NPS BOE Meeting - (12/10/2025)

001I'd like to call this meeting of the Newington Board of Education to order for December 10th, 2025. The time is 7:03 p.m. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> That would you please call the role. here. >> Here >> Dr. Gail Stanley >> here. >> Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open up to Oh, sorry. Presentations, awards. We have a Everyday Hero presentation first. Dr. from it. Yes. Let me grab my notes. >> Um, and the board has seen bus drivers get everyday hero awards previously, but this is a very unique circumstance. Our everyday hero this evening is Lee Wang. She's

002a bus driver here in town. She was nominated by Megan Mackey, who's a parent here in town, and she's with us tonight as well. Here's the story that Miss Mackey wrote. My name is Megan Mackey, and I have three children who attend Newington schools. My youngest Molly is a third grader at John Patterson Elementary and is the reason for this email. Just before Molly got off the bus yesterday, and this is a few weeks ago, a bear appeared between our yard and the neighbors. A vehicle had pulled over to watch the bear and I was inside the house trying to determine where the bear was at the time bus V arrived. When Molly got off the bus and started walking up our driveway, about 100 ft foot long driveway after yesterday afternoon, the people from

003the vehicle yelled, "There was a bear." Thanks to the diligence of Miss Lee, the bus vo, Molly was able to turn around and run back onto the bus. With Molly safely on board, Miss Lee then continued on her route, but called someone at the bus garage, who then immediately contacted me. I had just become aware of the bear, so hadn't had the time to get in my vehicle to pick Molly up as soon as she got off the bus. After the fact, Molly reported that she was physically safe thanks to Miss Lee. Her two main concerns were something happens to me if I come down the driveway or me not knowing where she was. So, she said she immediately felt better when she heard Miss Lee called the bus garage to report what had happened

004and hearing that they would contact me, meaning mom. If there was any kind of going the extra mile to keep our kids safe award, which is called Everyday Hero, uh I would like to nominate Miss Lee. Not only did she care and have show care and concern for my child, keeping Molly physically safe, but she addressed her mental and emotional health as well as calling the bus garage. I'm confident Molly and I will remember this situation for the rest of our lives, and Miss Lee's actions will be forever be the best part of it. Thank you for all you do to keep our kids safe. >> Congratulations. wrote a beautiful letter. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And just a quick photo of >> Are there any board members that would like to

005miss Mr. Hollerin? Miss Wang, thank you so much for being responsive, being responsible, um, doing the right thing in a very tense and have to think fast type of situation. I think this speaks a lot to what it means to our bus drivers and our fleet organization in New England. Um, I think it speaks to the value of why we continue to support that organization. I know Dean Barnes is sitting right next to you. Um, and I think that this is um, a reoccurring story that we hear over and over again about how our bus drivers understand our sense of community, our sense of safety, and what it means to take care of our children and what makes our bus um, staff special in Newington. Um, and we need to continue to support them and

006give them what they need. Um, because they deliver every single day. Thank you very much, >> Miss Weaver. >> Oh my goodness. Okay, so for those who don't know in the room, we do an everyday Here award pretty much every meeting and it's usually staff nominating other staff and trying to highlight, you know, the things that maybe we don't see every day in the community. Um, lately we've been having a lot of bus drivers be actual heroes of like life and death situations. So, thank you. Um, and I know that Bear has been like a celebrity in town. Um, and not the good kind you want. Um, so thank you so much. Thank you for nominating one of our bus drivers. It's always so good. We want to have that parent engagement and to know

007that our all of our students are safe. Um, not just when they leave and come to our doors, but when they go to their own home door and Mr. Barnes can attest uh to the extra caliber that our our bus drivers have. Um so, Miss Wang, thank you so much for what you do every day. We always talk about how bus drivers are the first to see uh the first face that most students see on their way there and the last they see when they get home and really the last one they see when before they see danger and then are in safety again. So, thank you um for what you do um and thank you for nominating. It's really one of those stories we like to highlight to show just how amazing um those

008of us who are not in the classroom every day um every single one of our employees has a way to contribute to our students and this one being the actual safety. So thank you both um for sharing the story and congratulations Miss Beatus. >> Just really quickly to build upon what my colleagues have said, thank you so much for your quick thinking. Um, you know, bus drivers in particular are called on. The roads are not always safe. Drivers aren't always doing what they're supposed to be. You see things that those of us kind of just shake in our boots, you know, just thinking about in on top of being in in charge of the safety of our kids. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you do every single day. What is so

009amazing though, apart from the quick thinking, is the level of communication between the family for Mr. Barnes and making sure that the students are safe. And just a quick question for Mr. Barnes, do we need to add bears in the policy manual for the training that we provide to our drivers? It's a it's a tough job to begin with. Do we need to add an extra layer of the training to everybody? So, thank you again for your quick thinking and you're always um incredible attention to the safety of our students. >> Congratulations. Thank you for for saving Molly from that bear. Have you had the bear visit again? >> Oh, yeah. He's a neighborhood. >> He's a neighborhood. Yeah. So, you see So, you're >> Okay. So, but Okay. Be careful next time. Thank you

010for coming out. And now we have our holiday card contest winners. And it's wonderful to see all of our very talented artists in the room. On this slide is a collection of the six contest winners, but I'm going to go one by one. And then when I call your name, come on up. I just want to give you a little background. We've been doing this now I think about four or five years. And uh each winner we choose one selection from every school. This year we did not have any submissions from one school. So, we have six students here uh tonight being honored. When you come up, we'll give you a certificate and we're also going to give you a collection of cards with your design on it so that your family can send them

011out to special friends and family members as part of your holiday celebration. Also, tonight we have a member of the art league here. Uh she's in the back. Um remind me of your name again. I'm sorry. didn't hear that. Olivia, >> Melissa Luc, my apologies. She uh she heard about this. We were at the Waterfall Festival together and um I mentioned how we celebrate this every uh December. So, she's here tonight to also acknowledge you through her art league work. So, um I'll let you kind of come up at the end if that's okay. All right. So, let me get started. We'll go in order here of how they're written on my list. So, our first winner, let me go into the full picture, is >> Drum roll. Let me scroll up. All right, look

012at that cute one. >> There it is. All right, look at this cutie pie. This is uh Martin Miranda Pagan from Elizabeth Green School, grade three with his decorative penguin. Come on up, Martin. And while they're taking the picture, I also use these cards to send out holiday greetings to my colleagues throughout the state, some of our local legislators, the town council, everybody. Yes, you can come over here. >> Yeah, make sure you we'll let you take picture with your family. pictures. So well done, Martin from Elizabeth Green School, grade three. Yeah. So these cards go everywhere. They go to town council, all over the state, and however you choose to use them. But I was drawn to that beautiful design. Okie dokie. Our next awardee is Madison Capola, grade one from Anna Reynolds. Come

013on up, Madison. Look at these uh beautiful snowmen. Oh, you want to get >> So, look at your card already being used to provide holiday greetings. >> Although your sweater looks like our previous winner for you. Thank you. Good job. >> Congratulations, >> Madison. I'm sorry I pronounced that wrong. Casola from Anna Reynolds School, grade one. Alrighty. Now we're going to segue over to John Patterson, Mr. Theo Eisman. Grade four from John Patterson. Come on up, Theo. And Theo, your art teacher called me when she saw saw that you won. She was so excited. And it his design included a lot of different health celebrations in it which I thought was really lovely. And of course his name is on that too. I didn't catch that right away. First I thought that was the but

014it's Theo. >> All right. Well done Theo. Grade four John Patterson Elementary. All right. Our next winner is Isabella Bahar. She is a first grader at Ruth Chaffy School. Come on up, Isabella. >> And she's got a lovely reindeer on her card. >> Yeah. You want to do the whole family? Congratulations. >> Beautiful job. >> Congratulations. Alrighty. Our next award winner, let me scroll down here, is Jasine Machri, grade six, John Wolf Middle School. >> Beautiful snowman. Look at this art. >> All righty. Congratulations. >> And last, but certainly not least, and my apologies, the orientation on this slide is a little bit sideways, but we'll get the right card up. is uh Aribba Bukari from Newington High School, grade nine. A lovely picture of uh is that >> I love cinnamon rolls at the

015holidays. And you can come on up, Mom. Mommy's >> mom wants to come up for a picture as well. You go first. And now I'd like to invite up our colleague from the Art League if you wouldn't mind saying a little bit about what you represent and I'll let you go from there. >> Didn't have anything prepared, but I'll do my best. >> Uh, yes. So, I'm Melissa Lewis. Um, and I represent the Newington Art League and we are trying to do better about uh connecting with our community. That's one of our goals. um especially with our young artists in our community. Um it's really uh an honor to be here and celebrating you young artists. Um and we threw together some little gifts for all of you and um to help you hopefully keep

016making art wherever you are. Um so there's a bag for each of you. We had >> Why don't we have our >> All of our winners can come back up to get their gift and maybe we'll do a group photo as well. >> Go ahead. >> So, this is a new addition. We uh haven't had the Art League here before, but we're thrilled to partner with them >> for a picture. Okay. >> So, everyone gather around. Is everyone back up here? >> She's coming. She's coming. >> All right. Here we go. will gather around. All right, if Miss Craig, would you mind taking a photo? Why don't you get in there, Miss Patty, as well? There's our beautiful winners again. >> We love art. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any board members have any

017comments for our lovely artists? Mr. Hollerin, >> I will make this brief because I know parents are trying to get out of here school night. Uh, wonderful art. I always appreciate seeing them every single year. Um, I don't have anything more to say than this goes on my mantle very proudly every single year and it makes me smile every single morning. Uh, especially on Christmas Day which my family celebrates. Thank you so much. I love that I got Ruth Chaffies because that's my alma mater. So, thank you, Isabella. Um, and if we have more information about how to get involved with the Newington Art League, would you be able to pro uh provide that? Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Miss Beaver. >> Yeah, I'll just be quick in our our love fest.

