001Oh god. This call is being recorded. tail wasn't that I jumped. [ __ ] now. I wasn't jumping. register left. Second Avenue All right. >> Good evening. The time is now 7:02. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Bloomington Board of Education to order. U please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. >> And Deb, if you could please call the role. >> Mary >> Here. Amy from >> Sam Sharma >> here >> Ryan >> we're here >> Dr. Gail Stanley >> here >> we >> here >> I have Mr. and miss absent. >> Great. Thanks so much. >> I'm doing >> I missed you. I'm
002sorry. >> I was ready for summer and we all are too. Um and uh chairman Paratti will be here momentarily. She's at another awards ceremony for her daughter right now. So um a lot of accomplishments and I think we'll highlight some more students tonight. So we will move on to other presentations and awards, proclamations and announcements. We'll start with our um appreciation of our PTO PTA pack and SEPTO which I know we have some folks here tonight maybe here and online. Um so is there anything you want to say first Dr. Roma and then I'll read >> um to all of our PTO PTA pack and SPTO reps be them in person or online. Uh we want to thank you for all that you do for our schools. Um, I can't even count the number
003of times I'll get an email about a food truck or a cafe truck or other things that are done to show teacher appreciation as well as special um functions that mean so much to our students that we can't necessarily afford out of our budget. So, without the work of the men and women in in all of those organizations, we would not have many of the special programs that our students and teachers enjoy so much. So, we do appreciate you. We know you put in long hours. There's no pay involved. Um, and it's not always easy to rally folks to to come to a fundraiser or to come to an event, but uh we don't know what we would do without you and the work that you do. So, thank you very much. And I'll turn
004it over to vice chair for any further comment. >> So, uh, we have proclamations for every school, elementary and middle and SEPTO. Um, so those present tonight can come up, but each one will say in recognition of your generous support and dedication to our students, staff, and community, thank you for all you do. We appreciate you. Um, so obviously a small token, but um, if anyone wants to come up, feel free. I know I see. >> Absolutely. She's been a double duty here, everyone. This is her share. Thank you. >> Of course, we'll do. Do you want to do a picture? >> We'll do a picture. >> Yeah, you got >> And then we'll see who's online. >> And this is what >> Oh, wonderful. Thank you. Wait, wait, come on up. >> Photo up.
005>> Is anyone online? >> Let me take a peek. Do we have any PTO or pack or septto members online? hear that we do. >> I don't see any online. >> All right. Well, I will open it up for board comment if anyone wants to say anything. Mr. Newton, >> I can say this. I've attended Mr. Lambert's and Martin Kellogg. have attended John Patterson's, John Wallace's without the parents, me, mothers and fathers and partners. Um, a lot of things would not be accomplished because I've done it as a parent. People just don't follow up. They, oh, let's go, let's go, let's go. And then you're the only one standing there doing something. So, but the kids do appreciate it because I do see them every day going going to school and then you know when
006it's a special day because the kids definitely let you know. So, thank you for all you do. >> Miss Beatatric, >> um I might be able to speak for other people around this table. I think some of uh for some of us or many of us, our first introduction to the public schools was um as a PTO, PTA or PAC volunteer and so we got a front row seat to all the special activities and and really generous appreciation events for our staff and our students. We sometimes forget that um people are working really really hard and as Dr. Dr. Brummit alluded to um sometimes we want to do things but the the uh budget doesn't always allow us to do that and through the tireless work of the volunteers that have to make the phone
007calls, outreach to um other parents, businesses, um communication back and forth with the families, it wouldn't happen without the generous donation of of time and energy. And so for for many of us, it was really um our first introduction to our school community and what it takes to to make that community thrive and grow. So, thank you. >> All right. Well, and I'll just echo that. Thank you. I know I've seen you at a everyone at a couple different packs, PTO's and and Septto now too. Um, coming into the folds, I think really highlighting the importance of our special education parents as well. Um, is there Sam online? Okay, Sam, go ahead. Hey, I just wanted to uh briefly like thank um the PDO, PDA, Septto. I mean, it's you know, it's volunteer work. Uh
008it's labor of love. So, really appreciate what you all do. Thank you so much. >> Awesome. Yeah. And um just want to say thank you um to those who I know will probably watch it later cuz all of our PTO parents are always online and doing a million things. Um we often have like everyday heroes here and I think um it speaks to that of the dedication all of our parents and um all of our our extra uh family friends there that do so much outside of it. Um we obviously try and do our best with a budget but um there's always so many different things. I mean the school dances fairs literally the endless amounts of time and effort. Um and it's always wonderful to see too the collaboration between our families and our
009staff together um to see that collaboration. So, thank you every day for what you do. Um, it's this is just literally a plex, but please know it's much more than that. Um, all right. So, we'll move on to our NCTV appreciation as well. I think we have something on the screen. So, I have it up. >> Um, so, um, I'll just read off what our not proclamation, but our appreciation is. It says, "The board of education would like to acknowledge the NCTV staff for the support provided in communicating board of education meetings and various school activities to the public. It is a pleasure to turn to channel 14-16 to view programs relating to our school system. It is important for the school district to provide information to the community on the accomplishments and needs in
010Newington. Many members of the public have commented on viewing the presentations on channel 14 and 16. It is an additional step to foster greater communication between the schools and the community. And with that, the board would like to make a small donation to the organization. We sincerely appreciate your support. Is anyone here from NCTV tonight? They're on though >> literally. So, thank you to NCTV. >> We'll give it. >> All right. So, we will move on to public participation on any ma matter related to board responsibilities. If you are here in person, you can go to the end mic. Um, we limit comments to four minutes to keep the mooding meeting going. Um, and just state your name and address and feel free >> and if you're online, Mr. Chararma. >> Hey, I just wanted
011to make a quick comment about NCTV. U just want to appreciate I mean I really appreciate what they all do. Um, especially um I think it's John JD John Donahghue and then of course I miss Patty. I miss Patty. Um, and I remember like being a new candidate, um, you know, going to NCTV and doing my interview and everything. So, we really, you know, we really appreciate what NCTV does for our town. So, thank you so much. >> Thanks, M. Sorry. All right. Go ahead. And sorry, I'm so sorry. You're going to just have to turn the mic when it turns green. That way, otherwise, no one outside can hear you. >> Got it. Got it. Okay. My name is Tina Nolton. Um, you need my my address is 10 Hillside Street, Newington. I've lived
012here for 23 years now. Um I've had kids in P in the Patterson district um since 2006 and still currently this is my second round. So I have one in second grade currently. I have one in uh fifth grade at Wallace as well. Um I work in the schools. I have this is my third year as an aid in the cafeteria. Um just to be present in the schools. Uh it was it's a much different environment than it was even 10 years ago when my older kids went to school. And I see some familiar faces from when my older kids went to school. Um and that's why I'm here today. I don't know if it's an awareness issue. I don't know if it is something that is just slipped through. I'm not sure where the
013source of the issue is, but there's it's drastically different. I know CO did a number on the schools. I know that we haven't come back from that and maybe that's the reason why parents are so not in involved and informed but there are a def definitely a different feel altogether. Um I know that change is inevitable. I'm I'm all for it most of the time but not in this direction. I feel like with the announcements of the budget, you keep referencing, which I think is ironic because we have you you've mentioned what we're budgeted for and what the PTO does and everything that we supplement and and and we're happy to do it. I've been involved with my older ones, I'm as involved with my younger ones. Um so it is a lot of work
014and we do a lot as parents but at the same time if appreciation for the parents of SECO and the PTO and everything is what you're trying to um express what we are all asking for is more support in the schools um as far as support staff paras my oldest daughter is a special education parah in green um they are desperate for people now currently with the numbers that they have with the special education students and the kids that need support in our schools. I talk to teachers. I also bartend in town. I talk to teachers from all over and from every school. They're all saying the same things. And I I hope that the board of ed is aware that the budget allocated raises for admins for five years and we don't have enough
015paras for the students currently in not to mention the kids that are coming up and everybody knows the numbers. If I know the numbers, I'm sure you know the numbers of the kids that are coming in. If you want to show appreciation, give their kids what they need. I mean, I think everybody here is here to serve the community and to serve the children and to serve the schools. And I don't think that's what this budget did. I think it served administration and non-instructional staff and that's not who needs it the most. And I don't know how in good conscience that can continue. I don't know how you can justify it in any way, but it can't happen. This can't stand. We won't be able to sustain it. I think you guys know that. I
016think you have an opportunity to make changes however that plays out. I mean, the board of eds, if I'm correct, is here to keep the checks and balances in place. So, wherever this accountable accountability has to lie, it has to go somewhere. And and in order for any changes to be made, that has to be taken first. You can't teach accountability if you don't take it. But I think everybody here has to be aware that it's not going as well as it could. We're losing support staff to Berlin simply because they offer more money per hour and benefits. We're losing staff to Weathersfield just because they get paid time off, eight days off. That's okay. Yeah, we're losing staff to all the other and I I went through this already. I have m I knew
017moms with my older kids who got jobs in the school so they could have the schedule they needed to be with their families have have the extra income but also be available to raise their families and they left immediately to continue being paras to continue doing it but in other towns and if Newington wants to keep the staff that we have that actually care that whose kids are in the schools that they're are personally invested I don't know how less appreciation you can go than how they're being treated. Now, so if if appreciation is what you want to express to your staff and to your community and to the parents of the kids with special needs, my son is special needs and Wallace, I understand what it takes, but you want to show appreciation, provide
018the support that they need. The money is there. It shows because of the raises that everybody has given themselves. >> Thank you. All right. Sorry, we got to just move on. So, we can do that. Um, and we will get a response to you and I think we'll also I'm sure in budget updates have an update on those things. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Miss Capella muted >> Miss Capella. Not anyone else. Going once, twice. >> Oh, she just raised it again. >> Can't see. >> I wonder if she's >> Miss Capella, can you unmute yourself? one more time. No, I'm just going to keep the meeting going. We can come back to public participation. >> Nothing. >> She's raising her hand, but we can't unmute her. Can you can you do anything? >> Okay.
