001Okay. I'd like to call the Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 board of education meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. Uh we'll begin by reciting the pledge of allegiance. Please rise. >> I aliance 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. >> Okay, Aaron, would you please read our mission statement? >> I would love to. >> Thank you. >> The Orange Elementary School District recognizes that the education of each child is the shared responsibility of every member of our community. Our goal is to inspire and empower each student to achieve academic excellence, embrace social and individual responsibility, and lead with integrity. We believe all individuals should be valued and treated with respect, and together we will make
002a difference. >> Thank you so much for that. Uh we'll move on to board introductions. I'd like to begin the meeting uh with board member introductions. Uh start off with Lauren. >> Good evening, Lauren Gray. Anthony Scorenzi. >> Hi everyone. Ranette James, >> Amanda Zapatka, >> happy new year. Ken Zimman, >> Tatiana Msina Mullen, >> Jeff Cap, >> Betty Hadlock, happy new year. Aaron Wilson. >> Okay, thank you for that. Uh we'll move on to our next item which is public particip participation. Do we have anyone from the public uh participating in this evening? If so, please step to the podium, state your name and address. If so, okay, we'll we'll read the uh little mission thing here. So, >> speakers may offer objective comments to the board concerning school operations and programs. Comments will
003be limited to two minutes per speaker. The board encourages speakers not to express personal complaints or defamatory comments about the Orange Board of Education personnel or any person associated with the Orange Public School System. Comments about security of issues, matters related to due process, negotiations, or grievances will not be permitted. Consistent with the principles of the Federal Education Right to Privacy Act, discussions about students are prohibited absent a written parent waiver. Public participation does not allow for a two-way conversation between the board and the participants. We thank you for expressing your thoughts and opinions. All comments will be taken into consideration. >> All yours. Thank you. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Um, happy new year. Thank you again for for having us. Uh, my name is Joshua Linsky, 355 Miles Road. Um, I know that
004this is not a two-way street. So, I just want to ask um if at some point it can be discussed or or begin being discussed um does the Orange Board of Ed have a policy or protocols or something in place um if we are seeing what is starting to happen where we have um immigration enforcement officers that are trying to enter schools. Um it's a thing that I know in my school district we have discussed and uh had a policy that was put into place and was communicated to the school district. Um so I was just hoping again not asking to speak on that now because I know that there's a lot there u but just hoping that there's some kind of policy or protocols in place and if not if there's a way to
005make that happen. And that's it. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Thank you for that comment. Any other public participation from anyone? No. Okay. I'll move on to uh item three, which is our consent agenda. I will need a motion to accept the first item under the consent agenda, which is the item minutes from the December 15, 2025 board of education meeting. Do I have a motion to accept the minutes from the December 15, 2025 board of education meeting? Lauren second. Anthony. Uh, any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Okay. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to um item four, our superintendent report. We'll move over to Dr. Scarpetti. >> Good evening everyone. Happy new year to everyone here and the families watching at home. Uh I hope everyone had a safe and an enjoyable new
006year and wishing you all the best in 2026. We had a nice little break, but want to extend a thank you to our custodial staff, supervisor, and our director for prepping schools. I want to remind people that we constantly want to remember where we were with regards to the cleanliness of our schools, touch points, and such that we've learned over the pandemic. That's what we focus on over the break. But additionally, just want to send a thank you because again, we had a few snow days even during break and right uh as this past weekend. And I want to thank everyone who uh participated, especially the highway department for their assistance. I also want to thank the board members. There were a lot of events that were happening at the end of the year that
