001All right. Thank you all for coming. I'm going to call the regular meeting of the New Harford Public Schools Board of Education, 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 to order. First order of business is the pledge of allegiance. If you are able, please rise and join me. Flag is flag. Yeah. 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. All right. Uh, next item on the agenda is the order of business. Um, one item on this massive agenda for today that we do have to add um is line item transfers in order to um to uh make adjustments to the books for the end of uh the month of June. Um so
002with twothirds vote, we can add that item to the agenda. So can I get a motion to add line agenda? And we'll do that under superintendent report. Uh routine business. Routine business. move. Moved by Tom. Can I get a second? Second by Frank. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. That will be added under routine business. All right. Next item on the agenda is communications to the board of education. Um I have received one communication that is in everyone's packet from um Mr. John Puzz dated May 20th, 2025. Uh that went to myself, Dan Jarm, our first selectman, and Carrie Gilfoil, our um board of finance chairperson. Do you have any additional? Yep. I have two additional communications which I'll pass pass out to the board of education. Uh
003the first was an information request from the board of selectman on behalf of the board of selectman from um for selectman Dan Jerham and then my response on the back. So I will pass that out to the board for your consumption for the record. We could make sure that Elizabeth receives one as well. And the second communication that I received was another from again on behalf of the board of selectmen from for selectman Dan Jarham in response to the joint task force letter that we issued or sent out to the boards uh just recently. You got it. Yeah, they're any extras. I'll pass them over this way. Thank you. All right. So, [Music] Okay, we have a lot of wonderful things to celebrate tonight and to uh announce. So, I'm going to kick it off
004first respectfully to Dexter to kick us off with our student rep report. [Music] Um, we collected the highlights from the school year from each grade level. Here are the great highlights that the students earned learned and experienced this year. In preschool, students really enjoyed their space unit. They created their own rocket ships, painted planet planet rocks, and learned about astronauts as community helpers. Preschools also had hands-on learning experiences. Learn about plants. Students planted seeds and documented their observations through drawings and pictures. They're growing tomatoes, daisies, and sunflowers. This year, kindergarten took the first field trip to kids play in the fall. This field trip matched the toy and play unit in the ELA curriculum. During the science unit about weather, students learned that weather around the world can be different on the same day. There
005have become tree experts on by learning so much about trees and why they're important to people and other living things depend on them. First graders learned about birds amazing bodies and how they how their body parts help them survive. The students researched some of the problems birds face and people can do to help them live and grow. In May, the first grade students took a field trip to the Ripley Waterflow Conser in Lichfield to learn how local organization is helping to preserve rare and endangered waterfall species. Students have really enjoyed becoming bird experts as well as learning about the importance of having empathy, compassion, and respect for these animals. Second graders had so much fun taking a field trip to the Peabody Museum. This field trip matched what they were learning in and paleontologist unit
006in ELA. They also invited their parents to school to listen to their pollin oral presentations. Students shared what they researched and learned about moths, butterflies, wasps, and beetles. Second graders at Bakerville and New Hartville Elementary have been pen pals this year. Tomorrow they will meet each other and take a tour of the school with the fifth graders tour guides. Outstanding. Thank you so much, Dexter. Much appreciated. All of the wonderful highlights. Our students are certainly busy doing a lot of learning and having fun. So, thank you so much for sharing that. Um, a thank you for Mr. Rodenberg from Region 7 for providing our student reps, as is tradition apparently now, with uh Region 7 t-shirts to both Emma and to Dexter. And I'd also like to present on behalf of the board of education
007certificates to both Emma and to Dexter. I know Emma's not here this evening, but we'll make sure that she gets that. Thank you, Dexter. All right, up next and highlighting and continuing to spotlight our students, I'd like to welcome up Tyler Buchard and Olivia Pratt, our Lichfield County Superintendent Award winners, to please come on up. Yes, that'd be great. Yeah, come on up here. On May 6th, can you still hear me, Paul? Yeah. All right. On May 6th, we celebrated these two wonderful students uh for their accomplishments and um their academic prowess, but also their citizenship. And just recently, they sent me the pictures. You guys ready to see these? These are the great unveiling. So, here's a picture of all three of us. One for you, Olivia, and one for you, Tyler. But don't
008go yet. Don't go yet. Just want to read a little bit about Tyler and also Olivia. Tyler Bashard is funny, curious, and he's a hard worker. He gets a sense of humor from his papa. His favorite subjects at school are social studies and math. Tyler is an athlete who plays basketball, soccer, and baseball for New Hartford teams. Tyler likes to travel and has been to Orlando, Cape Cod, and Texas. In his free time, he likes to play video games and hopes that one day he will go viral on YouTube. During the summers, he really enjoys boating at West Hill Lake. for Olivia Pratt. Olivia is athletic, kind, and social. She is smart, and loves a good challenge. Her favorite subject at school is social studies because she loves to learn about history. Olivia really enjoys
009sports. She is busy all the time with Torington Pal, FSC Premier Soccer, and New Hartford recreational softball. She also skis and is a dancer. She hopes to go to Miss Porters for high school and then to head to college to study something that she loves. In her spare time, she creates woodworking projects with her grandpa. Please join me in celebrating our two students who received the Lichfield County Superintendent Award this [Applause] year. I know their family is in the audience as well. So, thank you so much for instilling a love of learning and being an amazing citizen in New Hartford. We really, really appreciate it. It takes a village to raise all of our children. Moving on, as we continue to celebrate and honor many that are here, we have Miss Marie Kit, who is
