Board of Education Meeting - May 26, 2026

001Um, this is the board of education meeting for the Weathersfield School District. Today is Tuesday, May 26th. We are in council chambers. Um, Ellen, can we please have a roll call for quorum? >> Yes. Good evening, everyone. Miss Ken Carson >> here. Mr. Kerry, Miss Ms. Debacco >> here. >> Mrs. De Roberts >> here. >> Mrs. Drew, Mrs. Gold, Mr. Riley >> here. >> Vice Chair Mr. Lacavoli >> here. >> Uh, chair Mrs. Granado absent. Okay. >> Weathersfield High School student representative Ms. Anushka Gandhi and Weathersfield Public Schools Board of Ed chairperson for Hanmer Elementary. Joy Salic here. >> All present. Would you uh stand and lead us all in the pledge of allegiance? We do the pledge of allegiance before we leave. >> Go ahead. We'll follow you. >> I pledge of allegiance to

002the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Joy. All right. So, we have a relatively uh crowded house tonight. That is appreciated. Um we have a relatively crowded agenda. Sometimes that is appreciated, sometimes that is not. Uh the first item on our agenda today is one of our favorite. It's student and staff recognition. Um it's basically when kids and schools come to show us what they are doing in their schools. um or over the summer in terms of education um in Weathersfield when it comes to the Keen Foundation. Uh we always love when the the kid chairs come, when Emerson Williams comes and shows us what they're doing. We're not in these schools,

003so we love it when you bring it to us here in the board meeting. Uh so with that being said, Judy Keen and Caroline Fisina are here from the Keen Foundation, and they'll go first. Uh, I think we need the Yeah, good. Yeah, thank you. Um, my name's Judy Keane and I'm the president of the Keen Foundation and I just want to thank Carolyn and um, Kate Johnson is our new executive director. We have had a very, very, very busy year and the musicals have been all over the place. Everybody's had a great time at those. Um, I will just make one comment and that is that we've had wonderful, wonderful programs this year and I'm hoping they can continue, but our funding runs out in December. We're going to be relying on donations and

004on ordinary operating expenses to go down so that we can continue to bring the programs, but it's going to be very t tight. So, I'm encouraging everybody in the town of Weathersfield to help us out a little bit. And if you know somebody that's a grant writer that can get us a grant from some great corporation, we would love that, too. So, that's all I have to say for today. And I thank the community of Weathersfield for everything, all of your support for our programs, for um the kids in town. So, now I'm going to pass it off to Carolyn. >> Thank you. Um, hi everybody. My name is, for those who don't know me, I know, you're all very familiar. Um, my name is Carolyn Fazina. I am the director of the Keen Enrichment

005Programs. Um, I'd like to thank you, uh, board of ed for allowing me to speak tonight. As Judy said, we've had a really successful school year in our afterchool and our inschool hands-on learning program. This year, nearly 2,000 enrollments. We had nearly 2,000 enrollments in our afterchool enrichment programs, reflecting both strong demand from families and the meaningful experiences these programs provide to our students. We are also especially proud that through scholarships and financial assistance, we were able to ensure that students could participate regardless of financial circumstances. We believe every child should have access to enrichment opportunities and and expanding access remains a a major priority of our program. From arts and theater to STEM, wellness, and enrichment clubs, our programs give students opportunities to build confidence, creativity, collaboration, and connection beyond the school day. We

006are proud that these programs continue to grow while remaining student centered and community supported. Um, this slide really highlights the variety of opportunities we've offered students this year. We intentionally designed our program that could reach many different interests and learning styles. Whether a student is interested in the arts, athletics, STEM, gardening, technology, musical or theater. In addition to our returning favorites like Lego, robotics, soccer, art, musicals, we also expanded offerings with newer programs like Intro to AI and um Pokemon uh which was actually super popular and we're having two sessions of it next session because it's too many kids. Um another important part of our success has been our partnerships with local instructors, organizations, and community experts who help bring these programs to life for our students. But this year, our programs also helped create

007opportunities within the Weathersfield community. We had 16 Weathersfield staff members involved in our programs along with four Weathersfield High School graduates and eight current Weathersfield High School students, which has been great for building connections and mentorship and for uh giving students leadership experience. I don't know if everybody anybody caught it, but Gabby and um Oh my god, my this is terrible. Go ahead, >> Kaitlyn. I'm sorry. It's just It's been a long day. You I don't know if you caught the big hug that Gabby and Caitlyn gave each other when um Caitlyn got here. Gabby was um great. She uh was part of our musical at Web. So, it was a really um obvious um example of that mentorship and the um relationships that our programs um really build. Um our goal is always to

008give students opportunities to explore new interests, build confidence, and feel connected outside of the regular school day. Um what started as a simple simple enrichment idea has really turned into something special for our students. we they were able to get outside, work with their hands, learn about planting and nature, and really take ownership of a gu the garden spaces that they created. We're especially excited um that now we actually have a garden club at all five of our elementary schools this year, something we've been working toward for quite a while. It's been great to see each school create their own garden space and student involvement. It's also become a great way for students of different ages to collaborate, problem solve, and just enjoy being together outside after school. There's also something really valuable about gardening

009for young people. It teaches patience, responsibility, teamwork, and problem solving in a hands-on way. And it gives students a chance to unplug, get outside, and feel proud of creating something themselves. Um, in the upper left there, there's a student. um he's also a boy scout and he his Eagle Scout project was to build the um planting beds at Emerson this year and next to it is a big thank you card from the students. So we continue to um again connect with the connect with the uh community as well. Um and as Judy mentioned, we just finished up our musicals this year. We had 108 students participate in a Keen after school musical. I'm so proud of these kids. They have attended 30 rehearsals totaling almost 50 hours and have done so with energy, focus, enthusiasm

010that it takes to produce a really great show. These students have spent weeks, actually months, learning lines, rehearsing songs, practicing choreography, solving problems, building confidence, and supporting one another along the way. Musical theater asks kids to do something incredibly brave. to stand under bright lights in front of a full audience and to tell a story with their whole hearts of all our afterchool m uh programs. This experience the kids get from participating in um the in the musicals is the most transformative. They have experienced the profound satisfaction that comes from hard work and dedication. And I'm I say that in this little blurb I say between each before each musical and I feel like that's really um something I need to highlight is when you're in fifth fourth, fifth or sixth grade and you don't

011have a lot of opportunities to do something and then have such satisfaction at the end. I mean maybe if you're in sports and you win a game, but at that age there aren't a lot of opportunities. So, our musicals give kids um a real understanding of what it takes um once to work really hard and sometimes it's not fun. Um and it's long, tiring, but then at the end you get that incredible satisfaction of the audiences at pretty much every show standing up and clapping for you. Um it it really is something. Um we're very very proud of these musicals. Um, this was also our fifth year delivering our keen hands-on learning program at all Weathersfield Elementary um with to all Weathersfield Elementary students. We continue to deliver science-based enrichment to every Weathersfield Elementary student.

012Programs align with the school curriculum while sparking curiosity through interactive instruction. We visited every kindergarten through sixth grade classroom during the year to ensure equitable access. um might still have a couple kindergarters left, kindergarten classes left, but we're we're almost done. Um teachers reported increased student engagement and comprehension, and surveys have infor confirmed the program's value as a complement to the curriculum. Beyond academ academics beyond academics, students gain lifelong skills in problem solving, perseverance, healthy living, and the understanding the role of science in of of science in everyday life. skills that inspire future interest in STEM careers. So, what's ahead? Um, when families ask what's ahead for our students in the after when the afterchool day ends, this is the answer. What's ahead is hands-on learning, creativity, collaboration, and connection. Students building with STEM materials,

013creating art projects, working together in groups, developing friendships, and learning how to problem solve in real time. These programs provide more than supervision after school. They provide opportunities opportunities for the students to discover interests, gain confidence, strengthen social skills, and feel connected to their community. You can see student enga students engage, smiling, and interacting across grade levels. Those moments matter. They help students feel safe, supported, and excited to come to school every day. Um, I will tell a quick story of a student at web who was leaving at 2:30. I think I was told to go to the dentist and um, most students um, like are like, "Oh, cool. I I can leave early for the day." This student was in the office insisting with his mother that he had to come back to school

014because he had um, an afterchool program that day. So, for me, that's high praise. That's that's why we do it for sure. As we look ahead, our goal is to continue creating experiences that support the whole child while giving families programs they can trust and students programs they look forward to attending. Um, one thing I will just um mention here and um, everybody will see more of it, but we um, we have been doing this program, our afterchool program for 10 years. And for about 10 years, the registration fee has remained the same. Um, it's remained $10 per class. So, a six-w weekek program is $60. Um, but right now, because of um, as Judy mentioned, our ARPA grant is ending at the end of this year. Um, the economic times are different. So, we

015will be increasing our registration fee slightly, um, I believe to about $12 per time that they meet. Um, we are, um, focused on providing really high quality programs and and that equals dollars in most cases. So um we do subsidize the difference in a lot of cases for our programs where the registration fee does not cover the entire program but we feel it's important to provide really quality real quality um programming and that's why as Judy said um if you are so inclined to um donate or contribute or um help us keep continue um we welcome everybody's um help in that um it you can find our donation page at on our website um keenfoundation.org as well just to let everybody know. But thank you very much. Um it's been a really great exciting and

016tiring year and um looking forward to just doing it again all again next year. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Well, I don't have any questions. I just have a comment. I'm sitting here in Bobby's seat tonight, so I I must say it. Judy Judy Keane is one of the fairy godmothers of Weathersfield. Um, we not every town has something like the Keen Foundation. Um, it's an incredible organization. Whenever you you come and share what you're doing, we always appreciate it. We think it's so cool. Uh, the things that the kids learn, the memories that they get out of it. Um, I'll shake every tree I can to make sure that you guys get some grant funding. I don't have any money, but I can ask people that work in the state legislature if

017they can steer some your way. Um, but thank you for coming and thank you for sharing what you've been doing. >> Anybody else have any comments? Okay, that being said, we can move on to the next agenda item, uh, which is the Emerson Williams math olympiad. I see principal Nila is here tonight. >> Thank you. It's like here we Beautiful. Good evening everyone. My name is Nila Takor and I am the principal of Emerson Williams Elementary School and thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to speak with you for a little while this evening. Um this evening I'd like to introduce two of our very special Emerson Williams teachers. I have fourth grade teacher Summer Cooken and sixth grade teacher Ally Reynolds with me this evening. Um, and these ladies are very special

018at Emerson Williams for many reasons, but what we're going to be highlighting tonight is their involvement with our wonderful Emerson Williams math Olympiad team. And what is really remarkable is that they have been volunteering in this role for a combined two and a half decades. Um, which is I think very very cool. Um, as some of you may know or maybe you don't know that at the elementary school level, there are very few positions for teachers after school where they receive a stipend um to do work with students or to enhance our school community in any way. Um, the four positions that do exist are festival band, festival orchestra, festival chorus, and circle of friends. And those are amazing programs. Um, we have students involved at our school in all of those programs and the

