Board of Education Meeting

001Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to call our regular Board of Ed meeting to order. If you can, please join us, stand and join us in 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. All right, thank you. All right. Roll call we have everybody here this evening good to see everyone happy Wednesday We have a very special spotlight tonight from our students at CLEs I'd like to give you guys a floor for performance. Thank you so much for coming ladies and gentlemen any job ladies and gentlemen Thank you, Whiskey near middle school chorus. Thank you I got a very wonderful email back saying absolutely yes. I sent a

002very last minute email to 8th grade parents after we took them to Broadway last week. So I want to say thank you to the parents who last minute said absolutely we will be there. So this is some of our 8th grade chorus ready to sing Bridge Over Troubled Water. Parents, do you want to come down this way? Plenty of seats. Plenty of seats if you want. Get back to, thank you so much again to the CLES band and the WMS chorus. You guys did such a phenomenal job. We thank you so much. We will now move into public comment. The Board of Education welcomes public comment. Each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak. It can be on any topic at the start of our regular meeting. A maximum of 20 minutes is

003allotted for the comments on any item. Discussion of school personnel, individual students, or individual members of the board is prohibited. And with that, we will kick things off with Irene. Irene Correa, Oakville resident. Tonight the board will discuss the formation of a special education subcommittee, an initiative that is not just necessary but long overdue. Special education does not exist in a silo. It is a thread stitched throughout the very fabric of our entire district. With a multi-tiered system of supports and strong Tier 1 instruction, are vital for every student, we must recognize that even our most talented teachers may not always have the clinical expertise to identify dyslexia, dysgraphia, or the specialized tools to remediate a speech impediment or deal with challenging behaviors. We need specialized eyes on our specialized learners. This subcommittee should be

004groundbreaking in its inclusivity. I urge you to include not just staff, but parents, community advocates, and the students themselves. I'll leave you with a story from a recent parent-teacher conference. My daughter suggested a very specific way to lay out her assignments that would help her process the information. After trying it, her teacher told me she taught me something about teaching that day that I had never considered in all my years of teaching. Our students are often our best teachers. Imagine what a collaborative committee can do for this entire district. I want you all to vote yes for the creation of a special education subcommittee. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up, Andy Correa. No, it was I'm letting it go back. I turned it back over you got some time. Don't worry You want

005to finish your wife's time and take yours my man go for it. Yeah, so January 5th and 6th, I put in the FYI request 70 days later just got the response there. It's data that should be readily available Off the shelf the two FOI requests as the board should know Was documentation on whether we're you know following the school climate law as well as records behind the data that's loaded to a Connecticut ed site with the Department of Education as it relates to bullying data. So if you go and you look on ed site at Brookfield High School, how many verified acts of bullying there are on the website, you'll see an asterisk. That's data suppression, so you won't be able to tell. potentially who the students are when there's less than six bullying events

006in a year. So that says there were zero to five bullying events last year in the school year. So I was curious because I have four reports where my daughter was bullied by the same kid. Verified acts of bullying, I have the report. Now one of them, it took nine months to get, and I had to have our lawyer. Pressure the district's lawyer and the district's lawyer was frustrated and had to go back to the administration a couple of times For them to send the report and that was the one about the emoji Picture that you guys all got and my daughter was called out of order at one of these meetings for bringing Right that took nine months to get the report When I got the data from Ed site there were 47 records

007of offenses 44 of them were not related to bullying. Substance use, running in the hall, stuff like that, ISS's. There were three instances of verified active bullying. So how does my daughter have four and there are three? Well, the three that were listed, my daughter wasn't the victim. I can tell because of the dates. Two of them were coded as bullying against somebody that is not in a protected class. And the dates were both on September 16th, 2024. That was before these issues started with my daughter. The one record was flagged as verified act of bullying against somebody of a protected class. The bully was unredacted because it was my daughter. She was verified as being a bully for hitting record in a restorative session. that she was lied to to get into, where she

008was berated, where her bully said that she S'd her D all day and is an effing B for 45 minutes, where four adults didn't stop it. When that happened, they found out we got an email saying it was a wonderful restorative session, everything's going to be great going forward. And I pushed back and said, no, that's not true, because of this, and I described what happened. And they told me that it's not true at all. And I said, well, I have recording. I have recording. Okay? Then they gave my daughter a warning for recording, for violating the cell phone. And when I called up the administration and said, that's crazy, they called my daughter in and gave her an in-school suspension. And when I wouldn't let her serve it, they gave her an out-of-school suspension.

009Thank you, Andy. Three minutes. And then... You have three plus minutes. Sorry, sorry. I can get a few more. I gave you a few extra, though. Yeah. Can you let the next person speak, please? I understand. This is fraud. I understand. And the answer isn't training. It's all right, Steph. It's all right. Annie, can you just let the next person speak? Call the cops, Stephanie. Call the cops. She's not calling the cops. She's just asking you to let the next person speak, please. I understand. I got you. Thank you. Jamie Lynn Zapata. Good evening. My name is Jamie Lynn Zapata. I live in Brookfield and my child attends Wisconier Middle School. I'm here to address a concern regarding disciplinary practices that occurred in my child's classroom and how the situation was handled afterward. In this

010case, a few students misbehaved while under the supervision of a substitute teacher. In response, the entire class was punished. Students were required to sit in silence instead of completing their assigned lesson. I raised concerns and I was told that this was a unique situation that would not happen again. However, in the next occurrence of that same class, the same group of students, including those who had done nothing wrong, were required to write apology letters for the behavior of their peers. Students who followed the rules were forced to take responsibility for actions that they did not commit. And I want to be very clear about why I find this concerning. First, this is collective punishment. Research consistently shows that this approach erodes trust, creates resentment, and discourages students who behave appropriately. Second, students reported being told

011by a different substitute teacher that they should feel lucky that writing apologies was their consequence. Framing an undeserved punishment as something that students should be grateful for sends a confusing and harmful message about fairness and accountability. Third this approach is inconsistent with the district's own policies which clearly state that students are responsible for their own behavior and that discipline should be fair respectful and focused on constructive learning Additionally two full class periods of instruction were lost and replaced with punitive activities unrelated to the lesson plan Finally, after raising these concerns, I was given an explanation that described the apology writing as optional. However, multiple students independently report that it was presented to them as mandatory and that they were required to apologize on behalf of their peers. Additionally, a building administrator called me today to

012offer context and said that the kids were allowed to complete the video and worksheet after writing the letter and after that was over. I was told that that was not the case. The only activity that day was letter writing. This means that the explanations that were provided to me did not accurately reflect what happened in the classroom. When parents raise concerns, they should be able to rely on receiving clear and accurate information about how situations involving their children were handled. I have outlined specific requests for review and corrective action in the letter that I submitted to the Board of Ed yesterday. I ask that those requests be carefully considered. At a minimum I'm asking that the board ensure that disciplinary practices within this district align with established policy and uphold Individual accountability and don't rely

013on collective punishment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you mark. Come on down mark morash 25 mistill Drive Brookfield This board needs an ombudsman. It needs a parliamentarian This board needs what the Board of Finance has which I hope everyone watched the 30 minutes of deliberation after you met with them last week where they had caring conversation considerate consideration of ideas No raised voices going back and forth thinking of ideas that could help the Board of Education I think you all should have homework and watch all of their deliberations because how they talk with each other is what our students deserve for the Board of Education. Instead, last week at a policy meeting, a board member gave me a talking to that when I sit back there and people are whispering to me. That it is

014difficult for them to focus that it is distracting. This is a public meeting people are going to talk I don't think anyone on the board thinks my decorum is out of line and I hope if it was the chair would do his job and Say we need some quiet to have an individual member of the board speak to me in that way Seems out of line. This was the same board member who has tried to stop public comment at special meetings But that being said, this board needs an ombudsman, needs a parliamentarian, so that when a board member steps up and wants to kill the special education subcommittee, if they speak something that is untrue about the bylaws, someone can correct them. Two weeks ago at the beginning of what will be a very important

015conversation later, someone said every committee has to have at least three board members on it. There is nothing in our bylaws that states that. And that needs to be made clear to the public. And that needs to be apologized for because you cannot stop helping kids, students with special needs. based on something that's not true. We used to have language in our bylaws. Somehow the policy committee got rid of it where it stated that the vote of the board with up to three members on each board. Even our old language didn't say we had to have three members. Later in that language, it somehow got removed in 2024. When establishing the composition of subcommittees, the board chairperson and our board shall make these determinations in the spirit of diverse representation. Please remember that later when

016you are voting yes to a special education subcommittee. All around our state, towns have language about creating committees. I picked Newington because our superintendent's familiar with it. All standing committees except the Executive Committee may have members not only from the Board of Education, but also from other groups as authorized by the Board, such as faculty, student body, administrative officers of the district, and other interested persons as either voting or ex officio members. We've already heard, and I agree, a special education subcommittee needs to hear from parents. Please make sure they are a part. Please vote yes for that committee later. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, everyone. Okay. Written correspondence. Yeah, we got a lot of those. Thank you to everyone who reached out to the board sharing their thoughts and concerns on the

017graduation. I appreciate it. We heard you loud and clear. It's going to be a minute, guys. I'm going to apologize for names in advance. The following people wrote into the board since the last board meeting. Naval Unler... Am I on? No. No, you're on. She's on. It's on. Naval Unler Turk. Helen Heather Mills Hunter Park Danielle Olivier Jennifer or Jenna Shinto Ambriel Mills Susanna battered in Kaelin Robles Rebecca battered in Jamie Lynn Zapata Amy curly Tara art of Bonnie Melissa Carl Katie resin Glen Rooney Brian Hoffman Andy Korea five emails Irene Korea three emails Kate Rosa, Jada Vincent, Mia Solomon, Sophie Friedman, Leah Jada, Ansel Haxioanto, Brianna Williams, Maria Coelho, Kaylin Fulcetti, Amy Montesano, Nora O'Venessian, Juliette Pond, Chris Hughes, Mark Morash, Emma Henning. Alyssa Burdick, Carolyn Zaletsky, Randy Shaw, Jessica Tanger, Tina Lepore, Wendy

018Campbell, Isabelle Sweeney, Madison Bukdamar, Ashan Afseen, Daniel Fulcetti, Jamie Clavins, Ryan Lam, Allison Cantone, Jacqueline Heck, Samarith Shirshat, Lamas Fayed. Ambrose Higgs, Arden Kekase, Ariana Abando, Olivia Franti. I don't know. You should be saying these, Emily. Tara Ackerley, Parker Caron, Dominic Shikarowitz, Lynn Parchinski, two emails, John Lopez, Joseph Gaudio, Delric Santos, Ann Higgs, Ellen DeMar, Kristen Scanlon. Michael Lent, Michelle Fulcetti, Kara Sylvia, Christine Lent, Abby Salomon, Allison Carboni, Melissa Yeager, John Lamedola, and Chris Hughes. That's it? Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Approval of board minutes. You're up again. I move that the board approve. The minutes, as recommended, Board Retreat 3-2-2026 and Regular Meeting 3-4-26. Okay, any discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, 7-0. Thank you. All right, Mr. Friese, sir. So

019do you. All right, thank you so much. I just want to share a brief update on the superintendent's report. A couple of items. We, under teaching and learning, had a great opportunity to be a part of my first Brookfield Education Foundation meeting, so the BEF, and really got a great sense of... how the BEF supports our educators in trying to be innovative in the classroom. So this is an opportunity where some educators have an opportunity to kind of propose an idea. that would require some funding, additional funding beyond what the board has already planned for in their operating budget. And then the BEF will listen to the proposal. Teacher comes in. I had the great opportunity to see an actual proposal in action, so that was fantastic. One of our teachers came in to share

020an innovative idea. And then I heard the BEF deliberate about that idea and the criteria necessary for staff to be able to meet. what it would be to qualify for that innovation in our classroom. So it was just a great opportunity. This is an amazing group that fund raises for the benefit of our students. So I hope that our teachers continue to submit innovative applications and I hope the community continues to support the fundraising events that they produce because I think that's what gives us the opportunity to be able to make those things come alive in our classroom. I just wanted to share an update on that. I also had an opportunity to meet with our K-2 special education team last week. And there, really got to listen to some of the great work that's

021going on at CLES in the special education department, as well as understand a little bit more deeply some of the areas that they can use a little more support. So it was just a great team, really focused on how they can... provide the best individualized instruction for our students and also you know, share some ideas on what we can do to help support them to be able to do that to their best ability. I was also able to share with them a little bit about the Cubs program that I've presented to you all and get their feedback on that. And that was some insightful thoughts that they had and some great opportunities for me to reflect on that proposal and make sure that we are inclusive of everything that we can be if we move

022that forward. So it's a great group to meet with. Similarly, I had a chance to chat with Dr. P, who's here tonight, and Deb Farias, and just talk a little bit about the expansion of a pre-school or education program, early childhood program, and expanding that to a full day with the opportunity to have up to 15 students participate in that program to begin with and see where it goes from there in years to come. again really looking at how could we make that happen and great feedback great thoughts great ideas really looking at how we could do that at CLE s as you all are aware under business and operations the Board of Finance is currently deliberating about our budget we have that on the agenda for later this evening so I won't take too

023long on that because we'll have great discussions around that later tonight but I just wanted to share that We are always open to any questions that they may have as they're deliberating. And I think tomorrow night, Caroline and I are going to represent the board and answer any further questions that they might have around our budget. So I hope that we can have a fruitful conversation this evening. So that way we are prepared and can come to the Board of Finance understanding best where everyone here is with our budget. So that way we can represent the board well. NHS bathroom update. Told you I'd have it on every time I come, right? So the bathroom update is this. We are in the process. Two things are happening right now. One, the grant has been finalized

024that we are working with Brookfield Cares with, right? So it's been signed. Everything's signatures from the principals, from Brookfield Cares, and that has been sent off. Fingers crossed. Hopefully we receive the, you know, finances that go along with the vape education that we would be able to offer. Remember, the grant is for $10,000. $5,000 would go to Brookfield Cares. $5,000 would come to us for vape education. Secondly, we are looking at vape detectors in the bathrooms at Brookfield High School. And this coincides with some financial updates we'll talk about later on the report is a drip grant that we received. And I'll share with you what drip means in a minute. It's not a leaky faucet, by the way. And so we have an opportunity to use some financial resources to hopefully purchase even more

025than expected of those if we can get... all the quotes in so we are planning on right now we're looking at specking everything out building out an RFP and making sure that all the details of that are accurate and hopefully putting that out to bid early next week. And then we're hoping that some bids come in pretty quickly. We expect it only to be out for about a week and a half and then be able to see what we can do and when we can move forward based on the bids that we get. So we would bring all that obviously to the board and share with you the update on that information, the bids, and what we would vote to move forward. here at the board level. Wow, high school musical on stage. If you

026had a chance to see it, it was phenomenal. I got to go opening night, which was exciting because what I heard when I was chatting with some folks in line who've been there numerous years in a row now said that that was one of the largest opening nights that they've had. So just what a great spectacular way to kind of start seeing the theater performers in our district on opening night. So they did a phenomenal job. Everything went off flawlessly. I mean, you wouldn't know it was opening night that night. They did such a good job. But I bet it was even better the next days after because I'm sure they tightened up things even more as great performers do. So I just want to give a shout out to all the everyone from the

027actors, the actresses, to the teachers who participated in it, too. That was pretty cool. You know, to the pit, to the ushers, to the folks out and where you kind of. walked in in in the audit um the um the entry area who were selling wonderful things to kind of you know get some i'm sure donations to make all that come to life it was just an amazing production so great job there at the high school calendar award as I shared with the board there are a couple of young folks who participate annually in our fire marshals calendar award and we have two students being recognized Alex Guerreras and Avery Miller and they were this year's recipients of the annual fire prevention poster contest and they will be honored at the Danbury Exchange Club later

028this week so really proud of their artwork I do have it linked in for those of you who can see it online. Just a great job. And our cheerleaders, one. State champions. All right, all right. Great job. And swimming continues to do great. There's a great streak there, three individuals. I won't go through everything. There's a lot here, but just really great stuff happening right now in Brookfield that we need to be proud of. I'm sure Em will share some great things too, and so I don't want to steal the thunder there because I did, I think, a little last time, so I don't want to overlap. And I'm open for any questions that you might have on anything I shared so far. Any questions? Oh, Alex and Avery, they're at CLES, but I don't...

