001Okay, thank you everybody for coming. I am going to call the New Harford Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting August 19th, 7 p.m. to order. Um, if we can start, please start. Uh, join me if you if you're able for the pledge of allegiance. Flag is up. I 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. >> All right. Um, thank you everyone for attending um to the board of education. Thank you all for returning after the summer. Summer was far too short, I'm sure, for everyone. Uh, but we are uh getting ready for the school year. Jeff has a lot to bring us through on the superintendent report. I think the rest of
002the agenda today will be fairly quick. Um, after we get through item number D for for Jeff. >> Yeah. >> Um, the order of business. I have no changes to the order of business. Um, unless there are anything the board would like to add to the agenda with twothirds vote. Anything? All right. Order of business will stay as written. uh communication to the board of education. Do we have anything for today? >> Yep. Received one additional communication um for support and interested in joining the board of education task force that was received post meeting being sent out uh from Mr. John Puzz uh to the attention of our chairman uh Mr. Kps and to myself. So I'll submit that to the minutes for the record. That is all. Okay. >> And uh next on is
003public comment. Would anybody like to address the board tonight? Seeing none, we will move right into uh superintendent report. Superintendent Sosa, all yours. >> All right, quick jog back to my seat. Welcome back everybody to the 2526 uh school year. We are ridiculously excited to get started. Um I've already had those awful dreams of being dressed erroneously or lack thereof, clothing, not waking up on time, being late to meetings, uh not even being able to speak. I know you guys are all shocked by that. Um, and it's hard to believe, but in all seriousness, our schools look absolutely amazing. Thanks to Jamie, who if you met a minute ago is one of our head custodians here. Mark, Ross, Jimmy, Andy, and Owen have all been working very hard all summer long to put our building
004back in order getting the floors to be shiny, the walls are clean, the grounds look good, and we're ready to open. So, thank you to our custodians. Our administrative assistants, Julie, Marissa, and Colleen, have been in touch with families, ensured teaching supplies were received and delivered, and they've even helped prepare for convocation. Thank you, Dennis, over at Dco, our bus manager, for working on smooth bus operations and routes, being in constant communication with families and with us as administration here. Uh gosh, thank you, Amy, Kellyanne Gail, for everything done without pause to close out the year efficiently, and begin this year on solid footing. So, we're, you know, straddling a couple different budget years. Um, I want to pause for a minute to introduce my new executive assistant, Sarah Vogel. She's here in the audience
005and she's hit the ground running. She's asking all the right questions and I've already learned that she could pretty much solve anything. Um, and she's fitting in really nicely with the team. So, we're so so grateful to have Sarah join us. Next, um, I want to thank Mike and Kellyanne for and especially Kaylee Midwinter for a successful summer school program. A lot of great feedback from our program year after year. And honestly, without the new Hartford staff family, we could not experience the successes um and provide for the needs of all of our precious students. Teachers, thank you so much for countless hours already preparing. Your classrooms look amazing. And I know that you're waiting anxiously for our students to be with us. And that your unconditional love for each and every student and their
006families are extremely proud of. So, thank you teachers for all the time that you've spent being in our classrooms and setting up as well as our pair of educators. I've seen you here in the building. So, thank you so much. Uh, special thanks to Heather, our curriculum coordinator, for ensuring all curriculum materials are ready for and for guiding the work that we have to do this year. Um, and also for guiding the work of the report card committee, which is one of our board goals, and that's been a tremendous undertaking. Uh, Amy and Kelly, thank you for your leadership every day, inspiring our staff, and for being the absolute best, for being incredible thought partners, and for your contributions to the betterment of each and every student. Thank you so much. The public does not
007often get to see this and um you absolutely deserve that recognition. On behalf of the board of ed, the town of New Hartford, thank you to all of the New Hartford public staff. Um I really appreciate all the work that you're doing. On another note, I'd also like to introduce another visitor that is here with us. He'll be with us for a while. Uh Mr. Dan Carroll, who's currently the assistant principal over at Regional, one of the assistant principles at Regional, I should say. And he's joining us as uh my intern this year for an 093 program at Central Connecticut State University. And um he'll be here and joining most this most amazing family here in New Hartford. I hope he learns a lot, asks all the questions. He's not shy. He'll very much so
008talk and talk. And he's a great uh experienced leader. So, we're looking forward to opening those doors for him as he explores the superintendentship. All right, so welcome aboard. All right, let's get into summer updates now. So, first we'll start with our theme for the year, which is thrive time. It's rooted, rested, and ready to bloom. That's our theme this year. We're rooted in strong instructional practices and relationships. We are rested from a well-earned summer break, and we're ready to help students bloom this year. We have a lot of staff updates, so buckle up. First of all, on a very somber note, our collective thoughts and prayers are with our bus driver Tim Zielowski's family. He passed away in June, and we will miss him dearly, as will our students. So, we want to thank
009him publicly for serving our community for so many years and safely transporting our students to and from school with a smile and being so safe with our kids. Uh we wish Marie Kit, Nate Sloman, Katie O'Brien, John Putro, Joe Petrarka, and Janet Tenzi their best uh the best in their next season, whether it's retirement in their life or in their career endeavors. We welcome aboard Jessica Hodkinson as a pre-K teacher, Aacia Ransom as a registered nurse for the district and for Bakerville, Emily Holland, Ashley Peron, and Sarah Bodner, and Briana Boyen as para educators. Congratulations are in order for Sarah Morrow who's expecting her second baby girl. And congratulations to Shannon Bait and her husband who married this summer. And wait, another Shannon also was married. Congratulations to Sher Ghane and her husband on their