019teachers who supervise supervise those programs receive a stipend to do that work after school. But what's also really important for you to know is we have so many dedicated teachers at the elementary school level who um dedicate time and effort and volunteer their free time um to make our school better places. And they do that just of their own goodwill and their kind heart. and they don't receive a stipend. Things such as student council, our leadership team, our equity team, and what we're going to talk to you about tonight, the math olympiad team. These are all comprised of staff members who are just really kind and generous and want to do more for our school. Um, and they don't get paid for that. So, tonight, Ally and Summer would like to tell you a little

020bit about our math Olympiad team at Emerson Williams. They both love math and they love teaching math and their goal is really just to inspire more of our students to love math and to love challenging math. >> Thank you guys. >> Hi everyone. I'm Ally Reynolds. Um I teach sixth grade math at Emerson. This is summer. We're going to just tell you a little bit about our Math Olympiad program and how it works. Hey, so Math Olympiad is actually a worldwide program. Um, it's really fun and engaging. Um, it consists of five monthly contests of five problems each where the students are competing um amongst themselves on our team for first place, but they're also competing against teams all over the world. Um so there are over 120,000 students in the world who compete in

021math olympiad and from many many different countries. Um and so the whole idea is to build a love of math and to foster some creative problem solving and to you know just enrich their math lives. So, some of the goals of Math Olympiad are to stimulate enthusiasm and a love for math, to introduce mathematical concepts, to teach strategies for problem solving, to develop mathematical flexibility, and this one becomes really important because generally we're working with some top math students who don't always have a lot of flexibility in their thinking. So, that's a great one for them. um to strengthen mathematical intuition, foster creativity and ingenuity, to provide satisfaction, joy, and the thrill of solving challenges, and to develop an appreciation for math. So, if you're wondering what some of the problems look like, we have

022a couple examples of the problems for the elementary math Olympiad here. So, this one is one of the visual ones, the visual spatial that sometimes the kids have a harder time with because we don't spend as much time on the visual spatial um math at this point in their lives. Um, so this is one problem below is a 3x3x3 cube. Not all of the cubes are visible. Suppose the entire outside of the cube is painted red, including the bottom. How many different 2x 2x two cubes with exactly three red faces can be found on the shown cube? So, as you notice, it's a challenging problem. They need to know math vocabulary. Um, they need to be able to have the reading comprehension to understand what the problem is asking. Um, and then they have to

023put it in the correct box on the paper, which is sometimes one of the most challenging part. And then we thought we'd show you one more question. And so, um, this is a typical question on one of our contests where there's a lot of, uh, calculating, but also a lot of vocabulary. Janine's number has three digits. One digit is a prime number, another digit is a square number. The other digit is neither prime nor square, and her number is not divisible by three. What is the greatest possible value of Janine's number? This kind of question is always tricky for them because most of them can come up with a three-digit number that meets the criteria, but that greatest possible value kind of brings it up to the next level. I do not remember the answer

024to this one. >> Um I can find it. The answer to the question >> the one before was eight. >> Yeah, we knew that one. >> Yeah, we'll let you sit on it. Yeah, >> we'll let you know at the end. >> Okay. So, every year how we structure our program is we have students who are either recommended by their current math teacher um or their teacher from last year or they can take a trial contest to show that they so they know what the whole program is about before they sign up to be part of it. Um because sometimes kids look at the trial contest and say, "Oh, no way. This is not the kind of math I thought I was going to be doing." And some look at it and say, "Oh, I

025want to do more of that." Um so every year we have between two 20 to 35 students participating. We just have it open to grades 4 through 6. There are younger students competing around the world. Um but we find fourth through sixth graders have more of that flexibility and confidence. Um so that's why we work with just the older grades. Um we work together two to four times a month after school depending on the month and the schedule and the half days and all of that. um in order to solve the challenging math problems. Typically, we have one practice day a month where they work together and then the other day is the contest day. And so the contest day is kind of run almost like a standardized test. It needs to be silent. They

026all need to be in their own spaces and they have a timer on the board for 30 minutes to complete the five math problems. Um and so at the end of the time, pencil's down and that's it. Um, I think um, one of the best things about our contest days is that when when it's over, as soon as the timer goes off, we collect their their papers and nobody will move. They they don't want to leave until we tell them the right answers. They want to know what they got right right away. They're like so excited and invested in it, which is great. >> So, this is our team. This year, we had 30 total students. Eight of them were fourth graders. We had nine fifth graders and we had 13 sixth graders. And that's

027usually how it works out for us. We usually have the most sixth graders involved, then slightly fewer fifth graders and the fewest fourth graders. But they really are very cute when they get together. You know, on the on the days that they are allowed to work together, they they definitely cross grade levels and they work together. And the bigger kids will help the younger kids with some of the things they've learned yet, but the younger kids haven't learned yet. So, um, they are very adorable and it's really a team effort. And I have to say the kids who stay involved with Math Olympiad for the 3 years, by the time they get to sixth grade, they're absolute superstars on the team, like they know the different kinds of weird problems we're asking them and the

028strategies to solve each one. So, this year, our team actually had a four-way tie for first place. This is the first time we've ever had a four-way tie. We've had a two-way tie once. No, a couple times, I think. >> I think just once. >> Just think. Two years ago. >> Yeah. I think just once, but we had a four-way tie. So, these were all all sixth graders, right? >> Yeah. We have And we have three of them on video talking. >> Yeah. And so, we have three of the four um one was sick on the day we did this. Um so, and they all scored in the top 20% of participants worldwide. So, of those 120,000 students who participated in this, they were in the top 20%. So, we have video of them telling,

029"Hi, my name is Ryan Colette. I've been doing Math Olympia." >> Oop, sorry. >> For 2 years, and I like it because you get to work with people on non-EST days and you can learn new strategies that you didn't know before you started Math Lizad. Go. I'm bad. I'm in sixth grade. I've been doing Math Olympia for three years and the things I like most about it is that you get to work with friends and you get to challenge yourself. >> Hi, I'm Connley Smith and I've been doing Math Olympia for 2 years now. And the things I love about Math Olympia so much is you just get to learn so much new things that you can substitute into your math class. You also get to work with your friends on non-EST days and you

030just get to learn new things above grade level. I love Mathtopia. We didn't even tell them to say those things. Those were all their own words. I promise. Oh, >> in fact, we kind of sprung it on them. And >> yeah, we we did a little bit. Sprung it on them. >> Okay. I don't know how to make it big again. Okay, here we go. So, we also figured we would include our favorite things about the problem um about Math Olympiad. So, one thing that's always so important to me is that, you know, these do tend to be our stronger math students who are involved. Um, a lot of times kids who are strong in math do get upset pretty quickly or frustrated when they see something that's hard for them because they're just not

031used to things being hard for them. Um, this kind of gives them a chance to take on really challenging questions in a place that's safe. Um, where they know they're with their friends, where they know they're they're with other kids who are going to help them, and where there's there's no penalty for being wrong. Not that there is in the regular classroom, but a lot of them do tend to feel that way. But on our non-contest days, they have this safe space to make mistakes and try things out and talk to each other and they're more willing to try these challenging problems without feeling the pressure of like a regular classroom. So, one of the things I absolutely love about Math Olympiad is this is a group of students who are coming after school to

032do math for fun. like they have chosen in their free time to come and do more math. Um, and just to see them excited about math and the joy of learning and to have an entire classroom filled with kids who are all experiencing that at the same time every time they come is just a remarkable thing to see. Um, so that's one of my favorite things about uh the program. Okay, so these are our sixth graders in this picture here. And these are just some of the other quotes from our students when we asked them to tell us something you like about Math Olympiad. These are some of the things that they shared. I don't think I'm going to read them. They're all pretty similar. Do you have any questions for us about the program

033or what we do? >> Have a comment. I just I love the fact that you're saying a challenge is okay. You're going to get through it with your friends. And when I see those word problems, I sweat cuz like that's how I always like I don't I don't even read it. I can't even like process it. And um that they know that it's okay. Like they're going to get through it and that it's actually fun. It's like you just got to go sentence by sentence and see the challenge and that it's it's good to have a challenge. It's boring not to have challenge. It's good to have a challenge. So I'm so glad you guys are doing this. wonder a wonderful program. >> Thank you. >> Uh thanks thanks a lot. It's a great program.

034I just wanted to um ask you how long the program has been going on. >> So the program like itself like u math olympiad in general was established in 1979. I'm not sure exactly how long it's been at Emerson. Um, I took it over from somebody else who had done it for several years. Um, but I've been doing it for about 15 years at this point. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just want to say thank you for doing this with our students. Thanks. Thank you. You're welcome. >> Thanks, Ally. Thanks. Thanks, >> R. That was tremendous. I went to Emerson. I could have benefited from that. I don't think it was around long long time ago. >> Before this goes up before she does arrest. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, next on our

035agenda, we have Joyce Salic, who is uh this week's kid chair. We'll get a picture real quick. How about that? Thank you. So, she's representing Hamner tonight. Um, I've actually had the opportunity to meet her before, so this isn't the first time I've seen her. Uh, I was introducing her to all of the board me board members before the meeting started tonight. Um, she's very confident, so I know she's going to do well. I read her essay already. It is awesome. And we're looking forward to hearing from Joy tonight. So, thank you for being here, Joy. Congratulations on being kid chair. The floor is yours. My name is Joyce Salic and I'm running for Kid Board of Education chair. This role requires strong leadership from someone who cares about the future of our schools. Also,

036being able to collaborate well with others and show empathy are important skills. It's great that Weathersfield recently voted in favor of new schools, but there is still work to be done. I know I am the right person to make it happen. I want to be kid board of education chair because I know I can make a difference at Hannimer Elementary. I would love the opportunity to help make changes and decisions to improve our school. Our school is a great place and I want to keep it special for the grades below me. My first idea to improve our school would be to start a buddy system where younger students get paired up with older students and get to participate in reading, crafts, puzzles, and projects. This promotes teamwork, cooperation, and inclusion. Another idea to improve our

037school is a homework hotline. Upper grade students and teachers receive calls from students who are unsure of or need help with a homework problem. This could be a way for upper grade students to tutor and earn extra credit. My last idea would be to organize a community event for Earth Day. We would host a townwide cleanup to keep our schools and parks clean. Students and families from all schools could participate and it would be a benefit for the town. In conclusion, I would be a great candidate for this role. It's important to give kids a voice in school decisions. I'm excited for this opportunity and would love to guide the future of Handmark School. See, I I was right. You didn't let me down. You didn't disappoint me. Everything I said about you ended up

038being true. So, thank you for sharing your essay with us. Uh it was tremendous. If any of the board members here have any questions or comments for her, ask away. Other otherwise, Marjgerie. Yeah. Janice, >> go ahead. >> Oh, I was just going to say great job and I love the buddy system. Um because it does bring grades, you know, grades together and older kids with younger kids, they can be such great mentors. So, great job. >> Thanks. >> Um yes, it is. It was an excellent essay and I like the community involvement aspect and the students taking on the leadership of that. That's terrific. Thanks. >> Nice work, Joy. Thank you for coming tonight. >> Yeah. Yeah, you can go ahead. >> Thank you. All right. Um, we do have public comment coming up.

