001All right. Good evening everyone. It is 6:03. We're going to call the Monday, August 25th early Board of Education meeting to order. Uh we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. >> All right. So report of board members. Do any board members have anything that they would like to report? >> The cave conference that we went to that was early August. Um very good. I mean they it was it was a combination of some superintendent were there, some board chairs and some new members of boards across the state. Um and they did some some workshops just to talk through um you know some of the new policy things and um and also just as we look at you know different ways of um assessing our board and superintendent. There were handouts that I'll share. >>
002I also attended the same one, but there was a little short overlap because I, you know, I was there earlier in the day. Um, and I found it really beneficial to meet with other board chairs and have our board chair check in and um just see what other boards are going through and how their budget process went this year and thinking about years to come. Um so the CA summer leadership conference was beneficial. I also attended um the new staff breakfast last week uh briefly. I wasn't here very long. Um my son had an appointment but it was nice to meet the new board members. I mean the new teachers, the new staff. Sorry about that. Uh any other board members? breakfast. I also didn't get to stay long because my daughter was in band
003camp. So, I had to rush home and grab her and bring her over to band camp. But, it was nice to see um and meet the new teachers and learn of their experience. So, that was nice. committee reports. Have we had any committee meetings? We will be having a community engagement meeting in two weeks. We're trying to figure out the details for that. Um we wanted the school year to just open and then we're gonna meet to come for community engagement. Anything else on community reports? correspondence to the board. >> Correspondence to the board from Sarah Holland. Um, it's from an organization here. It's from NEA, which is National Education Association, and I'm not sure if it's a form drafted, but it's I'm deeply concerned about my recent actions and aim to deny our kids
004robust resources, inclusive learning environments they need to grow and thrive. These recent exe executive actions, while divisive, concerning. Do not undercut existing local school and district policies or practices and your responsibility to provide and protect support and the resources of our students need whether they are black, white, brown, native or newcomer, transgender or not, or differently lababled. We want kids to have a freedom to be themselves to pursue their dreams. I'm asking you publicly share our school district's commitment to support, protect, and respect all students in our community. Together, let's make Our schools are welcoming and just places that prepare all students for the future. No exceptions. So the reason I'm reading is addressed to the board. So >> any other correspondent we can move on to audience citizens any members of the community and
005address our next agenda item. Um, Linda Hol, the director of people services has submitted a letter of intent to retire effective June 30th, 2026. Before we get into any discussion, do we have a motion for consideration >> pupil services? [Music] So motion by any discussion. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> This morning at our convocation, if you don't know about Linda, Linda's nickname is the cat lady. So Linda's had as many as is it nine? Is that the max? >> Was it 12? No. Linda's often had numerous cats. No, it's always more than three. Numerous cats living with her in her apartment. And Linda does some cat rescue. So this morning she sent me a text at like six o'clock. So I have to take a cat to the u vet. There's emergency. So if I'm not
006there, Michelle's going to give the para educator awards. Okay, that's fine. So when I got up to speak, I says, "Is Linda here?" Linda wasn't back yet. So it gave me an opportunity to speak about Linda to the entire staff knowing that it's public. She's resigning and share about her rescue camp. But Linda and I go way back at McGee. Uh Linda started speech pathologist. Was I a teacher at the time or was I administrator? I was the assistant principal. Linda did her 092 administrator certification working with me believe it or not. And Linda's just been absolutely fantastic. I have to share that the previous the previous director. Linda was a speech pathologist at the time and at that time the director had gone through numerous supervisors. I mean numerous the superintendent at the time
007I was the president of administrative union and going through all these supervisors and Linda was interested in receiving her 92 and the conversation was do you think Linda can be tough enough to be the supervisor? Well I wouldn't say it's the toughness. Linda keeps us out of due process. Linda has relationship with all the parents. Linda's led the district having all these specialized programs which allows us to keep our money here in the district, not send them out. Linda, you'll be extremely missed as a friend, but as a colleague, and all you've done for public schools is absolutely fantastic. So, thank you for being you. Thank you for caring and thank you for being tough enough as I said you could be back then, too. And the other piece I said, more importantly to the
008director, and I was the president, more importantly, Linda likes you. So, it's going to and it obviously did. So, thank you, Linda, for everything. >> Linda, thank you so much for all that you've done for Berlin Public Schools. My 10 years on the board, you've been a staple at every single meeting, whether you presented or spoken up or provided clarity or insight. And you know, I know that we have done a number of, you know, implemented a bunch of new initiatives from the time I've been here to do what's best for the kids with the transition academy with ESS looking out. I didn't know that. >> So, Linda builds relationships and gets respect that way. Other people settle for fear and Linda was just the opposite. So, toughness is really how you look at it.
