NPS Regular BOE Meeting (1/25/2023)

001foreign Fletcher so I'm going to call this Board of Education meeting to order it is January 25th 2023 the time now is seven o'clock P.M as you are able please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign Dr Bruce Fletcher here Beth Mankey Wagner here Richard laverier here Amy perrotti here Sam Sharma Jessica Weaver here Anastasia yeah here I have everyone here except Mr Sharma okay so we're gonna now move to agenda Item B which is our presentation of awards and our proclamations so this is our everyday hero award and it's going to be presented to Mark Manuel a bus driver this is in recognition

002of your positive impact on students and for going above and beyond and keeping the children safe on their bus ride home during a serious situation occurring on the route and making safety of the children your top priority in this dated January 25th 2023. congratulations to you and thank you so very much Dr brummett would you like to make some comments yes I would I actually have now interestingly enough Mark was nominated by not only Dean Barnes but several members of the Board of Education when they saw the videotape of how you handled the accident and this is what Dean wrote in his nomination on Tuesday January 10th afternoon Mark was returning to students from Anna Reynolds home on bus e while traveling East Street in New Britain he observed a small SUV following a line

003of traffic that began to Veer into his Lane Mark was rapidly count considering counter Maneuvers to go left or right but these options were not possible Mark was coming to a stop while blasting his horn to attempt to get driver's attention to avoid the Collision but the driver noticed too late and struck the bus head on he immediately began to check on the students of the boss who had no idea what had just happened he called out to the student several times to verify they were okay he called into the transportation office to summon assistants and police and medical support to his location he kept the students seated and calm he asked them several more times if everyone was okay he waited for assistance to arrive it was his reaction and handling of the situation

004in this manner that he did that he did that allowed the students to have a positive outcome of what could have been a very difficult situation considering all that takes place in an accident like this and uh mark the board has seen the video I shared it with them because I was so impressed with how you handled that significant situation with such Grace and following all the procedures that I'm sure you've had training on but we are just uh so grateful that you did such a wonderful job on behalf of our students so I will turn it back over to you Dr Fletcher all right very good so any board members that wish to make comments will give you a chance in a moment I'm going to ask Mark if there's anything he would like

005to say okay hi um I'm not one much for speeches but I'm I'm very humbled I'm glad everything turned out as well as it did thank you oh you're very welcome uh and we have the director here Dean Barnes as well would you like to say anything I'm not sure if he heard me or all right so at this time I'm going to give board members an opportunity to uh to speak I'm going to go in the order that your name is on here so first there's going to be Anastasia Yap hi I would like to say um thank you so much for your you know fast acting you know ability to keep everybody safe um I was one of the board members who definitely nominated you for this award um and you know doing

006a volunteer event I was um able to meet some of your other co-workers and they had nothing but positive things to say about you and you know they always say how you always go above and beyond for the other students and for you know your co-workers so I'm really happy that you were nominated for this um I've heard nothing but positive things about you in the community from your co-workers and congratulations thank you all right thank you uh Miss Beth hutwagner truly um a hero watching that video um as somebody who wasn't there was scary and though I was watching it afterwards in a video your um demeanor the way you spoke to the children was so calming so reassuring um it just made me so so confident in in all of our bus drivers

007but really I see you as a leader um and the kind of depression and the tone you set and so just thank you I truly consider you a hero thank you very much uh Richard leverier uh hi thanks Mark uh I watched the video and um you know there was it was crazy uh image with the accident in the corner of the um in the corner of the uh in picture frame but um the way that you made sure that all the kids were uh safe and not injured um you know that made me feel better watching it uh when they were all screaming yes all in unison that was it was cute but it was also it was very good that we heard that uh and one thing that really um stood out one

008of the students said to you is uh are they okay and you said I don't know but I'm just glad that you're okay um you know you're a leader of the kids and we're we're all I'm going to speak on behalf of everybody here we are all very grateful that you're part of NPS thank you very much Mark all right thank you and Amy perrotti thanks um yeah just to Echo everyone said we're super proud of you um you're so deserving watching that video I think Beth said like it gave me chills just you know seeing what happened and how just how calmly you react um you reacted you immediately thought of the kids you did the right thing asked on checked on them again so just it was amazing uh and I just want

009to give a quick shout out to I believe his name is Noah one of your students who asked if you were okay and as checked on everyone off on the bus I was you know he was awesome too so you're definitely a leader of the bus and and um we're so lucky to have you and thank you for for everything you do and I'm glad you're okay okay thank you and Jessica Weaver yeah um wow I think when we had this award reminder when Dr brummett had um this this award of mine we were thinking you know everyday hero like in our classroom and how much we love our teachers and I just feel like as of late there have been several crises um with a lot of uh just life or death situations sometimes

010and and some very severe um instances where our student safety is at hand and I really think this hero um every day here award is really putting the emphasis on hero as of late and uh Mark you're really embodying that definition of everyday hero we don't want to see what just happened every day but knowing that you're there every day for these kinds of moments is just so comforting I think to everyone not just who has a child in the school but everyone in the community knowing that um our students are safe with you so just so appreciative again thank you for letting us honor you I know we all saw I think like Amy immediately typed we need to make sure like he's an everyday hero I mean um it's just one of those

011things where you see just those Stark images and this is really the least we can do so thank you so much for what you do every day and especially on this day congratulations thank you and Michael Brenda thank you Dr Fletcher uh yeah I think it always probably should go without saying that we have the most caring drivers here and we are so lucky that they work for our district and we have our own buses and these are our employees that that see our kids every day um Mark your impact on the kids on days when there isn't an accident is immeasurable but I think on this day obviously you went above and beyond that and so um another thing that we probably don't talk about enough is just that how well trained our bus

012drivers are and and that we keep up with that so I do want to just mention a thank you to Dean Barnes because as Miss Weaver mentioned we've had a few incidents um recently and I think the training that our staff gets really helps Empower our drivers to to make the best decisions and keep the children safety first um but really just thank you Mark for everything that you do for your past and really just putting the kids safety first so thank you foreign thank you Michael and Sam Sharma hey Mark um you know as a board member and as a parent like I was watching the video and you know it was thanks for like keeping your calm and thank you for um you know not panicking and not letting the kids panic so

013you know uh you are a true hero so thank you so much again all right thank you very much and Dr brummett thank you uh Mr Barnes cannot get his mic to work so on behalf of Mr Barnes he wanted me to say I'm very proud to have Mark as part of the team he is a great example thank you thank you very much oops you know look Beth your hand is still up was that inadvertent okay all right so thank you and once again mark thank you so very much for being so conscientious and calm in the midst of a storm we really do appreciate that you showed a lot of professionalism all right so we're going to move on to agenda item C which is our public participation on any matter related to

014board responsibilities I'm not sure I don't think we can call because it's virtual only so what's that that's accurate uh so they need to just dial into the Google meet okay so yeah they can dial into the Google meet and if you're a member of the public and you wish to speak at this time we will give you three minutes to do so if you'd like to do that please go ahead and raise your hand and we will stand by for a few moments and see if we have anybody that wishes to take advantage of this thank you all right I don't see anybody making a move No Hands have been raised so I'm now going to move us on to agenda item D which is our consent agenda and the first one is going

015to be the approval of the minutes from December 14th 2022 but before we can do that there is an amendment that needs to be made on it on the main page it shows me as being present but I was actually not there so if the clerk or someone can take note of that so it can be amended Mr Rose so we have to don't we have to vote on it then decline it then vote on the amendment I don't think we need to go to that because I'm not shown as being present on the top so it could just be it's like it's a typo if you look at the people that were present my name is not in there so we could just say as amended as as Mr Branda has said that's what

016I would recommend so is everybody good with that all right then I will entertain a motion motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting December 14 2022 as amended second I have a second on that as well so we're going to just do a quick call all those in favor say aye aye all right all right any opposed say nay okay the eyes have it so that consent agenda has been approved we can now move on to the next one and that is going to be the approval of the minutes from the January 11 2023 regular meeting sure we'll just make a motion on that happy double here motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting January 11 2023. all right second motion has been seconded as well again all those in favor

