001Thursday, August 21st, 2025. It's called the Wilton Board of Education regular meeting to order. Um, has everyone had a chance to review the agenda? >> Yes. >> There any questions or comments on the agenda? >> Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> Thank you, Pat. Is there a second? Thank you, Lori. All in favor? I >> I motion carries unanimously. Um, comments from the public. The board has set aside time at the beginning and end of regular meetings for public comments for members of the public to share their views on matters involving the Wilton public schools and to help inform the board's decisions on such matters. Two minutes will be allotted to each speaker and a maximum of 15 minutes to any one subject. For the record, please also give your
002name and address. The board considers the views of citizens in its deliberations and welcomes and appreciates public comment. The board listens to public comment thoughtfully and with interest. The board, however, generally does not respond to public comment during board meetings by offering commentary or answering questions. The board also invites commentators and the public to contact the board or the superintendent directly with any specific questions or comments. The board through the chair and the superintendent may respond to questions and comments offered during public comment or shared directly and in responding may also direct members of the public to appropriate staff members for a response. Are there any comments from the public? None in the room and none online. Thank you. Um consent agenda. Has everyone had a chance to review the consent agenda? Hammerstone market donation.
003Thank you, Hammerstone. There was a completely um generous donation. Um Hammerstone Markets donated $124,200 for the 2526 school year. The contribution ensures that every student enrolled in our personal finance courses will have access to Hammers Market software. The software will provide them with hands-on experience and a deeper understanding of financial concepts preparing them for future success. So thank you. and um then the personnel changes. Um are there any questions or comments on the um consent agenda? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Motion. >> Thank you, Heather. Is there a second? Thank you, Pam. All in favor? >> I motion carries unanimously. Um board chair report. Um hello all and welcome back. I have just a few quick remarks before we jump into business. On Monday, Lori and Kevin and the district
004welcomed new teachers. We will hear more from Maria later about the tremendous talent joining us this year. I just want to extend the board's welcome and thanks, and we look forward to seeing all the ways you will contribute to the Willen education community. Over the summer, our custodian staff worked wonders. Middlebrook looks like a whole new school, and our schools have been scrubbed from top to bottom. Thank you for creating spaces worthy of the people who spend their time in them. Today began with convocation, a wellness fair with an alarm interruption. Well, because you know that's life and also the musical talents of Steven Kellogg in a reprised performance that included our very own Willen High School Magical. It was truly special. This morning, I remarked that it's fitting that we started this year with
005our staff and our wellness fair in a building dedicated for striving for excellence. Here in Wilton, through our actions, we are showing our kids and the larger world the power and the beauty of and academic excellence and well-being, mattering and healthy striving. Each child that walks through our doors is surrounded by a community of support. And it's that support that enables true learning and confidence to explore and find their own paths to make their own success. As we enter a new school year, I look forward to seeing all that we can achieve and as we continue to embrace the beauty and the power of and together growing the next generation of critical thinkers and truth seekers and democracy sustainers through our commitment to the understanding that people can be more than one thing and can
006hold more than one belief. Thank you teachers, staff, parents, students, and the larger community for your continued support and partnership. Here's to another great year of willing education. >> Dr. I don't want to fall back. >> Very you know how I use. >> Very well said. Yes. Um this feels familiar. >> So someone did say summer happened. Um and I can tell that it did. But here we are. We're back again. Um, but there's some new faces at the table that I wanted to welcome. And so, um, Melissa Barrett, our new assistant superintendent for special services. Welcome. >> Thank you. Happy to be here. >> Look forward to hearing a lot from you >> in the future. >> Ready? >> We also want to welcome Janine Carly, our new principal at Cider Middle School. So,
007Janine, not a new face to us, but a new role. Thank you. Um, we want to congratulate Maria Coleman on her promotion to assistant superintendent for human resources and my favorite, general administration and whatever else the superintendent needs. >> Yeah. >> So, thank you. Um, and we'll talk a little bit more about Laya later on in the agenda. Laya is not new to this table, but um, congratulations on uh, your appointment to your new role as CFO for the Wilton Public Schools. And so, thank you for serving. Um, and you know, Bill also not new. Um, but Bill Bill is now we're gonna take every ounce of his life full time with us. So, so you know, welcome, welcome full time. Um, and so the agenda is our kind of annual back to school agenda.
008And so you'll hear some updates tonight from a range of folks and that'll continue for the next couple of meetings. Um, but what I I want to tell you and share with the community um echoing uh what Ruth just said, our um staff, our summer staff, our custodians um uh you know, cadre of uh HVAC workers and painters and floor workers um have been working morning, noon, and night to take apart and put back together in a much more attractive fashion the Peterson wing over at Milbrook. Um and we we've had work um going on all over the district. And so we're ready. Um we were ready to mostly ready to welcome staff back. Um you know there's a little dust on the floor here and there from the newly hung sheetrock, but you know
009people took it in stride. Um we'll be fully ready to welcome kids back when the uh buses the new buses roll up way here on Monday morning. And so you know with with that being said, why don't we jump into the rest of the agenda items? >> Sounds good. Um, welcome Maria and um, hiring update. >> Thank you. Well, in keeping with tradition, I have my hiring update and I'm so pleased to give you an overview of the fall class of 2025. As usual, it's been a very high a very busy hiring season. And I think I gave you a preview of this in the spring. We hired 33 new certified staff, six administrators, five of which reflect internal promotions, which is certainly something to celebrate, 19 non-certified staff, and six custodians. In addition, we've
010hired three long-term substitutes. To give you an overview of the unfilled positions, we have three teaching positions, all of which reflect late uh resignations. as recently as last week in fact and that was a part-time role and we we find that sometimes teachers are looking for full-time roles. So we do have the 0.5 secondary music position, the high school chemistry position and an elementary psychologist position and we have um a substitute in place. It's a retired psychologist who's on board to work at least half the year. So we certainly have a plan for the interim for that. we are actively uh interviewing for the high school chemistry position and we have our 0.5 music teacher for the 30 days that we are able to keep her contractually. So we have a plan in place for
011all of those. In addition, we have two paraprofessional positions at Middlebrook that are open and we have three more long-term substitute positions that are going to be open in the next month or two. So those are all in process. Now the most exciting part when I get to actually give you an overview of our new teachers. As usual, we have drawn a very competitive pool of applicants. We had over 550 applicants for our positions and the candidates that we hired reflect the top 6% of the applicant pool. They range from being in their first year teaching to their 25th year teaching. They attended institutions like Yukon, Syracuse and the University of Paris Lasserbon. They are honors program, deans list and sumakumlady graduates. Uh for many it's a second or third career that brings them here
012to the field of education. They have experience in business, accounting, fashion design, culinary arts, and we even have a former captain of the US Army. >> Who's that? Uh that's Evan Fonen, social studies teacher at the high school. So very exciting. And then they just have really interesting talents. We're always so um intrigued to learn about the things that maybe aren't on a resume and we try to get at those questions in the interviews. So our new art teacher from the high school is a wood carver among other things. and she has h a beautiful horse that she carved over about eight or nine months that is featured in the New England Carousel Museum. It's absolutely stunning. We we got to see her portfolio and one page after the other of her students work was
013incredible and then it also included her work as an artist. We have um figure skaters in our group, yogis, lacrosse players, cyclists, pizza enthusiasts. I would like to share that. Um and they are also uh people who have been celebrated and recognized over the course of their career. Uh we have a multi-year excellence in education award winner, distinguished military graduate, uh a teacher who was uh who earned the uh award of rookie of the year at her previous school. And they also are active in different forms of community service with organizations like filling in the blanks, night to shine, the PTA. One of our teachers is a former search and rescue volunteer in the grand at the Grand Canyon >> and also um has taught ESL in Peru and the last two are the same
014person which I just think is so interesting and so we're very excited to bring on this group and uh you know they're well into it. What is this their fourth day now? Feels like they've been here. I'm sure they feel like they've gotten enough information that it feels like they've been here for a long time. But we're very proud of our fall class of 2025 and really looking forward to helping them become a part of the fabric of our school community. >> You see, we've got Gina Dignum back as well. >> Yes, that's right. That's right. We we brought back actually two colleagues who left us for Gina left us for a period of about eight years and one colleague left us just for one year and now she's back. So, >> it's really great.
