001All right, good evening. Welcome to the Wednesday, January 12th special meeting of the Berlin Board of Education. We're going to call this meeting to order with a 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. Right. I hope everyone is ready for a fun filled night a long night of budget so in advance I just want to thank everyone who you know spent a lot of time preparing for this evening so we will start out with our Athletics budget. Oh wait, we have a motion. I'm sorry I motion to remove item C from the agenda as it was discussed at our last meeting So motion by Tracy, second by Kerry.
002Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? 6-0. Okay. Thank you. Moving on, I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Benigni. Do you have anything you'd like to add before we get into the athletics? Nope, just that we asked Dave Franklin, our athletic director, to come back for a second night just to give a little more in-depth information regarding the athletic budget. So that will be the first presentation. Good evening, everybody. Thanks for having me back. I appreciate it. I talked with Brian over the last couple of days and just spent a little bit more time allocating and going over a couple of the line items where increases were needed. So I'll go through that in just a short little bit. But as I mentioned on Monday, just wanted to retouch upon our core
003values as an athletic program at the middle school level and at the high school level. Obviously our academic achievement is and has excelled throughout the course of my tenure here and even prior. Really excited to introduce our athletic intervention program and it's helped a lot of students that have time struggle in the class achieve that 70 average that we require for all student athletes that participate in sports. Our athletic department produces student athletes and coaches who always exemplify great sportsmanship, respect for others, obviously commitment to their own studies, commitment to the team goals, and commitment to our school values. And last but not least, as I instill in my coaches, our athletic department truly produces student athletes and coaches who totally aspire to work towards the highest possible competitive standards while maintaining their competitive and
004personal integrity. And I think that's really important, especially nowadays with things that are going on socially and emotionally with COVID and all the stresses of playing a sport while being an academic student first. So taking a look at a couple of things that are new to the budget, hence the increase. One of the things that the board agreed upon and conversations that we had my first year here was that the Board of Education was going to come up with a line item for $10,000 for our ice hockey program. In our previous years, last year, years before, this line item has not been in there. It was money that was guaranteed this year, which the ice hockey team does have. But Brian asked me to include it for the upcoming year and keep it in my
005department. So the $10,000 is obviously a new line item for our overall budget. They co-op with Newington, and there's three teams, Cromwell as well. We have close to 10 hockey players, most on that co-op team. But in terms of the $10,000, that's completely new, so that's why there is going to be a slight increase with our overall athletic budget. A slight increase in our trainer's contract, our medical services. Our trainer, Adrienne, is unbelievable. She knows the kids inside and out, does a tremendous job. When the kids are injured, she's been vital. Obviously, through the COVID times, when situations arise with major injuries, concussions and of the like, she's always there to talk to parents. I've seen her in action on the field, talking to parents, communicating with parents. She's really unbelievable. That contract is going
006up $300 from last year. Repair and maintenance over the last looking at the budget over the last probably seven years this line item has not changed at all It's increasing $200 We need to recondition helmets for lacrosse every two years per CIAC and per national standards That price has included and our numbers of lacrosse have gone up as well Hence the slight increase there I've asked for no staff, no addition to staff, no additional stipends this particular year. Our coaching staff is solid at the high school and at the middle school. And last but not least, our equipment and tournament line items. Equipment is for every single sport. I've had to move. some money around in terms of what we had last year for a particular sport based upon the need and what we spent
007last year but overall that line item has not changed and is not going to be going up and then tournament line items are uh you know wrestling tournaments if we make the ciac tournament in any particular sport that is we have to pay a fee for every individual on track cross country, indoor track, wrestling in some cases, or it's a team sport, football, basketball, soccer. There's a fee that's awarded there. So those have not gone up from the CIC and those are going to stay the same. Some of the things if you take a closer look with the budget itself Some of the uniforms I have a rotation. It's a five-year rotation And I instituted that when I first came here last year took a look at where everybody was and where everybody is and
008where everybody needs to be next year the big ticket items for Uniforms are our tennis teams our golf teams soccer indoor track girls tennis and girls swim. That's the biggest probably expense, the girls swim. The deck coats are extremely expensive. The last time they purchased desk coats were about 10 years ago. I saw the condition, definitely ratty, falling apart, a lot of patches on there. The BHS tennis, golf. The golf teams and tennis teams, typically they did not have any amount of money towards their uniforms. They usually get a polo shirt while they're playing in golf matches and tennis matches. I feel as they're representing Berlin, we're going to allocate some of that money towards these particular teams. I think it's only fair that everybody that plays a Berlin High School athletic sports team does
009get a uniform. So this is going to be a cost-sharing method where we purchase a shirt for a student athlete, and they'll have it for two years. In some cases, it could be three years, depending on the matches that they play. At the McGee level, middle school level, uniforms of need, we're in very good shape. After this year with uniforms, we're going to be in really good shape. We really are. At the middle school level, boys and girls basketball, they're the only teams that are on cycle. Those basketball uniforms, I could probably get for around $4,500, both teams, in that ballpark, $45,000 to $5,000, and then we'll be in very good shape. The other line item that goes up... regardless of what is going on in our economy and the state, nationally, is always a
010slight increase in our budget for officials. Typically, 1.5 to 2.5 percent. I try to allocate 2.5 percent to be safe. From a total from this year to next year, it's going to be an increase of $2,200 across the board. This is for every single sport, every single official, every single referee, for scrimmages, for our home games, and for our state playoff games that are at home. We have to pay for those as well. And then the last thing here is our transportation. I work with obviously New Britain Transportation, talk about what is the nature of not only gas prices but workers, the limit number of drivers they potentially could have and how they have to manage all of their trips. And pretty much it's standard to go up 3%. So we went up 3% and
011that 3% is equivalent to about $3,000 for next year. Moving forward, there's information that, you know, there's a new turf project that's on the scope and sequence from Mr. Joe Arsimowitz. And not to get into all that, but there's a big project that might be going on where we do eventually have a turf field here at the high school, which can save us a lot of money moving forward. So just to kind of keep that in the back of your minds. Our building operations and instructions, been constantly asked by coaches about necessity to improve our staff, have them grow as coaches, have them go to conferences, go to meetings of the like. CIAC, CAD, National Athletic Directors Association, there's... unbelievable opportunities in state especially. There are conferences very closely associated with us, with our state
012in Massachusetts and New York. This was a line item a few years back. It was, you know, I asked Brian if we could reinstate this line item as coaches have been constantly coming back and asking various questions about if they can get improvement, if they can take a look at what other new techniques, tactics, strategies are out there. And a lot of people might say, well, they just can go to YouTube and there's a ton of stuff on YouTube. To have that interaction with some of these individuals that are teaching is, you know. it's unbelievable just the context that you make the conversations that continue even afterwards the networking that goes on in these conferences as well from the sports teams and talking with other coaches is is is just great because it makes those
013connections worthwhile for the coaching staff and eventually leads down to the team so that if there's situations in terms of sportsmanship and of the like people are going to have a better understanding of what's going on. But in terms of the meetings and the conferences, that is a line item that we did reinstate. And I put in about $5,000. Now, keep in mind, we have probably over 100 coaches from the middle school and high school level. And some of these conferences could be up to $250 a conference. In terms of instruction, we do use a huddle system. We use it for many of our sports. All sports have access to it. And we have a huddle camera that's allocated in the gymnasium. Our football team uses a camera system. Our soccer teams can use iPads