017say aye aye aye any opposed say nay okay the eyes have it and that takes care of our consent agenda now we're going to turn the meeting over to Dr brummett for the superintendent of schools report thank you very much Dr Fletcher uh first up it is my pleasure to introduce uh Samantha Lee she is the head of reference services at the NFL Public Library where she's been for 15 years she is also the chair of the Connecticut Library Association intellectual Freedom committee and we have had the pleasure of hearing Samantha speak to our entire administrative team a few weeks ago where we were all very uh pleased with what we learned about how to handle book when books are contested within a school district or in in her world as well in a library

018a public library I will tell you that her work uh together with Wendy Krause and her committee has really informed how we will be handling um anytime a book is brought up as a concern by a parent or any member of our community and I we thought we would share tonight with the board some of the key points that we learned about through her presentation as I mentioned to our administrative team so without further Ado Samantha would you like me to post your slider do you want to present um I'm happy to present perfect okay and welcome to the Newington Board of Education thank you very honored to be here um let me pull up my presentation okay I'm hoping folks could see that uh yeah I believe it is showing on our screens does

019anyone not see it okay that's Laura's yours let's leave wonderful um just to the point of um uh correction I haven't been at the Enfield public library for 15 years um I've been uh working in libraries for almost the last uh 20 but I've only been at anfield for last six um and I serve as uh the co-chair of the intellectual Freedom committee um for the Connecticut Library Association and now I'm looking at my screen and it's blank is it blank for other folks too yes it just went white okay there it goes okay there it goes okay so we're gonna talk about um freedom to read in school libraries I'm gonna try and go through this um quickly please interrupt me with questions or concerns um but we'll go from there all right um

020so we're gonna start with um constitutional foundations um this is the first amendment I'm sure we're all very familiar with it um but essentially um the first amendment is first because it is foundational to democracy it allows for the free exchange of ideas and with um free exchange of ideas without government interference that is very specific here um this allows discussion to ferment um for ideas to exchange and for the cream of those ideas to rise to the top um without uh so generally the right um to free speech um it is interpreted to protect individuals and Society from government attempts to suppress ideas and information and to forbid government censorship of books magazines newspapers um as well as art film um music and materials on the internet now freedom of speech is very specific

021here um it does not mean that anybody is free from the responsibility of their speech the consequences of your speech um if not government suppression it is not censorship consequences of your speech um you being held responsible for your speech um is not necessarily censorship until the government steps in and uh limits your speech um so corollary to the freedom of speech is also the freedom to read now freedom of speech means nothing um unless other people can hear it can read it can see it can receive it and then to consider them um in 1968 there's this really beautiful opinion from uh justice Brennan um that uh formalized that the freedom to read are the freedom of speech has a corollary to the freedom to receive speech and most importantly at the time and

022then freedom to read and that's where libraries live um and that's a really special place that libraries have in protecting Democratic thought and democratic ideals um that you might already be familiar with this since it's now codified in the Ombre consideration guidelines that were updated by Wendy um but here's the library Bill of Rights um these Bill of Rights are deeply informed by constitutional law and case law which I'll go over a little bit in a bit um but these These are foundational rights that libraries public libraries School libraries academic libraries hold very near and dear to our profession the corollary to that is also the freedom to read statement um there's a full statement on this uh this is just a brief excerpt but these are foundational documents that we use in libraries to

023defend the freedom to read and to protect the freedom of speech um so we're going to jump into the legal framework I should preface this by saying I am not a lawyer um but these are case laws and legal Frameworks to use when we're talking about uh the freedom to read and intellectual freedom the first case I want to point out especially for a board of education is um Tinker versus Des Moines this is the first case that established that students have a First Amendment right to free speech um this is pretty revolutionary and radical at the time um but they recognize that in order for us to have a healthy thriving democracy we have to guarantee that the youngest of us the youngest citizens also have the same rights as the oldest because without

024practicing those freedoms without practicing those rights and being in a safe place to do so they are not going to be able to perpetuate democracy so this is a really cool moment in our country's history and that we recognize that while students are in schools care um they still have the freedom of speech the freedom of expression and Tinker um codifies that uh in their in their in that case moving on um is the Pico case so what's really interesting about this is that after it was established in Tinker that students have First Amendment rights in 1969. um there's this interesting case in Pico whereby a school board um removed books for being quote anti-American anti-christian anti-semitic and just plain filthy so they received a list of books deemed inappropriate by um the parents of

025New York United the board then temporarily removed the books from the school libraries and formed a committee to review the list now what's really interesting is that the committee found that five of the nine books should be returned but the board overruled that decision and returned only to now this went to through the courts and what the courts found relying on the Precedence set by Tinker was that school boards um still need to respect students First Amendment right to free speech so while um boards may not remove books from school libraries because they dislike the ideas in those books um to remove it um would be would be unconstitutional because that would be an infringement upon the students First Amendment rights to free speech um and this is reaffirmed again in um case versus United

026school district um in this instance the um the school board in addition to removing a book uh they deemed inappropriate um circumvented their policies to do so um I want to bring attention to the highlighted part that because um the school district in this case ignored their established policy and procedure um they were found to have unconstitutional motivation in doing so and that their actions were deemed unconstitutional um so this is a really great example as to why um boards and school districts need to follow their established policies um this case in particular um case versus Unified School District uh the school wait no that was another case but um in the public Arena uh whenever unconstitutional motivations were found uh for a book removal um in those instances uh the responsible parties for the

027removal were bound to also be financially liable and they had to pay um the legal fees for both sides it was extremely costly and um in the Wichita Falls case in Texas which I did not include in here but it is something to remember and keep in mind that failure to follow established policy and procedure may be considered unconstitutional motivation um to remove books um and here um this is from the Connecticut General statutes um I've been as intellectual Freedom uh co-chair I've been seeing really problematic um dialogue and rhetoric when it comes to the use of the obscenity um we have a statue on the books in Connecticut as that defines what obscenity is and it's very strict roles based off of the Miller test um that the material has to be taken as

028a whole that we don't take individual scenes out of context um that it has to um depict it or describes an offensive way a sexual act and only if all these factors are satisfied can um speech be given rise to criminal liability in an obscene matter um and these all of these uh uh check marks here or criteria needs to be applied to a um to ordinary adults applying contemporary Community standards um and with this statue um it is understood that um contemporary Community standards means the state of Connecticut um deemed to be the community is deemed to be the community all right so we're jumping into policies and procedures now um we're going to take a step back and I might have uh jumped into this really much too quickly but there is a

029difference between a book ban and a challenge now a challenge is an attempt to remove materials um based off of uh objections from a person or a group um it's not just a point of view but truly somebody wanting to remove the material um and restricting access to others a ban is when that actually happens when a challenge is successful and those materials are removed um but uh when it comes to removal of materials um we're going to talk about collection development this is a term we use in libraries that talks about how we build um materials and collections um for for a library um we have policies and libraries have policies in place that says that we are selecting materials that reflect our library's Mission our guiding principles um reflective of our community needs

030of our community um and it's a set bit of criteria now we also in addition um to collecting materials we also remove materials um and the collection development policy will outline how things are removed as well um if things are out of date if they're inaccurate if they are um if their condition is such that uh it's not fun to read a book that's falling apart um it's obsolete or it doesn't fit the needs or have too many copies um a collection development policy uh which Newington now does have um and an excellent one by the way good job Wendy um they uh this provides a framework and an outline as to what a collection um should in entail and encompass now when we build collections we also have uh the opportunity for reconsiderations what's

031really cool about reconsiderations is um it's keeping the 14th Amendment alive for due process so uh we uh Librarians are human um selections sometimes it is quite frankly impossible to read every single book as they come into our library's collection um something I don't remember the number but I think something like 40 000 books get published every year um it is impossible to read all of those so as Librarians we rely on professional reviews um purchase suggestions and the like to buy items into our collection however sometimes um there will be items in the collection that are uh inappropriate um and that's an opportunity for community members to submit their concerns um this is the 14th Amendment um due process alive and well um and so libraries will have reconsideration policies and procedures um so

