001[Music] Good evening everyone. Welcome to our monthly board meeting of the Avon Board of Education. I would like to begin our meeting at 7:01 on April 22nd. It's always nice to have a good crowd with us. So, we're thrilled to have more families along for the ride. If um you wouldn't mind, I'm going to start with a roll call so you're aware of who's sitting up here at the table for you so that you're familiar with the people in front of you. I will start with our board members. I myself am Deborah Shoot. I'm the chair. We have Dr. Thage Singer, vice chair. President Deb, thank you. Jeff Flechman, our secretary. Present. Thank you, Deb. Lynn Katz is still away. internationally. Um Sarah Heath here. Thank you. Nicole Russo present. Thank you. Suzanne Sakaris here.
002Thank you. Chris Campbell here. Thank you. And Romesh Cantapilli. President. Thank you. Thank you. And we have our administrators. Our superintendent, Dr. Carnomola. Present. Thank you. Our assistant superintendent, Mr. Janini, here. Thank you. Our assistant superintendent, Mr. Medic. Present. Thank you. Our business manager, Miss Russo. Present. Thank you. And our executive assistant to the superintendent and board clerk, Miss Ardinskus. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. If everyone would stand and join me for 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. Excellent. Thank you. Now, to get us started, I always like to read our mission statement because it reminds us of the work that we do together. Our mission
003is to inspire in each student a joy and passion for learning and a commitment to excellence, personal integrity, and social responsibility. And I know that our recognition um recipients tonight fit right into this perfectly. So, I'm going to invite um Miss Christina Wallace forward to do some introductions for us. Hello. Oh, there we go. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you. All right. So, I was in the back game planning with Annie Thomas, who I just gave about 35 seconds notice that she's going to get up and speak tonight. So, thanks Annie for rolling with it. So, I actually wrote something which I rarely do. Can everyone hear me? Okay. Okay. All right. It's It's been a long day. We're We're all here. I think I have both shoes on. Everything's fine. Okay. So, at
004Avon Middle School, um we are here tonight to recognize um three staff members and a number of eighth grade students um for their hard work in creating a grassroots effort to create more leadership and mentorship opportunities for our students. Um as we know, especially at the middle levels, even though um our parents have have done this phase of life, oftentimes our students will look to their peers for guidance and leadership and perspective. Um, even though we lived middle school once too, eighth grade perspective for seventh graders lands a little different than the middle than the principal and assistant principal at times when we're looking to build some of those life skills over time. So, few years ago, I'm going to call forward first Mr. Patrick Linton to come forward one of our seventh grade team
005leaders, an ELA teacher, and Mr. Kevin Spear, another one of our seventh grade teachers. And I I think what actually happened was Kevin and Patrick just happened to be in the right place at the right time when their favorite principal might have stopped them after school probably at 4:30 and said, "Hey, what are you guys up to?" And they rolled with it as they often do. And I said, you know, we got amazing kids in this school. We have we have kids that honestly some days I think I could hand the keys over and let them run the place. I'm just kidding. Dr. Cardola, please don't non-renew my contract. And I said, can you guys put your brains together and see what you can come up with? Let's tap into the resources that we have
006in our school every day. Enter scene Mr. Mark Suma, our assistant principal, as well. And these three have led different iterations of the mentor program since its inception to the version that is in place today. So now I'll read what I wrote so that I actually make use of the kind words I put together. At Avon Middle School, the success of our eighth grade mentor program is a testament to the vision, dedication, and leadership of assistant principal Mark Zuma, ELA teacher Patrick Linton, and social studies teacher Kevin Spear. Now in its fourth year, the program was born from a simple idea. Create meaningful leadership opportunities for students. That idea was discussed in my last year as assistant principal, quickly embraced by Patrick and Kevin, who enthusiastically shaped it into a thriving initiative. In the years
007since, the program has grown to support more than 75 student mentors, positively impacting hundreds of their peers. When Mark Zuma joined AMS the following year, he seamlessly seamlessly stepped into the leadership role alongside Kevin as Patrick passed the torch on. Together, they've continued to grow and enrich the program with purpose and passion. Now, students, now I'm I'm speaking to you. I won't call you all up right now, but I will in a minute. The heart of this program, however, lies in the students themselves. Our eighth grade mentors have shown remarkable dedication, maturity, and compassion as they take on the responsibility of supporting their peers academic and social emotional growth. From co-eing secondstep lessons and assisting with study skills and homework to modeling positive peer interactions and participating in ongoing afterchool training, these students demonstrate leadership
