001hello good evening everybody um it's 6:03 and I'm going to call the meeting to order and welcome to the Monday March 10th Berlin Board of Education meeting we're going to begin the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under godible with liy and justice for all all right well we are excited to start our meeting out tonight with grisal school joining us and their families so I'm going to turn it over to Mr Campbell and I can't wait to see what you guys have in store for us uh hi good evening um grisal is proud to present um a really exciting presentation tonight we actually have a fifth grade class uh Mrs Wade and
002a second grade class Mrs Gary and several of their students and they're going to be presenting um what they do in some of their buddy class uh lessons so we have more than half the school that participates in these buddy classes and these two teachers have kind of been the leader with it and tonight they're going to present on some coping strategies and the fifth graders kind of Mentor the second graders it's really exciting and then they're going to kind of test you out to see how well you do with some of those uh coping strategies at the end so I will turn it over to Mrs Wade and Mrs Gary um hi I'm Mrs Gary I teach the second grade class um and when we originally started this whole um Endeavor in September my
003goal for my second graders was to um help engage them in some social emotional development through the use of the fifth graders um who would support them um in like lesson plans and activities together um so earlier in the year we've done fun projects together where we've made like skeletons when it was Halloween um but we've also done some social emotional lessons that um Mrs Wade will tell you more about thank you I'm Michelle Wade I teach fifth grade um it's been a real pleasure to watch these kids work together part of what we thought of not only was theal part of this but also looking at the fifth graders as leaders and giving them leadership roles um so this was a great partnership for them in that respect and it also gives them the
004chance to be Role Models not only for their second grade peers but also for their other fifth grade peers and kids around the building um and really what is awesome about these kids is you're going to see that the lesson that they are showing you today yes we guided it but I showed them how to run a lesson from a teacher standpoint the initiation taking them through a lesson on all the parts but we kind of gave them the Reigns to put this lesson together and I think that's what's most amazing about this group of kids is that they put this lesson together we guided them and then they took it from there so um it's really great and I hope you enjoy it want to come up okay so this is Addie you can
005leave Addie Piper Dylan Nathan and Olivia and I have Kenzie Ava Patrick Sam and Robert it's up to you we are buddies cuz we talk about our feelings and also we are teaching the second graders um different coping skills to help with their um problems in like difficult situations and I used to know Addie and now I'm like one of her friends this shows that not all problems are big but some can be big today we'll be showing you many different ways to handle your big feelings but you will notice that majority of the problems are small we are Ava and Piper and our slide is about big problems versus small problems the definition of a big problem is a problem that have your feeling big emotions and can affect a group of people or
006Community the example one example of a big problem is my dog had surgery yesterday and I was really scared the definition of a small problem is a problem that has you feeling big emotions but typically only affects you or maybe one other person the exam the example of a small problem is I'm playing a morning meeting game and I lose this is this also depends on your age so if you're 30 years old you won't lose a morning meeting game but however there will always be big and small problems no matter your age all right hi our names are Patrick and Dillan we are here to help show you some problems we see in your everyday lives first of your car won't start second you can find your keys for your car last you are
007stuck in traffic first off for me families in Berlin are struggling with putting food on the table you have to clean up after your kids are pets and your two kids have to be in different places at the same time now you guys are going to get a small bag of cards with with the problems we just started please sort them in into big and small problems hello that's a big problem very big problem that's big all right let's see put the big problem on this side which side you want to do big okay a big problem right there right I'm kidding that's probably a small problem but to me that's a pretty big problem my kids make messes my two kids and two dogs so it affects more no it affects more than one
008or two people because it's me my husband it could be a big problem CU I'm a teacher so if I can't get to work if I can't get to work then my and my students need me but it's probably a small if I'm not a teacher then it's a small problem good point I agree How about if one parent's not available and you only have like maybe one's working late you only have one parent that if I'm coming to a board meeting checking traffic and then everyone's waiting for me you Dr they can't start the meeting without me and if you're dad's their coach then I'd have to agree you know what I did you know what I did so I can find my Cas I put an air tag them I lose them all
009the time yeah but then I forgot I have an air tag on it and then that we can move that to the bed I know I mean little I know it's supposed to be a little can we do a middle depending so do we have a middle so we could say big could be big could be small do to of them Mr John usually has my spare and he works really far away so don't I don't have depending on where we're going you guys ready we're GNA bring them back up to the front is that okay and we'll test how you did girls ready guys ready I this so time to reveal the answers so for the first one it is a big problem for the second one so kind of need the yeah do
010do we have like the your car won't start you said was what so your car won't start was a big problem because say you're home alone and your husband or wife is at work already it you don't really have any way to get there as soon as you can for the second one it is is a small problem being you can't find your keys to your car because you might might have a spare or um like Miss um Dennis Dennis said you might have an air tag on your keys and then you are stuck in traffic this is also a small problem yes it may be annoying but it doesn't really affect you that much because you'll get to where you're going but even though if you're a little late for the fourth one it
011is a big problem for the fifth problem it is small and for the last problem it is a small problem I am Nathan and I am Sam okay so what surprised you about the big and small problems from your card sword I think it's your perception and how you view it yourself and what you need to do or where you need to be so we thought we I think we we were yeah we had F five big problems I don't even think we kind of thought they were small no but Kenzie was very persuasive exactly she was very persuasive we were able to move some into the small and then we put one in the middle like you're stuck in traffic she said if you're going home it's not a big deal which it's not
