001Yeah. >> And it's one of those things like people don't it's something they don't think about but the first thing that >> No, I want to do that. >> The first thing that people [laughter] like to have my test do >> it do it. >> Uh good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's board of ed meeting. Our clock is not working. The date is Tuesday, January 13, 2026. Happy New Year, everyone. But before we start, we have two changes to our agenda that we'll be voting on. [snorts] Um, I move to amend the agenda to add an item titled Blue Path Update with Lenny under communications as the matter requires timely consideration. >> This motion requires a twothird vote. So, can I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I
002opposed abstaining. That motion passes. So, he's on our agenda. A second motion is a motion to add an action item connected to the discussion of item 4B for voting to accept the recommended vendor chosen by the advisory building committee. Again, I need a second. >> Second. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Any abstensions? That motion passes. So now we can continue. So I would appreciate that you turn off your cell phones as this meeting is being recorded. Ellen, can you please do our roll call? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Miss Kellen Carson, >> present. >> Mr. Kerry, Miss Ms. Debbacco, >> present. Mrs. D Roberts [snorts] >> here. >> Mrs. Drew >> here. >> Ms. Gold >> here. >> Mr. Riley >> here. >> Vice Chair Mr. Lacavoli >> here. >>
003Chair Mrs. Granado >> present. >> And Weathersfield High School student representative Ms. Anushka Gandhi >> here. All present. Thank you. And can I have Jen Miller, our new assistant superintendent of schools, please lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, thank you. So, I guess we'll get started right in on public comment first. So, is there anyone wishing to make a public comment? Please come on up 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, board members do not make comments immediately following a resident speaking at the podium.
004Thanks for your understanding. So, anyone? Okay. So, oh, thank goodness. Okay, >> we know her. >> Uh, hello everyone. My name is Carolyn Fisina. I live at 19 Fairmont Street. I'm also the director of enrichment programs for the Keen Foundation. And I just wanted to come and use my a quick five minutes to give you an update. Um, sorry, no cute kid pictures today, but I promise to come back and give more in depth. Um, I just wanted to let you know that after school programming opened on January 7th. Within the first minute, we had 57 registrations and within the first 10 minutes, that number climbed to over 100. Uh, as of this afternoon, there are 837 enrollments in afterchool programming across all the elementary schools. I just wanted to let everybody know, um, and
005hopefully people are watching, that we do still have availability, um, at every elementary school, um, in our programs. I'd like to encourage families to review the parks and recck brochure with their children to see if there's any programs they that sparks their interest. The brochure can be found on the parks and wreck website. Um, also I want to make sure I say that we do have financial assistance available. Um, information on how to contact us is found on each page of the brochure. Um, as well, um, I just want to give a quick reminder, which you probably all know and I'm sure are very excited about, but we will once again be offering um, five elementary school musical performances in the spring, one at each school. This is sort of just like a save the
006date and I'll give more uh again but um we have uh highest uh students have been rehearsing since early December and their show is early so they started rehearsals early. They are perform going to be performing the Wizard of Oz and that show is uh March 13th and 14th and then we take a bit of a break and then Charles Wright um starts our performances over again on April 24th and 25th with Finding Nemo. And then we pretty much every weekend after that um the next weekend May 1st and 2nd will be Hamner and Shrek. The weekend after that May 8th will be Susicle at Emerson. And finally web students will perform Annie on May 15th, 16th and 17th. And since he's here, I'm going to give Lenny a little shout out. Uh he is
007starring in our musical this year and um and that musical actually is over uh the max at 33 students. And I have a feeling that Lenny might be one of the reasons why. So, um, we're very excited about all our musicals. I encourage you guys to, um, to every for everyone to come and attend. You will be amazed at the skill of these students. Um, and also, uh, Gabby, I think, is going to be helping out one of the musicals, too. So, we're excited about that. Um, I will be able, uh, we will be posting more information about dates and times on our, uh, website and everywhere. We'll be sending some stuff [clears throat] out through the school. So, you'll have times for all those as we get a little bit closer. >> Um, so
008with the importance of play, screen free time, and hands-on learning very much on everyone's minds, we are proud to continue to offering a wide variety of afterchool in an inschool programs that allow students to learn and have fun in an unplugged unplugged interactive way. Um, Andrea Gleo, our keen on hands-on learning instructor, has already visited all second and sixth grade classrooms and will begin working with fifth grade next week. By the end of the year, uh, the end of the school year, this program will have reached every elementary school classroom in the district. Um, this initiative continues to provide web science-based hands-on activities aligned directly with grade level curriculum and NGSS standards. Overall, our hands-on learning programs play an important role not in um an important role in supporting students beyond the traditional school day
009to provide they provide safe, engaging environments where children can explore interests, build skills, and connect learning um to creativity and play. Um, again, I'm always grateful for the continued support of the board, the school district, parks and recreation in our community, uh, school communities, which allows us to offer these meaningful opportunities, uh, to so many students. So, um, thank you very much. Good to see you all. Keep a lookout. Have a nice day. Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] [snorts] Anyone else? Okay, we'll move on um to our student and staff recognition tonight. And I understand our guest is already here. He's kind of laying down on the job. [laughter] Um come on up. Sorry. >> Oh, he's beautiful. getting ready for you guys. I'll stay up with you guys if you need me. >>
010Hello board and hello guests. Uh my name is Kirsten Gilberto. I am the foster mom of Lenny and I also brought my daughter Sophia Gilberto. She was very excited to join tonight. So, thank you for having us. Um, we are very proud to be the foster parents and our main goal tonight was to share the very clear impact that Lenny has made on hundreds of kids and adults in the very short time that he's been a part of Weathersfield Public Schools. And none of that could have been possible without your approval. So, we are very much appreciative of that. Um, we're also appreciative of the Kuthman family who has made this possible. But today, I didn't want to spend time talking too much about um our personal experience. I'll let Sophia share one little thing