007anyone that were able to attend. Thank you for doing so. We also have two remaining. Uh if you're interested, please let us know. We have the band and orchestra at PE tomorrow. I know some people have emailed uh Darlene. If your interests are still like to come, please let us know. and Racebrook is on January 26th. Also to put on your calendar if you're able to attend is the elected officials day. It's at your chair. I know some board members have already reached out to us, but as a reminder, Friday, January 30th is AMD Middle School Orange campus and then we go over to the high school. And then on Tuesday, February 3rd is Amity Middle School Bethany. Again, we need a response by January 23rd. We also have our kindergarten and preschool enrollment that's
008open. I've asked Mrs. Zidto to talk about preschool, but currently right now we have 95 students enrolled for kindergarten. It's an open enrollment uh rolling in admission so to speak. We are accepting waiverss for anyone who's watching at home. That is still a part of it. So again, if your child is born after September 1, meaning not born after September 1, but is 5 years old after September 1, um you are still allowed that waiver. Just a piece of information, there's a request to the legislators that after next year that waiver be dismissed. We'll see what happens with that. That will go to the legislators to vote on. And lastly, um budget workshop next week. Uh hopefully you all of you put that on your calendar. It's January 29th starting at 5:00 pm. I received
009some questions when does that typically end? There's no really end time to that. Usually that's a longer meeting compared to the other meetings we've had. So please uh make arrangements with your schedule knowing that there is no end time with that. Um but again January 29th regarding that. Uh right now we went through that whole process as we've shared with you in the past. Either myself or Mr. Gray we have a few things to finalize on. Um, I'll be reaching up to Mr. Cap. I've, uh, had some conversation with Mr. Cap as board chair. Um, uh, I've had conversations with Mrs. Hadlock as personnel as preframe with certain pieces. And I'll be reaching out to Miss Richio regarding uh, her piece with regarding the finance subcommittee as chair. But that ends my report. >> Thank
010you for that. Does anyone have any uh, questions? >> Go ahead, Dr. >> Hi, Dr. Scarpetti. Hey. >> Um, so this might be a stupid question, but being Orange board of education members, are we able to attend the um the February 3rd going to Bethany even though we're not if we can't make the first one? >> Absolutely. It's kind of nice to see the difference. We have board members done that in the past. >> So, you're welcome to either one. >> Okay. And then my second question and you question is you had indicated um regarding the kindergarten waiver would be dismissed. What do you mean by that? >> So, right now a parent has the right so again if their child is uh before September, right? If their if their child is not five at
011September one, there's [clears throat] a waiver and they email Mrs. Watson and ask for a waiver. They come in, we assess the child. >> The [snorts] following, not next year, but the year after that, they're saying that the waiver won't be an option, >> meaning that either your child's five on September one or they can't or they're not. >> Gotcha. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Okay, Aaron, >> does that same waiver process apply for children born after September 1 if they if they don't feel as though they're ready to start or is that only for like summer birthdays or also fall to fall? >> So, what's interesting, kindergarten is not a requirement. So, a a parent can make that decision of actually, and I'm not Yeah, I was I was going to use the
012word retain, but I don't think that's the correct descriptor for that, but yes, the parent could actually do that, and we've had some parents do do that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Anyone else? Uh Lauren, >> thank you, Dr. Scarpetti. Can you remind parents of when enrollment is open until for the waiver and enrollment? >> Sure. So the So right now they could do that right now and I think it's up until the beginning of or the end of the this year. So the end of June 2026 >> and I think parent I think people can still enroll in August too, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just checking. >> We take it's just like even if we have a a parent who moves into the district and school starts. Yep. >> They could
013they could enroll. >> Okay. So the waiver and enrollment is accepted up until like the end of August. >> Correct. But now once school starts >> that we don't accept that waiver at that time. >> Okay. So August 31st. Okay. Got it. Um and then the letter the letter was it from the legislature or was it was it to the legislature? >> I think there there's a bunch of right now people could put in what they are asking for the legislators to consider. And so the state department of education has put a whole list of things that they would like the the the legislators to consider and that's one of them. Okay. >> Because it's caused some issues and questions in the districts. >> But I think they what they tried to do is for