012but if we're going somewhere and we need to be there at a certain time we're not going to get there we thought that was like the airport exactly the airport you're taking a test SAT test you got to be there on time so we thought that could potentially be a very large problem in our group we kept talking about the definition that was discussed before between big and problems so if it affects like one or two or you know a small amount of people then it could be small um so your car won't start so um depending on where you're going and what you're doing but you know like we were talking about how if we can't get to school and our students need us then it's going to be a big problem because it's
013going to affect a lot more people than just us us second graders and fifth grader um what have you done when one of these problems what have you done about one of these problems that have come across that you have come across in your life take a deep breath and say I will get there called my husband to come home from work because I locked my keys in my car mhm us second graders and fifth graders came up with the wheels you guys will have to put some of the coping strategies that works for you you guys will go make yourselves a wheel in a group of two or three here are some strategies you can use read a book draw listen to music and go for a walk make it ourselves oh you're GNA
014work with us oh good I love it I don't think our ideas are maybe that good all right so I enjoy the beach so maybe throw my kids toys away just kidding when they're sleep minut you could go to Cromwell river river the river and crell which is like five minutes we gonna say take a ride to the river I do too I like to take a bath like a pot bath with the door locked so nobody so the kids can't get in I have a dog I have two dogs I like that one yeah yeah that's his name right which one okay very nice all right wal so so we could say petting our animals to listen to music listen toic she goes to bed when she gets upset to drawing color I can't
015draw I like to go out to dinner with friends right with friends that' be my number one time withs you a lot of kids you [Laughter] know how many do I have do I like to read a book read a book I don't I don't remember read I to late to watch TV how about if I say scroll talk is that not appropriate I love to scroll through Tik Tok all right so let's put reals reals it's all the same because then it's kind of mindless okay sometimes I'll go for a walk barely rot her ball so we walked there to bring her we walked home then walked back to bring herall so you got your walk and then did we put deess de breath is a good one lagging that's a good one see
016that's a good one that is a good one your brain some of them you know on my desk at work I have the the cat the uh goat the screaming goat so when I get stressed out working with certain people I just hit my screaming goat it's fantastic it's very loud so everyone in the office can hear it little tiny goat that's a good one too oh yeah go ride bikes jump r to love the jump r i oh that's a good one that's a great one I'm gonna have to add that on or nap yeah we filled it up look at that you guys had some great ideas thank you so does anybody want to share any of their strategies sure I wrote down go for a walk I love to bake so that's
017always a stress reliever for me and then I get to eat it uh reading and listening to music we did scrolling like re taking deep breaths take a ride to the river pet an animal color listen to music time with friends and watch TV I said think about the bigger picture you're stuck in traffic think about just getting home safe as the goal and think about if it's an accident how how much worse those you know and feel bad for those people um I said take a walk I said watch funny dog videos because those always make me laugh and then I said keep calm and call Brian beny these as the issue so I said if you want to grab some from your cabinet some canned foods and non- perishables and drop them off
018at your local church or social service office for some struggling families um i s I tell myself if something you know Horrible's happening not horrible but something that's out of the way I'll say it's not going to matter in 10 minutes from now no one's going to remember it so that's a good one that I use um if I've lost my keys I generally try to retrace my steps it's not the only thing I lose trust me um and I think about where I was I kind of go backward to see what I did what where I could have dropped them off and I I just take my time to go retrace my steps and usually I I can find things that way um and then to Brian's Point too I just say a lot
019of times some things are just out of our control and there's just nothing you can do if you're stuck in traffic you're stuck in traffic unless you have you know someone with a helicopter that can come pick you up you have to wait you have to learn patience it's it's a tough thing to do but you can do it you can do it hi my name is Olivia and my name is Robert are there any members that would like to share our whe their wheels and their strategies the difference between a small and a big problem is a is a big problem is something that affects a lot of people and a small problem is something that affects you how does thinking about these strategies help you I also learn difference between problem and small
020problems some things I think are big problems in reality are small anybody else figure out next steps do you guys have any questions for us how has this helped you in your like at school or at home in real life helps me like get anyone else want to share how this is helped them in real life she's so cute perspective we a lot many small right and that's I think what part of this is about open up those lines ofun thinking about you can't always figure out you know there's a problem you know you can't solve it right away but thinking about these coping strategies and sometimes saying I can't do anything about this right now I have to sit in this traffic but I'll get home and then depending on the situation and the
021perspective like yeah I'm a teacher now I gotta I'm stuck in traffic I've got to call ahead and someone's got to cover my classroom so it does affect more people right so each situation is different but what's nice is that it's opened up those lines of communication about thinking about that and thinking about the second graders and it's been very helpful because after we've done we do roughly a lesson a month and then the second time we meet that month is something more Crea to have fun with each other um but what's about this is lesson over language used in our clom regularly so if someone like lost their library book I just have to be scale the problem and I think what they learned was big problems needies but problems needies so I think
022that's given them you know not just different [Applause] job cupcakes you want here youone wait one minute if everyone could wait just one second just wait one second don't leave yet don't leave yet all right so thank you so much to the grisal students and families and teachers and admin who were here today um we always love seeing what the students are learning in school and it's a highlight of our meeting but right now we'll move on before I leaves to the next agenda item because I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent thank you uh this month is Connecticut Board of Education members appreciation mon so I want to take a moment to recognize those that are sitting in front of you the time that they put into the meetings the other meetings
023that we have Beyond these meetings the work that's done behind the scenes to ensure that we have a quality education system in Berlin if we could just give them a round of applause for all their [Applause] dedication now for all the students I didn't ask you to stay just for a round of applause in that box up there if I could ask you just to scary if you could lift the cover there are some cupcakes and there's bottle of water so please help yourself to a cupcake and a bottle of water so thank you for a great job tonight thank Youk you guys and and don't feel like you have to say you can certainly leave after you get your cupcakes and for the board members behind you there is a gift if it's the