010here with us. Miss Marie Kit, can you come on up, please? On behalf of the New Hartford Public Schools family and on behalf of the board of education, we would like to celebrate and honor you for 24 years of service to all of our students, taking precious care of our children and our staff. Genuinely loving and caring, not just band-aids, not just band-aids, not just my stomach hurts, not just keeping us healthy and whole. You've done so much for all of our children. We are forever grateful for two and almost a half decades worth of service. We are so grateful to you. Thank you so much, Mitch. And congratulations on your retirement. We will absolutely miss you. I will miss being here. It's very bittersweet. It is. Thank you so much. Thank you. You got
011it. This is a little bad, but it Thank you. All right, we're going to continue because wait, there's [Music] more. All right, recently um we had our celebration of learning here at Antellini School. Uh special thanks to Dr. Carol, Mrs. Matthysse, and Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. priest for coordinating and orchestrating all of the creativity and innovation of our students were on display with a lot of passion projects but also inventions that I could have never ever thought of. Uh there were so many of one that I could just recall off the top of my head was a chair in which you could sit in and it had aluminum foil to help generate the heat that was at a campfire to your back because it's always cold on your back, isn't it? So there were some
012really really cool inventions. Another one to protect your head from injuries while skiing. Uh the students just had so much imagination and creativity and I applaud them tremendously. During the celebration of learning uh we had different organizations that were here in attendance. Susan Banthony was one that was here in attendance and they also celebrated and um the partnership that we have with New Huffer Public Schools. So we're grateful for them for being here as well and we were highlighted in their newsletter just recently. Um, in the board of education packet, you'll see that there was a uh a piece of evidence there of claiming monies that were due to New Hartford uh unclaimed funds. If you haven't been on the list, please go on it on CT um gov. And uh we were able to
013recoup, which is in process now, $253.97. So that's uh just some fiscal responsibility and recouping funds for our town that I'm happy to report out on. Let's see here. Recently, our spring concert for band and chorus took place. A special thanks to Mrs. Milo and Mrs. Marorrow and all of our musicians for doing an amazing job. Field day recently took place as well. Miss Marciano and Mrs. Pard, thank you so much for all of your organization and planning and um for Trooper Fig as well for his radar run station which was incredible and very competitive. If you ever want to know how fast you're running, maybe you know, just head on up there during field day next time, board members. Um, and also a special thanks to Sergeant uh, Strereer from the US National Guard
014who is there to also support and have fun with our students. And congratulations to our very own Mrs. Leanchic for being recognized by Better Lesson in their teacher appreciation month spotlight. The exact quote I have here that I want to read. So, better lesson coach Jennifer nominated um, Mrs. Labunchic because of the energy she brings to improving from experimenting with small group instruction practices to sharing her learnings and resources with her grade level colleagues. Quote, I really appreciate how you always want to dive in deeper and really understand the curriculum, making sure you're focused on what's best for kids. So, congratulations to Mrs. Lebanchic as well. Okay, moving on to some other matters. Um just a quick update under the superintendent's report regarding our teacher evaluation plan. Uh yearly we are to report out um
015what is of uh what's happening with our teacher evaluation plan. Are we going to continue it? Are we going to change it in in accordance with the law? So our PC committee met in May to review the new teacher evaluation process. Overall want to report to the board that teachers are very happy with our new plan. The plan allows them to set individual goals that directly impact their teaching practices and most importantly students. In addition, this process makes teachers feel valued and trusted as they are doing meaningful authentic work that gives them an opportunity to grow. Our professional development has complemented the goal work and the documentation process has been smooth. We are not recommending any changes to our current plan from the TEAL um the teacher evaluation process that we have in place. All
016right, making sure I don't miss anything here. Hold on a second. Okay, moving on on the agenda. Just a quick update to the 2025 2026 New Hartford Public Schools budget uh regarding the instructional assistant and clerical aid. Those positions have been reinstated in our board of education budget. Uh special thanks to the board of finance, board of selectmen, and board of education for all working together to make that happen. And another piece of information um that is included in the board packet is that we will be engaging in collective bargaining with our new Hartford Education uh educ education association that is with our teachers. That'll take place in the fall. So, neg negotiation subcommittee, prepare yourselves again to um spend time together with your superintendent and negotiating for our wonderful teachers. Want to make sure
017I got everything else. Yep, those are all of my communications for the superintendent report. All right. Any questions or comments for uh Jeff under the superintendent report? If I had a question about the uh two communications that you passed out, would this be the time or Sure. Okay. I just I think when I read what they uh what Jarm was Mr. Jarm was requesting, I think he's wanting a job description. So, I clarified with him. It was not it was it was simply the positions themselves and if they were shared between buildings I added an asterctric to it but I did clarify with him before respond. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. No problem. That information has subsequently been added to our budget workbook as well which is available online. [Music] Any additional questions? All right. Seeing none,
018we will move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the board of education chairs report. Um, the one item under here is listed as the task force invitation. So, um, in your packet and also I believe we copied everyone via email, there is a letter dated May 8th that was sent on behalf of the board of education um, signed by myself and superintendent SUSA um, requesting any interest in creating a task force between uh, the board of education, board of finance and board of selectmen. Um, I can I can report that we have heard back from both the board of finance and board of selectmen. they are both interested in creating this task force. Um there's going to be some um some some items that need to be worked out, some details
