Board of Education Meeting - March 11, 2025

001Jim let us Stone ready good okay thank you for board comment all right we're all set all the lights are on everything's good all right good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's Board of Ed meeting the date is Tuesday March 11th 2025 and is it a beautiful spring day out there um Ellen can you please I first I'd appreciate if you turn off your cell phones thank you John as this meeting is being recorded and Ellen will you please do the roll call yes thank you Miss Callen Carson here Mr Cary present Mrs der Roberts here M Hernandez Williams here Mr Riley here Miss Walters pres Mr Wier here Vice chair Mr lacav here board chair Mrs Granado pres and Weathersfield High School student representative Miss Angelica daa here all present thank you and teacher

002Su coko would you come up with your students Dylan and Sam to do the Pledge of Allegiance I to the of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible with liy and justice for all okay thank you don't go too far okay um Mr emit tonight we have student and staff recognition I think we got a glimpse we do we did get a glimpse if I could please have Miss coko Miss sharino and Mr seir please come back up we have some budding Architects over at Weathersfield High School so we're going to talk a little bit about what they've done hi I'm Sue um just brought a couple of my students here last week we competed in the Statewide competition at the home show it's a

003youth design contest through the homebuilders and remodelers Association Statewide there were 16 schools that participated in it and we had eight participants from our school and I brought Sam and Dylan Sam won second place in this competition she earned a $100 check you to her along with the $750 scholarship and their work is really impactable Dylan is a future architect as well and he's a junior this year Sam's will be graduating so I wanted to have them to share a little bit about their experience uh the the whole process really works into the vision of a graduate with um their problem solving collaborating communicating with that it was fun to watch them the last couple days before the project and having them all help each other even though they're competing against each other it was

004really nice to see them come together so uh hi I'm Dylan here um my house is supposed to be kind of like a lake house um doing this competition really meant a lot to me because uh I I have a big interest in architecture and I find like being able to do this I was able to meet so many new people um talk to a lot of people that are involved in in the field which I think is really important because it it allowed me to actually get some exposure and and open my my point of view to to this field um and get more involved so I'm very very thankful for the opportunity I'm definitely doing it next year thank you Dyan which one's here this one right here yeah that that one right

005there that's beautiful so Dylan actually at the home show they um at we had a lunch in that the kids were able to speak with industry professionals and you did a lot of networking and he's um working on an internship we're able to uh talk with were you the one who talked with Jack keer who's the architect so Jack keer you guys remember um home edition um Extreme Makeover home Edition so he was the architect for that and he comes and he's been judging at these competitions so Dylan did a really good job networking and hopefully something will come out of that one excellent hi I'm Sam sharbono uh my house is the dark blue one um I worked really hard I started this last semester and I didn't actually get into Coco's um sixth

006period architecture 2 class it was taken up by my physics class so I came in during all of my free periods my lunch period my study hauls and after school when I could um I started with my interior designing and stuff because I liked that a lot I my computer actually crashed and deleted almost 90% of my house so I had to start from scratch halfway through but I worked really hard and I'm so happy that I I got second it I worked so hard all the gluing my hands were burned my little pieces broke um I've actually committed to Roger Williams and breasto Rhode Island for architecture and their accelerated master's program so I plan on studying and majoring in architecture and then getting my master's degree in reservation and restoration so this was

007definitely very helpful for getting me into my the career that I plan on because I hadn't hadn't taken any other classes related to architecture or anything like that other than construction um so it was very fun I liked it I like to be creative um I also spoke to one of the people who were judging uh I don't remember his name but he is on the committee for the Hartford preservation committee so I talked to him a little bit about like how to get into the job and internships they do have some of those I might be looking into that soon but yeah thank you thank you any comments yes I just want to say congratulations to you both and thank you both for coming in here and sharing your work with us uh this

008is tremendous this looks awesome and it sounds like you had a great experience um question what are you going to do with the $600 it's going to go to college with the 750 idea nice work to both of you thank you thank you very much wait wait wait wait we're not done yet come on back I just I just wanted to um to say I was kind of trying to figure out which one I would love I would love both of them for different reasons but thank you for reminding us while we're up here um your student work and your engagement to the community and and the ability to connect what you love to do and engage that in the classroom that's amazing I have so many students that sometimes will do that in their

009own time so that's awesome and Miss Koko you're just so amazing with your Timeless energy thank you thank you thank you i' love so what an amazing job I'm looking at all the different pieces that you have put together all the detail that goes into this and I can't even imagine how burned your fingers may have been or the slice and all that um but clearly you both have an eye for unbelievable craftsmanship and um Innovation and it's just fantastic um I also so you know I think it's great Dylan that you were able to connect with people in the field to talk about like future opportunities for yourself just learn a little bit more about their careers it definitely helps I know that's one of the things that with this field Public Schools always

010strives for is to help prepare the students for the future as part of the vision of The Graduate so that was great to hear um and along the lines of you know connecting and and increasing your network did you say the Hartford as in The Hartford insurance company no uh heart just the Harford pres okay I work for the Harford and I was going to say I will I will make some some phone calls for you and see what we can do okay but congratulations just amazing work thank you for sharing thank you yeah anyone else um I would just like to say if you can put that much time into something like this and get a job in architecture someday you'll never work a day in your life you're just going to love it

011so congratulations and good luck thanks thank you awesome [Applause] okay next on tonight's agenda is the approval of the minutes for our regular Board of Ed meeting on February 25th May I have a motion to approve the minutes so moved a second second any discussion okay let's move on to a vote all in favor I I opposed any extensions those minutes pass and now is there anyone come back is there anyone wishing to make a public comment please come on up to the podium and state your name and address may I remind you that you have a five minute limit and another reminder the board members will not be responding to comments um I hope you understand that thank you so I'm here for a reason you might not think I'm here for oh um

012excuse me sorry Paul is SOL at 32 hardford Dev um I have had five children in the weatherfield school district two of which are in college uh one is a junior at the University of Vermont getting a 4.0 in the nursing program my next daughter is at uh University of Connecticut in the data science program and she's excelling I have a seventh grader who has Straight A's at the middle school I have a freshman in high school who is thriving in honors classes and the big adjustment to high school I'm here to talk about my 17-year-old son Cole some of you know him from elementary school when he was younger he had some uh delayed language and we had him in the birth to three program we tried to get him into uh the peer

013Playmate program over at web uh but I guess at the time he wasn't uh disabled enough as we began our elementary school education with him I could fundamentally tell something was different in the way he learned the way he read the way he jumbled words and as I approached the school I was told he's just a boy you can't compare him to his older sisters they mature earlier and they'd give them a little bit of assistance they'd get them to uh to a point where they said oh he doesn't need any Services he's doing great and the next year it was a repeat and to repeat and to repeat till in fifth grade we had a new principal at Hamner my wife and I went into her office and said I will not leave until

014you agree to have my child tested and we spent about 3 hours with her pouring over all of his records where at which point she agreed now you can imagine somebody who doesn't understand what's going on around him and the behavior issues and the acting up and the self-esteem implications of all of that and through his testing they identified that he had a processing issue and he went into uh an IEP which my wife was here she knows all the acronyms um and he began getting assistance I had to personally transition his information from the elementary school to the middle school they were just going to let it happen naturally in middle school he also received Services I again had to transition his services from the Middle School to the high school because it didn't

