Board of Education Meeting - March 20, 2024

001good great all right good evening everyone let me um call to order the regular meeting of the Brookfield uh Board of Education uh this is Wednesday March 20th and it is 7 PM so before we get started let's um all rise and say the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay so we'll move to roll call all members um of the board of President nice to see everybody hi AA and here's the executive team thanks for being here this evening um before we move to aa's um student representative report I just want to say for the people who are assembled here that um that tonight is tonight's

002process is a little unusual um it's the province of the board chair to uh set the I guess the terms of the meeting and um given the recent Spate of personal violent sorry that's okay threatening attacks to members of our community members of this board members of our Administration it was the recommendation of the chief of police that we suspend um televising our meetings until things cool off and uh hopefully the perpetrators of the bomb threats will be found very soon and brought to Justice which they deserve but until that time while there's a threat we would do the same for for for any members of the public here um you know the these people deserve to be protected from whatever lunatic elements are out there and so this is one small step that we

003can take to kind of dim the fire of that um of that vitriol so so that's why um and we will be meeting as a board um maybe in the next meeting um to have a discussion about whether this is a something we want to continue the suspension or whether we want to revert back to um regular practice and I think we should do that in consultation with the police um but anyway I just wanted to to say that here for everyone and thank you very much for for being here this evening so with that um let's move to AA hi I hope you guys are all doing well tonight it's only been two weeks since the last meeting so I don't have that many updates um some events that just happened recently the school

004play Mama Mia was this past weekend it was incredible and yesterday Juniors took the SAT coming up 11 creators are also taking the ngss uh National Science assessment next week and the career fair is also on coming up next week um junior prom tickets are on sale now and senior prom is also coming up in May for athletics so last time I talked about um the cards of appreciation that Mr Baldwin gives to our officials I have some I'll pass them down I'll take one of them so I can read you what's on the back so these go to officials and like I shared last time Mr Baldwin does this because um he feels like it's nice to give thanks for the people who don't really receive it as often as they should so it

005says thank you for enabling our student athletes to play the game that they love why every athlete and parent should say thanks since most people don't think very long about the lifestyle and expectations we have for sports officials it might be important to break down a few of the more important details that may prompt you to offer thanks to the next official you see it can be a thankless job it's rare that Sports officials are thanked for hustling and calling a great game yet they are almost always blamed when they make a human mistake when officials do their jobs well their work is almost invisible and therefore few people take time out to recognize the efforts it took to do things like hustle diffuse potential conflicts and display fairness to both teams they receed little

006if any support when we watch a game there are fans of both individuals and teams competing but the officials out there alone unlike players who support each other when dealing with tough situations the official is left to him or herself when trying to regroup after a bad call Miss call or angry athlete or fan they are often over blamed athletes coaches and sports parents sometimes erroneously blame the official for bad calls on the field or scapegoat the official when in fact the official had nothing to do with the outcome of the game they receive little if any pay only a very small percentage of sports officials make enough money to live on and the overwhelmingly VA overwhelmingly vast majority of sports officials make very little or no money at all they are constantly hustling while

007players get to take breaks by coming in and out of games officials are required to perform every play and often expected to hustle to get into the right positions to make Fair calls thank you from the Brookfield athletes coaches and administration so like I said um after he went to a national conference this idea is kind of caught on in other schools across the country and overall just a really great way to give thanks for our officials and refs going along with Athletics um I have some individual updates uh ice hockey the co-op team with Brookfield Daman Immaculate um unfortunately lost in their state finals but they had a great successful season being s swc Champions and it was the first time they even went to the state finals since 2011 um Varsity Cheer went

008to Regionals for the first time and they plac third which is an incredible accomplishment um spring tryouts have started for all spring Sports and the tennis courts were being redone but they're starting to resurface this week for athletic advisory um those students are working on a parent video to kind of streamline parent night which is an event where parents can learn more about the Brookfield Athletics program and they're also working on videos about um parent behavior and they're doing a survey about parents sportsmanship along with that athletic advisory is working on a project called portrait of a student athlete and portrait of portrait of a student athlete parent um kind of just giving an example of a model student athlete student athlete parent finally um for the clubs I'm in I only really have some

009updates about Brookfield youth Commission because we're organizing the career fair that's happening this upcoming week um signups were done by ilt teachers rather than individual students themselves and it was on a first come first serve basis so Juniors and seniors got first pick when they were signing up um signups are around 92% done which is a lot better than last year and we were using a system that's a lot easier than what we did last year too um the presenters are pretty much finalized of course there's always some last minute um dropouts or things that have to get switched around but we have some backups that are going in in place of those and during the school day it's a modified schedule where the three 30 minute slots are um fit into the day and

010all the rest of the blocks are shortened and that's all I have for tonight thank you thank you Ava anybody have questions for Ava awesome thank you have a good night D thank you okay so we're going to move to public comment and um it has been um brought to my attention that we do have an item um we do have the security task force committee membership so uh some of our speakers are signed up to speak on on uh topics connected to that so you guys will be able to go earlier rather than um at the end okay so before um before public comment let me just issue this reminder the Board of Education welcomes public comment each speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input to the board um at the

011start of each regular meeting a maximum of 20 minutes is allotted for comment on any item included on the agenda for that meeting at the end of the regular meeting time is allotted for comment on any item which is within the board's jurisdiction which is will also include overflow time um but I I don't think we'll get there with this number of folks uh discussion of school Personnel individual students or of individual members of the board is prohibited and with that I would like to invite up Owen and Kaylee Clarkson hello hello my name is Owen Clarkson and I live on 48 Mountain View Drive hello my name is Kaye Clarkson and I also live at 48 Mountain View Drive the recent threats to our school made us feel unsafe and and uncomfortable we like

012school and want to feel safe there my principal Mr Randa helped me feel safe at school by introducing me to the guidance counselor and officer Flynn he talked to me and told me that his number one goal is for the students to feel safe at Whiskey I think this should be the superintendent and board of education's number one goal too the students should feel safe in Brookfield schools there are some easy changes we can make to increase safety and help students feel comfortable in [Applause] school number one all teachers and staff members should wear visible ID badges this will help students easily identify who should be in our school and who should not number two a school resource officer or security guard should be outside with us when we need when we have recess this

013will help teachers look for dangers and keep us safe teacher teachers um teachers teachers should teach students more about see something see something program from s Sandy Hook promis this way we can look for warning signs and signals these ideas do not cost a lot and can help increase safety in our schools we want to thank the board for listening to us and our a and we want to thank you [Applause] guys so next uh Casey Clarkson good evening Casey Clarkson 48 Mountain View Drive the recent turmoil in our community and threats to Brookfield public schools are concerning it's interesting that although tonight's meeting is being videotaped it will not be posted on YouTube in order to protect the board and the community members speaking during the public comment section my question is what are

014you protecting us from are the recent threats that concerning that they warrant this protection we've been told by the superintendent that the threats are just hoaxes and examples of spamming in fact we are no longer going to be notified as parents about them because there are nothing to be concerned about so I ask again why is this recorded meeting not being shared on YouTube for the public to see it appears it's just another incident of the lack of transparency currently in our district in recent days both my husband and I have reached out to the superintendent regarding the threats against our children in school his responses have been dismissive aloof and stock in nature in fact M Clarkson I'm sorry point of order you're not allowed to talk about individual members please talk generally about

015um the administrators like to encourage the uh Brookfield teachers union to survey the staff and see how many of them feel secure and safe in our buildings I'd also like the board to survey parents and see how many of them are concerned about the safety of students versus how many of them just don't want to hear about it as we've been told I would I formally requested in writing to be notified when my students when my own children are being threatened in school whether it's a direct threat or indirect and that has just been ignored and passed aside um as the board I'd like you to review the actions of the superintendent in recent weeks and consider asking him to step down thank you [Applause] um Mrs K case I believe that your um item

