November 17 - Orange Board of Education - Regular Meeting - Town of Orange, CT Live Meetings

001Okay. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the Monday, November 17th, 2025 board of education meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. We'll begin by reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, we'll move over to our mission statement. Tatiana. >> The Orange Elementary School District recognizes that the education of each child is a 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. Together, we will make a difference. >> Okay, thank you for that. We'll

002move over to board introductions. We'll start off with one of our two new members this month, Lauren. >> Hi, Lauren Gray. Amanda Zapatka. >> Good evening, Betty Hadlock. >> Tatiana Msina Mullen, >> Jeff Cap, >> Susan Rakio. >> Good evening, Ken Zimman. >> Hello everyone. Ret James, >> Anthony Scarenzi, >> Aaron Wilson. Okay, thank you that and thank you uh and welcome our two new board members to our meeting tonight. It's nice to have you guys with us. Uh moving over to public participation. Uh do we have anyone for public participation this evening? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I got to turn my back. >> Yeah. >> no, no publication. >> Would you guys like to speak? >> Anybody? >> Okay, you're good. Okay. >> Okay. Hey, we don't have any public participation tonight, so we'll

003move on to our consent agenda. I'll need a motion to accept the first item under the consent agenda. The first item is the minutes from the October 20th, 2025 board of education meeting. Do I have a motion to accept the minutes from the October 20 20th, 2025 board of education meeting? And Ronette, you have your hand up for the motion. Okay, Susan second. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? No. >> Abstain. >> I'm saying I'm sorry then. Perfectly fine. Okay. Uh let's move over to presentations. Dr. Scarpetti. I'll hand it over. >> Good evening, Mr. Cap and the rest of the board members. We have an honor to have Mr. Ryan from Turkey Hill, Mrs. Olden from Racebrook, and Mr. Traf from PC Place. They also all teach here at Mariel Tracy. Um, if

004you want to kind of scoot in here as I get set up. Um, it's been quite some time that we had our music department present. Uh, I think some of you were board members where there were no instruments and there's something called music learning theory. This is the training that they all have gone through. And again, I was talking with Mr. Ryan beforehand and he's always correct me because again, it was tone, rhythm, improv, and movement. And you may recall when uh some of you were willing to participate, he just had a ball >> and was passing it. And Kyle, you're doing a littleumumpum bum bum bum or something along those lines of trying to enact students to get into what they need to do with the intentionality of learning music, but also how to

005play an instrument. The other piece that I want to confirm is um and a thanks to the board of what they've done to support the music department. The amount of ukuleles we have has changed since we started this program until we have it now. And uh please correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember being told that the ukulele is a gateway to all instruments. So whatever a students wants or wants to participate and take the time to do this is the gateway for any instrument that they want to play. So without further ado, our music department. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Uh so what we really want to do mostly is show you a brand new resource that we've been we worked really hard on uh over this summer. Uh thanks thanks to you

006and uh and and Evelyn and Vince's uh generous, you know, uh support and uh we want to show you this and kind of use that as a lens to see what our students are doing and how they're working on all the musical skills that we teach them. So calling it songs by chord and >> [snorts] >> uh we're going to show you an example of it first. >> We won't rely on the internet. I already have it up. So, this is this is the resource we really want to show you, which is this website that's available to our students. Uh, and I'm just going to show you the very the very first one. We'll talk a little bit about how it works in a in a bit. But, for instance, something like this. [music] >>

007I'm not your friend or anything. You think that you're the [music] man I think that who I am. I'm not your [music] friend or anything. You think that [music] you're the man. I think that who I am. >> You don't stop. What are you talking about? >> Get my pretty [music] name. We are not the same without talk [music] about me like how you might feel top of the [singing] world but just a brief we're going to talk a little bit about what this is but I wanted you to see an example of the resource uh first so so that you can kind of see what what's happening. So, we want to talk about all right, why why do this at all? So, there's three areas to focus on when playing any instrument if you're

008going to play it effectively. One is the technique of making a sound on the instrument. So, trombone has its own techniques to work on and the ukulele has its own. The other idea is hearing harmony, hearing tones, knowing how tones work, sorry. And knowing how tones relate to one another when a chord changes, right? And the other idea is rhythm, how things fit together rhythmically. So working on creating a sound effectively, not buzzing or clunking on the instrument, but making a clean sound, hearing a harmony change, knowing that, oh, I got to change now. And being rhythmically coordinated. Those are the three things that we can focus on and Kyle has worked very hard on this and we've helped. It's all here. Those three elements are in this in this project. So, can we >>

009demonstrate? Oh, so for instance, right here. >> So, here's how harmony all of these songs share the harmony of D minor and A. So that's a group of harmony that students after one song after another after another, suddenly they go, "Oh, it's it's one of these." And and they and they do. In fact, one of the So one of the great things about grouping content like this is that it starts to get in your ear without trying, right? So the kids are listening to one song after another with these similar harmonic functions. Uh, and they get to the end of this and they've played these tunes and all of a sudden they're coming up to us and going, there's another song that does this and they're hearing that, which is our ultimate goal for our

010students, right? That they're making connections with their own ears to music they're listening to outside of school as well. Um so so this web this this site this resource groups harmonic content through levels like through by having a a section dedicated to an entire group of content. And the thing about this group is it's fairly simple to execute. There's second, third graders being proficient at that. And [music] and the second they can do that, and I can teach a second grade class how to do that in a day, you can now play here's 15 songs you can play right now, right after day one. Uh, and it's reinforcing their ear, but it's also giving them making them feel empowered. Right now I can play all of these things. >> So also I'm going to put

011down the uke for a second. [laughter] The mic and the uke is is tough. So repetition and multiple opportunities to play. Uh so the other thing this obviously does is once you have those technical skills and you go through this, you can play 12 songs in a row that do this. You're just giving them variety but at the same skill. So, it's repetition and multiple opportunities to try this again and again. We're also choosing songs, and we'll get into how we did that, but we're choosing songs that do this over and over. So, even in a similar song, you might be frustrated and put it down and listen for a while and then you can pick it back up and they're still doing the same thing. You can jump back in and work on it.