018Thank you all so much for coming out and supporting and showing what amazing talent all of your students have to the students. Always so impressed. Um I this is probably my favorite part um of board meetings just to be able to get like the true art. Um my cousin had one a couple years ago and her whole family got them. Um and now we're like can we do that again and I'm like you got to make more art girly like you know bring it up. Um but just want to say thank you all for supporting and showing your support um for the arts as we try to do here. Um the talent is clear so um if anyone wants you know to get commissions going we're happy to do that as well. Um, but just

019want to say congratulations to all the winners and I hope um you all have a wonderful holiday season. >> Thank you so much everyone for coming out. Drive safe. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Oh, there's a lot of grandparents here. Yeah. That's why I was surprised by the crow, but I think we had a lot of family. Yeah, I love that. >> Awesome. >> All right, at this time uh we can move on to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. She she'll share. >> Um I'm not seeing uh if you're online you can raise your hand to participate and be called on. >> All right. Seeing none, um we can move on to our consent agenda. >> Mr. Hollerin, >> I move to present uh approve the consent agenda as presented

020for the approval of meetings for the regular meeting October 29th, 2025 and the approval of minutes for the organizational meeting November 11th, 2025. >> Second. >> Thank you. A motion, a second. Is there any discussion? No. Um, we can do all in favor. >> Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Um, 8 Z. >> All right. Superintendent of schools report. Dr. Bremmit. He jokes. >> All right. As usual, I will not read this to you verbatim, but I wanted to let everyone know some of the activities happening in the district. Um, one of the things I'd like to bring up is our office of human capital development who've been hard at work uh doing lots of recruitment and especially in the area of uh paras and tutors. So um I wanted the board to be aware of

021that on Monday Mr. Frey, myself and Miss Foy be heading over to meet with the town manager because we really want to move forward this year with um the parah benefits component that many board members have been pushing for. So I wanted to stress the work of the human capital department is quite busy because we have a lot of retention concerns with our paras. So they do many other things like hire teachers and provide a lot of training but I wanted to make sure they um were acknowledged. There's a lot of work noted here in the curriculum department. Um we do math league and we host culture museums. There is a curriculum subcommittee meeting tomorrow evening at 6:30. So those of you that would like to participate, it's uh held both online and and in

022the Helen Nelson room. And uh actually Miss Freeman presented at a conference, a national conference recently which is featured in this report. So progress reports, progress conferences are going on now. So many of you probably know that because you're involved. They've been advertising. Oh, no. I won't talk about the high school too much because I think our board uh representatives will probably be doing that. Under student services, we've got um lots of work going on with our AAC evaluations, which is the evaluations we do relative to speech and hearing and giving kids methodologies to communicate if they're not verbal. That's very important work. Our preschool students are hard at work. They recently had a touch a truck opportunity which I was able to visit. Uh boy oh boy do kids love to touch trucks. That

023was you should and some of them they were so high they had to get like a stairway up but they loved it. Um and our school psychologist social workers are extraordinarily busy. Uh this report submitted by our high school uh department head for psychology and social work um Angie and she's she and her team do a beautiful job uh supporting all of our kids. Um and then there's some information about some of the things happening in the middle school department. Um one of the things in special ed that is we're doing a lot of work this year with called co-eing where a regular and special ed teacher work together. Um and really what we see happening in that type of relationship is that when they work well together the entire class benefits. So the teacher

024and the co-teer can circulate and support an entire class of 20 some odd children. We are expanding that districtwide. We believe it's a huge lever for higher higher achievement for all and um thanks to the work of the special ed department under the direction of Marilyn Julio, we've we've seen some good gains there and that's true at all of our schools have some form of co-eing at this time and uh as many of you know the John Wallace project continues to click along. We've had some site visits. I can't overstate when we had the visit recently, myself and Amy were able to go uh to look at the finished wing or nearly finished wing. I was so tickled by the facial expressions of the teachers. They were like joyful to see the doors on the

025classrooms to see light. Let there be light. Uh natural light that is. Um, and then there's a lot going on there and otherwise with some speed and fitness tests and our connections program that helps support our kids with emotional challenges. And as always, our custodial department is hard at work keeping our schools clean. Tonight, you'll hear from Jason Plum uh relative to some indoor air quality updates. So, I will leave it at that. Uh you'll also hear an update from the trans transportation department tonight relative to the bus replacement cycle. Um and the monthly expense report is provided. It's at your chair. I won't go through it in detail, but if you have any questions, please see myself or Miss Bo, our uh CFO. I'll turn it back to board chair to see if there's

026any questions. >> Thank you. Any questions? Miss Beaver >> just wanted to know um loved the touch truck one and then I noticed too that um John Wallace w is set to um do some uh presentations about disability awareness month in January. So that was um really great just some of the things that uh are important to highlight and just would encourage everyone um like newboard members and those in the public. These are quite extensive reports um that come out and so they're they're chalk full of really good details and just want to thank everyone for doing that. Um one of them being and I don't want to steal the thunder of our student reps but um some of the um activities around Veterans Day last month. Um and as well as I think a

027movie night coming up so I won't say >> I'm not going to touch that one. I know that's a high school issue. >> Um just good to see a lot of the activities being done for the community within our schools. And I would like to add that Kim Deus arranged to touch a truck at um Patterson, one of our very talented prek teachers, and it was to benefit, she has a student in her classroom who has a very rare disorder, and the proceeds from the touch a truck uh event will go toward research in that in that arena. So, it was nice to see that level of support and all the kids, younger kids got to go touch the trucks, not just the preschool kids. So, thank you very much, >> uh Mr. Hollerin, >>

028thank you. And yeah, just to add to the John Wallace uh uh we're building a renovation project. Thank you. Um heard the same thing. Teachers were thrilled. I'm sure students will be thrilled as well. It's not just the doors, not just like they love the colors and there is not a deficiency in whiteboards. Um which is really good for what we want to do uh in those schools. So project is coming along nicely and it's moving fast, but it's good to see that uh it's being wellreceived. >> Mr. Newton, >> reiterate what Sean said. There's also they're transitioning over the Christmas break on time. So one of the wings that was worked on when the lockers are in it'll finally be open. But it's it's impressive. They're moving pretty good. Yeah. Anyway, um I had

029a question on the co-eing. Um does and you don't have to answer it now, but just like a budget consideration like is it um does it affect at all the budget? And I think at one point you had said like potentially paras um wouldn't be needed versus if there's a special ed teacher in the room. So can you just maybe elaborate but then more talk more at the budget season? we'll do. Um, and yes, there is currently a request for a special ed teacher in the budget that would support the co-eing. We're looking at that. Um, too soon to say how that'll clear out, but yes, it is a model that does require budget support. We have whenever we have been able to um because we have so many unfilled par positions right now determine

030whether we could leverage some monies for paras toward a teacher, which we've done at a couple of our schools. It's budget neutral and it allows us to support uh students, but you can't always do that because some kids do need that individualized support for a variety of reasons, but we have done that wherever possible with some creative um work of the HCD department. So, uh but co-eing is we've done a lot of training with it. We've seen classes where it's gone well, the student achievement goes up and it's it's a very positive model. Um, and we hope to continue to expand it district-wide, but yes, there is a budgetary impact. >> Thank you. Any other questions? No. >> Okay. All right. We can go to our committee report. So, we have our two student representatives,

031Abby and Danny. We'll turn it over to you. Hi. So, we have a lot of exciting stuff this month, and we'll just kind of uh recap November, too, since we weren't able to be here for that. So, we can go ahead and get started. So, first we have what's happening inside the high school. So, we recently had the alumni panel. So, we do that every year and alumni from last year come back and visit to talk to the current seniors about their college experience and any tips they have for applying and getting ready for college. So, we wanted to shout out Miss Slater and then the school counseling intern, Mr. Basset, for organizing the event. And then just thank all the alumni that took time out of their break to come and see us and

032talk to us. And then the sophomore and junior classes had their college workshops. So sophomores kind of got to talk about career exploration and then juniors talked more about um college searching and starting that process so that they're prepared. And that was during gym and health classes. And then we also had the choir and orchestra concert. So, the choir concert was yesterday and then the orchestra concert is going to be tomorrow night and Danny actually performed in the choir concert and it was really good. It everyone put a lot of hard work in so it was really good. >> The clubs or first of all, hi everybody. Um the clubs at Newington High School have been very active these past few months. I think we both noticed a lot of service going on in the

033clubs. Starting off with student council, this past Friday, the officers had the opportunity to attend the CAS leadership conference at Southern Connecticut State University. And there they were able to hear from keynote speaker Brandon Sherrod, who is the Yale assistant basketball coach and also attended many breakout sessions to help with increasing membership, outreach, turning negative events into a positive outlook, and also planning for college. And also on their themed Thursday for tropical day with help of with help with administration, student council helped pass out over,200 lays to help everybody feel the tropical vibes in the middle of November. For FLA, they're currently hosting their stuff a high school service project and if anybody's interested in donating any items, they can reach out to Miss or Dr. Dennis. Um, in addition, the club's opening branches at

034both Kellogg and Wallace and both their middle school both middle schoolers and high schoolers are excited to work with each other. I know Wallace just held their first info session meeting yesterday. And also they raised about $350 through the use of sales of hot cocoa for Alzheimer's Association. And also last month, Key Club volunteered at Boxes to Boots to help send presents and care packages to actively deployed milit military personnel for the holidays. >> So, just for some more clubs, Deca just went to their power trip to DC and one of our participants, Monica, got an award just to recognize her for what she did at the conference. I think it was for her roleplay practice. So, that was really exciting. And then the drama club, we closed last month for clothes for the holidays.

035We just finished up and we strike the stage and we're getting ready for Anastasia. The castles just came out last night and stage crew is going to be starting work on that next month. And then National Honor Society had the Heavenly Hats fundraiser. So Sam Jacobs and DECA members were the ones who organized it and we were able to raise um $856 for the foundation. All sports officially came to an end um this past week with Newington football making it all the way to the semi-finals. They unfortunately did not win, but they did win the quarter quarterfinals and the rivalry game in a very exciting final touchdown. Hopefully everybody got to see that final touchdown. Um for all state soccer players, they were selected. There's Jack Vendetti, Keegan Alderuchcci, and Jillian Buchard, who was also

036selected for all region, which is incredibly impressive. Basketball and hockey have started their seasons, and they have scrimmages this week, and boy swimming is recruiting new members. for a little surprise for you guys. Abby and I wanted to reach out to the middle schoolers to get their voices involved at the board of ed meetings. So, this past month, we went to go visit them and we visited their student councils and we heard back from both or we got to meet with both of them and see what they're doing. So, at Kellogg, we were able to see that they were organizing a spirit week, including anything but a backpack day, which was very exciting to see. We know a lot of students love that. They were also finishing finishing up a food drive for and for

037each canned food brought in, classrooms got to put a sticker on a printed out tree in their classroom so they could track their progress. And we saw while exploring the school trying to find out where student council was meeting, there are so many clubs that are active at Martin Kellogg and John Wallace. Um, but we noticed a mural club, drama practice, StuCo meeting, environmental club, and co-ed flag football all happening at once. So, a very active uh day for Kellogg. >> When we went to visit Wallace, we noticed a lot of similar stuff. They also held a kindness spirit week leading up to Thanksgiving break. So, they had rhyme without reason. They had tie-dye/purple day. They had culture day. And they did something which we thought was really interesting. They did games during lunch waves

038in addition to their pep rally. So, that's something really cool that we're thinking about actually implementing at the high school during our spirit weeks. And then we were really impressed by their food drive. When we met, they were actually collecting all of their items into their student council office and they raised over 1,700 items. So, it was really impressive. And we also noticed they were very excited to talk about the sports they offered there. So, they talked about flag football, basketball, and dodgeball. They were all really excited. And one of the students actually mentioned how they were surprised how organized it was and how professional was like they felt like it was an it wasn't just a club. It was like actual practice. They were learning real skills. So we thought that was really cool

039and it was just awesome to get to visit both schools and see what they were both up to and just see how involved and committed all of the students are. >> So then to finish up we have our shoutouts. So, Brooklyn Bradley, who's a senior, showed off her voice by opening up with Roar by Katie Perry and singing the fight song and at a conference for Cass and CIA. And then Y a GP um is the world's largest student ballet scholarship audition. And one of our students at the high school, Ella, who's a junior, is going to be performing a solo ballet variation in a group contemporary number. And then Sydney Blford, who's a senior, is going to be performing a solo ballet variation, a solo contemporary, and a solo group performance. So they also

040just participated. They were in the Nutcracker last week and this week. So, they're really busy and it's just been really cool. Yeah. And it's been really awesome. They're so talented. So, we want to shout them out. And then Jenna Sanserino earned a full ride scholarship to Boston University through QuestBridge. So, everyone's been congratulating her and it's been a really big deal. So, we just wanted to give her some recognition. >> And we also want to shout out um a lot of the activities that took place over Veterans Day. Um to list a few things that occurred, chamber choir performed at the senior center for veterans day. There was a veterans panel that was held and also cards were written off to veterans by multiple clubs. And also we want to shout out the NHS careermies

