001[Music] good evening everyone i'd like to call to order our monthly meeting of the avon board of education at 701 i have been reminded to ask all of our participants with microphones to please talk closer to them and enunciate so we can all hear each other's comments i would like to begin with a roll call this served us well when we were in the pandemic and doing this virtually so that hopefully it'll allow people who come to visit our meetings to know who is here on stage so i will start with the board members i am deborah shoot i am the chair jay spivak our vice chair i'm here thank you deb jeff fleischman our secretary is not with us this evening jackie blaia president thank you deb thank you laura young president thank you
002deb lynn katz president thank you deb vaij i'm here thank you deb lisa seminara i'm here as well thank you thank you lisa liz summerhorn here thank you thank you liz and our administrators dr carnamola our superintendent president thank you thank you dr nessler rusack our assistant superintendent president thank you mr medic director of human resources president thank you thank you ms russo our business manager present thank you and ms moyer executive assistant to the superintendent and our board clerk thank you shirley all right if you would all join me and rise to say the pledge of allegiance thank you all right just a quick um public comment note if you are interested in speaking tonight mr connolly is with us and he will take your name on the list and then shirley will announce
003in order who has signed up if we could begin with our mission statement i always like to read this at the start of a meeting to remind us of our work together our mission is to inspire each student a joy and passion for learning and a commitment to excellence personal integrity and social responsibility this is always our perfect segue into our recognition portion and i'd like to um welcome forward mr duffy and i don't know if ms salvatore is with yes i see miss salvatore with you please come forward and we'll have you introduce your students good evening everyone i would like to invite chloe inves and soph sophia giuliano to come up our two avon achievers for june and as they're coming up i will i'd actually say there are two of our avon
004achievers for the last two years why don't you come up front and center sophia and and chloe chloe and sophia have joined mrs aldrich's classroom nearly every monday and friday you can turn around and face the board they're the ones honoring you tonight along with me they've given their time to support students with disa disabilities and help them with their social and verbal skills joining the classroom as typical peers chloe and sophia's positive attitude and helpful personality were appreciated by the students by mrs aldrich and all of the para educators in the classroom mrs aldrich told me as i spoke about chloe and sophia that they developed a nice relationship and helped work with the students on their social skills just showing up was enough but they would go even farther they would stop in
005each morning just to say hi to the students they would seek out these students at recess and include them in games they would check in with mrs aldrich ahead of time to plan activities took the kids out found rocks did some rock painting painted their names on the rock with rocks with them both chloe and sophia demonstrated inclusiveness and their joy of participating in the classroom made a tremendous difference for everyone in the classroom and at thompson brook school we talk about our core values our cares values of care acceptance respect empathy and safety and along with that we talk about those values being what what makes a strong community whether it's in the classroom or the school or outside of school and i have to say that these two demonstrate and exemplify all of
006the core values of thompson brook school and i'm happy and proud to recognize them as our avon achievers for june and tbs avon achievers over the course of the last two years on behalf of the students in mrs aldridge's classroom so congratulations chloe congratulations sophia and being avon achievers thank you for coming girls do me a favor which one is chloe and which one is sophia excellent so thank you girls it looks like you coordinated your outfits i love that um really amazing comments that we just learned about you and i can say that that is not something that comes naturally for everyone um it can be hard for some to go up and invite somebody to join them so you taking the time is so kind and so generous of you and that is
007a natural trait that i know will continue to develop in you so we're very lucky to have you in avon with us because you are spreading that kindness wherever anybody sees you and it matters to the students that you're interacting with as well we are so incredibly proud of you so thank you very much for just being you we appreciate that another round of applause and it's summer i give you a lot of credit for joining us tonight so thank you for taking the time to do that thank you next i will invite forward mr giannini and ms wallace from the middle school all right well good evening everyone i'm going to ask lauren to tone and hannah chu to come up please so uh members of the board of education this is actually the
008cable ward that we're presenting this evening so the connecticut association of boards of education and lauren and hannah were selected based on this criteria they demonstrate leadership skills a willingness to take on challenges a capability to make difficult decisions concern for others ability to work with others willingness to commit to a project diplomacy ability to understand issues clearly and ability to honor a commitment pretty impressive for middle school age students let's give them a round of applause just for that so if i may just say kind things about that absolutely so lauren and hannah we are incredibly proud of you as well and this board is very familiar with cabe we work with them all the time so we can appreciate the um the effort it took for you to even be eligible for this
009and now for us to be able to honor you in this way we are incredibly grateful again to have such devoted students in our community because you spread that beyond the school doors as well and so that really matters and we are incredibly happy to be celebrating you tonight so i'm so glad that you brought them to us so another round of applause so i'm going to say one more nice thing about each of you while you're up here so uh lauren's an exemplary student with an enthusiastic and an enthusiastic leader who's passionate about her academics extracurricular activities and community service and for those of you who don't know lauren has been the voice of ams the past two years doing our morning announcements pretty much every morning and sent us off on the last
010day of school with a little bit of sass i would say would you say that was saying was it if you don't know the schedule by now i can't help you so uh and you know for hannah uh some nice things about her include that she's an extremely high achiever uh she's a leader through her actions and kindness taking pride and helping others achieve their goals she's a member of the ams robotics team who we know did very well this year uh she's a library helper and she's a member of the ams field hockey team so she's well-rounded and involved in just about every way at ams so two excellent examples of our pillars of character at ams and i think a great way to end the year for us so thank you and i
011think i remember go bears right and yes we are officially the black bears all right i have the honor of recognizing donna bodwin so donna you'll join me i tried to tell her she had to sit on stage for this but she declined so donna bodwin is retiring from avon public schools this year after a 35 year tenure serving the students and families of the town of avon so i'd like to start with a round of applause on that [Applause] donna's style in the classroom is one that makes you sit up a little straighter but makes you feel supported every day you walk through the door uh students know the routines through and through one two three there it is um but with that donna has always met her students where they are she leads
012with kindness she leads with compassion she leads with students first it's there's really not anything that we can pull out of a textbook or teach in a teacher preparation program that defines the heart that donna brings to the work so with that thank you for all that you've done for the thousands of students and families in this community and we wish you well with the ocean breeze [Applause] so ms bowden we want to recognize you as well that is a huge legacy that you have created in your career you're incredibly grateful for the lives that you've touched and we do wish you well and happiness in this time to just relax and enjoy and think back on all that you've accomplished thank you your students right here smiling the whole time that they were listening
013about you so that reflects everything that we would love in hearing that students first that's what we stand for as well so we couldn't be prouder to have had you in our family so thank you thank you please say hi to sarah and nick for me thank you all right dr carmola thank you we also have uh several administrators with us this evening that are retiring that unfortunately this will be their last board meeting that some i'm sure are saying fortunately it's my last board meeting seven days as someone reminded me a few minutes ago until everyone can do uh what they hope to do next in life um i want to start with you haven't seen him in quite a while but we had the pleasure of being able to reconnect on friday dr
014wojtek came to our administrator's retirement as you know dr wojtek announced his retirement earlier this year and as the director of technology and we have had elizabeth ferry with us since but we never had a chance to formally acknowledge uh dr voytek and the work that he did here until tonight so i thank you bob for for coming out with us tonight i think one of the things that many may not know about bob is that 46 years ago he accepted his first job in the la unified school district and at the end of this school year he will have completed 20 years in avon as a teacher and administrator that in and of itself deserves a round of applause years ago dr wojtek accepted the position here to create and we talked about this
015on friday also a new pre-engineering program here at the request of dr kissel and as he said he never looked back he he looked forward innovating creating new technology programs here at the high school and then ultimately district wide i think when bob first started there may not have even been such a thing as a chromebook i could be wrong bob i may just not have known about at the time you know i'm not always the most technologically savvy amongst us but here we are 20 years later after bob started with us with a vibrant technology department meeting the needs of staff and students and bob none of what we're doing today would be possible without the work that you put in over the years to grow our technology program department both in terms of