016is off agenda it's hard to read okay thank you um so oh I'm sorry Jeremy I I apologize I just SK you Jeremy Ferell please uh hello uh Jeremy Ferell 13 South Lake Shore Drive uh it has been a very scary few weeks for our community and I think it is worth noting that we are not in danger of bad things happen bad things have happened students have seen these threats and have had to deal with the trauma of seeing them students have had to deal with the trauma of these threats taking place um and with all that said apologize I'm a little more off the cuff tonight I just want to say I just want to said nothing but love and support to every single member on the board of education and every single

017parent and School uh Personnel who is here or not here tonight uh I think it is an impossible situation to deal with and I do not think anything but love and support should be shown to those who are dealing with it um I would also like to take a second to as I think uh many of us should take some responsibility well I think there's been many choices that have been made that not everybody agrees with on every side of the issue that people who agree with them have made personally I feel I contributed to talking past people to thinking if I come up here and just say all the right perfect words everybody's going to understand my point and then it'll all be sorted out that's not going to happen and is clearly left

018our schools feeling less safe because of it we need to have difficult conversations and I think that we officially need to have them and cannot wait any longer so I want to say I want to have those conversations with those on the board with anybody else here when it comes to conversations about why uh this has been called a book Banning when it comes to conversations about if we should look at a book in its full context when we ban it it when it comes to questions about if sex education should be taught in school Mr frell please keep it to safety oh sorry um these are conversations that I think we need to have and we need to make sure we have them with each other even if they're difficult even if they're not

019fun because when they don't the tensions just go up and up and up and that's how I think we end up here and nobody in Brookfield deserves to be here right now having to deal with this type of fear and I am so sorry for every single member who does and I hope my love and support goes out to all of you thank you thank you uh Mrs Scalera Aaron Scalera 5 Jackson Drive I'm here this evening to ask that the minutes from the January 3rd meeting be amended to reflect the accurate transfer that took place you reported a temporary transfer from PA professional to long-term sped substitute WS effective 18224 to 4124 which should have been reported literacy parah to long-term case manager WMS effective 12 2323 when the email was sent by the

020principal with that being said upon further digging the transfer happened at the building level and never should have happened a person was transferred to acting in the capacity of a special education case manager with zero special education training before this inappropriate transfer took place I made a complaint about the individual's behavior and interaction over weeks with my identified student with discriminatory and blatantly shaming him for his areas of struggle I was told at that point that that person did not have any special education training for my child's area of disability nor were they privy to his to their IEP a mere 3 months later they're now miraculously capable of acting as a case manager by making this decision the district has now in turn put every child on that case load without Mrs scoler you

021need to um to keep it about the the making the minutes accurate and you're also talking about school Personnel but it's I'm not naming the school Personnel it's I mean it's in the minutes you wrote what it was in the minutes the fact of the matter is you have what I'm saying is exactly what you have referenced in the minutes and we are interested in making your correction but you are you are referencing specific individuals okay so I can't talk about the individual that you have on the agenda listed as a transfer and why they were transferred but the board can talk about students in in a meeting it doesn't make [Applause] sense I mean the fact of the matter is this is exactly what this transfer is it's inaccurate we we would like your

022notes we would like to make them accurate okay so then I'll get up at the end and speak about exactly what needs to be said the fact of the matter is this was simply robbing Peter to PayPal you have children that are not being serviced in this District right now because you took someone out of a position leaving students unable to have somebody for support legally required and it's not okay my student hasn't had support for 2 and a half months you have a correct review that outlined numerous problems in this district missteps and they're still happening on a plus side you have a special education director trying to make it better and he can't be expected to do it alone you have people that aren't running ppts we have to have him in present

023when is enough enough legal services are already over budget we have lack of transparency delivery of services or appropriate Services they're driving driving your budget higher legal bills complaints mediation due process hearings outside testing and out placements will happen when these mistakes continue to happen I would simply ask the board how many out placements can you realistically afford I urge the board and the administration to look into this matter and numerous other transfers that should not have taken place because our children are worth it thank you Mrs [Applause] SCA and now we have U Miss Mr Korea about the finance committee agenda and Korea 45 West whis Road um going to speak about the the Finance U minutes um as well as transparency around it General transparency which has been referenced in the agenda here

024um so I'm asking the board to update the the finance subcommittee minutes to include the fact that um it check reg that the check reg registers aren't there and in the meeting um there was public comment asking for those documents they were being used to conduct a meeting and they were decisions were being made on them um however that uh person attending the meeting was denied access and stated that it was an foia request that is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act those checks had already been written and cleared they are a record and they need to be provided um in general I'm concerned about transparency including not broadcasting this meeting you know what the meeting agenda is there aren't hot topics on here right and the person that's giving you the advice

025right is the same chief of police that didn't help um supervise the SRO that was trading n nude photos and we're taking his advice you know the Boe has blocked and ciled public comment as we just noticed here lack of transparency right we had a board of ed member go off topic and discuss a t uh a student at a book challenge meeting than a letter writing camp this is meant to be about finance committee this is about transparency um we can provide transparency and um sticking to the rules with that sir you are not meant to to um go off of what you say that you're talking about I'm talking about finance committee agenda yes finance committee agenda so on the agenda was a discussion of whether we videotaped this whether we broadcast this

026meeting yes no did you speak about it I did then it was on the agenda um no actually it's not um purpose of speaking about things on the agenda or to discuss things the board are going to talk about you talked about Mr Korea listen um we will we will get you the answers that you want about the check registers and making documents time I wrote to the board I got a received response you have not um cured the times that you lied in a board meeting that you lied in a board of f Board of finance and board of select the meeting like so this is the only opportunity and the fact that you're curtailing um sending this to YouTube is a lack of transparency that allows a majority to decide what they want

027to do when they want to do it including having a lawyer that actively discriminated against children it took about three to five parents last year to get that correct RW we shame the board into doing it right if these meetings are not broadcast then there's going to be more problems within the district because a group of people trying to manage their appearance versus manage the district is is in front of following the law and doing what's right for children whether they're your children or not whether you agree with the book or don't agree with the book you have personal agendas of you know people at this table as well as former members of the board that just don't want to deal with the facts that's what we're trying to bring up when we come up

028here and speak every week thank you for your [Applause] comments so that concludes um public comment for the agenda item items um we'll move now to written correspondence the board has received written correspondence on several topics since its meeting on March 6 Jessica Hansen regarding March 20th meeting Trina Capone regarding policy review Ruth dulia and Alyssa kig regarding their BHS ASL class Michelle cornelis and Lisa kig with a request for ASL 2 Juan aloker regarding public comment and non-resident Todd Peterson regarding policy review the board of educ received emails from the following people regarding the board's discussion and decision made at the February 27th special meeting Andy Korea Irene Korea Susan Iverson Courtney Madison Lisa Temple Aaron and David site Elizabeth and David Ray Gabriella depinto Jillian bwick Heather Buckley Julie Oakley Zoe depinto Jeremy

029Fel Deborah Cy Andrea Dean Aaron Zimmer say cair Allison depinto Michelle French Sarah coffee and the Connecticut youth political advoc advocacy Council the Board of Education received emails from the following people regarding the threat to our schools Boe members of our Administration superintendent and community and the communication email sent on Friday March 8th Holly Carl Jean hartnet Jennifer akerly Ellen O'Donnell Barbara Moore nahed quair Mary capiello Brian McGovern moerat cair Sue Slater Joe her quiser Michelle Sans Carrie Columbo Paige Jimenez Denise notto Francisco cinta Giovani cinta Sophia cinta Casey Clarkson Jessica Hansen David Franklin Laura Orban Amy Foster Joanne cafiero Arty pilson former resident Kathy vanzi Joseph sanor Anne Gardner Mike and Aaron Luchia Jillian ver sorry Vera stro Ruben wind collie Dean Monica mcinery and Elizabeth bright I apologize for the names that I

030messed up okay so we'll move to uh item seven on the agenda that's the approval of board minutes I move the the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 36 2024 second um all in favor say I I any oppos okay oh um and just a small uh item for board members um I've been reminded that when we vote with parliamentary procedure when you want to vote against the motion you have to say nay as opposed to saying I for the negatives right so anyway let's just clean up our practice with that small thing all right so let's move then to item number eight the superintendent's update all right thank you Dr Young Blood uh so have some uh updates for you Ava did take the take a number of these from