015happen organically and they had him in a program called structured reading um which is decoding and encoding at the end of his freshman year in one sentence they're telling us he's reading at a fifth grade level in the next sentence they're saying where he's met all of his go goals and structured reading um and we were like that's great what's next crickets emails they had no additional service to help him for those of you who have met my son he's very intelligent he's smart he's funny he he intellectualized things he just learns differently than others the school refused John's special education program refused any additional Services my family and I had to spend $5,000 on a neuros during that they identified dyslexia disg graphia disc calcula and it gave them the school a foundation to

016build from I spent $29,000 in legal fees to get him the help that he deserves in the public school system that John is responsible for the spe special education program and that you are all Shepherds of coming into this year her first PPT without a lawyer guess what the recommendations are to cut his Services it's a shame the program that my son was in had a profound impact on his ability and how he progressed so rapidly in his learning and reading his writing his processing that I know there's hundreds of kids in the school system who could benefit from that all it takes is one staff one class one resource you guys have to think rethink your spe special education program because not everybody can afford a total of $34,000 that I have paid independently

017to get my son to read Beyond a fifth grade level which the Wethersfield school system was totally fine with that's all I have to say thank you anyone else um hi everybody um carollyn Fen I am obvious oh you might know I'm the director of the Keen enrichment programs um here in Weathersfield um this being the month of March and of all things green I think there's no better time to announce the first of our five after uh Elementary School Musicals starring your favorite ogre Shrek um there's 24 students who are participating at at um highest this year uh the performances will be March 14th this Friday at 700 and Saturday March 15th at 2:00 I'm just going to give these to Ellen and she can share them with you um take kids can be

018B bought at the door um also via venmo um it's atrust PTO um if you want to buy them ahead um so I encourage I hope uh you guys can come um and see um these fine actors in in action so just wanted to give a quick shout out and um hope to be back sometime shortly with all the really great stuff we have going on as well so thank you very much thank you thank thank you okay going put that over there there all right M anyone else okay thank you Mr Emitt you have some Communications to share I do thank you Mrs Granado good evening everyone uh just a few updates for you this evening uh we uh continue the work uh in the process of selecting the next principal of Charles Wright

019Elementary School um this afternoon Mrs too and myself had the pleasure of going over to Charles Wright and doing a staff Focus Group gr um so we spent about uh 40 minutes with the staff we got some excellent feedback this couples with the recent parent focus group that we conducted uh last week week before um I will be going out again on Friday to meet with students I certainly want to get the student perspective so I'm looking forward to meeting with students on Friday as we continue the process we are north of 50 applicants up to this point in time so uh again the expectation is we'll have a principal in place at Charles Wright for July 1st um we're also currently working on the uh it supervisor position so we will be meeting tomorrow

020uh with the uh hiring team for round two um we have a couple of candidates that have moved forward so we're looking to get that position filled as soon as possible had the opportunity last week to attend the 9th I'm can't believe I'm saying it the 9th people empowering people pep group um this was a Grassroots effort that started long ago to build capacity and Leadership capabilities among our parents and I cannot tell you the number of parents that have taken on projects that have ultimately worked for the school system in variety of of different capacities as an outstanding program uh headed up by um Kim bobin Janine barasi and Jessica Coello um I had the opportunity to meet with all moms this time around um and all moms of elementary students um actually had

021one parent uh living across the river in Glastonberry who has a friend here in weatherfield who's part of the process and she asked if she could come along so was nice to get to meet them and spend some time uh spent a couple hours with them uh last week so looking forward to their projects and then uh the pep graduation coming up in the spring um we have a exciting bit of news you probably got an email today uh Governor uh Governor I keep saying Malloy Governor Lamont thank you very much Governor Lamont will'll be attending Weathersfield High School this Thursday at 1100 a.m. along with uh attorney general Tong to talk about cell phone usage and decreasing the usage of cell phones in schools um as you know over the course of the summer

022we had the anxious generation book club and we've really taken on the idea of finding times and places when we can effectively use social media and cell phones and when they really should be put away um so that's coming up on uh Thursday 11: a.m. I know that logistically uh the team at the high school worked today on that I notified Mr barbal shaking his head in the back corner of the um council chambers so we have a plan in place if you are planning on attending board members please let us know just so that we have a headcount it makes it easier for Mike to to get everybody in so we're expecting several other dignitaries as well it'll be in the library at weatherfield high school so we're certainly looking forward to that again

023Governor Lamont coming in on Thursday uh I as Carolyn had mentioned with regard to the musicals uh we have multiple musicals across all of our schools I had the honor of attending hello do I actually snuck into see it twice uh last week the high school did a dress rehearsal for our theater group from silus Dean middle school and they did a question and answer session um after and it was really interesting to hear the comments and the questions that came from the students there's a level of enthusiasm that was palpable and um it certainly was a nice event our middle school students are actually performing this week Beauty and the Beast so we've got all of our sixth graders as part of the transition to Middle School our sixth graders are going to be

024visiting two days this week to see the performance as well as get a tour and have lunch at uh the middle school so we're certainly looking forward to that again to all of our uh thespians at Weathersfield High School I can't say how proud I am of you all it was absolutely stunning to watch the the talent is just immense I know how much work goes into it and you know it was interesting after the performance on Friday I happened to see a few cast members out in the cafeteria on my way out and they were lamenting over the fact they only had a couple performances left it has a huge impact whether it's the architecture you see in front of you this evening it's the theater it's Sports it's academics it's what weather Su

025public schools are all about so again congratulations to everybody and then also on a couple other things I am dealing with the heating issue over at handmer currently so we had a uh heat pump that faed last night so we had some space heaters in this morning to get the area and the primary Wing warmed up so we were able to get through the day fine no issues today um the heat pump was replaced I understand now a valve is now um a culprit and is a problem so that will be replaced tomorrow so in the meantime we expect to have the space heaters out first thing in the morning thankfully we are not dealing with really cold temperatures or otherwise be we'd be thinking otherwise so also just a quick message to everybody um

026community and Public Relations Committee we did send a revised agenda the time for tomorrow night over at the Stillman building has changed from 600 pm. to 5:40 p.m. just want to make a note of that okay and that's Communications okay thank you all right moving on tonight we have two action items Marjorie can you please read recommended motion 6A for us sure this going to be a long one recommend uh move that the weatherfield Board of Education pursuant to CGS section 12-21 F 5f certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1 2025 through June 30th 2026 this certification shall

027include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines school cafeteria culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups and further moved that the weather shield board Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards provided that the following conditions are met number one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the sale is at the location of the event and number three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is An Occurrence that

028involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter Scholastic debates are events but soccer practices play rehearsal and debate team me meetings are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales the background this is an annual requirement by the Connecticut State Department of Education um and there's an attached memorandum Connecticut state me uh educational operational me memorandum number 03-25-18 that's outside of the school day would be allowed to have candy or or you know outside not your typical healthy snacks so uh again we have always adhered to that we want