041who will be hosting their K-pop demon hunters movie night on December 12th. So we hope to see some of you there. >> Thank you everybody. We appreciate you all so much. >> Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments for our student board members? >> Wait, he always goes first. Okay, Mr. >> I don't have to go first. Um, just know I want to say something. Daniel and Abby, thank you so much. Always appreciate your report. Um, first question is, uh, how is the school spirit going in NHS? Are we seeing an uptick? Yeah. >> So, we've definitely seen it improve a lot and doing things like our tropical day. So, all of us were at all of the entrances in the morning with Miss Tno and Miss Batista and we were handing out

042lace to students as they walked in. So, we're trying to do things to make it more inclusive for everyone and make it something that everyone wants to participate in. And then with sports as well, we've had so much more people consistently going to football games and promoting everything and you just see everyone getting a lot more excited. So, I would definitely say it's an up at an uptick right now. >> Yeah, that student section in the stands is keeps growing, which is great. Yes, the eye of the storm. Thank you very much. Um, I really appreciated the inclusion of the middle school update, mostly because my seventh grader gives me updates to what did you do today stuff and how was your day? Good. So, it's nice to see what's actually happening. Um, is that

043something you plan on doing again? Yeah, we're going to try to reach out to them each month and get something new each time and just reach out to their student council members. We got representatives from there. Wallace doesn't have a president and vice president yet, but we have representatives from each. >> Awesome. Is there anything you need from us? >> No, you guys have been awesome. >> Great. Thank you, >> Miss Weaver. Just want to say congrats as always. Just amazing stuff. Um, Abby, how are you doing with College Apps? >> I'm doing good. >> She's doing good. She's like, "Don't ask me about that right now. Why would you put me on the spot there?" Um, no, but just want to say, um, great update as always. Always great to see how active it

044is. Great to see a lot of the high school activities kind of moving down to the middle schools as well, starting earlier with FBLA. Um, yeah, and Dr. G says, great u with that kind of stuff. And yeah, as I was alluding to the K-pop demon hunters, um, we talked about it in our, um, youth adult council. um looking at maybe doing one on substance use as well. Um not the actual movie K-pop Demon Hunter, but something of the sort. Um but always great to see. Um so thank you for also informing the community about all the events that are going on because I think we as we get our different perspectives, but sometimes the community doesn't get that. So um appreciate that and also um very excited. It's so interesting that they didn't drop

045the cast list on a Friday this time. >> Not sad about that one. Um, but just want to wish you guys luck as you go into your holiday break. And remember too, um, let us know too how mental health is going and those kinds of things. I know this is always a stressful time of year. It's a happy time of year, but it's a lot. Um, so would ask you when you guys come back after break, uh, not only to guard your own mental health, but let us know, um, what has the vibe been in the schools. Thanks, guys. Um, I will be at K-pop Demon Hunters because my four-year-old loves that movie and we probably watch it like a thousand times, but what's one more? Um, hopefully she'll she'll sing along like she does

046at home, but she might be shy. Um, I love that you went to visit the middle school. I think that's awesome and it really like it shows that you just are like interested in in seeing what they're doing and hopefully they loved having high school students visit them. So that that's really cool and and very happy to hear about the middle school sports that that have been going. I I know that I've heard from others too that it's like a very organized and I believe they're teachers, right, that volunteer or not volunteer but get stipens for um >> Yes. >> for for that. So that's cool that we have all that talent willing to teach actual skills um for for those clubs. So that's also a budget item that will >> hopefully continue. Um, and

047and just we mentioned it a h 100 times, but the tropical day like I just love that you kind of allowed everyone to participate and it was something that was easy to do and hopefully like everyone walking in was greeted you with a smile and and then wore the lays all day because I think that's really cool that you're being inclusive and and showing that we want that school spirit. So, thank you again for your update. It's fabulous to see you. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday and happy new year. Any other questions or anything for our student reps? Okay. Bye. >> Thanks. >> Okay. We have our facilities committee update. Mr. Holler, would you be able to provide the update and finance I guess at the same time? >> Yes. On the

048December 3rd, uh, facilities and finance, uh, held a joint committee meeting to go over the capital improvement project reserve fund. Um, Sam did send some, uh, information by way, which I will share, uh, cuz he apologizes for not being here today. Um, he wanted to, uh, thank the superintendent and her team for the clear presentation and our district's future financial needs. Uh some highlights we wanted to point out was our school bus replacement replacement cycle hasn't been fully funded in previous budgets um which is now posing a challenge requiring significant investment to ensure safe transportation. Uh the board can pass a budget but funding responsibility rests within the town ultimately uh and as finance chair he trusts that the town will do what's needed when funding our district budget. Um he also wanted to add

049that he wants to share with the town residents the urgent need to examine how we can develop a compreh comprehensive benefits package for a district's pair of professional staff uh particularly healthcare package uh and remind residents uh the board of education and the finance budget committee does not hold the power of the purse. We can advocate and pass a budget but ultimately the town council has the power of the person and authority to allocate and fund education budgets in our town as per the town charter. So that is for Mr. Chararma. My own comments to kind of uh recap uh going over uh the CIP reserve fund which Dr. Brema will do later in the agenda. Um high level um met with uh her team. Um the current year um came in at 1,200,000 as

050initially um discussed. Um some line items had been uh reworked um particularly the purchasing of certain radios to be more in line um with what the police and emergency services use. Um, in networking, um, in terms of technology, um, Chromebooks, we had to repurchase, um, some server racks, uh, that were appropriate size and could lock. Um, and also replacing, um, district-wide HVAC units, the older R22 gas units are being replaced as needed. Um, that was done at the high school, Elizabeth Green and Ruth Chaffy, and a van uh, for the technology team so they can get around from school to school. I think one of the biggest issues is as Sam had mentioned in his um comments um was that we do have a bubble for our funding our fleet of buses and that is

051due to um underfunding um for many years um which has kind of put us in a cliff where now we have to find a way to purchase a lot of buses because they're they're at the end of their useful life cycle. they're approaching that 11 year mark. Um, which is beyond what you would get from a contracting company, which typically does 5 to 6 years. Um, but we push it as long as we can. But at this point, we really need new buses. Um, there is a plan, which we'll go over in depth, I believe, um, to kind of level the b the bubble. Um, because what's going to happen is the cycle will continue. Um, it'll get worse. Plus, when we add in the cost of inflation, if we don't make an investment in

052it now, it's going to be much more expensive to do it in the future. So, that is going to be part of our budget discussions as we go forward. Um, my opinion is it's critical. We just heard from an everyday hero today, one of our bus drivers, and we really need to make sure that our kids are safe going to and from our schools, and that includes making sure that they have a fleet that isn't aging out, um, which it currently is. So, um, without any more than that, um, I know we'll get to the CIP, um, later in the present, uh, in the meeting tonight. Um, but that in a nutshell is basically how that went and you will get the full overview later. >> Thank you. Yeah, I guess he Sean mentioned we're

053talking about later, but are there any questions right now for Go ahead. I just want to comment and say thank you to Lynn, Dean, Jason, everyone who gave presentations that night. There was a wonderful presentation by Lynn in your board packet when we go over CIP. That is a and Craig. Thank you. Thank you. And Craig, sorry I was hanging those at the table that night. Um, some very nice visualizations. So, appreciate you taking the time to help us visual learners. >> Okay. Um and then policy has not met yet, but you're going to meet beginning of the year. Yes, most likely. Yes. >> Um and then curriculum committee. So, we met on um November 19th. We do have another meeting tomorrow. Um but for November 19th, we talked about student achievement. So, Miss Freeman

054shared our NextGen accountability results, which um there's a lot to celebrate in there. There's um high just I'll read a few things but highest um ELA growth for all students and high need students in the last four years. Highest math performance for all students and high need students in the last four years and highest math growth for growth performance math growth for students in high needs in four year in the last three years. Sorry, I missed one. And highest ELA performance for students in in and high need students in the last four years. So there's a lot of like constant consistent growing in four years. Um no dipping of numbers. Um the link to the report is in the minute. So I would encourage anyone to go and look. It's a very thorough um thorough

055report and it shows I think wellness was maybe the only one that we were I know it's always wellness Jessica that we were um lower than state average but it's because um potentially how it's scored how the it's right interpret yes it's a it's a it's an art not a science >> um we also talked about um this is an interesting one student achievement trends in um grades 3 through eight for for the state um for Newington and then surrounding town. So basically we noticed there's a dip for both math and ELA in grade 5 um and the thought was that it's because of a transition to middle school. So what Miss Freeman did was look at Newington along with three other um uh school uh districts in our DIR and found that this so

056one district had middle school starting in uh sixth grade and one had I can't remember I think one start did one start in seventh and um and there was a dip in and then uh we start in fifth fifth grade. Um sorry I left my other bag in the other Yeah, I don't have it. Um so but the dip was consistent for the the middle school that starts in sixth grade. They dipped in sixth grade and the middle school that started >> Yeah. Um, so and then there was only one other I think it was Cromwell that started the same time as sixth grade, but they dipped they didn't dip. They were kind of steady, but in eighth grade there was a huge dip. So there's some followup for that. Um, obviously it's, you know,

057three districts that were compared to Newington, so it's not like a a huge um a huge study, but it was interesting to see that the dip did happen um in most districts consistent with the transition to middle school. Um, so we did recommend um some further analysis just to kind of try and even out that um kind of level out the the growth in um achievement and not see such a drastic dip. um happened in math and science or math and English um and then so that's that and then um and reach out to those districts too like Cromwell to see what they might do in sixth grade that we could we could do as well. Um and then we talked about student achievement on the fall universal screener. So again this is um something

058they do three times a year. baseline is um done in the fall. We'll see over the course of the year how how those go. Um there was of note that the fall benchmark performance dropped in grades five, seven, and eight in both middle schools. I don't know if there was a reason for that. Um but differences could be because um oh that was math. There's differences and assessment that might be a contributing factor. Um and then we talked about math. Um we the the agenda for um for math was expectation the math item was expectations for data collection on math achievement. So, we kind of came to the conclusion that we don't really we won't have a lot of information or enough information to or any actually to prove that um getting rid of seventh

059grade math is a um is going to work because we didn't do it this year. Um but there's other there's other things that we can look at. Um, we also talked about how sixth grade math is, um, looks to be promising delelling. Um, but it was only one year data and we'll have to reassess every year. um we decided that we would use Oh, and we said that the state benchmark um doesn't come out until the end of the year, so we wouldn't really need be able to tell um early on what the benchmark assessment is going to prove. Um but we decided that we'll analyze um for the winter and um but we did recognize that's not a valid tool for our study on deleing um but it will be helpful in in some

060capacity. And then um what we're going to do starting tomorrow is kind of get um kind of take a step back from all of that's happened and all of the discussions that have taken place and take a step back and go back to the why. And um and a lot has I do want to say a lot has changed from when it was presented originally last year to now um in and we can get more into it in the um committee meeting but also like bring it back to the full board. But a lot has changed regarding the bridge to algebra program or the um just what not that the why has changed but a lot of the concerns that were brought up were talked about and a lot has kind of gone on. So,

061we want to kind of just take a step back, get back to the why, get back to the the research, get back to the m mission and vision of what we're hoping to accomplish or what the curriculum department is hoping to accomplish and put it all together and then share um to for transparency purposes and so that um we can all just get back on the same page of what what the goal will be going forward. um and everyone is well aware of the decision and and and can um know what's going on. So, we'll do start that tomorrow. Um hopefully get through um a draft and then at our January meeting, review it and then bring it to the full board after that, end of January, early February. Um and we did have one