014the people that weren't ready or prepared for that, they wanted to have a nice leeway of some years to get ready and heard because even some people didn't even know of it, you know, last few years like, "Oh, I didn't even know that. I thought I still thought it was January 1 when it's changed to September one." >> Thank you. Sure. >> Anyone else? No. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh we'll move over to Mr. Gray. Right. Good evening everyone. I'll start with a report on finance. I'll begin with a grant update. So we have four current grants that we're working with. Um the first is the ARPA summer mental health grant. This is a three-year grant. We're in the third year and this is funded at 70% this year. For the first two years,
015we're at 100%. This is a $35,000 grant. Again, this is used to um support students with mental health services during summer programming. It has not been spent at all yet because again, this is for this upcoming summer. Our next grant is the ARPA school ARPA school mental health specialist grant. This is also a three-year grant. It was funded at 100% the first two years, 70% this year. This is to fund another social worker in our district and it is built into our operating budget for 2627 at 100% of that person's salary. It was a 647 $6 64,754 grant this year. Again, that's at 70%. Um, and it's pretty much about threequarters of the way expended. Consolidated Title Three immigrant grant. Uh, it's an $18,225 grant. We've spent about twothirds of this grant. Uh we have
016just under $6,000 remaining and it's for language instruction program assistance for students receiving EL services. And then finally, our primary mental health grant. This is a two-year grant and Mrs. Zto applies every two years, receives it. So we're in I think year seven of having this program in in our district. And this is for K to3 early detection um and intervention programs for students. It's [snorts] a $16,600 grant and we've spent about 6,500 so far this year. So we have about 10,000 remaining in this grant and I believe Mrs. Zto may speak to this a little bit tonight. Um our audit, the uh auditors have completed the independent accountants review process. are finalizing the findings from that and we should have the final report either later this week or next week. They usually send us
017several copies of that. So if anyone's interested in coming and looking at that um they will be in my office uh not sure it's uh bestseller reading material but if you're interested um there will be copies in the office and that concludes the finance portion of the report. >> All right, thank you for that. Any questions? No. Okay, we'll move on to the next part. >> Okay, facilities and operations. So, our sprinkler system contractor completed uh by annual fire inspections uh in each of our school buildings and they conducted the routine repairs and preventive maintenance that comes from those inspections. The electronic side of the system was also tested over the holiday break. We actually had a couple of alarms go off um both in the evening, so it wasn't too bad, but um we
018had some um issues with uh some alarms tripping and it was just faulty wiring that they came out fixed right away and it was and everything's back in working order. Um also on the the topic of fire alarms, our fire alarm contractor will be conducting the annual functional inspections in our schools that includes visual and audible inspections. So what they do is they come in, they actually set off the horns and they set off the strobes, but they do this first thing in the morning before anyone's in the building so it doesn't interrupt the school day. And then they stay for a few hours during the day and they check on each sprinkler or um smoke detector head. They test that through the panel in the office so it doesn't interrupt anybody. So they'll be
019doing that over the course of this week and next week. Um and that takes care of all of our fireside protection in our buildings. Uh again that's bianual as well. So um that will be done and that concludes my portion of my report. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Does anyone have any questions there? No. Okay. Move on to Dr. Russo. >> Good evening. Tonight I'd like to share a brief update on our professional learning and planning work across the district. First, our leadership team will continue to participate in the science of reading master class cohort 5. We have a meeting with our affinity group in West Haven tomorrow. We also recently met with our executive coach from CAPS or Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendent and we shared our district literacy plan. He provided
020feedback and we're working to include that feedback and updating our plan. In math, our monthly school and grade level planning sessions are continue continuing as scheduled. All uh planning dates are posted in our professional learning calendar which we always share at uh or during our or in our board update. We're also excited to share that a new math home support resource is now available on our district website. Directions for accessing this at home support will be included in this week's school newsletters. For anyone watching tonight, you can explore it by going on to the district website, selecting faculty resources, the last button in the middle row, and um clicking there, you will find several helpful links, including information about our math specialists, a what we are learning section for quick access to all grade level