015is the 550 applicants. Is that on average given the number of open positions? Did you find that that was a larger pool or same? >> It really depends on the position. >> Okay. >> We had a lot of applicants for elementary positions, but I will also say we we drew from the same pool in certain instances. So, we didn't necessarily repost every single position. >> Okay. Um but our shortage areas positions are, you know, consistently lower. Like the school psychologist position is not drawing a lot of applicants. >> Yeah. >> Um the science positions, things like that. So it really depends. >> Okay. >> Any um questions for Maria? >> Thank you all and your team for a job well done. >> That's right. I have to acknowledge Erica Cross and Tracy D'Angelus who have
016just been working non-stop because they're there really for every phase in the hiring process and they're still working with new staff just to make sure that they're fully on boarded and they have all of the resources that they need. So, it's fantastic. Thank you. >> Um, principles updates. Do you want Do you want >> Start with Mrs. Cohen? >> Okay, go. Happy new year everybody. So welcome back to the 25 26 school year. Um yesterday we welcomed the kids and all the parents for meet the teacher which just brought all of the energy back to the building. So it was absolutely incredible. And speaking of the building, I want to thank Rudy Angel, our head custodian, and his large amount of custodial workers. We we host so many things over the summer at Miller Driscoll.
017We host PSY. Um we host lots of Wilton continuing education courses. We host Saljimo's camp which I think goes for 26 weeks every week. Um so we host a lot and they clean all around and in the last one week that they have with no camps, they make sure that everything gets done. So that was that was really amazing. And so huge thanks to them. Also thanks to Pam Carlson, um Patty Tteranova, and TAS Majeski who take care of all of those incoming kindergarten families as they're registering. There are a lot of steps. There's that health form. It's very um so there are a lot of things to check off, but they they get it all done as well. Um and then while we hate to see Janine go, we could talk for a long
018time about that. Dr. Smith. Um, we have an amazing admin team. So, I still have Bernardet Hess by my side. She's been by my side since I got hired. Abby Cass agreed to work full-time this year. And Morin Steinberg, um, who is a retired administrator and has done a couple of leaves at Miller Dress School, is back with us as well. So, that's our new at least one year dream team anyway. So, there we go. We're doing it. Um, this summer, interestingly, we spent time as a building leadership team and we decided we needed to reconnect to the why we're doing this in the first place. So, why do we go into teaching and why do we stay in teaching? And so with those uh stories in mind, we took some inspiration from Simon Synynic,
019who is like my new favorite person now, a TED talk from him about um the golden circle and why the why should come before the how and the what. And as a leadership team, we created kind of a mantra that we want to use to guide our work this year. Um want to hear it? >> Sure. >> Yeah. That's okay. >> Maybe we'll borrow it. >> With our why at the core, we believe it is our shared responsibility to create a calm, collaborative, and safe environment for our teachers and staff where we can harness and grow our collective talent by valuing all perspectives in service of our youngest lifelong learners. Not bad, right? >> That's good. I'm going to call Simon myself. Um, the other thing we did this year was we created a joy
020list for the teachers and we gave it to them on the first day back. Um, and it has all kinds of things in there about how we think they can make the year better for their students, but also how they can make the year better for themselves and care for themselves. And today was a perfect example until the fire alarm went off, but the rest of it was a great example of how the the district values that that very same thing. Um, and then you know, tip for tat, we told them that they could create a joy list for us. So they're over the next couple weeks, they'll be making us as an admin and team joy. I'm a little scared. >> I can't wait to see it. >> I know. Me, too. Each IET
021or department gets to contribute one thing to the list. I should have said then I get to add five things to your list, so be careful. But I didn't, so it's all good. Um, like last year, we are continuing to foster community wellness and belonging. So, we'll continue to work on our collaborative commitments where we'll revisit all of the commitments we made last year. And then we're hoping to kind of raise the level of those commitments to again contribute it to the positive culture and climate at our school. And then one very different thing that we're doing this year, usually each year we have an area focused by either grade level or department. And that's um that drives the professional development. And so instead of having different areas, we have decided that everybody in the
022school in Miller Driscoll, Chuck is going to say woohoo, is going to um contribute to um the new ELA program. Um and that's going to be think I made a friend. Um and so we are really excited about that. So we have uh readjusted the schedule so that interventionists, special education teachers, other support staff can push in to particular times um especially in the skills block of our ELA program. Um and then all of our specialists are going to connect to the uh different subject areas in the knowledge block and that started last year with art and it just worked out so well. So everybody is going to contribute to this huge endeavor. Um, and yeah, we believe many hands make light work, so it's going to be amazing. We love it. Um, thanks to
023all of you at the board table. Um, you don't give me everything I want, but you do give me most things that I want and you give us what exactly what we need. So, thank you so much and happy new year. And then I'm going to turn it over to principal. >> Well, thank you. Um yeah, first just thank you for the opportunity to serve as acting principal at Cedar Mill this year. Um I really am truly honored. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know the staff this week. Um it was funny when the kids saw me at meet the teacher. I think some of them thought they were in the wrong place. I think some parents thought they were in the wrong place. Um some kids eyes got really big. It was it
024was very cute. Um and a big thank you to Jeremy Cross, Dave Dudix, Sharon D'Angelo, Sharon Bisho. um they've been a great support to me over these past couple weeks um during my transition and we are looking forward to an incredible year. So um I really appreciate their support. Um like Kathy, I want to thank uh Jose Figueroa and Tol Joseph for the work they did this summer. Um we had I think it was 22 classroom moves this summer along with a couple painting projects that I think I see in the facility updates and then you have the regular summer cleaning schedule. So, uh, the building's really looking great and we will continue, uh, our work to make it shine even brighter. Uh, last year you heard about some schedule changes that were made at
025Cider Mill. You heard about a new partner teaching model. This year we're really focused on fine-tuning and strengthening this model. Um, our fourth and fifth grade teams uh, will be fully immersed in the partner teaching model. This means that one uh students go to one teacher for math, science, and social studies and then the partner teacher for our ELA curriculum uh knowledge and all blocks. Um so I mentioned those moves. They were done to really accommodate this um in order to decrease transition time and really increase the sense of community between the you know teachers and the classes that were um sharing the same teacher. So um it's been a lot with the moves, but the the staff is definitely ready and uh excited for Monday. So, um related to curriculum, we're in our second
026year of our full implementation, um using the illustrative math program. Uh teachers will be working with our instructional coach to refine their practices mostly around the text building thinking classrooms that you've heard um Trudy and others talk about um over the past year or maybe two. Um our fourth and fifth grade teachers will be focusing on implementing the new e curriculum. Third grade implemented last year. fourth and fifth will be studying and implementing that program this year. Um, and additionally, our world language team, you did hear about this year there, last year um they're in their second year of implementing curriculum with uh that's connected to the content standards for the grade level. So, that's a nice um way of making connections for the kids. And then, as Kathy said, we'll continue also to focus
027on community wellness and belonging. Um we have social emotional learning lessons. There's dedicated time for community building at the start of the year. Uh the continuation of our science classes that include health and wellness lessons. And then we'll have activities that celebrate the diversity of our community. And Miller Driscoll's been working over the past few years um implementing the everyday speech program. They started in kindergarten 3 years ago, then first and second. So for it's been smooth for the students. Now our third grade team will be implementing everyday speech lessons as part of their morning meeting program. So that's our cit updates. We're really looking forward to the energy of the kids on Monday and I really am grateful for this opportunity. So thank you. >> Thanks John. >> Thanks Joy. >> Hey first time.