019>> She is unmuted. >> Audio is working. >> Looks like she might have gone out of the meeting. Maybe she's going to go out and come back in. Yeah. No, she's still there. Yeah. Yeah, you can't There. Oh, there we go. All right. Now, we did have two citizens that were waiting to comment. Can someone try their audio? >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, that Yes, that's Miss Capello. >> Perfect. Yes. I thought it was on my end. >> No, it was our our end. So, I'll turn it back to board chair, but I believe you're up for public comment. >> Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Okay, thank you so much. Um, I just wanted to talk a little bit about addressing the funding for uh the benefits for pair professionals. Um, obviously everyone knows
020that these employees play a vital role in our schools and every day by supporting students and assisting teachers and helping maintain successful um classrooms environments. Uh, Newington right now is currently the only surrounding town that does not provide these benefits and I really believe that it's something that we really should seriously consider correcting. At the same time, I do recognize that funding these benefits comes with a financial impact. Um, that means that the board of ed must really carefully review spending priorities and look at efficiencies within the current budget. I believe areas such as uh IT spending, athletics, administrative growth, uh consolidating uh uh directorships and limiting increases and contractual obligations should all be evaluated. I also know that um the state provided over 928 one-time funding to the board of education. And while that's
021helpful, this money really shouldn't be used for ongoing operational expenses like the PAR uh professional benefits. using these temporary funding for permanent costs should really um it really does create financial problems in the future years uh where money can no longer when the money is no longer available and um I really want to stress as a town council member to really consider passing um this for the pair of professionals. We really took this into consideration when we proposed our budget for the board of ed and we included enough funding to allow that. Uh I really hope and believe um that we all ex our expectation was that the board of ed would go back and and prioritize these needs through responsible budgeting decisions. Um you know this is a great way to find a nice
022balance supporting our students and pair professionals while also maintaining fiscal responsibility for the newton taxpayers. Um I thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you. Was there anyone else that was trying to speak for public participation? >> She had at one point she messaged that she just was test. All right. If anyone else would like to speak, please raise your hand or come to the head of the table. I'm seeing none. So, we can move on to our consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Thank you. We have a motion in a second. Is there any discussion on the the minutes from April 22nd or May 6? >> I have one question. >> Go ahead, Mr. >> We looked when we looked at the uh meeting minutes, it only showed one
023vote, but the one online shows both votes, but the ones that were sent out to everybody, it don't I don't think they printed the last page on the back side. I want to make sure that both votes are on the ones we're approving. >> If they're online, those are the ones that we should approving. We can confirm if you want to go online >> online did. Yes. But not the ones I got at home. So, >> so that's why I was looking at it. Okay. Thank you. That was >> No problem. All right. Um, we have a motion, a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Consent agenda approved. How many are here? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, zero. Mr. Holler, absent. All right. My favorite part of the
024evening. >> All right. As the board knows, we spotlight some of our initiatives related to our strategic plan and the school school and district improvement plans at each board meeting or nearly every board meeting. Tonight, I'm uh pleased to introduce Mr. Jason Lambert. he will bring forward some students and I believe Miss uh Deavi to talk about a kindness tree. So I'm going to boot up that presentation and we'll let you take it over. So at the end of the table you can be joined by the students and whoever else you'd like to have >> here. Okay. >> Absolutely. >> On the green button. >> There we go. >> That means I'm going to have to read this from here. That's exciting. >> All right. All right. Thank you, Mr. Appreciate that. Um, well, good
025evening everyone. This is an awesome time for us as as a school and it's an opportunity uh that you give us that we deeply appreciate and that's the opportunity to showcase the good things and uh it's our moment to um remind our board of education, you know, of of why we do the things that we do and uh and the timing is perfect. Prior to this, the many of you um had the opportunity to participate in our art recognition program and I think the stars are in alignment because we had our art rec recognition program tonight and we're also honoring our PTO and what our Kellogg presentation is this year is a combination of those efforts and that is through our kindness tree and it is a PTO and um collaboration with our building based
026seal committee um with students and we are very excited to tell you about the journey that we had this year that was graciously sponsored uh by our awesome uh PTO. Shout out to Kelly Butler who's going to be completing her final year as our PTO president. Um and uh she left with a bang. So we're really excited for her. Okay, so the overarching what it is is a kindness tree. Um we have as part of our um efforts this year to not just recognize kindness. These are things that we've done in the past where we look for opportunities to recognize students doing good things whether it's giving a token or some type of gesture. We spent time as a team at the beginning of the year trying to find a way that we could create
027really a testament of it where it does provide an opportunity for staff to recognize students more importantly as they're kind of coming into their own students to recognize each other uh for things that they do uh throughout the course of the school day. The kindness uh tree is a living recognition system designed to celebrate students um who go out of their way to show empathy, inclusion, and care. And that includes student nominated acts of kindness, a visible hallway recognition, and then a collaborative ultimately schoolwide mural that we're excited to share with you tonight. So, our origin story. So phase one started at the onset of the school year with our social and emotional learning committee. We wanted to find a way to do more than just recognize students for doing good things, you know, showing
028the big three at Martin Kellogg, but also have students internalize that and seek out opportunities to recognize that in each other. The second phase was to go ahead and um bring on students to get their feedback around that. And that was one of the things that were incredibly impactful where students at the mid in grades five through eight. You know, of course they're they're quick to say, "Yeah, I love it to get validated by a teacher or for nominated for student of the month. I get a Friday roar from Mr. Lambert going home to parents and things like all these are all things that they liked." But they took it a step further to say it would be even more impactful to get those types of accolades and recognition for the exact same types of
029things but from my peers and for doing things that we're trying to u do with each other. So then we started thinking about ways uh to help you know foster that and to kind of grow that. The next phase was to ask our PTO and to pitch the idea uh for this kindestry. We had some students come to our PTO uh because if I want to ask for money for the PTO, I ask. If I want to ask for a lot of money for the PTO, I have the students ask. And um and it was not a a huge uh lift because we were gifted this year, and I'm going to say this very publicly uh because she wouldn't say it herself. We have an amazing art teacher, Mrs. Laura De La who joined us
030this year and has created um a environment that not just promotes art but promotes humanities. The vibe in her classroom is awesome and she was the person to step up and do it. So uh she would never say that about herself. So I'm excited to say that on her behalf. Uh so then I mentioned the idea and she was all in. And uh and then finally we began um offering students for art club to go ahead and participate in the creation of the mural. And you're going to see this tonight. This is not a um we've had visiting artists in the past that have done some work with students. Our students this year have had a heavy hand in the creation of this mural and we're really really proud of it. And the students are
031too. Uh because it's one thing to have a mural but to have a reflection of student work and art and talent is amazing. hit the next one. So, uh before we begin, um the uh there's obviously some excitement with students um hand in this, but we also wanted to kind of give a perspective of how teachers see this in uh the potential of it. Um how it influences our school culture. Um how we're seeing some work around social and emotional learning being part of the living experiences at Martin Kellogg Middle School. And then also how that promotes in of itself engagement in in the classroom. Students being made to feel that they can take risks, that they know that they have allies within the school, that they're seen and heard and recognized. So what I
032want to start with is to get some perspective from two teachers. One's Jen McGawan and the other one is uh Sher Naidu um who are um have a heavy hand in our SEAL work and they wanted to take just a few minutes to talk about the staff perspective of this work. on this kindness tree. It's really been a great opportunity to see all the small moments that are acknowledged. You don't always get to be around the building and see different students. But reading these nominations has been a great opportunity to really hear about all different students and their skills of being able to connect and try and help their peers. And it's been really great to be able to reward these students also and show and uh acknowledge their moments of kindness and really, you
033know, kind of give them like the hero praise that they deserve. and being able to nominate students that may not get recognized in other ways, whether it be academically, um to be able to see a student treat a peer, maybe a peer with a disability, um in a very kind and equal way. And being able to put their names on one of these kindness circles and have them be recognized has been a nice way for us to see all different types of students recognized. Okay. So, it is one thing to be someone to recognize whether you're an adult or student to recognize someone else, but it's a whole another level, to be someone that is responsible for creating a venue for that to happen. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce our art
034teacher, Mrs. de la and some student artists that were responsible for this awesome work. >> Hello, my name's Laura Deave. Um, I have just a quick little speech about how um the mural came together. Um, so when Mr. Lambert approached me. Oh, if you click to the next um yeah, it shows some pictures of the kids working. When Mr. Lambert approached me to paint the kindness tree mural, he showed me a small wall near the cafeteria where the tree could be painted. And as I was brainstorming ideas, I began to consider where the tree would sit on the wall. And I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice if it was growing out of some grass? And then I thought, well, if there's grass, there should be a sky. And if there's a sky, maybe, you
035know, like a bright yellow sun. And then suddenly I thought, we need more wall. So I brought the idea to my art club students who suggested using the larger wall that's across from the auditorium. And um Mr. Lambert immediately said, "Yes, go for it." And side note, he was just as enthusiastic and encouraging throughout the entire mural painting process. Um, so thank you. Thank you. >> When designing the layout for the mural, I knew I wanted it to be clear, simple, and bright. Using big blocks of color with minimal shading and tiny details meant that the kids could actively help paint most of the mural. I also wanted to make full use of the space and bring energy and color to the area. And with those ideas in mind, I created a sketch which was
036approved by Mr. Lambert SEAL committee and the PTO and the art club. and I got to work. Here's a short video of our progress from start to finish. What's happening? Heat. down. Heat. Heat. Heat. I have Oh, thank you. Good job, ladies. I have Melenna. If you want to go to the next slide, it shows their beautiful pictures >> which they don't like. I have Melenna, Skyler, and Calie. These are three students that helped me the most through the many weeks of painting. Um, and they're here to share a few words about the experience. >> We took our time painting it carefully and made sure it wasn't rushed or sloppy. We worked over many weeks and ruined much of our clothing. But we wanted to make something that our whole school could be proud of
037and would appreciate. When I was chosen for a kindness circle, I felt really happy because I wasn't trying to get a reward. I was trying to help a girl out. Then I heard my name on the morning announcements and it felt really nice. My name will also be added to the mural we painted. My hope is that other kids will see it and want to be kind to people too so they could be on the mural someday. We hope everyone sees it because the bright happy colors make the hall look nice. A lot of people will see it because it's next to the lunchroom, gym, and auditorium. We hope lots of leaves get added to the tree every year. We want the kindest tree to stay at Pellog for a long time and keep being
038a tradition even when we are in high school. How cool is that? >> So, why it matters? um above and beyond that you know in talking about the um the impact that we've had so far. So we just finished the mural recently um we have had 140 nominations coming from students and um with our work right now much of what we do is centered on improving a healthy school culture and in climate where kids can thrive. Um, as many of you maybe have experienced, the transition from elementary school to middle school is different, you know, and in terms of engaging them and finding things that they're going to be interested in. It requires a high level of opportunities to promote student agency where they feel as though they have a say and they're coming into
039their own. This is a great testament to that. Kids are stopping and checking this out every day on the way to lunch and wellness, you know. So, um, our opportunity to impact our school climate, we're excited about it. We're going to be surveying some students at the end of the year to get some feedback around that. Uh because this isn't just a mural. It's a datadriven approach to improving school culture by focusing on positive uh behaviors we want to see and grow and replicate. So this is the final product when it was done and the next slide has it populated. So all of these are notes written from one student to the other uh that are vetted and then uh posted um that and every leaf tells a story of a student choosing to make
040someone else's day better. It's a daily visible testament to our school's commitment uh to empathy, inclusion, and a supportive community. And we wanted to take the opportunity to thank the board for helping to sponsor and create opportunities like this. Thank you everybody. Thank you for the presentation. Board members, do we have any comments or questions for our presenters? Miss Beatric, go ahead. >> Um, just I'm totally blown away by how beautiful the artwork was, how beautiful the design is and the inspiring message. Um, sometimes we forget how um incredibly important art can be. Um, bad days, good days, celebration days. And when you see something like this that is so visually stunning and the effort that went into it is just I have like no words for it. But when you think about what it
041stands for and how the the the growth will continue for um definitely grade after grade after grade of our students that will be um coming through and appreciating it. Also too when parents come for activities and events and they they stop and they look at it and they ask what is this? and to know that it is something that is celebrating kindness and how we treat each other and how we think about each other. It keeps um a good uh communication going in the car on the way home. I noticed that beautiful mural when I came in to see your concert. Is your name on there? You know, I mean that that kind of thing. So, you know, these are the kinds of conversations that that we want to continue to go because again, kindness
042counts and when we talk about how we recognize and celebrate our students, it can be in a variety of different ways. But this is a more permanent testament to that. So, thank you so much for all of your hard work and the work that you continue to do to inspire all the the students that are in your school right now, but also the ones that are coming after you guys. Beautiful job. >> Um, I think Mr. Mr. Chararma had his hand up and then we can go. >> Hi. >> Yeah, I just wanted to quickly thank Mr. Lambert, teachers, students. What a great, beautiful idea. You know, I really appreciate it and I loved it. Thank you so much. >> Miss Bzy, >> love how excited you guys were to paint it and seeing the
043pictures of you guys doing the work. That was awesome. Seeing you guys nice and comfortable and the shoes off and just enjoying yourselves and each other. Um, and I love the idea. I have one question. What What happens when they get filled up? Is are you going to rotate the names out? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So, the go >> turn on that. Yeah. Go to the mic. >> Yeah. Come. >> So, like when all of like the leaves like are gone, we add more and stuff and then I think Do we pile them? We maintain a pile of them and a list of the kids are nominated and then we replenish it every month. >> Yeah. And then we just put more up every single month because a lot of people are kind to
044other people. >> The leaves can come off. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. I love it. You guys did a great job. Thank you, >> Mr. Newton. I I think it's a it's it's a very simplistic idea that it that catches the catches their attention, catches the adults attention. I mean, I keep looking at it. We're in our 250th year and I keep seeing the Charter Oak Tree when I look at that just like the back of the quarter, but that's part of our foundation. You know, the kids have to know where we came from and what we're about and they have to put roots in the community. That's what it boils down to. And kindness is a very important part of that. Thank you, >> Miss Weaver. I think my office could use one of these.