014to upload this information to huddle system. It's invaluable. We've had that for many years. That cost has gone up $1,000. And really, this can help parents. When we're talking about recruiting, whether it's Division I, Two or three there's so much potential with the huddle cameras in terms of making video clips and sharing that information with Collegiate coaches. We've seen that in multiple sports already in just a short couple years that we've used this but The coaches use it to exchange film in some particular sports It's mandated for the CCC and our conference that we have this Other sports I can see us going in that particular direction, but it's just a it's a great coaching tool If you talk to your kids, they'll tell you that they use this tool even after practice when they're
015looking at game tape and looking at film to better their situations position-wise and taking a look at the overall strategy, techniques, tactical information from the sports venue. Our contracted medical services has gone up a little bit. First aid supplies remain the same. Extra addition if you will as a sports awards we've had I've noticed over the last couple of years in the budget cycle We've had many all-staters Awards varsity letters. It's been probably between five and a thousand dollars over than what we prepared for in the last three or four years. Awards have gone up, shipping and handling has gone up a lot as well as I'm seeing this particular year in just a short amount of time in the five or six months. So shipping and handling has probably gone up about 10% at
016least. So I've incurred that cost into this as well. So overall when taking a look at the overall budget for both the high school and middle school, it's about 3%. Most of that money is, like I said, from the ice hockey program of $10,000 as a new itemized line budget. And then there's obviously smaller increases in transportation, the officials fee, and then reinstating our conferences for coaches and the entire athletic department. So at this point, if anybody would like to discuss, talk, or have any questions at all, I'd be more than happy to discuss. Any questions? Yeah, go ahead. Did we, for the discussion with regard to hockey, and this started probably two years ago, maybe? Three. It was three? So pre-COVID and everything else. Did we put, we did allocate some money. It was
017not formally in the budget. Is that what it was? It wasn't a line item? Oh, yeah, sorry. That is correct. They do have money this year. The board has granted the $10,000 for ice hockey this year, but I was asked to put it into a formalized athletic department budget, so that's where it's coming from. Any other questions? Now's the time. Well done. Thank you. Thanks for going for a round, too. No worries. If something comes up and you guys have questions throughout the course of the next couple weeks, please feel free to reach out. Thank you. We'll make sure that's linked into Schoology into your account and presentation. Thank you. All right special education Thank you Good evening everyone I'm Linda holy and I'm the director of pupil personnel services Cindy Martin is here with
018us. She's the secondary supervisor and after Michelle's oizner's here. She's our elementary supervisor We put together and some of you have heard me over and over do the special ed budget It's complicated. So I really try to take time to kind of educate you about what the special ed budget So please stop me along the way We put together a presentation that will provide you with an overview of special education trends statewide and within Berlin our overall expenses, and our funding sources that are used to offset the general ed budget. I think it's important for people to understand that not only do we provide special ed services to students that attend our five schools, but we're also responsible for attending PPTs to students that are in our out-of-district placements. Students that go to magnet schools.
019We have to attend those PPTs students that attend Southington VO AG school and then students at st. Paul's so our staff are responsible if needed to help with the evaluations attending PPTs Of our students that are who reside in Berlin, but attend different schools I just think it's important to acknowledge the following people that help put this budget together. It takes a whole team And those are the people So thank you. I saw this today when I was putting my budget together, and I wanted to include this. Sometimes angels are disguised as someone with special needs to teach us how to be better people. This young man keeps coming up on my Facebook feed. He actually owns his own business. It's called 21 Pineapple Shirts. It's a shirt company. I'm not sure where he's from,
020but, I mean, he has a lot of good merchandise. So we're seeing that more and more with students with disabilities. They're opening up their own businesses due to social media. So here's our special education trend data in Connecticut. You can see, as Brian spoke, that overall for the past number of years, Our overall enrollment continues to go down, but special ed services and needs go up. And you can see here that in the state of Connecticut, the state average is 15.9%. In Berlin, we're a little under the state average. It's 15.20. When I got into special ed, the state was really adamant about special ed services should be kept at 10%. That was years ago. And this is where our numbers continue to grow. So here's our data for October 1. Every October 1. we
021have to present our data to the state. So this is where we sit right now. I think what's important to understand about special ed is that students are dismissed from services and found eligible on a weekly basis. So our numbers are constantly going up and down. But our data as of today is 438 kids are receiving special education services right now. This is actually the first time in six years that our numbers actually have decreased a little bit. Last year, we ended the school year after graduating 14 students with 445 students. However, this year, we saw a large group of our students move out of district. They moved to different states. Some students were dismissed, and then some students were also withdrawn to be homeschooled just because of the pandemic. Our magnet school numbers are
022up by two students this year. Our hospitalizations and homebound tutoring have been decreasing since 2015 and 17. That's mainly due to effective school solutions. They've really helped. our students and families to get our kids to school. However, with that being said, this year I am starting to see an uptick on requests for homebound tutoring. And it's really because of the social-emotional impact from this pandemic. And it's not just... In Berlin, we're seeing it statewide and nationwide. And also some students with some autoimmune disorders that just can't be in school consistently. So they're also requiring some homebound services. This is just a slide to share with you about if you look at our special education numbers, what are the disabilities that the students have that we're servicing. I think the biggest thing theme that you'll always
023hear me saying is that special ed can be can be seen as a moving target our data is ever-changing what's happening in our schools today is is only good for today it can change drastically depending on students moving in and out of district and as of today I can share the following information that was not on our radar last year when we proposed our budget so we outplace two students As of July 1 this year, those students were not in our budget. We're actually in the process of bringing one of our students back from out of district right now, and then one of our students has moved to another town. We have a possible student moving into our district who currently attends an out-of-district program. Roughly, that may be the tuition for that student. And
024then we also have another possible outplacement, and that could be the potential. And we keep taking our anticipated tuitions out of our budget which makes us nervous all the time because this is the type of thing that can happen We have already had 25 new referrals this year to special ed 11 have been found eligible Six have been not eligible on eight are still pending So these are our special ed drivers as Brian shared with you certified and non-certified staff are a big portion our budget overall. And on top of that, for special ed, contracted services is another big driver for us. The PBS department is currently made up of three administrators. We have special education teachers, paraprofessionals, registered behavior techs. speech and language pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, social workers, school psychologist, an assistive
025technology specialist, a BCBA and a BCABA. And like I shared before, all staff are assigned to help with testing and PPTs if needed at St. Paul's, Magnet schools, and any other student outplaced. Transportation, the special ed transportation line there is for our preschool students. They need to be put on a van. They're too little to go on a bus. Also for our students that attend any out of district placement, not magnet schools. These are students that go to a special ed school and as well as those students in district who require special ed transportation. We do own our own vans and NBT maintains the vans and they hire the drivers and drive our students. This is overall the special education department operational budget. There's a little bit of an increase in supplies and this is
026in field trips. Many of the supplies that are purchased by our occupational therapists are used for classroom purposes for all students. Field trips have been put on hold over the past few years just because of COVID, and our programs at each school use field trips to teach the generalization of skills in a student's IEP. Contracted services includes a lot of different items. One of them is psychiatric evals. Some of our students need psychiatric evals, a neuropsychological eval. some independent evals, working with consultants, and that can range anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per eval. Effective School Solutions is also in that line item. Just right now, the one at the high school, so we have two clinicians at the high school. The Effective School Solutions at the middle school is funded through a grant right now.