008in action every day. Thank you to the guidance of Mark, Patrick, and Kevin and the hard work in heart of our student mentors. The AMS eighth grade mentor program continues to make a lasting impact on our school community, fostering a culture of support, growth, and connection. So, thank you to the three of you. Thank you to our wonderful students who are here tonight and those who, you know, spring spring schedules are are wild. So, thank you for being here. And thank you to those who aren't here tonight who are out running taxi all over town at probably at Fisher Meadow for the rest of your lives essentially, right? Um, all right. So, now we are I'm going to ask Annie to come up and speak a little bit about her experience as one of the
009eighth grade mentors. Round of applause for Annie Thomas who uh I actually met Annie the for the first time in June of 2020. Uh when we at the time had this wild idea to deliver lawn signs to every eighth grader who was heading on to the high school. Um, and Annie was out front on her lawn with mom and dad as I delivered a lawn sign to her older sister, Sarah, who graduated this past year, so we've known each other for a while. And Annie again had about 35 seconds notice. So, good luck. Thank you, Miss Wallace. Hi, I'm Annie Thomas. Eighth grade mentors has been really good. It shows all of us leadership and compassion, and it's giving us to be more individual. I love it personally. I like seeing the seventh graders cuz
010I'm about to go up in lots of grades with them. I'm going to deal with high school with them and it's good to bond. I learn leadership and how to help my peers and we teach them just social stuff if they need anything or if they need help with work and it also helps us. I enjoy it very much and I thank these people for letting us do this and being more individual. We have plenty of opportunities in the Avon district which I'm very grateful for and it's been a blast. Thank you Mr. Spear for all the fun you made this out to be. Thank you Mr. Land. Thank you Miss Wallace. Thank you Mr. Sumer. I've had a great time this year. I've made many connections with the seventh graders and eighth graders in
011the group. And yeah, thank you. You might have a you might have a future in public speaking. The key is to not have too much notice. All right. So, now we are going to call our student mentors up. First, I'm going to give our certificates to our adult mentor leaders. I just came up with that title. Um, and then we'll call the students up one by one. Students, as you come up, if you can start to make a line behind this side of the table because spoiler alert, we are going to take a photo so you can practice your smiles back there as you're waiting. Miss Walls, can you have them stop to on the way over? Oh, change of plan. So, as you come up and get your certificate, you're going to come along
012here and shake some folks hands. And then you're going to go behind them and wait there, please. Thank you. Can you help me hold these? All right. Mr. Kevin Spear. Mr. Patrick Linton, Mr. Mark Zuma, Annie Thomas, Critica [Applause] Singh Sid sent Kumar. Yeah. Thank you. Of course. And if you're ever on the receiving end of Sid's serve on the tennis court, just like hit the deck and don't even try. Ava [Applause] Robinson, Eden Por. No, Porer. We even did a dry run. Want your You don't want your certificate? We're supposed to take that. Yeah. Oh, it's not for me. Josh, no. Sarah, Ashita Mu Krishnan, Shawana, Davi. Thank you so much. Shaun [Applause] Lee, Sanvi [Applause] Gutakanda, PJ Fairchild Charlie Ivankco or Lette [Applause] Dao. Yeah, he's here. Thron Krishnan Nope. Hang on. I
013just got to find yours. No, no. Nope. We're just building the anticipation. Nope. Yep. Believe. So, let me see the last. Let me just make sure. Yeah, that's Shria [Applause] Benode kind of brain [Applause] farts. All right. And then I'm just going to read the names of the students that weren't able to be here tonight just to recognize them as well. So, we have Gabe Winer, Annie Troutman, Hattie Lynch, Alana Garza, Caroline Davis, and Arav Awa. So before Thank you, Chris. That was amazing. Just a I love that you know who all of them are. That matters so much. So thank you for being so caring. Um before I come and join you all and we take a group picture together. This is the perfect opportunity have a mic and be a little bit louder
014because I need the help. But we are so incredibly proud of you. This is not an easy task to take on. And being eighth graders, you are showing that you're already tapping into your potential. You're just getting started. And this is impressive. So, thank you for being so kind. Thank you for being willing. And thank you for being leaders and setting an example. Just keep following that path and you guys are going to be fine. All right. So, congratulations. We're going to come join you and take a [Applause] picture. And parents, you can come up. Mrs. Sardinskus will take the first official one, but then you're welcome to to head over behind her if you'd like to grab your first one, two, Thank you. In the middle. All right. Middle. And then to the right.
