5-28-19 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening. It is an absolute honor to have everyone here. Though the board would love to thank that you're all for wanting to hear our wonderful voices, we know that this is such an exciting time. It's the end of the year and It's our time to recognize all the amazing work that happens within the school district. Oftent times I think Rotten just does not get recognized for the hard work and the wonderful work that our staff and our students and our parents do. Um, and for us, um, as board members, it's just so nice to to be able to finally have that light shine once a year, um, on the hard work that our staff, um, and our teachers do for the Rotten District. And so, on behalf of the board, um, I just wanted

002to say thank you for all coming um, and, um, uh, uh, I'm excited that you guys will be joining in us in our excitement. Let me just orient um people to what's going to happen for the next hour or so. Um and because there's a little bit of a different um format because we're just trying to always perfect we're always trying to perfect the the craft. Um so what's going to happen is that we are going to have a couple of awards that are separate from recognizing the individuals who work in our in our schools. Um and then what you'll see is you'll see board members stand with the principles when we get to the um individual school awards and that's been a little bit different. So if you guys can just sort of help

003us um um and cheer us on to make sure that we can do do what is good. Um and also then to end our celebration as they always say let there be cake. Um and so that we're going to ask that um people enjoy um the good food that is made by our district. Um and it really is good food. Um and then um feel free to stay if you would like um because at the end of our um of this we will be um having our regular board member excuse me meeting. Um I apologize for that. So with no further ado, um I would like actually for us to rise for the pledge of allegiance. for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> So, what you're

004going to um so you're going to see Dr. Brier and I um kind of talk my name is Kim Watson um talk between each other and so I'm going to actually um bring it to um Dr. Great. Well, good evening. Uh, I'm going to ask Principal Mustafa to come up to the podium. There there is a a fund in Connecticut that some of you may know as the name CE. It stands for the Connecticut Higher Education Trust Fund and there is an essay contest every year. And one of our scholar writers actually won it this year. Chris is gonna explain a little bit about and I hope our writer is here. >> Writer the writer happens to be a first grader. So we're going to hear a little bit and then maybe she can come

005up and be acknowledged. >> So we are proud to recognize Sanvi Jiar Jadar this evening. So Sani can you come up? [Music] So Sanvi is a first grade in Miss Rollins class and she excels in all areas but has a particular talent for writing. This year Sanvi has won four writing awards. Two different um two awards for two different poems that she wrote. both of which have now been published. In January, Sombi's poem, Butterfly and Me was selected for publication in the K to3 category of the poetry contest organized by creative communications. And so her poem has been published in a celebration of poetry for that for butterfly and me in February. Sanvi was notified that her poem Deep into the Sea was chosen for publication by the University of Connecticut in their contest organized

006for student writers. Sanvi and her family just attended the awards ceremony at the Jorgensson Theater a couple of weeks ago where she was also selected to represent all of the grade 1 students by reading her poem at the celebration. And Sanvi's poem, Deep Into the Sea, was published by the University of Connecticut. >> In April, Sanvi was notified by PBS that um she won an award for her story, The Bird and the Bee. Um and so Sanvi received a certificate for her story, and that story will also be published. >> But we're not done. Just a few weeks ago, Sanvi was notified that she was a winner in the chat dream big competition that's organized by the Connecticut Higher Education Trust in the office office of the state treasurer. This contest requires students to either

007write an essay or create a drawing to depict what they will do to change the world after college. The Dream Big Competition selected 48 winners from schools across Connecticut, including only four grand prize winners. And we are proud to announce that Svi was one of those four grand prize winners. Svi illustrated her dream to become a space scientist and build a spaceship that could take kids into space so that they can learn all about it. Her idea came from the fact that she would love to go to space even now, but of course can't because there are no state-of-the-art spaceships that can take kids into space for learning. Sanvi's grand prize comes with a contribution of $1,000 by the office of the state treasurer into the chat 529 college savings account which can be used

008for her future education. CKMS is very proud of Somni and we also want to take a moment to honor her parents who are so supportive of her growth and creativity. [Applause] And now I'd like to ask you and we are going to recognize another writer on the other end of the spectrum at least in our school district. >> Good evening everyone. Sandy, amazing. >> Really are amazing. You keep it up. When you get to the high school, God only knows where you can go from there. Great job. >> Okay, we have junior Alyssa Solomon. Is she here? >> Alyssa. Come on, Alissa. Alyssa is this year's poet laurate at Fitch High School. I'll give you a little background. Alyssa is a member of Amphora, which is Fitch High School's literary magazine. Each year, Amphora conducts

009a schoolwide competition where students can submit a booklet of three poems. The poems are then judged and this year Alyssa was the winner. By winning the competition at Fitch, Alyssa qualified along with five other high school students in southeastern Connecticut to attend a poet laurate seminar with Lisa Star in Rhode Island. Here all the students, they share their poems and they hone their craft. They also read two of their poems at the Mystic Arts Cafe. Two of Alyssa's poems were Daphne about the god Apollo and Daphne from Daphne's perspective and then spring which was an imaginative conversation with maple trees. By the way, Alyssa just found out after she took her SATs in uh April that she had a perfect score. [Music] Think about it. It's amazing. 800 on your verbal, 800 on math. I

010think I got like 900 combined. She gets 1,600. And she looks to attend uh MIT and hopefully she'll get in there, but there's other uh very prospective and prestigious universities that are looking out to grab her by the time she's a senior. So, poet laurate, we're very proud of you, Alyssa, and congratulations. [Applause] Mr. Kentucky, can you come up? Uh, we're going to be giving out a couple of awards uh that are sponsored by the Connecticut Association Boards of Education. This year I had two cave award winners. Charlotte here was an eighth grader at Westside STEM Magnet Middle School. She plays softball, fast pitch softball and had been pitching since the age of eight. At school, Charlotte participates as a leader in student council, morning announcements, and orchestra. In her free time, she enjoys traveling

011with her family. One day, she hopes to have a career doing something with math, applying it to science, possibly even at NASA. The staff at Westside is proud to recognize Charlotte as a cave award recipient. Roberto here. [Music] >> Roberto Reyes is a 14-year-old student at Westside St. Magnet Middle School. He has lived most of his life in Mexico, but due to his stepfather's deployment, he and his family moved to Guam when he was nine in 2014. He began school and didn't know how to speak English, but with the help of his parents. By the beginning of fifth grade, he began speaking more fluently. At the end of fifth grade, Robero received the presidential leadership award given to him for his leadership throughout the year. He finished sixth and half of seventh grade before he

012had to move to Brownsville, Texas, which was across the border from Mexico with his mother and sister. He stayed there for four years before moving to Groten. He finished seventh grade at Westside and is now an eighth grader. Roberto has always been on the honor role throughout our middle school and has been in the band as a percussionist for almost three years. He plans to go to Roberty Fitch Senior High School next year. Is hardworking student who is kind to everyone who crosses his path. He is a great example of what it means to be a dedicated, empathetic person. We are very proud of him and find him to be incredibly deserving of this cape award. [Applause] Now I'd like to invite Mr. mass up and we have two more awards from Cape which is

013a kinetic association of boards and good evening. I'd like to invite Ashley Holmes to come to the podium. Ashley is an eighth grade student at Cutler RT Magnet Middle School. She is an outstanding student. She has consistently achieved high honors throughout her middle school years. In class, she helps others come prepare, is organized, and is a leader in group discussions. Ashley is a person with character and integrity and uses her leadership skills to encourage her peers. Ashley also plays flute in the concert band. Additionally, she is the librarian for concert band and has been a member of the jazz band for three years playing electric bass. Ashley is an outgoing individual who was involved in many extracurricular activities. She served as co-manager for the Cutler Boys basketball team this year. She served as the assistant

014stage manager for Cutler's drama club last year and was the stage manager for this year's production. She has played soccer for Cutler as well as for Brown soccer club. When I say she's outgoing, I would say for maybe almost every time I see Ashley, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, it's always Mr. Smile. And this is a kid with the character like I said like like I said character and integrity just outstanding. I can't say enough of how proud I am to uh present this award. Welldeserved award. Congratulations. Dyler, please come to me. Dylan, an eighth grader, is an outstanding student and he has consistently achieved high honors throughout his middle school years. His teachers report that he is an individual who goes out of his way to help others in class. Dylan is always prepared for

015class and excels at learning. Dylan is a student of high character whom his peers respect in the classroom and beyond. He doesn't always get to see this personally, but I do. A lot of things happen that Dylan doesn't may not be even aware of, but your peers really do look up to you. And it really speaks to your character. He consistently uses good judgment and encourages others to do the same. Even when this may not be the most popular stand to take, it's not easy to do this. Dylan is an avid basketball athlete, having played for Cutler's basketball team the past two years. He was also co- captain of the team this year and has played outstanding leadership skills both on and off the court. Additionally, Dylan enjoys playing both baseball and basketball at AA

016level. This is a young man who I expect to see great things from. No pressure. But again, I I can't say enough of how proud I am of what you've achieved and how much you have grown in your three years at C. And I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. Congratulations. I'm going to ask Mr. Reese to come back. We're gonna recognize two students that the board knows extremely well who have uh not not only uh I'll just speak a little bit if you don't mind. Sorry for >> we we we often we often have students who serve uh kind of as non- voting members but they usually are are quite quiet. Uh these uh two young people have not been quiet at all. they have contributed uh seriously they've contributed

