001Can folks online hear me? Jenna or Yes, I can hear you. Moren, can you hear me? Yes. Yes, ma'am. You're good. Can you hear me, Dana? Jenna, I can. I was just with your mic, though. Thank you, Anastasia. We're just having technical difficulties with the in room video system. Thank you. So they can hear online, but You'd have to use your speakers or no when I unmute they could hear me. But when I hold this up, they can hear you in the room. So ask if they can hear you and then talking to your computer. Can people online hear me? Um Jenna. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yes, we got it. They can hear me online. So, if you hold this up to your speaker, that's what she was saying. Hold that mic, then it'll project in
002the room. I see this part. All right. So, when the parents are on Good evening. I'd like to have Dr. Brema our speakers. I'd like to call the meeting of the Newington Board of Education to order for Wednesday, June 11th, 2025. The time is 7:08 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. Deb, please call the roll. here. Here Jessica Weaver here. Anastasia Y here. Thank you. Um the next item on our agenda is public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. If you are in the room, you can come to the end of the table um one at a time. If you're
003on the online, you can raise your hand to be recognized or you can call in at 860-6658659 and you have 3 minutes. Um also ask that you please state your name and address for the record. No problem. Okay. Can you hear me? Okay. Hi. Hi. My name is Laura Kellaher and I live at 31 Chiny Lane. I haven't come to a board of ed meeting before, but as a parent of two Newington public school students and an alumni myself, I felt compelled to share my concerns regarding the elimination of seventh grade accelerated math. And this is not in regards to my younger child as I don't know what his academic trajectory will be. He's going into fifth grade. My oldest son, now in 8th grade, who's with me tonight, has taken accelerated math since sixth
004grade and participates in the aerospace academy at Wallace. Accelerated math has been one of the few areas where he has truly been challenged, helping him prepare for high school honors classes, which he is enrolled in for next year. Professionally, I'm a special educator, a board-certified behavior analyst, and a school administrator. I care deeply about what's best for all students in Newington public schools. Throughout my time as both an educator and a parent in the district, I have placed my trust in the administration and the board of education to do their due diligence to make thoughtful data-informed decisions without requiring oversight or intervention from parents on every curriculum change. That is why I'm so disappointed in the recent proposal and approval to eliminate accelerated math after eliminating sixth grade math. I first raised my concerns privately
005with district leaders back at the end of April. But despite my attempts, my questions largely went unanswered. At the May 1st parent forum, the data presented was outdated, ranging from 13 to 19 years old, as well as insufficient. Measurable goals for the new approach have not been set and the promised bridge to algebra course isn't even developed yet. The data regarding race and ethnicity referred to as leading with data was the most disturbing data presented in my opinion. While I'm not able to clearly articulate all of its flaws in 3 minutes, I'm more than willing to discuss that with any of you at a future date. I'm confident in saying that data should be immediately removed from the record in any presentation regarding this proposal. During a follow-up meeting with the math coordinator and assistant
006superintendent, I found contradictions and evasions rather than clear evidence supporting this major change. This decision also conflicts with Newington's equity initiative. True equity means giving every student what they need, not denying a 100 of 300 students to be challenged if it is similar to the current makeup of the eighth grade class. Accelerated math is critical to rigor and preparation for high school honors. One reason for the proposed elimination that I have heard is that many students only take three years of math in high school, but that is often because they're only required to take three years. Both Miss Kellogg and Miss Freeman agreed with me during our meeting about this, contradicting the original rationale and data presented at the parent forum. Finally, I ask you, what measurable outcomes exist to show this new model works?
007There are none. No success metrics, no evaluation plan, no criteria to reverse course if this fails. What saddens me the most is the impact on students in the coming 7th grade class. They won't get a chance for extended acceleration later, which could affect SAT scores as well as future academic success and opportunity. You're you're at your three minutes. I would just ask you to wrap it up. Sure. Why should there be a test group for an unproven plan without clear goals? I urge the board to pause this initiative for at least a year to allow further evaluation, ensuring our incoming seventh graders receive the challenges as well as the support they deserve. Thank you for this consideration. Thank you. Bean, why don't you go next? Do I have to hold the Okay, it's just um
008I have a I have two written testimonies. One from me and one from a peer that could not be here today. Would I Can I be allowed to read both? Yeah, just state your name and address. Um and within the 3 minutes. My name is Dean Keller. I live at 31 Cheni Lane and I have been able to take accelerated math, the accelerated math course in sixth grade. and it has been the only class where I have not been bored and disinterested. Furthermore, it is one of the only classes where I have time to focus on my own learning instead of having to explain the curriculum to other kids. While I don't mind helping my peers, I have enjoyed the opportunity to engage in in an extension of my own learning. I al I also
009think having multiple years of accelerated math will have better prepared me for the honors classes I will be taking next year in the high school. I don't think this opportunity should be taken away from over 100 students. Equity is not about giving every student what equity equity is about giving every student what they need, not giving every student the same thing. Thank you for listening and considering my request to not eliminate the accelerated math in seventh grade. The other testimony I have is from another seventh grader named Lucas Depensky and he lives at 129 Little Brook Drive. I am a graduating eighth grader this year and I have been part of the accelerated math program for two years. I am frankly disappointed in the board of education for suggesting these changes. The choice to remove
010accelerated math from the seventh grade is not equality or equity. It is simply stripping away the opportunity from other students who are interested in mathematics and forcing them to throw away their interest. I have been interested in math my whole life and when I entered the accelerated math program in seventh grade, my life was changed. It allowed me to explore and learn to explore and learn and be challenged more about a topic I had serious interest in. If I were kept in a normal math class, I would have most likely lost interest in math because I would find it boring and not challenging enough. This is what would happen to the new students in seventh grade. This curriculum would be unable to challenge them and they would slowly lose interest and their talents would be
011lost and forgotten. My personal opinion, disallowing kids from being challenged, squandering their talents, and forcing them into a pre-made mold of and and of the average is not equality in the slight equity in the slightest. What I find equally infuriating is the choice to keep accelerated math in eighth grade, but remove eighth grade math from accelerated math. This choice would lead kids e lead kids being forced into either the mold of the average or skip eighth grade math entirely and start algebra instead. An above average student who would normally be an accelerated math class in seventh and eighth grade would be forced into an average and unchallenging class, then be forced to skip eighth grade math and start algebra, which strips some of the fundamentals learned in eighth grade. This change were to be implemented,
012the education system would be truly failing students in seventh and eighth grade math. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Connor Bentley. I live at uh 58 Centerwood Road and I'm here on behalf of the discussion of removal of seventh grade accelerated math. Now, I have been in the accelerated math program since sixth grade, and the career path that I've wanted to take since then was programming. Programming involves knowing a lot of mathematical formulas and ways to figure out mathematical problems. If uh I had not taken these accelerated programs, I would never be able to get to the level of math that I need in high school, which for some people, college is not always an option. So being able to learn math before college would enable some people to go further without uh selling
013a limb for college. Thank you. Hi. Uh, my name is Jeremy Dominic. I live at 265 Goodell Drive. Uh, my daughter Isabella is an eighth grader in the aerospace academy at John Wallace Middle School. Uh, she's a dedicated and hardworking student. She can't be here tonight because she's working on her silver award with her Girl Scout troop. Uh but she did write about her experience in accelerated math and asked that I read it for you here tonight. So in her words, uh accelerated math should not be taken away because there are people who rely on it for their education. If there are students uh that are smart enough to take a higher level of math, why would you take that away from them? Those students are going to be bored in a regular math class
014because they're already going to know what to do and how to solve the problems. It's unfair to those students to not be challenged and to not be allowed to increase their math knowledge through an accelerated program. In my personal experience, advanced math helped me a lot. I was able to learn a lot more and I felt challenged. I was way more focused and felt more engaged because I was learning new things uh and not math work I had already knew how to perform. I was happier because I wasn't bored and just waiting for class to be over. I looked forward to that class and what I would be learning instead of wishing the time away. I've learned a lot from advanced math and not just about math. I've learned problem solving skills, how my mind
015works, and other skills that will help me in the future when it comes to working with others and learning new ways of thinking. Equity to me is giving everything is giving everyone what they need to succeed. School is about providing people with an education, giving them skill skills for high school, skills for college, skills for life. You're not giving students what they need in an education by taking away advanced math. I had a great experience with accelerated math and I strongly believe that others should have the same opportunity. If it was great for me, imagine how great it would be for others yet to come. Uh so that's what she had to say. As parents, we've seen Isabella starting in the first grade uh reading and performing math at a middle school level. And we
016pushed as much as we could to help her out with her enrichment at at school. Uh but there's only so much that we could do. There's only so much the classroom teachers, especially in early elementary school, could do. And they certainly tried to keep her engaged. Uh in first grade, a reading specialist came into her class and and um worked with her and another student. In fifth grade, a math tutor took her and another student out of class to help with their experience uh at the math level. However, it wasn't until the accelerated math program came along when she finally actually had a class where she didn't need someone extra to come in or be pulled out of class to provide her with a challenge. The class did that on its own. It's been a
017great experience for her and I really wish that that there would continue for uh students yet to come. Thank you. Thank you. really jealous of people that can read off their phones. I need large font and glasses. Um my name is Martha Karsten. Um I live at 32 Stage Coach Lane and I have two children that one attends Wallace and one attends Chaffy. I'm here to advocate um that the board reconsider eliminating accelerated math for seventh graders next year and complete their own research on why the proposal by the assistant superintendent Kristen Freeman and the math coordinator Michelle Kellogg is problematic. As stated in my letter dated April 8th, 2025 expressing my concerns that each one of you received the information that was shared with you by them was incorrect. It should make you sit
018up and take notice that these administrators gave false information that painted a different story as well as there was no defined criteria for the students that were picked in the sixth grade this school year to participate in accelerated math. It states that it is part of Newington's equity initiatives. As a special educator that as a special educator, that's what I do for work. I ensure every day that students receive equity and inclusion. Equity does not mean that everyone receives the same thing. That's equality. Taking away acceleration in options for our brightest math students is not equity. It's equality. I fully understand in the concept of peer mentorship and wholeheartedly believe in it. However, our kids should not be expected as an extension activity to serve as the helpers in the class for the students in
019need. My son, who's in sixth grade, regularly works with other children on completing math problems that they do not understand. My son's district benchmark scores fall into the high school range as a sixth grader. And and to quote Michelle Kellogg, he would have been overlooked. Kids talk in his benchmarks are higher than the kids that were picked to be in the accelerated program this year at John Wallace. Newington is in Durg D. In DUID D, most districts provide the opportunity for kids to take accelerated math beginning in seventh grade. The higher you move up in DUIs, the greater participation is with accelerated math. It is available in at 100% of the districts in DUI. A the data that in the presentation is outdated and not representative of the goal. What was presented was about acceleration
020by skipping classes. That has not been the practice of Newington public schools in regards to accelerated math. I would hope that the doctor that will be performing my knee surgery in a few months will be basing decisions and treatment on current research, not research that's 20 years old. The bridge to algebra referenced has yet to be developed and it is set to be rolled out in about 6 months time. There are no guides, no rubrics, lessons or scope and sequence. As a teacher who has written and reviewed multiple curriculums, this is problematic at the root level, and none of this should be considered or be put in place until all of the parts are complete and approved. In closing, I'm advocating tonight that a pin be placed in this initiative for at least a year
021and that actual relevant data be found and reviewed and a curriculum developed. I ask that you do your own research and think about your own children and their pathways through school. How would this have impacted them and their experiences? Thank you in advance for your consideration. Thank you. Oh, Jeffrey Paul 224 Sterling Drive. uh when I received the the PowerPoint presentation and it leaned into a study, the Bowler and Staple study from 2005. So I've um got a article here from somebody named James Mgrim who's a professor of math at Stanford University also along with Wayne Bishop and Paul Clapton. So a high-ranking official from the US Department of Education asked Mgrim to evaluate claims of Bowler and Staples in early 2005 because she was concerned that if those claims were correct, the US DOE
022should begin to reconsider much if not all of what they were doing in mathematics education. So a very influential paper came out improving math outcomes was published in 2008. The authors refused to divulge her data, claiming that agreements with schools and Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, Furpa, rules prevented it. It turns out it wasn't true. They claimed legal foundations do not say these authors say they do. When we found the identities of the school by other means, serious problems with the conclusions of the article are quickly revealed. I'm going to have to I'm paraphrasing because I only have three minutes. There was an article written about Bowler's critique following by followed by a large number of comments perhaps motivated by this article. A number of people read Mgrims and know that most of it was
023indisputable where we dissect the actual mathematics involved in Bowler Staples. It was necessary to have the real names of the schools to check it out. In some of the comments, people criticized me. This is Bowler saying this. In some of the comments, people criticize me for not addressing the detailed criticisms of Mgrim and Bishop. I'm more than happy to. As of this article and 20 years later, she has never responded to any of the claims that this is outdated and it doesn't work. Indeed, a and there were three schools I forgot to say. It was Railside, Greenale, and Hilltop. A high official at Railside um located called Mgrim and updated him on the situation May of 2010. One of that person's remark is especially relevant. It was stated as bad as Mgrim indicated the situation
024was at Railside, the school district's internal data actually showed it was even worse. Consequently, they had to step in and change the math curriculum at Railside to a more traditional approach. Changing the curriculum seems to have had an effect. In 2012, there was a 27 point increase in Railid's API score and a larger 28% increase for socioeconomically disadvantaged students. To validate the claims there are three things that need to happen. First you have to have accurate counts. Second one needs to verify the treatment groups were s sufficiently similar. And third one needs to evaluate the author's test to see in fact if they get a valid measure of mathematics. It does not appear that any of these three items is addressed in any detail in the bowler staples article. There are some general assertions of
025each items one and two are done but no details were included. So, I'm not going to continue to go through this as as much as I'd like to. She was dishonest at best in her assessment. Bowler and Staples. This paper proves the data was inaccurate. It was not good. She refused to give any additional information and this is a study that we're leaning on to change our curriculum. I think not. It's a terrible if and it should have been You're three minutes. Of course I am. timely. I mean, I gave I'm aware. I know what the rule might Can I yield my time to him? My name is Alyssa Ross at 222 Reservoir Road. I will Oh, I'm sorry. That's fine. My name is Alyssa Ross at 222 Reservoir Road and I will yield my
026time for Jeff to finish a statement. Thanks. You can just hold the clock until I get back to where I left off. Absolutely. That would be helpful. Okay. It appears from the state data that the cohort at Railside was compromised of students in the top half of the class in mathematics. For in Greenale appears the students were group between the 35th and 70th percentiles and the students at Hilltop were grouped between the 40th and 80th percentiles. So even the the the sample group wasn't even appropriate based on Bowler and Staples's original idea of how they were going to roll this out. A number of of parents at Greenale were not happy about the article. About a fifth of the families with students at Greenale had made a huge effort to get traditional math mathematics track
027reinstated there, but student had to actively select it. The parents perspective seem to be that Bowler had interfered with the selection process. Not only had the article extolling virtues of the IMP track posted to the school's website, but I was told that Bowler had attended private meetings between the individual parents and the lead math teacher at Greenale. We can say in reality Bowler and Staples had already publicly identified the schools and then misidentified the data in table 5. Moreover, there's a possibility that they picked the unique data that might strengthen the research rather than make use of data relevant to their treatment groups. And I can go on and on and on about the disingenuous practices that Bowler and Staples use to create this entire program that you all are leaning into and think is
028a great use of the kids that actually go home, they will study, they will read, some of them do band, my daughter does soccer, she does student council, she does chorus, etc., etc., etc. She works her ass off to do well in school and well at everything that she does. But somehow now you all are asking me to tell my daughter, "Hey honey, I know that you're smart and you have a foreign math, but you can't do anything extra because other kids in your class need help. Not good enough. Not good enough. It is a disgrace. And I'm telling you now, if she help, I'm telling her, instructing her not to help anybody in class. And if you want her to help, I'm okay with it. Put her on the payroll and pay her for
029her work. It's not free. She's expected to be a student, not the teacher. She to be a student. That's what I've instructed her to do. Be a student. Learn. Pay attention. Get along with your teachers. Be respectful to them. Get along with the other kids. There are certain requirements that I have of going to school. and you all leaning into this bogus study as as your grounding to make this a reality. And incidentally, just so all you parents are aware, I was specifically told no matter what any one of us say tonight, this is already done and it's not changing. So you can kiss AP math goodbye in sixth and seventh grade and it's a disgrace. This should have been done two months ago when all of us could have had an opportunity to come
030in here and do it. But instead, like most things, when you do things in secret and you can't back up your studies, it generally ends up being a bad thing for everybody. And you all should be ashamed of yourself, to be honest, that you didn't you tried to sneak this through at the end of the school year so nobody was paying attention. And I'd like to know, and I'd like a response. Thank you. When I want to know when all of your assignments are up and when people can run against you again because this should never happen to a kid again. You're taking it away from a kid. Your three minutes is up. Thank you. I can deal with my time. I'm sorry. Susan Susan Bartalada, 43 Birchland Terrace. Sebastian Barlada, 43 Birchan Terrace. Furthermore,
031I send my kids to FSA. Some of you may or may not know what FSA is. It is a premier club for our soccer. Why do I send my kids there? because I want them to have the best opportunity to reach their max potential. I cannot do it in the town of Newington because my kids are simply better. It's that simple. They're gifted soccer players. Most some of you know, some of you may not know. They're both really good. I want to know what their ceiling is. And in order to get to that ceiling, I need to put them around like-minded athletes that are prepared to go to the edge and push themselves psychologically, push themselves physically, so they know what they what their cap is. Basically, what we're telling the kids in here, I
032know you worked hard. I know you've done your work. I know you've done everything you've been asked to do, but I'm sorry, darling. We can't do this for you because the school won't allow you to reach your cap. They will stop you from reaching their cap based on some faulty information that they leaned into in a PowerPoint presentation sent at the end of the year when no one's paying attention. Sorry, it's simply not good enough. These kids have all earned their right. The kids that are able to do it have earned their right regardless of how a kid that didn't earn it feels. So what you're saying is my daughter will do the right things. She'll do everything she's supposed to do. Then when those kids come in that don't do a damn thing at
033home, don't read, don't study, put zero effort into school, she's supposed to plate those individuals, explain to me how that's fair or equitable to my daughter in any way. It simply isn't. They put zero effort. And that's I I understand that's what we're all used to seeing in the world now. People put no effort into things and get rewarded for it. That's certainly not how school should be, plain and simple. She worked hard and even my son works hard and he tells me he comes home. Hey dad, I got put in a group today with three kids. Both kids didn't do anything but dick around the whole time. So I had to do all the work. Shocking how that works, isn't it? One smart kid gets into a group. They do all the work. The
