Avon Board of Education Meeting - 05/20/25

001[Music] Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the May meeting of the board of education. if you would please um allow me to introduce ourselves to you. We have a lot of people that are here to celebrate tonight and we'll just make sure you know who's sitting up here. So I will start with myself. I am Deborah Chute. I am the chair. We have Dr. Thage Singh, our vice chair. Present. Deb, thank you. Jeff Fleman, our secretary, present. Thank you. Lynn Katz, present. Thank you. Sarah Heath here. Thank you. Nicole Russo, present. Thank you. Suzanne Zakaris, present. Thank you. Romesh Candilly, present. Thank you. And Chris Campbell is unfortunately ill this evening so he won't be able to join us. For administrators we have Dr. Carnamola our superintendent. Thank you. Mr. Jannini our

002assistant superintendent here. Thank you. Mr. Medic, our assistant superintendent. All right. Somewhere else you'd rather be. I will make it through this meeting. Okay. We believe you. All right. Miss Russo, our business manager. Good evening. Thank you. And Miss Sardinskus, our executive assistant to the superintendent and board clerk. Present. Thank you. Thank you. If you would join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you. Before we get to my favorite part of the meeting, I always like to start by reading our mission statement to remind us all of the work that we do together. Our mission is to inspire in each student

003a joy and a passion for learning, a commitment to excellence, personal integrity, and social responsibility. And now we get to do our recognition component. And we would like to invite Miss Wallace forward to acknowledge some middle school students. Thank you for humoring me. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, everyone. Thank you. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. So, um, tonight I have the pleasure of introducing um, one of our middle school team leaders, Dr. Leah Ferivio. Uh, she's the team leader for our Ruby team. Um, and she is going to get up and speak and share a few words in recognition of our CABE Connecticut Association of Boards of Education student leaders for this year. Um, I before I pass the mic, of course, I've never been a microphone I don't like, just want to

004say to both Lily and Khloe, you are phenomenal examples of who we who I hope to be when I grow up, if you will. Um, you're individuals who do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because there's a recognition that comes along with it. Um, and I'm proud and honored to be able to call myself your principal um, for the years that we've had you. And I know that the future is beyond bright for the two of you. So, now someone who gets to spend a lot of time with you. In addition, Mrs. Weissbomb and Mr. Jones are here as well as other Ruby team teachers to support the two of you. I'll pass the mic to Dr. Olivia. [Applause] Sorry. Thank you. I'd like to address everyone in the room

005as I speak on behalf of our students. Lily Lovelund demonstrates a strong commitment to our school community in all areas, willing to take on challenges and able to honor those responsibilities. Her deep compassion and concern for others along with her ability to work well in groups makes her a strong recipient of the Cave Award. She is not only a top performing scholar, achieving high honors in all of her core academic courses and unified arts and music, but also an avid artist, a coder, a peer tutor and mentor. She is passionate about sports, being involved in both soccer and lacrosse, as well as being an enthusiastic skier. She mountain bikes in her offtime, developing endurance for meeting the challenges of a rough terrain. Lily's talents are also musically inclined as she was determined to become part

006of the program in sixth grade and has since played violin in our orchestra. Lily is also part of our debate club developing her skills as a public speaker. In addition, Lily is intrinsically motivated. She has developed an app called Eoli that allows people to learn more about sustainability. Currently, she is working on another project that brings stuffed animals alive through chatbot technology. This is just the beginning of her journey as a leader. When asked what her goal is for the future, she says she plans to be part of creating a better society moving forward. With her tenacity, grace, and zoair, it is my honor to introduce Lily Lovelund as this year's co-reient of the Cape Award. [Music] and Khloe Dunn exemplifies perseverance, responsibility, and leadership. Her concern for others is demonstrated by her compassionate nature

007and in always extending a helping hand whenever she sees a need. She found her love of horses at a young age, and while loving to ride, she also chose to volunteer for US Horse Welfare and Rescue, a nonprofit organization helping to heal both horses and humans. Her volunteerism extends to other areas of her life as well. She has been co- captain for Relay for Life for the past four years, and she has donated her time to Gift of Gobble, who packages and delivers food to those in need at Thanksgiving. Khloe's aspirations of giving back to others extend to her involvement in our school's student council and principal advisory board. Khloe's interests in building community in the school also extend to her affiliation with Scouting for America. She worked her way up to Star Scout, giving

008her strong leadership skills. She is also fascinated by engineering and has joined the robotics team to develop her skills for working in the aerospace industry later in life. With all of these extracurriculars, I would be remiss if I didn't mentioned that Khloe excels in all of her academic areas, achieving high honors in both core disciplines and in unified arts and music. Khloe understands that a life and service to others is truly rewarding. When asked about achieving her goals, Khloe remarked that facing challenging obstacles requires perseverance. that even if she doesn't succeed at that moment, there is value in self-reflection and that will lead to bettering our communities. Because Khloe possesses those rare qualities of diplomacy, adaptability, and finesse, I am honored to introduce Khloe Dunn as this year's Cab award co-reient. Thank you. Congratulations, girls.

009We're not done with you yet. We would love to give you certificates if you're willing to walk up and shake our hands and take a picture with us as well. Um, but before we do that, before people walk away, I want to acknowledge how impressed I am with all the glowing things that I just heard about the two of you. I've had the pleasure of meeting both of you in different circumstances, and I can see why you're excelling. So, I'm incredibly impressed with what you've already accomplished. You guys are just getting started, and we're in very good hands if you are the leaders of the next generation. So, please come forward so we can shake your hand, and then we'll have you stand behind us, and we'll take a photo. And parents are welcome to

010take photos as well. Figure who's coming first. So this is Lily. Lily. Yep. There you go. Congratulations, honey. It's good to see you. Congratulations, Lily. This is you. Good to see you again. Congratulations. Here you go, Chloe. Sorry. I'm sorry. Join us right over here. Sorry, we're off tonight. Congratulations. Take it out of the way. All right. So, thank you. Just look straight. Say K. I thought someone would. Okay. [Applause] Right. Congratulations again. Cab is obviously near and dear to our hearts because that's a board that we work with as board of education members. So, it's really important to us to recognize the students that reflect these um very impressive qualities. So we'll move on to the high school then next. So Dr. Lockheart come on forward. Good evening everyone. Now I feel like I

011have to turn this way as well so that everyone can see me and I can see everyone. Um so I'll actually start with the cape winners just to follow up um from the middle school. So the way our process here works is that um typically at our um school leadership meeting I will reach out to our coordinators and ask them do you all have any names that you are interested in submitting for the cape award winners and I will tell them to go out and talk to their departments. Before they did that they both submitted two name well they all submitted these same names and I said well talk to your teachers reach out to your departments and they did that and these same two names came back right away. we sent it out to

012the faculty to vote on it and these same two names just kept coming up over and over. So, I just wanted to put that out there to show you how how much work these two people have done um to actually earn this award and not just for this award, but because this is who they are as individuals. So, our first winner is Leah Bosanac. Throughout her years in high school, Leah has transformed from a shy freshman and has emerged into a confident female leader. Her ability to embrace challenges, navigate tough decisions, and care for others is evident in her leadership roles. For example, serving as president of the Avon Club, where she has organized numerous charitable events to strengthen our community. Leah's transformation is in part due to her experiences in Avon Club, which recognizes

013how others lives and needs motivate her to make an impact for good. Her dedication to community and clear understanding of issues has made her a trusted and reliable individual amongst her peers. Leah remains committed to her projects, reflecting her growth into a responsible and established leader, always honoring her commitments with integrity and consistency. Leah Bosanac is an exemplary ambassador of Avon High School and a well-deserving recipient of the Kward that was written by her counselor, Mr. Lrod, and input was given by the teachers as well. Congratulations, Leah. Our second recipient is Cassidy Hazel. Cassidy believes that empathy will make the world a better place. In fact, she dedicates her time and energy to the many clubs that she leads participates in with the primary goal of leading with empathy on a daily basis. Her empathy

