001and I would appreciate that you turn off your cell phones as this meeting is being recorded. Ellen, please do our roll call. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening, everyone. Miss Ken Carson, >> Mr. Kerry, >> here. >> Miss Debbco >> here. Mrs. Roberts >> here. >> Mrs. Drew >> here. >> Mrs. Gold >> here. >> Mr. Riley >> here. >> Vice Chair Mr. Lacavoli >> here. >> Chair Mrs. Miss Granado >> present >> and Weathersfield High School student representative Miss Anushka Gandhi >> here. >> All present. >> Thank you. And can I have Cynthia Callahan, our director of teaching and learning, start us with the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,
002with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Thank you. All right. We start off in this meeting um asking people to make a comment. So, is there anyone wishing to make a public comment? Please come to the podium and state your name and address. And may I remind you that public comments are limited to five minutes. And another reminder, um we will not be responding to people's comments from the board. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on. There are no action items tonight. So, next on our workshop agenda, we have meetings held and the first one is CRE. Now, CRE met. Hold on. Got it right here. CRE Council met on Wednesday, February 21st, 2026. And the CRE council is the capital region education council of which Weathersfield is a member along with 35 other surrounding towns.
003The council's responsible for the regional magnet school and project choice. They've also organized and run the Harford Head Start program. The meeting began with a presentation on the CRE magnet schools. Dr. Sasha Douglas, the superintendent of Cre Schools, gave a state index report, something we just recently had on the magnet schools. The slide presentation can be seen on their website. Greg Fuio, the executive director for CRE, gave his last report as he plans to retire on February 1 after 10 years at the helm. A succession plan to transition to a new executive director has been in place for months. This change will be a smooth transition, but the CRE council will miss Dr. Florio for his strong guidance of CRE and we thank him for his years of service. There was further discussion on CRE's
004budget and need for our legislature to increase funding. The Connecticut State Legislature is in their short session soon now. So Craig Cab and Hassa will be having a breakfast which we attended today on February 10th at the legislative office building. This is a great opportunity to meet and discuss education ideas, issues, budgets, and other problems facing Connecticut public school districts. All correct information and meeting in and minutes can be found on their website. Thank you. Okay, let's move on to other meetings held. We have a community and public relations committee. Marjorie, would you speak to that? She's not here. All right, we'll save that for our next meeting. And we did recently just have our policy and planning committee, Matt, would you keep us updated on that? >> Yep. Thank you, Bobby. So, prior to
005tonight's meeting, the policy and planning committee did meet. Um, we discussed 11 new policy updates that we adopted, and we have more coming soon. I'll just briefly go over what we discussed tonight and what we adopted to move forward to the board for a first read. Uh 10 out of those 11 policies that we voted on tonight are essentially mandated either from federal regulations or public acts coming from the Connecticut State Legislature. Of those 10, three simply add quote sexual assault victims and human trafficking victims into the definition of protected classes under Connecticut's non-discrimination laws end quote and entail or and or entail minor technical revisions to title 9 regulations. Other policy updates that we discussed and voted on have to do with the following. The board's ability to create a new 2% reserve fund
006in addition to the one that currently exists. The reporting of suspected abuse or neglect of children or reports of sexual assault of students by school employees, social media use by district employees, administration of student medications in schools, and updates to the child sexual abuse and assault response policy and reporting procedure. Uh, I want to thank Superintendent Jeff Wibby and Jennifer Miller for their work um on these policy updates. they did a lot of homework and planning uh around them. So, their work is appreciated. And I just want to note that the other policy um I just mentioned 10 that we adopted. The one policy concerning civility and decorum policy was sort of a rarity coming out of this board. The other ones that we adopt are just like the ones that we normally adopt. They
007come from state statute. This one was actually created by this board. Um, it started under the last board. So, I just have to acknowledge former board members Liz Walters and Christina Hernandez Williams for their work on this. Uh, it started off in the HR committee. It moved to the policy and planning committee tonight and we finally voted on it. It was a long time coming and I think it was work well done. It's a policy that essentially goes over how we should be conducting conducting ourselves at meetings in public, how we should treat each other, how should how we should carry ourselves. um civility and the quorum says it all. That's how how we should be carrying ourselves. I will note that there was some debate um in committee on this, but I feel we
008we ended up voting on it. Um uh it went through. Um I'm looking forward to working with both sides of the of the aisle, those that voted for it, those that didn't vote for it on the second read or anything concerning it going forward. Um it was vetted by Shipman and Goodwin, our legal team. Um, so there was enough support in the room thanks to our exeicio member to have it pass. That's it, Bobby. >> Okay, thank you. So, we'll move on. We do have reports and discussion items and our first report tonight is on the youth voices count survey. So, can we come on up? Thank you for being here and for doing this. Good evening. Um, my name is Cararissa Peekl. I work as the prevention coordinator for the town of Weathersfield and
009oversee we hope, which is Weathersfield's helping others through prevention and education. Um the youth voices count survey takes place every two years um in Weatherfield public schools 7th through 12th grade. Um survey results are captured um and we have that tonight due to um prevention grant funding. Um so we were able to take the survey this year um due to that um and we're here to provide the results or an overview of the survey um with continued conversations on how we can use um the results of of this survey and this data um moving forward. Hi everybody. I'm Bonnie Smith. I'm here with Luke Smith. Um we are fortunate to be here to talk to our hometown. We talked to many communities in Connecticut about the outcomes of youth voices count in their their own
010place, but we have the unique pleasure of presenting in our own community where we have children in the schools. Uh many of you have been through this before. So so welcome to the data again. Uh just for some background, Carissa touched upon we have done this survey before uh every two years since 2019. So this survey occurred in December 2025 for those grades 7 through 12 and everything is entirely anonymous. Truly our own children who take the survey, we cannot tell you what they've said. We had an excellent response rate of almost 87% overall which was increased from our last survey process which was around 83%. Starting with youth lifestyles. This is the first time that we ask questions about the age of getting your first smartphone and access to social media. And you can
011see the majority of kids are getting that cell phone uh age 11 and 12 and certainly age 10 as well. And the social media accounts come right after. So, the most common age for getting a social media account was 11 and I'm sorry, 12 and 13. But you can see there's a spread and we still have 13% of kids reporting that they do not have this. Here we have social media assets and consequences. I'm trying to be quick tonight, so I highlighted in yellow the areas I'm going to focus on as we talk, but there's other data here for you to explore at other times. So starting at the bottom yellow box, we have about 60% of high school students reporting that their social media participation makes them feel more connected to others. And then
012we have about 55% of middle school students reporting that social media makes them feel better about themselves. When we look at feel worse about themselves, uh we see more high school students report that social media use makes them feel worse about themsel at about 27% or 26% I should say. And then having a hard time stopping. Overall, about 32% of students report they have a hard time stopping engaging with social media and that's a higher rate at the high school compared to the middle school. We're going to move right along to emotional health. So, we have 21% of youth reporting that they've felt stress, worried, or anxious in the past year. We're going to talk about trends soon, but you'll see on this slide, it's the first time we've introduced a comparison to the district
013reference group or DRG. For those who are not familiar, the DRG is the state of Connecticut's former designation for districts to allow comparison between like communities. Our data set now contains almost 75,000 Connecticut youth. So we are able to compare most of the district reference groups and allow that uh information here for in the interest of time I won't go into each slide where you see this but just know at the bottom that's a comparison to the town of Weathersfield. So this slide has a lot of information I'm going to try to walk through um pretty quickly. The first item we'll see is thoughts of self harm in the past year. This is those responding yes. And you can see that more middle school students than high school students report having had thoughts of self
014harm. And overall 14% of students report thoughts of self harm. Taking action on that self harm, so harming oneself is 7.5% overall of students and that's higher at the middle school at 10.4% compared to 6% at the high school. Having experienced physical abuse from an intimate partner is 2.1% overall. And then feeling sad or hopeless two or weeks two weeks or more in a row is 15.4% between grades 7 through 12. And feeling lonely often. This is a new indicator for us this year. 26% of students report feeling lonely often. The next is about suicide. And we try to provide a bit more context here because it's a serious issue. Uh so starting with overall 8.6% of students in grades 7 through 12 or 117 students had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year.