016human resources and technology resources and by the sheer brilliance that we saw from you every day that you were here and as i've said several times to bob i i certainly miss him down the hall to wander down and sit down at any given point and talk anything you want to talk to bob about bob knows more than you do that's what i learned over the past four years rob's one of the smartest men that i've ever met and i've missed you bob and i wish you the best in your retirement thank you bob we have a little something for you we're going to come down laughs [Applause] i know we may have others that want to say something to bob deb i just remembered one more thing when you said um something about him
017always having a smile he said he always had a blast one of bob's other sayings um he thanked us for allowing him to play in the sandbox while he was here of technology i think that speaks volumes about how you saw your work every day not in the not in the terms of children's sandbox but any innovation that could have been tried bob was willing to do it thank you if anyone else would like to send well wishes to dr wojtek as well i know a lot of us have known him over the years welcome to do so go ahead jackie i would just uh wish you well dr wojtek in your retirement and your adventures after this and i also appreciate all that you've done for us i feel like any time i had
018a question when i first started um i would kind of say is there any way i can get in touch with dr wojtek can i get permission to talk to him because i screwed all this up right downloaded all my personal emails onto the public thing and everybody knows all my business or whatever it was so i appreciate your i appreciate your kindness and uh just wish you well i also want to wish you good luck in your next steps and what you're doing but also just thank you for our district and always being on top of technology and innovation and uh just always respected your intellectual wisdom and whatever you approached thank you i remember when i'm going to say it wrong but the cardboard do you remember when that came out you were
019so excited about it like you were just oozing with enthusiasm of the potential of what we could do with it so anytime something new came out you were on top of it and it was so joyful to see you enjoying it that it was contagious for everyone so i know whatever you're gonna do moving forward you're gonna have fun so we're happy for you i know i'm going out of order in the agenda but i'd like to also recognize dr eileen o'neill who's was able to be with us tonight too thank you eileen you if you've only recently met eileen then you know that she has been the family and student services coordinator with us at central office since i believe april of last year when she took a leap of faith and came aboard
020with us at central office to try this newfangled thing that we had put together that encompassed a lot of ground here in avon between working with our students doing internships which has been incredibly difficult in the past two years during the pandemic when we've had very dwindling i'll say partners in the internship program as you might imagine due to the fact that many would not let students in to companies and medical settings where we had often placed students eileen still worked hard at it however found internships everywhere that she could many of which were with us here in the school district if if that was what we needed to do to be able to keep our program moving forward what you may not also know if you're more recently with us is that eileen started
021with us here at the high school as an assistant principal which is how i first met her actually before i came to avon she also has been around for a little bit not as long as bob i don't eileen gets upset i think when i say how long but you have been with us for the past eight years um and i know that since you graduated from boston university in 1980 something one i knew what it was i wasn't going to say it you you have spent an entire lifetime working with young people and uh with other educators throughout the northeast and down south for for a tiny stint so i just wanted to again express my gratitude eileen for all that you have contributed to our leadership team for welcoming me and getting me
022up to speed very early on here at the high school and then um having the grace to make the change and come over with us at central office and do the best you could through what was a little bit of an impossible time to to have the position that you have had thank you [Applause] um come on tonight this may not be efficient but it feels more important when we take our steps down to see each of you so i would like to point out that uh this o'neill is quite the singer as well if you haven't heard her she is quite talented so i just needed to put a little shout out for you there we so appreciate the time and the love and the care that you've put into being here with us
023and we know the students have benefited from having you and that's the most important piece so thank you for finishing out with us and anything you're moving on to i hope you find pure joy so thank you eileen anyone else like to possibly say go ahead jackie [Laughter] i just i feel like i kind of started when a lot i don't eileen you had been here a few years ago but a few years when i first started but i guess i would just say kind of the same thing thank you for your kindness and generosity i knew towards me i was kind of a overzealous super excitable new board member who really was wild and i just really i you were always so kind and you always were happy to help and to kind of
024point us in the right direction and i just wish you all the best as you go on to what i'm sure will be other very exciting adventures for you so thanks for all you've done for us thank you go ahead jai elena appreciate all your time in the district i don't believe it's been eight years i realized we were once at a um workshop together at the high school and i got to meet you and get to know you better through that process so you know i just think you've had an incredible impact on so many students in this building and they'll remember that so good luck in what you do next and thank you go ahead lisa and then laura eileen i just want to speak to jay saying that you've impacted many students
025i recall story from my own daughter who went on a field trip with you and said you're quite the rager on the luge going down in canada so you've you've impacted many [Laughter] you've impacted many and i wish you the best best of luck and happiness in your retirement i just want to i can't um say any more than what everybody's already said other than that you were a great advocate for students and you certainly helped uh one of ours i've been here long enough that it's been almost since you started here um and we will miss you very much thank you so much for all your work for all students in in the district in [Music] whatever your next endeavors are we wish you the very best [Applause] so as you know we uh
026had a a mini uh recognition of mr renko it's at graduation if you were with us last week a beautiful graduation i appreciate want to thank you again for that mike but tonight we wanted to make sure that we were able to recognize you also uh here amongst the board and for those of you who may be new to us and don't know mike is retiring after 30 years in education a bit of time in the private sector and in the service before that but we've come to know him here in the past 10 years in avon he started with us at thompsonbrook school as the principal there and as you sure know by now at one point uh mike got what i still call a little bit of a crazy phone call from me
027to ask that uh he assumed the principal role here at the high school and that was july of 2018 i had been here all of about four months but i knew that mike was a valued member of the administrative team and of the avon community who had already earned the respect of students families staff and board members alike so i looked to mike to work on our behalf to stabilize the high school after many leadership changes and to keep us growing and making progress toward our goals mike has demonstrated the same consistent dedicated calm leadership here at the high school that he did at thomson brook except certainly to another level of leadership as anyone who has to step in and lead a high school of our size knows mike i want to thank you
028again for your support of of me as a new superintendent the entire administrative team keeping our high school moving forward including towards our goals with knee accreditation bringing back pep rallies bonfires attending nearly every single athletic contest this school has had since you came concert and any other event you were always able to find mike there and that was noticed by students and parents and certainly us so four years later we are saying goodbye to mike our students i think and our pto gave you a very nice tribute at graduation i'm not sure that we can outdo that tonight with with the gift that we have for you but at least know that as you leave you've you've made a difference here for students parents and for all the educators that you've touched throughout the
029district thank you again so before i come down and hopefully i can get a hug mike i just i enjoy sending you off the way i had the privilege of meeting you your very first year i got to be pto president um under your leadership with my child in the fifth grade and i was so impressed with you then and so incredibly grateful when you said yes to come to the high school i've always thought of you as mr safety because you've always had that first and foremost we always knew at any kind of meeting where the exits were and we knew how to get ourselves out of the building if need be but i can also speak to the fact that when we had the theater performances at thompson brook you came to every
030single show there as well and you brought your wife and she enjoyed it so it was really wonderful to see you always present and i know you put students first incredibly grateful and so thrilled to be able to wish you well onto your next stage so we've got a gift for you too i want to correct myself too mike i believe i added on a year because i have 20 23 on the brain i think you've been with us nine years right 2013. all right open up to other board members who might want to say go ahead jackie sorry um i just wanted to say thank you to mr rinqwitz as a parent really i think two or three of my kids graduated under your tenure and i'm grateful for your leadership and um i'm
031sure i'm sure my kids probably really benefited from all that you brought to the high school and i think um my dad was also a principal and i know what value there is in being kind of loved and admired by your staff and your students and there's nothing more obvious than at graduation to see how admired you were by those by those people and i just thought that was fantastic and really beautiful and i just want to congratulate you on such a job well done and we were really lucky to have you and wish you well congratulations all right jay i would also like to thank you for both your time at thomsonbrook and at the high school and knowing that the challenge that you faced when you got that phone call from dr carnamola