045Um, it's so surreal. Uh, I could see it because, um, I walked those halls now many years ago. Um, and there were some cool stuff, but we were still in like the 70s brick era, so there was not, it's a little darker brick. There wasn't this. Um, and yeah, I'm jealous of you guys to go when they you have this. Um, and I know my cousins will will go in two years and it'll be really great for them to have this. Um, so as someone who was a student, I know there's going to be so many students that will get to see this in the years to come and that's so amazing. Um, so thank you guys for putting in the time and effort cuz I know you guys stayed after school to do this,
046right? And um, to see how good it is. I mean, wow. Um, and I love seeing a little Marty the Lion in there, too. So, some school pride. Um, so it's going to be I know that hallway very well. Um, so I know a lot of people will get to see that and that's very cool that you get to do that not only for um your classmates now but all the classmates in the future. So thank you to our wonderful art teacher Mr. Leela. That's really awesome. Um, but thank you to our students and also presenting so well and being exceptional examples of what good Newington public school students done. And part of our portrait of the graduate is being good citizens. And I think part of that is kindness. So you guys are already
047well on your way. Um, and I'm sure we can probably fill that. I love the different color leaves, the little polka dot style. Um, very very kind of chic. I like that. Um, so, uh, thank you guys for doing all of that cuz I know a lot of the students, um, will benefit from that, too. So, congratulations, too, because, um, that's your first big art one. I don't know many who do your we we have these smaller versions of art tonight, but your first big piece is already there. So, you know, call us when you guys are selling your galleries and stuff, okay? But, great job everyone. Dr. Stanley, >> uh, thank you so much for the presentation and I just want to give a shout out to the committee that came up with these
048ideas and the PTO and Mr. Lambert and our art teacher. Um, what an amazing just visual reminder to express gratitude and appreciation every single day. I think in this busy world, we kind of can forget the small things matter and this is just a wonderful large visual reminder to appreciate everybody around you because it does take a village and it is you're not alone in this world. You're not alone in this school and everybody has your back. Um, and it's just wonderful. So, thank you for sharing, >> Mr. Skeo. >> So, I went to Kellogg a couple of years ago. same time. >> Yeah. Right. And uh I wish we had this um sort of thing when I went to school because we really didn't. It was sort of you're on your own type of
049thing. So this is really nice to see. And um the kindness tree is should be also carried out out of the school and in into the world. So, I I really believe that's really teaching the students um a good a good measuring stick on on how to treat other people out in the world, too, as well as school. So, great job. Commend you. Thank you. >> Thank you. And um did I hear that your names get announced when you're nominated? Is that what you said? Yeah, that's awesome. That's really cool. Um I hope that everybody does nominating but also is kind and and gets nominated themselves. It's a very big honor. So, thank you for bringing that to us. And um I'm sorry, Da What's Dea Yave? >> Da Yave. Um my daughter had you
050cycle one, Zoe. Um and she just had nothing but great things to say. So, Martin Cog is extra super lucky to have you as a new art teacher and obviously for this beautiful mural. Thank you so much for the work that you put into it and I love that you guys are a part of the art club. That's super cool. I'm sure you do a lot of other fun stuff when you're not busy painting murals. Um but that's a really cool thing to get involved and to be a part of that. It's really neat. Um and then I just wanted to I see um Miss Meiser is on on the line and we would love to officially congratulate u Miss Meiser on her official um >> appointment promotion. um as uh assistant principal at Kellogg.
051So also very lucky to have Miss Meiser there um as a assistant principal for the officially um so welcome. And then just want to say also too um Mr. Lambert was part of the um I was uh lucky enough to be on the um parent board and Mr. Lambert did a great job facilitating the interviews and and everything for the assistant principles. There was some very um good competition there. Um, we had good candidates, internal candidates, which was very nice to um to see. And unfortunately, we didn't have multiple, well, we had two positions, but we didn't have four positions open, but the candidates that um were there were excellent. So, and thank you, Mr. Lambert, for helping facilitate that process and everyone else who did it. It was very interesting. It was a very
052good process. But anyways, um yeah, thank you so much for being here and good work. I cannot wait to see this in the school finished. I think I saw it like in progress a little bit ago, but um very very excited to see it in person and it's a great idea and thank you to our PTO. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, and just thank you to our parents, too. You guys have some real talents here. >> Keep us in mind when we're looking for more art, you know. Mr. Lambert might run out of wall space for murals. Got a couple couple going on. >> I love it though. It's very nice. It reminds me of the the old one that used to be at Reynolds. >> Oh, >> yeah. Yeah. Moving on.
053All right, Dr. Rammit, you are presenting. Thank you so much. >> Um, your goals and end of the year update. >> Well, thank you very much and thank you to our Martin Kell presenters as well. Fabulous job as always. Um this time of year you um the board hears from me with a little update on the progress of u the goals set for the district which are essentially my goals and uh so I want to provide you an update just a quick review of the process for our newer board members um that tonight is is the night where I'm sharing a verbal year in review um where I've kind of assessed how I've progressed with my team through a variety of goals for the district. And then on June 10th, the board will have a
054chance to deliberate in executive session. Uh my Sal will be reaching out to see if people would prefer before the board meeting or after to uh deliberate on my evaluation. And then shortly thereafter, the board issues a written um or verbal draft performance evaluation. um the then within the executive session to share that draft evaluation and then once it's finalized it is uh subject to FOI and it the board would also vote on my contract during that executive session. Um that needs to be all of these milestones need to be reached by July 1st, 2026. So I'm just by no means am I going to cover everything that's gone on this year. I'm kind of highlighting a few things and then there'll be further updates as more data comes in. But tonight, I just like
055to spotlight some of the things that are kind of present and happening. Um I believe the board is aware that the school-based health center is receiving a grant of $159,000. There'll be a check presentation ceremony Friday at 11:00 and everyone is welcome from the board is welcome to attend. extended an invitation as well to uh town stakeholders. Uh that grant will allow us to continue our current programming as well as add another day for the APRN. The other thing that's exciting is because this uh grant that has been solicited from um our legislative team up at the state um and they'll be at the check presentation ceremony on Friday, but it has no parameters. So unlike the grant that we originally wrote, all the services had to be provided to high school students, this allocation
056allows us to serve any student. So um Miss Heatherington, our nurse supervisor, will be working with her fellow nurses districtwide to make sure the students most in need have access to this school-based health center um until we can expand it to other schools. But at least we're going to maximize the uh way that this money is utilized. I would like to add to that the schoolbased health center will be opening at the end of August prior to the start of school so that the APRN can administer uh immunizations and physicals so that no student misses any school due to lack of those things. So this is a huge uh win for the district. I did provide some statistics as well about how many students um have been served and um you know this is just
057a snapshot in time. I'm sure that the visitations have gone up but for uh just to refresh everyone's memory the schoolbased health center includes uh social work services 4 days per week at the high school and an APRN who's currently two days a week at the high school that will expand to three days per week next year. And as I mentioned, because the grant has uh more flexibilities, it can receive students from any school. Um, our preschool continues to expand. If I had more space at Chaffi this year, I absolutely could have justified a second section of the full day program at Chaffi. We just don't have any room there. Uh we have offered spots to uh Chaffi students at uh Patterson which many have uh availed themselves of but the enrollment has quadrupled in
058six years. Um it's a very robust program and I do hear reports from teachers that they do see kids from coming in from our program as very ready for kindergarten. Um so we continue to to support that program and we are also trying to get the care for kids up and running. Um there's been some real challenges with that at the state level, but we're still working on that. We also have um K4 extension program expansion. This year we opened a site at Chaffi. We are now in the process of writing a grant that the state just released for special education expansion. The Chaffi program was expanded due to the seed grant. There's now a program expansion grant that the state just opened I believe today. So, we are writing a grant for a K4
059extension uh program at Patterson. Uh as I look at the potential students that will be served by that program, they're already full. Um so, it's um and you'll see in a minute when I look at share about the special education statistics that our special education population continues to grow here in Newington. As the board knows, we we opened up a bilingual program at Wallace this year, but across the district, we just got word that 48 students have exited those programs. In other words, they've tested at a proficient level so that they no longer require those direct services. Um, and that's exactly what we want to have happen. So they attain the language proficiency and then they don't require that level of support and they're able to, you know, have a success in our curriculum just
060like everybody else. Some more points of pride that I am thankful to Kristen who helped me pull some of these together. Um the seal of biiteracy um is where we have students who become proficient in one or more languages prior to graduation. This year we have 53 students who have earned that designation in six different languages. Some students have earned it in more than uh one language. They've earned it in several languages. And we've just been notified we are in the top 20 for the state of students attaining the seal of bi literacy. Um, our grade 8 performance has been the highest um since uh in ELA and math since 2018 and in the NGSS since 2019. We're eagerly awaiting um the data for this year to see how that trend continues. But I wanted
061to put that out there so we can look at that again when more data becomes available. SAT data is in for this year and the class of 2027 exceeded the target mean growth in both English uh reading and writing and math. We continue to score above the state. And uh another big goal for the district is to close opportunity uh gaps. I don't have data yet from the SBA exam, but when it we look at SAT data, especially in the area of ERW, English reading and writing, we show a closure of the gap for black students and a decrease in the gap for Hispanic students. So, those are big milestones. Uh obviously, we never our work is never done until everyone is achieving at or above the district standard, but we are making some meaningful
062progress. And I wanted to point this out to you. I I do see quite a bit of stability in Newington in terms of many of our measures with the exception of special education. This year alone we jumped up almost a full over a full percentage and um you know we're unpacking that data. Uh even when I met with our special education director Marilina a couple of days ago she was surprised but we did have several uh substantial number of special education students move into the district. Um, and with that comes a specialized program that needs to be provided. You'll look at the other measures though, our 504 students, our ML students, our free and reduced lunch. Those are all very stable. Um, and our open choice has been well the same. That's for this school
