Board of Education Meeting 7-21-21 @ 7pm FULL VIDEO

001Could I have some order in the room, please? >> I'd like to call the uh regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order. Uh today is uh Wednesday, July 21st, 2021. Um please join me in rising for the pledge of allegiance. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Um, we have uh we have four members of the board tonight. That does comprise a quorum of the board of education. The summer is always an interesting time to have board meetings because there are vacations that people have in their families and three of our board members are out of town tonight, including our chairman. So, I'm Bob Beldon. I'm the

002vice chair and I will be hosting this evening's meeting. Um, next up on our agenda is um public comment. And I just uh we have a number of people here that we're recording this for TV and we do have a number of people here who I'm sure would like to speak this evening. Um, so I've got to read a a general uh set of rules about public comment and then I want to talk about it for a moment before we start. But I also want the people who are here tonight to know that we are going to move the discussion on the reopening plan up on the agenda to right after the public comments because I do recognize that you all have come and we don't want to have you here. You certainly don't need

003to listen to the finance report. Um uh but uh we will do that in order to make sure we put those two topics one after the other. So, uh, on public comment, I'm just going to read the formal notice and then I'm going to talk about it for a moment. The board of education welcomes public comment. Um, individuals or groups may address the board concerning any subject which is within the board's jurisdiction. Three minutes will be allotted to each speaker. Comments and questions at a regular meeting may deal with any topic related to the board's management of the schools. um and discussion of personnel or individual members of the board is not appropriate. So I would hope that everybody can abide by that. But I just want to do a couple of uh expansions on

004that. First of all, if you're going to speak and you come up to the podium, we're recording this on so that people can see it afterwards. Talking from the the audience doesn't work because nobody can hear it unless you have a microphone in front of your face. So we ask that everyone will speak from the podium. Um and when you do come up to speak, we need name and address so that we can keep the minutes properly. So uh and if you don't start with name and address, I will remind you. Um secondly, with the number of speakers we have here tonight, we're going to be very firm on the three minutes. You may see my favorite little prop here. It's not just a prop. I will I put these up here because you will

005be as you're speaking, you'll be able to see these are three minute timers. Um if you get to three minutes I would just ask that I will tell you know the sand will run out. I'll say okay three minutes. Um I won't interrupt you but I just ask that you finish your sentence or finish your thought. Don't go on to three or four more thoughts. At the last meeting we had we had a number of speakers who did go on for a little while after and our chairman was saying okay come on come on come on we just don't need to do that. Let's just keep ourselves to the three minutes so that we have time for everybody to speak. And lastly, and this is me speaking as a parent, uh I used to come

006and speak at at uh board of ed meetings and board of finance meetings all the time. And one of the frustrations for me was you wouldn't be getting a reaction from the board, right? You there's a lot of people would love to have this be a give and take in a discussion. This is public comment. This is not a debate. So, we're here to listen. We really are here to listen. We might ask a clarifying question, but more often than not, we're listening. And so, please don't go up expecting us to, you know, listen to your position, give you our answer back, have a back and forth. That's just not going to happen. And I just don't want you to be frustrated if that's not happening. We will have a chance right after the public

007comment to talk about the opening plan. We do have some visitors with us tonight, uh, Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Garcia. Dr. Sullivan is the town's uh, health director and Dr. Garcia is our advisory uh, physician for the school district. So they will join us here at the uh at the main tables as part of our discussion about the reopening plan. So I'm hoping that will the two topics will complement each other uh this evening. So sorry for going on for a little bit but I do think with a lot of people wanting to speak you we needed to have a little bit of a preamble. So with that we're going to turn to public comment. Um Mrs. Foster who's first up. >> Thank you Bob. I have Lisa Zolrect. Hello. >> Okay. >> Good evening

008everyone. My name is Lisa Zulra, 16 H Hot Brook Road. Um, I'm actually new to Brookfields. We moved here in December, but I feel it's very important as part of a community that I support my community. Um, I was not at the last meeting. I'm going to read so that I can get through three minutes quickly. I was not at the last meeting, but I did watch the live stream. Um, I'm here to support my community. As I said, uh to have in the fight to have the mask mandates removed or at the very least made uh optional regardless of vaccine status. Time and again, we've been given misinformation with regard to the virus, masking, and vaccines. The CDC has flip-flopped through the entire pandemic, and at this point, their credibility is tainted. It appears

009that the facts are being manipulated to push fear into communities. They're pitting people against each other. Today the vaccines work, you don't need a mask. Tomorrow they work, but you should still wear a mask. They're not allow they're not following the science. And the entire thing feels to be politicized. What is increasingly consistent with regard to information about this virus is that children are at zero one. 01% risk of contracting the virus and having a poor outcome. Something else we know is that masks can carry multiple pathogens such as strep, TV, menitis, and younger children are more likely to have contaminated masks from constantly touching them. Several districts districts in Connecticut have already decided to go mask optional. So what are we waiting for? What have what I have heard is we're waiting on guidance.

010What other guidance do we need if the science tells us that children are at the lowest risk? Are we not able to make decisions for our own children? Do we need the government to tell us what's right for our children? If someone is concerned about themselves or their child becoming ill, then by all means wear a mask, get vaccinated, but both should be optional. Look at sporting events, concerts, stores, restaurants, 30,000 people, 50,000 people, people shopping, eating dinner, no masks. Are we to believe that all those people are vaccinated and there's no risk? Why is that okay, but not 25 children in a classroom? Does it make sense? The superintendent mentioned liability. Understood. But who will be liable for our liable for our children's health if they become sick from prolonged use of contaminated masks

011or if they're mandated to get a vaccine and have an adverse reaction? What about their mental and emotional health? Who will help them with their anxiety levels peak? Or if they decide that their life isn't going in the direction that they expected and make a decision can that can never be undone. We've had more suicides than deaths from CO. The unfortunate part of all of this is the fact that mandates are directly tied to funding. Government Lamont thoroughly explained that he wanted an extension on his emergency orders so that he can continue receiving federal funding for the state. So there's no question as to why the mandates continue. And now there's the Delta variant. What variant will there be next week or the week after or next year? When will it end? I appreciate the

012board for understanding its parents' frustrations and for proactively sending a letter requesting that the decision be a priority. However, if it is decided that the mass mandates will remain, I asked the board to push through the barriers and followed in the footsteps of other districts that have already made uh decided to make mass optional. On a separate note, I did hear something about uh an equity and inclusion committee. Um I didn't find much information on the board of education website regarding this committee. So, I will be seeking information on the charter that was written as well as the material associated with it so I can get a full understanding of the committee's objectives. >> Okay. I only had a couple more sentences, but that's fine. Thank you. >> Is there any way we can turn

013a microphone so that we can hear nothing? Like literally, I didn't hear a word of her speech. >> I'll ask you we can turn the fan down too if that's background. I'm sorry I was late. >> They don't broadcast in the room. >> Um, can we let give people a chance to move where they can hear better? If anybody would like to move up into this space, there's >> turn the podium. >> Podium a little bit. >> Yeah, just turn the podium. >> Can't turn it too much because it's televised, >> right? Okay, >> it's broken. There we go. >> Okay, next I have Trina Capone. >> Name Trina Capone, Six Murphy's Lane in Brookfield. It is time as elected members of the board of education to take a stand and do what is best

014for the children of Brookfield. With surrounding states and towns making masks optional for students in the fall, where is Brookfield in their stance? Children are not significant viral vectors of COVID and most children have mild illness if they become sick. At what point do we stop bartering the health of healthy children to protect adults? It seems that the big push is to make maskearing contingent upon receiving a vaccine. If you really look at the data, there is no significant benefit for children, especially under 12, to receive the COVID vaccine. Other countries like Germany and the UK are looking out for the best interest of their young population and not recommending the mass vaccination of healthy children. Not every parent wants their child to receive an experimental medical intervention. With no long-term data, parents have every

015right to exercise caution when it comes to the health and safety of their children. The risk of cardiac complications from this vaccine is a real concern of parents like myself who have a six-year-old daughter with a diagnosed heart condition. No one can guarantee that your child will be completely safe from receiving this vaccine. And if something terrible happens, you have no recourse. It is all rare until it happens to your child. I pray for families like Everest Romney, a star basketball player who suffered from three blood clots in his brain after receiving the Fiser vaccine. for Maddie de Geray, the 12-year-old girl in the Fiser vaccine trial who has suffered tremendously. And for Jacob Clinic, the 13-year-old Michigan boy who died in his sleep days after receiving the vaccine. Despite what the media claims, myocarditis

016is a serious life-threatening condition. A mild case has included a multiple night stay in the hospital, medication, followup with a pediatric cardiologist, and a minimum of three months of no physical activity. Severe cases can lead to heart transplants and death. Parents have legitimate concerns and is their right to make medical decisions for their children. I continue to pray for the health and safety of my children as well as the children of Brookfield in the state of Connecticut. Children this year have suffered in silence from maskearing. Most children, as my own, are rule followers and fear getting in trouble for not wearing a mask. This year, elementary school students were forced to wear masks outdoors while sitting alone reading during physical activity and recess. Masks breed bacteria as well as causing other health issues such as

017asthma, headaches, and low oxygen saturation. It has also caused social emotional distress amongst our youth and this cannot continue any longer. It is time for adults to stand up and be the voice for children against the power- hungry individuals who are dictating these rules. When the American Academy of Pediatrics endorses maskearing yet is also funded by Fizer, we need to take a closer look at the conflicts of interest. when the ACIP recommends that the COVID vaccine be co-administered with other routine vaccines to 12 to 15y olds without concern or data to how these vaccines may interact with each other or wreak havoc on a child's immune system. We have to take a step back and ask ourselves what is going on here. Parents have a right to make medical decisions for their children and mass

018should be made optional for students in the fall regardless of vaccination status. Thank you. Sarah Aml. Hi, I am Sarah Emerrell, uh 34A Old Bridge Road. I was here at the last meeting and the last meeting so many of us got up here. We poured our hearts out. We told you stories of everything that we have seen over the course of the year with our children. Children that were panicked because they thought they had COVID when they were sent home to quarantine. Stories of children having serious psych uh physical and learning issues from wearing the mask. Kids falling behind in their learning from the lack of consistency with in-person learning. and the schools prioritizing COVID protocol over learning. You listened and clearly heard the angst in each parent's voice, not wanting to have a repeat

019of last year and not knowing what this coming school year was going to look like. You agreed it was time for the state to stop dragging their feet and for the board to start advocating for us. A letter was written to the state and we are all thankful for that. However, it's a month later and we still do not have any guidance from the state and we still do not have any official stance from the board on masking or any sort of updated plan of what school is going to look like from the fall. All we were given was last year's back- toschool plans minus the option for remote learning. All we heard this last year was the rules were necessary to prevent children from getting COVID and bringing it home to parents or spreading

020it to teachers. We have now vaccinated the majority of staff and parents now um and parents. Now, however, the goalposts have been moved once again and the focus is now on the children. I will not bore you with all the repeated studies, everything that we're all talking about here. I'm sure we've all read them. However, I will summarize that we know at this point, we have learned over the course of the past year that kids are at a very low risk of having severe illness from COVID. Approximately 350 children in the United States over the course of this pandemic have died from ch from COVID. And although that sounds like a very scary number, when you put it in perspective compared to car accidents, lightning strikes, drowning, etc., it is way behind those. We do

021know that adolescent suicide is up in state by 20%. We do also know that kids are not as resilient as we thought and they have suffered greatly in many ways over the past year. We cannot continue to overlook that. The fact of the matter is these kids are done with all the rules and all the restrictions being placed on them. They are at camps. They are hanging out at each other's homes. They're not social distancing and they are not wearing masks. They're going to indoor trampoline parks, ropes courses. They're going to concerts. They are going to amusement parks all without masks. How do you expect them to go back in the fall with masks? These kids do not want to be subject to any more of these restrictions. They want to be kids and they

022want to enjoy school, not living with the constant fear of being considered a close contact and having to go home for 10 days, having their life turned upside down. They don't want to be subject to constant testing. They don't want us to go to school and be afraid to sneeze or cough for fear that they're going to be labeled as a COVID patient and sent home. Enough is enough. We need to stop spreading fear. Start looking at the real science and allow the kids to just BE KIDS AGAIN. ELENA LOPEZ. HELLO, Elena Lopez. Nine summer pasture lane. In the spring of 2020, we did everything we could to stop the spread of the uh unknown virus, the Corona virus. But by the late summer, we had learned a lot about mortality rate, populations most affected,

023and proper treatments. Around this time, it was announced reopening plans would be handled by local districts. And I was thrilled. We live in a small town, two school buildings that have only three grades in them. Who could possibly be in school more than Brookfield? Well, lots of places. Brookfield delayed the start of school by 3 weeks in the low lowest COVID case time by late of late August and September 2020. The decision was made to return hybrid. We were closed for quarantine so many times during that phase. It's fair to say we were largely remote until January. While we were in hybrid and separated into cohorts, closures were completely mismanaged. Huckleberry had one court one case in cohort A. The entire school was shut down. Later in the year, the high school had two cases.