032and you brought stability to our district and stepped up and definitely was a huge help to our community in our high school and uh just appreciate everything you've done and looking at how i guess you uh spent four years here like any other student and going through and that's the right time frame to move on so good luck next date so mike i think you've had two of my girls through thompson brook and the high school i just want to say that i appreciate everything you've done for not only the students but i think for the community as well um you know last week at graduation it was really emotional to see the touching remarks that the students had for you and i think that's a testament to the type of educator you are and
033i was happy to see that the students recognized that and everybody was just really thrilled at the responses from the students about the time that you've given them especially you know the class of 2022 really appreciated that you uh brought that stability and leadership to the high school when we needed it most and the last two years with the pandemic you stuck it out so thank you from the bottom of our hearts and good luck in retirement okay last but not least i wanted to save for uh someone who sits on the stage with us dr donner nestle roussac and 42 years in education later as donna said to me uh when we were talking about this about a month ago you didn't realize you worked with a dinosaur i said no it's not about
034working with a dinosaur it's it's it's the amount of time that i think about you've had the chance to touch so many uh student lives of so many students faculty and staff donna started her work at the university of hartford and moved on to manchester torrington west hartford and finally here in avon with us and of course you know i think that i would say that the most important impactful work that donna has done is with us and since her arrival 10 years ago in 2012 dr rusek has led the district's efforts and development of new curricula the continued improvement of teaching and learning through a comprehensive professional learning the development of standardized assessments and what i would call a relentless drive to pursue and procure resources that are necessary for teachers and students and
035of course the oversight of countless other innovative systems that may have been able to help us to maintain continuous improvement here in avon public schools of course those are the things just as a small sampling of the very large structures and systems that donna has put into place has overseen in these years and has continued to keep moving the district forward we joke often about the difference between her arrival here and her departure i i've lost count of how many curriculums have been written under your leadership alongside of our staff standardized assessments new teacher evaluation administrator evaluation i believe you referred to it as the trifecta when you first started we had a new evaluation system we had the common core and i'm trying to remember what the third was right now smarter balance that
036was definitely the trifecta so from then to now the amount of hard work and dedication that you have shown to avon public schools is more commendable i think than than we can cover in one night and one little gift bag but of course i'd also like to personally thank donna for your kindness professionalism and steadfast commitment to supporting not only what we call the office of the superintendent but the person in thee chair sorry said i was going to not be this person tonight we have another week to go too my transition to leading avon public schools and the continued success though of course that definition can change daily in my role my continued success as our superintendent has been made easier because i've had you at my side so i just want to express
037gratitude tonight for the legacy that you're leaving here for us and for me thank you donna i want to thank you donna as well you've been so gracious um to guide all board members through any curriculum questions and to just think of how you will be impacting this district for so many years to come because you helped write it and that will play out in students lives forever and i think that is quite the legacy that you have had that impact on so many students and you always have a smile on your face as well which is always a joy and you have quite a sense of humor so i will say it's it's a little dry but it sends the the punch line it's really i quite have enjoyed that so thank you for
038being a part of this team thank you for helping just in all the transitions that have happened since i've been on the board and had the opportunity to witness and i'm sure you've lived through more but we appreciate that and we recognize it and just saying all of these things to all of you who are leaving us it has only reaffirmed knowing that this is truly a calling this profession is a calling and you have all answered that call because you have a passion for it and it comes through and we are so grateful that you chose avon to share some of that with us so thank you donna all right i'll open it up to any other board members go ahead jackie i feel like i could say the same thing to all of
039the people who i worked with when i first started but you were really really patient with me and i think um because we worked together on curriculum and i am a la person you have always really taken the time to try to explain to me in the most elementary literal elementary way that a lay person could understand all the acronyms and all of the systems and how it really works and how it really impacts your students that you care so much about so thank you for all that you've done for me personally and and i think that i've grown a lot just working watching you work and it's been a real um opportunity for me to see all that you have accomplished and i really learned a lot from you and we're going to really
040miss you and i'm very grateful for all that you've done jay as dad mentioned the incredible amount of work you've done in the curriculum is going to benefit so many students for years to come so that's a huge thanks for everyone for that but i also just look back and you know the time you've been here to me has kind of been a roller coaster through so many different transitions and changes that have happened and you've always been steady and your background your experience your intellect has benefited all of us and you you always have the answer from an academic approach and a calming way in explaining everything so thank you donna i just wanted to wish you best all the best you have always exemplified to me the utmost professionalism you've always done everything
041with such patience and grace so i really truly will miss you i will miss really miss you answering every bloody question that i always have and i wish you the best and all the happiness and health in your retirement [Applause] all right now we say goodbye to one of our own and i have to just start by recognizing that j spivak served three full terms on this board of ed and then agreed to stay on another year in order to help us out in our transition and i am so incredibly grateful to you for that when i stepped into this position as chair you agreed to be my vice chair because i knew you had such wisdom and you did it freely and willingly and you've been such a partner for me and i am
042so grateful to have served alongside i learned a lot from you i know you're still in town so i've got you on speed dial if i need to ask for any other guidance but i just want you to know that we recognize the time you put in this is a huge time commitment and everyone here understands that a little bit more but i can appreciate it on another level just the time you put into finance and how you explained it and you made it so easy for the rest of us and just your steadfastness and your confidence in any decision that you made you were never wavering and it just boosts all of our confidence to have that leadership so to have you beside me i appreciate that so much and i know that the
043board has only benefited and the town benefited from having you and they showed it by voting for you that many times and i'm incredibly grateful that you raised your hand to stay on and i will miss you so thank you jay i really appreciate your service and i'll open up any other board members laura go ahead so jay in your work with the finance committee and the alternative resources committee way back in the day you have always with everything that you do every decision you make you have been laser focused on transparency and accuracy and anytime we work together it's always with a deep commitment to being collaborative not only with administration but with all of us and aside from all the fiscal work that you have done you've also demonstrated your commitment to excellence
044in this district through your advocacy for increased student participation in college readiness for access to school student supports and making sure that everybody has or should have access to personal finance literacy and you've also encouraged students i've seen you bring students to meetings to have their voices be heard so that their concerns could be on record and shared with us directly and i'm really grateful for the way that you've demonstrated and showed us what our roles and responsibilities are because you've been here 12 years so you know everything to a degree more than me for sure and i'll miss you thank you go ahead lynn so jay i've only known you for six months but it really feels like much more because i'm on the phone with you all the time and um as a
045new member of the finance committee i i called you before every meeting maybe twice before every meeting and i'm i'm always saying okay i have these really stupid questions and you re-categorize my questions says no actually that was a really good question and you answer with so much clarity and with history as well to catch me up and um i'm really going to miss having you and your mentorship because that's how i view you as a mentor to me it would have been extremely difficult to be on this finance committee without knowing you're there and i'm also going to be on speed dial if that's okay with you i know where you live too all right jackie oh so i was just i was thinking about this all day because i feel like we've worked
046together and i love working with you so much microphone sorry okay i really loved working with you so much i was thinking of um when we all kind of run for the board why we do it and what the point is and when you think about when you were first elected you know there were first graders who just graduated and the impact that you have made on their actual education has been tremendous i think that's just such a meaningful thing and i i i've learned a lot from you and i think the thing that i've learned from you most is to really know and expect that every kind of learner can achieve amazing things and that we should be setting them all up for success and um really supporting an agenda that that doesn't leave