063year. So, um, but our big number to watch there is special education. That is a statewide trend and we continue to look at that to find out, you know, how to make sure we're not going up, you know, at an alarming rate. But we do see that our kids are coming in with pretty significant needs. That's why growing the programs such as the K4 extension that I mentioned on the previous slide is critical because without that, children would potentially have to go to very expensive out of district placements which start at approximately $100,000 per student. What? >> Per year per student. >> Can I just ask a question? Um and I'm sure you don't have the data now, but is um you had mentioned that um students moving into district. Is that um contributing to
064that full percentage point increase or are there students I'm sure there's students that are being identified as special education that are currently in district. So like um I guess just an interesting person like how many students are existing students that were newly identified versus coming in. >> I believe I did look at that. It's it's about 5050. And ironically, as we looked at it, um we did have kids exiting special ed. So, that's also a goal is they become proficient and no longer require those intensive services. But it's uh based on this data and our analysis of what we currently have. As fast as they're exiting, we have others either qualifying or moving in who require special education. Um so we have that's something we're watching very carefully. Um I know um I'll mention on
065a subsequent slide what we're trying to do with our um multid-discipline systems of support to hopefully in some cases prevent special education. But that's not always possible, especially students who have more involved needs. >> Um, Mr. Newton has a question too. >> I had one I had one question on that. What What is the percentage of our choice students that are special ed, but we get reimbursed for that? Correct. >> We do get reimbursed uh that typically the number of students coming in from open choice who require special ed services is around 20%. So that is probably a contributing factor >> total for the time. >> Yeah, it definitely is a contributing factor. But yes, we are reimbursed uh for those services directly from Hartford. >> Is that fully reimbursed or >> fully reimbured minus
066we also do get regular ed costs for all students. So for special education students, we get full reimbursement minus the reimbursement the state gives us for the regular ed cost. So we deduct approximately 8,000 per student. This year, we're slated to receive uh close to $ 1.9 million in special education reimbursement from Hartford. >> Thank you. >> And this is also another demographic that remains pretty stable relative to our um percentages of race ethnicity throughout the district. We're holding steady at about 49% white. Our Hispanic population is holding steady about 28%. Asian. All of these numbers on this slide are very stable. They have not changed in a couple of years. And again, as mentioned earlier, we're not going to stop our work until all students are maintaining their high performance and meeting and exceeding
067district standards. And we're also increasing the performance of students who are currently performing below district standard. So, it's really something that we're working on for all students. We we don't want a performance gap. We still have it. We're hoping to show even more shrinkage of it this year, but it's something that we have to constantly keep our eye on um to make sure all of our students are prepared for life after after our school system. And the board should has has seen the strategic plan focus before. As you can see by that end date, we're probably looking at another strategic planning session next spring. Um but we are focused on three pillars. culturally relevant pedigogy aka academics, the discipline and seal pillars. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about what each of those
068has accomplished this year. And as the portrait of a graduate, which I've memorialized on this um what do we call these little signs? Um so that they're visible to everybody because these have been in in play for quite some time. We continue to assess them throughout the um school year at all of our grade levels. But I think a lot of times I think when we have presenters coming to the board, you can see how our students are amazing communicators. Uh we saw both in our art presentation tonight as well as in our um presentation from Kellogg. And we are working on the citizen aspect of it about how they treat each other, how they perform in their schools. And we're also pre presenting children with rigorous instruction so that they are thinking um throughout
069the school day and analyzing very challenging work. So here's some very brief overview of progress. Um our discipline and pillars are managed by Dr. Haristen and Tamar Wong. Um our school climate plans uh our goal was to develop them at every school and that has been done. Every school has a school climate plan that is living. It's re revised continuously and we are supporting students um who present with challenging behaviors. There's a form this year that the state required the challenging behavior form and it's designed to make sure that children who have those challenges are met with the proper supports. And I did speak with uh Miss Wong this afternoon about her impression of has this helped students relative to getting more support for challenging behaviors. And based on what she is seeing, and she
070analyzes this data all the time, the answer to that question is yes, she is seeing those supports in place. Not only does she look at data, but she'll uh help each school with their school climate plan along with Dr. Haristen. um help them look at data, help them look at challenging behaviors and provide them support for how that can be uh ameliated throughout every school. So she goes to every school along with Dr. Harrison to implement this work. The laws that were um required under our discipline pillar also provide that parents and students have to have a role in school climate improvement efforts. So each school climate team does have a parent representative on it. And we also have uh and student voice and students are part of that at the upper levels. And we
071also have done surveys throughout the year which include students and parents as well as obviously staff members. But some of our schools have taken it to the next level by uh having students participate in what's called affinity groups. So students of similar background um race or ethnic backgrounds are pulled in and interviewed um and asked how their school experiences are going. And we have learned a lot about that through the schools that are doing that. And um one school has pulled these groups together several times per year so that they can see um and I will be honest the kids don't always have positive comments and we take that seriously. you know, what can we do to improve our school climate and culture for you as a student? So, student voice is alive and well
072uh throughout all of these efforts and um I think it's important that we take their feedback and make those adjustments for their so that they are having a good experience. Our systems and structures as I mentioned earlier what's called a multi-tered system of support. Um, we are working on both the academic and behavioral aspects of that. They've always been in Newington, but I I think could really use some refinement which we've begun in earnest this year. Um I have attended many of these team meetings throughout the year and they are really looking very um closely at student data progress monitoring students developing behavior support plans to make sure students have every opportunity to be successful. So while I believe our systems still have more work to do, they are really um becoming better at serving
073students. And I think one of the things I I've worked at at the state level on a committee that's deeply looking at special education um identification rates and one of the best ways to prevent over identification of special education is to have robust MTSS systems. Um and I think that is something that will continue to grow here in Newington so that our students um only enter into special education if they absolutely have a significant need. Um lastly, we are we've built our infrastructure and every school is delivering embedded lessons in social emotional learning. And that by embedded I mean it's it's not a set aside model. It's throughout the day teachers are reminding students and I think you saw the example with the tree example today of what are positive behaviors acknowledging kids who exhibit
074them giving stu students lessons and coping mechanisms or you know even how to be a a stronger student study habits all of those things come into play when we talk about SEAL uh work and that is something that is also going to be measured by um survey data which is currently being compiled I do not have that tonight. Uh the academic pillar is me is largely overseen by Beverly Lawrence, our director of curriculum and instruction and Kristen Freeman is obviously with us tonight, assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction. Um earlier this year and we have identified a theory of action about how to support our students and closing the gap. But we've also really asked our teachers to engage in cycles of inquiry. What that means is when things are not progressing in the classroom, what
075different strategies might you try and um again with the eyeball toward all students having engaging instructional experiences? And that's our theory that that is how students will progress toward grade level standards. And we've done this by a variety of things um including um observing classroom practices and PLC's and monitoring student performance. We've also have our Tuesday PL days. Uh teachers often have allowed us to videotape them teaching and then have offered allowed people to come in and learn from them or offer opportunity for us to give that teacher critical feedback and that takes a lot of risk-taking on the part of the teacher. But we are having more and more teachers who are amendable to that. We also have collegial visits where teachers go to each other's classrooms for a specific purpose and look at
076their systems and structures in their classroom. And often teachers find that very valuable and a great learning experience. And then we do rounds visits at least twice annually to every school. And our rounds visits um include all members of our central office team. And we go to schools, observe classrooms, PLC's and provide feedback to administration and coaches and teachers. So some of the updates from this pillar um at around mid year we realized and I'll get into a little bit more detail about it. We had a superintendent. I belong to a superintendent network and about 15 superintendents from around the state visited us and we asked them to give us feedback on our PLC work as well as our other um systems and structures in place. One of the things that they definitely noticed was
077we need to have a little bit more purpose and intentionality behind the PLC's. And their visit also included um interviewing administrators, coaches and teachers. So, it was a very comprehensive visit over the course of a pretty much a full school day and um we definitely felt at after that visit we needed to do a mid-year reset. Also, uh Kristen and Bev did make a lot of visits to PLC's to further inform that work. So, we identified that we need more training um on how to conduct what we call cycles of inquiry and also how to look at our courageous conversations framework with more intentionality. So that's going to be additional training that our administrators will get over the summer. Um again, rounds visits twice annually um along with formal observations and walkthroughs and those have
078helped us to provide principles with feedback on leadership moves. So when you see a practice in your school that's not going like it should or going as it should and you provide positive feedback, we want them to then provide that feedback to their staff. So it's it's it's a full circle approach and we're encouraging um them to do the feedback that's actionable and very descriptive so teachers know how to improve their practice like it's actually the rounds visits are named are actually made after a medical model of rounds where um you know doctors I won't tell I know you know what better than I do but it is around that observing practice and learning from that practice and improving practice and so it's based on a Harvard model but initially a medical model. And lastly,
079uh curriculum. There's been a lot of training through book studies and specific feedback on culturally relevant pedigogy. We have the board has seen our uh building thinking classrooms practices through presentations. Here we are constantly looking at our benchmark program, our new reading program to make sure it's being implemented with fidelity. And we have um Bev has uh worked tirelessly throughout this school year to develop math pilots for next year. So we're looking at K through four math. We're trying a couple of different programs at every grade level throughout the elementary um programs to see which one is best suited to um Newington. And I think you've heard through our other discussions about math that we believe that we need to have a better program at the elementary level in the area of math. So that
