001Okay, I am I am on um welcome everyone. I am going to call the New Harford Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting um dated November 11th, 2025 at 7 p.m. to order. Um if you are able, please join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, thank you all for coming. The next item on the agenda is the order of business. I have one change to the order of business as the um sitting chair. I'm going to move item E, board of education chairs report to follow pledge of allegiance. All right, I'm sorry, to follow order of business and before communication to the board
002and public comment. Um, so we're going to hit that real quick here. The only thing I have under board of education chairs report is to congratulate our newest board member, John Puzz, uh, for joining us here on the bud on the board. Um, also the reelection of Tom Buzzy, um, Penny Miller and myself and Eric Pirani. And then I would like to also welcome our student representatives down here and Vivian and Daisy. Correct. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. All right. All right, moving on to the next item is communication to the board of education. Superintendent S. We have anything for tonight. >> What do you have? >> The letter that we received? >> Refresh my memor. >> Sure. Uh from uh Megan Albert. >> Oh, yes. I'm sorry. >> So, you're going to
003make that public. Um, so yes, there was um I'm sorry that one communication the board of education that we do need to make public today is um we received the resignation of Megan Albert um from the board of education. Um she resigned uh effective two days after the last election um on November 6th. Her resignation has been delivered to the town clerk's office to make it official. Um so for this meeting we are um as the chair I am I am communicating that there is a vacancy on the board of education. Um that vacancy will be posted um through a press release following this meeting. Um that will be a request for uh resumes for interested parties from uh they do need to be the Republican party or non-affiliated. Um, and that will go into
004the newspaper tomorrow and it will uh set a deadline for the resumes. Once the resumeumés are received and the deadline is is upon us, within 7 to 21 days, the board will hold a regular or a special meeting. We'll hold interviews and the board will um elect someone to fill Megan's seat from now or from that point until the election in November of 26. November 26, they'll be on the ballot for the community to elect a board member to finish uh Megan's term, which will be to November of 27. And then again, there'll be another election at that point for that seat. Any questions on that from the board? >> We've got a question. What do you got, Benny? >> Why is it only for one year? Um, was Megan on for four? >> Megan
005was on for four years, but the way the Connecticut general statute reads is that the election the the board elects a member to fill a vacancy for until the next town election. So the next >> 27 >> uh we have a 26 election, right? There's no 26. >> The next election is in 27 odd years. >> That's correct. >> Yes. I'm sorry. Yes, you're right. Right. So, it' be to the next. So, it would be to 27. You're right. Yep. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying. >> So, whoever we elect for two years. >> For two years. Yes, ma'am. Yes. >> Yep. >> Yeah. I was also of the mindset that we have elections every year. >> So, thanks for the clarification. >> We vote again in two years for governor and senators, maybe house representatives,
006something like that. That's right. >> Yep. >> Okay. Uh, next item on the agenda is public comment. Would anybody like to address the board? >> Okay. Seeing none, we will close public comment and move on to item D, superintendent report. >> All right. Good evening and I echo the sentiments of our board chair, Mr. Kps, regarding the reelection and election of our newest members to uh join. I also want to share a very heartfelt thank you to our veterans, most especially Mr. Frank Rodenberg, who is a veteran here that is on our board. Thank you for your sacrifice and everything that you have done for our nation and to your family as well for the sacrifices that they have made. So, thank you so much. Um, I have the honor of being an interim chair
007for a hot minute. So, I will hold the gavl. And there's my sense of humor. So, I will be conducting the board uh officer elections. And before every board member, there are three note cards. Um, we'll just assign the white for board chair. So, if you don't mind writing board chair on there, that would be great. The second would be pink. That will be vice chair and purple will be for our secretary position. >> In a minute. >> So, white chair, pink vice chair, secretary purple. All right. under the uh Robert's rules, we do not need to make a second. So if someone is nominating chairperson, we don't need a second for that under Robert's rules. I know it is the practice of the board. Um but according to Robert's rules, we do not need
008a second for a nomination. So what we'll start with is open the floor for nomination for chair. We don't need a second, but we do need it then to be voted upon after that nomination is made or other nominations. will collect all of the votes. All of the votes must be tallied and available within 48 hours for inspection according to FOIA and they will also be within our minutes once those are published as well. So, we'll make sure that the votes that the board of education members are casting right now for the chair are also published publicly. So, I will open up the floor. Please turn your mic on if you are willing or wanting to make a nomination for board chair of the New Hartford Public Schools. I'd like to make a nomination for
009Tim Clips to be the board chair for the new Hartford Board of Education. >> Thank you. Any other nominations? >> I do have a question though. >> Sure. >> This is now the time to ask. Do we have to sign these cards? >> You do our cards at the end before I Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah. >> All right. We have a nomination for Mr. Tim Kleps to be the board chair of the board of education. It is a two-year term. If you would please cast your ballot and your vote now. All right. Can I just quickly collect them after you've written your name on them? No, you don't have to follow them. No, they're going to be made public. Just make sure your name's on it. Should all be white coming my way.
010Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right, we have a yes. One, we have two, three, four, five, six, and seven. and unanimous. Congratulations, Tim. You are our board chair. Reelected as our board chair. Would you like to continue or do you want me to run? >> Such a wonderful job. All right, I'll continue my interim. All right, here we go. Next up, we have our pink card for vice uh chairperson of the board of education. The floor is open for nominations. >> I'd like to nominate Oh, sorry. I'd like to nominate Kristen Young as vice chair. >> I'd like to nominate Tom Buzzy as vice chair. >> Okay. >> Any other nominations before we close? All right. Please cast your vote for either Kristen or Tom. Make sure that card is signed
011and please send it over. Thank you. Okay, going through our votes. One for Kristen, another for Kristen. Three for Kristen, four for Kristen, one for Tom, two for Tom, and five for Kristen. Kristen, congratulations. You're our vice chairperson of the board of ed. To the purple card, please for New Harford Board of Education Secretary. I failed to mention, sorry, that's also a two-year term for vice. Okay. And secretary is also a two-year term. Uh the floor is open for Secretary of the Board of Education. >> I'd like to nominate Penny Miller for Secretary, Board of Education. I'd like to nominate John Puzz secretary. Any other nominations? All right, please cast your vote for board secretary. Sign it and please send it over. Thank you much. >> Thank you much. >> All right. For board secretary,
012John Puzz one. Penny Miller one. Penny Miller 2, Penny Miller three, John Puzz 2, John Puzz 3, and last Penny Miller four. Congratulations, Penny, your board secretary. >> Thank you. All right, that concludes my operations as board chair. All right, we'll get that right back to Tim ASAP. In fact, immediately. All right, up next in our superintendent report, I would like to officially welcome on behalf of the board of education and our school community. We are so proud to present both Vivian and Daisy to our board of education. Just want to read a quick little dem uh biography or a little piece of wonderful information for both of our students. Vivian, for Vivian specifically, this is Vivian's first year in New Hartford Public Schools. At school, Vivian likes math and science. She thinks it's cool
013that sixth graders get to switch classes. Vivian loves making abstract art at school and at home. When she has time, she likes to cook and bake. She enjoys playing soccer with her friends and riding her bike around her neighborhood. She loves to act and be dramatic and even had a lead role as Dorothy in the play The Wizard of Oz. Vivian is interested in architecture and design and has built intricate model houses. She loves having the opportunity be to be on the board of education as a student representative because she will be able to improve her typing and presenting skills. Welcome aboard, Vivian. Daisy. Daisy enjoys ELA at school because she loves to type and write essays. She likes to gather the information and use her imagination to build on ideas. She likes going to
014PE and to music lessons where she plays clarinet. Daisy plays soccer in the spring and fall seasons where she plays midfield. She snowboards and is in the ski club. Daisy was born in South Africa and has traveled to many places including England and Spain. Daisy has been a student at New Hartford schools since preschool. Three years ago, she started the kindness club at Antalini and she is now on the Antelini action team. She loves to make the world a better place. Welcome to both Daisy and to Vivian. So, we're so excited to have you and we know you've worked hard in presenting some information as our student representatives. And after you shared your information, you do not have to stay for the entirety of the meeting. You can politely get up and leave. No one
015will be offended. But we appreciate you so much for being here and all the time you've taken to prepare and also to Dr. Kelly Carroll for helping you prepare and all of your teachers and staff at Antelini. Please take it away. >> Tonight we are going to give you an update of what all the grade levels have been working on. In sixth grade, we have been busy at work in all subjects. In math, we are learning about ratios and how to find unit rates that could help us in real life. We identified where problems given to us and used ratio tables to help solve problems. In science, we talked about air pressure weather and how it affects our environment that we live in. In social studies, students are learning about an event or important person
016in the civil war. They will be giving a one to two minute oral presentation in a small group for their peers to hear. We read The Lightning Thief in ELA and wrote a compare and contrast essays comparing a scene from the book to the same scene in the movie. Next, we will write narrative essays and eventually move on to making our own demigod. Additionally, we travel to Stories Adventure Park in September and worked on our teamwork and perseverance skills. The fifth graders have been work were hard at work in all subjects too. In science, they learned about Earth, sun, and moon and star patterns and create models to show that. And on top of all that, they investigated gravity and other factors that would lead planets being a safer place to live on. In ELA,
017they read the novel Espiron's Arising and studied the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Throughout these texts, they they have practiced summarizing, examined metaphors, and have taken notes to analyze characters responses to events. In math, fifth graders completed daily spiral review tasks to help them practice skills, learn how to find and learn how to find volume of rectangular prisms, and work on the standard algorithms for multiplication and division. They use a math research binder to help them remember the concepts they might need a refresher on. The fourth graders have been learning about amazing things, too. They have been working their minds on every subject. In ELA, they've been diving into the world of poetry. After reading poems by famous poets, each of us chose to study and discovered what inspired their writing. Now, they're writing their
018own original poems and essays about what inspired them to write. In math, they've been exploring factors, multiples, and fractions, and learn how to compare fractions, and figure out their sizes, along with making equivalent fractions. In science, they've been learning all about the human body and how it works. They discovered how bones and muscles work together by making their own paper robot finger. Then, they also explored how their eyes use light to help us see by building a model eye with lenses. Now they're shifting gears to study the autumn adapt the awesome adaptations that help planted animals survive in their environments. Finally, third grade has been working on a variety of different things. In ELA, students read literary texts about children who face challenges with access to education. They read the text for gist, convey the
019text, determine the central message, and read and answer text dependent questions. Students also identify the challenges faced by the characters and how they are able to overcome them. In math, third graders are building a strong understanding of multiplication. They're using pictures, words, and numbers to explain their thinking. The children are working at making sense of problems by visualizing and persevering in solving them. In science, they are learning about Native Americans. Students learn about their clothing, ways they got their food, and even the games they played. In in December, third grade will take a field trip to the Museum of American Indian Studies. >> Thank you. >> The preschoolers kicked off the year by learning about the importance of fire safety. Then a unit learning about farmers and a very fun pumpkin unit. They explored apples
020through dramatic play, painted with apples, enjoyed an apple tasting activity, and learned how to identify the parts and colors of an apple. They also learned about the importance of fire prevention and even discovered what a smoke detector does from their local firefighters. They have recently wrapped up their pumpkin unit where they practice counting pumpkin seeds and express their creativity through many pumpkin craft funkin crafts. They also enjoy their time with their second grade book buddies. The kindergarteners just finished their toy and play unit for ELA. They learned all about toys from long ago and how they are the same and different from toys of today. As a concluding activity, they created their own toys made out of recycled boxes, ribbons, cartons, and bottles. The students also created wonderful things out of what they had at
021home. Then they wrapped up their unit with a visit to kids play where they explored, invented, created, and used their imagination. In first grade, they started the year by learning about four important habits: responsibility, initiative, collaboration, and perseverance. The students worked in small groups to solve real classroom needs. They made a sign that said, "Books we love, a lost and found spot, and even a special home for the Prometheian remote." so their teacher would stop losing it. They even they also just started a unit all about patterns in the night sky. They even took a field trip to Clark Farms in Grammy where they learned about pollinators, saw how apples are sorted and prepared for sale, and enjoyed picking apples, drinking fresh cider, and eating apple cider donuts. They have had a busy, joyful, and
022learningfilled start to first grade. Lastly, in second grade, they have been learning about schools around the world. The students are comparing and contrasting their school in New Hartford to either tent school in Haiti, a boat school in Bangladesh, or Dorsep School in India. They will be performing a song reader theater and reading their informative book to kindergarteners to share and celebrate their learning from this ELA module. In math, the second graders have have been learning how to add and subtract within 100 and solving solving story problems. They've also been building their fact fluency utilizing their new math center kits. This November, the second graders will take a trip to the Peabody Museum, which supports our next ALA unit, learning about paleontologists and fossils. >> Thank you very, very much for taking us um on a
023very deep dive throughout our entire district, for all of the curricular things that we're working on. I am extremely proud and I know every board member here is as well hearing you report out on the amazing educational experiences that our students are engaging in every single day. Thank you so much for your presentation. Um and second parents in the audience and at home we should probably give them a little break. I mean their brains and their hearts, right? They're working very hard. Thank you both so much. Okay, continuing on, we have a couple of very important announcements to make to the community and also to the board of education. It's just a very, very important reminder to the public, but also to each and every board member that is sitting here that this is a
024volunteer position. Our board of education members are not paid for this. They volunteered their time, their energies, their hearts, um, and sacrificed time from doing other things to be a part of the New Hartford public school community. It is a very precious endeavor of the heart and the board of education is being recognized by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education for their work. The first is they are receiving an honorable mention in the Bonnie B. Carney Award of Excellence for Educational Communications. This was done uh for our social media communicating with the community. So an honorable mention was given to the Connecticut um to us from the Connecticut Association of the Boards of Education. Secondly, the board of education is going to be receiving a K board recognition award and this is for a
025level one recognition to all of the following recipients inclusive of Bloomfield, Canton, Cheshure, East Hampton, Madison, New Hartford, Planeville, Portland, Region 8, Region 13, and Region 15. Congratulations to all. We will be celebrating all of the boards on Friday, November 21st at the annual 25 CABE caps convention. And lastly, another award for the board of education here in New Hartford. It is the um award of excellence for educational communications. This was given to the New Hartford Board of Education for their publication and distribution of the district budget book. So congratulations to the board of education for your efforts and your awarding and recognition of all of the hard work that the board of education does here at New Hartford. So I'm very excited to announce that to all of you. All right, up next we
026are going to share our performance updates. So I will welcome up my team. We're going to share our academic performance. Uh so I'll draw ask everybody to draw their attention to the screen behind me and we'll also have our wellness uh subcommittee update shortly thereafter. So if the team wouldn't mind joining me, bring on the mic and we'll get started. testing. Paul, are we good? All right. Fantastic. This is our annual academic performance update that we provide to the board of education and also to um our constituents at home that are watching live or to be recorded and viewed at a later time. I want to share that these are again as we saw from our survey results for our climate ex exceptional and really amazing results and it's a great testament to the work
027of our leadership team our curriculum committees um the teachers in the classroom every day the para educators the special education teachers it really takes a full village of a school community to attain the results that we continue to see or maintain and I'm very proud of that and it's also a huge testament and a thanks to the board of education for your continued support as well as our entire town. >> So, we want to start off with uh presenting some data. We're going to give you some background information in terms of what the assessments are, what they um are intended to do. And just keep in mind that in a small town such as New Hartford, our results can fluctuate and vary. Two kids, three kids to a cohort, that changes the percentage pretty drastically.