024wrong size let let me know but they they a bag behind you so please I got Peter at 631 all right so uh we're going to continue thank you for the cupcakes and the gift um but we're GNA just carry on with our agenda so we're going to turn it over to our student board reps and see what you guys have to share so to start we wanted to talk about The Wizard of Oz so this past week the BHS performing arts department put on their phenomenal rendition of The Wizard of Oz besides it being an outstanding show the musical AIDS in showcasing the diverse talents of all students at BHS it also helps to raise money for the music scholarships as well as future educational trips and productions for students along with this last
025week Broan High School's Deca team attended the State Career Development conference an event that helped students develop both their career and Leadership skills the conference consisted of competition networking and overall community service a special congratulations to Zoe pager who plays third Victoria vas vashiva who plays fourth and Andrew Feldman who plays fifth in each of their respective events next on February 21st BHS students part of the National Honor Society and the upbeat program helped current eighth graders navigate BHS learn more about the classes there are to offer and gave them and give them a chance to learn more about what to expect this upcoming fall the technuts went to the robotics competition in Waterberry placing Seventh Place making it to the semi-finals of playoffs and winning the autonomous award their robot was unique due to
026their fast and consistent elevator allowing the team to be one of the highest scoring robots in the competition the autonomous award Was Won based on complex sensor system and reliable automated ele elevator alignment next on March 19th the distinguished members of the roaa National Honor Society will be celebrated during their induction ceremony among the honored students are those who exemplify excellence in the social studies field their dedication to scholarship and service has earned them a place in this esteemed Society congratulations in in advance to all the newly inducted members on this significant achievement and last but not least after a little over 6 months working with the case State V and Harkness Berlin fell in the Elite 8 on Friday March 7th to Fairfield L low high this year the team Advanced to beat 52
027other teams in the state and competed in both trials simultaneously on Friday unfortunately our very own Emerson Harkness was found guilty but next year the BHS mock child team hopes to inspire a new team of vicious lawyers and reliable Witnesses go Red Coats thank you thank you for your report um I I switched the report of board members in student reps because I guess I was so excited to hear what you guys had to share so now we'll go to the report of board members um any board member like to share out anything that they attended or participated in uh since our last meeting um I attended the Willard family dance which uh is PTO sponsored and it was a awesome night to host with all the families and Good Times fun had a lot
028of fun um it was actually kind of sad because it's my daughter's last year in elementary school so little Bittersweet surprise I know but I of you know I I just want to say like the the sheer emotion that these kids show after the production just you know it talks to the the Clos relationship sh that they all formed during the time that they're together for and and and afterwards too I mean they just Bond doing this and what was really nice to see was that the middle school kids were part of that this year too um and we'll see if that continues but it was it was great to have you know sixth through 12th graders involved I too attended it on Friday night only though and it was amazing and I was more
029objective this year because I didn't have anyone in it and it's still amazing so shout out to the Berlin AR department they do an amazing job Tyler does an amazing job every year and as do um Mr Jess yeah they they do an amazing job so I think they deserve a ton of credit and the live music is like I think really what brings yeah as opposed to like recorded music it just brings it home thank you um so I'll share this Wednesday I'm going to be attending cab day on the hill um I was at the state capital a few week ago with my students uh from you know the school I work at and you know we were walking back you know through one of the buildings and I bumped into Patrice McCarthy
030she saw me with she's the executive director of cave and she saw me with all my students and it was only like maybe nine of them she said oh you should come back in a few weeks for cab day on the hill and bring some students with you so I know last year we actually talked about potentially bringing um some Berlin students and then so when I had reached shout to her and said okay great how many because Brian and I talked about well maybe we could get burlin student I'll bring my Newington students then she said only two students so um then we didn't follow through with also getting burin because I was kind of like you know it's a really small group so um but I'm bringing three I'm going to bring three
031students on Wednesday so I'm excited to bring my students and then also go and represent our board and it should be a good day um and next week I will also be attending the rap induction and I as every year I look forward to it I think they do a great job and it's I think a really great night so anyone else okay we can move to committee reports um the community engagement committee has not met since our last meeting but we're working on getting another meeting on the calendar um Peter the fno committee hasn't met since the last meeting correct no we're meeting on Wednesday yep and then do you want to share out you guys just had one yeah the curriculum Comm committee met before this meeting and it was with the per
032well two purposes but um the first purpose was to review some uh Spanish uh opportunities or some uh text not textbooks actually some story books I guess for lack of a better word so the idea is to have it be implemented into the 8th grade Spanish 1A and 1B as well as uh uh High School level and the Spanish 5 as well with the uh lens towards just not having it be the typical like conjugating verbs and very grammatical sort of uh you know straightforward but more of an opportunity for the students to read a story and be invested in the story and hopefully by the end of it not even realize they're reading in a different language because they're so in in into the story so that's what I've been passing around so take
033a look and review them and uh if you have any questions um and then we did talk about um next year's calendar but I think we have that on the agenda agenda so we could save that till later but thank you thank you for the update um correspondents to the board yes I have two correspondents to the board board of education thank you for the bib and onesie we appreciate the well wishes of our growing family Michelle prior family teacher hub members of the Board of Education I want to express my sincere gratitude for approving additional sick days your gesture has brought enormous sense of relief that takes me away a fear of Financial uh burden a thought of having to take sick time with pay I feel so blessed to work in a district
