0012025 and I hope everyone's enjoying our March Madness. I would appreciate you turn off your cell phones as this me meeting is being recorded. Ellen, would you please do the roll call? Absolutely. Good evening everyone. Miss Callen Carson present. Mr. Kerry here. Mrs. D Roberts here. Ms. Hernandez Williams here. Mr. Riley here. Miss Walters present. Mr. Winer here. Vice Chair Mr. Lacavoli here. Chairperson Mrs. Granado present. And Weathersfield High School student representative Miss Angelica data here. All present. Okay. Can I have John Carzar, Mike uh Bearbal, and Sally Dulli 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. Great. Thank you. Um, student and staff recognition next
002time, right? None this evening, Mrs. Granado. All right. So, next on tonight's agenda is the approval of the minutes of our previous regular board of ed meeting on March 11th. May I have a motion to approve those minutes? Motion. Thank you. A second. Second. Thanks. Um discussions. Any problems with those motions? Any changes? I I believe um I think it's on page 12 or 11. I'm sorry. I was in a rush tonight, but um where uh the board had their comments um I believe that um what um Marjorie had said about WSPC was attributed to me about the um nominations for person of the year. I believe she basically is saying that uh it was written that Janice said something that okay got that my translator. We got it were from Marjgery not Janice. Anyone
003else? Okay. All set. So that with that amended uh minutes all in favor I opposed any abstensions those minutes are approved. Now is there anyone who wishes to come up and 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. Okay. So Mr. EMTT you have some communications to share? I certainly do. Thank you, Mrs. Granado. Good evening, everyone. A few items for you this evening. Just want to uh let everyone know that Weathersfield High School will be the uh host school for the CMEA Allstate event uh coming up at the high school on March 27th through March 29th. Uh Mr. Barabball out in the audience will be over at the high school. will be supporting uh
004the addition of a couple of hundred additional students, some really premier musicians that will be studying at the high school and performing as well. So, we're very excited for that. We've worked uh very closely with the CMEA and have multiple music teachers in the district that are chairs or co co-chairs of subcommittees of the CMEA. So, definitely proud to be hosting some of our uh premier musicians across the region. Want to let everybody know that the Weathersfield public schools will be closed on Monday, March 31st. This is in recognition of Eid. Eid marks the end of the Ramadan holiday for those of the Muslim faith. Um, as a matter of fact, this evening at Emerson Williams, a an ifar is taking place. Uh, we also had an ifar, I believe, at uh, Weather Seal High
005School as well. So, again, this has been in place for the past couple of years. However, Eid has fallen on the April vacation. So, just want to let everybody know again, the weather public schools will be closed on Monday, March 31st. Uh, in recognition of Eid, also so everyone knows, just a reminder for the calendar, uh, graduation is Tuesday, June 10th, and the last day of school is Monday, June 16th. It takes into account one snow day as well as the day we closed uh in honor of firefighter Sharkovich. So, again, check those calendars. is the time is flying. Uh just want to let everybody know about the Charles Wright principal search. Uh we have a very robust pool of candidates. I've been very pleased with the number. We have over 60 candidates that applied.
006Uh we started the work of virtual screens today. We'll be doing that work again tomorrow in advance of our first round of interviews which are slated for April 4th. So um the expectation is we'll have a new principal in place at Charles Wright effective July 1st. Um, I also want to make mention uh with regard to some of the recent executive orders that have been coming out of the White House. Um, again, it's something that we monitor uh carefully. Um, one of the things I think is critically important, as I said last week at the town council meeting during the budget presentation, is we always try and take a balanced approach when it comes to this news when it comes out. Uh, it's immediately met with a lot of emotion. Um, for us the big
007focus is making sure that our kids have what they need to succeed every day. Making sure we have safe schools, making sure we have the materials we need, and the highly qualified individuals to teach our kids. So, obviously, we know that this is the a time of change, but we're going to approach it from a measured approach. The CSDE came out with a statement on Friday. I'd certainly like to share it with you. So, the CSDE statement on President Trump's order to begin dismantling the US Department of Education. The Connecticut State Department of Education has released the following statement regarding the executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing the dismantling of the US Department of Education. The Connecticut State Department of Education, CSDE, recognizes the significant national discussion surrounding the future of the US
008Department of Education. While we understand that many families, educators, and community members have concerns about what this could mean for students, we want to reassure the public that at this time, the Department of Education has stated they will continue to deliver on all statutory programs under their purview. And to date, the CSDE has not experienced any interruptions in funding for any Department of Education programs that the CSDE administers. Education is fundamentally a state and local endeavor and here in Connecticut, our focus remains on the critical work happening in our districts each day. The CSDE will continue to monitor developments at the federal level. However, our top priority remains the policies and initiatives in Connecticut that ensure all 58,42 students receive the highquality education they deserve and that the over 120,000 educators and school staff are