029Fourth? Were they fourth graders? Alex and Avery, I'll have to look into that. I apologize. It is. That's what I thought. Oh, got it. Awesome. Good. Thank you. Good. it's my first experience with it so thank you so we can we can look into which grade they're they're both in cool yeah and I just want to remind everyone again it's autism awareness acceptance March 30th through April 3rd that's in your packet as well our separate co you know wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of that so great all right thank you very much sir appreciate it So community reports we'll start with joy which got okay. So we met on March 4th and There's some maintenance updates at CLE s there continues to be an issue with the do a to a to

030is that's for a large arid air handlers keep tripping ABS the software company is responsible for that technology in those units So we believe that the permanent solution is to install these new alert and duct temperature averaging sensors on these four units so the facilities team is in the process of getting this work scheduled hopefully the scoreboard has been delivered yes or not yet so it's scheduled to be delivered on March 13th yes it's not here yet I think it was actually like over this past weekend like the 16th but I don't have an update on that. I don't think it's here yet, but I could be wrong. I'll check with Mr. Baldwin. Okay, so hopefully it's here or in transit. Yeah, yeah. I won't give the update of vape detectors. You already updated the

031board on that. And I guess I'll just add to the BHS the bathrooms. So as of today, there are five additional bathrooms opened up. They have been cleaned, fixtures and lighting checked, recalibrated security cameras outside the bathrooms. And keep in mind, especially at the high school, the English Wing girls' bathroom, the toilets are stained from the well water because they've been sitting in the porcelain toilets for over 10 years. They are stained, but they are cleaned, even though they appear not clean. Joy, I have an exciting update on that. Oh, okay. I never thought I'd be excited about toilet bowl reports. But, yes, in that girl's bathroom, we did find a scrubbing product that worked really, really well. I will show, I'll share the picture with you because I did take a picture of it

032because I don't have the before. I might have a before. But it really did, it looks really great. And they did a buffing machine on the tile floor, so that looks good too. The dividers, the walls on the stalls are still sort of graffitied from 2013. So we'll have to forgive that for now. But that bathroom would certainly be identified as we still have some money in our capital for bathroom renovations. So we would definitely look at that bathroom or the two bathrooms down near the athletic wing. that are also open we would look to renovate as many of those as possible with the remaining funds but the toilet bowls are clean I was very happy about that okay less named so there's been a bunch of capital project updates Casey and Steven met with

033Paul Checco and Josh Flowers from the NBC to discuss many of these projects for example a roof replacement the board of Edmonton Purchasing Agent is currently verifying the scope of work proposed by the lowest bidder So once it's been approved, we'll turn it over to the NBC to prepare and release the bid for the construction phase. There was an urgency for replacing the library roof above us as soon as possible. Oil tank replacements. The RFP is being developed using a design bid build approach rather than a design build model. Casey will work with the purchasing agent to gather sample RFPs and share them with the NBC for review and feedback before moving forward. The gym floor is at Wiskenier. There's some testing being conducted on the gym floors to provide additional information for contractors who

034may bid on the project. So once that testing is complete, the results will be shared at the NBC, and an RFP will be developed and released. And that project will be coordinated with anticipated planned replacement of the roof over the large gym. And to note, the roof over the small gym was replaced last spring. And then some HVAC upgrades. So this project is eligible for reimbursement through a non-priority graph funding, which is important. NBC has appointed to oversee it. Casey provided Paul Chekho and Mr. Flowers with documentation relating to the initial RFP, and that was released for the project. And there's been a wide range of bids received, and the RFP is going to need to be revised. So Casey will follow up with Paul. and Josh after they've had the chance to review the

035materials. And I won't go into the drip funding, even though it's great news. We're getting $120,808 of direct funding from the state. So we'll talk more about that later in the agenda. But that can be used on any renovation or repair. And we can draw from it as we need it. Excellent. Any questions regarding that? All right. Thank you, Joy. Yep. All right. Special meeting for policy and communications. All right, so apologies ahead of time. This was a long meeting. We covered a lot, so it's going to be a quite detailed update. KC Diop presented a new wellness policy to the committee based on the most recent National School Lunch Program administrative review audit that was done. The recommended new policy is drafted from the UConn R.E.D. Center who works closely with the State Department

036of Ed and National School Lunch Program. It was determined that it was easier to replace the policy even though we just adopted it in the fall because the language is much more specific and some of the things it was just easier rather than trying to make our current policy comply. The district wellness committee reviewed this policy at a meeting in late February and looked very closely at each section, ultimately recommending offering no food at school celebrations. So in addition to food allergies, it can exclude students for religious reasons. And this new policy has the support of the school nurses as well as students and parents on the wellness committee, which is a representation of each school. We recognize that this is a big change, but it is imperative that Brookfield schools are an inclusive environment

037for all students. And this was a really good step towards making sure that nobody feels left out in these situations. There are lots of ways, especially in the elementary school, to celebrate birthdays and holidays with crafts and parents coming in to read, extra recess. So it's not taking away anything that already currently exists. It's just... putting a more strict handle on food being provided at school celebrations after a lot of discussion within the committee and considering all the recommendations and scenarios that could have been possible including having all food go through the cafeteria the policy committee decided that there will just be no food at brookfield public schools for celebrations and that is reflected in this new policy that is on the consent agenda for a first read tonight. You'll see the meal charging policy

038also on the consent agenda tonight. There have been a few language changes that were made after the National School Lunch Program administrative review audit. It's to ensure that we're in compliance with the latest recommendations and then there were a couple of number changes. if you have any questions we can go into more specifics about it but it was just really simple administrative things so the use of building fee schedule we were asked to put this on policy meeting agenda by both Rob and Steven we introduced the new fee schedule after the start of the school year in the fall in October and a few groups brought up their concerns with this sort of new fee schedule being started so so quickly being implemented so quickly. The importance of this new fee schedule as the board

039determined unanimously ensures that our custodial crew is paid what they are contractually obligated without the district having to cover those costs as we have done for several years. Most groups that use our schools recognize that we're still charging less than most other schools in Fairfield County and understood the need for this update. That being said, the board recognized that sometimes there is a need to be flexible in the event that a program runs multiple times a week or becomes a burden to the program, running the program for kids. So, for example, the Basketball Association had brought forth their concerns. The organization spoke with the superintendent and Casey, and they figured out a reasonable path forward with all sides agreeing that the fee schedule that they will adhere to. this year and probably next year. It's

040kind of being negotiated whether it's going to continue into next year. Everyone kind of came to an agreement on that. I don't know if I would qualify as everybody came to agreement. We set a new rate, right, and that's what we're charging. It is, as I shared at policy, it's a very, very nominal increase. For example, if we were charging previously $14 for a rental of the gym, it's now maybe $16. The custodial, the weekend custodial rates were... No, on the weekend, right? Because that's additional staff coming in for overtime, and that does need to be charged at the current contractual rate because that is what we are paying our staff. So that is what we will bill, and it does say in the policy that it is up to the discretion of the superintendent

041to set those rates, and we thought that was fair. But didn't you guys work with when Vonda was here with the interim superintendent and spoke with the... group at the time, right? Yes. So they're aware of the changes. They're absolutely aware of the changes. And you guys had conversations about the rates. Yes. I don't know how satisfied they were with having to pay anything, but that is what... But that can continue to be an ongoing conversation if need be. That's why we have the asterisk. This year we'll bill them what we agreed upon and then we can bring it up. Exactly. That's why we included that asterisk, right? Exactly. What about the administrative fees? Because I knew that that was an issue to begin with. So the, yes, so we are charged, so for a

042one-time or an occasional use of fees, there is a flat rate for sort of overhead. because we do use our secretarial staff, our custodial staff, our AP clerk who does all the invoicing regularly. So we do have staff that dedicate time that is not charged for weekend rates, right? But just... Because it's not covered like toilet paper and paper towels. Yes. And that's sort of the facility fee that's charged. But the flat fee of $25, if they are to use... you know a gym or a cafeteria or a classroom even during the week if the custodian is on staff they wouldn't be charged that additional custodial fee if a custodian is normally scheduled to work but that 25 flat fee is just to cover all those other overhead costs for the Brookfield Basketball Association we

043did waive that 25 rate instead we just charged a flat rate for the entire season of 200 for that incidental overhead because it's several months of you know invoicing and setting up schedules and and custodial rates so I understand yeah just for us to understand how many times are they renting these facilities so what schools are they using I mean are they renting it 10 times are they renting it 300 times more than 10 more than 10 I think one one month I just looked at these invoices today one One month was over 100 hours, so I don't know how many days that is, right? But, you know, multiple times a week, every week. Across all schools, or are you using one specific school? Wisconier and BHS primarily. Okay. Yeah. So the other group that

044the committee asked Mrs. Yacht and Mr. Freese to work with was Parks and Rec. We wanted to come up with a reasonable fee schedule for this current school year, recognizing that the fee schedule is introduced. in the fall after the start of the school year, they may have had their programs in place and the fees they were charging had already been set for their school year for after school programs, specifically like for CLEs. However, we will move forward at the start of the 2026 school year with the fee schedule as adopted by the board in the fall. That's what the committee had decided. So they're going to bring back to us what the agreement with Parks and Rec is. Charging the $200 flat rate fee that we agreed upon with the Basketball Association felt like

045it was too. low because they use the facility you know much more often it was also brought up that parks and rec has started requiring a $25 per person fee for sports teams to use cadigan so that was sort of what we had based the decision to charge a $25 per day fee for the schools because it felt like it was in line with in alignment with that we felt like all of our original reasons for adopting this new fees could this new fee schedule still applied so the committee is not recommending changing the fee schedule that the board adopted in the fall we're just going to simply work on a case-by-case basis as different groups bring up their concerns Stephanie just a quick question didn't we decide for like park and rec for the

046spring like we were gonna negotiate that what yeah how to pay yep so that's that's right that's what I meant by they're gonna work with them to bring back some kind of reduce or recognizing that they need a different fee schedule for this year so they haven't I don't know if they've talked to them yet but they were gonna bring it to the next meeting okay not this not tonight's meeting but the next meeting once they were able to talk to them and so that is there are there any questions on that I guess is the All right. So then we discussed process and procedure with our amazing new superintendent, Mr. Friese. It was great to have an instructional leader and not have to just, like, make everything up ourselves. So the process that we've

047sort of been following for the last six to nine months is sort of how we're going to continue. With the addition of reviewing the policies that we want to bring forth to the board. in more detail in committee so tonight we sort of put that into practice for the first time we'll take the policy mr freese is still setting our policy priorities so um you know it was decided tonight that the first thing we're going to start with the student discipline so we took the student discipline policy and we're able to go through it sort of page by page, concern by concern, make our language recommendations, and then that will be brought to the board at a future, we're not quite ready to bring it to the board at the next meeting, but at a

048future meeting for first read, and then we will have sort of a broader discussion at that point as a board, and then it will return to committee for a second, or return to committee for further review, and then. second read and that will work the same regarding regulations so after a lot of discussion and guidance from mr. Ferris II these will should still be created by the administration and handled at the school building level if a policy that we get from Shipman and Goodwin comes with the regulation it will still be separated out so we will still be reviewing the policy first however discussion around the regulations is encouraged It's not clear within our policy, and this is kind of sort of where we divide it as a board, whether or not the board should

049formally vote on a regulation or just review that regulation. So Mr. Farisi suggested that we as a policy committee review policy by law 9313 to make the board's role in approving regulations more clear. So if you guys have specific... feedback and concerns if you have something you want us to consider it would be great if you could send me an email so that I can incorporate that feedback into our next policy meeting so we can have everybody's you know opinion on that I know that was Some people feel very strongly one way or the other and I just want to make sure we account for everybody Our next meeting is at the end of April that third Wednesday in April So if you could just get me your feedback or your concerns or what's really

050important to you in consideration of that If you have any questions or you want to say something now, that's do I have a clarifying question Yeah, when we say the board votes on regulations in my experience a regulation is a regulation. So I don't know What is it the board votes on for it? Well, so we don't right now. So the regulation, right, so we had discussion that the policy is the what, right, and the regulation is the how. And the board has a history of doing it both ways. And the bylaw doesn't make it clear whether or not we should have the policy and the regulation together for a vote or if we should just vote on the policy and just review the regulation. So that's sort of the process we've been instructed in

051the last. nine months is that you just vote on the policy the regulation is what it is the the administration it's a state usually state no so the regulation is the what the building level uses sorry okay yes different language It is a weird word to use in this area. I just thought I made a wrong assumption. No, yeah, the state regulations are in the policies. Those are the legislated recommendations that would be in the policy. In this case, the regulation is what the school uses to enforce that policy. It kind of gives it further guidelines or details on how that policy should be enforced. So, but which we can talk about like offline if you need to. Yeah, I actually, I mean, the only question I have is I think it's really hard when

052you look at policy. Regulation is how we're going to, how they're going to carry out policy. So I think if at all possible, the policy regulation should be given somewhat together or when it's fresh in people's minds. Yeah. I mean, you shouldn't be approving a policy and six months later we look at a regulation. That is correct. They need to be married together because although we may not be approving it. we may look at it and be like well our policy says this and the regulation says this because that's the prescription you're giving to your administrators to carry it out yes and the intention would be if there is a regulation that's already written that's exactly what we would do we would just separate it out for the so there's two ways to look at

053it and our policy doesn't make it clear we can either separate it out vote on the policy we've reviewed the regulation and so then we give the regulation to the school right and to the administration there's desire for the regulation to stay part of the policy and actually approve it and the what we've talked about there is sort of the idea that how would we make sure that the school could make the changes they need to make without us as a policy committee and as a board having to go in and make those language changes as we would you know, through the process of, like, first read and a second read. So that's what the committee is going to talk a little bit more in depth about, how that process would work, what it would

054look like, how it would affect that process for the administration. But, yes, the intention, I think, would be to review. Yeah. And I think the idea would be if there's a regulation required that it was or desired that the policy didn't include at that moment, we would review the policy, but then we would also, when it came time, the regulation would be reviewed as well. Yeah. Which bylaw was it? Sorry. The bylaw 9313 is on our agenda for whatever meeting we can get to it because we're going to have to probably put on more time. And then the committee is working with Mr. Friese to identify policy priorities, which we started tonight. So you will hear more about that at the next Board of Ed meeting. Like I said, tonight we started reviewing the student

055discipline policy. We're not quite ready for it to be brought for a first read, but that process is going to be much more productive because we are reviewing it together. It's it was always and we did so much work as policy committee previously So for these big policies that are you know more difficult? It's great to be able to review it in real time with the superintendent. That's really helpful and lastly we have a proposed change to the agenda construction Tonight you'll see it on the consent agenda. It's a really simple language change sort of modernizing the language We would like to change old business on all agendas to unfinished business So that's on for a first read. If you have any objections to that, you can let us know. Otherwise... Can we waive the

056reading? I mean, it's kind of... We could... Well, we have a meeting in two weeks, don't we? I don't know. It just seems like... Yeah, that is one of those that's... I think we can waive. Yeah, our next one's not until the 4th. We... We can? If we feel like... You might just need two-thirds vote. Yeah, we would need to have two-thirds to make sure that everyone was comfortable with that. Should we do it now or when we get to the consent agenda? Probably when we get to the consent agenda. Okay. All right. All right, that's all. Thank you. Any questions? Thanks for being here. I know. Sorry, it was a long meeting. We had a lot to cover. All right. Caroline? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So we had our last regular