014is complemented by her keen critical thinking skills which drives her dedication to advocates for advocacy for equity and inclusion. Cassidy is not a speak first kind of leader. She politely listens. She is measured measured in her approach, careful to craft thoughtful and articulate responses to gain the respect and cooperation of those around her. Cassidy collaborates effectively with others, whether coordinating a model UN event or supporting her peers through Best Buddies, and she is committed to serving her community as a co-aptain and member of the event leadership team for Relay for Life. Cassidy honors her in integral leadership role in our community and we can only hope with her influence and her empathy that there are many more like her to come. I was also written by her counselor Mr. Elrod but I'll also share a

015personal story. few years ago, um we were having maybe some challenges with um some of the bathrooms and before we could kind of get to a place where we had some creative solutions, at one point we thought, well, maybe we'll just kind of systemically close certain bathrooms at different times. Within maybe 30 minutes of that email going out, I got a response back from Cassidy saying that she needed to come and meet with me because she she had to advocate for her peers because this was inequitable and this was wrong and she needed to meet with me immediately. And so I didn't get a chance to respond that day. And then she found me at the door the next morning and said, "Hey, I don't know if you saw my email, but we actually need

016to meet." And we had a great conversation and she gave me some very wonderful solutions and we were able to move forward. this year again she was planning denim day um as part of one of our spirit weeks but to raise awareness and she sent me an email and I didn't respond quick enough and again she came and found me so I just want to make sure you saw the email that this is happening Cassidy is such a great advocate for everyone around her so congratulations to Cassidy and Celia so we're going to do the same for you lovely ladies if you wouldn't mind joining us and shaking our hands but I want to acknowledge the fact that your name's bubbled up that many times. That's not by mistake. That's because you have earned this.

017You've worked very hard to be here. I know Leah's a fantastic basketball player as well. So, you're so well-rounded and you're just trying things and you're doing really well at it. And it's okay if you don't all the time because you're very impressive as it is. But we are incredibly proud of you and we would love to recognize you. So, please come forward. [Applause] Take a photo. And parents, if you want to take a picture, Congratulations. Now, we're not done with Dr. Lockheart yet. But we have some very exciting news. We get to find out our validictorian and saludiatoran tonight. So please All right. I have the pleasure of actually reading um these two descriptions of our amazing students. Um at first I thought I was just going to be able to come up here

018and just give a really quick brief description and then as I started talking to their counselors and teachers I said I better write this down. There's a lot to say here. So, um actually got um their counselors and their teachers to work with me to write a brief description just to give you a small sense of what these two students do here because there is so much. So, I'll start with our valadictorian um Jing Ray who he goes by Rey Ray's intellectual curiosity, unwavering work ethic, and compassionate spirit have been evident over the years. His involvement with Avon Avon's robotics club, science club, and math team have given Ray a natural outlet to continue being a problem solver and pushing boundaries in the area of engineering and math. Whether it's design or I'm sorry, whether

019it's designing a particlebased physics simulation or building a telescope with computer tracking. Yes, that's what I said. Building a telescope, Ray consistently demonstrates a drive to learn and apply new concepts. Ray's original design and flight at this Connecticut Science Olympiad state finals placed third overall and he won several other awards during that competition. His ability to to design and build an original aircraft despite limited prior experience is a clear indication of his ingenuity and problem solving abilities. Ray is more than engineering and physics. He was also selected as a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist and he is an accomplished cello performer. Ray's contributions to the AHS community have been invaluable. He will be attending UCLA in the fall, which will allow him to continue growing, learning, thriving, and creating greatness. Congratulations, Rey. Today, when I went

020to his class just to let him know that we were going to be doing this and I was going to be calling him up and embarrassing him, he couldn't wait to get back into class fast enough. Um, next our saludiatoran, Shitma Kashari. Shrida is an exceptional student and leader whose academic and personal accomplishments are extraordinary. Named a national merit semi-finalist, she has mastered four languages, including Latin, which she taught herself independently before advancing directly into AP Latin. Her Latin teacher, who is a 30-year veteran, calls her one-of-a-kind, praising her scholarship as exceeding AP standards and her leadership as president of both the National Honor Society and the Curtamin team. Shrida also founded Avon High School's Red Cross club. She serves as an EMS cadet and is deeply engaged in community service. This year, she was

021nominated for a Clara Barton Award for her dedication, hard work, and unwavering commitment to serving others. when she was a freshman, she actually founded our red red cross club here, which is the first in this area. She is known for her rare kindness and infectious positivity, elevating every space she's a part of. Trad embodies the intellect, compassion, and leadership that define the best of our students, and she will be cons continuing her studies at Yale University this year. Congratulations, Truda. This has required a lot of time and effort on your parts. I'm sure your parents have been contributing and helping support you through this as well. We are so proud of you and I hope you're proud of yourself and that you will sleep a little bit every once in a while. That is so

022impressive. Please come forward. We would love to celebrate you as well. Congratulations parents welcome to take Come on. Thank you. I think they deserve another round of applause. Okay, we get to celebrate you again at graduation, so we're excited. All right, Mr. Lee, would you like to come forward for our final recipient tonight? Thank you. Um, I'm honored and privileged to stand here to talk about an amazing man, uh, Matt Mooney. Um, each year the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence gives out, uh, an award, uh, the first 100 plus award, and this year Matt Mooney was a recipient of that award for his work uh, against domestic violence. Matt has been an amazing friend, uh an amazing husband, uh an amazing teacher, uh father, and that's what I've known him for many years. Uh on

023May 30th, thanks to the Pettit Family Foundation, Matt will be recognized on a larger scale for his work against domestic violence. Uh the women that he supports in these uh cases uh have have grown tremendously uh from what I've have heard. In addition, in regards to Avon, uh Matt has always done the um the the the Super Bowl to uh raise funds for the I'm a care men's shelter to provide food uh and support for the men uh the homeless men in Harford. Um in addition, um Matt has led clothing drives um to to support homeless people as well. So today we celebrate Matt for his work that he has done throughout the state of Connecticut as well as what he has done for our town here in Avon. Thank you Matt. Mr. Moody, we're

024not done. You can remain standing now. We're going to embarrass you. Yes. Thank you for being a kind and caring human being. That's I think the most important thing that you can do for any of our students in this community. And I'm going to get a little choked up, but we really appreciate that you care that much and that you extend yourself beyond the classroom because it matters and you're setting an example for what um our students hopefully will grow up to be as well. So, we really appreciate that in you because you're a good person. So, please come forward so we can shake your hand and take pictures with you, too. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Well, that was my favorite part of this whole meeting and I know so many of you

025are here to celebrate who we have just acknowledged. We are not offended at all if you would like to dismiss yourselves for the rest of the meeting. Thank you for loving your people because you're giving so much back to the to the community just by being who you are. So, thank you everybody. Enjoy the rest of your night. [Applause] All right. Now, we get to move on to approval of the board of education regular monthly meeting minutes of April 22nd, 2025. Do I have a motion? All right, Sarah. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Lynn. All in favor? I. Passes unanimously with eight. And communication from the public. Do we have anyone signed up? All right, we'll just take a peek to make [Applause] sure. All set. All right. Thank you. All right.