031the high school uh off of my plate tonight but uh needless to say there a lot of Pride uh with what's happened in the last week with the kids um so the first thing is um some people have been asking when the last day of school is we have had four snow SL emergency days which brings us to Wednesday June 19th um as the last day of school at this point um to fulfill the uh board adopted calendar of 182 days for students uh that day also happens to be juneth which is a Federal holiday at this point so one of the things the principles were discussing at our district leadership meeting the other day was um we haven't been in school since juneth has become a holiday so are there things we can do

032to recognize uh juneth um and uh and even if we're not in school for juneth uh as we end the school year in that area of the uh the end of school uh in addition to that um just as a little bit of history for the board there there already has been questions uh the statutory requirement is 180 days of school for a school year not 182 that's a local choice that we have here um I think maybe two years uh in my tenure here um when we've gone a little longer than we would like and uh after graduation which happens to be Saturday June 15th um there has been consideration of either having uh some reduced days like early dismissal days or uh just fulfilling 180 days and sending the students home and having

033teacher meetings and professional learning so I just wanted to put that out there and I'm getting questions about it you may be getting questions so it's just something with uh majority of you being new board members that has been something considered in the past um we heard some folks talk about it tonight the swatting threats uh the police continue their investigation um especially with Detective O'Brien who's the Cyber crimes uh detective working with state and federal authorities that continues uh things have calmed down um part and partial the reason for the uh the chief not wanting the um uh not recommending that the the meeting be live streamed but recorded uh to have a little bit of buffer time before putting the the uh meeting out to the public um in that regard um there

034is not a legal requirement to video or audio record meetings we have the tech technology obviously we've been doing that for decades um so just that's just a a piece there to give time uh to protect public comment speakers are putting their address out there as well as uh people up here that are on camera uh CES uh some updates there uh parking lot what's about to happen uh Dave and I are waiting to uh we're trying to get a meeting with om and with the NBC uh the uh under uh Foundation of of the north parking lot which is the one that's fenced off uh when people look through the fence you can see the fencing and the islands the flag is up now for the flag pole um everything's working there um that's

035going to be getting its binder coat We Believe over the April break uh that's the first layer of Paving that's what's actually on the south parking lot right now um and so the North Lot will become usable we believe right after April break and the swing space would be anybody parking in the South lot will uh move over to the north lot and it will give us some additional spaces so we could try to um empty out the temporary lot which is the one right along Candlewood Lake Road so as we get more information and schedule on that Dave and I will have a site map uh colorcoded and be able to communicate that with families and staff um so we're excited about that uh there were 25 guest readers for read Across America uh

036at canwood Lake so we're really proud of that it was a lot of fun to go uh work with the kids and and do the storytelling there kindergarten enrollment at CES um right now formally to toally registered we have 76 students we're anticipating uh our budget is built for 160 so we're right about half the kids registered at this point um and it's still march um there are 11 people are always interested in this with the change in law with turning five on September by September 1st to attend kindergarten um we have 11 families that have uh wrote to Dr P asking for the waiver so the kids will go through their uh kindergarten um assessment and uh decisions will be made there at the school with the families they'll be working together on that

037uh in terms of BHS Ava talked a lot about it I mean just a lot of Pride um the hockey team winning the swc championship and going to the state finals um the musical mam Mia was unbelievable it was incredible uh the Cher team uh placing third in New England regionals um and uh uh Troy maaney uh qualifying for the State open and swim and and lots of kids you know uh going to those state finals so just an incredible winter season and and like she said the spring season is upon us importantly the tennis courts um frustrating for all of us that it still is not quite finished um the top coating I guess that's going on uh should be done within a couple of weeks uh Mr Baldwin and Laura Murphy from Parks

038and W are working on alternative sites for the kids to make sure their practices continue and if it gets into the competition time they'll have a a safe place to to have those competitions and practices it's important to know that this is a parks and wreck project it's not a school project it's not even an NBC project it's actually a parks and W project they're in charge of the project the way it worked out uh with the town Capital work um and then over at whiskin ear uh the Unified sports uh program for the second time is uh honored as National Champion so we're really proud of the kids uh and all the work they've done there and then finally uh just two communication items uh probably within two weeks the state of the district

039document will be uh published uh shortly after that um when we get back from April break the budget flyer kind of outlining things prior of the referendum will get out there for families in the community and then uh parents today received an uh up update on parents Square which is a new uh communication platform we're moving forward on and a update to Smart site for our website uh that went out to staff yesterday Eric will be up giving a full presentation on parent Square uh this evening so thank you for your time that's great um are there questions I I had a question on the um the it's so weird to call it testing for kindergarten but the assessment window for people who are applying for waivers when when is that going to be happening

040I could actually is Dave over there I see Dave Dave when is the window um with the kindergarten assessment time uh there's firing updates in May okay okay there you go okay all right right on well they didn't have a microphone on so we're firming up dates in May that yes thank you thank you okay cool then um we're going to move to subcommittee reports let's start with facilities Please Mr padow yes good evening everyone um we met on MAR 6 then all members were present uh including uh Casey D and facility director Dan kovo um as for old business we discussed the uh AC project the project being respect um we are questioning whether or not to do structural work um it's about roughly four months until uh completion uh for capital projects update

041we had um we're placing ballards on the sidewalks for uh at all the schools those a huge unit for uh safety reasons uh seven units uh we're getting uh it's all approved and ready to go uh for new business um we had an overage on the capital projects and I'll address that later in the uh uh during the motion time um new hire David boy we have experienced uh custodian starting on the 18th um as far as um miscellaneous we had U water quality at whiner Middle School we're doing a lead service inventory on October 24th and we don't have any Le in any of our lines at this time and big shout out to Dan he's been doing a lot of hard work he's doing the leg work and the compiling information from the

042state and that's nearly complete uh Tools for Schools is another program that we're going to be uh looking into they look for teams the schools and they help ID problems inside the schools for uh that need to be repaired um as far as uh maintenance at clees it's winding down D did Dan and did some fine tuning with the contractor excuse me during the winter break and an ongoing basically an ongoing thing but it's continuously will be monitored um and open um we had some open items uh that we were discussing we had some ongoing issues with the um um project at the uh Middle School um they uh for the locker rooms I think that's what it was right the locker rooms thank you um these issues are in the hands of the contractor

043and they are and Dan's been working with the project manager regarding these issues and he's going to address all of them and make sure that they are taken care of uh in a timely fashion I'm sorry that was the high school I'm sorry that's that was my fault I confirmed yeah yeah and one um if I could add one update since that committee meeting um about the custodian that was anticipated to start on the 18th um due to you know own personal issues they had to actually Decline and back out so we are still um open in that in that area all right um I have a couple questions first of all sorry what is a Ballard it's like a giant Target targ those balls Target yeah okay like a giant cement bow that protects

044cars from ramming into at the same time thank you I did notely that had a name I didn't know either at the meeting I Googled we all talked about how to spell it at the Mee right it's like a new new Scrabble word right on and I googled the spelling um also could you talk a little bit about the second water issue under miscellaneous on the second page second water issue yes so we it says that we had uh from what Dan was telling us we had uh violations for um some chloride but to remove it it's we would need to do like a transfer a a water treatment facility there's some a very I guess in detailed uh issue with that I'm not sure how we can go about that um we do have

045an alternative to maybe connect to the aquarium water system and that's something that's been ongoing and uh we're going to start to get getting proposals for that design for that yeah and and in fact um as part of our 10-year Capital plan um I think it's in year two I believe of the of the of the um plan that there is a funding you know that we anticipate to request to hook up to the aquarium water source I didn't I didn't Mark sorry and it's just important to note for everybody you know with our three School sites um in Brookfield for sewer we are on all sewer line we don't have septic or anything like that but at Brookfield High School and at the middle school we are on well Supply and so when you