009supported. So, just wanted to make sure I shared that with you this evening. Um, we have a lot of events going on. U, I have to tell you the schools are a buzz with multicultural nights at Silus D Middle School. You'll see a group coming before you at an upcoming board meeting during staff student recognition. Um, we had a very successful um, run of musicals. I am pleased to say that uh, Beauty and the Beast Jr. over at Silus Dean sold out all three shows. Amazing. to the point where people had to be turned away. Um we are currently practicing getting ready for festival uh which is a huge hit for our community in the spring for our elementary school students. We have a variety of uh events. We have an event going on tonight
010uh for web uh the uh I believe it's a basketball game. There are some of us that were invited. Again, my apologies not being able to be there and show off my basketball skills which are slim to none. Um there's there just is a lot going on. So again, keep an eye on the calendars, keep an eye on our website. Um we're going to get into the spring very quickly and with that it's going to come a lot of great events in our schools. And then finally tonight, um there is a proposed executive session. So this board will undertake and complete, we hope, the important role of selecting the next superintendent. Um as your current superintendent of schools, I must say again, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I am deeply honored
011to have been your superintendent since 2012. I am deeply honored and privileged to have been a member of the Weathersfield Public Schools community since 2008. When I interviewed for the director of special services position back in 2008, one of the the board members at the time, Mike McKenna, asked me a question about where I saw myself in the future. And after spending 18 years with the Hartford public schools, which I revere, it was great, great experience. I remember saying to him that it was my intention to make this home base and make this a home and retire from this district. And I am so proud to have been able to do just that. So, um, I just want to say to everybody in the public, um, a heartfelt thank you and, uh, I'm greatly appreciative
012of the opportunity to have served as your superintendent. With that, it's communications. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, we'll move on. Tonight, we have no action items and there is no presentation, but our board of ed meetings held community and public relations. Marjorie, would you speak to that? Sure. Um the community and public relations uh committee, we met on Wednesday, March 12th, and we spoke about four main things. One was um creating a board of education communications plan and we had been throwing around like a laundry list of things we wanted to do or things we wanted to focus on. It was kind of just this list hanging out and um I had seen that another district or two had created a communications plan where they actually just kind of had a
013you know the goals and strategies going forward and I thought why don't we just create something like that that's more of like what we can look to as we go forward. So, we drafted um a plan for that and we're still going through it. We're going to talk about it more next meeting if anyone has any suggestions or edits. Um some of the goals of the plan are to um have, you know, what what more things we can do for community engagement. Um having more people know about board of ed meetings and what happens at board of ed meetings, uh newsletters, um engagement between um school and staff and ourselves and and school and staff. um a district website, social media, looking at back at that, you know, those communication tools every so often to
014see what we can do to improve it. Um teacher and staff appreci appreciation um activities. Um explaining the budget process um and um other special district issues and also engagement maybe more with our town leadership and um state delegation as well, letting them know what's going on with the schools. So that those are just a few things that were um listed on the plan that we'll try to fine-tune um our next meeting. Um, another thing we talked about was more um looking at the seeds of civility code of conduct that um board member uh uh Christina Hernandez Williams um uh created and or her idea for this and we're looking to maybe fine-tune that again our next meeting and also share or get more of an understanding with the town uh council what their thoughts
015are on this. Um and so that's ongoing. And then we also um created a draft of a newsletter that we we had been talking about this for a couple of meetings about just having a monthly one-pager that explains kind of the things going on in the school system. And uh we finalized that draft at the meeting and then that went out the next week. Um and we also talked about other ways we can communicate the elementary school building project which is still ongoing. some of the decisions still have to be made but two letters have gone out from um our chair chairperson uh Bobby Hughes Granada explaining how you know what the status is so they you know some people can kind of maybe be at ease or just kind of know where we are
016right now and moving forward ideas about you know adding or creating a frequently asked questions list that TSKP is currently um has on their website but actually maybe adding it or actually creating another copy of it that people can access from the board of um or the school the district website so people can kind of see answers to some of those questions as they go forward. But we'll be talking more about that next meeting. And that's about it. Marjorie, thank you. Every time we meet for your committee, the committee gets bigger and bigger with all this communication. Thank you. It's wonderful. All right. The other um next one on the agenda, CR Council met on 320. Um the CRE Council is the Capital Region Education Council of which Weathersfield is a member along with 35