012This is another another benefit to the resource repetition. So, then another very important part would be sequencing. uh in sequencing it from simple to complex if you want to. >> So here's the simple D minor to A. We know bear missed a train. The bear [singing and music] missed a train. Now he's walking. But now the next step once we have D minor to get the G7 to get this finger back and in there. That's [music] trickier. I just I just clunked it. Yeah. So, what's [laughter] what's a D minor G7 song [music] that >> uh would like uh one that comes to mind is like uh Good Times. >> Chic. >> Yeah. >> I'm not going to sing about it. There it is. [laughter] [music] >> Yep. >> And what's the next sequence? D

013minor, G7 to C. That's a nice [music] sound. D minor, G7, C. And we spend a lot of time singing these chords rather than here's the difference between D minor, G7, C versus D minor, G7, [music] [singing] home to see, you guess, in the ear. >> And it really does sing in their ears to the point where they're singing along with them. And again, most crucially, because this is where they actually generalize their knowledge, they start singing it to songs they're hearing outside of here and saying, "I think this song does that." And they're they're right most of the time. It's really incredible. So, yeah, sequencing from easy content to complicated content. And again, each one giving you tons of opportunities. By the time I'm adding G7, you've played D minor and A so many

014times that like this is now a simple transition versus if you try to frontload all of these things. Uh I think actually a lot of times if you went and bought a ukulele book, um they would right away be like, "Okay, great. Day one, this is awesome. Learn these six chords." And it's like that's just not the way it works. It certainly doesn't work that way for a seven-year-old. Um and it's not matching it to how you're listening with your ear. It's only how you're working on your technique. >> Oh, that's me. [laughter] >> That's me. >> Um, one of the things that we talked about a lot is not even when they're looking at the video is just in class. Oh, I was just using my teacher voice. Just in class, we're always modeling

015for kids what that sounds like if we're singing it or how to hold an instrument. And even by the time they're doing this, a kindergartenner or a first grader has picked up an instrument. Maybe they've tried to hold it the right way and maybe they're trying to pluck some open strings. So, we're just modeling that for them all the time in class. And then when we made this resource, we're actually in the videos and they're they're still following us, which is kind of fun, just the way you saw us doing before. >> [clears throat] >> So then uh it it's easy to look at this especially if you went go through it yourself and see these as ukulele videos and they certainly are because our students are starting with ukuleles when they use them. But

016I think one of the things we were so excited about is this becomes a resource truly for everything we would ever expand out to teach these students. So when we start introducing bass and we teach a student that there's two open strings on a bass, a nice D string and a nice A string. We can play a D minor. So there's a D string and it's just open. I don't even need to do anything with this hand on a bass. And then [music] there's a [singing] is my lower string. These are open strings. I can teach you that on day one of learning the bass guitar, the electric bass. And now guess what? There's those 12 songs again. Go play them. You can go play these all now. I can partner you up with a

017kid with ukulele. You can play these together, right? You can you can immediately be making music together in a meaningful way. As [snorts] soon as you learn that on a keyboard, boom, you go back to that and then you group together again and it expands out to everything. Uh you can also of course play drums and percussion to them and and add that in. >> Anything else for that? Yeah. For connections. Awesome. >> So then um before we ask you for any questions or things like that, I I wanted to walk through the process of making this resource a bit uh because it'll explain why it took such a long time and and why we felt the need to make it in the first place. Um because there's a lot of resources out there. Uh

018so I just want to walk you through the process of making this resource. Um, so there are there were a bunch of challenges if you're going to teach small small children music. Uh, and the first one is looking for a variety of music for them to play that connects with them, right? So you can go out and find resources and find music that's made up for kids everywhere, but it does not connect with kids in my experience the same way that real music does. So, the solution to challenge number one is to use real songs by real artists, which this resource does throughout. You're not going to find a madeup song on this resource. So, there's dozens and dozens of songs, all by real artists that some kids will recognize, some won't, some old, some

019new, some in the middle, but all real songs written by real people. Uh, which I think is really important for them to connect to the material. So, you're looking for real songs, but also ones that do those, which we'll get on. So challenge number two is the grouping of those songs by the harmonic content. So you now have all these songs. You can go ask your kids what they're listening to and and find new songs and you can go listen to classic songs and that's all great, but those songs aren't necessarily going to be grouped by their harmonic content. And you might think you could just go online and find like what is a list of songs that do this thing, >> which you tried to do. >> I promise you. Yes. I tried so

020hard. If that resource existed, we probably wouldn't have needed to do this, at least in the way we did. That resource doesn't exist. Like, it does not exist in the world. People just compiling songs. You'll find little threads here and there. So, the solution is research. Uh, but you'll find little here's a Reddit thread of someone who wrote about three songs that do this thing, and then here's another person on the corner of the internet going like, doesn't this song do that? And so if you're going to find all of the songs that do that or if you're going to find as many as you can, uh it's a lot of research and a lot of compiling yourself because the resource just doesn't exist out in the world. Uh but now at least in a

021small way, like the very beginnings of it, now it does and it exists for us here in Orange, which I think is really cool. So challenge number three is uh that once you find these songs all grouped by their various content uh they're not always going to be in the right key for a beginner ukulele player. So even though orally by ear it might all be the same in terms of their learning to play it on the ukulele. It's going to be more difficult uh for a beginner ukulele player to play songs in their original key. So make a demonstration of that or >> here's the A chord. [music] Can't be simpler. One finger down. But many times it's not an A chord. It's going to be a like an F sharp minor chord. So

022you're going to be like up here using like using many many fingers and trying to do different permutations with your hand. So what we've done is brought them into a key that is very manageable. There's [music] no stretching, no barring, no configuration. It's just simple. >> And [music] and so that solution is to take those songs that you've now found and compiled and to edit and key shift them, which is a technical process, but one that can be done um where you are breaking apart the song and you're changing it into the key that you would want the students to play it in. So, this keeps keeps the harmonic content that they're working on able to be uh executed on the instrument they're actually playing. >> It's manageable. >> Yes, exactly. Um, if all we