017really significant amount of information that the board has used to make key decisions and so uh when we say we we have two student representatives on our board of education we have two students of a legitimate voice here a seat at the table literally so I'll let you start speak >> well Fitch High School is very proud of the two of each uh young people for what they've done not only at the high school and you have a year more to give to the high school. Dan, we're getting rid of enough of him for four years, but uh you'll be back and uh there'll be another student in dance place. So, Addy Clark, would you come up please? is a junior at Fitch High School. As you know, she served this year as the board

018of education liaison and she's the vice president of the class of 2020. She's acted in the band, music programs at pitch and other clubs at the high school such as more than words and the student council. She has also painted murals for the middle school and the high school and is currently helping students paint sets in the drama club at Cutler Arts and Humanities Magnet Middle School. We are very very proud of Addie and uh she is uh going to do great things next year at the high school and beyond. Congratulations. [Applause] Come on up, Dan. Dan is currently a senior. As I said, in three weeks or so, he'll be hitting the road. Uh he has served uh as the board of education leaison for the past two years and has held a class

019officer position for all four years at the high school. He's the captain the boys cross country team and indoor outdoor track. He also holds uh office in the national honor society as the secretary and he's on the principal's advisory committee helping me run the school. if I only took his advice. Daniel represented Fish High School in 2018 Connecticut boy state where he was elected Senate Majority Leader. >> That's a good one. Senate majority leader. It's like the guy who's running it now. In addition to being involved at school, Dan has participated four years of youth mission trips with his church. He plans to go to college. I know you told me, I forgot. Where you going? >> Franklin College. >> Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania. Right. I remember that. And to continue serving the Graten

020community. Congratulations, Dan. And we So before we move on to the friends, the friends of education and the teacher, I know that our board is so incredibly proud of the children that we serve and the ones that we saw presented with awards And there's so many more. Doesn't it make Broton proud? [Applause] >> Well, we're gonna we're gonna try to do a little different format. I'm going to ask Miss Dalphane to come up and chairman Watson and uh they are going to present the friend of education support personnel award and then the outstanding educator everything uh those three positions for Katherine Konowski team magnets. So, Katherine Kowski is proud to have Steve Burns as our Friends of Gren Education Award recipient. Steve Burns has been a member of our CKMS family for two years, but

021he's made a huge difference in that time. This year he happily took on the task, somewhat happily maybe um of serving as our PTO president despite his busy schedule. I'm not sure he quite knew what he was getting into, but he never stopped serving with a smile. Although new to running meetings, Steve's PTO meetings are efficient, pleasant, and everyone attendance feels heard and respected. He's the kind of role model our students need to see more of in our community. He manipulates his schedule so he can attend book fairs, after school events, and even copy papers. And he is very good at multitasking, often keeping an eye on his very energetic youngest son, who you can hear over there, while completing tasks for our school. Mr. Burns is always thinking of our students and our school

022community. This year the PTO held our first evening holiday shopping event for students. It was a loud fun familyfilled center family centered event and Mr. Burns and the rest of his elves were decked out in their holiday hats and sweaters as they help children find just the right gift. It's also common to see this kind, hardworking, and gentle man stop to chat with students while shelving books in the library and while they ask what they're do what he's doing. Mr. Burns is a gift to our community. And behalf on the of the CKMS family, I want to say thank you for all you do for our community. CKMS's non-certified personnel award recipient this year is Mr. Robert Schaefer. We are proud to have Robert Schaefer, Mr. Bob, as this year's non-certified personnel award recipient. Mr.

023Schaefer consistently goes above and beyond the duties of his job description. He cares for our building like it is our family home, which is perfect because that is how our school family views our building. He is sure to fix small problems when they arise, doing his best to asssure they don't become bigger problems down the line. He cares about how our home looks and works to prevent the growing number of years and use from showing. Bob supports the staff in any way he can. Quick to respond to and help solve any problem a classroom teacher may encounter. His knowledge runs the gamut from the technical to the personal. However, his true specialty lies in his relationship with our students. Mr. Bob, as the kids know him, is an adult that every student in the building

024knows they can talk to and trust. He is friendly, approachable, kind, empathetic, and inclusive. All traits that hold special importance at CK. On any given day, you will witness Mr. job having a friendly conversation with a student or helping a student work through a problem. He supports staff and our school culture by relaying to the students the standards, routines, and expectations of our building. Bob Schaefer is an irreplaceable member of our CKMS community, and he helps make CKMS an exceptional place to work. CKMS's outstanding educator for this year is Mr. Christopher Gabby. Chris Gaddy personifies the word passionate. He is a high energy educator pumping up students with positivity. This enthusiasm is not contained to his classroom alone, however, but to any student or adult with whom he comes in contact. He is the Mr.

025Congeniality of CKS. [Music] Chris starts teaching with his locker pep talk at the sound of the bell each morning and he doesn't stop until the last possible second of the school day. Sometimes needing reminding that the students do need to get on the bus and go home. He takes extra time giving up his lunch to help students that need that extra TLC. Chris has high standards for both academics and character that he challenges and supports his students in reaching. He encourages kids to take pride in their work and themselves and then celebrates their accomplishments. He sees that every student has the ability to be amazing and his students consistently exceed expectations because of the high level of engagement he fosters in all subject areas. Chris's sense of humor and unique style is truly a strength

026which he uses to make students feel welcome, take risks, feel good about themselves, and feel good about learning. Chris also takes risks as a teacher and his successes are always evaluated by the success of his students. Even the small successes don't go unnoticed. This has been a transformational year for Chris as a math teacher. But due to his commitment and reflective qualities, every year is a transformational year for Mr. Gabby. He owns that he too is always a learner and his teaching practice expands every year. Chris knows the importance of building and fostering relationships with both students and adults. He is a man who notices the fine details. commenting on a haircut, new sneakers or accessories. Always amazes me that he knows the name of the pattern of the clothing that I wear and and

027spread smiles with his exuberant appreciation. Whether it's his staff emails filled with CK pride and vocabulary that would make any English professor proud or encouraging notes on tough days, Chris makes our profession a personal journey for all individuals and we always feel his full support. I know that Chris would not have all of this positivity, passion for life, and love of learning if he didn't have the support of his loving wife, Kristen, and his two amazing boys, Oliver and Eli. Thank you for sharing him. Hi. Thank you for sharing him with us, his students, his team, and our whole CK family know how lucky we are to have him as part of our family. [Applause] And now I'd like to ask Mr. Danner come forward towards school. J, you would like to stand. >> Hi,

028good evening. Could I have Mrs. boring for our friends of education awards. [Applause] >> Are you ready? >> No. >> It is our privilege to nominate officer Lauren Pippener for the Grten friend of Education Award at Charles. Lauren has been our DARE officer at Farnum over the years I've been here. I asked Becky how long it's been and her response was, "Oh my, it's been a long time." Although she spends most of her time with the fifth grade students and teachers, she is known for being punctual, wellprepared, and shows enthusiasm when working with everyone. Lori is very down to earth, approachable, and hilarious. She always comes in with a smile and leaves with a half smile. How can you do this all day long? It's so difficult. She creates developmentally developmentally appropriate lessons and creates

029a wonderful rapport with students. How does one become part of the Barnum family? You sit in front of the entire school while in uniform and let random students throw pie at you. That's Lauren. When talking with the staff, they commented on how Lauren was obviously moved when she told the children it was her final year of teaching there. Lauren wants to wish Lauren the best of luck on her new path and she'll be missed. [Applause] Can we have Miss Emma Rner for our concert? [Applause] right here. There you go. Emma is a food court employee that has been assigned to Charles Barnes over the past couple of years and we have been lucky to have her. She comes to work every day with a positive attitude and a willingness to help above and beyond her

030expectations. She has visited and taught farm-toschool lessons in all of our classrooms and has had the entire student body rotate through our garden to plan, weed, pick, look, study, or wonder. She displays kindness and interest toward every child she works with and will collaborate with adults in the same manner. Emma hosts taste tests during lunch on a regular basis and gets students to eat funky mixes of vegetables. Who does that? She does. Why do they continue to eat? Maybe it's the attention she gives, the passion she has for working with children, or she gets adults to try the food in front of the students and tells everyone, "Don't yuck my yum." Yeah, that's right. Don't yuck my yum. It all works well for her. Adam has been a great asset to our Charles Baron family,

031and we are pleased to have her receive the non-certified personnel award. one more. >> Come on back. >> All right. For our outing educator, could we please have Mrs. Patricia L. Charles Baron Elementary School is proud to announce Patricia Montgomery as their outstanding educator for 2019. Mrs. Montgomery has been teaching for over 36 years and began her journey as an educator in the preschool program at Eastern Point Elementary School. Patricia moved on to teach grades two to three at Pleasant Valley and most recently at our school. Gr has a special place for Mrs. Montgomery as her husband Joe works for the maintenance department and her GR sorry maintenance department for the GR schools and her son Christopher attended the GR schools. Patricia's father is a retired SB Butler teacher and still serves as a guiding

032force in her love of education. Step into the classroom and you will find a bright, colorful, welcoming environment that fosters a love of learning in her students. a place where students feel safe, secure, and ready to learn. Mrs. Montgomery is a natural for individualizing instruction to meet the needs of each of her students diverse needs and learning styles. Mrs. Montgomery builds connections with her students and their families, taking extra time to get to know each of her students, letting them hear if they are having a bad day, attending special events, including band concerts, soccer, and baseball games, karate practice, and more. She works hard to make each of her students feel special and proud of who they are. Pat is a teacher whose dedication goes far beyond the classroom. She serves on the rotten teaching