047anybody out but really um encourages all of our students to become high achieving and and to kind of reach the very best that they can be so i really am going to miss that i've had so much fun working with you it's been you've been really patient and fun and i it's just been really great i appreciate it so i wish you well we're going to miss you i guess we'll all be calling jay all the time date jay we've only known each other a short while um you know the last five months or so on the board but i really do appreciate um everything i've learned from you and i have learned you know being a new member on the board and being a new member to this whole arena has been a learning
048curve and you've provided me with a lot of you know background and a lot of support and i really appreciate that and wish you well and we know where you live so we will be visiting jay 12 years is quite impressive and i truly mean that 12 years to dedicate yourself to public service like that is is something to be commended for and you've always done it with dignity and pride and i wish you too the very best and i will do my very best not to call you [Laughter] and i don't mean that in a bean way no that's very kind lisa probably he's going to be like oh you're screening your calls now all right well dr carmola i could say everything that everyone already said jay i think you know that i've
049appreciated um having you with me from the beginning um as as the rest of you know i we've seen changes in the board since i was originally hired other than a few of the individuals who are sitting up here with me i remember in my interview process i asked the board members um why they were on the board um and and you know part of the what what drove them to be board members and to run for the board and i asked that question because this has to be a partnership between a superintendent and a board and if we don't share the same core values and um in my opinion passion to do what's best for students that wouldn't really have been a good fit for me and i wouldn't have wanted to come and
050take the position in avon and when i asked jay that i still remember that his answer was i'm only here for the kids every every decision that i made is it make have made and will make us for the benefit of every single student in the district and you giving that answer jay was one of the reasons that i thought okay maybe maybe this will be the right choice if i'm selected and move forward so thank you for that that drive for doing what's in the best interest of students and supporting me and all of us through all the changes that we've seen in the past four years it feels like a hundred sometimes i have to stop and remind myself how many it's actually been but particularly over the last two years and you'll
051be greatly missed the knowledge and the skill as a board member that you take with you um will leave a hole for at least the time that the rest of the board and i are going to have to patch up and build up and move on so thank you for your service thank you well that's the most tearful meeting i think we've had yet so this was really nice i'm so glad so many of you were here with us to celebrate and we recognize at this point if you came here tonight to celebrate with your achievers or to be here and have this moment it's perfectly fine if you would like to excuse yourself and we won't take it personally so thank you for joining us all right now we'll move on to the regular
052board meeting pieces i'm looking for a motion to approve the board of education regular monthly meeting minutes of may 17 2022. so moved all right lynn moves do i have a second second second by laura all in favor aye aye any opposed extensions passes unanimously all right next is board of education special meeting minutes of may 31st 2022 do i have a motion to approve so moved all right moved by uh laura um oh no by jackie do i have a second i'll second thank you lisa all in favor aye aye any opposed extensions passes unanimously as well shirley all right next is communication from the public do we have anyone on the list shirley all right before you read the name i'll read the instructions for communication this is the section of our meeting
053where avon residents have the floor to share their thoughts and or concerns with the board it's not an opportunity for conversation rather it's the board's chance to listen to feedback from the community please add your name to the list and ms moy will then call you in order you must state your name and address for the record each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak in an effort to hear as many of you as we can we must adhere to this time limit you can certainly state that you agree or disagree with a previous comment if you'd prefer to be brief brevity will allow more attendees to be heard after 15 minutes are up the board may choose to extend public comment or not no speaker will include charges or complaints of a
054personal nature against any individual avon board of education member or individual employee of the avon board of education whether the speaker names the individual or not please refrain from clapping or cheering ms moy will be our time keeper tonight if you should reach two and a half minutes she will alert you with a with a 30-second warning at the three-minute mark you will be alerted again to signal that your time is up we welcome your engagement and participation ms moy our first speaker we only have one tonight and it's miss erin dawson all right miss dawson hi my name is aaron dawson and i live at 50 oak bluff i just wanted to comment on one thing on the consent calendar it was a avon high school european study tour to berlin prague warsaw and
055krakow i was ecstatic when i saw this trip listed i think it's awesome the just the experience of international travel for students will expand their horizons in the way they think and the way they see their world and ways that you know a book just can't do um what i was concerned about in it is as in the in the packet it said that it was 100 classroom funded and i want to make sure that awesome opportunities like this are open to all of the public school attendees at avon and not just the affluent ones because some of us may look at the price and say oh you know 3 500 to you know 38 3900 for a 10-day trip to europe is awesome you know where do i sign on on this check um
056but for others you know it it it may be you know a financial barrier and i think that opportunities like this as a person who has come from an international school background a publicly funded international school background um it it the experience needs to uh to be offered to all students so i just as we as we do programs like this i hope that we come together and figure out how to make this opportunity um available to all students whether it be fundraising opportunities um as a group and not just an individual or one or two that need that that help but um everyone come together and you know let's figure out how to how to expand um you know these type of experiences i love this i would love to see more um i
057would love to see earlier um i personally started traveling internationally in fifth grade um as a school-funded a school a school-run um program and every year after that you know it just continued and continued so by the time you were a senior which this program seems to be you know 25 students um you know seniors offered first junior's second you know 25 doesn't go very far um but it's you know by by that time junior and senior you know it was old hat so i um i would i would just love to to see more programs like this i i'm so happy to see this um going forward next year i know that this is the fifth time that it's been done so i'm i'm sure that this is this issue probably has come up
058in the past but i just wanted to recognize that so thank you very much thank you ms dawson all right next is items of information proposals we do not have our student charlotte with us this evening with school being out so i will move it to ms russo for our financial report good evening the finance committee did not meet in the month of june so um we'll have financial report in our august meeting thank you next is our committee and liaison reports curriculum and professional practices jackie we did not meet uh our last meeting was may 10th we are going to have an uh our next meeting will be at the beginning of next year either august or september i think the only question i had for bridget or going forward that i had mentioned
059last time was um we did talk about the training that had to happen for the board members and i wasn't quite sure when i assume that's not happening anytime that we don't need to do that soon but i had read it in the minutes when i went over it before other than that i have nothing else to report okay thank you finance jay thanks dad probably my easiest report because the students stated we did not meet and i don't think we have an official meeting date for the next one so i have nothing to say all right thank you negotiations we are going to be starting with our administrators this summer and we are in the middle of working with our security and safety specialists but that's all that i have to report at this
060time policy laura the policy committee didn't sorry did not meet in june but we will be meeting likely in august all right thank you liaison report from the board rep to capital region education council jackie thanks um so i did uh deb thank you for sending the i tried to send some correct links that had uh news that had been happening at crack over the last couple of months i thought that would might be helpful um i'm very excited that we are working on an open choice working group for some of the participating districts that also sit at the correct council we hope to really start doing that in september i was able to speak to christina jordan today who is the administrator who runs that program she had really great things to say about
061the avon administrators and said that they're excellent partners for the open choice program and very responsive and very very supportive of their students so she was excited about that i guess i'll keep everybody posted as we get a little bit further into what that looks like we're going to meet quarterly next year and that's that's it all right thank you as far as the board chair update you've heard a lot from me this evening i just want to thank everybody for helping us complete another successful school year so it's nice i hope everybody will have some time to take a break and get some rest to come back in the fall refreshed and ready to go i'll move it on to superintendence report thank you and mr medic we'll start with our hiring report good
062evening as you can see in the packet in front of you and on the screen we have begun to hire staff members to begin with us in the 22-23 school year in addition we finalized hires of several non-certified positions including a safety and security specialist at the middle school mr zios joined us for the last several weeks of school year and transitioned very nicely into the role in addition we've hired two summer it assistants to assist our i.t department in the migrative tasks that it takes to get the thousands of devices up operational and recalibrated for the upcoming school year in addition the end of the school year brought numerous resignations both non-certified and certified as we recognized several individuals last month who are retiring we also have two retirements mrs peggy wagner who has