034two kids are along for the ride and they all get the same grade. Now we're doing group think. Is that what this is? Group is now school. She is a student here. A student. She's here to learn. Furthermore, not only is this lame study that was presented to the group not even probably statistically valid, I think you have a different subset of issues going on the school that are inexcusable in my opinion. My kids come home and tell me stories and stuff that goes on at school and you would be floored at the things. It's a dangerous school. People may not say it. There's a danger involved in going to that school. Do you think my kids should feel in danger when they go to school? My daughter told me Friday night, "Dad, I'm scared
035to go to school. I don't want to get cut in the face and need to get stitches." And I guess, hey, that's normal behavior now, I guess, right? Kids getting sliced and thrown to get stitches. It's a disgrace. And you should all be ashamed of yourselves, quite frankly. I don't know if anyone else wants to relinquish time, but I'm certainly on a roll. You had another three months. Well, that sounds terrific. [Music] So, what I'd like to know, and I know I won't get an answer today, or probably ever, quite frankly, what constitutes someone being expelled from school? I don't know. Maybe getting hit over clubbed over the head with a bat, maybe stabbed in the stomach. I don't know. I'd like to know specifically why what causes someone to get expelled from school. And
036I say this, mind you, my son had a problem in school. I went into school. It was inexcusable what he did. Inexcusable. I said, I want him to have detention forever. I've obviously was a little heated at the time when I said it, but I want him to have detention. What he did was wrong. There is a consequence for it, and I want him to have detention. And they reluctantly ended up giving giving my son detention, which he deserved. Quite frankly, he deserved every minute of. And it was up to me. I would have given him more. But I was talked out of it. And I and I leaned back. Aside from the math issues that we currently have in in the entire New England school district, a couple other modes of import, my son
037isn't the best reader. I went into the school to ask for help. It took me 6 to 8 weeks for someone to finally agree and say, "We'll help your son." Because I was paying for a private tutor, mind you, out of my own pocket because I didn't think he was being taught properly. The reading specialist looked at me and said, "What do you want me to do with him?" D, I don't know. It's your job. Figure it out. Why do I have to figure it out? I'm helping at home. I'm paying for a tutor. And now I have a specialist saying, "I don't know. I don't know what to do." Great. Then I guess he's screwed because you don't know what to do. I should not have to go into a school for two straight
038months and basically hat in hand and beg for help. Beg, please help him. Please help him. Please help him. That should not happen ever. The kid is allowed to take retest three, four, or five times. Can someone explain to me in the real world where you're allowed to take tests in high school or college five times until you pass it? It doesn't happen. We're hurting these kids more than we're helping them. We're hurting them. By doing this, we are hurting them. We're hurting the kids that may not be ready for it and we're hurting the kids that are ready for it. So, everybody's hurt. I don't know if it's for what why his decision was made, whether it's promotional opportunity, someone looking to make a name for themselves, someone to look to do something, but
039I can tell you it has failed. Everywhere it has been, it has failed. And nobody here is going to convince me otherwise. Why wasn't this data added in the PowerPoint presentation? Why wasn't the data that goes against Bowler and Staples put in there? Because you don't want us to know. I just happen to be lucky enough to find it. It was a scam and a lie and it was done in the overnight where nobody was able to respond to it until now when the decisions already been made. It's disgusting. Thank you. Hi Jamie Pickin, 148 Winsel Drive. Um, I am appalled and disgusted at what I'm hearing in this room tonight. I am a 24year math education teacher. I have taught K through8. I have served as a mathematics coach, as a math interventionist, as
040a math specialist in East Harford, Harford, and Newington public schools. I am a parent of three students in this district, two in high school, one at the middle school. My oldest child took 1A and 1B as a seventh and eighth grader during hybrid during COVID. And when I said to her, "How do you feel about this shift?" She said, "I wish it took place when I was at John Wallace because dragging algebra out into two years instead of allowing me to just take it as an eighth grader was a waste of time. If I was actually ready to take algebra, then why couldn't I just take it as a one-year course and get my credit as I would if I was taking at the high school? I'm concerned because the group of parents who talk
041about accelerated students, talk about students who have this advanced thinking, um, they're not losing out on any opportunity. They have the opportunity to take algebra 1 and get credit as an eighth grader. My daughter took AP pre-calc this year. This is the first year Newington offered AP pre-calc. That's when I want my child to take an advanced course. When she knows as a 17-year-old, I want to be an engineer. Math is my area of study. I'm wondering when I look around the room, I don't know about you guys, but when I was 11 years old, I didn't know what I wanted to pursue as a career. I thought I was going to be an accountant because my mom was one and my sister was one. My dad was a tool maker. Maybe I'll be a
042tool maker. I don't know. I was looking at my role models around me because I was 11 years old. We're talking about middle school students. Here's what I need the 65% of parents whose students in seventh and eighth grade are not an accelerated to know. 65% of the parents in this district, your students did not receive the same opportunities as the accelerated students based on no criteria. And I have to read this part have to. The reason I feel so passionately about this restructure is because it provides access to any students that are willing to put the time and energy to develop themselves as a mathematics thinker by beginning their high school experience by taking algebra 1 as an eighth grader. How is that a bad thing? Can someone yield three minutes to me, please?
043Because I would love to continue to talk. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Stephanie Bentley, 58, Centerwood Road. Okay. This pathway that was created was created based on teacher opinion of 10 year olds. There was no criteria to be recommended as sixth grade accelerated. It was simply you are a kid sitting in my class among let's just say 2300 students and you shine. So I'm going to recommend you for acceleration. But that that that one kid in that one classroom out of 25, there's a 125 other kids in that grade level that might have the same potential that you just don't teach. So why does your child's get to be recommended for sixth grade accelerated but mine doesn't? It wasn't based on any criteria. It was just one person's opinion or a parent who
044felt well I want my kid on this pathway. So then they went in and advocated for the rights of their child which I support. I am not against any parents who believe in acceleration. My kid's taking AP pre-calc. She's taking AP calc as a senior. Removing seventh acceleration would not have prevented her from being in the position she's in right now. That's the point I think everyone is missing. Right? We are not stripping kids of any opportunities. We are saying or here let me I I have to focus. Let me miss my go back. Here are the questions. I want to challenge all of you to think about these questions. What qualifies a 10 to 11year-old as accelerated? I would love to know what that means. What does smart enough look like in mathematics? I
045would like to hear that defined. And I have 24 years of teaching mathematics, but I I still don't know how to define what smart enough looks like. Is acceleration developmentally appropriate, developmentally appropriate at the ages of 11 to 13? We are talking about kids who are in adolescence. Most of them haven't even gone through puberty yet. And we're speaking as if they know what careers they want to work in in 2030 and beyond. Guess what? Those careers don't even exist. So, how can a 12year-old already know what they want to do in 2030 and beyond? Many people want to hold on to the fact of, you know, procedural fluency. Pro procedural fluency is one component. And guess what people? Our children are walking around with calculators in their pockets. We don't need to develop procedural
046thinkers. We need to develop creative deep analytical programming type thinkers. Okay. Other questions. Does a 11 to 13year-old really know about themselves as learners and thinkers to begin pursuing that pathway in middle school? I don't know. I'm sorry you're at your time. Thank you so much. Thank you, Joseph John Fredo, 185 Tmont Street. I must have missed the Facebook invite because I didn't know all this was going on tonight. But still, I'll start off on a different note. But I do end up at student achievement as well. I've been a student in Newton public schools my entire life. After 13 years, I'll be graduating next week and I move on to college. I've also worked as a private contractor on our building rentals team for the past three years. And I estimate that the team
047I worked on helped generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for this district. I come here today with some thank yous, but I also need to share some observations from my time in Newington. First, I'd like to thank all of my great teachers. He taught me more than I could ever imagine. Our custodians and security team are top-notch and beloved by our students. Dr. Brummit, I see you all the time at our events and whatnot. You support us like no one else, especially within the arts. To Miss Parott and Miss Weaver, I see you guys and I hear you guys at these meetings. You contribute more than anyone else and it really does make a difference. To everyone else, just know that being a bystander does not help. It doesn't do anything. Uh to Mr. Jackamoitz,
048thank you so much for choosing to retire. Thank you. I appear before you as young, immature, and lacking real world experience and knowledge. But while this is true, as I entered into my last year of high school, I questioned if if the school district really prepared me for the real world, and I wanted to take some observations throughout the year about this. And I realized that the school district failed in many ways to prepare me for the real world through math, science, physical education all around. I came up with the three biggest causes that I I believe are leading to the downfall of America's youth and the decrease in the quality of our education. Technology, societal norms, and bureaucracy. I worry about the the lack of knowledge, social skills, problem solving, and human decency that
049I see among my peers. As far as technology goes, we need to get phones out of the classroom. My peers are addicted, spending more than 10 hours a day on their phones. It's concerning. Our attention spans out the door. They can't read a book. Teachers are left to deal with this, but they say that it's a lost cause, a waste of their energy, and they're deflated. My next clause, societal norms. When I walk around school and I see kids in pajamas and Crocs, what happened to our fine institutions? I'm not saying we need to ban chewing gum, but it's getting ridiculous. My final cause is our topheavy problem with our administrators. Well, since my time is wrapping up, adios. Thank you. Elsa Batista, 64 Piperbrook. From top down, not just in this in this town,
050but in this country, we have a problem with school administrators. From the year 2000 to 2019, the number of direct administrators increased by 87% while student enrollment only increased by seven. How is this possible? New curriculum, new programs just for them to be thrown out for even more programs just a few years later. We see this in our science department led by Gina well Jenna Spiller. I guess our next generation science standards that we follow are a waste of time. You spend hours completing useless activities in middle school and early years of high school. Spending hours doing summary tables thinking about what did we learn here? Well, we're not this is not kindergarten. We're not talking about fairies here, right? And then when we get to the real classes like AP chemistry, AP physics, right?
051I see my peers, they're they're not prepared for advanced science classes. They're not prepared with the advanced math skills. Our math department, led by Miss Kellogg and Miss Freeman, is the most concerning department I've ever seen. Students lack the support that they need from their teachers. Teachers are cold and rude. The expectations are lower than ever. Over and over again, students are unable to effectively problem solve. This year, I watched a meeting where you guys reviewed the decision and you said, quote, "There was a clear gap between our students of color and our white students with the exception of Asian students. Lowering standards, folks. That's what it is. Private schools aren't doing this, right? So, next year I'm going to Villanova University. It's an okay school, right? A lot of my peers are going to
052be coming from private schools and I'm not going to be able I'm going to have to work a lot harder to make sure I'm at the same level. They're more well read. They've taken more advanced math classes. As far as math goes, I was part of the accelerated program. And for the first 12 years of my life, I thought I was going to be an engineer. But once I took the more advanced math classes, sure, I still got A's, but I realized, you know what? I don't want to be an engineer. I really love history. I built a connection with our history teachers. The department is topnotch. It's the greatest group of educators in our school. Besides some folks who think that they can invent reinvent the wheel or their Boston University education makes her
053superior. Physical education is a joke as well. My assignments on numerous days were to take a nap in class. 50 years ago, this wasn't a problem. Kids were being forced to do push-ups, and maybe we shouldn't be doing that, but still. Our educational standards are continuously being lowered, and that is a failure to our students when they enter the real world. A lot of these issues are not local, but you can still take actions. When I go off to college, I will be disadvantaged. And when I go off into the real world, I will also be disadvantaged. For anyone else out there who's struggling, I would suggest you send your kids to a private school. I've had a great time here, but thank you. Do it. You're a fraud, Lou. Um, I just want to
054remind everyone, please be civil. We're not here to be mean to one another. Thank you. Not that you are, Nicole. You know me. Got my number. Um, hi, my name is Nicole Fenton. I live at 125 Stage Coach Lane. Um I'm an 11-year resident of the town of Newington and a parent of two children in the Newington public schools um at Ruth Chaffy and John Wallace. Um I'm here tonight to express my disappointment and concern um regarding the changes to the accelerated math program at the middle school uh to learn more about the changes in the district's rationale. I did attend one of the parent sessions as well as having a follow-up meeting with Michelle Kellogg. Um, to begin, I'm disappointed in the lack of transparency with which the change was rolled out. In the
055spring of last year, I received a notice through Parent Square that sixth grade accelerated math was being discontinued, which I was okay with. This notice did not say that this was part of a larger change to the accelerated math program or that seventh grade accelerated would also be eliminated. That information was not widely shared with families until spring of this year. The timing, particularly around broader changes, oh, sorry. Um, the timing, particularly around the broader changes, came out late in the year, giving parents little time to react or attempt to influence the decision for those entering seventh grade. The process lacked transparency, and it feels intentionally so. While I recognize most parents are not experts in education, we do have parents in the district who are education, you know, people in other districts or in
056fields that could have brought diverse perspectives to create a new, well-accepted, accelerated program for our middle school students. When I met with Michelle for a follow-up conversation, I asked specific questions around the bridge to algebra program. I asked how would the program be administered? Would it be via program like? Would it be specific lessons curated and developed by the math department? I was told it was not yet developed and that would be worked on this summer. I asked what would the structure be for the 12week program in school? Would there be office hours during school such as during reach? Would it be an afterchool support? Would it even be seventh grade teachers supporting the students? Again, I was told we don't know. we don't have it figured out. Finally, I asked, how would it be
057assessed? Is there an exam that the students have to pass? Do they simply have to complete the program? What happens if a student doesn't complete it or fails this program? Are they barred from participating in eighth grade accelerated? Again, no responses. I'm stunned that a change to the curriculum was approved by the Department of Education and this board without these critical details ironed out. I also probed on how this change in curriculum would be measured for success or failure. How and when would we know if pushing accelerated math to eighth grade had a positive impact on our students or if we needed further review? Did the department things think these would ultimately increase or decrease the number of students taking accelerated math? Again, I did not receive clear answers. And again, I'm disappointed that a
058new curriculum was implemented without having clearly articulated metrics for success or failure. Overall, I'm not against revising our accelerated program for middle school. I would support changes such as removing sixth grade accelerated math for some of the reasons mentioned by a math teacher. I do not feel that this new program was thoroughly thought through or vetted or designed before being approved. I'm concerned about the impact that this will have on our district for learners and from a reputation perspective and the impacts to our Durk. I'm very disappointed in the New England public schools and the board of education and I expect better for our students. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Christine Hedstrom at 31 Deer Path. I had a couple of things um prepared, but I think what I want to do is actually
059address a couple of the things that you had mentioned. I'm sorry I don't remember your name. Um, one of the things that you said was how can we rely on recommendations of our teachers for an accelerated program. So, I have two children um that go through the district here. One of them is graduating next week. She is an eighth grader who was part of the acceleration program uh accelerated program for math starting in sixth grade. And then I have a son who is going to be in sixth grade next year. He's in fifth grade. Both of them in fact were outstanding students of the month at one point and were awarded in this very room. So we appreciate that recognition. Um but I'm really surprised by that question because don't we take ESPbacks? Don't we
060take tests that actually score the children that they get prepared for? And I'm I can go down the list of all the accolades that my children get and how they were a president of their class in in in uh elementary school, how he's looked at as a leader, etc., etc. They're athletes, everything good. But why don't we think about the other side of this? What about the children who aren't part of the accelerated program that are going to be mixed in with those who deserve to be? Now, my son, who may not know what he's going to be when he's older, because I didn't know that I was going to be a VP level of marketing at an insurance company. Now, I was a bio major. However, he comes home and he tells me that
061when he is in a math class and he's got to partner with somebody, they only have six minutes to get something done who's doing all the work. When he's partnered with someone who doesn't understand the information, he does it. he has to carry it. Right now, I don't work in education like I just said, but I'm part of projects that are part of my company, that are part of what I do. When I'm part of a team where someone is not carrying their weight, that makes an impact of the team and everyone as a whole. And I just feel that someone said it, equality, equity, it's not the same thing. I don't think that I would be in the position that I am right now and the success that I have if I wasn't given
062the opportunities or pushed or challenged. So, I just feel that we don't want to rob that from our children. My daughter had a wonderful experience and she's going into honors classes next year. Wonderful. I'm going to feel a little concerned about my son who's not going to maybe be able to get through that same pathway, but we'll do whatever we can to make sure that he's challenged. He's not bored. He's not asking for mental health days because he's bored in classes that aren't up to par for what he's at when it comes to his learning. Thank you. Thank you. And just a reminder for anyone online, you can raise your hand to be recognized. Does anybody else wish to speak? Everyone, I don't want to talk about the accelerated ma math. I want to just
063talk about some other issues uh which are uh concerning for me as a parent. So, my name is Monica Worbecki. I live in 116 Stone Head Drive in Newington, mother of three kids. My oldest daughter is graduating next week. And the reason why I'm here is I was hesitating, but I said to myself, see it, say it. If we don't speak, there will be no change. and I want the whole board just be aware of some issues concerning me as a parent happening in New England High School. So this is just the list of the complaints put together by the students at the AP statistic class. My daughter, she's a student. We not talking about the students who are attending AP statistics who are average. Those are the students who wants to be challenged who
064are really always good for the math. But there are some issues with this class happening second year in a row. And I think this needs to be brought to the bigger attention just not to get someone in trouble. Just try to take some actions maybe corrections. So just to get the class improved maybe better communication simple things just which make everyone life better I don't want anyone in this here or at present here go through what we went with my daughter for the last month and a half. I don't want any parents to hear from the child mom I'm holding off but when I break down I don't know what happened. That's why I'm here. So this is the complaints put together by the kids. The purpose of these complaints is to respectfully bring attention
065to ongoing issues within the classroom in hopes of promoting a more effective and supporting supportive learning environment. This feedback feedback is intended not as a personal criticism but as a constructive effort to encourage change and improve the overall education experience for all students. And those are the list complaints. I don't want to go in more details. I don't have time. Kids, what they complain the most is not entering grades in power school on time. Put in unit test quizzes right before the uh parent conference. Student get several warnings from National Honors Society because of that. Second, scolding embarrassing students in front of the class peers. We want to teach our kids the respect to the teachers. I respect really full support for all the teachers for all the work they do. But come on, those
066are almost adults. You want to have a respect, just show some respect to the students. If you want say something, say it after, not in front of the students. Humiliating classmate in front of the class for talking to each other when they don't understand the class. Turning students away from extra help. During the conferences, parents hear from the teacher. Don't worry, they doing fine. There will be more opportun opportunities. The grades are none and nothing has changed. Lack of professionalis teachers on the phone during the class instead of teaching. Okay. Um you're at your three minutes. Can you just wrap it up? Okay. So, I wish I would have more time, but just want to bring this to the attention. I had a list signed by the uh students who complain. It was done the
067same last year but it's the issue is going on the same this year. So um I have the I have a copy I can give it to you but I don't want to give you the copy of time list because the students are scared to talk because it thank you. All right. Um, last call for public participation. Okay. Um, I just I do just want to acknowledge um everyone who came and spoke tonight about um specifically the map, but other issues as well. Um, as is our typical policy, we're not going to respond tonight, but um, Dr. Bremer will ensure that everyone who spoke will get a response. Um, so I just want to make sure that everyone knows that they were heard. Um, and a response will be coming. It just won't be tonight.