011about how she's feeling about Lenny, but I want to talk about his impact directly at Web School and how important these facility and service dogs are to communities and to our students growth. Um, Sophia, you want to share one thing about Lenny and how you're happy that he's part of our family? I love Lenny. >> I love Lenny so much. [laughter] >> Is he a good doggy at home? >> Yeah. He's a very good doggy at home. So, I'm excited to introduce Lilia and Kieran. Introducing Lenny Web's therapy dog by Lilia Gowski and Karen McMahon. >> Get to know Lenny. >> He is trained not to bark. >> He was trained at Blue Path Service Dogs where he spent three years learning his commands. He loves being a pet and eating treats. His nickname is
012Lazy Lenny. [laughter] He greets students in the morning and throughout the day. >> Most of all, he is a big part of our school community. Get to get to know Lenny. He started training when he was a little puppy at Blue Pack Service Docks. His handlers have a special schedule set up so so that he can spend time with kids at web this year. He wears his best when it's time for him to work. >> Web's students have a special training to understand how to work with Lenny. He loves treats, belly rubs, and going for walks and playing. He also learned the difference between work time and playtime. Lenny's job. Lenny is a therapy dog and he is specifically trained to work with kids of all ages and ability levels. He is really good at
013making people smile, making them feel calm and safe, and knowing he did his job well. That makes him happy. What does a therapy dog do? He helps students who are feeling big emotions and when people don't feel safe, Lenny will be there. He loves to listen to students read to him, but he is especially good at reading kids feelings and bringing them joy and calmness whether they're feeling happy or sad. Also, he is there. There is one thing you can count on. He will always be there for kids. How does Lenny help us? He loves to help students with their schoolwork. He is always ready for help. Students stay calm while doing their work on tough subjects. He loves reading and listening to stories. You can talk to him, write to him, and sing to
014him. Hilo is helping everyone learn. Some students go to tutors and if they're having trouble, they can go to and go and pet him. Also, when I was really sad one day, Lenny was there for me and made me feel calm and happy. What else does a therapy dog do? He loves helping students at web school. Sometimes kids need help getting to their classrooms. So students may be walking with him in his handler. If students are showing Lenny W to their class, you can just wave to say h to say and say a quiet hello. Meet Lenny's handlers. Lenny has been specially trained to listen and take commands from his handlers. Miss Gilberto, Miss Johnson, Miss Juanville, Mrs. Henry, Mr. V, Mr. Craig, and Miss Lesteri. Please don't give any commands. His handler will ask
015him to do something like sit or lay down. When students give him commands, he is very con it is very confusing for him to know. Wait. because he is he know knows he is supposed to listen to his handlers. >> Superintendent has to learn that rule girls [laughter] break that >> respecting everyone's decisions. Some students may choose not to visit with Lenny or may not want to pet him for many different reasons. That's okay. Some some of his friends will be happier just watching his interactions with other with others and that's okay. >> It's important to respect everyone's decisions. >> Lenny is so so happy to be working at Web Elementary School. He is also excited to become friends with everyone in Weathersfield. Love Karen, Lilia, and Lenny. [applause] >> And as one matter of
016business, this is official. Today, Lenny got his badge. So, [applause] we're going to make this official. He's the officially the newest member of our staff. Lenny the dog. >> There you go. [applause] Honey did officially report to the HR office. [laughter] >> He has a file for >> what union does he need to go walk? >> He's unaffiliated. >> I would love for you to any questions about Lenny or >> any comments or questions? >> Yeah, I I don't have any questions. Just a comment. Thank you all for coming um tonight and sharing uh with us how Lenny interacts with the people in your school and the children. Uh thank you. Thank you for your presentation tonight, girls. It was excellent. Uh you should be proud of yourself for get getting up here and presenting
017to the board of ed. You did very well. Um I remember when Principal Craig came here the first time that first night to introduce us to the thought of having a dog a dog in the buildings and we were semi-split on it. Uh we had so many questions for him and the gentleman from Blue Path. And looking back on it, I now feel shame for actually asking these questions and even questioning why why are we having a dog in this school? It's it sounds awesome. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I I purposely picked this meeting because it was actually a year ago. [laughter] >> One year ago. Yep. >> Anyone else? Janice, >> I also have to um really praise you girls for do for getting up and doing all that reading in front
018of all these people. I know probably even as a teenager I couldn't have done that. So, I really admire that. Um the other thing is I just happened to be reading today in a teaching journal about how um students who have had social emotional learning um do better academically. So I'm really fascinated and really uh feel very confident about the results that we're going to see with Lenny that way too. This is like another deeper step with the um whole cell. So I'm I'm excited about this. This is great. Thank you. and thank you um for being a handler. Thank you. We really appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> Uh thank you so much for for coming today and presenting. Um I think this is a a great idea. Uh I believe over in the
019East Berry School in Glastonbury there are there are five um dogs. Uh so you know they're they're doing a great job and and also I think you know certainly it's for the for the students um and the teachers probably won't mention but it's also for you know for them and the administrators and and everybody else. So I think it's a great addition and hopefully um we'll be adding more of these so that every school has one. Thank you. >> Love to see that. Anyone [clears throat] else? I just want to um give kudos to the web community because I know this was a really big hall to like plan this fund raise for it and when I first heard the plan and the idea I was like that is just so much work and is
020this possible and all these things and um just being a former PTO person myself knowing how much time and effort it can take to raise money for these things and just also be focused because people come and go from these meetings and um and just keeping up that fundraising and then also I'm like I'm so impressed by the number of handlers because that involves training. Can you can you talk to that about how the training was for you? >> Sure. So, um excuse me, girls. I'm sorry. I want to be on the microphone. Um Blue Path trained initially Miss Mrs. Johnson and Miss Jubenville traveled up to New York where Blue Path is located in um right outside right off of uh 84 across the border. So they trained there for three days with Mrs.