009Linda definitely can be tough when she has to be. >> She may turn red a little bit, but she'll she'll she'll she'll definitely be >> Her face is so red over there. >> No, I don't know. It's a It's a new shade today. >> I mean, All those in favor June 30th probably. All right, moving on to the next item. Everything has been for any discussion on the consent agenda. All those in favor All right, we're turning schools back today. >> On Friday, Ashley and I had an opportunity to tour all the buildings and to see where things are at and what was accomplished summer. I can tell you I've never seen the buildings look cleaner, more polished, and just in great shape. restrooms at Willard. Two of them were redone, reconditioned. They absolutely fantastic.
010They no longer smell. Um, real nice work. The outside, most of the more work was done at Willer the other schools. The outside playgrounds will be totally updated. They may not be ready for the first week in their entirety, but by the second week, we're assured they'll open fully. Um, trying to think of other is that the high school, the playground for the preschool is complete. Um, it it's it's been a good summer. As I said, because we did most of the contracts were part of it. We didn't have a lot of negotiations to do the summer, which was nice. And for the first time in two years, we didn't have to hire any administrators in the summer, which was also and a lot of hiring came early in the summer as we got out
011in front of it. So, we are in a good place. Positions are filled at the start of school. We may have a few paras open, but that's typical positions, but staffing positions were ready to go. The latest hire was we had a special education teacher who worked with us last year while Alex was the previous teacher of the year. She works in our blast program. She was out. Um teacher name is Connor Walsh. He worked with us throughout the year. has bachelor's limited experience but he's absolutely exceptional with those students which is a skill that not everyone has an opportunity to hire male special education teacher work sometimes having the right people pays dividends in the end especially when you're dealing with a tragic population like that so very very pleased with the new hires
012the caliber of teachers that we're getting here. We are competing against many prominent districts in the state and have had great success. The other piece convocation today is the retention of staff members that we're not losing staff members. That's a credit I don't know there was there speaking to the new teachers something that's unique to I've said this many that your charge to be the superintendent is not to hire the least expensive teacher years of experience. You're charged to let them find the best teacher and sometimes it's teacher with no experience or in Conor's case someone who has a bachelor's has two or three years experience but doing that has really helped to maintain a high level of educator in the district. is unique compared to other districts. I think it helps to set us
013apart. Let me just talk about numbers real fast. So at this time we have total total population student population of students in the district. At the high school we have 793. McGee we have 598. At Griswald we have 499 Willard 432 and our transition academy we have 19 and we have we have 21 students where we are we're typically around 20 out placements and I know that Linda has some she's hoping to bring Right now we don't have any which is good. So go ahead >> for choice students. We have 89 choice students which is smallest number. You know, we're not out school% students, limit number students. Where do we want to be? We just got to be cognizant of that. If we go below the 3% we lose $2,000 questionire finance. She will provide
014us with [Music] ending June 30th, 2025 period of strategic and mindfuling. The administrative team, department heads and other district inflation and product despite our challenges and after all the operational end of.73% total general fund budget areas of surplus certified staff utilities transport Transportation factors that contributed to the surplus of certified staff included unanticipated medical leave of absences. There are a handful of certified staff members who exceeded their paid leave and remained unpaid for a significant portion of the school year. Also contributing to available funds in the certified lines was the use of the remaining arts funds to fund the majority of the summer school season for June and July of 2024. The available certified funds help to offset the certified account, specifically the substitute line which ran in the red for three and four and
015the special education professional educational professional education services which is our contracted services line and special ed which reflected in a deficit throughout the operating year. Accounts that contributed to the benefit surplus for unemployment FICA pension and insurance with unemployment. We were fortunate to have former employees drop off of the unemployment claim list throughout throughout the school year. Surplus and FICA amounts were the result of vacancies throughout the year. The pension surplus was the result of employees leaving the district before their one-year vesting period. And minor insurance funds were from the result of changes in our participants throughout the year. In utilities, we had savings in our heating and water accounts. Usage for both heating and water was less than we had anticipated. The transportation surplus was a result of the usage for special education transportation