028>> Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. >> So hi everybody and thanks also to uh give me an chance to brag a little bit about Middlebrook and what's happening at Middlebrook. Um, you know, first I just want to publicly extend my thanks to my dean team. Uh, as you may or may not have heard, we had a rather significant shift in our admin team. So that uh that is you think about that institutional memory that leaves you. That's a that's a big piece. And uh Katherine and Janet certainly hit the ground running and have done a fantastic job in their new roles. But, you know, my thanks go out to Dean Seleni and Dean Nobles and Dean Whan. Uh, just their outstanding leadership and fellowship with uh our our Middle Brook community. They're
029really just wonderful at remembering all the details, remembering what we have to remember, remembering all things the things that we can't always remember and uh making sure it's all in place. Um, and then along with it, just a heartfelt thanks to the staff at Middlebrook, uh, whose energy, care, their professionalism just create that warm and welcoming environment for our families that came in this week. Um, you know, that that walkth through happened on Wednesday and they did this in just about 48 hours after getting back into the building. So, can you imagine welcoming guests after 48 hours of planning? I mean, it's just I just think about everything that they had to do to try to make it look like home and make it ready for everybody and they're they're just really remarkable and I
030really appreciate them. Uh had a nice update from Maria about our new hires and we have certainly our cadre of folks that are new to us, but we're uh we're really happy about this wonderful team of professionals that we're welcoming to Middlebrook. uh their arrivals brought a really fresh energy and enthusiasm to our community and we're certainly looking forward to the great things we're going to accomplish together. Uh but I just want to take a a moment to take a special and certainly well-deserved thank you to our incredible custodial and maintenance teams. Um they worked day and night in this blistering summer heat. For those of you that heard Kevin this morning, it was like, "Yeah, let's turn off all of the air conditioning. let's put you in all these extremely hot places and go
031ahead go get at it. So, and never once were they complaining at all. They just um you know, as some of you know, we had a rather extensive uh remodel this summer at Metobrook. Uh and that entire Cherylyn uh Charery Peterson wing has been remodeled. And um I just want to point out a couple of folks. You know, under the expert leadership of our supervisor for building and grounds, Jose Figueroa, not a detail was overlooked. Uh, and he was there every day, every night, working weekends, working alongside a team of custodians that did whatever was needed to make sure the work get done. And I don't know how they were in your buildings cuz your teams were at Middlebrook as well because every time I was there, I would see folks from all the other
032buildings that were there working as teams, whether it was moving furniture in and out or ripping carpet out or um cleaning spaces, etc. Just all all along. But just uh we are just very much indebted to um certainly to Jose uh and his leadership throughout this. Um I also want to thank our head custodian Pon Marque who I don't know if all of you have got a chance to meet him but he's brand new to us uh very late last year. Um but he coordinated efforts with the other uh buildings and other head custodians to make sure that this transformation was really carefully planned. And I got to I got to tell you a quick story about him. tells you a little bit of a a window into who he is. But Tuesday evening, late
033evening, I was uh there's this long punch list of things that I knew that had to be completed. So, you know, I think about the eight red hallway, the whole pod was just filled with furniture and boxes and trash. Uh and the top of the staircase was just the entire island refuge was just loaded up with all kind because we had an elevator that wasn't working. It needed a service. So, it needed to be redone. So that it became this place that was just kind of a well let's wait till the elevator's fixed. So anyway, there was all kinds of debris and everything that needed to be cleaned and this is late Tuesday evening. And so um the next morning when I came in and all of it was gone. I asked Parn, you know,
034so how late did you stay and how early did you come in? And he told me, well actually I didn't leave. He goes, well that's not entirely true. I left to go out and get a toothbrush cuz I can't be all gross, you know. That was how he reacted. And again, with a smile. It wasn't a, "Oh, yeah. I was there all night and I was not not even." He was just with a smile just talking about, "Hey, I need to get done." And then here I am thanking him and and all he could say was, "Hey, the smile makes it worth it." And that just gives you a little window into who Parent is. He's just a fabulous human being. I just think it captures his dedication and his leadership. and I think it's
035a perfect example of how he earned that 212 degree award today. So, thank you for that, for noticing him. But his commitment, the tireless coordinated effort that he put together this summer with the team just makes it possible for us to open our doors and do it smoothly. Their extensive work is really something that I I certainly appreciate and as I say, we're ready for company. Um, I also want to recognize our some of our students. We have our web leaders and as you know that's where everybody belongs. Um they they really put that saying on display this past couple of weeks because they generously gave up some of their summer to be trained over the summer then to come in and be ready for uh really tomorrow because tomorrow is when they're really going
036to greet the sixth graders when they they uh join us. but their enthusiasm there, it's really inspiring to see these kids that are willing to just come in over the summer and not begrudgingly at all, but just really excited to do it. And tomorrow's going to be fun. Uh if any of you are around between 8 and 1:00 and you want to just be out front in in Middle, you just check it out. It's going to be uh pretty exciting. You think these kids are coming back from a a big parade or something, the way they're welcomed at Middlebrook and it's all kid- le, all kid uh created. the signs, the yelling, the cheering, all the rest of it is just really wonderful. Um, but in addition, the web leaders, they also came in early
037to the walkthrough. Uh, where proudly wearing their web t-shirts, but it's really to greet students who were new to Wilton. And really what they were there to do was helping them with tech setup, helping them navigate the building, giving them a quick tour before the walkth through, uh, but just most importantly offering a warm and and friendly welcome. They just really did a wonderful job of of just kind of, if you will, proverbally opening up their arms and hugging these kids. Um, as I've shared in the past, we're we're excited to have our students back. Uh, it is a privilege to work with these remarkable young men and women, and we never ever take that for granted. Um, a quick su success story to share is that our cell phones away for the day is
038going to continue into this year. Uh it's in place once again and I expect that our students are going to rise to the occasion again to show that great maturity that they did last year. Uh it's just another reminder of how fortunate we are to work in this community with such thoughtful and respectful students. And I uh finally I just want to take a moment to acknowledge our staff and our students for their incredible work last year. I know you've seen the results from the recent round of standardized assessments from the spring and I'm proud to say that our students growth and achievement is truly outstanding. That kind of success doesn't happen by accident. It reflects the committed dedication of the talented educators that I have the privilege of working with every day and that
039commitment of our students and our families. That's what you as a board can expect moving forward. And I'm very proud to sit here as principal uh to represent, if you will, these talented professionals at Mbrook. So, thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your continued dedication to the district and we're looking forward to a wonderful year at the Brook. >> Good. >> Absolutely. >> You're Wilton High School Warriors. So, uh, firstly, thank you to the board of education for your outstanding support. We appreciate you. We know how much you care about our students and our schools, and we feel that every single day. We are very eager to start the school year. We've been preparing concertedly and we are so excited to see all of our students on Monday. We'll see a
040lot of them tomorrow. That's going to be exciting. We'll begin with some student news. I want to commend the student link leaders and also the faculty that guide them, some of whom we're working right now to get ready for tomorrow. There's been very positive energy with the link crew training last week. Dr. Smith and I had the opportunity to go and welcome them and cheer them on a little bit. But I think they cheer us on more. They're amazing kids. So, we anticipate an outstanding freshman orientation tomorrow. We're set and we're going to set these students up for success. It's going to be wonderful. We're also going to orient the students to the yonder pouches for the first time. So, that's what they're actually working on over there, getting them ready. And, uh, we're really