021Gilberto as well who was being trained a little differently as a handler but also as a caretaker. So that was a little bit more of intensive training by Mrs. Gilberto. So those three went and trained and then Britney who is amazing at Blue Path came to web um every Tuesday for a month and helped us add additional trainers. But it's a fine line because you don't want too many handlers because then Lenny gets confused when he sees everyone in the hallway not knowing who's in charge of him at that moment. So, it's really striking that balance of finding handlers that will be able to utilize him the best way at school. For that reason, classroom teachers were very interested, but they're not the best choice to be a handler because they're tied to their classroom
022during the day. So, we chose social workers, school psychologists, reading consultants, people like that that can be around the school. >> Ah, >> yeah, >> that's great. >> Yeah. >> Well, congratulations on your new addition. >> What did you say? The dog was here. [laughter] >> Figured. Yeah. Yeah. >> Oh, I need the picture, too. girls, can you come over? We'll get a picture over here. >> That's wonderful. Yeah, that's great. >> Um, as they're doing that, I just have to comment. I am an animal lover, and animals and children are a great combination, and you know, it's controversial to have them in a classroom, but the the the connection children immediately make with an animal is fascinating to watch. So, I I'm so happy this happened. >> Thank you. Thank you for your support,
023everybody. Good >> job, Ken. It happens. We've never had such a celebrity. >> Cookies. [laughter] >> What's next? >> We have a puppy. It's like, how does it get better than that? >> Bobby, we had cupcakes and then dogs. What's next? >> Pressure, but you know. >> Good job. >> Respecting a lot. [laughter] >> So, where are we going here now? >> Where we going? >> Going over the >> Now we're going to the reports and discussion items >> right here. Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Communications. Communications. Yeah, I literally thought it was for a second. [laughter] >> Okay, that was great. All right, continuing. So, in our new workshop model that we're working on tonight for the first time, the board of ed committee or committees will be meeting at 6:00 for the
024first meeting every month. The public is invited to all our committee meetings, but we cannot participate according to policies. Tonight, our HR committee met. Gabby Debbacco is the chair of this committee along with the members Janice de Roberts, Matt Lacavolei, Jim Riley, our superintendent, Mr. Whibby was there, and our new assistant superintendent of schools, Jen Miller, too. So, Gabby, want to talk to us about our meeting? >> Yes. So since it was our first meeting as a human resources and personnel committee with the newly elected board, um we really just went over the high level of responsibilities and upcoming schedule for collective bargaining negotiations as this committee is responsible for. So, we went over kind of the role of board members in negotiations, the connection to negotiations with our annual budget and our upcoming negotiation
025schedules. um you know coming up in the next school year we have the Caesiu local 2001 CTW so the secretarial clerical para educator and tutors union the weathersfield school nurses association and the weathersfield school administration association coming up in this next school year and then discussed kind of next steps for this committee and our responsibilities here and we will be scheduling kind of more of an orientation session session for a committee to review the negotiation parameters, some ground rules, district financial projections, comparative contract data and legal requirements and timelines. Okay, we can have a discussion. Anybody have any questions for our HR chair or their committee or any other added details about the meeting? No. Okay, usually we will have two committees. Tonight we just had one though as we're getting started. Thank you the
026whole committee. Thank you. Continuing along at tonight's meeting, we have two reports and the first one is um hold on standards and benchmarks for district operations in our DUI D comparisons on charts. So I guess this is you. Okay. [snorts] >> Thank you, Madam Chair. So I I uh bring the board's attention to reference item number one in the board packet. It's called standards and benchmarks for district operations. Uh I just want to talk to you a little bit about this document and I'd like to take you through the um the uh ge uh 12 uh various benchmarks. So as we begin our work together talking about budgets, I think it's important that we start our conversation connected to district-wide benchmarks. What we'll be kind of taking a look at here will be future dashboard
027type items for us to think about as we're as we're looking at the budget. I think the following standards serve as great uh benchmarks to look at and think think about. It serves as a formal reference uh document outlining minimum conditions required to sustain highquality services and operations. The benchmarks span the range of instructional quality, staffing ratios, mandated services. Uh they work to help us maintain compliance with state and federal mandates, program performance indicators, facilities and operational requirements, and they help us make sure we have consistent program delivery across. All 12 of these benchmarks come directly from the Connecticut State Department of Education report [clears throat] cards and dashboards. And I feel horrible because our brand new assistant superintendent of schools, I took some vacation time over Christmas and she she went and gathered all
028of uh the data for this. So I kind of feel like an Ebenezer Scrooge as I was home enjoying the holidays. Assistant Superintendent Miller was uh was gathering the the data for us from the uh from the state department of education. So, just kind of in referencing this this memo before we get the budget season started, it helps make sure that our fiscal decisions are grounded in clearly articulated board approved standards rather than anecdotal needs or year-to-year fluctuations. The benchmarks contained in this document clarify the operational realities that drive resource allocations, class size expectations, staffing ratios, intervention and support structures, compliance obligations, mandated service levels, program needs with fidelities. All these things are reflected in in these these types of benchmarks. They also provided a transparent framework for understanding why certain investments are necessary, how
029they align with district priorities, and where adjustments uh may be required moving forward. Um, so as we kind of move forward and we we'll kind of take a look at these uh together, I'll walk you through all 12 tonight and give you a little bit of an editorial on each one as well as an explanation of what they mean because some of them are um are um are created So, we'll kind of jump down into the um the chart called DUID D comparison 2425. >> Oh, he is. Oh, good. [snorts] >> I'm glad you're doing a slideshow. >> And while we're while we're Jim's pulling down the slideshow, I just want to talk about what does DURG mean? DIRG is our district reference group D. There's 24 schools that are deemed by the Department of