023were worried about was their ear, we didn't actually want them playing the material. We wouldn't have to do this this step, but we want them engaging with it and playing it. And this step helps. Um, so then after you've done that, you now have songs compiled, grouped, shifted into the right keys. You do still have a problem. Uh, these songs don't have ukulele on them by and large. They don't they don't have a ukulele part. Um, and we want students to have a model to follow. It would be considered a much more advanced skill to just listen to the song and play along with it on the ukulele. Um, so the solution is to add a ukulele part, right? to record and mix and add a ukulele part. Um these are just some photos from

024our recording sessions um at Turkey Hill. And the idea was we wanted them played live on video. We wanted them played and layered into the track in a way that felt organic. So it doesn't just feel like here I am playing in front of my phone on top of a recording that's playing on a speaker be behind me. We wanted you to feel like you were listening to the song and that the song had my ukulele part in it or Mr. Traps or Mrs. Oldens's. So, um, that just takes mixing and in and another technical process, but one that I think is worth it because students feel like they're listening to a real piece of music and they can identify where their part fits in. >> Yeah, it's a real artist and then the teacher

025is modeling once again [snorts] in real time. uh which you you'll notice that all of these videos have the real some form of the real artist in there. Usually the video which I think is another important element. We didn't include that as its own thing, but I think it's important to see the real artist. And sometimes you'll find kids uh just need a moment to watch, right? And they're they're watching and it's entertaining. You're watching a live performance of Billy Eyish or whatever you're watching and that's entertaining, but you're listening. They're listening. they're getting it and they're absorbing that with a ukulele part that's pointing out the chords changing uh which is what we're so excited about. So finally I just wanted to explain uh access about this resource because um we built this on

026a site it's just a Google site but we built that on this platform because we wanted students to be able to access it anywhere and without any logging in or passwords or anything like that. So is instead of Google Classroom, which is a wonderful resource in its own right, I wanted something that is anyone could immediately access that we handed to them. So for instance, like you could all access it right now in this QR code if you wanted to. Um but you but that is uh that was our goal is something that anyone could get to anytime and be able to to use. So that is that is this new resource. I'll just I I'll end instead of the slideshow up just with it up. So you can see that it's grouped by all

027of these different categories of which these are sequenced to, you know, an intermediate level with our students and then each one is just tons of songs in that category. Some categories, you know, are smaller than others, but songs grouped by their harmonic content as you go through. And each one of those, like the second you learn to add a minor to that mix, it's boom, you can play >> all of these all of these tunes. So, uh, so that is that is the resource. We're really excited to share it with you and we thank you for your support in making it. And if you, uh, I don't know if you any of you have any questions about it, but that is, uh, that is the resource. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] Ken

028has something here. >> Ken's first. >> When Dr. Russo presented this program to the curriculum committee, we suggested that she share it with the board. Of course, you were going to have to give up the night. >> Um, I'm sorry. >> Share it with the board. You know, the usual answer to what did you do in school today? Is oh, nothing. This, if you'll forgive the double negative, is not nothing. Um, our mission statement includes the goal that all students achieve academic excellence. Maybe it should just say excellence because really anything that allows our children to see themselves in a more positive light to help them see what they can accomplish is what we're striving for. Toward that end, I want to thank and congratulate you for creating and implementing this wonderful program. Um, teaching

029certificates say you don't have to be afraid anymore and and I know that this had to be scary implementing this and it's fantastic. It's great. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> For just to start, I think it looks awesome. Like I think it's it's really cool and my both my boys love playing the ukulele. So, thank you for that. Um, my question is actually as a parent, so I know you said this is easily accessible and I'm just wondering how we get to it or if it's could be sent in like the newsletter or if it's on the orange site. >> I think that's exactly how we should get it out. I don't think since we had just done that and we hadn't presented it yet and we

030haven't really sent it out that way, but yes, it's as easy as a link in the newsletters of the school or on, you know, however we want to get it out to all parents and students. Yeah. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, of course. I just want to say thank you for bringing this to all of us to see and I know how excited children in each school are about just going to music every time they get to have music and that's uh due to all of you and your skills and your desire to make um music a happy learning time. I wonder have you shared this with any other music teachers or is that something that you're thinking about or waiting to see how it all works out? >> Yeah, not yet.

031We're in the early, you know, just starting to implement it now. It was just this summer. So, we're just kind of figuring out the best ways to implement it with our students. We're kind of every time we meet sharing stories of how how it's been working with students and how we're we've been engaging with it. So, uh not yet, but but certainly I I I would be excited to see what >> I would think that other music teachers be really excited about seeing this. As you said, >> there wasn't anything like it around. You created it. So >> I I have to tell you other music teachers would be interested just in the list of songs alone. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. Like videos aside, just having it having the list of songs >> because you

032went to the trouble of getting all that [laughter] and putting it all together. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> I don't have any questions. I just wanted to say this is awesome. It was this is my first meeting. So this is a really cool presentation for my first meeting and I can see how much work went into this. So thank you for that. Um and the song selections are excellent. [laughter] Yeah, >> thank you very much. >> Yeah, [clears throat] >> hi. Um, both of my kids come home singing every day. >> Um, it is such a joy to watch them um enjoy music, learn music, and come home truly happy um on their music day and other days, but specifically um on their music day. Um, also I just really

033want to commend you um, number one for all the work um, but number two that you did not let the challenges stop you and often that can happen and you just kept going through the list of challenges one two three four five and um, I just really love that level of commitment and passion and I know you love what you do. Um, I also want to echo um, about you know dissemination. Um, you know this is really a gem. Um, so >> thank you so much. >> I would hope that you would u want to disseminate it and uh show your >> beautiful work and your pride uh elsewhere. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else have questions or anything? >> Again, uh thank you for coming. That was very impressive. >> Thank you so much

034for for having us. We appreciate it. [applause] >> So, we're going to give them a moment to just gather their things. You could take your computer. I think it goes without saying. Uh, ukulele sales have gone up [laughter] and that's no joke. They've gone up. >> I know [clears throat] it's a big Christmas gift from what I've talked with parents. Um, and again, uh, without jumping a little ahead with my report, I just want to not only say other thanks about what they've done, but even with other things, just the Veterans Day, you know, they do a lot behind the scenes, not only because it's their job, but they extend themselves beyond their jobs repeatedly to do everything with Veterans Days, plays, uh, holiday sessions. So again, I can't say how proud I am of

