001cell phones as this meeting is being recorded Ellen can you please do our roll call yes Madam chair good evening everyone Miss Callen Carson present Mr KY here Mrs der Roberts here Miss Hernandez Williams here Mr Riley here M Walters present Mr Wier here Vice chair Mr laavo here chair Mrs Granado present and Weathersfield High School student representative Miss Angelica data here all present great thank you okay Isaac you're on again come on up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pled Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy justice for all thank you Isaac good to see you all right um student and staff recognition none this evening tonight okay so next on tonight's agenda
002is the approval of the minutes for our special Board of Ed meeting on February 8th um may I have a a the motion to approve those minutes so moved a second second any discussion all right we'll take a vote then all in favor I opposed any exensions those minutes pass and then we'll also vote on our regular Board of Ed meeting on February 11th um may I have a mo motion to approve the minutes motion okay second second any discussion yes um yes on page five on the report on student programming and services it said um OTS and that needed to be OOTS o z b o TS all in capitals and I did notice and I don't know if this is being really picky but on page two it's um with the public comment
003um Sally keing it said quit and I'm pretty sure it should have been quote thank you okay you got that alen thank you anyone else for discussion Corrections all right so we'll um vote on this amended motion all in favor I I opposed any extensions those meetings are approved and now is there anyone out in the public who would like to come up and make a comment I want to remind you that there is a f minute limit and also just another comment that the board does not um make comments on your time up at the podium so thank you hello um good evening my name is Jennifer Curry 162 straddle Hill tonight I want to discuss the upcoming Elementary School building plan and referendum first I want to say that I am in support
004of the referendum period full stop there is a lot of conversation going on about this with many opinions some VAR strong there's a building committee appointed by the Town Council last spring that has been tasked with working with the consultant to look at available Town spaces where to build and what the project will look like a big piece of this is the transformation of web from an elementary school to a fifth and sixth grade academy this is huge this is changing the entire structure of Weathersfield public schools from the location and years that children 10 specific schools to the administrative structure to the student support staff since there would need to be a sixth grade school counselor and the specialization of teachers focusing on one maybe two subject areas rather than the elementary model where
005everything is taught in one classroom I cannot say it enough this is huge I am in full support of this as a certified school counselor as a parent of Elementary age students as a resident I believe it is a necessary change given what Weathersfield has in terms of options however I've been involved D I've been at many board ofed meetings and specific building meetings I attend the monthly web PTO meetings and I sit on the Weathersfield school's parents Council as a representative from web I have been a part of these conversations and feel I am as informed as someone could be but that is not the reality for every resident in Weathersfield and I am here to ask that those who represent education in our town elected Board of Ed members and hired central office
006administration talk about this project specifically the school restructuring reach out to the community explain why we are going from five elementary schools to Four elementary schools with a 56 Academy why the sixth grades simply can't get moved to sdms why this has been the decision that has been put forth how this impacts education for all students how class sizes should be more evenly distributed across the district how resources can be more easily shared how our specialists in art music and PE should not have to travel to multiple elementary schools how there would be Equity across student numbers and buildings so that our student support staff case loads might be Equitable there is so much good that will come from this 56 Academy and yes it is beneficial to renovate web this way because of the
007design and structure of the building as its original build was a junior high but that's not the reason we're doing this and I fear that the community at large might not understand all of the pieces I ask that the educational officials for this town start sharing all of this through every different Outreach possible coffee and connections open meetings at the library or local establishments visits to the senior center mail or sent home Flyers to local daycare centers fact sheets everywhere I am fearful that this referendum won't pass and I'm fearful that it won't pass for many different reasons including limited information provided to the community and with an incredibly heavy heart I think about a second referendum in 3 years not passing to support the education in this town I also know that we are
008in a very critical time as the Board of Ed is the committee hiring our new superintendent I don't think it's a stretch that any strong superintendent candidate is watching what's going on in the town in the community in our meetings and I would hope that what they see is a town from every level that supports education a town that wants what's best for our students and for our Educators including the learning environment in school safety unfortunately I don't see this message being clearly delivered right now there are a lot of messages out there that's for sure I really hope that in the coming weeks that there is valuable information being provided to the community about the critical necess of this plan thank you okay thank you anyone else all right so we'll move on Mr