024The entire district was shut down. In November, I and many other parents drafted a letter to the board of ed, Dr. Burley and Dr. Sullivan, among others, citing the importance of in-person education. The board response was, and I quote, "Our goal remains upon the advice of our health officials and medical adviserss to return our students to full-erson learning safely as soon as possible." End quote. That was on November 12th. Our district went full remote 8 days later, and our students would not see the inside of their classrooms until January 19th, 2 months later. While we cannot fix the mistakes of the past, how can we trust our health health officials, this board, and this district to do what's right in the future? If Governor Lamont comes to the appropriate conclusion that the district should handle

025the reopening, what will Brookfield's plan be? Will it be a forwardthinking, scientifically driven reopening, the kind of majority of states and many other public districts and private schools in our own state will be enjoying or will it be an overcautious, mismanaged approach that we saw last year? We have wide and easy access to testing for early uh detection of the disease. We know how to better treat those who fall ill. We have a high vaccination rate in town and vaccine is readily available. Therefore, we should have 100% inerson learning all year long regardless of case count. Update protocols for handling children who feel unwell before and during school. But whatever the situation, it is unacceptable to deny a child an education because they might have CO. Do not quarantine entire classes, remove the shields from

026the desks, and allow masks to be optional. For anyone who thinks these are outlandish ideas, New Town, which touches our borders, has committed to masks being optional in the absence of a state mandate, as have many other Connecticut towns. I'm still waiting for someone to tell me how my incoming kindergartenner is going to learn how to enunciate and articulate sounds as she's learning to read if she and her teacher are both masked. I don't understand why our health department has failed to educate our community on modifiable risk factors. The truth is that in this point in time, we have a large ability to protect ourselves from the serious illness associated with COVID. Adults can choose to be vaccinated. They can consult with their physicians to make sure they have adequate vitamin D levels. They can

027eat a healthy and balanced diet rich in antioxidant foods and make sure they exercise. >> Basically, it is long overdue that the adults of this community mitigate their own coorbidities rather than place that burden on the children OF THIS DISTRICT. YOU CAN COME BACK LATER. >> OKAY. Eric Lopez. >> Eric, excuse me. Eric Lopez, Nine Summer Pasture Lane. My wife uh just talked about last year, but I'm upset, too. So, I'd like to talk about it as well. I'm upset with the way that Brookfield Public Schools handled CO over the last year and a half on a standalone basis. And it makes me even more upset when I compare Brookfield to other towns. I'm upset that my second grader only got about 20 days in person last fall. I'm upset that we started the school

028year late last fall when there was practically no CO in Connecticut. The excuse was given that we were waiting for individual desks to arrive. Those desks had been ordered during the summer of 2020. Uh why didn't we order those supplies in March or April sooner? Uh I'm upset that teachers were told that they couldn't touch paper handouts that the kids had touched because the paper handouts might be contaminated. I'm sure the doctors could tell you that the studies show that you're not going to get COVID by touching a paper handout. Um and you know as a result so the kids were then taken away from paper and put on computers. So they spent the day on their Chromebooks. You're not going to learn math on a Chromebook. Okay. It's inappropriate and it's downright unhealthy for

029kids to be given that much screen time. Uh the district does not have my parental consent to put my child in front of a screen all day. Uh I'm upset that kids had to look through their plexiglass uh shields to see the front of the room. And if they sat in the back of the class, they had to look through multiple layers of shields from the desks in front of them. So between the masks and the plexiglass, good luck seeing and hearing what the teacher's doing. I'm upset that kids were sent home from school with a tummy ache like my daughter. Um, and parents had to leave work to pick them up and go find a COVID test. They couldn't go back to school till they tested negative. Um, I'm upset that when my daughter

030returned to school in January, uh, the first two weeks the teacher was virtual. So, she was in in person, but she wasn't in person. She was virtual still. Uh, you can tell I'm not happy. Uh, so I want to know where the accountability is and what's going to be done going forward. Um, we can't change the past, but we can change our plan for this fall. Uh, meanwhile, as the people in the town vocalize our desire to return to schools uh, to normal, just like every other facet of our life has returned to normal, the fear-mongerers scare us with the Delta variant. Uh, new cases are rising, they say. But they leave out the fact that deaths are not spiking in Connecticut. Uh our 7-day moving average for the state is one death per day.

031I just checked that this morning. Uh breakthrough COVID in vaccinated people is not leading to death. Uh and kids are not dying from COVID. There have only been 335 deaths in children 0 to 18 in a country of 330 million. Uh this ties into a topic which I believe is up for discussion next month. Now, um, some of you, uh, may still be concerned about the kids getting sick with COVID. Uh, and maybe you're planning on shutting down the schools if we see a rise in cases. Um, maybe you're planning on continuing the same mitigation strategies. Uh, but then why are we going to bust Danberry kids into Brookfield schools, >> right? Because Danberry was a hot spot last year. It got hit first and it got hit harder. Um, basically, uh, the the Brookfield

032schools should be for Brookfield kids. Uh, if you're a Danberry family, uh, move to Brookfield, pay the taxes, uh, and then you get to go to the Brookfield schools. Um, so in conclusion, please do not repeat the mistakes of last year. Come up with a new reopening plan with less restrictions and vote no to the busing of Danbury students here. Just just one point of clarification to your comments. There is no nothing on the table for busing Danbury kids into Brookfield in the upcoming school year. That law was passed by the state to make it a cho they call it open choice program. >> It earliest it would be implemented was 2022 23 year. We have a lot of time to make decisions on that on what's right for Brookfield and we will make decisions

033on what's right for Brookfield. Right. >> Um but the uh just remember we're opening a new elementary school in 2022 23. It may it may even be a discussion that's even beyond that, right? Because our priority is the school new school opening that's coming. So >> So I just I just want to make sure that was just a fact that everybody was clear of. So >> next I have Carla Jacobson. >> Sorry. I'm just here for support. I just thought I was signing it. >> Oh, okay. No worries. >> Rebecca Hutcherson. I'm Rebecca Hutcherson, 14 Monica Lane. I'm also a newbie. I thought I was just signing in, but I guess I'll speak. Um, I don't have all the facts that everybody else is armed with. So, I'm going to speak on something personal. My

034son and how this affected him. We chose remote last year because he doesn't transition well. He has asthma. He has SPD. He can't wear a mask for five minutes. When my son asks me if all of his friends are dead from COVID, that's not a conversation you should have with a seven-year-old. It's just not. He needs to be in school with his friends. He needs to be able to learn the way other kids learn. He needs to be able to do it without a mask so he can focus on learning and not trying to pull something off of his face. I look forward to him going to school next year without a mask. If other kids are more comfortable in a mask, so be it. It should be their choice. That's all I have to

035say. Nadia Anief I also was thinking of signing in so I didn't really prepare um >> name and address >> huh >> we need your name and address >> yes >> um 16 up to rocks and I also um want to speak for >> turned off some Start again. >> Okay. Nik 16 upus rocks. And um I wanted to also encourage you guys to make masks optional. I feel this is really important and uh there are a lot of studies have been done that masks aren't dangerous as >> I'm sorry I'm getting bad direction. >> Please continue. >> Okay. >> I'm very sorry. >> It's it's all right. So um there have been a lot of studies done uh that or at least a number of studies that show that um masks are dangerous and

036it's always that uh not only effectiveness has to be proven which there are also studies that show that they're not effective in preventing um uh you know viruses and viral diseases but uh um safety technology support >> safety has to be proven as well. And there are plenty of doctors who are speaking to kids having serious health issues both physical and psychological um when they're wearing masks. Uh that includes, you know, lung issues and lots of dental issues and uh headaches. In fact, lots of adults have headaches. um and um lacking um lacking of oxygen and rebreathing a lot of carbon dioxide. Um trying to remember this um there was this article talking about amydala and fear. Um so it um well basically that uh rebreathing like breathing too much uh carbon dioxide uh could

037trigger fear and that's why kids are having and adults too having much more um panic attacks and uh and it's also when it's in that state. Um, they cannot learn because their primitive brain is working. Is is that that fear, that fight or flight response, even though it's not as intense as when the tiger is catching you, but uh it's it it's much harder to learn. Plus, we learn a lot from face expressions of um our our teachers. Well, plus like with my daughter, um it was hard this year for her to um understand a lot of her teacher speaks with an accent and when that is through Zoom and through mask um a lot of times it was hard to understand. Uh it's easier often times when we um can for many kids too

038when we read facial expressions and we read lips, it's it's easier to understand um what the person is actually saying. So um I feel leaving masks optionally is very important. Yes, please please do that. Thank you. >> Ruben Lee, >> he just stepped out. I don't know if he's in the bathroom. >> Joyce Buchino. >> Um I'm going to pass for now. Let somebody else have repetition. >> Jan Austoa. >> Hi, my name is Jen Austo and I live at Six Pond Court. Actually, the first thing I want to say is I'm sitting here looking around and here we are in my daughter's school and we're all here unmasked together and yet the first day of school right now at the moment, we don't know if she's going to have to walk in mask. So,

039I find that very strange. But basically, I have three daughters in the school district from center to high school here. We've been in the district for 10 years now. I chose to drop my kids off at school every day this past year so they wouldn't have to wear a mask longer than they needed to. I did observe as I sat in the car every day at Whiskan Air watching children wearing masks in the hot sun day in and day out taking the pacer test running upwards of 40 to 50 laps. My heart was in my chest praying a child didn't pass out or worse from lack of oxygen. On hot days, I chose to keep my children home because of the heat and requirement of maskearing because it is unsafe and unhealthy for them. I

040have experts here stating the same thing as many others have stated that I probably won't go through. um basically knowing that it has been flip-flopped from the experts in regards to uh transmission and lack thereof. Um the science hasn't changed nor did new science appear that supports maskearing. So we are putting our children at risk physically and psychologically for an ineffective tool um used on them as if they're a science experiment. I had to keep my children home from school to protect them on those hot days when I should be able to send them to school with confidence that they're being guided and protected. This past year and a half has been far from that. The lack of leadership and organization has made me truly think twice about the upcoming school year and what it

041holds for my children. I reached out for guidance from the school district to the health department and was told hands were tied given the runaround as to who makes the decisions and was un unable to get a response from the health department as Dr. Sullivan was unavailable and there was no one to answer my question in the interim. I literally have an email from May 18th that hasn't been responded to. How could we go on another school year this way? We need a reopening plan now. With that being said, I'm here today regarding the impending possibility of mandating maskearing for our children in the school district. Should there I swear I didn't do it. Should there be a mask mandate, I intend to remove my children from the district. Science shows that school age transmission

042rates are extremely low. This is well documented. Unfortunately, it is uninformed decisions that are being made at the expense of our children. As a parent, I believe that we have a right to choose to whether our child should be masked or not. I stand here today and I ask you to please advocate for our children and the education they deserve. Is Ruben Lee is he back? No. Okay. Sandra Austoto. >> Hi, Sandra Austo from 32 Optus Road South. >> Okay. I have three children. Two of them are in the school district. One is going into fourth grade and the other is going into first grade. Please keep in mind that my kids, my husband and I abided by all rules, followed what the school district set up, believing that those protocols in place were in

043the best interests of our kids. As time went on and school continued, we became more educated on the virus itself, transmission rates, etc. And knowing what we know today that children do not readily acquire COVID and are very low risk, I feel very differently when it comes to maskearing. In addition to being more educated on the virus and transmission, my turning point occurred on two separate occasions. The first was when my eight-year-old got into the car after school one day and told me, "I couldn't breathe today." Those words went through my heart like a knife. I still feel them. And I felt immediate panic. Secondly, on a separate day, my six-year-old got into the car after school and was extremely flushed. It was a hot day and she told me she got very dizzy and

044she felt like she was going to pass out in the middle of school. Again, same panic set in and I said to her, "Well, why didn't you remove your mask today and drink your water?" She wasn't told that she could and didn't want to break the rules, quote unquote. Please understand, I do not blame the teacher, anyone for that matter. We teach our kids to listen to the teacher and follow their direction. I told my daughter in those cases to raise her hand, but she said she wouldn't as she didn't want to upset anyone. As you can see, children are highly impressionable. In the rare case that they contract the virus, it is unusual for the child to get severely ill. On the contrary, I believe that maskearing is what will cause the most harm

045to our children. As many have shared, not only are the masks highly ineffective once saturated, they cause oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide causing headaches, dizziness, reduced ability to concentrate, and reductions in cognitive function. The neurological damage is more deafening and fatal than of the virus itself. With that said, I'm highly against sending my children to school in masks come September. However, I respect that we all take a different stance on this topic and are simply here to ask you to give us parents a choice. A choice of wearing masks for our children. A choice to allow our child to breathe. A choice to decide what is best for our family. A choice for us to or for us parents to parent our own children and not in conjunction with our state. And