033and learning collaborative, the school leadership team, and has played an active role in a GE union for many years. She has written curriculum, facilitated professional development, and hosted a faculty meeting in a room, sharing her expertise with colleagues in building connections with students and families. She has served as president and is a longtime member of Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary organization of women educators dedicated to educational excellence, altruism, and world understanding. Perhaps her students are best at summing up the essence of Mrs. Montgomery's outstanding educator qualities. To quote one of her students, "When I think of Mrs. Montgomery, one thing that comes to mind is caring. Her classroom is colorful and makes me feel happy. She's funny and makes learning fun. She even goes for our gymnastics practices or football games. When we are

034feeling sad, she gives us a stuffed animal to make us feel better. Congratulations on being selected by your peers as teacher of year, Mr. Montgomery. And thank you for your dedication to education. If Mrs. Gordano would come up, we'll have the presentation of >> Hi. Hey, Frank. How are you? >> All right. Can I ask Mr. Bob Mercer to come up? He is our friend the pride and recip honored for that. So Mr. Bob I was going to say another Mr. Bob. So Mr. Mercer aka Mr. Bob for the kids has been a sensational volunteer to Claude Chester as a mentor for grade two students. Mr. Mr. Bob meets with his student weekly as a coach, a supporter, and a phenomenal role model. When I asked the grade 2 student what he likes about Mr.

035Bob and how does he know that Mr. Bob cares about him? The student said, "Well, I like Mr. Bob because he brings clay and we make stuff like humans or a chicken." He said, "We eat lunch together and play connect." Mr. Bob said he was a champion at Connect Park when he was a kid. I was impressed by that and I didn't know how to play until he taught me. It was wonderful. I beat him three to nine times. He said, "I know Mr. Bob cares about me because he knows I'm a great kid and I that means a lot." Thank you, Mr. Bob, for your dedication, your hard work, and helping to make CC a great place for great kids. Congratulations. All right, I would ask Jenna Fury to come on down. She is

036our non-certified professional award recipient for Cloudchester. We are quite proud of her. So Jenna is a positive, upbeat, patient paraprofessional who always has a smile on her face and a warm greeting for all staff, students, and parents. Jenna truly enjoys what she does and deeply cares about the students with whom she works. She handles all situations that arise throughout the day, and there are many, with confidence and kindness. She knows her students very well, is observant to their needs and attentive to them at all times. She willingly offers additional ideas and provides feedback to their classroom teacher and other service providers as well as ask many questions in order to obtain additional strategies. Jenna follows through various activities across settings from the regular education classroom to speech room to resource room and then really celebrates

037and highlights all of her students successes. Jenna is dedicated, professional, and a true asset to the Codchester family. Congratulations, Jenna. Thanks to all. All right. We ask that Tracy Rollard head on down. We are proud to recognize her as our teacher of the year for college. So Tracy is a passionate, optimistic teacher who is truly dedicated to her students. She gets excited to learn many new approaches, techniques, and strategies to hone her craft. Tracy will tirelessly research several ways to target students specific needs. She will then implement the newly learned approach and is incredibly talented at capturing detailed notes of what she has learned about a student, then collaborates and seeks advice and suggestions from other teachers and service providers based upon her findings. Tracy is always pleasant and cheery and has a witty sense

038of humor. She smiles all day long, even when things are a little bit challenging. She is a solution finder and keeps a can do attitude. When presenting a student at an intervention team meeting, Tracy always highlights the many positives about a student. She truly cares about each one of her students as if they were her own children, making those all important connections with each of them. She fosters an encouraging, supportive classroom environment with great classroom management systems in place and creative handy tips on how to keep materials organized. Tracy is a risk taker and creative thinker. She sets her students up for success. She does whatever it takes to capture her students attention. If you go into her classroom during readers workshop, it is a true model of active engagement and love of reading. Tracy

039plans for her students to have access to a plethora of authentic test text and as well as iPad and additional resources. We often joke that Tracy basically sleeps at Rochester because she's all there all hours making certain her lessons and classroom are exciting for the next day. Congratulations, Tracy. Thank you for all you do. And now I'd like to find Dr. Well, two of Mary Morrison's recipients couldn't be here tonight, but I want to tell you a little bit about these two special people that do so much for our school. Uh the first recipient is the Grten Friend of Education and that is Cassandra Tatum. She's a volunteer at Mary Morrison who's given fabulous service to the school and has been selected by the staff to receive this award. Mrs. Tatum is recognized for her

040willingness to give unselfishly, her time, and energy. She spent many hours volunteering in our school. She's demonstrated a commitment to our students by ensuring that our school store is open every week. Our students love her and always look forward to the days that Mrs. Tatum has made sure the store is open for business. Mrs. Tatum is a veteran and a military spouse who finds the time to do it all from the school store to walk working the book fair. And in addition, we're fortunate to have her as part of our community. Parents like Mrs. Tatum play a vital role in the success and the achievement of our students. And we send a heartfelt thanks to her and to her family who, like most volunteers, give so much and ask so little. award. And our second

041recipient is um our school secretary who's being honored as our non-certified um personnel. So, we are fortunate enough to have Lauren Lions work at our school and she is part of a an enormous uh group of staff who are committed to our students and contribute to the educational environment and most importantly devote an enormous amount of time and effort to a daily job. We have many incredible professionals throughout our building that enable Mary Morrison to be a great place to work and for our students a great place to learn. However, it's our incredible secretary who brings it all together. For many years, Lauren Lion has consistently gone above and beyond to support each and every student and staff member at our school. Each day, she puts in an incredible amount of devotion and effort to

042her job. and as her ability to multitask goes far beyond typical expectations. Without question, she is the engine that keeps our building moving forward each and every day. In addition to her commitment to her profession and our student population, Mrs. Lion is truly supportive of all of our staff. Some of your some of them who are here tonight, I'm sure, would agree with me. Whether it's scheduling the appropriate coverage on days when we are understaffed or teachers are out of the classroom or supporting our daily responsibilities as educators, she's always there for us. So, the staff at Mary Morrison feel very strongly that Lauren Lion is welld deserving of this award and thank her for all her service. And now, the Mary Morrison Teacher of the Year. I'm very proud and honored to recognize Matt

043Servin. >> Matthew Servin is a fourth grade teacher at Mary Morrison. He was nominated by his colleagues as outstanding teacher of the year because of the dedication he brings to his students as well as the collaborative spirit he brings to his work with Mary Morrison's teachers and most especially with his grade level team. It's so great to see someone like Matt honored as teacher of the year. Ideally, it's an award that should go to a teacher that inspires those around them and somebody that goes beyond expectations. Matt is the first one in the door each day and the last one to leave. During the hours in between, the passion he brings to our school is unparalleled. If you know Matt at all, you know he is a sports fanatic. It's fitting because many of his

044best traits fall within the framework of what you would look for in the ideal teammate. Whether it be ideas, materials, or workload, Matt's willingness to share is unprecedented. A better testament to his character, however, is that he does it all selflessly. He has never looked for accolades or thanks. His sole focus is to help sure that kids at Mary Morrison have the best experience possible. Speaking of kids, when you watch the way Matt teaches, you just know that he will be that teacher. Matt will be the one that kids talk about years from now as their favorite. Although he has a well-earned reputation as the loudest teacher in our school, that's not the reason his students will remember him. Matt's greatest ability and the reason he is so successful is his ability to form connections

045with all of his students. He works hard at it and realizes the value of creating a culture of trust that will build strong relationships and will celebrate the uniqueness of each of his students. He is the rare teacher who knows his students individually, culturally, and developmentally just as well as he knows the content he teaches. Students may not remember a specific lesson he taught from them years from now, but they will remember that he took the time to care about them. And that's the difference. Earlier this year, Mary Morrison family lost a most beloved former colleague, Virginia Effman. Matt cherished being able to work with her in her final years at Mary Morrison. And when reflecting on what she meant to him, he said that watching her dedication after 40 plus years of teaching was

046something that inspired him to work even harder than he already was. We all need those people in our life to emulate. People that push us to be even better than we thought we were capable of being. At Mary Morrison, we are lucky to have one of those people in our building. This person is Max. Now as Melson Nelson for Hi, excuse me. Good evening. Um, Stephanie Wheeler, the NEA assistant principal would also like to be here. She wrote these lovely words, but NEA does have, of course, the second third day course going on this evening. So, our rotten flight of education award, we're very proud. Becky Bog [Applause] for six years. Since her daughter Mallerie was in kindergarten, Becky Bogle has been a devoted member of the NEA community. She has volunteered, organized events, been

047an integral part of the PTO, and an overall positive positive presence in our building. Becky has been a faithful and dedicated volunteer and supporter of the NEA library for many years. In addition to coming in weekly to help with any tasks that need to be completed, Becky has helped with many literacy events and initiatives such as ReadAcross America week, Children's Book Week, and Family Literacy Night. She's also available to help students and staff, always with a friendly smile. Becky's reach extends beyond the library. She has organized the winter carnival for many years and is often the go-to person for PTO fundraisers. She often takes on jobs others don't even think of or want, such as trying to reunite lost and found items with their owners and advertising all events and notices big and small on