041excited about tomorrow. We'll have all the freshmen in. And Brian and I and the other admins have the opportunity to welcome all the freshman parents, which is outstanding. And then later on in the day, all the students who are new to Wilton High School, and that's always exciting because they come from, you know, different places in the world and obviously different states. So, we're looking forward to that. We recently hosted a very successful band camp. You've probably heard it if you've been around here at all. And we've had students playing really beautiful music throughout the building. In fact, some of them set up right above the right above on the third floor right where the where the elevator is. So, I was looking at Kathleen one day. I was like, "You hear that?" And then
042they played every single day. So, even serenated, right? Sounded wonderful. Um, so we could go on and on about the students, but we'll have more stories to tell in the near future. Can't wait to see them on Monday. Uh staff news, a lot of great our our educators are fantastic in the high school. So I want to commend them for their preparedness. You know, the high school teachers don't have that long to get up and running. They have one day fewer than the other other teachers. So um they've been planning concertedly. They're excited to get back. It's nice to hear about their tales of the summer and I know that they'll tell a lot of those tales of the students just to build relationships and seal and have a wonderful experience. But they're such talented,
043caring educators. It is noteworthy that we have so many new teachers this year, new staff in general. Actually, you heard Maria's report, but the other day when we had our convocation, was actually yesterday, we had 17 new educators, and that's everybody. That's that's secretaries. Um that's paraprofessionals, psychologists, certified teachers, and they were all lined up and the instructional leaders introduced them. And um you know, Maria alluded to it a little bit, but the talent and the experience and you know, first and foremost, their caring nature, you know, we look through this lens of are they going to be good role models? Are they going to behave themselves extremely well and might make the students want to emulate them? Are they content area specialists? are they on the cutting edge of their craft and they really
044are. So we're excited about the new teachers and we welcome this as you know I like to say the Wilton High School faculty recruiting class of 2526 and we will orient orient them in the Wilton High School way. I too have to commend Mike Cruso and our custodial staff. If you looked at this place two weeks ago, you would never believe that the high school would be ready to open. Um it really it just it really did not look good. But the work that they've done, uh, Mike is still over there right now. I mean, he's I wanted new clocks for all the students, particularly the freshmen, because if you're taking their cell phones away, they should at least know what time it is, right? So, we got 10 beautiful new clocks. >> One of
045the insights from the younger. >> Sorry, it's okay. I I I emailed Mike and and Jose. I said, I am committed there's about three. I am committed to having class for these kids. I'm going to go get them myself, which we we precured them. But anyways, Mike is over there right now and um the work has been truly remarkable. The team pulls together. Um you know, as Jory alluded to, they they have a smile on their face. They get the work done. You saw a little bit of that today when we were dealing with a little bit of the you know, the fire drill over there. But uh they're remarkable. And then a couple of highlights, of course, and if you haven't seen it yet, board of ed members, anybody else, I really want you
046to come over, visit the high school, look at the new IT STEM room, which is the old kind of in the loading dock area down there. you know, custodians office down there. And then the new business slash um stock market room is remarkable. So, please stop by. We'll give you a tour. Um you know, I could go on to commend many people for that, but really our custodial staff that made it happen. Again, a couple short weeks ago, you know, I was like, "Now, when are we that ice stem room? Is that going to happen?" Yeah, it's going to happen. We're starting tomorrow, and you know, next thing you know, they're spraying. They're sheetrocking and and it really does look great. Most importantly, these are going to be wonderful learning environments for our students. It's
047going to be fantastic for them. So, we're excited about that as well. Uh, in the realm of athletics, you know, I I heard Kathy talk about all the programs are going on at at Miller Driscoll. Um, you know, I always say Wilton High School never sleeps, and it doesn't. It doesn't really sleep much in in the summer with all the programs, but one of the things that gets going pretty quickly, of course, is the athletics program. And so, our programs are in full swing right now. practicing for the seasons. Blue and white warrior spirit abounds. I mean, the kids are just so excited already. And um you know, the fields, they're busy. They're the kids are smiling. They're checking out new equipment and, you know, new aspects of the facility. So, that's going really well.
048One particular highlight, the football team went away for basically a two-day boot camp, um which they wanted to do it for, you know, team building, camaraderie, you know, get ready for the rigors of the season. and they've come back. I I've spoken to many of the players already and EJ Denunio and they just talked about pulling together and the experience. It was not easy. It was difficult, but I think they're a better team for it. So, that was certainly a highlight. So, we want to thank the coaches, the AD, and the Grid Iron Club for supporting that because that doesn't happen in every single community. So, um that was wonderful. And then before I turn it over to Brian, uh we're we're very excited because if you haven't seen the new turf field, get out
049there. It's it's completed. We had a big walk through, Bobby and I and Steve Pierce and the um the representative, the reps from the companies that did it all and put it all together. Um we had a small punch list of a few things to be corrected, but um it really looks good. It's going to drain well. It's going to drain well and um it's going to be a great venue for our student athletes. So um Brian, let's talk about our our seniors. >> Yeah, our seniors class of 2026. >> Yeah. Well, obviously we've seen some of the seniors who have been back for athletics or for band, but you know, the majority haven't yet come back, but we'll see them next week. Some tomorrow, too, for orientation. But we're really excited to welcome the
050class of 2026, right? Every year when you say the new number at the end of it, it's just a little bit scary for me. Um, the rapid change, but uh yeah, we're really excited to have them back. Um, uh, we've had some communication with them. they've gotten their mailings about the parking lot and their lockers and you know all the other things that they need to look forward to with senior year. Uh but uh we're excited and uh I really think that this is going to be a good senior class for leadership of the younger grades. Um they they've really come a long way. Last year we gave them some junior privilege because you know as a class they were just mature and uh earned it. And so I'm hoping that uh that trust that
051we sense just continues and rolls through this year until they graduate and then thereafter. Um some other things uh to add on to Bob's introduction. Um we had our leadership institute this week. So our instructional leaders uh were in with us and uh we had a great day of collaboration. We spent time on things that are district priorities. So um you know just to to name a few you know we're we're going back into task design. We're incorporating you know cognitive demand on students uh and the learning that ensues because of that uh uh all things visible with thinking right making thinking visible so that uh students can see it teachers can see it anyone who's in the room can see it uh and we're organized again last year we really appreciated getting our calendars
052together for our instructional effectiveness teams or our IETS along with our professional development calendar so a lot of excellent collaboration among the instructional leaders uh earlier this week. Um Bob just mentioned also that we had our convocation. Uh I'd like to highlight uh that Grant Stein, our student body president, gave such a wonderful welcome to our staff. And uh you know uh what a smart young man uh to get up there be so eloquent. I think he interrupted his football practice to come out and speak and then had to go right back to football practice. But to do that and do it with a a stately eloquent manner was just impressive. Uh so looking for great leadership from our our um executive board too. Um we have chance to celebrate the personal milestones that the
053staff experienced either late in the year last year or over the summer and there were a lot of them. So that was nice to see people's personal um enjoyment and milestones that they uh celebrated this summer. Um Bob also had a chance to celebrate the students and staff for some of the great results last year on some of our um our testing. So uh okay to give some numbers away. Our EBRW number one in the state again um our NGSS our science scores number one in the state. Math number three in the state. So, um I just can't give enough uh praise to the students, to the families that support the students, uh and especially our staff that has really dialed in uh become very very um nimble and astute with data and uh just