015You're right. All right. [Applause] and Mark, Patrick, and uh Kevin, we are so appreciative of taking the time to do this with them because it's not possible without your passion and commitment. So, thank you very much. We appreciate you. And I will also say that if you came this evening for this particular purpose, we are not offended if you would like to leave and regain the rest of your evening. So, that's perfectly fine. Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate you making it more special for for the kids. All right. Thank you. All right. Now, on to our regular part of the meeting. Do I have a motion to approve our board of education regular monthly meeting minutes for March 25th, 2025? So moved. Thank you, Chris. Do I have a second? Sarah. All
016in favor? Unanimously with eight. Thank you. Any communication from the public? We do have a sign up over here, but it looks like the public is all leaving, so we're good. Okay. Thank you. All right. Student representative, we have Aliana with us tonight. Hello. Okay. So, pretty pretty bare night tonight. I think it might be due to the fact of our spring break that all the schools had. We basically had a week off. But for RBS, we had that they had their really cool around the world fair where students and their family showed off their cultures and like these little stands in the gym. Um, a BMX world champion also visited RBS and gave motivational talks and did a few tricks. Um, as for PGS, they had their open house. Um, they're having their open
017house on May 1st and they had this cool family uh skate night, I believe, at a roller skating rink. And then for Thompson Brook, um they had what was called mix it up day, which is this new idea in which the students changed their regular seats at lunch. So they basically like uh to foster like communication. Um I learned this because my brother's in TBS and he was a little bit upset by this, but uh he said that he did make new friends that day. So yeah, thank you so much. We know Maddie has the sports event tonight, so she's at a game, so we're wishing her luck. All right, financial report. Miss Russo, good evening. The finance committee did not meet this month. Thank you. Just wanted you to say it. I'm not giving
018you an opportunity. All right. Now, on to our committee and leas and reports, curriculum, and professional practices. Lynn, there was not a meeting, but the next meeting will be June 3rd. Um, finance would be me. We did not have a meeting, but our next one will be May 13th. Uh, negotiations, Suzanne. That's right. Thank you. And policy. Our next meeting is May 6th. Thank you. and for Capital Region Education Council. Chris, the last meeting was April 16th. We have our year- end annual um meeting May 21st. Excellent. Thank you. And you've had an opportunity to read through some applications for scholarship. Amazing. Amazing. Right. Okay. Very good. For the board chair update, um in our last meeting, I was able to recognize that we were getting tours of the port of the graduate in the
019different buildings. So, we saw the high school, Roaring Brook, and the middle school. Since then, we've had an opportunity to see Pine Grove and Thompson Brook, and I've got to say, I'm impressed with all of the work you guys are doing. It's been phenomenal. I went to all five schools, and I was impressed by every nuance of what was done. Pine Grove was um showing us how they start their day with um a greeting within the room with their classmates, just getting them started and appreciating one another, working on eye contact and communication skills, and they each did it uniquely. It was really cool and I can only imagine the other things they do every other day. So that was fabulous. Thompson Brookage and I had the opportunity to um go to Rockcosally. Thank you.
020Rockos rally. So it was like their pep rally and it was fantastic. Right before break it was that mixup day. So of course we had Mel and Julia with their shirts on backwards and they were all in. But I loved the idea of the kids sitting with people they didn't know at lunch and they seemed to like it too. I know it's hard, but they met new people cuz everybody had to do it. It wasn't optional. It was like everybody just give it a try. So, but it was so well organized and everybody was having a great time. But like Mike would appreciate, it was very safe. It was amazing. Like when they got really excited, Mel would just give me a five and they all gave her a five and it was fantastic. So,
021we had a great time. We stayed like as long as we could before getting run by the buses. So, we we made it pretty last but it's been fantastic. So, you guys are doing a great job. Thank you for showing off to us. I definitely appreciated that and I just wanted to recognize it and welcome back from break. We're almost done, guys. All right, and that's it for me. So, superintendent report. Thank you. As you can see, we have a light agenda this evening, but uh one of the important things that we have to do in the healthy food certification. So, when we get to that, Mrs. Dreer will come up and uh go through that with us. Um in the meantime, Mr. Medic for the hiring report. Given that we have a light agenda,