030Ed very similar to Weathersfield Public Schools. So, it's a good group of schools for us to kind of compare ourselves to because they're similar to us economically, racial makeup, size. Um, so, so a lot of those stratifications, uh, there there are several similarities between us and these 24 schools. You know, just to give you an idea, the schools are East Graanby, Old Sabbrook, Clinton, East Hampton, Stonington, Cromwell, Cromwell, Colchester, Waterford, Leadard, East Lime, Watertown, Rocky Hill, Brford, Berlin, North Haven, Bethl, Windsor, New Milford, Newington, Shelton, Milford, Wallington, Wallingford, and Southernington. So these are all what we would call DUI D schools, very similar to us. And in each column, we also included the state average as well. I don't love comparing us against the state average because you're you're in there with lots of schools
031that are extremely dissimilar, but it's good to look at it just for benchmarking standards. So the first benchmark that I want to call to your attention is our student population. So Weathersfield Public Schools has 3,471 students and you can see we're in a little bit more than the upper upper half of the size range. The smallest district in Durg D is East Graanby with 880 students. The largest is Southernington with 6,200 and you see us sitting at 3471. And you can see the state of Connecticut currently there are 58,42 children in schools preK through grades 12 here in Connecticut. So it gives you an idea of how many kids we have and it compares us to our DUI pairs. The next one that I like to show as we go into budget season is per
032pupil cost. And as you can see, the lowest per pupil cost in DUID D is ledger and they expend $18,92 per pupil. So it you're basically taking your full budget if your full budget was $50 million um and you divide that by the number of kids and it gives you a per pupil expenditure. The highest the district that expends the most per pupil in Durgd is Old Sabbrook with $27,000 uh $652 per pupil. As you can see, the Weathersfield expends $19,741 per pupil and the state average is around $22,000 $22,054 per pupil. The next the third column is the accountability index that you've heard me talk about in in um in other settings. The accountability index is a very comprehensive uh set of schoolbased accountability measures that are not strictly connected to test scores. They
033include the arts, they include physical education, they include graduation rates, uh they include all of our high needs learners, our EL students, our students with IEPs, our students who are on free and reduced lunch. Um, and as you can see, uh, the the highest performing district this past year in Durg D was Old Sabbrook at 82.9. The low number is 70.3, the district that had the lowest performing. The state average is 71.8. Weathersfield sits at 79.2, two, which puts us number eight, which is in the top 33% of districts in the DUI. So, just to kind of benchmark where we where we are comparatively, taking a look at certified FTE, you'll hear us say you hear us throw around um acronyms a lot in education, and you'll hear us say FTE. That's an in a
034fulltime employment unit. So FTE is our the number of certified staff that we have. Certified staff includes all of our teachers, our administrators, our counselors, our social workers, um anyone who's required to have a state certification um in Connecticut. It's a very rigorous process to get certified. So this the district with the lowest number of certified FTE is again East Grahamby. And that makes sense because they have the smallest number of kids. The highest number is Milford with 653. Weathersfield sits currently with 327 and a half FT. And you say, "Oh, how did Jeff, how do you have a half a person?" And that just means somebody might be working as a half-time teacher. Um, and you can see the state of Connecticut. Currently, there are 53,371.6 certified working teachers in Connecticut. There's way more
035certified teachers, but those are the ones that are currently employed by boards of education in in Connecticut. The next one is certified staff to student ratio. Okay, so let me explain this a little bit. You see, Berlin has the lowest certified staff to student ratio at 6.96. So for every staff member, certified staff member in Berlin, there's 6.9 certified uh I'm sorry, students. So it shows you how many students per staff they have. Berlin is the lowest certified. Uh, and if you go down to Watertown, they have the highest ratio or they have the most kids per certified staff at 11.25. As you can see, Weathersfield sits pretty close to the middle of the distribution at 9.03. This is a good benchmark because it gives you an idea about how your how your number of
036staff kind of um match up with certif with with the number of kids. The next one is admin to student ratio. Okay, as you can see similar ratio with certified staff, but now this is just with our certified leaders in district. Shelton has the most kids per certified administrator at 194 kids per administrator. Stonington has the fewest kids, 94.6 uh students per administrator. As you can see, Weathersfield is is second. We have uh which means we have a very high ratio of students to certified administrators here in Weathersfield. and the state average is about 126 per student. Shifting to the next page of benchmarks, take a look at what's called free and reduced percentage. So free and reduced percentage is the number of kids that you have currently that are receiving free and reduced lunch
037benefits. And you see the range is 19.1 on the low end of Durg and East Graanby. And the highest is Windsor at 50.2. So about half of the kids in Windsor are currently at free reduced. And Weathersfield sits a little bit higher than the middle part of the distribution at 26.4. If you take a look at our next column, it's our students who have IEP are identified uh with IEPs. This is a great one to look at. Colchester has a what we call a prevalence rate of 14.2% of kids in Colchester are identified with an IEP at the lower end. Um and then did I skip e? No, I'm in I'm in good. I'm good. Windsor has the highest prevalence rate with 22.1. As you can see, the state average, all schools in Connecticut, the
038average is 18.5. So, you take a look at Weathersfield at 15.9. We're we're we're not we're identifying uh a lot less kids in special education than the state average. And um we're we're in the upper tier of the DUI in that area. You take a look over in L, it's a very different L uh our EL learners. It's a very different story here. Stonington has the lowest percentage of EL learners with less than 1%. Brford has the highest number of EL learners at 12.2%. As you can see, Weathersfield currently has 9.9% of our learners identified as EL and the state average is 11.3. As we look over um I I really want to take a a minute to kind of really praise Weathersfield. The next one is the percentage of kids who are identified as