021standards, and a how can I help my child link, which connects families to support across us are our key math resources. Illustrative mathematics being the newest resource, the Tang resource, the um I Ready My Path and Explore Learning Resources, Reflex and Fracks. And it's really nice the illustrative math one, which is the new resource. uh you'll click on ILC for classroom and you can really go in and see videos linked to all of the units. So, we think those will be helpful. More to come on that. >> You mentioned faculty resources, but it's under >> Oh, thank you. Oh my gosh, it's under family resources. I'm just so used to faculty resources. I apologize, Mary. Thank you so much for bringing that to everybody's attention. Uh, tomorrow is also curriculum Wednesday. As noted in the
022professional learning calendar, teachers will have time to orient themselves to updated English language arts resources, including anchored texts with teacher planning notes, as well as language comprehension resources aligned to our Smithsonian science kits for theformational units grades three through five. Also, a quick reminder that tomorrow we officially kick off our district cursive curriculum pilot with training for the pilot teachers. We've already shared the handwriting scope and sequence in a previous board update, and we're looking forward to this next step. And finally, we'd like to share that our 2026 student art exhibits are now on display in the board of education art gallery. Uh the wonderful student artwork was also digitally shared in the board update. Thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you for that questions. Lauren, >> when is the
023100th day of school? Do you know the date off the top of your head? >> The 100th day of school coming up. >> No, I was Do you know >> the Monday? Um, Monday, February 2nd, the first Monday. >> Well, happy 100 days. Thanks for making it through so far. [laughter] >> Thank you, >> Anthony, >> thanks for the update. Um, just real quick, I think you might have said it already, but the the math help that takes the form of just videos or is there there there's no live, right? Just videos. >> Correct. They're videos. >> All right. Just making sure. Thank you. >> But you can always reach out to your school principles, your classroom teachers, and your math specialists. Great. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Benny. >> Yeah, I just want to
024make I'm trust trying to remember I know your um science of reading uh expert class that you're working on with [snorts] other districts. Who is going to that? Who is actually the who are the participating people? >> Our leadership team. >> Okay. >> All the principles. >> Do the reading consultants go to that? >> No, they've had they've had other training. This is specifically for leaders because leaders make all the difference, >> right? Just fine. Okay. Thanks, >> Amanda. >> Um, how are you? Um, first I just wanted to say I love uh the math department when they send home the over break pay packets. I think those are great and I love doing them with my kids. I I am appreciative of um the teachers for putting that together and and the next seems
025kind of crazy to say, but I know you're not supposed to ask the teacher for homework, but looking to summer, which seems so far away, um is it possible to start thinking of maybe like a reading guided reading list for um where your child is leveled currently. Um just to help parents pick a book that their child can read. I know the state has um a reading summer thing, but it's not really anything that's more guided and specific. And the library does a just write your title of the book down type of a thing, but something that can actually help parents pick books that their kids should be reading that are at the right level, if that makes sense. >> Of course, we can definitely work on that. >> And I'm sorry for asking for
026homework. [laughter] >> Don't be sorry. We're here to serve. >> Does anyone else have any questions? No. Okay, we'll move on to Mrs. Edo. >> Good evening, everyone. A quick update on preschool. As a reminder, the preschool lottery is open until January 29th. Um, postings about the lottery can be found on the district website, local newspapers, the school newsletters, and in addition, the PTA PTO's were asked to put the notification on their social media page. Families of ED eligible students can call the special education department to have their child added to the drawing and families will be notified of their status about around the second week of February. Bless you. This February, our district will conduct a voluntary review of of our intensive resource room programs to support continuous improvement in our special education services.