022I'll spare each of the new hires uh biography and give you the annotated version. Uh as we continue to fill vacancies that have come open during the course of the year uh mostly in our non-certified positions, uh we did lose a school nurse here at the high school, Heather Cobrook, recently. And we have a plan for coverage through the end of the year utilizing our subpool and our existing nurse here. Uh in addition, Elizabeth David, a recently hired special education teacher, uh is leaving us uh prior to the close of this year for uh another position. And uh we do have a long-term sub set to start uh prior to the departure. So we'll have a transition uh for the students and families on that case load prior to the end of the year. Uh
023our school teams will begin reviewing applications for our anticipated openings. uh and we'll begin meeting with candidates for these positions, but we'll wait for the budget process to play out fully before any offers of employment are uh extended by the superintendent. It's our hiring report for April. Thank you. Our enrollment report, we are still taking our kindergarten registrations. As we've mentioned previously, they keep rolling in. So, we're keeping our eye on that at both RBS and PGS. Uh we're just up a couple of students from the previous month, but as usual, it's it fluctuates and we can change this literally every day depending on where we are in uh folks moving in, moving out, um housing sales, registrations. So we have updated it uh for the last you saw the updated version uh last week
024at the uh public meetings for the budget on Monday and Wednesday. I sent it out to the board too. That again was as of that day. I think we had last updated it on April 4th maybe before break. Um so this is even different than that was but uh it's just always a work in progress but we are looking pretty good in our section numbers for next year and uh what we had already put in for the budget. So if there need to be any changes we'll let you know. But in the meantime, I think we're static and and moving forward with the current number of sections that we're predicting. Um, one other thing to note, um, I don't think we talked very much about it, but we had a great, um, showing at both
025RBS and PGS for, um, our parent fairs, uh, international days. Basically, they both have different names at PGS and RVS, but um we had a tremendous showing of parents coming out and sharing their cultures with students and um want to thank both RBS and PGS and all the work that went into doing that. Um PGS has it during the day and at night. Um RBS has theirs later in the afternoons to allow uh just a one setting of it to happen. But it was really great. We had um everything you can imagine. We had uh folks come in from um Zimbabwe to Italy to Scotland, France, uh Switzerland. We had you name the place and we had a showing from our community come and work with our students, bring them in gifts, uh show them
026how to make native um dress food. Uh it was it was just they were both really spectacular days. We appreciated being able to see them. Thank you. um the board of education meeting that is scheduled for June 10th. I know you already know this as a board because I had to have Christine reach out to you. I have a graduating senior myself whose graduation currently is scheduled on the same night as the board meeting. Hence, we've put out a poll to see if you are available on Monday night. And we're looking to do that. Hopefully, fingers crossed it doesn't rain on June 10th because if it rains on June 10th, uh my daughter's graduation will go to the next night which is our graduation at the Bushnull. So everybody, what did you say? Yes, Mark.
027Mark, the way Yes, exactly. The way my luck goes, everyone knows it's raining. So, I'm fingers crossed because I haven't missed a graduation um since I started teaching because, you know, I taught in high school and was a high school administrator before becoming a superintendent. So, I've been at high school graduation for a lot of years and would hate to miss it. I also would not like to have to film a video or something as a speech. I think you all know that. So, I'd rather be there in person. So, we'll see what happens. Um, the budget hearing, a reminder that that's May 5th. Um, we had a fantastic trip again to Europe. I want to thank uh our chaperones again, uh, Mr. Connelly who is here with us who as the board knows I'll
028just I'm sorry but I' I've got to put it out there again because I want to thank you in public Mr. Connelly. We had um another chaperone with a medical issue on the trip um on the bus and Mr. Connelly as the first responder, not only the um chaperone and his wife who were along um assisted in that medical emergency and thankfully our staff member is okay and everyone is back home but a little bit of a harrowing time and we appreciate you again Jim uh this year and Mr. Feschler who was also uh with us again Mr. Abrams. Uh we had we saw great pictures. I think you'll see them when they uh in the Falcon flyer and most likely in our um central office perk when I forward that along also. So thank
029you and I'm glad the kids had such a fantastic time. Looked like the weather was pretty good most of the time also. So I think we lucked out. Um we'll be coming up in May before the board meeting, but we'll talk about it I'm sure after the fact. Um as you know in Avon we do staff appreciation week. um instead of trying to observe every individual day throughout the year at the risk of perhaps missing a group of folks because we're looking to recognize everyone that works in Avon pared educators, nurses, custodians, teachers, administrators, everyone throughout the district and we'll be doing that with the help of the PTO in May. Um, we continue on with our instructional rounds. I believe tomorrow we're at Pine Grove, right? Roaring Brook. Roaring Brook. Roaring Brook. Sorry. Yes.