054responsive to the needs of the students. Uh it's a great testament to the work and you know, same sentiments that you were saying about the Middlebrook staff. So, uh, we've got some good consistency going here and, uh, we expect another year of excellent consistency with with achievement. Uh, we've got our year two of our cell phone free campus. So, uh, yep, all things yonder once again to kick off the year. You'll see us out um tomorrow, uh, out in the foyer and then, uh, next week out, you know, greeting students as they come off the buses and making sure that we've got that culture of healthy living, balanced lifestyle, right? And uh as we learned last year, I think the students really appreciated uh realizing that they achieved their their thought back, right? By getting
055rid of the phones all the time, they were able to control their minds and their emotions a bit better out of their mouths, right? Uh that's what they said to us. So, um we're excited about uh doubling down on our efforts with that and encouraging uh that positive social interaction that came from the cell phone free campus. Um other than that, you know, uh we had uh the house band uh start our convocation and uh end it and they were joined by one of our student drummers, Will D. Bernardis. So, I mean, talk about a community effort, right? We had all kinds of disciplines and a student rocking it out there to send us off to some good meetings. Uh and lastly, um you know, we we enjoyed a wonderful PTSA breakfast for our staff
056when they came back. So, uh, big thanks to Kim Bilto and the entire hospitality committee, PTSA hospitality committee. Um, you know, just to see the smiles on the teachers faces as they were greeted with a nice warm uh and tasty breakfast. Uh, you know, they've done it for years and it's it always just winds up warming people's hearts. So, that was great. And we're going to see that hospitality committee and another panel of PTSA volunteers uh tomorrow because there's going to be a parent panel as part of the uh 9th grade orientation and the parent meeting. So uh yeah, we're off and running doing our thing for the beginning of the year. >> Fantastic. >> So we have a a brief facilities update. Do you want to throw the slides up? >> Um still has
057them, right? Yeah, I got it. So, you can go ahead and advance. Let's see where it says. >> There's a glare on the TV. >> Thank you. Didn't work on me. All set. >> Yeah. Keep going. >> Yep. >> Great. So, Cider Mill, um this is the the picture. We'll do just a little quick show and tell. um that corridor that goes to the old gym, which is now like the new gym. You've been down that. Um that place was long in need of a refresh. It got one this summer. And so, you know, at some point we're going to have to do more substantial exterior work with the windows. But at least, you know, for the time being, floor is fresh. It's repainted. It's much cleaner. Um so, that's great. um the lower section
058Cannondale um those classrooms were repainted and so we're just embarking again on a multi-year maintenance effort where we'll continue to refresh um painting and classrooms and corridors over a multi-year period so the buildings all stay in good shape. Um beyond that, the um butterfly garden in the front was um redone. If you've been to any of the schools, all of the exterior um cleanup has taken place in the last week. And then um the last piece that was on the list over at Cider Mill in that old new gym um when we had the flood all the sound baffles had to come out. So it's taken a while to get the new one. So those are on order and should be here next week. Um and then that they should be complete. Um you've heard
059a lot about Middlebrook and you know again just kind of bask in the glory of you know clean floors and no carpeting. Um the these pictures don't do it justice, but adding the new LED lights also just completely changes the environment. So I really encourage all of you, you know, get in there and take a walk around. Um the construction works like 99.9% complete. Um our guys are just working through kind of the last set of punch list kinds of items. The um giant HVAC unit will be delivered sometime later in the fall. We have the um temporary air conditioners in place and if things stay as they are tonight, we may not need them. But um I could not fathom having kids come into the building and not having you know and teacher excuse
060me um you know not having um so those are there. Um we replaced the gym partition. Um so that's all set and ready to go. Um next summer you'll see in the budgets have come forward we'll have the president of Cider Mill and then two years out um Miller Driscoll. Um there's all kinds of new signage. If you've been by um Middlebrook, we took the opportunity to replace the old brown sign with a fresh new blue and white one. So that was one of the last pieces um outside as well. Good to go. Thank you. Um the high school um again you get a a bit of a look. Um I'm not sure which stocks are um available on the ticker in that picture, but that space is fantastic. >> It's a very cool room.
061>> Yeah. So the um you can see, you know, the seating is flexible. There are workstations um around the room, the the teacher stations in place. Um the kids all have access to the Hammerstone software and be able to work in small groups. So um we're really excited about putting kids back in that space and then continuing to grow the program. Um, so you know, you'll hear a lot more about that as we get into the year. And Bob mentioned the um the IT STEM robotics classroom. So there's a glimpse of um that space. And you know what what I love about the story here is that was that was the automotive classroom, you know, from so many years ago. And um as you know, shop went away and we moved away from some of
062those really meaningful kind of skill-based hands-on types of things curricula that kids would engage in. Um, this is not um autoshop by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a lot of hands-on, minds, construction, building um thinking that kids will get to do in this space. And so, um, I I love that we've been able to refresh it and reinvent it for the 21st century. Oh, I got so one other just I forgot to mention it's just it's on the slide. Um, downstairs we for years we have been talking about taking out we have lights studio lights that were installed probably the time the building was built and they were inoperable. And so over um a few phases we took out the lights, we took out the electricity, we put electricity back and uh we
063procured a donation from NBC studios um of all these studio lights. So those are all in. They went in last week. Um and so that place to you know you you heard I think Maria Greece I read at the end of last year um come here PTA um replaced the stage down there. So um you know that that place is as vibrant as ever and um now they'll have a truly fully functioning studio. Um I got to you know drive is not the right word. I got to sit behind the wheel today. Oh, no. >> You know, one of our new buses and um it is it's a school bus. They haven't changed a whole lot in a hundred years. Um but, you know, in terms of having shiny new buses, um I can tell
064you, you know, um Dan Pacino, our manager, was very excited to show Marie and me the controls. And so, it is it is modern in that regard. You know, there's a lot of bells and whistles for the drivers. Um I think the big selling feature was the air conditioning. >> So, Tell your kids now if you're listening at home, you want to sit closer to the front on hotter days. Got it. >> So, noted. You'll see those guys rolling through town, you know, this week. Uh, you know, the drivers, >> are those the same buses they use for the sports? >> Yeah. I mean, we use the same fleet. So, um, >> yeah. Yep. So, >> I've gotten a few kids home a little at the end of a athletic trip, right? Like sitting on
065the hot bus. >> Uhhuh. >> You know, so I'll I'll be sure to let her know. >> Yeah, please. And uh you know we can do a little pre and post. >> Yeah. Dan did say I asked him I said how's the ride compared to you know the buses you've been driving and he said smoother. >> See but that's exciting. So >> they let you beep the horn or >> I tried but the thing was off so I couldn't you know I wanted to. In fact you know Sawyer my son was walking up to football practice and I was like you like our new car. Um, so we're, you know, you've heard it a lot tonight in the conversation, and I don't think it can be overstated. Um, our maintenance crew, our custodial staff. I
066want to also, um, just shout out our town folks, Frank Smearlio, um, Jeff Partardo, those guys put in a lot of time and effort. And, you know, people were nervous that this project wasn't going to get done. I was nervous, um, honestly. And, you know, Jory mentioned that Jose is an expert and he, you know, is also confident and, you know, he there were plenty of times this summer I was like, >> "We're gonna make it." And he's like, "We got it." And they do. He's got a team around him that are exceptional. And, you know, I I didn't recognize him all summer because he was also up in the rafters doing stuff, you know, so all you saw was his shoes cuz he was on a ladder everywhere. Um, and they all were. So
067it really it's a testament to having a clear vision and a really good plan. They they got the job done and um you know I always glad Jory mentioned parent market. He has been nothing short of remarkable. And the story that Jory just told you is true. Um there are at least two nights where he didn't go home because he is that invested. He wants it to to go well on day one. And well I'd love to have that every night. We can't um because he needs to have a life. But, you know, coming out of the gate and setting a tone for the rest of the people that watch him and work with him, I mean, just I' I've never seen anything like it. So, we're we're fortunate. Um, and I'm excited for all