034and to have the support now I can navigate through my cancer diagnosis and for treatment with gratitude Kim pair Kim is a par professional at Willard thank you all right audience of citizens if any member of the community would like to approach the board just come on up S your name and address and you have three minutes per resident my name is Dave Olinda from Cynthia Drive I stand before you today sit before you to discuss Aaron's law my time today with you is not about the content and the lesson plans but more about how this was communicated to the parents we received an email from our principal on January 22nd introducing us to Aaron's law in the email it went into a little detail about why it exists a little background about it as
035well as a link to the website where parents can gather resources to help better understand what this was all about it gave uh and it also gave parents the opportunity to opt their children out if they wish to do so where the system failed with their communication was that it gave parents only six days to respond now I don't know about your schedules but we are a single inome household I work two jobs and my wife is a staying home mom taking care of everything within our home because of our chaotic schedules we didn't uh get the opportunity until mid February to uh read through the five lesson plans I also want to make it very clear that our principal Mr Chini was very accommodating and willing to work with us along the step uh
036of every way he made himself available for questions for inperson meetings and allowed us uh even after the deadline to go in and review the material my issue does not lie with our principal but instead the system that failed many of the parents in communicating this to them like us many parents are in the same boat they're trying to manage one two maybe three jobs children sports activities and other things things that life throws our way like many of you our inboxes are inundated with so many emails but to Simply communicate this with a single email a few weeks before this was about to begin and to give parents only six days to find time out of their schedules to go in during school hours to review this curriculum is where you failed the introduction
037to Aaron's law um was discussed in May of 2024 prior to last school year coming to a close you had the entire summer to discuss and come up with a game plan to properly deliver this to the parents we had August September October November even December to communicate this and give folks ample time out of their schedules to review the material and make a decision that was best for them and their children but we got six days it's almost as if you were trying to sneak it in in the hopes that most people missed it unfortunately many people did miss it uh after we got a chance to read the material we were curious how other parents felt and reached out to seven other parents in our school out of those seven six of them
038had no idea this was going to begin in February after the February break one of them never even received the email as you could imagine parents started to talk and one post on Berlin Buzz caught like wildfire and spread very quickly if you didn't get a chance to read those comments many parents also had no idea and if given the opportunity would have found time to read the curriculum beforehand many parents that we know like us chose to opt their children out of some or all of the lesson plans so my goal speaking to you today is the importance of communicating this in a way that allows parents to find the proper time to review this without rushing through it and make a sound decision uh that's best for their families in the past we've
039had to sign permission slips for significantly less like allowing our kids to watch a movie in class for example with erand law I personally feel we should have taken the same approach instead of uh opting our children in by default a permission slip could have been sent earlier in the school year and naturally that would have uh made parents pause and question what they signing permission for I'm not asking you guys to stop the curriculum I'm ask just asking you guys to change how you deliver it to the parents thank you thank you would anyone else like to approach the board hi I'm ksten osian from uh Cindy Lane I'm basically here on the same grounds that Dave is um I'm a mom of three girls and while I fully understand that you guys were
040under a state mandate to put this into place I'm again like Dave I'm not here to say anything about whether or not it happens um or even what the curriculum is um my husband and I did choose to opt our children out because those are conversations that happen within the walls of our home I think that there are probably if you were to pull the teachers there are probably a lot of teachers that were very uncomfortable by that curriculum um last year as Dave mentioned last year I had to sign a permission slip for my daughters to watch when Dixie which is rated PG but a pretty innocent uh movie after reading the fourth grade curriculum I was shocked that their teacher would have the opportunity to present this to them kind of within their
041own Comfort level so up to the point of whatever the scenarios are that are played out in each lesson but let's say a teacher is really comfortable talking about this who's to say she's not going to go further and talk about things that I wouldn't want discussed with my underage children I don't know if there's any kids in the room but it's it's pedophilic so you're presenting something to my kids that's not appropriate and we absolutely should have signed permission slips again I understand this is a state mandate I understand Aaron's law I get it Whatever as a parent this was you guys really we got six days like Dave said we had barely any time in that short week um leading up to it I spoke to about a dozen families who you either
042didn't know this was happening or had no idea that the curriculum would be as graphic as it was now that's not to say every teacher took went that far with it I know a lot of teachers kind of scaled back a little bit which I was happy to hear um I think all the letters that went home the day of the lesson absolutely could have been sent home ahead of time with a permission slip on the top here you go this is our plan you can opt in or opt out here's what we're planning on doing I initi um my husband and I were going to opt them out of only half of it and then we started talking about it um I was more concerned also about kind of the runway conversations when kids
043start raising their hands and saying things that might be taken the wrong way or God knows where things go especially once you get to kind of that fourth and fifth grade level the conversations get much more indepth um so I wish that it had been addressed differently with a lot more time and a lot more detail um and at the end of the day it's up to the parents we choose to send our kids to school every day but we also should be given the opportunity to opt out of things like that with a lot more information leading up to it thank you could you just restate your address one more time 53 Cindy okay perfect um I you know I'm going to just have typically with audience and citizen we don't have back and
044forth I will have the superintendent um just you know briefly respond but I do want to say just in the general sense I do appreciate that when you guys come forward with your concerns you also brought forward a proposed solution whether that's what they're going to do or not it was just nice to hear um you know a way that it could be changed or improved and so thank you for that first I'd like to apologize if the timeline was the issue but I just want to say with the state curriculum like that having parents have the right to opt out that is something that we don't have to do because the state curriculum we did it because we knew that the the curriculum could be upsetting to some parents and so on but I