028So, that's not just a New Hartford thing. that is any small town in the United States. That is something that we are cognizant of and aware of and I wanted to just remind the board of that as well. So, we're going to provide an overview of how the students are performing on both our state summitive assessments and our district universal screeners. Our goal is to highlight trends, identify strengths, and explain how we use this data to inform our instruction and our daily practices. What are we doing with this information besides just presenting it? So we want to support every student's growth. That is the main mission is enhancing their educational experience. So I will pass it along to Amy. >> Thank you. So um as Mr. Susa said, we are going to talk about kind
029of two buckets of information. Um we're going to talk about our state assessments which are those kind of highlevel um assessments. We give them once a year. U specifically the smarter balanced assessment. um important in that it gives us like that um you know reliable measure if our students are performing um toward grade level standards. Um it's not the most helpful information for our day-to-day work. So we're excited to also share with you um our Dibbles results focusing on one of our universal screeners where that information really is what drives us daytoday and how we work internally. So we're going to kind of take you down that path of what that looks like. And so both of these types of assessments are so important and critical for districts both serving very different purposes but also
030important. So one of the things we always kind of say as a team we have up here the we must remembers and we like to put this up here just to kind of ground us as a team remembering that multiple measures are more accurate than a single measure. So, of course, we're looking at sort of one piece of data today in terms of our summitative and one piece of data with our universal screeners, but we know that kids perform differently day-to-day. So, when we're thinking about how students are doing, we're not just focusing on that one measure. We're also thinking about how are they doing holistically? How are they doing in the classroom? All of those things are really important to our work. Also, just kind of that that once is not enough. Kind of
031the same thing here. We're looking for trends. We're looking for growth, um, not just looking for a percentage. And then also our screeners and sumatives, they're here to raise questions. So for us educators, like what are the questions we're going to ask from this data? Doesn't always give us the answers, but it leads us down that path toward that continuous improvement. So um, we're excited to be able to share some of this work that we do with you all. Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to share with you specifically one of our universal screeners, which you've seen in the past. Um, but John, this will be a little bit new, but you, um, having a kinder first grader now, you'll have had a little experience with that. So, um, Dibbles is the universal screener we use
032to assess early literacy skills for our K through three students. And so, this first piece of information, we like to look at beginning of year trends. So, how do our students start every year? This kind of helps us to get a highlevel view of the kind of supports that kids might need right from the start um and what we need to tackle to get everyone off on the right foot. So some things some key observations is when you look at our kindergarten students so the row of each piece of data is this current school year. The one below it is last year's. So overall, our kindergarteners this year are entering with some uh lower level needs of support. Last year we had 21% of our kiddos in that well below area and this year 11%.
033So when we look at this overall, we're like, okay, right as of right now, kindergarteners entering this year will pro likely need little less uh extra intentional support in the early literacy skills. Our current first grade is starting off really really strong. So they are here in this um 12%. Last year the uh cohort started off even stronger. But again it's that that piece again it's not telling us one cohort is better than another. Just giving us that um information about how are we starting the year? What do we need to get things rolling? For students who are entering second grade again we see a very strong start for them. It's pretty similar to how our second graders last year started. And finally, third grade is probably the most consistent of the groups just percentage-wise
034again about how they start. Again, each of these is a different group of students uh to keep in mind. But again, at that high level view of what do we how are we starting the year? Again, we also look at what is the retention of skills from over the summer because that's also a really important piece for us to see like at the end of the year, over the summer, what are kids hanging on to? uh that tells us about how uh impactful our instruction is on them throughout the course of the year. We dig a little deeper at the data. Again, we have some questions. So, we said, okay, here's how they started. What are those pulse points throughout the year that we capture to help us know how they are growing? So if
035you look here at this next chart, you'll see that same beginning to beginning, but we've also included how those cohorts did throughout the year. So for our kindergarten, that group that started out in that about 51% about half the cohort started below or well below those expectations. By the end of the year, we were in about that 15%. So, they made some really, really tremendous growth throughout the year. And really from the middle of the year to the end of the year, things really started clicking for them. And the data really shows that if you then look at their end of year to how they started this year, pretty similar. So that shows us here that that all those things they learned really stuck. All right. So the first grade last year, uh they started
036off really strong. 95% of our students started the school year in that at or above benchmark, which is pretty amazing. Uh and so they really maintained throughout the year as well. we really saw a nice increase in those kiddos who are in the blue. Those kiddos who are in the blue are performing above the benchmark expectations. So we really were able to double that number. So we were really helping even those kids who are really high to get even stronger. Again, response to the instruction and the curriculum and really being focused on fine-tuning what they need. You get everything there. So again, how they're starting second grade, still really strong, which is great retention of skills. All right, last year in second grade. So if we move to this next kind of um band started
037at 15%, they made some pretty steady growth again seeing some blues increase as well. And as they start this school year, they're at about what's that 31% um below or well below. So again, starting out pretty strong. How we consistently see third graders perform. And then finally, our third graders. We had a very high performing cohort of uh third graders last year. And so by the end of the year, 51% of those kiddos were above. So when you put all that together, we had oh what's that? 69% of our kids were at or above the benchmark in those foundational reading skills. And you can see um that growth over time for them. So this piece really tells us first how are students performing in their um early literacy skills which we know are critical and
038crucial. They're the foundation for all the things that they're going to continue to do. And this is something that we really spent a lot of time on, especially in the last 3 years as we adjusted our instruction and our curriculum to ensure that we had the best practices in place to truly teach kids how to read. Um, so this is data that we're really proud of and our kids are really excited uh about it as well. I think I've see a lot of excitement around reading and around diving into new books and uh sharing learning with one another. That's what I just said. So there you go. Okay. So again, summer is also a big part. So we really see that uh students are retaining those skills throughout the summer. >> I get going. Sorry.