015The kids that responded yes to this were then asked a series of additional questions. So those 117 youth were then asked did they make a plan? and 49 students reported that they had made a plan. Those same 117 students were then asked, "Did you attempt suicide?" And 10 students overall reported attempting suicide. And we see that's a higher rate when we're looking at rate of 23.4% at the middle school compared to just under 20% at the high school. Here's some additional questions we ask of kids who said that they had cons considered suicide in the past year. We asked them, "Did you talk to a friend?" You see, more middle school students than high school students had. Did you talk to a parent? Overall, about 20% of students had knowing where to get help. More
016middle school students reported knowing where to get help than high school students and reported getting that help compared to the high school students just by a fraction. And then feeling like they had no support. 62% of middle school students reported again of those who had seriously considered suicide that they felt like they had no support and about 40% at the high school. looking at some trend data. Um we're suicide of course is a very serious issue. This these are areas around what we call the depression indicator in anxiety that tend to feed into some of these things. We're seeing good news particularly since the survey right after the pandemic in 2021. So anxiety has decreased quite substantially between 2021 to 2025 from 27% to 20%. Feeling anxious almost always or always. Uh feeling sad or
017hopeless. Also seeing great improvement since 2021 now at 16.3% of students reporting that which is pretty stable from the last survey in 2023. And then thoughts of suicide. This is um also remaining quite stable around 8%. I know that this board in the past had really liked to look at information about connections to trusted adults. So, we did a quick special analysis on this and you can see on the left that students consistently over the past four survey cycles have one adult they can share their thoughts and feelings with at that 92% rate. So, very consistent. And then saying yes, they feel comfortable seeking help from school staff. That has gone up um in 2023 and again by a little bit in 2025 with about 27% of students saying yes, school staff are an area
018of comfort for help. >> Thank you. Okay, I have my two-minute warning, so I'm going to move quick. The number one source or choice of substances for youth in Weathersfield in their lifetime is number one alcohol with 13% of high school students reporting ever having had a drink more than just a sip for not for religious activities in their lifetime which is slightly higher than that district reference group. Vape products are also a bit higher looking at that middle school or I'm sorry let me realign myself. Um, Weathersfield is lower than the district reference group when we look at overall 7 through 12. And then vape products with nicotine in them are the second most commonly subst commonly used substance which is close to marijuana or THC. And 9% of high school students report having
019gambled in their lifetime. This is here just to show you the grade level report. Um, so as students get older, they tend to use more substances and that can be seen with, for example, 23% of high school seniors having drank alcohol in their lifetime. But substance use rates, looking at grades 9 through 12 more closely, are all improving, particularly between 2021 and 2023. Then there was a real emphasis on prevention activity here in Weathersfield. Um, and even since 2023, these rates have gone down for past month use of substances. I'm going to skip a couple things. Number one source of alcohol for youth is home with parents permission. Marijuana comes from friends and peers and vape products with nicotine, number one, friends and peers. But you'll see consistently home with or without parents permission is
020one of the top three sources. Uh, I just want to point out folks are always worried about the opioid epidemic. And um as expected in youth data, use of heroin or fentinyl is under 1%. Inhalants are at 2% for those middle school students. And that's just something I like to highlight. 2% is a small number. It's an expected number, but inhalance can be deadly upon first use. And that is my time. That's my 10 minutes. So, um I'm going to stop there. I talked way faster to myself at home is what happened. Okay, anyone with questions or comments? I would like to first say I do look forward to this. I know the subject matter and the the answers we get sometimes can frighten all of us in the adult world here, but um my
021question always and I ask this is where do where do you take this info from here? That is a great Cararissa question, Cararissa. So much of the data that comes from the survey are used to then create or fund programs. Um so for example, what I did when seeing the full report of these survey um responses is I went through and highlighted sort of like Bonnie's doing right now um the kind of important factors, right? So, what are the substance trends that we're seeing um in terms of grades 7 through 12? Um and I highlighted those so that I know what to bring information to parents or to the schools about moving forward. Um the other kind of piece of it um a new sort of section that we added was the positive um childhood
022experiences kind of section. So, trusted adults, um, Weathersfield traditions, all of those things are a new section this, um, this year that we asked students about. Many of those students said that they enjoyed Weathersfield traditions, that they have trusted adults in the community, that they like programs. Um, and so what that tells me is that we need more of them. Um, what I'm looking at now is sort of figuring out how we take the specific age group of 7 through 12 and really use that to kind of fund programming for them that's related to this data. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Carissa, correct me if I'm wrong, but um, this this survey is required in order for youth and family services to receive state and federal grants. Correct. >> Correct. So a
023lot of um our grant opportunities um are really kind of fueled by the data from this survey. Um so it is a crucial part of us being able to um to go for a lot of those grants, right? Um and really kind of paint a a landscape of Weathersfield that's accurate with with what's happening with youth here. >> Well, thank you. Thank you both for this is valuable information. Thank you. You >> we'll be back. This isn't the first time, so we have more data to share, but >> great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. We also have our superintendent entry plan part two. This part I'm just going to say briefly prayer. Can you see this first thing? You got the thing. Thank you, Madam Chair, board members. Tonight, I'm presenting the second
024part of my entry plan. What I've learned from listening to our community and what our student data tells us. So, this work is grounded in transparency. My goal is to give the board and community a clear, honest picture of where we stand and what it'll take to move forward together. I want to reiterate across every school I met, dedicated, caring, highly professional educators and deeply engaged and thoughtful families and wonderful students. Our challenge here is not effort. It's just coherence as I kind of get through uh these 20 slides. Are you ready for slide two? Okay, I can see it here. That's why I got to look down here. All right. So, the first part that I want to talk about is measuring ourselves with what matters in schools. And as we look first, you've
025heard me talk about a lot, the accountability index. And I just want to talk a little bit about what is it and why it matters. So you know the accountability index is a mandatory state conglomerate of various performance areas. And I also like not just because it's what the state says we all get measured by. I like it because of the diversity of the measures. Kristen, let's go back to that one please. Um it includes art access. It includes physical education. It includes access to career and college readiness. It doesn't just focus on high stakes testing like the SAT and the ESPback, although those are included, but I like it because it counts those two different ways. It counts it for achievement, but it also accounts it for year-over-year growth of matched cohort students. So,
026it shows how much every individual kid grew from one year to the next. how an individual student goes from third grade to fourth grade is important. It is required under federal ESSA law. Um, but it's a very reliable index. This index especially is important for us here in Weathersfield because it highlights both our strengths and our systemic gaps that have emerged throughout the entry process. Every school gets categorized 1 through five by the state department of education. Okay. All Weathersfield schools currently fall within categories 2 through three. Actually, yeah, let's go to this one. Slide three. All Weathersfield schools currently fall within categories two through three, but several of them actually got dro two actually got dropped because they had outlier gaps. So on this chart, this is preandemic is 18/19 and then I gave