045can say this to you there's been two incidents without disclosing more than that since the curriculum that have come forward that are very concerning that because of that curriculum things that are occurring in the in in certain homes so that part as far as like you said you're not saying not to have the curriculum saying the timeline for the curriculum to be done and how it was announced we tried to have the popped out so that parents did have more oversight over curriculum than usual because we knew that some of the content could be concerning so I apologize about the timeline um we will try to do better in getting a timeline out I don't know if we would have a permission slip per se as with a movie because we did that's our policy
046our policy is that if we have a movie that's being seen by a certain age group and it's a PG that we don't show without permission slip but as far as an open curriculum our curriculum we have Atlas Rubicon you can into it our curriculum is public it's been for years we never want you to think that we're doing something to the students or teaching them something that parents aren't aware of so that was pleased that was not our intent at all um as far as the timeline we could do better in getting it out as you said because it was approved it went through the curriculum Council it went through the board U as a curriculum to be adopted and if it wasn't that we we had to use that program but the state
047offered others programs that we had that we were we were supposed to implement that so I I don't know if that clarifies any of your questions um but you definitely have my apologies for the timeline and not having enough time to it wasn't meant to sneak something in or do that at all it really wasn't um you know uh for as long as I've been in the district having our curriculum public to parents is something that we've always had it's online that's not how we operate there's full transparency so um I did not receive any direct phone calls here about it I know the principles handle the situation at the building level which I commend them for and I commend the way that both you came forward to share with us so you know we
048definitely appreciate the feedback and uh we'll try to do better on the next one thank you thanks for coming out um all right anyone else like to the board right moving on um to our next agenda item Personnel we have a retirement um Kathy's mot a reading teacher at Mary E Griswald School in Richard D hubard school has submitted her letter of intents to retire at the end of the 2024 2025 school year do we have a motion for consideration reement of Kathy Bato reading teacher at grizwald school and hub School effect of June 30th 2025 also to thank her for the 19 years of service she's provided to the Youth of Berlin and wish her good health and happiness and a retirement so we have a motion by Peter second by Jessica any discussion
049congratulations human being she lives in my neighborhood and I she is a sweetheart so she will be missed I just wanted to thank Kathy Kathy's raised three children that went through the Berlin public school she's a Berlin resident Brian just added um she's worked in every elementary school as a reading teacher and just to thank her for her time with our students and the work she's done so thank you Kathy anything else we can move to a vote all those in favor I opposed 90 we're going to move on to our Tex agenda do we have a motion for consideration I move to approve the consent agenda as presented do we have a second second so motion by Melissa second by Jen okay any discussion on the consent agenda hearing n we can move to
050a vote all those in favor I opposed vot carries 90 uh new business um I'm going to turned it over to the superintendent to report the status of the adopted budget for the 2025 2026 budget year at this time based on the recommendations of the board and the work that we're doing amongst the administrators we're preparing for the fno meeting to take place on Wednesday morning to discuss potential cuts and to give the information that you've asked for as far as cost for um salaries if salaries were frozen for various groups and unaffiliated as well as looking at class sizes and various programs so we should have all that ready to go for Wednesday morning and just start looking at should we not receive the 6.8% increase where are the potential reductions anyone have anything
051they'd like to ask or comment or discuss okay so we are going to move on to the next item the proposed school calendar for 2026 2027 that is posted in schooly um and it's also been passed out and it's on the table in front of you so I'm going to turn this over to the superintendent um I know this was discussed in the curriculum committee meeting earlier but so one piece is the establishment of the uh graduation date and that part there is June 7th 2027 June 11th 2027 a Friday now potentially once we established the date the new state statute says that that's St that day can remain whether the 1880 days are completed or not we used to have to adjust it repeatedly so that's the one part the other part is to
052look at the um and I wasn't in the subcommittee meeting but were there any changes to the 26 27 calendar in the subcommittee Brian the 26 27 there was can can we start with 20 this year well we just have to jump down because that's the way it was in the agenda 26 27 there was a shift they're proposing a shift from what's the current we're looking at either keeping things as they were which is this option which was uh full day off on the 13th of October and a half day on December 4th and just switching that to have it be the half day that October date and then the full day off on December 4th the feedback from the par the teachers were that the amount of times the kids were out of
053school during that October period um was kind of clunky and that they felt like there was a good stretch of time where they hadn't seen the kids and it seemed like uh the teachers had uh at the elementary schools felt like they had a large impact in terms of trying to kind of keep the kids focus and getting them back on track that of that's not exactly correct okay so I would have Lori or Cara come up and say it exactly correct because I it's not right it's not exactly it's it's close but it's not ex have a motion happy to have them come up okay so can we have a motion for consideration before we discuss and then we will have them join in the conversation do we have a motion for consideration Public
054School calendar is proposed and set the 2027 Berlin High School grad date for Friday June 11 2027 do we have a second we'll go with Gina all right motion by Peter second by Gina now let open up for discussion and you know and join join in this discussion um yes so we had two options that we proposed the first as Brian said was exactly as it had originally been proposed last year and then after hearing some feedback recently from teachers at different levels um the October dates it worked out where there was an early release at the high school on a Thursday for conferences then we had early release PD on Friday no school on Monday and then a PD on the Tuesday which meant if you saw students on Friday for the early day
055you would only see them once the following week and then not again for another week so we got some concerns there and Elementary it was very choppy because then they have conferences right after that so our proposal based on that was to move the 13th of October which was a full day PD to what Brian said um change the December early release on the 4th to a full PD day and then rather than swapping we going to take that early release on the December date and move that to actually May 7 just to have something toward the end that's exactly what I said play it back verba and just for clarification too this hasn't been approved by you yet so this is coming to you for the first time so we're not making any changes