046have your own wellwater and you're uh a public system of any kind you are your own water treatment manager so there's a lot of work that has to go into that and actually Dan's former life he you know before he was our facility supervisor he did that kind of work so it's really helped us out there um at CES we we um the project the town project was bringing up an Aquarian line at that time as well as natural gas and we were able to hook into those so we have City Water essentially at CES yeah Dan's been a huge asset he really is he knows a lot pretty much about everything so especially with that so thanks Rob absolutely thank you what about the high school the the two serious leaks on top of

047the boiler are those roof leaks or oh I'm sorry the no those are on the boiler itself uh Dan actually went in on his own to repair it for the most part and that's where we're at now he went in and disassembled the unit it's all ready to be fixed and ready to go so he addressed it himself and I believe he's waiting for the um so what's the pricing on N so there was there was two quotes that were received for the complete repair of those they're huge um fittings that are on top of the boiler um and so uh the one quote was like 9,800 another quote was 27,000 so Dan said well let me see what and he used to do this type of work um in his former life and so

048he was able to disassemble um the the unit and do a lot of the sort of the leg work and but now that um a welder has to come in to to replace it and fix put the new part on and weld it and to repair it so he believes that the the initial work that he's done will bring that um price down you know consider bring down substantially so I put that there as the original one but the the work that he's doing should save us a ton I mean we haven't gotten a final word on that yet yeah but he's yeah he's great he seems to know everything so it's awesome are you guys good with this or just one other thing um did for the um youth commission project did the act

049the lockers come in I mean the um the benches the benches were they're here okay I know they were ordered it looks like they they are here y thank you yes that was a student lead project I did check that off I'm sorry I forgot to mention that to remove the uh lockers and um put the benches on okay so we'll move to personnel and negotiations um I guess that's me then okay all right uh so our meeting was held on Tuesday March 12th um uh it was uh myself Rosa joy and Dr Burl and uh Casey and we um we were in executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations about collective bargaining um and that was pretty much it we'll be continuing some of those discussions uh later tonight in executive session do you

050want to add anything no add anything okay and we have to adjust a minutes I think Anna was at that meeting too for the person so we'll have to make a question yes okay she okay well that's right you had to you had to get out of there I I don't remember why okay so we'll need to amend those okay um so with that let's move to finance committee please okay uh we last met on Tuesday March 12th and um so we we did receive public comment um regarding uh some of our documents and typically we don't um release documents that are not approved um to the public but we I think what we can very easily do since we're nothing but transparent is simply have have draft written all over the documents it's it's

051simply just the check registers in our financial report that we receive every single month so I don't think that's a problem and um we can start doing that at our very next meeting um the other thing regarding budget transfers um that we also received um some public comment about typically the board actually historically has never even received these reports that's something actually Casey um you initiated um on your own which again adds to transparency so thank you for that um we discussed um again the check registers as we usually do we asked several clarifying questions regarding some of those checks um and then we went over the February financial report um so there Casey summarized that um and this is again what I've been sort of discussing sort of like this sort of running total

052that we've got going um the committee reviewed that um our projected net budget short pfall um is now approximately 615,000 the change that we saw from last month which was around I want to say 500 490 something yep um is due to two new outplay students with special needs and changes to another student's special needs Professional Services so those are the major fluctuations that we typically see um now I do want to say that most of the board's budgetary shortfall um is due to unbudgeted cost related to special education um but the boards of Finance Selectmen and education we have previously established a budgeting strategy that removes all contingency from our budget for those items um so they have been kept well aware of this budgetary shortfall since the beginning of the year it's something

053that we have been doing for many years um and we have assurances that those shortfalls will be funded with Town Appropriations at the end of the fiscal year if necessary that's what we've historically done um another large portion of the board's budgetary shortfall is due to unrealized Savings in teacher turnover so that's another item that we've been discussing in this year and in last year as well um each year the board adds that negative contingency in our budget of $200,000 so we automatically add a negative2 200,000 in our budget every year that is due to the fact that we assume that we're going to have some savings from teachers retired Ing and the hiring of less veteran teachers um but currently this year and last year we saw no savings from that turnover or very

054little savings um and instead reflect in this particular year um an unbudgeted increase in salaries of approximately 25,000 so that's another big part of um the budgetary shortfall this year there's other contributing factors um electricity we've talked about athletic Transportation substitutes those are all um say those are all of the budget that are significantly over um but we do have Savings in various accounts that partially offset this um those are savings um that are from um leaves and vacancies and a newly instituted budget free of all non-essential purchases okay so the 615 is net of all of the exposures as Wells all of the savings um new business I did mention budget transfers so we um we got a report of those budget transfers and those were in our February financials which are only approved

055tonight um and they will be um available um for the public after that um and we then went over the 2425 budget um we went over some of the adjustments that we have to date um because of the ongoing fluctuations in special education we're seeing some savings we're also from students coming back into the district um we're also seeing some overages there as well um and again teacher turnover leaves and vacancies um so far I think actually as of today now we have two teachers um retiring right or two or three there's one has formally retired and then there are some that are interested um but nothing formal yet okay um so the net impact of their retirements is going to be determined in the next couple of months um and even actually into the

056summer as we hired their Replacements um we then went over the Food Service RFP um so we just receiv received notification that there are eight vendors that are interested in the RFP which is a lot more than we had the last time um so that will be go ahead I can tell you want to say something we did have the walkth through um yesterday and five vendors did show up so showing up for the initial walkthrough was a is a requirement so um so we're five so there's five and hopefully they'll all submit proposals and we'll yeah great take it from there um and then at the time um remember this was on March 12th Dr BR informed us that the committee um form the inform the committee that the rfps for the legal services

057were due on the 13th through the so the next day so that process is moving forward as well and um that was it thank you a lot of technical information um but important stuff so thank you very much for that sure did you want to say oh yeah since the window closed for the legal services I was doing the 13th one will we get so we're actually meeting with purchasing agent tomorrow I think y we're spending some time tomorrow um I think we have seven or seven eight or nine I don't know the exact number of um people who uh firms that have submitted uh for the RFP so we're going to look through that um and then I'll be talking with Wendy and we need to talk as a board as to what the

058process is going to be I think we talked about before are we going to have uh a subcommittee of the board you know an ad hoc or the full board um perhaps interview uh can I tell you what we talked about oh sure I mean we we decided together that we were all going to participate in this right yeah so we're so when I'll look at the calendar we'll set dates for that I mean it have to buckle down for a long night because we'll be interviewing you know at least several firms for sure right on great so um Cape committee please okay so myself and Anna and Hala were present on Wednesday March 12th and we asked for a high school midterm review update so this is the second year that midterms and final

059exams have happened since the pandemic um and the focus has been on increas inreasing rigor and different departments have used midterms used the data differently so we talked about that um and after reflecting on it um you know the school decided to move back to having midterms to help students to be more prepared for postsecondary educational experiences um we did talk about some questions and concerns that we had um you know discussions around making sure that they're Equitable between the disciplines um how standardized they are and really being um transparent and reflective on exposure communication consistency um between the disciplines and the grade levels and whatnot so um we had a nice healthy conversation about midterms and finals we also discussed the K3 reading resources um there were seven or eight approved reading programs put

060out by the uh CSD and we got a update about um the committee um for the district to go through these programs and as of now they're they first choice is amplify um they do need to correlate you know the science and socialized standards to the program but um Easton uses it and it's currently the committee's number one choice their second choice is um it was oh um McGraw Hill open Court Reading um we use a part of it now but they're saying that we would need to re the whole kit the company saying we need to re um so we're concerned about the resources maybe not being so flexible um and they we discussed some of the other programs that were suggested but um reasons for them not wanting to push that forward we're

061hoping that in the April cap meeting we'll get a final um decision on which program was the committee is going to put forward to us as a board we also got an instructional coaching update asked for a little more data to follow up with that and the PC update they're going to meet again as a committee on March 22nd and April 1st and we're hoping to have two draft plans at our June meeting regarding that and that's about it anybody has any questions I have a question sure so when it says that um with the number one choice we would need to correlate the science and social study standards does that mean that those programs would have to change ultimately or meaning they we would just have to tie them in so they in integrate