046we we the parents should be given that right to choose what we believe is best for our kids. Thank you. Wesley. Apologize. I can't make out your last name. Hello board. Hello everyone. I'm Wesley Inman, 13 South Mountain Road. Um, did you guys know came out today that only three states only three states kindergarten and below are requiring masks stated today? Did you know nine states require masks K through 12? So, they were asked what is the difference? How is the science difference in those other states? They had no answers because it's all made up there. There really is no reason. Um, you have the CDC dictating that's led by Fouchy. If you guys saw, I think it was just today, he was actually referred to Department of Justice for a criminal investigation. So, I

047don't really feel, you know, like I trust somebody lying under oath. We have the APA who has a vested interest, as somebody else already said, with Fizer. Um, let's see. We have Lamont, his wife is affiliated with PPE, mask producer. So, those are the people that are making decisions what, you know, that our kids should or shouldn't be wearing masks. I personally don't trust any of those people to give us guidance. Um, we've seen the vaccine works. It doesn't There was some proposed regulations today that the even if you had a vaccine, the kids may have to wear masks. So, doesn't really make sense. Connecticut has 4.5 million doses. 2 and a half million people out of three and a half million people were vaccinated. And that's not to mention um all the people that

048have antibodies, people that were sick. We know they say follow the science. Well, the science says that if you were sick, you have antibodies. There's a huge percentage of the population on top of the people vaccinated. So, I think Connecticut, we might even lead the nation in uh highest percentage of vaccinations. If the vaccination works, then why are we one of the three states or one of the nine states still requiring masks? Uh the key point I saw was that there's no hospitalizations, no deaths. The kids are not susceptible. Every study shows the kids are not affected. The 330 kids that did die, 100% of them were shown to have pre-existing conditions. There's no studies there's no studies to prove one way or another. Every study that's come out shows masks, you know, they actually

049like somebody said, bacteria, carbon dioxide, there's various issues um with them. I think one of the big things I took away is somebody mentioned the psychological aspect. Um people keep talking about the viral aspect of this illness but I I worked in the medical field and when when I worked in the medical field the first thing they ask you uh how are you feeling today? How's your mood? They ask you about psychiatry. Psychiatry has been completely neglected in this situation. Uh which is like someone said our kids need to see facial expressions. They need to see anger, happiness, sadness uh to learn. And so, you know, we're doing psychological damage to them. Think about how many kids committed suicide because of the lockdowns, how many uh mental health crisises we saw. Um, and the masks

050have just made it work. Every profession that has supposed to protect our kids has actually betrayed our children. So, I'll lead to my conclusion is what I wanted to say. The board is as you know, there are many components of health. In fact, children, adults go to their doctors, they're asked about psychology. Where do viruses even have relevance? Do the right thing. Stop letting three-letter agencies, politicians, lobbying groups, big pharma terrorize our children, stunt their development. The risk benefit analysis clearly says masks are more harmful than beneficial. And this analysis can be revisited in times of higher COVID hospitalizations. Thank you. THAT'S EVERYONE. >> All right, that's everybody who'd signed up. Um, uh, I had asked, was it you? Who did I say you had to stop so you could come back? So, if you'd

051like to come back and finish your thoughts, please do come back. >> Thank you very much. Um, I'm I'm not quite sure when public health became um more of run and hide and be scared than it was to keep the public calm with suggestions. And now it's become fear and mandates. Um, my children don't want to leave their school or their friends and given their increased anxiety issues due to the nature of this past year, due to the pandemic lifestyle, we would like to provide them with some stability. But my husband and I cannot stand by and watch them lose yet another year of education. Tonight, I ask that you please update the reopening plan immediately. Let us know how Brookfield will operate in the absence of a state mandate or once that state mandate

052has been lifted. And I am begging you to allow our students to thrive in their academics, provide much needed normal social interaction, and allow the parents of this community the right to make their own decisions about their child's health and well-being. Thank you. Is there anybody who had not signed up who would like to speak? >> Hello, my name is Sabah Kureshi. I'm on 49 Main Street, New Town, Connecticut. I came here for support. But I do have to say that um my smile is my love that I can show humanity. And I like to laugh a lot. And a young child will laugh about 300 times a day. And an adult at our age, we laugh about 20 times a day. So what happens to us when we don't laugh or smile with each

053other is our health fails. And I've seen with masks, I can't see what's going on with you. And I think it's very important for the kids to see our smile. I have been uh uh homeschool and working with pods of children from homeschools and I have been unmasked the entire year and kids have been sitting in my lap. They've laughed at with me and uh there was one baby that came to me with their mother and in the beginning the baby wouldn't go to the people. that was kind of scared and after the third week the baby started to laugh when I would laugh and he would come to us and hold us. So the children are not learning how to socialize with each other with the adults around them and with strangers and I

054would really ask the board of ed to please consider not masking our children and asking the teachers if they're comfortable to please also show their smile and their love to their students. Thank you. Is there anybody else? Yeah. >> Hi. Uh Rachel Alagna, 256 Whiskey Road. Um you guys have heard a lot of stories from all of us about the reasons we don't want our children to be masked. Um I'm not going to add to that. I just want to say that I think what we're really looking for is for all of all of you to represent us um and to fight the guidance from the powers that be if it's not in the best interest of our children, which a lot of us don't believe it is. Um and I didn't catch everybody's name

055up here, but I just noticed that not everybody who's wearing masks is actually wearing them properly tonight. So, it almost seems like maybe they aren't the kind of tool that we think they are. Thank you. Is there anybody else? Um, I'm a newbie as well as well. I teach four-year-olds and this year has been a struggle in the environment that you're describing on trying to teach them how to get along. Our anger issues, our social emotional issues are all we've been able to work on in our classroom. Academics are, you know, to the minimal because we have to smart them socially, emotionally. Right now, as for my own children, I have an incoming ninth grader and an incoming sixth grader who at this moment is two grades below. And last year brought him even further.

056His IEP had to be updated twice last year to encompass the speech, the OT that he wasn't properly receiving because you can't do that over Zoom. He was a rabbit in a cage at our house while I had to go to work and his sister's trying to help him and teach herself because our daycare stayed open all but one month where everybody had was stuck at home. We were fighting on the front with the parents that had to go with other parents who just wanted our children to still play. But my son had no choice. And so putting a mask on him, he has a lack of social skills. He has a lack of expression emotion. So he can't. And now he really can't even read anybody's face. So now he's even further blind. Then

057now our IEP Rick recommended we see a neurologist to catch him up to see what they can help, not even just the school anymore. So, we had to compile a 30page IEP with now he has all his assessments just to try to see what we can do to play catch-up. So, if we go back masked, we're going to set him back further amongst anybody else's kid who may be in the same position or if not worse because now my son's possibly he was already um a possible autism. Now he's even further sensory processing and a language disorder that he can't even make up for. Hiding behind masks. the teacher's this he's I can tell you he's upside down in a chair cuz he has no clue what the teacher behind the computer behind a mask

058is even saying. He didn't even tell you what happened yesterday in summer school because he's tired. He's tired of by the time he gets the language barrier of expressing what the teacher has to say, let alone the barrier in his brain of the information being processed. He's done. He's cooked. And it's only three hours for summer school and he has to ride a bus back home. and they say there's maybe five kids and the two of them sitting together are siblings. So they're like why are we wearing a mask? So they say you know what the bus moves we take it off for a few minutes we can't do it and I said fine you can't breathe you can't breathe you can't understand what's going on then you have to seek help but he's not

059able to get it when everybody's in school. So, I just wanted that to be heard that some of these kids are even on a worse. The special eds kids might even even not even be able to speak like he can at least speak. But if he's scared, he shuts down. He will not defend himself. He's been hid. He's hid in the bathroom when he was in Huckleberry. He's come far enough now he doesn't hide. Thank God. But he doesn't have the words. Like if somebody hurts him, he's not going to tell you, "Hey, I'm hurt." If he falls off that slide, he's not going to come and tell his teacher. So if the he can't even see anybody's face. He's not going to know if they're mad at him. He's not going to know if

060they're sad at them. And I really can't afford for him to go any further backwards because I feel like I have a 5-year-old, not an 11 and a halfyear-old. And I already have a 2-year-old at home. And when I get done teaching foury olds, I don't want to have to reposition 11-year-old when I can come home. He should be able to help me through dinner. I should be able to say, "You do your homework while I cook." and I can't because he's got so much one-on-one. So, I just ask for some help so they can succeed like some of these other children are trying to succeed. Thank you. >> Thank you. Before you leave, we we need your name and address. >> Oh, Kristen Cobject, 590. >> Thank you. >> It's okay. >> SORRY. >>

061All right. Is there anybody else? My name is Jennice Catino, 37 White Pine Drive. I wasn't planning on speaking tonight, but I wanted to go on record with some of the things that can't be picked up by the camera for people watching at home. So, first of all, the air conditioner is broken. And for how many of you, if we all had to be masked right now, would have been so willing to speak. as an educator, as I shared with you last meeting, um to teach for eight hours a day, to really um be doing the job well and facil facilitating learning, it's hard to wear a mask in this heat. I shared with you um the story of my seven-year-old who on the bus on a very hot day was so terrified to take

062down her mask to take a breath. She described almost feeling like she was drowning, but she didn't want to get in trouble. So, our our kids mostly in Brookfield are compliant because they're good kids. But being compliant does not mean that you are cognitively engaged. and an environment like this or on the bus ride or doing the pacer test as we talked about or learning for eight hours does not create optimal learning experiences for our children. Um I also wanted to say thank you to the board last time because when we went home and watched the public comments um especially to you Mr. Belden, you immediately said we need to advocate. We we we felt that you were really listening to us. And I'm also proud of our community. For those of you who can't

063see, there's about 40 people here, many different people than the last meeting. And that just goes to show you how many people care. But I'm proud of our community because everybody that's come up here has been passionate, has been on task, but they've been respectful and want to work with you. We've all seen many clips of board meetings that have gone viral, that have turned antagonistic or combative, and that has not happened in our community. And that just goes to show you um how much our parents care about their children. Thank you. I I I'll just say we as a board appreciate that. Um it's uh we're all parents too and uh we were elected and ran for this board because we are vested in the schools because we have kids in the schools or

064grandkids and for those of us with gray hair. Um so I appreciate it because we do need to work together as a community. So is there anybody else who'd like to speak? All right, it's Austin Monto. I live at 17 Dairy Farm over here in Brookfield. I wasn't going to say anything, but everybody spoke so well and all the parents seemed so uh passionate about this that I wanted to say something to the board. But I think my recommendation is our community is clearly speaking very loudly and provided so many facts that we all know, you know, if we're paying attention to what's going on out out there. And uh I think it's time where make parents free to choose and we use just some common sense and give the parents the freedom to choose

065what's right for their child. You know, um it's been a year and a half of just craziness. And I coach a lot of kids athletically and I train a lot of kids in different schools, Brookfield, Danbury, New Milford, all over the place. And with mask, you know, the CO2 thing is a real thing. The mental health issue is a real thing. And the long-term issues with the social piece, like they're going to be our leaders 10, 20, 30 years from now. Where is that going to put where is that going to put us in 10, 20, 30 years as a society? And then the lack of motivation for them to learn. I feel like motivation is not there. learning in the classroom or online wearing that mask. It's annoying. I don't think provides the protection

066um that is out there for these kids. They are safe and I think it's time we just start using some common sense and again put it back in the parents hands to make them choose to wear a mask or not wear a mask. And I think it's as simple as that. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Is there anybody else? >> This is a woman in the back who wants to speak. Mickey Durkin, Seven Summer Pastor, Brookfield. Um, I wasn't really going to, but I have a little something. Um, we're just asking or me, my husband, we're asking, and many of you here too, uh, that you, our elected board, not be dismissive with our request, uh, whether you agree or not. Uh I did watch last meeting when I was here.

067Uh there were some eye rolls um as the parent spoke. Um I thought this was supposed to be more of an objective um kind of thing. I understand there are parents that don't feel the same way as I do um or as we do and that's fine. they have the right to keep wearing masks if that's what they want them to or I just want us to be able to have that same sort of um right to choose for our kids what we feel is right for them. So that's it. All right, no one once. Anybody else? No one twice. All right, public comment is closed. And I want to thank everybody for very well thought out, eloquent, emotional input to all of us. We take this seriously. We don't avoid but the uh but

068the uh but this is obviously a very challenging discussion that we will have. Um, with that, I'd like to ask the board if you would be willing to move item uh X A, the fall opening plan, uh, in the agenda, uh, from its current position on new business to the next item on the agenda. >> Motion. >> Yeah. Second. >> Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor of adjusting the agenda say I. I >> All right. So, the next up on our agenda is the discussion on fall opening plan recommended action to receive a report from the superintendent. So, um what I'd like to do is invite um Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Garcia to join us as a that way if we ask questions. as a microphone for you and

069I don't have to make you jump back and forth. >> So, Dr. Barel, while they're seating themselves, could you just give us a broad update on where we are on the uh >> I'm sorry, my microphone's been off. Uh broad update on where we are on the uh on the opening plan. >> Sure. So, um we are actually in an extremely um strong place on the opening plan. Um and uh to answer your question directly, I want to thank all the parents for coming out. Uh the opening team uh first of all, the opening plan that was distributed on June 1st was under the existing uh guidance and mandates that were still in existence until July 20th this year. Um and as many of you may know, uh Governor Lamont extended his his executive powers

070were extended at this point through September 30th. And I'm sure Dr. Sullivan will share a little bit about that exactly what that means. Um having said that um we have uh utilized a new template and our opening plan will be significantly reduced down to about 13 pages from 41 pages is very clear um about every piece of uh mitigation strategy and logistic. Uh the main one that everybody wants to know about is the 100% in learn uh inerson learning. That's where we were in the spring. uh the fact that the state has mandated we have a safe reopening plan is based on uh some people mentioned funding uh there's esser grant funds out there in the state and one of the functions is that we have to produce a new plan the reality is we

071were in person ready to go 100% all spring we had the um there was probably at the high school a little more than 70% of the students in and as we went down the grades more and more children were in in terms of a higher percentage while the remote option was still there. Having said that, the new plan is is really almost ready to go. We are waiting for a little bit further collaboration with Dr. Garcia and Dr. Sullivan who have already reviewed the plan. Um, but just let me take you through the process a little bit. The opening team which consists of a few board members, several parents, teachers, other uh stakeholders uh from the uh the employee groups um and some students. Uh they have all looked at the plan over the weekend.