039I made my own. >> Okay. So, now that we kind of had a glimpse at one of our universal screeners, Dibbles, for our reading foundational skills, we wanted to talk a little bit about what do we do with this information and and this um data to support students. And we have a system in place. It's called MTSS. It means multi- uh tiered systems of support. And it's intended to make sure that we're looking at this universal screening data that Heather just shared, and we're diving in even more deeply to individual students to support them. So, one really cool analogy is to think about a dental visit. Now, we didn't come up with this analogy, but I think it's brilliant. It's out there. Um, so we can kind of think about um what is MTSS in
040a school setting and kind of thinking about it as a proactive approach to supporting students similar to and how we are maintaining our oral health or our health and well-being. So, our universal screener that we talked about was dibbles. We can kind of think of that as one of those proactive things that we would go we for if we're going to the dentist, we are getting our checkups and our cleaning. And that's exactly what a universal screener is. And um in addition to that, in the classroom, we're making sure all kids are in the classroom for the instruction for the high quality instruction. So that's, you know, making sure we're flossing and brushing our teeth twice a day, getting that high quality instruction. And then those universal screeners come into play. And then we also
041have, you know, you're at the dentist and that pick thing comes out. You know, here we go. The dentist is looking for some soft spots or some areas of need. And so that's exactly what the universal screener helps us to do. So we're looking for areas in which a student might need some extra support or some intervention. And we might not always know exactly what that is, just like a dentist might say, "Oh, yeah, there's something maybe going on here, but maybe we need to look a little deeper and take an X-ray." And so we do that in the school setting too. We look a little deeper. We start looking at student work. We start maybe providing another assessment to dig in and find out what might be going on. And we might find that
042maybe there's a cavity there and they need a little um intervention to get that filled. So it's kind of just a cool analogy to think about like how we are trying to be as proactive as possible for our students. So make to make sure that those you know areas don't grow into large gaps. And so we provide that targeted support and that intervention or fill that cavity. If the issue persists, perhaps we might need some more intensive or we need to enhance that support similar to how we would maybe have to go for one of those dreaded root canals. So um but the point is is that we're not going to jump from the universal screener which might say that there might be an issue and jump to that root canal. Right? We're going to
043be systematic. we're going to be looking at this individual child and making sure that we're providing the right amount of support at the right time. So that is sort of our process for how we utilize this data and why I think we see such great results because we are being so proactive with what we're seeing to support our students. Any questions about MTSS? Okay, so we're back just I'm going to just put your attention back on to this slide. We are going to move into the state assessment component. And again, these are those summitative overall really high stakes, right? This is what the state is going to see from us. This is where in the upper grades kids take an SAT. It's very high stakes. For us at our level, it's the Smarter Balanced Assessment.
044Okay? Okay. And this is public information. Unfortunately, it doesn't give us that deep dive, which is why we have those universal screeners. Um, but does give us questions, right? Thanks, Heather. So, one of those assessments is the NGSS, the next generation science standards. This is given to our fifth graders only. Okay. So, that gives us just this one data point, fifth grade only. It's kind of hard to do any comparing because it just gives you that fifth grade cohort year after year. They also will take it again in eighth grade. We're doing a great job with this. So, as you see this section here, these this is the state average. We are consistently performing above the state average in science. So, we're really proud of this data over there. Okay. Um, so the next piece,
045so uh is the smarter balanced ELA. So this piece of data shows the average scale score that our students have had over the last four years. And so for those of you who are with us three years ago, this trend line looked a little bit different. It was a little bit more volatile. It wasn't as consistent. And that was something that we recognized and knew that we had to dig a little deeper at. And so one of the things that we did in our digging was to really look at our curriculum and instruction. And so that brought a uh brought about the change in our ELA curriculum. And so now what we can see over the past four years is that we're really starting to even out like those trend lines are beginning to become
046more consistent and stable and we do see that slight upward tick in grade level. Now again we'll show you a cohort um in just a moment to kind of show you how growth over time is. But this past year in ELA, the average scale score of our students was in the MEETs range. The goal uh scores are here. And then in all areas, we were above the state average. So again, we see some fruits of our labor in really the work that we've done in our ELA instruction is starting to pay off sumitatively. again using those universal screeners, the MTSS process to really um meet the needs of students to ensure that we have this consistent stable upward trend uh in our learning. To kind of give you a snapshot of last year's sixth grade,
047what did their school career look like here in New Hartford with ELA? So you'll see uh they started at 2437 their scale score went to 2486 2518 and 2545. So each year the change in their scale score did in increase. So that performance from year to year was consistent. So again another just snapshot of how that cohort of students performed over those last four years. I think that's all I wanted to say. >> Yeah. Okay. Kelly. Okay. So, this is the smarter balanced math data. Okay. So, we're we have two separate charts to look at. Much like the ELA, I would like to start with our trend lines. Something we've noticed much like you just saw in ELA, we have this beautiful progression in third grade. They are moving on up. Okay, that's what we're
048hoping to do with some of these more unstable lines. So, we did notice that fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, we're still having variability cohort to cohort. Okay? And we're going to look deeper into that in a different slide, but I think that these trend lines highlight nicely why it's important to consider cohort data and try not to compare it. We're comparing completely different sets of kids. We want to look at groups of kids and how they move forward. So for example, if we take a look at the fourth graders here, okay, in 2022 and 23, they were outperformed by their previous fourth grade. This is not the same group of kids. So when we look this group of fourth graders, when they went to fifth grade, they were much higher than the following year. And
049when they went to sixth grade, they were much higher. This isn't telling us that our kids are going down. I'm going to explain some more of that on the other slide, but what it's important for us to use this type of data to look at those cohorts and think about what did we do with them to grow, what worked, and maybe what's not working and it helps us improve with our skills for the next group. Another component of these of this data that we want to look at is that we are consistently where the state is or above in math. Okay. It also shows us some additional data that's happening statewide that we're falling into. So, we have our third graders. They outperformed third graders in the state. Okay. Our fourth graders are falling into
050the same position as the fourth graders, not only in the state, but also nationally. We're recognizing that nationally that the fourth graders are kind of they're staying in kind of a lower performing math group. This is actually an international problem. And at the state level, they've actually been talking about the how big the fractions are in fourth grade. So, we're really starting to take a deep dive into some of our math skills and try to pick apart what's going on. How can we make that better? Fifth grade outperforming their state peers. in sixth grade, although they didn't make goal, they are still outperforming their state peers. So, we take a look at trend data in that fashion as well. So, what do we do with this? Okay, we're noticing we've got some great things happening
051in third grade. We have great things happening in the other grade levels, which I will show you in a minute. But what do we do as a team? Well, we're starting to calibrate not only within our district, but we're actually taking a step and moving this to work with our regional partners, which is going to be really great for us. Very powerful. looking at student work, looking at their trend lines, and how can we all grow together. So, this we're going to take a look. These are last year's sixth graders. Here they are when they were in fifth grade. Here they are when they were in fourth grade. And here they are when they're in third grade. And look at that amazing change. It's all positive, right? So although our sixth graders were not meeting