026Next, we have our items of information proposals. Unfortunately, neither of our students could join us this evening for an update. We do have a brief update if Are you okay, Dr. Carnola, with Yeah, you giving a synopsis. I'll wait until we get to my part by the way because some of them overlap. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. And then our financial report with Miss Russo. Good evening. We ended the month of April 2025 with a unencumbered balance just over $1.5 million or 2.25% of our budget appropriation. That's a good um point and a half uh lower than the previous time this year. reflect upon. Um, as we talked about at finance committee, this time last year, we uh were just coming off a budget freeze and we had not made some of the uh purchases we

027normally would make this time, not knowing where the budget was going to be. Thankfully, um, the budget passed for next fiscal year. Uh, and we're moving forward and in anticipation of some of the tariffs and some other rising prices that we've seen, we did make some equipment per purchases a little bit earlier in the year than we normally would have. As we look at salaries uh both in our certified and non-certified um lines, we had we continue to see some vacancies for for um resignations, retirements as well as for um FMLA leaves. So we we see some deficits um from those savings in those salary lines in our substitute both long-term substitute and in our contracted services substitute line. a budget transfer uh on the consent agenda 2025033 uses those savings from the um unearned

028hours to offset those uh sorry about that took a little too many time earlier today working off a migraine apologize um so we're offsetting uh those unpaid funds to those um deficit lines thank you uh in utilities we continue to see um some fluctuations over budget in both our electric our water, our natural gas. Um, we've discussed, I think, at length both with state representatives as well as at finance committee the Eversource bills. Um, and those public charges that were on them. We continued to see them through the end of March. We had not received the bills yet for the time period uh that some had hoped they'd uh disappear from. I can say though what I have seen in the um in the news is is that they haven't disappeared. So, I'm not confident

029that uh we'll see a decrease in that for for next month. Uh we also received our town sewer bills and they were just a little bit higher than we had budgeted and you'll see that deficit in those lines as well. We used our savings and other utility lines to offset those deficits and they are again included on 2025 uh this time on 034 in your consent agenda. Um, we continue to have a deficit in HVAC repairs purposely if we as we talked about throughout the year. Uh, and I put on the packet on the memo some repairs and maintenance. They're above and beyond what we normally have seen. Um, this time of year, just some extra, I guess, uh, repairs that we've had to make, such as elevator repairs at the high school and at

030time at PGS, roof repairs, uh, both here at the high school and TVS. And qu co coincidentally the high school we have to do the last part of the roof and we have leaks uh at Thompson Brook with being the next roof in rotation and we have leaks. So they they do follow the trend. So we're trying to get ahead of the game and and get those scheduled. Uh the sewage pump at as some of you um may have heard we had some sewage issues at TVS but all set. We we're getting that repaired um and have a fix until that's done. And um security system at Pinerove we're working to to fix as well. In special education, we had a number of contracted services um that went above and beyond what we had budgeted,

031but we do have offsets for those um for budget expenditures and tuition lines that will offset how we delivered services to to students um from from that line. And in transportation, we had some additional student needs. Uh so we moved money between our in district and out of district transportation lines. again budgeted. We're just changing what line we budgeted those transportation costs in on nutrition services. I do have an update. Um we had talked about it last meeting how we had a deficit and that would be covered by the board at the end of the fiscal year. Uh and that was a significant deficit. Bad news, the deficit's grown. Good news um is that the state is allowing us to apply for an exemption which we've been approved for to use our positive um earnings

032from our nutrition services account to offset that deficit. So the board or the general fund will not have to absorb that for this year. Cannot guarantee that for next year but for this year we do have that offset. Uh we continue to reach out to families to let them know the resources we have and also to remind them sometimes people forget to turn on their autopay. Their credit card expires so that autopay stops working. So we're reaching out to remind them um let them know these balances are due by the last day of school. Thank you Susan. Are there any questions? Go ahead, Lynn. Just about about the um negative balance on for unpaid meals. question is is this amount typical? What was it last year approximately if you remember? And also why is it

033typical for us to have such a healthy positive balance that we can easily cover the cost? And if we're paying for this, what are we not paying for? You know what I'm saying? So the program has been profitable. It's been profitable over since I've been here. The whole four years I've been here, we we've been profitable. the COVID funds had helped. We received a lot of both federal and state funding above and beyond what the program normally sees. Um that has led to a positive balance in reserves. Now the state only allows us to carry a few a certain amount of reserves. So we do have to spend it or or lose it. Um so we have been working to replace equipment at the schools um to put a new serving line. If any of

034you had a chance to look at AMS, there's been a new serving line put in to replace some of that aged equipment all with within their profits. So, they've been using those funds to offset that. Um, I can say if we continue to hit it for deficit balances as we have the last two years, we may not be in as positive of a spot to replace aging equipment and to replace things that need to be replaced out of those revenues. And also we're seeing um the turn in the federal government where they're going where they're deciding to fund different things going forward um and and the end of the co funds. Um farm to school has been hit. There's there's a number of programs that we may not receive next year. And that's why when

035we talk about later on um on the agenda, we'll talk about meal prices. We're not setting them yet because we're not sure where we're going to be both from a what the state requires us to be at based on a formula and also where the program will be given whatever funds we're going to receive next year. We just don't have enough information to make that decision at this point. And to answer the first question, I apologize L is we were around 20,000 this time last year. Anybody else? Thank you, Susan. All right, moving on. Committees and liaison reports, curriculum and professional practices. Lynn, that always creeps up on me. Um, yeah, we are not going to have uh the meeting that was scheduled originally for for June because there's not much to to do. So,

036what we decided to do is take the one agenda item and put it on the board's agenda for tonight and we're all going to be talking about it. And that's for a Spanish textbook, right? Thank you. Thank you. Finance, that would be me. You'll see in the packet the minutes from our May 13th um meeting. Susan already did a nice synopsis of what we discussed primarily and we'll get into the fees um schedule later on. Our next meeting will be June 9th at 6:15 prior to our board of education meeting. So, are we going to be here or do you think we'll be in the community room? Not sure yet. Probably the just so that they can set. Okay, perfect. So, if anybody wants to join us early that night, you're welcome to do so.

037Negotiations, Suzanne. Yeah, there's nothing new uh aside from that we will be um starting negotiations with the certified administrator association in the sometime in the summer, but there's no date on that. Thank you. and policy. Uh we had a meet we had a meeting earlier this month Deb on the 6th of May and there's a few items on the agenda tonight for discussion around that. Thank you for Capitol Region Education Council. Chris did give me a brief update. They do have their annual meeting tomorrow. He's not feeling well, but he's hoping to rest up and be able to join them because they also announced scholarships and things and he's a good um person to represent the board in that capacity. So hopefully he'll be feeling better. Um the chair of report I want to acknowledge

038the internship program um this evening. It was wonderful to meet more students doing new and exciting things every time. There's different opportunities that they take advantage of. They do such a nice job presenting it. So I want to appreciate Miss Mscoli for putting that together. She did share with me that they have already 30 students signed up for the summer. So, that's very exciting and I appreciate that they do that on our behalf um to be able to um get to know what the kids are up to and they all seem to enjoy each place that they were in and some of them were surprised by what they experienced. They didn't go into it thinking they'd like it and they ended up liking it. So, I think that's success. Um I do also right, right?