019associated with how we do that. Um we we have talked about potentially having a joint meeting uh between our boards to be able to have that discussion has not been set up yet. Right now, um the town is um busy with uh the town meeting tonight as well as getting prepared for the next referendum that is coming next. Is it next Tuesday? Right. Next Tuesday from 10 in the morning till 8 in the afternoon in the evening. I mean, all right. So, um once we have that meeting, again, we will post everybody when that meeting will occur, but it'll happen after the referendum um and try to determine um how um we go about the task force. Uh and again task force is about strategy to be able to uh streamline um our education, streamline
020our educational cost by maintaining the same uh level of education we provide today um with the task force. Um if there are any volunteers from the board of ed, please just go ahead and and send over an email to myself and superintendent Susa. And then again, I have already received some emails um from some community members who would like to join um and be involved. So if anyone else is, they're welcome to send us a note as well. Anything else on the task force governor? No. Okay. Uh moving on to routine business. Uh first item here is the approval of the minutes of the May 6th, 2025 and May 19, 2025 uh minutes. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion by Frank to approve. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Tom. Um,
021we discuss them. Yep. Yep. Um, open for discussion. Okay. So, on the even though I wasn't here for the May 19th meeting, um, I did watch it online. The in the minutes here, while it was great to put in for a breakdown of changes, we didn't really discuss, it wasn't really discussed at your meeting. I think it should have been a separate attachment. here on the first page that says for a breakdown of the changes. It's all the bulleted items. Uh we did I went through that uh with the spreadsheet online. Right. Exactly. Exactly. I just I don't remember hearing it that be said, but I could be mistaken. No, I had gone through and again I could I could stand corrected, but I had gone through we had a spreadsheet that we put online
022and I walked through the timeline of the budget in that uh in that virtual meeting. All right. Okay. Um any further discussion or comments on the uh meeting minutes as written? Okay. Seeing none, all those in favor of approval of the minutes of May 6th and May 19, 2025, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. All right. Next item on the agenda is the expenditure report. Uh, can we get a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Motion by Tim. Can I get a second? I'll second for discussion. Second by Penny. Any discussion? Okay. [Music] Um, there's just a couple of items like the professional development line. It looks like we've we only budgeted 1,500 but already we've spent 3,000. Am I reading that correctly? It's Yep. I got here. Okay. You're looking at
023you're saying 1500 encumbered is 3,250. It's on the chair. It's on the second page. J under 12400 324 324 development development. No, keep going down. Keep going down. Keep going. Professional development. Keep going. Keep going. Right there. Thumbs up. Professional development. Got it. I was just curious as to why it's so much more than what we had budgeted. Yep. So, I could look into it further. My quick um knowledge of this is that professional development this year um whether we contracted with uh another service provider and we are being reimbursed via the a grant of some type. I could look further into that. Okay. Um that would be my quick assumption, but I also know we're doing a lot of work on our report card revision. So those could be some other areas of overages
024for that particular line item. Why would report card revision be under professional development if it were is it that the things that you do with the staff on the days that they don't have school? Yeah, it they could be. Um but if there's additional work that's required or curriculum um meetings could be part of this. Again, I could look further into that. Could you find out and let me know? Sure. I will send an I will send an email communication to the board about it. Okay. Then on page three, it's like twothirds of the way down. Salaries, custodian, substitutes, page three, it looks like we salaries custodian. We have 2,000 in the budget. 2,800114. All caps $2,000. How much? Go ahead. Have we spent more than what we allotted? having budget balance is looks like
025it's 2,000 in the whole. Yep. Am I or am I wrong? No, that looks like it's $2,000 under if I'm looking at it correct. The year-to- date expense has been $4,100 when we budgeted $2,000 for that and that could have been due to um leaves or change in salary. Um I could look further into that as well. Okay. I mean, that wasn't when when John left at Bakerville and we were trying to get a new custodian up here, did it? It might. It might have had something to do with that, but I'll get more I'll get more detailed information on that. So, when we finish this year out, which is coming up quick at the end of the month, where will we be at year end? I know at one point you thought that we
026would be in the red by 50 grand. Is that So, I closer to zero now. Yeah, it is closer to zero because we've had some changes and um with one particular large um item uh regarding an outplacement. So that changed in our favor. So we will be closer to a net zero for sure. Um and then with the budget transfers, you'll see the ones that are being requested are to demonstrate and reflect those transfer that were made to cover the legal costs and the tuition costs. And I'll pass that out just shortly. Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. And again, our budgets, just to as a reminder, they don't close up completely until sometimes August and into September because there's a carryover and we're paying bills that were posted pre July 1 and we're
027making sure that everything's tightened up um and buttoned up by September. But I know our fiscal year ends as of the end of this month. Y so Yep. [Music] As someone kind of new to the board, what do you do when you're in the red? Do you have to go into non-lapsing or Well, that is that is an option absolutely for the board. Yeah, just again we we did report that we did bring it to the board of finance communicated where we were where we were projected to be. Um so it was good news to report even the last meeting we were there that we were um trending towards zero. Otherwise, would we have to ask them for money? Our plan was at the time to um utilize to monies from our non-lapsing account which