027you the last 3 years. So if there's a blue color, that means it was a level one. If it's a green color, it's level two and yellow means that they were level three. Now, this past year, we had two of our schools, Web and SDMS, I'm sorry, uh, Web in the High School, that got pushed down to level three because they had an outlier gap in high needs. So anytime your high needs population has larger than one standard deviation away from the mean, you get pushed down one level below. And that was the reason for web. We web or the high web and the high school both scored enough to be level two, but they did get pushed down to level level three. So, this reinforces a central entry finding that you'll hear me probably
028beat the drum four or five times tonight that our systems for supporting high needs learners, particularly with multi-tered systems of support, scheduling, staffing alignment are inconsistent and require redesign. This is a very big thing that we have to think about and consider. We we don't want to leave any of our high needs categorized students behind. And you've heard me. High needs means they're either identified as an EL learner, they have an IEP, or they're listed as a free and reduced lunch. Those are the three criteria that earmark a student for being high needs. Any one of those three. And in some instances, students fit fit that qualification for all three. Um this is especially true at the middle school. The middle school scored scored in the range to be level three. Um and they also
029had a gap there. These patterns are not isolated to SDMS. All our schools show scheduling and staffing misalignment that limits tier 2 and tier 3 intervention. Most schools have returned to or surpassed prepandemic levels except SDMS. So if you look across, you look pre- pandemic and you look at now, all of our schools except SDMS are back to where they were before the pandemic. So SDMS is the one place that hasn't come back to preandemic levels. Kristen, we can go ahead to slide five just to compare ourselves. Here you can see the accountability index compared to others. Um, as noted, we are 261. I'm sorry. Uh, we're 61 out of 1999. Now, last year we're 66 out of 199. Last year, we were 61 out of like 206. And I'm still trying to figure out
030what happened to those seven school districts between this year and last year. Um, I actually thought they added a school district. Um, the next slide we're going to look at it compared to DURG D pairs. We rank seventh in accountability index in district resource group D. These are schools school districts that are similar to Weathersfield. Rocky Hill, Newington, Cromwell. Uh there are 24 schools in Durg D and we ranked seventh this uh eighth this past year, I'm sorry. Our target is to move from the top 33% where we are this year into the top 25%. And honestly, I'd love to see us move into the top three or you know four. That's that would be something that I think is really doable. We have fantastic staff. We have fantastic kids. And we have fantastic families.
031And I really see us I'm not not going to jinx. I'm not going to say it, but I really see us rising to the top of the durg. Um, you know, in reasonable order, but to do that, we must address our systematic issues. We need to focus on consistent curriculum, even MTSS implementation and our scheduling. All right, we can go to number seven. These are dirt D comparisons that I show shared with the board of education last month. Um, you know, I referenced our per pupil expenditure, which is among the lowest in DUID D. Um, I referenced our certified staff to student ratio, which is pretty reasonable. Like we we, you know, it's like a Goldilocks number. We don't have too many and we don't have too few. It's kind of just right. Uh we're
032somewhere right in the middle there on our student to staffing ratio. I will point out that we have one of the lowest uh certified administrator to student ratio in the um in the DUR. >> Go ahead Kristen and you can take us right to number nine. I'm going to talk a little bit about facilities inspection. As I was doing most of my interviews, many of my interviews were in July and August and even the beginning of September, definitely facilities emerged as a major theme in the entry process. Staff, families, and students consistently raised concerns about deferred maintenance, slow response times. Um, these conditions affected safety, morale, and instructional continuity at the schools. And as we all know, since that time, the town of Weathersfield very generously and insightfully decided to invest a large amount in
033three out of the five of our elementary schools. Um, the recent referendum is a crit critical step forward, but we must pair it with disciplined district-wide preventative maintenance planning and clear capital road maps. This is about stewardship, protecting taxpayer investments and ensuring our buildings support highquality learning for 50 or 60 years moving forward. We want to take care of these investments that our Weathersfield taxpayers have have bestowed on us so generously. You know, in thinking of the facilities, you know, I know we have shared services with the town. I'll say so far when I ask for things to be addressed, they get done very quickly. So, I've been really pleased with the partnership with the town. Now, I know I'm in my honeymoon period um as a superintendent, and my expectation is that that always
034continues, but I also need this to be I need the the facility needs to be responsive to my principles, to my staff, to my students, to our families, and to our board of education. And this has got to be something that isn't just a now thing. It's got to be an always thing. We need to always make sure that our schools are always our facilities are most responsive and prepared for our children and our staff at all times. Okay. Teaching and learning. This was the part of my entry report that was by far the longest and as it should be. We're a school district. We're not, you know, a jet engine company or a casino or we don't make submarines. We make you know we make critically thinking children. So that's why this is the
035most important part of our plan teaching and learning. The most important finding of the entry process is we have strong educators but we have fragmented systems inside of the schools and across the schools. Across the schools I saw dedicated knowledgeable professionals. What's missing is coherence, a unified system that aligns the curriculum, the assessments, the MTSS, as we talked about, staffing and scheduling. Appendix A makes this clear, interventionists, I heard frequently at all the buildings, interventionists are frequently pulled during the day away from kids that they're supposed to be serving to cover. Job descriptions are outdated. Tier two and tier three supports are inconsistent. Frequently the intervention is based on adult availability versus making a a purposeful line in the sand. This is when we're going to deliver services and this is untouchable sacred time. We
036have to flip that the other way around and protect uh those those key times. To become a true learning organization, we must redesign our service delivery systems. We must make those tier one, two, and three times very sacred. Instructional vision is something that we heard. We we currently do not have a clearly articulated instructional vision tied to our vision of the graduate, the board of education strategic operating plan or their core values. Without a shared north star, schools and teachers are left to interpret expectations on their own. Sometimes rigor is interpreted without standards or very differently across classroom to classroom, building to building. We want to homogenize this to a degree. This affects everything. Our curriculum decisions, professional learning, assessment practices, and resource allocations. Establishing a concise district-wide instructional vision is the first and more
037most urgent step towards coherence. our teaching and learning team, our principles, our teachers will start to dive into this creating this instructional northstar beginning this spring and spilling over into next fall. And we look forward to bringing the board of education next school year an instructional visionary statement for your um advice, deliberation, and um um input as we kind of create that. We want to make sure it aligns with the board strategic plan. Um okay, I think we're ready for 12 assessment data. teachers. This was an interesting place. In some buildings, teachers consistently reported that assessment data is delayed, siloed, or sometimes difficult to access. But as I went back and verified, a couple of the buildings said, "No, no, no. We always get it in a timely fashion." So, it was like kind of