039Right. Um I also want to acknowledge I'm so grateful that our budget did pass um that we don't have to make any difficult decisions to take things away from our staff and our students. So, I just wanted to have that on the record. Thank you to the community for participating. Every vote truly matters. It was only 11 votes that made the difference. And they recounted them today and it was exactly the same results, 11 votes. So, thank you to everyone. And now, Dr. Carnola. Thank you. Uh start with our hiring report. Mr. Medic. Good evening everyone. Uh, as board members know, typically in May and June, our hiring for this current school year winds down as we are about a little over three weeks left to go in the school year. We have begun to

040turn our attention to filling vacancies and openings for the upcoming school year. Our building administrative teams are doing screening interviews for multiple positions at this point. and we have uh started to work through some processes with some candidates moving forward to final interviews with the superintendent now that the budget has passed. Uh of note, we have uh five retirements on the hiring report. Uh first is Miss Patty Lorenzan, a very dedicated school nurse at Roaring Brook School. Uh she spent a lengthy career in the health field as a nurse and spent 20 years with us here in district and we're uh very grateful for all of her work helping guide RBS through the pandemic and for the past few years. We wish her well. We also have four certified teachers who are retiring at the

041conclusion of the school year. Miss Judy Mahar, Miss Kim Moretti, Mr. Carl Sauerbr, and Mr. Stu Abrams. combined they have 124 years of experience in Avon that's not counting where some of them may have worked prior to so losing more than a century and a quarter of dedication uh institutional knowledge skills and uh I think I think we were trying to count with one of them uh one Judy brought up she she had close to 2,000 students in her career here over those years so the countless lives that they've touched uh over those 124 combined years and we wish them uh a happy next chapter in retirement. Thank them for all their service to the district. Thank you. Moving on, the enrollment report uh holding steady. You there's a difference from 2024. As you can

042see, um we have 194 kindergarten students registered right now, which is significantly more than we have in kindergarten right now. We have 160. So at this point we are 34 more than we currently are for registrations and obviously expect more because usually come in during the summer and so forth. Um but as you know we were planning for that number to be higher um in the budget and we should still be all set with the number of physicians that we have. Uh bless you. We just might need to make one more uh move from a grade level down to kindergarten if it keeps trending in the same direction. But we're aware of that. Questions about that? Yeah. Um is this increase do you think due to the change in the law in terms of when

043students can start or is it just No, it's just I I think part of it is um newer folks moving into town. Okay. Home sales. um because it it ends up evening out really when you look at entering before age five. There's not there's a handful of students. Thank you. Right. Be born during Yes. I guess there I didn't realize that was a term for it. Covid babies, pandemic babies. I guess that they're five this year. Yes. Any questions about that? Okay. Okay. Let's move that one along. Um uh from a strategic planning standpoint, we have our last full day of professional development tomorrow. So, thank you again to teaching and learning and all of our um administration, curriculum specialists, and uh faculty members who have stepped up to help plan that and run some

044great sessions yet again. Um we are full speed ahead for our retreat right after the school year ends. Um we haven't gotten into the August one yet, but one one day at a time at this point. We're trying to get through June. Um also we have been um well we have completed we've completed all the instructional rounds at the schools. I want to thank all of you again for uh that being really great. We talked about that last time, but we've now truly finished and we are using the data and the recommendations and the staff input now to move forward as we talk about what's next for our blueprint, how to implement our portrait of the graduate. Um, again, as you saw some of you board members that were able to come out, we've been

045working hard at making sure that we are integrating those skills and dispositions into both our curriculum and our instruction and our assessments as we move forward. So, there's still work to be done there, but it's exciting work for us. Um, I think we'll be talking about a board retreat again. Uh, maybe in September, August is tough. Um, so that we can revisit our blueprint in light of some of the newer work that's been done, but I'll wait for Christine to go through the calendar and put those dates out. Um, few other things. I, as you mentioned, Deb, I have some of the more fun updates from the students that weave in and out of mind. One of the things I wanted to share was our robotics team is again heading to the world championships and

046so we are really excited about that. Was at the middle school today um and talked to Mr. Rand, Mr. Jones, they are very excited. Remember we switched our programming over to VEX and it's been going from first robotics. It's been going very well. Um a lot more kids as the year has gone on have expressed interest and we're excited and wish them well. Um we let's see what else they wanted me to tell you. Um that they had a blast at the prom last Saturday. Uh prom was very successful and thank you again to everyone who was there on chaperon. It was a great night. Um we have testing for juniors and uh for NGSS and we have our award scholarship night coming up. That's by invitation only. Um senior exams are June 4th to

047the 9th. Our underassman exams are June 9th to the 12th. and our graduation as you know still June 11th at the Bushnull 5:30 and you've all we're we're all set with their gowns and so on. Okay. Um I'm still working with uh Diana Devivo at the high school about folks handing out diplomas because there are there are some board members and some town officials who have uh children graduating this year. So we're we're working on that. They've been notified. Um, want to pause for a moment and again thank all of our PTO's for making our Avon appreciation week for faculty and staff a huge success. Um, I'm saying this when we met as the PTO leadership a couple of Fridays ago. We really couldn't do it without them. the amount of um not not just

048the money that they raise to be able to put these things together, beautiful lunchons, um coffee bars, little gifts, um they they really make it special alongside of, of course, you know, our our administrators, those of us here at the table, too, try to, you know, do something during that week also. But it's nothing pales in comparison to what the PTO puts together. Um we were laughing, I see Aaron back there. We were laughing at sometimes it's just the little the little touch. We were talking about one of our PTO uh folks who can just put a label on something, a tag, and all of a sudden it looks fantastic. Everybody is excited. The packaging, the lunches, everything just great. They did so much work. Thank you again to our PTO. Um we had US

049back spirit week coming TBS. Uh we've got concerts next week for both grades at TBS. Excuse me as I try to read the students versions. Uh we have Day of Play coming up on Friday. Uh and music adulce performed at the yard goats game on the 14th. Uh that was spectacular. Um thank you. Uh PGS students are again I think invited to the Yard Goats right on June 14th. They're having the end of the year get together. That's going to be fantastic. I think we have PTO involved in that too if I remember correctly. Thank you. and Blazard's backyard bash once again uh May 30th and fourth grade students to having their survivor day again. That's become something very exciting there and we had the book fair a few weeks ago. So that is combination

050of what I was going to tell you and what our student reps would have told you tonight. I will save the rest for the agenda items that we have. Right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. So, moving on to the consent calendar. Before taking action, I just always want to acknowledge how grateful we are for the donations again that the PTO's um give to our schools. Pine Grove gets more enrichment for their library media center, which we're grateful for. And at Thompson Brook, they had wonderful workshops that were provided to them. So, we want to acknowledge that. So, barring anyone wanting to remove a consent calendar item, do I have a motion to approve as is? So, move. Thank you, Jeff. Second. I saw Romesh's hand first, Suzanne, if that's okay. Romesh. All in favor?

051I passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. All right. Now, this next item, I think we're all very relieved and taking deep breaths that we are able to do this. It's discussion and um action to rescend the letters that were sent to certified staff regarding non-renewal of their contracts due to budgetary reasons in accordance with section 10-151 of the Connecticut General Statutes. This is due to the budget passing. So, we are incredibly grateful for this opportunity. I don't know Dr. Colonel if you wanted to speak to anything more. Uh, just to say again, thank you um to everyone who came out to vote regardless of of how you voted. I think it's we we've talked a lot about that that it's important that we're able to have civic engagement and I think there was a lot

052of time and effort that went in on both the town side and our side certainly with um outreach and answering questions and putting the budget together. So grateful for that. Grateful for um people that helped spread the word that the referendum was happening because sometimes I think that's one of the hardest things to do. Um, and I'm just grateful that we we don't have to have any other discussions about what else might be lost because as we had discussed previously, we had already reduced our budget 5.8 positions. So, we really didn't we didn't have any room. We handed out these letters to be in compliance with the statute, but there there wasn't room for anyone to not be with us. So, just deeply appreciative that we can move forward now. Yes, this was the first

053time since I've been on the board that we had to take an action such as this. and I think it was responsible of us to do, but it doesn't feel good. So, um, very happy to make a motion to rescend those letters. Um, do I have a second? I'll second. Okay, I'll take Jeff. All right. Thank you. All in favor? It passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. All right. Moving on to new business, discussion and possible approval of the 2526 fee schedule on page 25, Susan. Yes. Thank you. Sorry that so the fees schedule this year um highlighted in the orange color is the fees that we're proposing to change um for preschool tuition. Uh we discussed I believe two years ago at the board level that we're going to increase that annually by the