039That is, uh, agenda item four. But prior to that, we just have a little bit of housekeeping having to do with adopting uh, minutes from previous meetings. So, that being said, uh approval of previous meetings, um I'll start off with a uh moved that we approve the minutes from the special meeting of the board of education on April 22nd, 202026. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion about this? Any questions about this meeting? Anything to say, Jeff? Nope. All right, we'll have a vote. We're going to do a roll call vote as usual. Ellen. >> Yes. >> Excuse me for that. >> Miss Ken Carson. >> Yes. >> M. Debb. >> Yes. >> Mrs. D Roberts. >> Yes. >> Mr. Riley. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Lacavoy. >> Yes. 5 Z in

040favor. It passes. >> Thank you. Uh now to uh number three, letter B. Um okay, so this one, we were initially slated to approve these minutes. Um however, because our whole board isn't here tonight and there was a little bit of a confusion about items in these minutes, I'm going to move to table it. If you have any questions about why we're tableabling it, I'm I'm more than willing to discuss um during the discussion period. >> Second. >> All right. Discussion. You want to know why we're tableling this? You want to talk about it or no? No. Okay. >> Shelley do the roll? >> Yes, please. >> Miss Kellen Carson. >> Yes. >> MCO. >> Yes. Mrs. Roberts, >> yes. >> Mr. Riley, >> yes. >> And Mr. Levully, >> yes. >> 5 Z in

041favor. Motion to table passes. >> Yes. Thank you. Okay. Number three, letter C. Um, move that we adopt the minutes of the May 12th, 2026 board of education workshop meeting. Do I have a second? Second >> discussion. >> Roll call vote, please. Ellen, >> yes. >> Miss Kellen Carson, >> yes. >> Miss Debbco, >> yes. >> Mrs. Roberts, >> yes. >> Mr. Riley, >> yes. >> And Mr. Lacavali, >> yes. >> 5 Z. Motion passes. >> Thank you. And finally, uh, agenda item number three, letter D. I move that we approve the minutes from the May 14th, 2026 special meeting of the board of education. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Discussion, questions. >> Roll call vote, please. >> Yes. >> Meanwhile, I turn the page here. >> Take your time. >> Thank

042you. >> Miss Ken Carson. >> Yes. Miss Debbco. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. Roberts, >> yes. >> Mr. Riley, >> yes. >> And Mr. Lacavolei, >> yes. >> That motion passes in favor. 5-0. >> Thank you. So, that brings us to public comment tonight. Um, I would imagine there's a lot of you here to make public comment. We don't normally have this big of a crowd at board meetings, so it's just a guess. Um, anybody can get up and speak. You have 5 minutes to speak. Um, I'm going to keep time on my little stopwatch. I'll give you a friendly reminder when 5 minutes is close. Um, you can get up, you can speak. Please, please lead with your name and your address and then the floor is yours. Thank you for being here tonight.

043>> Hi, >> good evening. Uh, my name is Suzanne Midica. I live at 35 Church Hill Road in Weathersfield. Uh hello and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on behalf of the students and families of Weathersfield. Picture this, the front lawn of Lucky Lu's on Memorial Day. Two local moms are standing together, laughing, reminiscing, and eagerly awaiting the parade. We are buzzing with excitement to see the marching band's new tenor drummer, which make which will make his big debut. A few years ago, it was my oldest passing the torch to a younger player. And today, a fellow mom is beaming with pride as she watches her son do the same thing. Now, picture this. The intersection of Maine and Church Streets on the same day. Right in front of the grandstand. Following the

044laying of the wreath, a group of string players ranging from 6th to 12th grade plays the national anthem. Their performance adds an undeniable elegance and semnity to the occasion. Our community is incredibly fortunate to be graced with magical moments like these. moments that reveal the best of our values through the actions of our children. These moments are years in the making and they are moments we are at risk of losing. It is my understanding that next year Silstein Middle School students will only have the option to take musical class music classes on a quarterly basis with limited access to other unified arts. While I understand this reduction aims to create room for more concentration in English, math, and science, I refuse to believe it has to be an all or nothing choice. There has to

045be a less extreme approach approach that elevates core subjects without decimating the arts. I find myself wondering what research shows that slashing arts programs improves test scores. And I find myself struggling to see how this decision keeps the holistic well-being of our children in mind. I am here tonight to specifically call for continuity in our music program. This is a this very program has helped shaped my children into being better human beings. I have watched them grow from learning what a quarter note is to squeaking hot cross buns to mastering dynamics, keeping time, and playing in an ensemble. I've watched them combine with the orchestra and the chorus to fill our high school auditorium with Babaetu. Because of the foundational skills built in that classroom, my three kids now play at least 10 different instruments.

046They've run sound for shows and played in musical pit orchestras. Every year, Mr. BS helps the audience appreciate the sheer excellence required of our performance groups. He famously demonstrates how a piece played at 70% effort compares to 100%. If you know, you know. That brief bit of ear stinging discord makes a solid point though. Every single musician must be at the top of their game for the ensemble to succeed. And that and being at the top of your game requires steady continuous instruction, not a fragmented quarterly schedule. Furthermore, our music students don't just look forward, they look back. Because our experienced students achieve such a high level of playing and because they are taught how to learn, they naturally become leaders. My kids have mentored younger players and work to recruit the next generation into

047the program. This fall, my twins will serve as drum majors for the Pride of Weathersfield marching band. That honor is the culmination of years of preparation, practice, and growth, all made possible by continuity in the music program. Meanwhile, my oldest, the tener player, is now a junior at RPI, double majoring in computer science and information technology, who still makes time to play in the college pit orchestra for the soul. Who says you can't have both STEM and the arts? Decisions are being made right now without a without a full understanding of what makes our community whole. Please pause this decision. truly consider the well-being of the little humans of Weathersfield. They need balance, they need support, and they need the vital space that only our music program can provide. Thank you. Thank you, Suzanne. Liz

048Hernandez, 45 Oakdale Street. Okay, I'm not great at this, so here we go. Um, I'd like to take a moment to address the proposed schedule changes for SDMS and examine how it aligns with our goals outlined in our strategic plan 2023 to 2029. This document is clear about who we want our students to become. It out it outlines our vision for the gratitude for the graduate of three bold priorities. Empathy, achievement, and equity. Tonight, I want to talk about why restricting unified arts and reducing access would directly contradict each one of these commitments. The strategic plan states that each student should demonstrate growth and mastery as communicators, collaborators, and problem solvers. These are not optional extras. They are the heart of our vision of the graduate. Goal number one calls for a continuum of increasingly

049challenging opportunities in academic success, so social emotional intelligence, collabor collaborative problem solving, effective communication, and critical thinking. Music and Arts delivers exactly this through authentic real world learning experiences like performances and exhibitions. The plan even measures success by quote participation in drama productions, performance ensembles, and CSD arts access. Restricting unified arts would hurt these very metrics. The plan also demands we support the development of the whole child. Student leadership, restorative practices, and social emotional learning. Arts programs provide essential spaces for expression, confidence, and belonging. On equity, the plan requires us to to close opportunity gaps. Unified arts reach diverse learners, multilingual students, and those who struggle in traditional settings. Restricting them would widen those gaps. Goal number two, which is civic and family engagement, urges us to quote, "Make the walls of the school more

050permeable and showcase student talents." Arts arts events are amongst the strongest community connectors. Budget pressures are real, but goal three tells us to evaluate expenses by how well they promote student achievement. Unified arts do exactly that, boosting engagement, attendance, and overall growth. Our strategic plan is shared is our shared roadmap through 2029. Restricting unified arts moves us away from it. These programs are essential to personalized, inclusive, whole child education, not luxuries. I urge the board to help honor our own plan. Protect unified arts so that every Weathersfield student can thrive as the graduate as the gradu graduates we envisioned. Please don't make them choose. Thank you. >> Thank you, Liz. >> Hi, I'm Megan Glennowski, uh, 24 Morrison Avenue. Um, I appreciate the district's desire to strengthen academic instruction and improve student performance. I also

051appreciate um the administration is now offering students some flexibility by allowing them to choose between world language and additional unified arts participation. However, I still have significant concerns about this proposed schedule and its impact on middle school students. At its core, this is not simply a schedule change as it's being advertised. It's a reduction in the programs and opportunities available to our students at SDMS and seems to be without a budgetary reason. Our children will be getting less. For many students, classes like music, art, teched, family, and consumer sciences, more language are not extras. They're the classes that make students feel engaged, capable, and connected to school. For my incoming seventh grader, music isn't a choice. It's a need. It's where he thrives. Talk about my kids. I get emotional. It is the one place

052at school where he doesn't struggle to communicate with others or participate in a group. But he's also excited about learning to speak to his brother in French and build bridges and compete in cupcake wars. These programs help students develop confidence, friendships, collaboration skills, creativity, and a sense of belonging during a particularly difficult developmental stage. This new recommendation reflects a philosophy that more time in traditional academics is what all students need most. But middle school students are not all the same. And many students need something very different in order to thrive. Some students absolutely benefit from additional academic support while others need enrichment, creativity, movement, connection, and opportunities to explore their interests. Research consistently shows that music, arts, and world language programs support student engagement, executive functioning, belonging, creativity, and cognitive development, all of which contribute

053to student success both academically and socially. A schedule that is centered primarily around the state tested subjects risks narrowing the school experience at exactly the age when students most need opportunities to discover who they are. If students are spending significantly more time in core academic classes, I hope the district will clarify how enrichment opportunities will be incorporated into these longer blocks for students who already meet or exceed grade level expectations. More seat time is not the same as deeper learning. I'm also concerned about about the developmental appropriateness of this schedule and whether teachers are being adequately prepared for these changes. 2-hour academic blocks are an extremely long time for 12 and 13 year olds to remain engaged and I worry the district may see increases in student um disengagement and behavioral challenges. As a result,

054the administration has stated that social emotional learning and executive functioning support will now be embedded into classroom instruction because the dedicated support time in Den is being reduced. If that is the expectation, what professional development and support are teachers receiving to effectively teach in this new structure? I also believe the community deserved greater transparency about the staffing implications of this proposal. If science, language arts, and math teachers are teaching fewer sections because of the extension periods, then either additional teachers will need to be hired or class sizes are going to increase. At the same time, changes to student course selection may significant significantly impact enrollment in world language and unified arts programs. both in the middle school and in the future. These are major implications that should be openly discussed before implementation. Middle school should