039chronically absent. So chronically absent is defined by the state of Connecticut as having missed 10% or more of the school days. So if we have a 180 school days, we have 182, but I'm just rounding. you have 180 school days. Anyone who misses 18 days or more would be identified as what's called chronically absent in Connecticut. So in DUI D, the the district that has the absolute best rate of kids coming to school as measured by chronic absenteeism is Weathersfield Public Schools. This is a great tribute to the Weathersfield community. It shows that the families and the parents in Weathersfield deeply value education and they get their kids to school. Um, you know, it's like they they say the old saying with the mailmen, you know, whether it's snow or rain or wind or whatever,
040they get the mail there. Well, in Weathersfield, they get the kids to school better than any other district in Dur D. That's a tribute to our great families and it's also a great tribute to our principles, assistant principles, guidance counselors, and social workers. When they see that a kid is not in for a particular day, a phone call goes, "Is everything okay?" So, this is a a great measure of partnership between our our wonderful families and our leadership teams. Um, taking a look at our suspension rates, we're exactly in the middle. Uh, the lowest suspension expulsion rates in the DUI is Old Sabbrook at 1.9%. The highest rate is 12.7 in Windsor. State average is uh 6.8. And Weathersfield nestles in in a very reasonable lower rate of uh 4 uh 8%. And finally, we're
041going to take a look at what's called a return on investment ratio. So return on investment is it's a measure that takes two of these uh two of these um indicators or benchmarks and it does a mathematical equation with them to generate this ROI quotient. ROI, you take your per pupil expenditure and you take the number of points that you have on the accountability index. So for us, we have like 79.2 uh points and we have $19,741 per pupil. And what it what you do is you divide it and you figure out how much you pay a point. So, here in Weathersfield, we pay $263 per point uh on the accountability index. You're it. What it shows is you're getting very good value in your in your school system here. State uh the state expends
042about 236. You see Southernington has the lowest per pupil. They also have, you know, one of the bigger bigger student bodies. They have a little bit of an economy of scale and Watertown expends the most uh per uh per point. So, as you as your accountability index goes up and as or down and as your per pupil expenditure goes up or down, it fluctuates in different ways. But it's it's a way uh of kind of looking at a return on investment. Um, you it's an interesting measure. I haven't totally wrapped my my brain around it, but I I like the I like it's just a different way of of assessing value, you know, to the school district. So, these are some of the benchmarks that I share with you as we kind of get ready
043for budget season in in the coming months. It's it's um indicators that you can kind of think of as the board is making budget decisions um over the course of you know the February and and in March as well. >> I'll pause for any questions. >> Any questions or comments? >> No. Marjorie, >> I was just going to ask because I've looked up the the report cards in the past and sometimes [music] there's a lag because it's based on information from like a year or two. Some are are old from like old you know and I wasn't sure is this it says 24 25 but I it's last year based on >> this is this is based on the last year information because we just we just got the final data drops from the state
044in November and December. They don't even give us the accountability index um until November usually. You might have gotten it once in October, but um but a lot of the the data it is uh held over. So this is based on last school year 2425. Marjorie, I did not say that and that's important, >> right? No, I think a lot of people don't realize like sometimes you're looking at 2020, like last year, you'd be looking at 2023 data, which it seems like a lifetime ago, you know, considering COVID and all that stuff. Um but that's good to know that the numbers are reflected here, the most recent ones. Some of these things we can get sooner rather than later, but it generally takes until November to get every single one. So, you can't you you
045don't have the accountability index. Uh you can't do ROI. Um some of these you get as early as June. Like some of these benchmarks for this year you get pretty quick. >> Anyone else? Matt. >> Yeah, I was just going to say I love this type of stuff. So, I appreciate the work that went into it. Jennifer, Jeff, thank you for your presentation. I feel like with numbers and with data sets and uh you can you can paint a picture, you can see where you're at and then you can plan accordingly moving forward. And we're definitely going to use this type of data and other other data as well, but stuff like this to plan stuff like our budgets and contract negotiations and basically just anything that we want to plan in the school system,
046right? I mean, some of this stuff, uh, some of some of these rankings where we're at, I really like. Some I wish we could improve upon, but we'll get there. And, uh, yeah. No, thank you. I appreciate this presentation and the work that went into this. >> And that's the attitude. Knowledge will get us somewhere. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wood. >> Thank you very much. We have another presentation tonight, too. We have the advisory school building committee their architect recommendation for the school building project. Emily Zamrella, would you come on up? Hello everyone. Thank you for having me. [snorts] I don't have slides. I'll just wait for that for a sec. But I'm uh very excited to be here on behalf of the building committee. Um my name is
047Emily Zamrell. I'm the chair as of a couple well one month ago. Um so at our last meeting on Monday the 5th, we unanimously voted to re recommend TSKP um be hired as our architecture firm to design the new highest renovated web and renovated Charles Wright. And you should have all received in your packets the same information that we had as a committee. So you have the uh the responses to the RFQ, you have the follow-up questions we asked, the responses we got from the three firms we had interviewed and the fee proposals. So I'll explain a bit about the process we went through and why we settled on this recommendation. So the three firms that were selected to be interviewed were TSKP, Tecton, and Antonazi. They were selected from eight applicants. And let me
