think they many parents wanted to be able to come into a school and see the teacher and I think we afforded people an opportunity to do that and then we could weigh our options as whether we want to do the next parent teacher conference virtually okay yeah it is
143just sad that the tenant was so low y um anyone else I I know there's been times we actually offered dinner and we still couldn't get people to come so hopefully keep trying thank you item number 17 use of school facilities by school organizations Mr Alini good evening once again Commissioners with the approval of the committee on school facilities and grounds the superintendent of schools recommends approval of the use of school facilities at no charge for the following nine School organizations and our city departments uh Gil Martin sprag Maloney Waterbury Housing Authority Rotella Waterberry Arts Magnet School Wallace Wilby Kennedy rear and spray any questions item number n 18 18 Commissioners with the approval of the committee on school facilities and grounds the superintendent of schools recommends approval of the use of school facilities by
144eight groups and organizations subject to fees and insurance as required we have three requesting waivers and five groups not subject to fees any questions thank you Mr Alini thank you number 19 superintendent's notification to the board which you guys could [Applause] read okay can I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor we're going to take a few minutes before our special meeting we going be EA app andu all day my so happy to little one down here speaking of just a little FLIR I I would love that oh probably just to shift to see what what Tom is talking lenes you hard so hard to of continue to be pain in the ass oh yeah okay [Music] remind me that good evening today is Thursday December the 7th 2023 we
145are at Hopeville school this is a special meeting of the bo Waterberry Board of Education we start out with a silent prayer commissioner Jackson would you lead us in the pledge [Music] allegiance I pledge alance 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 vice president Brown here commissioner crius commissioner Ireland here commissioner Jackson present commissioner O'Brien commissioner Oro here commissioner Sano dno here commissioner R Stone pres president herandez here mayor perusi here we have a quorum all right item number four Committee of the whole vice president Brown thank you madam president the committee of the hall moves that the Waterbury Board of Education approved education specifications for the proposed 2024 HVAC I AQ grant program
146at the following School Bucks Hill Chase Elementary School generali school International School Regan Elementary School and Washington Elementary School second please say one items number four 1 through six 4.1 through 4 4.1 through 4.6 do I have a second second all in favor I oppos motion carries item number five commissioner on finance commissioner orsel ladies and gentlemen committee on finance moves that the waterburry Board of Education approve a Construction contract with all trade Industries LLC for kitchen renovations at Crosby and willby high schools subject to any non-substantive changes approved by the corporation council's office second all in favor I I oppose motion carries motion to adjourn no no hold on item number 5.2 commissioner Oro item 5.2 wish thank you the committee on finance moves at the Waterbury Board of Education approve a Construction contract
147with the England masonary and roofing company for gutter repairs at Rotella magnet and Maloney magnet schools subject to any non substantive changes approved by the corporation council's office second all in favor I oppose motion carries item 5.3 item 5.3 ladies and gentlemen gentlemen the committee on finance moves at the water Board of Education approv of a Construction contract with National Equipment and facility Solutions Incorporated for bleacher and Ben bench replacement at two schools Kennedy and willby high schools subject to any nons substantive changes approved by the corporation council's office second all in favor I oppose motion carries item 5.4 item 5.4 committee on finance moves at the waterb Board of Education approve of a Construction contract with srao Mechanical Services Incorporated for HVAC replacement at Crosby High School and Wallace middle school subject to any
148non-substantive changes approved by the corporation council's office second all in favor I oppos discussion motion car before yeah we discussed it that's what I said I can't listen to this um 5.5 item 5.5 ladies and gentlemen the committee on finance moves at the Waterberry Board of Education approved to apply for the 2324 Carl D Perkins Grant second all in favor I I oppos motion carries 5.6 item 5.6 ladies and gentlemen the committee on finance moves at the Waterbury Board of Education approved the following transfer in the capital Improvement budget for fiscal 2023 24 totaling $3 million second all in favor I I discussion see L it's it's discuss opposed motion carries item number six there will be no executive session tonight motion to adjourn secretary all in favor I discussion we are adjourned so is
149it discussion and then discussion