080will be piloted next year and that data will inform which program is the best one for our district. Yes. >> I just have a quick question for the PLC's. Um and so they weren't really being utilized correctly or there was room to improve. Um, and you said the admins were going to get a little more training on how to like implement it. Um, are there any champions in the school that are leading the PLC's that can kind of help everybody stay regrouped? Cuz with these trainings, I I find it difficult to maintain everybody at a certain level because it's easy to slide back into what's comfortable and what's easy and what becomes routine. >> And sometimes that can be helpful when you're implementing like a quality improvement process like this. No, you're absolutely correct. What
081we have noticed is without that people have slipped back because we've had a lot of training over the years. What we're going to do is a couple of things. One, train the trainer model this summer for some of the aspects of the PLC, but also Delt includes all of our central office uh administration, will be going out to schools more frequently. We've been doing the rounds visits and some intermittent visits, but I think we need to do that more frequently. So to your point, yes, more frequent touch points and having a train the trainer model that is in place at every school to keep that momentum going and the focus. >> Yeah, if you call them champions when they go in there, they really it like identifies and they take ownership of that role to
082as the training of the trainers. If you call them champions, okay, we have like epic champions at work and all this kind of stuff. >> PLC champions. >> Yeah, PLC champions. There might be a t-shirt in there somewhere. Can >> um can you just clarify? You didn't say it wasn't every single PLC. was not utilized or not being right. It was like certain like >> every school has highly functioning PLC's without a doubt >> but it's not consistent. So um you know having visited another school recently yeah I saw several examples of amazing functioning in the PLC's and some that had ways to go and and to earlier points we do have staff that retire and new people come in and not everyone is as well verssed in it and we have to make sure
083we're constantly providing everyone with that opportunity to learn and grow. Um, so yes, it's not we're not many way, shape, or form um in a, you know, very behind the eight-ball there, but we have enough we have room for improvement as always. All right, so quick uh just quick overview of some of these standards. I'm only going to highlight some of the new ones. Every other things that are not in bold are are not the repeats. So the superintendent network uh visit in February helped us review our practices with a critical lens. I will admit it was nerve-wracking for all of us to have superintendents from all over the state of Connecticut giving us feedback, but we felt like we do that to teachers when we go on a rounds visit. We need to walk
084the walk and talk the talk. So, it was a stressful situation, but it's been something we've reflected on for the last six or four or five months since they were here. The rest of that work I've already spoken to. Um we were uh recently nominated and acknowledged as the best one of the bestr run school districts uh by business view magazine. Um they interviewed uh myself uh Miss Freeman and Mr. Serno. They specifically wanted to spotlight um our infrastructure, some of the building projects that we've been able to accomplish. They wanted to spotlight our technology infrastructure which is very much ahead of the curve and some of our curricular practices. So we were interviewed um about a month ago and we will be featured in an article in Business View magazine in July. So once
085that's ready, I will certainly share that out. Um we've had a lot of we continue to work on grants. I've mentioned the um school-based health center grant. We've also did uh a grant called beyond the bell this year which is what a $100,000 grant um that was initiated by uh Miss Torres from uh Patterson where several of our schools ran after school programs which also featured some um civic programs and I think you saw the children that came in and did the presentation um about the work that they did for the humane society with some of those projects. So very successful, brought a lot of our families together and um many of our elementary schools benefited from that grant. Hopefully we'll have that opportunity again. I think uh the Wallace project is nearly complete. Um
086it's coming in on time and under budget. The last day of school for teachers, our small cadre of Wallace teachers will be moving into their new digs and then we will be ready for a ribbon cutting by the end of the summer. So, thanks to the board for all their support of that project. It's nice to see that come to fruition. Um, everyone is thrilled uh with the new uh the new structures in Wallace with one exception. The new wings have a few extra spiders that we weren't counting on. So, we're working on that. Uh I think they like new spiders like new things. The community um outreach and involvement, I'll I'll let that speak for itself there. And I am going to send the board this entire presentation after today. Um, and then my
087goal is always to provide the board with uh strong and solid communication through u all the updates you see here at board meetings as well as district initiatives. Um, anytime you reach out, I call you back or email you, whatever your preference is. I do want to make sure the board is wellversed on federal and state legislative updates. Um, any emergencies at schools, you're notified. And um obviously we we leverage conversations with our local and state leaders to make sure we have the support we need for our school system. And I won't get into some of the organizations I belong to, but I recently have been named to the um NSERT executive board, which is a national superintendent network that I've been a part of for quite a long time. And we, you know, bring
088problems of practice together. We hear some excellent speakers. And um so that executive board allows me opportunities to help plan the events for that um committee that I belong to. Um I don't have my superintendent feedback yet from the surveys. I spoke with Telicia as Foy earlier today. Those surveys are going out um at the end of the month. So I will not have that right away. I I don't know if I'll have it for the last board meeting, but I will present that to the board in the fall when during my goal setting. Um, we did have the required school climate surveys that we had to do this year. So, we didn't want to load up our teachers and families with the other surveys at the same time. So, the school climate surveys took
089precedent. The stakeholder surveys are going to go out, like I said, in about a week or so. Um, so the data that's up there is from last well the last however many years. And that is it. I'm trying to keep this brief. Um, more data and more outcomes to follow. um especially after we analyze our ESPA data, our survey data from all of our stakeholders, both our climate and family feedback. So, all of those will be forthcoming most likely to the board in the fall. Um so, I'll turn it back to board chair for any questions. >> Thank you. Um I'll just I just want to say that um thank you for all the work that you've done um this year and and the past six years. Seven how >> my seventh year. >> Seven
090years. Um, one thing I heard a lot throughout your presentation today was um, feedback basically and I just one of the things that I remember from my prior life in in corporate America was um, I took a training um, some sort of leadership training I think and it was um, the thing that stuck out was feedback is a gift. So, I really actually kind of heard that a lot several times from you and, you know, asking um students, asking staff members, asking other superintendent, just constantly looking for ways to improve and then giving that back to our teachers as well with the opportunities for them to have their classrooms taped or um other people observing their lessons and and providing feedbacks and the rounds visits. So, um, that was just something I really heard and
091I think that's a really good, um, thing that I'm going to take away from this is that you're just constantly looking for ways to improve and then constantly looking for ways to improve the district overall. So, I think that was um, I really thought that was a good good thing in there, Miss Weaver. Yeah. Just a question. Um appreciate the um superintendent sir right um do you recall the last time this district has done that and was it voluntary to we like asked to do this >> this with the superintendent evaluation >> the way we did that this time was very unique because we asked them to look at central office and the adult they came three years ago to Wallace but our focus at that time was the um >> equity practices at Wallace.
092This was really unique. We designed it in a very unique way um because we felt strongly that we wanted to look at our own practices. So it was a bit of a risk but we did it anyway. >> So just curious this is like a voluntary thing. >> It's voluntary. >> You know just want to put out shocker. It's not a state mandate. >> It's not mandated. We put ourselves out there and we were public about it too. We've mentioned it to our administrative team. I've mentioned to teachers because I think it's only fair that if we're asking them to receive feedback for improvement then we need to show them that we're and we've been very transparent. We didn't it wasn't all wine and roses. We did get some actionable feedback about how we could
093adjust. So that we didn't want to have people come in and just give us flowery praise. Uh we wanted to get some well they could >> hopefully you got some of that too. >> We did. Okay. >> But I mean the the what we wanted was you know how can we move our district to the next level? And this this group is also facilitated by um some very knowledgeable um leaders out of Harvard. So we've got some good leadership in that team and we had one um Jen Perry Chetum who's someone I've talked to many times about our district's problems of practice. She's a Harvard professor in education, but what I like most about her is she's a former superintendent, so she holds a lot of street cred. Um so she was here that day
094to lead the work. >> Awesome. And just curious before your tenure, do you know if that was ever done? >> Um, I don't think Newington was a member of the network um prior. >> Just curious. Thank you, >> Dr. Stanley. >> May I give you some feedback? It's always nice to ask permission, too. And feedback goes both ways. That's what I always say to my trainee. But um what I want to see more or what highlighted in the presentation is just how much of a force you are with these grants and how amazing that is for our districts. It's hard work to find them. It's hard work to make them come to fruition. As somebody who writes grants um and goes through the process, it's like going through pregnancy and giving birth. Like once it's
095finally done, right, it's a whole process. Like it's a big deal. and it's amazing and it's no wonder why we're being highlighted um in that magazine because the work that you do and the staff that you have that that does that is phenomenal and I just want to thank you for continuing to do that and advocating for us on legislation as well. Um I know that you speak very eloquently and um I can only imagine uh how much power is behind you and the committees that you're on. So thank you for looking out for us and doing that for us. We do have a nice partnership with some grant writers. >> Anyone else for comments? So, no, sorry, I should have paused. >> No comments. >> Yes. Um, so as Dr. Ram presented earlier, we
096um do have a subcommittee, an unofficial subcommittee to write the um the review like write up the I think it's the review, right? just write up the review and then and then written eval that's what the word I was looking for the evaluation um which we will discuss at our next meeting um so Miss Weaver if you don't mind leading that up again that would be fantastic I have so much time yeah >> happy to um Dr. Stanley. Okay, perfect. So, the two of you can collaborate together on that and um have it ready ideally before our next meeting and I can assist you if there's anything that I have so much free time right now on my hands. >> I did graduate. >> Are we going to do it before the next meeting? I
097think that's smarter. >> Yeah. Have it avail. >> Yes. So, we would have the that available prior to our meeting >> and then will we have the session as soon as we start the meeting go into executive or >> Yeah, we'll probably do it in >> the early half. I'm saying >> yeah, Sally was going to pull the board to see what was feasible for the majority of the board. >> Yeah, we'll probably have an executive session before the meeting if that works and then >> the regular meeting. >> All right. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Awesome. Great work to everybody across the district. >> Definitely a team effort effort without a doubt. That's what I hope I presented to the board that it's certainly not just me doing these things. >> Okay.