029to make sure our kids are healthy and we want to make sure that our kids are getting the best possible nutrition so um this will be upon your approval this evening this um the minutes will be sent off to the State Department of Education um to verify that we're all set for the 25 26 school year great okay any more disc yes m'am chairperson um I believe it's section 10 not section 12 I think the wrong section section was read so I'd like to make amend amended motion so that it's we're adhering to CGS section 10 and not 12 can I have a second second thank you you can run out run it but there's for discussion if people think I was wrong but I'm pretty sure I was right excuse me was it misread

030it was misread okay I thought we had okay yeah yeah I'm sorry I thought we had the wrong piece in front you have the exact piece she said 12 and I made the motion to change it to 10 as an amended motion a long motion yeah no I have no problem listen remember the days of reading out 100 IDs yes yes we we make mistakes but all right thank you margorie thank you Chuck okay so um on the amended motion we will vote okay all in favor I I opposed any exensions thank you marjerie that motion is approved okay Matt will you please read recommended motion 6B yes Bobby I move that the weatherfield board of Weathersfield Board of Education approved the superintendent's proposed operating budget for the 2526 school year of 68 m153 339

031okay do I have a second second all right Mr EMT is is going to do the discussion thank you appreciate thank you here we go he's not worried that's why he's he's walking away that's why he's not worried he knows it's all said now Jim thank you doesn't come out anymore good evening again everyone um it is my pleasure to present the superintendent's proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 26 um as you all know you have been part of this process from the beginning we engaged in some conversations at the um finance and operations committee all the way back at the end of January we've done multiple budget workshops and uh tonight is the culmination of of that work um I can tell you right now that we are looking at a increase of 4.95%

032over the current operating budget so we're looking at 68,5 3,339 it's an increase of 3,215 536 so just to walk you through the process we started with our first budget workshop on Saturday February 1st um we had bumped the budget upward uh with an increase of 5.47 uh% or 3,550 596 which included the following requests looking at three math interventionists five elementary security guards an El supervisor an administrative position prek expansion including one uh preschool teacher and a speech pathologist for the uh preschool program adding a social worker uh adding a special education teacher uh for siline Middle School to provide us with a continuity across the district whhs acaps uh stiens as well as the addition of an sdms in school suspension coordinator so as to reduce the number of outside suspensions at silus

033Middle School on February 8th the board met again for a budget workshop and listened to Department requests as well as requests from principles the budget was revised with the following Amendment uh amendments following up on not only the 8th of February but February 22nd we adjusted the math interventionist positions from 3 to 1 we adjusted the elementary security positions from 5 to three and then we adjusted the budgetary hours for elementary recess AIDS the revised proposed budget increase came in at 4.95% or 3,215 536 I will tell you at this point in time through casbo the average settlement of board approved budgets is around 55% so we're right within the Wheelhouse again as it is every year uh Personnel uh is the big one personal services salaries and benefits that is the biggest uh component

0342,315 697 again those of you had the copy um I noticed that the U it didn't copy correctly so I want to leave this slide up here for a minute other purchase Services 4,555 personal services benefits 249 ,4 49 supplies up 8,250 property 58,500 professional and Technical Services 53,800 purchase Property Services 2,510 and then miscellaneous is $7,777 can you go back real quick I apologize my I thinking about okay you're good thank you it no problem okay this slide shows the historical uh budget increases over the course of Time dating back over 10 years so we again right on target with where we ended up last year at the 4.97 as I've said before the bulk of our increase is the salaries and the benefit benefits there's very little discretionary funding within the scope of

035this budget just to give you an idea here's some District comparisons both in our reference group dur d as well as others in the state there are several districts in the state that actually came forward with double digigit increases the two that I saw that were the lowest I saw one increase of 0.58 and one increase of 0.59 I would argue that both of those are low because the districts are one Elementary School only that's it so it's not a full District want to talk a little bit about the uh per pupil expenditure you see this every year as well and you can see where uh weatherfield Public Schools is and per pupil expenditures 19,4 per student and the uh average for dir D is currently 21,3 36 and then ECS entitlements just to remind

036everybody ECS educational cost sharing is the money provided by the state of Connecticut it comes to the town of Weathersfield so you can see things are dropping off a little bit we'll still see an increase for 25 26 but the rate of increase has has slowed also want to make sure that everybody is aware because we talked about this at the uh last Workshop excess cost excess cost is different from the ECS excess cost is a reimbursement with regard to special education services so as we talked at the last budget Workshop there was discussion of $40 million coming forward to districts across the state to offset the excess cost the governor did a line item veto of that um however a deal was struck last week and that was uh voted on again by the

037house and by the Senate waiting for the governor to sign that so for Weathersfield that's approximately $430,000 that we will see I want to caution everyone because I know at the workshop somebody was talking about well how how will we spend that that is not for next year's budget that's for current this year's budget so again what it will do is will it will offset our special education costs for for this current fiscal year again want to talk a little bit about uh the district High need students these are uh English language Learners free and reduced lunch eligible students and students with IEPs our numbers have have gone up since 2021 again we think part of that's indicative of the results of the pandemic but we've been pretty consistent over the course of the past

038um three years as you've heard across the state the special education costs are a major budget driver across the entire State and it's no different here certainly just want to talk with you a little bit about budget factors in terms of salaries um as you all know we were able to um get all of our contracts that were up for negotiation settled so we started off with the nurses late last summer we got the nurses done we then got the teachers negotiated and then we wrapped up with secretaries par Educators and the addition of 28 tutors who are now part of the bargaining unit so um these salary increases are representative of the um increases contractually uh we utilize Council as well as members of uh the board of education for each negotiating team and

039really tried to come in along the lines of where the settlements were across the state I know with teachers for example we came in just shy of underneath the average we were average with regard to secretaries Paris and tutors and a little below average for nurses so we've got the cont contracts done at this point in time uh you will not have any contracts to negotiate next year the administrators will come up next two years down the road I want to also point out that excluding the budgetary introduction of all positions needs and requests the total salary increase is just over 3.5 which aligns with the contractual values and the staff placements currently again budget factors with Benefits right now ladies and gentlemen we are still carrying a 6% premium increase on health insurance my

040understanding from the most recent uh Insurance committee numbers the increase is around 3% and again with pension and OPB contributions amounts uh that's going to be adjusted by the town we'll get that later on in the spring OPB is other post employment benefits contracted Services aggregate purchase services are increasing uh 20 . 76% pupil Services is increasing 50,000 for contract uh contracted Specialists providing services to students which reflect the needs of the district in align with prior year actuals again there there may be services for example Psychiatric Services I do not have a psychiatrist on staff so that would be a service if a child needed that or needed an evaluation that would be something that would come out of this line just to let everyone know also Total Transportation budgets are increasing approximately 3%

041based on contractual terms and anticipated outplacement routes uh as you've heard during the scope of the budget workshops we have seen an increase in the number of students that were outplaced this year so uh with that comes an increased cost what we do with those outplacement wherever we can is we will look to ride share with other districts try and defray the cost total tuition is uh increasing 225,000 due to projected enrollment including an increase in the number of students receiving those specialized services outside of the district again with Supply accounts the increasing aggregate is 8.62% uh this is really inflationary the cost of paper continues to rise uh and again I think the reality here is the we don't see anything going down so total instructional supplies account for only 71% of the proposed