009EMT you have communication tonight I do thank you Mrs Grado good evening again everyone uh couple of items this evening for you uh just want to uh bring you up to speed on some changes uh happening within the district on the Staffing side uh we bid a fond farewell to Trent Donahue our director of Human Resources his last day was this past Friday um this Friday will be the last day for our uh it supervisor Jeff telkki um while Trent gone to Private Industry Trent uh Jeff will be headed to the Bristol Public Schools to serve as their director of technology so we wish both of them well uh together they have provided uh just shy of 21 years of dedicated Service uh to the weatherfield public schools um many of you heard that uh
010at Hanmer Patrick Co was going to be departing the district uh I sent you an email today uh as well as Mr con talking to his handmer community as well as his staff this afternoon uh Mr Coen has decided to stay with the weather shield Public Schools so he will remain as our principal at hmer elementary school um we do have one current uh upcoming opening and that is for the principal at Charles Wright as Mr hoer will be reti Hing in June uh we're actually meeting uh with parents tomorrow evening over at Charles Wright uh for the parent focus group we'll be meeting uh with the staff or the staff Focus Group in uh early March uh the number of applicants that come have come in thus far have been quite large I am
011north of 40 applicants thus far so it's a lot to go through and we're starting that process now so the expectation is we'll have a new principal at Charles Wright Elementary School ready to go for uh July W so a couple of other items uh the uh budget obviously has been a Hot Topic we've gotten together for three budget workshops uh coming up on March 11th I'll be presenting the superintendent's proposed budget for the 2025 2026 school year uh just a quick timeline for everyone uh once you approve it on Tuesday March 11th we will have a very quick turnaround to be able to transmit the board approved budget to uh the town no later by Charter than March 15th we will go before Town Council for a presentation of the board's approved Budget on
012Monday March 17th at 7:00 here in council chambers and I also want to make sure everyone is aware of the public budget hearing that will take place here on Monday April 21st at 7 o'clock that'll be the opportunity for everyone here in the community to come out and talk about the budget whether in support or against so that is forthcoming as well um a couple of other items we are getting into the season of musicals and uh Productions had the opportunity yesterday to sneak over to siline and see the preparations for beauty in the Beast the students are excited uh the number of students we have participating is quite large and I know over at the high school we're preparing for I believe it is hello do so that's coming up as well and let's
013not forget our partners with the Keen Foundation who've been instrumental in making sure we have theater Productions at all of our elementary schools so there's a lot going on across the district um again I just want to make sure that everybody is aware um that we are uh moving forward on this budget in a judicious way it is a a budget that we think is going to be balanced we recognize the fact that we're dealing with re-evaluation we recognize that we've got an upcoming referendum and you all have been really instrumental in providing some great guidance in terms of where we need to be so with that Communications thank you okay thank you all right tonight we do not have any action items nor do we have a presentation so we'll move on to meetings
014held and I'm going to give up so that Matt you can do all the finance first okay thank you Bobby um so Michael stole a lot of My Talking Points already but that's okay maybe I'll reiterate a few um so we had the last of our two budget Workshops the last one ended on uh was held on 220 2 um I felt like throughout the three budget workshops we had input from a lot of important people that work in the district and I felt personally as a board member who's been on this up here for four years that this was probably the most inclusive budget um budget Workshop cycle that we've had um the discussion was the best that I've ever witnessed um and surprisingly despite all that uh it was not unanimous um but
015that's okay uh I feel like we were $150,000 away from it being a unanimous vote on the budget that we're going to have Michael present to us um which we will ultimately vote on the number that we came to at the final budget Workshop was 4.95% um it does a lot of the things that we need it doesn't do everything that we feel that we need but we feel that it is um an acceptable budget to put forth um considering some of the things that we want and need as a school district and also as Michael said in light of the re-evaluation and a possible pending uh referendum so we're ready to vote on it when Michael presents and then ultimately it will become our our budget um and at at that point we are
016willing to get behind him uh unlike we have done in the past and when Michael presents it to the council and discuss why we feel it should be passed um we don't know yet if it will be passed but the council can accept it the council can cut it but whatever happens we'll figure it out we'll do what we have to to provide what we feel the school district needs um yeah that that's it on the budget workshop and the budget sessions thank you all right um and I had a c meeting on Wednesday January 15th the C council is the capitol region education Council and Weathersfield is a member along with 35 other surrounding towns the council is responsible for the regional Magnet School schools and project choice they have also organized and they
017run the Harford Head Start the meeting began with a presentation on KK magnet schools the presentation featured four CK high school students who shared their work and restorative practices and school culture at their respective schools we also started reviewing and approving parts of the 2526 budget and most of the programs will be reviewed and and approved in the next few months an important item reviewed was the financial report part of that review highlighted the audit report for last fiscal year the Auditors gave c a clean audit and it was pointed out that the annual comprehensive financial report was available for review executive director Dr Greg Florio left our meeting to testify before the State legislature's education committee the focus on his talk was asking for support of the funding to meet the increasing cost for