028the board would then have to vote on but we're we're not in that particular situation anymore any longer. Okay. Thank you. Of [Music] course. Any further questions. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of approval of the expenditure report signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. All right. Third item added to the routine business is the um line item transfers here. So what are you? So the following if you can take those down. Thank you. The following represents what we are doing to cover those high costs that we were not anticipating for legal fees and also for tuitions. So, this is how the board is um adjusting those and accurately reflecting them. So, that is the purpose of these uh line item transfers. Anything over $10,000 always comes before the board before we
029make a line item transfer. Considering we have have another contract coming up over the summer, is there going to be enough money in legal for next year to cover any extra meetings that we might have. I don't have a crystal ball. I've projected what I thought we would need just based on that. But as the board is aware, I haven't we the board is contending with another legal issue and we are running an extremely lean budget if I had to predict. I would say probably not sufficient. But I cannot with any accuracy say so until we're into next year. We will be negotiating that in the fall. Right. The teachers contract medical insurance is making up 185,000 these transfers. Um where did we where did we get that savings from? So those are from folks
030that based in the year before were projected to take insurance and did not or changed insurance or we had other subsequent savings from people retiring or not taking the insurance that we thought we were going to which was substantial and helped us tremendously as you can see in this particular [Music] case. Um I actually should have asked first. Can I get a motion to approve the budget transfers as requested? So moved. Moved by Penny. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Dej. Any additional comments, questions before we put it to a vote. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. Okay, moving on uh to new business. Uh first item under new business is the approval of a revised job descriptions for we have a
031few of them. Data system specialist, director information technology, manager, finance and human resources, executive assistant to the superintendent of schools, administrative assistant to the director of student services. I'll turn that over to you superintendent. Thank you so much. So these five positions in particular um either through negotiations or through updates that were required um because of new duties or new responsibilities. These needed to all be rewritten. These were significantly outdated, some by more than 10 years um as some people have been in the position for even longer than that. Um some up to 15 years as well. So, these are updated and they come before the board as a packet of all of the positions and the requirements that are necessary um for approval before the board of education for all of these positions. Uh
032I know there was um some questions in the past about what these individuals um their specific job titles, their tasks, everything that they're doing. These are the very succinct um descriptions of each and every one of these positions. A motion. Yes, please. Yep. Motion that we accept these jobs for five positions technology executive assistant. I got a motion by Tom. Can we get a second? Second. Second by Tim. Any discussion? Question. So these are these are these positions are currently filled. The data system specialist is filled. Information technology director is filled. Manager of human resources and finances is filled. Executive assistant to the superintendent is not filled. That is posted and uh interviews to be scheduled. and the administrative assistant to the director of student services is filled. So, one of these is not the
033other four are filled. Understood. Do these descriptions, revised descriptions change uh increased duties to a point where it would require salary adjustments in either up or down. So, data system specialist belongs to a union. So, that was bargained already. administrative assistant to the director of student services also bargained. So that's already been negotiated. Information technology director is now um doing an additional supervisory component. So according to department of labor that needed to be adjusted and that has been and manager of human resources and finances has also been adjusted uh with the responsibility of supervision of our bookkeeper or accounts payable and receivable. So that one has been adjusted accordingly and the executive assistant to the superintendent has not yet been because we have not finalized an individual with qualifications, years of experience and things of
034that nature. But as in the budget, if you recall, there was a savings there from our current executive assistant to a newly hired persons to fit within that salary range. So that is still up um up for negotiation, if you will. Are the last three not bargained? Are they not in the unions? The last three. Can you clarify for me? The um well, the information technology was uh bargained. Yeah, they're in a union. The first one, data system specialist, yes, is in a union. Yes. And then the other three, are they in a union? So, the director of information technology is not in a union now. Supervises. Manager of finance and resources is not in a union, supervises. executive assistant to the superintendent of schools is not a in a union. They're in a confidential
035at willill employee and the administrative assistant to the director of student services is in a bargaining unit. Now, when they're in a bargaining unit, we're aware we see the contracts, how are their salaries decided? So, for the ones that are not Yeah. So, depend on years of experience um dependent on years of service that have been within our district. Some folks have been here longer than others. Um, so that's an adjustment, but we're also looking at market comparisons to making sure that they're comparable. Do we have any oversight of knowing what that is? Because I don't know because those are administrative. The board is entrusting that I do that on be on your behalf. If you would like to ever review those contracts, they are public information. I could certainly provide them at any point