055not become an environment centered primarily around state tested academics. Students need balance. They need opportunities to create, perform, build, collaborate, connect. They need to feel that school is a place where their strengths and interests are valued, not just their test scores. I urge the board and administration to continue reconsidering this and refining the proposal and exploring alternatives so that we support the development of the whole child, not just academic performance metrics. Thank you. >> Thank you, Megan. Good evening. My name is Katie Shinberg at 142 Stocking Mill Road. I'm a both a Weathershield parent and a graduate with four children currently in the Weathersfield public schools ranging from elementary through high school. I also work professionally as a nurse a psychiatric nurse practitioner supporting child and mental child and adolescent mental health. My family has

056been deeply involved in this district's music programs for many years. From elementary orchestra, band, chorus, marching band, musicals, and honors music ensembles. I've seen firsthand how these programs help students grow, not only academically, but socially and emotionally as well. Tonight, I want to speak about the importance of preserving opportunities for students with different strengths, interests, and learning styles. My middle school child struggles with language- based learning and thrives in music. Music is where he feels confident, motivated, and connected at school. He willingly wakes up before 7:00 a.m. twice a week for honors band and choir because those programs matter that much to him. At the same time, he's also talented in welding and technical education. Those hands-on classes are another place where he feels successful and engaged. My concern with the proposed scheduling changes is

057that students like him may eventually feel that they're forced to choose between music and other unified arts opportunities, between the very programs where he feels capable, connected, and motivated to come to school each day. A strong school system recognizes that students succeed in different ways. Programs like music, arts, theater, and technical education are not simply extras for these students. They're often places where they build confidence, connection, discipline, and the motivation that carries into the rest of their academic day. As both a parent and a mental health professional, I want to emphasize the benefits of music education that are well documented. Music supports memory, critical thinking, literacy, and mathematical performance, but just as importantly, it provides belonging and emotional connection during some of the most challenging developmental years for students. I appreciate that administrators and the

058board are balancing difficult decisions involving scheduling, staffing, finances, and academic priorities. However, I think much of the frustration from families comes from feeling that this process has been more informational than collaborative. Parents and students are hearing about changes after decisions already largely feel finalized rather than feeling included early in meaningful discussion. I also worry about the long-term impact on student participation. Students already have to choose between course and band. if they now have to choose between music and other unified arts classes, we risk gradually losing students from programs that historically been a major source of pride and connection within the district. I ask the board to continue to explore alternatives that preserve student access to both music and unified opportunities while still meeting academic goals. I also hope concerns regarding extremely short transition times, particularly

059for students with executive functioning challenges and special needs, continue to be carefully considered. Thank you for your time, your service, and willingness to listen. >> Thank you, Katie. >> Hi, Jennifer Curry, 162 Strutddle Hill. Um, I want to start off by saying I'm confused. Um, within the last two week the me two weeks, the messages coming from the district are not consistent. And I'm going to use the word district because many times I'm not sure which individuals have been involved and at what level. I watched the last board of ed meeting from May 12th and a few highlights from that meeting. An instrumental performance from two Hanmar students. Chairperson Granada stated, "Music is wonderful and the things that it teaches them as far as composure and confidence and to perform up here." The unanimously passed

060motion to approve the use of $75,941.90 from the board of ed non-lapsing account for the purchase of Weatherfield High School band uniforms. to comment on that. Miss Gold said, "I personally so appreciate parent advocacy and knowing what's important to parents and families helps us make the decisions. So love a grassroots parent movement. So thanks for advocating on behalf of students." Additional positive comments on the uniforms came from Miss Drew, Mr. Lacavoli, Mr. Riley, Miss Kellen Carson, and Miss Granada. Mr. Kerry stated he wanted to commend the seventh and eighth grade band and orchestra. They had their concert last week and they did a tremendous job. Those teachers do a great job with those students and it's always a pleasure to watch them. Chairperson Granada stated, "I went to the Broadway series at the Emerson Williams

061School on Saturday for Susicle. The cast, the costumes, the sound system, scenery, and the performance was put on for a packed audience. Watching these kids sing and dance was so entertaining. We know that theater is an incredible learning tool for our kids. Some of the key ways that theater benefits young kids is academic boost in literacy, social and emotional development, confidence and self-esteem, critical thinking and creativity, and collaboration and communication. And if you watch them perform, so much more. Between music and theater, our kids are going to be so in tune to being emotionally developed properly, confident with self-esteem, critical thinking, and creativity, and all the rest. And then the next day, I learned about the changes to the unified arts at SCMS. Students currently have two UA blocks, one for music and another that

062encompasses art, teched, and family and consumer studies. This change reduces the two blocks down to one. There has been a lot of information about what students will be able to choose, but the bottom line is they will be exposed to less unified arts curriculums during their time at SCMS. The messaging from the district keeps referencing a schedule change. And while there are changes to the structure of the schedule, this change is a curriculum change. In fact, when I emailed the board of ed, district administration, and town officials, the reply I received from chairperson Granada stated, "Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the upcoming curriculum change at SCMS." So again, I'm confused. What is the district prioritizing with regard to unified arts? If you listen to the board members, music is vital. It should be

063supported and funded. But that's not what's happening at SCMS. The board policy 6150 item 4 states specifically the board recognizes that academic achievement and engagement in middle school are strong precursors to high school success. From what is proposed, engagement is becoming a very narrow academic focus in language arts, science, and math. The only three disciplines that are subject to state testing and we all know that there is more to achievement and engagement than those three disciplines. Just today at my high school, I attended a screening of Out There, a national park story with a Q&A with documentarian Brendan Hall. He graduated from NYU's Tish School of the Arts, arguably one of the top two programs in the country. The passion Brendan has for his craft is palpable, and his list of experiences and accolades is

064inspiring. Brendan said there were other high school students more academically strong, but he had the support and the opportunities to explore and hone his interests. But what resonated with me was when discussing his early education, he referenced one class, videography. When I look at Weathersfield's program of studies, three things stand out. The mission being the Weathersfield High School community inspires our students to reach their full potential as lifelong learners and responsible global citizens. And the vision of a graduate's three pillars: communicator, problem solver, and collaborator. Our district states they are looking at the whole learner. But again, I'm confused why we would reduce middle school course offerings if we are invested in the whole learner. And the third item being career pathways. Weathersfield lists 11 career pathways including the following three. One, architecture, construction, and

065engineering. Two, arts, audiovisisual technology, and communication. Three, family and consumer science. Three career pathways that directly link to our middle school unified arts curriculum. I am not naive enough to think that change isn't going to happen, but I do expect that when change happens that it's aligned with the values of the district. And this curriculum change leaves me confused. >> Thank you, Jennifer. My name is Caitlyn Janito, a sixth grader at WEB. I am here to talk about the upcoming changes at the middle school. I was going to take chorus and all the other unified arts. Now I have to rethink my whole schedule n and narrow it down to the narrow down the classes because because of the changes students will not have a bigger variety of skills and a bigger mind. Thank you.

066Thank you, Caitlyn. Hi, I'm Dan Chapensky from 18 Crush Street. And the first I heard of this, you know, was through parents talking to each other about the SDMS schedule changes. Heard about it, you know, back in May 13 and it was completely new to me. uh I usually don't get involved you know uh in board of ed uh affairs but my daughter felt very strongly about this to come up and you know advocate you know for herself her students and all of uh the teachers and the entire community. Now typically in problem solving there's general rules of thumb you know uh in this case you had a problem where uh den was determined to be ineffective and then you proposed a you know pretty significant schedule solution for this kind of a big big

067step usually you know you think first keep it simple and stupid that's one of the most fundamental problem solving techniques that are out there so just rough spitballing would be if den was ineffective and you needed more time to give to the classes. Uh first approach might be take den carve it up into how many periods you have per day. Give each class some additional time. Doesn't change the schedule. Gives a little bit of extra time for all the students uh to ask questions cuz that's the concern. Uh, and usually when you're trying to uh diagnose, troubleshoot a system, whether it's electrical, mechanical, computer, whatever the system may be, you don't go in there and start tweaking a whole bunch of things at once. What you do is you have a steady hand. You know,

068you don't you take a scalpel into it, you make some fine tweaks, and then you observe and collect data to see if it's an effective mitigation. You don't go there with a hatchet and say I'm going to tear down the building and reconstruct it to something entirely new. You know, you want to treat it as an organic system because all the, you know, students there are actively learning and you don't know if you're touching multiple variables what the overall imp impact's going to be. You got 120 minute blocks that are there for core classes and has there been a question of whether or not children can handle 120 minutes? from my brief, you know, research amongst, you know, what teachers have said on online, usually, you know, anything beyond 75 minutes is considered, you know,

069hard to do, especially with younger children. Um, so one thing I was wondering with the board of ed, you know, if they actually went through and performed some kind of education impact assessment, did you guys come up with a proposal? Did you do some kind of a feasibility study? Did you look at academic literature? Are there other schools that you know have taken a drastic change to their scheduling to you know incre uh to reduce the arts in you know introduce 120 minute blocks? Is there any data? Did you do a data analysis collect data from those approaches? How do you know that this approach will be good? Is there, you know, a, you know, some type of proposal with analysis and objective evidence where you can go to your community, your constituents and say,

070"Yeah, we sat down, we had data teams, you know, this approach is being used in this Connecticut school system or this state or that state. Is there something that actually, you know, uh, justifies such a drastic change?" Um, because at the end of the day, you don't want to be experimenting. You don't want to be doing things on the fly and figuring things out, you know, in the darkness of the cave and cross your fingers that there's going to be no uh ne huge negative impacts. Every solution has a strength and a weakness. All right. The old schedule has strengths and weaknesses and this radically changed schedule has strengths and weaknesses. Have you guys actually discussed openly, you know, what those strengths and weaknesses will be? Um, in terms of the 120minute blocks, all right,

071there's some concern there because who are we serving with the 120 minutes? You know, I know the goal is to get, you know, uh, math and other grades up, but what are we doing for already the kids that are the math Olympiads, the kids that are the high achievers, you know, how will the 120minute block serve them, you know, because you want a rising tide to raise all ships. If we're going to be putting like, for example, math, if we're going to be putting our kids in front of programs while they breeze through their lesson and now they're just saying, "Hey, go do independent learning. Go follow this algorithm." You know, it's just an algorithm. It's not going to teach them anything additional. It's it's going to test to see how they smart how smart

072they are. So, if it we have a 120minute block of math, how are we serving all the kids at their different levels? Weathersville doesn't have a leveling system. All right? It's not like there's a level one, level two, honors or gifted and talented. So, we're trying to fix a problem with low test scores. All right. But there's going to be tradeoffs and how are we serving the gifted and talented students, you know, uh that are out there. So, I guess I'll just end with, you know, I'll reiterate the same question. I don't know if the you know board of ed can respond to it at all but what proposal what feasibility study has been done what data analysis has been done to justify this approach because you have a lot of concerned parents and if