063been a interventionist at avon high school and has been integral to student math support here at the high school and as we had mentioned earlier this evening dr rusek is also retiring we are very well ahead of schedule in terms of our hiring for the fall we will be finalizing all of our certified hires this month before june 30th we are also working to finalize several administrative hires that i believe the superintendent will now speak about thank you first i'd like to thank one of our newest hires who is not yet on the um agenda with a contract because we literally just finished uh putting it together and signing off on it over the weekend and then monday is uh with us tonight i thought he would come out and uh meet us at least
064in the flesh before august and and be able to meet some of our administrators that he didn't meet in the process so no pressure to sign but i'll just introduce to son haines who is our new family and student support services coordinator tassan and dr o'neal already know each other and have worked together in regional groups here in the state groups focused on a myriad of student supports including connectedness between the open choice program and resident programs in various districts and also other efforts related to diversity equity and inclusion throughout the state from both a curricular angle and a logistics and systems angle so more about design another time we haven't actually sent that announcement out yet but i appreciate that you came out tonight dassan to get a feel for where you are before
065august there's not that many people here tonight so don't we'll just leave it at that so we are also in the process of assistant superintendent interviews we have gone through our avon high school principal committee interviews for the second time and board members as you know we are scheduled hopefully to conduct a final board interview for a high school principal and possibly also depending on the way things move forward an assistant principal on monday the 27th so i thank you for making yourself available because that will make the transition smoother for the individuals that we hope to hire to get them in place sooner on our enrollment report you see that there is a change this is the kind of change fluctuation we expect at this time of year we're still doing kindergarten registrations i
066hope we're a little bit further down the path within the next three or four weeks this is usually the case but as you've heard me say before enrollment actually seems to settle around september so we are moving forward with the plan as we already had it in place according to our sections and our budget we are we are seeing increased numbers in pre-k for sure i think part of that and kindergarten i think part of that is due to several different uh issues one being not issues but factors i guess i would say one being the housing market and a number of houses selling and families with younger children moving in to town and also i think in the last few years throughout the state we have seen families not sending students into school necessarily
067during the pandemic as early so they're three and four-year-olds i think that have been kept home and have just started within the past year or so registering and likewise with kindergarten some homeschooling there so i hope we'll see those numbers settle soon and as you know we are also doing the enrollment study so looking forward to having some of that information as we go into next year and look at our staffing and our zoning for our schools in terms of uh strategic plan updates we as i think you know finished our focus groups at the middle on the high school i think i said that we were doing them last month i'm losing track of time what what meetings were when but those have finished and um the individuals who assist us in doing that
068are still putting together the full report and coding that data because it's a lot to code when you're talking about qualitative data from that many interviews with students they interviewed i think between the three individuals who did focus groups two who did it both at the middle school and high school and one who did it another time here at the high school i think were probably close to 300 total students that were spoken to so that's a lot to put together for us likewise we have put out our annual school connectedness and climate survey to our students we have those completed at the middle school at thomson brook pine grove and roaring brook because we did it from grades three up and at the high school we still have students logging in and completing them
069so within the next week we will more than likely send out the message to the high school students kind of last chance and we'd like to get your feedback if you haven't done so already please do so and then we will close out all of the surveys and begin collating that data which is a large task and something that actually tassan and i already talked about from a standpoint of trying to move that work forward so i think one of the places we'll be starting together is looking at that data and taking it back to our blueprint goals and action steps likewise i i didn't i didn't ask you to do this ahead of time dr rusek but i know you can say some things right off the top of your head because it's part
070of the reason you're this good at the job it might be the last time i turn to you it will be i guess the last time i turned to you at meeting and say would you like to take some of the teaching and learning update for the last few weeks including the myriad of curriculum being written even today sure we're very excited that we have now completed all of the writing units k5 they will be published on the website as drafts very shortly as soon as we make that merge over with the curriculum company that we work with since school has gotten out we've had multiple groups working and today was a very exciting moment because we actually started writing the k-5 social studies curriculum if you recall it was embedded in our english language
071arts curriculum and we're decoupling it now and it was just a fabulous day of people saying we need to do more inquiry learning so that was a bonus and it was just flawless we've had people from the high school working we're working on the new black and latino studies for the fall and getting that in place so it has been very busy we have three more days of curriculum writing and we'll keep that moving along thank you and again just to put that in perspective that is an enormous part of our strategic plan the work that donna has and jody and our principals assistant principals department coordinators and and teachers in the district have been doing for years uh related to curriculum so you're never really done with that but um we are certainly in
072a much better place as we end this school year and proceed into next year so we'll be revisiting some of our action steps related to teaching and learning for sure on the on the blueprint as we move forward and thank you again for all that you've done there to lead that work donna we also just a few things related to some of the other systems we have worked to collect the devices from technology wise from our staff and students there were numerous updates that had to be done to some of our laptops and so forth so that was a huge undertaking by the technology department they're still working on that and of course taking back in many of our chromebooks and inventorying them again making sure that they are in tip-top shape before we redistribute
073them for next year so as you can see that summer it help is is always very helpful to us to be able to continue with our large projects when the students are not here so thanks to elizabeth and tom klein and the entire technology department it's been a heavy lift so far and i know it's not going to get much easier before august so i'll thank you i'll thank you in advance in addition uh i one of you i believe had asked me about the pine grove situation in regards to the capital improvement piece and susan if you want to speak to the latest on that good evening so the pine grove uh alarm system upgrade that we had uh put into the capital improvement plan for this year was approved through the budget we
074worked tirelessly with the town to try to get that out to a bid so that we could get the project done this summer which was the original plan given some supply issue chain supply chain issues and some other factors when the bids came back in the price was a hundred and eighteen thousand dollars more that was approved in capital so at this point the town has asked us to hold the project um so we can solicit uh either additional bids or the prices come down or we include that additional 118 000 in the funding uh requesting capital for the 2324 school year our current alarm system is working you know we have a fire alarm system and we have that in place and it is functioning with the additional upgrades and enhancements that we were
075looking to put into the new system as well as to align it with what the other schools have that still is the plan if the quotes don't come down by the time it's we present our budget to you we'll go ahead and include that additional funding to ensure we're able to move forward that project and get it ordered and installed next summer thank you susan and before i move on any questions about that i just know we haven't been able to speak about that in a meeting since it happened on the town side so so the goal is summer of 23 yes thank you even with this sort of a project even if uh everything lined up and it was able to be done sooner and most likely that actually could happen it a project
076this size taking down the system for can't be done while school's in session so that's why this is a usually a summer project even even with the breaks or the long weekends and so on this is an entire replacement that will take the time yes so because of the the complexity of the system um one the parts might not be in uh and two if anything were to go awry we wouldn't want to delay school opening in such a short period of time and given our custodial maintenance staff as well isn't all all in person during the breaks they also try to take some of their time off it's just too hard to line up contractors and everything as well during that time frame i'll leave some of those other pieces related to the systems
077goals and resources and building uh issues and so forth for when we get to the end of the year fund allocation request because i think we'll talk a little bit more about some of those things then i just like to pause here and thank again our our ptos in all five of the schools for another great year you'll see additional donations tonight on the calendar our our friends in the pto are relentlessly use that word again in their support of the schools and in fundraising and more importantly even than fundraising being able to provide opportunities for students to do things that might be outside of the norm if any of you had a chance to celebrate at pine grove or roaring brook for example within the last month blazers bash i believe we had at