048start by saying these are all capable firms. They've all done great work in the state and in the region. Um, but we're obviously looking for the best fit for Weathersfield in this particular project that we're working on. The interview subcommittee conducted the interviews and when the full committee discussed these interviews at our December 8th meeting, we ended up with even more questions. Uh we wanted to make sure that we were really comparing apples to apples here and understanding all of the complexities and all of the different elements of these applications so that we can make the most um educated recommendation to you all. And we appreciate that we have a responsibility to make a recommendation for a firm that will keep us on time and on budget. And we believe a key component of this
049is that the firm demonstrates that they understand the work that we've done up to this point and shares the vision of the town for what what we're looking for in this overall school project. So, we decided to ask 10 follow-up questions of the three firms to help us better assess um their vision and see if it was a good fit for ours. The answers to the questions were illuminating for us and it was then a unanimous decision to recommend TSKP. So after we got the responses back, it was down to Tecton and TSKP. So I'm going to focus on those two. Um Tecton was the lowest fee and we had to closely consider that obviously in the grand scheme of the cost of this project and wanting to make the best fiscal decision, but also
050considering the value that we get for that fee. So some of their responses to the questions we asked raised concerns with us that they may not be the best fit. Um, I'm going to go through those quickly. Um, feel free to ask questions if you'd like to know more, but the the first one was the exclusion of highest demolition from their fee. We had asked everyone to include that. They did not. The second was reduced project hours at web, which was significantly less than either Antonazi or TSKP had proposed. That influenced the fee as well. and the proposed project schedule for Charles Wright was not in line with what the voters approved in the referendum. So these points all also beg the question of is the fee we're looking at truly this low or are
051we looking at additional fees in the future or potentially issues with staying on schedule if we're not all on the same page here which raises costs in a different bigger way. So overall, we just we didn't feel confident that we were on the same page and that this was going to be a good fit for us. So on the other side of this, why we did select TSKP, one of the biggest factors was their recent experience in Manchester administering a sequenced six school program very similar to what we're going for here. It had two referenda as we're going for here. uh they did it on time, they did it on budget, minimal change orders, and it included restoration of a historical STO school, which we know will come up in the next referendum. So, that
052was huge. This really, really valuable experience that we'd love to have in Weathersfield. Uh they also reduced their fees by $600,000 without being asked. When we sent the when we sent the follow-up questions, it seemed like they kind of read between the lines and said, "We know you're conscious of cost and budget here." So, we took another look. We were able to reduce some fees. So we appreciated that. Um they are obviously very familiar with this project. They understand the timelines. They understand the key goals that we have to make. They are able to give each school its own architect to oversee that particular part of the project while being supervised by Michael and Randall. They understand the big picture and how to make each element work together. They emphasized multiple times in their application
053and their follow-up the importance of web and of that key year of 2028 being so important in making sure this entire project stays on track and that every school gets the attention that it really needs. They were also the only firm of the three to include highest demolition in their fee proposal. They understand and they're very familiar with the community. They know that these are neighborhood schools. They are not just buildings. They know that redistricting will be very difficult on families. They talked about that in their proposal as well and how we can ease that and bring families in and help them um just have an [clears throat] easier time with that process. They understand that the community needs and wants to be involved in this process. We've seen that up to this point very
054quickly, very clearly, I mean, and the community knows them as well. So, we think that would just help with the transition here and understanding that they don't have to get reacquainted with anything. They also are familiar with the town. They've established good relationships, good working relationships with the school staff and town staff, which is a great start and makes us feel like we can really hit the ground running here. Uh they also have, as you all know, they have a demonstrated record of success in our town. When they came in with the pre-referendum work, they said, "We're going to work out a timeline. We're going to gather all the stakeholders. We're going to keep everybody on the same page. We're going to make adjustments if we need to. We're going to be very transparent and
055communicative and answer questions. And we're going to get this referendum passed. And they did all of that just as they said they would. So, we have every reason to believe that we'd be getting the same service. Um, we also believe that their fee, while it's higher on paper than Tecton, is likely to be the most accurate and the least likely to increase because of the lack of exclusions and the adherence to our schedule. So, we believe that while it's a little bit more, it's going to be predictable for folks. And it's, like I said before, it's really about the value we get for the money. So, that was really important. And crucially, and I'll end with this point, the funding the voters approved during the referendum allowed up to 13 to 14% for soft costs,
056which includes the professional fees. So TSKP's fee is 4.7% of the total project cost. So that's typical for a project of this scale. That's about what we'd expect to pay and it still keeps us comfortably on budget and with plenty of room to pay for the other soft costs that are that are going to come up. So, for all of these reasons, we believe continuing to work with TSKP on this phase of the project is the best possible choice for Weathersfield. And I'll take any questions that you have. >> Thank you, Emily. Anyone with questions or comments now? >> No question, just a comment. Uh, thank you for your update tonight. Uh, thank you for your work on this plan thus far. I know you're new as the chair of this committee, but uh, this