073there was a position paper with data with research material with actual implemented studies that show an efficacy and effective mitigation perhaps that would help you know some parents and say you could read the proposal and say here's what we did here's why here are the strengths and weaknesses. Um, as far as I know, I'm not aware of any position papers, you know, any kind of educational impact assessment. >> We generally we do not comment um back to public commenters. >> How much time do I have left on my >> uh you're at 6 minutes, but I was letting you go. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, keep going. I I mean, >> I'm not going to cut you off, but if you get the 10 minutes, I might You know what I mean? >>

074So, >> yeah, we got a lot of other people. >> The community just wants to know. >> Yeah. No, I understand. What was their due diligence done? Who made the decisions? What was that discussion like? What was the actual supporting evidence? Cuz at the end of the day, we teach our kids critical thinking, you know, analysis and support and, you know, defense of our, you know, opinions and positions. Um, thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you, Dan. I'm going to do my best not to cut people off. We appreciate you speaking, but there are a lot of people people here tonight. >> Um, hello, my name is Matthew Corwin from 35 Churchill Road. Um, this coming school year will be my fifth year in the high school marching band, my second year

075as a drum major and my ninth year in the Weathersfield Public Schools music program. The marching band in its own thing, not the whole music program, is vital to our school spirit. There is nothing like a pep band at a football game, a halftime show for performance, a concert semesterly. Middle school is the point in which a lot of kids find who they are. They find that they're interested in certain sports. if they like to cook, if they like to work uh in teched, or if they like to play an instrument. It's already hard enough to get a teenager, let alone a middle schooler, to be excited about something for an entire year while they're doing it for an entire year. If we're to cut this down to one quarter, this will decimate the outcome

076for the music program in the high school, which will in turn decimate our school spirit musically. Right now, there's a large group of middle schoolers known as the Junior Eagles that come up from the middle school and are a part of the marching band. They're a vital part of our marching band, and it wouldn't be the same without them. While these specific kids are invested in music, there are also a handful of children that will join the marching band when they come into high school their freshman year. And this is after a whole year of music education. and interest in the program. If we are to cut this down to a quarter instead of a year, I guarantee that a small fraction of these kids that are going to join once they enter high school

077won't even join the music program, let alone the marching band. Um, to take away from the music program is also to take away from the students general education. STEM is important. I take exclusively AP and um honor STEM classes. I I won a chemistry olympiad this um winter at Yukon and I agree that boosting our time related to science uh English and math is vital. It also does not mean that our time used for the arts and humanities need to be lessened. If I were not to participate in music, if I were not to be there for a full year, especially my eighth grade year, I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't have joined the marching band. I wouldn't have been a leader. I wouldn't be here talking. It's not fair to the

078students or the parents to take away this opportunity to learn something as important as an instrument. Every time my grandfather watches one of my performances, he always tells me, you know, my father, he played the trombone and he loved that thing. My only regret in high school was that I never picked up an instrument. and he had the opportunity to do so. He just never did. If we are to take away this opportunity from our students, we're taking away part of their education. Like I said, concerts, pep bands, there's nothing that compares to it. There's no class in school where yearly you have two events where all the parents can come together and look at what their children are doing, look at the progress they've made in the classroom. Everyone else gets a letter grade

079and a percentage. Music is the only program in which parents can see an actual outcome every year. And to take that away from the parents is also unfair. So, I ask you not to cut the music program in any way or at least lessen how much you are cutting it because it's vital to our education and it's vital to the future of Weathersfield Public Schools. Thank you. >> Thank you, Matthew. Hello, my name is Sophia Shinberg, 142 Stocking Mill Road. I'm talking today to express my strong opposition to the recent discussions regarding the reduction of class time for electives. Decreasing this time will inevitably restrict students ability to take music classes, a decision that would severely damage the standard of excellence Weathersfield's music programs are known for. As a student whose life has been shaped

080by music, I want to share why year round uncompromised music education is vital to our student body. My dedication to music began in our elementary schools where having access to both instrumental and vocal classes allowed me to fall in love with both disciplines. This foundation built a resilience in me that survived even the pandemic during which I took online flute lessons out of a determination to keep growing. In middle school, I immersed myself entirely by participating in choir, band, coral, and music technology. These classes did not just teach me notes on a page, but how to analyze complex structures, collaborate with my peers, and appreciate the intricate moving parts of a creative piece. The Coral Leers is a historic Weathersfield program with a formidable reputation across Connecticut. It challenges students with advanced repertoire and rigorous

081performance standards, allowing young musicians to truly thrive. Music excellence runs deep in runs deep in Weathersfield, especially for my family. My mother was a corier followed by myself and now my brother. Because of the fundamental music education I received here, I've been able to achieve these elite benchmarks representing our town at CMA regionals three times, CMEA all state three times, and the All Eastern Choir twice. I can say with absolute certainty that without our dis our district's robust daily music programming, I would not be the vocalist nor the student I am today. Furthermore, we must look at how these proposed cuts will decimate our musical pipeline. Our marching band proudly carries the title the pride of Weathersfield. But we cannot sustain that pride if we deny middle school students the space for a year-round music

082education. Our Junior Eagle program is designed to build middle schoolers up so they can seamlessly step into high school roles and leadership roles in the future. Under the proposed reductions, if a middle school student wants to take ban all four semesters, they'd be forced to completely sacrifice every other technical and creative elective. Forcing students to choose between different creative outlets traps the very minds that make our school district distinct. Reducing elective time might seem like a scheduling solution on paper, but in reality, it compromises student achievement and dismantles the programs that keep Weathersfield competitive on a statewide level. I urge the board to protect our elective spaces and maintain the robust music schedule that allows Weatherfield students to truly excel. Today, many of my friends who are graduating seniors as well as me were at

083Dollar for Scholars and could not support or be here. So, I collected signatures of many who wanted to support right here. And there's about 30 signatures on there. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Sophia. Do you want that document? Excuse me. That she was talking about >> it. You want it? >> You want it? You want it? >> I think they usually. >> All right. Cool. Yeah, we'll take it. >> Yes. Or I could take a picture of it if that's >> Thank you. >> Sorry to interrupt the process. >> No, no, that's fine. Thank you. You can cut me off whenever. I'm going to go long, so go for it. I'll just Yeah, I'll do this when you're near fire. >> Okay. Thank you. Matt Sakulo, 169 tour Highway. Uh, we've been

084in this room for about an hour 15, not 2 hours. It feels already a bit long. Uh, my eighth grader started his day today with chamber orchestra. He got up willingly at 7:00 a.m. and happily went to school to start playing viola with his friends. He's going to Six Flags on Friday to compete with the orchestra and the chorus and the I believe chamber band goes as well and they all look forward to it. It's going to be a great time to do that. they have to take music all year. Um, after his uh chamber orchestra, he went to French class where he recorded a conversation with him and another classmate all in French talking about their favorite French rock band. Um, he played it for me and I didn't understand it. So, I know

085it's I know it's working. Uh later on he had art and uh really enjoyed working on his paper quiling final. At the end of the day he had den where he was able to go and work on his homework so he could decompress finally when he got home after a long full day. He had English, he had science, he had math. his orchestra rotated out that today, but he still had all those classes, all those opportunities. Um, he had an enriching enriching full day. At the core, this proposal removes an arts or a world language opportunity, reduces den access to maybe one time a week, and fills that time with an extra hour of math, ELA, or science, creating a 2-hour block. Some people will say it's not a block. You're sitting in a room

086for 2 hours. Call it what you want. That's a long time to be sitting. When we asked Tara, the principal, about this, she agreed as is a two-hour block and then she sort of changed her mind and said, "Maybe the students can go somewhere else during that time." There were a lot of may and no concrete answers. And I don't want to do that to my kid on May. We should have answers. We should have clear, concise answers. All we know is that if you go through this proposal, it removes an arts period or a world language class from every child's schedule. If a student plays a musical instrument or sings in course, they will never be able to see an art room, teched, family consumer class at SDMS unless they sacrifice a world language

087or their music. This isn't flexibility. This isn't more options. This is an ultimatum and simply inequitable to the students and to the town. We were told that maybe there will be an afterchool club for these that assume the students are not already in Junior Eagles after school or in drama or in sports or don't have a ton of homework because they have now with more classes or other extracurricular activities. There are too many may that assume also that the teacher is available for these classes. But that's besides the point. Students should not have to stay after school simply to receive a well-rounded education. I honestly can't believe in this town we have to advocate for our 11-year-olds to get art. That's absurd. To get a full honest, well-rounded education in this town. We shouldn't have

088to. I shouldn't be here. I should be home. and Keen Foundation does a great job after school. Fantastic work. So, this is not not a hit on you guys, please. But we shouldn't have to rely on after school programs just to met meet the well-rounded education part of a child's life. After school programs are not acceptable replacement for access during the school day, just like this is not an acceptable proposal to replace the current schedule. This goes against everything the BOA or BOE and the town have stood for. No middle school student should have to choose between continuing their music education or exploring other creative and practical subjects such as art tech technology ed family consumer science or language class. With this proposal, the message is the students in the music, it isn't that important

089and they don't need to try. If you struggle, just quit, just opt out. We were told that music isn't for every student or some children get C's in language, so they should just opt out. Respectfully, can my kid opt out of gym cuz he doesn't like basketball or English because he doesn't like to read? Obviously not. The transition from sixth grade to 7th grade is already challenging enough and it's tough on every kid, not just because the age, but because it's a new school. It's a new way to learn. This proposal is so far out of the way of making that transition easier. What makes this especially disappointing is that Weathersfield already has something so extraordinary in its arts and music programs. The town marching band proudly calls itself the pride of Weathersfield. Anyone who

090attended the Memorial Day parade firsthand knows this. They and if they stayed for the ceremony, they heard the SDMS orchestra performing the national anthem with professionalism and talent. Families who attended the highest spring concert a few days ago saw passion and dedication in the children. This is going to undo a lot of that. Thank you. Uh despite what neighboring districts may be doing, we have something special here, something better. The arts and music programs are working. We are doing this part right. These programs should be celebrated and protected, not diminished. Uh, I'll just end real quickly that I still can't believe I'm here advocating for my 11-year-old's full education when we should be beyond this already. As anyone who voted for the board of ed and publicly encouraged others in town to vote for you

091guys, I can't believe we're here and that this is the proposal we have right now. Thank you for my time. Please reconsider. Thank you. >> Hi everyone. Samantha Khan, 61 Harding Street. I was here last month about the marching band uniforms. Um, I just wanted to reiterate what I think every parent has said. There's frustration, there's passion, there's, you know, so many emotions because we want what's best for our kids at the end of the day, right? And while I understand the academic portion, I also, you know, I can't believe there's not a different way to solve this. Like, there's got to be a different way. Like, just throwing out ideas. Have we worked with all the grades five and sixes? Like, have we looked at that curriculum to make sure that by the time

092they get to middle school, like there's no gap? I mean, are we looking at every single option before we go to what we're where we are right now? Cuz in my opinion, it's not the right place to be. Um, I think if if we go with that approach to say, hey, this is our problem. we need to like get better at these scores or do something and we have done X, we have done Y, we have like, you know, done everything in our power and this is where we are. I think as a parent, we'd feel better. Um, and Matt, there was math olympiad back in the day cuz I know I took it in the 80s at Charles Wright with Mrs. Hefernon. I wasn't smart enough >> and I you know I can I

093can say I can't remember much from silos in middle school but I can remember how to make pancakes in family consumer science and I remembered how to use a sewing machine and make a a little stuffed animal. It may seem stupid, but it like it makes you a well-rounded person. And I think our graduates, you know, now that it's graduation season, and these graduates are talking about their years at the high school, at the middle school, they always use the word community. This is all community. Like, you know, music, the arts, everything. It's community. So, I just I ask that we think outside of the box to solve the problem that we have. >> Thank you, Samantha. >> All right. So, there is another section at the end of the meeting um for board comment.