072They've given their feedback. the uh principles and central office team um and our nurse coordinator have met this week several times to go through the plan and really tighten up all the mitigation strategies. Mind you, based on what we have from the CDC, that's the newest released information that came out on July 9th. Um, at this point we do not have any further direction, guidance or mandate from the state department of public health or the Connecticut State Department of Education. We were to have a meeting with them last week, the meeting was postponed till yesterday, uh, Tuesday. uh that meeting um while they discussed mitigation strategies with superintendents and health directors and so forth, they gave us no uh nothing in writing and they really didn't give us any direction on masks and where they

073were going to go in terms of a mandate or an option or whatever that might be. We are we were waiting for that and then the plan was for tonight to actually share the full opening plan with everybody and then disseminate this evening or tomorrow. We are waiting one more week. The board has a special meeting scheduled for next week where we'll be talking about um the strategic planning process and also I will share the opening plan with the board in public. Once we go through that the board there's an approval process the board considers the plan and then votes to approve the plan. Um at that point I hope and pray that the state gives us further direction on uh masking um and we will do everything our can uh we can to give

074clarity on some of those but one of the things people need to understand is being under the opices of uh the state and the mandates that do come down we want to wait to get their information and so that's why we're going to give it one more week to see what they can give to us in terms of direction and obviously collaboration with our health director and our pediatrician and from there get that information out to you uh next week. So, that's that's the process and the plan thus far. Mr. Bell, I don't know if you have any other questions uh in terms of process and where we're at or any other board members. Do >> we have some questions for that? >> Putting the mask point to the side, right? Uh for a moment,

075we we're not going to let that go. But >> the uh in terms of the basics of the plan, is it a full reopening all kids back in school plan? >> We are ready to go 100%. >> Okay. And one of the things uh people did ask and Mrs. um Greenstein is on the opening team so she's seen the plan. Um the um our former uh medical adviser along with working with Dr. Garcia who's our new medical adviser shields are not necessary. So those are not not going to be uh in place. Um we still have the handashing and some of the classic mitigation strategies. Um sharing of materials is back. Less cohorting. Um looking at our high school model which didn't cohort was very successful last year. So, the guidance is forthcoming from CDC

076and if anybody can take it's it's up there and you could just look up CDC, it's right there, the K12 guidance. We are really in alignment with that right now. Um, we know the American Academy of Pediatrics came out just the other day. Some people referenced it today with masking for everyone. That wasn't in the CDC's guidance. The CDC's guidance was masking for the unvaccinated, uh, optional for the vaccinated. So, we're trying to make sense of all of this information coming out just like the parents are. Um, I get it. Um and again a little further collaboration with our our medical adviser and our uh uh public health adviser and from there we'll tighten up the plan over the next few days present it to the board for consideration and then disseminate the plan um

077as updated as it can be based on the guidance we have or mandates that come forward. One of the things though we do need to mention again I think Dr. Sullivan is the best person to talk to the specific extension of uh the governor's um executive order 12A. It's now executive order 13. it's it has the power of law. So, we just need to be uh mindful of that in terms of how we're operating things uh at this point. So, those are some of some of the constraints, but also some of the flexibilities and the layered approach that they talk about um is is what we're doing with mitigation strategies, but as I said to some parents through email or conversation, um we had hoped for and we're seeing a relaxing of some of the

078mitigation strategies as well. Are you getting any signals at all that the state will decree on masks or will they give us flexibility? >> We do not have signals either way yet. There's conver conversation on both sides which is very frustrating. Matter of fact, Dr. Murphy and I have been in communication on this delay. Feels like a delay and I know the state is also looking at the variant and other concerns and um they'll give us their guidance when they're ready. But we need to be ready and by the end of July it's important for parents to know what's going on here infield. So, we'll have that information next week. >> So, let me turn to Dr. Sullivan and just uh you know, as you as you're talking to the state department of health and

079you're seeing what's going on in here in Brookfield, could you comment a little bit on the state of what mandates we're working with and what you're hearing about >> and and then what and what you're seeing in the way of, you know, the facts of what's going on here in Brookfield. >> Sure. Can you hear me? All right. Yep. Okay. >> Well, first I'd like to apologize for the to the individual or individuals who have tried to contact me this past year and may have not been able to reach me. Uh they should have been able to reach our acting director. Uh I have experienced uh seven hospitalizations in the past year uh and oftentimes uh communicated with the board and with the town uh from a hospital bed. So, I apologize to that individual

080or individuals who was not able to reach me. Um, second of all, I'd like to give you a little historical background with regard to CO 19 in general within the state of Connecticut. Uh, some may recall that very early on in the game, March of 2020, the uh uh commissioner of public health was fired by the governor. Um this put things in a very very precarious uh situation because the state had somebody uh to be a scapegoat for the number of deaths that were occurring in nursing homes and it happened to be the commissioner of public health. Uh thereafter the um state turned all the decision-making over uh not to uh the remaining um deputy commissioner of public health but rather to the department of economic and community development under commissioner Dan Leman. And all

081of the sector rules that you received or read about between March and perhaps uh early fall were written not by the Department of Public Health, but were written by the Department of Economic and Community Development. I know it sounds weird, but that's the way it was. And finally, a commissioner was appointed as commissioner of public health who happens to be a physician and uh a u an MH. Um but unfortunately she was also the commissioner of social services. So she was sharing the role and so we in the department of public health were kind of betw twix in between as to what was going on at the state level. And I want to I want you to realize that we as local Department of Public Health directors are just messengers. We are not the decision

082makers. Although our group, the Connecticut Association of Directors of Health, petitioned the governor and indicated that we needed some input from local health directors with regard to the decision- making concerning all of these sector rules that were coming out. recognize that the the uh in the past year and a half our governor issued 300 executive orders. Now the thing is he was operating under what is called the public health emergency response act which gives him total control over all decision-making and legislation. So executive orders have the force of law. So when we say that there is an executive order in place currently because the legislature has continued his control under FIRA or public health emergency response act up until now September 30th any decisions that he makes and he makes alone are the force of

083law. the legislature can intervene, but it's not likely that they want to come back during the summer to intervene in any decisions that he makes. He has relied on mostly some of particular adviserss, Dr. Albert Co, for example, from public health at Yale, uh the former director of the FDA who lives in Greenwich and one of his closest friends. uh and under some pressure uh a group of six of us local health directors have had some influence over the decision-making with regard to moving forward with the new sector rules that will be governing uh COVID 19 through September excuse me through September 30th. So that's a little bit background. I want to clear up a couple of uh misinformation uh issues that were fostered. Uh first of all uh the whole CO2 issue. Did anyone

084in this room actually read the journal article in Jamba Pediatrics? >> Yes, >> you did. What did you think of it from a scientific standpoint? >> Doc, it's not a back it's not a back and forth. It could be rhetorical. It's not a back and forth with a >> Oh, okay. So, please. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, the the actual article governing CO2 was retracted in its entirety. Some people accuse individuals of censoring the article, but in point of fact, I read 20 journals a month and I read that article in its entirety and I found a a great number of fallacies within it with regard to the scientific nature of the study. With regard to masking in general, I think that the number of cases that we have experienced here in

085Brookfield uh would certainly allow us to suggest from the Department of Health standpoint, from the Brookfield Department of Health standpoint, that masking may not be necessary in our schools. I want to make that very clear, but I am not running the show. So, I want to make that very clear. We have gone on record every Thursday night, every Tuesday morning for an hour and a half at each time supporting the idea that masking may not be necessary. But what can supersede that? Vaccination. The more people that are vaccinated, the larger number within our community that are vaccinated will create what we call herd immunity. and decrease the likelihood of the possibility of spread. So vaccination becomes an extremely important substitute. When we talk about the issues within the school, the the CDC has referred to

086the the elite nine. We say nine basic um prevention strategies which when layered one upon the other uh can promote healthy uh environments for kids in which they can learn, in which they can socialize, in which they can gain or regain mental stability. And this is extremely important and should be the number one issue at the top of our list. Bring these kids back to school, unmask them if possible, and enforce and create a situation where they will be healthy. Those other strategies include uh consistent um um physical distancing. And it's interesting that the CDC has now recommended that physical distancing can be reduced to three feet, but they're tying that to mask use and our governor is tying it to mask use for the unvaccinated. So we out here in the boonies are in

087a a very difficult situation with regard to decision- making screening testing. The state is going to offer free screening testing. It will be pooling testing. It will be by a third party, not by school nurses. And it may give us some insight as to the um as to the um concentration of the virus within our school community. So, school testing uh is another recommendation that's going to be coming forward. Ventilation, classic example right here. >> Ventilation is going to be a key issue within our schools. Obviously, it it's difficult. It's going to be difficult during the winter, but we can crack windows. We can get the kids outside as much as possible. Um and we can um basically uh use window fans um always pointed uh out not in. Uh and we can do other

088um things such as having professionals check our units very frequently and make sure that they're operating correctly. Um handashing and respiratory etiquette. I don't know about you, but my grandchildren taught me to sneeze into my sleeve. It was not something I knew at the time, but my grandchildren taught me how to do that. And handashing, frequent handashing is also a key. Um, staying home when sick, very important. I realize that parents have to work and it's very difficult to have a child get sick and still be sent to school. uh contact tracing very important to keep the spread of the disease down within the community. For example, I had um a um talk today um with an individual uh who is a teacher in another area, another district uh who went off on vacation and

089a three-year-old from another family with them came down with COVID 19. She then became positive. She was a breakthrough case because she had been fully vaccinated interestingly enough and remember Mona is only 94% effective. Fiser is only 95% effective. So five out of every hundred individuals can break through. So anyway in this case the individual has two children in the school system and they're not in school right now. So we're doing okay and we don't have to do contact tracing with them but we certainly will do it with the family. So contact tracing becomes very important to curb the spread within a community and the community rate is going to be reflected in the school rate. Whether or not a child tests positive or not they still can be carriers. I don't think many of

090you are old enough to remember typhoid Mary from New York, but she spread typhoid and was responsible for 24 deaths in the city of New York because she was a subtle carrier. Nobody knew she had typhoid when she was sweating. So, individuals both children and adults can be uh can be subtle carriers. Um and cleaning and disinfection. we don't have to go overboard uh be of because of the fact that we learned early uh well relatively recently that it's not important to do as much uh cleaning and disinfecting as was previously thought. What brought the initial cleaning and disinfecting out? It was fear. it was fear that the somebody was going to contract the disease when it was very popular and when it was widespread in the community. So, we've had well over 2,000 uh

091uh deaths, I mean uh well well over 2,000 um cases in Brookfield. Um, and unfortunately, sadly, I just received a report today that one more Brookfield resident died yesterday in North Westchester Hospital. Uh, so that's going to happen, but it is rare and it is the exception. So the bottom line is that we want to layer the prevention strategies such that if enough prevention strategies are in place and we have enough of the community vaccinated such that there won't be any such thing as her immunity. We then have a greater opportunity to get rid of of masks. From a local health uh director standpoint, it's certainly going to be our recommendation to the governor. Whether he will listen or not, who knows? Someone mentioned we might have an answer in a week. It's not likely.