068Again, thank you for coming. Hi, Dr. Brema. Our first um, announcement. Yes. Um, it is my pleasure, Wait, I got to make sure I got my cheat sheet about how to pronounce it, to introduce our new CFO, Lynn Bo. Yay. Um, Lynn has uh going to look at my notes for Lynn is a seasoned professional who has held finance positions for many years. Most recently, she was the director of finance and operations in Bristol public schools, beginning there in May of 2022. Prior to that, she held the director of finance and operations position in Torington schools. She has also worked for East Haven Public Schools as the business finance manager from January of 2017 through July of 2021. Lynn also held the position of executive assistant finance and operations for the Rock Hill Board of
069Education from July 2012 through December 2017. And prior to that position with Rocky Hill School, she's worked in various areas of finance and operations. Lyn has been shadowing Lou for about the past several weeks and is ready to officially begin on July 1. Staff have enjoyed getting to know her and she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this position. Lynn has met with everyone on the third floor of town hall as well as Dean Barnes and she will be touring the schools as soon as possible. But it's important to know that Lynn is a Newington resident and her for many years and her children have attended our schools. So please join me in welcoming Lynn who is walking the table here. Whatever's easier. Welcome Lynn. Thank you. Um, thank you very much and
070I'm I look really forward to um working with everyone here in Newington and giving back to the community that has given so much to me and my family. Really appreciate the opportunity and I look forward to it. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Happy to have you. Um, and just in the interest of time, I'm going to go through all the agenda items and then we can do board comments. Um, okay. So our next is a our CA award for teaching excellence. So Mrs. Rodriguez. I'll just I'll just read this. This is Rodriguez. Jennifer Rodriguez, first grade teacher Anna Rena Reynolds Elementary School. This is in recognition of your being a compassionate, innovative, and kind teacher and leader, promoting excellence in teaching and service to the profession, resulting in you winning the CEA's
071highest teaching award, the John McCormick Award for Teaching Excellence. And I just want to say former teacher of the year, always teacher of the year to us. Um, and you have taken that and just kind of exploded and advocated and not exploded in a bad way, but in a good way. Um, just like kind of been there for all of our students and I just really appreciate you and we're so lucky to have you in the district. So, thank you. Thank you. I just want to thank the board, Newington Public Schools for providing me with opportunities to uh find leadership opportunities, especially Dr. of his own. His his mantra for our building was uh Reynolds as leaders and he really found opportunities for every person to um find a leadership opportunity that fit best with
072their skill base. Um and over time um you know I walked through any door that was open to me. I might have had to nudge a couple of doors open. Um but the award is for teaching excellence and advocacy and the advocacy work I think is is um that other part of it. you know, advocating for getting the building renovation done at Anna Reynolds, so that we had equitable learning spaces, um advocating for budget cycles to ensure that we had the funding that we needed for our students. Um as part of CA, which is the Connecticut's largest uh education association or union, um we advocate for things like uh play-based learning. Uh we advocated and spearheaded getting uh the WEBGO repealed. So, it's all of that advocacy work um that I think really had to
073do with this part of it um um and as well as the the teaching excellence from, you know, the standpoint of having, you know, been um honored in the past in other ways. So, thank you for the opportunities that Newington Public Schools has provided um and CA has provided as well. question. And we have another award, Mrs. Tony. Another CA award presented to Carla Tony, world language teacher in Newington High School in recognition of your outstanding actions on behalf of students, fellow teachers, the community or public education, promoting a positive image of teachers or the teaching profession resulting in you winning the CA's above and beyond the call of duty award. Why don't you tell us a little bit about it? I really, to tell you the truth, it was somebody from my department who
074um recognized me and and it was really nice, I guess, you know, like I had a lot of things going on this year. I had a student teacher and um I I just spent a lot of time giving of myself to my students and I guess she really recognized that and wanted to um to show her appreciation with to this and I I can't thank you enough for for the recognition and thank you very much to the board for recognizing me. Thank you so much. Um, I think we'll just skip over Mr. Woods for the time being and then we'll um, unless you text him. I'm texting right now. I didn't know if you were going to do like reactions to this. Yeah, let's do that. We can do that. All right. Who wants to
075go first? Miss Weaver, I'll get the talking started. Um um Jen, you're just an incredible example. Um not only for this district, I think, but just for what teachers should aspire to. Um you're constantly uh doing what's outside those school hours and what you do in those school hours is always impactful. Um and just to see the evolution. Um and truly like there is now a different building. It looks different. And I think you you played no small part in that. You were an incredible advocate. um and continue to be. So, thank you for continuing to stay engaged. Um and you know, it's just I knew it was evident when I had your son as a camp counselor xx x amount of years ago, but um it's one of those things that um leading by
076example. So, more than welld deserving. I think like we could make up a couple more awards for everybody. You should get them. Um and Miss Tony, I just want to say congratulations as well. Um little known fact, my sister was best friends with your student teacher. Um, and I know we hired her and she has like that dual Italian um, one and let's just say my sister was very jealous of her placement. She was not in Newington school's placement. Um, but her student teacher did the Yukon TCPCG um, very intense program. Um, the best and the brightest of our next generation. And uh, I heard very good things every every month as my sister was like, "It's not as good where I'm at, but oh, if only she's like, I don't even teach world language.
077I would love to be with Miss Tony." Um, so I know firsthand and from from just uh anecdotally that you were just an incredible incredible teacher already. Um, and from friends we've we've all had under under your tutelage in in the world language department. But um, just knowing your impact was heard all year at my house. Um, and and thank you so much for what you do all the time. I loved like these award names as well. Um, I will say I did read just Call of Duty and I thought it was like a video game thing. So, um I'm glad to hear you were you really were beyond the call of duty as well. Um congratulations to you both. Both absolutely stellar examples of educators not only for Newington but the state and the
078country and the world. Miss Peters, I'll be very very brief. Um just uh congratulations to both Miss Rodriguez and Miss Tony. Thank you for everything that you do. We know it's not easy. Um, but what I'm struck by is your advocacy and um how both of you are u strongly involved in mentoring but pushing the profession forward, welcoming new people and working hard to make sure that we're um bringing people in who have the the strength the same strong commitment to our students and and to making sure that we're educating our kids, all of our kids in the best way possible. and the um very very important advocacy work that the CEA does um for not just people in our district but for people statewide cannot be understated. So thank you so much. Okay, congratulations
079to both of you. We're so proud. Next I would like to call Mr. Steven Woods to the table. want keep popping. So Steve is the chairperson of our Reynolds building committee and the John Wallace building committee. So he's just here to provide an update on both projects. Thank you. Just turn your mic on for us, please. Oh my schools. Oh, we got to turn it on. Uh, before I start, um, I know that Mr. Jackamoz is in the process of retiring. I've worked with Lou since 1994 when I got elected to the board of education. Um, I've had a fantastic relationship with him when I served on the board for the 16 years. I had a different relationship with him when I was mayor of this town for four years. But a professional relationship. We
080did not always agree, but we respected each other's decision and we found common ground. Um Lou has taken care of the board for 30 years plus and he's done an excellent job. He spends every dollar of this board's money like it's his own and I've seen that day in and day out. Um he is he is always protective of your funds. He is a champion for this town, for the board of education, for the children. Um, he is going to be missed like everybody. We're all replaceable and I understand that. Although, I think you're going to have a hard time replacing this particular individual. Um, it is. And again, I hope he does hang around for a while because we've got another project we're just starting. Um, so I am here to talk about Anna
081Reynolds. Good news. We have um reached the end of the project. The commissioning hopefully will be done by the end of the week. There is a little bit more you're waiting on a few more parts. As probably most of you know, I know Lou knows. I know Jason Blum knows. We've had some issues. air conditioning, heating have been our vein of uh of we just can't well we contractors can't seem to get it fine-tuned. They're very close right now. That's the last thing holding it up. So, we're closing out the project. That will take several months. Um Lew has been an integral part of that. He is preparing all of the payment apps that go into the state for that to make sure that the town is reimbursed. they hold fact 5% until the project
082is closed out. Um, and uh, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about tonight is the things that we were able to do that were originally value engineered out. And I know I've sat with a lot of you on this board. I see some very familiar u faces on my committee um, or our committee. And uh, it's been a pleasure serving with everybody. It's the committee has been in place for four years. Um I've lost track of how many people have come on and off because it's been a lot. Um but we did a really good job of managing funds early on the project and I was here I believe reporting on it when we got to what we call wing B which is one of the classroom wings. We found that
083the slab underneath the classroom was not in good shape. And we were looking honestly at millions of dollars to take out all that concrete, report it, a setback of six, eight, nine months. Um, our construction team came up with a plan. We were able to implement that. Those that million dollar, $2 million, million half dollars, $2 million went down to under $250,000. Um, and it's it's an amazing system. It's kind of like a floating concrete floor on top of what's there. Um, so as far as anybody knows, you have brand new concrete. Looks like brand new concrete. That was one of our biggest hurdles. And so not having to spend that money of our contingency and some very frugal work from our construction manager. New Field Construction has done a fantastic job for us. we
084were able to put back that beautiful canopy uh that is now in the front of the building. And just to give you an idea, that canopy roughly is about $250,000 with design fees that was added back to the project. Um we were able to add $130,000 to put in the um create a playground in the courtyard which will again was cut out um from the project. We were able to re surface, by that I mean coating on the existing basketball court, which really had was outside of the project, but it was obvious that while we didn't do anything to it, it had got neglected for three years and wasn't in great shape. So, we're able to fund um the recoding of that through the site contractor's contract. So, you don't actually see that in anything.
085kind of got buried in there, but we were able to buy um new basketball hoops and backboards for the court. I'm only going to hit the the big things. Um silent role, which is security, we were able to fund another $40,000 um in security. Most of that is some in the building, but most of that through the courtyard. Uh let's see here. Furniture, equipment. Um and um so computers uh new sonic displays were able to purchase roughly $55,000 and additional computers and screens for you. Um another $67,000 actually in Vonic screens. some painting color changes because we didn't realize how blah that the building started being when till we saw it. Um, and again, I didn't pick the colors. Uh, and but and I think you know sometimes when you see these color charts and
086I know I've been married for a long time, my wife goes pick this color and loves his color and we paint it and she goes, "That's not what I picked." And and I hold a little chip up there and it matches perfectly. Yeah, we got to change it. Um, so but we were able to fund that. That was another $20,000. Well, this one you didn't request. I actually worked with U Parks and Wreck. It actually isn't done yet, but it will be done this summer. Um, the little little league field, softball field that is there on your grounds has been in horrible, horrible shape for years. Um, the one just to the north is actually still in decent shape and in play. Um, this one they're going to put an entirely new infield system, refinish
087the grass, add some irrigation to it. Um, and that was $80,000. And I think one of the coolest things that we did is we we actually purchased you a lawnmower um for your courtyard that is um robotic. So there will be a lawnmower that's stationed in the courtyard. Um, it sits in a little charging hub and it sits there all day long and at night it comes out and it mows and then when it's all done mowing it goes back to its little charging station until it's programmed to go back out again. Um, I actually saw it work. It's it's really cool. We don't have it yet but it's on order. Um, and uh we should have it soon. We spent another $30,000 on security lighting. Um, Mr. Wetszel, who's been a member of the
088committee since its inception, was adamant about this. Um, and so now there is exterior lighting around the entire building. We had it in the front of the building, parking lot side, but we really didn't have anything around the back and we were able to do that for you. Let's see what else. And then there's some additional courtyard work that Lou was actually going to do this summer. That most of it is security, I believe, Lou. And um so we're going to add another we Lou is going to add another egress um in and out of uh the media center. Um some added some sidewalks. Actually I think we're changing the sidewalks from puminous to concrete. Um they're there now so it'll be a little bit easier to traverse on. And uh that sums up what
089we're able to do. So the total is approximately $800,000. um is that we were able to get back into the project. Um and there's still actually some money left over that will be go back to the town. Um because like all things everything is not reimburseable and in case we miss something um they'll there'll be money well they'll probably spend this money but at least we gave them back some money that that they have. um you know it it's a difficult project as any um renovate as new project is in an occupied building that is a challenge. Um but again Lou and his staff it was remarkable in responding to all of the needs from the construction team. Um everything that they could do uh to help us to be more efficient they were there.