027We are partnering partnering with a nationally certified school psychologist and licensed professional counselor who specializes in autism and neurodeiverse learners. This expert will help us reflect on our current practices, celebrate strengths, and identify opportunities to better support students with the highest needs. The review will include classroom visits, conversations with staff, a review of instructional materials and supports. This learning opportunity is not an evaluation. It's designed to foster collaboration, highlight what's working, and strengthen our programs moving forward. Staff insights and expert expertise will be key to this process. Finally, primary project is up and running at three of our four schools. Marielle Tracy will begin servicing children in the beginning of February. As Mr. Gray mentioned, Orange is in our seventh year of implementation. This grant provides funding for two years of programming. For those unfamiliar
028with primary project, eligible children in grades K through three are part of a playbased opportunity to connect personally with a caring adult. Children are considered for service based on teacher survey results and input as well as parental feedback and consent. Last year we serviced about a hundred children by our child associates who are overseen by our school social workers in conjunction with our school psychologists. And that concludes my report. >> All right. Thank you for that. Does anyone have questions? [snorts] >> Erin, >> um the specialist that you mentioned coming in, is that a like a consultant that's coming in? Um okay. >> Yes. >> Great. Wonderful. Um and I also just wanted to give kudos to the primary project. my son has been a beneficiary and it has immensely helped him. Um, and just
029I hope you keep it going. It's it's lovely and very very supportive for the students. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> No. Okay. All right. We'll move on to uh board business. Um, item one is the policy second read orange board of ed policy 5145.12 search and seizure. Betty, I'm gonna defer to you. >> Y um I'd like to uh make a motion to table this policy for further review. Um after board members, I want to thank you for reaching out to me, ask good questions regarding some language and request and now we I think we need to look into some more specific information on a couple of the paragraphs. So I would like to ask for a motion to table this so that the um policy committee can take another
030look at it. >> Okay. So for a motion um Betty I'm going to take you as the first motion. Okay. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh any discussion from anyone? >> Just curious. What was the uh the section that was >> the search and seizure policy? >> Yeah. Specifically >> questions. I I mean not to get too in depth but out of curiosity. >> Um one question was about um exactly who the district officials are who may be involved in such a such a process and also a question about um some of the language um where it said the scope of the search must reasonly be reasonably related to the objectives of the search and the nature of the infraction. There are some questions about whether is there actually already an infraction when we haven't determined
031whether there was an infraction and should it be different language there and also about uh what would in how we would conduct a safe search if there was a student search as well as just looking in desks and backpacks >> and um so I I raised a couple of these so like by safe search that would mean like if there's like a young female student like making sure there's a female male official or staff member present um or doing the search especially like pat down if there's a physical body search. Um and the same thing for a like boys and male um officials or staff. Um and with the infraction like instead of saying infraction, we should probably say like allegation or suspicion because innocent until proven guilty. We don't have anything until we actually
032search and do the investigation. >> Okay. >> Any other discussion? I just want to make sure that if language is going to be changed that it's it's going to be changed in such a way where it's not going to um be so specific that it's limiting to our administration um and whoever is deemed responsible for the search. Um, I I think I think we've we've uh seen um a a situation in Virginia not so long ago where the the district or the administrators did not properly act on searching and uh for whatever reason a kindergarten teacher was shot um and they were told that that that child had brought a a weapon into school that day. So, um I I don't want to see it be so specific where um if if there is suspicion
033or any kind of inkling that whoever needs to cannot do this search um even if it has to be our um school resource officer or someone else. Um but I need to make sure that we are protecting everyone in in that school. um not just the the child who's who could potentially be no >> holding something. >> Absolutely. And that's why we're going to bring it back to the committee to review and see. There might not be any changes. We shall see. >> Okay. Any other discussion? >> No. Aaron? Um we we do this sort of thing in healthcare and we don't specify gender um when it comes to searches but we do specify um like a chaperone like a second person. Uh so it might not be gender specific or what have you but
034um to have a supportive second person to validate and verify the findings and to and to act as a witness. So maybe not gender specific but something else that would be supportive to the administration and to others to keep them backed up and and um in the right. Yes. >> Thank you. Okay. >> Anyone else? >> No, >> I do agree with Rena and I think the reasonable cause like clause is pretty broad. So, you know, hopefully, you know, like if some if something is reported, the reasonable cause clause, you know, would is pretty broad. So, it could be taken into consideration if if there are any allegations or suspicions. >> Okay. >> So, that what's interesting about this specific policy for everyone to know this is not a required policy. We have a right