027We also have legal fees that fall under there, interpreters. Some of our families do not have a good hold of the English language, and this just isn't special education. This is for any student within our district. So for parent-teacher student conferences, we may have to have an interpreter at those conferences for the families. Some of our students also receive services from CRAC if they're hearing impaired, and that's different for every single student. Summer school is also a big line item in there as well, and that looks at our staff salaries, our PMT training, as well as transportation and PPTs. This is one of the biggest driving forces in the special ed budget. This is the tuition for our students that need to be educated in another school other than our own, just because their needs
028can't be met in our district. So we need to work with the families to find a school program that meets their needs. And it's always our goal to bring our students back into our programs. I actually received a phone call from one of our out-of-district schools a couple weeks ago, and they say one of our students is ready to come back. So we're in the process of transitioning him back. We did begin the year with 29 students that were outplaced, and we're now down to 28 because one of our students actually aged out. They changed the law from 21 to 22. So one day before your 22nd birthday is when you stop school. So he aged, his birthday was in the middle of December. So he's done and now he's on with adult services. This
029next slide just kind of gives you a breakdown of our students, how much the different tuitions are for the students at the different schools. So our tuitions run anywhere from $57,000 to $283,000, depending on where they're placed. We do get some relief from the state, and here's a little example to show that relief. So the state will help reimburse us. Our Berlin's per-pupil expenditure is 19,158 times 4 1⁄2. It's really 86,211, but the state gave us the figure of 86,212. So we get 70% back of that. So for example, if the student's tuition is 191, their transportation is 22, the total is 215. The reimbursement rate at 70% is 90,000. So our local budget is responsible for 124,859 of that student's tuition. Anybody have any questions so far? No. This just breaks down your some
030of our students that participate in the choice program are also currently out placed right now This gives you a breakdown of those students we have to pay those tuitions up front and Then we send the bill to Hartford and they reimburse us for everything except for that $8,000 that's given to us per student. This is a new slide this year So this is for our central Connecticut transition Academy I really want to just point out two things to you. The rent line item was kept in, again, because it's pending the YMCA care being put into McGee. Once that goes, that line item should be gone, but we did want to put it in there. And I also wanted to point out that if this program wasn't at the Y and it still was at our
031high school, all these expenses, with the exception of the utilities, is what we would be. we wouldn't be responsible for. So I think having that Y space, and once we get it all cleaned up for you, I would really like some of you guys to come down and take another look at it. We're still doing some renovation projects, but it's a wonderful space. Currently, right now, we have 14 Berlin students attending and four Cromwell students attending, so we have a total of 18 students right now. Next year, we're recommending the program. for 17 Berlin students and nine Cromwell students. So we'll go from 18 students up to 26. Now that doesn't necessarily mean they will all attend. That's our recommendations. And we, again, as Brian shared, all of these expenses are split 50-50 between Cromwell
032and Berlin. As I also shared in the Board of Ed update last week, I did have one town reach out to us after seeing that article asking if we would accept tuition-based students. They don't have a program. Well, they do have a program within their town, but they also give their families options to go to other programs. So we're definitely looking to accept tuition-based students. We still have to discuss what that tuition would look like. So we're excited about that opportunity. And these are just some additional funding sources. The federal IDA funding that is given to us really takes a lot of special ed staff. So right now we have 4.6 certified staff and 10 paraprofessionals, actually 11 paraprofessionals overall in the two grants. Part of that money does have to be allocated towards services
033of students at St. Paul's if they need special education services. So that's where you'll see the $5,479 is for tutoring. And then they also wanted some money allocated for in-service training. We also participate in Medicaid. We began billing for Medicaid services in 2016. What we can bill for is occupational therapy services, speech and language, physical therapy, and counseling, as well as evaluations. And this funding right here really helps fund one of our occupational therapists, as well as some PD for them. This is some additional choice reimbursement. So we do currently have three students receiving special education services that require more services over the $8,000 that we receive from the Choice program. So at the end of the year or the beginning of the year, we're able to bill back to Hartford. So this year we're
034projecting to receive $79,378 from Choice to help in that area. Then I just, this is brand new this year. We received ESSER funds in the fall, even though they said the money goes from July 1. We just were able to apply for it in the fall. And this is where the money is being allocated. If you go down to the bottom, the dyslexia recovery grant, that money has to go. That was the amount, the dollar amount that they told us we had to use with students who identify as dyslexia. for tutoring services. We had a bonus population recovery grant, which was 25,000 in that. And then the special ed recovery grant was 40,000. After talking at cabinet, we said we didn't want to put this in with staffing again, because it would be gone in
035two years. So we really looked at areas that can help with our students who kind of may have, you know, been impacted by COVID over the past two years. So. We're looking to train some of our staff and person-centered training, which is futures training. We're bringing in STARS 360, which is a progress monitoring tool in reading and writing, as well as dyslexia training and outside of hours. Sure. zeros up there but we're good oh okay it was a typo it's okay no that's all right tell me no it was just too many zeros on the eleven thousand seven on the dyslexia column thanks tracy no it was actually no big deal um and then we were looking at some uh showering at at the central connecticut transition academy to work on those adl skills with
036some of our kids This is the other part of it, the preschool part of it. Again, they also put in the non-public there. Oh, no, sorry. The ARP is different from the ESSER. This is combined with the IDEA funding, so that's why the non-public is in there as well. And we look to spend, to allocate the funding in these different ways to increase the field trips for our students. Cromwell is also putting that amount in to help renovate the YMCA from their ARP funds as well. Then as we talked about the construction space Jeff talked about a few board meetings ago at McGee To help with that and again, this is this is the preschool part that we really want to look at some Curriculum for the preschool and then provide learning opportunities in the
037community. These are the requests every single request was removed from the budget We did put in for one special ed teacher at the elementary level to be split between two of the elementary schools. Our numbers are starting to increase there. We also put in for six paraprofessionals. We continue to keep high-need students within our district through our specialized programs, and many of these students require a one-to-one student-teacher ratio. Those were also removed from the budget. The registered behavior technician. We currently have seven RBTs working right now throughout the district. They really are instrumental in helping to train our staff and collect data on our students who struggle behaviorally and emotionally. That was removed from the budget as well. As always, thank you guys for your support. We couldn't do the work that we do without
038your support. Linda, thank you so much. Thank you so much for taking the time to put all this together. I know that there is a lot here and this is one of the biggest budgets that's presented out of the big whole bunch of process. So I just want to give everyone a moment to gather their thoughts. And I'm going to turn it over to you guys to ask questions. Go ahead, Adam. Linda, when was the last time the state adjusted their excess cost grant? I have a loaded question. Well, Adam, I think you know when this excess cost grant came out, they were supposed to fund it at 100%. And I know as long as I've been in this position, it's been at 70. We're always afraid that it's going to go below 70. So
039I think right now we're grateful for over the past, I don't know, seven, eight years, it's been at 70. Mean it's it is unfortunate because this is an area that you know has probably the most need financially And it's the most out of our control not like you can budget for as you said you could have people moving into town You know on day one of school. We're leaving, but it's very difficult to budget for and And we've talked about it before I still say that if they if a town budgeted for a student for the school year and they move to a neighboring town That town where they came from should still pay for that cost throughout that year because they budgeted for it. We did not. I've mentioned it a few times, but