090He would we talk six seven days a week. there's, you know, we Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, there's if you need to talk, we talk. Um, but the, uh, overall I've not heard any complaints other than, you know, too hot, too cold. We get that. You usually get that for the first 18 months. Um, hopefully we don't have that in U John Wallace because those are a little bit different as all rooftop units. You actually have a lot more head space at John Wallace than you do at uh um Ann Reynolds. We had a lot of challenges at Ann Reynolds. We uh if you remember, we were in the EF wing. We were cutting the slab to add plumbing because all of the classrooms um have sinks in them. So we're it's all everything the entire building
091is all supposed to be slab on grade. So they're cutting through the concrete and they cut a piece of concrete and all of a sudden that concrete falls down through a 4ft hole. Well, the second half would be the east side of that wing. Nobody knew there's a crawl space underneath it. So for 63 years, 65 years, there's been a hidden crawl space that nobody I've talked to everybody in the town. I talked to the contractor that worked there. There was no access to it. Um, so again, a small challenge, but a challenge um that we didn't expect, but I would gladly answer any questions if you have any. Um, again, it was a I think it was a good project. I would like to tell you that we could have done it faster, but
092we can't being occupied. Um, it that really slows down the process, but I think you have a very good-looking school, one that is now equal to um the rest of the ones. And I guess you only have really Patterson is the only one that hasn't been touched, right? Your old school stuff. Um I still got a few more good years in me. So um again, I enjoy being privileged to be able to do this for the board. Um the board's been loved most of my life. I spent a lot of years sitting at this table. Um and I appreciate what you all do. I know it is not easy. you make very difficult decisions. Um but somehow you always make it work and most of it's because of the money man over there and at
093the end far end of the table Dr. Brummit makes the final decision. You know I worked with Dr. Pini, Dr. Collins and now Dr. Brummit. Um I all three are excellent superintendent and this district is um far ahead I think of most in the state and you walk in our schools and you can see it. You see it on the kids' faces. Um, you can see it in the environment that's in that school. People care. Um, and that's rare. I I work all over the state. I'm in buildings that are brand new. They don't look anywhere near as good as the buildings that we have that are 50 and 60 years old. So, that tells me something. And, um, again, I'm proud. I was born here. I was raised here. I went through each one
094of those schools. Um, and uh, hopefully I have a few more years left of me. So happy to take any questions if you do have any. If not, go ahead. I just want to say thank you. Um you've done a great service to the sound and served it for a long time in the best way. Um and I feel like every project I hear, we're on time, you know, but we're under budget and I'm like, how the heck does this happen every time? How are we so lucky? Um and I think there's some magic to that sauce. So thank you continually for your efforts. Thank you to those on the building committees and our custodians that keep them. We always hear if you can't like they have like the reflection of us in them and
095that's true. Every time you see the floors I can like see myself in them whether I like to or not that that's not normal if you go through state and trust me it is not normal. It's it's just the opposite. Thank you for your time and I know you've literally zoomed in from meetings in Florida and wherever uh to talk about these things. So I know it's a lot of time and effort. Um, so I thank you so much for all of that service. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hollerin. I just want to echo what Miss Weaver said. Thank you, Steve, for your service. Uh, I'm on the committee. It's a pleasure. I'm always amazed at how efficiently those committee meetings are run, and I think that's all due to you. Um, and I think that
096I am very excited to see shovels dig into the dirt at John Wallace very soon. And thank you for all the work that it's taken to get to this point. Now, John Wallace will start very, very soon. Yep. Actually, school is out the 17th. So, it will there'll be dust by this 20th or 21st. This rain will go away and it'll get hot and dry. But, thank you, Sean. Is there anything else about John Wallace that you wanted to just Well, pretty quick turnaround. I will share this with you. Um, we're off to a better start than we were at Anna Reynolds. We are under budget. Not by a lot, but nonetheless, we are under budget. Um, so that is a great thing. There was no value engineering that had to be done. Um, it
097is a a much smaller project. We're at 28,000 ft versus 63,000 ft. Um, I believe we will have the project done in probably 18 months. That's that's my goal. Um, we're using Newfield Construction again. I know all those people. Um, and again, we talk on a regular basis on the phone. We're set to go. Um I don't we don't see anything that is glaring. It's a pretty simple project. The we're leaving two sidewalls, two end walls, and a roof. Everything else goes and, you know, just giving a center corridor with classrooms off to either side. So, it should be a very basic project and keep my fingers crossed that yeah, that it goes as well as it does. But I I think it I think it's going to go well. I really do. And hopefully
098we'll have some extra money and and Lou and I to keep them around a little bit longer. We'll find some ways to spend some of that money to to improve the the building even more for the students. I remember when the Anna Reynolds bids came in way higher than expected, right? So there was some really tough decisions that had to be made there. And um I mean I think it's great that there's there were so many I mean the list is longer than what you said but there was so many things that we were able to put back into the project to really like there's stuff in the media center to make it more engaging and welcoming right that we added. And the canopy was a big one that um you know just no protection
099from the elements at all. So I think that was a really good one too that we're able to get back. But, um, it looks great and I'm super excited. My daughter's going there next year for prek, so I'm very excited. I think we ended up with a better canopy as a redesign than we did the original canopy. I really I like the way this one looks. It looks really nice. Yeah. So, the whole school is great and and thank you for all the time like, you know, our meetings were like what, Britney? Like 15 minutes max every two weeks. But the the amount of work that you personally put in and and everyone on the team um Lou and and everyone um everyone in the in central office had a part in it as well
100with you know everything from like will the buses fit to you know security and custodial like everything um that goes on in the school they were all consulted um and then obviously our our partners with Newfield and CSG right? Yes. um just were it was just a great you know you all worked well together and architect as well um so the meetings were very fast and efficient and that's a lot to you I was very fortunate the committee allowed me the authority to make some of these decisions they they gave that to me which kept everything running a little bit smoother because it doesn't sound like much but if you think you know you at one point there was over 100 men and women working on that job on a daily basis so if you
101stop production it backs up very quickly and my goal is to make sure we didn't do that. So, the committee entrusted me. I was able to make the decisions to make sure that we could keep moving and that's what made it work. That that really that's just the crux of it. Yeah. And then um can't forget to mention Jason Smith who had two full-time jobs for a very long period of time being um obviously principal and then you know construction guru. I don't know what he was doing. He was a consultant. the main the main guy to answer all the questions and then organize all of the because it was done occupied during the school year and all those little tiny kids had to make sure that they're safe and and able to learn. It
102might been a little loud or but um my daughter was there during construction and she was fine. It was fine but now it's um it's beautiful. So good. I'm glad that you're happy. So yeah, absolutely. I want to thank Steve as well. I already This is Lynn, our new business manager. And um I already told her, I said, "You're going to like work with Steve. He knows how to run a meeting that he knows how to and it's already been said around the table, but in all seriousness, getting us through Anna Reynolds and now cheering up Wallace. We've been very fortunate to have you. Your name's going to be on a plaque in every school at this point. But thank you. It is actually there isn't a school project. I think that I haven't been
103on in 30 years. That makes sense to me. And we've been very fortunate to have your services and wanted to have you meet Lynn. So, she'll be working with you as well. This town has been very good to me. So, I'm I'm just paying it forward. Thank you. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. I'm good. I can go. You're You're dismissed. Have a great night. Thank you. All right. And sorry for the delay, Mr. Duran, but you're up next. Come on over, Mr. Duran. When we talked earlier today, I said, Mr. Duran, we might have a late start to your presentation due to some anticipated public participation, but [Laughter] but I'll turn it over to Mr. Durant. He's here to share with us the work of his um parent equity committee. And I believe
104there may be one parent online, but I'll let you introduce the team. Um, Mr. Dian Sawyers. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate you having us here today to talk about our parent equity team. I first like to introduce uh some of the members who are here with us. I have Betsy Ruiz, who's one of our parents of a third grade student. Um, we have Kate Dwire, who's also a parent of a third grade student. I should have Miss Titus on the line who is parent of two third grade students and I have her she's going to be calling in her number 680. I'm on the line. Yes, it does end. See, so she'll be joining us. And then some of my staff came in. We have Brenda Dil, we have Amy Inzero. And
105we have Antonet Serrano who who I thank very much for coming and speaking for for an hour and a half, hour and 40 minutes. And I thank you too both and Mrs. Titus who's online uh for sticking it out for this time. But um let's let's get to the work that we've been doing. Um as a first year principal walking into Egreen Green, I had you know I got a feel for what the building had and I wanted to see where we can move next to. Um when I started look I'm a big data person. and I was a math teacher. Um, I'm always looking at that and I started looking at where were we underperforming and some of the areas that I noticed were our academics, our um, attendance and our discipline data. And
106when I looked at that data, the underperformance was there was a gap between our white students and our students of color. And the gap was getting wider. And so I started thinking, how can what can we do to address this? because the the gap in our reading, you know, it starts out and it just continue to get wider as the year as the years go on. And and I look back in history, it's it's happened every year. It's just um something that takes place. I see that students of color are overreerred for behaviors for the similar behaviors that our our white students are going through. Um and then I looked at our attendance data and our and with attendance a higher number of our students who hit that freuy level are students of color. So
107I was thinking what could we do about that? And the first thing I did was work with my staff and my and the students. You know I formed committees within the building where we would talk about those different aspects and what we could do. Talked with the students and got some advisory. you know, even though they're elementary, the upper level fourth graders and third graders do have a lot of good ideas on what could we do to help make sure that they were coming into school and make the place a safer place so that discipline wasn't a problem. What could we do to make the classes more engaging so that they would be um be able to perform better. And when I looked at that, it was great to be able to talk to parent
108to the students and staff every single day, but the one thing I was missing was my parents. And um you know, I have the kids six hours a day. They have them for the rest of the time. They have them for the summers and they get a different perspective of what our schools go through. So, I thought it was important, let's bring the parents in and see what they have to say. So, I met with myself team, my my school equity leadership team, and I talked to the staff, you know, who are some parents that really could make a difference? And I got a list of 10 parents. I invited them and five took me up on the offer. and and these these two have done an outstanding job and they're going to share some
109of their thoughts in a little bit. But we come together every six weeks or so. Just started the committee. It started a little bit around November and we've had some good discussions of where the school is, where we want it to go, what our hopes and dreams are for our kids, what are the roadblocks and barriers that our kids are going through. And it's not only when we talk about equity, it's we're not sitting here just talking about our our black population or Hispanic population. We're talking about our white population, too. It's all kids. We want to make sure that all kids are successful in our building. And the perspectives that I've received from the parents have really helped us as a team that we've brought it back to the rest of our school. We
110bring it up in different meetings, in our staff meetings, and we talk about what it was said and we share it in the hallways because it's important to see the work that we do in the classroom and how it translates to when the student gets home and is talking with their parents. And you know, it's been it's been a great experience. I think we've really bonded as a team. As the year has gone on gone on, I've had more staff members asked to join the team. I've had more parents call up and want to join the team. I'm losing two parents to Kellogg next year who I've already hooked up with Jason Lambert. They're going to be joining his equity team and then I already have parents who are asking to come in next year.
111So, it's a it's a point for us to get the voices of our parents into the building and and it's been an outstanding experience. I mean, we've had some great in-depth conversations about what our hopes and dreams are for our kids in the public schools. Uh, Mrs. Titus, who's going to talk in a minute, lives in Harford. Her her two daughters attend our school through the open choice program. So, we get her perspective of what she sees compared to where she lives in Harford and sending her kids to Newington. So just outstanding work and I look forward to in the future where we're going to go next because when I look at the kids in front of us, they all come from different backgrounds. They have different experiences and as one of the parents said
112earlier the difference between equity and equality. We're we want to help every single student, but equality we're just giving everybody the same. Some of our kids with different backgrounds need a little bit more. and that's our job to figure that out and help them to really be able to grow and be as successful as possible. So, I'm grateful for my team here who are going to help me do that and we're and they're going to work with me and we're going to work with the the rest of my staff to help make Egreen a better place for for all our students. So, what I wanted to do is I didn't have a presentation for you because after an hour and 45 minutes, I don't think it would have been something you would be interested in
113looking at. So, what I've done is I've written a couple questions for each of my parents and then they're going to they're going to share their thoughts on it. So, I'm going to start with Miss Dwire. Um, why did you want to be a part of this team and what are you looking to accomplish as a member of the team? Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for being here tonight. I know it's been a very long day. I know you all have day jobs and I'm sure, you know, I just appreciate your your service to our community and to our amazing public school system. Um, and I'm really happy to be here. Uh, so as I mentioned, I'm Kate Dwire. My daughter is a third grade student at EG Green. My son, uh, is
114now in fifth grade, but he also went through E-green. And, uh, I was really excited for the opportunity to be a part of the school social equity team. Uh, I feel like we it we are really um, blessed and very fortunate to be parents whose children attend E-green. um you know and and not only the the caliber of the education they're receiving but the school community in and of itself is something that really is a treasure. Um, you know, we had the school uh picnic last week and uh it was a great opportunity to just see the student body as a whole because they have a great attendance and you know there was a diversity of languages being spoken and there was a diversity of of parents from with different nationalities that all came together
115to create this beautiful community of kids who just really enjoy each other's company, treat each other with respect and it's something that we see in this microcosm at be That is something that we really want to see on a much bigger scale. I feel like the undercurrents that we're hearing on a national level and at a community level are tinged with anger and fear. There's a lot of anger and there's a lot of fear out there, especially for our children of color. And I realize that I'm white, my husband is white, my children are white. And the experience that they have moving through the school system and through the community at large is different from children who perhaps have a parent that is not from this country, who perhaps for English is not their first
116language. And I want it to be reinforced not only to my children, but to all of the children in this community that it does not matter where you're from. It does not matter what language you speak home. You are all important. You all deserve respect and you all deserve the equity. Again, the equity, not the equality, the equity. Having your needs met wherever you are, that we meet you at where you're at and we help you to thrive. And so, the opportunity to be a part of this community and a part of this council seemed like a way to do that. And I can't tell you how wonderful and how um fulfilling and heartwarming the conversations have been and very vulnerable conversations for the members of our community. Um it's been a very turbulent past
1178 months I think for everyone and it's been really nice to have these meetings that have been kind of a harbor to come together and and and refocus on what is best for our children. How can we still instill in all of them the importance to care for one another, to love one another, to respect one another. And so that's what this community is, this meeting and this group is doing and I'm very happy to be a part of it. Thank you very much. And as she was alluding to with their with our picnic, my student body population is is 54% students of color. So that was another driving factor when I came to Egreen that when I saw that number um that there was something that that came was built up in me that
118I had to address and that we have to be working for all our kids but especially that large group of students who are now you know the majority of my my population. So now I have Mr. Ruiz and why is the parent equity team important to you? So good evening everyone. Um I'll try to be quick. I had notes, but then I got wrapped up into all the other stuff. So, um I'm going to go off the cuff. But I I think Elizabeth Green does an excellent job with her children. Um educating them, teaching them. I know I was walking my dog the other um like during the winter. My daughter was like, "Oh, look at the Diwali candles are up." I had no clue. So, she educated me as we were walking by. But
119that let me know that my my daughter is learning something. This is my third kid um in Newington schools. My son, by the time he got to 8th grade, he elected not to continue going to school in Newington for some reasons that like the equity and the equality he didn't feel was there. So, he decided unfortunately and fortunately to go to Xavier because it cost me money. That's why I say unfortunately um but did well there. Um more of a quiet kid. My daughter too is very quiet. We talk about that too as far as u equity is that she recently was diagnosed ASD level one. So to me it's a hidden disability. If you don't know she has that you it may come off different way. Add the layer that she's a female. Add
120the layer that she is of color as well. So she has a few things against her. But what I the school does that is an excellent job is teaching her and empowering her. However, it'd be nice to get to know some of the parents. So that's where it was important for me to participate in this cuz it was the first time that it was opened up where the parents can get involved and have those conversations that may be uncomfortable um for the kids can't really be that open to their third graders or eight and nine years old. But maybe if we talk to parents and let them know like hey Nyla struggles with this or this is what and I don't represent all Latinos in the world but letting them know that some things like
121this is what we do in our family. I can't speak for what happens there. Um, I know we had one parent who stated that she was u fearful of speaking Spanish in public. And I have to say that there's sometimes that I have the same fear of what are you gonna think that I am? Do I have to carry ID? My kids look more of color. They're more of melanin than I am. So, they're not going to they off what their appearance is, they look more African-American than they than they do Latino. And I am honestly grateful for that because I don't have that fear. But then there's the other layer of I have to worry about my son who's 6'4 and what comes with that and being out late and and those types of
122things. But having this these conversations at least lets other people know that some of the fears that might show up as our interaction as parents not even as the children as parents that might trickle down to our kids and some of their little phobias that knowing unknowingly we might share overshare with the kids sometimes especially some of the fear. We don't do news in my house anymore. Um, we just do like streaming, Netflix, that type of stuff because I don't want there, you already have enough stuff going on. So, we kind of just keep it very light and we talk about certain things and a lot of the stuff that comes up at school. Um, we discussed at home. There was a leadership program that my daughter absolutely loved. um and being able to get