018our magnet schools all info on corre Council meetings magnet schools and programs are available on the CK website thank you now do you want to talk about our budget meeting or our finance meeting yes so prior prior to tonight's meeting uh the finance and operations committee met and we discussed a couple of items we went over the current Year's budget which is about 64.9 million and where that stands right now at the moment which is60 ,000 under budget relatively negligible in a budget that size uh we touched on a couple of different other items um simple simple conversations short conversations but some of the topics that we touched on uh were the fact that we we recently made retro payments to our secretaries peris clerical and tutor bargaining unit uh which was a contract that
019we negotiated over the summer so they just got a they just got a lump sum payment that represented their raise that they negotiated so good for them um we talked about open Choice slots we are graduating 13 open Choice students which is awesome to see and it looks like we have 18 coming in for next year um which would be a net gain of five those are um students that we appreciate and that we like to have in this School District kindergarten signups have been brisk uh we talked about the cafeteria fund which we wish we could be more creative with um but there's strict guidelines as to how we can spend that mostly it has to be spent in the cafeteria so we can't be too creative with it unfortunately and finally as per
020the state it is possible that excess cost reimbursement has the potential to increase this year by approximately $430,000 for us in our district so if that if that were to go through um at the moment we would have a significant Surplus that sounds great but we need to hold on to that money through the the end of the school year because that is excess cost reimbursement money it is quite possible that a student of ours currently may have to be outplaced in which case we would have to spend some of that money on that it is also possible that a special education student could move into the district or two or three so we just can't be willy-nilly with that money we need to sit on that for the end of the school year I
021wish I wish we could be more creative with that as well but it comes with strings attached so with that that was tonight's finance and operations committee me meeting minutes thank you Matt okay um Board of meetings scheduled we have a board of education and Town Council joint meeting on 22725 at 4:30 human resource and Personnel committee meeting on 33 at 6:00 student program and service committee meeting on 34 at 6:00 and an advisory School building committee meeting on 3:10 at 7:00 um and to move on is there anyone wishing to make a public comment please come on up to the podium and state your name and address and may I remind you that you have a five minute limit okay we'll move on then are there any board comments yes M chair go ahead
022won't wait till the end this time so last week I had the opportunity to go to the high school and see the girls basketball senior night uh it was a tough loss but it was was a great program beforehand to see the seniors being celebrated for their four years of accomplishments um last night I had the opportunity to go see The Nighthawks which is our girls hockey team I'm not sure if people realize we do have a girls hockey team it's a co-op I'm going to read off all the towns that are part of it it's Avon Bristol Berlin centry Farmington Lewis Mills Newington Ram Southington Watertown and US wow so there's a lot of schools that are part of this Co-op they're having a great year they did lose last night in the semi-finals
023of their Conference tournament but they'll be in the state tournament starting next Wednesday probably at Newton Arena so mark that on your calendars I also went to boys hockey last night another senior night it was a great night unfortunately they lost but it was always great to recognize I believe there's seven seniors this year they're having a great year their conference tournament starts next week and their states will start the weekend after week after so just want to congratulate all the winter sports on the great Seasons they're having I believe cheerleading or Dance Mr might know better came in second in two spots and they're moving on so we're having a lot of successful Seasons so it's great to see and I probably stole some of your thunder down there I apologize so that's it
024for me those are our scholar athletes great uh I just want to take the time to personally thank everybody up here for the work that they've put in so far on the budget workshops and the budget in general I also want to recognize you all for your time this year and in the past two years as board members because um these are demanding times here in weatherfield Public Schools board members aren't normally being asked to do this many things um we it's unusual in the sense that we are going through this building plan and we are doing a super search all while we're still trying to do our committee work and budget work and whatever we have going on in the board so I want you to all know that your work and your time
025is valued and it's noticed and it's been seriously appreciated so thank you all and thank you mhm any anyone else Janice just a note on meetings scheduled there is a w meeting on Monday March 10th oh I don't even have that down here thank you anyone else Liz thank you so I I do have a few notes I'd like to share regarding the budget items um one of the things that we had talked about during the budget session was timing and while the requests for different positions and um different funding while it's all valid um there is timing and things that we can deliver sooner or that we should deliver sooner rather than later um a few of the items that I am um very interested in hoping that we can bring forward include providing