017other surrounding towns and the council's responsible for the regional magnet schools and Project Choice. They've also organized and run the Harford Head Start program. The meeting's discussion started around the current legislative session and it was a very robust discussion. Of special concern is House Bill number 7167. This bill does spell out the continuing implementation of the student center funding model that continues to shift the magnet operating cost to the state. This is so long overdue. I do have a letter, a template if any board member or anyone wants to write to our legislators or our administrators to help them understand how important this is. The correct budget is approved over several months on a programby-program basis, and that's what we're doing right now. The first series of program budgets were approved, and this process will
018continue over the next several meetings. And the council's nominating committee will be meeting ahead of the annual meeting to develop and present a slate of officers for next year's council. This action occurs at the annual meeting on May 21st. All info on the correct council, their Magnus schools and services can be found on their website. Thank you. And then we just had our finance and operation committee meeting. Matt, would you speak to that? Yep. Thank you, Bobby. So, prior to tonight's board of ed meeting, um the finance and operations committee met. We had our monthly meeting. Um our current budget is about $100,000 under budget. That's only 0.15% but that is still good news to be under budget. Um we are realizing potential savings in the objects of personal services, salaries and benefits uh purchase
019professional and technical services and other purchased services. Uh so in all those three objects we're we're looking at potential savings of around $485,000 combined. But also in those three major objects, we are looking at unbudgeted expenditures of around $385,000. So $485US 385 is where we get the $100,000 under budget. We discussed excess cost reimbursement, which for us has the potential to increase by approximately $425,000. Uh key word being potential. Um hopefully we can get that amount, but I know that there is some talk of us possibly receiving less. Um I doubt we would receive more. Uh there's also some talk of that money coming to us at some point in June, whereas normally it comes in late April. So hopefully it comes in the amount that uh I mentioned and hopefully it comes soon. Sooner
020the better and the closer to $425,000 the better for us. Um, finally, we discussed and I just want to mention two key important dates coming up. Um, on May 1st, members of the board of ed leadership are going to meet with the town council uh to discuss some more details and to discuss more in depth this current budget that we have adopted and proposed to the council. And on Monday, April 21st, there's going to be a townwide budget hearing where if you have an opinion on this budget, you can show up and you can voice your opinion on it one way or the other. Uh so we welcome your thoughts and we welcome your opinion. That's it. Great. Thank you, Matt. And we hope people do come to the April 21st and talk about how
021important our budget is. All right. Meeting scheduled. We have student program and services on 41. Is that April Fool's? No, actually we are not having a meeting that day. Thank you. Okay, so cancelled for April. Cancelled. Thank you. All right. Public comment again. Is there anyone wishing to make a public comment? 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. Okay. Are there any board comments? Anyone? Christine wanted to take a moment to uh say how impressed I was for the SCMS Beauty and the Beast. I I got a chance to attend Friday uh March 14th and I want to say thank you to Charlene Maddock, Emily Carbella, Riley the Augustino, Ellie Palisio, Matthew Corwin, uh the principles and
022the students on and off stage. It was amazing. They were electric. Um so talented and they just had so much fun. The whole cast was diverse and it was just magical and who doesn't love Disney? So the kids were just awesome. It really was such a nice night out. Um, but kudos to you. Bravo. Very good. Thank you, Gianis. Um, on Wednesday night, um, last week I went to see screenagers at Marjorie was there also. Um, and it was a very interesting video. The people, um, who came had questions and comments afterward. Um, and one of the comments was for future meetings. They'd like to know more about how they can um prevent their child from accessing this from cell phones mostly and other um uh tablets and such um keep their children from accessing
023information that they don't or material that they don't want them to have. So, some of them felt like they had a pretty good idea of what was in the movie. Um but they'd like to know now what what do we do about this? Um, so it was a movie that was presented um by Amplify, a company called Amplify, and they let us screen it for free. Um, and uh, you know, was for the entire town. Great. Great. You know, it's happening right now if the spring comes in that we have so much going on, you can't make it to everything. So, that makes it a problem. Absolutely. I'd love to see that. That'd be great. Anyone else for comment? archery. I would uh also um reiterate what Jenna said. We we went and you know
024when you think you know everything about what's bad for kids when it comes to screens, you really don't until each movie you see, each conversation piece um each statistic, each medical um uh new report about how it affects people's brains. It's uh really astounding and um I really look forward to moving more forward um with more information for parents about how they can um just kind of navigate this a little better and maybe coordinate with them um about even just knowing how if you do give your kid a phone, what can you do before you get them give them that phone to restrict all the things that they can access with that phone. Um and so um and one of the things that did also come out were that there were some parents who wish