056to the calendar we made a change to what the typical calendar has looked like for the past few years right yes so basically the proposal is October 13th regular school day December 4th would be the full PD day and then we would move that early release PD day to but it looks like for the current the C we have adopted for 25 26 and then for this one it's the same amount of half PD days and the same amount of we just move that one day we're just moving it yeah that makesense of when it happens not how many right and now that we've hashed that all out can we go back to the why behind when it happens sure so the October time they have an afternoon they have uh the high school has
057Thursday afternoon as a conference day Friday afternoon as a professional development day then they would have no school Saturday Sunday Monday for the long weekend and then they would have the PD day on that Tuesday then the following week McGee and the elementary schools would have conferences which are shortened days and so to add one day back into that to give a little bit more consistency to the instruction part we thought that the teachers were hoping that we could move the 13th PD day to someplace else in the calendar and so we Cara and I sat down and kind of looked at where it might make sense that makes sense okay that makes complete sense anyone else have any questions or comments about this this is not not approved no I know it's not approved
058know but it's not been out to the public so anything that happens here we're okay it's not so when you shift the calendar and been out to the public that can cause issues this is not out to the public I think it's pretty good considering they have time off in December so you're only really giving them that one extra day so PR spes out from the I mean the big months are obviously October and Monch March because of the conferences right not an extra day off just the dayang Y no this isn't so they're taking this one over the one that was in so the 13th will become a school day yes and that full PD day will now be December 4th the December 4th half day will move so it's just moving oh yeah
059December 4th was a half was a half day so now it's a full day literally day was moved to a different day exactly yes although my daughter's birthday is October 13th so she would probably prefer to have October 13th I don't blame her I would too I would too any other questions all right so we can move to a vote all those in favor I opposed vote carries 9 Z thank you for that thank you for clarifying you can maybe just say it there just in case um so the next one's an easy the next one is an easy one I guess so in the past the board has um when when we we have 181 student days when we've had a snow day and the end of school falls on a Monday the board
060in the past has forgiven the students for that one day still becomes a teacher work day so teachers aren't working less days and what they're contracted for the students will go to school for one last day one less day so right now if we have no more snow days and maybe we can make them contingent we have no more snow days can have one um than on Monday the last day of school is Monday to 16th if you approve this would turn the last day of school would be Friday June 13th and the students would have off on Monday but teachers would still work on that Monday right it all we're doing is moving the last day from Monday which is a shorten day for students to a shorten day on Friday for students all
061right do we have a motion for consideration before discuss move to approve reducing student days in 20425 school calendar from 181 to 180 making Friday June 13th the last day of school for students so we have a second Melissa so motion by Brian second by Melissa any discussion the only thing I want to say is if by chance we have another snow day we eat your words I have to put it out there because we had those in March before do we do we we then would have have to go until Monday anyways are we still okay with last day for students on Monday not Tuesday yes okay okay any other discussion all those in favor I opposed 90 thank you for that all right we're gonna turn it over to Director of Finance and
062operations Ashley dorsy to provide us an update on facilities just FYI on the agenda and we're not proposing any changes to that we just brought it to the committee so that they'd see the changes over because it's already out y things have been planned that's makes perfect thank you hello hello this is going to be very quick it's probably the shortest one I've done all year because we're kind of um in a holding pattern like that so just a few updates from things that I've previously spoken about um so the bid packages I know we been talking about this a lot for the E projects over at grisal and hover they're still in process it looks like a go live date is going to be sometime in April um the concerns regarding the YMCA daycare
063over at hover Elementary School have since been been resolved since our last meeting um the public work building commission believes that the hover daycare should stay at hover through the duration of the project so we just work around a couple things there um depending on the construction needs and working closely with the YMCA um the reconfiguration of the YMCA or the hubard playground um that's going to begin over the April break and that's necessary for the um YMCA daycare so right now their outside play area is where the new Chiller pads are going to be so um can have kids hanging out next to Mechanical so we had to move that um Willer the uh ynca daycare to another location on the Hub property um so again that will start on April Break um we
064are still waiting on the reports for the BHS floor tiles we're supposed to get an an update maybe the at the next public building commission meeting which is scheduled for this Thursday it's not 100% I know they are still waiting on the engineering report as soon as those reports become available they will be shared out uh the mandatory walkthrough for the architectural services for the McGee science lab was held on Tuesday February 25th we had seven firms attend that walk through and the bid for that closes on March 27th and finally the summer maintenance requests were emailed out to building administrators for feedback um they're due to the business office back on March 26 from there we'll do some prioritization and we'll see what we can get done between April break and the start of
065summer and then over summer break everything's dependent on um availability of contractors what we've got going on uh we typically PRI based on health and safety funding availability and then the contractor availability any questions for Ashley thanks thank you Ashley okay moving on to the next part of the agenda um policy review and revision this is our second reading an adoption of six policies so before we discuss can we have a motion for consideration move that the board adopt policies 2020 2201 5125 51 3183 513 1.81 and 614 6.11 as presented do we have a second second Jen it's going to Jen tried three times all right motion by Peter second by 10 Jen any discussion on these six policies I have a question yes bedy this is clarification please correct me if I'm wrong