038like mixed messaging a little bit. Um, some schools rely on ad hoc coverage just to allow teachers to analyze data which disrupts instruction. So a lot of times teachers are getting covered so that they can go and work in collaborative teams to look at data. We really can't do that. We really have to keep that instructional time sacred. We have to create predictable scheduled data reviews built into the calendar. We have to make teacherfacing dashboards for data so they can basically press a button and have access to how their kids are doing so that they can make informed instructional decisions and we have to protect their collaborative time. We want to protect their instructional time but we have to protect their collaborative time as well. This will open the data loop and ensure assessments information
039assessment information drives instruction rather than interrupting it. We really have to plan for these things. Moving on to slide 13. Our curriculum curriculum gaps are one of the most significant system level issues identified. We lack coherent K through 12 curriculum curriculum platform. Um, you know, it's different in every grade level. Our renewal cycle is a little inconsistent in key areas such as K through three, science of reading and 5 through 8, math have some missing or incomplete materials. This forces teachers in some circumstances to create curriculum on their own, which undermines consistency and equity, and it really puts too heavy of a pile on their shoulders. um as they have kids in front of them all the time. You know that it just adds an extra burden to them. We must adopt a single curriculum
040platform, launch a funded K through2 curriculum writing cycle and establish a uniform MTSS framework with protected intervention time. I will note weather Weathersfield High School has been very solid in the curriculum process and over the last several years they've done a fantastic job of updating their curriculum. It's one of the nice things about NIASK accreditation is NEAS keeps you on your toes to make sure your curriculum cycle is up to date and the high school has done a fine job over the last you know several years in that area. Finally, families also need clear, aligned progress reporting that reflects what students are actually learning. We really want to do and need to do a better job making sure families know what's going on in the classroom and what's important so that they can be supportive
041of their children when they come home. There's nothing more powerful than a parent armed with what's going on in the classroom so that they can ask questions of their children. I I remember those conversations. How did it go today? And they usually like to talk about recess and you know, but it's it's so powerful when mom or dad or grandma uh or whoever, you know, can talk a little bit about gez, how was um converting fractions into decimals, you know, getting them to actually talk about that with their families. It's just a reinforcing factor that strengthens and supports the work of the teacher in the classroom. So, we want to be able to have a front-facing curriculum so parents see what is going on in school so that they can help support the work of
042the teacher in the classroom. All right, I'm ready for 14. Talent management. We must recruit, hire, develop, and retain the absolute best staff that represents Weathersfield's core values. Strategic staffing is essential to a coherent uh school system. You know, like I said, right now, I heard many times, interventionists are frequently pulled for coverage. Certified teachers carry disproportionate non-instructional duties. Job descriptions are outdated. Um, you know, right now you have very minimum levels of reading and math interventionists in the school. We need a multi-year staffing plan aligned to student needs and educator competencies. We don't need equal distribution of staff. We need equitable distribution of staff. And what that means is every one of our schools has very different needs. Some schools have students with more IEPs. Some might have more EL learners. Some may have
043more math needs. Some might have more kids. They might need more physical education support. Every school has nuanced differences. schools are so close, but sometimes they do have they do manifest differences um in needs. And we want to make sure that our buildings are responsible for the three or 400 kids that are inside those four walls of that building. And that's what I mean by by equitable staffing. Um, and you know, I referenced the per uh the um the uh FTE per certified or certified staff per student. We're not in bad shape. Like I'm we don't need like 50 or 60 more teachers. We just need to rethink or reimagine the types of teachers and the certifications and the roles that they play. I really don't think we need tons more. I'm not going to
044come asking for a million more FTE, but we do need to look at it and maybe repurpose it and do it a little bit differently. That's definitely part of the talent management process. Um, this will take many years. You know, this will be a three or a four three, four, five year project between the board and I. I look forward, you know, to this great work in talent management. I wrote this report before the assistant superintendent started and just in the last month she has provided very illuminating analysis about how the staff is kind of split out by by certification, years of service. We really look forward to bringing the board of ed lots of information moving forward so that we can be very strategic and thoughtful about how we how we staff uh moving
045forward. And and finally, professional learning must also be aligned to competencies and delivered consistently especially according to specialized roles. We want to make sure that we're respectful of the efficacy and the needs of our professional staff and we want to have our professional development programming meet their needs. Crosswalk that with the student needs and cross that crosswalk that a third time with what our leaders are saying they're seeing in the classrooms. And if you triangulate those three things, you create a world-class professional development system. And we look forward to providing lots of adult adult action data and teacher efficacy data from surveying them um and bringing that forward to the board of education to to to to receive oversight from you on on that moving forward. Master scheduling is the next part. Master scheduling is
046one of the most powerful levers we have and it's probably one of the least optimized here in Weathersfield. Um, you know, I I was an old master scheduler of a high school and I remember my first year doing it, I had it all up on a magnet board with magnets and I remember the teachers would sneak into my office after hours to look at like how the schedule was coming and I would always be like, "What? How come my office is so popular? And like one time one of the fellow I was like, "Herb, what are you doing in here?" But it helped me realize how important the master schedule is, what period everything is being offered, how many times you're offering a particular class, how many how much FTE is dedicated to it. It's
047such a p it's it may be number one. It's it's one of the biggest levers we have to growth, improvement, effectiveness, efficiency in a school district. Scheduling must protect intervention blocks, ensure access to skilled staff, and support collaborative planning. One of the places I noticed, the middle school in particular, there's structural barriers that limit access to interventions and contribute to some of the climate challenges that I heard about. I I have a very clear theory of action. We always want to match our highest needs learners with our most skilled educators and protect those schedules for the kids and for the staff. We also must push into tier one to support classroom teachers with instruction. There's a lot of high needs learners that are in regular classroom settings that we need help to come in and
048support the classroom teachers like when they're in a core reading block in third or fourth grade. We would love to be able to push in with a reading interventionist and help assist that core reading lesson that's going on in some smaller groups. scheduling, staffing, and instructional vision must operate as one coherent system. And that's something that we'll talk about as we go. This all has a dollar sign attached to it, you know, and I did put a part in there that just kind of recognized the budget implications to teaching and learning. Entry findings and the verification feedback converge on a single message. Our challenges are systematic, not isolated. We must move from buildingby-build practices to a coherent systemwide approach. That means these are the the the big things. We need a clear instructional vision as
049I mentioned. We need unified curriculum platforms and process. Uh we need to redesign MTSS so it captures all the kids into the three safety nets. We want to have we want to design three safety nets for kids. So if they fall out of of the boat, there's a net. If that net misses them, there's a second net. If that that net misses them, there's a third net. And that's how you think about the three tiers. It's three nets to catch the kids and make sure that they get the uh skills that they need to be successful. We need to strategically staff. We need purposeful master schedules. We need stronger data systems. We need unified leadership structures. Teaching and learning leadership was focused on pet projects previously is what I heard and low-leveraging strategies or it