036in time. I I would I I would like to know. No problem. What they're paid Sure. They're also in the budget in the budget book. It's there. It's public. It's not like um that's being done without any disclosures. But I will certainly provide those contracts if the board is so moved. Are you asking how those are decided like we'reing to have enough to understand what those should be? Is that what you're asking? Yeah. I mean, typically we don't have any feedback on that. we you don't run that bias because you know we have a negotiations committee that's there and we're setting you know we argue and discuss the contract but these are you know expenditures for you know personnel that we have no say over and it just seem it just seems a little odd
037to me that we wouldn't have any but maybe you know maybe I'm wrong about that I don't what you guys think. I do agree with you. I really think that our committee or whoever happens to be on the negotiations committee, while we might not recommend a salary increase, I think we should at least be discussing it and give our thoughts on it. Informed. Informed. Yeah. So that so that all the increases are similar and so like somebody doesn't get a heck of a lot more than the next person does. So it's not just a heck of a lot. It's sometimes it's based on market adjustment, years of experience, qualifications, and supervision. Uh there's a lot that entails in each position. So, they're not going to all be equivalent across the board unless you're in a
038bargaining unit. That's where the board is heavily involved because it's a larger body of folks that we're negotiating with. when they're independent or at will employees, it is typically left up to this uh discretion of the superintendent to ensure that we're having the most uh competitive wages for the positions, have quality individuals that are running the district alongside and performing their duties and responsibilities, but I have no problem sharing them. I don't think we need I mean, I think we have to trust that obviously you know what you're doing and we I know there's a lot of other factors that go into it like you just said about experience and whether or not they're overseeing people and they have super, you know, there's a lot of other factors. I don't think we need to be
039telling you what what it should be. I think just keeping informed would be a good thing. Certainly do that. Like, hey, FYI, this one's going to need he's going to be asking for a 10% increase and here's why we're going to give him a 10% increase. And just more communicative than that than saying, hey, is that okay? Because I don't know, do we all have perview to know that? I don't know. The only thing is then when the budget comes out which is available to every town's person that lives here and they see that you know these different positions are all getting say 3% and and Mary Jones over here she's getting 7% and and this is what her job is and then they're what they don't say the name but they say this is
040the title like the dog catcher for instance that person's getting 7%. Well, then somebody's going to ask, why is that person getting 7% where everybody else is getting 3%. Well, I mean, I think in fairness to what Jeff is saying, the person getting 7% maybe has more supervisor experience, maybe got, you know, there's so many different conditions that factor into it. Um, I I don't I don't know. I don't think we need to get down to the nitty-gritty of um telling Jeff like what we should be paying salaries for people. We just have to trust he he has the knowledge and experience to know what the market bears, what our budget bears. Um I do think just communicating is fine. I just I don't think we need to get into that the weeds on all
041of that. Um I don't know. I could be wrong. I don't think Frank was asking us. He just wanted to be more informed of what's going on. And I mean it wouldn't hurt. No, I agree. So that if some you know person that lives next door to you or you meet on the street, they would ask you the question, do you know why this is in the budget? And then I would say go see the super talk about it. Okay. So that would be what I would say. But I mean Jeff I mean I realize that Jeff has the the final say so and we do trust him to to you know look at I do think though you're allowed to talk about that because it's public tax dollars being paid to somebody and you
042have to justify it. You have to be able to um have to understand it. The big thing is I just don't want to not like if somebody asked me why I want to have an answer. I want to have an understanding. That's why I was talking about being informed. Are there any other questions or comments regarding the revised job descriptions? Jeff, how close are we to finding the executive assistant? Do we have a uh pool of candidates? I have a pool of candidates. Yeah. and they will be scheduling interviews uh in addition to a performance task shortly. Okay, got it. The I'm just going to add one more thing. I think it's for transparency. It's important because these are positions that you work very closely with. I mean, you're in the same office. You have
043probably some of the closest people and just for optics, I think it's good to let us know and so forth. Thanks, No problem. Okay. All those in favor of approval of the revised job descriptions for the data data system specialist, the director information technology manager finance and human resources, executive assistant to the superintendent of schools and administrative assistant to the director student services. Please signify by raising your hand. That is unanimous. Okay. Next item on the agenda to new business are two first reads of policies. Any you taking us through those? Sure. I'll do those. I will at the last meeting but have you all to read? Do you do you feel comfortable then? No, not really. You can do it. And Frank was also there as well as well as my administration. Um so
044the first one regarding uh policy 511.3A um and throughout with its regulation is very simply to put into process a uh put in place a process in which if there are any issues with um undocumented students. Uh they are to number one notify the superintendent. Um we have to make sure that we're training staff and we have to comply. We are not interfering whatsoever with any investigation. So that is the point and purpose of this. We've also reached out to DATCO, our bus company, to make sure there's training there so folks are aware. Also at advance for our cafeteria staff. This is very thorough. We want to make sure that everyone understands if uh an agent of ICE is here to um uh ascertain an individual, we are not interfering. Um they are going to
045notify me. We're going to make sure that everything is legal and legit and they will proceed as they need to. So that is why this policy is here and its regulation should that occur. Any questions? Is this a new policy? This is new. Yeah. No, this is a cave recommendation based on legislation. Correct. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Yep. Part of this as well is if there is an individual that needs assistance or support, there is a listing of all of the resources on the last page in our regulation that is going to be posted on our website so that folks that need support and help. Um they can find those direct legal services on that last page and again that will be provided um within our board policies as well. But there's nothing in
