001second second of uh of April. This is a meeting of the uh Western Connecticut Board of Education. It's 6:32 in the evening. We have a quorum. Um the first item on the agenda is uh the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Debbie or Julie, would you like to take the meeting from here? Sure. I'd be um glad to quickly hand it over to uh Julie. Um she has done a marvelous job of leading the search process for the Weston Middle School principal. It involves multi- uh steps, a lot of coordination, um a lot of um reaching out to different people to make sure all the uh different
002constituents were involved. And uh the steps have been very methodical and very thorough. And I'm going to turn it over to Julie. Um, and again, uh, thank you, Julie, for your leadership here. Um, we were, uh, blessed with a strong pool and we have, I believe, found the most excellent candidate. So, Julie, let me turn it over to you. Thank you, Deb. Um, so on the announcement of Mr. Do's retirement at the end of this school year, uh, we commenced a search for the next principal of Western Weston Middle School. Um, we engaged our candidates in, as Deb said, a rigorous process uh designed to highlight their knowledge, skills, and experience in a manner that would help us to understand not only who they are as leaders, but what kind of leaders they would be
003at Weston Middle School. That process involved multiple rounds of interviews with a variety of stakeholders, including Weston Middle School teachers and support staff, school administrators, leaders from the PTO, district administrators, and David Felton as a representative of the board of education. I'm pleased to report this evening that out of that extensive process, we identified an exceptional candidate for the position and he is here with us this evening. Jason Bluestein distinguished himself throughout the process as a thoughtful and strategic leader who cares deeply about his work with students. Members of our committee described him as a leader who has vision, someone who is smart, open, flexible, and committed to bringing the best experience to students every day. When we asked Jason why he was interested in the position at Weston Middle School, he told us, "My
004heart has always been at the middle school." Jason is coming to us um having spent a number of years in a principal ship in Fairfield in the Fairfield public schools. And prior to that, you'll be interested to learn uh Jason was a staff member here in Weston. He served as assistant principal of Weston Intermediate School from 2009 to 2012. Before his uh tenure as a school leader, he served as a curriculum leader and an English language arts teacher uh in grades four, five, and eight. So, he definitely has a love for students in those middle grades. I am very pleased this evening to recommend to the board uh Jason's candidacy as principal of Weston Middle School beginning July 1st, 2025. Jason uh is here with us this evening and I would love to give him
005the opportunity to address the board. Terrific. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Um thank you. Um, I'm excited and honored to be uh joining really rejoining the Western Public Schools. It's a it's a special place. It's one of the top school districts in the state, the country, and the world. And I'm familiar with it uh personally, as Julie said, having worked here for three years a number of years ago. And I will say as I look back on my career, those three years were the most intellectually enriching three years of of my entire career. So, I really enjoyed my my time in Western the first time I was here. Um, I'm very excited to join the Western Middle School. Um, I am a middle school person at heart. Definitely. Uh, the energy and intensity of the
006age really matches my sensibilities. Um, I talked in the interview process a little bit about some of my goals. Um, I want to meet people where they are. Uh, help create the conditions where we can build upon the great things that are already happening at the school and obviously put what's best for students at the center of all the decision-m that we do. Um, I'm looking forward to meeting everyone. I'm looking forward to hitting the ground running and I'm really looking forward to doing great work together on behalf of Weston's children. So, thank you again for this incredible opportunity. It is it is truly an honor. Would anyone like to comment or ask questions or what's the procedure here? hiring principles doesn't happen particularly frequently in uh Weston. Um so I'm Julie I'm really in
007your hands as to where we go from here. Luckily when someone joins Weston as a principal they stay a long time. Yes we we are very much hoping um that that is the case. There there should be motion language for you. Um Jod's nodding. Yes. Yes. So, someone uh would make a motion to uh make the appointment. Um unless there are comments or questions that anyone has. Are there any comments or questions from the board? I'll just quickly jump in. I'm at a little league game, so you can't get much more than more western than that. Jason, I'm thrilled to have you join our district. You are in my opinion 100% the right person at the right time and we hope that you are here for a long time. Thank you David and thanks for
008your participation in the uh in the process of uh of interviewing candidates. It's u I'm glad you did that. Thank you. Anyone else? I just want to say welcome. Um, I've heard a lot of great things about you and I'm looking forward to um, working with you and seeing what you can do with the middle school. Um, it's an awkward age and I take my hat off to anyone who feels really at home there. So, that's great and and like I said, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can do with the place. So, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I'm just going to echo Sharon's remarks. Welcome back, Jason. Um, thank you for for for joining. Um, I'm excited to have you back here as well. to um you know hopefully you know get
009us to the next level there and um you know I've heard a lot of great things. So looking forward to working together. Thank you. and Jason. Um it's great to have someone who has experience in the district, especially experience uh uh in middle schools because I think you I think you're aware of everything that's been going on recently in the middle school and uh and uh we we're in the midst of trying to do figure out what to do physically with the middle school. So, you'll be uh you have a you have a lot of work ahead of you and u I I think everyone everything I've heard I think everyone is very excited about you uh rejoining uh the Western school system. So, unless anyone has other questions or comments, uh can I have
010a motion to approve uh Jason as the as the next principal of the middle school? Um, I move that the Weston Board of Education appoint Jason Bluestein as the principal of Weston Middle School. And is there a second? A second. All those in favor, please say I. I. Hi. Welcome aboard, Jason. Thank you. Great to be here. Congratulations, Julie. Thank you very much for all your work. You're welcome. Thanks, Julie. Uh unless there's unless there's anything else this evening. Uh may I have a motion to adjurnn? I so move. May I have a second? Second. Thank you very much. All those in favor I I. Thanks everybody. Thank you. Have a great night. Thank you everyone. Good night.