062parent attend um and provided feedback on on the math. Um she did mis hear some things but she challenged the validity and sufficiency of the evidence to inform the decisions and there's data limitations which we also identified. Um and Yeah, and she mentioned building thinking classrooms as the classroom model. Um, kind of looking to understand how that's beneficial. So, yeah. Any questions? Go ahead with Dr. Stanley. >> Thanks Amy for the update. Um, I would just ask for us to consider or a suggestion for the uh committee to consider when you're looking not only at the LL scores on the success of the of the new program or um DLEing the math is that we also gain some perspective from the teachers um and how it's working for them as well as some perspectives from

063the students. And it would be nice to have like a um or it could be nice to include a survey or a public comment as well from the parents. Um just general broad strokes about how is your kid doing and checking in with the kids because there may be some unexpected things that were fearful in the beginning but may have not come to fruition or something. Yeah. >> Yeah. I know that. Um the curriculum department has been very active in talking to to teachers especially in sixth grade because it's already been um dueled. But um but also noting like um how cuz the seventh grade math it's not algebra 1A this year it's ex it's accelerated seventh grade. So it is a little bit different too. So but yes that's definitely part of it. And

064then also I didn't mention but the um Miss Kellogg is focusing on with all the math teachers the building thinking classrooms and then like enhancing the rigor throughout. So aside from the seventh grade discussion throughout all of our math classes um he's working on that. So that's also something that we can we can talk about and bring up. U Mr. Hollerin. Yeah, I think um to follow up uh on that as well, we did discuss trying to get some hard data around the change. Unfortunately, that takes time and it's something we just implemented. So, it'll take time to actually get numbers, which is kind of what drives me. I'm an analyt analytical type of person, but we did talk about anecdotal feedback as well from both teachers, students, um parents, just to try to get

065kind of the emotional component to how it's going. um while we're trying to find good ways to get hard data around how it's progressing. I believe we did actually look at Cheshire public schools as well who implemented a delelling um almost similarly very similar to the way we did while Cheshure is not exactly the same as we are um from what I've understood um their transition went very well um so we are looking at from different angles comparing DRS comparing schools who've also deleled um but it's just going to take a little time to figure out how to get the the hard data um but I think it's important we get the anecdotal data as Go ahead. >> No, find something else. >> All right. Uh, moving on. I just had a follow-up question. When

066you were looking at the drop in our scores, um, as we transition to middle school and you and you pulled the or you looked at the surrounding towns, um, were we able to see their precoid data? because I think our data if I'm remembering our scores fell even before COVID on this transition >> um like the specific to fifth graders like the trend I >> yeah I don't >> I think it was persistent even before CO if I'm remembering those numbers right so I was just making sure that we weren't just pulling the cohort that suffered in COVID and now are entering middle school and so their scores are dropping anyways like I was wondering if there was comparison between >> I think Mr. Freeman's looking how far back it went. >> Yeah, if you

067have so so the purpose of that report was specifically to answer the question is the drop that we see in fifth grade performance specific to Newington? Is it specific to Newington with respect to it being fifth graders? Is it specific to Newington? Um, with respect to fifth grade happens to be the grade that kids transition to middle school. So, um, that's the question that we were really looking to answer. And so, when we looked at, uh, again, it was just those, uh, three towns in our DUI and the state, we saw that overall there usually is a dip in scores when students transition. So, it wasn't a grade five issue. It appeared to be something more structural, right? when kids actually transition the data that I shared um went back to 2122. So precoid also

068does so precoid is is kind of a long time ago because also keep in mind that in the COVID year we did not do ESPA testing because everybody was at home. The following year we did espa testing but you could do it online or you could do it in person. So the state didn't really count the scores because it wasn't valid information. So when I say we go back, it's like when we start talking about 2018 performance, for me that feels it just feels really old. I mean, we could look at trends there. Um, but I would also guess if we were going to look at uh performance back in 2018, I would also want to match that with populations because I would also guess that the population of Newington has changed drastically since 2018

069as well. And it would be the same for surrounding towns. >> Thank you, Miss Weaver. Sorry, I don't want to take away from that conversation, but I also just that NextGen report I have beef with when it comes to the physical fitness one. They know it because I've been on record doing that. Um, but uh jokes aside, um, one of the things that I just wanted to note too, um, Miss Freeman, if you could provide, um, I think one of the indicators that I was looking at particular that I think has been a clear issue from the state as well as the chronic absenteeis chronic absenteeism. Um, have we I just don't have it right in front of me. Did we improve on that in the last year I just can't see where that was.

070Um, >> okay. >> I can bring back last year's important stuff. Just wanted to um obviously we're in better shape than the state I think. >> Yeah. Um, by 20 point 20 percentage points. Um, but just wanted to note that clearly. Um it's one of those things we're not it's still a statewide issue. We know that's something school avoidance and all these things come up. Um just wanted to elevate that topic um as one that that's a clear trend throughout the state. >> Um reading from my phone. Um so it look it looks like um our points earned were 70.4 for for all students but for and I don't use this word I have to be clear this is words that the state used when they say high needs students um it was 44.9 so

071what I don't have in front of me is what it was the year prior I could look on my phone and find that report if you want that now >> just more or less is there yeah it's just more of a >> a general question um if we have also just looking back the last couple years that trend and for making progress on that obviously in the wake of CO um knowing that that's been a key issue. Thank you. >> I literally want to talk to the committee about that. Like we're getting dinged so hard on physical fitness and I just don't agree. Our wellness teachers are great. So >> sorry. >> That's Yeah, it's definitely crazy. >> All right, any questions? Okay. So, we can move on to our indoor air quality report. >>

072Mr. Plum. >> Yes. >> Hi, Mr. Plum. Come on up. >> Thanks for Thanks for sticking it out with us. >> So, while he's making his way to the podium, we are required to provide the board with an update annually about our efforts toward our air quality initiatives. So, I will put your slide deck up, Mr. plum and just let me know when to advance. >> Sure. And we can pass around this if you're curious. It's not powered up because it has battery power. So, it's not much to pass around, but this is going to be referenced in the presentation. It's our sensor stuff that we put out in the uh in the classrooms. So, yes, as Meen said, we have to each year I have to report to the board on our indoor air

073quality checklists. So, this is the pile of checklists school by school. Uh, and there's a series of checklists that we'll go over. They have to be posted on our board of ed website and they have to be posted on each indiv Oh, yeah. On each individual schools website and those are currently posted in all of the state forms that have been submitted about a week ago. So, next slide, please. Um, the state of Connecticut requires each local or regional board of education to provide for a uniform inspection and evaluation program of the indoor air quality within each school building using the EPA agent's indoor air quality tools for schools program. So, these these checklists are out of the tools for schools program. They're they're preformatted and we literally take them and fill them out and

074check each box. So, next slide. So the checklists that we have to submit on are these. So building it's not all about air quality necessarily. It's about environment. Um so they actually have a new IAQ is now EQ indoor environment quality. Uh, it's starting to change names, but building cleanliness, indoor climate control, pest management, air contaminate or elimination, evidence of mold or mildew, water issues, and unpleasant smells are things that we're looking for. Um, the six checklists are titled building and grounds, waste management. The biggest one, and where I spend a lot of my time, is ventilation. Thank you. Uh and there's a walk general walk through integrated pest management kitchens. Uh and that's it for the six. These are the checklists that I have in front of me. So the checklists are filled out

075by stakeholders. Uh for instance, we have a kitchen staff that fills out the kitchen portion of it and the rest of it is really facilities and grounds which I oversee. Um, they're shared through the website as I mentioned before. They're shared with the the board as we're doing now, and the the uh forms are submitted to the state of Connecticut. Um, the um the IAQ at New Schools, it's multiaceted. So though we have these checklists that we lean on to go through the formal process to determine what air quality looks like in the classrooms or school buildings. We have some other methods that we use at the schools to take it a you know a step further uh enhance. So the EPA checklist we referred to earlier the six checklists. We also do a bianual

076um survey that goes out to all staff. So, this is an opportunity twice a year for all staff to comment on. Uh, it's it's a checklist that has 13 questions. We keep it short and sweet, so we do get a lot of response, but it really focuses on the it's like a highlevel um boiled down version of the checklists, so it really lines up nicely with those. Um, this portable sensor that you just saw go around is another method that we're going to use. U, we don't have enough sensors to do all the classrooms currently, but we do have them on order. So the advantage of these versus our item five on here is our building management system which is a computerized controls uh that we have for the HVAC equipment. These actually uh log

077data. So these are these are hooked to the Wi-Fi. They have a way of hooking it to the Wi-Fi and every 5 seconds it gives a readout of temperature, CO2 and relative humidity. So we can see that on a graphical form. We'll see an image of that later. Very handy. Um, we're seeing, uh, Boston, Massachusetts, for instance, at their schools, you can go in as a parent or anyone in the community and look up the school that you're interested in and look up the classroom number and see live what their temperature, relative humidity, and their stats are. So, this is sort of a it's sort of similar to that. This is not exactly what the state is looking for of Connecticut. Um, but it's I'll explain later. It's it proves that if we have all

078of those three uh temp, CO2, and relative humidity are we're hitting our marks on those. That's proof that we're circulating enough fresh air. We're controlling the temperature properly and making a comfortable environment. So, this is kind of like the the Boston thing. And part of this process was to create something we didn't have, which was HVAC mapping. So, that's all indoor and outdoor equipment on paper maps so we can see where they're at. And that helps us through troubleshooting to say we have a vendor come in, we have to have it then go look at a certain unit. It also directly nomenclature ties to the BMS system which helps us navigate. It's it's a pretty big computer system. So to quickly get to the unit and help troubleshoot. Next slide. Um this is the bianual

079survey. You probably cannot read all those items, but the they're pretty small. Um, every employee is invited to participate. So, not just teachers, anyone that is in our school buildings that has an email address through the school. So, roughly a thousand people. Uh, we usually get in the neighborhood of 120 to 200 responses. So, we actually do pretty good. The key to that is keeping it short so that it's not a big lift for them to fill out. Um, like I said before, it's aligned with these checklists. So it's it's asking the similar questions just boiled down version. Uh we we take in the data from these checklists. We print out the reports and send it to the schools. So each school um whether they can handle it locally. I see cobwebs that's something that

080we can do locally with the cleaning staff as a step up the clean you know the dusting or if we have a greater problem such as uh pest control or moisture that keeps reoccurring that we're not aware of. this is this is a tool that we can use to reach out and say ah we weren't aware of that and then begin looking into the problem. Um we any we have things that come up such as we'd like to have our gym air conditioned and that's something that that really it's that's that's we all would like to have that of course but it's not really actionable. It's not really what we're looking for on an indoor air quality survey. Uh it's something we can't control until we put air conditioning in the gyms. Uh next slide

081please. This sensor uh the data behind the scenes that we collect looks like we can look at it in in an Excel sheet or we can look at in a graphical way. Um and the graphical way is on the right there to show all of the four components that it measures uh and how we're looking through the day. It's it's really it's been really very handy for Anna Reynolds when we're we're trying to commission that building and get it fine-tuned to provide because our BMS systems don't log data. They give you what's happening happening right at that moment and that's it. We don't have the feature of logging past data. These log data forever. So we can go back and we can break it up, slice it and dice it and look at certain time

082frames or last week or last month or the last year. Um, we will be deploying these to all occupied spaces. Um, they're 24/7, so they're watching night and day. We see this great. You can see when people arrive at the building, the CO2 levels kick up because we're breathing CO2. And then when that goes uh when they leave the building, you can see it dip down on these on these charts on the right. Um, the results are saved. As I mentioned, we also have a future need for these where we have an industrial um a hygienist that will analyze the data that comes out of these as part of a 5-year plan that the state's looking for us to to commit to. So, there's this annual thing that we do each year and then there's