092We probably won't have an answer for two weeks. That was what the governor said yes uh yesterday. Or was it the yesterday? Um >> I'm sorry. Will that test will that be optional or mandatory? >> No, no, no, no. The testing would be poolled testing and it would be for my children. >> I'm sorry. This is this is a board meeting and commentary. Thank you. >> I'm just asking for confirmation. It is going to be mandatory optional for my children. >> Testing will not be mandatory. >> It will not. >> And we apply the elite nine in our plan as we did all of last year to what Dr. Sullivan was saying. And I know Mr. Beldon, you had a question for I'm listen I'm listening to the discussion which is which is very helpful

093by the way. Thank you. Um so would your if we're given the option would you recommend that we lift the mask mandate in Brookfield and use all the other layering to to control the spread? >> I would say I would say yes. That would be my recommendation. >> How much how much power I have. I'm only one of six health directors on the advisory committee and uh I must say my experience uh being on an advisory committee has not been very good. I was also on the vaccine allocation advisory committee for the governor and uh my thoughts didn't go very far there either. >> Right. And and and when you say lifted it's all ages young up through high school. Correct. >> That's correct. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Um >> but the

094disease is very real. That's the one I want to import. you know, we've had 600,000 people die in this country. Um, and uh, it's significant uh, and it does affect kids in some instance. All one has to do is if you can get in, walk through CCMC someday and look at the missy ward. Uh, Missy is uh, multiple uh, multiple organ um, syndrome uh, in children. uh and it's very real. There's a study going on at Children's in Hartford right now with regard to the number of cases. So if it's your child, then it becomes even more important. But it is somebody's child and that's my concern. I have 17 I have 11 grandchildren and I don't want a single one of them to get infected. That's for sure. But the fact is that the

095disease is real and we have to try to convince people that it is real and it can't be compared to other diseases because it's so highly contagious >> and now we have this new delta variant. The delta variant started in India. We know that it's much more contagious. We don't know who's carrying it. That's the big thing. You can even be a carrier and test negative. That's another thing. The fact is that the slightly older age group of children 12 to 15 who are being offered vaccination um are the ones that are mostly spreading the disease. 12 to 15 and then 15 to about 35. The social group that's out there partying on Saturday, Friday and Saturday nights. We do know that it's those two groups that are primarily carrying the disease and possibly spreading

096it and in many instances not even knowing about it. So children can have the disease and be completely asymptomatic. Uh but the disease is real. I cannot stress that enough. It's the worst disease that I have encountered in my entire career. And that includes pandemic flu of 2009, Ebola in which we spent millions of dollars for six deaths within the country. And now we have this particular disease that's killed 600,000. And if in point of fact your mother or father or child are one of those 600,000, it becomes a very important issue. much more. >> I want to keep on track on the opening plan. >> Uh I I'll thank you. >> Thank you. >> We'll come back. I want to come back and have you give some more comments. I wanted to give Dr.

097Garcia welcome to the district, by the way. >> Thank you. >> Um your button has to be up. If it's if it's up, it's on. Okay, good. Um do you have anything you'd like to comment on or add? >> Uh I just wanted to add about the incidence of um COVID. I have uh I just had the data from yesterday and so in the United States 16% of the new cases were children 16%. So um the data evolves every single day and if we pick a day a number from some time ago it would be 01 but it changes and I I can only say the latest one from yesterday was 16%. That's scary for me at least. Um we've been in uh the office in Brookfield has been open for six years. Um we

098have we we do testing in the office. We have tested a lot of children in the office this past 18 months. Um and I have seen some kids who were positive and some were not. But it's it's definitely um something to to to in response to Dr. as a comment for Dr. from Dr. what Dr. Dr. Sullivan said, um, you can you can go to Connecticut Children's Medical Center. They have a floor that that studies kids who have had, uh, severe COVID case where they've been hospitalized for several days and um they're conducting studies on what happens and but it's real. It's there. You can see it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um before I turn to the opening plan a little bit, let me ask the board members if you have any questions for

099our uh our health professionals who are with us and then we'll we'll turn to back to the the plan on you know how we bring it home. >> Dr. Sullivan, Dr. Sullivan want to say something. >> May I add just one thing and that's with regard to masking on buses. Buses are considered public transportation and under a CDC order under the public emergency response act federally. It's a federal law that masks will be worn on school buses. >> A federal law >> and all public transportation. >> That's a federal law, not a state law. And the governor cannot amend that. >> That is also in the plan. >> Yes. >> And is that is that a law with a time and date on it? um that it it's for a period of time or is

100it open-ended? It's law until they repeal it >> right now. I hate to say it, but it's 2024. >> 2024. My goodness. >> Wow. Wow. >> Okay. M >> I have a question. Uh so, uh Dr. Garcia, this is my my newest note here. 16% of cases uh new cases rather are children. uh which you say is a scary stat. I I don't What does cases mean? >> I think that's >> positive cases. >> Well, I mean hospitalizations, are they just sniffles? Are they, >> you know, cuz I see this word cases thrown around a lot and >> it just doesn't seem to be a very accurate number anywhere I've seen cuz I I I mean I just kind of Googled searched that and I saw numbers all over the place. So I mean so

101I kind of want I just >> uh when was AAP? >> Uh so I kind of want where'd you get that stat and uh how would you define like what what qualifies as a case just a positive no matter what. >> So what in what I said uh it was uh my source was the CDC website that's from today. >> Okay. >> Um and it was the total number of cases new cases yesterday. Um and so that's positive uh test and uh 16% >> PCR >> I that was not mentioned. >> This is my this is my problem with the case number case comment. Um >> do you false positive on those >> uh by chance? >> The PCR test has a less than 2% probability of false positive. That's CDC or >> that's the

102machine the information from the machine. >> I Okay, >> it's it's called Abbot ID now. >> Okay. So, I've seen anywhere between like 20% and false positive. >> You're probably looking at the antigen test. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh also, where I didn't see this is news to me the 15 to 35 carrying the disease. Where where was that found just for my reference? I like to follow this stuff. Either ones, Dr. Sullivan or Dr. Garcia. >> Say that again. >> There was a Dr. Sullivan mentioned the 15 to 35 carrying the disease. Where was that found? Just so I can >> Is that a Brookfield or is that a >> It's a n It sounds like a national >> Mr. That's that's basically um um they're they're basically known as the super spreaders. And

103that was on uh uh if you look back on the data um in the early when we saw the secondary spike they and if you look at the data you see that the the age group and they break it down unfortunately 15 to 44 >> went up dramatically >> but was so as carriers or as far as cases this is this is a contact tracing thing just I'm having a hard time following >> this a contact tracing thing. Yes. Okay. >> So, these are people that are getting sick. They're not getting sick. >> These are people that are have basically tested positive. >> Okay. >> If you're a carrier and you haven't been tested >> tested positive. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Could I just ask one statistical question uh for Dr. Solen?

104Could you comment a little bit about what we're seeing here in Brookfield? And the two things I'm interested in is um how's our vaccine rate doing? Are we higher than the average, lower the average, or do we not know? And then secondly, how's our positivity rate relative to our peer communities or the rest of Connecticut? Are we on the in the mix or are we higher or lower? >> Our positivity rate is about the same as our peer communities. Um, in a population of 17,06, and that's what the state uses, it's the 2019 population. Unfortunately, we've had 1737 cases and 17 deaths now 18 deaths as reported today. Um, so we've had um 10.21% of the population uh have a positive COVID test um with a death rate of 0.1%. Uh when you compare this

105to the surrounding towns, it's pretty much close except for Danbury. Um and uh we've had 36,989 tests as of yesterday, the 20th, of which 2025 were positive, which gives us a positivity rate of 5.47%. But I think that's skewed because if we have 36,000 tests amongst 17,000 residents, obviously many people have had repeated tests. So the positivity rate is skewed. The same with the reporting from the state. They're basically looking at total number of tests and the number positive. So it may be skewed by individuals who are having repeated tests >> trying to prove that they're not ne that they're not positive. >> Exactly. Right. So in point of fact, our positivity rate may be slightly higher than the state average >> and that those numbers are from inception of reporting to now or is

106it recent data? How is the recent data looking? >> That that's up until now. >> Yeah. >> Uh currently we're working with 13 cases for the month of July. Uh interestingly enough, only eight have been reported through the Connecticut electronic data uh reporting system to me. But my contact tracers are getting reports from 13. We had two new cases today both in youth. Um so we are make basically copacetic with our surrounding towns with which we communicate often. >> Okay. >> Um >> and do we have any data on vaccination rate? Uh >> our our vaccination rate um I do. Um, let's see. I'm sorry. I have it right there. our vaccination rate um is showing basically that we have a um 76% of eligible residents have received at least one dose. >> That's good.

107Regrettably, I don't have numbers for those that have had complete two twod dose series >> and that's the entire age range who's of who's >> the entire age range, right? >> Yeah. >> Including the young people who kind of became eligible later, >> right? Okay. >> And we we broke it down into three census tracks basically. Cattlewood Shores area, uh, Federal Road central area, and Lake Lona side, east side. Um, and it appears that the the least vaccinated are in the CA are in the Candlewood Shores area. >> Okay. >> So, we're offering vaccine clinics. >> Okay. >> Uh, we will be offering uh we had one we were supposed to have one Saturday night uh but weather postponed it till this coming Saturday night. And we will also have one at Down the Hatch.

108And we're offering incentives and we're offering uh J&J vaccine single shot. >> So >> is there a breakdown by age too? Is there a breakdown by the like the young ages 12 to 15? What percentage of them have been vaccinated? >> Yes, I can certainly give you that. Um total uh estimated population census 65%. Population 16 and above 78%. um 1828 children are not eligible because of age. Um estimated 10 to 14 uh 60% may have been vaccinated. Um ages 15 to 44 and we don't like this distribution uh 72%. Uh age 45 to 64 77% and ages 65 plus 86%. >> Thank you. So obviously early on when the older folks were dying more frequently they were more amendable to waiting and getting the vaccine as as soon as possible and we held multiple

109clinics first at the U senior center and then again at St. shows uh and uh my volunteer team I have to to to credit uh directed by Moren Ferrell MH um has done a marvelous job as far as getting the vaccine out there u at a time when it was most needed. So, we're looking at um the possibility of uh um eligible individuals about 3,100 uh eligible individuals, 23% of the population still needs to be vaccinated uh first dose and as I say, I don't have a breakdown as to fully vaccinated. >> Okay. And is there anything we can do as a school district to make it easier for either parents or or students to get vaccines? Should we be advocating or offering clinics on related to the schools and our connection with the parents

110and the families? >> The problem with the younger children is they're only eligible for the J&J vaccine. And a lot of myths have circulated about the J&J vaccine. a lot. >> They're only eligible for Fizer. >> 12 million. >> I thought it was Fizer that they're eligible. >> I'm sorry. It is Fiser. I'm sorry. It is Fizer. Um you're right. Thank you. Um and it requires ultra cold storage minus 54. And regrettably, we do not have ultra cold storage. So, we can refer them to the um uh community health center in Danbury or um New Milford Health Department has offered because they have ultra cold storage available and uh a number of our students have taken advantage of that. Um uh I don't have the exact number but uh but uh oh yes I do.

111712 uh children have taken advantage of that with two doses. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Sullivan, can I ask a question on uh people who've gotten you have any numbers on people who've gotten co gotten over COVID? As you said 70, you know, 76% of Brookfield, that's a lot of Brookfield. Uh do you have any indication on how many people have gotten CO gotten over COVID as it pertains to moving closer to her immunity? >> Uh sure. Um, as I think I mentioned, uh, we've had, um, 1732, 1737 cases and 18 deaths. Obviously, the rest recovered. >> Yep. >> There have been a number of hospitalizations, uh, probably 20 to 25 hospitalizations, but I don't have accurate numbers because the hospitals have been reluctant to report it to me. But we have had hospitalizations.

112>> So with vaccination and previous exposure, what would you say percentage-wise? >> We're we're probably over 70%. I'd like >> Yeah, we're over 70% by the vaccination. >> I'd like to see us uh I'd like to see us well uh over 80% of the population. >> You don't think with the previous exposure went over 80%? for um no it um if you're talking about the entire population >> correct >> you have to exclude the the the children that aren't eligible. Yeah, I think it's the question if I could is um there's there's a contention in the world that because some a large percentage of the population has had been exposed 10% of our population has had positive right >> uh cases that they have antibodies right they're >> they do have antibodies >> so that

113that question I think you're asking is is is when you take that into consideration are we reaching that herd immunity level >> the problem is that most studies have indicated that the antibodies will wash out by 90 case if you've had the disease. >> I saw a UK study said two years. >> Pardon me. >> A study at UK said two years. >> Which one? >> Uh it's been as long as two years, but on average >> it's been as long as two years. Okay. >> Yeah. It's been on average it's been 90 days. >> Okay. >> And uh that too is another reason for breakthrough cases because they've been vaccinated and >> got it. >> They just didn't build up antibbody. Not everybody has a good immune response. That's why some of these studies

114that are done in the laboratory aren't very supportive because they're not measuring T- cell response and antibbody response. They're actually looking at other aspects of the disease in in a laboratory setting. The most recent was associated I think with J&J just came out day before yesterday if I'm not mistaken. uh that was done in a laboratory and and so consequently if we take the average of the number of individuals who may wash out in 90 days and add those we still haven't reached her uh what we would consider full herd immunity 80% of the of the population of Brookfield being fully vaccinated. >> Okay, got it. So, we got to keep pushing the vaccinations. >> And as I said, I'm only reporting one, the first dose. They've had at least one dose. I don't have

115total numbers on the individuals who have had been fully vaccinated. Okay. >> And that's a little bit less. >> Okay. Any other questions for Dr. Sullivan? Because I want I do want to turn to the the reopening plan. I got one more cuz uh so at the very beginning uh you mentioned the study out of I believe was JAMAMA again 2021 experimental assessment of carbon dioxide inhaled uh that which was redacted. Uh so not a good study. Uh are we still saying that carbon dioxide doesn't increase in people wearing masks? I would hope not because I've worn them eight hours a day for five and a half days a week for 30 years. >> You've measured >> and I hope that it hasn't caused the toxicity in my brain. >> Okay. >> so is there

116any re if they've retracted that study are are you aware of any other studies that >> um on on the carbon dioxide thing? >> Not currently. >> Okay. Okay. Good. Y >> Joy, anything? >> All right. So, look, um, let's talk a little bit about the reopening plan itself. Um, and and Dr. B, I want to aim this at you. So, we have the we've taken these tiered strategies. We have an intent to open up fall, >> right? Um and uh last year I recall we because of the scare of CO at the beginning and it it was a real fear right. We had actually I think the state guided us to have a quick trigger finger right people going into 14 days of quarantines especially teachers that became a problem for us if I

117remember in December. Um kids being pulled out um and going to hybrid actually rather quickly when when things were happening. Um so in the reopening plan, what have we built in in terms of this broad picture of quarantines, kids being pulled out, um and uh and moving to hybrid? Do we have triggers? Do we have uh do we have a structure around that? >> We actually don't have guidance on a structure with metrics at this point. We do not have that. Um what we do know is we have our layered approach as we've discussed the elite nine as Dr. Sullivan started to talk to. Um there is new new newer information discussed yesterday at the DPH call that I referenced. There was um uh discussion of uh quarantine in close contact and close contact there.