057referendum and this plan isn't new to you. Uh, and I like that TSKP is not new to us either. Um, we've built a rapport with them and like you said, they know what they're doing. They know what's going on. They they they know what they're getting into and they've proven themselves before. I really appreciate the fact um that the committee was unanimous in their decision. I really do. Uh that goes that goes a ways. >> Thanks, Emily. I I just wanted to say well first of all Emily's done a great job um even for the month but you know we've appreciated it and Sally she's also done a great job um it's a really great committee um we work really well together and um I was one of the people that questioned the budget um
058with the numbers and uh what what came about was when you start looking and comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges you notice notice that even though TSKP might be higher, they're actually more of a solid number versus um Tecton. And um one of the issues that I had was that with Tecton, they were basically bringing in their ideas and like like cookie cuttering what what they felt that Weathersfield had and wanted versus listening to what Weathersfield has already said they wanted. So our and but TSKP they knew it. They've been a part of it. They've breathed it, you know, they were yelled at, you know, so like they they know exactly what we want and we want to make sure that we keep our neighborhood schools. And so they actually listened. Um whereas
059we felt that the other one didn't do the research that was necessary to see who we are because we are not Rocky Hill, we're not Newington, we're field. So, um, that was that was mainly why I I went to GS. >> Amanda is our board member here, but she's also connected with the advisory building committee. So, I thank both of you. This is a lot of work. It really is. Thank you very much. >> Getting to the fun part now. >> Anyone else for comments? Jim, >> I just wanted to know, maybe this is not entirely in the scope. Is is the project generally on schedule overall? >> Yes. So the plan is still to start construction in March of 27 on Highest and have that completed by the following August. >> Thank you. >>
060Put a smile on our faces. >> Yes, it's going to happen. >> Marjorie, >> I I just want to um have I have a few comments, but I did notice as I was looking through the documents, um you know, if you just look at the numbers, it's like what's going on here? And then when you look kind of deeper the I think that every presentation I would encourage anybody who sees the uh agenda online you can you know you can click on the link and you can see all the presentations made by each three of the of three of them and um they're all really good visually you know and one of the things I was impressed with was the questions that you guys came back up back to and sent out. They were very
061well written and um it just shows the work you all did and um after you kind of heard the presentations, asked some more questions and they had to come back and give you more information. So I I was really impressed with that work and um and I just want to thank you for that. But I also like I know we're picking yeah we you picked this one but all three kind of gave you such such excitement for what could be and all that they all have done schools all over the state and all that they have pictures of all the schools they've done over the state and you're just like oh my gosh this could be our town soon and I just think about Sally and all these people who helped with the effort and
062Crystal and then Sally Cats over there and um I just want to cry because this is so exciting that we're starting it at you know once this is all voted And um people can be part of it. People can be part of the planning and if you have comments about what you want to see in your school, you know, they'll be here for um you to talk to, right? But um I'm very excited about proceeding and um I'm glad TSKB is the was the chosen one. So thank you. >> I just wanted to Sally, do you have anything you can offer tonight or you just willingly okay down there? You've done a tremendous amount of work on this, too. Thank you. >> Emily has given you the full picture of why the committee has made
063the recommendations. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Did you say starting March 27? >> March of 27. Yes. >> And done in August. >> August of 28. >> 28. Okay. Okay. That's what I was wondering. I was like, what? [laughter] >> That quick, >> right? It's not that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you. >> Like best construction company ever. Yeah. >> Go right ahead. [laughter] >> How many people are working on this thing? >> If anyone can do it, it's Michael Scott. Um, thank you Emily and Amanda and everyone on the building committee. Um, those of us who have been very excited by this referendum for a long time are so happy to get to this point and and honestly I am also excited that it's going to be TSKP. I think uh like
064you said Michael Scott has walked through the fire with us. Um, and I love the the their equivalent of an HDC um experience. I think that'll be really helpful. Um, a couple things. I also really like how how there the responses to the questions really focused on a student's experience. Um, especially in the hard moments when there's going to be a lot of transition. They talked about like the sneak peeks and just they're very thoughtful about um what this is going to what the student experience of this is going to be like and I think that's really important for us to keep in mind. Um, two things. Can you speak to um can you speak to how you guys have been thinking about preschool? >> Sure. So preschool right now is set to go into
065Highest. Uh I believe it's five classrooms, but that's still maybe do you know more about the specifics? >> Yeah. Um the initial schematic had it to have multiple classrooms looking at the averages. Um and right now Weathersfield is um six pre-kid um preschool kids above what the average was going to be. So looking at those trends, the good thing is we look at those trends while we're designing. >> So you would have multiple schools, multiple classrooms. And the nice thing is that they would be clustered >> just as they're clustering the other but yet set apart. If you look at the schematic drawings and their presentation to where um part of the school, part of the community, but still not a little bit more um to the right instead of to the left, >> I
066think. But again, that will also be driven a lot by community input, your input into their design. >> And as I understand it, there wouldn't be preschool and web. >> No preschool and web because that's going to be a 56, right? Yes. >> And then it's sort of um a conversation to be had about anything further than that. Should anything change at the state level >> funding wise? Should we get more money for preschool? Um so just kind of putting that conversation out there that that's uh that's something that we can continue talking about as you guys >> as of right now we know there will be preschool at Highest and there will not be preschool at Web. >> That's all we know. Yep. Okay, great. Um [clears throat] yes. >> No, continue. Thank you.