032to have these policies um is going especially to be familiar with your reconsideration policy uh is going to save you a headache um especially because these processes can be extremely disruptive if you aren't familiar with with those policies um right now I know I looked over the reconsideration guidelines they are top-notch it's one of the best policies I've seen written from a public school district I do not say that lightly I've looked over a lots of policies at other libraries but that's your um but that's what a reconsideration policy is um best thing to do is to follow those policies um you do not want to have um be seen or be perceived as having unconstitutional motivation to remove a book um so follow your policies um if there's a timeline follow that timeline the

033committee makeup um especially when it's when the policies outline what information is used to make that decision um make sure you follow those um and then a letter to complain can include everything about your collection development policies intellectual Freedom statements um which is your uh how you how a district would affirm a student's First Amendment rights um and their freedom to read and also professional reviews uh one place that's really great for uh professional reviews is a school library Journal when it comes to materials for um school-aged children uh but also um Common Sense Media which gives great outlines and information as far as ages and what's appropriate and what uh what may not be um that is also a great resource for parents to decide what reading materials might be appropriate for their children

034um versus others but that's a decision for the parent to decide and we certainly don't make decisions um as with one parent overriding another because that is a very personal decision to be making and again students still have First Amendment rights um in the school so that was fast and furious um that is my contact information I'm happy to answer any questions or provide clarification um so we do have someone with a question Danielle droves that's the one coming out of the curriculum right from Wendy I just want to clarify because oh yes okay my apologies I come from the library um Arena so we refer to them as um policies but yes that would be coming out from your um curriculum I just want to make sure because like you're talking and Justin Bieber's

035like smiling and I'm like um that's actually not our policy Jess no I was just excited for Wendy to be honest so I just wanted clarification that I hadn't lost my mind thank you yeah Danielle thank you for bringing that up when and Samantha said she's using that word policy we have as you all have seen um the library media policy we reviewed a couple of meetings ago you've seen that we have a few policies this would be more part of the regulations and how we do business behind the scenes um so that reconsideration we call it reconsideration guidelines is is really what that's referring to and I just wanted to add to that as well that um that we've had a lot of that in place previous to this year the the library media

036department has um all those things that Samantha was going through in regards to how they build their collection how they weed is all part of um their written information and has been for quite a while this year we have gone back in and Revisited everything and revamped it and after Samantha um shared information with the administrative Council we did some further revisions and the media specials have been a large part of that so a big shout out to that department thank you Wendy Michael Branda thank you Dr Fletcher yeah just really quick Samantha I just wanted to thank you actually because this was such great information it's it's kind of like one of those topics that everybody thinks they know all and you see it all on a slide and you're like okay that that

037that's why we do what we do right um and and honestly I'm glad that uh Mrs Jones brought up the policy because that's what I took note of I was like wow I'm so glad to hear that our policy is top-notch like that's just such a great thing to hear and and parents should be really happy with that on whichever side of this issue they are at least I think it it provides everybody an opportunity to to have that discussion and I think that that's just really great to to hear from an expert um I'm not sure if I have any questions but I did see your email and I was just thinking like if we add questions maybe we send them to Dr brummett to pass them on to you um because I'm sure

038people in the public as this recording goes out they might see it and maybe bring a question to one of us and maybe it might just be best to to to send those to Dr brummett and get all the answers at once but thank you so much thank you you're very welcome thank you Jessica Weaver yeah no I just wanted to say thank you as Mr Dresden noted I was smiling a lot because I just think one I love to hear that our district is doing well and um I was finally because Wendy had given us uh on the curriculum committee kind of a brief kind of precursor of this um when we were kind of discussing you know hey if this comes up we're seeing a lot of you know are we seeing this

039um kind of the history of that and she really had said how long these policies have been in place and and just kind of the the revamping of it this year and it's just great to have both um that for context because I think it's really helpful not just for um us as board members but us is the public I think even in our discussions of how we shape policy I think sometimes we're like we need to be a guide and we need to help Advocate and help educate ourselves and the public on on these processes so just really appreciate that um it's always fun to learn more case law especially when you're like it brings you back to AP US History so it's just an nice full circle moment so appreciate you taking the

040time to to present to us tonight thank you thank you very much all right Dr brummett oh I just want to once again thank Samantha my apologies the bio I got was off online see The Perils of relying on online information so but nevertheless thank you for straightening that out but needless to say you have tremendous expertise I'm actually having Samantha come to another committee that I'm on and they're all excited to it's a bunch of superintendents and assistant superintendents who will receive curriculum are going to hear the same message Statewide because we're all grappling with this Statewide and I I have to say I am proud of everyone on this call those that you serve on the Committees that do policy and curriculum work as we've already said Wendy Steve uh we're really getting

041ahead of this doing it thoughtfully so that we can handle what comes our way without making any knee-jerk decisions but really rely on our policy rely on our procedures and and treat every situation you know fairly and by our policy so one once again thank you Samantha and we do have your contact information the board did get this presentation I believe in their packet so uh we will have it as a reference so much appreciated all right thank you Samantha and um if I made Dr Fletcher I was approached by a board member who asked if we could provide a quick update as part of my update about where we stand with the reading waiver process yes she uh just as a backdrop I'm very actively reaching out to representative Turco representative Curry who is

042on the co-chair of the education committee at the state level about can we modify the the legal uh what's happening with districts more or less being forced to adopt a a program uh or defend the program they're using but we've we've chosen uh to get our program again with more information and I'm going to turn it over to Wendy who is on point for this so that she can share with the board where we stand with the waiver process thank you Dr brummett um so good evening again yes we are well on our way writing the waiver the waiver application is due to the state at the end of February February 28th um the application itself has been released I'm working with a committee to draft our response it is comprehensive there are nine guiding

043questions that we are focusing on that are provided in the waiver then there's an opportunity to share your your data and kind of tell your story through that and then we also need to share our strategy around addressing the achievement gaps the reading achievements specifically um so we've we've drafted a good amount of that already we're meeting regularly to go through it um and as Dr brummett said uh what we're the real reason we're resubmitting is that we have an opportunity in this go around to be more comprehensive about our our model and the program I'm not just saying this is a published program that we're using but what does our whole curriculum look like and I'm really pleased about that as you know from when I shared a couple meetings ago about our our

044curriculum it's not just one program that we use it's several resources and that meet different needs within the reading but the real focus of the application is to demonstrate that your curriculum model or program is evidence-based and scientifically based and that there's opportunities for explicit instruction across all area those areas that we went through in the in the reading we need to ensure that we have included all of those in our program is certainly comprehensive in that regard so we will submit that by February 28th it's our understanding we don't have a timeline of how quickly the state will respond but it's our understanding that they will read our application and then they will be in touch with um me as the point person with feet any to get more information if they need it

045like that they've they've kind of said it could be a back and forth like that it could be that some components are accepted others or not and we have to go back at it but we're not really clear on what that timeline will look like thank you Wendy and I would Echo that I have not heard how quickly we can expect to hear back I will just also mention that and this was another conversation that was asked you know if this if for some reason they say your program is not going to be approved which of course will fight but if that does become the issue then we can't ask for an extension of up to a year to figure out next steps uh so that is kind of our position right now but obviously

046we're also approaching it from the legislation and I will turn it back to Dr Fletcher to entertain any questions okay we'll start with uh Beth Hut Wagner uh thank you for for reporting back on that um because I know important um so just two quick questions one um if they were to say no um gosh forbid would that affect the way we budget for reading program Noah one minute please sorry um could that affect the way we budget for reading supplies for next school year and thus would that affect the way we instruct next year and then just uh add-on question is um and maybe Dr brummett you know this how many other districts are are petitioning this as well and is there any sense that um in talking to other superintendents that districts want