083this longer term five-year indoor air quality thing that I'll I'll go over here in a second. Um, so this is an example of the maps that we created. you can kind of get a, you know, an understanding of of what's going on in the rooms. For instance, at this school, we've got the blue squares are unit ventilators. So, unlike your system at your house that's air conditioning or heating, our schools in commercial buildings, we have, you know, how many people we have in here, 20 people or we had 40 50 earlier. When you have that many people in a room, you got to change the air out. So you have to bring fresh air in unlike your home system most likely and and keep that air circulating to keep the carbon dioxide down. So we

084can look at this and we can understand those outside units are bringing the fresh air in and the inside units that are orange squares are contributing just for cooling in the summer. So we got kind of a combination of things going on. And the green is a big rooftop unit that just blows into the room and and circulates air from the roof. So bringing air straight from the roof. Again, these are handy for troubleshooting kind of a a visual understanding of how the systems are working and if we have vendors come in, they can quickly understand, oh, okay, I see that's the heating, that's the cooling, and so forth. It also was very handy when we changed our maintenance staff, our HVAC person. Um, this was super handy for him to get caught up and

085understand how the buildings work. Uh, next slide, please. This is a look behind the scenes in a BMS system. So on the right is a air handling unit and that air handling unit has a bunch of changeable features and it had a b has a bunch of information that's going on there that help us troubleshoot and we can kind of we can kind of before going to the building understand what we're up against most likely. Um this we have three different versions of this. This is a this is the more modern version of the one that we have in most schools. Uh this is not what we have in Anna Reynolds. And then we have an older version that's a little bit antiquated that we're going to have to update at some point and it's

086a little bit uh it's a little bit more like computer programming. It looks it's a little bit older type system, not so graphical and and pretty pictures. Uh but we can do this from a PC. We can take a look at this. If people are too hot or too cold, we can adjust their temperature and do a bunch of other things. Um it all the big advantage of the BMS system the probably the greatest advantage is we can schedule with it and when we have occupied times we heat and air conditioning the the space to a higher level for comfort and when we don't have occupied times we can turn that back and you know have a minimal amount of energy use and still keep the building safe. Next slide. So these are those three

087key factors and if our our theory here is if we're if we're within the acceptable ranges and the happy ranges on all three of these it proves that our systems are working correctly. Um, it's a different way of looking at it than the specific state requirements which say you shall go inside each unit and we have 880 units I believe is the number and you shall take it apart and you shall use the computer and run it and see if everything works which we did one unit and it took two hours to take the unit apart. We were doing it just because we had a complaint and we had to prove either it was not working or was working. So this this method using these little guys and using our BMS system is a more

088sustainable way to do this with the you know the limited staff that we have. It's also very expensive to bring that outside firm in and look at the little components to make sure they're working and measure the actual air flow that's coming out of these units. If we hit all these marks, we've accomplished a an acceptable environment. So this is the final slide and um so this this one-year thing that we're doing we do this each year and we it is designed to do with in-house staff so myself others are able to contribute we're able to fill these sheets out and answer it adequately. The more uh the five-year requirement is more focused not on the on the dust and the moisture. It's really heavily focused on the air conditioning and heating systems. And that's

089they want to bring in what's called an air balancer to each uh each unit the 880 units and measure the amount of air that that unit puts out and bring in the scientists who are the the hygienists to measure uh quantities of um gases and particulate in the air of the classrooms. So, these are some rough figures uh that we met with both of those parties on what it would take to do this five-year plan as stated in the the requirements. Um that's not that $340,000 figure. It's it's a rough figure. Um we don't have to do that year one. Uh the first chance we'll have to submit on this unless things change, which they have in the past, is July 1st, 2026. So, that's right around the corner. That's next summer. But we only

090have to do 20% of our schools, 1/5th for the 5 years. Um, we have a bit of a jump start on it. It doesn't exactly meet the criteria of the school, but last year we did a spot check around the schools with the hygienist part of it, not the mechanical person that looks at the air flows of the units. So, we do have something that gets us most of the way through that first submitt. Um but the the going from individual unit to individual unit will it'll be a lot of money. Um so we're hoping we have a request into the state that with our the previous slide the algebra of the three items that that would be a suitable uh substitute because we we have the we have this we're lucky enough to have

091this building management system which is the computerized system that not every school I imagine has and we have these guys out there watching what's happening the whole time and leading us to problems. So, we're hoping that we can avoid that $340,000 figure we saw earlier. Uh, and we do have the the 60some u slides of presentation that we have sent them on the information and the reasoning behind it. Uh, we have not heard back, but we're hopeful that we we might be able to use those two systems to avoid that cost. Do you have any questions for me? I think that's the end of it. >> You might have been >> I think they all went up at the same time. >> Yeah. Miss Petrice. >> Um, first off, I I am totally blown away

092how you and your staff maintain our buildings. It is just incredible with so many moving parts, so many changes in in requirements. Um, I just can't thank you enough. Our buildings are amazing. Always look amazing, but the behind the scenes piece of it is is really incredible. So, huge thank you. I have a quick question. I I don't I maybe just need to clarify actually. the sensor units. Do you have enough sensor units to continue with the work that you're doing? Um, if I heard correctly, it sounded like you had more coming, but are you totally set for that or is there any more that you need? And do they have a shelf life issue? Is there something like they need to be replaced every couple of years or how do we maintain them? >>

093They need to be recalibrated. So, the recalibration is turning them off um in a in in an environment where you don't have a bunch of people around. So, we're not we don't have a lot of carbon dioxide. We have more like an outdoor air condition. Um, carbon dioxide generally around here is around 420 parts per million outdoors. So, we want that kind of like that condition. We turn them off. We turn them back on. We hit a button on here and it calibrates it. So, I don't know what the lifespan is of them. I imagine it's got to be around 5 to 10 years. I can find the answer out for that. um they're they're not watching anything that's like life safety or anything where it would be like oh if they went bad we

094would be at any risk. Um so we would we would check them regularly if they start going out of spec we would you know it's not doing us much good any longer but um we do have comparables uh that we can look at to make sure that they're still operating correctly. Um, we have air conditioning systems such as Anna Reynolds that's got a more sophisticated monitoring system in it. So, we can compare what we're seeing on that to this and and confirm they're working. All right. We also have some newer units at other schools that are watching those three criteria. So, yeah, we we uh to answer your question, what we have for quantities, we have 175 of these units currently. Um, the the remainder that we have on order will cover the all the

095schools. So, it's it's a it's a half and half. The purchase order is out there, but we're taking half order and then we're going to pay for that half order and get the other half. And that'll that'll solve uh uh putting one of those in all all classrooms and occupied spaces. >> So, it sounds like we're we have a long-term plan that's actually in place and and ready to go then. So, thank thank you and thank you for being so proactive on that. >> Yeah. No, it's it's uh it answers a lot of questions for us and it saves us a lot of calls where we can we can see what's really going on out there. We get the call. It's stuffy in my room. It's it's they're inexact. It's hot in my room. Well,

096we find out often it's 71.5. That's right where it ought to be. So, you know, it helps us with our their actions to assist people and and set their expectations. >> Yeah, >> Miss Beaver. >> Yes. Thank you. No. Um thank you as always, Jason. I don't know about you, but I love this presentation. I always get excited about it. Um I know not everyone would agree, but I think so. Um just a question on the I know with the uh legislative mandates um is the cost for the 340k is that over the five years? >> Yes. Okay. Five years. >> Okay. So that that's like it's not every year that situation. Okay. Just clarifying that. >> Correct. Um and then I guess um do you have any idea as you wait for the state

097to respond when their time frame to get back to you is? >> Um I don't. >> Um what we've seen with this as this rolled out, we saw it roll out with dates that were prior to July 2026 and then it crept a little bit to the right and it crept a little bit to the right. Um I I have the strangest feeling that it'll it'll there will be some wiggle room in it just because just watching the past but no I don't have a time expected time frame. >> No worries. And I think that was me leading to I think the state has moved as well uh in terms of those five years might be pushed out continuously. >> Yeah. Or the exact requirements. Okay. I know there was we we listened into one

098of the state meetings and there was a concern by parties that there aren't enough so air balancers are are there's not a lot of them in the there aren't a lot of them in the state and they're hardly enough to do the new construction projects let's take Anna Reynolds let's take um John Wallace they they're one of the parties that come in to get everything set up properly so they're very hard to get they're like they're many weeks out of lead time just to get them on the new construction projects So the reality of trying to get that short staffed already to every school in Connecticut, it's it's a challenge. Uh it's it's known by, you know, us and others that that's it's it's a resource that's not available to most likely to go to

099every school unless we train up a whole bunch of uh air balancers in the state. >> Noted for our next academy track. Thank you. >> But thank you. >> Pay well or >> probably at this rate, right? Sounds like >> Mr. H. >> Oh, okay. See, wait long enough that he doesn't speak. >> Anybody else have any questions, >> comments? >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Thank you for your present. Thank you for bringing us. Very cool. >> Okay. Next agenda item is um discussion and possible action on revising upcoming meeting dates. So after we voted on the budget dates, uh it was brought to our attention that February 16th is um President's Day. So we would like to propose cancelling that day um and then add February 19th. So just I think that's that

100Thursday. So there is a motion. I will move the board of education cancel the February 16th, 2026 meeting and approve the added February 19th, 2026 meeting for the 2025 2026 school year. >> Motion second. Any discussion? Can we have a roll call vote, please? >> Mary Be, >> yes. >> Sean Howerin, >> yes. >> Marissa Lensing, >> Yes. Brian Stebo. >> Yes. >> Stanley. >> Yes. >> Jessica Weaver. >> Yes. >> Motion passed unanimous. Unanimously 8. >> Thank you, >> Lori. And now we have our PTA PTO pack representation. Um so in the packet, but this is just the schedule of um PTO slashpack slash what PTA meetings um for our schools and assigning assignees to each meeting. Um so if we do encourage board members to attend meetings um just cuz it helps to

101you know get out there and um have the PTO members, you know, all three of them. I don't know why they're all different names, but yeah, good visibility and and sometimes they have questions on things and and good discussions come out of them. So, if you um cannot make a meeting, um just ask a fellow board member to cover for you. Um I do have Tuesday night classes next semester. So, unfortunately, I won't be able to make the ones that are at 6, which is my own schools, Kellogg and Reynolds. Um so, I'll be reaching out if someone can cover for me. Um but yeah and and yes Mr. Hollerin >> we're not limited to these are they like if we want to sit down on any PTO PTA pack meeting it's appropriate to do

102so >> totally fine. >> Yeah I would just reach out to the principal. >> Yep. give them a heads up as we were and also as alluded to in our last special meeting you can attend any meeting as a parent too and just notify like hey these are things but it's great to just solicit feedback um and I think often we all report back what we've heard on on those things so I encourage you to share at the board table what you hear >> yeah Mr. ask you. Do is your mic on? >> Yes. Okay. >> Is there anything I need to know before I go to any of these meetings? >> Um, yeah. I mean, you don't really need to know anything. I think it's just the guidelines are don't don't promise things that

103you can't do or don't, you know, be aware of what Miss Ritter said um at our six o'clock meeting today. Um, they might ask you questions that you won't have the answer to and you just say you'll find out and and get back to them. Um and yeah, if there's any like you can bring because at at the end of every single board meeting, we have the opportunity for um remarks by board members. So you can like bring up something that you heard there at that portion of the meeting. Um or obviously reach out to Dr. Brahett um if a question comes up that you answer. >> Is all the times the same? >> They're Yeah, they're at the bottom. Um >> Okay. >> So like >> Yep. >> Yeah. And then we um we

104do ask the principles to send a lot like some of them are I know Anna Reynolds was virtual option optional so um we ask that the principal send you like a calendar invite and a meeting link if there is one um but if you don't get it you can reach out or just show up the they're all in the media center except for Reynolds is in the cafeteria and the times are are there It's kind of >> Yeah. >> And they're all run differently. So like some might have you go like they might give you an opportunity to speak and you just be like, >> "Hi, I'm Brian, new to the board." And just here for if you have any questions or concerns. Yeah. >> Be there for an hour after. >> Good question. Okay.