050was disconnected from school workflows. I heard many times they felt like things were done to them versus with them. That was a common theme that I heard from our our professional and certified staff. With focused leadership and strategic investments, Weathersfield can convert its considerable talent into sustainable improvements in teaching and learning and student outcomes. Um, you know, we can't build coherence without investing in the systems that support it. Curriculum, assessment, staffing, scheduling. Um, this means funding single curriculum platform, protecting intervention time. I've already kind of beat this drum. We We have to reflect instructional vision, not fragmented structures we're trying to leave behind. So, this past summer, I went in to retreat with our leadership team and we built the continuous improvement plan as you saw and it was like a million pages, right, with
051like a million strategies. Um, I was trying to honor the previous work that was done, but I also need to conclude unnecessary and non-productive work and focus on our imperatives. We are all over the place. There's so many things going on in the districts for the last few years. We really have to hone that down to a single set of strategic imperatives so that we can focus on it and be great. We don't want to be jack of all trades and masters of none. We really want to pick a a handful of things that meet the strategic operating plan criteria and become great at that. Um it doesn't mean we're only going to do a few things. We're still going to do a lot of things, but if everything is important, nothing is important. And
052I look at that continuous improvement plan and we're going to get it done. Um, but I really do think that we have to kind of narrow our focus and become really great at a number of things that are are really important to the Weathersfield community. All right, let's move on to finance and business services. So, when I when the board of education hired me last spring, I'm doing some research myself and I talked to the board of education, the Weathersfield board of education's third party auditor and I was like, "Hey, how are things financially over there?" And the auditor said, "You're in for a treat. You've got one of the best business managers in the state of Connecticut." Um, and I have never I haven't found anything short of that being true. Um, it's a
053clear district strength. You have steady leadership. You have a long-erving high-performance finance director. As a team with the board of education, you have achieved clean audits. You have rigorous internal controls here. I'm so impressed with the controls of the uh the finance office. They're cross-trained. They they they check each other's work. I'm really impressed with the machine that goes on up there on the third floor. There's transparent accounting practices. There's discipline stewardship of public funds. Um our finance and business service team has done strong work maintaining fiscal stab stability, ensuring compliance. The work between the board and the finance office is commendable over the last several years. I really have to give kudos to both the board and to Matt's team. As we move to toward greater instructional coherence, our financial uh systems should continue
054to evolve to support multi-year planning. In the past, I used to beg previous finance directors to think about multi-year planning and multi-year budgeting. And here Matt just does it automatically. He really sees two, three years down the road and it's a it's a treat to kind of understand what's coming around the corner. In finances, the board or the superintendent never wants to be surprised and I've continually been impressed with that. Um, okay. A lot here. We must continue strengthening transparency, forecasting, long range planning so the board and the community can clearly see how investments connect to student outcomes. Particularly now as we kind of have these big capital projects rolling. The goal is not simply to balance a budget. It's to strategically resource the system that drives teaching and learning. And that's what we hope
055to do together as a governance team is to be strategic about our expenditures as we move forward. Moving into slide 18, IT, health, safety, and security. Um, you know, first of all, working with IT has been a consistently positive experience. You have two managers that are are just been a pleasure to work with. Uh similarly with uh the health safety and security director has been a fantastic uh experience during entry. The staff of those teams cons uh you know consistently step forward and and um show their strategic thinking. Um they've est they're establishing a unified technology plan that supports reliable devices, stable networks, timely support, all aligned to instructional priorities. Health and security systems continue to be modernized to ensure safe responsive environments. Um, as I said earlier, we need to con continue to include
056preventative maintenance, clear communication channels, and coordinated emergency protocols. These operational systems are not peripheral. They're they're foundational to a functional school district. I'm really excited to tell you that the um the technology team has begun a five-year strategic technology plan and just this past month they started a districtwide technology committee which will ensure inclusivity and responsiveness to educator and student needs. Special services and e this is like a broken record. So everything I already said about teaching and learning goes together with with special services and EL. Our special services and EL department serve some of our highest needs learners and their success depends on coherent systems and protected staffing. Entry findings revealed that interventionists and specialized staff are diverted from primary roles undermining the supports they provide. We must build multi-year staffing plan that aligns
057specialized roles with student needs, protect intervention time, and ensure compliance. Professional learning must be targeted, ongoing, and competency aligned, especially in areas like behavior supports. I heard a lot at the middle school, they'd like to see more support for behavior supports, differentiation, language acquisition. A coherent MCSS system will only work if special services and EL are fully integrated into district-wide scheduling, staffing, and curriculum decision. We don't want to have everyone fighting over the same kids at the same block of time. We want to make sure that schedules are set up so that the kids and the staff can flow together. Um, I I strongly recommend that we invest in a full program review in the coming years um to identify the systems and the structures and how to best do that. And I think that
058this would uh it would be it would make sense to think about a third-party auditor to help us with that that specializes in this and potentially an RFP down the road. And again, I always reiterate, our highest needs learners deserve the most skilled staff and our systems must guarantee that access. But across the board in E special services, very dedicated, hardworking people. Moving on to slide 20. Okay. We we've we have shown an exe an exemplary standing of policy analysis. The board has done an exemplary job maintaining current policies demonstrating strong governance, legal compliance, and responsiveness to emerging issues. Um, I've walked into other school districts where policies haven't been touched since like the 1990s. The board has done a very nice job of updating it. Moving forward, we just need to continue a formal
059rolling review cycle, predictable scheduled process to keep policies current and coherent, responsiveness to local priorities. It's important to meet state and federal, but it's also important to have policies that represent the Weathersfield community. Um, you want to have homegrown policies that make sense for folks in Weathersfield. They may not make sense in Derenne or in Bridgeport, but they make sense in Weathersfield. And it's important for us to have homegrown policies as well. You saw one of those this evening. Alignment with statutory requirements always is is a must. Finally, slide 21. I conducted a communication survey. 266 parents participated, most of them over the summer. Um what we heard what we heard is you know kind of the big takeaways. Communication survey shows community that is engaged, supportive and eager for clearer, more consistent information from
060the district. Families want transparency about what students are learning about and how they are progressing and how decisions are made. I heard staff want timely updates, clear expectations, and a unified district voice is what I heard. These findings reinforce a central theme of the entry process, the need for coherence, not just in instruction, but coherence and communication systems. As we build a clearer instructional vision and stronger systems, we also must strengthen how we communicate this with families, staff, and the community. Effective communication is not an add-on. It's a core leadership function that builds trust and supports student success. At this time, I pause for questions, deliberation, thoughts from the board of education. This is this is a workshop and I wanted to have an opportunity to give you guys a chance. >> Jim, >> uh