067Anyone else? I I we're going to take a vote, but I want to thank you again. This was >> Thank you very much. I'm very grateful to be able to chair this committee. It's been a great group. Makes me feel like I don't have to know absolutely everything because there's an expert in the room for everything we need to know. So, um it's been great so far. So, thank you for having me. >> You Okay, we'll do our vote. I make a motion that we accept the recommendation of the advisory school building um committee to hire TSKP as our architect. I get it all in. Um do I have a second? >> Second. >> Um let's take a vote. All in favor? >> I opposed. Any abstensions? >> That passes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
068you very much. Okay, so we'll continue on. Are there any board comments this evening? Anybody? Okay, then I'd like just to do Oh, we have one down here. >> Go ahead, Mindy. >> I was just going to speak to um the Wack meeting that was yesterday. Um we had a Wack meeting um for those who um are unfamiliar, we're looking at early childhood education and readiness um throughout the town of Weathersfield. trying to bring up my notes really quick. Um, one of the things that um, we talked about was uh, there's going to be formation of an ad hoc committee to look at the future vision of um, early childhood uh, care and education and um, there will be more information about how to I guess apply to be one of those committee members. Um,
069so we'll make sure that that's you know available. Um, we're also an official LGP with the state. Um, and so that's very we uh got to meet our Shine representative yesterday who helps us make sure we're adhering to the OEC and state guidelines. as an official LGP. We'll be doing a needs assessment um as a town uh and working with hopefully uh data collaborative, data haven um on that. Um and so uh we're just as um as Kim Bobin says, you know, we've had sort of laundry all over the place and we're really starting to sort it and um make a clear coherent strategy for the future of early childhood education. Weathersfield. So, I'm very excited about that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> State change, right? >> The LGP. >> Yeah, >> it is
070a state change. Yes. Yep. >> Okay. Anyone else? Marjorie, >> I just want to report on a couple things from the WSPC meeting that we had last week. And um there's it was the largest WSPC meeting I've ever seen, which was great. Um it was a packed room. You were you were there. >> Living room only. it was um and what's you know what's they started to do is ask for guests to come in and um and explain something a new new new topic or whatever but then also more community members are coming in like people from BikeWalk um Weathersfield and and obviously Wet uh Kimbabin comes to or someone from WC arrives um to report on what's going on with them and so it just it was just a lot of people and a
071lot of good information uh makes for a long meeting though but um but one of the things that um is that is coming up in February or two things. One is they're going to try to do a winter walk because there's bike to school, walk to school days throughout uh two a year. One's in October and one's in May and they're going to promote um a winter walk in February. So, that'll be good just to get the kids walking and walking to school, not biking, walking to school even when it's cold. And just to get more of that going. Um, and also there's going to be an internet safety night for parents and that's on October I'm sorry, February 2nd at the community center at 7 p.m. And um, this will be um, again I
072forget his name. Scott um, what Driscoll. Yes. um Scott Dris Driscoll who's been um a speaker at quite a few other internet safety um meetings and he is just such a expert in all these things and he does a great presentation and it's so informative for parents and I feel like technology and phones and social media and um it's just a constant target we cannot put our finger on, right? And um I feel bad for parents. I'm a parent that still is struggling with it with my kids and they're growing. Um, and that he is just a great resource and I I highly suggest parents go to get this information and it really is just so super helpful about alternatives or ways that parents can control or at least monitor what their kids see and
073are exposed to online. So, um, look out for that. There'll probably be a lot more reminders, but >> hey, thank you Jim. Just wanted to mention that I went to the uh High Crest uh PTO meeting last Thursday. They've got a tremendous amount of you know fundraising activities and they were you know of course keenly interested in the you know the schedule for Highest and um their new school. So I'm trying to keep them informed on that. Thank you. >> Thank you. One second. I just wanted to say um congratulations to um the girls uh indoor track running team. They uh were over at Yale University this past weekend and the uh distance medley relay. They actually made a they broke a school record this weekend. So um I'm I'm on the [snorts] running boosters
074club. So I feel like we need to um you know give them a bunch of kudos, you know, running around a circle. You know, they deserve it. So, if you can catch them. [laughter] >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. I just wanted to um summarize and kind of get the information out there about our new model for our board um meetings. So, tonight we worked on our first board of ed meeting with the new workshop model. So, some details. Each month the board of ed has two meetings, one on the second Tuesday and the next on the fourth Tuesday of each month. For many reasons, we're working a new format for the first meeting of each month as a workshop meeting. This workshop meeting starts at six o'clock. One [snorts] or two committees will be
075in session here in our town hall. Residents are invited to attend our committee meetings. The policy on these meetings is that our residents are invited to attend, but there is no public comment. Following the committee meeting, then at 7 o'clock, the board of ed then meets here at the deis for a slightly different agenda with a focus on the committees that had just met. Now, our next board of ed meeting on Tuesday, January 27th, will start at 7:00 with our regular agenda. So, I thank everyone on the board, our administration, our staff, and other residents for working this change. And I love this quote as we started this change. The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new. So I thank you all for
076our help in this. But we're not adjourning because I'm making a motka [laughter] life at the high school. [snorts] Good evening everyone. Here's a quick update of what's been happening these past few weeks at the high school. So, the high school was recently recognized into the AP honor role by college board due to the amount of students who enrolled in AP courses last year, showing that our Weathersfield Eagles are continuing to challenge themselves in school. Last year, right before winter break, seniors organized and participated in a Christmas holiday event where they had the chance to watch Home Alone, participate in arts and crafts, play sports, and have some hot cocoa. To participate, it was mandatory that each student brings in a canned good or $5. And we ended up making a little over $400 in
077cash and around $1,000 worth of canned goods that were delivered to the local food bank. And as midterm exams are approaching, students are in study mode, hoping to close out this semester successfully. That's next week. Um, additionally, in we connect last week for more senior activities, we ordered our caps and gowns, so that's kind of exciting. Um, on the athletic side, winter sports is off and running with successes spanning across all teams. To wrap up last season's achievement, this past weekend, a couple football players were named into the CIA Allstate team, and boys soccer player Rammo Amedic was named Gametime CTer of the year, which is an extraordinary achievement. Another exciting achievement that you mentioned earlier was that the girls on the indoor track team set a new world record in the distance medley relay.
078And finally, unified sports became LA began last week and will continue to run run once a week till next February. Um, sorry, just February came in next month. The sport of the season is basketball and I'm trying to help with that. Um, it's really exciting and we're really excited to continue supporting this inclusive and impactful program and that's what's been happening at the high school. >> Thank you and good luck with the rest of the year. This is a a nice time for you. Enjoy. Enjoy. >> Okay. All right. Um, we do have an executive session tonight and I'll make the motion as soon as I find it. Um, where'd it go? Hold on. Yeah. Yep. So, I make a motion that we go into an executive session for the discussion of school safety. Can
079I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Any abstensions? Okay. Thank you and good night to everyone. Thank you all. It brings