042operating budget that's the interesting piece it really isn't something that is we can cut a dramatic amount let's next 25 26 budget Factor property equipment is increasing 15.96% due to the inclusion of replacement musical instruments that was one thing that you uh replaced some of last year I think we went with a third of what was requested and again the mandated purchase of audiological devices for certain students that's within the special ed realm just with regard to budget meetings and presentations here's the timeline so you're aware the Board of Education conducted budget workshops on February 1st February 8th and February 22nd the superintendent's proposed budget being presented to you this evening and the board approved budget uh presentation to Town Council will take place this coming Monday on the 17th we have the townwide budget

043hearing on Monday April 21st right here in council chambers and the Town Council Boe budget allocation must be made no later than May 15th of 2025 and with that I'll take any questions I know you guys have gone through this pretty exhaustively so again happy to help out anybody marjerie um just to go back maybe a couple slides just to see if you could explain to people and I I know you've told me this but I can't remember the exact answers yeah what's what is aggregate purchase services that seem that's the 20% increase there yeah so that would be um purchases related to um I'm trying to think various like supplies materials it might be related to um off the top of my head I'm trying to think 300 and 500 Margie let me let

044me go and get my budget book here yeah it says object codes 300 to 500 3005 yeah that should be in the binder okay I don't have that right in front of me I do I can put excellent oh he's just doing anyway while we're waiting for that yes let's look at it um the other question I had was the the um the tuition increase is that um would that be covered by excess costs it it depends it depends Margery on the specific placement excess cost doesn't kick in until you've reached 4 and A2 times the per pupil allocation so it will depend for some of our higher dollar placements more involved placements we would meet that threshold and get reimbursement with excess cost others we may not right okay and then my final question

045is there's that way back in the slides where it was talking about changes I don't remember a conversation about adjustments for recess AIDS and um I just didn't know what that was um explain that yeah the recess Aid the adjustment there what we looked at is we looked at the actuals and what we budgeted and we have tended to budget lower than what the actuals have been obviously for us with the recess AIDS they provide a huge service with regard to providing uh support in the cafeteria monitoring Behavior monitoring lunch and then those lunch AIDS also go out and support the kids during recess one of the challenges we have is a lunch Aid cannot be paid out of the cafeteria fund unless they are performing a function within the cafeteria so when the re

046the lunch AIDS go out and they become the recess AIDS we have to cover them out of our budget so that's the Delta there but do you literally cut it like their time their hours one way in the okay we do so then it was just a Readjustment of that because you looked at the numbers again about that is that correct that okay Y and it was adjustment up like adding yes okay I just anyone else question I don't go ahead you can go yeah um I just wanted to double check also um an increase in substitutes for teachers um for sick leave act or anything like that is that included in the budget factors for salaries I know that that was just something that has come up in some committees I just I yeah

047historically that's that's a good question historically we have seen an an ever increasing rise in our subunits and it's not only related to that and that change in the law but let's remember we did the neas report and one of the things that the neas report talked about was the need to write new curriculum so we've seen an increase in the number of subunits as we've had departments go out for PD opportunities so that's something we continue to monitor uh and again overseeing a lot more of HR right now with the um departure of Mr Donahue so I'm watching you know the number of personal days that come in and the number of requests for um absence so it's something we're going to continue to think to watch at this point in time uh historically

048the sub numbers have tended to go up I would imagine that we'll see an increase also I know that the legislature talked about making some adjustments to that law I don't know at this point in time if that's etched in stone so ad chairperson just so people know the 300s we had that question is are as purchase professional Technical Services so loud which is performed by only persons or firms with specialized skills and knowledge the 400s are purchase Property Services which is operate repair maintain and rental properties owned and used by the schools and the 500s are other purchase Services which is the amount paid for services rendered by organization or Personnel not in the payroll so and that's coming straight from our website we have a great uh business manager book that's about 70

049pages long there you are thank you there you go I've read it many times good Matt yes thank you Bobby and thank you Michael for presenting this budget um I always like sitting through your budget presentations I like the graphics like the way you explain them um I don't have a question at all but I just wanted to make a couple points couple generalizations for anybody that may be listening or watching about this process and about some of the items that are in it um first of all I just want to say that this budget process is a democratic process and when I say that I don't mean that it's just it's the nine of us up here um making decisions and thinking of what should go into this budget that's far from the case

050um we sit up here and we hear from students and we hear from parents we hear from teachers we hear from departments we hear from principes we hear from directors we hear from the superintendent the assistant superintendent and we try to process all of that information and craft the budget that we think mirrors um some combination of what we've heard throughout the year in years um this isn't just up here us up here throwing darts at ideas on a board and coming up with items in a budget it's a very Democratic process a lot of people have a say in it um secondly of this budget the 4.95% about 3.7% of that is salaries and benefits increases in salaries and benefits as negoti as negotiated um with our bargaining units um say what you want

051about collective bargaining and about having to employ people in unions but in the state of Connecticut in public schools it's a fact of life it's only going to happen um I feel like that 3.7% increase of this budget that goes towards that is a fair amount um you cannot go to the bargaining table with these units and suggest them taking a 0% raise it's just not going to happen and we don't want it to happen these are valued employees we want them to feel valued we want them to feel compensated um but to to suggest that we we could do better in bargaining I don't think that's the case um over the summer I I was involved in numerous meetings with these bargaining units and we went back and forth and back and forth and

052back and forth and we ended up with numbers that were at or below State averages for the most part so I think we did well in terms of that we gave our employees Fair raises that weren't overly Bur burdensome to the taxpayers so I think we did well in that sense and then finally a lot of the things besides the salaries and benefits that we're asking for the additional items the additional spending um weatherfield Public Schools is not any different from schools across the country and across the state I can imagine that a lot of boards of educations are asking for a lot of the same things and the things that we are asking for and that they are asking for are in response to societal changes and societal demands um things like social workers

053there's been an uptick in the need for social workers not just in Weathersfield not just in Connecticut but across the country security there's an obvious increase in the need for that across the country special ed obvious increase everywhere in every District prek um we have had uh add a line item in our budget this year because there's a new state mandated age for when kids can enter prek math interventionists math scores are hurting in this District but we're not alone they're down everywhere eel we have an English language position in this budget we really can't control the type of languages that are being spoken in weatherfield and in fact we value the diversity of the languages that are spoken in weatherfield they just need to be organized so I mean all of these things we

054heard from everybody in this District we've been hearing throughout the year we heard for the past years um and that's how this budget was crafted so that's just my two cents generaliz generalizing and saying why we're asking for what we're asking for thank you Matt we all set any other questions for Michael thank you Liz thank you I have I have another question go ahead I saw that educational cost sharing number is that 14 it's 14,800 if you go back to the slide it's the educational cost sharing number here you go yes so it's not it's only a couple hundred thousand that you're sensing is this what you s because I I had seen where it would be over 15 million but you're seeing that it's definitely going to be a lot L yes that's