118I don't know if this will be the final decision. We all know close contact has been that 6 foot radius. Um they're saying 3 ft now. Um so that would be less kids quarantined which we would hope for but quarantine is still uh one of the layers of mitigation. uh actually talked to Dr. Sullivan uh about that earlier this week. Um I'm sorry, Bob. Was there a follow-up to that? >> Just just trying to get my head around what are we going to see when we see the plan? Is >> is it going to be one that keeps our kids in school as much as possible, right? As opposed to last year, which was a quick quick trigger finger. >> Yes. So the the plan is and the powers that be are obviously supporting 100%

119inerson learning. We have always supported 100% inerson learning obviously so long as we could do it safely. We're not even putting in the plan an option for remote or hybrid. That is not necessarily suggested or encouraged at this point. So we don't even have that in the plan. We know how to do it if we had to if there was some major emergency some major uptick that that that precipitated such a decision. Um and uh again we have not gotten guidance on metrics. So the thought process with the social distancing down to 3 ft um with the uh close contact down to 3 ft, the layering of the strategies less um reactionary with the less things we knew in terms of the guidance about the surface uh uh contamination and those concerns. Um we plan

120to be 100% in person. Let's not forget the biggest piece for this is staffing. The staff are the majority of our staff is vaccinated. So those issues where we had to quarantine staff um that should be absolutely lessened where we didn't have staffing to actually man the the the building. The other part of that is um the vaccinated folks um as long as they're asymptomatic do not have to be quarantined. So, you start to you start to see how there's less opportunity for um students having to be home and to be in some kind of um uh checking in with their Google classroom, having a substitute ready to work with them. We're going to have to do that. There will be quarantines. We know that. Um but it's going it should be we we are

121planning for a lot less of that. That's that's the hope. >> Okay. And I and I think I heard you say earlier we won't have the plexiglass shields. That those will be a thing of the past. >> Correct. Uh will we maintain desks, individual desks for each student instead of the tables? >> Yeah, we have desks, but we also have tables where we can if we can manage the 3 ft distance at a table situation, then we'll do that. And again, we're working with Dr. Sullivan um and and Mrs. Ferrell on on some of the class configuration, especially elementary where it it it tends to have more tables and things like that. I would just like to clarify the three-foot rule applies only to students. It does not apply to educators and staff. >> It

122applies only to students. >> That's interesting. Um, and are there any other big changes that we would expect to see in this plan in terms of the experience? >> Yeah. Oh, the experience. I mean, there'll be sharing of materials again. Um obviously a lot of handwashing before and after. Um so we'll see in the comments from our teachers uh that are on the opening plan were were excitement you know more of a return to normaly with the more layered approach. Um and like like I said earlier in my initial comments uh the cohorting piece is not nearly as stringent as it was and again we have we have uh a great experience with our high school model where there was never cohorting. Is there um as far as lunches go in the elementary and whiskiner

123is that will those be returned to the cafeteria or do we have >> it? All depends on the individual physical plant of the building and how the principal and the teams could actually schedule that. So sometimes it'll be in the classroom, others may be scheduled to be spread out in the cafeteria. So it's it's going to be >> you have to maintain >> they're working at that to maintain the distance. So um they may start out in the classroom and then find a way you know with our monitors to have some of the kids in the cafeteria as well. Um supervision is a big part of that too as well as physical distancing and how we can make that work. And so each school uh based on the developmental level of the children and we

124actually say that in the plan will be making their plan for lunches and how that would work and snack. >> And are there areas that we need to do things on ventilation that are uh beyond what we've already done. >> Uh ventilation we're doing what we did last year. We had three different uh uh firms working with us uh in our maintenance department going through every single uh ventilation unit uh and or um we have uh what are they called? There's ventilation units and what's the other thing called the Yeah. Yeah. And different exhaust and um literally putting a sticker with their initials on it and the date that they maintain that particular uh ventilation. One of the great things, we've talked about this a number of times with having the older buildings is the

125fact that the ventilation while hot in here and everybody feels that tonight, we actually exchange the air quite often because it's not as sophisticated where it's, you know, uh it's an oldfashioned situation. But what that does is it cycles the air more often um and meets the requirements. So that's what we did with last year and we fixed many of our ventilation units and our classrooms and and elsewhere, gymnasiums, etc. We're continuing to maintain them through this summer. All of that's discussed in the plan that goes to the the the comment the elite nine. Everything's laid out right there. And obviously from what Dr. Sullivan said today, um it sounds like for masking um we can put in uh that we will uh have optional masking uh unless otherwise mandated by State Department entity or

126whatever it might be. So we'll work with Dr. Sullivan on the language for that. I think the other thing Bob, if you don't mind me turning it over to Dr. Garcia for a second and Dr. Sullivan as well is, you know, they've had a collaborative um input to the plan. And maybe Dr. Garcia, I know, you know, you being new to us, you really weren't familiar with the older plan, but you certainly went through it. You see this more this this plan that's developed with brevity. Talk to us a little bit about your opinion on the plan, what you think about the plan, and anything you need us to improve in the next week before it's considered by the board and and sent to the families, >> please. >> Um, there was a part in

127the in the plan that I put a comment in. Yeah. >> Uh about um um uh and I can't I can't of of course I can't remember it right now. Um but in in general um the plan was definitely a good a good one. And um I can't I just can't rem I can't recall that that one one comment >> we adjusted. I know we took your feedback. I'm trying to I can't if I had to Google doc up. I can >> I don't have there was a feedback we had to do. But you actually like the plan in general. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And I do need to say that Mrs. Frell, our lead contact tracer that Dr. Sullivan has mentioned, uh she was extremely generous as a colleague and provided uh uh

128several pages of detailed feedback for us just for things to think about and consider. And those were um th those were uh placed uh and incorporated uh this morning. So, we just continue to evolve it to make sure we have all of our health folks and medical folks um helping us develop this. >> So, so I guess my my last question is what are you going what do we do if we don't have guidance from the state, right? So, how do we write and release the plan if there's no guidance from the state? I'm presuming the current mandate of masks in is still law because it's a government you said that at the beginning, correct? through the end of through the end of September >> for unvaccinated >> for Oh, it's just for unvaccinated, which

129would include most of the younger children. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And that would be unless they change it, that's the law that we have to abide by. >> That's the executive order number 13 reaffirming executive order 12A. >> Okay. And uh >> can I interrupt Bob just on one point here because 12A I read 12A and it it just mentions masks in situations where the population is of high risk or uh places that tend to contract a lot of I don't know if we can consider schools there considering current data >> public places >> any any public it doesn't say any public place though I read it like four times >> I It just says places and people that have been I mean lack of I can't remember verbatim but problematic >> such as

130probably public transportation hospitals >> um >> but considering current >> child care uh >> yeah if if if the numbers are there but schools thank God or >> are you saying Mike that there might be room for us to very carefully and and You can look at 12A there. It's it's it's there. It doesn't say schools specifically, but it does say areas that and and for people who are susceptible, >> elderly, um pre-existing conditions, and then also certain places, but schools weren't specifically mentioned. >> It says public places. Yeah, >> we need to read we need to look at 13, which is the extension, to see if there's any changes to that, Mike, and we'll go through that. >> Yeah, let's take a hard look. 13 is the extension of 12A. >> Okay. >> So,

131that's what we all want to go through. >> And I could even have council look at that to double check that. And we certainly have Dr. Sullivan's advice on on the optional uh for um so so Dr. Sullivan just for some clarity because we're all here. The the the the talking about optional unless otherwise mandated. That is optional for unvaccinated, optional for vaccinated, optional for all. Do do you have a sense of that in terms of any documentation or anything we can lean on or what where you're coming from? >> Uh obviously if if I was unvaccinated I would I'd want to be protected from the community. Um, again, it it comes down to, you know, somewhat of of a personal choice, but my own feeling is that if I my personal choice is if

132I was unvaccinated, I'd want to be protected from the rest of the community. I'm protecting myself by wearing a mask. It's not that I may be transmitting it to somebody else, but it is known that if a person has CO 19 and has a mask on, it will reduce transmission to another individual who is within close contact. Now, close contact is defined as 15 minutes in the course of a day within six feet of an individual. They haven't redefined that three-foot except for students. So you may be somebody you may, you know, be passing somebody unmasked and that's perfectly okay. But if you're going to be within six feet of an individual for 15 minutes or more in the course of a day and I'm unvaccinated, I'd want to be masked to protect myself. Not

133necessarily because I'm worried about having an occult disease and transmitting it to somebody else. I'd want to protect myself. I I have three daughters who are teachers and that's what they're saying to me. >> That's what they're saying to me. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, I I'm just thinking ahead to the next week, right? It's what I'm hearing out of this discussion is our health advisors are saying we have a wellthoughtout multi-tiered plan that masking may not be required as part of that except if the state mandates it. Did I hear that correctly? >> Yes. >> Okay. I heard that that's kind of where your understanding is. >> That's my understanding. >> Is that what everybody on the board heard? >> Okay. Okay. And we also need to get clarity, continued clarity because there's

134some different understanding of the ex the new executive order from the governor 13 which extends 12A to September 30th. We need to get some clarity on that. >> So the to me >> on the definition of what public place means. >> Yeah. To me, to me it strikes me that if our own health director is saying that's a way to go, we ought to be looking really careful at that guidance, right? And saying, is there room for us to make a decision, >> right? Or is it blocking us because it's law, >> right? So, I would go at that very aggressively, right? In terms of looking at do we have the right to act, right? And need your direct input on that. uh Dr. Sullivan on do we have the right to act because you

135you you you represent us well. So and I want to thank you for tonight by the way. This was very informative. But the uh but I think if that's our feeling now we got we have a kind of a basis for saying if we have the room to make a decision let's go make a decision. Right? If we don't have the room to make a decision we're going to have to live with the law. And that's what I I think we ought to talk about at our next meeting is, you know, do we have the room to maneuver or not, right? And we might have new news and >> we might have new news and if we don't, >> how do we how do we work our way through >> and we will bring that

136with whatever new news we have and advice we have uh in collaboration with Dr. Sullivan and and Dr. Garcia and council >> and council. Yeah, >> we will we will bring it I will bring it to you buttoned up for consideration and discussion. >> That's perfect. Is everybody okay with that? And the governor stated yesterday that it may be one or two weeks. >> Yep. >> Those were his words if you listen to his conference. >> But we could write this in a way that's like other districts have done. If we if we get >> if we don't get guidance, here's what we'll do. If we get strong direction, here's what we'll do. And we you have to choose those words really carefully. We ought not be disingenuous and say therefore we've made a decision

137because it's we do have influence from on high >> but I do think we can start working on it with that frame of mind. Sure. >> Off the back of this discussion. Is everybody okay with that? >> Unfortunately John was put into a position where he had to have a prospective plan in by June 23rd. >> Yeah. there was no time >> and the CDC didn't come out with until the 9th of July >> and subsequent to that the governor didn't come out with the reiteration of 12A in executive order 13 until the 20th I mean the 19th. So everything is moving along at a snail's pace and no one knows really what who the governor is going listening to. That's the whole problem. >> Yep. So, so in any case, in any case, I