061just a couple of uh comments. I think one of the things you touched on was consistency and I think we're, you know, we're certainly starting to see that. I thought it was was great a month or two ago. We got to see all the schools give a presentation. It's the first time since I've been on the board that we saw all of them come up at once. So, you know, that's the best way to learn is to see what everyone else is doing. So, I think we're moving in the right direction on that. Uh, and the other comment that you made was you talked about rethink, repurpose, and re-imagine. And I think that's what we're trying to do. When we hired you, you know, we wanted new things. I think we're getting, you know, we're
062getting new things. We're getting new people. You know, you're moving positions around a little bit to, you know, suit the the needs of the students. So, uh, you know, kudos, um, to yourself and the rest of the team for for doing that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Riley. >> I just wanted to say, uh, one, you're giving Matt a really big head. Um, he really deserves it, but >> he does. >> We don't need to like keep harping on how how great he is. Um, >> I'll beat him up tomorrow morning. How about that, Amanda? Okay. >> Um, and then I just I also want to say how much um I appreciate um the fact that you are leaning in on the data and how you're actually reviewing the data and taking that into
063consideration. I think that is something that's been sorely missed and I really appreciate that. I'm a very data driven person. Um, and then in regards to your changes for, you know, um, making sure that we are getting like the most skilled staff to the ones that need it. Is that going to be any part of our new budget that you're going to be presenting or is this going to be something like we're just going to do a status quo this year and then you're going to have a large like where do you see that? >> Do a little bit this year. Okay. Um, and I wish Jennifer started like in July because you would have a robust amount that you know for this year, but every year um that Jennifer is here, you will see
064a more and more robust amount of um staffing information that will help guide your decision and the budgeting process and others. We'll try to bring a lot of that through the HR committee first and then also to the you know to the full board and um certainly um in in uh the budget process it'll be prominent but uh we'll also have reports for you throughout the year. You'll see different types of reports um coming um you know from the talent management office. Um, next year you're going to have a really robust staffing plan. Um, and um, you know, then you'll the following year you'll have staffing plan 2.0. Like every year we'll kind of up the ante on um, you know, the level of detail that we'll provide for you. Um, but you know, we're
065like chomping at the bit and um, you know, so you'll see a little bit of it. You'll see a little bit of it on Saturday morning. >> I wish I could show you a lot more. It's just we're kind of building the data systems around the adult actions and the um you know now so you get a little bit and we promise we'll keep growing and growing the types of reports that you'll >> No, I I think that's great. I'm I'm looking forward to seeing how how you're able to reinvision, you know, um what we need. So cuz it it based upon the data, it looks like we do we we do need some necessary changes even though we had have had some improvements, you know, since the pandemic. Um, I'd like to see it
066I' I'd like to see us not even yellow, like all all blue. So, >> in schools of distinction. >> Yes. >> Anyone else have had >> Yeah, Amanda beat me to it. I was going to ask how all this translates into the budget that you're going to be presenting next Saturday, but uh you already answered that. I'm curious to see it as well. Um, I'm hoping there can be a little bit more shuffling around of our current pieces than additions to what we currently have. Uh, but like you said, it's a multi-year plan, and I'm I'm curious to see how you address this through the budget. Um, I wish you had harped a little bit more on the fact that despite spending $2,000 less than the DURG average and the state average per pupil, we're
067in the top third in the state in the accountability index. I think that's incredible. I think that's a testament to our students and our parents and our teachers and our administrators. I love that fact. Um, I'm just really looking forward to seeing where we can go with a little bit more attention paid uh and TLC put into things like scheduling and curriculum and consistency, etc., etc., etc. So, thank you for your work thus far in the presentation tonight. We we'll be bringing you one of the the lowest budgets in the region um on Saturday at the first at the first workshop, but we do think we're going to have um some sub substantial strategic ideas for you to consider um at our first workshop. But we also are very mindful of the conditions in Weathersfield
068this year and the investment that the taxpayers have made. So, um, we're we're bringing in a very modest budget proposal for you to consider. Um, listening to you, I in reading through this, I just keep picturing in my mind a a house that needs um work and you're clearing out the the clutter and then you're getting a a cohesive vision of how you should decorate and have all the rooms come together. And um so just wanted to share that imagery that I have in my mind and I'm really excited to see this um begin to happen. >> Hey, anyone else? Mandy, >> I think you know to that point, what I love that you're focusing on is our systems. You said that a few times tonight and I and we've heard you say it before,
069you know, that you're really looking to redesign service delivery systems and I think that's just such a great way to say it that these are this is really one ecosystem and to get to that level of coherence that you talked about and and Jim mentioned too, you said we can't build coherence without investing in the systems that support it. And so, you know, the idea of these multi-year staffing plans and these kind of strategic um projects that you're you're going to present, like I think it's a smart way to to go about it. Um because we can't change a system overnight. Um, but knowing this year what we might want to be budgeting for next year and the year after and the year after, I'm sure only helps you guys as a team and it
070helps us as a board. So, I love the idea of just making systems run smoothly and and so that then you can decorate, you know, and hang the curtains and all that stuff because the foundation is >> is settled and, you know, the systems are running the way that they're supposed to. So, I just I I really appreciate that. That's perfectly said and we can't do it all this budget cycle. Um, and we're going to start with the cornerstone and the cornerstone for school systems are ear is early literacy and we'll talk about that a lot in our presentation. But that early literacy is the rock that we have to set our, you know, set our our foundation and then you kind of attack the math and the science 5 through 8 after that. We
071really have to double down and make sure that 100% of Weathersfield students by the end of third grade are reading at or above grade level. That is such a key uh benchmark for our young people. And um you know and that's a great starting place. And then you know we'll talk about what the next phase is and and kind of the third phase. The good news is the third phase at the high school level you're in. you're in currently really good shape and it it um you know it can wait for us to kind of address you know the the first kind of pieces. So I I really appreciate those those comments Mindy and we do promise we're we're really going to try to be super strategic. >> I will also say cuz I think
072I mentioned last time about you know you give us these phrases that are easily repeatable and and it helps us when we think about you know educational uh um vocabulary that maybe we're still learning. Um I spent some time with Senator Fon Farah uh yesterday. He came to visit us at um the child care center where my children attend. But he was asking us about in the early childhood education landscape how how what teachers do from 0 to 5 really prepares them for kindergarten and and I was able to speak to that. But I also was very prepared um to give you a plug and how you know how much you care about that third grade reading and that milestone and early literacy and he was over the moon and and kindergarten readiness and early