094If anybody else wants to come up, they can come up now or they can come up then. Uh it's up to you. Um, that being said, we'll move on to the next item of tonight's agenda, uh, which is number five, the superintendence report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, vice chair, vice chair, acting chair, acting chair. As we as we move into the final stretch of the school year, the district is fully engaged in a series of culminary event culminating events that highlight our students achievement, staff excellence, and community pride. So schools are preparing for concerts, promotion ceremonies, capstone showcases, and end of the year celebrations that reflect the hard work of the students and educators alike. So we're looking forward to a major highlight uh upcoming in June, the board of education celebration where we'll

095be jointly recognizing our retirees, our teachers of the year, staff members of the year, superintendent award recipients, and the Weathersfield High School top 10 seniors. So this this event serves as an important moment of unity between the board and the district. Operationally, this month has also included several significant areas of work. Budget implementation work has continued with attention to staffing adjustments, end of the year purchasing and planning for summer programming. We also uh advanced several governance aligned initiatives including calendar planning, policy review, and ongoing community engagement efforts. Collectively, these efforts reflect steady student centered close to the year and position us well for smooth transitions into the summer. Uh you know, just uh highlighting, principal Okconor and I are nearing completion of our exit interviews. We're meeting with all of our 280 plus graduating seniors

096at the high school. This is a tradition I've carried forward for the past five or six years as a superintendent. Each conversation has centered on a couple of essential questions. What did kids value the most about their experiences? And what advice do they have for us to work on for the journey of future students? These interviews have been one of the most meaningful parts of my work each year. Hearing students reflect with such honesty, gratitude, and insights is both grounding and energizing. The feedback has not only affirmed extraordinary dedication of our faculty, staff, and administrators over the past 13 years of these kids education, but it's also directly shaped programmatic changes, budget priorities, and improvements to student supports across the district. The senior's perspective continues to be a powerful reminder of why we do this

097work and how we deeply collectively uh you know impact the lives of our students in the future of Weathersfield. Just looking at some of our departments uh looking at finance and operations, Weathersfield Town Council held a special meeting on Wednesday, May 13th to adopt the budget for fiscal year 2627. The total approved appropriation for the school purpose was set at $70,30, and 9, which was a reduction of the $460 thou. It was a reduction of $460,000 from the board of education's approved budget. So, the majority of the reduction, 72% of it will be realized through lowerc cost health insurance uh premium. we uh ended up coming in at 8.5% versus the original 13.5% that we were budgeting. So that was good news. And the balance the 108 128,000 uh dollars will be achieved through staff

098retirements and the corresponding savings of the new hires replacing them. The finance and operations subcommittee review uh reviewed the reduction recommendations prevented uh presented by administration prior to the formal approval by the full board. You know, again, I just want to mention, you know, I did hesitate to count on retirements as a source of savings, you know, and and I kind of warned we kind of have to wait and see is how Kinder is going. Again, we're seeing kinder numbers are growing in a couple of schools that we're watching and I anticipate potentially adding a section or two of kindergarten over the summer if this trend kind of continues. So, it's something we're keeping an eye on. So, just as looking at budget in future years, you can't always count your chickens before they're hatched,

099so to speak. Um, you know, we don't want to always think about that uh that savings from the retirements as automatic because we do have to make uh decisions as we go based on enrollment. Information technology, we're pleased to report Weathersfield will be receiving $175,000 from the state of Connecticut's district repair and improvement project or they call it the drip project funding to help our district with critical security upgrades. So, we're actually using these funds to complete three major security improvement projects. We're um doing sonnetrol sonetrol alarm upgrades um upgrading, modernizing our security and alarm systems to ensure the buildings remain safe and secure. We're actually adding high school security cameras. will be installing new updated security cameras at Weathersfield High School, replacing the aging security cameras in the interior of the building. We're adding

100a network video recorder, which will replace our aging camera system service servers, which will support updated security and reliable vid video coverage. So, these upgrades are a major step forward to our ongoing commitment to providing a safe, secure learning and working environment for all of our students and staff members. Looking at the teaching and learning office, uh we we're we've completed the field test, the 58 literacy resource field test committee met on May 12th to share feedback on the trial of two core literacy curriculum resources. The committee's feedback centered around the resource alignment with research and evidence-based practices for teaching reading and writing and cognitive engagement for all students. The feedback will inform the selection of a literacy resource to pilot during the 2026 2027 school year. Um we could just in a time uh

101Mr. Acting chair, I'm going to that'll conclude the uh the superintendent's report for this month. >> Thank you, Jeff. I did read the entire report that was in the budget pack uh board packet, so I know the rest of it. I'm sure everyone else did as well. Um so that brings us to agenda item six. We have three action items tonight. Uh meaning we will be voting on these three items. We'll do a roll call vote like we've gotten used to, Ellen. Yeah. >> Um the first one has to do uh with the operating budget for the 2627 school year that Jeff just briefly mentioned. Um I'll make that motion. Um I move to approve the 2026 2027 revised operating budget as adopted by the Weathersfield Town Council in the amount of $70,30,9. Do I

102have a second? >> Second. >> Discussion. Does anybody want to talk about it? offer their input, thoughts on this year's budget process, mergery, >> I can talk about it. Um, >> the budget that was passed by the town council, it was a little disappointing because I wish they hadn't cut so much and um because we do have needs and we're looking to focus on specific areas. Um, but I hope the savings that the superintendent just mentioned will, you know, help fill those holes. Um but I also understand that the town council has a tough job because they are dealing with another you know revaluation increase tax um this coming year and also um eventually and it hasn't hit yet. It won't hit for a while that just having um the new schools will you know

103that bond will start to increase um and put pressure on the budget. not yet, not for a couple years, but um I just know that they see this and they just also needed to answer to other things that are happening um in the town, but so trying to do a balance. I wasn't really happy completely with the balance they were they're striking, but I understand it and um I'm hoping that we can still um attack our priorities like Mr. Woodby had had mentioned, which I believe and fully fully want support, especially when it comes to literacy. >> Yeah, I just have some comments. um on the budget session, the budget season. Um this was my fifth year on the board of ed. So it was my fifth budget cycle. It was probably the toughest one,

104the most timeconuming. Um both um the discussions that occurred amongst the board and then the discussions that occurred between the board and the council and then the discussions that occurred between the board and the council and our legislators and the governor. Um, we're trying to do everything that we feel that this school district needs within a limited budget. Um, the way that it's set up, when I first got on the board and I learned, oh no, like most of this money is taxpayer money. So residents, homeowners in Weathersfield, uh, predominantly fund education in Weathersfield. We don't have a big commercial tax base. Is it the best way? I don't think so. which is why we do a lot of annoying. We We annoy the town council. We need this. We need that. We annoy our

105legislators. We need more state money. We annoy the governor. We need more state money. Um without that state money, um and without a good number coming from the council, I don't feel like we can move our school district forward. Like Marjorie said, this was a very tough budget year um with the referendum asking our residents to build new schools. um with the real estate re-evaluation. I know my tax bill went up. It's probably going to go up for another couple years. Um so it is our job to fight for the school district. When we see a need, we put it in the budget. Jeff saw some things that he thought that the school district could benefit from. He presented his budget. We voted on it. It was agreed upon mostly, not totally. But so then

106it's our job to take that and go to the council and say, "This is what we want. This is what we need. It's the council's job to act as a check and balance. I mean, we can't go in there asking for 10% 9%. That's not fair to taxpayers. But we put forth what we thought was a reasonable budget um with a targeted ask that we thought could pay dividends in the long run. Um I definitely have to thank everybody up here for their work throughout the budget season. It's probably one of the most timeconuming as a board member. Um but again, um we're doing a tough job. We're we're we're we're trying to do things that we see the school district need to make the school district better and work for our kids. And there's

107just not enough. The pie is not big enough. There's not enough money to go around. Um I don't know if that means that we need to now annoy like state legislators and decision makers for state level tax reform or something. Um, but I think that the council struck a fair balance between what we asked for and what the taxpayers can afford. And I know at the council level, it was a bipartisan budget. It was passed. Both parties voting for it. Um, I appreciate everyone's work up here. We're going to do this again what n we'll start this process again what 9 months from now. So, we have that to look forward to again. Um, those are just my thoughts on the budget. I don't know if anybody else has any thoughts or comments. >> I

108just want to say one more thing. Yeah, go ahead. >> I will say that more than ever, and I I worked at the legislature one year years ago. I paid a lot of attention. I know people worked at the legislature. This year, I feel like more than ever, there's a conversation about property tax reform and the governor's talking about it. And I don't know where that's going to go, but more than ever, and we we were lucky, honestly, because there are districts that had 6 to 8 to 9% increases just within their board of ed budgets, and they just to maintain and not lay off. So, um, but everyone's getting hit with lots of increases and various things, especially um, special ed. >> So, we'll see what happens, but a lot of times we can't.