010recent marriage as well. All right, I think those are all all of our updates for staffing. Uh, regarding our buildings, so our video camera system is being uh currently installed as well as our access control systems and those were grant funded and town funded. Our Antalini cafeteria floor has been replaced. I will show pictures next month. Looking forward to that. And our new district minivan has been purchased uh for interchool delivery, mail delivery, and more. Our prior van was a 2010 Dodge Caravan with a rusted floor. We joke that if some of you know the Flintstones, they had their feet, you know, coming up and down the hill. Um it had every light on the dashboard lit up. So, thank you so much for the town for supporting that as a capital purchase. uh we
011did so and they have now a van that is functional, safe, and doesn't have lights all over the dashboard that look like a Christmas tree. So, we're very happy about that. Um, also wanted to publicly thank Oakill for the years of service. We are not um engaging in a new contract with them. We have extremely high expectations of all of our employees and all of our for all of our students here. So, we are not continuing that contract with Oakhill, but want to thank them for so many years of partnership. Updates on the district engagement plan. As I spoke of earlier, the report card committee has convened and worked diligently to format and align our report card indicators to curriculum standards. This has been an important part of our work that we realized needed an
012over an oversight, a review, but better so an alignment to standards and to our curriculum. So the committee remained mindful of the following um reflecting what is being taught in the the curriculum related to standards showing growth over time throughout the year and the students career in New Hartford public schools and it's also parentfriendly. So thank you to our entire committee and to Heather for their current work and future work on this important district endeavor as this will take many many many more months of alignment and looking carefully at our curriculum to make sure that there is alignment throughout. For Board of Education news and events, we're very excited to kick off the school year on Monday, August 25th at uh our convocation. Additionally, our meet and greet will be held on Tuesday afternoon, August
01326th, and then we welcome students back on Wednesday, August 27th. Very excited to have them back in our schools and in our hearts once again. All right. Um before I conclude, I just want to wish everyone a happy Labor Day because we won't see everybody. And our next board meeting for everybody, just for your notes, is on Tuesday, September the 16th at 7 PM right here at Antelini. Those are some quick summer updates for our task force update. We'll be talking about this a little bit later, but I am so um excited for the work that we're going to be engaging in this year. Um, board chair, board chairs Tim Kps and Carrie Gilfoil from the board of finance and Dan Jerham from the board of selectment have met and we have placed a request
014for proposals out for a school utilization report um, soup to nut so that that can help us make our decisions going forward uh, for the future of New Hartford Public Schools. Um, and I'll let Tim speak a little bit about that a little bit later, but just want to give everyone an update there. uh the 24-25 budget. Again, we had um a very difficult year last year where we needed to implement a budget freeze because of unanticipated special education costs and legal costs. Uh we did end up the year two about $2,000 under budget still. So, that was a good um indicator of all of the hard work of our administration, our teachers, and our bookkeeper and uh financial assistant in central office. everyone working together to make sure that we were going to stay
015afloat because it was a little bit tricky navigating um the budget last year with those unanticipated expenses and we had other realized savings that we couldn't have anticipated as well with some other special education needs. So, we were actually in a good spot. So, I'm happy to report that. For capital updates, I've already spoken uh about the floor here in Antelini. Many many tiles were popping up due to the moisture of the slab of uh the cafeteria and gymnasium that we use for multi- uh multifunctionality and approximately 45 tiles were removed and glued. Again, our custodians did a great job trying to keep everybody safe. But with increased moisture coming up um at a 99% core rating as when we uh ced out a portion of the cement, we found that it was extremely um
016moist and what we needed to do is mitigate that issue. So we were able to utilize cafeteria funds, not budgeted money in terms of appropriation or capital um expense. So we had monies in a an account from COVID that the government continue to supply funds to. We negotiated with um Jack Bole Company and they have installed a first they removed the entire flooring. They then scraped down or scarred the entire flooring. They then installed an epoxybased mitigation system that works together with the adhesive and with the new um flooring that is on there. So, we're extremely happy about that keeping our kids safe and our staff safe here at Antalini. There were many tripping hazards throughout the course of the year. Um and we're happy to have that completely mitigated with a warranty of 20
017years. So, we're extremely happy for that. For contract negotiations, we will be engaging in that this year. So publicly we've put out information um toward the latter of the year last year and our subcommittee and board of education looks forward to working with our teachers union as we enter into our contract negotiations and come to a good resolution for all parties. We're looking forward to that. And now on to legislative updates. Everybody's favorite topic. There are over 71 mandates and updates. I'm not going to cover all of them tonight for sure. um and others are delayed for a period of time. But I'm going to hit upon some salient um legislative updates for the board and for our community to know about. The first under school district operations, there are new requirements for superintendent reports.