068of you to to get into these spaces with you. They'll have the opportunity, if you like, to ride some new buses when we welcome the kindergarters on Monday. So, feel free. >> Great. We're good. So, questions or comments about facilities? I just think it's really remarkable the amount of work that got accomplished um this summer and just um I was in Middle Brook the other day and it just feels amazing and I know that the kids felt it too. So I'm it's great, you know, really to have spaces that are worthy of the people and the work that goes on in in the building. So I'm looking forward to, you know, the green wing getting their their treatment. >> Yeah. So, let me let me talk about that for a second if you don't mind
069because that was something that Jose flagged for me just a two weeks ago. Um the flooring company was um lights out and they worked really quickly. And so that experience put on the table an option to try to get some of the work done as we are going through the school year, not waiting till next summer. The bond funds are already there. So Jose and I will be working with Frank and Jeff to put a plan together and we'll come back to you and Harley um some of those long weekends and the the week stretches where we're closed to see how much we can actually do. Um and so what we're thinking is we can get the flooring done and the painting done um through the um kind of outside the main office and then
070we thought we'd target the you know eight green into seven green into six green. So we'll we'll come back to you with a full timeline that we can discuss. I'm so sorry to interrupt. >> No, I just think it's so great that now we've had this experience, we kind of have these plugandplay models and you know we've worked out some of the some of the um you know kinks I guess behind it so that we can really um effectively and efficiently like move the projects um forward to really give that building and those kids um the complete experience. >> Great. and then we can turn our attention to the high school. >> Most definitely. >> Lots more to talk about. >> Yeah. No. Um that kind of I Well, doesn't go into the next thing,
071but we'll get there. >> Phil, thank you. >> Sure. Thanks everyone. Um good to see everyone. Welcome back to all. Um I uh just wanted to kind of give a brief history of some of the uh thinking we had about the website and then get into the actual work. uh when I was in the hiring process um some of you were part of that process and we talked about how the website was something that we would like to work on someday and um then as I got hired and I started talking to the web master team we were like yeah let's spend this year maybe planning out some of ideas and going from there and then um in the fall like early fall late fall we found out that the hosting site Gabbert that we
072used was being sunseted and all of a sudden Sunday became yesterday and we really had to speed things up and actually make a whole migration happen um you know between you know the middle of last year up to you know this week. So, um, we worked really hard this summer to get it going and some of that process was working with, um, some of you were on the, uh, communications committee and we gathered feedback and about the current site and kind of had some vision, uh, discussion about what we wanted the new site to look like. And, uh, we took all that and, uh, really toward the talent of last year, definitely all the hard work happened this summer. Um I was working with the web masters to make the new website uh number one
073migrated and Eric helped us with that too. Um and number two to put into effect some of the things that we discussed with the communications committee um to make the site not just um you know a carbon copy of the old one but under a different banner. But we really started it from the ground up completely scratch. We we imported nothing from the old site. We remade the entire thing um super nuts. So um I was fortunate enough to work with another team of allstars. to keep hearing about all these great folks that put in all this great work this summer. Um, but Skip Plus and JC Griezley, Tom Cotch, um, Kathleen Kesler here at the high school and Tara Peterson, too. Um, they put in so much effort this summer to rebuild this site.
074And, um, I'd say it's probably 90 95% of the way there. If you go through it and especially if you made it, you'd find some things that, you know, that we need to keep, uh, working on to refine. There's a couple of technical glitches we still need to work out. Um, but I'm actually really excited to give you a brief tour. Does that sound good? >> Yeah. >> All right, let's do it. So when you go on the site, oh that was a good that's a rotating uh carousel banner and that was a nice one to start with all our accolades that the principles were talking about. Um but um what we really were shooting for based on the discussions earlier this year um was to come up with a clean aesthetic uh to make
075things more standardized and to make uh the whole site more navigable. So we hope that as you kind of go through the district site and from the school sites, you'll see that we were really thoughtful about that. We spent like a good two weeks before we even touched the software to design it to plot it out, draw maps, and really figure out what we wanted to look like and how we wanted things to be organized. Um, so when you get to the site, you this will usually be the first graphic that pops up. And we went around and took all new pictures this summer. Um, so most of the photography here is all brand new. Um, and we had to dodge a lot of construction projects, especially at Middlebrook, but we kind of made it
076work. Um, so this typically autoscrolls and you'll get a few images and you'll see that this is the same at each school and these are some of the things we'll want to update as the year progresses. Um, then you scroll down on each um, district page and school page and there'll be some of the most important links right here. Um, so for example um, we saw during the communications committees that uh, menus is the thing that's most checked by most families. Then you can get on here, see the menus, etc. And we rebuilt these pages again from the ground up. Um and then uh on each district and school homepage, you'll see uh latest news which is pulled from parent square upcoming events which is tied into um all the Google calendars and that will
077look different for each school depending on which calendar we're pulling from. Uh this just has a little marquee graphic from graduation because it's the district page. And then um each school will have an about section on the lower left um that just has a mission statement and some information about the school. And on the right, it'll have contact information for admin. But here, we just wanted to, you know, showcase some of the all the great stuff from the 2024 2025 school year, including how um Wilson High School was number five on US News and World Report and some of the other great things that happened recently, too. So, that stuff's there and you can certainly uh take a look at that. And then um users will be able to go through some of the familiar
078things like district information uh check the different departments uh look at all the curriculum uh access to board of education information and then um a lot of things were kind of hidden under I want to that was the name of the section and you found that in varying places to varying degrees uh across the site. We were careful to try to reorganize that um under families and under uh students. Uh you don't see that on the district because it's for staff there. Um but that's where families will be able to find information about Power School, Parent Square, My School Box, things like that. So all that's really um more thoughtfully organized. So if you were to go over here and go to schools, you could see all the different places that your um the students
079will be. Um if we go to the high school for example again um that design aesthetic you should should see is pretty similar to the district site and um your links are there latest news upcoming events uh etc um about the school contact information for admin things like that and um each school has pretty much the same stuff up top um with the high school having more to do with athletics because you know that's such a big part of the community here um but again families and students uh is where most of the information uh people will need to get regularly there. Um what there's kind of competing needs and visions for a a school website. Uh on one hand it needs to be a repository of information for the community. On the other hand,
080uh we want it to be a showcase of all the great things going on in the district. Um that makes it a challenge to try to organize and make look good. uh because on one hand if you were on a product web page if you go to like an Apple website for example it looks great gives you some information but most of it's like flashy graphics and you know by now all this stuff you guys have seen those commercial websites um you know and we could do that and talk all about our school but then like leave the information behind or vice versa we have tons of information but it looks like you know a library website from the 1990s or like you know uh what was it what was it really tricky like Alta
081Vista you know everyone Uh yeah. So, you know, you'd have the information, but there's no aesthetic appeal and it doesn't get anyone excited. I think it looks a lot more exciting now. Um so, again, I go school to school. You know, I I won't do that right now. I'll let you go through your leisure. Um but I just kind of wanted to brag about how we made Little Brook look really good even though it was under construction all summer. There's a lot of photoshopping. >> Yeah, we have a new sign. >> Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of photoshopping that went into that sign, for example. So, you know, if uh if you're if you're ever buying a house and you need to uh look at the the pictures that the realtors are masters at getting