048Facebook. This year she participated in planning the spaghetti supper, beloved NEA tradition, and the biggest fundraiser of the year. We are grateful at NEA for all the enthusiasm, organization and dedication Becky has directed towards NEA through the years and consider her an outstanding friend of education. [Applause] NEA's non-certified personnel award goes to Katie Burch. Katie is a special education parent professional at NEA. She contributes to the students in the school in so many ways. She is a consistent pair professional for a child who needs her and a wonderful asset to all the students. She is helpful in creating peace and harmony in the classroom. Very important by modeling problem solving and redirecting students in a loving way when needed. She adapts to changing situations and is always willing to help in any area of the

049school when needed. Katie takes ownership over the progress of the student with whom she works. She feels real pride when the student achieves an academic or social emotional goal. Katie's creativity and determination will benefit the student she works with for many years to come. NEA is a better place because of Katie and we are honored to be awarded her this award. And now, congratulations. We'd like to bring up Miss Carrie Federico Baker for her selection. Carrie possesses so many wonderful virtues and traits, too many to list here. but to do justice are effective to her effective and exemplary teaching. However, one virtue stands out so prominent that it must be mentioned because the essent is the essential ingredient in her being love. Carrie is a deeply kind and loving teacher with a heart full of

050joy that you can just feel every time you enter her classroom. The students in her class are a happy bunch of busy little kids, sharing, caring, learning, and growing. Safe and secure, and comfortable knowing each of them are are an important part of her wonderful kindergarten family. There is no more important task for a kindergarten teacher than to create an environment of trust and learning while instilling a desire in children to love school and want to come every day. Car's naturally warm and kindhearted approach enables all students to begin their lifelong journey of challenges and experience with confidence and enthusiasm. Just like their teacher, her students hearts and eyes are full of excitement and love when they're talking and building, questioning and playing. Carrie is the most valuable treasure of Northeast. She is an accomplished,

051incredibly talented teacher. Her students excel in all areas of academic, social, and emotional growth. Her creative and engaging lessons and activities are consistently noteworthy and tonight's recognition by her peers and colleagues is a sign of the deep respect for the positive impact she has at NEA. But all of these attributes again are secondary to what makes her truly exemplary. The warm heart and deep love of helping all children to understand, to learn, to grow, and to share their own love for family, classmates, and friends on this journey of life. Congratulations and thank you. And now I'd like to ask Mr. Wheeler Yes. >> Okay. I'd like to ask up uh Karen Wagner. She is our nominee for our friend of education award at Est Butler this year. So it is a great pleasure that SD

052Butler is nominating Karen Wagner, our friend of education for the 201819 school year. Karen has dedicated many hours to the students and staff over the last several years. During her time as co-president of our PTO, she has supported building initiatives by bringing in various local artists, authors, and arranging whole school assemblies, scheduling presenters from the Mystic Aquarium, and helping out during many of our evening activities. During National Teacher Appreciation Week, Karen brings in a coffee cart filled with snacks and refreshments as a way to say thank you to all of our teachers. The cup of coffee or tea and a snack hits the spot and our teachers definitely look forward to it. Over the last two years, Karen has been the driving force behind our book fairs at Espara. The success of our book fairs

053have been a result of her hard work and dedication to our school. She sets up, breaks down, is the primary cashier, organizes volunteers, and even has time to arrange baked goods to accommodate affairs during parent teacher conferences. In addition, Karen has even volunteered her time to monitor our student recess plots. Her patient and calm demeanor came in handy as she navigated many cold and windy days um during those uh long brutal winters. Sometimes Butler the the wind just hit you like a brick, let me tell you. And she's out there with her uh mint her mittens, her gloves, her hats, everything's all set to go. Um, she often navigates arguments that happen in our four square court, the occasional tears that arise, and of course, the unreliably football and kickball games. All handled well with

054a confidence of an experienced mom. >> We are so grateful to have Mrs. Carrie Wagner for the many hours of selfless devotion to our school community. It is volunteers like her that make our school a great place to be. Thank you so much, Tara. At this point, I'd like to call up Kelly Caputo Shen. She is our non-certified. So, I would like Mrs. Porter to read uh for Mrs. uh Shin because uh those of us who know Mrs. Porter know that one of her many tasks in our school is to uh supervise PAR professionals, provide lots of professional development. We do have many paras at our school due to our ADA program. Um and so I'd like Mrs. Porter to take a few minutes and and uh read what she's got to say. >> When

055I saw Kelly sign, I was to recognize you. You look great. Um it is my pleasure um to uh give this award to Kelly Shin. Um, she is one of our most reliable, dedicated pair of professionals at SD Butler and we have we have many. Kelly is patient and kind and has great empathy for all students she works with. She's currently assigned to a young man in our second grade classroom. One needs to observe her working with this young man to truly appreciate the relationship she has developed with him especially at lunch. much of his success, and I say this with the most honesty, um, with his academic, physical, and social goals is due to her ability to understand that it takes patience, caring, firmness with love to see growth in all these areas. I

056love to observe Kelly working with this little guy. He's always laughing and sometimes on purpose, he likes to give her a hard time. She shows such obvious enjoyment when working with him. It's it just oozes out of her. She rises to any challenge with a smile and an okay, I'll do it. But sometimes this that I'll do it. Kelly always maintains high standards for herself and others. For example, she's one of the first people to arrive at work. She beats me. She jumps in whenever needed. She never has said no and is always prepared for her day. We are so fortunate to have her at our school. >> She's truly committed to the well-being of all children. Congratulations, Kelly. Okay, it is my privilege to ask Robin Martell to come down as our outstanding educator.

057It is a privilege to select Robin Martell as our outstanding educator for the 2019 2020 school year from S Butler Elementary School. Robin is a very dedicated and committed music teacher that truly shares her passion for music with all students every day. She goes above and beyond in her duties as a music teacher. Her impact at Butler includes everything from afterchool enrichment clubs to teaching the alphabet through literature. Her hard work and attention to detail are a testament to her teaching style and personal integrity. Robin is a versatile educator, demonstrating her ability to instruct a wide variety of students, including those with severe autism. She takes the opportunity to plan with our special education teachers in the ABA program prior to teaching the students to an adaptive music class. As a result, students prepared for

058the lesson and are able to access the curriculum in a smaller environment, allowing them to shine. Robin also takes the time to build relationships with students that ultimately make their overall school experience a successful one. Her kind and attentive manner makes students feel welcome and willing to take risks. Robin also provides several afterchool enrichment opportunities for our students at SB Road. For the past three years, Robin has put on a musical production for students in third, fourth, and fifth grade. All of this work takes place after school and requires a lot of time and energy on auditioning students, creating props and sets, ordering costumes, running students through their lines, teaching the music for the play, and of course, crowd control. I'm always truly amazed by this. I never go in and actually help. It's fun

059to sit out and misses, but she can do it. We know she can. She works with over 50 students in a gym alone. No one ever goes missing and everyone leaves with the correct parents. All of this preparation leads to a fabulous production that truly does showcase many of our students theatrical abilities. We have one daytime and two nighttime performances that are always very well attended. Several years ago, Robin wrote a grant to fund a program called Drums Alive. It's a curriculum and training program that combines fitness, drumming, music, and educational concepts to improve the physical, emotional, and social health of our students. As a result, we incorporate this program into our weekly special area schedule for students at SC Butler. It truly is a great combination of music and exercise, and the students look

060forward to the experience each week. Robin's tremendous work ethic, commitment to her craft, and genuine positive energy is contagious. She's a great addition to our staff and is a respected member of our school community, and we are very proud to have you. Congratulations. Now, I'd like to invite Mr. advance the principle of color hearts and humanity. >> So, unfortunately, our friend of education could not be here this evening. I believe he's out of town on business, but I just want to take a moment. I'll give you the aid version. I want to talk about Mr. Eric Toriello. He's the vice president of broadcast and film and sist media and uh as part of our receiving a federal magnet school grant. He was instrumental in helping us set up three new digital labs, three new media

061media studios, a digital computer lab, recording studio and a digital music lab through the fall of 2018 to start a school. When you have things as complicated as this, you really need expertise. and he um after being contacted by Miss Pretty much all agreed to come in and help us. He was amazing. He came in late summer and worked with teachers and staff. Taught them how every piece of equipment worked during the school year. He would come in during the day. There were times where I thought that Eric was a full-time employee. He was there so much. I don't know how he can keep his job assigned. But honest to goodness, the instruction, the professional development that he gave to teachers and the mentoring he gave to students in our broadcasting class and in our

062video lab were absolutely crucial to the creation of the video um which showcases what we offer art school. You can feel free to go up on our website and view it. Um he had incredible patience and enthusiasm and we are deeply appreciative of everything that Eric has contributed and and absolutely believe he deserves this honor. So, thank you. Eric, please come down. Jen is our Jen is an amazing pair of professional. Uh she's been with us finishing up her fifth year at cover. four or five. She is a dynamic pair professional. She works with students with a range of abilities at the eighth grade this year. The students have truly thrived under her guidance and with her support. She does so much I'll mention just a few things. She works with teachers to to help