030Roaring Brook. Tomorrow. You know, they tell me and I show up. My calendar tells me where to go. So, Amy, she's not back there, but if she were here, she would have had a heart attack. Yes. I think I have to go over there for something else tomorrow, and that's why it's on my mind. It's canled. So, that's been going along uh great. We had a uh our second set of rounds at the high school uh before the break. We had a great day there. Um we debriefed with the AMS staff about the um superintendent network visit which went extremely well. I want to thank you again for that. Um Christina and Mark and everyone at AMS are were there 17 of us superintendents that were there? um large group of superintendents came through and
031uh did the instructional rounds protocol with folks from Avon and gave back a lot of usable data and we had a great time talking about it at the faculty meeting right before break. So I want to thank you for facilitating that also. Um and we'll see where that takes us through the end of the year because that's where we are. Um, we are already, I think I've said this to you before, but definitely by April, we've already turned the corners in our minds and we're retreat planning. We are planning for the end of the year. We are planning for the opening of the next school year. It's crazy that that's where we are, but that is where we are right now and looking forward to closing out this year. And I'll just say that. I
032don't want to put any superlatives in there because I don't want to attempt fate, but we're looking forward to moving forward and um closing out this year, beginning another together. So, thank you. That's it. All right. Thank you so much. All right. So, nothing on the consent calendar, no old business. The new business, luckily this board, everybody has um participated in this at some point once or more than that. But I would still like Maggie if you don't mind just speaking to it so that the general public if they watch they understand what we're voting on tonight. Yes. If you don't mind because I don't think they'll hear you on camera. Otherwise. Yes. This is required by law. It is required. So every year we vote to certify healthy food certified. Um in these uh
033federally they are um nutritional guidelines smart snacks. You might have heard Connecticut has some slightly stricter Connecticut has some of the strictest nutritional guidelines in the country. So what we're doing tonight is we're certifying to comply with those guidelines. So anything sold outside of a reimburseable meal. go outside of your actual lunch or your actual breakfast, all of cart sales, fundraising, uh anything like that, your sales possibly at a football game or booster club or something like that that they would follow these regulations. Then in order if we do certified to apply to that, we do receive 10 cents per lunch sold. So there's a little bit of funding behind that. And then there's also there's two votes. So the first vote is to certify that we're going to follow these regulations. The second vote
034is exemptions. So if there's an event happening or something like that, you would not necessarily have to follow these guidelines. So at a game or a play or a musical or something like that, you could set up your organizations and sell things that do not necessarily follow the nutritional guidelines. And that's what the second vote would be. Thank you, Maggie. our director of nutrition services for the record. Does anybody have questions? All right. Thank you. So bear with me. I do need to read the whole paragraph that we have for each of them. So I'll make the motion and then I'll just ask for a second and the vote. Um let me see. Pursuant to Connecticut General Statute Section 1021 215F, um I make the motion to approve that the Avon Board of Education certifies
035that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction are not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Jeeoff. All in favor? I passes unanimously with eight. Thank you. All right, next one. I will make a motion to approve that the Avon Board of Education will allow the
036sale of students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut Nutrition Standards and Beverages not listed in the section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of an event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the
037official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Jeff. All in favor? It passes unanimously with eight. Thank you, Maggie. All right. Our last agenda or no, almost we're getting well thing to to discuss is our 2425 proposed Avon board of education committee meeting dates. Does anybody Oh, thank you for correcting me and I let it slip right out. I'm gonna say it again. Yep. 2025 to 2026 proposed Avon Board of Education Committee meeting dates. If anybody has a conflict with something or thinks it should be changed at this moment, we are able to change them, but they would become a special meeting once they've been noticed to the town. Is everybody comfortable
038with them? We're good. All right, then. Do I have a motion to approve this calendar as presented? Thank you, Suzanne. And do I have a second? I'll take Romesh. Thank you. And all in favor? I passes with eight. Thank you. All right. And before we move on, I just want to thank um Miss Sardinskis for putting together this cheat sheet of May and June upcoming board dates that we all need to put into our calendar. So stick this to your refrigerator after you've plugged it into your phone. So thank you for doing that. Um we do have a second opportunity for communication from the public. Do we have anything? No. Okay. Communication from Avon Board of Education members. Anybody? All right. Chris, do you want to make a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Do
039I have a second? Second. Second by Sarah. All in favor? I. I. Passes unanimously at 7:35 p.m. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]