001All right. Good evening. We are going to call this meeting to order at 6:03. Um we are going to start our meeting Berlin Board of Education September 28th uh September 8th, 2025. And we're going to begin with the pledge of >> allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy for all. All right. So um report of board members. Uh do any board members have anything they would like to report? Um, my oldest daughter just started McGee. Um, what is it? Two weeks ago now. School started. I don't My life is a blur. And everything's been going great. Um, everybody was nervous. She was nervous. We were nervous. Um, everything's been going fantastic. The staff has been lovely. Um, everything's going great. So, that's awesome. Um,
002anyone else? I will report. Um, just a reminder, we have our retreat in a few weeks on Friday, September 19th. Um, do you know if it's beginning at 5 or 5:30? We can arrive at 5 and we'll start by 5:30. Um, so, uh, we'll be sending out an agenda for that. And, um, I'm looking forward to attending Willard's open house tomorrow and the fair on Friday. Okay. We don't have our student representatives here today, so we could skip that. Um, committee reports. Did the curriculum committee meet? >> Okay. And Peter, did the FO committee meet? and the um community engagement committee. We are in the process. We're going to be scheduling a meeting. Brian wanted to wait until like two weeks it started just to get everything off and then we'll be scheduling it out.
003So, um and Nick will be joining us. So, we're just going to be we'll be hearing from Debbie soon. Um correspondents to the board. First, dear members of the board of education, Brian staff, thank you very much for the beautiful flowers of my mother planted finally every time the flowers again for years. Second correspondence I mentioned in my update, this is Julia Dennis. Dear Julia, congratulations. You've earned the cave master board of education member designation. Very few other Connecticut Board of Education members have earned this prestigious honor with your attendance at numerous cave and caps conventions, cave workshops, programs, other events. You've acquired a wide variety of skills, knowledge, and abilities. This is a great accomplishment and you are to be commended in earning this honor. You initially earn required 20 credits in areas of
004board relations, policy, curriculum, school finance, school law, labor relations, and board operations. This gave the certified board of education member award. You have now earned additional 20 credits in the area of leadership, effective meetings, school community relations, strategic planning group, dynamic board member ethics, school finance, labor relations, and school law and close the press release template for you to use. Um, just so you know, we got the letter in the mail and I asked Deb and Julia asked me where's the letter? I said I went back to my email. I couldn't find it as I didn't realize, you know, it's not often you get a hard copy. So you got a hard congratulations. >> I actually knew nothing of it. So didn't send me anything. It was a nice surprise. Um any other correspondence? >>
005All right. So I will I do have some correspondence to the board. Um to your board emails I sent to you. I forwarded the letter from the town council from the town mayor. So uh read that if you haven't. It's regarding the parking at BHS. Um, I was also CCD on two emails that were um, addressed to Katie Amena and the superintendent. Um, so, you know, the rest of the board wasn't included on it, but it was just asking questions. So, um, Brian and Katie have followed up those parents and they have addressed that. Um, I also received a phone call from one student, uh, who asked about the parking and the personal devices. um the fan on personal devices and we actually had a really nice conversation. Um you know I I just explained
006you know based on what we have and what we have to we have to make decisions and there's no other places to cut and other places that could be cut from could be uniforms or extracurriculars or uh paytoplay all these other things and we we really made a decision that would have the least imp to the students um that want to be taken away um and you know he seemed to understand that and you know I explained my my position on the personal devices um and you know reference the meeting but you know it's just our job to make sure we're putting policies in place that are going to best support students once they while they're in Berlin public schools but also when they leave Berlin public schools. So I said you might not agree
007with me on this but you know as was in the classroom. This is something I do believe strongly in. Um, you know, and I assured him that as a board we we try and make decisions that are, you know, with the students front and center and what's best for the students. Um, not for us or our own agendas or our own kids. It's all the students of Bland Public Schools and the staff and the faculty to make sure we can have the best schools and the, you know, greatest student outcome. So, uh, it ended very positively and I told him if any of his other friends would like to reach out, feel free. Um, passed my number along and I haven't heard from anyone else, but it was a positive conversation. But other than that,
008I haven't heard from anyone else regarding the parking. Just the one student phone call uh the email from the town manager and being CC on two other emails to the administration. So, um I am confident it's just handled as needed. Oneonone followup last weekend comments had a bunch of questions I reached back to playing at this point. So hopefully, you know, I'll talk to them. I reached out to them today. Other than that, I do have some other school. I did reach out to the districts that we typically have in the budget book. Um looking for comparisons of who charges for parking. Glastonbury was yes. They charge for parking. We usually have that in our budget. Even though Glaston Durge $100 Cromwell charges, it's a nominal fee, but they do charge. Farmington charges $75 per
009semester. The park at the high school. Hill does not charge. Weathersfield charges a $20 fee to reserve a spot if they want to reserve a spot. We didn't go further. I know there's plenty other districts you want me to go further. I just took the ones that were in the budget book, looked at those some comparisons. So, you know, it's about half the charge. >> Thank you. Um, any other correspondents to the board? Audience of citizens would like to approach the um consent agenda. Do we have a motion for consideration? >> Do we have a second? So the motion by Peter, the second by Jen. Any discussion? Okay, we can move to a vote. All those in favor? I opposed. Vote carries. 8 Z. Okay, moving on to new business. Um the application for CA