082just the right angle. So, we were playing with that and trying to make everything look really great. So, again, um we invite you to check out the site. Um check out the information, check out the aesthetics. Um we hope that you will find it, you know, easier to navigate, the information will be more standardized, easier to locate, and uh the aesthetics should be a lot cleaner and organized, too. And throughout the year, we're gonna up spend more time updating the content and um kind of add a little bit more pizzazz where we can. We took we took some drone footage, for example, but we weren't able to make that quite work just yet. Um so we'll we'll have some more surprises in store throughout the year. >> It looks really great. Congratulations. I know it
083was a lot of hard work. >> Nice refresh. >> Yeah, I think it's a it's a good step forward. So, and again, we're open to feedback throughout the year as you're looking through it. So, >> it looks really good on mobile, too. I was on it this week. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. That was um that was one nice thing about like because you can choose templates um and we worked with the team and and Kevin put some input into like which template would look good and we were checking how it looked versus a screen versus an iPad big screen iPad mobile and it's pretty consistent. You know there's definitely some you know things that might be a little different but on the whole I think people make the adjustment pretty well. Yeah, >> I hit
084a couple dead pages, but I don't know if that was probably like during the transition. >> It's possible. >> And I don't know if it was iOS specific, but yeah, it look I thought it was really it was a really clean aesthetic. >> And it's nice when it is consistent with the web experience as well, so you don't feel like you're on >> two different types of websites. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, we were really careful about that cuz I think the old site felt that way. Like different corners of it felt like completely different than other places and yeah, we were trying to eliminate that. So, >> looks great. I love the way cuz the aspect ratio for photographs on the the main banner are always different and they were always wrong on the on
085the other website they look great. >> That was one of the impetuses for just taking all new photos because we never had you know photos for some people were you know I don't have my phone on me. Some people shot like that some people shot like that. Sometimes it was a DSLR sometimes it was a screen capture from a video was all over the place. So you know we just were very careful making sure the photos were Thanks. Yeah. is I had noticed a couple of things because I went to I went to the most important page the um the menus page. >> Oh yeah. >> And I noticed there on the prices the um not on the top down bit where it says it need um the it links to um Google pages that
086you have to be logged in to Wilton PS to see. >> Okay. >> So is there a way pricing >> it'll work for you but it didn't work for me when I was >> I'm not logged in. though. Okay. Well, again, like little things we might have missed. We all stared at this thing till our eyes bled. So, >> is there a way to that you can take feedback from people who find main? >> Um, yeah. Well, we do we do have um like a web update form um that we we're updating and putting on there. Um but for now, if you just shoot me an email, I'll make sure it gets fixed. But, uh yeah, we'll we'll make sure that's up there, too. Thank you. Yeah, that that takes two seconds to fix. I
087just have to make sure it's shared correctly. So, yeah, appreciate that. >> That looks great. No, it's fantastic. >> Thanks. Appreciate it. >> So much better. >> And having, you know, being a mom of littles, I know that the menu is really, you know, it doesn't surprise me that that's the the thing that's like searched for the most. >> You need to know if it's going to be um I think it was pizza. But even crackers to find it easily cuz in the morning you're like, are you am I making are you buying? Well, what's for lunch? >> Exactly. >> And also download the Neutra Slice app. You don't even have to try to >> The search feature works now. >> Yes. Yes. That's handy. And um the um uh the directory does too, but
088there's still a little clunk few clunky things we're working out um with the smart sites folks. It's on their end. So um we're getting there with that too. But yeah, it should just run smoother. It's like a like a you got a new computer and it works great. You know, it's click click click. It's all right there. So hopefully we'll keep it that way. Yeah. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Next up is business office update. >> Great. So, um, not news, but I wanted to just kind of put on the table because we haven't had a chance to discuss it before, but as you know, um, Dawn Norton resigned, um, suddenly and rather dramatically about a week ago. Um, we had set up a plan back in, you know, late
08923, early 24 when we hired Laya to resegregate our, um, respective business offices. And so, um, we weren't anticipating having to do that until later this year. Um, but because of the change at town hall and, um, you know, because of just the the kind of current operations, it made a lot of sense for us to, um, just kind of bring our our people under our shop and have, um, you know, have a have a clean operation here. Um, that's not to say that, um, we won't continue to, you know, collaborate deeply and partner with the town. And there are a lot of areas in which you know Laya and Mary and Kinder um are working now where there's you know tremendous overlap in ensuring that um finances are going forward you know we share
090the audit um we share the EFS report and so you know all of those things will continue as is but I did want to just make you know an agenda item put it on the table if there are any questions or concerns. Um I have you know complete confidence that we're we have been as you know in very good shape for a long time and will continue to be. Um one of the worries that I'd heard from a a board of finance member in a conversation earlier this week was um just you know kind of a recollection of years ago when there seemed to be a lot of tension between um you know the the finance office here on the board side in the um in the town and um things are are are night
091and day different. you know, it's it's relationships, it's personalities, it's um kind of shared systems. And so I am not anticipating that we're going to wind back the clock and be in a, you know, place that, you know, people might have probably were a number of years ago where there was, you know, animosity, hard feelings, or a difficult working relationship. Um I think we're we're still um you know, pretty connected in that we share an EIN number and systems. We're we're sharing um a financial operating system. um and we'll continue to do that. And so there'll be, you know, plenty of opportunities to continue to to partner well and to communicate well. But um I think, you know, thinking about what we need to do at the um board of education, we're the you know,
092the the largest tax dollar consumer in the town. We have to make sure that our systems are um have a lot of integrity and that the people, you know, are are focused on our systems and ensuring you know, dollars well spent. So that that's why we are where we are. And I could say having been on the board for a while now, having the combination of Laya and Maryanne at the table with us over this last two budget cycles has been um a tremendous support and advantage to us as we budget and plan and uh forecast and and look forward. And um I do think that our working relationship with town and the board of finance is something that we've worked hard at and built at over time and um is a priority for us.
093So, I um appreciate a cons a concern of looking back about how things were in the past, but I too think that there's a a shared commitment between all the boards to continue with how well we've been um moving and working forward and when we have our own when we each have dedicated staff and understand roles and responsibilities and are able to um get our individual houses together and then talk um across the table, I think will be um a great advantage for us. So, um I think like to welcome Laya to her new role and um we've been at the table, but to the table in your new role and um know that your work is really valued and we're really excited to um have you um or continue with us. >> I'm very
094excited for the opportunity and to Kevin's point at the end of the day, the board of ed is a department of the town of Wilton. We're the largest department, but we are still part of it. So, no matter who works in the finance office on the town side, our two departments have to work together um in order for things to be run efficiently. And that would always be my goal is to my job is to protect the board and to make sure that all of the money that we've been entrusted with is used properly and efficiently and effectively. And in order to do that, we have to be able to work with the town. So even if they're separating the position out, it's there's still not a huge separation. We're still working together. >> Is
095the budget for this year going to be built in the there's a new software package that didn't get used last year? >> Great question. So we don't know the answer to that yet. Um so we're we have the system that we've been using for years. The town um we're in this protracted transition to Ununice. Um and so ununice for the budget development is ready to go. Correct. Um it's the payroll and HR that needs to still come online and we're um you know a year and a half out. I understand from having that two years ago um Matt Newer approached us and was really interested in using this tool called clear gov and so we piloted it looked at it. It's a really powerful tool. Um the town picked up the license two years ago.