109Our our hands are tied. >> Yeah. Jeff, you got some thoughts? >> Just one thought. I I think, you know, we're very proud that um we proposed the budget, the board approved it, the town council approved the budget where not only did we not lay off one teacher this year, we actually did not provide a pink slip to a teacher as a a safety. So, we we really worked hard and I really want to thank uh the finance committee, like I said, the board of ed, the town council, um and our our finance staff for really trying to have a a reasonable budget. Um and and it was that that's hard work to try to propose a budget where you don't have a safety, you know, valve where you give people pink slips just in

110case. And and uh I can't tell you how upsetting that is to, you know, the climate and the culture. So that that's a tribute to a lot of hard work by a lot of people up here and back there as well. So we really appreciate um you know all all of that work Matt that you mentioned that worked across across many groups. >> Yeah. No, we we went to bat for our schools. We did. I know some members of the town council, they might have took issue with some of the phone calls and the amount of times that we called them and the harassment that we put upon them, but um I think that um I definitely have to give a shout out to to the governor um for increasing the education cost sharing that

111towns got in Connecticut because I think that little boost that we got, I mean, it was a million dollars, which is a lot in a in dollar sense, but percentage- wise in a town's budget like Weathersfield, which is like what 140 150 million. It's not so much percentage-wise. Um but I think that the budget that we put forth being targeted, us going to the council and telling them this is why we need this. Lamont providing extra funding. We also got lucky in terms of the insurance going down because we we voted on that budget before we got good insurance numbers. There there's just so many moving parts in an education budget. Like sometimes the state budget gets adopted before town budgets and you don't know what you're going to get in terms of education cost

112sharing, in terms of excess cost reimbursements. You don't know what you're going to get in terms of retirements. You don't know what your insurance number is before you have to adopt your budget. We did end up getting cut, but we got fortunate in a lot of other instances. And we worked we worked our council, so a lot of things worked in our favor. We're never going to get everything we want, but all in all, I I would say that this wasn't the worst budget season ever. It was far far from it, I think. I know Marjorie wasn't thrilled with it, but I I guess I'm happier than she was. All right, that being said, if nobody else has any other comments or discussion items on this motion, uh we will now do a roll call

113vote to adopt this budget on the motion I just did. >> Yes. Miss Callen Carson, >> yes. >> Miss Debbco, >> yes. >> Mrs. D Roberts, >> yes. >> Mr. Riley, >> yes. >> And Mr. Lacavoli, >> yes. >> That's five to nothing in favor. And the motion passes. >> Thank you. So, we have another motion. Um, this has to do with the approval of the service delivery program review. Uh request for propo RFP. Um I move to approve the service delivery program review RFP to New Solutions K12. Do I have a second? >> Second >> discussion. You want me to set it up? Yes, please. >> I just want to talk a little bit about this. Um we're we're looking to undergo a program review for our our high needs learners. High needs learners

114include all our students with IEPs, all students who are identified as EL or all students that are free and reduced lunch and how we deliver I'm sorry um services to them. Um this this would look at schedules, use of time, instructional strategies, intervention time, enrichment time um and provide the board of education with a very thorough report come November or December. So it would give us um information that would assess assist us in our budget uh ask for next FY28. We had three outstanding vendors both from Connecticut as well as nationwide. We had we interviewed CRE out of Hartford, West Ed out of an Annapolis, Maryland. It's a very big uh education think tank. And we also interviewed New Solutions uh out of Boston, Massachusetts. There was a financial variance of about $45,000 between the

115low bidder and the high bidder. We ended up um recommending uh the middle bidder. The team was made up of a group of board of education members and um uh educational leaders from the district. It was a unanimous decision between the interview team for the top choice. Um, the selected vendor, you know, what I'm not going to say everything, but the selected vendor certainly had the most experience of doing these types of program reviews for schools around the nation and several here in Connecticut that had some similarities to Weathersfield Schools. Uh, one of the things that stood out was that um, they were the the one firm that really um, did a good job of discussing our EL needs that uh, that is unique to uh, Weathersfield. I'll pause if there's uh, any other members

116who was on the committee. You know, >> I just I just have a quick question. Um, what what is the cost of this and can we expect to find um, that much or more in savings? The cost? >> Sure. The proposed cost was $105,000 for next school year, which is a little bit more than we had budgeted for. However, it is eligible for an ID, our idea, federal grant, so we can actually use federal funds to pay for uh some of this um overrun, some or all of the overrun. Uh we also asked um two of the three vendors who came in a little bit over what our budget was if we would if they'd be willing to let us uh stretch these costs over multiple budget cycles FY27 28 29 and they they said

117certainly that they would work with us. Um, so, uh, you know, that's, uh, you know, that's a little bit of background on the difference between the board's budgeted amount and the, uh, you know, the variance between the board's budgeted amount and the, uh, the bid amount. >> Thank you. Any other, Jim? >> Sure. I have a couple of, uh, comments. Um, you know, it was a, it was a good meeting. Um, everyone was unanimous in their, uh, decision. Uh a couple things uh stood out from from this vendor. Uh they mentioned outcome for students, make the work sustainable and more efficient and cost effective. Uh they also did mention they were in 300 districts, 30 states. Um so they had quite a breath of experience. Um they were the only ones who mentioned E in

118their presentation. Um, so that was certainly a plus. Uh, and one of the the statements that they made was to be bold yet practical. And I think that's kind of what we're looking for in in general from basically from the new administration here is is bold yet practical. Um and also um we're hoping that over the years that this expenditure is going to reap savings. Thank you. >> I concur with Jim. >> Right. >> All right. Well, if there's no more discussion or questions, then we can vote on it. >> Miss Ken Carson, >> yes. >> Mr. Debco, >> yes. >> Mrs. Roberts, >> yes. >> Mr. Riley. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Lacavolei. >> Yes. >> The motion passes 50 in favor. >> Thank you. >> Um, so we have one more motion tonight.

119This came out of the student programs and services subcommittee um, which Janice is the chair of and I now sit on. It's a very interesting committee. I like it a lot. Um, it has to do with the textbook that we are looking to adopt. I move to approve the textbook adoption for AP pre-calculus. >> Second >> discussion. >> Yes. Um this textbook um is called pre-calculus for AP. So it's specifically for um an uh an advanced placement class. Um it's a new course and so requires a new textbook and this textbook follows the AP curriculum perfectly. Um, and students also preferred this over other choices. >> Thank you, Janice. >> Nobody else has any more comments or questions, we can vote. >> Miss Kellen Carson, >> yes. >> Mr. Boco, >> yes. >> Mrs. Roberts,

120>> yes. >> Mr. Riley, >> yes. >> And Mr. Lacavoli, >> yes. >> Motion passes in favor. 50. >> Thank you. So, now we are at agenda item number seven. Um, in your board packet, you should all have 12 different policies and seven different regulations slash items of information. Um, we talked about all of this stuff in the policy and planning subcommittee maybe two weeks ago. Um most of these policies, if not all this time around, are coming from state statutes um or stuff that the legislature decided upon that school districts in Connecticut should be adopting. Um so honestly, we really have no choice. I mean, we have to adopt them cuz these are the rules that we have to play by as per state statute. Um read them over. Some of them are interesting,

121some of them are rather mundane, but it is what it is. We need to take them up. So that's that. That's all I have to do for that, right? Yep. Make sure everybody reads them because they'll come before us for a second read again. >> Okay. At the June 23rd meeting if anybody has any questions on any of them. So that that brings us to uh agenda item number eight, board of education meetings. Meetings held. Um we had a student programs and services subcommittee meeting on 5:13. Janice, do you want to speak on that? >> Certainly. Excuse me. We had no items up for approval. Um these were strictlyformational. Um one of them was um science of reading K through three update we'd asked for. Um and just generally by um this school year all

122K to three are fully implementing our chosen compendium as required by the state and our continuing professional learning. Our curriculum specialists are working with literacy now consultants to continually improve comprehension. Their kindergarten's focus is on f funological awareness, phonics, and fluency. Uh, grade one, the focus is on decoding multi-elabic words and less common vowel patterns. Grade two, the focus is developing independence in decoding um, and syllable division. Grade three, they're analyzing how narrative structure in both fiction and non-fiction shapes meaning. Um, so we when um Mrs. Granado and I visited kindergarten, we saw a lot of this in action around the room and what the students were just automatically choosing to do to decode words and to do their writing. Um, and they were really excited about it, which is the best part. Um and

123then we also talked about scale which stands for student centered assessment for learning and um what's happening with this is we're they've looked they're looking at um all the testing that we do in the school and just looking at ways to um optimize instructional time. Um we have state testing that we we have to do but um in looking at the assessments we've have there's princ they have listed four principles for for looking at it. Um the purpose is to pri prioritize the purpose and impact of a test. Reduce redundancy and overesting. Evaluate classroom assessment practices and be sure that testing aligns with instructional vision. And then we also looked at the silastine middle school um schedule update and um that is a an operational decision. So that goes to the um principal and the

124superintendent. Um, and then we also talked about our math continuous improvement improvement consultancy partnership um, with Melissa Grove from that agency and she is here to strengthen instructional practices, ensure vertical alignment, inform professional learning. She'll do this through collaborative conversations, building leadership committees, grade level meetings for K um, grades 5 to 8, and classroom visits. So, she will be demonstrating and really helping teachers to improve their um skills um and to make the most of our illustrative math program. And then um lastly, we mentioned, excuse me, the Connecticut Science Center partnership and I want to look at my handout on that. And that's um where there has been an initial meeting with um the science center in Harford. Um as we look ahead to our um K our 56 our web 56 STEM connection or

125program um having this connection with the science center will really help us with our um curriculum and give us provide a lot of hands-on and out in the community work for the students. So, that was pretty much it. >> Thank you, Janice. It's always nice to have a teacher on that committee. >> Um, another meeting, special meeting of the board of ed, 5:14. What was that, Jeff? Was that one where you voted on the RFP? >> Yes, it was. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> For the uh the construction manager >> bounds. Okay. Yep. Um, so we had a finance and operations subcommittee meeting tonight prior to this meeting. Um, we're almost at the end of the school year this year, so we didn't really talk all that much about um, this current year's budget. Um,

126we do know where we're at currently number-wise. We are currently under budget. We're about.15% under budget, which is pretty close to zero on such a large number. Um, we went over some of the places that we're spending more uh this year than we have in the past. We went over some of the items where we're spending less this year than we have in the past. Um, our business director, Matt Kazak, put together a nice new a nice new format for these meetings tonight, sort of outlaying that, showing where we're at month over month, um, and how it compares to what we were spending on specific items going back to 2223. Um it's just interesting to see how uh we spend more on things and less on things and where it all ends up, but he

127does a good job of landing us close to zero. So that's appreciated. Um we talked a little bit about the 26 27 budget that was just recently adopted um and how we thought it worked out in our favor. Um, we have one more of these subcommittee meetings left prior to the June 23rd board of ed meeting, uh, where we find out exactly how well we did, how close we got to zero. Um, that being said, meeting scheduled. Um, there's an advisory school building committee meeting on 5:27. There's a community and public relations subcommittee meeting on 61 and there's another advisory school building committee meeting on 68. So those are upcoming meetings of the board of ed or board adjacent which is what I call the advisory school building committee. Um we're back to another public