018This is section 32 of public act 2593. For those of you that are following along at home and want some wonderful reading material, uh the superintendent must share with the board the names of community based student support services uh attrition data for certified and non-ertified staff disagregated by school. Those are the main changes for that. Again under school district operations for the non-lapsing account and reserve fund section 36 of public act 2593 the report we have to report out on including that has to include the balance of the non-lapsing account deposits and expenditures and it we must notify the bargaining representative for certified employees the establishment of this account and the board's intended uses for next fiscal year if known under administration of epi nephrine and glucagol section 19 of public act 2514 43 emergency
019first aid administration of the EpiPen cartridge injector is permitted and folks are not liable for that especially bus drivers and administration of admin of the glucagol for diabetic students can only be given with parent or physician written order. This is basically holding harmless those that are in an emergency situation administering either one to our students whether on a bus whether here at school whether it's our um school nurse must be trained but this is basically a component to allow us to administer these things to our students these medicines to save their lives. Under special education there are many many new uh mandates requirements um and reporting features. The first of which I'll start with is um the definition of a child requiring special education due to developmental delay. This is under section one of public
020act 2567. This increases the range for developmental delay. Um it was stu children from 3 to 5 years old. They've now increased that to students that are 3 to 8 years old. Uh developmental delay is defined and measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures. um a significant delay in physical, communication, cognitive, social, emotional or adaptive development. So that is a change I wanted to again make all aware of. Continuing under special education, there's a fixed annual cost for special education services under section two of public act 2567. The commissioner of education must approve or deny any increase with an entity's rationale for an increase in service. So if we contract with an outside agency for special education services, the commissioner of education must deny or approve with the entity's rationale provided to the commissioner before
021they can charge a board of education more for those services being rendered to their ch uh to their students. There's also a provision under section 3 of public act 2567 that is rate setting for providers for special ed and related services. And this one's a little bit delayed, but it's important for the board to know that by 2028, the Connecticut State Department of Ed must set rates that special education and related service providers can charge a board of education. Important to note, it excludes transportation. So, special ed transportation is not part of the rate setting, but all of the other components are. That is an enormous task that the Connecticut State Department of Ed must engage in, even in our small state, and we look forward to seeing that and working with the Connecticut State
022Department of Ed by 2028. that has to be set. Um, continuing special ed private special education provider contract requirements. The providers must explain tuition rates. So, no longer can it just give a blanket tuition rate and say this is what you owe. They have to um the it requires private education providers to follow the established rate schedule that is going to be established, but also they have to explain every single piece of tuition um that they are charging a board of education in depth and detail. There's going to be additional state oversight of private special education uh providers as well. This is section 8 and9 again of public act 2567. Um they're going to be developing lensure requirements of private special ed providers. And uh beginning in 2027 there will be unannounced annual site visits
023to all of these outside providers again to ensure the safety and well-being of all of our students that are no longer in district with us. Very critical and important. Uh there are several new grants that are going to be available too. There's one competitive grant and that is going to be to enhance and improve existing special education programming and services uh or to create new in district programming and as um may be aware in terms of our task force that may be something that we look into in terms of providing special education services in district and with grants to support that. This would be an opportunity for the board of education and New Hartford public schools to engage in that. Um I'm sure we'll be taking a look at that. That one is a competitive
024grant. That means not everyone is guaranteed that you have must apply and have the appropriate criteria to uh attain that and be selected for it. There is an additional grant this year. It's commonly referred to as the seed grant. Um this is a grant program to expand indistation programming. It's got very specific provisions. So they'll be developing the amounts that every district will be receiving, but it is for direct provision of special education and related services to students. Um, tier 2 interventionists, academic and behavioral interventionists, the hiring and salaries of special education teachers, para educators, behavioral and reading specialists who work directly with students, the purchase and maintenance of equipment, and also special ed curriculum materials. This is very explicit where it says it cannot be used for administrative functions nor third-party contractors. So this
025grant is very specifically um made to support students and working directly with kids. Non-approved facility placement and reimbursement. Right now under the section 16 of public act 2593 currently a PPT or a hearing officer can determine a special education as appropriate. Now, additionally, the court may determine the same thing for non-approved facilities. If the court or hearing officer makes the placement, the board of education may be reimbursed, but if a PPT makes that determination, then the board will not be reimbured. It's got to be on an approved list. So, as we're engaging in our PPT processes and our special education department is making recommendations, we have to be very vigilant and cognizant of this new law. There are also new reco reporting requirements to the Connecticut State Department of Education for special education under section
02612 of public act 2567. Um by the end of this fiscal year by June 30th, 2026 and annually the board of education must report to the Connecticut State Department of Education each special education outplacement. So that'll be a new record reporting requirement for us. as well as um the new section 13 of public act 2567. So FBAs, which are functional behavioral assessments and BIPS, which are behavioral intervention plans, must be conducted prior to a student being outplaced. They must be developed or outdated before that takes place. That is our practice now. Um but it it has to be filed and submitted um to the state department of education. And if the discretion of the district is that the student poses a very significant safety risk to themselves or others, we could bypass that. But you've
027got to file and submit a notice to the Connecticut State Department of Education. Again, to keep everybody safe. That's the only outlet for that component. Due process hearings um have changed in section 18 and 19 of Public Act 2567. This now limits due process hearings. So, a due process hearing may take place if there is a disagreement in a special education placement, services being provided, um, anything of that nature. Now, they're limiting it to four days unless the hearing officer issues a written decision with good cause to lengthen that. So, no new claims can also be raised during uh, a due process hearing, which is incredibly important to know. And a written decision must also include fact of uh, findings of fact related to the least restrictive environment for students. So, these are all new
028um elements that we'll be engaged in throughout the course of the year um as we provide services for our special education students. There's also one other emergency grant to municipalities for special education, which is important to note. That's a special act 251. So, this emergency special education grant money will only be awarded by the commissioner of education by application and it must be consistent with the framework of the Connecticut General State Statutes 10-76G. So if a municipality is finding that their costs are so um exorbitant, we could apply for this grant and submit that to the commissioner. That is the only entity that can approve or deny um those grants. This is brand new, so I don't know much more about the functionality of that, but we will absolutely get the more information on it.