052goal, look at the amount of growth that they made each year. That tells us that the interventions we did with them were working. It tells us that they were learning and they were growing. Now, I know you're sick of hearing this, but these kiddos when they were in first grade, we closed their schools. So that was their foundational time to start learning all those math concepts. So, no wonder we were they started a little bit lower. They had a tougher time. So, we're actually very proud to see this group grow that much because they really they took the brunt of COVID and but they ran with their successes. So, we're very proud of that data. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, as a leadership team, what we look at is we have this information
053what we're going to do with it. They started to share with you as well. But we now at this point start to plan in advance for next year, next year's professional development, next year's needs of our staff to continue to get better at the work that we're doing, but also improve upon it. And a great effort goes into the maintenance component of it as well, because that's not to be taken lightly either. So, some successes here. We have to absolutely celebrate ELA. It's been uh three years in the making and we're very very happy to see the results that we have here. Our focus will shift to mathematics and we're going to be in that phase one as a states there to gather more information uh relative to what our needs are and to review
054our professional learning for next school year. So that work begins now. It is slow but it is methodical in the way that we do that. Um, also was just mentioned the unified educational uh curriculum committee which is all of region 7 and even H heartland has jumped the board. We're going to continue our unified focus on math. We've already had shared grade level meetings u that have been facilitated by wonderful people like Heather Matthysse across our region. So we're getting on board with that and looking at practices across um all of the the region as was stated and that's another huge point of pride that we're actually seeing that enacted. It was something that was here prior to COVID was left dormant and has been resurrected. So, we're very proud of that as well. Um,
055and instructional rounds was the last piece. So, we're going to be visiting each other's classrooms to learn practices from one another to ask questions of, hey, I noticed you're having success with this to share resources and materials, but again, across the region, which is very, very powerful. and then making sure that our students are prepared in a fashion that's more aligned before they go off to region 7 for example. Those are all of our next steps. So with that, we will conclude. But again, we're also going to be updating the board at our January meeting relative to our district engagement plan, taking some of these pieces of information in place to make sure that our goals continue to be in alignment with the work that we want to do and with the trends and the
056information that we see from our from our data. Um, again, very special thanks to all of our teachers, our administrative staff, um, our paras, everyone that's involved in making sure that our students are getting what they need, that we are looking very at a very finite, uh, moment in time with our students using as many pieces of data that we can as an MTSS team. Those take place um, at least yeah, because we go through and we look, did that intervention work or not? And then we're moving to the next step. So our teams are meeting, school-based teams are meeting to discuss student data every six to eight weeks to determine is this working? Fantastic. We're going to continue. It's not working. We need to tweak it. And this is not just for academics. MTSS
057is also for behavioral. So it is a very important team. It's an important cog that takes place at make sure that we're meeting the needs of all of our 429 students. Okay. All right. That concludes the academic compon component of our quick update. Um questions. I see I got a quick question. Go ahead. >> Now the dibbles is that a one through three? >> K to three. >> And then the other one is three to eight. >> Yes. For which one? >> So >> the smarter balance. >> Smarter balance. Yeah. >> So the third graders are the only ones that get double tested. >> Uh ultimately yes. They have one extra. The dibbles assessment is given to them three times. Oh, sorry. The dibbles assessment is given to them three times a year. It takes
058between one and five minutes. So, the Smarter Balance assessment is going to take them much longer. The Dibbles assessment is like a quick check. They're one minute fluency checks and foundational reading skills >> because I don't know if it means anything, but I noticed on the Dibbles and the third grade there was qu there were quite a few that were under or below goal, >> right? And the third grade. >> Yep. >> Compared to the other grades. Yes, >> but on the smarter balanced, they did well, the third graders. >> And I don't know if it's over. It doesn't sound like a long test. I was wondering if it's over testing or confusion by taking two different tests for the third graders. >> I it it could for Dibbles. I feel like it's quick enough.
059It's just that quick pulse check. So, I think that that just helps the our daily instruction what kiddos need. The other thing I would consider is in the dibble data for last year's third grade, the percentage of the meets and exceeds was higher than we've seen. So that uh group of below and well below was not as large as what we've seen in other years. So I think that since our shift in instruction for teaching reading, I'm hoping to see that that trend continue. Like those K12 students really are strong. So that third grade group of kiddos didn't get three full years of our uh new curriculum and practices. So that'll be something that's a great question, Frank, for us to ask ourselves too as we look at this year's third grade data to see
060like do we see that trending in a different direction now? Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Tom. On the slides where you showed the numbers, there was one set of slides where the average score was 500 and something and the state was 498 whatever and then the other slide it was 2500 and what what's the total scales on those? What's are the 500 scales that one to a,000 and the other one is it a 5,000? What's the range that we're talking about? >> So those are posted on the state website. I could certainly provide them to the board. I don't know them all off the top of my head because they vary per grade level. So, I don't know specifically um unless we have some of them listed on the on the sheet. Right. So, they're
061listed on the left hand side. Hold on a second. Just scroll back. for instance. >> Gotcha. >> 2466. >> Yes. >> What does that represent? >> Oh, I got you. Sure. Sure. So, there there's a range. The goal would be the 2432. So, it's probably just going to guess off the top of my head. It's maybe 30 points below that and probably 30 points higher than that for that band for that goal. That that's that range for that. >> What's a purpose? uh has their own has their own scale range that I could again share. I don't have all those memorized. There's Yeah, I will I will make a note to share. I promise. >> Yeah, >> there's a number. >> Yep. Yeah. There's >> there's four different levels. So, the goal is level three
062out of four. Um so that's telling us that you know each each has a different range but there's like does not meet approaching meets and above. Um so each range is a little bit different but the green represents that those are um scoring in that meets level. So that third category which is the goal that we want for all students. So they're meeting grade level expectations >> yellow >> approaching approaching. So I think if you frame it like that it gives you that explains it a little bit better. >> Yeah. >> Your contribution. >> Yep. >> We put in the goal but no we need more. So looking is helpful. >> It's important. Yeah. And also we were trying to be cognizant of overwhelming as well but that's a great piece of information that we
063should share. quite well taken. All right, there are no other questions. Um, Eric and Mike, do you guys want to give an update on the wellness committee? You want to draw straws? >> Absolutely. No, I'll I'll I'll do that. again. >> Yeah, we met uh October 15th and uh the wellness subcommittee meeting is basically just to um take a look at um how our district is doing uh in terms of students well-being, whether that be physical, mental, um and a lot of it is um a lot of that is looking at how they're doing in terms of supporting healthy eating, physical activity. So, um, by most accounts, all accounts, we're doing very well. Our our our district, our schools are doing very well in terms of, um, students health and well-being. One other thing it