138think we have to go we have to protect what's happening in this district >> by going in and saying here's how we would behave in different scenarios, right? And I think that's how we ought to attack. >> That would be wise. Yes. >> Okay. >> And any the board any further discussion for tonight or we've taken a long time on this, but it was time well spent, I thought. >> Okay. >> Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Garcia, thank you for being here and parents, thank you for being here. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you all for your input tonight and thank you for staying. >> All right, so that's it for that. We're going to go on with the regular agenda. We're going to take a brief pause so those who aren't going to stay and

139listen to the finance report can uh move on. We don't have much a long other agenda. So >> thank you. I could not see you, man. Thank you. I don't know what the heck. >> Okay. See if you like everyone else. That signed up. Yeah. Oh, that's a good idea. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. And these people I brought up speak That's what Thank you. I started getting screenshots via text. Okay. Okay. discussion. >> I thought that was very time well spent even though it went on a while. >> Um so we're going to resume with the regular agenda. So next up is written correspondence. >> Elena Lopez, Sarah Amarol, Ryan Rudenis, and Brendan Hill wrote regarding public comment, CO data, and the advocacy letter to the state. Laura Orbin wrote regarding social emotional learning in

140the fall reopening plan. and Howard Lasser, Nick Schmidt, Deborah Spanikia, Evan and Jessica Jessica, Hen Gon, Casey Clarkson, Michael Emerson, and Joyce Pacino wrote regarding the masking policy for the fall. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, next up is approval of board minutes. >> I move that the board approve the minutes from the regular meeting on June 16th. >> Do I have a We have a It's been moved and seconded. Any any uh comments or adjustments? >> Okay. All in favor? I I >> Okay, the minutes are approved. Uh, next up is the superintendence report. >> Thanks, Bob. Um, I will be brief. Uh, first one is board retreat is next week, 5:00 p.m. sharp. We have three areas to cover. I will present the opening plan uh for board consideration and approval. We will have

141a discussion uh and an update from the equity and inclusion core committee um in regard to um process and direction going forward. thanks to Miss Foster uh and Miss Holly and Dr. Ruby and uh certainly Mrs. Leightton. Um and then in addition to that, uh Jonathan Costa will be with us to talk strategic planning from a post-pandemic perspective and process going forward. Just kind of outlining process and things to think about. Not diving deep on what do we want portrait of the graduate to look like or anything like that. More process, a little bit more surface, but getting that out, hearing suggestions from the board. Uh John's got a nice presentation he's going to facilitate for us. As a matter of fact, Dr. Ruby and I are meeting with him tomorrow afternoon to go through

142his PowerPoint and, you know, incorporate the things we're working on here in Brookfield, some of the things he's doing around the state and really get a really thorough process, um, like we talked about for the next five or so years as to what we want to do in Brookfield. A lot of public input we're thinking about and things like that. So, we're excited about it. >> Okay. >> Um, that's the first part of board retreat. My second piece is uh just an update like I always do in the summer. Um, Mrs. Diamond and her team really keep a close eye on uh enrollment in kindergarten, but I thought I'd share a little bit about grade 1 as well very briefly because that was our kindergarten last year and there was people wondering where is that

143going to go. Um our our projections are spoton for this year's kindergarten. We had projected 171 and right now we have registered 170. Uh that puts us at nine sections at uh 19 students in a class. There's three additional students pending right now. So, we still have a month to go and we know as school gets closer, some families move or haven't shared with us that they're here yet and they register a little late. Um, in uh grade 1, um, enrollment, this is important for everybody to know, enrollment in grade 1 is currently 202. And that the current grade one, the kids going into grade 1, the projection for kindergarten was 190 last year. remember only 133 actually attended school. They went to private schools. They held out a year. There was all kinds of

144different things going on obviously because of the pandemic. So our projection um for the the current grade 1 class last year was 190. It's at 202. So we have 12 additional students in comparison to our projection puts us at about 22 students in a class um with nine sections. You may recall one of the things we did is we have with our ESSER funds we have an additional pair of professional assigned to grade one and Mrs. Diamond has a plan for that to help with transition, social emotional needs, obviously learning needs. And so that's part of how we're mitigating get starting to get on the high side of the class size. We'll keep an eye on it and we'll let you know. And that's the report. >> Any questions? >> You said one par professional

145for all the sections. >> Um it she's looking at how she is looking at how she's going to do that. One of the plans is to have it more focused on a classroom or two. Um, but things evolve the way students move in, the way we need to look at schedules. So, we leave that up to the school and Mrs. Diamond and her expertise to work on. >> Is there any chance that we would have to add an additional section at the last minute? >> Um, there's, as there is every summer, there's always a chance. Um, I will inform you if I'm getting a little nervous in the next couple of weeks. Um, and certainly if we ever have to call a special meeting to have that serious discussion. Um, let Mr. Dunn know, let

146the board of finance know, we would certainly do that. At this point, we don't think um that's the case, but you just never know. >> Okay, >> things change. We have I mean, as much as we've done a lot of talking and meeting and thinking and communicating, it's it's July 21st. >> For families, schools for some families, like tonight, school is right around the corner. For others, it's still 6 weeks away. They're not thinking about school yet. So, some people aren't registered yet. Some people haven't made their move yet. Some people who are um you know, in a rental situation are moving in with family. So, there's a lot of those variables. You just described my entire family life. >> There you go. You got all kinds of things. Bob, >> we're in the six

147weeks is a long way away. >> I would like to think that for myself, but but certainly that's not not how summer works >> and that's all I have. >> Any other questions for Dr. Baro? >> All right, let's move on. Uh, next up is subcommittee reports. Let's start with cape. Who's got cape? All right, Dr. Ruby. >> Uh, so Jen obviously disappeared tonight. She asked me to uh go over the minutes from the Kate meeting. Um we met on June 17th and we had two topics on uh the agenda. The first one was uh regarding a communication that the board members received regarding firearm safety education and um the a discussion was held regarding the communication that was received and the information that um Mrs. Fernandez shared with us that was received. um from

148the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education and the subcommittee discussed the uh importance of this topic and decided that more information should be gathered regarding how other districts are currently addressing uh this concern and possible formats for including firearm safety education in an appropriate and efficacious manner in in the curriculum and we're going to revisit that as a committee next year. Um the second topic on the agenda was regarding classroom library book purchases. Um we understand that the board received several inquiries regarding uh the purchase of classroom library materials. So a discussion was held regarding the procedure for purchasing classroom library books which I led and we clarified the fact that these are not curriculum books rather these are classroom libraries. Those are libraries that are in that are in the classroom. So the children

149have physical access to reading materials and they are u we would consider them to be supportive to the curriculum because the teachers in conjunction with the reading specialists and the library media specialists make selections. It's not one person just going through a catalog picking books. make selections that are grade appropriate and complement the topics that are in the curriculum content for that year um that particular grade level. And also we want to ensure that there are um diverse authors that represent the children that are in the demographics in our schools. not only for those children to be able to see themselves um but for other students to be able to learn about other backgrounds because we do talk about the authors not just the the books that we're reading and um the uh it was

150just really going over the fact that this is not curriculum that these purchases don't come through CAPE um they're they're done at the school level and uh that was basically the it was a short meeting um and we are not meeting during July and August. Is there anything that you guys um remember that you would like to add to that? The other two subcommittee members, Dr. Murphy or or Joy? >> I think it's just worth mentioning the firearms >> I was going to say >> discussion was kind of pushed off until we kind of explored more what they meant by it. >> Yeah, that's what I said. >> Yeah. So, uh, I think we were we were talking maybe just like as an assembly, not like as a as >> Yeah. Well, I wasn't going

151to go into all the things that we discussed, but we we want, >> now that you brought it up, we >> it wasn't like comprehensive as far as like how to actually use a gun. More like general safety, kind of like how to not start a wildfire. >> Exactly. >> And it was a free um education curriculum. The curriculum was free. >> Mhm. >> But mandatory >> and not mandatory. So, any other questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. I'll do the next two um since I'm on the personnel and negotiations subcommittee and then we talked about the topic there and then we immediately went to the finance committee on the same topic and we're going to it's on the agenda uh a little bit later. So, uh personnel and

152negotiations met on July 1st. Um it wasn't a very long meeting. uh we talked specifically about a specific salary question which we'll talk about um at our uh at the budget adjustment time and uh and that we also had a couple of staffing items that um are also going to be on the adjustment and that the committee agreed fully that we would support it. So I'm going to hold the questions until we actually get to the budget item because we'll talk about it in a little more detail there. um finance committee met on July 12th. Um and we also talked about the same items and we reviewed it with the finance committee in terms of affordability and the budget adjustment that would be required. So we're going to have a budget item on the item

153tonight. More importantly, we reviewed the financial statements. We're right in the middle of the close for the year and all the news is good news, right? there's no major exposures that have popped up and it's actually uh looking like with this million dollars we spent on COVID related stuff next year, we're going to make our budget anyhow. Um given all the things that are coming, it's not final yet. It's probably another week or two away, but uh both uh um Mr. Post um and the town controller were very upbeat about how things are are working both on the town side and the school side. So, um, this will be a good year-end close. We also talked about, uh, and so we'll have those numbers probably this time next month. Um, we'll have the final numbers

154on how we'll end it up. Um, the other thing we talked about is the audit is starting, um, and that, uh, the kickoffs were happening and they've met with the auditors a couple of times and we'll be talking about that over the next month or two, right, in terms of that, but not a lot to report there other than it's starting. So, um, and we're, and you might note that's earlier than we've seen in the past. Doing that right after the books are closed gets it out of the way long before we're into January and we're into the next budget year, right? Um, this is, uh, this is a good thing that it gets done quickly. So, um, and we're very well organized on. So, that's that's it on the financial report and we'll come

155back to the the topic on the budget items if you guys are okay. So, I'll pause to see if there's any questions. >> Okay. All right. So, next up is the consent agenda. >> I'll move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda, which are resignations, retirements, new hires, and transfers. >> Okay. Do I have a second? >> A second. >> Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Any conversation from the board? >> Just want to say thank you to Mr. Pomponio. Well, good luck in your retirement and thank you for um really making a difference in my daughter's um career as a math teacher. He was very unique and real special to her. He was special, really special and unique to her. Um he's will be sadly missed on behalf of our family.

156>> Thank you, Joy. You you beat me to it. So, I appreciate that. And also for Jim, you know, 35 years with the district, so we wish him all the best. In addition to that, Laura Buffkin, our prek teacher, one of our pre-K teachers, over 20 years with the district. So, we're sad to see her leave, but excited for her to uh move on to her retirement and uh other things in her life to uh pursue. So, uh both to Mr. Pomponio and Mrs. Buffkin, we wish them all the best and thank them for all the years of service. >> I just had a question about transfer. Um the the math curriculum specialist, does that mean we're not having that K4? the curriculum specialists, they're going to roll into a more of a coaching role.

157>> Okay. >> No. >> So, it's going to be >> that was all part of when we presented ESSER back in May and June and we were talking through there. >> So, it's going to be a math coach. >> Yes. >> Okay. Cater to >> and so a number of whether they were a curriculum specialist or a veteran uh high quality veteran excited ready to go teacher in terms of coaching, ready for the training. um some of our veterans are moving into those positions as well as some of the the new folks coming in. So that's that's precipitated some transfers or new hires because you have back fills for some of those people. So you could you could see the tracking of that. >> Um we'll have about 16 uh new certified people to the

158staff >> say 12 hires here and there's more coming. >> And so but this we have what's called an in-out sheet. Um and so we have that for all of our position control. Um I know there's a lot here today. um over May, June, July, and August, we will continue to receive, you know, we've had retirements announced earlier in the year. We had these two, you know, on consent. So, there's uh there's certainly a lot going on. Um and we have to thank um Dr. Ruby and Mr. Post, Mrs. Reynolds, uh and Mrs. Squires, who uh I shared with the board is moving into the HR specialist position to replace Mrs. Kavanagh. Uh in consideration of all this work, this is this is a large consent agenda. >> It's been a little busy the last

159four weeks. So, we've um but we put the pedal to the metal and we've really we're bringing on some super excited high quality people. >> And I just want to say that the >> Oh, doc, your microphone. >> Sorry. the um not that you're not aware of this, but just to give credit to to give credit to the people at the school because we have teachers that come in, you know, as you know, Joy, during the summer um on their own time >> to be part of the teams at the schools before we even get the people that get signed up up to us. And also parents um provide their children um for the demonstration lesson. So there's a lot that goes on and without the teachers and the um parents allowing children to come

160and play school. Um we wouldn't be able to be as successful as we are. We uh also are very appreciative of the fact that before the um the budget was passed for the uh positions that we knew were got us because they were replacements, we were able to post anticipated and that put us in a much better position than we've been in previous years where we're kind of late to the party on on putting um our postings up and getting people in. So, you know, that was really really helpful. So, thanks to all those people. >> And Dr. Ruby is our new hireer at uh the social studies instructional coach. Is that who did our trauma training? >> So, I'm just going to brag about the difference. She's amazing. So, >> we have had, you