078roaring brook and the 30 year anniversary of pine grove both huge events hugely successful attended by hundreds of people i think last i heard there were more than 700 tickets sold between the two of those events possibly more because they kept selling so many at the door and those events were really just meant to be fun and to bring an activity like that back into school particularly after the pandemic for students and families and friends and staff many of which most of which attended also and in the end they actually turned a profit which wasn't even which was not even the goal it was really to put on as big of a bash as possible at both schools and so i know you've turned around as ptos and donated that back to us here in
079the school district also and you'll see some of that tonight likewise car parade again thank you to our high school and to our high school pto and parents and committee that put that together that's become an ingrained part here in avon public schools and part of our graduation with avon high school something else i think mike will leave as a legacy and carol who i can see sitting out there tonight you know i can't let tonight go without thanking you again also for um coming and helping to set up the recognition for mr ankowitz at um graduation so just huge thanks to for everything that you all do and i'll pause here for a second too i know that we're going to most likely have more of a conversation about the trip that's on the
080agenda tonight so i won't say that much about it now except to say since we heard it in public comment tonight too that one of the many ways that we assist students in need of financial assistance on trips activities clubs and so forth is through the money that the pto raises in addition to what we fund here in the school district so that that has become an ingrained part of a partnership in helping our students and their families when when needed for just about any reason but certainly i've seen quite a bit of that and it's been honestly more and more necessary over the last few years we see more of our students and families who have needed financial assistance both from governmental agencies or even at a level that may not qualify for free
081reduced lunch per se but families that may be going through tough times at certain intervals illness job loss or or the like particularly related to the pandemic so thank you to our ptos for your support in providing some of those extras to us also thank you all right thank you very much so our consent calendar this evening is probably the longest that we have all year i do want to reiterate how grateful we are for the donations made by our pto's they work tirelessly all school year and then the students benefit so much from all of that additional support so we thank you we also have many contracts that we are approving i am going to ask i know one board member wanted to remove one item laura so through the chair i would respectfully
082ask that we please remove item b 21-22 for further discussion okay i can add that to new businesses item letter e thank you are there any other pieces that other board members would like to remove for conversation if not then i will move to prove the rest of the consent calendar as it is do i have a second a second thank you sage all in favor aye aye any opposed any passes unanimously so that letter will now join new business under letter e for conversation so old business approval of primary instructional materials recommendations dr rusek would you like to speak to that sure at the last board meeting i shared six primary instructional materials recommendations with you the 30-day review period has concluded so they're back on the agenda this evening for approval and i'm
083happy to answer any questions you might have on them does anyone on the board have any questions about the materials if not then we will move to approve and they will be added to our stock for curriculum correct yes would anyone like to make a motion to approve so moved all right thank you lynn do i have a second i'll second second by laura all in favor aye aye any opposed extensions passes unanimously as well so thank you donna we appreciate your attention to those details we will move to new business next is our opportunity to recognize the ratification of our superintendent's contract for sev or july 1st of 2022 through june 30th of 2025. we had a benefit of doing our own board evaluation of dr carmola and so now we get to say
084lots of kind things about you so very grateful to have you in this district you have changed the inner workings and just the community outer workings by your presence here and we are incredibly grateful for your leadership and your commitment to our students and your collaborative spirit with our staff you've been that way from day one and has never faltered i've witnessed you mentor our staff and engage and try to enhance them within the district and i think that creates a really welcoming environment for our staff to want to grow as well no one stays stagnant people can move themselves and they enjoy the work so much more you know our students by name in a lot of circumstances that matters to me as well i think it matters to them they know when you
085enter building who you are and i just love that you're a part of our students lives not simply behind a desk you make so many decisions on a regular basis at such breakneck speed i'm incredibly impressed by you always less and i only say this because you're so good at it that it's hard to be impressed by it anymore you're just naturally talented that way so i just wanted to take a moment myself to thank you for staying here in avon with us and for choosing us and i will open it to other board members jay go ahead so first i don't know if everyone in the audience knows that one of our roles or most important roles is to hire a superintendent and i feel like we are so lucky to have you in
086our district and haven't gone through that process i can't think of a better candidate that we found and your time here has been just an excellent presence in every capacity and how you've dealt with everyone in the community from you know getting to know the students is devastated to the staff to dealing with other boards within the town but i just think everybody has tremendous respect for the work that you do and i look at it as you know i leaving here and knowing that we are in a good place and just you know so happy that you are here and look forward to what you can do to do it for our district so thank you jackie i i would reiterate all the things that deb and jay said but we feel really fortunate
087i think to have you here and to have you um i feel the same way about um that i did as with mr rehnquist leaving that um my kids really benefited from having great leadership through a lot of the really hardest times i think any of us none of us predicted were going to happen and i i that counts for so much and really i don't know how you did it but um you got all these kids through and and the staff where they are so i'm just grateful for your um really positive attitude and i think you have a magical way of turning anything around if people seem to come to you in a huff or a puff or i'll say for myself if i if immediately with the sentence or two i've you're
088just really good at that you're really really good at kind of saying no no no you're not you're you're missing it and i am missing it usually at that point so i'm just grateful for your patience with us and for your guidance and for your leadership and i feel really lucky that you're going to be here for um for the rest of your contract thank you paige bridget our time together has been short but i have come to admire so much about you the most important quality i think you bring to the district is your presence that people see you in the buildings kids as young as preschool recognize who you are and that's very rare in a school district to have leadership be so involved and that brings what is really important to me
089a sense of community and i thank you for that um yeah we're just very happy to have you lisa all i can say is thank god you're staying [Laughter] and i echo what everybody else has said you have always presented yourself with the utmost professionalism i think i admire your public speaking i i really think you um deal well with the public with all of us with all your administrators with all the students and all the other boards here in town so we're very lucky to have you and i am so glad that you are going to continue with us and so proud to work under you and with you liz well of course i echo what everyone else said and also i the first time i met bridget was when my son was in
090kindergarten and i was in his class for a party and she was there and i was like oh that's random that the superintendent was here and then i think every time i'm at the school bridget happens to be there and so you're just always around and i love that i love that like everyone said the presents in the class she's been at many of my kids class parties that i'm they're hosting and she happens to walk by and pop in and i'm like oh that's great she's here again so i love that you're always around and that the kids know you and i'm grateful you're here too lynn bridget we haven't known each other very long but the first time i met you and i came into your office you did ask that question why
091why do you want to be on the board and one of my answers i don't know if you remember is because of you and your reputation and i i i think i would have hesitated to run um in a district where i didn't have respect for the superintendent and you have not disappointed at all i'm really just looking forward to getting to know you better and growing with you and seeing where the next few years takes us as a board and as as a school district and i'm so appreciative you're here in avon laura your caliber of excellence and your integrity and your willingness to meet people where they are whether it's a preschooler or one of your staff members or one of us your grit and grace just the way that you comport yourself
092in every circumstance whatever it may be that's being put right in front of you we are so grateful for the work that you do and thrilled that we have this opportunity now to keep moving this district forward and for all the exciting things you're going to show us that we can do together so thank you for choosing us and i think you deserve a round of applause i may just say thank you it's the most awkward meet it's the most awkward meeting i think of the year for me i appreciate your kind words but um i'd be remiss if i didn't say that i'm able to do what i do first and foremost because our our community continues to support me and us in the work that we do you as a board continue to
093support the work that we do and our administrators first and foremost honestly are who help to drive this bus and to make sure that we're all successful together we uh have often you know talk about sinking or swimming together and i think you know that's that's the way that i see it so i just want to i i appreciate your kind words and thank you very much i'm looking forward to another year that might possibly be easier might not uh i promise i don't go around looking for the parties uh just so happy i guess it so happened to be that way liz um there's never food anyway at least during kovitz so um i i i think you know that i work hard to to do what um i think is in the best