105All right. and discussion possible action on our capital improvement plan. >> All righty. Thank you very much. As has been alluded to several times tonight, uh we have a capital improvement plan and just for board members that weren't at the subcommittee meeting, um we have two funding streams in in our budget. One is the operating budget, which you're going to hear a lot about in February forward. But tonight you'll hear about our capital improvement plan which does need to be sent to the town um this month. Um for some reason we can't approve it this evening. We'd have to just alert the town that we need more time. Um so this is a a request that we make to the town annually for various capital items. So in your board packet is this document and

106I'll be showing it on the screen and this is a largely a summary. It gives a little bit of an overview of what is entailed in our capital improvement budget. So I'll do a little bit of quick history and then I'll get into our request for next year. I will spend a little more time on our bus replacement cycle as well as our technology replacement cycle because those are large ticket items and it's important for the board to understand why those requests are made and what what purpose they serve. So, um I won't go over the table of contents, but as by means of background, anything in this budget request booklet is something that is a a larger priced item. It's related to the facilities or infrastructure of the school district. It must have a

107lifespan of at least seven years as well as a price point of $25,000 or more. Anything that doesn't fit that criteria would be in our board operating budget request that you'll hear more about in February. So, uh again, this is designed to make sure and you've heard many presentations over uh the time, well, not so much our new board members, but our current board members about what we do to keep our facilities up to date and running well. And an example tonight of the air quality. These are things at many of these uh components are listed in this capital improvement plan. Um we are also so there's two prongs to this capital improvement plan. One is called the public school capital improvement plan that we largely fund ourselves and the other is the town capital

108improvement plan. So I will go over both of those tonight. Some examples of projects that are typically funded under this plan are listed on this page. is page four and it includes, you know, overarching lighting improvements, um, district-wide systems controls like what Mr. Plum mentioned earlier, uh, sidewalks, uh, driveways, sometimes there's repairs needed, track has had to be repaired before, or tennis courts, uh, technology, which I'll get into momentarily. uh district vehicles. We not only do we buy our own buses, but if you've seen any of our vans that drive around town, they are also purchased using capital resources, carpeting. So, those are just some samples of playground enhancements. Those are some examples of how this money's been used historically. Um on this page which is in your booklet, page uh five of nine is

109our projected and historical revenues for the public school CIP fund. And I wanted to kind of show the board that um on this page and maybe I can blow it up a bit. we are given annually from the town $125,000 and then the rest of the money for for this capital improvement fund comes from receipts and other uh income sources. So under 2526 where my cursor is I believe you can see my cursor uh we have the $125,000 allocation from the town. We also have investment income, which is income that we get on accounts that are interestbearing. Tuition receipts. A lot of that money that you see there comes from our open choice students who are special education. Um, and that money that we build to Hartford comes back and is deposited here. Um, school

110rental receipts. Anytime our schools are used by outside agencies, churches, dance dance companies, those monies that we pull in from charging those organizations are deposited here. So this year we believe our revenue um between what's allocated to us and the money that's coming in will be about $1.3 million. And you can see we project out over the coming five years. Um, obviously these are a snapshot in time. We can only go with what we know right now, but uh, right now we believe these are good estimates of where we're headed. Obviously, as in these out years, we will continue to refine those estimates over time, but we're required to send the town our five-year plan. You can see some historical numbers here on the bottom component of this slide that show um again the appropriation

111from the general fund is always $125,000 but our investment income and our tuition receipts can vary. I do want to uh point out to the board these areas that are highlighted in yellow. These are years where some of our tuition receipts were returned to the town but in a very structured way so that they would offset our budget with that. So in previous years we've done some creative collaboration with the town to offset our operating budget by transitioning money sometimes that we had left over in capital or um from monies that we get from the open choice program. So these are just notations about years when we did do that. So you can read through that um at your leisure. This page reflects where we're currently at right now in our capital budget. So often

112times um you will get we'll put a projection out there of where we thought we were going to spend the money and then life gets in the way and we change that. And it is permissible to change what we initially were allocated or how we allocated it and change it to a different line item as long as an an appropriate expenditure for our capital expense. So for example um this year we planned about 60,000 for district-wide security and safety. Um, but then, uh, we needed a little bit more money for that so we could get those radios that I believe were talked about earlier, and some additional security cameras, which we rely heavily on. You'll see that we transferred that money from different lines. Uh, initially, we believe we would spend about $750,000 on our

113Chromebooks and other networking devices. Um, we ended up needing more than that, about $941,000. So, we transferred that from other lines. Um, the HVAC that I believe Jason referenced briefly tonight um or or perhaps Mr. Howerin did actually where we have um units at some of our schools that are outdated and need replacement. So, that those resources went there. We did not need to do any district-wide painting at this time. So, that's where some of those other categories that went a little higher, we transferred money over there. Um, district-wide carpet we didn't need to worry about, so that was transferred into some of those other lines. Districtwide playgrounds, didn't need to use that. That's been transferred. And, um, the district-wide vehicles, we are in the process of purchasing a technology van. And what that is

114is a van that allows our our computer technicians who are housed at Chaffy, but do need to travel between every school with equipment. So, we need them to have a a work van to to leverage. So, again, these are already approved expenditures. We've just had to make a few uh shuffles to make it work. >> Yes. I just wanted to note that Mr. Barnes was noting that when we get like a vehicle, it's not like we're going with the Mercedes-Benz, you know, thing. This is like what's reasonable and within >> always just >> it's pre we do are very cost effective that way. buy used vehicles because you get a lot of u you know much cheaper price. Um looking ahead on this chart you will see the areas that we believe will be expenditures

115in the coming five years. We have noted down at the bottom excuse me higher um approp appropriations to these lines. Again, we are taking in more um open choice revenues for these line items. We anticipate probably $1.2 million in open choice revenue this year. So, that does allow us to have slightly uh a little more additional expenditures here. So, next year we anticipate um providing some laboratory improvements most likely at Martin Kellogg. some of their ba bathrooms are um quite outdated and in need of some plumbing upgrades. We did one bathroom over the summer. We anticipate another bathroom next summer. Uh HVAC upgrades uh much to what Mr. Plum is referencing making sure HVAC systems are up to snuff so we have to look at some of them have um outdated gas that's no longer

116made. So, you have to once once those um mechanisms reach their useful life, you have to replace them because they just don't exist anymore. We anticipate districtwide safety and security uh most likely in the area of cameras and more radios. I'll get into in more detail in a subsequent slide um about our district-wide technology infrastructure. I want to really show the board how that money is spent. And next year, we do anticipate asking for a district-wide vehicle. We've got a a box truck that is is that the right one? Um Lynn, is it a box truck? Electrician's van. It's uh way beyond its useful life. 100 several hundred thousand miles on it. Um so we plan to replace that if this all goes according to plan. And in the out years, again, full disclosure, most

117of that is somewhat estimations based on needs we don't know that we're going to have yet. other than the technology infrastructure because we do have a very specific replacement cycle that we analyze every year to try to level out how much we need yeartoear. So at the bottom of this page you'll see that we plan to request from the town um approval of the $1.4 million for next year. Mind you approval is an interesting word because this is really mostly self-funded. The only thing that the the town really contributes is the $125,000 which is part of our town charter to get that annually. >> Um I just have a question and the estimate it's 1.3 but then the require like the um up here the >> So which page are you? I'm on page five

118and for 2627 it says that the projected revenue is 1.375. >> So the request is one point or like what we're >> wanting to do is 1.4. >> Okay, we'll make that adjustment. >> I was like is the yeah >> we just have to >> those numbers need to match. Um and again we those are what we're estimating is going to be uh achieved as revenues but we those numbers should match. So we will corre make that correction on page eight >> seven seven >> I'm sorry yes seven of eight it's page eight on my slideshow but seven of eight in the booklet. >> Yeah. >> Um so I'll ask just to make a note of that so we can make that correction on page um seven of nine. The number needs to match the

119previous page. All right. >> So, that just means that we have less available to spend, but we're projecting that we will have like we need to project we have the money there. So, either we more or we spend >> Exactly. So, I'm going to ask Lynn to look at that for the upcoming school year, the 2627 school year, and see which number is more accurate reflection of what we anticipate we will have. Just for also by means of background for the board, we recently entered into um anou that was approved that does allow us to have a higher cap. It used to be the cap on these on this account, it was 1.2 2 million. But with the advent of more open choice revenues as well as our tuition, um I'm sorry, our school rentals

120have gone up over the years, especially they were down quite a bit during the COVID era. So those are those revenues tend to be going up and um our investment income is a little higher than it used to be. So our usable resources here have gone up over the years necessitating us to ask the town to increase the cap which they have done through anou process >> because the new for the new people on the board who don't do that I'm sorry town will take that money and take it. So that's why we asked for that if we don't >> if we don't go over if we're over the cap. So with us getting more money, the town will take that three or $400,000 if we don't get an agreement. >> Yes. >> Yeah. That

121that's a very important point that any money not utilized uh is res sent back to the town at the end of the fiscal year. >> And just curious too, we don't have final um projections on our reimbursement rate yet for the tuition or for open choice. We don't get those until >> Meaning for Open Choice. >> Yeah. Um, right now >> we're like appealing the >> Yeah, we're hovering right around 4% because we've added more students. So, we have asked for consideration for full reimbursement. No, we haven't heard back on that yet. >> You know, I just keep asking. >> You can I'm like, get back to us, please. That'd be great. Thank you. >> But this is special ed, right? This is the special ed, correct? Reimbursement. So, it also varies on >> It

122does. Special ed is it's again hard to predict. you can only go by what you know when you make this uh booklet um because numbers from special ed can vary and the cost of those services can vary. What um Miss Weaver is referring to though is we get um in addition to the special ed reimbursement, Newington receives uh over a million dollars for regular ed open choice students through various grant revenue streams and that varies based on our participation rate. This year we anticipated having about 4% of our population be open choice students. Um and we did open up those seats, but we um didn't get every seat filled or andor some students moved. They have to live in Hartford or they can't participate in open choice. However, throughout the year, we've had a few

123new students come in. And ironically, if a student who's a Newington student moves to Hartford, which does happen, uh we can appeal to Open Choice to let them stay in the district via the Open Choice program. And we've done that in numerous scenarios through Mr. Fer's office or mine where we've become aware of a situation where families moved. So, those are all moving parts, so to speak. Um but we keep our eye on that very closely. So again, um these are I think I skipped a page. Just want to make sure. So we will correct that uh inconsistency on this page or the previous page, whichever way we go. On page nine, this is called the pay as you go or the town capital improvement plan. Now, this is the money that we actually are

124requesting of the town um which they would need to appropriate to us. It's not money that we're self-funding. And I want to draw your attention to this year's capital fund. We received um a very small amount. Again, we get $125,000 appropriation that's guaranteed. And then we received $300,000 to pave Garfield Street, which is underway right now. we only received $137,000 for our bus um request and we asked for over a million dollars. So there was a huge shortfall there and frankly $137,000 doesn't even buy you one bus. We were fortunate um at the end of the uh fiscal year last year, we were able to use some resources left over from unexpended money toward paras to to make up for that loss. But um as Mr. Howerin said earlier, we've been very significantly underfunded in