098New business. We have a healthy food certification. >> So, this is just an annual requirement. It does require board action. This allows us to keep in goodstead with all of our um reimbursement availability for the meals that we provide. So we have to adhere to these regulations. Um so there's a flowchart at the end of I don't know if they have it. There it is. Um, see if I can let that. But I think what the state requires is that we follow all these guidelines. If not, we're in at risk of losing or having some deductions made from our reimbursement for school lunches. So um this is the flowchart but um you know some of the other regulations that we have to adhere to are um we have a wonderful culinary program at the high
099school but we have regulations about time of day that students could access food there regulations about food availability at special events. So all of this is is mandated by the state. Um, again, all of it is so that we can make sure we maintain maximum reimbursement uh for the school system with the um the federal lunch program. And I'm sure everyone's heard that the governor signed into law that every system in the state will have free breakfast next year regardless. And then our kids who are eligible for reduced price lunch will have free lunch next year. Free students remain free. So that's a huge leg up for our kids um and something that we're very happy that has has gone to um pass. So here are Oh, pardon me. >> Sorry. Is that going >>
100or is that going to have to be renewed every year >> saying going forward after that though? It's a one-year grant. >> It's a one-year state initiative by the governor and yes, unless it's re-uped, um it would not continue beyond that. So that is something for us to understand. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yes, there's we have to read >> read ex Yes. two separate motions that we have to do exactly as is otherwise we have to come back and do it again a couple years ago. >> No pressure. All right. And also just before I just want to say a shout out to >> Oh my gosh. Uh the governor was at John Wallace a couple weeks ago to announce this um in support of the healthy breakfast for our universal breakfast um for
101students and served lunch at ours and um Miss Patty I stayed later even just to talk to Dana and it was just the amount of her staff that were just so incredible. She's incredible. The variety I mean we're talking labeling for each local farm. um like a blueberry parfait with local jam from Portland. The amount of like I mean truly the quality and the attention to detail. Um state of Connecticut, my office needs to step things up. I mean it's just incredible. So please shout out to your team as always. She's just wonderful. Um and we did force her into a pitcher even though she didn't want to. So um just want to say thank you to Dean. All right. So this is our first motion. Pursuant to Connecticut General Statute section 10-215F, the Newington
102Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sales to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut start state department of education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards during the period of July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non school organizations and groups. >> Second. >> Thank you. A motion. Do we end a second? Do we have any discussion? >> No. >> Yes. Marissa, >> yes. >> Timothy Newton, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes. >>
103Ryan, >> yes. >> Sam Sharma, >> yes. >> Dr. Gail Stanley, >> yes. >> Motion passed unanimously. 8 Z. >> Thank you. And our second motion two, the Newington Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in the connection is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale of is at the location of the event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. In quote, event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or
104extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The quote regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. and quote location means where the event is being helmed and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. >> Thank you. Have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this one? >> No. >> Go ahead. >> Mary, >> yes. >> Sam Sharma. >> Yes. >> Dr. Gail Stanley. >> Yes. >> Death alert. >> Yes. >> Motion passed unanimously. 8 Z. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Sorry, that was it, right? That's it. Two. Okay. And yes, shout out to Dana and her entire team
105for being amazing at making sure that we have healthy food to serve our children. It was um they were very impressed. The governor's office. It was fun. All right, moving on to um educator and leader evaluation and support plans. >> All right, I believe Mr. Das has joined us online to provide >> There he is. Hello. >> Um he this is an annual report as I believe the board will recall relative to our teacher evaluation system which Dan, Mr. Diaz and Miss Foy oversee. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Das for an update. Yeah. So, uh, good evening everyone. Sorry I couldn't be there in person. Um, so this, uh, is an annual report that is mandated by the state of Connecticut. So, we are charged under general statutes to, um, from the state
106board of education to evaluate or cause to be evaluated all members of the district's um, certified staff. In addition to that, we also do evaluate um, part-time employees and non-certified staff as well. But the statute is specific to certified staff and part of that requires an annual report to the board of education. So you have that report. It should be in your packet. I thought I'd just go over some highlights uh and some data from um this year. Um so just a little background on the history. This goes back to 2013 which actually was the first year I came in as an administrator as an assistant principal in New at Newington High School. So I recall uh the plan and the legislation and us um having new guidelines around um both uh teacher evaluation but
107leader and administrator evaluation as well. Um so the plan has been updated um yearly. We have what's in place which is our PDK which Miss Foy and I help co-f facilitate. That's our professional development and evaluation committee. Um they kind of oversee the plan. Um, our PDC meets, we meet each month, um, and we do, uh, some time in the summer on occasion as well to ensure that the plan, uh, is up to date. We actually do a survey every year of staff in in the fall and the spring to see how the system is working for them, if they're getting the feedback um, they feel appropriate, if they feel that the improvement plan um, they might um, if the evaluation plan is helping them in their practice, and various other questions. We then take
108that data and the PDK committee looks and sees if we need to make any adjustments or shifts or recommendations around the plan. Uh this uh school year right now we have 374 certified teachers that are under the educator evaluation plan and we have 31 certified administrators that are currently under this evaluation plan which is the leader evaluation support plan. some of the guiding principles in the plan. Um there was some transformational language um a few years ago. There was a shift in the plan um back in 2023 to make the plan more about educator growth, learning and feedback. I know feedback came up during Dr. Brumit's presentation and that really is a huge belief that that regular reciprocal timely feedback and actional feedback to to staff um is how we're going to see improvement and
109also that reflection and reflecting on practice. So allowing for differentiation the the newest iteration of our plan allows you know we don't have just classroom teachers we have school psychologists school counselors um instructional coaches etc. All of them deserve feedback and a plan uh and guidance specific to their roles. It was intended to simplify and reduce the burden of of paperwork and some of the other things in the past. So some of the technical challenges shifted uh with the legislation focusing on high leverage practices things that matter most in the classroom um connecting development you you've known on the board the last few years the work we've been doing in the district the restorative work so focusing on the whole child in practice and making meaningful connections to professional learning we want to ensure that
110the professional learning that we offer u I know there's conversation about PLC's prior and um Miss Freeman and um also Miss uh Blunt Lawrence as well and the work that they do. We want to make sure that the professional learning we're providing to our staff is going to help them grow um as educators. And the last piece there is just that specific, timely, accurate and actionable feedback um as part of the process. So the continuing learning process now is a big component of the ED evaluation plan which is really this kind of cycle um which you know starts every year. We have uh cohorts. We have cohort one which is educators that are new to the profession in their first four years or staff that have maybe been tenured in another district and now work
111for us in their first two years. Then we have cohort two which are people who successfully move through cohort one. Um and in the the process what happens there are three mandated check-ins. Again there's a there's a whole idea of checking in with staff throughout the year. So the first start is a goal setting meeting that happens with each educator or leader and their evaluator. And that goal setting meeting is where they'll work on, you know, priorities for the year. Um they'll identify based on data, based on performance and practice in the past, um something they either want to get better at or something their students need. That goal is is made in coordination with the evaluator. And then the um educator or the leader will then um work on that goal throughout the school
112year. They'll they'll implement practices. They'll work on maybe doing investigations or professional learning. They might bring that back to a PLC and they'll continue to work on that. Um, as part of that goal setting, there's also uh the evaluations that happen um where you have uh evaluators will be in for someone in cohort one, they have three practice evaluations. So in addition to goal setting, they'll be visited three times in their classroom at a minimum. Um given timely feedback as well and have a reflecting meeting at the end on how their practice may improve um or if they're seeing success. I love the point um that Dr. Stanley brought up before that idea of champions or or noting best practices um giving some highlights there but also talking about growth. Um and then in addition
113they have a mid-year evaluation and an endofear evaluation. So in cohort one, there are six touch points at a minimum that happen with each educator or leader. And then the cohort two group um they have uh what is a practice evaluation, but they also have what we call a review of practice. That could be a setting where they get visited in a meeting, they can go through a lesson plan or it could be also that classroom observation. Um and cohort 2 staff also have a midyear and an endofear check-in um as well. And really the whole goal and kind of the shift in practice has been that reflecting piece and trying to work around actionable feedback. Um you know the growth success criteria that's spoken to um you know the evaluators partner um with our
114staff to ensure that you know we're giving them the support they need and they're also getting feedback along the way during the process. Um, for this school year, uh, about 20% of our certified staff were on that first cohort, cohort one. So 75 out of 374 educators were in cohort one and 80% of our staff are in cohort 2. So 299 um out of 374. Um, now should uh there need to be some additional supports, we also have um what we call a tiered support system. For those uh who are familiar with tiers of support in the classroom, it's similar model that we have with students. Um tier one supports are um supports that are available for all educators which are books, articles, videos, um working with an instructional coach, us offering professional learning both
115at the building and the department level. So when I was a principal at John Wallace, you know, during the professional learning days, we would have professional learning for our staff at the building level. um those teachers would also subsequently in that same month have professional learning at a department-based level. So if I was a social studies teacher, I would have specific professional learning um with my department coordinator and colleagues as well. Um so that tier one is available for all staff. Um if staff need additional support or they're working on something um a little more specific and they need additional time uh feedback and observation, we can move to a tier two which is more intensive and frequent. It could be working with an instructional coach. It could be working on a coaching cycle and
116that can be suggested by the educator or it could be a recommendation for an evaluator um as well. Uh we also have tier three supports which are responsive to issues or concerns that that an educator might be working on. And then uh the last part would be a corrective support plan if performance wasn't where it needed to be after all of those tiers. But ultimately, you know, the whole idea is a supportive model, a reflective model where we have many touch points throughout the year with our staff. We have dialogue um around their practice and actionable feedback, right? Feedback is how we all grow. Um and that happens for both our um educators uh our our leaders as well and administrators are also receiving that feedback. Um so the second half is very similar. You'll
117actually see it's a very similar model for our educators and our administrators in the district, which is great because, you know, if our administrators are out there giving feedback and and trying to model being reflective practitioner, we want to make sure they're doing that in their own practice as well as far as leadership goes. Um, and in addition to this formalized plan for both certified staff and leaders, we do have, uh, many non-certified staff, part-time staff, um, such as office staff, custodial maintenance, um, IT staff, um, our our kitchen staff as well. Um, they also have a performance checklist by their supervisor. So, they also have an evaluation. Um, and our non-certified administrators as well, um, also have a goal setting process midyear and end of year from their supervisors. um our para educators academic
118tutors also go through this process. There's a mid-year and end ofear evaluation uh as well as our our building substitutes feedback is provided on their performance as well. So the whole goal here from the office of human capital development is to ensure that uh we are giving feedback um to our um you know our team. We're ensuring that that feedback is timely, but we also want to provide opportunities for growth, for professional learning, um, so they can also hone their practice. Um, you know, they if there are learning or investigations they want to do, we're there to kind of fully support them. So, just kind of an overview and and I want to give a shout out again to our PDK committee. Um it's made up of teachers, representatives from uh the Newington Teachers Association,
119administrators as well, and it's just been my privilege this year to jump on and work with that committee. They're highly knowledgeable um about the the plan. Um many of them are champions in their own classrooms. Um, so it's great to really have them to be able to inform the evaluation process. And we look forward to getting the feedback at our last meeting in June and seeing how the evaluation process is working for our teachers and take that feedback as a PDK committee um, and see if there are any shifts or adjustments that we need to make so people feel supported, but also they're getting the reflective feedback um, that they need to be able to improve their practice. >> Thank you so much. Are there questions? I don't believe we have to take any action.