047to work together to to make a change here or um kind of what's happening with other districts that might be in the same boat and share the the same concern as we do right I can answer the question about what what other districts are doing and uh that process the um caps did a survey and apparently about 60 to 70 districts are submitting a waiver um and many of them are in the same boat as us they are part of the readers use the units of study program out of Columbia and um so we've been encouraging to each each District's been encouraged to either work together or certainly reach out to the publisher to get as much information from them about the research the equity standards the science of reading so there's there's collaboration going

048on there uh a few districts that I've spoken to are actually going to adopt one of the seven programs some admitted to me that they really didn't have a program to begin with or a curriculum so for them it was not a big deal they knew they had to do something um and I think some districts simply haven't told the state what they plan to do because that survey I think I counted maybe 50 people didn't respond at all maybe they're silently protesting I don't know um so there's just a wide range of things going on a lot of complaints to the state department of Ed to the legislative body about this is really not what we believe the legislation was intended to do um Wendy I think there might have been a part of

049that question that that you could respond to yeah I'll go start with the first question um Beth that you mentioned what would happen for next year and as Dr brummett said Our intention would be that if our our application were declined that we would then ask for the extension because it would be too late in our budget process to make this change for next year we wouldn't have the funds available so next year we would have to do that work then uh that we would typically do when we're shifting our curriculum and looking for a new program we are um currently gathering information I've had literacy coaches going out to different workshops by the state that are allowing us to see the programs that are on the list we've gotten samples we're looking at should

050we have to go down that road which ones would we want to have in a field study which is typically our process when we're looking at a new program so that would be the work of next year for sure and then you would see that um in the budget um also I wanted to tag on to what Dr brummett was sharing about the collaboration not only are the risks providing opportunities for district leaders to collaborate our rest is correct so you know they they provide opportunities for a workshop there's one this week um but I'm also part of a more informal group where some assistant superintendents put out the call and there's a number of us that meet we're meeting monthly um we gather information from what's your town doing what's your town doing who

051have you talked to um so I've gotten a lot of good information about that we've shared ideas for the application people who are applying for the a similar thing you know using the same programs like fundations for phonics or units of study for reading um have we we you will see a lot of the same information in our applications for that reason there's a lot of collaboration did we answer each part of that I can't remember if there was something else you asked no thank you and I'm sorry questions at the same time but um both of your answers gave me a lot of understanding as we move forward so thank you for your for your diligence and for answering those okay and Amy perrotti thank you yeah I just wanted to just take a

052quick step back and you know maybe just for the Public's benefit there was there was a presentation at Dr Brahma gave I think it was a month ago month and a half ago maybe um about this new legislation that came and I think it wasn't just a reminder as an unintended consequence I think for you said 60 to 70 districts um that aren't using one of these approved programs I think that the intention of the bill was to focus on school districts with lower reading scores maybe a bigger Gap um and trying to help them and so I think a reminder on Wendy you can correct me but our at some of our curricular meetings and I know we talked about the board meeting when we talked about this our reading scores are above State

053average um so in Newington you know obviously I'm not an edgy like I'm not a teacher I haven't been trained in in the science of reading and any of this but looking at our numbers and I'm sure there's always room to improve and I think every district has room to improve and want every student 100 at a you know proficient reading level but in general our district is doing above average than some of the other schools in the state school systems in the state so um I just wanted to lay that out there and then you know there's definitely a lot of um political stuff going on about this and the science of reading and how students learn and all of that and I think that it's important to also note that as Wendy and

054Dr Brahma had said that there's not just one program that Newington uses there's many programs and I remember my kids online learning they do you know the United study but also the phonics that like a apple ah that just repeated every day I learned it when so it was in kindergarten and first grade it was a thing that so they're you know learning the phonics along with everything else so I just um thank you for all the the work money that you're putting into this waiver um I know that it's a lot of extra to prove that our reading program is sufficient but also if we don't get if we don't get the waiver next year there will be a lot more work to do to find a new program and we want to find

055a program that is going to obviously benefit our students and it might cost money but you know we have to do what's best for the kids so I just want to put that out there and and thank you for your work all right thank you Wendy go ahead I could just respond to that thank you Amy for bringing up some of those important points um one of which is there does seem to be some misunderstandings when people talk about reading and they only look at one piece of reading and that was part of what Dr brummett was showing at that board meeting that Amy was referring to is that there are the several components in reading and we do have different resources that address we even have instructional blocks of the day that address different

056components of reading and explicit instruction is a very important part of all of that so that's an important note you also mentioned the data so I just wanted to say at the last meeting of this group that I was speaking about um one of the things that was shared is that some of the districts that currently use the one of the programs that's on the list are not happy with it and they're not they're not getting the results they want but they also don't like it it's not meeting their needs so they were actually saying we were in the process of looking to move away from this and now we're being told we have to stay with it so that's just another important note to come into this it wasn't good for the rest of

057us to hear that that might be what we're asked to do when our colleagues are telling us they would prefer to move away from it at this point thanks Wendy and just a point of clarification um the cap survey that went out revealed that only 12 districts Statewide currently use one of those programs that are approved and to Wendy's Point many are getting poor results or are realizing that they're not you know reaching all the students and they're having to supplement as well so again our position is there's no one-size-fits all and um I serve on a reading committee at the state and we're you know we're trying to get some clear you know some clarification from our legislators about what they want where they want this to go but I appreciate our opportunity to

058update the board and again thank you to Wendy and and her reading team for getting this work done is a huge long process ours um so I'll turn it back to Dr Fletcher all right well thank you thank you for all the updates there all right so now we're going to move on to agenda item F which is our new business and the first item on the agenda is the report on the enrollment projections would that be Mr farizzi it's Mr Freeze I'm just going to kick it off quickly that um typically we do this a little later but uh we thought it'd be very important for the board to get a sense of our enrollment our staffing prior to our budget next week so you can see where we're at and how we make

059all these decisions about what where we need teachers where we don't need teachers and class sizes and all that so Mr farisi has been hard at work and I'll turn the mic over to him thank you so much Dr brummett and um and I would also share to put this in context if I could just help us rewind back to the beginning of the year uh Dr brummett facilitates um a committee the plans Council and the plans Council launches in September and we end around the end of October beginning of November and that's an opportunity uh the first part of an opportunity in our budget process the system that we use for staff to be able to present and share with us uh data that would support any new uh Staffing or program needs that

060we might have to consider for the upcoming budget as we start trying to put our heads around you know what are our needs for the upcoming year as that process continues what we also do is we look at where were we last year and where are we this year and so we have the plans uh proposals that come forward I presented to you uh on December 2nd uh the staff allocation and class size report to be able to show you kind of where where we were last year where we are this year and that kind of sets the stage and allows me to launch into this um uh report which really is our enrollment projections for where we're looking and and think we're going to be for next year so that's kind of the Continuum

061of the process and then I know next week uh Dr brummett will you know present with you um even greater detail around uh what budgetary needs are are there for us and based on some of this so as you take a look through the report uh some of the highlights that I would mention would include um just simply that we use a combination of the New England uh School Development Council to support our projections for next school year and Beyond uh so NASDAQ does a great job of really looking at her our historic numbers and then looking at what would be upcoming um some things that they aren't able to account for are are opportunities where students in 12th grade need to stay with us a little bit longer and carry on in our schools

062to be able to finish for a fifth year at high school students who would go into like a transition Academy program so that isn't accounted for students that we would declare as seats from the open Choice program that would be coming in they can't account for that either or if there are students returning back from let's say magnet schools or parochial schools settings returning back to the noon to Public Schools most of the time they can account for any developments that are going up when they are made aware of those developments going up so when they gather Town census information and if that's already been approved or there's a certificate of occupancy upcoming then they're able to kind of include those sometimes there is and sometimes there is not we might be aware of some