054budget percentage. Uh now it's timely that the budget is officially passed um that we're proposing that increase. So it's u increase by the 4.29% 29% and then round it to to hold dollars there. Um then technology protection plan we're not proposing to change but the use of school facilities in all three categories. Uh we've adjusted the custodial rates based on the custodial's contract for next year inclusive of taxes. And then also we've in increased the usage of the facilities themselves, the gym, uh classrooms, auditorium and cafeteria fees themselves by the 4.29% 29% increase again to be inclusive of raises in utilities or raises in custodial um cleaning products and and all the costs that go into running the building. So that's um multiplied by the 4.29% and the roundage of the whole dollars. And we

055discussed a little bit earlier um the breakfast and lunch prices. Um I may ask the board to look at those and review them in August once we've completed year end. uh we've reconciled the books to where the nutrition service program ended. We fill out the required paid lunch equity formula that the state um has us complete. We'll see then if we land above or be below that and where we are financially with the program itself and then we'll make a recommendation from there. Thank you. Any questions? All right. So, I will make the motion to approve the current proposed fee schedule for um fiscal year 2025 2026 as currently presented. Do I have a second? All right, Lynn. All in favor? I passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. Next, our 2023 2024 audit report starting

056on page 26. Thank you again. In the packet, you'll have both a federal single audit report and the state single audit report. Um, as we talked about at finance committee, the the board of ed does not receive um a federal grant in excess of $750,000. At least as of yet, we have not received that. So, that doesn't require our finance to go through the the federal single audit in terms of the report. We do get audited in full just like the town does. where our um programs get audited, but the there's not the level of detail of audit for our federal grants because of the thresholds. So, we're not included any of the recommendations in the town's federal single audit. But they did make a recommendation for the town side um that they knew about

057and had addressed and made a policy change on to ensure that when you receive federal funds, you have to make sure a vendor you use when you purchase items or contract with a company using those federal funds is not what they call dispar. Not like a lawyer, but more um like something that has been investigated or could have illegal activities, money laundering, etc. And there's just a website you go on to and look look at to make sure that those um entities are not on that disparment list. The town um has a comment for that in their audit, but they had already made the policy change. It just wasn't timely enough um for when they conducted the audit. If you remember, we added that language when we just recently changed our pursing policy to get

058ahead of it to make sure that we were compliant before we even got audited on it. So if we do have a grant next year and and I hope we do I hope we get a grant next $750,000. So that I' I'd rather be audited and get the funds. So we're getting close to our IDEIDA funds that we're getting to close to that threshold. I'm happy to say on the state single audit which we fully um took part in because we do receive a number of state funds. Uh we had no comments, no recommendations both in the town or the board of outside and as in the meeting that deserves a round of applause. So we know it's a team effort, but we're incredibly grateful for how well you do your job and keeping us

059all sane. So thank you very much. We appreciate that. That is huge to not get even one mention. So we we appreciate that you do it so well. So that's more informative so we don't need to take action. Thank you. Um so next is our facility use funds on page 52. Okay. Um so thank you. Um what you have in the packet is where we propose our facility use fund is going to end of the year. It's based on our current uh balance plus projected revenue uh we intend to receive um from renting the the program the um resources out. What I have are a few proposed projects with very loose estimates. What I'm looking for the board to do is okay the projects, give us a direction to go in so Mr. Ultimus and

060his team can u make these projects happen and get better numbers. But we anticipate ending the year with a balance in the fund of around $20,000. Um for those of you who haven't been on the board a long number of years, what we have used that fund for other than these projects we've talked about the last few years is redoing the gym floors. Okay? Okay. So, we use that as a cycle to re redo those because it's costly to redo those floors and they're our asset that's used the most by the community because the gym floor here at the high school unfortunately had a flood. It was replaced out of cycle and therefore we don't have that replacement cost to do that to refinish it and and strip it and re reseal it. Um so

061that gave us the opportunity to use these funds that we are earning annually in in a different way. The next two floors that um we have to do are both the middle school and Pinerove and they're not till 2030. So it gives us that opportunity over the next few years to utilize these. The projects um we have proposed are the AHS parking lot to reline that. If you've been outside some of the lines are getting a little bit difficult to see. Um we think it's safe as a safety issue for our students and our staff. Uh the second item, riding lawnmower. That's something Mr. Ultimus um asked me to ask you to think about and we really thought it was a good use of funds. The fields are I think our second most used um

062resource and our team maintains them. Uh and they need good proper equipment to make sure that they're maintained and I can tell you the number of phone calls we get if if the grass isn't mowed. So um this is something that would be really helpful. Bane of our existence. Um in addition uh gym lights. So, our gym lights are becoming end of life. We cannot replace the parts that actually are make up the the light itself of the gym lights. So, the maintenance team has proposed replacing them with LEDs, the fix the inserts of them. They I could get technical, but I really don't know that I could do a good job about that. All I know is they can't be fixed. So, they'd like to start using these funds to replace those um school

063by school as they can given whatever budget I give them within this fund. And then lastly, um I think Mr. Mr. Gnome back there will be very happy about this. The basketball hoops at Roaring Brook have been um quite damaged um from plowing and some other incidents that have happened. They've fallen down, gotten damaged rather than repair them, which we were first going to do just to have a quick fix. Replacing them is more appropriate. And again, something I think and being a Roaring Brook side of town person, we use that uh playground. year. Everyone in the community on that side of town uses that Roaring B playground for um for basketball. That's the closest one and and it really is widely used. Um so we thought again this would be appropriate use of those

064funds. Can I Yeah, please wait and see if there's a question, but I just want to add a couple things and anybody have questions about any of these? Okay. Um just as a reminder so we're all on the same page, uh the these funds are kept separate from our budget. So this money that's paid in, as Susan explained, uh this fund carries uh yeartoear can only really be used on facilities related projects. Um and as Susan already said, working on gym floors and fields and so forth, we think is the best use of it because it gets so much use by the community. So I think it's a win-win for both us and the town uh at large. The other thing I wanted to um mention, Susan, because we don't have this is not an

065agenda item. I'm not looking for um approval or anything at least at this time, but it's related to facilities and facilities use. Um as you know, we have to um or hoping to begin the move over to 200 Fisher Drive at some point during this summer. Um, as a result of that change, we need to enter into an agreement with the town um, a memorandum of of understanding about uh, maintenance and fees at that building because where we are now, uh, we don't have such a thing, but we also pay all of the bills out of our budget ourselves. We don't pay the town for the building, but when we move there, we will be paying the town some of the fees. And so we need to have it delineated in writing um legally because

066we're an agency of the town using a town building and paying the town for it. So I'll pause there. Susan, I know you you were going to explain maybe a little bit more than I did, but I wanted you to be aware before it goes on the town council agenda because they are going to discuss it first and if they approve the terms, then it will be brought here to the board. So, um, what it outlines is it outlines the areas we're going to use in the building because, as you know, we're going to take up three of the, um, suites of the four the four three of the four wings, which includes suites within them of the building where there's four. Um, and it has a schedule of when we are to move into

067them, which is we're still a work in progress, so that's not finalized yet. But it also lays out um we're working through how much that the cost is going to be to occupy all those spaces. Also lays out what the expectation is that the uh agent who is going to be running the building for us, which is Castle, who previously owned the building. They're going to remain as the management company. The town's not in the the business of of leasing, right? So this is what the the management company's going to do. they're going to keep an office there and they're going to be the one we call if something breaks, if there's an issue and not DPW, right? So, they have somebody a middleman so to speak um for the tenants and we will be

068one of the tenants, just the the largest tenant there. It outlines for us um a process and in terms of when we're going to set that fee year after year. Um I'll meet with Mr. Dustasio, the town finance director, and we'll go over what were the budgetary expenditures of the building the prior year, how how is that going to impact what fees we pay each year, and we'll work through that, and it sets a timeline for when that'll happen. So, it'll happen by November 1st of each year so that we can both set our budgets for the following year. Then, it also talks about semantics like how hot is it going to be, the janitorial services, um you know, what happens if if something gets broken. So all the minutia of what you would normally