035all of you. You are one of the shining stars of what makes the Orange Public Schools a place to be. So thank you everyone. >> Appreciate it. [applause] >> Okay. Uh it's going to be a tough act to follow. >> So we'll move on to our superintendent report and we'll start off with Dr. Scarpetti. So again, good evening. Uh this time of year brings the start of many activities and events that occur until the end of the calendar year. As I was sharing, um a week ago was November 11th, Veterans Day. I want to thanks to all our schools in the town who honor our veterans. We extend a heartfelt thank you and a gratitude for your service. Thank you to the board members who were able to attend. Special thanks to all our Veterans

036Day committee members who made the Veterans Day assemblies possible. In addition, just please note the Orange Rotary will also be providing dinner to the members of the American Legion Post 127 this Wednesday. And again, for the board members that were able to attend, uh, even the students, the artwork that they provided, I think this was the first year and when I was spoke with veterans, believe it or not, and I know some of you who've been on the board a long time know that I've received calls that there were veterans that were upset that we had school in session on that day, that they thought it was almost disrespectful that we had school. And I assured them and also invited them, if you see what occurs in our schools, you wouldn't feel that way. you're

037actually your service and those of your your members of your um infantry, whoever you've worked with who've lost their lives for us, you would honor and appreciate what we do in the school. So again, to our veterans, again, thank you for all that you've done for our us and our entire community in the United States. Um believe it or not, the first trimester ended November 7th and report cards will be available to parents Friday, November 21st. Another item which I've talked about is just this winter weather letter. So again, it's on the website. I bring it up only again for those parents as a friendly reminder that if you haven't updated your phone numbers and emails, please do so. That's on P school. If you have any questions, call your school up. Security. We have

038conducted all our safety and security meetings and lockdown drills at each of our schools thanks to the OPD and the fire department and the fire marshall. Capital planning items. The building and grounds subcommittee met on October 27th to review the capital items that will be sent to the capital planning committee. The lists are at your seats, but Mr. Scorenzi will be in a moment be discussing reviewing that in a moment. The budget process for the 2627 budget is in motion. Information went out to all directors and building principles at the end of September. Budget requests were submitted to the central office at the end of October and follow-up meetings are currently beginning being scheduled with me to review each school and department requests. Um, I at this time want to welcome uh Dr. Wilson and

039Miss Gray to the board. Thank you for again uh wanting to do this. This is uh I think at times a thankless job. I think at times people think that uh you get paid for this. I think current board members, past board members have said this is not a paying job. But again, just want to welcome you to the board and appreciate your willingness and support for our community. That being said, we are actually having a meeting this Thursday for roles and responsibilities. That's required by the state for us to do that. So, look forward to everyone attending that evening. And lastly, it seems like the holiday season always pops up very quickly and suddenly. Um this uh next week as all of you know is Thanksgiving. It's hard to kind of say that. Uh

040I'm incredible and thankful for many things as I know all of you are too. So in this month of thanks I want to end by sharing that what we're truly grateful for. So for me it's all of you all the elected officials the first selectman board of selectmen board of finance. Thank you not only for your financial support but for always being there when needed. the board of education members, your guidance and support, especially during challenging moments, have meant more than you know. And again, I know that I hope it doesn't uh have a uh a twitch for those people who went through co but you know, we've gone through some tough times together. I don't forget that. And hopefully if there are tough times to face in the future, we're going to handle it

041together. So again, thank you for your commitment to the Orange Police and Fire Department, the health department, and our emergency management team. Thank you for keeping our students and staff safe every single day. To our highway department and parks and recreation, we deeply appreciate all you do to keep our schools and community running smoothly. To OKAT Chris, I'm going to give you a shout out back there. Who's back there? Is Lauren back there? Who else? >> Who? >> Ameilia. So guys, thank you for recording our board meetings and ensuring they are accessible for any community members who cannot attend in person. Your work helps keep our community informed and connected. to our parents. Your support, flexibility, and patience are invaluable. Again, what these parents do, uh, again, I know some of you attended the play.

042I mean, what they do behind the scenes, fundraisers, and such, we are incredibly grateful for all of you. To our teachers, administrator, administrators, and all BOE employees. Your dedication, your talent, as you just saw with our music department, and unwavering commitment to our students continue to inspire. The expectations grow each year. All of you know that things are faced we're faced with annually. The state says something we have to at times jump to answer to that. Yet they as professionals as they are they are their passion and heart that you keep on meeting those expectations. So thank you. And most importantly is our students. You amaze us every day with your curiosity, hard work. You are the reason we do this and we could not be more proud of who you are, who you're becoming

043and who we who we will see you become. So simply said, thank you. We wish you and your families a very, very happy Thanksgiving. And that ends my report. >> Thank you for that. Does anyone have any questions? >> Okay. >> It's not a question. It's just that um for teachers to develop a program like this and present it, um they have to feel very comfortable and know that they're appreciated. And um that comes from from you and your team. So congratulations. >> And and if I may, as I was sitting back without taking too much time, Mr. Kaplan, you know, I think when we interview, we're tried to be as intentional as we can of who you want to hire and that does not go against anyone who hasn't gotten a position here or

044who we've had to talk or address. It's the expectations are high and the influence that these three have had specifically with the music department, it it's phenomenal. I get chills of just thinking of the impact of what's occurred over the past few years. And when someone like this group says, "Hey, we need this." We just simply say, "Okay, what do you need to do to get to it?" Because again, and again, I appreciate the questions about how it's going to get out to parents. Again, this was just a kind of soft opening that we wanted to share with the again, first with the subcommittee, then the entire board. Uh and again it will be going out but again for them to not top down but out you know middle out of saying this is what

045we need as the next level for what for our students you know to your point Mr. Zimman it's it's exceptional. >> Anyone else have questions? >> No. Okay we'll move over to uh Mr. Gray. >> Good evening everyone. I thought following music would be tough. Dr. Scarpetti just gave a nice poignant speech on being thankful. Now I'm going to try to make finance and facilities exciting here. So I apologize [laughter] ahead of time. >> We could give you a ukulele, Mike, and you could, you know, play. >> I should have brought it. I should have I could have sung all of my finance here. >> Um, so I'll start off with a grant update. Uh, the first grant is the ARPA summer mental health support grant. This is a three-year grant. If you'll remember, the