040it hasn't gone anywhere at the state level. No. And it's funny because I talk, I mean, I always keep our fingers crossed because I talk to some of my other colleagues and they're getting slammed with people moving in with high needs, tuition, kids, and again, you know, there's not enough money to go around. And then with regard to tuition for outplacement, there really is nothing within our control to manage that inflation on tuition, correct? Correct. It is what it is. It is. And like Brian told you, correct, just went up 12%. So are magnet schools. But no. I think they've been pretty consistent with us, about 3% over the years. But what some of them now are doing is tacking on for additional services. Which which it makes it hard to plan for as well
041You know and I know if question has been asked before well Do you tell the parents which schools they I always knowing the the needs of the student? I always try to give the parents three to four to go look at because they have to feel comfortable as a family That their child is going to be going to that school and the student has to feel comfortable too. So That's why we always give the family's options because it has to be a good fit for them. I've actually had a few students this year that it wasn't a good fit and we're in the middle right now looking for other programs while they're sitting at home. So that's something you don't want to happen. New facilities are coming online year to year or is it basically
042the same ones? It's the same ones though. There is one in Berlin that, well, it went into Moreland, but it's not accredited yet by the state. So no, there's not any new ones. Any other questions from any other board members? I know this one in particular, as all, is just a lot to take in. I just think it's important to stress that with special education, this budget, there really isn't any wiggle room because we are, in fact, mandated to provide these services. And like I say, if we can continue to make our programs... well developed programs within our school, that's one way to look at some cost savings. Let's keep our kids in our district. But when we do make programs, it does cost, we do need more staff because that student to teacher ratio
043is what makes it the best environment for our students to be able to keep them in public school. Do we have any other questions before we go to the next budget? Do you have anything you'd like to add? I just think it wasn't explicitly stated, but I think Linda has the numbers here that roughly 24% of the budget of the entire operational budget is for special education. And within that 24%, we're servicing roughly a little under 16% of the student population with a quarter of the budget. And many of those things are legal obligations about IEPs. So it's not as though we can just cut and make changes. If students are required to have a one-to-one or specialized instruction, we're required by law to provide that. And I just think it's important to note that
044in cutting those areas, it's not as easy as cutting a teacher or not having the right. amount of staffing or services for students that require them thank you if anyone has any questions you guys can always email me or pick up the phone or come in and visit thank you thank you thank you for your time now we will move on to our curriculum and instruction budget just to note uh our curriculum assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction dr aaron mcgurk is still out sick um so we asked lori jerpin and carl watson our director of curriculum in both areas. So we have our science, math, English, social studies, technology, our curriculum specialists and all presenting for assistant superintendent. I could keep going with the list of everything that's covered under the two of them, but
045thank you both. Thank you both. Thank you both for stepping in. No problem. All right. Thank you, Brian. And thank you, Board of Ed members, for welcoming us tonight. And welcome to our new members. So Brian already introduced us, so we'll just get started. I'm not sure if everyone has a paper copy of this. It was loaded in Schoology. It's not loaded in the original packet. It's in Schoology, though. It is also up on the screen for you. So we're going to just quickly review the different sections of the curriculum and instruction budget. The first is certified salaries. The small increase of approximately $1,600, that is a contractual increase for Mrs. Borup, our district EL teacher. So that's a contractual piece there. The instructional supplies, we wanted to make sure we clarified. Right now for
046this year in that category. It says that the budget was fifty eight thousand five hundred dollars It actually started at seventy eight thousand five hundred dollars, but as miss Dorsey mentioned recently Twenty thousand dollars this year had been moved from that account to another account to cover the cost of the griswold band room So when we look at our proposed budget for next year of seventy eight thousand, it's not an increase of nineteen thousand five hundred It's actually a decrease of five hundred from the original And for that, there are quite a number of supplies that are included in instructional supplies. Anything from book collections that support curriculum, additional materials that come up due to programs developed, such as right now we have a phonics program that's being worked on in the primary grades, replacement
047for instruments for band. There's quite a wide variety. The next is our other certified salaries. That's really related to our curriculum writing. We have a number of staff members who participate in that yearly, generally in the summertime. And that small increase of $2,100 is really related to a contractual increase because the pay rate goes up every year. Teaching and learning software and licenses is the next section, and that is actually a decrease, and I'll explain why. So we have instructional software that supports multiple content areas across K-12, including things like Lexia, Scholastic BookFlix, Smart Music, Storyboard That, Typing Club, etc. TalentEd is our evaluation platform that we use with our staff. That is actually being moved into Craig's budget, and that's where that decrease comes in. The next category is in-service. There is no increase
048here. That is an account for professional development presenter fees, such as K&M Literacy, Math Studio, author visits that we bring in, and payments for in-house professional development presentations. Out of district meetings and conferences, there's a small increase there. Registration fees really for administrators, teachers, other staff for professional development such as Teachers College, AP Institutes, College Board, the Science Center, Science Leadership Academy, CREC workshops, things like that. Quite a variety there. And the last for my section here is staff travel. And that's really a cost. There's no increase there. But that's the cost for district staff who travel throughout the day to different buildings and district. And the mileage fee for that is set by the IRS. But there is no change there either. And Lori will talk about the remaining. So there are no there's
049no increase in non-instructional supplies, but non-instructional supplies include supplies that we might need for district meetings, including new teacher orientation costs, resources for new teachers as they're joining our district. Admin supplies, again, there's no increase. That includes materials to support PD, so that might be professional resources. For example, we just purchased professional books that talk about how to use math literature to support math instruction. So that's one thing that we do. But it also includes things for curriculum writing and review. Textbooks, there is an increase of a little over $7,000. And every year we have to pay the world language text licenses for Spanish, the online access for chemistry and physics. We have to purchase an EMS course text, which is new. And then we're looking at middle school social studies. That text had an
050online component. and when Flash went out the window a couple of years ago, so did that online component of the text. So we have to look to see if there's something we should be doing. Additionally, the World Language book is almost 15 years old. Dues and fees. So this looks like, well, it is an increase because last year the dues and fees were prepaid and this account was zeroed out. So that includes items for ASCD, CAPS, CSSA, and CSM, just different professional organizations primarily for the administration. Dues and fees, Connecticut Library Association, that's something that we pay each year and we just wanted to make sure that it was lined out and identified for you to see. It allows for purchasing materials for libraries at discounted rates. So last year we saved over $4,000 in
051our purchases by using consortium rates that are identified through the Library Association. And then we have field trips. So we have our second graders going to the Berlin Historical Society. We have them going to the Peck Library. We have transition between elementary and middle school. So they take buses. So those are those field trips. Are there questions at this point? It's pretty straightforward, but if there are questions, we'd be happy to talk to you. Do any members of the Board of Education have questions? I was just saying, do any members of the Board of Education have questions on the presentation? No? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming up and stepping in and presenting this to us. Very lean budget. Okay, so we will move on to the Board of Education overall review.