125buses. So um I'm going to go into that bus replacement cycle momentarily, but as you can see in our outears, besides the bus replacement cycle, which we're asking for a pretty substantial amount of money, we also next year are requesting for Ruth Chaffy uh paving for the parking lot if the upper and lower parking lots are not in great condition. and we don't want anyone damaging their car or having an accident um fall. So, that is a recommendation for a capital expense. Uh John Patterson is in need of some a partial roof replacement, not the part where their solar panels. Uh we knew this was coming, so that was not a part where solar panels went, but that's a part over by um where the kindergarten prek wing is and the gymnasium. And then we

126are asking um $1.5 million for a bus replacement cycle, which I will uh get into momentarily. And you'll see in the bottom row here, our request for busing unfortunately continues to go up. A that's a function of a bus bus. Uh the cost of buses goes up every year. Right now the industry average is about 10%. um between 6 and 10%. And then B, there's again because of the shortfall for a number of years, we have a lot of buses that we need to buy. So um let me just see on this very last page is uh something that we didn't add anything to this year, but this would be where in previous years the board had listed on this page um some of our building projects that are now underway. So, these are where

127you have large expenditures that have to go to referendum for bonding purposes. So, we're not recommending anything um anytime soon. We're always keeping our eye out for turf field over at Alumni Field. Um we almost had a challenge with the field this year when we made the championship round and the field had been rained upon. So, um, we keep an eye on that, but unfortunately that's a very big expense and it continues to go up. Um, we also believe in in about 5 to 6 years, uh, maybe a little longer, Martin Kellogg School will need a renovation, but we're still too far out on that to give you any accurate figures. Um, and we're always looking out for how we can expand our prek programs. We're pretty much at max as to how far we

128can expand. So really that would be a capital expense of maybe expanding on one of our schools if we could. So that's the initial booklet. I would now maybe turn it over for questions, but I plan on um going right into the bus replacement um and eventually the cap the technology replacement cycles. >> Okay. Are there any questions on this? >> Okay, Miss Meer, >> just a technical if we would like to pass this tonight. Just we just want to note as amended. >> As amended. Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. Um that's interesting. >> Let's see. >> Oh, and I'll also just note that we tend to like this is very much a moving target when it comes to the bonding projects. We tend to move those out like >> we do. Yes.

129>> All the time. Just it's a predictor. It's not a thing that's locked in where we have to say we're going to do this in 2027 or we're going to do that in x amount of time. Um they're just on the horizon and it's something to keep in the back of our minds. Um but this is by no means if you like vote on the capital plan you're not saying these have to be locked into those dates. Just to clarify again a lot of this is a snapshot in time. For some reason my presentation just went haywire. Um I think I have it elsewhere. Give me one second to overcome these technical difficulties. Like it almost looks like AI got in the middle of it. So the bus is a clement. It's fleet. There we

130go. I might need technology up here. What's it doing? >> Why is it so big? >> When I put it on my screen, it does this kind of scramble. I wonder if it's about you. >> Oh, there we go. She begs that. >> Thanks for your help looking over my shoulder to solve my problems. >> You can have the van now. >> That's it. Van's approved. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. So, the bus replacement cycle can be complex, but >> okay. >> Look at that. Okay. Okay. As stated already, we have had inconsistent allocations over the last, you know, significant history. Um, we just unfortunately have just not had we've been encouraged and we've worked with the town to establish a bus replacement cycle, but it's never been fully funded. And that

131does create where we're at now. So, the bubble was created uh shortly before I arrived. I arrived in 2019, but during the years of 2013 to 2018, there were significant number of buses purchased. And now those buses are at that 11-year replacement cycle. And what that means is we have to run buses safely. They have to be roadworthy. They're evaluated and um looked at all the time per state mandate. So you have to have a bus in a certain amount of working order in order for it to be roadw worthy for for school children. And the 11-year replacement cycle is what we landed on several years ago. We're on the higher end. If we had like Datco or First City, they replace their buses every eight years. Um so we're on the higher end of

132that to be more cost effective and we keep really good care of our buses. But we are in a bind right now because there are a lot of buses needing um replacement and that's what's created this funding cliff for lack of a better word. And just so that for our new board members, someone some of you might ask, well, why didn't you ask for more bus money previously? We did. Every year we've asked and unfortunately now that it's gone unanswered for a number of years, the costs have escalated and postcoid bus prices did go up substantially. >> Yeah, we were hoping to build like a fund for buses, right? so that we could we knew this was coming so that a few years ago we could have added to the fund and then had the

133money available but >> that just never happened. So this chart can be a little complicated, but if let's look at this year at the end of this school year, buses that were purchased in 1415 need to retire. Um, and that is necessitating the purchase of seven full-size buses uh for this upcoming year. And then you can see in out years 2027 28 we're in need of buses in the in the neighborhood of 78 and even nine buses in the coming years. Um we have a full-size fleet our fleet has 71 buses. Now there's not 71 buses on the road at all times. That fleet size includes, you know, buses that are for athletics, um buses that are even older than 11 years that we keep in the event that a bus might need repair, we

134can't not run buses. So, we have a few spares um which uh per Dean they recommend per industry standard about 20% of your fleet you should have in a um in reserve so that you don't ever have a day where you've got five buses that broke down and you got no buses to use. So, we, as you can see, there are multiple sizes. Full size are what you see on the road most often. Then you get behind them and you get a little frustrated because you have to go slow. Um, and then we have smaller buses that typically service our special needs populations or smaller bus routes. Um, there's 22 passenger, 12 passenger, wheelchair, even some vans, and then athletic buses. So, we serve a multitude of purposes. And, um, eventually they're going to go

135back to Garfield Street. Right now they're at the transfer station, but next year to summarize, we need seven buses. >> Takes how long to get them out? 18 months. >> It varies. Um during the height of postcoid, it's a 2-year lead time. Uh most recently, we saw a quicker turnaround, 3 to four months, but then once they arrive, they need to be prepped. Um and that happens at Dco headquarters. Um they have to have certain specifications. So you can see our cost escalation and thank you Lynn, she's our graphic artist here. Um along with Craig Holland, the cost escalation of buses over the last uh short amount of time, four years has you can see a full-size bus uh four years ago was 123,000. Now next year we anticipate it being about 155,000. And as

136you can go through this chart, you know, 91,000 on a a 12 passenger bus is now 122, you know, and 22 passenger bus was 91. Now it's 110. Um, and so on and so forth. So things don't get any cheaper. I don't think that surprises anyone around around the table, but that just again creates u our current status of having a big ask. And this is just a different look at the how our um bus sizes are disagregated. But as you can see, the the biggest amount of buses or the largest number of buses are the full-size buses that most people see throughout town during school days. Just wanted to clarify too on the athletic buses that I didn't know but Mr. Barnes gave. Um those are like retrofitted um ones, but they also have

137a different classification so that we can get >> bus drivers don't have to be school bus driver. They can be like CDL certified. So that way we can get some of our retired >> um bus drivers back in if they can do like a quick route or something like that. Um so they're just repainted regular school >> bus ones. Yeah. So they can be used buses. We do every possible strategy to minimize how much we're asking for, such as repurposing older buses for the athletic runs. So again, we deferred over the last 11 years. 31 buses have been deferred. Um and now the low allocation that we got last year, 137,000 with the annual um inflation of about 6%, you're seeing this big ask. So, um, this is the projection. Maybe Lynn, I'm going to

138ask you to explain this, uh, bar chart if you wouldn't mind. >> The, um, bubble occurred because we have so many vehicles that have to be retired in the next few years. So if you're looking um the amount of money that we got was 137,000 but we actually needed quite a lot more and every year going forward we need more. It's um a vicious cycle that we need to fix. So we need to break this bubble and and purchase vehicles so that we can keep our kids safe and our vehicles on the road. >> Right. So, what Lynn is sharing is, you know, last year we got 137,000, but we really asked for over a half million. Um, we have a a chart here that shows how you would try to smooth out this bubble.

139So, we're not spending as much uh yeartoyear and uh Lynn's projected uh a little bit what she calls the flattening of the bubble with the top line being a little less pricier than the bottom line. Um, so we are trying to spread out these expenses. Again, we tried to do it much earlier than now. Um, but it wasn't funded. So, we are again at that point of needing to ask for a pretty big sum of money next year for buses. All right. >> And for foreseeable future, >> yes, for the next five years, it's a valid point. I'll ask Linda to explain this lively and colorful chart. Um the the actual bubble scenario is to the left and it shows that we only received the 137 which rounds up to 1 point.14 and what we

140will actually need next year is 1.6 million the next year 1.24 the next year 1.2 and.99. If we smoothed it out and purchased things in a more even fashion, it would make it less of an ask every year and it could help to make a cyclical request so that we always know how many we're going to buy every year after we break the bubble and we can keep it nice and even and not have a bubble again. >> Yeah. So like not by seven in one year is what you're saying. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Cuz we have seven this year, seven next year. >> And that's another bubble in >> Exactly. >> 11 years. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> And then um this is another visual that Lynn and Craig created to show um what

141our replacement plan estimate was. And the orange reflects the actual funding we got. And you can see in earlier years that orange, which is the money that was actually provided, is pretty low compared to what we needed. Um, and you can see it going. So, in 2223, we did get a fairly decent allocation, but since then it's been low to almost non-existent. Um, you can barely see the orange on the chart. Um, so it's been putting it has put us in a bit of a bind as I've mentioned. So again, um, our strategic recommendation is to adopt the smooth plan, transition to a fixed annual replacement target of 68 vehicles, distribute the backlog um, over the next four fiscal years, and budget for inflation. Previously, um, we put in that account um, request kind of

142a flat number, but I had gotten feedback from the town that we really should also account for inflation. And I I don't know that how that that would hopefully make a difference. But again, uh even the initial rates that we proposed were not funded, but we're hoping, you know, we will explain this uh when the time comes to the town when this when this is presented again to the town. Um that this is just something that needs to happen. Um so I'll leave that open for any questions back to the board chair. >> Mr. Skeo, go ahead. Um, how did how did we get to this bubble as far as um how do we start, you know, how did it get out of hand? Like as far as >> 2015 they stopped buying buses. >>

143They stopped buying buses. >> They stopped funding buses. Yes. So we did we just haven't gotten buses worse and worse. So >> well historically like the reason that they were able to buy buses in um what year is it? the seven buses is there and this is something that we'll get into with the budget. Um we have this well previously this doesn't happen anymore but previously with our health insurance and benefits if if the benefits weren't expended that money would come back to the board of ed and in some years it could have been upwards of like one plus million dollars. So a lot of times that money was used to buy buses from the previous superintendent. So that is how at least one of the reasons why so many buses were able to be

144bought in one year. It wasn't that the town was giving the money necessarily. Um but that the insurance situation has changed. We don't get like a large chunk of money back because we're estimating better and and paying what upfront what we should be paying as opposed to paying too much um for benefits. So um so now that dried up essentially. So now like Dr. Brema has said the the town is like the town needs to give us money again because it's part of our capital plan. It's not part of our operating budget. So we just don't have the resources we >> and I would say too the the thing we want to avoid is making this happen in another 11 years and we've already stretched the cycle for 11 years. I mean the recommended per

145Mr. Barnes is like eight max like 10 and we're already stretching that a little bit. Um not to the point of compromising safety. >> We can't no >> we can't do that but they're inspected every 90 days. Um I think it's important just to do that. And then also to note too um just for the public. I know it comes up every time we talk about these things but why we own our buses versus not and the comparatives. And I know Mr. Barnes will at some point we'll have him come and kind of do the cost comparison. Um, and look at the insane contracts that DACO has and First Achievement. Um, and that those are actually going up too and you have to renegotiate those every like five years now. Um, and they are forprofit.