046first two years were funded at 100% and that was a $50,000 grant. This year, year three, we are in 70% funding and it's $35,000. This grant is used to provide mental health services during summer programming. Um, so of course it has not yet been spent. Our next grant is similar uh DRPA school mental health specialist grant. This again is a three-year grant that was funded 100% in the first two years and 70% in the third year. This is funding a social worker, another social worker in district. Um, and at 70% this year of the salary, that's $64,754. Um, and again, this has already been built into our 2627 budget. Um, so when we present in January, February, you'll see that in there, that 100% of that salary. Uh, we also have a consolidated title three

047grant, which is used for language instruction program assistance for our students learning English. That is an $18,000 grant and this is a one-year grant. We've spent about twothirds, so a little more than $12,000 of that grant so far this year. Uh have about $6,000 to go on that grant. And finally, our primary mental health grant for this year for the 2526 school year. It's a $16,600 grant. We spent about $3,100 out of that grant and have about 13,500 remaining. That grant is for K to3 early detection intervention programs. um for emotional, behavioral, and learning problems. Uh a an update for education department funding. Um there were some concerns with the shutdown that grants weren't going to be funded through the state. Um I'm happy to say that the Connecticut State Department of Education continues to

048access all federal funding uh without interruptions as well as all of the entitlement funds that have been awarded to Connecticut. Somewhere along those lines, uh, another update with USDA funding, you United States, um, Department of Agriculture. Sorry, I told you I'm trying to keep up with the with the music here. Uh, the CSD received the USDA funding necessary to support reimbursements for October meal claims. So, each month we have to put in claims for our meals to get reimbursed. Uh, that's part of the National School Lunch Program. Um those reimbursements have been processed and they will be paid later this month um possibly early December because of the shutdown. Um but we have also been um notified that the CSDA CSDE also received USDA funding necessary to support reimbursements for November and those will be

049paid out by the end of December. Um and we should be fine after that with the shutdown ending. So reimbursements should be back on track. As Dr. Scarpetti mentioned, we are deep into the budget process and we're looking forward to meeting with all department heads and principles in our upcoming individual budgets with each of them so they can present their budgets to us. And finally, the audit and the educational financial systems reporting, which is something we do every single year. The auditors kicked off the financial audit for the 2425 school year budget in June. They've continued their fieldwork throughout the summer and the fall. the agreed upon procedures or AUP is what it's referred to audit package for the 2425 educational financial systems data and the October PSIS which stands for public school information system

050data is due by February 2nd 2026 by statute but our auditors are really good and they usually aim to have this done by the end of December uh and we're on track to do that and that concludes the financial report of my portion of my report. >> All right, thank you for [clears throat] that. Anyone have questions before we move on? Okay, part two. >> So, under facilities, Dr. Scarpetti had mentioned the inclement weather letter that's on the website. We're getting ready as well uh as we enter the colder months of the school year. We're currently conducting our annual maintenance um in preparations to be prepared in case there is inclement weather, hoping there won't be much. Um, but we're checking the operation of the electronics and the hydraulics on our uh trucks, the plows.

051Uh, placing plow sticks along all the curbing in the parking lots and the driveways, so we're staying away from those during the winter months. Checking the operation of all snowblowers. We just sent two to the uh shop to be checked. And we are purchasing ice melt for all of the buildings uh the sidewalks, the steps, and the stoops. Also, as Dr. Scarpetti mentioned um during the October buildings and grounds subcommittee meeting a list of capital requests was developed. This is an annual list of projects uh project requests that is presented to the town. This year the process is requ uh for requesting capital funding for all town departments will include a presentation of the requested items to a three-person panel. This will be later on this uh in the year. All department requests are due

052to the finance office by this Friday, November 21st. And as Dr. Mr. Scarpetti mentioned, Mr. Scrienzy will go a little bit further into this during his presentation of subcommittees. And this information can also be found on our website um under the long range plan on the facilities page. And that concludes my report for this evening. Okay. Thank you for that. Does anyone have questions regarding that part? No. Okay. Okay. Uh we'll move over to Dr. Russo. Good evening. I'd like to start my report sharing some of the important outcomes of our professional learning sessions on election day. In the morning, we had an opportunity to review science standards that are selected and prioritized for reporting in marking periods two and three. Then our teachers engaged in focusing more on our new resources, integrating them for

053math. they had an opportunity at their schools to work with their grade level partners uh to continue planning for next units and really feel confident about those lessons. After that, they had opportunities to also engage in check-ins with their math science specialists at their schools and ask questions, uh ask for uh scheduling, modeling, or any support needed with any of those lessons. Then in the afternoon we had an opportunity to unveil our two information units on the board update. We did share um those new story boards. We are very proud of those and um the fact that we are integrating the Smithsonian science readings from the kits to uh use as a context for processing complex language and really building knowledge with our language comprehension tools. And so we had an opportunity to orient um

054the staff to all of those resources to really um engage in a lesson with the icons um how to like really read complex text, find the elements and then know how to organize those elements in text structure which is so critical for processing complex content area text. Uh then we also unveiled all of the vocabulary linked to like those conceptual understandings in those texts. Then teachers had an opportunity to read all of the anchored texts for their grade levels, look at all the teacher notes, and begin to prepare the resources with graphic organizers for those text structures for processing that text. So that was um a really great afternoon. Uh you also wanted to share that our leadership team did engage in that master class science of reading session um that CAPS uh put out

055for us. The title of that one was literacy 101 for leaders what every leader should know. were scheduled uh for another session on December 2nd and the title of that is skilled reading comprehension and fluency. We also had to meet to prepare a plan based on our current data and our historical journey to the affinity group um for that master class. We continue with more grade level math sessions. You can always look to see when those are scheduled. uh they're all linked to the professional learning calendar and we did have an opportunity to share sample report cards with the curriculum subcommittee. We did also link those to the board update so that you could look at those. And to uh tomorrow the sixth grade teachers will join me for BOA articulation sessions, science in the