161know, everybody looks through like a deficit model with this year. We've had so many there's been a lot of things that have been really sad and and we heard the effects that that the year has had on families and whatnot. and we're not diminishing that. But we also have had a lot of wins and we've provided um PD to support um the initiatives of the board and to support the needs of the teachers. And so two things happened. One, we were able to bring in technology integration PD. And you heard me talk at the board meeting about how we needed to continue that. And we were working with an amazing um PD provider um from uh CES who worked with every single high school teacher and we got positive feedback from pretty much everybody who

162told us anything. And they also I wrote a grant that we got awarded to to pay for her to work with our other three schools. When we posted that position, she applied for it. So it's like a win for us because there's or when in in coaching trust is so important and so the the teachers in the district and the administrators know and trust this person. So it's even though it's a new hire, it's like she's already been working with us for a year. The second thing that happened is that the person who's been working with us with um cultural competence and helping us with some of the work that um the equity inclusion committee is involved with is um somebody that Christine Sapala and I met at a conference four years ago and she

163came into the district. She's from Utah, a professor in Utah and she came into the district and did trauma-informed uh training with teachers was very wellreceived. people really loved her and then we brought her back this year to do virtual training and she announced to Keman and myself when we were meeting with her once before a meeting she said I just want you to know that we're going to be moving to northern Utah you know out of Salt Lake and I'm taking another position at another university and then this was on Zoom she goes but not until I got tired of scouring that Brookfield website every week before and I was like are you kidding and she said working with your teachers and your administrators is so amazing. She goes, "The only thing that could

164bring me back to New England to that horrible weather is if you had a job from Brookfield and I could work there." And so I couldn't say anything. We posted the social studies position. She applied for it and she sold her house in Utah >> to come here >> and is moving to Sandy Hook and she's going to be our social studies. >> Oh yeah. Like this. >> Good. >> Yep. So, and that's a credit not to us, that's a credit to the people in the schools that these individuals have worked with. They we have good people working here and they and people who work with our district like working with our district. >> That's great. >> Willing to relocate >> seriously. So, we're across the country to come here. We're really blessed and um

165and that's another seamless transition because she's a known entity and there's there's trust there. Yeah. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Dr. Ruby. >> Okay. All in favor of the consent agenda? >> I >> All right. Uh, moving on to new business. Um, the, uh, we did the fall opening plan already. We spent a little time doing that. That was good time well spent. Um, so the only other item is the approval of the budget transfer. >> I will move that the board approve a budget transfer as requested by Superintendent Dr. John Buril and Director of Business and Operations Ken Post. Second. >> Okay, >> it's been moved and second. And let me turn it over to Mr. Post to kind of describe what we're doing. Or do you want to do it,

166Dr. Post? >> Oh, no. Doc uh Mr. Post. Dr. Post. I promoted you. >> Dr. Post. Wow. Um >> the postman >> uh the uh let you kind of brief everybody on what this is about and uh both in the budget itself and what we're trying to get at. So, >> sure. So um previously we had contracted for services of uh RBT which is registered behavior technician uh with that advance to serve some of our students. Um it was determined this spring that um we would better be able to provide services to this certain group of students using uh ABA power professionals. So, we're proposing to make the budget adjustment to take the professional services out of the budget and reallocate that money to fund to ABA pair of professionals with health benefits. Um, at

167the same time, we've identified the need to um add an additional 0.5 clerical in the special education administrative office. Um and uh we've identified the need to adjust the uh salary of our technology director and we accomplished this by again removing the professional services um money that we will save by um hiring uh Mrs. squires as the uh HR specialist rather than a HR director and uh reducing the extended duty curriculum budget back to the same level we have budgeted for this past year which is still a healthy budget and it all washes out. All right, so uh any questions from the board? >> All right, hearing hearing none. All in favor I >> thank you. approved. All right. Um, so that's it for new business. There is no old business. Uh, next item on

168the agenda is an update on the Candlewood Lake Elementary School building project. Um, Dr. Bur, do you want to talk about our walkthrough? >> Well, well, Bob, do you want me to Bob? I can I'll talk about some details, but I know you want to talk about the walk and taking a walk around and seeing everything. >> Okay. So, you can you can report on the meeting and I'll talk about >> I'll do the boring stuff. You do the fun stuff. I did get a picture of um um Jack Lewig though walking around tweeted out last night. So just so we have that from the NBC and thanks to the NBC, but please >> So we were invited as you all know to do a a walk through. Um >> I I'll start by saying

169we ought to do this, right? It's worth walking around and visualizing the space from inside the space. It's uh it's uh really an exciting opportunity. We talked to the uh the building uh coordinators and said once it's built out a little bit more, we ought to have some moments where more members of the public could go through a walkthrough of the construction site. Um, it's a little it's ahead of the curve. They usually like to let people in, have a grand opening where people go in. But man, you get a sense of the building and what it will look like even though it's a shell. And for the members of the public who haven't griven over to Huckleberry, you're not allowed on the site itself, but you can pull up next to it, look through

170the fence. It's dramatic what's going on in the back of that Huckleberry property. Um, two things that st stood out to me. So, right now they've built up the um the cafeteria. The right now it's just the shells of the building and they haven't really built anything on the inside yet, but they've built in the uh the cafeteria, the all-purpose room, the um >> some some of the neighborhoods, grade level neighbors. >> No, I haven't gotten there yet. So, in the front of the building, you know, all that stuff on the right side of the plan is built out. And then they've done two of the three wings um are fully built out and they're starting the walls on the third wing for the classrooms. Um the when you walk in, you realize how first

171of all how spacious it is. Um it is uh the classrooms will be right- sized which and there's a sufficient room in there for um you know for both classroom size but also you know work rooms for you know special ed uh breakout centers and the and the uh breakout rooms for the teachers and things like that. You really get a sense of how the space will come. The second thing I walked out of was the space outside the building is bigger than I expected. There are lots of space around the back of the building for playground areas and uh both in the far back but also on the sides and between the wings. So um it's uh and they look like it will be just a very nice experience for our kids. So that

172so one feeling of the progress is really good. Secondly, that we're using some uh technology that is going to pay off, I think, for us. They're uh they're using precut pre-insulated forms for the cement walls. So that you put out this you put the the form in there, you stick the rebar into the middle of it, and then you pour the cement. You never take the form away. So most construction, you have a form, you pour the cement, and then you just rip the rip the mold away. In this case, the mold stays and it has that much insulation on either side of it. So, that will help with temperature control, air flow control, and all the things. And they were they're they're actually the first we're the first um school or public building, I

173think, in the state of Connecticut that's using this technology. And uh they use it down south a lot. And uh very positive reviews to the point where they've asked us if we would be a um a uh >> a showcase for for that. and we've told we'll wait and see how it goes before we agree to do that. But uh >> um but it's pretty impressive when you actually see it in person. Um and you could see it from afar. It's all the white styrofoamy looks looking stuff instead of just plain cement around the building. So um really uh nice use of the site and uh and the progress is going really well. Um and they're on they seem to be right on schedule. Yep. Um, so, so and then we went and met with

174the NBC and I'll let you kind of >> so be very brief, Bob. You you really picked up on some great things there. Um, so reports to the NBC. First of all, thank you to the NBC. They have done a tremendous job. The the the volunteers like the board of ed and the time they're putting into our project is is incredible. As a matter of fact, Mr. Czecho gave uh out of his busy professional schedule gave us uh about an hour and a half. I think it was yesterday morning, Ken. The days are so long, I forget. um working with our principles um on um uh on the elementary principles on what the um transition plan might look like and some of the options, some of the ideas, some of the thoughts because we really

175need to develop that transition plan and there's going to be all kinds of new protocols from entry and parking lot and drop offs and all of that all the way to to how we operate the school. Um there Tecton, Arcadus, and OMG all gave a report. I'm really thrilled to see the collaboration of all three companies working together uh in in concert with the NBC. Um a couple of comments from members of the NBC that I wanted to share. Um safe, secure, and clean. They continue to talk about that in the way the site is being done. It's been safe. It's been secure and it's been relatively a very clean project. Um you could ask Mrs. Labberano. Uh she had one or two complaints of of a cigarette at one point way far in the

176corner, and we we put that out literally uh immediately. I mean it is a clean site in terms of the way behavior is and everything else. We're we're keeping very close tabs on that. >> We're also really excited um working with Dr. Ruby um and the principles um in developing a professional development opportunity prek are you right? Oh, >> no. Go ahead. >> PreK to 5 on November 2nd, our election day professional development where we're going to bring prek to 5 all of our teachers together at the workspace, the cooperative educational services work space in Bethl for a team building and professional development opportunity uh in terms of bringing three schools together. I mean, we're bringing people forget that fifth grade is coming down, you know, and this is a big deal for transition for

177our fifth grade team as well. So, we're really excited about that. And as you can imagine, any transition of one school to another school, let alone three schools um physically bringing them to a new physical plant, but as well as um for some very emotional. Their entire career has been in one school. Um closing down two schools, let alone demolishing a school. Um and just bringing them together. there's lots of nuances in terms of the the the staffing considerations, the physical moving considerations, and the and the morale uh and team building considerations. So, we're working at that. We're very fortunate because we have the flexibility and the time to have to plan for a safe and methodic transition um and a transparent transition. To that end, um we're planning a uh putting together a uh

178comprehensive PowerPoint and we would pres I'll present that um with the team talking to it a little bit with me um at the end of October at our second October board meeting. We want to get through the transition. Obviously, we've got emotions are high. We've got to open the school. Got to get the schools in terms of this year. Get things ready. Get people settled in. And then once our minds are settled in and we're used to the new newness of school in the coming year, um we'll present this plan because we need to be ready uh for for move in and transition movein over the course of 223. So we're excited. >> Will the will the teachers have a chance to walk the site? Oh, there there we're going those opportunities you and I

179were talking about yesterday, whether whether they're uh some of the folks in town were able to set things up. We've got to be very careful because we don't want to get in the way of construction. Um and we also want to be safe. So, we have to figure that out. But, um I think once we have the shell and floors and they're safe structured opportunities, we might be able to take advantage of those uh on off hours or even weekend hours or something like that where where there's less activity going on. >> I think it will build excitement with the work, not just the public, but the staff. Oh yeah, the staff needs visualizing it. >> Yeah. And see what it's really going to look like. The other thing we'll be doing in the fall,

180uh, a couple things, uh, people have asked about, these are the nitty-gritty details. Um, it's called FF&, furniture, fixtures, equipment. That's the telephone system. How are we going to call in? How does that work? What are the numbers going to look like? We talked about an upper and a lower house. You know, all these things. All that'll be fleshed out in October. We'll talk to you about that. The fall, we'll talk about FF&E. Um, some of our user groups will be a part of that. the architects will bring down um kind of a selection of furniture and you know what do you guys think of this get some input get some ideas um obviously bring that back to the the architects will bring that back to the NBC decisions will be made um so we

181we've got a lot to do but uh we're excited about it and our our administrative team our building level administrative team is fully committed really excited and what what I am always um I guess I admire Dr. Ruby, I talk about this all the time is I admire their commitment to the level of detail to make sure the plan is going to work. You know, they don't want >> it. Oh, it I admire it, but it drives me crazy. But it's a necessary exercise, as I always say, it was a necessary exercise to go through that meeting because we really want to have the smoothest transition we can have. Um, so anyway, we're excited. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Okay. Uh, next up is three main points. >> What do you guys

182think? >> New school definitely. I'd say the update on the fall opening plan and our comments from doctors Sullivan and Garcia. >> Yeah, >> I don't know. I've got two. I don't really >> So, other than that, it's a pretty short maybe welcoming a lot of new hires. >> Yeah. I have new hires down here. Okay. >> I will note that there's a pop star in the list, too. Katy Perry. >> Katie Perry. >> This this this poor young teacher. Oh, do you want to go to the mic? You want me to do it, Dr. Okay. So, so we we have a new teacher who the the the poor person. She heard this probably for the last 10 years since Katie Perry has become a pop star. Her name is Kate Perry and she'll be

183joining us. We're excited to have her as math teacher at Whiskanir. Um and uh she joins at the middle school. Don't forget a couple of years ago we hired Joe Walsh um a math teacher at the middle school. And those of us who are at a vintage where we remember the Eagles, that's one of the big-time guitarists. And um the other is a one of our sixth grade teachers, Will Smith, otherwise known as the Fresh Prince. So So we have a lot of rock stars and pop stars over at the uh Whiskey. >> Leave it up to Mr. Renda to make that >> of course. >> All right. So we've got our three main points. >> Upcoming events >> I have at center school, the sweet dream story times with Mrs. Diamond continue on Thursdays

184at 6:45. And kindergarten screenings will be on August 9th, August 13th, and August 16th. At Whiskanir, student walkthroughs are scheduled for August 23rd from 8:30 to 11:30 and August 24th from 1:30 to 3:30. And the new to Brookfield and Whiskanir orientation is on August 24th from 10:30 to 11:30. And at the high school, the incoming ninth grade new student orientation is on August 24th at 6 PM in the auditorium. >> Thank you. >> That's it. Yep. >> Thank you. >> All right, that's it for our agenda. So, unless there's uh any uh objection, we're adjourned. >> Thank you. Thank you for a long but productive evening. So, >> drive safe, everyone.