063modify tests and quizzes and homework. She has previous experience as a kindergarten classroom uh aid and this year she worked in a reading group in which the students actually completed reading their first novel ever and she really helped set the schema. She's hands on. Here's how she did it. In the book, one of the main characters participated in the relay race. The students didn't really know what a relay race was. Jen took it upon herself to get some staff members together and enact a relay race. It was great. Along those same lines, she is a great model of being a lifelong learner. In 8th grade, the students have a genetics project that they need to do. It's pretty complicated. Jen took it upon herself to bring this home and do it at night. So, she

064was sure to be prepared to support the students with she works. All the kids know that she stand for them and it shows. We are deeply honored and privileged to have Jen at our school and are thrilled to present her with our noncertified personnel award for this year. Congratulations. Now our outstanding educator of the year. So operations [Applause] [Music] Sana is all about rotten. She went to school at Clchester as a student. I'm sorry. Colonel Ledger. No, I write down the initials. It's a CLC. Colonel Ledger. Westside Middle and Pitch High School. She is the mother of two teachers. She started working as a tutor in many brought in elementary schools and at Westside Middle years ago. She taught Spanish at Fitchville. She's taught Spanish, language arts, and social studies at color. She has embraced

065our arts and humanities theme program. And when you go into her classroom, you see a class full of students who are actively engaged in learning. The project based learning that Sana has going on in her classrooms here is truly amazing. She is someone who I see just a glimpse of down the hallway. She makes sure to give me a smile that lights up the hallway and say, "Hey, Mr. Mass, how are you doing today? How are things?" She is a positive influence at Conor. >> She was an instrumental ambassador for our student recruitment efforts this year and really helped us by um using her her great personality and her Spanish Spanish speaking skills. The most important thing I I I believe about Savannah as an educator is that from the first day of school when

066students walk in, she tells them that they are family and she treats her students as if they were her own children. She always asks herself, "How would I want my children or grandchildren treated by their teacher?" And that's the way she operates. She knows it's all about the relationships with students. She knows she firmly believes that they must have a trusting, safe, social and emotional environment to allow students to learn to their potential. It's all about the students and finding way to help them help make them successful. She has a huge heart and always finds a way to connect with students, especially those who may have the greatest struggles. academics or life. She never gives up on a student. Congratulations. [Applause] I couldn't let this time go without saying something about Sana to her because

067Sana and I talk together to teach the children as well. And I know that everybody has heard that many are many are appalled that few are chosen. In teaching sometimes many are chosen for a few. >> She embodies the vintessence of teacher. >> And you can be assured of this. Not only will Sana never let a child fail, but you can be sure that you will make sure that they go to the stars. [Applause] [Music] >> Now I'm going to ask Reese. Will um Tom and Kristen Svin come on up, please. [Applause] Fitch High School and and the robotics team is uh very proud to award the Friends of Education award to Tom and Kristen. We are indebted this year to your willingness to give many hours to the robotics team. Tom has been the

068treasurer of the Aluminum Falcons Robotics Incorporated and takes care of the finding and reserving of all hotel rooms through the season as well as the airplane tickets for taking the team to the World Championships. Kristen has been a mentor for the team's marketing group for two years now, bringing her professional expertise to the students as they work on public relations strategies for finding and retaining team sponsorship. Since money comes from sponsors, this task is of utmost importance and we have benefited greatly from having a professional eye guide our students work. We thank both of them for their hard work and dedication. Fitch High School and the robotics team are very lucky to have such good friends of education. That's for you, sir. >> Mike Brmond, come on up. Certified Support Personal Award goes to uh

069Mike Braymond. He has gone above and beyond for the students at Fitch High School throughout this entire school year. As the main coordinator of our Apex online program, Mike has scores of students that he oversees. Often times, these are students who weren't finding success in the traditional classroom setting. When students want to keep working on unfinished classes, he has offered to continue to oversee their work. Whenever Mike sees an opportunity to advocate for students, he does that. He frequently reaches out to school counselors on behalf of students. He has made himself available for both in person and electronically helping over the spring break for students who wanted help. When you see him in the hall, he's often checking in with students just to see how their day is going. He provides a supportive, structured, and

070focused learning environment for every student that is in the Apex program. Overall, his heart is in for every single student that he oversees. If it requires him to stay extra time having a working lunch break or meet with a student to make sure that they are on track to completing a course, he will do so without hesitation. Fitch High School is very fortunate to have someone with the compassion and dedication of a mic brain and we salute him tonight as Fitch High School's non-certified personnel award winner. >> I just want everybody to know that I had my Fitch High School's outstanding educator. Fitch High School is extremely proud of Christina Scout. Christina has been at Fitch High School for 14 years, and as one colleague says, I have admired her commitment to the high school

071community since I have known her. In the classroom, Christina is constantly searching for ways to give her students authentic opportunities to learn. She brings community members into the school to talk with their classes while at the same time her kids get the opportunity to practice their photography. She takes her students on field trips to the seapport in other areas of town so they can learn and study the history of photography and take pictures of the beautiful scenery that we have here in Mystic and Rock. In addition, Christina keeps her colleagues on their toes with creative ideas for lessons and her total commitment to the students and to the school. But beyond the classroom, the work that Christina has done over the past few years to implement and improve the unified sports program has been outstanding.

072Due to her efforts, the unified program is more than just playing soccer, basketball, or volleyball. She expects everyone to become an active participant during our commitment to learn block of time and to be present and participate at every practice and game. By the way, her overall one loss record of Christina Scalllet's teams is unbelievable. Have you lost a basketball game? >> Tied one and the rest are all loses. No, the rest are all she's won all just tied. Uh they rarely if ever lose a game. In addition, the unified basketball team has been invited by the CIAC. that's the sports governing body in the state to perform at halftime during two state championship games at Moheaggan Sun. >> So I was at one of them and uh her kids got out there and they just

073I think it was who's the team that they played who >> yeah just kicked the butt. >> It was a great game and uh during halftime and uh what a what an experience. What an experience for kids to be uh out there uh to be playing throughout the athletic games and the UNO, the checkers, the connect for games taking place on Wednesdays. Students have a safe place to talk, laugh, and form lasting relationships. Evidence of Christina Scala's presence at Fitch also comes alive when you see her special education students on the unified team high-fiving each other in the hallways as they anticipate the next big game. It's just amazing if you watch these these kids. This culture that Christina Scala has developed makes Fitch a better place. She has found a way to bring students

074into the fold that might be left out. She has made learning for the students and working at Fitch High School for the staff a richer experience for all. We are all honored and proud to work with Christina Scallleta, but more importantly, we are pleased to have her as a colleague and a friend. Thank you. Now I'd uh like Mr. Kpatrick who is director of the buildings and grounds semiinal award actually will be from the maintenance department. >> Good evening. Uh in the five years that I've been here in Grten, I haven't been able to get one of the maintenance people to show up for this. But uh tonight, very fortunate that last year's recipient didn't show for himself last year, but he did show up for his wife tonight. Joe Montgomery is here. So, a

075nice round of applause. pretty humble group. Um, and this year's recipient is Brian Sadeshi. I promised him I wouldn't embarrass him, but his wife said, "Go ahead." Brian Adeshi has been an ultimate workmate in the maintenance department for many many years. How many years, Brian? >> 37. >> Only 37 years. >> He's a very trusted workmate. Uh his his uh team uh asks him questions and he comes up with great solutions. He's the staff machinist who is capable of making any part for any uh repair that needs to be done when parts are not available. We have a lot of old uh equipment throughout the district and Brian has made many parts for things that are obsolete. Uh he's always on time. His work ethic is beyond reproach. Uh he's always making every effort to

076do his very best and uh comes up with amazing solutions. Ryan is leaving us uh at the end of this year. Uh this uh it's coming too soon for us. Um but he's uh earned a uh retirement. He's going to enjoy some years with his wife Suzanne. So um in his leaving uh when when you say that somebody is irreplaceable, uh sometimes we say that we don't really mean it, but uh I I firmly believe that I will not be able to find somebody that can do Joe's shaking his head yesterday. We will not find somebody who is capable of doing all the different things that Brian does for us in the maintenance department. It's absolutely unbelievable. So, we can put somebody in that position, but uh they're not going to fill your shoes. We're

077going to miss the many talents that you have, Brian, but we are proud to announce that you are our selection for maintenance person of the year. Congratulations. So now, last but certainly not least, I'm going to introduce Mr. awards for the Westside STEM Magnet School. >> Could I have Lisa Virtue come down and join us, please? It is an honor to introduce to you the Westside Friend of Education award winner, Lisa Virtue. Lisa was a key component in the drive to resuscitate the PTO at Westside Middle School a couple of years ago. That was when her daughter Alyssa traveled the halls of Westside and continues to this day. while her son Nathan is a seventh grader. Lisa has served as the treasurer for the Westside PTO for her fourth year now. She attends monthly PTO

078meetings despite being a teacher herself in War. Lisa has run countless bake sales, concession stands, teacher appreciation treats, and more. All in an effort to raise funds for our school to support both staff and students. Lisa has done the finances for the PTO so successfully that now we have money earmarked each year to contribute to each grade levels ending year activities. the eighth grade entity of Pani and a scholarship for past students of Westside that was raised to $300 this year as a result of her superior financial management. With dor determination, Lisa persistently makes contributions to Westside staff and students. Lisa was an asset in making the staff versus students basketball game happen. An event which celebrated its fourth year this year and is loved by both students and staff. There is one thing that