096We built funds into this budget for the license for this year. Um, and because of, you know, everything you've been reading about and all kinds of other things, it just hasn't gotten off the ground yet. And so, one of >> We're very, very close, though. >> Yeah. >> We've been working on the board of ed side to be able to um play with it a little bit. We've we've done all the backend work to get the system set up so that we can start running some reports and seeing what Clear Gov can do. Um, with everything that has happened, it's kind of slowed us down a little bit, but um, our plan is to really over the next month or so look at both systems and then make a determination of which way it's better
097to go if we're going to build it in Munis or if we're going to build it through Clear Gov. >> Yeah. So as they get closer to a recommendation, you know, we can bring it to the table. If it makes sense to, you know, kind of road show it here, we can do that, too. Um because there are some really attractive features and from a an enduser perspective um that might that might make the budget interpretation more user friendly than you know what you're seeing, you know, and >> change the whole layout of that budget book. >> Yeah, is different. There's there's a lot. It lay it lays over, you know, the the kind of the backend software and just provides some functionality, but we're not there yet for a decision. >> What's the name
098of the system that the budgets built in currently? >> We're using well the this past year we continued to use New World. >> New World >> um because that is the program that we had been using for everything initially. Right now only the um the accounting end has moved over to Munis. The biggest part of our budget as we all know is the people. All the people are still in New World. And so that's why we made the decision last year to build the budget out of New World. It just made more sense. >> And we're thinking this year the budget will still be will be built out of something different or we're not quite we don't know yet. We're not 100% sure yet. Um, we can always fall back on using New World again,
099but we would like to either use Munice or Clear Gov. My gut feeling right now is leaning more towards using Clear Gov and then uploading the information into Munis um because I think there's we there's more opportunity for us to um present things in different ways in clear gov, but we have to test it a little bit more. It's been a lot implementing Munis this year and also setting up clear gov at the same time. So it's it's just a matter of having enough hours in the day to really but we want to give it a fair shot. You know, I know it's been a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of work >> and it's and it's very, you know, ClearGub is very robust with a lot of the things that it can
100do and I think like as far as forecasting tools and be able being able to look at different scenarios, it's a lot easier in that system, but it's a matter of if that's going to do what we really need it to do or not. >> Questions? >> Any other questions? Thank you. >> Now, um, long range planning and facilities. >> Yeah. So, just a very brief update here. Um, save the date for Tuesday, September 9th, from 6:30 to 8:30. We're going to hold another long range planning session um, focused specifically on facilities visioning and planning. I have um, Jonathan Costa, who is the executive director from Ed Advance, coming down. He's going to um open up the evening and you know what I asked him to do was um paint us a picture of education
101in the next 5 10 15 and 20 years and then connect that specifically to the kinds of facilities that would support what's going to change. Um we'll transition to table conversation groups. We'll be organized by schools as we have been. I'll have the administrators present facilitating and note takingaking and we're going to lead the assembled through a conversation to really think about all right so you know thinking about what the future's going to hold do our spaces currently match what we think is coming down the pipe and if not what needs to be different and so we'll gather all that information we'll feed that to Eric Hire and KG&D as he is working with us to develop the um educational specifications for here for cider Um and then we'll deliver that to the um townfield
102facilities committee. I think having a clear vision will help kind of you know move all of us um in a direction so we can make better decisions um and more comprehensive decisions around some of the more immediate facilities planning that we're doing here. >> That's great. And um that'll be very interesting. >> Yeah. So I think we can send out a parent square in the coming, you know, >> weeks, maybe, you know, not next week when everything is >> buses and back to school, but yes, just get it on everybody's radar and um maybe put something out maybe through the town system. >> So great community conversation as well. >> I I shoehorned it in between the back to school nights intentionally. You know, people are reading, people are out. Um, but we also are
103on a time schedule with facilities planning and so I wanted to make sure we had this before we get too far down the road with the EDS spec development and certainly before we're doing you know concrete budget planning for facilities. >> So, but we'll we'll make sure that you know people get the invitation. >> Yeah. >> Um, possible action items >> before we I was sorry. >> No, it's all good. I had a realiz I had a question from something earlier in the agenda I couldn't ask. >> Um >> for for existing staff and new staff, do we do any surveying throughout the year to just track for new hires how their experiences? And then do we do anything kind of beginning, middle, and end for just existing staff? Um, so I'm so glad you
104asked that because we uh have done exit interviews since I started here for for every we've done exit interviews and exit surveys. The surveys are anonymous. The interviews are in person. We um offer those to all staff that are leaving the district. And um I shared with Kevin at the end of last year that it was my intention to actually start conducting stay interviews with existing staff. Um, I did this a little more informally last year because I started hosting office hours in the buildings every month. And so I would go to the buildings and let people know that I'd be there for a certain period of time and they could either schedule meetings with me or drop in. And you know, sometimes it was an HR question and sometimes it was just to have
105a conversation and I would take those opportunities just to check in and see how people are doing and what their experience was. Um, we've started asking in the interviews what people need to feel um, supported and to be successful here and to stay here. And so I'm going to be more formal this year with the new staff. This is exactly what we talked about at the end of last year with the new staff and the existing staff just in in checking in and um, capturing that data in a more formal way. >> That would be great. And then do do new hires get any type of do they get like an assigned a buddy? >> Yes, they do. >> They do in their building. So they're in two ways. One is through the team program.
106U those are staff that are not um that are within their first two years of teaching and so they get a formal mentor that has um gone through extensive training with the state of Connecticut and they um complete different modules, five different modules over the course of that period of time. They meet regularly with their uh mentor on the different topics in the modules and to support them in completing them. And then our um staff who are new but new to us but not new to teaching. So would other not otherwise not be assigned a formal team mentor are assigned uh you know an informal mentor in the building just to help show them around have questions that you know they can they know they can go to this person to ask uh those kinds
107of things. And then in addition to that, another layer of support that we provide to new staff is that they meet monthly with the principles and the assistant principles in the buildings. And there are monthly topics that are timely. So, you know, the first month's topics may be related to parent um openhouse nights and things like that. When it's parent teacher conference time, they're covering topics like that. So, those are built into the year regularly and they get together as a group. So, you know, if there are four or five, six new staff members in a building, they're all meeting collectively with the administrative team um in those monthly meetings. >> That's great. >> Any other questions? Okay. Um so then we'll move on to the um Wilton Public Schools 2627 calendar version. >> So
108you may recall So I've lost track of this. Yes. Well, it's only A and B. >> Yeah. >> Right. So, when we uh met last back in June, um I presented this version of the calendar to you and and really here here's what it came down to. You know, we got some questions, some feedback from some folks. Um in next year, we're starting, you know, almost a full two weeks ahead of Labor Day. And so, it feels earlier. And on the flip side, we're also ending, you know, a little bit earlier in June. And so the question was, can we play with that a little bit? Can we shift? And so, um, looking at all the different pieces, um, one of the changes we we could manage was just to push the start date. And
109so this calendar reflects that. And so instead of starting on Monday the 24th, we'll be starting on Tuesday the 25th. And we're still, you know, we'll see what the weather situation is um, over the course of that year, right? >> But, you know, we're we're out pretty early, so we're, you know, be able to have a summer, too. Are there any other questions on this calendar besides that one day over um shift? >> Yeah. And this this is 26 27. So this is not this year. We're talking about next year. >> Next year. >> This year's faked. >> This year's Yeah. Locked in. >> Yeah. We do these and just so again just for the like we try to do these calendars um you know in advance because people some people just require a lot
110of time and whatnot. And so as a courtesy we like to have these out a couple years in advance. Um, is there a motion to approve the 2627 draft calendar draft B? >> Motion. >> Thank you, Pat. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Nicola. All in favor? >> I. Motion carries unanimously. We now have a 2627 calendar. I'm no longer in draft A or B. Are there any comments from the public? >> Not seeing any. Um, seeing none, just future business. Um, we will have another regular board meeting on September 4th at 7:00. On Tuesday, September 9th will be that um, long range planning meeting on the facilities at 6:30 and that'll be the correct in the in the Zelmer. And then we have um a regular meeting on Thursday the 7
11118th of September and then again on October 9th. Um it is 8:26 meeting adjourned. What?