073literacy uh he was just sharing was so important to him. And so it was very nice to be able to give you and Weatherfield public schools that um kudos that that's very much in line with you know educational theory here. >> We can have 100% of our kids coming into kindergarten being able to know all the letters and the letter sounds. They are like that's like AP kindergarten almost advanced placement kindergarten. If you can know your letters and sound them out, a a apple, that's like, you know, you get you get a you you get a, you know, an A+ for kindergarten. So, >> anyone else? All right. I would like to applaud you. Superintendent would be number one for this entry plan that you've presented to us. And now I'm even more excited about
074this moving forward. And you have a fabulous team here. Um we're expecting um an end of the year where we'll be just celebrating and smiling about where we are. So this is what we wanted and this is what you're delivering. Thank you very much from everybody I think in the Weathersville public schools. Thank you >> on behalf of the team. Thank you for the opportunity. We're excited for the work ahead. >> Okay. >> All right. So as we move on, we are in a workshop model meeting tonight and that means that we have a committee meeting before this meeting and tonight we had our policy and planning committee meet and Matt Lacavolei is the chair with members Marjorie Kalen Carson, Chuck Kerry, Jim Riley and also present was superintendent Whidby, Jen Miller, assistant superintendent of
075schools and John Carar was not here though. Okay, so we had that. So, I'm going to turn to Matt again just to give us another brief view of what we talked about. >> Yes. Thank you, Bobby. So, in uh agenda item four tonight, I already explained the policies and regulations that we approved and we went over and decided to move to the board for a first read tonight. Uh now, through the use of a consent agenda, I'm going to move these items to the entire board for a first read. um during discussion, if any one of these items does want to be discussed, we can do that. Uh but I'm going to move them first um the policies uh to the board for a first read and then the regulations. Um so I'll just go
076ahead and do that. So um I move to bring to the entire board of education for a first read uh the policies listed in agenda item 5 uh letters C through M. Point of clarification, there's no action item on this agenda. So, we can't have action. They're already listed as first reads. There's no action to be taken, >> right? It's not. It's a report. >> No, but he's making an action. >> So, I'm not moving. >> No, you don't for first read. >> No, it's already here for the first read. There's no action. >> Okay. Okay. >> No, no. Next meeting would be the action would be to approve them. This is just a first read. There's no action. It's just for the board to be aware that the the reading is there. >> Okay.
077So, thank you. Thank you, Chuck. So, under agenda item five, you have before you tonight for a first read um 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 new policies and 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven new regulations. Um, look them over, read them over, and if you have any questions, we can discuss them at the next board meeting. >> Mhm. >> Yep. >> Before we vote on them. >> Prior to voting on them. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Matt. All right. So, I think that finishes it up and we'll have our um board comments this evening. Anybody with board comments? Marjorie. >> Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. We went through it. And I didn't know if we could go back. >> Oh, it's okay. >> Can we go back to the
078community? >> No, she can just give it during board comment. >> Board comment. >> You can give it during board comment. It's the same thing. >> All right. >> I'll do board comment right now. Right now. >> We just don't want to be off on our agenda. Last week we held our um community relations meeting and um we discussed first and foremost the school construction project and now that there um there's been a vote to approve TSKP as the architect for the for the three schools. Very exciting, but we want to get going on informing and setting up a base of information for uh all things cool school construction. So if people have questions about the timeline, what's happening now, frequently asked questions, um because things are going to start rolling. It's got I mean
079obviously the first shovel to go in is going to be a ways from now, but it's still good to keep one web page available to just refer people to and keep that updated. So we talked about that and there is a web page there currently, but it's not updated. So, um, just moving forward, we're that's one of our goals is to start doing that. And, um, we have a few other schools who have gone through this who have really good, um, examples of kind of like how they did it and structured it. And so, we're, you know, um, we'll be working on that. And, um, and then we talked about the newsletter, which we always end up talking about some kind of newsletter. Um, one was besides the one we'll do periodically through s'mores and
080like ideas for that, but also um, one for we just talked talked about I know Gabby had brought up um, and how like glassy does this and I know u, Mr. Whby talked about how he did this in his last district of maybe one paper one uh, large one at the very end of this school year to kind of just talk about the last year and all the things that had happened. And so we're going to talk about that continue continue to talk about that whether it's feasible economically or um finance-wise or could we get it into like Weather True Life or some other newspaper just to like slip it in there um or a way for people to get it besides just electronic and um and residents really like to see that kind of
081thing. That's one of the problems I we feel like communication wise through this town is like even we do though we do communicate a lot with parents um and caregivers. We don't there's always kind of a disconnect with residents and when you're asking you know residents to pay for you know most of the budget of this town is the school district. You want them to kind of know what's going on and and be proud of the schools. So we talked about how to um you know start making actions to get that done and make more considerations there. And um and then Amanda is going to work and help us um we're going to work on getting more information condensed to shoot out um through the newsletter or through the website about what's going on in
082the school building committee because she's on the school building committee uh the school construction committee and um and there they already have information that so it won't be that hard to to get out. It's just about taking it and making it look pretty and having a place to put it. So and I think that's all we talked about. >> Thank you Marjorie. It's a great committee. You get a lot done. Go ahead. Something >> more. So, um, besides the committee, um, couple other things. We, the Safegrad had their, um, music bingo night this last Thursday and it was a big hit. There's a lot of people. We filled a lot of Pikkin, uh, banquet and it was a lot of fun and you had to kind of know your music, but it was not they
083kind of gave the answers too and a lot of people uh, came and we they raised a lot of money. So, I appreciate for everybody who came and um uh bought raffle tickets and donated raffle items and our Miss Amanda Drew here was a big winner and a contributor. >> Um but thanks for everyone who came out. It is an annual thing that uh Safegrad has a a dinner or some sort of big parent night and um it's a great tradition to bring you know people together and um and thanks. >> Thank you. Anyone else? um that safeguarded was a great night. We we did we raised uh quite a bit of money. Um so I just wanted to give an update in regards to the building committee. We actually met last night. Um the
084we are still working on the um RFQ for the construction manager um and the OPM which is the owner's um manager that is finalized and we have dates for interviews which is going to be April 1st. Hopefully, we'll be able to do the the CM as well around that time. We're hoping that um it will the stars will align and we'll be a able to to choose somebody to bring forth to the board of ed so that we could decide on both of them together at the same time because we might need to do a special meeting, but we would rather, you know, not do a special meeting then do another special do it all together. Um TSKP said that they've already scheduled um meetings with the police, fire, IT, and school security. Um the
085meetings with the inland wetlands engineering and town planner has been scheduled as well as um custodial and maintenance staff. Um they wanted um to get their input because sometimes they're kind of like the the the tail end and you know whatever uh we can't afford to do. Usually the custodial staff they lose their their their areas. Um and then uh they also discussed um which is going to be something that we're probably going to have to be discussing is the workflow for redistricting. Um they said that they met with the superintendent and the board of ed chair regarding this and they want the data to be available sooner rather than later. Um because uh they've met with some of the web parents and they they want to make sure that they know where they're going.