094interest of of students of all students um i'm a i'm a supporter of public education through and through it's the reason i sit here today so i wouldn't continue to do this job if that isn't the reason that i'm doing it and so i appreciate the the time and the space that you give me to be able to do what i'm passionate about and i again thank the administrators here at the table with me and also those who are out there and and engaged in other things that may not be sitting here tonight but still know that i appreciate all of you and i thank you for helping us to get through another year thank you all right shirley do you happen to know what page the board of education meeting dates are thank you
095all right did everyone have an opportunity to look over these meeting dates for the upcoming year is there anything that sticks out to someone otherwise we will approve them so that they can be 147 page 147 so they can be added to our calendar with the town everybody good so if i could please have a motion to approve these meeting dates for the coming year through june 13th anybody so moved thank you lisa do i have a second second thank you liz all in favor aye any opposed extensions that passes unanimously thank you everyone next is the um end-of-year fund allocation request is this first susan yes go ahead susan will donna and i all chime in okay maybe yeah great thank you um on the memo i i won't read every single line and
096every single notation here to you but uh right now our anticipated savings based on the encumbrances and known liabilities we had as of this meeting packet as you can expect at end of year as we put everything together some of these numbers change on a daily basis as we process payroll receive additional invoices and additional requests as we're still working through the end of the year but currently my anticipated savings is around 750 000 the large area of these savings are certified staff with some savings for new hires throughout the year as resignations and other staff members left or went out on leaves that we were placed with lower stepped members throughout the year we also had some savings in non-certified staff the fluctuations of ftes given the environment covet workers compensation and other sick
097leaves left us with ftes unfilled at different points throughout the year in our non-certified staff all the way from our custodians our para educators cafeteria staff etc some of those savings are realized in that non-certified line of 240 thousand dollars benefits it's a large chunk of where we save money this year our pension and our opep or other post-employment benefits the market conditions prior to right now so we may not be having this conversation next year but the market conditions when we budgeted for this and were different than when we got our number in august so we had a realization just a notepad blown of 213 thousand dollars in savings we kept that set aside throughout the year in case we were to need it in case we were needed in other areas and now
098we have that continued savings as well as all our other benefits our disability insurance our employment assistance program unemployment administrative fees and dental premiums they're all they all came in very favorable this year leading to that large savings of 325 thousand dollars overall in our benefit category we had some savings in magnet school and summer school school tuition almost entirely due to covet there was less enrollment in those programs they were either not as robust as they had been in the past and these as tuitions we paid to other programs not our own and magnet school enrollment has continued to go down with covet and technology equipment and leases we had some savings in our chromebook leases and some technology equipment that we had budgeted a year before when we actually executed this year um
099the prices were less when we bought them in august and september of this year that's a different story when we talk about in just a second where the chromebooks and the laptop prices are coming in for now professional development also was favorable this year as dr rusek and her team in teaching and learning were able to leverage uh virtual professional development and other uh teacher to teach teacher or staff member teaching teachers and that left us some additional savings there we have transfers offsetting throughout the budget that we'll offset other lines that we had increases in such as utilities we've talked about pretty much every meeting that we've gone over financials our gas electric fuel and every other expense that most of us are dealing with increased costs on we have increased continue to see
100increases in those areas so all that put together comes to the approximate 750 000 that i'm forecasting for us to be saving by june 30th so what we have proposed is we proposed using those funds to buy some of the items we have budgeted for next year particularly items that we need to start the school year chromebooks and staff notebooks or laptops we have budgeted for 550 chromebooks for next year we budgeted that cost at 165 our most competitive quote we have right now is 188 820 so it's a little over 23 000 higher than we budgeted for and in order to get these chromebooks in time for the tech team to get them ready to deploy to students in grades second and fifth we want to order them as soon as possible also our
101staff notebooks this is even a larger increase we budgeted for 250 notebooks for our high school and middle school certified staff for next year we had budgeted 270 000 the most competitive quote we have right now is 346 900 significant increase if we're able to purchase them with these year-end funds that'll help offset that cost and when we talk about our budget for 23.24 and we look at the number of chromebooks and laptops we will need to budget for the next year we may be able to leverage the monies we've already budgeted in 21 20 in 2223 to offset so our 2324 cost isn't as increased we also would like to um outfit the high school community room as you know we've moved due to covet and due to technical issues the board meetings in
102here but also the community as a whole as well as um our staff our our staff and our students um in the high school use that community room or would like to um we've had some technological issues there many of us that were in negotiations last summer so how how sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't luckily the it staff was able to supplement us with some better q boards but we would like a more permanent solution in that room mrs ferry is working with her team to find the best solution right now the best quote we have is 36 thousand dollars to outfit that room to meet our needs we also have some additional textbooks this is a small item but i want to throw it in here because we are we'll talk about our
103open choice allocation where we have the rest of our textbooks lying but we've had an increased enrollment ap biology next year so we need 30 extra textbooks to fill those needs that's 5 instructional supplies we have a large ask of that in our open choice allocation but we also have some remaining funds in here the support readers workshop supportive text reading units such as book clubs level text bookshelves in grades k through six and classroom materials for additional fourth grade section next year totaling forty eight thousand eight hundred and thirty three dollars and then we had spoke about um a little bit in finance and board of finance had mentioned if there's any funds remaining after all this so if we come in at this 750 000 or above to entertain pre-funding or additional funding
104to offset the opeb liability without remaining balance the purpose of this would be to lower the liability the board has in the 23-24 school year if the market continues to fail the stock market i mean right now the way it is are our market portfolio in both our pension or opec could be significantly impacted and could increase our liability i don't know it's a crystal ball but talking to our consultant and actually talking to some members of the board of finance regarding this as something that they had supported as well if the board's able to make that contribution that would be my recommendation any questions by board members lisa yeah i have one question so the community room at the high school you you plan or continue for it to be used as as it's
105being used currently as a classroom if necessary we will continue to use it as a classroom but we do want to move our board meetings back there okay and and the updates that we're looking to make will benefit it as a classroom and for whatever use that we need to yes correct okay thank you any other questions all right so you're looking for us to make a motion to approve this list correct jay would you like to yes i'd like to make that motion please and do i have a second second by jackie all in favor aye aye aye any opposed extensions that passes unanimously all right thank you everyone thank you susan next is the supplemental appropriation for open choice tuition thank you deb every year we we participate in the open choice program
106we receive funds from the state for our attendance of our students in the program as well as if we have preschoolers and the states able to fund an additional allocation for those preschool students we receive additional funds for those people as those pupils as well so we had budgeted we always budget conservative estimate when we do our budget with the town for the revenues the budget the town uses the revenue to offset the board of ed's budget in in totality so we budget our p per people revenue that we anticipate from the state and then once we get our final figures based on our 10-1 enrollment that's the number that the state uses the 10-1 psis count we're then able to calculate what we're going to be able to receive based on that per pupil
107allocation then in addition the state takes whatever monies they have in that pool and they also give an additional incentive or entitlement to those schools that have at least 10 students in a single school and that number varies every year which is why we're conservative with our revenue estimate we just don't know what these funds are going to be usually until late may um and we have these figures so for this year our open attendance grant we budget 672 thousand dollars we received seven hundred six thousand seven hundred six seven hundred nine thousand dollars that was our six thousand dollars per pupil an entitlement of twenty two thousand seven hundred nine students based on 114 students enrolled in the program in avon as of 10 121. in addition to this we had preschool students at
1086 500 a pupil we received 149 500 in our open choice attendance our open choice early beginnings grant those funds need to be spent to benefit the majority of the students in the district per the parameters of the grant so every year we asked the board to review what we're receiving what we plan to spend it on and then we move this forward to the town council town council then moves it forward to the board of finance for an additional appropriation so that we can spend and order these instructional supplies and other supportive materials that will benefit the majority of avon students so we're proposing to spend is fifty five thousand eight hundred and eighty dollars in instructional equipment and supplies to support visual arts music science wellness and world languages at our our fifth