029Under teaching and learning as a new category and curriculum objectives, the statute under section 219 of public act 25174, we must have a curriculum committee that recommends, develops, and reviews and approves all curriculum for the district. Thank goodness we already have that in place as a subcommittee, but the board of ed must make available all curriculum and associated materials in accordance with the federal protection of people rights act state law. So, we've already worked with um Heather to publish all of our curriculums that we have electronically. And we're working under revision and review to post all of the remainder of our curriculum documents. That will be an additional endeavor that the board of education should know about that our administrative team working with teachers and our committees. We will be working on that throughout the
030course of the year. Additionally, some more grants for education cost sharing. This is not special education excess cost. This is for all education in a town. section 218 of public act 25174 and section 299 of public act 25168 that there will be no penalties for the two years 20 2026 and 2027 it's more formerly known as um districts will be held harmless. Those that have been underfunded districts that have been underfunded and those that are overfunded will be balanced in the 2028 um fiscal year. That is what they're pushing back. So, our educational cost sharing grant, I believe I shared um at some point during the course of last year, that will remain consistent for New Hartford public schools, it actually increased from our previous by about $90,000 and that's passed in the bienium, which
031is great news for our town. Um, also under grants, there's changes to school security infrastructure grant program requirements. That's section 8 of public act 25157. School districts must use the guidelines now established by the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security within the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection in application for any Connecticut State uh grants regarding security infrastructure or school security. Two other miscellaneous components that I wanted to make the board aware of. Number one, there's a bonus reimbursement rate for elementary school construction projects. This is under section 142 and 143 of public act 25-174. There's an additional 15 percentage points for plans that include the expansion of or creation of an indistrict special education programming and services. This is in addition to the 15% that is already in law and codified in
032law for developing early childhood programming within a district as well. And lastly, um certainly not exhaustive list is our tuition cap for calculation for new magnet and preschool programs. That's under section 18 through 320 of public act 25168. The 58% of tuition is capped still, which is excellent for our municipalities and for our district. And for new magnet schools, the commissioner must determine um their new tuition rates with a 58% cap by similar grade ranges in the same reason region. So if a new magnet school opened and students were being drawn from New Hor public schools, they would be rate set according to any others that are currently within our district and that are servicing our students. Now deep breath. That's where I've taken everybody real quickly just so you know some of the legislative
033updates. There are more and as they become pertinent, I will certainly share them with the board of education. Other mandates and updates are relative to high school, post-secary, dual enrollment. So, they're not relative to our district in particular, but there are many new mandates. Um, a lot of them are positive, but a lot of them also come with extra workload in terms of reporting. Um, I'm very very grateful to Mark Anderson and Paul Honeig for representing New Hartford Public Schools in a very very positive and u pure light so that they voted for in favor of a lot of the grants that have come through for special education. they heard loud and clearly New Hartford public schools and many, many other districts across the state that we need additional funding for special education. So, I'm
034extremely proud and extremely happy that our voices were heard after testimonials that were submitted both written and orally um from our town and I'm grateful to see that everyone worked together to make sure that that was realized. So, thank you to everybody in the community and thank you to our representatives as well. Deep breath again. Superintendent report done outside of questions. I'm gonna get a little sip of water. >> All right. Wow, that was a lot of information. Um, Jeeoff, you did I see here reading from a matrices you put together. >> Yep. I will share that. >> Please share that as part of the meeting minutes if you would. Um, >> if the board has any questions about that list that he went through very quickly and used a lot of >> jargon, >>
035state statute numbers, and >> um, please feel free to ask them now. But again, if you have any questions later, please. And it it it does appear that in the last session there's a lot that impacts us next year. So please take a look at this list. That'll be part of the meeting minutes. And if you have any questions now, please go ahead and uh bring them up. >> That email, I believe it came out this afternoon about a program we could all attend, a meeting we could all attend about the all the updates that you went through. Does that does that email relate to all the updates that you just gave or some of the updates? >> Was that an email from CABE? >> I believe so. >> If it was from CABE, they
036will review some of these legislative updates. Not all, but they will review some of them. Yeah. >> Okay. >> CAB is the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. >> So, that might be a good thing for us all to if we wanted to listen to or take. >> Yep. So, I know that they record a lot of their meetings, too, and they have a YouTube channel. If it is Cape, I'm not positive that that's the email that you received, but if that's the case, they record the meetings and they certainly have a YouTube channel that uh any board member or member of the public can certainly view. >> You're welcome. >> Are there any other questions? Tom, >> um can you repeat the PPT payment portion real quick? I mean, you're going to give it
037away, so that's fine. You don't have >> Yeah. So at a PPT decision um if they elect as a PPT or the hearing officer elect to place a student in a nonapproved facility then we will not be entitled to reimbursement. That's the basis of that. That's the basic nature of it. So when we make our placements we're going to be placing them in an approved setting so that we can recoup those fees. >> The court may decide as there that's now a new decision maker in the process um which was not part of it before. And again, if they make that decision, then we are um entitled to reimbursement even if it's nonapproved is what the current legislation says. So that's the only little change to it. >> And besides the ECS that you mentioned,
038how do you see the ch the mandates affecting the budget whether up or down? You have a sense for where that would is there any new personnel requirements or purchase services that come out that >> that's going to affect us either positively or negatively? There will be new reporting requirements and we will work to as a team to distribute those functions as best we possibly can. If we are hiring new folks to work directly with students, we will capitalize on that grant to help us and then I'll know those differences. I can't say right now, you know, that X individual is going to cost this much money and this is the grant money we'll be receiving for it. Um, but that would be a decision that we would make as a team and a recommendation
039we would make to the board during budget season. Um, some of these others, again, dependent on the direction of the task force and the future of New Hor public schools, this could certainly help with some of these reimbursements for construction grants. Um, but some of the reporting functions, again, I don't see them as increasing the budget so significantly. Um, I think that a lot of our focus this year will be on our negotiations with the teachers union and getting through that element first. Um, and then seeing where we land. I don't see a lot of these having a significant impact on the budget for next year. You're welcome. >> The email I received was from CA webinar invitation understanding the 2025 changes to state education funding. >> Yep. >> That was the one I was
040talking about. >> Yep. That's a great webinar to attend. Absolutely. For board of education members. And then on regarding the ECS, the extra money that we received last year, was that was figured into this current budget that we're in now that started July 1st or is that going into next year's? >> So that'll be for fiscal year 26, fiscal year ending in 26 and fiscal year ending in 27. And that was in the additional $90,000 to the town. That's not realized at a board of education level. It's just given to share the costs for education for a municipality. >> But don't they isn't there some way we can access some of that money or ask the town for that money? >> No, it goes directly to the town to help support um education. >> Okay.
041Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And that's is just because that's estimated until it's paid based on a calculation. Um, ECS is guaranteed in a bienium that's already passed. I think you might be thinking of excess cost grant. That's special education. That's based on appropriations at a four and a half time schedule um inclusive of special education cost for transportation and outplacement costs. Then it's calculated on a per pupil service per pupil basis. Then that's uh paid out in two different um times during the school year. And that's based on an appropriation that they funded again a $40 million increase to that. We should see increased funding for our excess cost grant to help us pay down some of the costs for special education next year. Absolutely. Yeah. Two different things commonly misunderstood,
042right? One is just specifically to special ed excess cost grant and the educational cost share is the monies that the state helps each town with paying for education as a whole. But that goes right to the town. >> Any additional questions on the superintendent's report? Seeing none, we will move on to item number E, board of education chairs report. Uh the one item we have listed under here is uh the task force. You heard a little bit about that already. Uh we'll hear a little bit more about it. Now, one correction I do need to make is um under the communication to the board. We did u acknowledge the email from John Puzz who has volunteered to be part of the task force. Uh there was also an email from Samantha Wald who's also here,
043our new New Hartford PTO president um the day after our previous meeting on June 3rd, also uh voicing her interest in being part of that uh that task force. Um so just a little bit on on the task force back in May, u based on our conversations here, um I did send a letter to the board of finance chair and the board of selectment chair, our first selectman. Um we had a follow-up meeting in July. Um it was just the board of ed was myself and um board of finance chair and the board of selectment chair as well as superintendent SUSA. Uh we met and discussed a little bit about how the framework would work, what the task force, how would we start, how would we initiate this task force starting and moving forward. Um,
044as Superintendent Susa had indicated a little while ago, um, the first step we determined needed to be made was that we needed to engage a professional. Um, none of us as as chairs, as a superintendent, um, have the experience, knowledge of how that whole process works. Um, so we determined as a group that we should solicit proposals from professionals who have done this in the past. Um, Superintendent Susan, again, I don't want to put words in your mouth, so correct me if I'm wrong, has reached out to his peers, um, and others within other districts who are doing the same exact thing. I think Plymouth was one of them that you had mentioned to me, >> Thomas. Yeah, right next door. You're right there. Yep. >> Thomasson that is doing the same thing. So, we
045had gone out and solicited proposals. Those proposals are due >> September 8th. I'm looking at Sarah. >> 15th. Thank you. See, I knew she would know. >> Okay. There's a walk through this tomorrow. >> Tomorrow. 2:00 right here at Anteline to start and then we'll tour the buildings. >> Non-mandatory walk through for these groups to come through. And again, the idea is to give them the opportunity to see the schools and then understand what the proposal is. We want to understand their experience. We want to understand their history behind what they've done for other districts uh throughout the state and what they can offer us as well as providing um the financial cost associated with with performing this service for us. Um so that's where we are currently. Um, one of the things that I
046did in the email that I sent out after our meeting with the board chairs, I sent it to our full board here. Uh, we talked about the structure of this task force and how we thought it may be best suited to be able to get input from um the various stakeholders. We talked about having two from the board of selectman, two from the board of finance, um, three from the board of education, and then two from the community. Um, that is not in stone. that's not solidified yet. Uh we want to get the input from the professional we determine we're going to hire based on what they've done elsewhere. Um but we think that again we need to get input from different input and feedback from different stakeholders throughout our community to be able to
047inform and understand the decisions and the ideas that may be coming through u the discussions and that's really where we are today. Right? Capture everything. >> Yes. >> Right. So once we receive the um the the proposals then that will go through again a group that will look at those proposals. We'll u level them to make sure that they are in line with what we expect and then we will have to make a decision um as a town whether we move forward and uh put that expense out there. >> Any questions about that right now? >> Hi, I've got some questions. Um, are you receiving interest in the RFP? >> I'm sorry. >> Are you like actually like are people like reaching out and like kind of like interested in responding to the RFP? >>
048So, we've had one that is coming to the non-mandatory walkthrough, but we won't know outside of Y. >> We've had one question posed from uh one organization that we posted as an addendum on the website. So, that is there for all that are interested. Um, and we've reached out to maybe three or four others that I know that have done this work again from consultation with my colleagues across the state. >> Yeah. And then when the proposals are due on the 15th, like what is the process for reviewing them and when do you expect to have like who's making a final decision on like which proposal to accept? What does that process look like right now? >> So I'll take a look at those and I will consult with the board chairs to then take
049a look at who we want to interview and who we do not as part of the process. So we'll do it as a collective. >> You you'll interview a subset in people and then walk through that and then make a decision. So when like if you had to like ballpark like when would you think you would have a person picked like what's your timeline? >> 21 to 30 days total uh you know after interviewing and maybe doing some reference checks in addition to that if they're not already submitted within the propos proposals. >> Yeah. >> So that's my longest period of time would be 30 days post. >> Yeah. >> Midocctober. I think that's it for right now, but I'll be sure to let you know if I have more. >> Any additional questions, Frank?