025there wasn't as much screen at school itself with Chromebooks and that Chromebooks coming home. Some of the kids don't need it or they did use it for other purposes besides school and um if there could be less screen just in at school in general because there was a lot more screen of course due to co it was just one of those things and could we pull back on that with some grades. So that was another concern that came up. I also want to talk about um how April 3rd is going to be the BIPA cultural night and that's just an amazing fun great community event. It's at the community center I think believe I think it's at 5 5:30. Don't don't quote me on that. Is it 5? Yeah. Um and they're going to do
026so many different things. There's so there's musical acts. There's all kinds of crafts. There's going to be tables or cultural tables and food and it's just going to be a great great event. So I encourage you. It was so crowded last not crowded crowded. not bad crowded last year. It was like perfect crowd last year. Um and they anticipate again a big crowd. So they actually are um using more rooms in the community center for this. So um I really highly encourage people to come out for it. Such a fun event. And um also just like um Michael was mentioning how there's just so many concerts coming up and there's also an art exhib exhibit at the Websterfield Library of High School students who have done um artwork and that's going to run until uh
027April 6th. So, if you want to go see that um or you're in the library, just know just remember that there's some uh really good art pieces by our own Weathersfield High students. Great. Thank you. Anyone else for closed uh ending remarks? And I have some right here. Okay. Um so, Weathersville Public School is so fortunate. We actually have two organizations working to raise money for our students. Um, and these monies are used to fund enrichment programs and to fund grants for enriching our curriculum. So, the Keen Foundation, Keen for Kids, met on a Zoom meeting on Thursday. Keen for Kids is a coalition of town and school organizations. Our Keen afterchool enrichment program has an incredible 1,60 enrollments and along with that 55 scholarships are being used during this session. The elementary musicals are
028on with the High Crest Thesbesians doing Shrek last weekend. All five schools will be performing a musical this spring. Please watch for the dates and the times. The science hands-on is now working in grade three with the very highinterest unit of soil and worms. There are a lot of worm friends out there now. An encore at the silastine middle school continues to be very successful in helping students socially and emotionally. There are 30 students in the program with an ARPA grant for the next 2 years. Um the UNICO Keen Golf Tournament is scheduled for Monday, May 12th at the Weathersville Country Club. Please sign up to play or come for dinner. This raises money for all these keen programs. Watch for info on Parent Square and in our local papers. And the Weathersville Education Foundation
029met on Wednesday, March 19th. The group is focused on teacher grants. The applications were sent out to principles, specialists, and teachers on May 24th and are due on April 30th with the grants awarded on May 30th. Stay in touch with the Weathersfield Education Foundation activities through your social media work of our own Angelica data which is my perfect entrance to what's life at the high school like. So, um this past Friday actually, uh the Euro Challenge team, it's a group of sophomores. They presented their um findings on like a situation or a potential situation in a European Union country. I believe they had Portugal and they presented it to like a panel of judges in New York and they got to explore the rest of like New York as well. I heard from them, they
030had a lot of fun. Um and then tomorrow is SAT day for juniors. It's PSATs for the underassman, so freshman and sophomores. And this weekend, there are two amazing events that are being hosted outside of Weatherfield Weathersville High School. Um, through the capstones, two juniors, Maddie G and Laura Life Kendrick, are hosting Paddle Up for Parkinson's, which is essentially a pickle ball tournament raising money for Parkinson's disease research. um their fathers uh believe both have early onset um Parkinson's so it hits close to home for them and they reached their initial goal $5,000 and are extending it to 10,000. They're doing a lot of like great work and a lot of the like communities from all around even like Newington and Glastonbury different local businesses have donated for the prizes and it's really exciting. And
031then two of my best friends on Sunday for their National Honor Society project are hosting Face the Fight. It's to help combat um against like veteran suicide and they're going to have different booths with for instance like members of the veterans commission or veterans themselves to talk about their stories and they're also doing great work. Um and recently we had start our school language department send out Google forms for students who are interested in taking the sea by literacy whether it's in Spanish, French or Italian the three languages offered at our school or in their home languages as well. So those are my updates. Great. Thank you very much. All right. Um is there any unfinished business tonight? All right. So I move that we go into executive session for the discussion and possible appointment
032of a superintendent. Do I hear a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion? No. All in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? Great. I'm not a journey.