079Lisa refuses to do. She hates asking for things, but that's why there's more than one person on the PTO. Lisa was instrumental in helping the PTO host a graduation party for eighth grade students back in 2017 and is hard at work preparing for it again this year. As you can see, Lisa Virtue is a true friend of education. Could I have Anita Cletus from Westside STEM Magnet Middle School is honored to award Anita Cletus the non-certified personnel award for this school year. Miss Cletus has worked as our school counseling secretary for the past three years. She is the mother of three children. Zachary, who attends Yukon, Fay, a senior at Fitch and will be attending Yukon in the fall, and Tristan, who is currently a softball at Fitch. In her short three years at Westside,

080Miss Cletus has quickly become a valued and respected member of the Westside family and community. She works extremely hard as our school counseling secretary, paying close attention to detail. Anita will be the first to volunteer to help other task and is always going above and beyond her duties. More often than not, she's one of the last people to leave the school. To say she does it all is an understatement. Anita regularly assists with event planning, finances, and managing both student schedules and issues. She is also a great sounding board for both staff and students. When families enter the building, they are greeted by her warm smile and presence. In the guidance office, Anita is seen as an additional adult to confide in. She makes it her mission to make sure every child leaves the office

081smiling no matter what the situation may be. We are incredibly lucky to have Anita. She is so deserving of this award. Her kindness, sense of humor, and dedication to the school makes her invaluable to the Westside community. [Applause] Okay, Lizanne Johnson, come on now. The staff and students at Westside STEM Magnet Middle School are honored. to recognize Lizanne Johnson as our 20189 teacher of the year. Lizanne works as our media specialist but prefers to be called the media literacy specialist. This is due to the amount of time and effort she puts in promoting literacy and media arts throughout our building. Each year, Lizanne selects a group of volunteers to run our morning news program. These budding journalists gather, organize, and share the school and district announcements, celebrations, and pertinent news stories of the day. She

082volunteers count countless hours setting up the media equipment, sifting through staff emails for announcements, and writing the news script for students the following morning. In addition to these activities, Luzanne has served as the secretary for the PTO at Westside for two years, taking notes during parent meetings, prepping agendas, and serving as the school to community leaison between staff and PTO. Many days, Miss Johnson can be found in a media center during lunchtime, hosting weekly great book great book club meetings, working in direct conjunction with the Graten Town and Bill Memorial Library team librarians. During each lunch wave, she hosts supplies over 35 avid readers with page turning titles, inspiring teens to take part in meaningful book discussions that are central to the teen selected monthly theme. Lzanne works with parent volunteers and teen librarians to

083help match readers with great books while supplying them with limitless cookies and snacks. Lizanne's dedication and commitment to the community, staff, and students of Westside is unmeasurable. She supports all students and staff members with class projects, supplies endless oranges for the athletic events, trains and and inspires students to use our new virtual reality technology to support our STEM initiative, as well as cover classes when substitutes are scarce. From her Harry Potter corner to her front window display of cultural diversity, wherever Lizanne is, you can find an eager student leader, reader, teacher, or parent volunteer nearby. Thinking back, it's actually quite fitting that this Halloween she dressed up as Mary Popkins since Lizanne is truly practically perfect in every way. Liz, thank you for everything you do. You are greatly appreciated and a true aspect to

084our children, our staff, and our community. Would you rather have cake? >> Good evening board members, Dr. Granier, Miss Austin, teachers of the year, friends of education and support personnel honores, student leaders, my family and guests. This is harder than working with the kids. It's such an honor to have been selected by my peers to represent Brotten as the district teacher of the year. It's truly the inspiration and dedication of the many teachers and staff that I've worked with that brought me to this point. If I tried to name them all, we'd be here all night. I'll begin with the one who set me on this path. I started out as an English language tutor in three Grten Elementary Schools thanks to Maria Lozano. Spending most of my times in classrooms supporting the English language

085learning students exposed me to so many magnificent teachers. After nearly 10 years of tutoring, my childhood dream of becoming a teacher was rekindled and I went on in my 40s, you're never too old, to get my masters in education. Teaching fourth grade with the wonderful staff at SB Butler was always as rewarding as it was challenging. The longer I taught, the more I realized my real passion was reading. I grabbed the opportunity to go back to school again. That year-long certification program was truly transforming and becoming a library media specialist. I was not leading teaching. I was simply taking on a new role. In honoring me, you honor all the librarians in our program has become more and more important in the age of instant access to news and often fake news. Media literacy is

086an important life skill. Our students need to graduate knowing how to evaluate so many different kinds of sources that most of us here never had to think about. Reading for pleasure seems to take a backseat to the device in hand. When I arrived at Pleasant Valley as a new library media specialist, Principal Kathy Miner gave me the space to try out new ideas. She acknowledged and supported my efforts to build a reading culture. I set out to do the same at Westside. I love the chance to get to know the students and introduce them to books that have characters like themselves and unlike themselves. When a student comes in and asks me to recommend a book because, and I quote, "The last book you recommended was great. I want more like that." Or my favorite

087quote this year, that's the first time I've read a book that has people in it from my culture. Then my day is complete. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to get kids excited about reading and to give them the information and media literacy skills they'll need in life. I couldn't have done it without the support of my family. My parents always believed I could do anything and supported me in all my ventures. My partner Dan encouraged and supported me 100% when I wanted to go back to school twice. My daughters always understood when I had to do my homework and cheered me on. I'm glad it wasn't them. The teachers I worked with always had time for my questions. The teachers, staff, and administration of and administration at Westside have been unbelievable in

088their support. All my experience was at the elementary level. Again, the teachers and staff always had time for me and my questions. They embraced the changes I was making in the library and made me feel truly a part of the Westside family. Veronica Strickland, library media specialist at Cutler, continues to be my amazing collabor collaborator. I want to give a special thanks to central office for giving Westside the cart of virtual reality Google expedition goggles. They've created even more opportunities to collaborate with the teachers and give students awe inspiring tours of the topics they're learning about. Thanks to Jeff Koteki, the Westside PTO, and Claudia Luvichek, and always managing to find the money for the projects I want to do. In closing, many people over the years have said yes to me. They supported and

089encouraged me. I'll always be grateful for the yeses. I hope I'm a yes person for all the amazing students that pass through the school doors. After all, we're all here for the kids and what's best for them. Thank you. Wow. I know that this was probably a lot longer than what you guys had hoped for, but I think you all understand why it needs to take so long for us to recognize the amazing staff um that support um the Bratton School District. Before we go for cake, I just want to remind people if you don't or um or you do know or we don't know, tomorrow at Fitch is a community conversation um on the prevention of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, which will be here at the um band room. Um starts at 5:00

090if you want to have a little bit of snacks, but 5:30 is when the community conversation happens. And this is a collaborative between um the Bratton public schools, GASP, which is the Brotten Alcohol >> Alliance for Substance Prevent Prevention, Children First Graten, and the Graten Town and City. Um so I just wanted to make sure that you guys know that that's happening. Board, I think we'll take about a 15 minute, 20 minute break and have cake. Um once again, thanks all for coming out to support our district. [Applause] We are going to uh continue on with the board of education meeting. Thanks everyone. I thought that that was actually just an all inspiring evening so far. Um I would also like to if I could just ask people um to turn to page two of

091the new business. The first three are first readings of a policy and I consulted with the chairperson of the pol policy committee and she's agreed that we can um disable that to June just in terms of the fact that we are um running quite late. So that is um that that's going to happen that we're going to one through three is going to um also a number a number five which is located on page three. Um I don't see why we need to vote on the current policy. Um if it's already current why so I'm just saying that we are not we're just not going to have bias because why do we why are we going to vote on something that's already being done? So I think that that um will shorten some of our

092stuff at this portion um is comments from citizens which are agenda items and other subjects of concern that lie within the jurisdiction of the board of education. Um this is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens. Um each presentation should be limited to 5 minutes or less and citizens should if possible submit written comments. Um presentation should be related to matters pertaining to rotten board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comments from citizen portion of the of the board meeting. Citizens should make their presentation from the podium and state their name and addresses for the record. Miss is there anyone that signed up? Is there anyone here that would like to um speak to the board? All right. student

093representatives. That's you guys. Hi, >> Abby. >> Hi. 1147. end of their competitive season for now. Um, but they did a really great job. Uh, they first meet and all the worlds. On May 20th, American members were able to go on a field trip to the boat and the journey of the history and culture, learning about artifacts that relate to the culture and the workings of the boat. very very informative for all the students who are able to go. Uh the official IP exam dates are over. So all students can take a breath of um and good job to all the students who did that. And on May 28th, uh just yesterday very good. Um we are on to our class updates. Uh seniors have already >> didn't juniors, sophomores, and freshmen for fundraisers over

094the summer and for next year. So, get ready. And also, more than dinner on June 7th, 5 to 7 p.m. in the cafeteria. So, it's going to have a lot of entertainment and really good food from everywhere, people involved. So, it's a good time. And I'm gonna turn it over to >> uh senior events uh sort of winding down. Uh but this week is serious senior spirit week. Uh today was throwback Tuesday. Uh tomorrow is future college career day. Thursday is senior citizen day. Friday is blackout day. And then we also have senior prom on June 1st. Then we have our senior breakfast on June 19th. Uh started our three days of graduation rehearsals and then uh depending on the vote, graduation on June 21st. And then also upcoming end of the year awards nights.