056morning, social studies in the afternoon. And finally, um, we did share with members of the curriculum subcommittee that, uh, there have been updates regarding the new levels of teacher certification from three levels to two. And Mary Edo is going to provide a summary of how PDC uh, use this information to make changes to the orange educator evaluation system. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you for that. Does anyone have any questions? >> I just want to say that your story boards are incredible. I'm drooling over them and um they're so thorough. I think that the the teachers are very fortunate to have such a resource. >> We have to compete with the music teachers. [laughter] I do just want to say that we are so fortunate because in they're doing more than just teaching

057music. They are developing musicianship and kids being able to like what they've created for music is almost like what we've had to do with the decodable text and the patterns and it's just amazing and as Dr. Scorped said, "We are so proud of them." Really, all our teachers, even with the story boards for the information units and, you know, not wasting the time um just being so efficient with the science content and relying on ELA to help maneuver through that. So, thank you. >> Anyone else have questions? >> Mr. Mr. Cap, before we uh move on, if I could uh share something, you know, and again, I may be in this spirit of thanks too much right now, but >> uh you know, I've shared when I presented to staff, especially my my cabinet and

058my principles of, you know, it's gets to be a tough job, right? We all have tough elements in all our positions. But one thing that I've read in many books is to start off your day with gratitude. If you start off with three things of why you're grateful, it really kind of guides you as a compass through. And so I try I try [clears throat] to do my best to do that. I'm not getting choked up because what I'm talking just have a little cough. Excuse me. >> But I share this because there's a theme of how proud I am of what we have done and about who we hire. And I have to say we attended the science of reading uh program and I know um my principles are are watching at home. Um

059I know uh Mary Edo attended but uh I am very grateful for Dr. Russo. We were at this science of re >> exciting. [laughter] >> See I didn't expect to say this but I got to say it. Um who was the person who presented Dr. um >> Margie Gillis. >> Dr. Gillis and I wish all of you were there uh because if Dr. Gillis who was the main speaker she referenced Dr. Russo she referenced Dr. Russo once. She referenced her 20 times and that's no joke. >> And you know, uh, when I was looking to hire our director of curriculum instruction, I really was intent of who I thought this district needed because as I say, the ukulele or what was taught to me, the ukulele is a gateway to all instruments, readings, the gateway

060to all learning, no matter what you want to do in your life. And that's been a focus. uh the drive that we have, but specifically with the expertise that this young lady next to me has is phenomenal. Um and again, we know we've had to have some battles with the state. Again, shout out to Mary Wheelander for her support with with those pieces that we've had to deal with, but I just I apologize, but I just want to take a moment of just the many things that we're doing. We're not there yet. We're keep on working. We're working hard. But to proud to have the staff that we have working for us. So I just want to share that and again Dr. Russo, thank you for all your hard work. >> Yes. [applause] Okay. Uh

061we will move over to Mrs. Zto now. Now you really have a tough act to follow. >> I'm just going to drop the mic and leave. [laughter] >> As Dr. Russo mentioned a little while ago, we met [clears throat] with our professional development evaluation committee, otherwise known as Pedak. You may recall last year we had created the district new educator growth and support plan, which was approved by the state department of ed. This year there were some changes in the teacher certification from a three- tier system to a two tier system being initial and professional. In order to match this, we had to do an update to our educator evaluation plan just to match those two cycles. So, just so you're aware, PEC also reviewed the report card standards, assessment calendars, and the professional development

062calendar for the school year. On another note, our preschool lottery will be coming up again in December. Information will be available in the local newspaper, our district popup, and all of our school newsletters. This year, we are seeking to reach out to our PTA PTOs to see if they would like to put it on their communication platform to families. Interested Orange families will call the special services department to enter their child in the lottery. And Orange residents who have a preschool eligible child need to know that our preschool lottery uh entries close at 4:00 on Friday, January 30th, 2026. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you for that. Any questions? >> No. No. >> Sorry. >> I'm sorry. Oh, Erin, I'm sorry. >> It's okay. It was late. [laughter] Um, how does that information

063typically get disseminated? Is it is there like a public forum to get that information to the preschool parents? >> Yep. So, we post it in the local newspaper. We we send out a publication for them to put in their papers. We have the district popup. So, anybody who goes onto our website, it's going to pop up as an automatic reminder with information. It's in each each of our school principles puts it in their newsletter every week for the full month of December and into January until the lottery closes and it informs them of that closure date. And we will be adding in a request for our PTA PTO's to consider putting it on any of their communications to our Orange residents as well. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. Anyone else? Just make sure.

064Okay. All right. Thank you for those reports. Uh we will move on to our board business. Item number one is board elections. As you may recall, the board elections have historically been held in December in accordance with the Orange Board of Ed policy 9121. However, Connecticut General Statutes 10-218 require board elections occur within 30 days following a general election. If elections were to be held in December this year, they would fall on the 31st day, thereby exceeding the statutory time frame. So, at this time, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Dr. Scarpetti to conduct the board elections. Dr. Scarpetti. >> Thank you, Mr. Cap. >> So, I'm going to be re uh reading a few statements. If I go too fast or if you want anything repeated, please raise your hands. But we're

065now going to hold the election for the officers of the board of education. District poly states that the election is held uh every two years following the town election. There are three offices, chairman, vice chairman, and secretary. Your ballots are in front of you and have your names on them. Please check to see that you have your own ballots. The blue ballot is chairman, the pink is for vice chair, and the green is for secretary. Okay, we will start with nominations. Any member may nominate any other member. Any member may nominate him or herself. Nominations do not require seconds. There's no limit to the number of people who may be nominated for an office. When there are no more nominations, the nominations are closed and the election will take place. The election rules require that

066a winning candidate must have a majority of the eligible votes cast. In other words, a winning candidate must have six votes. If in the course of election for any of the officers, no one candidate gets six votes, the voting is repeated until one candidate gets six votes and or a candidate withdraws. If the board was to reach a complete stalemate and no candidate was able to receive six votes, a motion can be made to sus suspend the election for that office and the first selectman will appoint a board of education member to that office. Any questions right now? >> If someone does not want to be elected, somebody nomination doesn't want to do it, how what's the appropriate way of doing? they could just speak up and say that they would would like to withdraw