062the content areas which is great which is what we really like but we would have to correlate the stand our stand so we have to get new programs for across the board no we would have to embed the standards with that program got it yeah we would just have to as part of our um kind of onboarding of this tool we would just continue like like I spoke about in our curriculum review um um we would go through the standards the standards have actually shifted with social studies as well so it's an opportune time um and so part of that that reflection and review for the social study standards would be crosswalking it with this tool cka actually stands for Content knowledge um or core knowledge language arts um and so it's kind of the

063nice thing is that the literacy piece um asks students to have content knowledge in all areas um so that's another benefit we're meeting tomorrow to uh review their uh oh great site visit that would happen last week okay so I'm I'm confident for April all right well thanks everyone uh it looks like we can move to the uh consent agenda I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended new hires resignations retirements February financials the 2023 24 budget transfers second um all in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I any opposed okay so um unanimously wheny I say something yes okay so I just I just want to acknowledge uh some people might not have the agenda in front of them the retirement that's on the consent agenda

064is Mrs shop uh longtime elementary teacher here in The District 37 years in our district we cannot thank her enough for everything she's done over the years so um we had a quick personal conversation and uh we we we we uh got to got to get together for a little little conversation uh even more because it was just really thrilled for her and uh I remember her talking about uh that first year at Candlewood Lake might be my last year as we transfer over so we had a good conversation about that so anyway congratulations to Carolyn we just can't thank her enough look forward to celebrating her as the year ends yeah congratulations Carol she was a wonderful educator I'll never forget when she told me don't worry I have lots of boys boys he's

065gonna be okay I can handle him okay so with that let's move to uh item number 11 new business um the first item on the agenda is the technology and Human Resources reorganization um so we are going to uh discuss the consolidation and take possible action regarding the draft shared um Services agreement with the town of Brookfield regarding the tech department and the draft reorganization chart regarding Human Resources um and an executive session is anticipated for that item okay so next um we are going to have a presentation about parent Square um Eric Conklin our Tech director is here to share that with us welcome Eric and thanks for coming thank you thanks did he give you a hand that works yeah yeah good y thank you oh my God yes I do that's that

066would be the third time I forgot that hand up he has hand the same mistake I we'll see from the screen I made 10 copies okay thanks sir thank you uh the handouts I have for you are just the presentation that's up here so um except for the uh 3 minute video I'm about to show the rest of it you can follow along I'll wait for an sure time so thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about parent Square tonight we are very excited about what the parent Square platform can bring to the district with um enhanced uh seamless and uh streamlined communication throughout the district um while I'll get into a little more about it I'll start with um a quick introductory video um that we've been sharing um that just tells

067you about what parent square is uh for both staff and uh families there our goal is to help you streamline your communication and parent engagement efforts across your schools Parent Square unifies communication for all stakeholders and is 100% parent Centric that means that everyone is using the same platform including teachers principls staff admin even the superintendent here we're logged in as a principal at Lincoln Elementary School as an admin in parent Square I know exactly what's going on at my school and have full access and insight into all school to home communication I can also send out messages to the entire school or I can send to specific grade levels classrooms or groups we integrate and sync on a nightly basis with your student information system to ensure accurate reach at all times and minimal

068effort for all users to get started there are three main ways to communicate in parent Square alerts and notifications posts and private chats let's start by sending out an emergency alert from the app traditional onee alerts and emergency notifications Deliver Us phone calls emails texts or app notifications you can also send alerts from the web portal the second way to communicate in parent square is via a post sending posts are for day-to-day communication used by teachers for their classroom communication and administrators for school or districtwide communication a teacher has access to send messages to their classroom GR level and select groups only and roles can be restricted even further posts include plenty of different features such as photos and files links and item requests if you're sharing an event you can quickly add it to

069your event calendar which syncs with your existing calendars you can also request RSVPs ask for a few volunteers or even set up online payments you can also send forms electronically through parent Square paper permission slips often end up lost at the bottom of students backpacks ensure your important forms are delivered directly to parents by adding a digital form with optional electronic signature to your post you can also send out newsletters with our newsletter template option we build everything in house so the look and feel will remain the same whether you use one or all of our add-ons the post will reach parents via email text or app notification depending on their preference the third main way to communicate in parent square is via private chat one to one or one to many parents can also

070initiate these private chats if they want to reach their child's teacher and all communication is done via the private portal or app now that everyone at your school or district is using the same communication platform we can gather statistics for you and help measure not only reach and delivery but also parent engagement and usage also admins can assign different roles with restricted access so you know with confidence that your staff are communicating with the right group group class and grade level at all times a district account will have super user access available to communicate districtwide alerts and announcements as well as insight and access to all site communication including private chats as you can see there's no need to go outside of parent Square for any of your communication and parent engagement needs all features

071are available at Lincoln Elementary but you can start with as few or as many of our features as you'd like since we offer three different packages I hope you enjoyed learning more about parent Square I look forward to discussing how we can help engage your school community so while the um let me fix this while the video really says it all the only uh point I'll make in the video is is there's one sentence that's a little bit dated that they have three levels of software package um they no longer do they have one so every every piece of the software every feature that you saw up there is available as part of the package to the district um and over time we will begin to use um obviously starting first with classroom and District

072communication thanks for visiting and I have to click it again so I just really wanted to show quickly um this is what the screen looks like it's got um a section for posts messages alerts um you can see I posted the letter that the the email that I'll get to that was sent to parents today I created as a post to show you what it looks like it looks very social media like very familiar user interface um so should be very easy to adapt and adjust to um the only thing I'll point out is up here um where it says Brookfield Public Schools um staff will be able to uh click that drop down and communicate with their individual classrooms um athletic teams after school activities or anything like that so they can do full

073we we're going to be able to do groups classrooms all the way up to District level um this will become our new platform and I'll get to this in a second for um for example the emails that have been sent out the last couple weeks snow alerts uh closings delays um anything like that um the one thing the video did not talk about that we are implementing in conjunction and um as excited as I'm about parents Square I might be more excited about this one is uh a new District website um it's called smart site it is owned by parents Square um this is the first pass at what it's going to look like there's a lot of work left to do and I'll get into the Web Master committee that's been doing a lot

074of work on that um but this is an idea of what the new website's going to look like um and when certain Communications are sent out through parents Square they're automatically going to post here as well um which is all part of that seamless and efficient communication where when we post one message in one place it posts everywhere as well and obviously that depends on the message that we're sending uh we want to share a quick timeline of events um both of these are happening in conjunction with each other and we're kind of smack dab right here in the middle of it um so on the parent Square side we started to have conversations and product demonstrations of various products with the IT team um and then we took those uh conversations and went to

075District leadership uh made an agreement on the benefits and uh the the power that uh parent Square can bring to us uh we also reached out to other districts we have districts in Connecticut that are using it um that we that we know know of and have been using it for some time we've heard nothing but great feedback positive feedback from their use um and both on the staff side and the parent engagement side um so that got us very excited we signed the agreement in uh December of 2023 the implementation team which was made up of myself Denise Walsh our um systems information manager who does everything Power School related um and Kathy Cavo our lead tech met with parents Square we set up our accounts got everything sinking anything that happens in power

076school comes over to parents Square so if somebody changes their email address gets a new phone number um and it gets updated in power school the next day it's in um parents Square um like a lot of our other Platforms in February I visited with the whiskin ear staff and introduced parent Square to them along with smart sites um and we also introduced the platform to the newly formed uh speaks committee help me superintendent parent student parent educator advis advisory committee to the superintendent thank you yep um and we continue that discussion in March and um in yellow right here is where we are right now earlier today I visited the CES faculty um and introduced parents Square to them uh I'll talk to Mr Blanda and we'll get on with the high school very

077soon um and yesterday we sent our introductory letter to parent uh to staff um and let them start logging into their accounts earlier today we sent it to parents um and we've already had some start to create accounts we've had some parents reach out uh where they maybe hit a wrong button and needed needed it fixed or just had some questions so we've already got people starting to kind of log in and and get started um so now that we're at this point the next couple months are going to be soft rollout uh we are going to test platform tools um learn them um schedule trainings for staff and families um and then assist with any account registration and setup we are in soft launch mode um with a with a release of go live