063developments that are going up but the CEO hasn't been released yet so they might not have that in their data so those are just important factors to consider and think about because the data itself which are on the preceding Pages definitely help us give an estimate of where we think we'll be and then we need to kind of pull in all that other data and really take a close look you'll find as we kind of go into the document that you'll see the any uh the NASDAQ reporting projections and then as we go a little further one thing I really like to focus on are just the impact that it will have on classroom teachers I need to know what our staffing is going to look like what are are we going to have enough

064staff in our classrooms do we think that we are going to be at a high enrollment and potentially need to add a class at any given grade level or in a department do we need to reallocate staff at a certain grade or in a department so those are key factors so I won't go through the entire NASDAQ Report with you the projections are there I know that that's been out uh for a little while now but I do want to share with you how we then take that information along with um the other factors that I said are not included in the report and we then get to take a look at this data which really starts to help me understand what are our school-wide needs uh where are they this year and what are

065we looking for in projecting for next year so I take all the information that I've already mentioned that either is in the NASDAQ projected report or outside of it as well as work with the building principle and kind of create what you'll see here which gives me a great um projection of what we need and you'll see at almost every school to date we are not looking to shift anything really in regards to classroom teachers at the elementary level we're looking to keep everything as is so Anna Reynolds we go across we have projected possibly eight less students overall that is not in one particular grade it's spread throughout the school building so it does not indicate for me a need for any type of change at this point nor Mr Smith principal Smith equally

066when we go and talk to Mr Marciano and we look at Elizabeth Greene looks very similar they're going up about six students again not looking to make any shifts or any adjustments John Patterson has one of our our more significant shifts but only at 10 students we're not really seeing a huge need at any grade level to either go up or down Staffing we would maintain what we have so we can accommodate the class sizes that they have and keep them equivocal throughout the elementary schools and equally at Ruth Chaffee with Mrs Lawrence blunt as we go down uh you can start to take a look at both of the middle schools Martin Kellogg John Wallace respectively again no significant change there and then at the high school we're not seeing any significant change either

067when we take a look at some of the um other data that helps inform us we look at what is the transition Academy going to look like for us next year um and in working with the program coordinator as well as projecting into what next year will look like students who will graduate students who will be coming up from the high school into the transition Academy they're going to remain stable out of District placements we look at Trend we're trending around this number so we look stable there with magnet as well open Choice students we are going to increase our enrollment we're currently at 123. when we reported to the state October 1st we are at 125 since that time two students have left the district however we will um look between a combination of

068students graduating 12th grade this year as well as new enrollment that will give us a projected uh seat enrollment of 127 students those students are already calculated into the numbers that I showed you in each School above so that would not be in addition to those are already calculated in um and equally we look at our fifth year uh seniors that will need to continue at Newington High School those are there and then um some of our home school students so um we're really looking fairly stable overall as far as enrollment is concerned there are a couple of other factors that we do take into consideration um and I'd like to just present this tab now when I look at the totality of our staffing right now you'll see for our 2022 23 our instructional

069staff is at 368.4 when you include Administration into that you have 398.85 when we go and project out to next year we will reduce our overall instructional staff we will reduce that in the area of um a mathematical coach which you'll see right here below and we will reduce that in the form of intervention at John Wallace middle school as well as reading teacher support at both um Ruth Chaffey and John Patterson so that number is going to come down to 366.25 Which is less 2.15 instructional staff equally when we get to our instructional staff and including Administration we will right now be increasing uh 0.55 in the assistant director of student services district-wide to support our increasing population of students who have significant needs and that will then take our overall reduction of staff

070to 1.60 when you reduce and then add in the the last component that's the overall reduction for all staff there were some as I mentioned earlier plans proposals that will be moving forward um one is a Theater Workshop um that will go forward at no additional Staffing required in a Portuguese World Language course with no additional staff required oh and I'd like to mention just above these reductions are are primarily due to a temporary grant funding that will will go away for next year so we have to be responsible in how we use that grant funding when we no longer have it we have to re-look at our staffing that we had previous you know pre-pen pandemic and then make the responsible decisions to to move forward with what we can operationalize or not um

071and you'll see also a plant's proposal for an assistant director of student services to increase from a 0.45 to a 1.0 and that would be a 0.55 increase overall and then we are going to move forward by State Statute uh with a bilingual program and we're working to meet the needs uh there we do have some needs that aren't represented right now from through plans and and those are just listed here below uh for you to see but I know you're also going to see that in the budget books that you're going to receive I believe after Dr brummett's presentation next week um so these things are just areas that we keep looking forward to as goals that we'd like to consider for the Newington Public Schools but at this time might not be able

072to go forward in funding um so with all that at said I would pause for a moment I see a few hands raised uh Dr Fletcher I'm not sure if you want to address that sure let's do that now we'll start with Danielle drose thank you that's such I have two two quick questions I can answer one of them and come back around to me however you want to do it because it's weird no more online so my first question is um to Mr farisi I'm just I'm confused I feel like I don't know if it's an online thing a rope-a-dope thing can you go back and I raise my hand I wish it hadn't gone forward because it was kind of a few minutes back in your presentation you had said that there's 125

073kids for open Choice down to 123 already accounted for then you said the number 127 and then you said an additional 16. so at the end of the day at the end I I wrote down all these numbers I don't know what they mean what exactly are we looking at next year for the number of open Choice students potentially coming to Newington thank you for the question I can clarify all of those I promise it's not a rope-a-dope um so we are currently we currently have 123 open Choice students in the Newington Public Schools we have to declare 16 open seats for next year because what that is accounting for also are students graduating Newington High School or leaving the district is it 16 additional seats it is 16 total seats from those that we

074need to go from 123 up to 127 as well as accounting for students who will be graduating which I think it's close to 10 students so and I'm sorry um 11 students and and then plus six more seats would get us to the 127. thank you oh and you had a second question responsibility to approve plans that kind that is not in our purview but you know I hear so much about the social emotional school counselor and the need and you know behind closed doors and meetings we can't share what we're talking about but we always talk about how we need more help at the high school like it can like we get for when we talk when maybe this morning Maureen when you bring up the budget presentation why it's more important to add

075a 0.55 assistant directory for student services over adding a social emotional school counselor so I'm just curious what the rationale behind that is well we're hoping that that is going to be Grant funded we have applied for a grant at 120 000 which is the cost of that position because it would likely be someone with quite a bit of experience um we're hope we we're hoping to hear before the budget season closes out and and the board may direct me to re-prioritize so that is something that could be evolving throughout our budget process hopefully we'll hear so I can at least report to the board where that stands okay all set all right so Richard leverier is up next um so I just wanted to uh make sure that um I'm understanding this correct and

076Danielle did uh did go did ask pretty much what I was going to ask about the open choice so this I just want to be crystal clear the 16 declared seats is going to bring us to the 127 number not 127 plus 16. is that right that is absolutely correct it brings us up to a declared 127 seats for the Newington Public Schools for next school year yes so why um because we need if we need 125 for to accommodate with the state mandate to get funding um y127 is are you anticipating that statistically two may leave the district like they did this year we often have uh students who come and go we often have students who start with us and then oftentimes um their um registration to an open to a lottery for

077a magnet school doesn't close until October 1st so often times if they start with us and then they get into their Magnet School of Choice uh even after they've started with us they'll leave so yeah we do run into that so I always account for a couple extra uh just so we kind of hit our Target we also try to maintain uh three percent of uh student population of you know open Choice students to our overall population um that does support a um considerable additional funding that goes along with that as well um so there are certain numbers and targets that we try to to meet so hypothetically if we went with 125 instead of 127 and two left would we be not in compliance to get funding or would we still be getting the

078funding uh the funding structure changes all the time whether you're in the two percent range the three percent range a three and a half percent range on and only two leave great but other years we've had five leave we've had five com it's um we're always uncertain we always try to maintain a certain level of students and we want to also support the program it's an excellent program okay thank you all right thank you Richard Jessica Weaver yeah just to um kind of uh piggyback on Mr second question I guess um regarding some of those plans proposals um because obviously those look like some the ones not moving forward look like some pretty important ones um from math instructional World Language so I'm just curious is that not going forward to the budget or like