050>> Yeah, the um there's nobody on the board now that was on the board the last time Bakerville was looked at, but I think a lot of people you were, but I think some people got on the board because of that. Is that is this accurate? So, just I think it's very important to go back and look at that process and learn from it. um because I think that it kind of snuck up on the community at some level and >> that was a big part of the conversation that we had with the other board chairs because we were all here when that took place. Um and the transparency into what had transpired there um was a was a was a problem. It it created an issue with throughout the community. um that is acknowledged
051and known and and we uh we we dedicated ourselves as a group sitting there saying that won't happen again. >> Tom, how do you anticipate the you said we're soliciting an RFP for a school utilization report, right? That's what the RP is requesting proposal to generate a school utilization report. Is that what the RFP recount? How do you envision that being any different than what we paid for 10 years ago? That was completely inaccurate and useless. >> And I don't use those words. I think they're very I can't speak to that the former, but I know that the way that we've written the RFP, it would it's encompassing all current legislation. So, it's got to take a look at HVAC, for example. It's got to take a look at u new construction costs. got to
052take a look at uh student enrollment. Um it's got to take a look at everything comprehensively. It's in the RFP. Those are the elements that we put out there. I don't know what was really garnished from the ladder the last time, but I feel very good about some of the companies that I've again spoken to, colleagues that have gone through the process or are going through the process right now. Um, and knowing that there are very professional organizations that do everything soup to nuts to give the information, factual information for a board, for a b for boards, for task force, and for a community to make a a good decision. So, I'm hopeful that that will not be the case that we turn out as it did last time, unfortunately. But I can't speak to
053the last the latter. I can only speak to the hope of the future. I think that part of part of what we've heard or discovered through this search and putting this out in discussions is this is not the only district that's doing this. This is being done throughout the state. Um the professionals are looking at a more holistic approach to how they look at it, the utilization of school, not strictly relying on what they project to be student enrollment, which is what I I I lived and saw to say that, you know, that was the that was the crux in the in the made the priority as to all the decision- making that was going on back then. Um, so this is meant to be a whole different process, right? Where we're looking at all
054the rooms in the buildings and what we do with them here as well as what we do with them when they if and when we decide that they're not schools, right? What happens to that building? What are the costs? Again, this is a look at the entire um um impact to the town versus just the impact to the board of education. >> All right. So that I mean that's good because sounds like it won't be driven strictly by enrollment because there's a lot I mean as we went through before 10 years ago there was a lot of just you know we're just closing Bakerville without any thoughts about well what are you going to do with the building? >> What are you going to do with the issues with environmental concerns at the building? So
055these are there's a lot more. So that sounds like it's going to be addressed and taken into consideration >> uh this time. >> Yeah. And and that's that was the intent of the of the conversation in in trying in in working as as as the various boards together, right? Not the board of ed working over here, the board of finance over here, and the board of selecting over here. So, we need to work as a collective team to be able to determine what the proper course of action is. And we don't know what that is, right? I mean, I think there's a lot of discussion about closing a school. That's not the that's not the intent. The premise that we're going in touch with is to close the school. >> Do you have any let's
056just use a number uh 20,000 bucks to generate the utilization report. Do we know where that money is coming from? Is it going to be shared amongst uh board of selectman, board of finance, board of ed? Do we have any thoughts on how that would look? That was that discussed? >> We did not have that conversation, but the board of education doesn't have a budget to be able to support those funds. So, we would have to look to u either town contingencies, the board of ed contingency that we hold right in our in our um >> non-lapsing account. So, those those are all going to have to be looked at, but we didn't have those detailed discussions without knowing what the number was. >> The the goal ultimately is cost savings without hurting education, right?
057That's the goal of the task force. >> Yep. So the scope of this you it's going to go beyond buildings. It could include looking at maybe sharing staff with Bark Hamstead all kinds of >> I don't think there's anything off the table. Okay. >> I mean honestly I don't think there's anything else. >> It's not just about buildings though. It's about >> but if you start talking about sharing services with Parkhamstead then we have to engage Parkham. haven't done that yet, right? Or other surrounding companies, >> but the scopes any way we can save money, right? >> They're gonna the the idea is that these professionals have done this before and they're going to come up with what they've seen um prove to be um successful, right? So, that's where that's our intent with hiring
058a professional is bring to us your experience, your knowledge, what you've done elsewhere that's become successful. And if sharing service is one of them with a neighboring town, well then that's something that we'll have to broach at that time. We haven't done that yet. Any other questions? >> Before you and Tom were involved in the last thing with Bakerville, there was another plan way before I came to town, which is over 18 years ago now. to make this place up here a campus. >> And I think it was when Reggie Smith was the selectman. I don't know what happened at that time, but I know that the town's people had voted all for it and then somehow it got nixed and it never got done. I don't know if there's records for you to look
059back at or >> Yeah, I've inquired from the town clerk just as part of my research initially and um in late spring I was given plans of what that would look like that there was going to be another school building campus for the lower elementary um right here on campus um adjacent to the building. Um and then I have notes and meeting notes that I'm still pouring over. Uh I don't know why that it must have failed at a referendum is my guess because obviously it never came to fruition. >> It wasn't it it passed it got passed by the town. >> Mhm. >> But as what I've been told is that there was a selectman at that time that nixed the whole thing. Okay. >> That didn't want it done. >> Okay. >> I
060would just hope if you then remember the last time we did this with Bakerville, there was that group that projected that we would have all these children up here going to school. I hope you don't use that same company again because we don't have all those children. >> Yes, we will keep that in mind. >> I don't remember who they were, but >> I I know who they were. >> All right. Any other questions on the task force right now? Again, not a lot of information to share right now. Just kind of in in in the inception period of understanding what our next steps might be, but wanted to give an update on what has happened over the summer. uh while we were all enjoying our vacation time and uh trying to move this forward.