123involved in that and getting correspondents about how she was doing there, doing her vision boards and having those conversations and bringing them back to our group as to what's working, what's not working and hear having conversations not only from um Latinos or black people, but hearing a white person's perspective on things too or I just didn't know or wow I I I never realized that or even for myself the stereotypes and assumptions that I've made. um and having those having those honest conversations that was the important piece for me to participate in the script. So when the opportunity arose I jumped right on it and last year um Mr. Mariana was there and I know that they were doing something for Hispanic heritage. Um so I volunteered. I was like if I'm going to ask
124for there to be change, I'm going to volunteer. So I I did a quick little training for I think it was like 40 I took a 4-hour training that I I'm a retired um state employee. So I took a 4-hour training and try to condense it to 45 minutes just to I know that there the census has a big climb in Latino population in knowing. So just letting them know like I don't represent everyone. You know I only speak about my experiences as a woman of color but um to share that with the school as to this might be happening with the parents. So it might trickle down to the kids. So you might see these behaviors with the children but know that it's coming from the parents. So now that this kind of jumped
125on this year, I thought it was an excellent thing that um Mr. Durant is spearheading and and it's it's working. You can you can tell like there's more friendliness in the community when you see a parent, you know, my son was in school. It was more of the coaches knew my son, but I was kind of invisible, so they were like, "Hey buddy, how's it going?" I'm like, "Hey, I'm the one who pays for everything, so you might want to acknowledge me." But now it's kind of like, "Hey, mom, how are you doing?" It's the exchange is a little bit friendlier um and more open to um more inclusion than it was before. Thank you very much. And then my final parent is Miss Titus who's online. So I don't know if we can pull
126her up. She is she's unmuted. So So go ahead and All right. Here's your question, Miss Titus. How might participating in the parent equity team impact the education of your children? So, as uh Mr. Duran, Hold on one second. And can you turn up the volume? All right. Try again. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. Perfect. Okay. So, as Mr. Duran said, I um my daughters attend Elizabeth's Green through the choice program. And first of all, I have to say that we hit the go gold mine when um they were accepted into Elizabeth Green. They've been going to Elizabeth Green since kindergarten. Uh one of my daughters is in special education. And I think the operative word uh to the equity and being um able to participate in this group is the partnership. Um
127being able to partner with the school with the teachers and I'm learning they're learning and it's it's important to have that and I'm I'm grateful for this uh group because of that because it's not only teaching my kids, it's also teaching me. It's teaching me about different cultures. is teaching me about different things. It's helping me to uh partner with their teachers to make them work harder, to make them do more, and I enjoy that. Thank you very much. Um, and so that's our group and we have a lot of work to do because we want to make sure that every one of our kids is successful. I look forward to next year and the the new members who will be joining and the work that we're going to do and what we can strive
128to really push our kids for the three uh parents who have spoken tonight. It's my last year with them next year. So, I got to get, you know, get a lot of work out of them. I'm looking forward to it and we'll bring in I know through their the work with them that it'll it'll build up more interest because um we just get more people who just want to be a part of seeing change for all students and that's what we're we're looking for. Thank you. Do we have any comments or questions for our presenters? Miss Beatric. Um I just want to thank you and I can't tell you how proud this makes me. Um, I am a past e- green parent. Um, but more importantly, I am a member of your neighborhood. I live
129around the corner from E- Green and still consider myself a little bit um, part of the family, but a little bit removed from the family as well. My kids are in their 20s. So, um, but I can't tell you how proud I am to see um, this conversation taking place in that school. I'm more importantly very very proud of my neighborhood and my neighbors which you guys are because what we're doing is we're creating uh a family of learners who are going to be good global citizens and they're going to be good neighbors and when I hear you talking about the types of things that occur outside of the school and the lessons that are being discussed and then the difficult conversations that are taking place are having positive impact in our neighborhoods and I'm
130your neighbor and that impacts me. So, thank you very very very much for the hard work that you're doing, Miss Weaver. I was so excited. Oh my gosh. Um I just like want to scream and like yell um from excitement. So um I'm the student of EG Green. Um a long time ago and EG didn't look like that when I went. Um but now my cousins are there. Um and the things I hear from them, the things that they're learning, it's always so great. And I'm so so biased. I always say this whenever I'm at I always get put on the e- green PTO PGA meetings. I don't know why. Uh I think there's bias. Brenda knows. Amy knows. Um and they're always on by the way. Um but just to see the buy in
131and the participation. So thank you so much for volunteering your time for going above and beyond as parents. I think one of the things we always want to have um usually tonight it's is is a rarity. We never have this much participation at board of ed meetings or anything like that, but we want to hear from folks. We want to hear the reach out. We want to know that there's buy in and that um you know that there is that willingness to find that community. And I I really appreciate both of your um and and online. I appreciate all of your words um because I think it's one of the things too where we at board level don't make those day-to-day decisions. We're we're high up here. We're we're making um you know the budget
132and and other things, but we want to know um you know the NPS mission really embodies that. Um, and we want to make sure that you're feeling that and we're seeing that trickle down. So, um, thank you so much for for what you do and also I'm just really excited to hear I like want to ask Mr. Ran from more reports and things like that cuz you need more work. Um but but it's just so great to hear um to hear that and to hear the experiences of your children too. Um and to know that you know it is a good experience and that you're able to and I think one of the things I I just hear is that like we're kind of creating like this lifelong learning of both our students and our
133parents um and our teachers because we talk about educating our educators too. Um, so to hear that, you know, we I think we all are proponents of the never stop learning. So to hear that and to see that um on full display is just really really gratifying. And I will say as biased as I am, um it's it's one of those things that has a special heart of just seeing you know where you grew up uh where you still are um to see the evolution and the progress that's being made. Um, and that is probably due to the fact that I went to E-green. Um, and probably due to that woman right there, uh, my second grade teacher who's now our teacher of the year, Miss Hat, now Mr. Rono. Oh my gosh. Um, I
134just have to give a shout out because she is our teacher of the year. Um, and we did have shirts that did I and I also just want to shout out Mr. and the Lizzy swag as well that's that's going on. Um, because we just had like I think like a little like blue lizard on one of our t-shirts at our school picnic. Um, I'm gonna have to give you a a photo I have of that um way back when, but it really is a special place. And so to hear 20 years on what is happening um and to hear that progress um I think that's what every school district and every kid would wonder leave it better than when you left it and to continue to see that is just incredible. So thank you
135guys and thank you for staying so long. We appreciate your time and your efforts and you missing dinner as well, Mr. Hollerin. Uh thank you. I think tonight as long as it was uh it's really important to hear from parents. I'm a parent of two students in the system as well. Um and the child's life is at school is not insulated from the child's life at home and the child's life at home is not insulated from the child's life at school. Um, I think whenever you can have involvement and whenever you have a direct voice, whenever you build a sense of community, you start to reckon with the fact that it is a holistic approach to doing the best we can for our children to provide them a well-rounded education and to expose them to
136different types of families and different types of cultures. Um, and I think that I can't thank enough, particularly you and um, I forget her name on the phone as well. Um, it is so vitally important that we make the effort to play a role in our schools. We are not here making decrees. We are representing our town and the more we hear, the more informed we can be, um, the easier it is for us to do our job on behalf of the town. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Congrats on finishing almost your first year of principal. Yeah, we waited all year. All right, we'll see you next year. Bye. Thank you. Okay, and I'll turn it over to Dr. Braum for Anna Reynolds plaque. Thank you so much. Thank you, E. Green. Thank
137you. So, as I think has already been stated this evening, tonight will be Lou's uh last board meeting and many of you attended his um the retirement event. I think that was last week. Um long week. It's been a long couple of weeks, but um at that time we did honor Lou with this prestigious uh pile of rocks that he had asked for uh to honor his participation in the Anna Reynolds project, both the most recent one that Mr. Wood spoke about, but also the previous projects, including the erection of the playground that you see depicted there. So, while the box of rocks was a little bit of a tongue and cheek u honor from last week, I I would like to propose to the board in honor of Lou's 32 years of service and
138some of the reasons that you heard tonight from Mr. Woods and others about his dedication to our district, all that he has done for many of our facilities, um what he has done, um you know, districtwide. This is just quite a bit at Anna Rose, which I think this is a fitting hopefully suggestion that in addition to the box, the pile of rocks that we honor Lou with a plaque affixed to the playground at Anna Reynolds, this is one that he actually did help u renovate and create um however many years ago that was. And I think that would be in addition to um what we've already talked about. So, and and Luke, uh, full disclosure, I probably need your help getting the plaque, picking out one that's weather resistant because I'm not very good
139at that. But, um, you know, all kidding. And I I roasted Lou pretty good last week and made fun of his spreadsheets and other, you know, things. But, um, you know, in all seriousness, he has served this district with distinction and dedication for 32 plus years. And I think it's my suggestion that we also honor him with this uh plaque that is to be designed and researched by by Who? One more project. We'll call it maybe your final project, but I I would um again the board is aware that when we um look to name anything, they simply need to be aware of it. I can tell you that we will um whatever is chosen will be appropriate to the conditions. um something that will be safe on a child's playground a fixed in a
140very safe location. But um you know with with your um agreement or blessing I'd like to move forward with that in support and in honor of Lou. Okay. I think it's a great idea. um definitely not the only project that you've had a part in because I think you've had a hand in every single everywhere in this whole system our school system. So, um this cute little playground though is very nostalgic for me. I love it. Um so I think it's a perfect spot and um better than a pile of rocks. Pile of rocks might be a little unsafe for a playground, but um could be fun. Who knows? But um yeah, go ahead, Miss Bever. Just make sure it doesn't say memorial. I had a lot of retirements and there was a a note
141in recognition of memorial for his service years of service. Okay, that's my one request here. Um yeah, and I will just say to um thank you Lou for for everything. It's been it's been great. And I want to say that um I know Mr. Woods was saying like he counts every dollar and stuff. And I will say I've never seen someone order at Stop and Shop a number a specific number of ham slices to the tea. Um, which I saw happen and he was like, I need seven exact slices. And I was like, "Wow, a man who counts his deli meat this specifically in with this much detail must have a keen eye for a lot of diligence things in the financial space." So, I was like, "Wow, I think that's really emblematic of Lou."
142So, just wanted to share that. Um, I know how meticulous you are, even down to your deli meat. Any other comments, Miss Carr? Lou, do you like the location? I think it's great. Wonderful project when we did it. you know, we had it through a combination of resources from the uh Anna Reynolds PTA Jamie was part of and uh what the board was able to subsidize for the other 40% of the work. and it looks great. But, uh, one of the reasons I was joking about the Anna Reynolds area is because on five different projects over the years, we've had to be in there either doing blasting, just blowing up rocks or with the big jackhammers mounted on trucks to be able to clear space and make it suitable for the type of things that
143we wanted to get done. And that was one of them that we had to do where we had to carve into the side of the hill there, which is all rock underneath. You know, you got one inch of sand, one inch of soil, and miles and miles of rock underneath it. And you know, they came out great. You know, all the projects are really uh you know, provided the type of u you know u just a great place for the kids and everyone was an improvement over the prior one we had done. So, I'm very proud of my little contributions over the years to do that. Great. So, it's the perfect spot. Thank you, Lou. Thank you for over 30 years of service. Um, I think, uh, both here and on the John Wallace building
144committee, you've really steered us well into how to be financially responsible and finding ways to make things work when it seems like it can't. Um, so sincerely, thank you very much. I'm sure we'll run into each other at some point around town, maybe when we're both getting ham. Um, does it have to be a plaque? Can we not just make the whole surface of the playground like a spreadsheet just um add some math in there? Backdrop of it. Right. Right. Just there's a slide that goes into some statistics. Um, but thank you very much, Louis. I appreciate it. Quite welcome, Mr. Sharma. So I think I mean this is a great idea but I just want to thank Lou for I mean 32 years of service. I mean it won't be the same without you
145in the meetings and especially um the patience that you've shown like explaining all the different financial stuff during meetings and then you know um it's just amazing. So thank you for everything you've done and we'll always miss you. Thank you Mr. Nan. Hello I did 25 with the state. I don't know how you did 32 with the town. Um I'll I'll miss your knowledge. Not your voodoo with your math. I just you you counting people, Lynn. You're in it for a ride. Um but your service isn't honor appreciated. You you've been here. You're loyal. Your loyalty shown through. Um you've done a service to the town and to your family. So for that, I thank you. Thank you much, Miss Petus. Again, thank you. Um I am always struck how you can take um complex
146thoughts and budgeting is not easy and um making it in a way that is easy for this first termer to understand and that's one of the the most important things is for us to do the job that we need to do. We need to understand it. And so I thank you so much for presenting things in a way that makes sense and that um really instill confidence in that um the the everything that we need to be having done is done in a thoughtful and and appropriate manner and it's a very difficult thing to do. I know it's not easy. I know it's long hours away from your family, but you have made it a pleasure to dig deep into some things that sometimes aren't so easy to do. So thank you so much. You're
147very welcome. Just waiting to see if Miss Yop wanted to um Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Dr. Would you set the budget out for the plaque? Uh TBD, Mr. Jackamo, it's Well, we got Yeah. Seven slices of ham. Um I think we with our research that likes that. Oh, that's your wife, huh? good husband. We'll certainly be very um costefficient in the selection of this plaque. We know you'll do an excellent job picking out a suitable plaque that will withstand and last in 32 plus years, probably longer than the playcape. Um but yeah, thank you since we're doing this now. Thank you so much for all the dedication that you've spent um putting your time into Newington public schools. I think you've been around a really long time and seen a lot of stuff and had a
148lot of community interactions and I think you've handled all of it with grace and dignity and just been above board. So I applaud you for all of um all of that in all of your meticulous budgeting. And I just remember we my first term we had like a list of transfers and one of the board members asked what they were cuz you know she just wanted to have details and you literally went down the list by memory and you said this is for this and that's for that and you were just able to account for all of it. So the the amount of numbers and budget items and reasons behind the budget items that you have in your head, like you just know what everything is for and you know what everything costs and I
149think you are just that meticulous and and it really has served us well in the last 32 years plus. Um so we are definitely going to miss you and and all of your knowledge, but thank you for taking time also to train um Lynn. And I know it's hard to do within a month time span, but um but we know where to find you. So obviously um you probably will never be able to fully get away from us, but thank you for all your service. We really appreciate you. So welcome. Thank you. All right. So, um, it sounds like the board is in consensus that ana at the little playground at Anna Reynolds is a fabulous, not memorial, but a dedication opportunity. Okay, that was a long AB and C. And now we're moving on
150to our consent agenda. Thank you. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented for the board of education meeting on May 28th, 2025. Second. motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion passes unanimous unanimously. Um, what are we at? 8. Okay. New business. Um, we have a possible um board meeting schedule revision. Yes. Thank you so much. Um, in the course of training uh my new secretary Sally, we realize that next year is an election year and therefore the board meeting schedule varies a bit because we have to take into account the organizational meeting of the board due to the election year. So what is now proposed and that's in this memo here highlighted in yellow that in election years the November meeting is scheduled on the first
151Tuesday following the election and that is for um the board organizational meeting where chair vice chair and secretary are selected and then typically it's followed by the swearing in on the town side which we did confirm is the case. So that is the modification suggested here. um we would remove November 12th and add November 11th. The board would also upon deter the election determination, we would uh determine with the chair about a board orientation meeting from legal counsel um and set the date for that once the board is officially seated after the election. And that could occur um in late November, though that's tricky because of the holiday or perhaps before the December board meeting. So that is the rationale behind this adjustment. It just has to do with the variation due to the election
152year. So I'll turn it back over to the board chair. Thank you, Miss Weaver. Move the board of education approve the following revised meeting dates for the 2025 2026 school year. September 10th, 2025, September 24th, 2025, October 15, 2025, October 29, 2025, November 11th, 2025, December 10th, 2025, January 14th, 2026. January 28th, 2026. February 11, 2026. February 25th, 2026. March 11, 2026. March 25th, 2026. April 8th, 2026. April 22nd, 2026. May 6th, 2026. May 27th, 2026. June 10th, 2026. Was that a second? Second. Thanks, Britney. All right. So, we're voting or is there any discussion on the meeting changes? No. Okay. Um, do we do a roll call vote? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. 8 Z. Oh, man. Okay, so next is the lunch price increase proposal. Is Dana still on?
153I believe she Yes, I'm here. Hi. Hi, Dana. Thanks for sticking with us. You're welcome. So, we're uh we're not slapping. Can I share the screen board meeting? Okay. Yeah, we got Can you Can you see the screen, Dana? She's sharing. Okay, then I will queue off. But um anyway, I just want to ceue up Dana that um she is has analyzed our finances relative to our lunch program, which I'll let her do a little more explanation of and is uh come to the realization after consulting with Lou that a price increase is warranted. But I'll let her speak to that. And it looks like she's got the screen, so I'll turn it over to you, Dana. Thank you. I first would like to just start off by saying I've worked with Lou for close
154to 22 years, and I've never seen him eat a ham sandwich, and my office is right next door. Okay. So, tonight I will present to the board three different lunch price proposals and how each could affect the food services operations. Since asking for money is never fun, I thought I would open and close my presentation with um funny food jokes. And by the way, I did not come up with them. Um so here we go. Um why are herbs so expensive because time is money? This slide represents lunch price increases over the past 21 years. Prices had increased five times with an average cost of 30 cents per increase. The last price increase of 25 cents at both the high school and the elementary schools and 50 cents for middle schools was two years ago.