046the budget, right? No, this has no no this is just resources or no existing structure in place already and during our professional development in August and such our administration will inform educators, our staff and everyone else if this is to uh be an issue that you encounter. Here's what you do. Okay, we have no action on that today. It's our first read. So, we'll go on to the next policy, please. Correct. Question. questions you next time if you'd like to. Not tonight. Next time. Oh, tonight. Okay. Oh, you have more questions? I do. Oh, I'm sorry. You don't want to move on then. You didn't hit your button fast. I know. So, I the the wording on this bottom paragraph, right? It says any if any member of the district community, including students, family, and
047staff, has questions about their immigration status. Mhm. Okay. What is who's there? Is it the member of the district community? Yes, anybody within the community. So, if they have questions on their own immigration status, yeah, we are not providing them um you know legal information. We're going to direct them to any of these agencies or resources on the last page. They're not ICE. Correct. That's not our responsibility. If ICE presents documentation that they need to speak with, ascertain, investigate further, that is their purview and we're not to interfere with that. Okay? But if the individual is like, I don't know about my immigration status, D. Okay. Well, there's some of the resources you have, but depending on what the legal document says from ICE, it could go another way. Well, what if someone else had
048a had a question about someone else's immigration status? They can. this is these are the resources that they could investigate with if they would like to. Whether they provide that information, I I do not know that. Whether someone is legally documented here within the United States, I don't know if someone else would provide that information, but it may lead to an investigation by providing that information, but I wouldn't know that. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. So this policy is a is a board of ed policy and so so this but this paragraph here if any member of the district community this this goes to all 700 7,000 change people community members they're not bound to follow this policy. No, this is just for us for board of education members, right? But if there is someone in
049our community that is requesting this information, these are the resources that they could engage in e whether they send their students to us or not. So I just seems like it seems like a policy for the town. It's within our Yeah. Because I'm not trying to split hairs here, but it seems like it's a very broad policy for the whole town where it's really Yeah. Well, it defines it though as students, family, or staff. Yeah. Within district community, right? Students, family, and staff. That's that's it's encomp it could encompass a lot of people depending on how you consider right who's family and who's not. Yeah. The connection to the school. Everyone was connected to this in this town. Everyone was connected to someone in this school. All right. I No. I guess it'd be strange
050if someone from the community who didn't have a connection came to Jeff and said, "Hey, what's my immigration status?" I would say I don't know. Here's where you're going to ask what your immigration status is. Uh it's again to direct people as a resource. The board of education knows that. Okay. If you want to question it, if you don't know it, here are the resources that you can look into. I don't know. Nuanced super. I think the bigger issue would probably be if for some reason ICE shows up, is it an an administrative warrant or is it a criminal warrant that they have? Because that's going to determine whether how they're going to administration is uh allowing them in the building or not. Correct. Yep. Absolutely. Tim, they'll be on call. Yep. Okay. Okay. Any
051any further questions before we move on? Going once. Yeah. Hi. Go on to the next one, please. Thank you. All right. for the next policy 5118. This is an update to our non-resident attendance for students that are not here living here and are going to be required to pay tuition outside of exemptions such as tuition for staff children. There's specific provisions here as well. Um it defines non-resident students. Um it also in this in the regulation itself we've updated a couple pieces of information here um inclusive of board of education hearing um how how people can demonstrate their proof of residency is updated here as well and then just clarifying what tuition is charged for which individuals um and it's pretty much throughout the course of the school year. This also extends it if if
052people would like to extend their um non-resident attendance, they have to request that yearly. There's a process in place here. Um so it's very clear and codified. Prior to that, it was not it was more of a trimester. It was a little bit more ambiguous. So we've tightened everything up as an administrative team. Um feel free to field any other questions for us. It just tightens everything up in terms of students that are or parents or families that are requesting for students to attend our schools that do not live here. and then as well for our staff. So, this one I saw come across and this is an existing policy we have and it's been updated. It's been updated. Yeah. But what are the changes? Typically, we're used to getting these on the first read
053with the highlights of the changes. So, can we again I didn't have time to go back and compare this to our existing policy. Can we get this highlighted? So, that's why the but that's why the subcommittee meets. So, we're going through it and making those adjustments so that it's not an additional task for the board. So, the board of education is, you know, really leaning and trusting on the subcommittee to make those recommendations from CABE and then presenting it as a first read here at the board. So, it's cleaned up. It's not like a an outdated copy. So, again, the only things that have been changed here are um the provisions in which we give um permissions for non-resident kids to attend here and why. And then it really just puts in again like that
054April 1 um component is now in here versus it was a November kind of ambiguous component. And also tuition payments when they need to be made. That's another element that's um been updated here under uh number two. And then tuition for staff children has also been updated. Um and inclusive of prek that was another piece that was missing in this policy. So we've updated those elements just as a quick summary. Yeah. I I guess moving forward I'd like to see these on the first read with the highlights, right? So I can again identify what's changed. Not that I don't trust the subcommittee, but at the same time I'd like to know what we're changing in the policy and then have my own reason be they were always highlights changing up. Any questions on this policy