078in July um and then when're never done when we go live uh that just starts the next step which will be um we're going to do some parent uh training sessions or or information sessions and some evenings in August we'll hold some inperson we'll hold some virtual uh sessions uh and then we'll Al also have uh professional development professional training for staff when they return uh for their first couple of days in August um and I put August through October and Beyond because we're going to kind of do this in phases we're not going to show everything at one shot we're going to do the parts that they need to do to communicate and then when we get to the parent teacher conference part of it we'll teach that module and and we'll kind of

079move on down down the road as to not overwhelm everybody um smart sites has been kind of a similar timeline um except that uh we've been having conversation and and kind of decision- making over a new District website for for probably over a year now um looking at different uh Solutions and platforms and um so that's kind of stretched out over a little more time but again we signed that agreement um myself Denise and Kathy met with um uh the smart site team to develop our timeline in February we developed our much needed and um longtime coming Web Master committee made up of um some it team Administration and the individuals in each school that actually are in charge of updating the website um and they are going to be a regular part of the

080implementation of this page and currently right now where we are in um after we in February after we chose the design that I showed you um we are currently the company gave us a Sit map which is a list of every link page everything that you click on our current website and it's our decision what we want to bring over and what we don't want to bring over um you know we obviously want to bring over Rel new fresh information but some of the older stuff will end up archiving um and and not bringing over uh and going from there April May and June will be continue to refine adjust fix get ready for July 1st and then when you start going to Brookfield ps.org on July 1st you'll get parents square instead of our

081current District website uh and we are very very excited about that so what's parent Square replacing in the district parent Square can do all of these School messenger which is our current mass communication system so when you get your emails from BPS Communications they're coming from a platform called School messenger we'll be switching over to parents Square talking points is a communication platform focused on our multilanguage learner uh population parent Square can handle that as well with the private messaging feature so we'll be switching over to that meet the teacher which is our current parent teacher conference and event scheduling platform parents Square can handle that Panorama which does our current um climate surveys coming out probably within the next month or so actually it's about that time of year parent Square will do that

082and then remind and class tag remind and class tag are both classroom communication tools um that are informally used throughout the district so we support we we allow their use they mat meet all the data privacy laws all that but we as the district don't require the use of them and it's up to the individual teachers as to whether or not they'd like to use remind or class tag um and while I put this on another slide I'll note this here parent Square actually bought remind um and so now that is probably going to be going away and absorbed into power school anyway uh parent Square anyway um and because I think it's important and we we obviously are having um budget discussions throughout from October through the rest of the year um I thought

083I'd share the budget impact that this has and um you can see the current cost uh on the left hand side of what all these platforms cost this year not forecasted for next year what they cost this year and what the parent square and District website portions will cost next year so you'll see here we have a savings of $1,676 um in looking at this I did receive one renewal quote uh before I had informed the vendor that we weren't renewing and that was talking points which is going up well over $14,000 next year so the savings are actually going to be greater and those are already reflected in the budget um and there was a one-time implementation cost of um $5,250 which was paid out of this year's budget to be able to do

084the soft roll out um and as many of the things that have come to the board this year uh and we thought was important as well was that parent Square does align to our strategic plan um most obviously for commun communicators and collaborators um but also on the other two it touches on all four uh and we see we have um investment in District technology and uh tools to enhance School the learning process um and all educational impact of the district um one of the things I like to point out is is while it says down here uh regular feedback from all staff is collected to evaluate technology programs and platforms uh we obviously had feedback from other school districts um and some members of our community as well so we did reach out past

085the district um to hear more about parent Square um and then uh you know this fits in again here continued development of of Technology infrastructure and uh timely and userfriendly communication community and staff engagement um and uh we've heard the feedback that we could do more and parent square is our more and it's going to be our more so um again very excited to bring It Forward tonight that's all I have um I'd happy to take any questions uh otherwise thank you it's great thank you Eric thank you it really does look user friendly did you guys have questions I how does the company recommend the roll out what is their recommendation to roll it out to the community um so to get B you know everyone to buy in and yeah so they they

086they have a whole welcome kit a whole launch kit um and all that and so uh we are actually right online so um an announcement to our community uh and then next is going to be actual tomorrow I was um I opted to not do it today I'm going to do it tomorrow um we actually send invitations with unique links to parents and families um and then with like an invitation please join parents Square um and then come to us and then of course training training training training um and parent Outreach and which is why we're doing our sessions in um August and Beyond but we're going to have in school sessions in the evenings some virtual sessions and actually during virtual sessions was a recommendation that came out of speaks um to offer more

087to parents um and then and then it committing to the use of it yeah is is really the big one yep we've already heard from some parents who are eager to be part of this early roll out so um Dr BR th those folks should get in touch with you and you'll put them in touch with already was in touch with one person already I already got a message about one y yeah um I have a couple questions so um this obviously needs every parent to participate right so it's like we need like 100% of parents to in order because how else are they going to get Communications that's a great question um that is ideal of course in any situation uh however this does work like School messenger okay um in the fact that

088there is no sign up due to the importance of notification so should a parent not sign up um which really comes down to signing up really gives the ability to customize your account add and remove phone numbers change your notification preferences and look at historical posts because nothing goes away those posts just keep going like Facebook they keep going down and down and you can look back when a notification is sent whether it's from a teacher to their classroom or from the district offices to the entire District the emails are still sent just like they are now so nobody is left in the dark even if they don't register an account okay so it's it's the question is do they want to interact two ways MH yep great um and then my next question was

089about so for some of our families who might not speak English is is there any sort of like translation that the platform can do so that's uh so yeah so while my the email that we sent out went out in English of course uh that's why the next part is going to be the invitation to families okay um because all of the data is already synced and as part of kind of how that talking points tool works and how parents Square tool is going to work when we send out the invitation it will send out to the native language that the parents have specified in power school okay so you know whatever the language they pick there we also have some families that um while let's say Spanish is their primary language they actually still

090choose to receive the email in English and they do so we have those cases so so the system will handle on a Case by case basis and send it out great right now it has a capacity for 100 languages wow that's really great over over 100 yeah yep awesome I just had a couple questions um on the um meeting sorry on the movie it mentioned the um did we take did we get all the add-ons or some of yes because that's kind of at the end where I said the three packages um that's the part of that video that's just a little they don't have a newer one they don't there's no there's there's one add-on I didn't take okay and it's the um because there and there was only one add-on to take everything

091else that you saw there was included in it um because they because they changed their software packages the only add-on was um the phone call ability from inside of the app but we just put in a whole new districtwide phone system so we we we staff can use the phones that they have available to them to make phone calls everything else written communication wise is available to us to to implement as we see okay and then you mentioned that power school and updates some power school and the messaging system on power school is probably not going to be used anymore because they'll use that like you know teachers have the ability to message their classes on power school they probably would go right so this is a this is a district initiative um and a

092district directive that it will all go through parent square that is correct digital Locker wise like for parents in the beginning of the year they're still going to go to Power School to do all that that That Remains the Same um because parent Square doesn't have a solution for that um the other one that I got asked about a lot was for the elementary for CES was the pick my kid app um parent Square also does not have a solution for that so there are a couple things that that aren't going to be able to to go into parent square but um this is growing so who knows by next year we could be talking about adding that in and the last thing how secure is the login procedure on Power Square is there like

093it sends you a code and does all that or is it just email two Factor authentication we're going to set that up okay um because that is actually a requirement anyway of our uh cyber security Insurance um which is why we have all of our staff doing it now um and we we have to do it with all of our platforms so at least on at least on the staff side thank you so will the staff be advised to that would be their main way they communicate with parents correct through that okay um so is almost like you know how fluid is the communication like the group is that what it means by groups where you create a group like in a class um you see classes and then and I have to go back

094to it but it's like groups so yes so a lot of the um that will depend on some of that will depend on what the teacher sets up so for example all the classes right so Power School rosters all of our classes that's where kids get their class schedule or anything like that a teacher could create a custom group um you know say for chess club or I'll use it ski team um anything like that so is that for the parents or it's so that that side is for that side is for staff okay yep okay okay guys good great questions thanks guys and thank you Eric that was super informative thank you really appreciate it thank you okay so uh let's move to um item C under new business this is about um security