069see in kind of a tenant agreement, it outlines for that and then it outlines the areas um that we're going to occupy of the building. So I'm still working with um Grace over at the town manager's office to work through those final details on this. Um and then it'll be on I believe the June 5th or the the town council meeting that's in early June. Thank you. That's very helpful. Any questions? That has nothing to do with this. just No, just I remembered when I saw facilities that we we meant to bring that up because we were told that it was going too late for this agenda. We were told it was going to the town council and again you you weren't going to take action on it anyway. It's really just an update for

070you. Is it related to facilities? Yes, because at some point maybe we might be utilizing facilities use funds for things there also but but not what we're talking about tonight. No, there is about healthy balance which is a good thing just in case something breaks. It's kind of our emergency fund. Yes, it's not that healthy. Yeah, 20,000 may get us a small repair nowadays, but yeah. Any other questions? All right. So, I will move to um approve the proposed projects as presented from the facility use funds. Do I have a second? Second second by Sarah. All in favor? I passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. Now we move on to some policies. We have discussion and possible approval of revised policy 1250 visitors and observations in schools on page 53. Thank you. Uh so as

071you know we discussed all of these uh detail at the policy committee meeting. I'll hit the highlights and and answer questions because many of you were there but you were not all able to be there and I answered some questions uh individually already but the first one the community um relations policy for visitors and observations in schools. This had to be changed due to the change in uh law in Connecticut. Um, as you might remember, earlier this year, Governor Lamont signed a public act related to immigration enforcement activities in schools, and it put out some requirements to school districts to ensure that there was a process for um engaging with and complying with immigration activities at schools. And so that is, as you can see on the bottom of page 53, the the um entire

072yellow paragraph, that is all new. Um, one of the other things that was required was that if you had a policy related to um, school safety plans, you updated the policy. We don't have a policy about it, we simply comply with the law. And we have, as you know, the all hazards plan. So, the law required us to update a policy if you had it. And if you did not have it, regardless of whether or not you had it, to update your all hazards plan or or whatever you call it in district. We use the same um name as the state uses which is the all hazards plan. That had already been done um as soon as the law came out. That was an easy change. But we had to make also the change in

073this policy to be compliant. Um and the short of it is as you can see um besides what I just said about the security and safety plan that we have to have an employee who's designated as the person that interacts with the person. um we had to do that as it happened. So in as soon as that public act was passed, we had to put that into place immediately in the schools. So without this policy, that still had to happen. Um we and honestly, we already had a a protocol for it anyway because it's the same as interacting with law enforcement that aren't our SRO's at the school anyway. Um, unless you're coming into one of the schools from the Avon Police Department, we are asking who you are and why you're there because it's

074no different really than any other visitor unless they have a different reason for being there. Of course, we have officers that come in all the time that might work in other towns that are someone's parent, for example, and they're coming in for a visit or the like. But if you are at a school to conduct official police business or or legal business, you have to have your credentials verified. We don't know who's coming to the door, whether or not they have a uniform on, whether or not that's legitimate and whether or not they're um there for legitimate reasons. So, what we do as part of our protocols is maintain um the usual stay in the visitors area. Um what what are you here for? If they have a let's say a warrant or paperwork related

075to immigration, doesn't matter. same same thing to us in terms of they're going to call the principal or the building administrator that's there from security or if for some reason security guard is not at the desk it would be the front um desk personnel the administrative assistants in the front they would call the building administrator they call me if I'm not here there's a there's a chain that goes down and we coordinate with the attorney because we're we need to make sure that if whatever legal documents are provided we understand how to implement and comply with them. And that's basically how what the plan is. That's in our all hazards plan and it's what was required of us by law too to make sure that it was named who the individuals were that would interact

076with law enforcement. Any questions? All right, Paige, would you like to make a motion? Sure. I'd like to make a motion for approval of the revised policy 1250 visitors and observations in schools. Do I have a second? Thank you, Suzanne. All in favor? I passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. Our next item, discussion on possible approval of revised policy 5112.1 admission to public schools at or um um my ink is leaking through at or by 5 years old starting with page uh 61. So, as you know, last year the legislature passed a law in Connecticut uh that changed uh entrance to schools to five by September 1st and also told us to put a process into place that if you didn't meet that criteria, we could decide whether or not you came, which you know

077wasn't uh fantastic at first. Still trying to figure out on the fly what to do there. But um thanks to Jess and um Tiffany Fox did a great job putting some regulations into place and assessments and that has actually been going very well. Um the changes to this are very small because we wanted to make sure that one it was um accurate for us in Avon. So you see assistant superintendent in yellow there. Um and also a district level certified staff member because you heard who I just said. that's who has primarily been running this. So that is really the the change for us was ensuring actually that the regulation matched what happened in district because as you might imagine there are some regulations that don't get looked at very often. This one gets looked

078at by every person who has a child who doesn't turn five by September 1st and even some who might have a child in that um age range because they just want to know what happens. So we had to make sure this was accurate. Any questions? All right, the Would you like to make a motion? Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the revised policy 5112.1 admission to public school at or by 5 years old. Do I have a second? I'll take Nicole this time. Thank you. All in favor? I passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. Next discussion and possible approval of the new policy 5131.911 Connecticut school climate policy beginning on page 65. So I think this one and the restorative practices are probably the the meteor policies and in some cases regulations

079although they're not all fully developed yet of what we discussed at the policy meeting. Um they're also some of the in some ways the largest changes to actual policy and both of them get into restoative practices off after but they're related are required by law and we discussed as you know we discussed that in policy meetings. So, um, in 2023, actually, and you might remember we talked about this actually back then because the law was passed that by July 1, uh, first it was 2024 and then it was 2025, there would need to be a new policy created that was enforced statewide. Um, there was the social emotional learning and school climate advisory collaborative, for short, it was called the collaborative. Um, we we actually had some folks from Avon that that were there. Um

080and they brought us in at one point. They brought me in at one point to speak also about some of the practices here. Um they met for years and put uh together some requirements. At the end of the day, what the law required and this is this is different. This is something I don't think I know I haven't seen it before. I don't think any of us have seen a law quite like this one. The law directed that the policy be written by Cabe. They had to develop, update and approve this policy and in turn it was adopted by the that collaborative and then the law required us to adopt it. So there can you make changes to this? No. The this we are bound by law to implement the school policy climate policy the

081way that it was given to us by CABE. Can we work on regulations? Yes. because they didn't give regulations to go along with it and a lot of the implementation of a policy is in is in the regulations and the forms and the and the processes and so forth. So um you see regulations these are the model regulations that Shipman did. So this is another oddity. Cab wrote the policy that has to be implemented. Shipman and Goodwin wrote uh model regulations to distribute to districts so they could at least use them as a starting point. um the ones that we have right now, that's what they are. We didn't start any further work on the regulations until we brought the policy through and it it it will require updating of some pieces certainly of forms

082and so forth. Um that's the big picture around this policy. I know we talked quite a bit about it. Um note again though, if you were not at that meeting, this is required to replace the current bullying policy. Bullying is now contained within this Connecticut school climate policy. They were over the years together and separate, more separate than together. And so some pieces that were highly regulated in the past such as you need to have a process, you need to you need to fill out a form, you need to you know there were a number of steps involved that had to be done um when we were investigating bullying. Now, it actually was put into place so that it was easier, including on um parents, um students or or anyone who wanted who wants to

083report an incident that could be perceived as bullying or may actually be bullying. They don't have to necessarily jump through hoops to fill out forms and have it comply um under this policy. That was one of the reasons for the change. Another reason for the change was to ensure that um really these two things were seen handinand because a positive school climate usually means you have lower instances of bullying. Remember when we use that term that still is a legal definition. We're using it as a legal definition. That sometimes is difficult, I think, when we work through with parents and others because some of the things that we might as individuals, as parents or or even as educators at times consider, you know, quote bullying by what we know to be its definition sometimes would