055for tonight? Do we have that many children asking to come to our schools that are non-residents? [Music] I'm just curious. So I would say about approximately anywhere between three and five a year requesting that depending on situations, families purchasing a home, moving, things of that nature. Move out as we're driving. Well, I understand that, but I mean there aren't people asking from other towns to come here. It's normally people who live here. I know there was that that person who was building a house that took so long and lived in another town. So, but do we typically have people say like from I don't know Cobberrook or something wanting to come down here to go to our elementary schools? Not typically, just the name. Okay. It's just the ones that are like moving in and
056out like Tim said. Yeah. Okay. That's right. Thanks. Of course. Any additional questions? All right. Seeing none, we will move on to old business. Uh first item under old business is uh reports. We have plant facility subcommittee. Tom, what do you have for us? So this particular item dates back several. You got this particular item that we're talking about tonight dates back several meetings. Uh we haven't talked about them, but they all culminate in the HVAC reports that are available online to to view. We've had we had a first call it a phase one evaluation of all three of our buildings. The uh report came back again. Those are available online. The outcome um were discussed on the May 1st meeting. Uh the ventilation upgrades are required for all three buildings. Um there's a there's
057a push to switch from our oil tank our oil fired burners to uh gas fired for efficiency propane. Uh, exactly. There's some areas in our schools that are not up to um code, but they don't render the buildings unusable or unsafe. They're just not up to code. Um, they're grandfathered in um because of the uh fact they're already they're built before these new codes. If we were to renovate as new any one of our buildings, that would require a full upgrade to the current standards. Um and right now the anticipated uh time period to bring these schools to code would be five years and again we're grandfathered in with no penalties. Is that an accurate summary? Okay. So we have we had we met with the uh company who you have a proposal in your
058packet um Petraelli they uh met with us. We discussed the recommendations they saw in phase one and we asked them to come up with a proposal to do a phase two evaluate exactly what would need to be done and the cost thereof for each school that is presented in the letter that you have in your packet uh with a title that says 30 years at the top. That's the Petraelli letter and it talks about uh what they would do and the cost to do that. uh they're going to go through the schools, evaluate what needs to be done, you know, come up with a plan to to implement those changes to bring the schools to where they need to be. Um they would recommend uh what needs to be done and put uh reasonable costs
059associated to do that. And for that cost uh for that service they would charge us 49 $4,900 per school um and and for each deliverable package for the each each school. That's in a nutshell that's what the uh subcommittee worked on the last couple three meetings. Okay. Uh we don't have any action on this today or do we? Not nec not necessary. This was more to report out and to put before the board what the um recommendation is currently and the pricing for them to engage in this feasibility study for our three schools. That has not been put into the budget obviously for next year. This would be an off item or pushed down to the next year um to further negotiate maybe with our subcommittee um to go back to it. But this we
060want to put the proposal before the board so the board understands that in order to bring all of our buildings up to code that the infrastructure of HVAC which aged HVAC needs to be upgraded. We have again a 5year period of time to do that. So we don't have the money in the budget for the next school year 2526. Correct. It would seem to me that we'd want to move forward on this um relatively quickly if we have a fiveyear window to do it in window. Um, have we explored HVAC grants at the state level? No, not yet. Because feasibility wise, we needed to have a really good scope of what needs to be taken care of and then uh submit that. Okay. Yeah, those are available um at the state level. State has quite
061a few and I assume that design is a part of that for at least the reimbursement percentage. I'm not sure, but I would find out because typically the state likes to have districts go out to request for proposals to have that be included in their reimbursement. Um, we did not go out to bid because we contracted with them directly. Um, so I could find out. Um, if not, we'd have to go back out to bid and look at other companies that could provide the same type of feasibility study. Jeff, do you have do you have an update on the DDR situation downtown? Nothing. No response, nothing. The District situation is the boilers that we have that are we can't find anyone to service them. Correct. So, this plays into this situation that we have a
062boiler downtown that when it decides to act up, we have limited resources to get it getting them back up again. When you say downtown, it's here. I'm sorry. It is right. It's here. The double diet that are up here. Yes. Yep. So I would propose that at our next meeting can this come back to the board and if we have any information on grants or again I think that the funding source of this we would have to look at um we don't intend on any savings this school year. This might be something the board wants to um explore the non-lapsing account for. Yep. and I will email the department of administrative services to discuss and determine what the reimbursement is for those grants if we have to go to out to bid for this particular
063feasibility study for our three schools. So the subcommittee received this at the same time this week. Right. So we haven't had a chance to talk about recommending an action on this. Okay. Right. But I think that would be a good our next meeting we would review that and recommend an action for the board to Yeah. the firm that you have here is is a reputable firm in in in the school construction market. Okay. Thank you, Tom. Any uh further questions for Tom on the uh So, we have roughly 100 grand in that non-lapsing account or more than I know we have more than that. We have more than that. I know we started out with 200. I don't know if if we've taken anything out or what we've done at this point. We take 666,0006,000.