095This Thursday is honor court night at 6:30 and then the following Thursday, June 6th, is senior scholarship night. And then Monday, June 10th, is senior athletic awards night in the high school honor. Uh tonight is my final uh well regular meeting of the board event and uh I would just like to thank Mr. Arerice for appointing me to serve in this position. Uh I've had a lot of uh fun memories and I am very fond of my time on the board. I'd like to thank my fellow class officers for allowing me to do this uh long class officer job and I was privileged to have two wonderful board reps uh in Abby and Cindy and I thank them. Uh it was a pleasure to work with both of them and I also like to thank

096the fish community. Uh fish, you know, they taught me a lot and I'm thankful for my time here and I'd like to thank you for you guys. Wonderful and this has been a truly amazing experience. [Applause] >> You will be >> is not going to disappoint. He is very good. So I'm very >> Thank you very much. And I I am sure that all board members wish Dan um the best. Um and you have enlightened us. You have stretched us. Um you have kept us on track. Um and uh your efforts are just amazing and go rock the world like you rock the board. >> And it's Mr. Mr. Fel to you. >> Yeah. All right. So now we're going to move on to the superintendent report. I was going to talk about a couple

097great I'm >> okay >> I know tomorrow. >> So we have the big event which is our community forum on prevention of drugs alcohol and tobacco use vaping and eating and all those things. Um we do have um prosecutor Steve Carney coming to do a talk on social posting and the law and Carolyn Wilson from GAPS will be coming to talk about the health risks involved in all of those things. Um on students day will also come to talk to parents and students about um you know the obstacles and the things they need to watch out for and the whole focus will be around what we've learned through the survey that parents, educators and peers actually do matter in trying to prevent this from becoming a problem or even to an indulgent. So I know

098it's a busy time of year. I'm not sure how many to expect. So, we're going to be coming in here to a little more intimate setting and one of our students will be recording it. So, at least we can publicize and put it turn it around and put it right on our website for families to have if they're not able to come. And then the other committee I've been working on is the summer reading committee and we're putting together a report of all the things that are happening. Luzanne said before she walked out the door that she has a bookmobile for me. So, I don't know what that means, but that was what I was asking for, but this um flyer that I'm going to be putting up on in all the schools, research on

099summer reading, children who do not read in the summer can lose two to three months of reading skills. We we have that in our data. So, that's we can prove that kindergarten. Kids who do read tend to gain a month of reading proficiency over the summer and continue to to you know forge ahead. So it's so important. So we really want to get that message out to families and to really have access to the libraries in our own school, the libraries in the community, get the books out to where the kids are, maybe the meals program. So we've got a lot of ideas. >> Thank you. Will you play the role of the business manager? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Ken had affected his family. I called him this morning to ask him about this. He

100he told me, but uh we we uh we talked about this last week, too. If you turn to the object summary, uh you you'll see that on the very bottom of it, it would appear right now uh there is $183,578. That would be unexpected. We also have $110,000 of supplies that the principles have asked for. Uh and so uh unless directed otherwise I I'm going to have those supplies purchased uh tomorrow uh which will give us some leeway next year to say those supplies originally were intended for for next year but we have the money and we have the time to be able to order them and receive them store them for the summer. So later in the meeting when we talk about having a little bit of flexibility in terms of possible salary account

101that that would be one one mitigation. Uh the second thing is unless you have question unexpended balance it Ken works on this a lot. Uh so we do have some unex we do have some incumbrances that at the end of the year sometimes don't come to fruition might have an incumb say $50,000 and it comes in at 42. So we we pick up so this is this is a conservative estimate there will be some a there will be some other particip there will be some funds that will be able to last things cut ourselves off. But if you look at the the health insurance that we care a lot about, uh you'll notice that the March account will actually rose to 101.5%. Uh what we anticipated this year if you remember was that we would

102we would end with a positive that that number in brackets is actually lower than the budget. So that's a good number only bracketed number that I know is good usually negative but anyway that negative is to the good for the board. So Kenya is pretty confident will end in in the neighborhood of $600,000. Uh which on June 30th we will report to you what our health insurance reserve is. So the board has chosen next year to use 1.3 million. So hopefully we'll have enough to pay that 1.3 million and then still have a healthy reserve after that. So but we're we're we're doing okay for March. the the health insurance cut always goes up the latter part of the year as as people start to get their maximum expenditure and that's it. >> Any questions?

103>> Absolutely. It says >> you're not in the mic unfortunately. >> Sorry. Did you see that? >> I just saw that. >> I haven't set this up to anybody else. >> What? >> Well, that was that was an assessment that we were doing tonight. >> Actually, >> yes, it's Wednesday. >> It is actually Wednesday. >> Good job. Thank you. All right, Mr. Kpatrick. >> Yes. Good evening. >> Okay, you're done. wanted to go. >> So I'll report on 2020 with regard to the GR middle school may know already that this is a lot of concrete foundations and peak beyond this steel. So we'll start seeing some steel being raised very soon. Uh a little over a week ago Norris and Arcadus representatives from Arcadus to the state to have two summer projects for the two

104elementary schools elementary schools approved by the state which we did get approved while we were there. They actually hand us a letter to let us go out to meet also those early projects will get us into uh give us the opportunity to continue the project so that we won't be late. Uh we'll be removing the oil tide middle school as another project and we'll be realigning the sewer line at Cotton Middle School. Uh the oil tank at Westside will have no effect on on any anything that's going on there during the summer. We'll do a small quick job. The sewer line project over [Music] if it were left where it is right now would actually be uh right where the new school is going. So, we're actually going to move up further and it will

105cut across the baseball field. So hopefully it'll be later in the summer. We're hoping sometime across the baseball someday projects are approved and tomorrow at Cutler Middle School at 10:00 we'll be meeting for a pre-bid meeting which is meeting which contractors that are interested in doing the job come and see what it's all about. and ask any questions that they may have and we'll proceed down to Westside Middle School contractors that the tank at Middle School. >> Well, well, we've been notifying um Parks that would be running the possibly in baseball or any use on that on that diamond so that they know that there's a potential of destruction. Rick Mars has been working with Stephanie Marshall in the business office and has all the schedu reports we policy. >> We continue to meet almost

106every Monday. We are not going to talk about our policy this year until Whatever the next one is. Sorry. >> 24. >> All right. Curriculum. Yes. We met and we met with the teachers. We are going various courses to the next for your and then we asked for to see the apex the proposed apex program. We asked to see that in person as it were and we haven't heard it. that we don't and today a move from high school came in and we'll be reviewing it back to put that on the agenda for the next >> um finance and facilities. review once we get the policy of thankfully evaluations. >> Yeah. Tests and the current policy they pay students for their own test. Summer school rates which we will present tonight and the food service

107Well, it's being table, but it's just a just a reflection. We don't we don't take we don't give kids alternatives. We just give them regular. The policy says we gave them alternatives, but we don't. So, we're fixing the policy, but the practice is fine. So, we can take >> I don't know if I can say something about this. I think it's part of the agenda, but I'm not I'm not sure. So, I'm wrong. Stop. Okay, I read the the policy today and it says in here that um when the charge limit is reached an alternative deal will be provided according to the classifications above and yet the classifications of crossed up. So I think that that is going to be the revision of the policy >> fix that. It's a good point. They're so worried

108that and we don't do that. So we have to make that too. Thank you. >> Is that second? >> So clearly a family cannot leave because of their name and father. I appreciate that. >> All right. Um moving on and Jay just to kind of go back in the committee the whole we talked about keeping the status quo. So it's not as if just you guys talked about so you guys um that it was brought back up to the whole community. Great. Um Vita is not here to go over learn in negotiations. Um our team is still doing the pair of professionals and we'll be starting in August um to do the administrative um negotiations. So we are actually in an active phase at the present moment. Um the Gorbed um town council Mont leazison

109we um will be meeting next week. Um and um I'm not quite sure if there was um if anything good came out of that meeting. Um but it's just kind of good that we're all kind of talking and meeting together. Yes, I'm trying really hard. Um you're doing great. Um and then um the board of ed the ASA and the GA leazison meeting um met um at last week um at the court part four um continue to discuss the issues around subs um subs and subs both par subs and teaching subs um so we've had that conversation as well uh is not here to go over the last two um so I'm going to go down to the action items which is the consented agenda. I would take a motion to accept the consent agenda.