109through uh twelfth grades sixty three thousand eight hundred twelve dollars in textbooks these are budgeted textbooks that we had in our 22 our 2223 budget for business social studies and math at the high school in middle school and then 64 517 dollars in english language arts and structural supplies that would benefit all schools grades k through 12. are there any questions go ahead lin just some clarification so if we use the monies now that means we that'll offset um our expenses for next year correct so some of it some of it so that will help in case the prices go up or is that that's exactly it yeah so we'll if we need those additional um particularly on an annual basis use this for the textbooks because we walk into the year and enrollment changes
110um class participation in particular classes that use very expensive textbooks like our ap classes we're able to purchase those additional copies and we have those funds then already in the budget to support that if i may though i want to be clear lynn um it's not a one for one budget i'll say reduction or cost avoidance for the coming year because we also as we budget for next year project forward what we know we can anticipate getting from open choice so this is doesn't come as a surprise as i guess what i should say we conservatively estimate what we expect the number to be and as we are um putting together the board the board's budget for the coming school year we don't include most of the items we know we'll be able to fund
111here so there are some that it will open up room depending on how it moves forward to your point about because of price increases and so on if we had to buy it next year um but for the most part we are already budgeting counting on this money correct the textbooks are really the only thing that's that's a true cost avoidance everything else is is a conservative um addition to the programs to support um dr rusek ceasing and learning and curriculum that we would like to have but haven't quite fully for for next year so so it's not a surprise a surprise a windfall really it's not really that at all okay sometimes we get more than we anticipated in because we do conservatively budget for it number one and um there are years when
112we've met the four percent threshold for enrollment instead of the three percent um this year and i believe last year also donna we didn't meet the four percent if i remember correct i think we fell short by one student or something was that last year a couple years ago we missed it by a half a percent one student the other problem is recently that the open choice is having difficulty filling our declared seats so for the last number of years even the number of seats we've declared have not been met so that's why we're going a little bit more conservatively and this is funding that has to be spent towards students but it goes to the town first and we have to ask them to return it to us so it's a process that just
113takes place annually um so do you need us to make a motion on this um because technically they yes because we won't send the letter okay for the grant to the town until it has gone through the board approval process is linda does that answer your question or were there any other questions i know we have some others no that helps thank you or board members the whole process is it's a little complicated yes and i just also want to be clear donna's absolutely right obviously we've had lower enrollment they've had difficulty filling our seats we've seen that throughout the state though i think that's another byproduct i think of the pandemic and not as many students entering the lottery you know families with students at home who had been homeschooled and not sure if
114they were going to send them out to school and so forth many of us have seen a reduction in the numbers of students attending as a whole right now but i think we're still holding steady we haven't it's not a drastic decline but but it has been more difficult to fill the seats and sometimes it's been right up until the last minute but where we have been able to we've also made accommodations for additional seats for siblings and and so forth when situations have arisen so we're doing our best to to fill the seats and so is crack it's just not an easy time for doing it all right jay would you like to make the motion sure i'll make that motion okay thank you do i have a second lin all in favor aye
115any opposed of sentience that passes unanimously as well now we move to the item that was removed from the consent calendar so this will be letter e it is approval of the avon high school european study tour to berlin prague warsaw and krakow from april 5th to the 16th 2023 ms young since you brought it up do you want to speak to that sure so i am a huge supporter both in my role as a board of ed member and personally for travel overseas to wherever that may be i think it's an incredible learning opportunity for students i was hoping tonight that the superintendent could provide further information with respect to the fact that we've never been asked to approve a trip like this in times when there is such an uncertain environment uh nearby
116to the area to where these students would be going and i wanted to get further information for the board if possible on the risk management with respect to funds that are put down for deposit and also what sort of assessment would be done in the timing of that to determine whether or not it was still an appropriate place for students to be visiting go ahead dr carmel thank you so first as you know we have not proceeded with this trip in the uh last two years ago it actually had to be canceled not long before it was scheduled to go um i can't remember where we were going at that point right this moment but that was at the beginning of the pandemic when things started shutting down so not long ago i know mr
117abrams spoke with mr rankowitz um and then also with with me and asked about what i thought of the possibility of being able to to run this trip again in the coming year and my response to sue which is why you see the proposal here tonight was the same as as i would say in in response to the question if we are to start planning forward now is the time that we would have to begin the planning which is why i let stu know that he should put the request through at this point so that he has the at least overarching approval to seek out the contract the flights that put it out for interest how many individuals might go how many chaperones might we have i think we you know as you heard earlier
118tonight to um public comment we do the best we can to take his we didn't hear this but i guess this is a response do what we can to take as many students as possible that in part depends on the number of adults that we can enlist to bring as chaperones also to for safety reasons law and board policy so it's a it's a long process to be able to plan this trip for a number of reasons that said what we do in the business office is go through the contracts and ensure that we have clauses such that if there are unforeseen issues there are more and more clauses you see that relate to pandemic-like conditions which we did not see early on obviously and did have to frankly battle a bit to get money
119returned when when that happened so because who would have would have thought to put that kind of language in a contract so at this point however we do we review every contract through the business office before it is signed that it obligates the any of the schools of the district to anything we run it past our attorneys also particularly when it's a larger scale item like this to ensure that we have all the applicable clauses and language to be able to support students and families and and staff members also if a return of money is necessary so some of the reasons the return of money might be necessary is exactly what you brought up laura which is international conditions that are not conducive to taking students to another country one of the main determinants of
120that comes from the state department whether or not there are any advisories present and it can go both ways there can be an advisory right now that's lifted by the time the trip goes and it could happen vice versa that you know the morning of they're leaving on the trip an advisory could be issued so that's something that we have to monitor and pay close attention to throughout the process up until the time that the students and staff depart all right does that answer your questions it does i appreciate the public discussion and acknowledgement that while it is our opportunity tonight to approve this trip that it's not the final say of what might happen in the future and we hope for the best and appreciate the tremendous value that this kind of opportunity has
121for our students are there any other questions all right jackie i just want to make a comment about paying for this trip and kind of the equity around that and i i too support it i think this is a really exciting opportunity for our students i know in the past it's been a really very meaningful trip for so many people i guess it really just brings up for me um you know i think public schools and probably any public entity the challenge of finding equity if it's pay to play or field trips or costume for theater is really important and i guess i look forward to learning more and understanding more about what those processes look like as you know i guess as we go through the next year or two to figure out how
122that works i i can't imagine how hard that is to kind of make sure that every student is having that kind of access to funding i i don't know how that would work so i appreciate you addressing it and i look forward to learning more about it because i i can imagine this would be um spread across the district with all kinds of different in many different places all right laura would you like to make the motion to approve motion to approve the ahs european study tour to berlin prague warsaw and krakow from april 5th through the 16th excellent do i have a second second all right thank you liz all in favor aye aye any opposed sentence passes unanimously all right thank you everyone surely do we have anyone else for communication from the
123public all right thank you next is communication from avon board of education members is there anything that anyone else would like to add all right thank you so now we are going to move into an executive session we will allow time for people to depart as we do that i do want to make note that is for the purpose of discussing our safety and security all hazard plan and i invite dr carmola dr nesslarusac mr medic ms russo and our director of safety and security mr connolly to join us just to be clear deb i think we've been asked to utilize the orchestra room for the executive session right to allow them proper time to break down with us having to oh that's even better okay well we will move out of the room so
124does that give us like a two-minute recess to get yes all right thank you [Music] you