057meeting of the finance subcommittee on March 10th. We started with review of the regular financial reports, the check registers. the financial report, teacher turnover, and the special education at a district. Under the check registers, we had a discussion around the legal fees, which I think we're going to have more discussion on later in the agenda, so I'll pause on that. It is reported out that year to date we are coming in at approximately 0.68 variance to the budget, which is amazing, with an approximate surplus of 375K at the time, most of which I believe is coming from the special education transportation bucket at the moment. There are no changes to the teacher turnover update report from last month and our out of district special education is coming in with a small positive variance of about

05825,000 so far. Under new business, we reviewed the budget transfers. This is our third round of budget transfers for this fiscal year. That is a little later in the agenda separately as Exhibit H. I think I would like to open it up if there are any questions from the rest of the board members on the transfers. We can welcome those. Yep, great question. That was several repairs made to gymnasium equipment. So some backstops for a lot of safety items that needed to be addressed, some pulleys and some backdrops on equipment. So it was all related to every year we have a company come out and do an inspection of all of our gym equipment and the bleachers. And so those were identified as priority items to fix there. at both uh wisconeer and the high

059school yeah so i mean obviously i said it in the finance committee meeting too i mean my concern is that you know whatever we have slated you know to do at our schools i would hope we would find the money to do it and not just take money out and not do it so i mean i know that we have that grant but i mean there's just a lot of work to be done at our schools and year after year we keep saying well we're not going to paint we're not going to do this and i just it's really hard to see us pulling and not doing it. Are there any other questions on the transfers? I know we'll vote on it technically as part of the consent agenda, but no. Okay, a little bit

060of good news. So under old business at the Finance Committee meeting, we had a little more discussion on the 26-27 budget, the hot topic of the time. I'll share a little bit of good news. The state has come back with a reduced insurance rate of approximately 12.5%, which is about a $300,000 adjustment to our budget at the moment. This has 310, sorry. Okay. It's updated. it's an approximate okay so 310,000 specifically which will be removed from our 2026 2027 budget and has been communicated with the Board of Finance as well at this point again we'll have even more discussion on the budget later in the agenda so I'll hold other comments stay tuned for that Again, under the Finance Committee, we did talk about the DRIP grant fund. Again, we're going to talk more about

061that and what we have for some ideas on that a little bit later in the meeting. There was just a couple of actions around the legal fee portion under our miscellaneous discussion was to send the RFQ we did for the legal fees back in April of 24. That has been sent for review. We also have a summary of the to-date legal fees for review again later in the agenda. The to-date legal fees for review again later in the agenda. So I think. That was it for the committee meeting. Anything else? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Wendy? Kate? Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. All right. So we met on the 11th, and Dr. Galvez, who's head of world language and TESOL for K-12, was there, Mr. Belanda, and then Dr. Spencer, who's head of

062humanities. So I – you guys – Many of you have very crisp and distinct note-taking styles. I have yet to find mine. So what I tried to do was put the most pressing items up at the top. Those are in bold. And then I just have notes as I took them. So we'll see how this evolves. The first item is this textbook for the, I believe Mr. Beland is Global Themes the Sophomore. history option a sophomore history option so here's the student textbook or wait or maybe that's the teachers edition it's it is it's so interesting and you guys made fun of me for how gaga I went over a previous textbook I was right back in that same place with this one it's really good I think no I don't I don't have money

063like that But what I really liked for the teacher, the teacher edition had all kinds of really practical, hit-the-ground-running, whether you're an experienced teacher, a newbie, if you have multi-language learners, if you need materials in different formats, different Lexile levels. I thought it was really... really good for instructors and I think that the textbook I don't know we can give it to Emily and have her do thumbs up thumbs down but we were really enthusiastic about our reception of it Dr. Spencer and her team spent a lot of time looking at various publishers different options and this is I believe a McGraw-Hill publication and they've had a lot of success and students have had a lot of success with these materials so we really liked it and we wanted you guys to check it out

064and hopefully we'll be able to vote this evening and and accept this textbook for students next year students and the teacher for next year Sarah would you like to add anything or I just had a quick should I ask the question now or later in the agenda when we go to vote on it Okay, I'm just asking. So this, you said, is used in what grade? Tenth. Tenth grade. Okay. Okay. And what are we currently using? I'm not sure. Yeah, I can speak to that. They're currently using open source documents and based on the new social studies standards that came out, they really felt that a textbook was warranted to be able to address the breadth and the depth of the standards. Okay. Is this an elective or is this a required class? Well, 10th

065grade has to have history. Mr. Branda did... They only have a fifth grader. I don't know. No, it's third grade. No, it's third, tenth grade. Actually, Caroline, Emily has a comment on this. Oh, I just, instead of global themes, I actually just took an AP instead. So I took AP Human Geo and AP Modern World History. So, like, I didn't really take global themes in class, but I think I learned probably the same things. Okay. And then when I looked at the review of one versus the other, I mean, the other option didn't look like it was even really an option. So my last question is around, like, the financial impact, right? So if we're using open source, then that costs $0. So I guess... What's what's the impact for next year? Well, you mean

066financially or you mean like why why so couldn't open source? No financial needs Yes, so The it's in the it's in our current budget and it was already budgeted so that's not for the next year's budget Good question Yes It is for a total of $14,546, and that's with print as well as digital. So we have 60 copies plus the teacher editions for two teachers for class sets. That's $5,530, and then 60 licenses plus teacher's edition on the digital side for about $9,015, and it's good for six years. For a total of $14,546. It's in this current year's budget, so it has nothing to do with our budget conversation that's coming up later in the agenda. Okay. Just wanted to clarify. Thank you. No problem. Casey, did you have different information? Okay. Great. Make sure

067we'll have to stick those licenses in the budget in six years, right? In a line. Every year. Every six years. No. Oh, every six years. This is good for six years, so six years from now. Yeah. You'll all be having that conversation. We'll revisit it, yes. But there will be new standards, new technologies, et cetera. So the second major piece was a really excellent, actually, presentation from Dr. Galvez. And I don't know where to find that presentation. Yeah, because I think the board members... Okay, I searched I searched for it Exactly and so yeah, she was same one. She was on it at a Finance Committee meeting. Thank you. Okay. Um, we made it very clear to dr. Galvez that board members were interested in what kind of data could help us assess the quality

068especially at the lower grades of the current world language and TESOL program so the Take away on that is that there are a couple things she said. Number one, it's a special and it's important that we remember that speaking just for the elementary grades and typically students are not tested. None of the other specials engage in student testing. So she said she understands. Oh, also with the model that they use, it's pretty apparent that most kids are at the novice level. it is easy to predict that most students would land at the novice level. So it would be a trade-off in terms of the time for performance testing to get the results that wouldn't tell you anything new. So that's where she was coming from. And we said, well, we hear you, but then that's

069sort of like saying, like, we can't gather information. So she was going to investigate strategies to get... some kind of performance data she says the teachers are consistently engaged in performative assessment with these young learners. It seems like it's always somebody else's job right? Thank you, thank you. Take turns. Appreciate it. So a couple things that she shared One that I hadn't really thought about is here in this first bolded number one about the district vision. She said that it's sort of a sleeper, but the World Language Department is really well aligned with the portrait of the learner in ways that not every other curriculum discipline is able to do, specifically to solve global challenges and prepare students to work on diverse teams. And with the new TESOL teacher, as part of the superintendent's budget,

070I also thought it was important to highlight these points that Dr. Galvez made. That this new TESOL teacher will provide more comprehensive newcomer support because we know we have multi-language learners coming in at higher rates. They are hoping to implement individualized language plans, and with a new TESOL teacher, she thinks they might be able to get there. And the plan is, too, to integrate more fully with special education support, especially at WMS. This is for TESOL learners. So the state has guidelines for services at different levels of proficiency, and we are not currently meeting those in the lower grades. She says that due to the way scheduling goes, BHS is servicing its TESOL learners a little bit better, but they simply currently lack the capacity to do that at WMS. CLEs and WMS, but she

071thinks that the new TESOL teacher that's in the budget for next year will be able to ameliorate that. And then below that you'll just see some notes that we thought were interesting. 77% of students are enrolled in the World Language Program and the presentation had lots of very encouraging data about how kids are doing. I think I have maybe on the second page. No, I guess I don't have those data points, but I did point out some of the slides that, you know, kids who are taking honors and AP levels. Oh, yeah, here it is. Right before the multi-language learner programs, 72% of students are getting A's and B's on their midterms. So kids are performing well in world language classes. And at the honors and AP levels, the percentage is even higher. So our

072kids are enrolling at higher levels and being successful. Did you want to talk about how we asked her about the K-6 curriculum, the K-5 as a special? specifically like around cutting it versus investing in it and how she spoke about I don't know if you want to talk about how if you cut it because it's a special you can't just cut it it has to be filled in with another special which is a complication because the way the teachers prep yeah the contractual prep times are that's true it would change the elementary schedule completely so it doesn't there's no value in cutting the world language program in k through five at CLEs specifically because of the way that the It would just have to be filled in with another special. It couldn't go back into

073the classroom for math and instructional time the way we would desire that to be. That would have to be a bigger conversation about how CLEA schedule would have to change completely. So she's really invested in looking at that program and making it, you know, shoring it up a little bit and making it something that can have a bigger retention value and, you know, exploring how it can change. Also remembering that each there's only three teachers each of them have 500 students and they only see them once every six days So what we wanted to be might not be what it can be at this point But she's gonna look in more detail at that even with this she was really upbeat She said that from her observations the teachers are really talented instructionally But they

074currently have no common planning time. So that's a frustration. So I don't know if she's gonna work with dr. P to see if that can be wrangled, but having 500 kids per teacher goes back to that challenge of formative assessment. How do you gather meaningful data given the short amount of time that they meet? Because in taking them out for individualized performance assessments, you'd be cutting into their instructional time. I just have a question about the Spanish program and I know Nikki can't answer it but like at what point did we move from a district of it being Spanish push in right where they got it every other day to now they get it once every six days because I mean what we have right now and is not what we had I mean that's

075That's not how the program started. I don't know. I didn't nobody really can explain when it happened and how we transition there But so what do you want to know based on that because I mean I could I could go and ask her that and she would ask her colleagues because she's still kind of new but like what do you what do you want to know are you are you interested in like did we used to have a more successful model well I know we used to have a more successful. I know we had a more successful model I think as a board of ed I'm just interested to try and figure out how we went from a program that we were looking at that point when we brought it to brookfield and you're talking

076my kids were in kindergarten at that point he's a senior this year so when it got brought here these kids were we were giving them this program to have exposure you know and it was going to end up being conversational spanish at some point it changed to a push-in model to a special model right so when kids get it every other day consistently right They were speaking right so you're talking k6 are you talking it was I mean I hate I don't know I can't speak for whiskey beer so yeah So you're absolutely right when we first brought the k6 program in it was modeled off of a FLES program Which I believe it was about a hundred and fifty minutes per week, so it was a lot And I don't know the exact year

077that it reduced to a special. I believe it was a budgetary decision in addition to adding instructional minutes to social studies at Wiskin Air, especially. We can look to see exactly when that changed because I don't want to misspeak and give the wrong years. And I believe Nikki did include in her presentation, which I'll make sure is shared with you all. a slide that actually speaks to the number of minutes and how that's changed over time. So it's part of the slideshow. But right now, the Elementary Spanish Program is, as Wendy shared, it's on a six-day rotation. So it's every six days for, I believe, 40 minutes. for us to understand right for what we brought it here for what it was and what it currently is right so you hear their third novice levels

078so I mean I don't know I just I feel bad that you know here we are this day and age and we're giving them less than we did Yeah, and just to add one more thing in terms of assessment, formative assessment is pretty much done every single time. You're basically collecting evidence of success relative to a standard or a skill. So that's happening, you know, multiple times during instruction, right? You're getting information as the teacher. The student is getting information as the learner as they're engaging with the lesson. And Nikki is looking into with her team. what might make sense to be able to get additional assessment information. So she's thinking perhaps two times in the elementary grades, perhaps in those transitional times, maybe third grade and then fifth or sixth grade. Yeah, where it

079makes most sense because really it would take a lot of instructional minutes to be able to gather all of that basically summative data. But it made sense more in terms of that transition, perhaps, in fifth grade. And she had some ideas about what that might look like. And that TESOL teacher that we're talking about, that's an additional, is that the one that's in the budget? Yes, that is correct. So this isn't one in addition? No. Okay. No, that's already in the current budget. Sorry. No, I think just a comment. I mean, I think it would be good to understand what the expectations should be. I mean, as a parent with kids going through the program, I'm not sure what my expectations should be of the program, right? And it's a little different than other specials,

080right? Gym, you know what the expectation is there. Library. But this one is like an instructional. special and so yeah and uh also something like phys ed you say jim is that they have a set of standards that's true right yeah that they're measured curriculum yeah yeah it needs to be followed so although we're saying it's a special right there are curriculum there is a level of expectation yes it's instructional time may not a content area but it is that's yeah content well they're building their curriculum map Well, that shouldn't be happening now. That should have happened a long time ago. Well, she's saying that teachers need time for curriculum writing, and they currently have no common planning time. So that's a challenge she's working to solve. Do we have a time frame on that?

081No, but I can ask her. I'm adding that to my questions for her. Okay. Yeah, they may not have common planning time during the day, but that's why they have the Wednesday meetings. They have professional development days that we build into the calendar, 7 to 8. And just to add. There are opportunities to collaborate. Yeah, and they are currently working on their curriculum as well, to your point, on the Wednesday afternoons. So they are looking to really make it very theme-oriented. there are standards that they have to follow and there is curriculum. I just want to let everybody know that there is curriculum, but they are looking to really enhance it and making it a little bit more relevant. to have real-world connections so that it's more conversational and obviously there are you know with

082the standards it's like students will be able to do XYZ by the end of this grade those standards do exist and their curriculum is based off of standards but they are working to enhance that and will actually be using this upcoming PLC day as a department to continue working on some of what they've already started. Do you know if they're basing their revisions on the ACTFL standards? Are they aligning them with the national? So that's great, and they're just working to improve those and make them relevant for Brookfield students. Exactly. Fantastic. Thank you. I just want to be really clear. We have to be careful with making statements that if we don't have the World Language Program, we can't operate a CLES, right? The routine or the structure of the day would need to be

083revamped, right? Correct. It could not happen. It would just require a bigger, it's not just like taking that special out and giving it a time back. It would be a bigger lift. Yeah. I think also my comment there too is and I just know with high school with French we have a lot of kids are interested in French right there are sections that can't be offered because we have one teacher teaching all these sections and I think it's really important that we look at you know we paid her 0.2 last year I mean kids couldn't take advanced france you know if they wanted to take french right for college they can't take four years because the class isn't offered because there's not time to do it so i think that that's something that we really

084need to look at i mean it's a program that's growing and i think that we at least have to offer it for the four years kids are here if they want to take it i mean they have to take three normally for college they have to take two for graduation but i mean there was kids that couldn't take it this year But it's a shortage area, too. It's hard to hire a .2 or a .4 French teacher. But I think everybody recognizes it as growing and it has value. I mean, we put it on, I mean, the teacher that's here. She's got six sections now. So, I mean, I think it's just something we have to look at. Is it something that she would be willing to take on if she was compensated for it

085for a .2? I don't know. I'm sorry, any other questions for Wendy? No? All right. That was a nice. healthy subcommittee report youth commission all right the the moment we've been waiting for the career day is finally happening on Tuesday at this point they've been publicizing to try to get make sure the kids know how to register for where they want to go there are 43 presenters and a wide range of careers so that's gonna be very exciting for next Tuesday Something in the works, they've been looking at trying to revamp the BHS paw print newspaper. So apparently at this point they might have enough money for one more edition. So we're trying to see if the Youth Commission could possibly make a donation and kind of get that back started. So that's in the