061>> This is a followup to Christian's question. Do you think by the end of this year you might start moving ahead with the task force? And >> we need to get the professional on board um to really understand again we threw a lot of ideas between Superintendent Susa, myself um Chairwoman Gil Foil and in in our in our first selectman Jarham we threw a lot of ideas around. We talked a lot about what our thoughts were but and quite honestly we're not in that we're not in that profession to to really understand it. So we got ourselves to the point we said we really need to start with a professional um to help us guide the process because without that we're going to be going a lot of different directions and uh not I mean
062again what's the goal at the end of the day so we need somebody to guide us to the goal. >> We're good. >> All right we'll move on to the next item on the agenda which is routine business. Under routine business, we have approval of the minutes from June 3rd, 2025. Um, can I get a motion to approve? >> Motion by Frank. Can I get a second? Even if it's for discussion. >> Second by Tom. Any discussion, corrections, questions, comments? >> You don't need to add in there that Tim and I left early. We should. >> Um, but did we have any motions after you left? >> I don't know. I wasn't here. >> I don't remember when you left. This is so long ago, Penny. >> It's not long ago to me. >> Yeah,
063that's true. >> Uh, Kristen and I were both not present for that meeting or do we have enough to vote on this tonight? >> Yeah, you can. >> Yep. You can abstain. Yep. Okay. >> Um, yes. You made two motions. One to close the meeting and one to extend Superintendent Souza's contract. >> Do you have the time that they departed? We make the >> No, she wasn't here. >> But let me >> We have the video, right? >> No, it's not in the video because you're in executive session. >> So, you started your executive session. Give me a minute and I'll tell you when. >> So we have when we came out. >> Yeah, but I left before then. >> Oh, you left before session. >> Hopefully you >> I know. I know. I know.
064I remember. >> Wait a minute. Let me >> I think it would have been under K. >> When did we >> When was our last meeting? June Oh, it was beginning of >> June 3rd. June 3rd. Well, you gave a motion to enter executive session at 804. So, you had to have been here. >> I was there for that. And then >> So, you left during executive session. >> Yes. >> So, we'll have to note that during executive session, Penny and Tim Russell >> Yes. >> Uh, left a meeting. I'm gonna put a time or >> I'm going to give you the time if you give me >> We don't record session. So >> No, but you should put in there that Tim just put in there that Tim and I left. >> Yeah. That
065they didn't come out of ex after we came out of executive session. Tim and and Penny were no longer part of the part of the meeting. So the motion >> So after executive session >> Yes. Yeah. Please. Yeah. The unanimous is not including Penny or Tim Russell, right? the two motions after that. >> Yeah, sometime after that. >> That's fine. That's fine. >> That's a good call. So, yes. Um, Eric, if we put at the vote, you can abstain from the vote because you weren't here. >> What's that? >> I need to vote with a quorum. Yeah. So, you would just abstain. You want Kristen as well? Um, so can uh Frank, can you uh would you be good with a motion as amended? >> Yes, >> Tom. Good with the second. >> Yeah. >>
066Thank you. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All those opposed? Any obst? One, two, motion passes. Four. Did you? >> Yes, I voted. Yes. >> 503. No. 502. Sorry. Yeah, it's been a long summer. Did I? Expenditure report. Can I get a motion to approve the expenditure report? >> So moved. >> Motion by Penny. Can I get a second? >> Second by Frank. Any discussion on the expenditure report? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. Okay, next item on the agenda is new business. Again, we have task force selection under here. This was really to talk about the proposed process of how we select our board members. Um when we get to, you know, we had thrown out, as I said in the
067letter, we had proposed as a as a as as the board chairs 2, two, three, and two um to hold the u that the the the task force to nine. We didn't we thought that getting over nine gets a little too burdensome it it becomes problematic. Um and then once you get more and more people together and you have a quorum over a certain number of people. So we said nine we thought would be the the right number. Um this there's no action on this today. Um the thought behind here was that I wanted to ask the board to start thinking about whether you're interested in being on this task force. If uh we have more than three members who are interested to be on the task force, then we need to determine how we're
068going to select those three members. So the idea here is really to to to just put it out there to think about it. Um once we get the professional on board, we'll have further discussions. They'll again guide us in the right direction on how they've done it in the past. But we just wanted to get people to start thinking about that as we uh as we move towards trying to assemble this task force. That's the same with the community. You know, right now we're saying two community members. Again, it's even thought that it's been one with a one with parent, I'm sorry, one with students in our school system and then one with students not or one without students in our school system. Um, but again, those are just ideas we throw out there. So,
069we'll get more information once we bring on a professional. >> Good. I'm >> going to try and Are you going to try and keep it an odd number? We're going to keep it nine is what our original intention is, right? Yeah. Was was our original intention. >> If you added more towns people, would you just instead of making it 10 people, make it 11 >> just for voting? >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll we'll we'll get the guidance from the professional bring on. Like I said, it's just a matter of our thought is that when you get to a group that's overly large, it's very hard to >> cumbersome. >> Yeah. It becomes cumbersome. it becomes hard to again everybody to kind of >> stay on task, right? >> So, we'll get some more guidance and