026security at the elementary schools this is something that Mr emit had proposed and I would like to see that happen um I'm also in support of three math interventionists you know last year I had asked for data I had looked to see where the scores had increased or decreased and I will admit that as a newer board member I believe that my question was shortsighted and the reason I say that is I have since learned that the role of the math interventionist plays far more in the end result it also helps as an extended part of the leadership team in the workflow of treating children and giving them the services that they need so I'm in favor of that um also in favor of a prek and speech support um with the chain in the
027kindergarten age we've seen an increase and we are expecting more of an increase in our prek for next year I also support a special ed teacher at Silas Ste Middle School uh and regarding to social workers there's one position at the high school that is on Grant funds this year that runs out I'd like to see that continue with operationalizing that as part of the budget and then also an additional social worker to be shared across elementary schools I know that our principles would like to have an additional social worker at most of the elementary schools which of course we would love to provide but again timing and funding but I do think it definitely there is a need for at least one there is one position that I do agree is needed and would
028definitely benefit weathers field but with regard to timing I just don't think this is the year to ask for that position so um we did look at the El program and there was consideration given to an el director position um this has not been finalized but where I stand is that while our El population has seen considerable growth over the last few years it has not grown to the extent that it has in the past year or projected for next year that we have seen in other times and while I do think that the value of an el director is there I just don't see it as timing for this budget season um there things that I have learned that I would want to share with the public with regard to the investment that we
029can make in our schools helps us to save um very costly outplacement costs um things of that nature the um the governor's budget the vote uh recently on excess cost definitely things U Matt you had mentioned that we're going to keep an eye on um but these are things that we can't count on so we need to make sure that we go with what we know we can count on um so just a couple thoughts in that regard the second topic I'd like to bring up is the school building project and uh tonight I will read a letter that was received uh sent by Paul lella he's asked me to read this out loud and um we have received quite a few letters and this is one of them but the reason I'm going to
030share this is because it's important to get out people's voices for what they're thinking what they're concerned about and what they would like to see happen to our town it's very important that as elected officials we remember that we're really not here as our party as much as we are here as elected officials representing the entire town and I'm not saying that anyone is not being you know bipartisan or partisan but it's really time to take off those hats and look at what our Town's people are saying to us um I do feel as though the current proposal for putting the swing school at Hamner and also asking us to vote on going forward with two schools is pushing people to a vote that really I don't is not fair I think there's many people
031who are in full support of redoing the schools in Weathersfield um but we're not or you know there are people who are not in support of putting this at H they're right in the middle of the park on less than I believe six acres when we have over 22 buildable Acres at uh Kesha farm and I think that the building committee would best Ser be best served um for the town if they consider taking more time and considering where this school really should be my concern is that we might lose a very important referendum for Weathersfield Public Schools if we don't get the swing location correct and I would hate to see that happen um for those of you who have not had the pleasure of going into an elementary school of recent I'd just
032like to draw a comparison for what these kids and teachers are dealing with and I'm going to compare it to what it might be like in your own homes if you had a leak through your own living room you would never accept to just put a barrel there and collect the water and look the other way if you had some sort of a machine broken on the top of you know in your addict whether that be a handl or anything like that you would never let it continue to the point where it was getting close to violating a noise ordinance making it very difficult to live in your own homes and if you had water coming in your house you also would make sure that there's no mold growing Behind the Walls underneath the tile
033so on and so forth and this is what's happening in Weathersfield public schools and I think that everyone needs to know that um I am concerned for the condition of the schools the conditions that the kids are living in and even though they're there 6 hours a day that's 6 hours of their day when we make decisions for our own homes we do make it based on our living in our home hes 365 days a year however we'd never let this continue on our own homes and so I'm in a position where I do not agree with the swing School location of Hamner I don't think that it takes the best um it it putting us in a position where it's using the best of what we have to offer I think that it's splitting
034a park a Historic Park um I am concerned about the amount of traffic that would be in the Hamner location for 8 to 10 years of time on streets that are already small already close to a Department of Motor Vehicles where we would be bringing additional busing and traffic down to that area for 8 to 10 years and I also don't like the um I feel like it's a disregard to the historic nature of the park and I truly don't mean to say that in a way that is offensive to anyone who's put so much work into this effort but to split the park right in the middle where we be left with one brand new school and then on the other side we'd have Hamner school which would take a while to figure out