064does cover too is staff and uh um employee health and well-being as well. So, that's one of the things I think we talked about. Maybe um adding some more options for staff members. Um um promoting community wellness for them. Um you know, certain things like walking club for staff and students. Um, one other thing that came up was staff parties, uh, student parties and school parties, uh, whether or not, you know, um, things should change to to improve their overall health or um, or well-being in there. We do plan on meeting again in January just to continue to talk about those steps and maybe uh, see how we're going from there. >> Anything else, Mike? on the committee so you can see the requirements. >> Yeah. A great thanks to the entire committee, Amy Kennedy,
065Dr. Kelly Carroll, Mike Lynch, Deb Marciano, Aacia Ransom, and Eric Paradia as our board member. This is not a small endeavor. There's a lot of pieces um that are moving and to be considered, but overall we are very pleased with the results um of where we are now in terms of our policy and our efforts to continue to improve. So, thank you so much everybody. All right, moving on to the next piece of our agenda today. We have our task force RFP status update and recommendation in our board packets and soon to be published online will be all of the all of the um forgive me all of the received uh RFPs. So we received three different proposals from our RFP I should state and the current status is that after interviewing the firms that
066came to our uh invited interview process um chairman KPS chairwoman Gilfoil and first selectman Jerham and myself were all present for the interviews and we have a recommendation to make so I will read that to the board of education. Um because I will need an official motion to move this forward to our other boards because the task force has agreed to do this in a joint unified fashion for the benefit of all of New Hartford. So the following motion is what I would request uh from the board of education that the new Hartford Board of Education recommends to the board of finance and to the board of selectmen to award to the lowest bidder Silver Petraelian Associates the services set forth in the RFP for school facility utilization. >> So moved. >> I'm not used
067to asking for a second. Thank you so much. Discussion questions that we could answer and that would be to myself or to Mr. Kleps. >> May I ask how much this is going to cost? >> Sure. That should be in your board packet and it is probably Let's see how many pages in. >> I'm sorry if I missed it. >> That's okay. It does. Yep. >> You have it on there. Yeah. >> Correct. So, >> yep. So, the total there is $48,500. >> Okay. >> And may I ask how this is going to be paid? >> So, the recommendation right now is to award and then the boards will determine how that will be paid. Uh in our last discussion, we had spoken that we would make the recommendation obviously to the board of finance
068for their determination on that. But we wanted to make sure all of our boards were together unified in this decision and we would determine um method of payment later. >> Are there any grants available that we might apply for to help? >> Not for this endeavor cost. not for this endeavor right now because we went out to bid. The strategic component of that was if we elicited from the from the entire state and beyond that we would then be able to reimburse portions of this cost if we take a path of renovation with uh preschool. If we take the path of building a brand new school, then there may be opportunities to recoup some of these funds, but as of right now, they are not recoupable because we haven't taken any additional steps. So that's
069to come with the determination of task force and then board of education as the uh authority for our public schools. >> Yes, >> this might be a dumb question. >> One second. Dan was just to finish. Dan was looking into available funds from previous grants to be able to fund this, but he was taking that lead to determine whether or not there was something available. >> So can you do that? Take money from other grants to help cover it? He had these again there were all these different you know I don't want to call them co grants there or a bunch of different grants that were provided for different things that >> yeah funds potentially was one of the ideas but Dan was taking the lead to go look to see if there was something
070>> within the town that he could find to fund this. >> Okay. Wasn't there money you mentioned ARPA funds. Was it money from ARPA that was supposed to go toward the roof? >> That I don't know. So some of those funds were utilized to render the services of the of the collars um project. So they and for the architectural design. So some of those funds that are there, I can't tell you the exact amount because those are not on our books, but Mr. Gerham would certainly have that information, but we did use some of those funds to explore the complete uh roof replacement at New Hartford Elementary School. >> Okay. What does the timeline of this look like for the speed? Sure. So, we're looking at anywhere between 6 to 8 months to be reasonable
071deep dive analysis, reporting, public meetings, sharing information, interviewing staff and comm and community. Again, more presentations and then decisions to be made and then guidance upon referendum, guidance upon what next steps should be. So, there's a lot to consider. Um, and with this recommendation, we would look forward to having Silver Petraelli be presenting here for us and our our other boards and our entire community over the course of the time. >> So, this will we will not have resolution on this prior to next year's budget process. >> I don't think so. Y >> that would be >> insane. >> Pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah. Um I I I wouldn't want to make a guarantee that that would be the case. This deserves thoughtful >> time and effort and energies and a lot of input from the
072community as well. >> Could this cost go up based on or depending on hours hourly rates or is it >> Well, I'm anticipating that's what it is right now unless there be something that's unanticipated, >> but I don't I don't foresee that right now. In having our discussions and our interview, I felt pretty confident and I would say that the remainder of the chairs would as well. I might have missed something reading, but is effort one and effort two the cost to do a study of those two plans? >> Effort one is retaining >> I see what it says. >> But is does that mean you have to that's replying to the RFP. Sure. >> That's replying specifically to the RFP which stated what effort one would be and what effort two would be if
073we were to do them independently of one another. But the combined efforts fulfilled the obligation and the enrollment projections is the additional fee there. So it would be 485. That's the total that we're looking at. I I guess my question is is we're going to let's say we didn't do anything. We would be retaining the current facilities if there was no study whatsoever. So effort two tells you I guess how much you would save and what it would reduce. No, because ret effort one's going to project to us what those costs are going to be over time versus the other path. So, they're both going to take analysis. So, if we retain the current facilities, we will need to upgrade X Y Z whatever HVAC costs and and more. Um oil tanks, they're going to
074consider everything under the sun. If we're retaining the path and staying on the path, this is what it's going to look like versus here's another path, reducing the number of total facilities, then it's going to be this type of path. I don't want to speak out of turn because I don't want to pretend that I know every single angle that they're going to look at. But both of these efforts are in depth. So I don't think it's just the one is going to be this is what it's going to be and we we don't need to pay that because they are going to take a very deep look. If we look uh back at the RFP, it dictates everything in terms of student enrollment projections and all of the other components of running and maintaining
075these facilities that are aging to be quite honest from the 1940s. Thanks, P. I can I This is a study much more detailed than what the one we did 10 years ago. Obviously, the efforts one and two look like they'd be interesting when they come out. Um what they'll be worth, I can't tell you tell you, but they'll be interesting to read. And I think we having been involved 10 years ago with with Bakerville School, we did a lot of our own little, you know, napkin sketches, nap projections of what things would cost to keep and get rid of and so on. So, this will be interesting. But the $3,500 for projections, I see that as a waste of money. We we paid something like 500,000 or 6,000, I forget what the number was. >>
076It was a lot of money 10 years ago. and they told us we have 120 kids at this point and we have is actually the same amount or maybe a couple more than 10 years ago. So, um, well, I think the enrollment projections are going to probably dubtail, okay, nicely with the efforts one and two, but if they're going to use the projections to at all influence efforts one and two, it'll be a useless exercise efforts one and two because the projections from what I could tell are always just a dur. So, that's my my input on that. We asked that question because it is an essential component of what they're doing, but it's also a factor of plus or minus whatever percent. No demogra demographer is going to nail it right on the money.