055a projection that's a projection okay so it's another moving Target okay I just wanted to a lot of those no I understand everything is a moving Target it's one of the difficulties in doing this job is the state we have no idea what the state's going to give us and well again I think the other thing too even thinking ahead two years with the next banial budget the the governor in his line item veto was um more focused originally on $54 million to districts and have that go out and be dispersed in the 2627 school year the second year of that budget so um again it's a it's a moving part but the reality it is we've said it before and I've said it to you since I started here in 2008 as director of

056special services special education is the wild card so it's one of those things that we we Monitor and you know full well we have um added quite a few programs over the course of the past 13 years I know the transition Academy you know I think about the number of students that were able to keep in District the ABA program the LEAP program at web I can think about the stri program and seeing kids that were going to be outplaced end up being able to stay in District with their typical peers that's exactly what we want so we've built a lot of programs and again for the trauma informed you'll see in the budget the request for that special education teacher at the middle school allows us to carry on the trauma informed program at

057the middle school and then the natural transition to our bridges program at the high school so all right okay anyone else all right thank you thank you okay so we'll move on to a vote on this all right um all in favor I I I can we have a roll call vote okay I'm sorry I thought we had to make the motion before we could discuss amongst us or the motion was made motion was made so discussion is happening now thank you so much thank you no one second would I'll second tell el just to wait to this no there's no there's nothing to Second there's no motional motion roll call vote y I asked for a roll call vote okay our roll call vote thank you Ellen okay moment Miss Ken Carson yes Mr

058Cary no Mrs der Roberts yes Miss Hernandez Williams yes Mr Riley no Miss Walters no Mr Wier yes Mr lacav Voli yes Cher Granado yes so we have a yay vote six six yes and three no thank you so that motion is approved okay so we'll move on we all set all set all right this evening we do not have any presentations we have Board of Ed meetings held and we we have our first one was the Board of Education and Town Council joint meeting now this is new this year um on Thursday February 27th the leadership of the Board of Ed the superintendent um Michael lemit and the town counil with Town manager Fred Presley who was absent that day due to illness but we meet every month monthly every um on a communication

059meeting this is the focus of that there was a review of the previous meeting we've held we also discuss shared services the meeting continued with discussions on the budget and the building committee and the minutes for this meeting are available our next meeting is Thursday March 27th at the Town Hall and the public is invited to come but you cannot comment during that meeting thank you and our next meeting human resource and Personnel um Christina yeah thank you Bobby um we had a committee meeting on March 3 we mostly discussed the previously mentioned code of stability a way to more effectively communicate I did invite Town Council to our next conversation um many public buildings have a codos ability and this is to promote um appropriate communication we were it was an idea that came

060about in a committee meeting I do want to remind everyone that the committee meeting agendas were taken from previous shares so it's not a those were not topics that I just created these are topics that were um done before we were not able to discuss a secondary school surveys discussion but we are going to just push that to the next agenda um we're also hoping that we can meet with um the business manager to discuss the Staffing hiring update absences and leave of absence update as said interview comments and so we're hoping that we can change the time for a little bit earlier so that way it could accommodate their schedule um other business was just the discussion of professional development calendar and and um and that's it okay thank you student program and services

061Janice um we always have such um a lot of information at these meetings and I try to condense even further the um minutes but um at times I will be referring directly to the minutes so our meeting was on March 4th and the committee heard about the school Improvement plans for Emerson Williams Hamner and web schools excuse me ever Emerson Williams reported that they're working more closely um to align their work on supporting student behavior and social emotional growth to their academic srbi process srbi stands for scientific research-based interventions this will better enable staff to make informed decisions on the best way to support students um also at Emerson Williams the courageous conversations committee has LED work to promote inclusion in the school Community examples of this were the Hispanic heritage event a slideshow of

062which was presented to the full board last fall and was very well received and black history month last month during Black History Month every class participated in schoolwide projects resulting in learning about prominent people of color and their significant achievements and coming up on March 28th they will host a cultural night event um still on Emerson Williams Jen Cardis and Ray Emanuel two teachers um reported that their professional goal of empowering students and fostering student leadership has resulted in the two of them stepping up to advise the fifth and sixth grade student council um the students uh councils for one of their activities chose to collect and distribute 394 boxes of much needed cereal to donate to veral different organizations um as a community project students have um are also also learning to facilitate restorative

063circles and have asked to have reinstated the safety patrol where they keep students safe while um transitioning in the hallways then at Hamner school they have as their goal to ensure positive School climate and culture toward this go collaborative planning time has been revised to ensure that all staff is able to be included in the ultimate goal of benefiting student learning and also the students at Hamner um initiated a school kindness committee which has run a food drive and made um Valentine cards for seniors in nursing homes they also the fifth grade at Hamner received a grant from NASA to visit the Connecticut Science Center at web school in order to improve Equity some teachers chose an includ in usion goal um let's see to support more targeted inclusion for students in the LEAP program

064in the unified arts classes through this goal teachers learn how to best deliver their curriculum so that all students May access skills being taught also at web following the book um following up on the book The anxious generation web will host a screening of screen agers for parents throughout the weatherfield community um to Institute the wait till 8th movement which is to hold off giving children smartphones until the 8th grade and that evening um I have that in my w notes what the date is I think it's the 19th I'm pretty sure it's the 19th um so and also at web as part of an empathy goal some teachers are collecting stories from students families and staff from which they will create a slide deck called our web store story to share with the community

065yeah so last on our agenda um a member of our um student programming Services committee Christina Hernandez Williams also on the board is also on the town traveling tribute walls committee which is working with the Chamber of Commerce to bring the walls to Weathersfield September 10th to the 12th this committee would like our schools to have the opportunity to participate in this great event so our curriculum leaders have been put in touch with the Chamber of Commerce director um to discuss their involvement um being that this takes place in September right at the beginning of the school year does add a challenge for sure so School leaders and teachers will make decisions based on what they believe is feasible and appropriate but it certainly is an opportunity for students to be engaged in what I'm

066sure would be a very memorable um experience so and I just want to thank all the teachers who um meeting after meeting use their own time to come and volunteer to um inform us of all these great things we really appreciate the um value of their time and um and all the information that they have to share thank you but don't go away no um we had our weatherfield early childhood collaborative W yesterday Janice you're on again also this is hard to condense but um the goal of w is that all Weathersfield children birth to eight are healthy developmentally successful Learners and connected to Community First on the agenda was a list of things that W wants to get the word out about so number one parents are encouraged to register for their child for

067kindergarten before May 1st 2025 and if you have any questions about screening please go to wps.com me and parents please understand that registration isn't automatic because you reside in Weathersfield you must register your child so that we can be aware that your child will be attending also in that vein um they wanted people to know about the summer success transition to K to kindergarten program this is a free 4day 2hour each day program designed to create a smooth transition to kindergarten while children are enjoying this kindergarten preview caregivers have the opportunity to learn more about Weathersfield schools Town programs and resources it will be at Emerson Williams school um also with kindergarten the kindergarten Readiness play dates will be held at all five elementary schools in August one on August 1st um another at um