010board recognition has been received. It's enclosed in the packet. Um to be eligible for board distinction, a level two recognition, a motion must be made at the board meeting to approve the application and the minutes of the meeting must be submitted with the application. Do we have a motion for consideration? >> Do we have a second? >> So the motion by Peter the second. Any discussion? Okay. Move to a vote. All those in favor? Opposed? 8 Z. Okay. Um, moving on to our facilities update. Ashley Dorsy will provide us with a facilities update. Move the mic because last time went all crazy, so I'm just going to put myself to the mic. All right. Uh, so there's not much to report this evening regarding the facilities updates. Um, not since our last meeting anyway. So,
011the first phase of the BHS flooring project is tying up the contracts. Um, the contractors do have to return to complet tiles in about seven different locations. The facilities department is coordinating those dates with the contractors and that work will be done during the second shift. If any additional tiles outside of the scope of phase one of the project begin to show evidence of discoloration or molds, they will be logged and and requests to remove those tiles will be submitted during the school break. They're kind of going to accumulate a certain number of tiles rather than having a contractor come in for one tile. Make sure there's a substantial amount or enough to make it um billable. Um they are still waiting on the architect for to complete the phase two which would be the
012full replacement of the the tiles. The start date for the the hover HVAC project was postponed from September 2nd to September 22nd. There's been no physical construction um in the last three weeks over at Prrisol regarding the HBAC. All state construction has been working to gather additional information for the project and it is anticipated that physical construction will be uh will will resume next week. Um no further update on the architect for the McGee Science Labs. The bids for the architect for for the project were reviewed by the PDC and approval of the bid was planned for um second town council meeting in July, but as I reported last week, it was pulled by the town manager. That's all we have facilities update questions. Thank you, Ashley. Summer curriculum work update. So, our curriculum directors,
013Lori and Carla Watson are going to provide an overview. summer projects. And then we alsurriculates a small list together for you not exhausted but school obviously this year. In Kathy, particularly our tech level artificial intelligence as that's a threat of our year. We're going to be doing present buildings on another different levels are continurricul working with consultant during the school year and they use time to update that uh further during the summer time. science. Um, we have updates toology, forensics, business, science, social studies, updates to a couple, modern world history and real history. Um, business, we have junior achievement and CCSU, so we'reing those. Um, the RISE program has a business math class. Uh, that's what they created this summer. teachers work on executive functioning curriculum to help some of those students who are struggling
014in that area and high school took a look at career pathways and career development. I'm really impressed with it. >> I like that they're doing handwriting. Handwriting. >> Yes, they are. >> That's a lot of the fine motor that they're >> I know some people don't like that one, but I I love it. Kids might not like it, but I think it's really >> So, I was happy to learn about >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on the summer curriculum? Okay, now we will get an update about our summer program. This is really a nice job. It's hard to compare app oranges. our heads together and say how can we get this commitment students I think who those students hard. And some parents do say no. So that 42 includes parents who said that
015their child was going to attend or didn't respond to count. Well, I can't get there, but if transportation's provided, >> right? That's unfortunate. They said they would come and then they didn't. We had a bus at the elementary level just child and then she was on vacation for a week. So, you know, the last week Your choices that you want to bring to hire And we really wait until it's almost beginning of June, like the very end of May, first week of June before I send out money that you know, you don't even know you're going to need and I mean, all the classrooms had students in them. They're just smaller classes. We could have configured it a little different. >> There's really no way they say, "Well, you didn't show up to school." >>
016Yeah, that's But it is I was saying earlier at the middle school and high school level instead of having two teachers for each one for But if we have an extra pair to swing, then they can program any concerns that were there. individualized people in supporting staff when it's only it's hard. Well, it's hard. So, you know, but at this If we're seeing that there's a percentage that aren't fulfilling there, right? Then maybe we like said we try it and see how we do and then move forward because yes, it may be beneficial to have a small staff but it's also a large number. Thank you. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments on that? >> Okay. So, I don't believe we have anything else on our agenda for this evening, but I look forward
017to seeing you guys all in a few weeks on Friday. Friday, September 19th. Um, for our retreat, I will be sending out the board self evaluation at some point this week. It's like a Google form with open ended. Uh, so keep your eyes out for that. Um, there's one last agenda item. Do we have a motion for consideration? Do we have a second? Okay, so motion by Peter, second by Gina. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor? I oppose. Vote carries. 8 Z. The meeting is adjourned at 6:26 p.m. Thank you everyone for a great meeting and I'm sure there are longer meetings to come now that school is going to be in full swing.