095task force committee membership I move that the board approve Rosa Fernandez and Stephanie sakur as the new board representatives for the security task force second um so uh can we get a vote that uh to approve Rosa and Stephanie as the new board representatives for the security task force all in favor say I I any opposed okay so uh it passes unanimously on security task force committee membership thank you let's move now to the we have two um motions under healthy food option the first is certification and the second is about a food and beverage exemption and for people listening you have to listen to the whole thing because they seem to be identical for the first half and then they you can see the difference in the second half so take it away I

096move the pursuant to CGS section 10- 215f the Brookfield Public Schools Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the school under its jurisdiction and not exempt Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2025 this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines School cafeterias culinary programs and any fundraising activity on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups second okay um do we have a vote I mean all in favor okay any opposed okay so uh the first motion about

097healthy food certification passes unanimously now the second one I move that the Brookfield Public Schools Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10 -221 Q of the Connecticut General statutes provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend and two the sale is at the location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store an quote event unquote Is An Occurrence that involves more more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter Scholastic debates are events

098but soccer soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the quote regular school day end quote is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official School Day quote location end quote means where the event EV is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales second okay um all in favor of uh this motion say I I any oppos okay so the um the motion for healthy food uh food and beverage exemption also passes unanimously and before we move on did you guys sit and like look at that motion for a long time I was like but what about cupcakes you know um so so it's good that they made an exception because I think that contributes to school spirit and fundraising

099um okay so then let's move now to item F uh the policy on survey of students I move that the board approve policy number 61 6251 survey of students for a first reading as recommended by the policy communication subcommittee exhibit H second okay so for first for first readings we vote on this as well yes we vote for the first there's discuss something first okay so um uh yeah is there any discussion on this motion since it's on the floor yeah so I want to be very clear that um you know I did vote to move this to the full board um because I'm on the committee um but since then you know something's come up and I'm not comfortable with some of the language given um something that has come up instructionally um within

100the past couple weeks so I'm not really comfortable with that first very first sentence in this policy on in this policy surveys analysis or evaluations refer to methods of gathering data for research purposes so um it's come to my attention that if our students are given surveys if it's not it's doesn't fall under these categories if it's not for research purposes so um I interpreted it originally as if it falls under the a throughh item that it's off the table so um if it says research purposes even if it's a survey given and it let's say a political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the student's parents if it's a survey that that's the goal is to identify their political affiliation um I think it's in violation of the policy so um if having

101that word research is what's going to you know make or break the policy then I'm not in support of the policy who would be doing the research well could be anybody we just make sure I don't know about research so that we just don't step on each other's talk sorry that's did you want the floor that was it okay did you want to respond what did you say oh it said you said it doing for research purpos yeah I don't yeah I mean so they collect the data someone's researching and doing something with the data I wasn't sure who gets the data not doing the research right I don't know who's doing the research could I ask a question sorry I don't want um so I guess maybe this kind of addresses like your question

102too so when you survey whoever surveys because plenty of surveys go on right some from the district some are from outside organizations right it's you're Gathering data for research purposes right because why else would you ask anybody any questions right so I guess my question is like what surveys wouldn't be for research purposes that's a great question right so why would we I don't I think by definition a survey is for research purposes so I guess well so if if a survey is being given to students in a classroom right um it I don't know why it would be given for what research purposes it would be given if it's if the end goal is to determine your political affiliation okay can I can I reclaim the um speaking for a second so I I

103thought about this a lot too because um so I think I think you hit on the key phrase there that it's for research purposes and that means that as you guys have drawn out that means that someone is collecting large scale data to say like I don't know something about uh juniors in Connecticut you know what I mean or fourth graders um in uh Fairfield County or whatever um I think that when just from my own experience as a social studies teacher um with giving kids um uh online I guess you could call them surveys to understand their political affiliation that's not for research purposes that's for um the that's for reflection and for I mean I would say instruction um you know like this is this is what the the landscape of ideology could

104look like you know and currently this is where you seem to be but I but that's not that's not research purposes that's like an assignment right so that's why I'm not comfortable with the policy as it reads my understanding was if there's a survey being given and it falls under these one of these a through H items it cannot be given yes you're correct I I think that's that is the case for for research if the Sur for research purposes like if it's from I mean and Dr man could probably help us out here with like organizations that would issue um surveys for large scale data Gathering to students right well so for example when we do have outside agencies um like we had Brookfield cares last year uh administer their their um survey that

105was for research for us for our for our district for our community um and that was so that's that's kind of the idea of collecting data on a specific group and a targeted um intentional way versus an inventory um that might be found online that would give a student information about themselves themselves or yeah I think for context um the the district has operated without this policy we've worked on this for about a year and a half now so um there isn't a rush to move this forward Joy brings up a good point we had a really nice conversation a couple of weeks ago about this exact issue um so certainly we could have a policy meeting on April 24th so given that it's still been brought for first read depending on whether the board

106wants to accept it as first read or not um policy committee given tonight's uh issue that you brought up Jo I think we should bring it back to policy committee and have further conversation do a little do little more of our own research on this for sure okay so would you like to um would you like to table the motion or um advance for a vote I would like to vote all right let's let's go ahead and vote and then um remember this is a vote on first reading first reading anything so there's no vote on adopting the policy tonight it's just a first read to put it before the board okay that's all it is all right um so uh all in favor of um the survey of students policy say I I I

107and all oppos say nay nay okay so um by vote of 43 um the policy for first read has been approved then holla do you think do we want to give board members a date for feedback to the policy committee about this I think we would I think that at the next um at the next policy meeting we should definitely um maybe further discuss this and then come back to the board with some information when's your um next April 24th 4th I think 24th so so maybe by the Monday the 22nd people can get information m if they have any questions to the committee or Monday the 15th May the 15th maybe that be better and then we have break well earlier the better yeah [Music] okay okay um so moving to um item G

108request for additional Capital [Applause] funding sorry about that um do a motion first I'm sorry I was make a motion yeah yeah was going to do can I oh sure no oh no my fault go ahead I'll wait carry on I move that the Board of Education request additional funding from the town in the amount of $913 for the capital project hs201 the BHS control system and $8,000 for the capital project hs2 205 for the BHS guidance Wing roof that's okay uh is there a discussion on this um so as far as I as I knew that that project was closed right the guy in swing roof so yeah can I can I I'll speak to to both of these things so um yeah the project is closed um there are some remaining um invoices

109out left to be paid which have actually put the Po's over budget um it's these are both topics that um have been discussed with um you know on the town side with Mara and Pini um on the town side and there's there's additional both of these projects are bonded projects and so there's um additional funds available if it's a bonded project um funding has to be moved from a similar a bonded project in the same year um Marsha believes that's you know there's funding available this is really a formality because the town can't really just decide to move School capital projects from one project to another so she just wants this sort of formal in writing um I spoke with her today the minutes from this meeting with uh if the board does uh move

110forward and approve this uh recommended motion will suffice as formal documentation that the board is making the request um and and the $913 for the um BHS control system those were just um reimbursables just some some minor invoices that put put it the project over for some reimbursables the $8,000 on the BHS guidance Wing roof was for architectural services on the project so that's what um that's what put those two over budget okay I think one last piece for context the town owns the schools oh one last piece for context the town owns the schools the uh School the Board of Ed does not own the the schools so all capital goes through the town and is separate funding not part of the operational budget that was discussed in the finance report tonight or when

111we develop the budget the capital is a separate Town funded um area are there other uh questions or discussion okay L let's put this um to a vote um the request for additional Capital funding all in favor say hi any opposed so the um motion passes for the request for the additional Capital funding okay moving now to item 12 um old business um we're going to talk about the um adopted budget for next year and um and hear about any changes hopefully they're good ones just action sorry are we on discussion yet about this or is there there's no motion oh okay so Rosa do you want to maybe just give a little insight as to where the board of finances with moving forward with their approved budget which is the town budget right now