128comment section. If anybody in the public wants to come up and voice your opinion, you can do so now. You have 5 minutes. State your name and your address and tell us what you think. How you doing? Rich McKean at Five Tobler Terrace, an hour and 55 minutes. Who wants to go home? >> Right. >> I'm here for you. >> So, I just asked the young gentleman. I said, "What's the longest time you have for a high school class? 58 minutes. So, why are we going to put 11 to 14 year olds in a 2hour block? Uh, also, you know, I look at the arts. I was not musically inclined. Didn't look at my son as musically inclined. Fifth grade, he came up to me and said, "Dad, I want to do school play. What

129play? All right. What friends are doing it? He's like, none of them. All right. Is it the girls? And look at me. He's like, nah, he's not there yet. And uh he has done Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He is an accomplished lacrosse player already at this age. I have never been more proud than watching him sing a solo that was like it it did it brought me to tears that day. It still brings me quite emotional. I'm very very proud of him. Uh this year going in seventh grade it's definitely had its challenges to say uh we had a molder pulled miss one day within a week grades five Fs 3 D's like how how's that happen after missing one day at school came back he had to go to den time meet with the teachers without

130that he wouldn't have gotten back on track. And now you're going to take away that. It's like that's going to be an awful lot for these kids. So, we're taking away some of the music. I see you shaking your head on a few things. And why is that? Because the parents, have we been informed about everything that's been going on and how the decisions are being made? I think that's where you shake your head. I have questions. But man, it's like he looked at me, seventh grade's almost done. I'm like, what? This was like a week ago. He's like, I don't want to be in eighth grade next year. I'm like, so we're going to roll this out and have these teachers doing this and have the students, you know, snapping up to it. And

131it's gonna save what? What if it doesn't work? He came home with that little giraffe that he sewed. So proud last week. Beyond proud. I'm like, that's awesome. Would I have I never would have asked him to do that. But he gets to touch that. He gets to He gets to try that. Gets to try some cooking. I forced that at home as well, you know, good staple. So, it's like there's all these things that he gets to do with his friends at school besides the science, the math, the English. Maybe he doesn't do music, but I have a daughter. She's going to be in fourth grade. She loves to sing. She's all right. I'm doing the play and she's already doing things over the summer. So, what it if that is her interest? But

132what if it doesn't work? What if the grades don't come up? What if the scores don't come up? What's next? What do we cut? What's going to be left for them to do besides the nature things? The arts are important. Be it music, drawing, ceramics, cooking. I say we really need to take a little bit better look at this before we roll out something that's not 100proof. And if the high schoolers aren't doing these types of things, why are we going to put kids that cannot sit in their seats for an hour? So, and if we can shake our head, come to us and tell us more. I saw another gentleman. He sat there and it's like, give us the material. Where does this actually show that this is a better way of doing things?

133I really hope you reconsider before we move on with this. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Rich. >> I'm back. Um, Matthew Corwin from 35 Churchill Road. Just a short thing here. I want to focus more on the uh 2-hour block dedicated to science uh English and math rather than the arts programs. Like multiple people have said here today, we haven't even hit two hours tonight and most of the people have left. Uh most of them are at home. I'm a neurotypical student. I have no accommodations and on occasion I have a 2-hour lab period for my AP chemistry class. I find it hard to sit through the first half of that second period as a 17-year-old boy. I can only imagine what 13-year-old me would do in a 2hour science class in

134middle school. Personally, science is one of my strengths. And even in middle school, the one-hour class, I'd finish my work in 20 minutes and I'd do nothing for the next 40. I'd finish homework for other classes, but that's not constructive time toward learn toward learning and toward taking away from other uh subjects. If I had to sit through a two-hour science period or a math period or an English period, I don't think I could. As me now, I could I could do it. It would not be beneficial. Me as a 13-year-old in seventh grade, I couldn't do it. I physically could not sit for 2 hours for a science class that I finished a period and a half before I had to leave. I don't see enough benefit to the damage that a two hour

135hour block for uh science, math in English language arts will do other than test scores which is not the holistic goal of a school district. It should be to educate our children and not to care too much about a single score. Thank you, Matthew. Anybody else has public comment? No. All right, that being said, board comment. Anybody have board comment tonight? >> Um, I want to talk a little bit about the scheduling thing. Um, what I've known learned this year is calendars are hard and scheduling is hard. And I also just a frame of reference, my in the four years my daughter was at the high school, the schedule changed three times. Three times. So, schedules happen a lot. Schedule changes happen a lot. And there is never always a perfect fit for every kid.

136um I imagine but there's always a lot of always tinkering for various reasons um and in in it also in that time SDMS scheduled uh SDMS schedule changed two times over two principles so this would be the third time in a very short period of time um so just give you context it's not just like a one never happened before it happens all the time and even the high school had block scheduling which was long periods and they went back um a different one. Um and another thing I would just say there I had I've seen emails come about how it's all about this test scores. It isn't just about test scores. That's just like one factor that we're seeing. But the high school teachers have also been telling us we're we need to see

137better from as far as reading comprehension and math. Um not every student, some students don't have any problems but and it's not just teacher. There's there's so many things happening. Cell phones are having a huge impact on our kids. Think about how your kids go from sixth grade reading to seventh, eighth grade phone not reading and that's a huge impact and a very big learning loss between sixth grade and 9th grade where they are expected to do a lot more and we have to respond to that. So there's a lot of balls in the air trying to figure out what to do and where to fit all these pieces. So I just would want everyone to give a little grace on this. Um, I would also say that luckily Superintendent Whibby's not a social media

138person. And so, uh, our last superintendent was not a social media person, but there's a lot of misinformation on social media, but even today there was more like just nasty stuff. And I just goes to the motivation here. You know where this started this whole idea is we hired him and said one of the first things he needed to do was figure out the middle school and how to get it moving because it was it wasn't moving in the right direction >> and a lot of schools didn't after co a lot of schools were in kind of a bad spot wasn't horrible it just how do we get it moving how do we get these scores scores or test scores or just comprehension and um and productivity right so when they get to the high

139school, they can hit it in a much healthier way and they're not feeling so much stress from like the expectations there. And also that, you know, we want more kids taking algebra 1 in 8th grade, right? Um, and so we tasked him with this. It was us. And there's some people on social media saying, "Oh, it's him. He's making all these changes. He's coming in. He's he's trying to make his mark." All this stuff. It's like that, you know, you got I just wish people ignore that. and it's really kind of disrespectful and that we tasked him with doing this and how it's all going to play out. We'll see. But I just want you to know that's that's from us. That's from us seeing this happen. And the first thing he noticed when he

140looked at SDMS was there wasn't enough time for math and reading or language arts. How that how we figured that out obviously still happening, but that's what happened. And it wasn't just him coming in making all these changes and there's not any bad motivation. We're all trying to find the best direction for these students and trying to make a change and so that when they get to high school they um can just start right away and not feel like there's too much going on for them, right? And that they their study skills can be right there and ready to go, especially with math, right? Um so just motivation. we're all coming at a good place whether I mean we all can agree disagree and I don't I'm not saying people shouldn't use social media but

141try not to question people people's motives um when we're really trying to just find a better a better way um and most of you have not done that I'm just saying some people have been and I just don't think that's appropriate um and so turning to another topic so I won't talk so much um I just want to thank congratulate the dollars for scholars winners at the high school. I could not attend. My my son was at it. I think he won something. Um but I couldn't attend for another thing. I came from another thing. So there's two things I had to do tonight. But I just want to congratulate all the high school winners of those scholarships. They worked really hard. There was also another awards night at the high school this past week

142and um a lot of amazing students who have just excelled at so many different subjects. um whether it's language arts, whether it's math, whether it's arts, and it was a great showing of just the variety of of seniors who and some juniors who are being really recognized for what they've done the last four years. So, that was really nice to see. Um, another thing that's a great thing that doesn't always get a lot of notice, but but the geography team from the high school won first place in the central Connecticut um geography, >> I don't know what you call it. >> Stole mine. The geography, the high school geography, >> which is great. And one of the things they had to do, I was talking to one of the parents. They had to they were

143at central. All these schools meet at central with their geography teams and they have to have get they get a compass and they have to find places using a compass. It's not just like like trivia and they got 100%. They're like the only team that got 100% on the compass stuff. So I just like I just love that. Uh great great work team. And um tomorrow there's going to be the AP art show if anyone wants to go. There's a little like 5:30 there. They have a cookies and cheese and crackers and um it's kind of the opening of the art show and that's going to be out for another couple weeks. But that's a great way to see what's happening um um by our AP art students who do a big portfolio to get

144credit. Um that's it. >> Thank you, Marjgery. Does anybody else have >> Marjorie covered everything? >> So I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who came tonight. I just think what happened in this room like this is why I do it and I just get a little emotional hearing all these dedicated parents and the students like seeing all of you speak today that's why I do it. I hope to be a voice for young people on this council and on this board and to see you all speak just warms my heart and I apologize. I really been trying to collect myself to make these final comments because I was I I couldn't help but tear up during hearing how passionate our families are about our students and the arts and to Judy and

145Carolyn who were here earlier tonight. Um, I should have said this earlier in the meeting and I'm sorry that you have have left and missed this, but the Keen Foundation, I've had such the honor and privilege of working with um their program through the musical programs um at our elementary schools and um what Carolyn had said earlier about, you know, it builds such a community in our town, not only between myself and the amazing elementary school students like Caitlyn we saw earlier tonight, um but also high schoolers who volunteer to be a part of the program and just that community is so special. It really is. Um I apologize and I will try to collect myself um to just say thank you all for your input. I hear you and I see you. And while

146I was not directly involved in making this decision, I do trust and respect everybody who was and um I I do believe we should reconsider going forward with this if that's possible at this point. Um and I just want to thank everyone for showing up tonight and using your voices. It's really important. So, thank you all. Um, you don't have to apologize for being emotional. It was a very emotional evening. >> Anything, Jim? No, not tonight. >> Not tonight. >> Yeah. I can't I can't really follow up um Gabby and Marjgerie with this, but uh I don't know. My my major takeaway is uh we got a ton of emails both to the board of ed email to my personal emails. I got phone calls from parents that I know, relatives that I have here

147in town. Um, and I was uh taken aback by how none of them were nasty. Um, they were all just advocating for their for their wants, their needs, their kids. Kind of felt like um so you know how when politicians they run for election and they stand outside of a polling location all day holding your sign, right? I uh I always wait for like a nasty comment and I didn't get one this year. I stood at Emerson Williams for like 12 hours straight and not one person said anything mean to me and that's how I felt about all these emails that were coming in, right? They were they were strong emails, opinionated, but nobody got nasty. Um, everyone's just advocating for what they want, what they need, what they feel they need, what they feel

148their kids want, want and will benefit from. I I hear that. Well, that's my major takeaway from this scenario that we're in right now. That being said, I feel like I've said that a lot tonight. Um, 911. This was a long one. I move to adjourn this meeting. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Jim seconded. All in favor? >> I No roll call for that one. >> No opposed, no abstain. This meeting's adjourned.