086works. One thing that did come up there, the whole ILT process, the students were expressing some... barriers to accessing extra help and doing makeup work and going to their clubs because a lot apparently a lot of the clubs are now meeting during ILT which is a whole new thing so possibly I'll be in touch with some of the information they provided and possibly relook at that whole process because they were talking about just ways that it's just a lot of limitations and it's not working. So is it so accessing extra help was conflicting with potentially going to a club right it's just like it's a short amount of time to do a lot of things yeah that tends to be that tended to be the right the consensus Erin I think was that that was

087just they can't really get to everywhere they want to get to yeah I mean they were all kind of talking so I mean yeah think yeah so I mean I'm gonna get more information I guess I'll let you know mm-hmm next Rebecca Newman came and talked about the grad party and the funding and trying to get the juniors interested involved to make sure that it continues which was great and then we had a lot of testimonials from prior graduates about about the grad party which was really neat The bathrooms were brought up because I believe they've been brought up for the last eight years so all good news this time. So I want to give you a shout out for that. And overall they're looking into just trying to assess what the youth needs and

088trying to make sure that we can, the Youth Commission can provide different things that they need so they're just looking into other efforts that they can carry on. That is it. Thank you very much. Can I add one more thing? Absolutely. This just in. So after the career day, the Youth Commission wants to come to one of our meetings and present. So I'm thinking the first one in May would probably be when they're going to come, which is great. So then they'll give us feedback on how it went. Absolutely. Does that give them enough time? That's good, yeah. Yeah, after mentioning April, I just realized probably not. So yeah. So early May would be great. Perfect. Cool. Thank you. Any questions for Sarah? All right. Emily. Thank you for being so patient. Thank you. Get

089two mics for that. Alright, so first I just want to shout out again the high school musical play that happened last week. It was so fantastic. I went Friday night and it was so good I had to go again Sunday. It was so good. I'm so proud of my fellow classmates. And again, as you said, cheer one states and then now I think very soon they might be going to Massachusetts for regionals. I don't know exactly when that is, but we wish them the best of luck. I know they're going to kill it. And then career day, we do have career day next Tuesday, which everyone is excited for. And the National Honor Society blood drive got pushed back to March 31st for BHS students and staff. And also I'm trying to plan a bake

090sale on March 28th and 29th at Four Corners from around 11 to 3. Although those dates and times are subject to change, I need to just mess some things around and see if it will. pull through but we're trying to raise money for the grad party this year and we hope to get a lot of seniors to participate and so please come and donate if you can and it should be at around 11 to 3 just in terms of traffic and stuff like that and then June March 28th to 29th it should be a Saturday to Sunday And then, so Junior Prom is coming up on March 27th, and we began the March Madness Badminton Tournament a little while ago, and it's going well. Everyone's really getting into it, and we're just now starting the

0913v3 basketball tournament, and this is all for the spring pep rally that we're having at the end of the month. this Saturday March 21st is the polar plunge at Kendalwood Lake to raise money for Special Olympics so please donate if possible I know I said this last meeting but it's coming up really soon I was really excited to go in the water but I'm I'm unable to go but that's okay and BHS will be holding our student government elections at the end of April so students please be on the lookout for information about becoming a candidate and that's all I got Just to make sure I have it in my phone correctly, you said March 28th and 29th? Yes, two separate days. And 10 to? 11 to 3 or so. But I don't know the

092times exactly. I need to coordinate that and fill it out. But I just wanted to get it out there. Can you let us know just so we can bake or send it through ParentSquare so parents have it? Or give money to our spouse to drop off as they drive through? Yes, of course, I will. any other questions thank you I just had one quick question and it might not be for Emily we mentioned in the last meeting about the next student representative is that in process how does that work there's a policy about that okay and I actually talked to Steven about that the last meeting and Emily was gonna get with Mark Lando so okay yeah Yes, I like yeah the politician, you know, yeah, just checking in. Yeah, um, mr. Farisi had the

093idea of possibly bringing a junior on board with the senior and there's some ideas about one of our goals last year was to get the senior up more involved and Student body more represented. So they'll be hopefully some which I think we so yeah, we thought we'd love to have a junior join as well So you are the senior right modeling what awesome reports look like you know, and this person can shadow but also be available in the absence that you might be playing basketball or doing something amazing. That's such a great idea. So that way it kind of builds that transitional program. Yeah, I think that would work great because I know, especially when I came on, I was like, I didn't really know exactly what to expect. I feel like that would be

094very nice. Cool. Thank you, Emily. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Consent agenda. I move that the board... Wait, really quick. Sorry. Before you move the consent agenda. I move that the Board of Ed waive the second reading of Policy 9325.2 and further move to adopt 9325.2 tonight during the consent agenda vote. Second. All right. Any questions or discussion on that? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any nays? That's agenda construction, by the way. That's the changing melody. Thank you. Okay. So now it will... Yes, what I just said. Well done, well done. I just didn't want to vote on the consent agenda. That's fine. It would have been null and void. Okay. So I move that the board approve the items listed on the consent agenda, resignations, transfers, February financials, budget transfers,

095policy for adoptions, policy for first read 6142, wellness policy, meal charging, and then... construction for a final read and adoption any discussion on that all those in favor please say aye aye any nays 7-0 thank you all right get your reading glasses ready new business I move that the Brookfield Public Schools pursuant of Connecticut general statute second section 10- 215 F the Brookfield Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools and under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut national standards published by the Connecticut Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutritional standards during periods of July 1st 2026 through June 30th 2027 This certification shall include all foods offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources

096including but not limited to the school stores vending machines school cafeteria culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non school organizations and groups Can we just agree that there was a minor like misread and she doesn't have to read it again because for the first one you said national standards and it's nutrition standards but nobody wants to put you through that. I'm not reading it again. Just to keep it legal legal. Any questions on that? I'm sorry Jessica? I just would like to understand a little bit of context on this. I don't know. Mrs. Deodd is probably your person for that. yes so this is done every year this is just so that we are we have to certify to the state the state we have to send

097these minutes and the votes to the state to be to participate in the National School Lunch Program just saying that we will comply with all the rules and regulations and then then the next the next one is similar just basically yeah so it's just So it's just telling, certifying what types of food we can sell during the school day versus outside of school hours. So it all just has to be. It's really perfunctory. It's every year you'll see it. Okay. All right. Thank you. And poor Aaron, every year we'll have to read it. Any other questions? Stuff we loved it before, too, I'm sure. all those individually right yeah all those in favor of the healthy food option certification please indicate by saying aye aye any nays 7-0 all right on to the next thing

098I move that the Brookfield Public Schools Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Copenicet nutrition standards provided by the following condition following the following conditions are met one The sale is in connection with an event occurring at the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at a location or an event. Or three, the food items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice, meeting, or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and interscholastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is a period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the

099end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be at the same place as the food sales. Who was that, Sarah? Sarah, yes. Any questions on that? Comments, concerns? Okay, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any nays? No. All right, 7-0. Thank you. Moving on to adoption of the textbook. Take it away, Erin. I move that the board approve the following textbook as recommended by the CAPE Committee and the Assistant Superintendent, Deb Farias. Any, oh, just read the book. Oh, yeah, the book. World History, Modern Times, McGraw-Hill. McGraw-Hill, okay. Any questions, comments, or concerns on that? All right. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. 7-0. Well done. Thank you. All right. Legal Services Board Attorney Review.

100So, oh. No, no. After you? I thought you were opening up. We'd like to open the floor to have some discussion about our attorney review. We do have some legal fees that were broken down for us by Casey that we have a chart. And I would just like to open up the floor to discuss the bylaw. Did you want to give some handouts? I would. Just continue with thank you for that opening and just share that Mrs. Deopp did put together. some updated information as well so you have a chart I believe that represents kind of the fiscal year 25-26 up through a certain time frame I can't I'm sorry February hard for me to see yeah February and this chart is updated even further so the one that is being handed out is just

101updated version for us to review this is up from the other one right yeah we got the February invoices yesterday so the one that was in the board packet was through January this one includes February invoices and on the other side of it I just also provided this was this was information provided in the budget Q&A doc but it's just summarizing total legal legal fees going back to 2018-19 just for some historical context That's very good, Casey. Thank you. The flip side is just the historical legal fees by year going back to 2018-19. And I think on that page, if you look at the middle column, the actual, right, would be total is kind of the by year what our expenditures were. So the seven-year actual average is over $200,000, $203,000? Yes, correct. and if

102you look at the the driver in the most recent years you know if you look at just the BOE and and when it's BOE it's really you know it's all of these different categories are in BOE it's not just like Board of Ed driven expenses it's personnel it's negotiations all those types of things student related matters you know that's been you know fluctuating from anywhere from you know about a hundred and ten to a hundred and we're projecting a hundred and ninety five thousand dollars this year but going back to as far back as 2018-19 those fees were 186 thousand dollars so not too far off from where we're projected to land this year but in recent years those special education costs for legal have really gone up, particularly, you know, this, you know, last

103year and this year. So it's just really just some food for thought, some data. Can I ask a question on this year's expenses? Am I reading that 21.8% of our budget for legal expenses goes towards FOIA requests? That's like... So what like 10 to 12 percent more than any other so is that is that like an FOI request comes in from a parent member of the public community member and it has to go to legal to be redacted to look through to make sure that it like what are the nope not necessarily so many many FOI requests we do handle internally we can be can redact documents we always have multiple eyes you know checking on it so it's just some of the more complicated I don't know if complicated is the right word, but

104some of the more complex FOI requests that we want to make sure that we are answering properly and being compliant with all the rules and regulations. And it's 21.8% or $40,724. That 21.8% is of actual expenses, not budget. I just want to make sure that. Okay. Yeah. And my question on that line item, is that for the attorney showing up at the FOI hearings? and i would love to know like what we're spending for them to go to these hearings because i'm assuming that's the bulk of it and i think that's like really the elephant in the room here is that the board is only aware of the public emails us in we don't know when they're going to defend at the rest of the process and like what is the process i mean we're

105sending counsel and the board doesn't know that we're sending counsel it's a lot of money And the board needs to be privy that the money is being spent or that council is going to represent. I mean, you look at some of this stuff. I mean, it's do we have to show up if there's not punitive damages, if it's not going to cost money, it's costing us a ton of money for them to show up. So could I respond to that? Sure, thank you. Great questions, yes. And even in our policy, it reads that that decision would be either made by the superintendent and or the board. And so I can't speak to all the previous expenditures if I was not here, but I can tell you what my process would be, would be that I

106would check with the board chair before we would send any attorney to anywhere. for any matter related to the board related to board matters and make sure that at least the board chair and the board chair's responsibility to check with board would be okay with that sometimes do things do happen expeditiously we we have to respond quickly and so we do and so we respond promptly and i'm not sure in the past again before i was here what that communication was like but i think it important that we look into matters where we might be accused of violating some type of legislative mandate, law, you know, statute, statutory requirement, and then be able to not only do what Casey shared, be able to look at it with our own eyes and try to manage it

107ourselves best we can. But if we do have questions to then be able to at least let the board know, hey, we're wondering about this. What are your thoughts? Can we check with legal counsel? So if that hasn't happened, it's how we'll be moving forward. uh equally just as an organization before we were to contact anyone any legal counsel moving forward i do want everyone to run that by me first i want to see what the matter is what can be managed possibly in-house potentially and if not then we would move it forward to again the board chair knowing but then legal and that should be a good way to reduce some costs I would think as well I will I hope that we have that opportunity I do know that some of these are

108requests that require a lot of intensive work and just scrutinized review prior to you know letting them out so we do have to balance that a little bit but there are other items that I think impacted this budget, especially this year. Again, I don't know previously, but not having a tenured superintendent leave, an assistant superintendent leave, new contract negotiations for just an interim, another interim, another interim, and then finally me, and then a new assistant superintendent. There's been teacher negotiations. There's been a lot of negotiations. and of contracts that doesn't help but I also think you know in the future we can look at that as well. Yeah, I mean I just would like to know that line item at some point maybe at the next finance meeting like what is FOI for attendance right

109first complaints and what it is to review documents that Potentially have to be released to the public because I think that those are two very different things Whether we're going before the FOI Commission to defend or whether we're you know releasing documents and I should have elaborated even further so our goal we couldn't get everything prepared the detail for this meeting but it will be to bring it back to that meeting the subcommittee so the detailed background about the invoices will be there they just have to be redacted also so that takes a little time and we just couldn't get that prepared for tonight It takes me an hour to get that. I have a little bit of context to share on this, too. So the board actually isn't in control of some of the

110FOIC fees because when I learned this through personal exposure to the process, when the FOIC receives a complaint, whether it has merit or not, they schedule a hearing. So that sets our lawyers wheels into motion and so they have to review the complaint prepare the necessary paperwork and some of these complaints have been over a hundred pages and that is an extremely time-consuming process that does not originate with the board it originates from the complainant so That's one of the things that makes it frustrating to see these high legal fees because they originate from the community. Speaking about process, is there a way that if that's happening in the background, that we are notified if the council gets notified of an FOIC formal complaint? Oh, you're saying we get notified? We're notified. I get the

111notification that they're attending, like, a hearing or something. Do you want to be notified? No, I'm interpreting what Wendy was saying. Maybe I am hearing it wrong. There can be a complaint submitted that we are not aware of, but we are accountable and responsible for. When I was chair, I'm sorry to talk over the end of your sentence. So when I was chair, a copy of the complaint would be, like I would receive one as the representative, the titular representative of the board, and then a copy would go to Lisa. And there was a time when a copy did not arrive at my home, and it took me a while to get it from Lisa. I don't know if I was on vacation or what. And with the first one, I didn't know how to

112handle it at all, and I didn't. tell the board like oh this came in i mean i talked it over with the superintendent um and the first step was okay well we sent our copy to council um and so like that's that's something that if this happens again rob will know like all right let me inform the rest of the board yeah that's what i meant yeah yeah I don't know. I just have a really hard time with this whole subject. So, I mean, I think that there's a really big concern. You are not alone in having a hard time. It's our responsibility, you know, to ensure. you know, fiscal oversight and transparency. And, you know, as I've taken a closer look, it just, I mean, they're increasing and I think it warrants review. I

113mean, I went back, looked at the RFPs. I wasn't on the board when you guys switched to new council. Their fees for paralegal are astronomical. Like they're astronomical. So, I mean, I wasn't part of the process, but I mean, they're the highest option among the top ranked candidate. So I think, you know, that warrants. You know, you guys were here. I wasn't. But, you know, and I think I have a specific, you know, concern with billing. I mean, I contacted, you know, the Department of Education. I spoke to, you know, main council, wrote, and it was for, you know, when we were putting someone in on an interim, he's like, this is what you need to do, X, Y, and Z. This is the name. This is what you need to document. I wrote the

114letter. It got sent. And council's telling us that he has to send something else. It was approved. So I question what got sent to them, what our council was saying needed to be sent to the State Department of Education when Mr. McKeon from the state said that we were all set and it was approved. So I really have major concerns if our council's saying that they need to send something to them when it was already approved and we didn't have to spend any money on it. I just, I don't know. It just contradicts some of what goes on, and it just doesn't make sense to me. So, I mean, I think that we really need to, as a board, talk about this and make sure that we're receiving the best value and that our process

115are strong and transparent. Go ahead, Wendy. I'd like to make a motion to put legal out to bid. I'll second. All right. We have a motion on the table. Any further discussion on that? Joy, do you have to specify if it's for special ed or recycling? I do have hesitation with special education. Putting anything out to bid isn't going to... You don't have to change counsel. It's looking at pricing. I think that... you know before we consider special education i think that that's like a conversation with the director of special education and you know the superintendent to actually know what active cases we have because that could actually end up being more legal fees um but i mean i think it would be interesting how we worked it last time before we transitioned was our