064All right. So it's like 134,000 rough numbers approximately. So if we spent this money, it would be 14,000 to do this study for all. Interesting that all three schools are the same price, 4,900. I mean, this is the biggest of the three schools. You'd think it's all the same central systems, though. No, but then from this study, we would know if it's worth us to change from what we use now, the oil to propane. That's one element of much much more information. Um, indoor outdoor air exchange balancing um would be exhaust into the schools. Yeah, there would be an AC uh heating and cooling component for um and they're different based on the areas I believe that they were discussing with us. The a gymnasium/ cafeteria would obviously have a single air handling unit in
065the on the roof versus um other classrooms which could do be um utilize heat pumps to heat and cool the rooms instead. Okay. Yeah. Much to be explored through this process, right? Anything further? All right. Next item is Do you want to make a motion to bring this back in August pending? We'll schedule another meeting. I don't think we need a motion. You're good. Yeah. We'll just put on the agenda. All right. Got it. Just make sure we note it. I got it here. Yep. I got it for August. And again, as Tom said, if the subcommittee hasn't, we'll reconvene. Yeah. Sounds good. All right. Curriculum subcommittee. Yep. We got a quick update for curriculum committee. Uh updates were given to the committee about uh year two of our implementation of EEL education. And again,
066teachers have done a tremendous job continuing the work in modules and implementing the second component of the EEL curriculum. Students are excited about the content and are producing very high quality work. Our staff has participated in targeted professional development around skills and allblock throughout the year. And next we'll focus on assessments, assessment practices, and we will be revising our report card committee. Those are the updates from the curriculum subcommittee. Okay, any questions on the curriculum subcom? All right, seeing none, uh, next report is at advance. Dearree, yes, so I'll I'll be quick. Really the big thing that they've been working on is um they crafted a letter uh in response to losing funding. I don't know if you guys remember I told you they lost funding through the federal government um 8.7 million federal grant
067that was for the school-based mental health services through out the northwest northwest Connecticut. So, um, they have crafted a response back to the federal government, which you guys have in your packet. And Jeff, I believe I don't know how many superintendents wrote a letter, but quite a few. You can see those letters that were also sent in response to the letter back to federal government. They're hoping that they will reconsider um taking that funding away. So, that's been a big topic. Um, so that letter has been out and then at the April meeting, I I did just get the report for May, but we I guess we're talking about that in August, right? Um, so the Department of Health and Human Services also closed five regional Head Start offices um without notice, including the Boston
068office that our advance worked closely with. So that's just another um thing that's kind of the buzz over there right now and something that they're monitoring closely right now. Um, and the federal government also rolled back the extensions on the ARPser funding in Connecticut and that money did support some of the work that ED advance was involved with. Um, and it will impact them if if that if that continues to stand as is what they're hearing. But they do have a couple of other opportunities that came about to replace some of the funding. So, kind of stay tuned on that. But those are kind of the bigger the bigger things going on um that have really kind of taken up most of the the calls unless you've heard anything else. No, no, nothing yet. In
069the packet, there were at least 14 letters. There probably more at this point uh in support of bringing that back. [Music] Any questions? All right. Thank you, Dery. Moving on to the next item on the agenda is public comment for agenda items only. Anybody like to address the board name? I wanted to address the board. Jay Bailey, 575 Main Street. I was disappointed you were not at the town meeting tonight for one because I wanted to bring up, as you pointed out, uh the that account you have with money in it that you're spending and talking about spending. Um, why is that money sitting there and you're asking for money was one of my questions that we know you have a couple hundred thousand dollars sitting around while you're crying broke and saying you don't
070have money for other uh items on the new budget but yet you have extra money from the old budget. So, there's a little a lot of people in town feel like you've been deceived and um what do you say to that? We can't we can't reply. Well, what about that? You have seating for,50 kids and we have 350 students and we have three schools open and you're spending millions of extra dollars. No comment. But is that true? You have seating for,50 kids and I was told actually by you this the schools were all filled by you. I asked you point blank are all the schools filled and you said yes. Oh, all the classrooms are full to capacity. So are you saying that you gave me misinformation then? Mr. Bailey, I cannot reply to your
071public comment. [Music] You can't reply? You told me the schools were filled and there's 750 vacant seats. They're talking down down below about you guys that you're wasting millions of dollars. You have no comment about that? You don't going to put it on the minutes? Does that go on the minutes? You look at him. No, you guys are sad sacks. Anybody else like to address the board? All right, seeing none, we're going to close public comment. Next item on the agenda is executive session. And I get a motion to enter executive session at 8:04 p.m. So move and I'm sorry and invite Superintendent Sus and invite Superintendent Soua to join us. Second. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That's unanimous. And again, I I think I got Tim as a second
072on that. You did. I wrote him down. No problem. I will I will write everything down. Me and Tim the the budget was on there unfortunately.