112for the public to consider yes so um as you likely know when the board of Selectmen um met and you'll have to maybe correct me on the exact numbers um but we were we were looking at a just over $500,000 reduction to the 2425 budget right um this week the board of Finance um took an additional cut of 153,000 um so we are looking at a total reduction to the 2425 budget of 7 728 728 th000 so most of that um most of that honestly we had started to adjust with the health insurance and with some special education savings um so but there's still about a little over $200,000 in cuts that we will that we will need to find and those are the those are the difficult conversations we'll have to have in these

113meetings the uh that two2 200,000 plus dollars that we need to uh discuss we actually at District leadership meeting met with the principes uh and Mr Roland yesterday and we started just talking in in generalities about where we might find those savings or uh address those cuts and um they're everybody's working on that we're going to uh reconvene in two weeks um and uh come up with a game plan of how we're going to address that I I'm thinking uh if we stay to the St typical course uh we'll bring back a recommendation at the April 10th meeting um we'll have a chart up there with all the reductions meeting $728,000 um like we said Rosie you were talking about reducing the increase in health insurance from what we estimated originally at 7% all the

114way down now with the town to 2% so we've got a lot of favorable information there I think that's like $270,000 toward uh that 728 total cut we're talking about and then um Mr Roland and the team they're working with families um of uh a few of our students who uh actually are in out placement settings and looking forward to coming back next year so there's some significant savings there as well that we've shared with everybody uh in earlier meetings that got us to around 500,000 toward the 72 the now 728 so there's the just over $200,000 we need to find in the next couple of weeks and we'll bring a plan back for you did you guys want to ask other things about the budget okay I'm good okay um all right so that

115that concludes old business um and now we are ready for public comment Mrs C I believe you're first have it first certainly certainly take your time de C 21 medal V dve Brookfield Connecticut I don't know why I said Brookfield but um so I had something entirely different prepared tonight so I'm speaking off the cuff I was going to Echo something similar to the special ed issue that's going on in our district currently but there's something that I feel that I need to address because I see it coming up time and time again at every board meeting parents like myself the taxpayer the parent only gets three minutes time while we're up here it's so important we wait hours to speak um and often times I see parents stopped dead in their tracks you're not

116absorbing what we're saying we're now off track and it's over um what we cannot say while we're here so I just want to establish First Once you allow for public comment in a p and where're this is a public forum freedom of speech our amendment applies you cannot prevent us from saying anything that we wish to say you can recommend it you can suggest it you can say out of respect but you cannot tell us what we can and cannot say matter of fact you participate in C I've seen the districts get awards for it under C and you are all new majority of you I suggest that you study C you know it so that you can be leading our board and not be blindly LED so let me just take a second to

117read this and this is under cave so you can find it there let me see where are we once a board permits public comment well we've established that this is a public forum once a board um permits public comments as part of board meetings freedom of speech requires of the First Amendment apply because the board meeting is considered a public forum therefore a public forum the board cannot pick and choose from which the speakers and the basis of their content of their speech however the board can limit comments to a particular topic hereby creating a limited public for but cannot discriminate based upon the speaker's Viewpoint so with that said um also some BO s have attempted through their policy to prohibit complaints against the district or through about employees stating their names publicly but

118that will not hold up in the court so you cannot prevent us publicly from speaking what we wish to speak about in a public forum with that said establishing that this is a public forum and with all due respect to the police chief I have many you know military and police and my own family but it just makes no sense it's a public forum anybody can live stream this is not protected by you not streaming it live no one is being protected here because the public can live stream it themselves so it just doesn't make any sense with that said you know we talk about issues of things that were considered noncredible threat but we don't talk about the things that were threats like the homecoming the the home the homecoming where an act of

119violence did occur yet the board the superintendent nobody addresses the parents now we have a dance coming up the prom coming up and we don't even know what extra steps or precautions had have been taken with actual acts of VI where actual acts of violence have occurred I think that needs to be addressed thank you Mrs k welome um just to follow up Mrs cese because I'm sure you and I could um probably email about this but but there seems to be some confusion um in my consultations with um the folks at cab um the the board policies can set limits um on um content uh which trust me I'm I'm actively trying to balance the the First Amendment um intent of which you speak um with uh the responsibilities of the board to um

120limit defamation um liable dispersment of character so I I just want you to know that also I just want to add this is this isn't really a back and forth the the the um the role for only person the role that that c the role that c says is that we we need to try to um uh put forth our policies in a consistent way and we are we are working on that so Mrs ventresca you're next I'm an as someone who grew up here in Brookfield and was once so proud to raise my children excuse me Mrs ventresca could you please start with your Christ vesa 23 rapo I apologize in many ways it has become unrecognizable the Brookfield I know and love is a town where after a macro burst wrecks through our

121town neighbors are outside grilling meals for one another and for First Responders and helping to rebuild without question it's a town where if someone in your family is sick or struggling people will come together to support that family in any way shape or form it's a town where you see Neighbors and alumni from years past year after year at the Thanksgiving day football game it was a town filled with Spirit morals and love for one another lately brookfield's taken a turn it's a town divided making headlines Nationwide for allowing pornographic reading materials to stay in the hands of our children for having an SRO accused of having nude photos of underage girls for installing tampon dispensers in a boy's bathroom months before State requirement without any communication to parents prior for having a high school

122principal signing his signature to only his students with he him pronouns for receiving countless bomb threats towards our schools to keeping a middle school art teacher employed after going on a rant about gender identity and calling students against that theory bigots we have videos circulating social media from our Board of Ed meetings people around the country making Brookfield a laughing stock for what we have allowed to happen in this once small quaint town it's embarrassing and the hole will only grow deeper if we don't put an end to it now we have parents desperate to find alternative schooling options because they don't feel this town is equipped at this point to provide a morally safe and neutral environment when parents and taxpayers start pulling their kids from public schools which is happening it's only a

123matter of time before this reflects the town as a whole when taxpayers lose faith in the school system guess who will be voting no when it BEC comes to time to for proposed budget increases for the school system when someone from out of state Googles Brookfield to relocate you think they're a second guest moving here after seeing all these stories about this new news in this town it's a trickle effect for so for those of you who think it's really just about us not getting our way over a book or any single situation you are wrong it all ends up at the end of the day and ultimately we all pay in one way or another many of us aren't looking for anything extreme to happen here at the end of the day we want

124our children to be sent to school knowing they are getting quality education and aren't being influenced politically or sexually by our leaders and Educators we want to know that there are in fact people and policies and place to keep these areas neutral and not feel that when parents come to board ofed meetings to express our concern it clearly holds no weight because members have already made up their minds before we even step foot in the door Brookfield needs a reset and it starts at the top and I just want to add just real quick because I grew up here my mom works here my dad's a coach here my brother's a coach here I protect this town as much as I can to anybody and lately it's just been indefensible and it starts at the

125top so truly I just feel like the whole morale of this town at this point is in everyone here's hands and I just pray that you guys can do right by us because it's up to you thank you Mrs vosa all right so that concludes public comment and now let's move to the three main points so I have um parent square is number one the budget update is number two and I'm not sure where to go with number three so I'm asking for what you could be speak to maybe why it's not maybe why this is not being broadcast that's what I was thinking like safety concerns and like addressing like why yeah we announcing that the the two new members of the security task force and some of the plans going forward kind of

126thing maybe and could fit in the live stream piece under that maybe okay that makes sense yeah and I'll send you like the variety of things I've written down and then you can Adder you can figure out okay thank you okay and um so upcoming events sorry are do not have any additional upcoming events from the previous two meetings yeah Eva pretty much hit them all yeah just a reminder to junior girls out there wear your jackets um okay so um for everybody who's here we're not going to um adjourn the meeting this concludes the public portion of the meeting we're going to move into executive session um to well I move that we enter into executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations as it relates to collective bargaining draft shared services agreement with the

127town of Brookfield regarding the tech department and the draft reorganization chart regarding human resources and the board self evaluation great all those in favor all those in favor okay it is unanimous thank you so much