116previous legal firm closed out the cases right before the transition yeah i mean i would be open to seeing pricing because this is just insane to me Right. So I just want to be clear. We're asking just to the vote is for just to get an RFP going, right? And get some bids in for pricing. Correct. Yep. Right. OK. We do have that from 2000. 24, but it might be, or 23, right? No, no, no, 24. 24, but it might have changed a little. How far off? You have the comparison? No, no, I don't. Not until you. I just have what it came out to be. Yeah, it might be different now. I don't remember the paralegal. right right right that I like things like that so I don't know I mean I think you

117know we're getting the information and at the end of the day we can ensure that we're meeting our obligations and you know for accountability and we're being responsible with public funds I think it's due diligence and I agree I mean I can only speak from my experience with I'm sure Wendy can speak as well who's had the most conversations with them I guess um I've been very happy with them I trust them I don't believe they're miss Yelling us in any way and I do see that this 21% as Stephanie point out is a lot so But that's just where I stand on the on the matter I've had a lot of conversations with Pete and a few others and it's gone very well. They've been very supportive very informative and that's just all I

118can say on that front. I agree. I think that we've already looked at the facts and I think Steven wrote this in our last email that if you take out the FOI complaints and work that they've had to do, we're actually right in budget with our legal expenses. I think that in my experience with them in negotiations and having to speak with people and having them come to meetings, I don't feel like it's necessary to... go back out to bid for another law firm two years after hiring them when we did that process and had, I think, six different law firms come. So I would like to put on the record that I don't disagree with some of the things you said, Rob. I think there's some really positives to Shipman. In terms of my

119experience with union activity, I feel like the legal representation during negotiations is, you know, not at the highest standard that I would expect. So I think there can be a lot of improvements in that area. And I know there was mention of that from the Board of Finance as being an area of concern for them. So I think that's definitely something that when you bring this up to reassess, right, as part of our policy, you look at those items, right? How did negotiations go and how were we represented? So I think that's a really important piece. You know, we're not necessarily looking at how was their personality, were we able to work with them well, you know, how did they handle cases, things like that. But for me, that was a big item for me

120you know I served on several contract negotiations with different different bargaining units and I don't feel that we were represented well in that area that's definitely an area of improvement I was on every negotiation team over the past 18 months, and I came away with a really different feeling. I think that our council was pretty soft-spoken, but also I felt like they managed our interest in negotiation with professionalism and an attention to detail. So I think that... And we had different personalities in the room every time. I think they listened to us, came extremely well prepared, and interacted with mediators and with, I'll just call it opposing counsel. I don't know what you would call it. I think they interacted with them well. we never know the personalities of our council that we'll get but

121I saw them well grounded in the law and extremely professional so I hear what you're saying and I guess there's nothing wrong with going out to bid we may look at all the options and decide that we want to stick with Shipman so I mean so can I just bring up the fact that could it I would just like to have everyone consider maybe we do a more scrutinized sort of evaluation of our current law firm and ask them questions and try to work with them differently rather than going back out to bid and having several meetings with interviews of firms we've already met with two years ago. I mean, I think there's an opportunity to maybe take what our concerns are within our current attorney office and structure and maybe just work with them

122to address some of the concerns that we may have. That seems a little more efficient, maybe. Also, in terms of evaluating the firm, we got this process underway in July of last year. It had several steps, but we started, well, I started talking to the folks on the CABE list serve with the various board chairs around Connecticut, and I talked to Nick and to Conrad at CABE to see if there's like a template or a protocol for, a universal protocol for assessing the quality or performance of council so so that happened in mid to late January and everybody said there's no universal process so we put it on as an agenda item on the July 23rd meeting new business legal services you know discuss performance and evaluation we have an executive session on August 20th

123and part of what we talked about was an evaluation of legal counsel so um I distributed a rubric to everybody and then summer uh and then our superintendent demands kind of got in the way and so I think I was looking for today I think you sent me the rubric you handed me yours Rosa handed me hers I had mine but we didn't um we didn't finish that process I was just That was going to be my comment. Like, when we look at the bylaws, right, people reference that. There's an annual review required. So we engaged in it, we just didn't finish it. Right. Okay. I think my personal thought around process is we need, I would prefer to see that documented in some way, shape, or form to then assess what it is we

124dislike or don't want to continue with in a potential new partner. My other comment is, you know, if we don't get to some of the whys behind, right, how we're operating and the needs of an attorney, I... I worry that switching attorneys is not going to switch fees. We may save a little percent of money, right? I mean, to your point, paralegals may be paid less or attorneys may be paid less at other firms. But if we don't fundamentally change the way in which we operate and utilize an attorney, I just think we're, I mean, I think the historical data, I'm going to be honest, points to a similar expenditure over time. Yeah, no, and I agree. I mean, I think, you know, it has to be looked at. I think it needs to be

125talked about, you know, and, you know, moved on. My concern is, right, the fiscal year starts July 1st. So, you know, there's a motion on the table to send it out to bid. It can go out to bid and we don't do anything with it. There's, you know, at that point we can meet, talk about it, and maybe we don't. But, I mean, the new fiscal year, that would be ideally when you would look for a new firm, in my opinion. Is there anything else? You're right, we do have a motion on the table. I just want one more thing along the lines of accountability. That's supposed to be what we're doing. I think it's pretty short-sighted to think that FOI complaints originate from the community. They originate from something not going right and the

126perception that an error was made and either not accounting for that error or doing any type of... saying my dad or anything like that and then the complaint can come from there but not giving it not going back to where the complaint originated so this FOI is not originating from the community it's originating from something not going well enough for the community to bring it up thanks sir anyone else yeah you just want to say you know I I'm not questioning the professionalism You know, our legal is very professional during negotiations, prepared, right? One of my main concerns was the interaction, and I'm glad that you mentioned it, with the mediator. You know, that's a really critical piece to negotiations, and I just don't feel that it was really subpar, you know, our legal representation

127during that. pivotal moment in during negotiations so um I was definitely not questioning you know how prepared they were how professional how smooth it went um that really critical piece um and the other the other point is that they're the highest paid legal firm out there so you know yeah you know some areas may be higher than others but that's a critical piece right and I don't know if some of you remember but One of the main reasons we brought shipment on, we were at a time where we felt like we really needed to get a handle of the community, right, and rebuild the trust and the climate and the culture. And they really promised that. Do you remember? Do you guys remember that? They were like, we're the ones going to help you do

128that. And I can't recall her name. But she was going to be assigned to us, the one that actually interviewed with us. I loved, we loved her. I loved, I felt she was really captivating. I'm like, yeah, she's going to be the one. And I'm not knocking Pete. He's great. But it's not what we signed up for in terms of the personality that interviewed for us. Hopefully you guys remember that. But that was a big seller for me when we were. kind of making our decision and that's what kind of pushed me over the edge from shipment as opposed to our second person firm that we were also considering can we so I'm going back to can we get that in like a doc the documented like annual review and and pass that feedback back

129to shipment because that was huge I mean if that yeah I wasn't a part of it but yeah I mean if that was the I can resend that I'm looking for it in my email and I can't find it so maybe you just printed it for us yeah I was going to share that too, if I just could. I appreciate this dialogue. This is very insightful, especially if you weren't here during these, especially the negotiations, which seem to be one of the bigger matters. But also I do think, and I want to just keep coming back to, I do think some of it's procedural, and I do think we have to organize around how we utilize our legal counsel. And so putting some things in place, I hope, will be step one. the board decides

130that you want to go out to bid and just see what's out there. That's great too. Or I do still think even if we did that, finding out those things that we would like to see different, regardless of whether we stay with shipment and then give them that feedback and or maybe change from whoever's assigned to us now to someone different potentially. Say we want to interview new other people at the firm and move forward that way. Or with a whole new group. We should know what it is we want to ask them and what we're looking for so we ensure we get the service that we need and desire that is missing potentially now. So I think that would be a critical step in the process. All right. Any other questions, comments, concerns? Okay,

131we have a motion on the table. All those in favor of putting Shipman and Gouin out to bid, please indicate by saying aye. I'm sorry, legal, excuse me. Legal out to bid, I apologize. Legal out to bid. They all indicate by saying aye. Any nays? Nay. All right. Does not pass. I'm sorry. Me too. Steven, pre-K update. before we move on can I just ask a question about that sure are we still going to engage in some type of evaluative process we don't need a motion for it Wendy can just get us I'm gonna recommend that we put a special meeting on the calendar and we start talking about looking at different partners and actually what we're getting billed for and who's contacting them and what they're doing which is great yeah i think if

132wendy sends us that form it had been laid out where like it hit the policy assessment points and then we can go from there i think sure great and then i mean we just got the january bill like if you can send february i would send it to the whole board i think the whole board needs to look at each line item that we're paying because it's appalling i can certainly i would do that i can redact um i did i think sarah you had asked for like six months worth I think that I had sent you redacted of 2025 so six months worth is I think it is around 90 to 95 pages so it's just and I can certainly go through get this whole entire fiscal year redacted and sent to the board

133and I and we will work on that for the next finance subcommittee meeting it's just gonna take a little bit of time. Yeah, I mean, and that's why I asked you in the finance meetings, like I'm less concerned about what the legal fees are for special education, right? If a parent has, is going to do processes, going to mediation, we have to have an attorney there, right? We have to have them represent our interests. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about what we're spending as a board. Like, what are we doing here that's increasing legal spending? Right. I mean, I would like to get to the why behind that. I mean, because that's where, I mean, hopefully we're going to try and make a difference in how we participate in that process, right, and

134participate with legal. All right. Thank you for holding on that one more minute. I think next up is kindergarten waiver yes yeah excellent so I shared with you in the board packet that last week legislation came out that as you call just a couple years ago legislation came out that stated that we had to have a waiver process in place for students who were not five by September 1st of this any school year uh in that in that waiver uh option that a district had to uh offer an assessment to determine if a child was ready for kindergarten so they could apply to kindergarten but there was an assessment that the district would do to determine if they were ready for it or not and then they could be led into kindergarten that way the

135new legislation that comes out uh states that we have the option of offering that waiver again this spring or not So that's for this spring. For next spring, 2027, it is completely eliminated no matter what. Like there's no option. It's just gone. So this would be the only year that the waiver could exist again. And so that's kind of the legislation. So we need to be aware of that. Right. Secondly, it's important to note that we have on the table an investment, an investment in pre-kindergarten and expansion of that to have a full day pre-kindergarten option. If we continue to move forward with that, what we could do instead of doing a regular lottery process, if we eliminate the kindergarten waiver for this school year, We could offer the families that have applied for the

136waiver first choice into our pre-k pre-kindergarten program and give them that opportunity and If they fill all 15 seats great That would be it if they only fill let's say 12 then the other three seats would go out to a lottery So those could be options that we engage in and that I would need the board to consider as we, you know, determine, number one, what we want to do with the waiver process this year, and number two, the pre-K expansion program. What you see here is actually information drafted on the pre-K program. This would be what we could share with families so they understand what it is we're offering. It provides all the details of the program itself. And then there would be a registration process, and that's the registration form that follows the

137flyer. How many waivers do we have applied for as of right now? My understanding is last checked we had about 13. 13 waivers? For next school year. Last check. Do we know how many waivers we had last school year that were accepted waivers? I believe five. I think it was five. I believe five. Yeah, it wasn't very many. You mean how many students actually wavered into kindergarten? Yeah. I believe five. Five. Yes. I had a procedural question. I thought I read in the material that We would locally have to create a policy around doing a waiver for this year. Is that true? We would locally have to create a policy for doing away with it or for having it? No, having a waiver for this year. No. Well, I mean. We already have one in

138place. We have a policy for that? We already have one that allows us to do the waiver right now. So we wouldn't have to create new policy around that. Okay. Gabe's recommendation was to look at your policies and start making changes because there will no longer be a waiver. Yes, correct. So if you have a policy that you need to start incorporating a phase out because there will be no waiver process. Correct. And we did that? No, we would have to do that if we eliminated the waiver. for this year we would want to put that in policy but the waiver is up to the district the discretion of the district like the district doesn't have to give away this year yeah for any year yeah for any year what's the what's the date of

139birth requirements for the pre-k um for honor before september 1st i think it's right in here so it's on page five yeah so if we so if they're in the pre-k for this next coming year then the following year they wouldn't be able to go to kindergarten because no they would they'd be five before that date okay okay i just i was thinking about that that's important that's very important map it out. It's an important decision for families. This is what's weird because we used to be December 31st. I know. And that's where all this became. As a parent of one I put in early, it was my biggest, it's still my biggest regret and he's graduating. For the full day pre-K program, if we take the, let's say the 13 wavered kids whose birthdays

140are on the cusp, is it, how is it going to be structured? kind of like a pre-k fives program or fours program where it's like a kindergarten readiness type not that the pre-k is but pre-k for three-year-olds is going to be much different than pre-k for five-year-olds so i assume it's going to have a structure more of like a like in california they call it tk transitional kindergarten for those birth dates we just have a t1 here well yeah yeah so it's like my kids were in the fives in preschool because they're december yeah so it's structured in that way the great value of having it here is it will it'll follow the state standards right but it also we have kindergarten right in the same school and know there's opportunities for collaboration and teachers

141know what students need to be ready for kindergarten and can you know move kids forward if needed can help kids along if needed this this is a pay program though for a full day It is, yes. Just as is our half day. Yes. As is our half day. Yes. I just have an instructional question. So are we seeing, I mean, and not that we're going to, are we seeing with our kindergarten population, are we seeing children who are... not ready or we're seeing yes like what are we seeing in kindergarten yes yes yes I would allow Dr. P if he wants to speak to this as well but the answer is you know speaking with folks that yes we we have students coming in not ready and so our opportunities would be to improve that

142right and i think in some of the literature that i've shared with you just down the road the ability to reduce the need for interventions would be a goal as well because students are more ready to access the curriculum the materials the content the structure you know appropriately and so you know we would also look to see if there's an expansion after this one if if possible and this speaks to your investment and the things that you wanted to add to the district as well Do we have any idea how many kindergarteners we kindergarten registrations open correct Dave? How many do we have registered so far roughly? Okay last year. Okay. So you did have a significant amount and only a Small amount made the way because just because we have a waiver doesn't mean

143they'll qualify. Yeah Before, it was like a one-size-fits-all. It's a high standard. Yeah, so I do have those numbers. Yeah, I think there were 17 total waivers last year. 12 students were declined, five were accepted. Three of those five had a good experience and did well. And there were a couple that had some challenges. And as we talked about, there are now 13 waivers for this coming year. Thank you, Deb. And so we have also looked at, because I know another topic that we have to talk about tonight is the budget, right? But we have looked at CLES enrollment, and we think we could manage reallocation of a section at CLES to this program. So we would obviously ask our teachers who are certified to teach pre-k if they are interested first and see if

144we can get current staff to potentially run the program, which is great because they know the expectations, the standards. Very well, and so that would be our goal if we were to move this forward Do we have a large number of staff? We do we have a solid amount of staff for that certification actually two of them qualify so you can be pre-k to three is one certification third grade pre-k to third grade or you can be the Oh one Oh three Oh three Oh one three is it used to be kindergarten to sixth grade But now they allow it to go down to preschool. So preschool to sixth grade I just have a question around the transportation. It says transportation will be provided upon request. Correct. So families currently, even with the half-day program,

145have the opportunity to bring their child or provide transportation from us. So that's a choice. You can bring your child or pick them up, or you can take our transportation. And so this would be the same. Parents would need to know, though, that potentially your child could be on a bus with... Kindergarten through fifth graders? I was just going to ask that question. And we keep them sitting right up front, right next to the driver. And they slap the fifth grader's hand. Except for my kindergartner who runs to the back. But, yeah. Before, we used to just do transportation for our identified students. So now we're offering transportation to all our preschool. I'm sorry maybe I misspoke it's only are identified only yes for this we would offer it but it would be on a

146regular schedule okay thank you okay just wanted that clarification okay we have anything else on this topic okay do you need our I do need some direction I think first we need direction on the waiver process and then secondly we need direction on moving forward with this now we Well on the waiver process it would be if we were just to wave the wood Do away with the way I like your alternative plan for those that have filled out the waiver to write them first choice And so we would want to say that you want that in the language. I'm assuming I'm assuming in the language But I think that we should follow suit with the changes that are coming down the pipe I think it's a critical piece, right We see the needs, and

147children need to be ready for kindergarten. And those waiver numbers are not good, what we just had with the 17. That was definitely eye-opening. Yeah. So I would support going forward with not having that waiver process for next year, but allowing the people that have filled out waivers are ready. to give them the opportunity to enroll in that full-day preschool I'm not gonna make the motion yet I'm just gonna say the language so the board approved the superintendent's request to eliminate the kindergarten waiver and further move that those applying for said waiver be prioritized that have applied or those that have applied That have already applied. That have applied thus far. By March 18th. Prior to March 18th. Prior. There we go. That have applied prior to March 18th, 2026. For said waiver have priority.