079in in the presentation not trying to fast forward to next week already but are those just already pre-cuts or pre knows before we actually get to the budget presentation currently they will they are not in the budget for next year when I present to the board you'll understand or you'll hear that we've got to make up for some ground because of on underfunded budgets in recent years so in order to keep our ask as low as possible adding the world language program would have been I believe over a half million dollars to implement um then we just had to prioritize based on knowing you know that there were only some limited dollars to go around um so the board again as I said earlier with the social emotional position and as happened last year with

080the library media specialist the board can direct or make recommendations that we put things in but we you know the number already is looking a little higher than we might like so I just caution that we have to make sure our ask is uh reasonable some of those items would be really costly thanks for clarifying appreciate it and Dr Berman if I could just share a little data as well um we look at you know a lot of data and and the needs are definitely there I think when something doesn't move forward it doesn't mean that we don't uh wish or hope it could um but we do also understand that that the budget is limited um if you just take a look at some of this data right here you start to see from

081some of our surrounding towns um just some some one piece of data that really sticks out that um right here in this column the high needs we're significantly higher uh than than these other districts that are are nearby um and this is when you add altogether students with disability El population as well as free and reduced lunch students who meet all three so our numbers are rather High when you look at free and reduced lunch even compared to a lot of the other districts surrounding us and so what this shows is that um the the management the organization the administration of some of these higher need populations requires more um in in what we're trying to do is is account for that um and oftentimes we try to account for that through Staffing directly in

082the buildings uh and in the past few years we have done that and done that very well thanks to the board support and at this time we also have to account for the other end which is the oversight and administration of it all we also if we take a look and it's not right here but our out of District placement as well our numbers are are in a place where we need to keep um you know close eye on that and be able to manage it in a way that's effective uh and and serviced well uh so that way we can ensure that everyone is getting a proper program at a proper cost uh and that's something that this additional person would be able to do as well so you know there there are other

083reasons too for for looking here and I think we try to balance both very well and we'll continue to do that and keep our eye on both equally uh and and this is just a year where where we're seeing the the rise significantly in in students that have kind of higher needs as the state would would identify it as so it's just a uh something to think about as we do go into the process um so I just wanted to share that as well with uh what Dr brummett shared all right is that everything for your presentation it is yes thank you all right well thank you Dr brummett any closing remarks on this no I think the board tonight got a little uh preview of coming attractions for the budget uh you'll hear some

084of that information repeated Wednesday evening of next week and then the board will be deliberating for many evenings uh as to whether what I have recommended in my budget is something you want to move forward to the board's budget or take a different uh Direction so stay tuned uh we got a good presentation almost ready for you and uh thank you Mr frisi for the thorough analysis of our staffing and our current needs and we are we are getting to be a fairly tiny District uh Dr Fletcher well Mr freezi did you have your hand up again yes and I I do apologize I I um I know that it was a question I believe of the board um and it might have been in a a previous meeting um and I just wanted to

085share that um I I do have uh data that also um shows us uh what we are looking at in projecting potentially for some of the new construction that is going up um in the new developments that are anticipated I want you to know that we keep a close eye on this uh that we also uh work very closely with the town um because they they keep even a closer eye on it but I did connect with the town uh prior to this presentation um this is my chart that kind of tells me all of the new construction that's going up in town and when it is anticipated to go up and its current status is highlighted in yellow for those that were anticipated to be starting uh most recently so you'll see the Cedar

086Point uh Apartments those are under construction the CEO is anticipated later in the 23-24 school year so we don't anticipate uh any enrollment and or significant enrollment at this time um but but when it does go through it would be approximately 22.9 students spread across these three schools so this is kind of how I'm looking at it and what I'm working with and working with the town um Meadow Commons uh is another um development going up on the Berlin Turnpike right now it's under construction it just just started there's no Co and they don't expect anything for 10 to 12 months so that wouldn't really impact for the until the following year uh and then the Peckham Farm subdivision 18 lot residence subdivision residential is under construction only one model home is up no Co

087nothing yet so uh they haven't even put other homes up yet just the model to go and see the town does use a formula to help me project enrollment here at the bottom and it's based off of a municipal fiscal impact and economic impact analysis that was done for the town by a consultant firm a consultancy firm uh back in 2021 when all these developments were going through so I use uh and work with closely their numbers and we're keeping a close eye on all that so those will continue to come forward in future projection um enrollment projection uh reports uh and and we'll maintain this as we go was that included in our packet by any chance that was not I actually had two handouts for you uh this evening that being one of

088them and uh then the overall Staffing where it showed some of the plans proposals and the reductions that were going forward or not uh so those were two items that I was going to hand out additionally this evening um but we will make sure that those get to you all right perhaps maybe next Wednesday night we could have them available absolutely I will yes okay Anastasia Yap you have a question I was just going to ask can you email it to us uh if that was a possibility so we could have them ahead of time also I I don't know if I'm looking at this right because it's really hard to see on the screen is there only it says one two three four five are there more below or is that just what we

089can see now if if I'm listening oh uh it looks like there are more the new constructions yeah no there uh there are more let me get to that um I was gonna say I can see that there's actually another column right there so if there are more I'd like to see all of them yep and there are the additional so so it's more than five it's how many is it I can't see the whole thing so it's one two three four five six seven got it but only how many are gonna affect us this upcoming year well there are three that have are are actually under construction right now in the Peckham Farm subdivision is is only a model home for people to go and look at but no other ground has been broken

090there okay thank you so much yeah if you could email that that would be faster than waiting until next week and it'd be nice to look at thank you after um after I do the board policies and and I have a moment uh break I will put the links to both of those in the chat feature as well as email them out later thank you all right thank you thank you very much all right so that concludes our report on the enrollment projections we're now going to move to the second item under new business which is an action item and these are the board policies so this is going to be under Mr freezi's purview and Danielle droze as the chair of that committee as well so I'm going to turn it over to you

091Mr Freezy thank you so much and um I would just share a last board meeting we had an opportunity to discuss uh the four policies that are before you this evening our hope this evening uh is to be able to finalize any questions you may or may not have um but move forward with a recommended motion and a vote on each of those four policies okay so hopefully everybody has had an opportunity to look at these once again so what we Jessica Weaver yeah I just wanted to preface and just say thank you for everyone I think this was one of probably our best um collaborations I think every single member had something to say about one or two of these that was included in those so um I think we've had a we've had

092long discussions about them for a bit and um they were just super collaborative so I just wanted to while we have the time say thank you for everyone for their input on these policies all right thank you very much so uh does the chair of that committee have any comment to make before we move forward I'm shaking my head no oh okay all right very good so then let's begin we're going to be first taking a look at policy 1312 which is public complaint if somebody wants to read the recommended motion improve the revisions to policy one three one two public complaints as recommended right motion is made do we have a second all right so the motion is made and seconded any further discussion seeing none I'm going to ask the clerk to please

093call the roll Michael Branda Danielle drost yes Dr Bruce Fletcher yes he had Wagner yeah Richard leverrier yes Amy perrotti yes yes Jessica Weaver yes Anastasia yeah yes the Martian passed unanimously very good moving on to policy bylaw 91-32 the standing committees would somebody read that motion both the Board of Education through the revisions to policy bylaw 9132 standing committee as recommended second okay the Motions made in second any discussion Mr barrier yes thank you um I do just want to Echo what I said last week that um under paragraph three I do think that is uh it it's for me an issue that uh the terror of the board could discontinue uh any of the committees or specific Duty assigned to committee um unilaterally again I do think that should be something that should

094be brought to the board as a whole uh I'm gonna vote no um I think that this is something that maybe we could send back make a change and bring it back to the board as a whole to approve at a later time for me for that one reason I'm gonna vote no thanks right any other comments or questions regarding this Danielle droves I just want to appreciate um Richard for being very forthcoming in his in his reasoning and you know it's not easy to be a person that votes no and other people don't so Richard I just wanted to say that I respect that you have been very honest about how you feel about it and that's what makes a board successful so thank you absolutely anyone else all right Madam clerk would you