052I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Benigni. My hope is in Monday evening and this evening that you've had an overall picture of the budget. And I just go back to that stacked bar graph as a great pictorial representation of the entire budget, looking at it being 3.6% approximately for all contractual obligations to maintain staff and programming. And then that additional... 1.1% Approximately being the various new items that you saw added to the budget some of them being essential such as software increases and so on to maintain the operating systems of the district I think what is unique about this budget is that you don't have new staffs or programs and I hope that you got a sense that when the administration prepared the budget they kept it supplies at zero new staff or
053not move forward and they looked at it through a lens of making it as Lean as they could with still maintaining the level of education that people have expected. So Just a little Kind of concise comment about the budget and I'd gladly welcome any questions this time So, I think we've taken in a lot of information we have a lot of information in front of us our next meeting We have another special meeting scheduled for Monday January 24th and that is going to be the discussion of the proposed budget so My recommendation strong suggestion take all of this go home go through it write questions. We've had to me myself Myself superintendent benigni as questions arise so we can help work through them Prior to the meeting and bring your questions forward. You can certainly
054email me any questions I'll send out an email about a week prior just because if you have the question, I'm sure a lot of other people do too If you're having difficulty making any sense of components, I'm happy to help or point you in the right direction. So this is the time where we are going to do our homework and go through the budget. I know last year some board members had reached out and we went through things together and it was, you know, more digestible. So, you know, it can be a big undertaking. All right. Okay, so that was... Agenda item number two. Okay, so the next item on the agenda, I have actually asked Superintendent Benigni to add it so we could address this tonight as a board. Before I turn it over
055to the superintendent, I want to make it clear, what occurred at our last meeting is not typical nor the expectation of how our board functions. We all need to be on the same page. So it's just worth stating, I've stated this with our Within the past year with our former board makeup and when we have a new board composition You know what I'm revisiting this after hearing from members of the community over the past 48 hours I'm not discrediting the concerns. I think they are important bringing them forward but concerns that were brought up at the last meeting Needs to be brought up to the super we need we need a heads up prior to the meeting even a few minutes before Just letting us know that it's coming our way otherwise We need to
056be properly prepared to address them and not look ill-prepared at our table. And this is our collective table. It also shows a level of respect amongst our colleagues here. So we are here to serve the children of the Berlin Board of Ed. And, you know, if we are having a perception where we lack trust amongst us or within the community, That's going to be a constant roadblock to move our district forward. So as a board, transparency is vital to the public's perception. And so when individuals are acting on their own rather than as a collective board, we're not functioning as a team. And I do value teamwork as highly important to be a highly effective board. So before Superintendent Bidingy gets into, well... I'm going to turn it over to you right now to talk
057about the learning, the queer theory taught in the curriculum, and then I'm going to frame the learning for justice and the social justice standards. So I will, you can actually address both of those, and then I'm going to continue addressing my points. Let me just go to the podium. Yeah, please do. Thank you. So I'd like to address the first item that was brought up was the queer theory being taught in our high school. So without knowing, and I do apologize, I don't think I should, I don't know the entire curriculum. I was the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction. I did bring in Atlas Rubicon years ago, which is our curriculum mapping tool. I am familiar with it, but I don't know every course and everything that's taught in every course. But once that was
058brought up last night, before I left the board meeting, I had a text from the principal of the high school. and I believe the teacher who teaches the course was watching the board meeting and immediately responded to the question. And so you have what you have in Schoology, board members and what's in front of you, is the response about the course. It is taught in a UConn ECE course, which essentially UConn ECE course is a college level course that students have the option to take and they pay for at the high school. And it's not that queer theory is taught as a component of the course, it's taught within the course within an assignment. And that assignment essentially deals with Disney and Pixar, and it's the way that you take maybe male or female characteristics
059and you impart them on a character. And that's one of the areas or one of the lenses that they teach the students to look at and analyze, and that's how it's taught in the course. So the question was, you're teaching about queer theory. No, it's not part of the curriculum. It's within this one course that it's being taught. And students have the option to take the UConn course should they elect to take the course. And it is in that course. So if the board is in a position where they want something like this highlighted before a student takes the course, and that's something that we want the curriculum analyzed from, and that's a board, collective board decision, then that's something that can take place. But as far as it being taught and it's something that
060all students learn about, it's taught for the students to be able to analyze. literature and beyond. They used the movie Sing, which is a Disney movie, as the means for it. I'm seeing some board members shake their heads, so maybe their students have actually taken the course. And from speaking to the principal and reading this write-up and doing some more research, at this time I don't feel it's an issue with it being in that course and being taught in that manner. If the board would like to discuss it further, I'm open to that. And if it should be documented differently in the curriculum, that can be done. I don't know if there's any questions. Are there any questions from members of the Board of Education regarding this? Thank you for the clarification. So my guess,
061my understanding is then that the course is driven more from the university because it's accredited course. So students, if they're going to take these advanced placement classes, are following the curriculum from the university versus what we are suggesting. Is that fair to say that? In this case, there it is. So there's the UConn actual definition of the course that you would see in the early experience course offering. So whether you're taking the course here in Berlin or the same course is offered in other districts, it's the same curriculum that needs to be taught and the same assignments. So yes. But if we're adopting that course and we're going to teach it here, it becomes part of our curriculum. So what I'm saying to the board, if we feel that this is inappropriate to have without
062having some disclaimer, and that's a collective board decision, then in Atlas we could put something or we could put something in the course catalog that would denote that. But as far as it being taught as a mandatory item that we're teaching all students about it, that's not the case. It's taught only in the context of this course, which I believe at this point, and obviously the board can tell me how you want me to denote it, I don't believe that it... poses an issue because of how the students are using in the context to analyze literature. It's, it is, queer theory is something as you said last, this is Napa, you said it's out there, you did some research on it, you can find it, it's not as though it's something made up by the
063teacher and it's something they're using in an academic setting to, to analyze something as something someone would do from a different lens. There's some examples here if you a little more and they thought that the language arts department head gave some great examples You know Hollywood continues to inaccurately portray plus-sized characters as a source of ridicule therefore so they're giving other examples how queer theory might be used to ridicule and Different lenses that the students would be taught about in the course pop culture So if you want to get a little better understanding, I think it's very helpful just to read through those bullet items You have the document in Schoology. Yes, you do. Adam, you had a question? My daughter is actually in this class right now, so I asked her about it last