068on August 16th another on August 30th families will have an opportunity to meet before the school year starts as well as their children um and other things that they want us to get the word out um the human library is coming to the library um this wonderful program is on March 29th from 10:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. and 14 people will be available as human books that patrons can borrow um the the books will be sh sharing stories and dialogue about their experiences related to Prejudice um so it sounds really exciting what's the date on that again that is March 29th the human Library where at the library they were describing it it's very interesting oh it really really sounds great and then they also mentioned screenagers um which is going to be screened at

069web school on March 19th at 700 p.m. all parents are welcome to attend um the viewing of this film um as a follow-up to the anxious Generation Um also W continues to gather ideas for play and non-screen activities to bring families together and Foster interests and abilities beyond our screens and also um it's good for our social and mental health habits and then um very really wonderful guests that we have had I thought was this was really really exciting Chelsea Kent she is the owner of Turnpike laundry room um in Weathersfield she came to share that she's very interested in being a contributing member of our Weathersfield Community she has experience hosting playdates at her laundromat while parents are doing their laundry and she has books and games available for young and old um once

070a month she would like to and has at her other business in in Southington um offered a free night once a month um a laundry night for homeless people um as well as providing a gathering space for senior citizens but I I just think that is so generous of her oh he was um and she has many ideas and is open to many ideas um of other ways that she can be of service so she's going to be a valuable resource it's it was a wonderful meeting and as we always say to have a a great school system you have to have a great Foundation and that's our foundation is our W very good okay you're done all right meeting scheduled we have community and public relations on 312 at 5:40 correct I think Mr

071weiner has an update for us from the building committee oh I'm so sorry I I know it's tough to follow Janice though so um go ahead I helped you out though John so help me out have an abbreviated version of your update appreciate that Chuck I'm going to make it longer okay just for you but I helped you out either way John I'm sorry I missed you that's okay Bobby we'll talk after um advisor advisory School building committee me meeting uh was held here in council chambers just yesterday um at the beginning of the meeting there was a new chair of the building committee nominated um and approved I hear he's a great guy uh loves to play golf um no I'm just kidding it was me all jokes aside um it's Unique uh to

072be chairing that committee as well as a member of the Board of Ed um it's I've said it here many times it's a very important project to me and to this board so um I look forward to working with the community and all of you as we go forward um let's get these these schools built um second item I I'll talk about as public comments um it's great to see the public out um regardless of opinion there's gentleman here tonight that was there yesterday as well um it's great to hear all sides of the argument right it's this part of our democracy I said it last night I'll say it again it's great to see even though there's there's heated debate on either side um it's great to see the public out and taking participation

073in our democracy um give you a little update what's going on with the committee so tskp did present their their tentative schedule to reach a referendum date of September 23rd it's a lengthy schedule it will be posted on their website with all the minutes from last night as well but I'll give you a few key dates um this Board of Ed will receive a presentation from tskp and the building committee uh April 22nd U right now will be the date that we received that um or 22nd is the meeting date correction right um so April 22nd will be the meeting day here we receive that the building committee will obviously receive that presentation prior to that um on April 14th um of that initial plan so far that was presented last night tskp went through

074so far the preliminary I'll say I don't really want to use it but concepts of a plan for their phase phase one of of a two-part referendum which included what the new Hamner school would look like um on the Stillman property what web would look like renovated as a 56 which I was very happy to see included the auditorium renovation which is so desperately needed I know our plays in town would appreciate that as well and then Charles Wright um somehow sometimes gets lost in the translation of all this stuff going on uh the renovation plan or tentative plan preliminary plan of Charles Wright being renovated looks great um I'm very happy to report that we can um renovate that school to new um I think that was big for this community there will be

075a meeting in the near future no date scheduled yet uh with the historic district committee this will be an exploratory meeting between tskp the building committee and the HDC this is a meeting to get their requirements what they want to see if we were to build on that property um just so we can get the initial conversation going um I myself live in the historic district I know the process can be can be lengthy so it's good to see that tskp is willing and the building committee is obviously willing to meet with them ahead of time to get some of that preliminary requirements um and with that that is all I had for advisory School building was that long enough Chuck it was perfect okay everything you do is perfect I appreciate it who's who's

076the guy again oh okay yeah thank you very much okay I'm glad we got you in all right can I just say one thing also that that meeting was um videotaped right yes oh yeah let me let me yeah let me clarify that so it was videotaped here um most of the meetings are going to be held here there is some talk about trying to figure out if we can have a more informal setting for our building committee meetings with recordings recordings are very important we want to make sure recorded but the nature of the building committee I'm I'm more into the collaboration of the community with it so we're trying to figure out if this space stays there are some scheduling conflicts with this space on most nights um so we're looking at different

077options and I'm working with Sally cats and and Facilities to do that great anyone else okay thank you all right we have meetings scheduled community and public relations is 31225 at 540 I asked that already Marjorie isn't that correct we changed this time okay and CRA council is on 319 at 11:30 and finance and operations before our next board meeting 3:25 at 6:00 so is there anyone wishing to make a public comment come on up to the podium and state your name and address may I remind you that you have a f minute limit Paul solo 32 Hartford Avenue um I I I will encourage all of you guys to go back and and listen to the public comment section of the uh the meeting last night um there there is a a growing and

078extremely organized opposition to the placement of the Swing school and uh we just have to face the reality that that poses an existential threat to the referendum that you guys are are looking to put on the ballot um couple of points um the uncertainty that the location brings to uh the referendum I think should be um a catalyst for thinking differently about where the school goes when you introduce the historic district commission John lives in the historic district I do I've spent hours debating wooden mutts I paid three times what I would for a front porch because I had to have the wood M by an art an artisan to match what I had on there and the think that we're going to tear down a structure and put up a brand new building that's

079doesn't seem to kind of fit the mass and sizing of the neighborhood I think is introducing a ton of risk to the referendum also the State Office of historic preservation will be involved the state archaeologist will be involved and unfortunately all of those things pose risk to getting our children renovated schools to learn in I'll maybe talk a little bit about our democracy we voted on Kesha Farm three uses of that farm where Recreation Sports Fields open space and Municipal purposes yet it was dismissed as an option and if you please go back to the at the date late November uh 19th uh Town council meeting uh the consultant said kha Farm looking at it from a building opportunity represents a big flat site with good access on a couple of public rways when pressed

080why it was not further being considered the response was that the community is unsettled with what to do with the property that is such an objective observation and one that we're hearing they were told to stay away from the property that is not democracy democracy is a referendum where we chose to have open space atics and Municipal purposes there's also a consultant on that works for tskp that is a Weathersfield resident is he part of friends of Kesha Farm is he influenced by his neighbors and his proposal and their proposal on where to put this property this this reeks of conflict of interest our kids need new schools putting a school in the middle of the where you're currently where it's currently being proposed is almost a recipe for its failure and litigation and red

081tape and complexity and I don't I don't know who to talk to is it the building committee is it you guys is it the Town Council I've requested transparency in the process which we have in gotten yet so I'm going to come every time here and talk to you and talk to them and talk to the Town Council until we screw our heads on right and figure out that putting and if and go back and look at the plans look at the little tiny rectangle they have for the kids to play in it's parking lot building Road Road and the recreation space for the children I don't know the dimensions 30 by 60 I don't want my kids going to a school l that I know the town doesn't want their kids going to a