110>> So, Rosemary second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor of the consent um agenda as presented, please say I. Oppose. Abstain. Motion has carried. The board of education would like to um say thank you to the bowling to schools grant program um that has that has awarded the kids bowl free summer bowling program for a $1,000 grant to the Katherine Kamasi United School gave for them. Um as we stated in the new business um our agenda items one, two, and three have been tabled for June. I'm now going on to number four. Jay, will you be willing to be number four? Um, I move we approve proposed Fish High School summer school rates. >> I have a second Rosemary. All right. Um, and discussion. >> I'd like to invite Adam. Adam Disin maybe he

111could have seen here. Uh, he has uh presented some information uh to the finance and facilities committee. Uh, and maybe just sort of share your >> so take this uh this question kind of information uh pass it down I made 15 it should be uh it should suffice right to right to the end uh thank you for the opportunity um what I'd like to do is take the opportunity to review what we did last year uh with our summer school program and then compare it to how we envision a look like this year. Um, last year was the first time that we you had the opportunity by the the grace of your decision to give us the opportunity to pilot the Apex program uh during the summer school. So, we were able to do that

112last year. Um, we collected student feedback, teacher feedback, uh, which then we used uh to kind of get get that rolling this year and you heard great things uh from Mr. Sarice in regards to Mr. Raymond how how much of a positive influence he has been in implementing a lot of that. Um and as you know um your programs are great but it's the people that are using them uh and putting their efforts into it. Um just briefly 2018 is we use the the Apex pilot as the as the digital learning platform. Um it was four weeks four days per week for two hours. Uh five teachers were were were used during that time hired during that time. uh and used with a flexible schedule, you know, one would come in and it was kind

113of staggered. We were trying to get as many as we could, the core teachers and then tutors. Uh last year, 27 students enrolled uh in the summer school program and took 44 courses. Um and and the expenses uh including uh were including the 50 licenses for the APIs uh and the E5 staff um at the um at the finance committee. We reviewed this and what you'll see everybody after this uh and we we got some feedback there. Um on May 20th, we met presented this. we have the following revisions that you will see reflected in the next paragraph of the uh the next set of data below it. Uh we decided that we needed to reduce maybe more cost effective for students from 175 to 150. Um and then at that point we decided to

114offer also like a 24 kind of thing uh where somebody really needs it. It's still a very low price. If you notice 225 is lower than the original cost of one course. look at that cost slashing for one of course. So we're trying to make efforts one make it affordable for students that absolutely need it and two we do have to fund the program to pay for the staff. So trying to find a bed right balance is what we had kept in mind in that meeting. Um, we also had some points to that that that we needed in the literature going out to families that we needed to inform parents of any financial uh situation they were in that they can reach out to Dr. Reneer and also speak to us and then and then

115to have some sort of understanding as to whether to waiver it reduce it or something along those lines again to help out the families that mostly need. moving down was in the the last uh set of data. It's the projected what we thought think is going to happen for for this year. Um similar to last year, four weeks, four days per week, we increased the uh the hours by a half per day. Uh just a little bit more time. Last year, we learned that uh the seat time was important for them to be to be there. We also understand that they're on vacation, so giving them a three-day weekend isn't such a bad idea. Um we want to hire three teachers. Um the purpose of this is to build that rapport and not have so

116much of a flexible more consistency uh they see in teaching practically every day. So mathematics LA and a tutor we are hoping that uh might bring back that again is exceptional. Um following is the minimal requirement that we have to have at as far as students enrolling at 150 to to mid 3750. Uh if we went to the 40 if we we had 44 students at 150 made $6,600 leaving us a surplus of 3517. Uh and of course we talked at the meeting that this money go and feed the summer school program and so on. Any questions? The big the basic point is that the program is self sustained and while we have the the license the sub license for Apex already in the budget. Uh we need Apex requires there be a teacher of

117record. So we we need to cover the expense of the teachers to be hired and the tutor. Uh so basically this is operating kind of like an enterprise funding. It doesn't cost anything and it's and it's very reasonable to to have some cool course typically credit recovery for those who didn't pass the class but there could be some enhancements advanced course. >> Yeah. And I noticed almost everybody took two courses last time which is >> right to 44 courses. So we're hoping that you know we will definitely have about the same or you know funds coming in to be able to support it. So >> this is seat time students can go home they can do work on Chromebook you know it's it's it's really terrific. >> If I may follow up Dr. Aman you

118asked a question about the when we talked last time about the presentation which I do have that information ready for you. uh got three user uh user um login entries and I'll be forwarding that to you so you have it. >> I'm sure this is >> right. There was three. So I have three. I just got those from Deborah said from from anybody. So we'll forward that first to >> J. Do you have any questions or comments about this? because there was a trial last year, we we had to pay for the license. This year it's in the main budget. So this is this is what allows us to offer for so much less expense this year. And so are we saying that if we do a fee waver that's coming out this time as

119well? >> Yeah, we'd be able to have well the feed winner also has a sort of a principles account. We can take it out. It won't cost the board any >> is it any other questions comments when we get >> the licenses >> when will the tutorials I will forward those directly to Most and possibly you can forward the information. Sure. >> Tomorrow, >> right? So, no. Any other questions? All those in favor of um to approve the proposed high school summer school rates, please say I. >> Oppose. Abstain. Motion has carried. So, I'm going to move us on to November 6. Mary, would you be willing to read the motion for number six, please? >> Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve um the.5 FTE American Sign Language ASL teaching. Can I

120have a second on that? >> Second. >> Either Jane or me that you can do that with them. So this is this is part of what we had for the committee of the whole conversation. Um I can't remember how long ago it was but we but we've had this in terms of that we our program. Okay. So our program has expanded to so much that we need to have someone else um come and support this and this would be a um halftime um position and Dr. with some of this money that was talked about at the um um at the end would that be where we could also fund um this position as well? >> This this position would require an expenditure approximately a little less than $30,000. uh and I would propose that that

121those funds uh would come out of the $110,000 save. I also want to say that right after the ceremony used to share is here one of our other ASL teachers and a female a young woman came up to me as processing problem and she was so seventh grader she was so excited because her daughter was taking ASL 4 that Christie would be teaching and because we didn't have enough teachers the family actually went to Harford and transported transported their older daughter classes but she was able to jump into ASL too. ASL is a recognized world language. So when I say we have 60 students 60 students that's because of my requires every single student to take language. So this is this would be in fact the young woman said her mom said to me the

122reason the daughter came here to fetch was because of ASL high school as so I strongly recommend that Christie is teaching he's in a few classes now but we we need help but since it's a.5 position at half time fulltime equivalent then it simply wouldn't be sad benefits And if the board approves it, then you post and interview and hopefully very shortly. >> Do we have any questions or discussion? I think it's a very valuable expense. It teaches something um that is not only language but the charact. >> Yeah. Absolutely. There's a lot of people because that >> any other comments or discussion >> hearing none all those motion to approve the five American Sign Language teacher please say I >> I oppose abstain motion has carried >> hopefully that's a good thing in American

123Sign Language and not an obscene >> Jane would you be willing to be the motion for number seven, please. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Okay. So, the reason why this is on here is our understanding that uh after April 1st um any board of ed in the state of Connecticut can set um the graduation date no matter what may happen or could happen. Um so, it was set and so I think that the board was prudent um just based on the fact that there's been some funky weather um throughout the um country that we just kind of like make sure people know that June 21st is what we're setting. So any other discussion on that? All those in favor, please say I to approve the 2018 2019 graduation date of

124June 21st. Please say I. >> Opposed? Abstain. The motion has carried. We are now on the information and proposal end. Um Jay, do you have any anything to add? >> Okay, Rosemary. Um, I attended the You have a lot to add, by the way. Um, I attended the GAS board on the planning meeting for the We've had several items. I also attended the board of ed policy and RTM town council. Um, I voted May 6. Thank you. >> And it turned out very well. Um I also attended um a sound community services board meeting and I had Sandy Promise um people who one of our their members is our Katrina um present at my brewery on Sandy Promise. We try and spread it as as a very good guard. I've also attended gas meeting and

125summer reading. Lee, do you have anything? >> Um, I wait to see. It is only my very very favorite book ever. This is just Thank you, I have believe it or not. [Music] There's so much going on, so much potential, so much amazing part of the kids. The schools are healthy. I can't appreciate schools. >> Not easy to get. >> Andrew, I did everything. That was only >> and and with two hands tied behind her back in >> I saw Cindy >> at the academy um graduation and she told me that she's a professional in our school. >> She's filling in now >> after her semester. >> Good for her. >> Yay. All right. Um what I have received was a um after our education committee meeting um with the RTM before the budget um

126I did receive a letter from a RTM member um just kind of stating that she was a little bit disappointed by some of the actions of some of the board members in terms of um our our eye rolls, gestures and comments and sort of casual conversations that we were having. Um, I just put that out there that that's what she had said and I I think that um that it's just a really good reminder for all of us that we have um we have behavior that we want our district to follow um our staff and our students and so that we just need to make sure that we exemplify that. Um so I just want to let you know that we had that notice. Um, I also just think it's really important that as of

127April, um, we all have this that we had 1,72 volunteer hour, um, tiers in our school system that totaled 13,432 volunteer hours within our schools up to date. So, I think that that's amazing. Please notice the advanced planning. Um, we have a lot of things, a lot of things coming up. Um, one of the things that was on the board notes but that was not on here is I believe next week is the retirement >> the fourth >> ceremony and then the mentor dinner is the six I can't remember which but that's in our board notes but it isn't noted here um and I just want to make sure that that is just a very special >> thing that Tuesday next next Tuesday, June 4th, 6:00. That's the advanced retirement. >> And that so that

128is just um I know those two things that just didn't make um are things. Um are anything else that people are not on here? Okay, I'm going to go down to the suggested agenda item. Um we are at that time of year um where we need to um create an evaluation um for our um dear superintendent Dr. um and so I asked Andrea to head up a committee just to kind of get that going and get the paperwork done and and um all that all that stuff. So um I just need I think again said she needed a couple more people to be involved. Katrina um Um, Rosemary. Okay. So, I think that that's good. That's a that's a nice summary. So, um, and just so guys, let you know, we're trying to do a

129quick turn around. Um, and as you know, this is not one of my strengths. Um, so that's why I gave it to Andrea to make sure that kind of gets done. So, um, that is so we have formed that group. I don't it's not an ad hoc. It's a maybe it's just in a board. Okay. Not on board. [Music]