146We are not for-profit. So, I think just important points that came out of our our facilities and finance subcommittee um that are helpful to contextualize this. >> Mr. Hollerin and Mr. Newman. >> Yeah, I think that it's important to know some of the context to the history that Mr. Skibo's question too is that there's been a lot of compromises since this cycle program was initially implemented. It was supposed to be an even distribution for every year so we could plan for but I think one of the first compromises was can we keep buses in service for longer. I think Mr. Barnes wanted 8 years we pushed it out to 11 so we're keeping them in service longer. Um, and then the just the deferment of 31 buses. When you have a fleet of 71, that's

147almost deferring half your entire fleet. And now they're getting to the point where we can't put unsafe buses on the road. But it's getting to that point where how long can you maintain those buses, parts are going to stop being made, right? Like for a bus that's over a decade old. And I think that that's part of the reason that I think Lynn did a wonderful job of putting this into um a nice visual for us is that it's an investment and it will happen. Again, it's cyclical. So, we have to kind of level it out. But that's not pretending like this isn't going to be easy. It's a big ask, but it's also an investment. And the longer we delay this investment, the more expensive that's going to be just because of the inflationary

148um criteria. And I think you see the big in the first column, we need seven buses. I'm like, those are seven full-size buses. We've got a lot of different buses out there, especially ones that cater to special needs students. Um, and those populations are increasing. Um, and those buses take a lot of wear and tear. So, I think that there's I think as much as I don't want to ask that much money from the town, I don't think there's a way around it. I think that at this point this is our best plan going forward because we have taken deferment after deferment after deferment and concession after concession after concession to the point that puts us into a place where we're kind of in a corner. This is what our kids need. This is what

149our system needs. Um and you know I think Lynn has done a really great job of figuring out how to soften the blow as best as possible. >> Mr. afternoon. >> In answer to your question, Brian, um I'm going to say something that's not going to be popular. For the last 12 years, both parties, both councils have failed to properly fund the buses. The requests were put in place for other reasons. They felt they had other priorities. They were making other decisions. They failed to fund them. And now we're at a cliff. That's where that's why we need so many. >> Yeah. Yeah, I would just say I think when it comes budget time, you know, someone feels more comfortable cutting a bus than >> than a staff member, right? And like that's, you know,

150the compromises we have to make all the time. And I think it's one of those things where we I think as Lenu noted in our facilities and finance committee like we've been kicking a can and like it's coming to roost and we knew it would come to roost. But I think what's important is that we set up from a sustainable budgeting standpoint so that it does not come to roost in the next decade um when there will inevitably be another need for where that so smoothing the curve I think is the best option. Do we have to decide like vote on or decide to do the smooth versus >> I believe Lynn you put it in the um plan that it would be the smoothed addition. >> Okay. >> So the request that's before you

151is the smooth >> okay >> bubble. So when we approve it >> it'll be automatically in there. Yes. >> Other than that correction we need to make from earlier discussion. >> All right. Look back at this. You see there were seven years where there was zero funding. >> Yes, that's the year the yellow or the orange is non-existent >> or hard to see. >> I like I like the graphs. Just a just a side note. It makes it >> Yeah, it makes it really easy to kind of visualize other than just numbers. >> Think I'll be using more graphs in my other budget presentation this year. Promise to help me. Um, all right. Without any further questions, I'd like to u segue over to the um ITC CIP and share this tab. And I think

152everything's working. >> So, um, this is a little less complicated. Um, we just wanted to give the board an overview, especially our newer board members, about life expectancy of our technology devices. Um, every year kindergarteners, fifth graders, and freshman in high school all get a new refreshed Chromebook. Uh, they're a little different at the K4 level. They're touch and uh whereas the older editions um look a little different, but uh that is part of our replacement cycle. While they last about five years, four or five years, we do keep them around once they're um retired and they serve as uh parts warehouses, which we have stored over at Ruth Chaffy, so that we can do some of our own repairs whenever possible. iPads are typically issued to special education students um who require them to

153um sometimes speak for them and also iPads are used in the special ed department for some of the testing that they need to do. We also keep um an ongoing refreshment cycle for staff laptops. We are we have a specific um lab at the high school for project lead the way that has about a four-year life expectancy. Desktops throughout the district have about a 5-year. And then the the displays like the one behind me, uh those tend to last about 10 years. And we also use similar displays for signage at a school. So you might go into a school and see a student of the month picture flashing by or at the high school a lot of informations announcements on it. So those are how we use those. They last about 10 years. Infrastructure. So

154this budget not only includes devices like we all are using right now tonight. It also includes switches, firewalls, Wi-Fi access points, servers, backups, and battery backups, which we've had to invest in most recently. Um, and those all have a lifespan anywhere between three and seven years. And uh we thought you'd find it interesting um the kind of the history of our displays early on in in our technological history. The smartboards were kind of the upand cominging thing and we they were uh in in play um mostly Mitsubishi or Eonics or Mitsubishi really um they were in play from 04 to 2011. uh those are all starting to age out and they become as we've mentioned throughout the evening when things age out and they're hard to find replacement parts for and the replacements parts that

155you do find are quite pricey. Uh moving forward we've gone to wall we had Walmart projectors that were interactive throughout the district. Many of those are still around. Um but our most recent um iteration is the flat panel displays and some are wall-mounted but many of them are on carts because that allows a teacher more flexibility with where he or she puts it in the classroom. So again, we've used different vendors and we try to keep up with our technological advances and that's how we have moved forward. But every classroom does have a display of some sort and many office spaces do as well or meeting rooms, I should say. >> There's really something from 2004 that's still in service. >> It might be. Yeah, if it's there, it's in service. Um, >> but they're

156uh Yeah, maybe some of these were here when you were in school. They weren't >> being sweet. >> That's more along my era chisels. >> Um, this actually is the budget that we have in process right now. Just so the board can gain an insight on to what goes into that budget. As I mentioned, annually each grade level that starts in a school gets a Chromebook. And the cost is as displayed here. So, the younger Chromebooks are a little more expensive because they're touch, whereas the older Chromebooks are a little less expensive because they're they're not touch. Um, so currently we're in process of the refreshment for those grade levels. The transition academy this year is getting some and the transition academy is located here. Those students are getting laptops this year. Laptop refreshes for

157just other staff members, instructional display refreshes, backup appliances, those things that help us keep everything running smoothly if there's a power outage. Um the various uh displays throughout the district. He's got the brand names here and um racks for the John Wallace project. So these are all different aspects of our technology replacement plan. Um, we did invest and the subcommittee heard this last week, but uh, we have a current concern at our high school where the um, as any I think most people know our high school is an evacuation site. It has a generator. So, it's supposed to be that when the power goes out, immediately the generator turns on. That device that does that is currently under repair and it's going to take a long time to be repaired because it's an older device

158and finding parts for it. They basically have to be made. While that's pending, we are feeling that our technology is at risk. So, we are inviting um investing money in some additional power backups um to get this going. We do have a relationship with our utility company that they come out and manually flip it to a generator, but that does take about an hour and around that 1 hour mark, data can be lost. So, we we've learned through experiences that that's not something that we want to have happen. We do have some offsets though for our ask. We have uh drip money that's a state grant that we anticipate getting soon and we charge parents a Chromebook insurancey Chromebook insurance um every year. It's we can't mandate it but we certainly encourage parents to do

159that. That money uh accumulates over time and we historically have used it to do some offsets in the budget. So this year it's going to offset some of the items that you see above. So we have about $941,000 going into technology this year uh based on some of those offsets and um how we're going to pay for them. For purposes of of approval tonight, this is what we anticipate we need next year for our technology Chromebook cycle. Again, the grade levels, as I mentioned, K 5 and N. Um the project lead the way um lab needs a refresh this year. It's like way overdue actually. Laptop refreshes about 175 about 20 displays, firewalls and some sum Samsung displays at the high school. We anticipate $17,000 again from Chromebook insurance. Um, and that will lead us

160to our $7182,000 of anticipated expenses for the technology replacement cycle. >> Um, Dr. Sally, >> uh, the transition academy, isn't it a yearly thing either? >> I'm sorry. >> The transition academy, is that a yearly thing? It's not in your proposed budget. >> No, it it's they get it in a cycle. So once they've got their Chromebooks, um that should be a four-year cycle as well. The children are there from age 18 to 22. So every four years. All right. So that's I realize this is a lot of information all at once and uh this is just one part of our budget, but that is the current request that we would like to make to the town. And again, this is the document with the modifications that we talked about earlier that we would like

161to send to the town um with those adjustments that we uh need to make on that those lines that don't add up. So, I will turn it back to board chair for any further discussion. >> Any questions, comments? Motion looking at me like that. All right. I will move the board of education approve the capital improvement plan CIP for 2026 through 2031 as amended. >> Second. >> A motion and a second. Is there any discussion? No. Okay. We are voting to approve this plan that we just owe. >> Do we know when the town will need to approve the CIP budget? Uh it's part of the regular budget budget cycle. So we will not know until >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> Way late. >> Okay. >> Yeah, this goes into that. >> Um and

162yeah, just because we request it doesn't mean we'll get it. >> Anything else? Okay. Um voting to approve this plan as amended. >> Mary Beth, >> yes. >> Holler, >> yes. >> Marissa Lensing, >> yes. Timothy, >> yes. >> Amy Paratt, >> yes. >> Ryan Skea, >> yes. >> Dr. Gail Stanley, >> yes. >> Ethical Wever, >> yes. >> Motion passed unanimously. 8 Z. >> Thank you. Okay, back to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. Um, there's no one in the room and There's anyone online that can raise their hand? Seeing none, um, remarks by board members. Miss Beatric. Um, just a a thank you to Dr. Brahmitt, Mr. Fese Lynn, and the team. Um, two things really strike me today, and both are things that I hear from our families uh,

163consistently um, that are of great import. one is um paying special attention to the discussion about PARS and the benefits and the and the work that they do and and giving them the true recognition that they deserve in helping our students. We hear this consistently at PTA meetings. We hear it when we um talk to families out in the community. Um and kind of sort of dovetailing on that is the um particular attention our families have regarding safety um transportation to school and our buses. So, we've had a long conversation about that, but again, our families recognize that thoughtful investment in both of these very, very important um issues benefits our students in ways that are immeasurable. So, I want to thank you guys and and the team for putting together such an important um

164and and easily accessible, digestible um piece of information that helps us and helps the community recognize how important um these items are. and thank you for your advocacy um in in working with the town. So um uh again appreciation and uh looking forward to continuing these important discussions. >> Thank you, >> Miss Weaver. Quickly just want to say thank you to everyone in the administration that put in the work for these wonderful PowerPoints. As I said, I love the visualization. Want to thank our student reps and also um just want to say uh it's yesterday we uh a couple of us attended a um schoolboard association um training and all of that. So, Dr. S's gotten a lot of overwhelming things, but I just want to note um it's really great and just want to

165thank everyone for participating tonight um to Shipment and Goodwin for providing those legal services. Just encourage all board members to continue to take advantage of that. It's very helpful. It's a lot and it's overwhelming, but it's very helpful um to understand kind of the nature um of our roles and responsibilities and all the fun things and our wonderful copies of Robert's order. Um, but just want to say thank you to everyone and congratulations to our wonderful card winners. I think this is a great um to our everyday hero, but love our actual cards. They're so so nice. I love them so much. Um, and I just want to wish everyone a happy holiday season. Yeah. Okay. It's been a great meeting everybody. Motion >> second. All in favor? I meeting at 9:26 p.m.