084not meet the statutory definition. Instead, be seen as something else, whether it's harassment or it's as simple as unkind behavior or it's disruptive behavior or it's the like. um those pieces haven't changed, but the process has changed and having the policies separate have changed. Question. Go ahead, Jeeoff. So, thank you for that explanation because that was going to be my question. So, I just want to make sure I'm hearing you right. While they're rolling in the bullying policy into this, they have not altered the standard to meet the legal definition of bullying. So, one frustration that has been expressed to me as a board member has been just to your point a variety of actions that the public will perceive as bullying, but the school's response has been those are not acts of bullying in

085the compliance with the law. That has not changed. So, it still be as difficult to meet that standard of bullying. No, there is there are some changes. Yes. Um we one of the pieces that has always been a part of um calling naming something as bullying for example is whether or not it has an impact on the students um availability or ability to attend school. That is not a piece. If you look in the definition of bullying on page 66 that's not a piece of that definition. um what does this look like in practice and when the regulations and the safe school climate policy have to be put through that I can't answer for you yet because um this is all still very new and and we're going through it and we have to develop

086uh school climate improvement plans as a part of this also which we already had but they were they were different than what this is now requiring in law. So you can see this definition, Jeff, is is generally the same, but there are some specific pieces that we don't see in it any longer, and we're not exactly sure how that's going to play out in actually implementing the policy until more of the regulations are gone through. Thank you. Go ahead, Nicole. Um, thank you. I had a question. Um if a child or teacher, whoever um reports a bullying um instance, is the parent of the victim required to be informed or was that taken out? Because I had heard that with the change that that might be the case, but I I wasn't aware of that.

087So, I didn't see that taken out, but again, I that was a part of I think the specifics there were in the regulations, not in the policy. I could be wrong about that. I might have to look back at that, Nicole, and I will after even while we're here because I don't have the I don't have the old policy in front of me right now because this is a complete redo of of both of those policies. I only have the new one in front of me and this is all new language. Um, but I believe it is still in here even if it it it might be in the regulations. What I would say to you though is regardless that's something that we do is it it it should be done no matter what. So

088it would be a part of our process regardless. You can't you can't do an investigation like that and not let a parent of a child who might be the target of bullying know you you have to let them know. Did you find it? Well, just it's it's right on that first form. Thank you. I'm You're going to get notification. That's That's the model. Yeah. 74. Yeah. Page 74. No, hang on. These again, these are the regulations and the forms that they put together to attempt to try to rebuild what was in effect before and make it comply with the new policy. So, these have not been tailored to Avon. These are not Avon eyes, so to speak. Um, and we have not gone through what will have to be done again with all of the

089administrators, which is training around the investigations and making sure that our forms comply. Says that this is for students or parents enrolled in the school. I just want to make sure if somebody else decides to parent. Yep. Perfect. Go ahead, Jeeoff. So, I know as a board we do not vote on regulations. Is it possible when you and your team formalize the regulations, you'll at least bring it back as a Yes. Because that's why I wanted to make sure they were part of this packet with this policy because again, the devil is in the details when you're talking about the regulations for a policy like this. So these just know are the current model developed by Shipman and I we've been told that they might even be revising these a bit and also that we

090we have to make sure that they are tailored to Avon including with a specific um individuals who would be implementing it um pieces that tie back into the um safe school climate plan. So, there's a lot of work that still has to be done on our end to comply and to make sure that these forms comply with our procedures and the staff that we have in place here because you have to name people and you'll bring that back at least for informationational purposes for us. Thank you. I appreciate that. Just couldn't wait on at least getting the policy through because the law said July one. So, go ahead Romesh. Yeah. So, just piggybacking on that question, right? So um KB is drafting the policy and all the school districts needs to adopt. Mhm. Public school

091districts. Yes. And so as part of that right we are building the regulations. Right. So so what is the process to ensure K is in agreement with the regulations. What we are putting on paper is aligned to the policy. Who what is the vetting process? like is KB is going to review this once we put all the regulations and make sure that it's aligned to the policy. No. Um they this is also a little bit odd because they usually put out regulations with policies. Cape usually does and they did not in this case. So Shipman created them to comply with this policy. So the way they stand now they do comply. there is more in these regulations than the policy necessarily requires. Um, but they wanted to ensure that they were conservatively put together to

092in be compliant with this policy and the law. So the vetting process is Shipman putting together the regulations, the school districts taking those that that utilize them and if they don't whoever they utilize or buying them from Shipment Goodwin um taking them tailoring them to the individual district and the creating the safe school climate plans and then taking them back through Shipment and Goodwin. That's what we would do. Once they are all put into place for Avon, we will send them back through for review to make sure that we haven't missed any piece of complying with the policy. We usually don't have to do that, but it's just inherent in the way that this was set up. Adding uh adding to that, right? Like so is there a need to I mean I saw that

093there will be a committee formed for the school climate, right? So will there be a cave representative who will be part of the committee or is it mandated by the cave to No it's it's school staff um parents in some cases um students depending on grade level it's not no one from Cape would no it's just it's specific to each district who would participate any other thoughts questions just curious Um, you know, in the past with some pieces of school climate and the way we set up district-wide committees and so forth. Yes. Um, this one I think we're all we've all just taken in right now and are still wrestling with what it looks like to get these regulations in place and have people trained in the new policy. And you know, it just it

094is different for us particularly because it is this one policy is replacing two that were policies that were utilized all the time. So, it's just going to take a little bit more time and yes, we do. And sometimes that's actually as a result of um working to some very often the attorneys that are working for boards are the same for other neighboring boards from Shipment of Goodwin. And so they will when they do something for one board very often take it to us and say so you know they were asking the same question next door I can set you up with them you can have a conversation and so we will do that between districts and then also sometimes utilize each other's documents because they were put together by them and why both pay money

095to get the same thing done. Okay, good questions. All right, Sage. Okay, I'd like to make a motion to approve the new policy 5131.911, Connecticut school climate policy. It's the same. We're deleting it. And do I have a second? I'm sorry. Who was it? Thank you, Lynn. Jeff was distracting. I'm sorry. All right. All in favor? I passes unanimously. and his question was that the next policy that we are deleting is the same exact number, but it's because this one is taking the place of I was just questioning if it should have been deleted. Oh, I see what you're saying. We can delete it before we we can go. Yeah. No, it's okay. Um, since there weren't any other questions, I'm assuming we can move forward with the deletion. Yes. Okay. Go ahead, Sage. Wow.

096Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the deletion of the current bullying policy 5131.911 and second for this. Thank you, Suzanne. All in favor? Passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. All right. Next is discussion and possible approval of policy 5144.12, restorative practices, starting on page 91. [Applause] So again, these are two that go hand in hand. Um this is again uh in 2023 they passed legislation and it's related to the school climate legislation that we had to adopt a restorative practices response policy uh to be implemented by school employees for incidents of challenging behavior. You see that definition both in this policy and back in the school climate policy um or student conflict. Um mostly this is they expect this to be used by their terms. I'll say this when something is not

097a crime. Um, for some reason that's act that's that's actually defined, but just want to put that out there. Um, we're required again to adopt a policy by July 1, 2025. Um, this policy is the shipment model policy to comply with state law. Um, there are not uh regulations for this. Um again we are we have to work on some pieces of that actually. Um Tan and uh I were just looking at some frequently asked questions that we've developed related to restorative practices because I think there's there's always been a lot of discussion around this in in anywhere that certainly I've ever worked and and over the past however many years here that we have been um working through it. remember that the law already required us to implement restorative practices. Um, so we had

098to utilize it before they required the board to have a policy on it. Um, so the policy is now catching up with the law basically. Um, I I think I'll pause and wait for the questions because I know we had we had quite a bit of discussion about this and some of the same questions might may want to surface here. Go ahead, Nicole. Um I just wanted to continue the conversation from the policy meeting because I have had several parents constituents reach out when they saw the agenda. Restorative practice is not in lie of discipline. Right. Correct. That could be in addition. We're not mutually exclusive. Yes. because I think that that's and very well rightly a concern that we're not going to discipline certain actions and just use restorative practice. So could you just

099talk to that a little bit? Sure. So as I said, they're not mutually exclusive. They have not been utilized to date that way either. Are there times that only a restorative response and not a an exclusion from school, for example, an inschool suspension or an out of school suspension might be used? Yes. Are there times that we might have an exclusion for school that restorative practices hasn't been used? Yes. Um both of those things happen sometimes independently. More often than not, they're working together. There are some reasons why, for example, uh you would not re utilize restorative practices. A good example of that is something that might be considered um let's say sexual harassment. we're not having um restorative practices that would include a victim and a and a perpetrator work through something. Um we

100might though have a perpetrator work through some sort of assignment or something that might be considered restorative practices. Again, this is not a crime. Um so it just varies in what it looks like. Sometimes it's about pairing up the person who engaged in the behavior with the victim or the target of the behavior. Target is not the right word. I shouldn't say target. Actually, I should say victim because when we're talking about target, that's usually bullying and you almost never do that. Um, but it could be as simple as it's the school district or it's the it is the school where something happens. So you [Music] um you damage something in a school and part of the consequence for that might be helping to fix it. Um sometimes unfortunately the consequence for that might also

101be something has to be paid for um by by a family and andor a student depending on the age and depending on exactly what it was was that was damaged. Um, as you know, we've seen that particularly in Chromebooks, um, for example. Um, I think the bottom line is the the simple answer to the question, Nicole, is what I already said. They're not mutually exclusive. We have to make um, determinations of when they are and are not a it is and is not a good idea to employ some sort of restorative practice. Another reason we might not, and I think we talked about this at the policy committee meeting also, is because um someone refuses to engage in it. Um if you have um a student andor particularly parents, and we have seen this, who

102do not want their child to engage in in that restorative practices work, we're not doing it. That it's not think about the example I just utilized. If what you did is um damaged something in a school and we say a good way to move forward would be for you to come in and help fix that thing and the parents say no, we're certainly not going to push that forward. It wouldn't be appropriate. And sometimes the students are just not willing to engage in whatever the assignment is, for example, and you're not getting anything good out of it by trying to force that. And the same would be if a victim's family didn't want them engaging with the child. Yes. As I said, more often than not, that doesn't happen. More often than not, we're not

103putting a victim and a person who does something to them together. Are there exceptions? Yes, they're lower level usually exceptions or sometimes I'll say there are sometimes with the older students, say middle school students or high school students who will sometimes come to the say they're doing the investigation and they might say to one of the administrators you know I I really just wanted to Justin and I hire the two people that got into the situation out on the field on on the playground wherever we are and we might both say we we want to work this out together. Sometimes that starts to happen before we even are involved in in a parent um piece of it, but not when they're not looking to do it. We're not putting two students in the room together

104that do not want to engage in that. And if a parent is very against that and we are aware of that because as I said sometimes once in a while it starts to happen before we're even in contact with a parent when something happened during the school day and they're trying to investigate it and work through it and keep the peace and keep students in school or not depending on what happened. Any other questions? All right, the Okay. So, I'd like to make a motion um to approve the new policy 5144.12 restorative practices. Do I have a second? Second by Sarah. All in favor? I passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. And now discussion and possible approval pending the 30-day review of a proposed new instructional material AP Spanish preparing for the language and culture

105exam by Jose M. Diaz. Go ahead, Jess. Sure. So, as Lynn mentioned, uh CPDC, our curriculum and professional development council met earlier this month, and the only item that came out, uh that required, um action from the board was, um the approval by the council of this new AP Spanish textbook. It's the 2024 edition. Uh and it's the book uh used in that course to prepare the students both for the content, but also for the exam uh at the end of the semester. It's the newest edition available. There is a digital version. Um, and that's it. Go ahead, Lynn. Is that a workbook or is that a This is um It's a workbook. Yep. So, every year we would buy additional workbooks. I don't believe they were requesting that as a consumable each year. I

106mean, it's set up that way, but I don't think they're using it in that manner. No, they are not. They're not. Yeah, I've seen them use it. They're not. Um, and there's no hard cover edition. It's just No. Unfortunately, a lot of the publishers have moved to this like glossy laminated covers versus hard covers. Cheaper. It's cheaper. And then they put the version online. Yeah. Our new math book was that way. Yeah. Some of them. Is this the same publisher as Savas? Uh, Savvice is the new uh uh the publisher for My View, the new K4 reading program. Right. I thought it sounded familiar. Right, Jeeoff. So, I just want to piggyback on on Lynn. So, this is more of a AP prep book that they're going to use as a textbook instead of an

107actual Spanish textbook. Correct. Okay. Thank you. And what is it replacing? What? It's replacing the current edition that it's an older version of the book. Correct. So, they put out newer versions to ensure that they are consistent with current testing. Gotcha. So, can you use the older version? Yes. but you're not preparing as well for the AP exam when you do. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? And I'll just mention this would open the 30-day window. Um and then even if we uh had CPDC, I'm sorry, CPP in a in a couple of weeks, you would have taken action on it at the last board meeting and we still wouldn't have had the 30 days until August. So, this would be back on the agenda in August. So, this is a vote

108to open the 30 days, correct? Yes. Okay. Go ahead, Lyn. I'd like to make a motion to um excuse me, proceed uh with the proposed new instructional material for AP Spanish and begin the 30-day review period. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. I'll take Suzanne. Okay. Thank you. All in favor? Passes unanimously with eight. I just add in um what is also possible to is that we come back in June and ask for approval of moving the book forward pending the end of the 30-day so that we can get the order going. We have so bless you. That's why we wanted to bring it tonight in case we are able to move that forward because it just it's better to get those things rolling in the summer than it is to wait for

109the end of August meeting. So, not a not a given, not something that has to be done, but something that we might want to pursue. It's not exactly a controversial text. No, it's not a controversial text. Yes, good point. Thank you. Did we notice if anyone signed up to communicate from the public? No. Okay. Communication from Avon board of education members. Anyone? Go ahead, Lyn. I just want to say thank you to all the administrators because I know how difficult the last month of school is. There's just so much so much responsibility, so many events, evaluations to write, um reports to write, and I just hope you all take good care of yourselves, not just the principles, but the the the uh leadership team. And um summer is around the corner, so hang in there.

110just know we all appreciate you. Yes, good point, Lynn. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead, Suzanne. Yeah, I just wanted to say that um I attended the spring musical of Mamma Mia and it was just simply fantastic. I was so impressed um with the set, the you know, the tech, the crew, everybody. It was just phenomenal. So, I just think that, you know, who and there's a lot of people who are behind you. I just wanted to thank them for for doing that and putting all that time in because it obviously showed they put a ton of time in to it. Just want to add on to that that um I haven't gotten the official notification yet and we usually do, but I was told tonight when I stopped to see the students who had

111worked on the um crew that I believe we've gotten 17 uh Halo nominations. Wow. Some being for Puffs and some being for Mamma Mia. So looking forward to seeing that come in. That is fantastic. Two of our interns tonight were crew members on the set, so that's exciting, too. And they did 120 hours versus 60 hours um to complete their internship. So, well done. Anyone else? All right. Since we don't have Chris here tonight, Sarah volunteered to adjourn us. So, Sarah will make the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. All right, Paige. All in favor? I. We adjourn at 8:34. Thank you everyone. [Music]