095please call the roll Michael Brenda yes Danielle drowsed yes Dr Bruce Fletcher yes Beth Mankey Wagner yes Richard leveria no Amy perrotti yes Sam Sharma yes Jessica Weaver yes Anastasia Yap yes the motion passes eight to one all right thank you everybody and we're now moving to policy 5144 student discipline uh would somebody please read motion with the Board of Education approve the revisions to policy 5144 student disciplined as recommended second ointment the right motion has been made and seconded in further discussion seeing none I'm going to ask the clerk to please call the roll Michael Branda yes yeah y'all drost yes Dr Bruce Fletcher yes Beth Mankey hot bag yes Richard laverier yes Amy perrotti yes Sam Sharma yes Jessica Weaver yes Anastasia Yap yes the Martin passes unanimously thank you very much we

096now move on to policy 5113.21 student absences and excuses Awards or recognition for attendance somebody please read the recommended motion I'm trying to look up that policy and I can't multitab on this computer so um did anyone make the motion yet I didn't I was gonna I didn't want to ruin your streak yeah you go ahead Jeff all right move the Board of Education approve the revisions to policy five one one three point two one student absences and excuses Awards or recognition for attendance as recommended it was made seconded any further discussion Ms drose I just want to make and I know that I should have art like what's the one that we said we weren't ready to is this can you is there any way that someone can scroll down because I can't to

097show me this policy to make sure that I'm like I'm agreeing with like that I know which this policy is because I clearly can't double screen this yes so I might I might be able to lend some invite into that as well um this is one that we we're going to research further the recommendation was to add another um Wellness mental Wellness day for students I did uh look up the legislation as well as check with legal counsel if we do that it's not legally permitted to do so without it being an unexcused absence so a child would be absent and that would go on their record it will impact them uh it will add to their absenteeism where the current two uh legally do not and we don't have statutory right to change that

098if we were to add another so the policy that is before you right now is as it was and I'm trying to get to it it's I guess me scrolling down is equally as difficult that's what I was remembering and I was confused because I'm like I thought we weren't ready to vote on this because we were reading on more information that is accurate and the more information that we found is that it would not be in our interest to do so because it may harm students more than it could help um and so it was recommended that we do not do it it would be uh right here the recommendation was to change uh in the second paragraph for a sentence from two mental health days to three again we do not have the

099statutory right to do that with it being an excused absence as these two are only two are legally mandated as excused we cannot go above that foreign yes I was I'm okay I'm gonna get to her in just one second okay I needed to find that Anastasia go ahead um hi my question is for Steve Steve did you send us that information at any point um I might have missed it um in regards to where you found that it would be against I guess the statue where they were only allowed to um did we receive that at any time or is that something that you just researched and an artist yeah I have Argentine yep thank you I have not sent out the State statue um but it's easily accessible and I can do so

100um my second question was um is there any way we can put this off of possibly like the next meeting I forgot which motion that is how much fail I think um because I did want to do a little bit research more research I know you had that but I didn't see anything so I was wondering if that's something because I know there are a lot of changes being made and I wouldn't I mean with the current Mental Health crisis you have right now I would want us to just say uh let's vote this now and then something happens in legislation that I was this I mean we have a lot of children and I have a lot of kids that have come up to me and said I really truly need this and this

101is crucial not only just in high school but like the middle school also and although I don't have a middle schooler yet I see the need I mean I live in a small neighborhood and I have kids knocking on my door some who are you know transitioning and um a student actually said you know I'm really going through a tough time and with the lack of people that I can talk to in my family and the fact that the counselors at the school are inundated I mean I might need that extra day so thank you for that I mean I had a parent today it's Tuesday I really hope this goes through there are kids that are going through things that maybe they're not comfortable sharing whether it be transitioning or just going through other

102things and I would just hope that we could put this off just in case cross my fingers legislation does something about this um because there is that need and you know the kids are saying we need this we are going through these times thank you so I I see uh you know I think Miss Weaver and Mr Branda have uh their hands raised as well but if I could uh thank you uh you know Missy op for for sharing all that I understand um I do think that right now it's on the board of ed docket to be voted on as it already is so it really is a non-vote item to some extent so holding on it or just saying we simply aren't going to vote on it we're going to leave the policy

103as it is currently and then if we want to look to continue to revise it or get the information that I was able to receive to you all to then determine if we need to do something different with this policy I think would be a a very um thoughtful thing to do um but I'll let others speak as well thank you all right I'll let you guys speak and then I'll I'll give some um suggestions so Jessica yeah I was just gonna say um I mean I think we all are in support of mental health days I think this is really just not an issue of our jurisdiction right like I think those those of us that want to advocate for more mental health days I mean we're working with state legislators on that um

104this is a state statute I think that actually just went in that went into effect recently too um this year yeah this past year the two mental health so we actually had no mental health days before um so I because I was like I recall this being changed before for the two mental health days and I was just gonna say um if I put out the motion as recommended um in the packet it says to mental health days so this as Mr frisi said doesn't necessarily change anything um I just wanted to put the motion out there so we could actually have discussion from us um Robert sure's order perspective but just if I can rescind the motion I believe and I'll defer to Dr Fletcher on this but I think I think as the

105person so I'm happy to do that um and again we can have more discussion on this as policy Community but I really think our hands are tied given the state statute and I think um you know best efforts to Advocate at the state legislator level um for for changes on that thanks so let me address that very quickly and then we'll let Mr Brandon speak but yes the person that has made the motion can actually move to rescind the motion the person that seconded it the first time does not have to be the one to Second it this time so if that carries then it's taken off the docket okay hopefully that is clear I know Robert's Rules of Order is so simple to understand Mr Brandon thanks Dr Fletcher just really quick something mishap

106you said kind of made me raise my hand and I Mr farisi and and Danielle maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong but if something did change at the state level where they said we could have three for our students this I understand we might risk in this motion but even if this passed that we could still change like this is an ever-changing policy document so if the state did say hey now we're going to up the two to three because of all the things that miss yapu explained which are totally valid we could always come back and send a draft and just update the number from two to three nothing locked just because we would vote Yes on this wouldn't lock Us in to you know we're not like grandfathered in we can't

107Advance our policy so I just wanted to make that clear too and that is correct as well Danielle drose and if we don't vote it and say coming from wrong then right now right now for mental health Wellness day it's not an excused absence because this policy hasn't been put into place yet so uh yes or no no this policy is Place uh this is the policy that's in place so um as as Miss Weaver shared this was legislated last year to go into effect for this year so last year as a policy subcommittee we uh worked on this and we added that paragraph in the middle and voted it in so this is what's currently in place students are eligible for two mental um Wellness days so um that is already there yes so

108in essence another vote today is just redundant so I mean it's a matter of public record you know yes what is the public record going to show and I'll leave it to you Miss Weaver because you made the motion if you choose to rescind it you can move to rescind your motion thank you yeah and I just wanted to clarify one more thing that Mr Rose wasn't on the committee this was uh revised in September 8th 2021 so um we had changed that right before um she was reelected to the board so um it was changed uh but that and it's now not last year it's 2021 so two years ago now um all right so I am going to move to rescind the motion uh that I just made do I have to say

109the whole language read the motion that you're rescinding I won't move to rescind the motion hold on I just have to go back I'm sorry this is so sloppy okay move to rescind the motion titled move the Board of Education approve the revisions to policy 511 3.21 student absences and excuses Awards or recognition for attendance as recommended promotion to rescind has been made and it has been seconded uh I don't think there's any need of further discussion so I'm going to ask the clerk call the roll on the motion to rescind contrast yes back to Bruce Fletcher yes Beth Mankey hat Wagner yes Richard leveria yes Amy perrotti yes Sam Sharma yes Jessica Weaver yes Anastasia Yap yes the Martian to recent past unanimously all right I'm just a just an FYI I was the