064night and you know it's it to her She was like yeah, just one more way of looking at literature. You know and because it's a UConn class I mean there's life outside of Berlin and she didn't she appreciates the the ability to look so look at something in five different ways and this was just one way of Looking at a piece of literature, and she did enjoy watching the movie saying and looking at it that way, but I mean, it's part of a UConn curriculum. We pay for it. It's an optional college course that she's taking, and I see no issue with it. What other questions? Carrie? I don't have a question. I would just say that it is an elective course. Students can opt into this. At least at the college level, a course
065description is something that you have the opportunity to peruse before enrolling in a course. So I imagine that students who are enrolling in this course are going in with their eyes wide open. and electing to do that and just to i appreciate adam's statement with respect to um you know your daughter's perspective on looking through various critical lenses i think that's what we hope to instill in all students is to be and all people right is to be able to um think for themselves and analyze critically things that are presented before them it doesn't mean we're always on the same page it just means that there are different perspectives from which we can view the same issues so so i appreciate that So the next thing about poor selection is, sorry, we can't have these
066conversations back and forth tonight. I'm going to call to order, the meeting to order. So I'm going to, so the next, we're going to have to take a recess because we are not going to do this again tonight. So, so, so what do you want to do? So at this point, I cannot run a meeting where we are not modeling what's expected of our students. All right. So we are going to reconvene, and we are going to continue to conduct board business. At this time, if we as a board cannot conduct business, then I'm going to end the meeting, and then we're just going to add it to the agenda of the 24th, which is another special meeting. So superintendent benigni i'm going to turn it back to you. I know. Oh, I so I
067had a question I was trying to ask so or a statement. So with course selection at Berlin High School, if we don't have enough, and you can confirm, if we don't have enough students signed up, we do not run the course. And that was a budgetary action we took about three or four years ago to reduce spending so we're not having one teacher to five kids, or I think we capped it between 10 and 15 for these college-level courses. So if it's not a popular course, we don't run it. It's the same thing with the social, with the... new elective that the state man is mandating us to offer and we said that at our last month's meeting we have to offer it if no one wants to take it or there's not enough enrollment
068we do not run it so we're not running it on like one or two students um i don't know if you or uh principal eustace has the enrollment numbers but you know it's just it's something typically typically courses that are not at least in double digits don't run typically It may it may run if students need that course and there's a group and we can afford to to be honest with you We have room in the sections, but typically it's double digits for courses to run at least double digits if not above 12 I thought The idea of being more descriptive in the course description might be beneficial to the parents These kids are still in high school. I know that it's a college level course. However, I think that parents, if they are still
069involved in course selection on the high school level, that they may want to know a little bit more, as you said, maybe. highlighting something that might be somewhat controversial for them and they may not want their child to take the course regardless of whether it's college level or not and they're going to get credit for it on a college level. So having said that I think that maybe being more descriptive would be beneficial. I don't know what that would entail. I haven't looked at the course description as of yet and what it says but I think you know, adding more might be okay. You know, I mean, I think it's okay to let people know exactly what they're in for and what might come up in that course. And what I think is, it's a
070great point you bring up, and, you know, you and Dr. Sasse, you're both on the curriculum committee. So, you know, I know, Dr. Sasse, you're the chair of it. So that's something you guys can work together to discuss and to determine. if that's a direction that the committee wants to go and engage in that work. So hopefully from now until our next month's meeting, you guys can have a meeting and then report back. That would be great. Thank you. Melissa. Just had a question. I mean, I know it's an elective course from UConn. How long have we had this elective course? I'm not quite sure how many years, but I'm sure we can get an answer here. since inception, I knew that. So nothing's changed in terms of the curriculum from the 2015-2016? But if
071UConn makes a change... in the curriculum, then we're notified of it because in order to teach the course and receive the UConn credit, it has to align whatever the course description. So if UConn said, we're making a change, it wouldn't just be Berlin Public Schools, it'd be anyone that teaches that course. And they would update us on the curriculum or even what texts have to be used, they update us on it. We're required to purchase those texts. And then the teachers who teach the course have to go through annual training with UConn to make sure that they are teaching what UConn wants them to teach. And then if not, then UConn can pull the class from the school. And then I know that there is a cost associated. It came up at our last month's
072meeting, the fees associated with AP and ECE. So maybe Adam, you know, Eileen, Brian, the fee and what that goes to. Is it the test or the textbook or both? I believe it's $300. It's not associated with the text. It's associated with the credits that it's bearing. That's why you're paying the fee. So in order to take the course, you have to pay the fee to be in the course to receive the credits. And the payment goes directly to UConn. It does not go to the board of... That's right. That's correct. We don't gain any revenue from it, no. So typically, and I'm just asking this... especially thinking about after last meeting and Eileen's presentation about the AP classes and the proposed item about paying for the tests, which we haven't acted on as a
073board, however, it did come up. So if a student is enrolled in that course and they are taking it and their parents are paying it, like, Are they typically well informed about the courses or the student has interest or the parents are put it's a number of variables Adam do you want to speak to that? No, honestly, it depends on each parent. Usually it's my wife going over with my daughter. But I mean, if there are questions out there with regard to the curriculum or what's being taught, it can be found. Whether it's going directly to the UConn website, if you call the school, I'm sure that the teacher can get you more information. If there are questions, they can be answered. So I've never had an issue with that. what other questions or statements
074comments do board members have i just want to make sure i understand so if the course description needed to be amended something added to or deleted let's say is it the college that drives that or is it us that can do something to it i mean i don't do we have the ability to do that or is it the university that drives if we were amending the curriculum that uconn is requiring we could not certify that the students are getting the credit because the college dictates the curriculum. But what we could do and what Julia was suggesting and I suggested is if the board feels that there should be a notation in the program of studies for specific courses. then it could be a notation or icon that could draw attention if parents may not
075feel comfortable with something that may be taught in that course. But that, as Julie said, that's a great discussion for curriculum council and decide what that parameters would be and then those would be shared and we do curriculum work in the summer and analyze the curriculum. We would have teachers go through and look for those areas and then note them in the program of studies. Okay, thank you. To the UConn course description just be provided. Absolutely. We have it right here. I think this way because UConn is coming up with the curriculum be easier just to provide the link. So with AP classes, do we also have to use their course description? AP is different. It's word for word, correct? Or no? I'm going to turn it over to Tylene to be a little more
076specific there, but the AP courses. There is a curriculum for it, and the expectation is that you cover that curriculum so you'll hear students say it's moving so fast. That's because the curriculum that's being taught is what's assessed on that exam. So it's essential that the teachers have the right curriculum that aligns to the assessment. But Eileen can give you more details on the AP. When you're talking about the course descriptions that are in the program studies, those are very brief descriptions Otherwise your book would be way too long and I'll be quite frank I'm not sure exactly how many people are reading the program studies currently to that level of detail So as far as the course descriptions, Julia, you can, you know, we can write our own description for the AP course, but