120This is really just an update. Um, are there any question any questions or anything for Dan? Dr. Stanley. >> Sorry, Mr. Das. >> Nope. Okay. >> Uh, thank you. Um, for your update, I just had a question about how do you nominate evaluators or how do the how does the process get chosen? like who would qualify to evaluate the principal of the high school or like what's the power dynamic between those? >> So the uh on the leadership evaluation um so we have um the principles Dr. Brumit um does is the evaluator on the building principles. Um we also have our central office team where we evaluate other leaders um as well. From a building perspective, there's actually a primary evaluator and a complimentary evaluator. So oftent times for example when I was at John
121Wallace um I would have um you know a good number of individuals in my building. There would be a complimentary evaluator that would assist me uh in in conducting evaluations, giving feedback. oftentimes that could be a department coordinator. Um you we try to kind of set set it up that way where we have kind of a team uh that's evaluating in order to be able to conduct all of those observations but to kind of you know collaborate on the feedback that they're seeing. >> Does that answer your question? >> Yeah. And so and then the the educators so their evaluators would be >> it's usually prime. Yeah. So primarily it would be their building principal. Um, we do have some central office administrator just because the sheer volume of evaluations that are done. Some of
122our central office staff also assist in buildings. For example, I assist at Elizabeth Green um uh and help out Mr. Duran there um with some um complimentary evaluations. We try to make it content specific when possible. So um you know at the high school level the coordinators if they're evaluating staff and sharing that with the principal they would bring that content specific. So just one example might be Sarah Whan um our department um coordinator of language arts would be the one evaluating um language arts staff at the secondary level in coordination with the principles of the different buildings. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Miss Weaver. >> Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you Mr. Das. I know you jumped in at a time when uh yeah, we were right at
123the beginning of budget and then you also were just I think we were hoping you'd have more training time to go through all of this. So, thank you for truly jumping into all of this. Um appreciate that and appreciate you giving a thorough review of that. Um I think you've you've learned a lot in the last couple months. So, it shows. Um so, in our evaluation of you, thank you for all of that. >> You're welcome. This one was easy for me. I've been a member of Ped in the past and as a building principal, you live in this plan and the evaluation. So, this this was a fun one for me. >> Okay. Any other questions, comments? Okay, moving on. Thank you. >> I had a question. >> Oh, sorry, Mr. Sharma. Go ahead.
124>> Hey, Mr. Dice. Um, so I know I know with teacher with teacher evals, you go through um one formal, multiple informal. Can you just give us a rundown of um just an example of like how a >> Yeah. What that looks like? >> How a princip how a principal is um evaluated? Just a rundown. >> Yes. So it's very similar. So a building principal does the same thing. They have a goal setting meeting um you know with Dr. Brumit at the beginning of the year if they were a department coordinator um with another central office administrator. And then there are similar to like teacher practice there are site visits. So I'll give you an example. When I was a building principal, Dr. Brumit may come to a um professional learning meeting that I was
125um helping facilitate and then she might give me feedback um after that meeting, you know, on that. Um or it could be a a uh you know, a scenario that you're trying to work out or it could be a school improvement plan and you're looking to do um you know, reflecting conversation. So seeing leaders in practice um see them working with their staff. Um I've done you know evaluations running like a a PPT meeting, running a family night. um at the school um different opportunities to get feedback on leadership. Um so the lens looks a little bit different. There's a leadership rubric that goes handinhand with the leadership evaluation plan um which ranges from you know facilities management um to uh being culture responsive to to families to your school community. Um so it's specific
126to leadership um as opposed to the educator evaluation rubric we have which is more about practice classroom instruction. um certainly, you know, a welcoming environment for students and culturally responsive in the classroom, but at at a much larger scale for the um principal leadership and and how they're building and how they're, you know, building community and and partnering with families, students. Those are all elements that you'd see in the leadership evaluation. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. D. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next is budget update. >> Do you do you want to take it? Do you want >> I can start and then feel free to jump in. Um >> so we um are still waiting for final direction from the town on the money that was um provided through an
127additional allocation as this year's budget cycle evolved. So I've created this chart and I've been updating it as more information has become available. Last night at the town council meeting, the town council discussed the ECS allocation of $928,230. Uh based on their discussion and in keeping with the intent of that law or that allocation, it appears they will be deciding at their next meeting to send that money along to us for our for the board's use for final budget determinations. Um, so looking at the numbers alone, the initial cut from the town was $1.8 million. Um, this allocation, assuming that goes through, would bring um the deficit down to $871,000. As discussed earlier, we have received um or will receive uh the school-based health center grant in the amount of $159,000. That is going to
128bring the gap down to $712,000. The effective school solutions um grant money has been confirmed. We will be getting um $300,000 toward next year's budget and the subsequent year $200,000. But applying that first year allocation would shrink our deficit down to 412,770. Um, you know, we don't have any firm understanding yet about the health benefit credit, but if we were to apply just the lowest amount of money, I'm sorry, I skipped a line. My apologies. One of the possible scenarios that the board can consider and again there won't can't be a vote tonight because we don't have a firm uh direction from the town yet but if the board were to u still consider PAR benefits the uh PAR benefits could start in September and that would reduce the cost of those benefits by $266,666
129bringing the shortfall down to 146104. for there is a possibility that the health benefit credit that we've talked about us over several meetings uh could help close that final gap as the board was made aware over several meetings that the credit was at one point 514175. Um it's likely to shrink. We just don't know by how much. Um it we looked at a trajectory about past trends and it appears the lowest that would be based on just experience and again that doesn't always indicate what might happen but there's a decent possibility that we would have 166,980 left by October 1 after all the and what what I mean by left is all of the health claims have to cycle through and that determination unfortunately does not settle out until October. of in this case 2026.
130One other piece of the healthc care uh puzzle that has been determined is the rates are not going to take any further um reductions. The um agent of record reached out to Lynn and there is no chance of those rates going down any further than what the board has budgeted for. So we're budgeted adequately. We can't take any further deductions or we would be underfunded. And that unfortunately I was so hoping I get the word today about the Nor Easter grant. They told me late May. I considered today very late May. Um but no dice yet, but um they told me they're they're ready to go, but they just haven't sent letters. Um so that could be another $100,000 toward um the deficit right now that sits at 146104. Um so the board will have
131uh much to discuss at the June 10th board meeting relative to how to apply this money. This is a scenario. Um I you know para tutor benefits could be in play. Um but that's up for the board to deliberate and discuss. I'll turn over to board chair for any questions or deliberations. >> Thank you. Um, are there any initial comments, questions? Miss Weaver. >> Yeah, I think just want to clarify like we haven't taken any action on PAR benefits not being in there. So, I want to clear that up. Like that's not >> that is correct. The board has not done that. >> So, just want to put that out there. Um, and I think we've all been pretty vocal about this for a pretty long time, uh, about advocating for this, um, particularly even,
132you know, in in lie of a union, um, that would then >> kind of force a negotiation, um, which is obviously what happened with admin salaries and other ones, teachers, all of them have union contracts, um, that I think have led to to where they're at. um in lie of that and I know also I think when we were looking at other towns all of them most of them have unionized paras if not all all have unionized paras. So I mean I think that's one of the again unique factors for us is trying to do this without a a formal union negotiation. Um but I think one of the things is um I think we're I felt like we all were very agreement when we passed our budget that like we want to put this
133in there. So, um I'm not going to say, oh, it's done, but like it should be done. Um, so I I think that or it's more reliance on the non-lapsing fund to close that gap, but I think um overall I think like we can get there. Obviously, it was a lot to absorb at 1.8 cut given that that was basically the amount for parent educator benefits. So, we that's >> the 1.4 versus the 400,000. >> Yeah. Um but just want to make that clear too like we haven't taken any action on anything. >> So yeah, so the discussions that we've had in previous um budget updates at this table is that if state money doesn't come through or if um like a miracle doesn't happen, we may not be able to provide PAR benefits. But
134I think in the same sentence, we've all or at least I'll speak for myself um said that we should make it a priority. Um I heard last night at the council meeting um someone say that they thought that even with the $1.8 million um cut at the table at their um table that we would still be able to provide hair benefits. And I don't think that that was ever said here without any additional funding coming through. So, um, I just want to clarify that that the $1.8 million cut was significant. And looking back at everything else, the whole budget, there really wasn't a way to absorb that cut and still provide benefits without having additional funding for the state, which we had, at least I have, and I'm sure several other others of us have
135been advocating with our state delegation to ensure that we um this money did come through and and some of it did, 928,000. So that is a very um positive thing. So I guess to your point Jessica, we haven't officially taken a vote to remove it, but the discussions we had were that it's would be very difficult without any extra funding coming over to um the board operating budget >> from state >> from from the state or from wherever it came from because there was also discussions about um you know appropriations from the town or like that kind of thing happening after the fact like I don't know that wasn't anything like official ever came to fruition but with that $1.8 $.8 million. We have been pretty clear here that it's very hard. It would be
136probably really hard to um fund that thing. So, I think fun benefits and tutor and RBT benefits. I personally think that we should still we should keep it in our budget. Um this is very promising this um this chart that's showing because again like when we budget we know what we know at the time and we can't you know we can't read the future. We don't know what's going to happen in the future. We knew that there was a potential for the schoolbased health center grant. We knew that there was this eert thing that came up for the school effective school solutions. We knew that we had a pending grant for Nor Easter. Um we as a board unanimously voted for the budget which included benefits the schoolbased health center and the noryster academy. Um
137so I seems like this with these additional funds that are coming to us. Um, it seems like the right thing to do, especially since this was our intention of this budget was would be to adjust the monies as they need to be because this extra funding frees up line items that we can then transfer over into our parah um line item funding. Go ahead. >> Yeah, and just clarifying too, I know literally that money from the state came in. We were here on May 6th and I went to the capitol after for cinnida just to watch the legislature close. Um which was it's always a fun thing. Um but you know was talking with literally my friends who are staffers there to be like how much money are we getting? What are we getting? We're
138literally like texting our legislators to try and see um because I think broader from just our budget here I think we've talked about it a lot. I know I've talked at nauseium about it, but I think it's important to re-emphasize that the ECS formula is known by like two people in the state. It is not great. And the harder part of this formula um as well is that it does not account for inflation. It never address for inflation. So when it's doing it is really it never increases. Well, all of our costs are increasing with inflation as well. Um so I know there'll be more next session. Um I know some of us are already talking to legislators about it, talking to um I know talking to my friends on other boards about what we
139can do there. Um because I think that is one of the issues when it comes to sustainability is this one time 928 won't be the same next year. Um and we're going to just need the ECS formula to continue to adjust and I think move up in that adjustment. Um I will say I'm not sure about the like delayed insurance coverage. I would say maybe we we relook at that. Um but overall I guess my question too would be in terms of process like we have to accept the new budget I believe like >> next next meeting >> next meeting obviously >> unless we have a special meeting has to be done by July >> that's what I was just going to clarify so we have to get a bone by July 1st and we'll
140just accept but we have to accept what the town gave us as the final amount we have no choice in accepting that final amount um but with that we have the power to then have the discussions about how that allocation happens in conjunction with the superintendent and Lynn and and the crew here. So, um hopefully that clears up things too of we just have talked about things and we're waiting for these things and I hope maybe and I think by June 10th then we'll have the answer on Nor Easter Academy. Hopefully is that >> that I believe seems realistic based on what the state recently said to me. >> Okay, thank you. Just want to clarify all of these came in within the time that we passed the budget. Okay. Um, I also just want
141to make a point because I know it was brought up um last night and tonight that um the memo from town manager or you know recommendations from the state is to use consider it one-time funding um and not to put it towards reoccurring expenses which clearly obviously pair of benefits is a reoccurring expense. I would absolutely not be okay with doing it one year and and pulling back the next year. Um, with that said, I feel personally and we can have a discussion either tonight or at the next meeting, but I just want to put this out there for people to consider um with what we saw earlier today in um Dr. Brexit's report that special education um identification is increasing and the PAR educators, RBTs um are the people in the room that are
142dealing with this population of students. So I I feel like and and we are the only district in the state like all the things we've kept talking about, we're the only district in the state that's not providing benefits um to our PAR educators. Their their pay is at the bottom. Um I I do are there the starting I would say the starting pay is at the bottom the once they have seniority the pay increases with like steps like the teacher salary would however we're losing we're having constant turnover because they're not staying because we're not giving them benefits. So, I think that waiting a year or more to offer it is just really shortsighted and in the long run because I don't feel like we can be a successful district and educate our students especially
143special special education population given you know the the compliance regulations and um how costly it is to hire contractors for paras or to um you know, have teachers fill in because the teachers would get paid more if, you know, for filling in on their planning period or or free time. Um, so it's just more costly, not to mention the turnover, the training, the hiring process. It's all going into money that we're spending on not direct student care and that whole overhead of hiring um PAR benefit par educators. So, I um just wanted to put that out there that I feel like it is um it I hear I see I understand the financial implications of one-time funding being used for this, but I think the risk is the reward is worth the risk in the
144sense that we're setting ourselves up for success in the future. And I do, like Miss Weaver said, already have been talking with our legislators. I know Matt Lester's on the committee for reooking at the uh ECS formula. Like we're in constant communication with them all the time to try and advocate and support at the state level for more funding to come to our town for this purpose. So, um that's what I just wanted to say regarding that because I did say that last night and I heard there were some comments back. So, I wanted to clear that up as well. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Uh, two things I want to add. Um, Lynn is online. She's at a conference. She mentioned that it would be um impossible to get Parison uh benefits by July 1.