067their name. >> Any other question? >> Sure. >> Are we nominating for all three at once or are we doing one at a time? >> One at a time. >> Good question. So, right now, if there are no other questions, I'm going to be opening the nominations for chairman. Would anyone like to offer a nomination for chairman? Mr. Scarrenzy, >> Jeffrey Cap. >> So, we have a [clears throat] nomination for Jeff Cap as chair of the board of education. Are there any other nominations for chair? >> So [laughter] >> I I >> think we have to we have to vote. >> No, we have we we've always written it down. have to have a written one because it has to be validated. >> So if everyone could cast their the vote again that every single

068time >> it sign >> question. Is it possible to abstain? >> Yes. Okay. You can just sign your name. >> Miss Williams will go around and collect the ballots. >> She's going to read them anyway secret. [laughter] the one candidate. >> Who' you vote for? >> How do you do this on your first meeting? >> We never had to. >> It's because of the way because the calendar [laughter] It's echoable. This way. Mr. Cap, eight votes, two abstained. >> Congratulations, Mr. Cap. >> So, let's proceed to vice chair. Are there any nominations for vice chair, Amanda? Uh, Tatiana Msina Mullen. >> So, we have one nomination for Tatiana. >> Betty Hadlock. Are there any other nominations for vice chair for the board of education? Seeing no other nominations, could you please cast your ballot for

069vice chair? Again, it's Tatiana Msina Mullen or Betty Hadlock. >> [cough] >> We have a tie vote. So that means we have to do the election again. I want to repeat this uh just so you could keep in mind that again the election rules require that a winning candidate must have a majority of the eligible votes cast. In other words, a winning candidate must have six votes. If in the course of election for any of the offices, no one candidate gets six votes. The voting is repeated until one candidate gets six votes and or another candidate withdraws. If the board was to reach a complete stalemate and no candidate was able to receive six votes, a motion can be made to suspend the election for that office and the first selectman will appoint a board

070of education member to that office. So, I just want to repeat that that we'll continue to go until there's six votes or until someone makes a motion to suspend the nomination for vice chair. So, we're going to pass out new ballots. >> Is there any discussion allowed or no? >> Okay. So, we have another time. Mr. Cap, I know you are the chair. We I could uh have another vote. I could seek if someone would like to withdraw or uh a motion could be had to suspend this election. And then the uh decision will be the first selectman if that motion is passed. >> I think it's fair to do one more round of voting. >> Okay. >> Sure. >> Can I pose a question? >> Oh, >> can I pose a question? >> Are

071the um nominees allowed to speak? Okay, got it. Mr. Cap, we have another tie. So, at this time, I would recommend a a motion being had. If there's a stalemate, unless a uh one of the persons who were nominated would like to withdraw their candidacy, we could either do that or look for a motion to suspend for vice chair and then this will go to the first selectman to decide. >> Would you want a motion from any of us to then >> Yes. >> Okay. Or do you want to should we ask the candidates if one of them would want to? >> That that's up to the candidates if they want to uh recuse themselves. >> That's that'd be the first step. If not, we'd look for a motion. >> Okay. I'm fine with if

072you guys >> Okay. Uh, do you want to >> is that a formal motion? I I'll make a formal motion. >> It appears so. So, we're we'll be looking for a motion on the table, Mr. Cap, for uh >> I just have a question. Is it solely Mr. Zoli or is it the board of selectman that makes the decision? >> I have here it's Mr. Zoli >> for the first selection, but the bylaw >> I'm sorry, >> Mr. Zoli will be making that decision. the first elect would make that decision. >> Why is it the first selectman that makes the decision? >> He's the head of our town. >> Okay. >> I don't I don't think there's much point in voting for secretary either because I think these are the these are the two names

073that are going to come up in those positions. >> Should we motion for discussion? >> Someone else. What's that? >> Should we motion for a discussion if we're out of order? what the process would be. We would need a motion and then a second and then discussion would occur. You don't have a discussion for discussion. >> Okay. >> I I have a question. >> Um so I if we did not for whatever reason vote on the secretary tonight. I I mean I think I think we have to vote because of the 30 days >> unless we do it on an executive meeting in executive session but it's a public technically it's public we can do it on >> the assumption I would make if we continue with the election of um secretary but say for

074example if one of the candidates for vice chair is secretary Then if that candidate is chosen by Mr. Jolie to be vice chair, then that election would have to reoccur at the next meeting. >> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. >> Um would I be the one to ask for the motion or would it be you as your >> current chair? Okay. So if would someone like to make a motion to Ronette's going to make a motion to send the um vice chair vote over to the uh selectman. Okay. >> Make the decision of the two candidates. >> Okay. Um I would need a second Anthony. Now I would go for discussion if there's discussion. The only the only sorry the only discussion that I would say is that I think it's going to be

075very difficult to do the secretary position not knowing who the >> um vice chair is. >> Okay. Any other discussion? >> Yeah, I would agree with that and I think that we have already in good faith had an election and it is just not complete. We've done our best to um follow the statute and I would say we wait until we find out what the results are. It's important to me that we have bipartisan um selection on our executive board. >> I would agree >> and that's why I think we should vote for the secretary tonight in compliance with the 30 days. I I think that we could vote and if someone is appointed by Mr. Zoli. Um, we could revote for secretary at the December meeting >> and and other discussion. >> I I

076think I think it's fair to hold on the secretary position because we don't know who is going to be vice president and I agree bipartisan representation is really important. So I would not like to vote for secretary tonight not knowing who the vice president will be. other discussion. >> Just what I said before, as far as as far as I can tell, these are going to be the two position holders either way. So, there's no point if one is going to be um in obeyance. We might as well keep them both. Unless somebody is somebody that they want to nominate for secretary, >> I just don't know on what grounds could we not vote for this position. I I think it's we're kind of mandated to vote on this position tonight. We have to v

077vote within 30 days. It doesn't mean it has to be tonight. If Mr. Z makes a decision in 28 days and the 29th day, we can call an exe we can call first. >> We'll have a if that's the case, we could do a special meeting, Mr. Cap. Um again, we already have a special meeting um lined up for Thursday. Yeah. >> So, we could do it then. >> Okay. >> Or have a different special meeting before that as Miss Richio just said. >> I won't be attending Thursday. It's my son's birthday. Okay. Uh discussion more. >> Yeah, I mean we it doesn't have to be tonight. I agree. It's just I think it's fair. >> All right. Um I mean the only input that I'm going to put into this is even if the