066my takeaway is that the GPA can be lower than a 3.0 and a student can still be eligible for automatic admissions so when I read the when I read the revision it said that students that have a GPA under 3.0 can still be eligible for automatic admissions to me the way I understood it it sounded like the standard was going to be lowered because if we're going under a 3.0 is a b right I mean on average it's a b i just it just struck me that's why I'm asking I don't I don't mean to be it just kind of struck me is why would we why would that be yeah so we can let Brian answer that but I am in the um policy review and revision explanation sheet in schooly and it does
067say that this is being revised to comply with Public Act 2447 which makes changes to the requirement for the cap previously class rank percentile was a determining factor for eligibility uh I don't think anyone gives that stuff out anymore that's like you're not supposed to talk about it but the act now establishes that a student's unweighted GPA is a determining Factor are unweighted so the weighted can bring you above a 4.0 right yeah it brings you Above So now this is talking about unweighted but do you want to talk more the weighted this goes with the courses if you're taking honors r p there different weight for a or b so they Mak an our way which is really allowing a greater number of students to qualify the determining Factor before was the class Rank
068and because we're not no longer doing no longer we we have class rank but we don't publicize it we use it really only for salutatorian valoran every year um because the state has really pushed us away from the class rank they need another qualifier and so they're using unweighted GPA which makes more students eligible for it it it broadens it Gina so it's a nice way of saying it lowers the standards yeah yes you I'm I'm saying broaden but you could say it that way too just for clarication the standards yes make sure I understood it correctly so it's a 3.0 regardless of the level of courses you're taking so it's more relative to the individual student their ability what they're taking and if they do a 3.0 B average and they qualify thank you
069anyone else all right we could move to a vote all those in favor I opposed 0 thank you all right we're going to move on to um textbook recommendations for adoption I'm going to invite co-directors of curriculum and instruction Laur J and Carl Watson up to talk to us about this um I'll let them talk and then we'll have a motion then we can discuss as a board and then we'll vote go ahead department supervisor for World Language 712 um is making the recommendation to align with uh World Language standards and to really enhance the work that the kids are doing in their world world language courses they're recommending the adoption of several texts and those have been going around um for you to read If you happen to be fluent in Spanish that's my
070problem have English translation on the back for sum there sum inl on the back so one of the the books is for their eighth grade Spanish 1B that's the an so that's a little more of a simple text and then there are three for the high school level one is for the grade 10 to 12 Spanish one be tumba to say all of these out loud um Dei is for Spanish 2 which is grades 9 through 12 and then the final book uh lalaka algra is for our Spanish five students which is really that's just our seniors so that's a little more advanced obviously um even the the content of the book is a little more advanced but those are can we talk about that for a second because if you we talked about that
071in the meeting because we talked about so this is the one for this is Spanish five it is for 17 and 18 year olds who are seniors in high school which is what we kind of talked about of the curriculum there are pictures in here I'll just show you the one that we noticed right away and you did too yeah oh yeah um like this one pushing someone down stairs and you know you can see so it's has some graphic pictures if you will for some individuals um it's a it's a mystery book um it says what it's about in the back I I think what we were well for me I'll just talk about it's for 17 and 18 year olds if this was given to a Spanish reader they would probably be reading
072this in sixth grade maybe even younger because of the it's not even difficult for a Spanish reader so if you when you look at what kind of Youth and students will be reading it for me it's appropriate for a 17 and 18 year old to read this kind of book and I think that's kind of what Melissa Brian right that we kind of talked about and yeah I don't know Melissa you any thoughts on yeah all right Senor the shocking of the opening but then you're when you're talking about who's reading it and I mean the content in terms of theer the solving I mean it makes once again I can't read the Spanish text but the summary it's getting pushed down the stairs yeah um so I just have two questions wait can we
073make a motion before because we just wanted them to present it first and then because they were in the the committee and then we'll make a motion then as a board we can discuss so is there anything else you guys want to present to us and the committee members no no okay so we have a motion for consideration by Myra Kenyan and published by Myra Kenyan B Anna by Blain Ray and published by tprs books la quinera de Na by Denise Hatcher and published by Mary Bailey and lalaka Allegre by kri Toth and published by tprs Publishing Inc impressive we have a second gracias who Gina okay now we can open it up for discussion Jessica what's your question um are they necessary one because they seem quite graphic I don't know like they are
074for older kids but um and where are they going to be are they going to be like in the school library are they going to be in the classroom so these are to be used in the classroom and the purpose of them is to enhance vocabulary acquisition they all have glossies in the back so that they can be able to to um look up the words that they don't know um it also gives them an authentic use of the language and so that's the reason so I think Brian brought it up earlier that we don't want kids just conjugative verbs we want them to have interaction with language so that's why and now it's important to have that and they do align with the World Language standards okay and now is it going to be
075like a book that's assigned or is it a book that they get to choose for like a free read this is a book that's assigned I think when you're especially at that level at level five and even the younger these levels that are for the younger grades is that for conversation I mean when I took Spanish in high school it was like I couldn't I please sentences and not exactly and then you would you know regurgitate it back this is reading a story they go over it together as a class so they don't read it in dependently um oh my gosh what she was saying that they yes they'll break it down they go over it together to talk about the sentence structure what it means and then talk about the story so almost like
076like a read aloud almost like a read aloud so that they're so then for conversational purposes for Spanish I'm assuming do we do this in our French Classes I just gonna say this well do we have a do we have the oh I'm so sorry Katie yes it's okay so I just want I just want to you back car saying because being which is a h reason behind P this ISU and changed as students now have a proficiency to speak in a language for duration time which is a little bit different so it's not CH Choy right one sence sence back verus fluency and dialog and so this is a shift the department as a whole is Shifting to focus more on culture to right appropriately at their age level to kind of oh mystery