016and diesel lines. The special education runs were less than we had anticipated, meaning we used less man hours than we had originally proposed. Um, and we typically use prior year data to project any type of special education runs. Uh, we also had a credit in our diesel account which was able to carry over into the new year so we didn't have so that offset some of our actual spend in our diesel account. We had good news from in the tuition line and that was specifically in the magnet school tuition. Um the actual enrollment and tuition that we paid for magnet school was less than we had anticipated. All surplus and saving areas were applied first to the areas in the operating budget that ran in a deficit. After balancing the operational expenses, the district prioritized
017end ofear funds to purchase several software licenses to take advantage of multiear discounts. The district and educational softwares. We also purchased the grade six Chromebooks, licenses and cases. This was necessary to purchase to support the one-on-one technology and school issued device policy. Our technology purchases also included staff laptops throughout the district, two new casters for VHS station TV station and classroom phone replacements over at VHS. Surplus was also spent on minor building improvements. projects that wouldn't meet the capital threshold. Those projects included the relocation of the slide over at Willard as well as the Willard courtyard. You'll hear more about that in the facilities update. And then 20 $20,000 of the surplus was also used to subscribe to Cave. We ended the year with the return of $1,54157 back to the town. [Music] like all
018the way across it. So I initially I thought that the Chromebook itself was scratched but something must have happened >> with the Um, all right. Now we are going to Yeah. All right. So Ashley indicated that there was the unodudited. >> No, >> do you want to So do you want to talk about the unodudited balance because that's our motion for consideration. Yep. >> Outside of our um covering our operational expenses and then our um surplus purchases. >> So, we're going to be sending that back to the town. But before we do so, uh the board will have to vote on it. Do we have a motion for consideration? $154157. >> Motion by Peter. Do we have a second? >> Second, Brian. Any discussion on that? Very quiet tonight. All right. Hearing none, we can
019move to a vote. All those in favor? I oppose. The vote carries 70. And now Ashley um will give us a brief facilities update. >> So Brian stole a little of my thunder here. Was really excited about this report because so much got done over the summer. It's really impressive and it's it's a tribute to our custodial staff and our town staff. Um really really great things happened this summer. Um so we'll start with BHS. So, three mentionable projects commenced this summer at Berlin High School as part of the initiative to expand the prek program to a full day. An outdoor play area for prek students was required at BHS. Lorie Derpin secured a private grant to cover the cost of the outdoor area and construction began in July. Scope of the work included building
020and ret building a retaining wall, removing a few trees, leveling and filling the ground and building a fence. Construction completed the third week of August and the outdoor is ready for the first day of school. Throughout the summer, the IT department swapped out all of the classroom and office phones at Berlin High School. The phone model that was purchased during the renovation as new construction project were end of life models. This caused various issues throughout the system where classroom phones wouldn't dial out, phone calls would be dropped, and phone calls just wouldn't connect to the end user. The workound for this issue is the IT department would have to constantly review the phone system several times throughout the school year. End of year funds were used to purchase new model which is compatible with the
021existing system. Phase one of the flooring project is underway over at high school. It's difficult to see in those in those pictures. You could kind of see a change in color. What's going on there? So floor tiles contaminated with mold in several several classrooms and hallways are in the process of being removed and replaced. Majority of the work is expected to be completed by the start school. Work on areas that were not originally identified. throughout the school shift. The certified industrial hygienist was on site last week to perform sampling. That report is expected to be this week. The architect is currently working on a revised proposal for the permanent solution issue at the high school. Revised proposal will be presented to PBC in the upcoming meetings. There's still movement also on the Biscio track replacement.