035as educators to do this automatically, it's nice to have that for parents to see. So, this is not required. So, um for those that uh may not read or have the opportunity to read anything that we've gone over, but typically in the beginning when we start our policy meetings, you know, we jokingly call it the Bible, we've had an audit from CA um CAB and it goes through everything that we have or do and it specifically says required or not required. Again, this is not a required. we have the ability to do this. We have more authority than our police officers do in our school systems. However, I think it's good to have because uh parents could question it. Um but um Mrs. Hock reached out to me earlier. We'll be more than happy to
036look at it again. >> And to her point, things may change or may not change at all, but we'll look into it for everyone. >> Okay. What would this um also include electronic devices that are not allowed? >> So, give me a little bit. What are you envisioning? >> So, um you know, the the district policy there's certain electronic devices that children are not allowed to bring into school or use in school. >> Uh something like that. Does it does it encompass that or is that on a different level? >> Do you think that if we hear that, you know, it's more of a that's not a threat, so to speak. That's just a a procedure that we have that if okay, hey, uh Anthony Tattletails on Ret saying, "Hey, she's got a wearing her
037watch or such. It's not but it's play but or it's in her pocket or something occurs." It wouldn't cover that. We have that ability to do so, you know. >> Okay. So if if Anthony says Ranette has a phone and at recess she's watching YouTube videos and the teacher doesn't know the teacher would have the right to say Ronette. >> Yeah Ret do you have your phone in your back? >> Get the phone. I'm keeping it until Okay. >> And even making a little bridge to Rette even though it's a totally different situation. Many of these situations are not oper not operated on a silo to I think your point that you say that someone's in the room and again I'm having flashbacks when I was an elementary principal and a middle school principal. They're
038not operating in silos either and a staff member was with me when questions had to be asked. Do you have this? Do you have that? Or if it was more severe calling the police in. So, >> okay. Any other discussion? Okay, since uh we're all going to watch out for Anthony, I'm going to look for a motion. Um the P all in favor because we have we already have a second. >> Okay, so um >> in favor of table it >> favor of tableabling the Yes, that would correct. We're going to table this. All in favor? >> Okay. Uh abstain. >> No. >> Disagree. >> Two. Okay, no problem. Motion passes though. >> You got that? Okay. Uh item number two, policy second, review to rescend orange board of ed policy 4112.4212.4 health examinations. Uh
039do I have a motion to resend the orange policy 4112.4212.4 health examinations? Aaron, thank you. [laughter] Second, Betty. Uh, any discussion? All in favor? That's unanimous. Okay. And number three, policy second review to resend Orange Board of Ed policy 6159.1 released time. Do I have a motion to resend the orange policy 6159.1 released time? Aaron second. Anthony. Any discussion? All in favor? And that was unanimous as well. Okay. Uh we're going to move on to standing committees. Uh finance and operations. Amanda, you're gonna fill in for Susan since she's not here. >> Great. >> [laughter] >> Um, we went with we met with doc uh Mr. Gray earlier today and basically everything we talked about he already discussed in his recap. Um, and we had no other concerns at this point. >> Okay. Thank you
040for that. Any any uh questions? >> No. [clears throat] Okay. Personnel policy transportation Betty. >> Yeah. Based on our schedule and the upcoming budget workshops, the committee will not be meeting at the end of this month. I anticipate we will meet near the end of February in preparation for upcoming meeting in March. >> Okay, assuming no questions, buildings and grounds, Anthony. So, just a reminder that the board of ed capital improvement items have been submitted and presented to the town capital improvement committee. You've all already received a list of the items. If you need another copy, please contact Dr. Scarpetti. Uh capital improvement items are part of the town budget process. So, we'll wait until the budget is approved in the spring to determine if any of the uh requested items have been approved. And
041uh no date yet for a meeting, but one should be coming soon. Okay, any questions? >> Yeah, >> I actually just have a question for for Betty regarding um so regarding the the policy that was tabled. Will we meet before that to go over that before our next meeting? >> At our next meeting, we will go over that. >> Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh moving over to curriculum and instruction. Uh Ken >> for the reasons that Mrs. headlock gave. We won't be having a meeting either until February at which time we'll be able to welcome Mrs. Gray. >> Okay. Assuming no questions. Uh I don't um since Susan's not here, we're not going to have an ASUS report because no one you don't have anything correct. >> I'm not prepared. >> And you're
042not you're not prepared for that. Okay. Okay. Well, then I'll move on to the last item which is adjournment of the meeting. So, do I have a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? Lauren second. Amanda. All in favor? >> Okay. We are adjourned. 738.