077It's just not going to happen. Um, but these elements are essential in both of our efforts to make the right determination of a path because without that, you're guessing even more so. So, they're going to do their best to provide an analysis and that's exactly what it's going to be, just the best at what they can do. Um, and that cost is implicit for what we need to get accomplished because without it, they can't um really produce, I would I would argue, uh, anything that's of of value because how can you state what your path should be if you don't know or have any inkling whatsoever if we're going to increase or decrease? Again, I'm not the professional uh to speak to that, but we certainly did ask that question and they everyone shares pretty
078openly that that is not a exact science that it's going to be a pinpoint number that they're going to be absolutely certain of. Um and in this particular case, they are not using the previous um demographer. We're using a different firm for that as well. >> I agree with you 100%. My my point what I just said was it plays a a significant role. The projections are very are vital. You can't do any work like you said on efforts one and two without them. >> But from our experience the projections were horrible. >> Sure. >> So if you're going to base any of the costs one and two on those projections, they're going to be off to the same degree that your projections are off. >> Yeah. the further out we get. >> The further
079out of course if you're going to say there's 120 kids going to be in our district in in 10 years >> these reducing the current facilities number is going to be >> look fantastic and the reducing the total number of facilities and look fantastic but if the if it goes up those numbers are going to be that much more out of whack. It's like looking through at the base of a triangle out the further away you are the worse those numbers are going to look. That's my point and I and I know you said that but >> you kind of you kind of substantiate what I was saying >> without without those number without the enrollment projections you can't do those other two studies correct enrollment projections are off >> those studies are just as
080useless as the enrollment projections that's my point with this whole exercise which is I'm going to vote no on this motion but that's where I am >> no problem >> have you uh talked to other schools that have used this company >> yes absolutely did my homework contacted I do three reference checks for them and all came back extremely high. And we've had work with them in the past. They were the ones that uh took a deep dive and analysis into our HVAC systems. So they were the ones that provided that information that we need to do um for all of our schools. those three companies or three schools that you looked into that use these people, they were happy with their results. >> Yes. >> Y >> and they would highly recommend. >> Absolutely.
081And that they maintained their neutrality and unbiased because that is not their role. every single one of them said the same thing that they are there to present information and help to make the best decision of what the town and that community wants >> which is very important to hear from all of those references. >> I mean Tom is right though. I mean we spent all that money to have this projection done about how few students we would have and it was a complete waste of money. Really? >> I can't I understand the point and it's not an exact science. That's all I could say. I I can't that's not my livelihood. I don't I don't do this for a living. I don't do enrollment projections. I could just tell you on average so far
082that I've been here 430. I could tell you that wholehearted. You know, it's just been consistently that's where we're living right now. What it'll be in 10 years. I would not surmize that myself or anybody else can accurately pinpoint that. And I don't think that the enrollment projections would go out that far. For example, I think the max you're looking at is a seven to eight year. Um that's what they had shared with us at the interview process because we did ask that. We said, you know, the validity of this, how how needed is this and how critical is this information to have? And it is not an exact science. That's all I could really say. I wish I could tell more, but I can't. >> Tim, >> one thing to keep in mind, >>
083I was going to ask your one thing to keep in mind with this is that the enrollment projections are a necessity to be able to perform the studies in the eyes of the state and the eight years is what it has to be within eight years. So if we as a community decide to move forward with some renovation or some building or whatever it might be to be able to seek reimbursement, this is required. >> You can't go forward without it. >> Did you have any impressions of the process of talking to them? >> Yeah, but we uh we as Jeff said, we had three responses that came to the RF, you know, through from the RFP. So we had three RFP responses. We set up interviews for three. um one did not come to
084the interview, so we only interviewed two. Um and when we interviewed the two, this group um has done this in the past. They had a lot of school experience um throughout the state of Connecticut um you know, as Jeff said, he called, you know, their references to again get the input from them. you know, in our opinion, and I speak for myself, and I'll speak for, you know, Dan and Carrie and Jeff after they they left, we we feel that this is the right group for this community. The questions we asked were all about transparency and how they keep the community updated and they had all the right answers. They were going to provide the information unbiased to be able to allow the community to make the decisions for the community. So, it will again,
085I know we go back to what happened 15 years ago. this is and we were clear with them. We told them that, you know, in the interview we can't we can't repeat that. I would just add additionally before everyone decides how they're going to vote on this motion that this again has a genesis from the boards of finance, boards of selectmen and other community members as well. So this is not just an endeavor that we are engaging in individually. Our intention is to do this in a unified manner for the benefit of the entire town before everyone votes on it. I think that's extremely important to state. We're making a recommendation to our other boards to do this as a unified task force, not just an individual body. This is for all and for our
086entire town. Are there any further questions? Are we ready to bring this to a vote? >> I just have one. So the next step is to for Jeff for somebody to send this company a letter a contract for them to sign >> after it gets approved through the board of finance and board. >> Oh, they have still have to approve it. >> Board of selecting. Yes, we're we took the lead to say we would start it here because again we do operate our buildings. We'd start here with making the recommendation to those boards um on behalf of the board of education. Then they'll bring it to their boards. When all three boards approve it, then we will notify um the award to this company and then um start the ball rolling. >> And then how
087soon do they start doing whatever they're going to do? I'm going to say again based on I don't recall what they said, but I thought it was a their schedule was a six-month process from start to finish. >> Yeah. 6 to 8 months. So, as soon as we are awarding, I will then schedule a meeting to then set up a deliverable timeline of I'm sorry, a timeline of all of the deliverables so that we have a clear path of what we're going to be doing over the course of the six to eight months. So if say by the end of this month, >> yeah, >> the other two other boards approve doing this, >> then I will schedule a meeting with the president to sit with me and develop a timeline of deliverables. I'm going
088to guess January so that I'm not >> Oh, okay. I was going to say maybe December 1st you would would meet with him and award him the contract and then go from there. >> It's dependent on the other boards and when they meet. I don't know their exact schedules to be 100% honest. Board of Finance meets next week and I think this been due too. >> Okay. So then it could be expedited. >> Okay. >> My guess is January to start sitting and meeting and then developing a timeline. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Okay. If we're ready to vote, I make a motion to vote. >> Thank you. All right. Um, so the motion, Can you read the motion one more time, Jeff, please? >> Absolutely. that the new Hartford Board of Education recommends
089to the board of finance and to the board of selectmen to award to the lowest bidder, Silver Petrailian Associates, the services set forth in the RFP for school facility utilization. Okay, we have a motion by myself and a second by Kristen. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All those opposed. Motion passes 610. >> Okay. Thank you board for that. We will move that forward to the next boards. Uh pieces of information that I need to share publicly. So the press release for the board vacancy as um our chairman has shared will go out tomorrow, November the 12th. That will be posted on our website. We'll communicate that through our school uh messenger and will also be in the local newspapers and Hartford Current. The resume deadline, we're making this announcement now,