155The middle school price was set higher to align with the high school pricing and lunch offerings. When looking at revenue sources, lunch participation determines federal state reimbursement and lunch sales. I've highlighted the difference in participation when meals were free for all and when students return to paying. No surprise that paid participation is much higher when meals are free. When meals were universal free, the program received additional funding as the reimbursement rate for paid meals was based upon the federal reimbursement for free meals. This rate is much higher than Newington's paid lunch pricing. The additional funding during this time increased the program's cash reserves. Key points. Additional funding ended ended June 30th, 2023. We currently are serving 534 less paid lunches per day and over a course of the year um that equals about 92,000 less
156lunches. compared to when um meals were free for all. So less lunches, less federal and state funding um is less revenue. Section 205 of the Healthy Hunger-Free Act of 2010, Equity and School Lunch Pricing Provision, we are required to close the gap between what we charge full paid students for lunch plus the paid reimbursement rate and the reimburse reimbursement rate for free meals. Newington's gap is 79 cents at the middle and high school and $1.29 at the elementary schools. Reimbursement from free meals subsidizes um full paid students. We are anticipating um the free reimbursement rate to increase 18 cents which will increase the gap if paid lunch prices remain the same. Um Connecticut legislative updates. Um the general session ended on June 4th. Um the governor ha governor has until the end of the month
157to sign the budget. Unfortunately, free meals will no longer be provided to reduce paid students next school year. Although federal funding for local foods for schools will be eliminated next year, there is funding in the state budget to continue working with local farmers. How will these updates impact Newington? We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Um Newington will continue to offer free breakfast for reduced students. Um this is a service that was provided pre- pandemic. We most likely will see an increase in reducedpric students charging lunches. We will make sure that um parents are informed that free meals are no longer available um to reduce paid students actually free lunches um instead of meals. Um Dr. Brumit has made it clear that no child will be denied a meal
158um nor will a child be offered an alternate meal. Um, we will continue to work with local farmers and menu local items. Last month, we partnered with Subedge Farm in Farmington. Um, we menued bok choy with garlic and ginger, a kale and quinoa salad, and mixed greens with salads. Mixed green salads with different toppings and schoolmade vinegarette dressing. We have pre-ordered lettuce, potatoes, butternut squash, kale, more bok choy for next school year. Um, I've also reached out to other farmers to see what products will be available um, in the fall. Newington will be celebrating Connecticut grown for Connecticut Kids Week, the first week in October, and we will be menuing local items. This slide represents the high school paid lunch prices for schools in our DUI and how Newington compares. Schools are ranked highest to
159lowest. Um, Newington is at the bottom of the list and below the DRG average. Um, I also highlighted the free reimbursement rate, um, which is currently $443. Um, New Milford and Weathersfield are community elig eligibility provision districts and do not charge for meals. I will go into how C works a little later in the presentation. So this slide compares to the middle school pricing. Um Newington's middle school pricing is listed slightly higher um on the list compared to the high school pricing um but still well below um the averages. Um this is most likely because our middle school and high school pricing is the same um due to similar menu selections and serving sizes. This slide compares elementary school pricing. Um, Newington is at the bottom of the list and just like the high school
160middle school pricing, our elementary pricing is below the average. Um, our neighbors in Rocky Hill are increasing their lunch prices 10 cents um, at all schools next year. Um, I reached out to Berlin and they've not determined it yet and weather Weathersfield is C. Um, so all students are receiving free meals there. Although we can look at pricing amongst amongst districts in our DR and see how Newington rates um it is really difficult to compare programs based upon pricing. It is like comparing apples to oranges. Um pricing does not always tell um the story about operational costs, salaries, benefits and how much the board of ed may subsidize um and other sources of revenue. For example, districts with lower meal prices may generate more alleart sales than Newington, which helps to subsidize pricing. On our
161next slide, I'm going to go into more detail on C. Um, yesterday I received a crash course um on C schools from Lynn, who has worked in many C districts. So, thank you, Lynn. C refers to community eligibility provision where all students participating receive free meals. Sites can include the entire school district um some of the schools or individual schools. ISP is calculated by the number of directly certified as free students divided by the school's enrollment. Directly certified as free includes students with SNAP um and Medicaid benefits. students are homeless. This does not include um those students who are approved as free through the paper application process. Sites qualify based upon their ISP or um it's known as the identified student percentage. Um students are ineligible if less than 15%. Um they may be eligible
162if the group ISP is at um 25%. Um, sites with ISPs of 25% are eligible, but not all meals are reimbursed at the free rate. Um, which is important, and I will show you in a little bit. ISPs that are 62 and a half% or higher receive the free reimbursement rates for all meals. So, what are Newington's ISPs? This chart lists the schools in order um from highest to lowest. Um, Egreen Green, Reynolds, uh, Kellogg, they're at the highest. They're at the top of the list, while Chaffi, Wallace, and the Transition Academy are at the bottom. To calculate the percentage of meals that will be reimbursed at the free rate and the paid rate, the USDA came up with a C slider tool, and the link is included at the bottom of this website. the
163link. I'm sorry. Um, to calculate the ISP, um, you take your ISP and you multiply it by 1.6 to determine the free rate. Paid is determined by subtracting the free percentage from 100%. Um, Newington's sponsor total, um, so that's the average of all the eight sites is 27.25%. which is at 25% but well below the 62 and a half percent required to receive the free reimbursement rate for all meals including paid meals. Um, so Lynn helped me um for this presentation by taking the data for May's reimbursement claim and comparing total monthly receipts um with paid lunch and total monthly receipts if we were a C district. If Newington were a C district, uh there would be a loss of over $48,000 in just that month. The deficit is due to the loss in revenue
164from full paid students not paying and only receiving the free reimbursement rate of 45.79% of total meals. The program would be paying for paid students to receive free meals and there's just not enough reimbursement dollars to cover operating expenses. It is strongly recommended that Newington not change to a C district. So, I know this is kind of heavy stuff. Are there any specific questions on C before I move on um to the three lunch proposals? Oh, um just to clarify, you used Weathersfield as an example. So, Weathersfield has a higher number of students or percentage of students that automatically qualify for SNAP benefits and that's why they're I don't know what Weathersfield's numbers are. That could be or perhaps they have excess funding that's covering um the lack of paid funding. Okay. So, does that
165make sense? Yeah. So, they're using excess um revenue so that all students can get free meals. So, I don't know which which is the reason why. Okay. I'm just kind of basing it on Newington. Yeah. Yeah. So, Newington would lose 48,000 a month if we did that. And that's just one month. Yeah. I mean, it's a higher month, but it's still just one month. Okay. Are there any other questions on this? Oh, okay. You can continue. Thank you. So, with operational expenses increasing yearly and with no lunch price, um it is anticipated that the program will lose $150,000. When looking at the three different pricing proposals that I put together, uh 50 cents, 35 cents, and 25 cents, it is anticipated that a 10 cent increase will generate um about $18,000 in revenue. and that
166is based upon um the number of paid lunches that we serve. Um reduced pricing is capped at 40 cents. Um so we can't get any additional funding um from reduced students. Um and I'm not quite sure that we would want to either. So, when I was putting this together, I kind of thought it was noteworthy to point out that making a small menu change um with one of the most popular um menu items that we have, it's the homestyle chicken pieces um which we do serve daily. And if a student if we were to add an additional chicken piece, um it would cost about an additional $21,000 for just adding one more piece of chicken. So looking at the 50 cent ledged price proposal, so again, we would be anticipating $150,000 loss with no price
167increase. um having a 50 cent price increase would generate about $90,000 in revenue. Um and the program um should be able to cover the deficit with um cash reserves. The program would continue to be self-supporting um which means we're able to cover our operating expenses because we're not part of the board budget. um we would not we most likely would not um require a lunch price um two years in a row and we would be able to maintain and expand menu selections. So I have some pictures on this slide that I just kind of want to point out to you. Um this year we did offer teriyak salmon and a cracker crusted cod at our middle school and high school. Um we also offer a teriyak chicken and broccoli over rice. Um, we started this
168year introducing more plant-based products. Um, so with the pasta, that's actually a plant-based crumble. Um, and we have a plantbased chicken patty. We also are working on a cold noodle salad recipe, um, which includes veggies, an avocado. Um students can select either between chicken or chickpeas for their protein for next year. Um we also offer a wide selection of fresh fruit which includes grapes, watermelon, um oranges, strawberries, honeydew and fresh veggies daily. Um we offer a side salad um which you can see in the picture. Um, we also have raw veggies with dip. Um, that include cauliflower, green beans, carrots, cucumbers, and uh, baby peppers. And the next few slides are just going to show you some of our current menu um, items. Um looking at a 35 cent lunch price proposal um with an
169anticipated again the $150,000 loss um with no price increase. a 35 cent price increase could generate um 63,000 in revenue. Um but there may not be enough excess funding to cover changes um if there were to be federal reimbursement rate changes or if we needed to replace or add equipment or if there were unforeseen additional expenses. Um the program may not be self-supporting um but most likely able to maintain our current menu selections. Um, we may need an additional lunch price increase in 2627. And looking at a 25 cent lunch price increase proposal, again, the same anticipated loss. Um, we could generate about $45,000 um, in revenue. Um, excess funding um, would be depleted. um the program most likely would not be self-supporting and we would need to um possibly decrease current menu selections um
170and need an additional price increase in 2627. This chart lists the proposed um new price new paid pricing um with the 50 35 and 25 cent increases and whether or not it is anticipated if the program will um remain self-supporting or not. It's my job to advocate for foods and nutrition services. Um, so it's my recommendation to increase lunch prices by 50 cents um in order to maintain um and expand current offerings um as well as avoiding um raising lunch prices two years in a row and most importantly to be financially sovereign. I understand that the board um you know your constituents better and I know that you'll have a difficult decision to make. Um although I listed the high school and middle school separately, um we probably should think of them both at the
171high school level as they share menu selections. Before I answer any questions, I'm going to end with the joke and I think it's funnier than the first one. Um the joke is why did the tomato turn red? Because it saw the price of ketchup. Thanks, Dana. You're welcome. So again, I'm just going to leave you with the slide with the different um I guess price proposals and are there any questions for me? Yeah. Um Miss Yap, hi, how are you? Thank you Dana for your presentation. My question is, uh what strategies have we implemented in Newington to reduce food waste which can uh lower overall costs? I can only speak um for my department and we have a couple of different strategies in place for that. Um we're required to have production records that we
172fill out. So, we do keep track of what we go through on a daily basis and when the menu item is on again, we look back um so that we have a pretty good handle on what our numbers are as far as maybe waste outside in the cafeteria. I'm not aware of. Is there any way you can provide uh the board some data in regards to that? because we all we do know eliminating food waste would cost us, you know, save us a significant amount of money in addition to increasing more um vegetarian options. So, I'd like some data on that prior to me making this decision. Thank you. Just to clarify, you're looking for data on the like menu items that they're No, I'm asking I'm asking for data. I want to know uh
173the strategies we're using to reduce food waste and how much food we're actually wasting and how much we're how much is costing us in food waste. So if I'm buying this much food but this much is getting thrown in the garbage, how much are we actually wasting? That matters. It's say if if you figure out how much is being wasted, you could figure out how to save money. It's like when you grocery shop in your own house, right? I'm not going to keep buying things that are getting thrown away. I'm going to figure out, you know, what's not being thrown away, what's being eaten, and how we can save money. Yeah, that um well, that last example is exactly what Dana had just mentioned is that they are looking at how well certain items do
174and then not making as much or um making more if it runs out. So, she's looking at that. Um so, I think before we increase prices, we should look at that. That's a huge factor in raising money. Why would you raise the cost of I mean there's a lot of single parents. I was one previously myself and I'm not just going to pay more because the data hasn't been found yet. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's like I'm not going to go to the grocery store and just spend extra but I don't know what's going on. You kind of have to figure out the problem before you just add an extra dollar to it. And I guess I would say I don't believe or agree um that waste is what's driving our food costs.
175I mean, anytime you go to the grocery store, you see that the prices have gone up. We're not immune to that. I understand that. But waste does drive food cost up everywhere in the world. That's not just specific to Newington. That's specific to our households. That's specific to our country. We are a very wasteful country. If you look at statistics, there are other countries that don't waste as much as we do. Um, also, as I stated, including more vegetarian options would save us a lot more money. you know, increasing local food sourcing would, you know, I know we do use some of our local farms, but increasing it more would save us money. So, we have to look at these things overall. I mean, we spend money on some things, but health is wealth. I
176know myself, I've lost a significant amount of weight, and I know that my own food cost has went down. and I start really sitting down and looking at that and I think it's fair to provide the board accurate data before asking I don't know um and bremit please explain this to me um when this decision has to be made if it has to be today but I'd like the data I'd like to know how much are we wasting how much we provide you production records um other than that I don't know what long-term study you're anything is better than nothing and then ask for an increase absolutely thank Sorry. And then um I I guess you know and I I think point well taken. Um I guess Dana, could you just um I I guess
177in your expert opinion um would calculating um perhaps food waste or how much I guess maybe maybe the question would be like meals that aren't getting eaten I think is maybe the concern I'm hearing. um would that uh cover the deficit of $150,000 or would it be more dimminimous? Um well, in order to claim a reimburseable meal, students have to have a certain number of items on their lunch tray. So, they have to have at least three different items and one of them has to be a fruit or vegetable and those are federal requirements. Um, so I suppose when you're looking at the trash, a lot of students take either a fruit or vegetable and they're throwing that out. But again, we have to offer five different components and students have to take at least
178three of them with one being a fruit or vegetable on their tray. Sorry. Um, and so just to be clear, like I guess that wouldn't necessarily change the costs are upfront costs. We are not necessarily able to recoup those costs if you know you can't control every student's I guess behavior on what they eat and don't eat based on their choices that they're making at the counter. Um, we would still, I guess, if perhaps the request was made and data was provided, would that change your recommendation or change the the deficit? Not at all. I think we do a pretty good job of limiting food waste. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Chararma. Hi. Hi, Dana. Just a quick question. Can you just talk about um the wholesale prices? I know like have they in the maybe
179the last three years um how much have they gone up? I'm sorry, what pricing? The wholesale prices on the food you buy? Well, each year we um we do go out to bid on our grocery and this year we were spending about four to 5% more in food cost. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Please hold. Uh, Mr. Newton, that is handra. Dana, I I I kind of have a grasp of what what you're asking, but I also understand where Anastasia is coming from. We're not we're not throwing away $150,000 in food every year. Correct. No. So, let me clarify that. That is just with all of increases in our operational expenses. Um so that would include um salaries and benefits which are contractual um and food costs do go up. Okay. And my other question is
180that's basically a 15% ask at 50 cents. That's hard for me to swallow. I but I understand where it's coming from. But it's 15% our parents are going to be scratching the chalkboard, right? And I think um I understand where the board is coming from in that it's a difficult decision. Um but you know if I were asked you know best case scenario what um would keep us you know self-supporting um that would be that 50 cent mark. But again, you know your constituents better. Um, and the decision really um, lies in your hands as far as if you will be approving a lunch price increase and what that amount would be. Miss Jess, um, just a quick question. Um, is the program experiencing any significant issues with families that are in a rears or
181are unable to pay their lunch tabs? Um, the last time I checked, we were about uh $5600 in unpaid charges. So, it kind of fluctuates between um it can go as high as like $6,000 down to maybe like 4,000. Um, we do see an increase um the month of December and we kind of also see an increase this time of year as well. Okay. Okay. But it's not a significant um debt in that 150,000. No. Um because we're not allowed to carry that debt. Oh, okay. Thank you. We receive federal dollars. Um so at the end of the year, um we are required to zero out all negative balances and then we then put the dollar amounts that owes in the students power school accounts. Okay. and then gets transferred kind of to the schools
182to try and recoup that money. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh Miss Yap. Um hi Dana. Uh another question. Um have we ever since we work with farms, you said we work with some local farms. Is that correct? I just want to make sure you said that and I wasn't misping. We worked with Subedge Farm out of Farmington and we also have a pre-purchase contract um for the fall. So my question is, have we, and this is just something I'm going to throw out there, you know, thought of including more vegetarian options. Meat is very expensive, as you know. I mean, most people, you don't have to eat meat every single day, but I know there are certain areas in the country, and I've lived in many, where they have meatless Mondays. They have more vegetarian
183options. They have more salad bars. So therefore that, you know, lowers their school, you know, it it it doesn't um force the school to, you know, increase lunch prices. I'm just looking at what other states in other areas are doing in regards to this to not put this burden on parents in a town like Newington, which isn't like built of tons of apartments. Most people like own their house here. So we pay taxes. I'm one of them. You know, we are in, you know, incurring these costs. If you eliminate the amount of meat, you don't have to eat meat every single day. like you just don't have to. I mean, trying like a meatless Monday or just anything, you know, health is wealth that would lower food costs, especially if we're if we're using local
184farms like you were stating we are. Um, we have incor incorporated um plant-based items. Um, this past year, we actually created a specific um gluten-free menu um that is available across the district. Um we do have um order forms for the students at the high school and middle school that they can order a Google form and we were looking into adding a um vegetarian um menu choice for students. So if you made uh let's I'm just going to throw out a hypothetical. It doesn't have to be exactly what I say. Let's say we did a meatless Monday. How much money would we save? I would have to compare. I could take for an example um what the costs are when we do pasta. So whether it is with meatballs or if it is with um
185crumble and sauce compared to a plant-based crumble. Yeah. Is there any way we can get that data? Because I know other school districts are doing that and they're saving a significant amount. Now let me be clear because I heard Jessica Weaver say, "Would we save 150?" No, we wouldn't save 150. But if I could save 40 or 50 or anything and take less cost off the parents, I'm willing to do that because I'm a parent. My son goes to Green. So, you know, uh, you know, let's take the cost off of them. But, I mean, we should look at other options and not just DR across the state. You know, there are schools in where that and they're saving a ton of money. And I think that we should explore other options and not make
186the only option to put the cost on the parents. Now, I did recognize what you said, no child goes hungry, no child gets an alternative menu, which I think is amazing for Dr. Brema to do that because, you know, it's the right thing to do. But again, this is a town full of mostly homeowners, not apartments. This isn't a city. We are a town thankfully. So, I think that we should explore other options, maybe see what how much that saves us and see if we can have less cost put on the parents. Thank you. But what I will say is we um receive government commodities where we can divert funds to um specific companies. So we do divert money to Tyson um where we do get chicken meatballs. Um right now there is no diversion
187in place for any plant-based um items. You you said so again we do get I'm sorry you said Tyson. Yes, we use Tyson products, but Tyson meat is full of preservatives and fillers. I'm talking about real food. Tyson meat is not healthy. That's at all. You can read it. That's not use whole muscle meat. But I also will add that I'm not going to dispute that the gold standard would be scratch cooking. Um, but just because something isn't made from scratch, um, does not mean that it's good not good for you. Well, you know, let's just look healthwise as far as this Tyson meat, which is full of antibiotics. It says it on the package is good for you. But I don't want to get into that. My my goal and my point is to
188save the parents money and our constituents and our taxpayers that voted us in and to see if we can come with any alternatives besides just throw it on the parents. That is my goal. Right. My concern just is that um if we're not able to cover costs, I mean, is that something that the responsibility is then put on the board, which you're then using tax dollars um to fund that? Well, it's tax dollars anyways because as a homeowner myself, whether I pay it to you or you take it another way, it's still my money. You understand? I'm gonna um I'm gonna let someone else ask a question. Um thank you, um Miss Carr. Thank you. A few comments, Dana. How long will a new item be created, presented, and evaluated to see if it is
189being, you know, chosen by students before you then take it off the menu? Um, it really depends upon the item um and the feedback that we get from from students. I mean, we do recognize that um you do have to um offer um items that students are typically exposed to several times. And then also, if we're looking at, you know, um fresh fruits and vegetables, um we can work with farmers and they can come in and help us with taste testing to kind of expose them to the products before, you know, incorporated on the lunch menu. Great. And the other thing was, so I agree with what Tim was saying where 50 cents is a hard pill to swallow considering that's a 15% increase. Now I know it's been 2 years since we had an
190increase. And if the average cost of food has gone up 4 to 5%, we'll take the high, you know, 5%, that's a 10% increase, and I just did the math, that would mean a 33% increase. So that's bringing us right in the middle there, you know, something to consider. Um yeah, and I um I also think 50 cents is a lot. Um and and Dana did provide other options to the board tonight so that we can see all of the options. So the 50% is recommended. Um but it doesn't mean that that's what we have to um we have to go with. Um can you just Dana, can you just explain a little bit about your um your reserves? Like just explain why that's important and um what would happen and I guess for Dr.