070then we'll go from there. But again, the idea here is to start thinking about whether or not you are interested to be on the task force, any one individual on this board and then think about how you would propose how we select as a board. Um because again, it's not a unilateral decision for me to say, you know, just Eric, you're going to be on the task force, right? That's not uh that's not the process we want to go through. Just for the public record, if anybody's watching, there's a lot of other ways to get input from the community, too. The person doesn't have to be on the task force. You can have open forums, and I'm sure all that will happen. So, >> well, that's a that's a great point. You know, this professional
071that we hire, we do anticipate and expect that there'll be public hearings for them to hear input from the community. >> Um, not again, in no way is this a decision that can be made without public community input, right? as well as our our our administrative and our teaching staff. We need to make sure we're here hear from everybody as we start uh exploring what opportunities might be out there. >> Okay. Um old business. We have item number A under old business is plant facility and transportation update for the HAC. Tom, you're going to bring us to that. And so on June the third >> June 3rd meeting we I reported on the results of a phase one evaluation of the schools in regards to HBAC and there was uh thought to move to propane
072and uh I reported that our schools are not up to code but they are safe and that we are grandfathered in for a period of five years before we need to do anything. Um there was a proposal to uh from Petraelli to uh for $4,900 per school to do a phase two which would in which would investigate costs associated with each building to bring them up to code. And during that meeting, we discussed uh proposing during this meeting to spend money out of uh a non-lapsing account to fund those um proposals for $14,700. However, in talking with our superintendent, we just thought that in light of the um upcoming task force, which is going to evaluate the schools, that would be part of the equation and that spending that money at this time would not
073be prudent or needed. Uh so I would recommend probably by a vote today that we table that uh upgrade that phase two evaluation until after the evaluation of the schools. A motion to table. >> Second. >> We need a motion to table. >> We discussed talking about it in this meeting. >> Couldn't you just say to table it? >> Oh, thank you. >> Um, yeah. Okay. Unless anybody has a different opinion. >> I I don't really think that you needed a motion, but it's fine. >> No, I'm good with that. >> Well, our Well, I don't really I mean, I don't that's just I'm not going to split hairs. our our subcommittee do uh suggested doing them and now we're suggesting not to do them. >> Yeah. >> So we we voted to >> I
074think I'd be okay again just for the >> the record for the record. Let's motion to table >> right >> that'll be by me seconded by Tom. >> Is there any any conversation about that? Again, the idea is we're motion table because we have this task force that's being evaluated currently um to spend the money right now um would not seem to be a prudent spend of funds out of our non-lapsing account. >> Do these quotes have an expiration date? >> Typically a year if not stated on here. Sometimes it's 60 days, 90 days. Either way, after the board has made its decision, I will contact them directly to inform them so they're not on weight and hold. Any other discussion? All those in favor of tableabling um until the task force is determined. Uh
075that is unanimous. Thank you. All right. All right. Item number B under old business and item number C are second reads of two policies. Penny, you're going to bring this >> Y. >> So, you've already had the first read. Um, Oops. Let me just refresh your memory. The first one, policy 5113, that has to do with protection of undocumented students. It's how we handle ICE requests. Does anybody have any questions or comments? >> And seeing no questions or comments, can I get a motion to adopt policy 511.3? >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion by second. >> Second by Frank. >> Any discussion? All right. Seeing none. All those in favor signify by raising your hand. All those opposed. Any abstensions? That is 610. Motion passes. >> And the second policy, policy 5118 is for
076non-resident students and better defines the process. Adds one-year re-evaluation. Adds reduced tuition for employees. Adds compliant expectations. adds parent due process as adds special ed must be paid by the other districts in Hartford. Is there any questions comments? We get a motion to approve policy 511. >> Motion eight. >> Motion by Frank. I'll >> Second by Penny. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. Okay. Thank you, Penny. Um, moving on to item number I, reports at advance and de's absence. You taking this? >> Yep. The the only updates here are found on the last page. It's regarding their uh special education programs and unfortunately after four years of collaboration. Um there's also the decision to put the Workspace Connecticut facility on the market. I've just
077been recently informed that it has sold um where they have a buyer. And um just a quick little closing statement by Jonathan Costa, their executive director, looking for uh you know forward to the support and hard work for this upcoming year that Advance does uh for all the districts that it supports. uh we are very grateful to them and um thank them and look forward to partnering with them and working with them. The only other uh update I have is regarding um one of the mental health uh grants that was um to be ended by the current administration u by December 31st. We have not heard any definitive back yet. Um but we're anticipating that that is going to end at one of our buildings and that was an individual that was here um contracted
078via grant uh through Ed Advance. Um, nothing on our budgetary books or anything like that, but that is uh scheduled to end by the end of this year, 2025. That's it. Any questions? Thank you. All right. Next item on the agenda is Jay. Public comment for agenda items only. Would anybody like to address the board? Okay, seeing none, we will move on to item K. Uh, can I get a motion to adjourn at 8:02 p.m.? >> So moved. >> Moved by Penny. Can I get a second? >> Second by Frank. All those in favor? That is unanimous. Thank you all.