082school that's surrounded by four roads on every single side where we can have a beautiful new facility set back in an open field with plenty of opportunity to leverage that space for open space additional fields and the consultant has talked to us about it's the best value for the town so we're choosing a location that will drive more tax burden on our community over a location that we proved it for municipal purposes for what I can't answer that question I can't answer why we're doing that and until we get those answers you're going to have a growing opposition and while um I hate to say this because I'm an advocate of the school budget and Renovations I will personally vote no I know there are a ton of people who are in the same boat

083and so we have a choice in front of us do we choose a location that is perfectly suited for a new school and the second point I'll make you looked at the ref you need a referendum to take Hamner down you're proposing the renovations in two referendums you're going to have one to build it one to renovate a couple more schools and then you're going to have to go to a referendum for the second phase of this project what if the referendum doesn't pass you're going to be stuck with two schools right next to each other how's that going to work it's not going to work there's no certainty in your 10-year plan you're you're putting you're making a decision on the first school I'm just going to give you y on the first school

084without contemplating all of the implications that it has thank you thank you okay anyone else all right are there any board comments hi Bobby I do have some please um so last week I had the pleasure of working with our transition Academy and their business that's called cards for all and I was able to purchase quite a few so I want to hand them out so everyone can see what they look like um these cards are amazing if you've ever been to a museum shop and you see the beautifully you know handcrafted cards there that sell for $15 or $18 the the price point I think it's less than $4 I personally think they should sell them for five or six or more but their price point I believe is $3.50 these cards are just

085amazing um I just like if we can all hold up our cards you know once uh we pass them down so everyone can see sure oh you want they're just they're just amazing um and I just like to read to you a little bit about the transition Academy and something that they are working on so the transition Academy is part of Weathersfield Publix the Weathersfield public school system WTA works with students who have intellectual emotional and development differences and these students have fulfilled their academic requirements for graduation but need experience with respect to employment life skills and educational Community outings everything they do is funded by proceeds from their business cards for all and from what they receive in fundraisers the project that I worked on with the WTA last week was called a pitch

086deck and the intent of a pitch deck is so that when they're talking to potential investors or potential businesses where they might be able to put their card Corrals to sell them that they can tell you know who they are why they're do what they do what they enjoy about it and what they'd like to do to grow their business and I will put in a little pitch for them that their business um includes uh needs for a cry cut machine I I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly um I've been too busy to craft recently it's like cry cut something it's um and the papers and some of the tools and these plastic bags that they go in um so if anyone is looking for a donation I I know of a place that would

087gladly um take these items but I just wanted to give them a shout out they're just such a tremendous group I was here and I wanted to talk and I told them can I talk um could we please sit down right now it's a sit down I will wait patiently thank you I'll talk I'll talk to you after yes no no I want to talk in front of the microphone I live in weather's fi and I came for the public part of the hearing I already announced it I just went to the bathroom sorry continue okay so um you know for anyone who's looking for these cards I I personally want to work with the WTA to get more card corals out there um they take venmo it's they're just incredible um so just wanted

088to to give them a shout out because they certainly deserve it you know the other thing I wanted to share um regarding the school building committee um or project rather you know I do love all the public engagement you know John that you had referred to as well and I think one thing that's showing you know Crystal Clear is that Weathersfield is behind a you know a supported new school renovation whether that means renovate is new you know regardless of what they do I think the town is all you know backing the importance of the schools that are needed and I do hope that something can be worked out so that the referendum is successful um you know especially considering the concerns that have been raised but um just wanted to share that the last

089thing I'll talk about is the budget and I I do apologize I wasn't a I didn't realize when I should be speaking but um you know Matt I agree with everything that you said regarding that weathers field is facing you know similar issues to what we're seeing National you know the need for security and the need for social workers um you know the list goes on and I also agree that we really worked together um very well as a board of ed in this year's budget workshops we asked a lot of great questions and we were asked questions we worked very collaboratively on this and I I really do appreciate that experience you know one of the things that came out of those workshops was that our Focus for the budget and adding positions would

090that is that they would be child facing positions and um I agree we do value diversity um we do value that we have I think of either almost or a little over 400 El students in the weatherfield public school system but I also think that timing is everything and while I would love to support the addition of positions um I don't think this is the year to support the additional position of an el director because the el director will help to organize us for sure but they're not child facing and I would be more in support of supporting um an additional math interventionist than what was currently proposed because they are child facing in addition to the organization and expertise that they provide and I am also in support of five security guards I know

091that I think we put forward three and you know safety is always a concern for our children um it's concern nationally it's a concern locally you know it's just not the same as it was you know back in when I was growing up and certainly others um I don't think you can ever be safe enough and when I think about child facing positions I do see the security guards as child facing I also see them as an extension of the leadership teams or the administration teams that run the individual schools that can help out you know there was recent Rec a pipe burst in the nurse's office you know wouldn't it have been great to have a security guard to help you know pull that you know kind of settle that um you know whatever

092the you know whatever the reaction was kind of set up some sort of organization around it so that our principal didn't have to get involved or other members of the administration um I would be more in support of not funding the el director position this year um at 150 almost one or $50,000 and um I'm also not in favor of the um in school suspension for siloe Middle School while that is child facing I do see other things that to me are a higher priority um so I would like to see five security guards added instead of the three um I would like the el director taken out I would like the in school suspension taken out and I would like to add a math interventionist so those are my thoughts on on the budget

093things that I'm hoping that we can achieve okay thank you anyone else Matt yeah um so once again I think I did this at the last port of Ed meeting I want to thank everybody up here for their work on everything whether it's the building committee whether it's committee work whether it's the budget whether it's the superintendent search um we have a lot of tasks in front of us and I appreciate all your work on everything I appreciate everybody's opinion up here on all of those on on all those items that I just mentioned as well uh and I always appreciate it when the public comes and speaks and offers their offers their input um it might not seem like we're always listening but we are um but it's always good when the public can

094reach out to us anyone else Janice um my comments on the budget um in first off we do have um two coordinators in our El Department who um do not have a full case load of classes they are not able to be as child as student um Hands-On students as they would like to be um a director would help with that um there comes a time when a long-term solution can't or shouldn't be put off um more El teachers or tutors are are fine but they're not long range Solutions um so my question would always be if not now when I'm not seeing or anticipating that next year there'll be suddenly be um a an lot of money um for an elel director it would be any easier that would be any easier I don't

095think it'll ever be an easy lift um but right now it would serve the students to have someone who has the authority to ensure quality instruction and can be responsible for the immense amount of paperwork required by the government um and someone who can also um see that identif ification is correctly made for El students when it comes to special ed we have um more students in e in special ed who are in El than maybe we actually should have and that would be a savings of money also um this director would be someone who is available to guide and support staff and retain good teachers um it's time to do this and as Liz said there's we're talking about 400 nearly 400 students um so we have a responsibility to serve the educational needs