077we're required to follow the advanced placement curriculum that's given to us from the college board, which essentially is preparing students for that, all of the content that's going to be on the exam. And then similar to UConn, it is, and it's also similar to Tungstis that we're associated with, Southern that we're now associated with, as well as Capital. community all of those schools that we're associated with, we will take their course description and if we have to tailor it a little bit basically to fit the parameters of our program of studies, we do that. But we do, anytime you're affiliated with someone, we have to provide them with our curriculum and they have to provide approval. And there are parameters that we have to follow in order to continue to have that partnership and have
078the opportunity for students to earn the credit. So hopefully that answers. I know because I the classes I teach in my district are capital and so we use our course description but they have to approve that as well as the curriculum and it and for one of the classes it took us a number of years to get the curriculum approved and we had to keep taking their feedback and changing and changing and changing and so it was it was a process and then at any point because I keep saying I want to rewrite this curriculum because I'm not happy with certain things we will lose credit so I know for each institution it varies But I know UConn is a lot more strict because that's like their trademarked program. Some similar how College Board is
079strict but in different ways so and you have to submit your curriculum every year to schools as well to the colleges as well as to College Board College Board does what they call an audit Basically every year if your course hasn't changed you're basically submitting the same curriculum materials each year but this way if there is a change College Board and or the colleges and universities that were affiliated with can see what those changes are and Typically, if there's changes, it's because they're dictated from the school. Right. What other questions? What's been discussed here is certainly something that we'll discuss in curriculum committee too. Distinguishing between a course description and curriculum is an important piece. A course description, as Eileen just articulated, is a very brief description wherein you could not possibly articulate all of
080the elements of what's covered in an entire in an entire course. However, I was thinking exactly what Adam just said, and I think it's a great idea, Adam, is if there's a possibility to embed a hyperlink to the various universities' course descriptions, which might offer a little bit more on what would be covered, that could be a potential possibility, if you think that would be reasonable, Eileen. Well, there definitely could be a hyperlink, whether the link is back to Atlas for a local course that's our course, or the link is to UConn or AP, whatever, you know, Southern, to link to it so people that want additional information are able to attain it in an easy way. Yeah, just so that it doesn't have to be an overly, you know. Repetitive, right? Right. So if
081they update it, the link is still there. It goes to the new curriculum. It stays current. And that's how, you know. and I'll talk about it, but that's how Atlas works. When we make changes in the curriculum, the parent link is to our curriculum. It's not a separate document. Right, exactly. house night that's one of the main things is to actually talk about the course in more detail most teachers will pass out a syllabus that shows the units and a greater level of detail that night we also have board policy that allows people to opt out if there is a particular assignment or unit that you are not comfortable with for a particular reason you can you know, talk with the teacher and there are alternatives that are provided. So that there's always that option
082as well because I will say the UConn course, it's an amazing course. It's a great course and we have a lot of positive feedback from people in terms of how it has truly been instrumental in improving. their writing and their literary analysis skills. It's a difficult course, but we've had a lot of success. We actually are running four sections of it. So we've actually increased the number of students that have been wanting to take this course over the last few years. Four sections this year? Four sections this year. And teachers are, they're maxed out. They're only allowed, a teacher's only allowed to carry two sections. That's another UConn rule. Okay. I have a question. maybe we can just use this course as an example but so with a situation like this where it could be
083something controversial or whatnot have we had any complaints or concerns from parents or students perhaps taking this course about situations like this or something like that. Have we had any? This is my fourth year. No one has come to me. And as far as my understanding from the other, from the teachers that have been teaching the course, including Mrs. Amenta, who's now a building administrator, there have been no complaints that have come forth. And we're already past this unit. This is one of the, this is the first unit that occurs in the beginning of the year. And I want to also point out, this is a small piece of a 10-week unit. This particular essay and assignment, the text that they're reading and the assignment, it's a small piece of a much larger unit on
084argumentation and rhetoric. So I want to point that out, and I believe there's a few people in the audience that actually have students, their children have taken this course. Thank you for answering it. Any other thoughts, questions, comments? I think that clarified and you know provided us a lot more information than we had the other night. Okay so we are going to move on to the learning for justice the social justice standards. I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Benigni and then I can read what the board website says. Go ahead. Well, I can start with what the board of ed. Do you want me to start with showing an atlas what we talked about? Or do you want while you pull that up? I want to just read what the website says so
085the Board of Education website if you click on Under committees the link for the social justice and equity it says in the fall of 2020 the Board of Education approved the formation of the equity and social justice Advisory Committee the Berlin Board of Education recognizes a need to address and dismantle the institutional barriers and systemic racism that continue to impede equitable educational opportunities for each child of the district. The Equity and Social Justice Advisory Committee is committed to evaluating and transforming our current practices at a systemic level to eliminate disproportionality in education and all aspects of administration. These efforts require a long-term commitment from our advisors. that includes both making recommendations and staying engaged as our work progresses over time. So we do recognize that this is a difficult topic where it can potentially really
086create a lot of unrest and it can polarize people. And we certainly do not want to do that. And like we've previously stated, this was a charge of a past board chair and we've been attempting to manage it. So I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Bedigny and then I will and take over after, go ahead. Okay, the portion I wanted to speak to was on Monday evening, that was brought up that the equity and social justice standards were uploaded into Atlas, which is our curriculum mapping tool. That was unbeknownst to me. I look back at numerous times that I speak to parents on the phone, via email, or even in front of the public, and I said, if you want to see that it's not in our curriculum, please go into Atlas. It's
087been there for 12 years and look at it. If I was aware that those standards were uploaded, Would never have said to people go look it's not in there. So I apologize for that totally Those were not put up by me I was unaware of it at the time that they were put up until the evening here You may say as a superintendent you should have known that there is someone who's in charge of curriculum instruction It is under my purview still on the superintendent. So I take responsibility for them being there, but I was unaware of them So what I do want to say after further research that I did as soon as I sat down to my computer, where I go into Atlas, I go in and I have much more authority. I
088go deeper. I can search for things. So when I sat down, the first thing I did was I typed in equity and social justice. And that does a search. I'm going to show you in a moment. That searches our entire curriculum for anywhere those two words come up. And it shows any courses. where equity and social justice are even named. So let me just show you that for a moment. It's going to take me a moment to get into it, and it won't take but a minute. Do you know why it's not loading? It says it's loading, but it's not loading. I want to go to where I sign in and under. It says working. I don't know why it's not loading. Let me try that again. I think it's a problem with Atlas. It
089keeps rebooting. I don't think it might be something. Do you have any notion why it keeps rebooting itself? I'll get in now. Thank you. The new browser. Hopefully three times is a charm here. There we go. So once I'm in Atlas here and I have my dashboard, I go to adopted standards and I select. Here you see various adopted standards that are listed under there. And unbeknownst to me until Monday night, you have... learning for justice social justice standards and After the board meeting I asked and obviously inquired how they were listed and why they were here. They were listed because There was the teachers wanted they wanted it was going to be used by teachers To look at curriculum and it wasn't to be done It wasn't directed to be done and I will