148For consideration. for consideration for full day enrollment in pre-k in the new the students the students still have to like qualify right yeah yeah so it's it's not it's done yeah it's not a done deal they get priority consideration and stuff so approve the superintendent's request to eliminate the kindergarten weaver and further move that those that have applied prior to March 18th, 2026 for SUD waiver have priority for consideration for full day enrollment for enrollment in the new full day pre-K program. I would just put in the year for the 2026, 2027 school year. So consideration for enrollment in the new 2026, 2027. Yeah, if you have the years there, you don't need to have new because you've already identified. Well, but it is. Let's put it in there. Be specific. Yeah. Full day pre-K

149program. Okay. All right. So I'm going to go ahead. Should I make the motion? Sure. We're all good? If you don't mind. No, not at all. I move that the board approve the superintendent's request to eliminate the kindergarten waiver and further move that those that have applied prior to March 18th, 2026 for said waiver have priority for consideration. for enrollment in the new 2026 27 full day pre-k program second all right I believe we had enough discussion but it was anything else all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye one day all right 61 it passes Thank You mr. Friese all right moving on to the drip grant excellent so DRIP as I mentioned earlier stands for district repair and improvement project so that is what DRIP stands for we received word was

150it late last week or early this week yeah even at the facilities committee in the beginning yeah a couple weeks that we are the recipients of 120 thousand it's actually 120 808 is the exact amount which is fantastic to provide our public school its public school operators for the fiscal year and we have to use it by June 30th 2026 That's when we will be awarded the funds by June 30th, but we there is no limit to the time We can draw from it year over year. It doesn't expire sort of like like other grants We have title grants and IDEA grants. They have a expiration you need to use it even for title grants You need to use 85% within that first year of a two-year grant This does not expire in that way

151so we can draw on it here. We could just keep explaining Like some of the things that it can be used for Sure, so it can be used for any Any capital repair it's really intended for some like smaller capital repair projects for school districts recognizing that a lot of those you know would not necessarily qualify for you know non priority grant reimbursements through the state and so Any any capital it can be you know upgrades or you know to health and safety repairs in the district or additions so long as they are affixed to the capital you know the infrastructure of the building itself I can go and do you want to elaborate on the ideas we had on how to certainly I'd love to so Some of the ideas that we wanted to

152pass by the board and hear any feedback that you might have is we've been seeing in some of our entranceways, specifically at Wisconier and Brookfield High School, whether it be the main entranceways or at BHS, the areas that you might enter into to get into the gymnasium or the auditorium for the play that just recently occurred. So in those areas, we would like to take up all the tiling. and really lay like an epoxy type floor down both for vibrance and beautification but also safety. Those tiles are upheaving quite a bit and we're constantly in repair of those. This would give us an opportunity to engage in a repair project. We have tiles anyway on the docket you know to do and this would give us the funds to be able to do that. So

153we anticipate approximately $30,000 for that. um engagement and i think it ended up being what five five or six areas in bhs in yeah yes it is uh the vestibules or entry entryways is the athletic wing the main office the auditorium side entrance the other front entrance a little bit uh uh farther up from the main office as well as this hallway out here where it's windows and glass on both sides um with the um You know the hallway. Yeah. So we measured that out, and that's also included in speccing that out. Put the blue and gold sparkle in it, and it'll look really sharp. And we were thinking epoxy with what's called a flake floor. Not sparkle. You put paint chips in it, and you can do school colors. It can be very vibrant

154and nice. And then at Whiskeyneer, the main entranceway, if you've ever been in that kind of... the Stabile area. And so we would do that area. And if you've ever noticed too, if you've been in there recently, the security officer is immediately to the right as you walk in the second set of doors, right? So the second part of this would be in that main entrance area where it has great windows. We would actually section off of it and renovate that space so that the SRO could be there. and then be able to see everything outside but also everything kind of accessible inside be the first gateway for people entering the building which is critical so it really serves a lot of purposes and that would be at a cost that we think we could

155manage at around $15,000 for for having a little kind of area in there that isn't seemingly that expensive we think we can manage that so that would be to renovate that entrance space so not only upgrade the flooring but renovate it too so he could have an office right in there The next thing that needs to be done, Wiskener's front door needs full replacement. So we estimate that at $10,000. So again, that whole area would kind of be renewed, right, and upgraded. And that's your main entranceway, and that says a lot about our schools. Agreed. And then the rest, which would be approximately 65, 808 remaining, we thought... We could engage in all of the smart sensors with that because they're considered a safe we could funnel them under a safety project And they're tied

156in. To do that, yeah, we would be able to do all the locker rooms, all the remaining bathrooms, everything that would be there. We could also, in order to do it and use these funds for it, we would have to tie it into our security system that we have. So they would be tied into the video camera system, which allows for more significant management of the data and the information that we get, like the alerts that we get, the way in which data. is accessible to the BHS staff to be able to manage those things, it would really significantly support us. My only question with that is, have we explored, because I know with Halo there is grant opportunity, have we explored grant opportunity with them before we use this grant opportunity? We are looking

157into, we're putting it out to bid. I think with that, I don't know if the bidders would have information on that or we'd have to do that separately. Yeah, I mean, I can call them and get the information. But, I mean, I just think if Halo does, or if that's the brand that we're looking at, right, and they do have grant opportunity, I'll contact him and have them contact you directly. I mean, I think if there's grant opportunity out there, I think that we need to try and get it because money. yeah if we get some then it would just be an offset on this and then this can be used through you know it doesn't go away so we could use this for other projects because i know that we had talked about there's

158certain you know bathrooms that can't be open because there isn't visibility with cameras so i mean cameras i almost would like to see it go to cameras that we might possibly need if we can get a grant for the smart sensor so um I don't know. I'll call them and see what it is. But he said that there's a significant grant opportunity there. That's interesting. Okay. So just to be on the straight and narrow here, I think it's great that you know who to contact and have the energy to do that. This is the sort of thing, and we as a group need to make sure that we're mindful of this, where the chair needs to designate, like, please do this on behalf of the board. I was doing it on behalf of Brookfield Cares,

159so that's how that started, and I've already been part of the discussion because of that. I see. We just, I think we have in the last year had some folks with good ideas go off and gather information, and we just need to, when we're being official, we need to make sure that this goes through the chair. Hey, Rob, I'll send you the information. You can contact Halo, and I'll put more on your plate, pal. No, we'll talk. That's fine. Okay. Are there any questions? Yeah, questions. So I'm not curious about this dollar amount. Is this an annual opportunity, or what's the holistic output is this? It's my understanding that it's been funded for two years, funding available, so it's not forever. But I do believe that it will be at least this year and next

160year. Do we have to apply for it or anything? No, the state uses a formula. basically for every district based on a whole bunch of factors that designates how much money we receive so it sounds like there's a pretty good potential for next year yes I believe I believe so unless something changes with you know yeah expectations yeah exactly can we send them pictures that's great yeah we get another 120 more so before we move on to the thank you any any more questions or discussions or concerns about outside of looking into grants to offset maybe the potential for the hello vape any concerns about the other projects that we discussed in using the monies for those I'm just worried about when we pull up tiles what we may find We'll take pictures and share.

161Yeah, there is always concern about asbestos and things like that. And of course we would, you know, you know. engage in the proper abatement, whatever is needed. One walkway at a time, I recommend. And do it, you know, preferably while staff are not in the building, while kids are not in the building, and manage it accordingly. So I think once we get the bids and we, you know, start bringing companies in to assess, they'll be able to give us a more clear picture of what that will entail, and then we'll plan it accordingly. We're not going to do it that would expose anyone to anything that's harmful. Absolutely. What's the timing we're thinking? I mean, are we... thinking potentially this summer? I mean, yeah, that would be ideal for us. The summertime would be perfect.

162So, you know, we want to get some bids out. We're already talking about what the specs are and what that will look like. So that way the bids can be written, tighten those up a little bit, put them out to bid, get those in. So the summertime would be ideal for us, yes. Okay, great. Anyone else? Any other comments, concerns? While we're on facilities, do we have an update on the roof? projects like I believe sorry I believe I believe they are we are the town the town is selecting silver silver petrocelli for the engineering firm to do that work and so I think I believe that decision was made it was like the day after the facilities I got that update and so I think it is moving forward with with those folks I

163only asked because if we get new floors it would be so nice to put our new ceiling tiles in I totally agree and and just as a reminder there is a an allotted budget amount in capital for ceiling tiles so that we make sure that we do have fresh ceiling tiles every time we do a new roof Anyone else? All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Moving right along to Hot Topic. old business board of education 2526 adopted calendar and a possible motion that's what I said so I saw you guys were smiling at me it's my own word I apologize and I did learn that by the way just from reading some literature on becoming poor chairs apparently it's archaic to say old business so that was the reason for the change anyway board

164of education Adopted. Oh, you can call it our cake business too. Actually, it's true. Adopted calendar. Thank you to everyone out there that has reached out and sent emails in. We've gotten a flurry of emails from parents, students. I thank you guys so much for reaching out and showing your interest. I didn't exactly take a tally, but the overall. Did you take a tally? 76. 76. That's great. I think I could say a majority wanted to keep it. 20th. I know there were a few. I'm not going to say. We understand. I know a lot of people. There's a lot of people that make that. I also did want to comment the fact that I'm very impressed in all of the seniors engaging in. Students. Students engaging in this process and engaging in their civic

165responsibility and really having a voice. They obviously organized and I was very impressed by their How many we got? I think the concerning part here, too, is we have a lot of students that need to go to orientation. Right. And some of them already have orientation scheduled, and it's not close. Like, there's flights booked. Yep. But I think it's really important that we need to stress to the community, and I don't know if we put this in update, but we got... if it wasn't seniors we had quite a few parents of younger students asking us to cut back to the 19th they want the 19th to be the last day of school and and i think it's really important that the parents realize that these kids have to go to school by law till the

16624th because it's 180 days and 900 hours so yes um i think that might be a good email blast because they really think that we can bring it to the 19th sure and I do think you know when we do finalize our decision we will communicate that clearly to the community and you know make sure everyone is aware so yes you know we looked into some of the questions that came up last meeting the 900 hours of instruction how many days if the state had an option for an emergency day that the state declared all of those pieces at this time we are 182 school days on our calendar we have the opportunity to reduce down to 180. there is no other extra day for a declaration of of another day through the state and

167that would allow us to meet our 900 hours of instruction as well so we are covered if the board makes the decision to end the last day of school on Wednesday June 24th so that would be a move from Friday June 26th a reduction of two days you know we can keep graduation where it is principal Belanda's here he's we've had lots of discussions about it he is well equipped to create a schedule that will work for our seniors for final exams if we engage in this decision and and the grad party will be okay I think it will I think it will I I'll find out I can't wait to see it I'm sorry get a thumbs up from the committee if I could just say one thing your public service announcement right so

168I do want to be clear that everyone is expected to come to school the whole hundred and eighty days yes that will be in the communication everyone should be in school all 180 days and that's what we hope and expect for our children so that will be the best education that they can have and the 24th will be a half day correct yes it will correct I'd like to make a motion for the final day of school to be the 24th and the graduation to stay as the 20th second is that good language we're good All right. I think we've had a lot of discussion on this. Anybody all in favor of moving the school, I'm sorry, changing the end of the school to the 24th, June 24th, shortening it from the 26th. All those

169in favor, say aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. Seven nothing. Thank you. Yes. What did I say wrong? I'm just gonna ask that maybe on the next meeting agenda that we put the 2627 calendar on the agenda to talk about the language so we're not in this situation yes because every year clean it up thank you I did want to address that too after we just engaged in the voting so we have a calendar committee meeting for that purpose first so the calendar we have to look at the date my apologies we'll get that oh okay so we'll send you all the date of when the calendar committee meets but our goal first would be able to meet as a calendar committee be able to kind of chew on all these concerns and questions and

170thoughts and see what we can come up with to be able to present to the board some options for next school year I think that's critical that the board could then vote on so we'll we'll take other districts calendars too who have kind of already grappled with this problem and be able to I think capitalize on some creative borrowing manage it that way too so i think we'll have some lot a lot of great ideas i just think it's really hard that you know we made the decision in brookfield to do 182 days right because it's two more learning days we want our kids in school yeah and the last two years we've taken away so i think we need to change language to if it's february break or whatever i mean our calendar right

171now limits us from taking February break that's absolutely correct we need to review it and we will we will definitely do that so we'd like to bring the recommendations before the board clearly before school that's out this year so we can vote on a new calendar for next school year prior to the close of this year and the calendar committee is meeting on April 6th at 3 p.m. thank you very much April 6th 3 p.m. because you sent me the initial but i never got the invite cool all right okay moving on moving on i know i was gonna say uh unfinished instead of old um board of education's 2627 adopted budget uh we will continue our conversation on there i believe you have some handouts for us thank you sir that's what it looks

172like What what I'm just passing along right now is simply just some of the visual numbers of where we are and I'll just walk us through it because sometimes I think When we talk about it without the visual in front of us it can get confusing and jumbling with all the numbers and I noticed that that happened I think at the Board of Finance meeting and I trying to avoid that lesson learned right so So I just wanted to share you can see the first number is where we started right from last year's budget The superintendent at the time recommended a 6% increase with administration, so everyone worked on what they needed here in Brookfield. It came to a 6% increase. Word got back that we needed to you know bring that down so administration

173worked very hard to identify areas that we would be able to reduce the budget and that brought it into you all at a 4.86 Which the board ended up adopting that got passed along to the first selectmen and the selectmen had an opportunity to Review that and take a close look at it During that time, what we also know is that we have received, like Casey said, a $310,000 reduction in our insurance. So we had planned for 16%. It came in lower than that. So that reduction was a 0.56% less what we had put forward. That really doesn't touch operational items though, right? Because that was just insurance money, so it doesn't hit operational items. So that really brings our budget down to a 4.3. And then the Board of Selectmen has recommended a cut

174of $250,000. If that cut goes forward, that brings us down to a 3.85. I believe I've shared a couple of times now just some areas that I believe we can make investments that will enrich the Brookfield Public Schools and continue to do that in ways that those can continue to grow as well it isn't just a one-time it's looking at it as we move throughout the years Those investments first and foremost, I would say, of them all most importantly are the ones that touch the entire organization. And that's really looking at some systems and structures that we can improve internally so that way we can be most effective with the teaching and learning that children receive. So that is what we would call when you see on some of the materials that I pass out

175to you, the MTSS or SRBI process, those systems and structures. That's number one. Number two, I do think student readiness for school is critical, and we have an opportunity here, and I thank you all for voting on that tonight, to improve in those areas. And I also think we have an opportunity to enhance our special education offerings. So not only looking at what we currently do, and that's why we're going to talk about formulating a committee to support some of that work as well, but also just looking at how we can re-engage students who maybe we felt previously we couldn't engage here in Brookfield. And so there are opportunities for that. But there are also opportunities to build something not just for that purpose, but to also be an option for current Brookfield students who