096of all children including the 13d of our student population for whom English is a second language thank you Mary hello um I just want to do oh I'm sorry can I make more I have another comment I'm sorry can I do that all right I went to the Charles Wright PTO meeting so this is fun stuff um they their pto's very busy fundraising and running special events for the school Community there's too many to mention but they did have their big fundraiser of the year which is to collect a variety of items to bring to Savers it's on the Berlin Turnpike Savers pays for the items so the friends of Weathersfield Library donated many CDs um Kim and Steve bobin and poly Moon helped to transport many items to Savers making this a community effort

097so and also the PTO has trained um some sixth graders to run um the school store the Hawk Shop completely independently completely on their own and this has piqu the interest of other sixth grade students who have asked to be trained and the sixth grade students are who are currently doing it are training them to do that so it's just wonderful that the student leadership isn't just a school goal but you know the PTO is really encouraging that okay thank you margerie on that same note um I just wanted I'm thinking a lot about volunteers and one of the things that's revving up again this year is the um volunteer of the year uh whether Shield school's parent Council parent or caregiver volunteer of the Year award and uh every school nominates a parent or

098caregiver who's done a tremendous amount of volunteering the last year and um their nominations are going out now there should be a link sent to to through every PTO where anybody can nominate someone they think is what deserving and who's done a really good job with helping their Community their school Community um and there's just so many people out there doing that right now there really are and I was thinking about um you know wck is in the middle of of organizing um with Kim bobin and Jessica quo um you know play dates for kindergarten new new kindergarten kids at the end of this coming summer and they have to plan it now because you know they need to get all their their um their duck in a row and um there's a lot of

099collaboration and so they she both of them come to the wsbc meetings where which at that meeting it's once a month and Mr EMT arrives to to report kind of what's going on in the district but for the rest of the meeting it's one person from uh a PTO from every school that just hears what's going on and we also collaborate and talk about um different things happening and ideas and you know fundraising and issues and but um one of the things that came out was that there is um a a parent uh who's going to volunteer to help organize all the play dates that I believe she's a a volunteer from um High crust and that's just a tremendous thing you know that that someone's going to do that and um I kind of

100wish I could do that actually because I miss my kindergarten age but um there's so many people in this town doing a lot of really good things behind the scenes that people don't even realize in just planning and getting uh permission to be at the school and and and making sure people hear about it and the Fly and all the things that go go with that um there's a lot of people doing that that are not being paid and they're just doing it because they want to do it and they want to help out so I just want to shout out to all those people out there who are kind of not not getting all the Kudos but you we see you and also just remind you if anyone sees someone like that and they

101they're like I'd like to nominate someone at the middle school or I'd like to nominate someone at Charles Wright um you know you fill out the form it's a really easy Google form to fill out to send in a name and just you know quick explanation as to who they are and why they deserve that that that um award and um I also want to talk about um how I also went to see Hello Dolly and it was amazing and I also see from that musical a lot of people volunteering as well um and teachers helping out with costumes and other things so um it was a beautiful performance and funny and it was just great I was just really impressed and so I I I wish they had another weekend of shows okay how

102are we doing anyone else Jim uh I just wanted to make a comment on the uh Weathersfield transition Academy they're also trying to open up a a storefront on the silin highway so that's something they're working on as for the budget it was a very Cooperative process and I appreciate everyone's efforts um but I do uh agree with um Liz that security is a priority and the schools um the elementary schools are not going to be built for several years to come so I'd prefer to sh up the security sooner rather than later thank you okay all right well I just wanted to comment Marjorie when you were talking and others were talking about all these volunteers you know it takes volunteers to keep our village running here and it really does we have so

103many people who don't get honored but continue to help us so so I thank all of them too I did get a chance also to to see Hello Dolly and if you ever watched the weather so marching be walk in the moal they prayed to get chills why I get chills through this whole performance because those are young people up there doing this dramatic play and you would think they had done it for their lifetime they're so good at it they're so comfortable up there so Standing Ovation to all of them and saltine middle school this week has Beauty and the Beast and and I find an interesting piece on this is that there's a help me here a little bit Caroline there's 103 actors over 100 yeah I'm not sure the exact number right

104and one of the ideas we have about why this mass of students is because of the Keen Foundation theater performances they've come very versed in how to put on a play so thank you again um and also highest is doing what was it Shrek Shrek this we weekend too so it's a busy theater weekend and the board of ads spent another all day Sunday in an interview session for our superintendent search the updated report is that the progress continues so please stay tuned to any further announcements and thank you on that so Angelica can you fill us in on life at the high school yes I have a lot of exciting updates so a couple of weeks ago one of my best friends and I we hosted Culture Night at weatherfield high school we've been

105planning this for months and it was well attended there were many countries that were represented and there was um even a salsa dance Top by one of my my best friend's dance teacher it was awesome and it really brought people together um as we've talked about Hello Dolly it went amazing uh they put on a spectacular show as always and last week our Deca Club a lot of us competed in the state conference and there were many finalists and a lot of us two of those finalists were going to Florida this April um at the international level or national level um and then there was also Mr moer he takes a group of seniors to like help build houses with Habitat for Humanity and they went last week for like the spring session um so

106yeah these are some exciting things that I wanted to share great Happ for Humanity that's wonderful excellent CHP I have some comments I want to wait for Angelica because I didn't want to steal her Thunder like I do every week so I do have some sports updates so ESPN is here um The Boys Hockey won today 4 to2 so they Advance on to the quarterfinals for Friday night that's their first time advancing since they won the championship three years ago um girls hockey had a three nothing tough loss to new Canan on Saturday night that was in the semifinals and I know the girls basketball team had a tough lost last week in the first round so our Sports and I believe I talked to Mr malesi today we have dance is going to a

107championship and so is cheerleading this weekend so there's a lot of great things going on at the high school um I also want to talk about the budget um I guess without getting into specifics it's kind of disappointing in my 10 years of being on the board we've never had a budget vote not be bipartisan so I felt like we were invited to the table and not listen to we submitted a very thoughtful counter proposal that was not taken seriously by the other side I think we could have came to a budget that we all could have agreed to uh safety was our number one concern we wanted to make sure there was five security guards in that budget but as as people have said to me the council will probably cut and we'll have

108another H hack at it so hopefully we do and hopefully we can get it right this time uh Liz shared something with us and I just want to read the quote on it I liked it take time to enjoy the simple things in life it's a good reminder and finally I found a quote as we're in budget season and we're talking about teaching and learning from John Dewey the American writer in philosophy I thought it was very fitting for Budget night if we teach today as we taught yesterday we rob our children of tomorrow education is not preparation for Life Education is life itself the primary purpose of education is not to fill the mind with facts but to teach one to think so I just thought that was very fitting for tonight's budget thank

109you madam chairperson thank you you stole my thunder on quotes here now and I stole it from Liz thank you so as we do build for our future we're full of quotes here this is a quote about a hardworking Board of Ed if everyone is moving forward together then success takes care of itself and we do are we are a very hardworking board um may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting no I would like to see so moved okay um a second second all in favor hi hi thank you all for joining us tonight our next meeting is March 25th thank you I would like the cards back