191brait too or Lou. Um what would happen if by any reason you um went you had no more no more money like and a piece of equipment broke down or whatever. Can you just explain a little bit what that's for? Yes. Um because we're a nonprofit organization um we really can have um three months worth of operating expenses in the bank. Um but because of all the additional funding we received um during COVID, our reserve um was much higher than it than it typically was in the past. So over the past, you know, couple of years um when students went back to um being charged for lunch, that surplus helped um with all the increased costs um as a result of the pandemic. So that money is not as um we don't have as much
192money as we used to. Um so the concern just becomes if we go below that 3 months operating expense um operating um balance, it just puts a strain on the program. if there are any unforeseen issues um and if we weren't able to cover expenses we would then not be you know self-supporting and you know where would that revenue you know come from. Thank you. And then for for the second part, um if you did run out of money essentially, um because like you said, co where kids were not paying for meals helped to build up that balance and now we're kind of we didn't have to increase prices last year, but you know, if you do run out of money, if we choose not to increase prices or do 25% um where clearly it
193says it's the program is not self-supporting, it would be on the board um to make up the difference. So where school lunches, the school lunch program currently is not in our operating budget. Um we would have to then use the the board's budget to fund um whatever happened. So I don't know Dr. Brema if you wanted to just say that better. No, I I I'm nodding my head in agreement that, you know, the chart here does show Dana's projections at when the lunch program or the meal program would become not self-supporting, and that's at that 25 cent increase. Um, so that wouldn't be at all recommended. So, I think what I'm hearing is the board's looking at potentially the middle ground there of 35 cents where self-supporting is a possibility. Um there may be a
194need to raise prices again in a subsequent year, but if the board is looking to try to find something that might be more palatable to our our families, uh that is maybe a possibility to consider. Um but you've already very aptly stated that, you know, the best optimal recommendation would be the 50 cents. U Miss Weaver. Yeah. Um, you know, I I think I saw the the 50 cents and I was like, "Oh, Dr. Bremmit, can we talk?" And then, um, then I I had said to Dana, I was like, "Is there a a middle ground we can get?" And then knowing kind of like, you know, I I first thought 25 cents, knowing that's not a self-supporting one. And, um, Dana, I just want to thank you for the very informative ones. I don't
195know if other towns have food directors that directors that that go through this detail. So, just thank you for taking the time to explain that. Um, but I just want to note too, um, my concern would be there's no like line item in our budget because we're not, um, we're not, uh, this is a self-sufficient program, right? Um, so my concern would be too if you know, I think there is, of course, you know, we're we're in a good year, so um, you know, if we needed to cover things, we probably could with our operating budget, although I do worry what that precedent sets. then as we budget years on years on years and then that slow solely turns into oh we did it this once then it becomes a line item then it becomes
196something else that we need in our budget. So I want to be cognizant of that as well and understanding the balance and I think um uh Mr. afternoon and maybe and I I said this many times, we don't want to rob Peter to pay Paul, right? Like this is 100% where um we recognize where we went over Chromebook fees, uh athletic fees. We were like we don't want to keep transferring the burden onto our parents. um obviously. Um so I just wanted to note to that, you know, I think and and just put kind of where I think my thoughts are and stuff, but just noting to I guess um if in the event the board could cover it this year, but say it's a bad year for us too and the food services everything
197breaks down, I don't know, um you know, we get hit with another pandemic and also I don't know, something happens. Everything always happens that that can go wrong. So, I just want to make sure too that we wouldn't set that precedent then too. I don't know if that would necessarily be like anou or something like that. Um, but I think I don't I don't know if there's really an option to do nothing and have them be that in the black. Um, but I also don't want it to be that. You know, we're we're relying more and more heavily on the operating budget to the point where it becomes um an unsustainable budgeting practice. Um, so I think I think maybe supportive of of a 35 cent in the middle might be good. and recognizing too
198that um and I told this to to Dana before I was like if we have to come back to the table next year too that's you know a conversation we're going to have to have um and I don't want it to be seen as passing the buck too um so I recognize this is like the most unfun part of being on a board um so I just wanted to recognize too I don't think any of us are wanting to pass this wealth on and more cost burden on to parents um recognizing that it's already um a difficult time and we're in an affordability crisis Mr. Charma I think I just got a quick question. So if we go with the 35 cents right and maybe this question is for Lou. Um we are still in
199the hole, right? So where does that money come from? Cuz we in the whole right now there are Dana does have cash reserves available to her on her balance sheet for the program. the magnitude of the deficit that can be absorbed in any one year is the point of uh where it becomes dangerous. Uh I'll keep the illustration real simple. U let's say Dana's operation uh has expenses of $100,000 a month. So the way the state is the federal and state guidelines are for how to manage their financial resources. She can carry a reserve of $300,000 that has to fund the cash flow variation. So like in the summertime, uh they're always doing their buys for the government commodities. They're uh stocking all of the freezers and um you know paper goods through the bulk
200buy systems to get the best available prices. So there's a lot of times a very big drain early in the fiscal year to outlay money to get the operation ready for the year. If you're in a position where you have no cash reserve, everything becomes a problem. You can't buy uh you're looking to the board to basically be in a position where they have to pick up the deficit immediately because the way you know the regulations are written can't run a deficit operation. So if you can't get your revenues from the clients, it has to go back to the board for funding to pick up the difference and that could be a big surprise difficult to manage around over the course of the year. So if we can we Dane is capable of floating with
201you know a little bit of utilization of the reserve to carry operations. You know every year it's different. you have a different mix of students who have different tastes and preferences and uh the family's acceptance and the participation rate is up. If there's years where the participation rate is not quite as good as other years, uh Dana's numbers would suffer a little bit and her revenue wouldn't be as strong as it could be. You know, Dane is always experimenting with trying to find better u more interesting things that will attract across the entire uh student population that's here. So, it's not just a one u one-sizefits-all type of menu that's put out there. So she does a very good job uh from that fashion to uh try to meet the needs of uh you know
202giving some ethnic flavor to different offerings and being cognizant of what different kids might like to see at some point in the rotation of meals that are there. So it's I wish I could say it's a you know perfect formula. You can just crank the numbers into a computer and it'll spit out a perfect menu for you. It is a you know there's much art as there is science to the um nutritional meal planning uh that they has to do and balancing that with all of the um uh cost considerations that are uh involved in doing it. As far as just addressing the uh concerns about the waste factor uh in everybody's own mind you really have to look at it as two aspects. When an item is put on a plate given to a
203student, that's out of the waste factory. If the kid doesn't touch it, puts it in the garbage can, that's really not a waste item from the uh planning and operations of the kitchen. Um with especially the refrigerated products we have, you know, the milks, uh juices, the uh cold plates that are out there, most of that is 100% reusable on the second day. you're only really looking at potential waste that's in the main offering, the hot offering that may not, you know, stand up to a reheating and be appealing to the people. And that is a very low percentage of what's here. You know, with the history of how many meals Dan typically serves, they have a good idea of the count of meals that need to be produced. um you know I don't really
204see a lot of opportunity for trying to tighten that up on um you know trying to eliminate waste because it'll cost you more to get rid of it than you actually are going to gain for by the benefit of just what no longer suitable as a firstr run product or the serving land. So those are just my personal observations on it. But uh in seeing and working with Dana all these years, the u continuity and the uh discipline of the organization are really good and they do a very good job of maintaining uh a good balance of trying to keep the families in as cost-effective of a uh environment as possible as well as meeting all the federal requirements. just looking from the charts, you know, when you're 30, 40, 50 cents below the average
205of everybody else that's there and you're in the, you know, three from the bottom on the list, uh, that's challenging, especially when you have a federal reimbursement over over $4 and you're not even charging three. So, uh, those are some of the realities that are here. uh you know trying to you know uh thread the needle on ma maintaining and sustaining that balance uh is something is very good at and uh we're very lucky to have her as our cafeteria director. So I like that thanks thanks Leo that was very sweet. So in in in summary like if the board passes a 35 cent decrease it's possible that we are still going to be in the hole and she might need money right so a bit right there's a better probability of that happening not
206necessarily so but you won't have a free fall of right you know it becomes way out of control or you know very uh you know that there's no way out but you really want to avoid the spot where you're looking at 50 se 50 cents 75 cents and you have no good options available to you as board as far as how to fund that. So, this kind of tries to um you know maintain the stability as well as giving the best possible uh benefit to the community. All right. Thanks, Luke. Thank you for your perspective. Um Miss Y. Hi. Thank you, uh Lou. So, I just want to start where I'm not going to be using words like dangerous or, you know, we're going to be in a hole. We obviously know no child's ever
207starved in Newington. So, we want to put that out there and we care about our constituents. One of the things um I was uh thinking about in regards to this is uh Lou had stated that you know she currently has a reserve so that's good. Obviously, we're spending fisc you know being fiscally responsible but um you had mentioned and please correct that we're you know partnering with two farms. Is that what you said Dana? two local farms. Dana, right now it's just Sub Edge and I've reached out to I think it's Caravan um in Subington because we're looking to um purchase some um products from them and there's another farmer I just don't remember um the name. Yep, that's fine. So, one of the ways to reduce uh spending since we don't want to, you
208know, nickel and dime what's getting thrown in the garbage, which I could see how that could be a little difficult to do, is there are very um there are various programs available to the school systems, which I see other school systems are using. Um there's the farm-toschool grant program, F2S, I'm sure you're aware of, the local food for schools cooperative agreement program, LFS. There's a national school lunch program. There's a no hungry uh no kid hungry grant and there are other grow grant programs that the USDA food and nutritional service offers and the US department of education also offer. So because we have so many grant programs available, I don't think that we have to worry about the your your you know $300,000 that you have left, you know, depleting that quickly. I'm pretty sure
209in our town in Newington, we care about our children. I know I do, including my own. Um so we would ensure that. I think that right now with inflation and everything going up and all the different craziness going on that we should at least you know consider the parents as I said we're not a town we're not a city so you have to I don't know we all live here most of us but we are not a city so we don't get as much as other people so we have to look at the fact that when you say oh it'll be on the taxpayer either way it's on the taxpayer whether I have to give my child physical money or it comes you know out another way it's still on the homeowner this is a
210homeowning town This is not a town of tons of apartments. Yes, we're building them. Let me finish, please. Hold on. I'm I I want to finish. Please don't cut me off. So, my point is uninterrupted. We have 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven different grant programs if you were to run out of money. But if you were to apply to them knowing you'll need the money, then there's a possibility that we would get the money so we wouldn't have to put this on the taxpayers. That's my point, Amy. So if if we if you're telling me that we've applied to all these and instead of partnering with two or three farms, partnered with more farms, you would you would save money. The farm to school grant program gives you more grant money if you
211partner with more local farms. We have a farm in our town called Eddie Farm. I go there all the time. Why aren't we partnering with them? They're right in our town. So that's things that we should be looking at and that would help the taxpayers because those people live here and that's how you help our constituents. Thank you. I would like to just add that part of our commodity uh dollars um goes into uh DoD um which we get produce from um we use commodity dollars to purchase uh produce, but we need more farms that if we partnered with four more farms, do you think you'd save money? Because the there's grant programs for if you partner with more farms, you actually get more grant money. my experience just working with um some of these
212farmers, it is very um difficult for them to get us the quantity of food that we need. Um and just working around the schedule is not as easy as one would think. I I understand. I've worked federal before, so it's not something I'm not privy to. Right. Um I'm She's She's responding. I'm talking. It's rude. You didn't interrupt anyone else. Um, so we're all elected on the same thing. So, you know, reaching out to USDA Food and Nutrition Service. I'm not sure if you're aware of them or don't have contacts, but like I said, I'm always willing to help and that would help you um build that better rapport with local farmers and get the things that you need. Thank you, Miss Weaver. I'm going to make a motion. I'm going to move that the
213board of education increase school lunch prices by 35 cents for all schools for the 2025 2026 school year. Is there a second? Thank you, Mr. Newton. Is there any discussion before we call the question? Miss Weaver. Yeah, I just want to know I think this is a fair balance. I think all of us are concerned about taxpayer dollars and making sure that we're not burdening parents. Um, and I am a renter, so I just want to put that out there as well. But these are great meal options and I just want to thank Dana again for that presentation and her jokes. Um, I think it's far and beyond what uh what we used to offer a couple years ago. Thank you. Deborah, would you please call the role? Mary, yes. Yes. Yes. Sam, yes. Jessica,
214yes. Anastasia, yes. No. and putting this presentation together and um I know that all you do cannot be limited to a five slide presentation. Um I know you go above and beyond and I know that you um take your job very seriously and try to get the best cost for the district as possible. So while raising uh lunch prices is never ideal, I know that the students are getting a healthy lunch and that is super important for them to learn. Um, I also am um Gary Turo, if you're listening, I'm going to reach out to you because I know you tried very hard to get universal school lunch. It didn't pass this session. Um, but the other thing that hurt us this year was taking away the reimbursement for the reduced lunch um because our
215students last year or this year didn't have to pay for that and that is not in the state budget currently for next year. So, um we will be talking with our legislators in addition to um whatever everything that you're doing as well to get the best cost for our school lunch program. Thank you. And thank you to the board um for increasing lunch prices for next year. So, thank you. You're welcome. Have a great night. You too. Bye. All right. Budget transfers 2425. this last one. I'm going to put that up here. Um, and I can certainly speak to it. But I mean, I would just want to see, you know, without going line by line, does the board have any questions? Uh board chair if you want to entertain any specific questions about as
216the board knows at the end of every year we have to reconcile the budget and that involves transfers uh among line items to to get to the ultimate which is the zero at the end of the year and that is what this chart uh displays but if the board had any specific questions I'll turn that to you. Sure. Thank you. Does anyone have any specific questions? Mr. Hoffin, can we just explain line 1200 special ed? Yeah. Okay. That's the um special ed program which is the uh paying for all the special ed teachers, pair of professionals, uh contracting consultants and specialists that you know support all the children. the cost for the outplacements uh for the school district and uh anything else that might appear on an IEP report that has to be addressed legally.