035do we have the approval to knock it down and to say that we can put a baseball field in there frankly I've seen our athletes in this town and I would be concerned if I had a window anywhere near that current location of Hamner school for a ballpark um I am concerned that the referendum may not pass because of the location of the Swing school and the um based on the Reach Out that I have received I would like the building committee to consider opening that up for more discussion with the town because to me the prize is getting the school buildings done um not necessarily losing it on something as simple as the location for the first swing school um in addition to that I would like to share this letter that was written
036uh from Paul lella um to the Town Council and Board of Ed and the subject is opposition to swing School schol placement in sish park dear members of the weatherfield Town Council and Board of Education I'm writing to express my strong opposition to the proposal to place a swing School in stsh park as part of the town's School construction and renovation plans I am deeply concerned about the negative impact this decision would have on our community our historic district and the thousands of residents and visitors who rely on this beloved recreational space year around sish Park serves as an essential recreational hub for our town hosting basketball pickleball baseball soccer tennis picnicking activities and community events such as Jim's run to name a few to name one year round it is one of the most
037heavily utilized public spaces in Weathersfield outside of M Woods supporting thousands of residents and visitors annually converting any portion of SSH park into a swing school would significantly diminish its value limit access to its facilities and aode one of the few open Community spaces we have in the heart of our historic district additionally old Weathersfield is Connecticut's largest historic district and preserving its character and integrity should be a PR priority for our town leadership placing a two-story School structure in this location would not only disrupt the community but also contradict the town's longstanding commitment to protecting its historical and cultural assets furthermore the town already owns a large partial parcel of land heesa that was purchased through a referendum spefic specifically stating it could be used for municipal purposes utilizing this land for the swing
038school would be a far more suitable and responsible solution this alternative would prevent the disruption of sish parks recreational offerings while ensuring that the swing school can be properly accommodated without negatively impacting the community in addition leveraging Kesha would allow the town to satisfy the need for school facilities and the need for athletic fields economizing the investment in parking facilities utilities entry and exits bathroom facilities Etc I urge the Town Council and Board of Education to reconsider this ill advised proposal and explore alternative locations including Kesha for the swing school I also encourage the town to engage with residents in an open dialog to ensure that any decision regarding School construction is made in the best interest of all Weathersfield residents you cannot in good conscience recommend a swing School in an extremely densely populated
039historic neighborhood in a park that is one of the most utilized Open Spaces in town while not leverage a parcel of land that has ample space several access points and limited neighborhood sight lines in addition there would be no additional impact to the Kesha neighborhood After High Crest was demolished whereas the current proposed location will permanently disrupt the SSH Park excuse me disrupt the use of stish Park as a recreational Hub in addition all Construction in Old Weathersfield is governed by the historic district commission its primary mandate is to promote the educational cultural economic and general welfare of Weathersfield by preserving and protecting buildings places and districts of historic interest within the town stish park is of significant historic interest Hamner school and its classic mid-century modern design is also of historic interests lastly the
040swing school would be visible from four sides and would be nearly impossible to create a facade on each of those four sides that would not look like a large commercial building in the middle of Weathersfield historic district a true Gem and tourist magnet for the town of Weathersfield I invite each of you to go to visit sish Park any evening or weekend day and observe the community Gathering Spot I also encourage you to go sit up at Kisha Kesha in the middle of the field and compare the disruption to the community that each location would have please do not mistake my opposition to the location of the Swing school as opposition to the need for new schools I will support a referendum even with the considerable tax burden it will bring as long as sish
041Park is not destroyed in the process thank you for your time and consideration I look forward to your response and to a thoughtful discussion about the future of our Town's public spaces and education system sincerely Paul lella I have one additional comment to make after Paul's letter and while the town has mentioned in different parts that we have communicated we're not communicating to everyone because not everyone goes to the Town Council meetings not everyone is on Facebook not everyone can easily navigate our websites and I'd also like to ask the building to committee to consider a mailer to go out to the entire town using Postage and I realize there will be an expense with that to inform the entire town of what is happening I have often seen signs up um around town if