077let's get involved in that so that they're engaged so it's you know far less and I I do for transparency want to point out we do have some outliers we occasionally have a 16-year-old um in Spanish 5 too depending on the proficiency um but typically not younger than than 16 so it's really about having the ability to have a long duration conversation fluency proficiency versus do they do it in the French Classes too so so these textbooks not to my knowledge not per these particular texts but something since mrar has come on board country France he's brought in sort of this push for culture within the theal language education which is really um I would say stimulated just leadership lens and think about how we approaching literacy gotcha so he's not there yet maybe I
078think the use of supplemental Texs such as this will grow it's also what's available right exactly that's true too only so many op if you could think about students when they're learning to read right in English and the text that they would start to read but I think you got to think of the context of these students are 16 17 18 old it's getting them to be able to read the Spanish at that level and actually in like a small little book like you would read in second grade right that's what you're looking at so they can understand not just reading out of a you know a textbook like we think of that's not my problem I think the books are the stories are great I think where I'm hung up is this guy holding
079people at gunpoint I mean if I'm being honest and I don't know what it says because it's in Spanish so I don't really know what's happen happen here but Peter did point out a good point it looks like uh his buddy's helping him student unforunately crime I think a lot of students too they play a lot of Call of Duty Black Ops and then like shooting games on computers when they're supposed to but it's also not read independently it's read under the context of the class and they're doing book discussions over it so I mean you're having a book discussion about this so if you had issues as a student or whatnot about a certain with pictures or whatnot you have the ability to discuss as a class which I think is a a nice
080um especially in a world language class to be able to and speak it in Spanish and talk about how you have maybe some issues or because if we have kids that have issues with this I'm sure they're allowed to say yeah I'm not I'm not reading this it's not like we're going to oh yep you have to we've never done that so but I think that again like you said Katie it kind of you know you want it you want it to be interesting and from a parent of a high schooler who's in Spanish 4 right now it's rough getting them to stay engaged to stay engaged and and he would love this I mean this would be something that he would absolutely um that's not for everybody that's just my kid but I can
081I can understand but I like that it's something that they discuss as a class together and go over it Ian I feel like growing up I remember reading in this story talk with me forever but I read it it was good the lottery I mean you know really yeah so I mean I don't know how much worse this could be right yeah oh I'm not buts it was a community that came together and it was a picnic and it all seemed good but then what you find out is they were drawing a lottery for someone to get stoned so so I mean I remember that I read it like because I was super into it I don't know what that says about really sure I just wanted to say I'm in Spanish five right now
082and actually today um we had a field trip to hubard and we um all the students got to pick um a book of their choice I picked it was my favorite book when I was little and we went to hover and we got paired up with students that were bilingual or that were in more um like more English assisted classes and we got to just read our books to them and to be honest like overall I think the experience even though corduro is it's a little kids book but just being able to read that book in completely in Spanish and then like explaining the book and just talking to these students in Spanish just overall helped I think the class's um overall fluency just pronouncing iation improved and it just like helped us a lot
083more with communication so I think like introducing books especially at like Spanish 5 which is a college level class um I think introducing books would just like I think benefit the students a lot more than just simple like worksheets which is what we usually do I love the idea yeah I agree as someone in Spanish schol right now we read like a r of poana and um again that's also an eighth grade level book like it's kind of a spin-off of that one so it's not as interesting as would be but when it comes down to the class conversations you're almost forced to learn new words and to try and create sentences and things you would never even think of like even when you're writing essays and stuff and it comes to words you're like
084oh I wish I knew this word it may come up in your book so it's very important for that like Beyond just a like packet worth of words it's lots of like situational learning as well which I think too comes with like a murder mystery book students are going to be engaged it because you're going to want to see what happens and even though you don't necessarily know the word you're going to be like well I want to know what happens you're going to learn and try and finish the sentence pretty much thank you any other questions or comments thank you for sharing I'm I'm really glad you guys just jumped right in because that's why we have you here and we need to hear from you guys will you look at this I just
085want to make it clear St I just don't know that content I content okay but it's hard because it's in Spanish so I don't know what it saysed pictur you can also just use Google Translate on your phone and put it over it and then reread what it says I've never tried that before Oh I do can you send me that app not that I'm doing it right now but that's Google translate that you just put whatever language just Google you hold it over yeah you just hover it over and then it just shows you exactly what they're just looking at the picture real quick any other questions while they're looking I had asked right before and obviously the teachers read it I love right is it as good as corduroy I know that's like
086my sister she always reads the end of the mystery firstes she and then there's like there's certain words in here that like if I don't recognize them like down here it does like have like a little I forget what they're called notes where it does say like okay that's what this word means I think like this scene is just like a like the bad guy like a typical fight scene like all the ones with any graphic pictures it just kind of seems like someone's trying to escape somewhere or go out of somewhere try and find some kind of solution to the problem and there's a whole glossery in the back I just noticed with like all like all the words so I think like I don't know I would read this yeah all right and
087thank you for your input on that too and it's good to know that you know you guys are learning Spanish so you can read it and actually understand it none of us can so Peter can read out loud the Spanish words very well um okay so if there's no other discussion is there any other discussion okay we can move to a vote all those in favor I opposed okay 90 thank you thanks ladies um so the the last item on the agenda uh we had an executive session anticipated it said budget Matters by the time we like worked it out and figured out what um it was going to be we just kind of had a a placeholder it's um for to interview the uh finalist for the football coaching position so do we have
088a motion for consideration yep I moved to enter into executive session to interview for the head football coach inviting the super intended do we have a second second so motion by Melissa second by Jessica any discussion okay all those in favor I oppose 90 so at 7:29 we're going to enter into executive session and then when we come out we'll