176may require at some point to seek education somewhere else. But we can have an offering here right in school for them. So it acts as both parts. And I think we have to realize that about the program. This isn't just about students who may return. It's about students who we may be able to keep in the future from moving out. And we want to be able to do that here in Brookfield for our children. So that being said, that would be the currently named Cubs program, but Mr. P might come up with a new name. I don't know. Dr. P, I'm sorry, might come up with a new name. But anyway, you know, those are the opportunities that are on the table right now. God bless you. We have engaged with some families about the

177Cubs program and we're optimistic about that. And so we have already started that process just to get an understanding of where folks might be and we have a little bit more to go with that. So more to share in the future, in the near future. But yeah, that's where we are to date. Can I ask a question? I would love a question. Are you able to accomplish all of the initiatives that you've put forward with the reduction of the 250, the selectmen? I have grave concerns at that level. Yeah. I know you'd mentioned the... That we would be forward-putting, you know, some opportunities before we know we can secure the funding to make sure that they can be successful. we'd be really cutting ourselves, stretching ourselves thin. And I'd really worry about that. So I

178think when you want to invest in new programs, they come with some risk, right? But I do think the risks that we're talking about are ones that... Like, I do think our pre-kindergarten is going to fill pretty quickly. And I do think this program could fill. So I think there are risks that are out there that are going to work. Sorry to interrupt. But they do require an investment. And I think from a risk perspective, I mean, that was a big part of the conversation, right, at the Board of Finance, where, I mean, in understanding kind of what the programs that we're talking about a little bit more, getting a little bit more background, I mean, both programs, the pre-K and the Cubs Club, are expansions of things that we already do, right? So we

179already have a PK program, right? We are just looking to expand it and make it better. And then same with the Cubs Club, the CLI, not Cubs Club, Cubs Program. We have some opportunities in-house, but we're looking to expand that to fit a larger population of students, right? Correct. I would like to, I mean... That tempers the risk conversation a little bit for me personally right if we were talking about a major investment in an area that we were on completely unfamiliar with and not operating at all currently That's for sure. Well a different level of risk. I think that special education is a big I mean, I think you know preschool is one thing it's an expansion But I think when you're talking about a special education program, it's completely I would assume right

180because our students are outplaced for the level that we couldn't provide so we have an ELC room we have self-contained this is would be a new program okay you know what I mean it's going to be new resources it's going to be I mean it's not going to be like anything that we have here so I think there is risk there but we have to invest in it or we're never going to get there so yeah i mean you're talking about consensus about across you know across boards about we heard you know that it would need an rbt that it would need you know a psychologist i mean you're talking about resources that we need to pull that we don't have currently in our other self-contained classrooms so that's fair i think it's also important

181to go ahead but i also you know we have to move in a direction i mean i'm if we had these conversations right a couple years ago we might be in a better place so um and that's what the community has been saying i've been hearing from the community right at the public hearing at other forums i mean this is you know a desperate want We can't do that without the money. I know. We want our students in their community, right? I mean, you want these children to stay where they belong. I mean, their parents don't want to send them out. You know, they don't. But when it becomes a point that they have to, you know, but if we can do it here, we should. But it's a work in progress. I think it's

182also important to note that we've been having these conversations for several years over several budget processes, and we've been asked specifically to look at how we can reduce the cost of special education transportation and how we can reduce the outplacement, unpredictability of outplacement. And I feel like this, what we tasked Stephen with in his interview was this exact scenario and saying how would you help the Brookfield community with this. you know, issue. And what he has brought us is pretty much exactly what we asked for. And not only that, using resources that we have in-house and in such a, like within a month of being here, moving forward with this process, it's important to make sure the community understands that the initial investment is what we've been asking for. It's not like this is something

183that, you know, came out of the blue. And this is going to help the long-term. The numbers you had given at the Board of Finance meeting was... With the 254 and some change investment, it nets like a $750,000 savings in the end because it brings in, it eliminates the transportation costs, it eliminates some of the unpredictability of outplacement. So that's really important to understand, too, is that this isn't something that we, the way the funding will work for it, the risk is not. It's not an incremental risk. Correct. Thank you. Okay, so I have a question regarding the less insurance return. We budgeted for 16%, but yet can't we use that money somewhere else? And more importantly, I guess a follow-up to that would be to you, if that money were there, that savings, would

184that be able to utilize for those programs, some of the programs, no? Okay. yeah I mean that that's where we were collaboratively with the town and the way we're looking at it is just a reduction on the town yeah it's a reduction yeah everyone's just kind of pulling it off their bottom line gotcha and that's fine but I understand that no okay yeah I think I think it's a it's a fair question and I think and this was brought up at the Board of Finance meeting as well was sort of like do we need that $300,000 of the $310,000 of that insurance savings in order to, you know, run these new programs that Mr. Farisi is proposing? And the answer to that is no, because all of this was built around, you know, our... are

185486, assuming that 310 would be going towards insurance. So it really is just a net. That makes sense. Right, so just so the board is aware, it reads like the 4.3%. That's kind of after the difference of the insurance. If we could land there, we would be in good place to do all of this. Can I say something, please? There were a lot of intent voices at the BOF meeting the other night, and we could understand where they were coming from. Those folks were elected to do that job, to be really hawkish stewards of the town budget. We understood what they had to say. They asked a lot of tough questions. You guys handled them really well. Thank you for that. We need to remember what we seven were elected for. We were elected to

186defend the students' experience. You could even argue the educators' experience, their professional experience. We engaged a lot with the community this time, probably more than in the last two years. We heard, as Caroline referenced, what parents want. This budget that you put together responds to that. And I feel like it's up to us, even with the strong pressures of the BOF, it's up to us to stand by this 4.3, which is reduced beyond what we expected. I really think it's up to us to stand up for this and beseech the BOS not to cut further. We are not like other groups in town. Yes, this is a huge budget, but it's meant to be. This is our kids' education. So I just urge all of us to remember our primary responsibility, and that's to represent

187the kids and to fight for them. Well, I think all seven of us are here to fight for children or we wouldn't be here. But I will say that this is out of our hands. I mean, it was out of our hands when we voted on it. We showed up. to support our budget. There's not much more we can do. I mean, I've personally had conversations to advocate for the budget. I emailed the Board of Finance, but at this point, it is out of our hands. And it's not the Board of Selectmen anymore. The Board of Selectmen handed it over. Unfortunately, it sits. at the Board of Finance, and wherever they end, they end. We have no say in it. So we do have a little bit. I would like to. Go ahead. You can

188go. I was going to say, yeah, Stephen and I, you know, we're invited to go tomorrow as well. You know, I'm not under the delusion that, you know, things will change, but I think our stance would certainly be to go and. show continued commitment to the 4.3 to execute all of the you know the improvements and the changes and the things that we want to try and quickly make in the district honestly quicker than I had anticipated I'm going to be honest I went through this budget season thinking more that next year is going to be a kind of a status quo right that was our original message when now it doesn't have to be right which is I think phenomenal well I will say that you know You definitely did everything we asked of

189you in the interview and then some and you're right I agree with you Caroline that it was a lot quicker than I had expected as well and I can definitely appreciate that which is why I'd love to get behind the 4-3 and you're right it is out of our hands you're 100% right. You know I feel we've done everything that you know was asked of us minus a consensus letter that was asked of us but we did not send the consensus letter to the Board of Finance because we didn't have consensus but That's okay because we're a board and everyone's vote matters. So, you know, I stood by that. I respect everyone's vote. I don't expect everyone to, you know, jump on board for every single thing. So, but I will say that since the...

190Board retreat and also at the Board of Finance meeting when when mr. Friese laid out all the things that he's able to do with a budget that was given to him I Strongly recommend and ask the Board of Selectmen and well Board of Finance I should say so put that 250 back give us the 4-3 So he can do with the things that he's was hired for That's really all I have to say on that topic Thank you and I would just like to know, because Caroline and I do have to go tomorrow evening to be able to answer any questions that might come up or continue to advocate. I want to know if anyone has any questions or anything that they're concerned about or does not, you know. Think that us advocating for the

191floor. I don't know I just yeah, I would love to hear from each of you where where we are I have a question as far as the budget so I know that we identified Some areas that could potentially be reduced race and are you finding areas? I mean and and that's for you to decide but are you finding areas that can be reduced that can be reallocated? Yes, so I just want to make sure that you know this is our budget and i i get there's a ton of new investment which is what we want to see investment in our children but i think we also if there's areas to reduce and reallocate where we need it i think that those conversations are equally as important and i i hope you know caroline have talked

192on the finance end of it that on the committee that we start talking about some of these other areas where there could be potential um safeties right so i just i just want to make sure that we're still looking at areas where if there can be reductions with minimal impact that we continue to look at those because there are areas that you know we see those lists from our principals that we were unable to fund 98 or 99 percent of them right so there are other areas of need that some areas that we may be over in can be reallocated so I just ask that we continue to look thoughtfully at those areas to try and fund some of it for what our kids need yes so I would just share I am fortunate to

193have Casey and I continuously looking at the budget. I think if you just, again, look at the report she provided this month, it's extraordinarily comprehensive, and it tells you every detail you need to know. So we do that almost on the daily or every other day we're together doing that, and we are looking at where the money is, where it's going, how things could either be a cost savings. moving forward. Some things do require a restructuring or do have a bigger impact than I'd be prepared to make right now a decision on but would be evaluated the rest of this year and could be something that moves forward for next year's budget and so I do think there are opportunities but I know we'll need those opportunities. So when I look at some of those

194opportunities, I also see the impact they're going to have on the organization if just stripped out or removed immediately. And those are significant enough that I wouldn't do that today. But I do think if it's strategically planned, that that can be a future savings for like next year's budget. So I do see that. And we're looking at that and investigating that already beyond this year's budget. Like we're past that already. I mean, I know we're fighting for it and advocating for it, but we're already looking at next year because that is what we need to kind of always be ahead of. So I hope that answered the question. I don't know. Anyone else? I have a question kind of for the board in general because I wasn't part of these original conversations and it's come

195up a lot around the ASSO right that so thank you for bringing that up I forgot as well I was going to talk about those too oh sorry there's three items that we have to talk about okay do you want to go ahead no you can all right that this one was top of mind for me right you know I I vaguely remember, it might have been in December when the chief of police came, right, and recommended. He came back. No, he did come back. You're right. No, no, you're right, Carolyn. All right. I don't know. Right. To give our blessing. Right. And the motion that we made was, what was it specifically? It was to accept the recommendation of another resource. Right. Correct? Funded by the police department. Right. And not, this wasn't a

196recommendation of a resource coming from the board. Correct. Correct? Correct. So I think if we're going to have conversations around location of funding on this, I think we need to have a different conversation. around the need of the resource. Because what I remember, and maybe the conversations were a lot more detailed than the one in December, it was more just, we recommend another ASO for coverage. Do you accept? Yes, right. So do you want me to address that? Yeah, go ahead. So do you want me to go into the detail of that? I just think we need to talk about this a little bit because I'm guessing it can potentially come up tomorrow night. I mean, it was added to our budget by the selectmen and then taken out again. I'm sure they're going to

197get it all. Well, only if we... So we have to decide. They can't dictate how we use our funds. So if they can take or give us the money. I understand that, but we voted on it. But so no, to clarify though, we voted to support the police department's budget in. the police department funding a fourth ASSO with the intention of providing a floater. So the way that Chief Puglisi presented this to us a year ago in the security task force meetings and the way that Rosa had brought it to the board as the chair of that committee specifically was around Chief Puglisi coming to us stating that it would be great if They had a fourth dedicated officer to the schools because what happens when one of our three officers takes a vacation or

198has to be reassigned for the day or does training is whoever's there takes on that duty for the day and it requires our security or school security resource officers to spend the day if it's not an officer that's been there before or if it's someone who's not as familiar sort of making sure that officer knows school grounds, what doors should be open, looking at the cameras. So the idea was that this would be a fourth dedicated officer to the schools that would be a floater when everyone is staffed up, be there for an additional, to provide coverage for additional events. And if someone was out for the day, it would be someone that was familiar with the schools, the people, the, you know, the buildings. Yeah. when it came to us for a vote it

199was simply Chief Pugliese asking us to support his budget so he brought it to the capital planning committee the capital planning committee tried to put it in the board of ed budget and in his discussion and in our discussion it was determined that how does the school we don't fund the other three ASSOs and how exactly would we take on the responsibility of that like we don't Who's in charge of the armed officer? Who's you know? How how does that structure work when we just have one of the four under our? They're not technically a Brookfield employee. So why are we paying right? It's like that shouldn't come from a budget So they wanted they had proposed I think taking that budgeted amount from the Board of Ed budget and putting it in the town

200budget for that resource officer that's not what we voted for and I would not support that I think that they can take money or give us money but they can't tell us how to use it Right, but I think that we also need to be prepared that we more than likely won't have a fourth officer and we have to be okay with that. Which is fine because that was something that Chief Puglisi now needs to fight for and the police, if that's important to them, then we need to get together. I'm all for having another. I think it's a different discussion if there's a safety concern of having three versus four. Correct. It was like a feeling, too. I wasn't part of those discussions, so, you know, I can't. make that assessment right and I

201think we're gonna start seeing I that the Board of Finance is gonna start questioning why the town's funding them too I mean that's what I keep hearing so I mean and I think that that's something as a board that we need to be prepared that they may be expecting us in our next budget that you're funding SROs we're not doing it and that's a collaborative conversation I think we can have and prepare for and I think we need to you know i think that's where it sounds like it's going yeah casey i just wanted to clarify um it that just the because we have SROs and then an ASSO so we do have one it's okay and then I just want to for just for clarity we do have one SRO at every school building

202which is a school resource officer which is distinct from an ASSO which is an armed school security officer and so they both are currently funded both of those positions or all of those four positions total are funded by the police department the suggestion or the recommendation was that a second ASSO be you know funded as a floater for the whole district so I just want to be super clear on that ASSO is typically assigned here at the high school for all of the evening activities and sports related so there is one there is one yes And the concern was, Casey, just to clarify, was to have someone extra to be prepared in case they have to fill in type things. Okay. Steve, I was under the impression that that fourth person was going to be

203a police officer. Yes. Yeah. So an ASSO would not be a police officer. But that police officer would be assigned as an ASSO. Correct. I think unfortunately it just why say an SRO is one thing either we're hiring a chief police he's saying that we need to bring somebody else in one would assume that it's a police officer so having a police officer a fourth one trained at our schools is a lot different than hiring an armed guard who isn't so I mean I would love to know what it is well we would too because we've been told it's an ASSO and everyone's been crystal clear about that that that would be put in our budget so I guess my question would be Did you all deliberate on that in the budget? Yeah, I have

204the letter from Chief Wiglisi. Did you all deliberate on an ASSO as part of our budget? We did. Here's the letter from Chief Wiglisi from our meeting on... But not as part of our budget, though, Stephanie. No. No, no, no, no, no. Right, so I'll ask the question again. Sorry, sorry. Did you all put an ASSO in our budget? No. We did not. Okay, so then we need to just... I guess Caroline and I need to be able to share what three questions have come up about our budget that we want to be able to answer and I'm sure more will come up as well. But one is an ASSO in our budget. Are we advocating for that unless we're told that we have a security issue? Has anyone been told we have a security

205issue? No. We are not recommending. It was told to us for this. So I don't think we are recommending that. If the town is or chief, then we need to talk about that. Right, right, right. We're just not aware of that. Right. So that's number one. Number two, there's a recommendation that we inherit the financial cost of improving one of our. technicians to full-time. We are not aware... In IT. In IT. In IT to full-time. We are not aware that that would fulfill any needs that the board has. We feel like we're able to meet our obligations with our current staffing. Do you want us to... It's coming from the Board of Finance and the Board of Selectmen. Okay, I just want to be able to respond to the questions by the board But doesn't