042someone is looking to put a deck in the back of their yard or change a garage door in Old Weathersfield and nothing is put up in sish park for this and I think that PE the town's people should be made aware that this is happening that's everything thank you okay thank you anyone else for comment John Mar there you go you go um I was gonna to say that the screenagers uh the web school is holding a screenager showing which is like a movie um they've made several versions of this but it's basically a movie and this one's for parents of elementary schools to teach them about the dangers of too much screen and also like pH uh cell phones and other kinds of screens so they're um they're able to get a um a
043free showing of this on March 19th at web for elementary school students so that's I think more information is going to go out on that and there's also the annual safe grad dinner Dan fundraiser on March 7th so next Friday and it's boo everything Boe um and it's just a great way to support safeg grad which is you know every year they have to raise thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for raffle prizes and like a big party for the kids who just graduated and it's a it's every year it's a little harder to get get those those those those funds and things get more expensive so if you are interested in attending or getting a table with people they're going to have a DJ um and dancing and then I guess I've heard
044of really good raffle prizes so that's that um I wanted to speak to lizz's comments on the um the building situation and I think what people just need to be a little more patient because the process is still happening just from her comments and then the letter there's a lot of assumptions and some things that actually just aren't actually correct um definitely there needs to be better communication um but there's also uncertainty because because there's still decisions are still being made um and so I definitely want to work on clarifying what's happening and John is um Hardley is on to the billing committee um and uh summarizing kind of where they are but the process takes a while and there's a lot of things that are still not clear about what the best options are
045they're still getting figuring out specs they're still figuring out space and I'm sure he would he wanted to talk about this more um he knows more about this but um they you know the his the building committee uh tskp sorry the consultant has met with a historic commission um I've heard rumors like nothing can get demolished in the historic commission that's just not true there have been things demolished actually two houses were just demolished a few years ago um and so if you look at you just have to look and wait and be patient and not you know not assume all the worst um and um and I also want to just speak factually because I understand everyone's concerns I understand why people have maybe don't want it in keser do don't want it at
046Hanmer but the last referendum the school was slated to be in the same field the last referendum part of what we found as a survey when you know when we started here in this town uh this word of Ed after a year we put out a survey to figure out like what why did people vote against it or why did they vote for it um so the people who voted no 14 only 14 out of 800 something who who um fill survey 14 said it was location that made them vote no um and the the notice that went out to everybody did say what would happen with each school there's going to be a new high Crest on the field next to high Crest and high Crest would be the um turnaround school and then
047there at the same time they're going to build a new handmer right on Stillman field which is Stillman field I also want to say factually correct it is not Stanish Park so just to make the facts clear that this didn't just come out of nowhere that there had been other plans to do this because it's the natural inclination to build right next to the school you have to you're you're looking to replace and as far as I'm concerned I can't imagine anyone wanting to see like I will wait for the building committee's recommendations I'm not going to make any more assumptions but I that building my kids went to hmer it is not a mid-century modern fancy building is probably never should have been built it's a horrible horrible building that needs to be replaced
048how that's done and where it's done that's going to be the process we're watching but I I would say that we have to just wait to see there's experts that are listening and analyzing this and I just won't I don't I just would caution people to not say you know or assume facts that aren't in evidence I thank you uh something fun first before I jump into that um last night I had the privilege of bringing myself and my family to the Hamner sixth grade committee's event at P of valarta um at this event I did have the privilege of shaking principal con's hand and wishing him good luck um and it was a very awkward handshake and I was wondering why it was so awkward uh so Patrick if you're listening great Poker Face
049um welcome back I'm glad you're still here all my kids obviously were there under Patrick so thank you so much um on to the building committee stuff um I think you heard some comments here and margerie thank you you you did bring up a lot that I did have written down here um the first thing I'm going to say is is um and and Liz we can still be friends after this I am slightly disappointed um in your comments and it it's mainly because I think last Board of Ed meeting we both of us said that regardless of where the swing space is we need to do something right um and it's it's disappointing to hear that and it's okay that you change your mind and I'm not going to hold you accountable for that
050but what I will say is is something that Marjorie said and I'm going to say the same thing is tskp we were hired them the building committee into the town hired them to be the experts on this project right none of us up here can build a school at least I don't think so um we hire them to make us the right recommendations to give us the data to present to the town and what the recommendations were there is not a parcel of land on this town that wouldn't have come with opposition let's that's just the bottom line um could have been at Kesha could have been at hest Stillman they're all going to have opposition there's always going to be people that are against it and that's that's fine that's how our Democratic process