090show you in a moment that none of these standards not click on them None of these standards are linked to any courses, meaning that teachers did not, when you have a standard in Atlas, you take the standard, you write lesson plans, and you link the standard to those lessons, and then if they're then embedded within the curriculum. These standards are posted here, but they are not linked anywhere throughout any of the lessons that are listed in Atlas, and I'm going to show you that that's not the case. So despite that, if you look at these standards, you'll see suggested lessons. That's not the case that we took and wrote our own lessons or took any lessons that are already written and embedded them within our curriculum. So let me show you that and how we
091do the search here. So when I go over to the search button, I'm going to type in equity and social justice. Did I spell it wrong? Oh, sorry. Equity. And I can't see it here. I think it's right. You can see it up there. What this does is it lists every course. There's one through six. There's six courses total that use the word social, social justice, or equity in any of the courses. The essential questions, any of the questions you'll see. And you can see what course it is. Modern World History, Berlin High School Social Studies. You can see it's a collaboration map. Berlin High School World and People. World and People. Modern World History. World and people one and then world of people one here so you can see what's being implemented the lesson
092plan I could click on you'll see further Gandhi lessons Imperialism, but these are all the courses that have equity or social justice listed anywhere within the title You can see justice here. So the reason I show you this is to state that Even though the standards were listed as adopted, those standards, and I did not take them down purposely in the last 48 hours because I didn't want people to think that we're doing something that's not transparent. Those standards will be down tomorrow morning. They will not be on the website. They are not adopted. They've never been adopted. It doesn't mean that adoption necessarily goes through a formal board process, but it does go through a process of being vetted, talked about, curriculum council, and so on. So those standards will be coming down. They're
093not adopted, and that will take place tomorrow, probably before 10 o'clock. So I wanted to share that with the board and let them know that. Again, I apologize. I was unaware that they were in the curriculum, but they're not. They were listed there, which they shouldn't have been, but they're not embedded within the curriculum at this moment. Questions? Thank you for sharing that. I think, yeah, I think, you know, just to the point I stated earlier, like... with all good intentions, just if this was brought to us prior to, even an hour or two before, we could have figured that out. It still could have been addressed. It still could have been made public, but we would have been able to figure out, like, why I was sitting here saying, well, I've sat on the
094board for six years, and I haven't heard anything about this. And then when Superintendent Benigni searched it the way he did, he didn't see anything about it, and it took. a significant amount of time to get to the bottom of how that got there. We want to make sure we are providing that information. We want to make sure we are up front with that information. But I think when we're sitting here hearing about it for the first time, we kind of look like we have no idea what's going on. But that's not the case because I have sat on the curriculum committee and I was shocked by it. But I think... Yeah, thank you for explaining that. Does anyone want to add anything? Melissa, do you want to follow up? Because I know you brought
095it up, so I just wanted to see if you had any follow-up. No, not at the time. I mean, it was addressed, and I mean, I'm glad it was brought up, you know, because who knows how long it would have stayed up before, you know, or somebody else might have. It just came up front. I mean, you said it wasn't adopted, so they should have never been there. Yeah. So. Yeah, go ahead. I think that the valid point of seeing when they're adopted, anyone that looked at that would think that those standards were adopted unless they went. You don't have, the public doesn't have the ability to do a search like I just did and see everything. So you have to click through every, come see if they're there. That's not fair. Are other standards,
096such as technology standards, world language standards, do they go through a. a grand adoption process for the district, they don't. But those standards in particular, we've had ongoing discourse. It's been difficulty within the committee. So taking those standards and just posting them like other standards, when things were issued, there were issues with the committee, there were concerns about the committee, concerns about the standards expressed by the board members that were currently on the board, by community members, they shouldn't have been listed there. So that's, like I said. It's not, I'm in charge of everything, but it was not, I was unaware of the listing until actually you brought it up last night, I mean Monday night. I was unaware of it. I did know, and I said repeatedly that we weren't teaching equity and social
097justice standards. We weren't doing that check the curriculum. There's no critical race theory. Go in and look at the curriculum. But I was unaware that the standards, you know, were posted. Thank you. Anything else? I do have a statement to conclude, but I just wanted to see if Adam, do you have anything? I know you weren't here Monday. No, I missed the great meeting. That's all I know. Carrie, I know you weren't here either. Anything. Okay. So on the website, I read what, what the purpose of that committee was and it was from the website. There's five goals to follow. I will say that this board has changed three times since all of this has been initiated. You know, the buy-in was. Potentially subpar from the board that it was established on it was mixed
098everyone comes with different views and backgrounds and thoughts and and so at this point You know over the past Seven months I would say we've been really giving it our best effort to really try and manage the situation Because this work is really important to some and really, you know, it can also be very very divisive and polarizing As a board of education, I do not want to run a meeting where we are separating people and polarizing them and making people feel one way over the other because of work that is happening at our table. That's not the board that we want. So the committee structure has not functioned as anticipated by the previous board chair, like Brian stated at our last meeting. At this time, as a board, we need to reevaluate the structure
099moving forward. And this is... As a board chair, I am stating this as this is what we, the direction we are going to move in until we have this opportunity to sit down and come together. I think the initial purpose was to find ways to bring people together to discuss certain topics. I would often tell people that, you know, When when people call and question I would say well, you know It's a forum for people who are really passionate about these topics or want to be involved in these discussions to have them but we have not been able to do that that has not happened and You know, we've had board members not satisfied community members. We've but then on the other end we've had people very satisfied and in Berlin public schools, I don't
100want to sit at the head of this table continue to be putting ourselves in a situation where we're taking away from the work that we have to do to support all students and we've just been attempting to manage it it's been a huge challenge it's been a lot of time outside of board meetings it's been incredibly stressful for all of us in many different ways and we have not been effective so at this time I'm recommending that the advisory committee is going to be dismantled in order for us to determine how this board as a new board, and again, like I said, it's changed three times, how this board, this board makeup is going to address equity and social justice, what our goals are as a current board and what our next steps are moving
101forward. And that, again, cannot be determined until we have that opportunity. I know we've been, you know, trying to find some dates to come together and everyone's schedules are busy and budget season can be really overwhelming. But until we have that opportunity, we cannot continue to put this on the agenda, continue to polarize our community. That is not what Berlin Public Schools stands for. That is not what our Board of Education stands for. So at this time, we are going to dismantle the committee until we as a board can determine our next steps. Any questions, statements? It might not be a popular decision, but I've had to make it at this point. Okay, there's one final agenda item this evening. I motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? So the motion is by Tracy,
102the second is by Carrie. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? 6-0. Have a wonderful evening, everyone. We will see you next month. Oh, no, in two weeks.