022PBC approved funding for geotech borings to produce a feasibility study and a cost estimate. The study will provide insight on the underlying condition of the track to assist in the approach repair and replacements. McGee had a quiet summer uh in regard to construction projects. Although they hosted summer school in the YMCA camp, the most exciting project over at McGee was the IT office. Um this was a very minor renovation which included fresh paint and carpeting. Space provides the IT technician with adequate working space for break fixes as well as adequate storage for everything that um they need over at the middle school. There has been no movement on the McGee Science Labs. The bids for the architect for architect for the project was reviewed by the PBC and approved for the and approval for the
023bid was planned to to go on to the second town council meeting in July. However, that item was pulled from the town council agenda by the town manager. Grizzled Elementary School. Um, Grizzled also had a a quiet summer up until the last two weeks. Uh, the HBAC project is officially underway. All state construction. They're the contractor assigned who bid on this project. Started ceiling work in the hallways in preparation for the upcoming unit ventilation ventilator replacements. The building's going to look a lot different. exposed ceilings for the start of school and that will continue throughout the school year also quiet as we anticipated uh HVAC um but they did complete the relocation of the YMCA outdoor play area that was done in the end of June and uh Hover's HBA project HBAC project is also
024approved their contractor is Savemore and that is expected to start the Tuesday after Labor Day the custodial Crews at Hover and Grizzled worked tirelessly to prep the existing storage areas for the new HBAC switch gear equipment. The Department of Administrative Services reviewed the board's request to extend the grant funds for both projects and recruit and approve the request on August 7th. The town is receiving approximately $3.2 million in grant funding these projects. All right, the big one. What didn't happen at Willard? So, um, two student bathrooms were were renovated over the summer. It's the two closest to the main office. New fixtures, flooring, tiles, and um were installed in both boys and girls. The purpose of this was to uh fix the piping underground. So, they had some plumbing issues that they needed to address.
025Um, they were able to reurpose the existing partitions. What they did is they painted them in And it really is a fresh new look. Out of everything going on at Willard, I think the bathrooms are probably one of the nicest renovations. So, next time you're there, poke your head in. It's really nice. Um, and also a major improvement to Willard is the lower parking lot. Um, anybody that had been there in the last few years knows that it was it was not great. So, uh, last minute funding came through for the lower lot. They're calling that phase one. Uh, because there is a plan to eventually repave the upper lots. probably next summer. One of the greatest additions to this was also the lighting in the lower lot. Uh there was no lighting there before,
026so at night it was very dark, dangerous, and um just overall concern for town and board. Um the Willard courtyard also had improvements. The old courtyard had loose stone, shrubbery that attracted bees and trees that had questionable structural integrity. Uh the stone was removed, shrubs and trees removed, and hydraed was planted. Maintenance of the courtyard is manageable now by the custodial staff and the space can be used as an outdoor learning center. Um this week was this work was also completed last week and ready for the first day of school. And finally we have the playground. It's still a work in progress. They're about threequarters the way done. The lower the lower part the lower playground where the swings are and then about 3/4 of the way of the upper upper playground area. They do
027expect that to have that by the first after Labor Day and then it will be fully open. There's a plan and a plan as to how they're going to areas that are not able to use. All right, so we have no questions for Ashley. Do we have any questions for Ryan? or anyone. Okay, last thing on the agenda. Do we have a motion for consideration? Do we have a second? So, the motion by Peter, the second by Jen. Is there any discussion? All right, we can move to a vote. All those in favor? >> I opposed. 70. Our meeting is adjourned at 6:33 p.m. Have a Great evening everyone and good luck of opening of