206this go back to they can they can't dictate how we spend our money so they can either take away or give us money but then we get to ultimately I think we're the body of our budget or the I think it's because this is a shared resource to be fair. Yeah, right It is a shared both are I mean I hear what you're saying for sure, but you know I think in this case specifically, I mean, obviously, the board during our budget deliberations didn't say we need more IT support. We didn't say we need more IT resourcing. So I would agree, specifically in this case, that, I mean, you know, we can't support another. Yeah, we talked about that. I mean, the IT seems like it's a lot of people, right? And they're using them,

207right? But it seems like we have quite a bit of staff. I would think if the town needs more IT support, then the town would be hiring IT support. I think it's converting a part-time to a full-time resource. It is. It's converting a part-time to a full-time. Yeah. I mean, you know. And that might be a good idea. I'm just not sure it's one of our priorities right now. Right. That's all. It might be a great resource for some reasons that I'm just not aware of. I mean, is that part-time person doing any support to the schools? Can I provide a little background on this? So when we moved, our IT director, Eric Conklin, became a shared position between the town and the Board of Ed. we realized that some of his time would also

208now be pulled away from Board of Ed and would be obviously dedicated to the town. And so in order to sort of backfill some of that work, you know, putting in requisitions and, you know, all those types of things, part of the MOU with the town was also to have a part-time IT tech. And this person is at TSO, at central office, is in that IT suite. and supports both the town and the Board of Ed. But it is only a part-time position. So I think the suggestion here, if I understand it correctly, is that that individual would move to full-time. Yes. And again, to everybody's sort of point here, it has not been brought to my attention that for our sort of bandwidth of work and everything that we do, that it's not something

209that would be needed on our side. And if it went to full-time, what is our financial implication of that? Yes. And how do we not know? I think I heard approximately $17,000, we would assume. Yeah. And again, it might... be a great thing and I'm sure it's for many reasons. He's probably very talented and we don't want to lose the individual for many reasons. And I just want to know though if we also are trying to prioritize, right? I mean, we're potentially going to be cut money. When it comes up we want to have a response that I would love just of both of those items in analysis right like an analysis of the ASSO like do we really like what's the need for that like help us understand and then maybe an analysis for

210the technology individual just to Understand the scope of that and then maybe once we understood that better we would be able to make an informed decision, right? I'm sure I'm sure there's other part-time positions in the district that would be more beneficial to full-time we have needs in HR that could help us we could do OT at WOS OT right there yeah and then the last in the third of the items that we were questioned on actually earlier today was an answer about the consolidation of services I don't even know what that looks like. Yeah. An answer on that? Yes. So I am aware that the Board of Finance is still awaiting an answer on the consolidation of services. So I will just give my answer, and then please share your thoughts. I'd really love

211to hear your thoughts. My response to any district or organization that's consolidated services is that you do a comprehensive analysis and audit of that, right? It's usually a third-party audit that would come in and do that auditing, and then they would present a report to the town, actually, about why the consolidation would be the pros and the cons. And then folks would vote on that consolidation. That's generally how it would work. I'm personally not prepared to give an answer on that consolidation because I don't have enough information to be able to give an answer. And I don't even know what services are being requested to consider for consolidation. I mean, I think what they're doing, they're asking, like, what are you cutting? That's what they want to know. That's what they ask every year. I

212think it's more about like facilities or, you know, how we did with IT right now, right? That's consolidated. You're going to ask. I mean, that's what they do. What are you cutting? I think the ask is very legitimate. I think it's very legitimate. It just came up in fairness on February 4th, right? And it came up as a suggestion, which I think everybody was open to. Right. To your point, I would agree. I don't feel as I can make any type of informed decision on what areas might be beneficial, what areas might not. What are the areas of opportunity between the organizations? So, I mean, I would agree. I would come in with your stance. Like, I think if we want to dedicate, you know, an exercise in assessing that, totally. Totally open to that.

213Very worthwhile, which may have an impact on next year's budget and structure. Which that makes sense. I'm not sure we would have enough bandwidth right now to be able to inform this year's budget. I would agree. And to Aaron's point, these are the types of things I think that could be a work stream in the finance committee. Right. I mean, it could be. Come come through there first, but again, we need someone to help give us a third party Assessment I would think on on what that what that could look like I mean, what does that look like? You know what I mean? Like how you contract a consultant? Yeah, and you have someone in mind like how quickly can that happen? Oh, okay. I mean the town would have to contract it Okay. The

214person. I mean, the board, it's going to cost money. Yeah. A significant amount. Yeah. To do that analysis. And then there's usually forums, open forums for the public, for it to be presented to the public. It's a change in how the town would be run holistically. Right. So I don't think that. Sarah, are you okay with that, waiting, holding off? You holding off on a decision? I think it's a big potential and opportunity that we need to review. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the consultation. That's all right. I'll come back to you. Joy, any thoughts? No? Okay. All right. Anything else that would be important for us to know about going to the Board of Finance tomorrow night? It's at 7. He's going to come as a member of the public to

215support you. Yes. It's at 7. Right in the same room, I think. Same room. Great. Is there anything else you need from us before you go? Great question. I don't think so. I mean, it sounds like we are, I mean, I'm hearing support for the, you know, for the 4.3%, which is our adopted minus the insurance adjustment at this point to execute. You know, the ideas, the strategies, and the investments and internal changes needed to execute that plan. Well said, Sarah. Well said. Well said, Carolyn. Both of you. Thank you. All right. Well, on that note, we will move on to talking about the formation of a special education subcommittee and a possible motion. Do you want to start? I don't know. I tried this last month. Oh, no, no. This is right up. And

216it was excellent because it really has spurred us to move forward with this. So I'm excited that this is on the agenda this evening. I think it's a great opportunity for us to engage in, similar to what some other folks who came to the podium shared during public comment. I think it would be a great group that would be informative and be able to share with us kind of things that we might. See and not see and then be able to use that information to make great decisions. So We are highly interested Bill and I and moving forward in that direction Again, the the only question we wonder is do we make it a subcommittee of the board or an ad hoc committee? And that's open for discussion and I'm okay either way to me.

217The policy is open enough to be either and And you can go either way. I don't know Oh, do you want come on up? Oh, wow. Awesome. Can I ask a question on the formation of it? So an ad hoc committee has an end date and a specific sort of like purpose or needs to accomplish something. And a subcommittee would be an ongoing committee of the board. So with that in mind, are you asking for a... eternal subcommittee or an ad hoc committee that would be so yeah thank you flex I that's what I wanted you to kind of go over the difference between the two yes you're my classroom voice wouldn't matter I think that the board, as we've seen over the three years I've been here, when we went through the strategic plan

218and we went through those pieces and those domains, I see this as an expansion of that. I'm not wedded to an ad hoc or a subcommittee. I think the work needs to get done. If ad hoc is an end date, we could always turn it into something else after that. But again... You can kind of renew it. Yeah, but... I'm not, my feeling is that we need it. We've talked about it every time I've come up to present. We talk about the things that we've heard about this evening and putting them into motion. This can be an ongoing, we had the working group for the strategic plan. To me, this is that. with a different title. It would include other folks, but it would be under the board umbrella. So I'm just... I'm sorry. Yeah,

219that was my question about, like, on the subcommittee, extra members, members of the public, versus, like, an ad hoc where you can have more people. Like, what's the... What would be the most recommended structure, I should say? When we did the strategic plan, we engaged with teachers and staff and parents, and we brought those voices in. Whatever will allow us to do that, I'm in support of. So can I ask a different question? Sure. Do you envision this committee being informal and sort of come as you are and everyone talks? Do you want it to be structured? Because with a subcommittee of the board, you are now you have to adhere to the sort of the board structure. So Robert's rules, FOI, you'd have to notice your meetings, keep minutes, which is fine. And what

220you would do as a subcommittee is invite members in, right? Like similar to like CAPE where we invite Dr. Calvez in. So you would just like reach out to people. It would be a regular meeting that you'd reach out to people, but it has to be formally. run whereas you're an ad hoc committee or an advisory council is much less informal and you could kind of fly by the seat of your pants it doesn't have to have minutes i think more with an ad hoc i think there's yeah i think there's advantages to both right but i do think you know if if it's like they'll make a decision which you know how that goes with me um i think ad hoc is probably the more conducive to ongoing conversation right With the proviso that

221we come to you with action steps and action plans and that like the same presentations I was giving over the last two years where this is where we're at with the plan, this is what we're domains, that it becomes an ad hoc but with a formal set of reports, data, action steps so that it's not, we all love conversation. I understand. At a certain point, you know, I'd have to bang a gavel and I don't want to, you know. I just see if we want it to be formal, right, there should be minutes. There should be transparency. And I think, like, I think there should be notices so people can attend. I think there should be minutes. That's why I'm like, there's either way. I think that this is a big, this is a huge

222area where we. Need to explore where we need to examine what's out there I mean what we see today or what you see in a classroom today as a concern It's gonna be something different two months down the road a different behavior a different strategy a different out placement and I think I think all of it should be have minutes and that's I mean, that's my thought process I think then people can read the minutes If we're making, you know, if it's making recommendations in that subcommittee. And then we're reporting out at the board meeting. So it's. You know, I just think, you know, to, I mean, I did, I was looking up ad hoc. There's like a whole thing about committees. We're missing something. I have to say. I'm not, I'm not wedded to

223eat. I'm not so, you guys know me. I'm not so precious that I'm like, it has to be this or it has to be that. What works for us? What, you know, and if it's a formal subcommittee, then that's, there's advantages to that. If it's ad hoc, there's advantages to that. There's nothing to say that a formal subcommittee can't have elements. an ad hoc while we have that formal structure so again I'm not here to speak against it I'm here whichever way did the board would like to go I'm happy to you know move in that direction with the with the guidance of the superintendent and with you and with the the community at large so I have a question can I stand up here you waited all night bill it's okay so just I

224mean I like the idea of the formality and only because this is a huge focus area for the board. It's a focus area of investment. It's a focus area of how we're going to move the district forward. I guess my ask is more administrative and just that the public can be formally part of these committees and parents. The way it would work is the subcommittee, the board, would invite. whoever they want to be part of the meeting so they would reach out to Okay, because that's a critical piece. I mean that I've heard earlier I wouldn't want to create a structure that then only allows people to attend and voice during public comment for example No, but I believe the ad hoc they would did some expressed interest of being members of it though They

225allowed to be members of subcommittee or I don't really know like they can be they can be members of it not in the same way that so it's It's different membership. They're not members in the way, like they wouldn't be voting. They wouldn't be beholden to attending every meeting probably. That's true. It would have to be clear, like again, FOI and Robert's rules in parliamentary that these members, so these are the members of the subcommittee or the board members and the administrators, and then these people were invited or part of the meeting. part of that meeting that week for that purpose. When there's topics that maybe relate to certain. But, I mean, the same people could come every week. That's fine. It just has to be noted more formally for minutes. I would want clarity

226on, like, whose vote counts. Is it the two? Well, you don't really vote in subcommittee anyway. So anything they would recommend, it would be brought to the board. So that wouldn't. That is one of my questions. Like, we would always give the board updates and everything. But if things don't impact policy or, you know, it's not always going to be a vote, right? Right. Just if it maybe impacts certain elements of what the board's business is, right? Like budgeting, policy. Okay, yeah. And an ad hoc committee, like although we say, right, that it has an end date, by definition an ad hoc committee doesn't have an end date until your business is done. So with, you know, for special education, it's never going to be done. I hate to tell you that, Bill. But same

227thing with security. It's an ongoing discussion. And that's never going to be done. So, I mean, as long as it's an ad hoc committee for something that's never going away, special education is not going away. And we have the domains from the strategic plan to be able to use as our framework. We can always discuss that, too. But I think, again, I'm good either way. You're good either way. Whichever way the board would like to go, I'm happy to facilitate that. Right it could work just like the calendar committee or the wellness committee. I think we're all in agreement that whichever one will be more effective. I think we stopped there. That's all right. We need to make a motion to form a specific kind. So are you going to make a motion to form

228a subcommittee? Then we have to. Or an ad hoc. Which one? If we make a subcommittee, we have to leave. Sorry, go ahead. Continue to have conversations about which one we end up doing. No. Well, no, because we have to leave here with subcommittee members. So, like, we'd have to, Rob would then have to assign members. And you'd have to start noticing your meetings. Well, Bill, say he's going to, and he has the structure, and he has the limits. You'll be reporting back to us anyway with that, right? Yeah, we would have minutes with that. It would just be more flexible, meaning like if an agenda doesn't get posted in time, and then we can't have the meeting, things like that. Or gets moved. Or moved, or those little things. Too many people, so now

229we need to move to a different room. Again, I'm just like Bill. We will do whichever. We are comfortable with both. We also want it to be as effective as it can be. And so I think that's what the board has to weigh. It's really the board's decision. And I think it's the amount of voice that we're looking for. At the end of the day, it's making sure that everybody has a voice in it. I want teachers. Exactly. A district committee. And here's some food for thought. With an ad hoc or an adversary. Advisory. Advisory board. I don't know why that word, it's late. With an advisory committee, you actually have the option of like different board members coming. So if you needed finance support, right, Caroline could come that week. And, you know, Aaron,

230if you wanted to be part of it every single time, you could go. But if you needed curriculum support, you could ask the committee. And then we're not participating in it at, like, right, so there's that weirdness of like you can't have a quorum at a subcommittee meeting. And it allows the conversation to go where it goes. Correct. You know, and if we. we go away that we didn't intend yeah we're not we're not locked into your acts that's a good that's actually and if you know multiple not that i'm against being locked in no i know what you meant but that's the thing is like right multiple members need to attend to help advise the committee on something we can't have a quorum so you couldn't have finance and keep there the same night

231now you have to have two meetings of right so like i feel like it and there's an area of expertise so we may say hey we need right this person who happens to be a school psych in another district or a parent who's if it goes that way bill and i are committed to making sure that the board gets updates every time it meets yeah absolutely does this mean we need tweaks to like get this straight before we I think it can always change if we decide we need to turn it into a different thing that's true too actually yeah I move yeah okay that we I don't know I move that we create a that we create an ad hoc committee ad hoc special education I'll second it all right All in favor, please

232say aye. Aye. Any nays? No. 7-0. Outstanding. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Bill. Appreciate you. All right. Okay, guys, quick. Three main points. It's late. How about kindergarten enrollment open? Can we do the music? Can we do the preschool waiver? I mean, we're going to have to do the kindergarten waiver. Aaron, you've pulled out preschool yet? that we're doing it we would like to do it like yeah okay I was thinking doing since it's the music in our school months oh yeah to do the music and then do the pre-k kindergarten and then do the graduation of date last day of school great perfect I think I had it like two hours ago but upcoming events we're almost there I just thank you guys thank you all very much and I'm safe um

233it's okay I'll listen to the recording so district-wide next week we have autism awareness and acceptance week the 25th March 25th we have early dismissal for PLC and April 3rd is Good Friday no school for BHS career day on next Tuesday I didn't put the date junior prom is the 27th at the Amber Room, but I did see an email recently that it might be canceled. So there's not a lot of tickets sold. So TBD. So if any juniors are out there, they have until Friday to buy their tickets. No, I saw it posted. So like half. When do they need to know about it? Friday. Oh, by this Friday they need to have a number. Yeah. Got you. So the 31st. The 31st is the blood drive, National Honor Society blood drive at VHS.

234And April 8th is PSAT SAT day. WMS this week, Spirit Week, and the rest of their online book fair. The 20th and the 21st is their drama club performances. The 23rd is a 7A field trip to the Marine. museum and their pto meeting um the 31st of march is their wms author visit april 6th starts their france field trip so kids our kids are going to france um and the 8th april 8th is the end of the marking period and the 6a field trip to the connecticut science center and then cles it's not much there uh the 25th there's a second grade spring concert April 8th is a PTO meeting and the 9th and 10th which is passed are you know we'll be back on the 8th but the 9th and the 10th is the

235CLE s variety show well thank you so much I thank you all and without objection I will call a German at 1039 all right but no one wants to object great