051plays out you're you're entitled to do that um but I want to make sure that everybody understands it this is not an ill-advised decision that was made tskp gave data point we have data points on this um they they showed everyone and we can share that again as to why stowman ended up being the recommendation um so again I'm going to stand by the experts um in this situation and I I want to point out also without giving away my public address um there's not a single person right up here that's impacted more than me on this I live directly across the street from Hamer and have since I moved here in 2007 um I welcome the opportunity to change do I want construction vehicles out in front of my house no not particular particularly
052but to see the progress in this town and I think that's what it stands for it's it's about progress It's about getting our kids these these buildings that we've needed for a very long time um and I think there's no better time than now to do this um so I just want to make sure and then something margerie said and I'll just I'll just pick up on that is is the plan is still being discussed and I think patience is key margery's right um the building committee and next steps are are to get the plan presented and ready to get presented to us the official plan right to us and Town Council so you probably will get a lot of data that's out there and and some of it's right some of it is is
053stretched through opinion and that's okay too but just make sure you're getting your your information from us you can email the board you can email the building committee you can email Town Council um we'll all give you the right information um and then obviously I I want to go to our public comments because I think they were great um and we can all do more to communicate this project and that is something we absolutely will do um it's something that I will continue to do even better than before um and I want to do say that I appreciate those comments so um thank you that's all I had good night anyone else Liz thank you maror and John for responding to my comments and um I may stand corrected so I want to clarify my
054understanding now so um marger you had mentioned that um we do need more communication but one of the reasons is it's not totally clear yet but you know what the path is and so I think there's an opportunity for the building committee there um and yes John thank you for your endorsement I know it's okay it changed my mind um but if the plan is still being discussed before people assume and form opinion does that mean that the plan could still change and it would not be at stman Park point of order we can't have discussion there but I over I over it at this point okay I wanted to just hear and and we won't continue it but yes there were some questions there and not all the information is out I wouldn't say
055we can change it but not all the information's out okay okay thank you point of clarification you can't overrule a point of order okay just point of clarification I actually just read that okay um so we have any more closing remarks because I have a few here okay the weather Education Foundation met on Wednesday the 19th the foundation's mission is to enhance and enrich the curriculum BL Public Schools the group is working on fundraising for teachers grants and the grant process opens for the teachers in March we also have our marketing and techsavvy Angelica data working the foundation's social media presence thank you superintendent search committee worked all day Sunday on interviewing candidates we received 30 applications an overwhelming number that the committee narrowed to five and interviewed four we have another day of interviewing
056on March 9th maybe not all day and the board will keep you updated on the progress of our search and again thank you everyone for the AL dayer um and a thank you to our school administrators who put together the Friday update we appreciate info and picks on life in our schools as we appreciate the glimpse of the incredible learning environments that our schools offer okay Angelica how's life at the high school um there's a lot of great things that are happening so first of all as Mr EMT mentioned um Hello Dolly the tickets just started like going on sale this past Monday and the cab ra for ca for this year like we're starting to meet up soon to start planning for that this year the cause is going to be to raise money
057for mental health specifically through um the National Alliance of mental illnesses um and then this Monday day the DECA students are going to compete at the state conference or competition um and then we did have a lot of great things happening with sports as Mr Cary mentioned um another great thing to a sophomore I don't remember his name but he broke a 23-year-old record um for indoor track which is really awesome yeah the dance team indoor track oh wow um and then the dance team like they've been doing amazing too with States and then they're going on to Regionals I believe and the cheer team they earned the title of CCC Champions I believe I'm not sure about that but they also did great um and tomorrow's culture night we're going to have around I
058think like 20 different booths but there's going to be countries students representing countries from Albania South Korea Puerto Rico Italy France it's going to be great so those are my updates where is this from 5: to 7:00 in the cafeteria at the High School anyone's welcome to um attend thank you right okay tomorrow evening basically late thank you okay we all set we'll move on okay is there any unfinished business tonight all right um my quote as we work to build for our future a quote from Walt Disney if you dream it you can do it so thank you all for joining us tonight tonight may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting so moved second second all in favor I I opposed all right thank you everyone our next Board of Ed meeting
059is March 11th thank you so you made a she can shut it down