090will be on November the 17th. The board of education special meeting will be held on November 25th at 6 PM here at Antelini School where the board of education will interview candidates, meet in executive session to determine the candidacy and then to hopefully elect a member to the board of education. So again, press release November 12th, resume deadlines uh November 17th. Those will be due to the uh chairman of the board of education to his email address. And then the board special meeting will be on November 25th, 6 p.m. Forgive me. Uh the dead the resumes will be sent to Sarah. >> Thank you. I knew I the light bulb went off real quickly. All right. >> There's one thing to add there again. There is um if the board of ed does not elect
091a um a fill for the vacancy within 30 days um then it reverts to the board of selectmen to appoint somebody to the board. >> Thank you. Uh in our board packets and for those of you that are following online at home uh our information is posted. We are continuing to solicit uh Jeffrey Beckham, um Paul Honeig, and Mark Anderson relative to our drip program by the state bond commission. I've heard back from uh uh Mark Anderson who is saying that he will completely support u all the legislation for the district repair and improvement project. That's one of the grants that the state of Connecticut has awarded. Also in the board packet, just want to share again a sincere thanks to all of the members. We have submitted our allhazards approach plan to uh DEOS
092and to the state of Connecticut. Again, the expertise, collaboration of everyone involved, I'm so so so thankful. That's also in the board packet. Uh huge shout out to our central office team. Um we were involved in some litigation with uh a previous employee relative to um some funds uh that were taken without appropriate means. And there's a check that has been delivered back to um our town uh for $1,442. Again, huge thanks to Amy Norton for her continued communication with the Department of Labor to realize that money going back to the general fund for the town. Nice job, Amy Norton. Some other quick updates uh to Mrs. Plur and the students over at Antalini. They have created a beautiful monthly newsletter for their community. It is absolutely wonderful. Uh they have did you knows they
093have uh funny things that happened recently uh and staff spotlights as well. So a huge kudos to our uh Mrs. Plur, our one of our school psychologists in the district um and working with our students. There's even a joke in a drawing by one of our students. It's awesome. It's absolutely phenomenal. All right, our bright futures bulletin. our first um quarterly communication from the district um including key highlights such as school specific highlights if you've seen it uh online. We also shared it on social media. It uh updates board happenings uh policy happenings and even curriculum and report card updates. Uh the day one unique visitors, we have a total of 283 people that saw that which was pretty phenomenal. And the total views overall uh for that communication that went out. All right. Um,
094another piece of information that I would like to communicate is that Ed Advance was awarded an afterchool grant uh of $120,000. Ed Advance does not work with us uh for us, I should say. They are our local risk and they do provide afterare services. We are continue to explore the beforeare uh opportunities for our families and we've put out survey information and collected that. Our next steps are going to be to determine um how to do it, location, and staffing it. So, those will be the next um steps. That $120,000 is awarded to Ed Advance and to I believe Harington. Um they had submitted a multi- uh town grant and were awarded that. >> I'm sorry. >> Is that the one I can send you information on? It was Harington. >> Um it may have
095been. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, it would be Harington. I don't know if in Torington. There was a couple other towns involved, but anyway, this $120,000 will be utilized to continue um their work and efforts in providing after care and um before school care um to those communities. All right, the let's see here. The board of education also received a thank you card from Sarah Mororrow, who is our um general music teacher. She says, "Thank you so much for the beautiful blanket for Baby Halley. It is so cozy and we're all really enjoying cuddling together with it. You were too thoughtful to think of me and my family. Best, Sarah Mororrow. So, we wish her continued uh bonding and connection time with her sweet little baby. All right. Um, and to her husband, forgive me, Brendan
096Tukesberry. Just want to make sure I announce that as well. All right. Some fun facts. Uh, November 10th, 2025, Marine Corps birthday. If you didn't know, that marked the 250th birthday of the Marine Corps. In 1775, even before the United States officially existed as a nation, the Marines were established at Ton Tavern in Philadelphia. I didn't know that, but I figured I'd share that with everybody. Um, two special Veterans Day quotes that I found uh were pretty meaningful. Um, and this one's by Joseph Campbell, who's a writer. A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. And this one by Unknown. We don't know them all, but we owe them all. All right, as we wrap up here, just want to make sure that we acknowledge that we
097are in the month of November to look for opportunities to appreciate and show your thankfulness and gratitude towards anybody in your life. It's really critical. It lifts up people's spirits and helps put a smile on their face and on their heart. Um, so as we gather to celebrate the season of gratitude, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our incredible staff, our supportive community, and we want to wish you and all of your loved ones a safe, joyful, and restful Thanksgiving filled with warmth, laughter, and of course, gratitude. Those, I believe, are all of my updates and all of the information. I've taken up way too much time, I know, but they're important to share with all of you. We're so proud of, again, all of the work that our schools continue to do
098and our students, as you heard, how busy they are. I mean, they're working and they are working hard. So, we will go to the next component of our agenda. I'll turn it back over to Chairman Kaps. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, moving to our next item on the agenda is routine business. First item on the agenda is the approval of our regular schedule minutes of October 7th, 2025. Can I get a motion to approve? >> Motion by Frank. Can I get a second? >> Second by Penny. Any discussion? Any questions, edits? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. Next item on the agenda is the expenditure report. Can I get a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Penny. >> Second by Tom. Any
099discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. Okay, moving on. Uh we've got some first reads of uh looks like one, two, three, four, five policies. >> There's a whole bunch. >> Any >> Okay, >> I have a question about the policies. This is we have we still have an executive session, right? >> Yes. >> Right. So, it's going to be a long night. Is it ever possible to table something like this? >> Um, >> by a vote of the board, >> the board would have to vote and have twothirds >> at least. >> I'll make a motion that we table the um policies new and old until next month. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion to table new business and old business. Uh motion
100by Penny >> policies and old policies. >> Oh yeah, that's new business and old business. >> Motion by Penny, second by Tom table. Any discussion? We're okay with this. I'm okay with it with the table obviously, but just please maintain your policy so we don't have to spend more time, effort, paper, and sending it back out. Does that make sense for everybody? And then we'll convene uh at our January our December 2nd board of education retreat. We'll make part of our meeting public. It's always public, but we'll broadcast and record this component of our meeting on December 2nd. Okay. Thank you. >> I would just ask that you please read them all ahead of time. >> Yes. >> And compile your questions. >> I read. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. All those in favor of
101tableabling new business and old business till next meeting, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. Moving on to the next item on the agenda is public comment for agenda items only. Would anybody like to address the board? Um my Sure. Sure. Board chair, may I answer the question? All right. Fantastic. So, I have not broached that subject with the set firm until we have engaged and fully awarded and I will get that answer and then provide it publicly. I anticipate it being early on in the process to start to determine some sentiment of the public and the community. Uh I don't have an exact timeline, but once I do, I will absolutely present it so that the community can see that. You're welcome. I'll second that. >> Second by the reason I'm failing
102is um we have a member who was part of that advance who's no longer at the board. So we will be looking for some volunteer to engage and participate meetings interested. Um I'll take a think all those favor by raising your hand. You might want to tell them how often it meets. >> Yeah. >> Is it daytime, nighttime, weekends? >> Typically, um in the evenings there's a opportunity for virtual attendance as well. Um and at Advance usually meets once a month depending on their agenda, their quarterly reporting. So that's what it typically is. >> Okay. Uh, next item on the agenda is executive session. Can I get a motion to go into executive session at >> 8:29 p.m.? >> So moved. >> Benny, second by your hand.