110chair committee when we made that revision I remembered it now well that concludes all of our new business so at this time I'm going to go to agenda item G which is our public participation on any matter related to responsibilities uh could you all just check your microphones make sure they're muted please please state your name and the street you live on you do not need to give out your street number and we do limit your participation to three minutes okay seeing that there is no public participation at this time I will go to agenda item H with which is remarks by our board members so if you wish to make a remark at this time please raise your hand and I will call on you in the order of the hands are raised foreign

111Jessica Weaver um yeah I just wanted to um say I think last meeting unfortunately we talked about it again but just recognize um there's a lot of gun violence this week and in Monterey Park Half Moon Bay and unfortunately again another school shooting um in Des Moines Iowa so I just wanted to keep that up front of Mind obviously putting the victims of grandmas there um but also you know raise I think Mr Brenna made a great Point too of just continuing to raise that issue of not only the mental health of our students but the mental health of our of our teachers um just keeping that at a Forefront as we go into budget process and and putting safety at definitely one of our priorities as well and I know that's been reiterated throughout

112our Administration so I just wanted to put that out there I didn't get a chance last night at Town Council to say thank you to Sharon Braverman for her time on the board of ed so I just wanted to to publicly say thank you to that and then also say um I did mention our joint Board of Ed um Town council meeting I kudos to Beth Menke who's always been an advocating for that and I think um and I know it's on Dr Fletcher and um mayor Del you know to to kind of coordinate that but I just wanted to to reiterate that and just kind of the importance of making sure because I know um we always say it's going to be a tough budget year but I just really want to make sure

113that's clear and really just I know there was comments about kind of like how budget works and like what committees and that kind of stuff but um I just want to make it clear like the whole board is going to be doing the budget process and then I'm hopeful that we can have you know a dialogue with Town Council um because there's a lot of need as we already radiated tonight so I just um I'm hopeful kind of going into next week we can have that kind of discussion and also kudos to to those who um like miss making hot Batman who had mentioned this before um because I just think it's it's one of the things we've been pushing for for a while and if we're gonna need have a lot more need this

114year given our past budgets um I just want to make sure we go in with those kind of expectations so um thank you and have a great night everyone thank you Beth hudwagner you're up next um thank you I just want to say thank you thank you it's really appreci ate kind of at the end of meetings the past few weeks because she's kind of centering our thoughts and I think that there are so many things going on um at a meeting and it's really important to just kind of think about why we're here and what we're doing so I really appreciate you centering us um and then I'm gonna do my it's almost like a tradition but my plea for from the rooftops um a joint meeting between Board of Education and Town Council

115so that we can go into budget season um ready to work collaboratively and and instead of at odds and ready to do what's best for um Newington and for our students um giving them everything they need while yes being fiscally responsible and just working together on that so again pleading asking please um and then finally I think we all raised a lot of a lot of us read some really great points about that need for the school social worker and I know that there's um in the plans proposal um looks like there's uh two possible SEL school counselors I think we've never needed one or two or however many as as much as we do right now and I'm a firm believer as an educator myself that um this is just my opinion but that

116the academics cannot be fully reached and students cannot uh achieve their highest level of success unless they are mentally and emotionally ready to receive the education um just that's just from my experience as an educator so I just think that those social workers and I just think that's a really important key piece so and then again just thank everyone for really great and respectful and insightful dialogue thank you Richard leverier yes I wanted to just uh take a second to uh give a shout out to the NHS girls basketball team last week on Friday they were recognized as a Statewide game of the week and they went into a very uh face a very good Glastonbury squad on the road and walked away with the w so great job ladies thank you for the sports

117update we always count on Richard for that oh all right Anastasia Yap [Music] are you still with us Anastasia oh sorry I was talking um so yeah I want to say thank you Jessica Weaver in regards to last night and I did hear you you know Advocate publicly in regards to having the joint meeting between the town and the mayor um to Bruce um I I was we were told that it's ultimately up to you and the mayor to make that decision so that's what we were told last night so maybe if you could reach out to her if she doesn't reach out to you whichever person has to make the first step so we can get that going soon as we are um approaching budget season another thing that I wanted to address was

118and you know social media goes wild I do see a lot of Need for Town Projects being pushed and I did want to address something so I'm on the finance committee with Sam and Danielle and we all voted as a board that we felt that John Wallace was a project that needed to be completed um because it affects school you know school safety there aren't any doors on the restrooms um please correct me if I'm wrong I know Dr brummett you uh Dr Fletcher you were all there we did well as a board that we were going to advocate for this but on social media I mean I know the town needs a new library a possible parking garage as well as a pool but you can't do everything and we as a board you

119know we are the Board of Education um all you know it was a unanimous vote that we were going to be pushing for John Wallace you know to get the necessary Renovations they need but on you know the news outlets that we use I see that some people are pushing for a pool I mean student safety is huge and I think with budget season and always being such a tight thing you know that we should stick together like you guys always say and ensuring that we advocate for John Wallace being renovated now we've had multiple discussions in our finance meetings about why it wasn't done in the past I've only lived here almost three years but I viewed it I was in the school with Amy and Richard and we saw that there are no

120doors in the classrooms that is a safety issue so I understand we need a new pool I understand we want a parking garage I understand they want to do the library but the safety of the students is important to me and I know it's important to all of you that's what we unanimously voted on this so I would just say I understand you know there's a lot of things on social media going on and people wanting to do things but I would hope as a board we would stand United to say that that project should be one that comes first before the other projects um that are looking to be done thank you right thank you Mr Brenda just really quick and I know that we don't usually respond but I I just um my

121understanding was that Wallace is a part of the capital Improvement budget that is already moving forward so and I 100 agree with you Anastasia that needs to get done I just one thing that that struck me and I just wanted to make clear and and I don't I don't think I've been public on this but the pool issue is actually a safety issue and so when we consider that the children in our community I think that that's that's the leading driver of the pool issue and we don't have to get into it at a Board of Education meeting but I think a lot of the concern with our pools is the fact that they are so old and and there is some serious concern about um the children using the pool and that pool basically

122going to put and I think that that's that's the reason for the pool needs but I 100 agree on Wallace and and my understanding was that we've already pushed that forward and that that should the money's already allocated so and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong but and I know I I understand that things kind of get shifted around based on priorities so I think if we hear anything that that project is getting pushed we 100 percent have to Advocate um as a united front to make sure it gets done okay thank you Mr Branda and Amy perrotti I was just waiting for Mr Brandon to save I don't think he mentioned that I think the the hope is that the the pool would be covered by funding from the state I know our

123legislators are working on getting money for that so I'm not sure who you're referring to as pushing pools over Wallace I don't know that that's happening um I know you don't see my things so um I think as a parent and and a member of the the town I think we all have a right to you know have our opinions um as a board you're 100 right and we all agreed that while this is a priority so I just want to put that out there all right thank you uh Miss drost thank you I just want to um say this was a great short meeting so I don't want to make this any longer but I do want to as we go into budget season and we talk about John Ballas let me talk about

124whatever we talk about I I would be and then be true to who I am if I didn't say that when we say we get money from the state even if it's from John Wallace or for whatever reason it's still tax money even if it's not directly out of Newington so I do want us to be conscious of like State money isn't free money so as we move next week and we have those conversations like that we're mindful of that money from the state comes from our income taxes all right thank you thank you everybody for your comments uh Dr brummett any final remarks uh no just to confirm that the board had already voted on the capital plan it does include the John Wallace Wings the money has now been requested from the town

125as a pay-as-you-go project uh so that will be the point of deliberation among the Town Council Members when they get to that point in their budget process thank you Dr Fletcher all right thank you everybody and I will take the initiative to reach out to the mayor and try to set up a joint meeting I think it's a great idea I would like to talk to uh Beth hutwagner before I do that so we can work together as well okay so this is a record for this seated Board of Education we are less than two hours on a regular board meeting congratulations everybody motion to adjourn motions made and seconded all in favor say aye anybody opposed you can stay here good night good night thank everybody thanks Deb have a good