145So, either way, we're delaying a little bit. The other thing is um part of that ECS study, I believe it's a blue ribbon panel, um there has been indications that next year ECS funding will finally go up um substantially or at least to in keeping with inflation. So that could be uh something that that will be it's just a matter of how much a source of offsets for the town because the money goes right to them. But it hopefully they'll know in advance so they can plan accordingly. That's always a challenge for for the town as the ECS money doesn't it isn't you know made known to them uh right away. So that's a challenge but anyway there is hope there too. Mr. Stanley, >> thank you for the update. Um, man, that would be
146a blessing if it does increase, and I really hope that it does cuz we are far overdue. Um, we met as Republicans and and we've been talking about this a lot. Um, and we all agree that paraprofessional benefits is, you know, an essential service. We we need to provide it and we fully support that as well. um this $900,000, you know, will partially fund it for this year. We can all pray that we'll get some increasing in funding to continue to sustain it because I agree this is not something that we can provide on a year-to-year basis and take it away when we don't have the funding. Um I just want to remind us that we increased our budget by a little over 2 million from last year um with the cuts from the town
147of 1.8 8 million. And so if we think about funding the PAR benefits, which is 1.4 million, but we were only able to increase our budget by 2 million. We've increased our contract obligations tremendously every year. Um we're going to have to make some hard decisions. Um and so please understand that we're coming from you know the love and how benefit how essential it is to provide this benefit if we decide to make cuts in other areas or not able to expand in other areas temporarily until things are more stable in a financial basis. So um I think that's just where we're coming from from the Republican side. >> Thank you. All right. Any other? Oh, okay. That's it. So, we're back to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. Um, in the
148room, you can come to the head of the table or on the phone or on Google Meet, you can raise your hands. >> Go ahead. State your name and address for the record, please. Tina Nolton. I live in Tin Hillside Street. Um, I appreciate your response what you said earlier. I started off in the beginning and it it kind of answered questions. Um, a little bit. I understand the dilemma. I know that if we're the only district that doesn't have the benefits for our paras, then maybe we should ask other districts how they do it because it doesn't seem like a reasonable explanation. I know that your salaries don't have anything to do with it because of the union contracts and it's nothing the board of ed can do anything about. But it doesn't change
149the fact that it doesn't just affect the special ed kids. I'm in the schools every day. Every day. I've been in the schools for 20 years now. Um I it affects everything because the support isn't there for the special needs or for the behavioral issues or for whatever it is. Every kid is being affected. Every teacher is being affected. You guys have all these valuations happening. It's It's taking a toll. I know you hear it. There's no way you guys are not aware of this. And I I I can't believe you're unaware of it, of how it's how it's gotten and how the special education teachers know what's coming. I don't think that waiting is going to be in anybody's best interest. Whether you have a special needs kid or a a typical learning child,
150everybody's being affected. If you think that a teacher can teach a class with one disruptive kid because we don't have enough parents because they have to be with the special ed kids, you're you're mistaken. It's it's affecting everything. And it's not just one school in the district. There's not a single school. I haven't heard it to be a problem. I don't know who signed the contracts to get the to spend the money on the salaries instead of what the schools need themselves. I understand you can't take it back, but it doesn't mean that there's no options. If if we don't know how to do it, maybe we can ask other districts who do do it and we can ask anybody around us. It doesn't look good. And it's and it's to the point where a
151lot of the paras that have left and moved to other other districts can, you know, can explain very easily why it's better for them to move even as soon as their kids are done with the system. I hope you make it a priority more than just hoping that the funding stays. I I'm on boards. I we do grant writing. I understand the fact that temporary money has to be accounted for, but if I don't understand why everybody else but us can do it. Thank you. >> Hi, Jacob Nolton. Um I'm her son. Uh the eldest. Uh live at 10 Hillside Street. Um, I don't know if you remember me, Mrs. Freeman. >> Looking very much. >> Well, you shouldn't because I was such a good student, so I was never in your office. Um, no,
152but you were such a role model. I really appreciate everything you've done for Of course. We loved you. >> Um, uh, so in our house, I agree. Um, I'm obviously in support of what my mother said. Um, and obviously we live in a healthy household, so um, I disagree a little bit. Um, and I'm okay vocalizing that. I know you guys are aware and, um, I pay attention. I'm at city council. Um, this is part of me trying to rack my brain around this budget because I'm trying to pay attention to PNZ mostly and then this and yeah, so um, I know you guys are aware. Uh, I know you guys are constrained by a lot of things. Um, and it's very difficult. Um, I just want to say I'm going to try my best
153to be here. um when you do have to take that scalpel because uh as I see it providing PAR benefits is the bare minimum. Uh everyone else does it. We should be doing it. Um simple as that. So if we do have to make tough decisions, so be it. Let's do it. Um that's all right. Uh it's difficult to have my sister come home exhausted um after work uh from a crazy insane job. I don't I would never be able to do that. Say she chased a kid because he was running out of school. That's insane, you know. So she pulled a muscle. Um, and so I'm like, uh, we have to do this. And to see emails come through about like, oh, there's going to be new HD TVs and classrooms and things like
154that. Um, it's extremely frustrating when I know my sister ain't getting those benefits. So, um, all I'm saying is I appreciate the work that you guys do. Um, and I know the only thing I can do is try to help and be here. So, I will intend to do that on the best I can. Um, and I look forward to working on the budget with you guys. All right, take care. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Hos, >> thank you. Um, and I agree with Miss Nolton that the PAR benefits are extremely important, but I also agree there are areas of the existing budget that can be utilized to meet that financial need. >> I'm sorry, you just state your um address for the record and name address. >> Kelly Deass, 45 Lincoln Road. >> Thank
155you. But there are areas in the budget as it exists today that can be utilized to meet that financial need without using one-time funds in such an irresponsible manner and then burdening the town's taxpayers the following year when those funds don't come back through. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Remarks by board members. Miss Weaver. >> Yeah. Just want to reiterate um obviously I think I said it last time too. I said oh it's funny I didn't want to respond to remarks while doing that but um I've think I've said this for the seven years we've been doing this. Um yeah appreciation is much better in pay than it is in a plea. Um so recognize that fully. Um and we'll continue to reiterate that. Um, but I also just wanted to say irrespective
156of all this tonight, thank you so much for all our presentations, our amazing things before, um, for those online, um, there was an art exhibit we have and please come to the town hall and see our incredible artwork that's featured from each of our schools. Um, it's just really great. Um, so Dr. displays all of them upstairs. So, it's really great. Um, so please see our incredible artists that are in this district. And then I also just wanted to give a shout out. Um, I told her I would do this on um the other day, but and I just want to get her last name right. Um, but Miss Mobis Papa, the elementary u music teacher at Egreen Green, um, she did an absolutely fabulous job um, getting band, orchestra, and chorus all in in
157like under an hour um, for third and fourth graders. And to see the talent that is coming up, it was an absolute joy. And to see that room filled and Mr. Durant informed me that there was both grandparents, great-grandparents, and a great great grandparent there. Um, it's just one of the things that I think reminds us, you know, when we talk about budget, we talk about policies, when we talk about all these things. It was a real real stunner. Um, it was night at the movies and I will say her puns were perfection. Uh, that being said, also we have a policy meeting coming up on June 1st at 6:30 p.m. We'll be up in the Helen Nel, not Helen Nelson's book, so we'll be upstairs. So, if you have that also available online. So,
158just want to let everyone know we're still going through the 9,000s people, but just want to put that out there. Thank you, >> Mr. Newton. >> I just want to say that I believe that the budget is is a very rigorous process. There's there's winners, there's losers. I believe there's wants and there's needs. I believe our paras need the benefits. I I don't think it's a subjective item and I will continue to support that position. Um but there is some thought that it cannot all fall on the taxpayers which we we all understand that that's part of our role here. But we I I just think sometimes we need to be a little more frugal or a little more tight but I'm not an expert. >> Thank you. Um, I just want to say thank
159you to our presenters. I'm really, really sad I missed the art presentation. Um, but I was at the high school. Oh, yeah. I'll have a I'll have a cookie. Um, but I was at the high school athletic awards night um for my daughter and all of those people. It's very, very beautiful night. Um, I did leave early, but I saw my daughter get her things. Um, and I also want to um take this opportunity to invite members of our community to come to the pride flag raising on June 1st, Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. at town hall where we will be raising the pride flag. um the the council passed last night and um show the our support for our LGBTQ plus community members, students, and families because we want to ensure that they know
160that they are they belong here. They're included. They we um respect them. They deserve dignity. And um a beautiful rainbow flag is going to be amazing to see down Main Street on um in the month of June. Miss Dr. Stanley, >> I just want to thank you for coming out and participating tonight. Um, you have some really great ideas and some comments and so I just appreciate you guys coming up and speaking out and I would love to have you come back and like work on the budget and we're doing budget season. It is quite the process and quite the experience but Lynn does a great job. She's really made leaps and bounds on how we are able to digest all the information and Dr. BMA is smart and I know that she's going to
161figure out ways that we can improve and find sources that we can continue to, you know, fund this pair of benefits and we're we're going to make it happen. We're going to find a way with that. A motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> We have a motion second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Meeting adjourn 9:23 p.m.