217That's here. The uh overview of this is special ed started out this last year as very shaky. They were everything was trending to bigger cases, more expensive complex cases, more kids that needed to go out and then it stopped for a while. So we had had about a four or five month rest bit of significant cases that have come to our doorstep. That's allowed us to, you know, ratchet down the overall cost of the operation because we have came in a million dollars under budget on just out placement tuitions uh for the year. Couple that with our inability to hire uh special ed pair of professionals to the tune of about 650,000 is the lion share of the million nine. That's right there. And then we have a plus and a minus that go back
218and forth between the speech and hearing department and special ed and that was because we pulled out hearing impaired costs moved into them speech this year. So part of this year end transfer corrects that. So those are the three big cost drivers or which were very beneficial for the year because you know with um one of the other things of having a dependence on the non-lapsing fund to start the year that we were um counting on $3 million from the non-lapsing fund to reconcile this year. We were able to make it by not using any of it. And a lot of the things that made that happen are in the special ed area here where this had a very good year from a budgetary standpoint. They may not say it was a great year from
219other perspectives, but from a dollar and cents it was okay. And then uh some of the tactics that we use throughout the year are we try to push as many decisions off till later in the year because uh we've now had three years in a row where we've had you know dependency on the non-lapsing and then pull back from it roll that money over to try to support the following year's budget. we've been able to do it if we were out uh in July, August, September, or October spending heavily across all areas for um um both the maintenance and upkeep of the district as well as other special projects. We may not have had the money necessary to be able to handle uh rolling over money uh year to year from the non-lapsing or maybe
220not all of it. You know, maybe we only been able to do half of it. So, you know, it's a combination of good fortune in the year with how special ed uh benefited this and we were able to backend load and really those are the projects we're really doing now and getting done and uh things ordered based on the remaining funds that are here to be able to get to a successful conclusion and allow uh that um the totality of the non-lapsing funds to roll forward to next year. Thank you, Mr. Newman. Lou, what was the $800,000 difference in maintenance? It went up 800 was revive or is that a down? Is that going down? It's going the other way under budget. That's what I wanted to make sure things and that helps us to
221achieve the non-lapsing fund. So, it's all right. So, you know, things few things are happening now, but never not to the level we've done in prior years. Thank you. Oh, Mr. You go. Do it. Yes. I move that we uh accept the budget transfers 2024 2025 as presented. Thank you. Second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Thank you. All right. Let's go on these buddy answers. Mary Bus, yes. Brittney Carr, yes. Hollerin, yes. Timothy Newton, yes. Karate, yes. Sam Sharma, yes. Jessica Wever, yes. Anastasia Yap, no. Motion passes. 71. Thank you. Our next action item is BOE CIP transfer. Very good. As the board may recall, we established anou with the town last year that allowed us to make an endofear transfer and I'll let Lou kind
222of shine a brief light on what that recommendation would be. Okay. with the um newou that was authored at the end of November for the uh modified rules for the board CIP account. Um we do not have the continuity over the whole year because this will expire next September 1st based on how they've done it. And if it was if it repeats itself next year, you'll may have a couple months where the plan reverts to the old set of rules because theou has expired at that point. Just something to keep in mind. So we have to manage within the uh levels of resources that are available uh either uh while theou is in place or if it expires. So when uh it goes up to $2 million from the MOU being passed, if it expires
223without being renewed immediately, the cap on the fund goes down to 1.2 million. And you know, if we're at 1.5, we have to do some, you know, quick thinking for how to be able to protect the resources for the board. Uh in the year that we've had, uh we had a decent year on open choice revenues. uh decent year on regular um building use uh that comes in uh from organizations. So I was thinking we were going to get 1.6 to 1.7. It ended up being more like a million5 for the year. Everything was okay, but uh it wasn't quite to the same level of activity uh as we were hoping for. So, you know, my job is to keep it under $2 million. Plus, theou allows the path of travel of money to go
224from the board of ed CIP account to go back to the operating budget will allow us to have a surplus to then move it to the non-lapsing funds. We're recommending $400,000 to be approved to be taken from board CIP back to the operating budget. We will then uh at year end with the town finance director transfer that 400 into the non-lapsing fund. you do need those last $400,000 to balance to what your dependency is in the budget. You know, it's 3.5 million and you have 3.1 million in the non-lapsing fund right now. So, it's the last piece of the budget reconciliation for next year for everybody, but it's worked out great. We're okay in the fund for uh resources available. we've met our objectives for the year of getting certain things done for several major
225uh HVAC projects as well as funding the necessary technology. So, uh all the right boxes can be checked off for the year and this puts next year's budget uh you know in good standing getting started for the year and and this just to reiterate this is um we talked about this with the town we went through the whole budget cycle. they are aware that this is our plan to take it from the board put on operating and then put it into our non-lapsing and then um use that for next year's correct right so your motion will uh show that going from the board CIP back to the um board operating budget and then part two happens by us okay so one motion is required to move 400,000 from the board CIP into the operating budget
226correct as for theou it allows. Uh, I'm going to move that the board of education um approve uh approve the transfer of $400,000 from the capital this the board CIP account to the operating budget as allowed by theou second. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? I call the vote. You're gonna miss me. Sorry. You can call the vote. It has back. Yes. Sam, yes. Yes. No. Motion pass. Thank you. All right. We've got two more action items, possible action items. All right, two more. Jessica, we will I will not belabor these points. Um so, uh in front of you on on item five is um one that is late breaking news. The fun of the legislature and the fun of all of these requirements is when these kind of roll out at different times.
227Um and our wonder, wonderful, wonderful policy committee met on um Monday night um before that agenda was posted multiple days in advance. Um but um there were two uh new policies um that we are mandated to have. Fun fun. Another another one we have to do. Um so we were hoping that the board could um kind of wave our tradition. It's not ever required but that we could pass them tonight. Um because they are important to be implemented for the next coming school year. Um but two of them both of them are quite literally just like legal writing. They are just the statute and what it's requiring. Um and those are both the school climate policy. We already had one of our school climate plan. This is just kind of supplanting what we already had
228um to be in line with what is mandated by the state. Um so this is not new in terms of something we're just making up. This is already been in practice and it's just adding um that uh that legally mandated language. Um so as Dr. Bman brings it up. Um we already had that and this is exactly what um an example from both um team shipment and Goodwin all of them agree on on this language. Um so I think it's pretty standard and what you will see across districts having um because it is required to have um Mr. Fissy if I'm missing anything or my my fellow members let me know. No, I I would just add that it's been approved by the state as well and is what the state has adopted as the
229Connecticut school climate plan. Um and we would then adopt as the Newington school climate plan. Great. Um are there any questions on that one? Okay. And then the other one is a restorative practices response policy. Um as we've seen throughout the year, we've seen a lot of restorative practice presentations that we've had. So this has already been of practice, but now the state is requiring not only um that we have this policy, but that every school has um has a form of restorative practice um practice in place. So um once again, this is language from the state and um wonderful board member, Miss Carr. She added some language. I think that is important. Have her speak on it. So there was only one line added. Um, I suggested adding concerns for safety of staff or
230students um involving school resource officers because how it was written was um originally unless such challenging behavior, other conflict escalates to violence and or constitutes a crime. So, we're also adding in concerns for safety to make sure that is covered as well. Absolutely. I think Britney just makes policies that were already approved better um in my opinion. Um so yeah, any questions on that one? Um and hopefully um like I said, we didn't really add any language. All of this is just um from the statutes of the state and we have to pass the So in lie of having a special meeting, we are hoping to pass them tonight. There is a motion. So, do we want Yeah. You want to read a text? I would love that. Due to the July 1st, 2025 implementation
231date, the board moves to approve new policy 5131.911, school climate policy and policy 5143, restorative practices response policy as mandated by the Connecticut State Department of Education. Second. Thank you. A motion and a second. Um, is there any further discussion? Call, please. Mary, yes. Carr, yes. How? Yes. Timothy Newton. Yes. Yes. Sam Chararma. Yes. Jessica Weaver. Yes. Anastasia Y. Yes. Thank you. And Miss Weaver for the last one. Item six. All right. Here we go. Um these are all not new to you. Um so appreciate that. Um these were ones that we presented last meeting, then took back again um at our July 9th meeting. We made no changes to them. Um even went and I I just want to take this time um to say thank you so much. I think we went through
232like 35 volies on uh on last night. We were just hungry for it. Um and and just want to say thank you so much. Um so we did technically review all of the 3000 policies. We're waiting on staff and relevant ones. So Dana, you're going to be back up there. She's probably off now. Um for our food policies, there was stuff on transportation, all these kinds of things. It's the business and nonstructional series. So um there's that. But none of these were changed. These were all presented last meeting. So um if there were any questions, speak now. Forever. Hold your peace. But we didn't hear anything. Okay. Anyone wants to motion? Wonder. I'll make the motion to move the board of education to approve policies 3313 to 3450, including the new numbering system for these
233policies. Second. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Mr. Hollerin, I'm not doing this in purpose to make it longer. I just wanted to thank the policy committee and Mr. Fese. You guys have done a ton of great work this year, and I just want to say thank you before we didn't have a chance to do it. I second that. All right. So, we're voting on the acceptance of these 3000 series policies. Tim, yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. And that brings us back to public participation. If there is anyone in the room who would like to speak or online, raise your hands. Not seeing anybody. So I will move to remarks by board members. Miss Weaver, you can put the three minute on. I'll be done with the four. She might No, no. I just
234want to say um I know this is a long meeting. Appreciate the parents coming out and voicing their concerns. I think be great if we have that on every board meeting. I mean, not for our time or our bedtimes, but I think um it's always good to hear and I think letting them know that we hear concerns. I'll say just my biased opinion as you know, I was I think we've talked about it many times at the last board meetings and things, but um always wanting to put rigor at the top and having a really good school system that does prepare us for everything and I can say prepared me prepared my sister. I think it's preparing my cousins. Um but having an active citizenry is really what this is about, right? So, um I
235just want to thank all of the administrators for continuing to do this work. Um and you know, I hope that um we can find some satisfactory um answers to those things. But I also just want to say congratulations to all of our awardees. Um and a special thank you to Mr. Woods. Um hearing from the parents from Egreen, it's just wonderful to see. So, lots of great things happening in our in our district. Um and welcome Lynn. Lou, hate to see you go. Um, I'll see you at the deli counter. Um, but just want to say say thank you for everyone and as we close out the school year, thank you to all your board members here. Um, appreciate the time that you put in. We know this is a sacrifice to spend time with
236your families. Um, and I just want to thank every single one of you for the time, effort, and energy you put not only when we sit at this table physically for hours on end, but the outside ones where all this work and preparation come in on both our committees, everything outside of it. Um, thank you all and again to Dr. Bur, our administrators, Kristen, Steve, Lou, Deb. Thank you, Deb. Um, just want to say thank you for for a great great school year. It's never easy. It's very hard. This is um everyone's like, "Why are you on the board of head? Oh my god, that doesn't sound fun." I'm like, "It's because I love the school system. I love this district and I love the people." Um, so thank you everyone for just a wonderful
237school year. Three minutes up. Good job, Mr. Newton. I just want to go back to the earlier start of the day. I think that enough parents voiced concerns that they maybe didn't fully understand or didn't understand the concepts of what we did. And I want to make sure that we address those concerns and the members of the board are sent the results of those concerns. That way they're we can have a uniform approach because I still agree with the decision that was made. But I think that too little information possibly got out. not intentionally like it was presented, but and there were some challenges to the validity of the validity of the concept we were using. I just think we owe it to our taxpayers to address it. And if it means we have to
238have a special meeting in a month to address it, I'm not against it. You Mr. Hollerin, I echo what Tim had said, Mr. Nid said. I wanted to thank all the parents who came out to voice their opinions tonight. uh there was not a unified voice, there was diverse amount of opinions. Um and I think that's healthy and I'd love to see participation from the people we represent because that really informs what we do. Um and it's our last board meeting. I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you so much, Lou, for all of your years of service. I know we've said it at nauseium. Lynn, welcome. Um and I hope to see you all at graduation next Tuesday. Right. at the day. Right. So, finally, just thank you all for your service.
239Miss Carr, I'll keep this brief. Lou, thank you for all your years of service. It's meant a lot to the board and you know, you're such an encyclopedia of information. So, we are going to miss that. But, welcome, Lynn. We look forward to working with you. Um, I also wanted to thank all the parents who came out and spoke. You could see the passion um behind their voice and I feel like sometimes parents feel like their voices aren't heard. Um, I think as a board maybe we can do better at that. I know in policy um it came up the whole agenda structure and you know perhaps we should look at that policy again and restructure it so that after public participation there's an opportunity for us to speak. I know how that can get
240tricky because sometimes we don't have the full information of what's going on behind the scenes. So maybe a solution to that is if there is you know a lot of public participation about a specific topic we as a board have a special meeting or get together and within 72 hours come with a statement so that people know why we've made decisions or our thoughts about what they have to offer. Um I also will say Dr. Breumman. I don't think I brought it up in previous board members, but she came with me um to speak with those from Star Academy. Um so it's a New Orleansbased program and there were lobbyists, former board members from Hampton and you know directors of the program and um it was a program we supported. We wrote testimony for we
241were trying to get state funding for it which I don't think is happening. Um, but we would have been one of the three schools in Connecticut should funding have gone through that would have had this great program that shows career opportunities, you know, for those in the middle school level. And um, hopefully in the future that is something we can explore. Thank you, Miss Beatric. I'll be quick as well. Lou, thank you so much for everything. We're going to be very, very sorely missed. So, thank you again, Lynn. Welcome. It's going to be a pleasure to be working with you. Um, and just to thank um all of our our admins um and staff um who make our schools run in the exemplary way that they do. We can't say thank you enough. We know
242that it's a lot of uh hard work and a lot of long hours and you are appreciated. We see all of you and we thank you. Um the last meeting of the the year is always uh it's bittersweet because we are sending graduates off into the world and we're very very proud of the hard work that they and their families have done to make them um successful going forward and whatever that looks like. Um again, thank you to the parents that came out. Um sometimes these are not easy conversations to have, but I think that I welcome any opportunity for more open communication and there's no such thing as too much communication. So sometimes the messages and the conversations can be difficult but each and every one of them is important. So thank you very
243very much Mr. Chararma. I'm just going to keep it short. I just want to thank all the parents who came out and you know um thanks for coming out and your voices have been heard and we will get back to you. Um and of course like I want to thank Lou for you know 32 years of service. Um so really appreciate everything you've done. Thank you so much Lou. I think that was everyone. Um um so yeah, I just want to It's last meeting. Um I'm not going to lie, I'm a little excited to have Wednesday nights free during the summer. Um unless we need a special meeting. I'm all for that. I love special meetings. But um I am excited for graduation and I'll be at the John Wallace um 8th grade ceremony. So
244I'm excited about that as well. Um, last year I was at Kellogg because I needed to be. Um, but I want to say thank you to um, the board members for this fantastic school year. Um, we will have a few meetings in the fall together. Um, and then elections are happening. Um, but that's a future problem. And, um, I also just want to give a shout out to Michelle and Kristen. Um there were a lot of parents that came tonight and I um I I wish that not for the length but I do wish that more parents came out to speak about things that um they're seeing like if we're getting accused of not being transparent like it would be like I think that we just need to have more community participation because we have
245the ability to speak to them um or to to hear what they're saying and and not things that are happening um elsewhere. But sorry, sideline. Um Michelle and Kristen held the forums and any parent that had a concern, they met individually with them or in a group. So um I do just want to thank um the two of you for giving your time and explaining your reasoning. Um it's okay for people not to agree and and I you know when I first heard it like the sixth grade last year, I was like what what? But, you know, like listening to everything and listening to the reasons behind it and there's more than just one study that uh went into the decision. We've talked about the table, but I do just want to make sure that
246the parents are um know that they're heard um they will get a response um in a short time frame and but I just Yes, thank you for everything. Um and and I already said Lou, but yes. Thank Thank you, Lou. Yeah. Um welcome. Thank you, Lou. I think um it's past my bedtime. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I How do we do this? Meeting adjourn at 10:34 p.m. Thanks everybody hanging in there. So long.