086They're also some of the parents are afraid that they might have a student go based upon the timing going to High Crust twice. So um and then also they wanted to let us know that they have modeled the site for um Kesha Farm. They're working on the layout. They've worked on the they're working on the edspecs, the topography, and they're working on the drawings. Um so hopefully we'll you know see something. And our next meeting is going to be February 23rd at 7 o'clock. >> And thank you. And Amanda, we did meet with them and it was wonderful. They're they're what a great firm we have working for us. >> Yeah, Michael Scott is he's really Yeah, he's he's great. So >> great. Thank you. Anyone else for comment? Matt, >> I just wanted to
087say that last night I got to um go to the meeting of the Emerson Williams PTO. >> A great group of individuals. Awesome to be back in the elementary school that I attended and graduated from. Um, I don't want to shout I don't want to give her name because I didn't ask her for permission to say this, but there's one parent in that group who has a sixth grader. And the student has been at Emerson Williams for five or six years, I believe. And she has been on the PTO the entire time, and she has never missed a PTO meeting. So, if she was a she was a baseball player, she'd be in the Hall of Fame twice by now. Um, but that's just a great example of how great our PTO's and our parents
088are. So, >> it was fun. I'm looking forward to the next one. Al Repken of PTO. >> Yes. Yes. Yep. >> Anyone else? >> Gabby, >> I had the pleasure of attending the Hanmer Elementary School PTO meeting last night. Um, my first PTO meeting as a board of ed rep and I just wanted to share some fundraisers that they have coming up if anyone was interested in attending. So, on March 3rd, there is going to be a village pizza fundraiser. And um on March 27th, there is going to be a bingo night fundraiser, which will be their last bingo night of the year. They do a few throughout the school year. Also, a fun event coming up is their pancake breakfast and grounds cleanup, which is on March 14th from 8:30 to 12:30. So, if
089anyone is interested in attending any of those events, I'm sure the Hanmer community would appreciate the support. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I attended the um Charles Wright PTO meeting um on um the last Thursday in January. Didn't write that down. Anyway, they had a very successful um December fundraising um with many activities for the students and um a holiday lunch for the staff and uh gift certificates for all five crossing guards. Um and then this month, the sixth grade butter braid fundraiser began yesterday and goes through to uh March 2nd. Um, and also for the sixth grade, they'll hold a can and bottle drive on February 20th and 21st. And they are looking for asking people to save items for their annual Saver fundraiser. Saver, the store that's on the Berlin Turnpike. Um, they
090will they accept um qu large quantities of clothing, old DVDs. I can't remember if toys are included, but they they uh reimburse the donations u by weight and they have done in the past. They've made thousands of dollars on this. So, it it's a big deal for them and so they're gearing up for that. Many other things, but those were the highlights. Thank goodness for our PTOs. They're wonderful. All right. I have closing remarks in that this morning myself, Mindy Go, and Janice Roberts went to the state capital to meet our legislators to discuss educational issues. The breakfast reinforces the need to work together with the state on monies for education, special ed concern, and federal budget cuts. Our legislators must be aware of our concerns, and together we can look for answers to our
091many issues. And also in the last two weeks, the mayor and chair went to all five elementary schools to present our kid mayor and kid share writing contest. I love being in the schools. It reinforces why we work so hard for Weathersfield. Our young fifth and sixth grade students showed all the courtesies and skills that are impressive to observe. The kids were polite, curious, and asked questions on what it takes to work their best for this contest. So, I want to wish them all good luck and we are excited to soon present the winners of this hands-on civics lesson. So, thank you all for that. But we have Anushka Gandhi who is our student rep from the high school for life at the high school. So, good evening everyone. Here's a quick update of what's
092been happening these past few weeks at the high school. Last week, the high school hosted their annual eighth grade night which was well attended. Middle school students were able to meet and talk with different clubs, sports teams, and honor societies here at the high school, giving them a good preview of things they might want to take part of as they go to the high school. Furthermore, there's been a lot of community and youth engagement by different teams within the high school. For example, on Tuesday, the dance team hosted a youth night where they performed with little kids at halftime, creating great night of energy and school spirit. A few days later, the girls basketball team welcomed youth girl basketball programs to also play during halftime. And finally, this Monday, the high school hosted unified night,
093where our unified basketball team played during halftime of the girls basketball game, allowing them to take part in school pride. On the topic of sports, numerous senior nights for our athletic teams are coming up, and there were a few special stories that occurred in the past few weeks. Senior Gabby Gerardi had an outstanding weekend at the CCC Championships, finishing third overall and placing in every single individual event. Additionally, senior Maya Finelli has been nominated for Game Time CT player of the week and voting remains open till Thursday night, so hopefully we can get some extra votes in for her. And that's everything that's been happening. >> Thank you so much. Okay, anyone else? >> Yep, I have a couple. I apologize. >> Oh, okay. Um, well, pigging back on eighth grade night, it was amazing.
094I uh actually emailed Miss Okconor and told her the turnout was great. It was very well organized. It was great to see all the coaches, club adviserss, students were in the gym, and then there was students giving tours to the eighth grade students and then guidance counselors and and um department heads were there. So, it was well organized, well attended. I know my child had a great time. And then two weekends ago, we had festival band and the kids were tremendous. It was a K12 I believe band and uh very enjoyable, very well done and it was great to see a lot of staff members there helping out. So it was good to see them on a Saturday but it was very well attended as well. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Is there any
095unfinished business? >> Okay, so I make a motion that we adjourn this meeting. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I opposed. abstensions. Thank you all and good night. Go ahead.