078secretary could possib the candidates could possibly be the exact same candidates. Um, I still think we should try at least one vote. Uh, because I would hate for something to come back where we didn't try to vote for that position. Uh, because I believe I think we would still be mandated to do that vote. Um, even if it's ends up being a tie again. >> I don't I don't think we have I I we have to do it in within 30 days. We don't have to do it in this meeting. >> How do you open up elections and not complete them? >> But that's the >> we've opened up the elections for the offices and then we're just going to stop because we can't make a decision on one and that's unheard of. It's okay

079if something's unheard of. It's okay for it to happen for the first time, but we can make a motion to close the election and the nominations and then we could have a second and then discussion and then move forward that way. So we do have the motion and we do have second it to send the uh vice chair over to the selectman. >> Is there anything that you have in front of you that says we just stop voting if we don't like the outcome of one of the other >> there's nothing that says it doesn't though. >> It doesn't say one way or another. >> I've seen this happen at other board meetings across the state. This is definitely not unprecedented and that's okay. So, I'd like can I make a motion to close the

080elections at this time? >> That we we already have a motion on the table. You'd have to wait. >> That's right. We have to vote on that motion first. Thanks. >> So, okay. Well, then I'm going to call for a vote. So, please raise your hand if you're in favor of sending the uh vice chair election with the two uh candidates over to the first selectman. >> Any opposed? Lauren >> abstained. >> Okay. >> So, that motion passes to move that over to them. Now, uh technically you're still running this because it's still elections for secretary. >> Correct. So, you don't want to hear any other m you want me to continue with this, Mr. K? I I I think we should continue with the secretary piece even if it ends up being >> the

081same candidates. >> Can I motion to close the elections at this time? >> Mr. >> You're running this portion. >> Not so if that can happen. >> Yeah. I if if I would like Mr. Cap. >> Yes. >> With your permission, I'd like to ask for a recess. >> Sure. And I like to uh reach out to the board's attorney on this because I have not had this experience. >> We've never had this >> and uh nothing like this >> and it may be in other places. I would not want to do anything that >> I agree. Yes. >> So with your permission, I would like to ask for a motion for a recess. >> Okay. So >> and given up and I hopefully the the board's attorney will pick up. I don't want to

082weigh my opinion on this. >> I I agree. >> Um if that's okay with you. >> Uh yeah. So, we'll take a recess at 8:18. Uh, and then hopefully you can get back to us in 5 10 minutes. >> Yes. And everyone start budgeting two hours for our meetings from now on because that's what's going to happen. >> All right. So, we'll go we're going to go into recess at 8:18. >> So, uh, again, everyone, thank you for your patience. So, there could be a motion put on the table to uh reconvene the election for secretary if so chosen. Please be reminded though that you may be at risk of losing the authority to do so because if the selectman do not make a decision within 30 days or if we don't make a decision

083with 30 days it go that seat will also go to the selectman. So speaking with uh Mr. Cap and Mrs. Richio, this board, if there's a motion on the table to suspend the election of vice chair and it passes, this board would have to meet before 30 days in order for that to happen. Why I share that is because the selectman may not have a decision on the vice chair seat and I know that was a concern for all of you. So, I just want to be transparent that just because it goes to the selectman and again I'm reading here that it says the first selectman but it may be the selectman group. So, we have to confirm that and I don't have that answer but one um bylaw says selectman and this says first

084selectman. So if I believe the selectmen are meeting on the 10th of December, they may not put that on their agenda and they don't have any uh um time frame to make the choice of vice chair. So, if you're waiting for their decision to see who uh they select as vice chair, this board would probably have to have a special meeting before the 31 days in order to make the decision or else that decision also goes to the selectman. >> Is it possible to um make a motion and have another vote based on based on that situation? Is it possible for us to have another vote for vice >> chair and see if there's anything >> it we could vote again but we have already agreed to go to the selectman for the vice chair

085position. But we didn't know at that time what was involved and how. >> Fair enough. >> Would we have to make a motion to reopen the vote for >> No. Okay. >> I think the biggest concern is that and I'm I'm just speaking for my own personal opinion on this and everybody will have their own. My concern is that we as a board need to make a decision on our executive team. We voted for Jeff. Happy happy Jeff's there. We have to make sure that a special meeting is called a after the selectman meeting because that vice chair vote has already gone to the selectman. We've already decided that we decided that on camera, right? So based on that additional information, could we reopen it? I don't know, right? But we have to make sure

086regardless of what happens, whether we reopen the vice chair or not, we need to make sure that we get the secretary vote in after the selectment if they don't vote. So I just want to say that that we all have to realize that if we don't get that vote in, the selectmen are going to be picking it. Even if we get a stalemate on that one, too. So, if the selectmen don't vote and we vote for for secretary, we could still end up with a st that and then they're going to pick it. So, just remember there's a risk of us losing our voice. So I think the right thing personally, this is just again my ch my thinking is that we have the vice chair going to um the selectman. We wait and see

087what they do and go from there. And this way we still have the ability to vote afterwards. >> So with what Susan said, I'll make a motion then to um pause the election for board secretary. Um and um yeah, I'll make the motion to >> I'll second it. >> The discussion needs to occur. Tar. >> Um I'm in favor of pausing um the secretary decision um with a hopeful decision by the selectman for vice chair and have more information at that point. So I'm in favor. >> Okay. I just want to say why can we not consider what um Ken suggested. >> I agree. >> I I don't know that. Vince, you're the one who's in charge. Owen. >> Owen. Hi, >> my [snorts] [laughter] >> Mr. Weaver, there's a question if there's a motion

088that has already been brought up uh before we met at recess, which was to vote for the select them to for vice chair. Could there be another motion to nominate the vice chair at this time? >> Well, that's a twofold question. There's a motion that's been seconded. So that needs to be voted on and then another motion could be made afterwards depending on how that vote goes. Motion on the table, >> right? >> Okay. So we So >> we need to go to that. >> So we vote did we already vote for it to go to the >> No, we we have a a motion and a second. Second. Okay. >> And this is the discussion and then we'll vote. But before before we vote, I just want to make sure I'm hearing. >> Mr.

089Weaver, are you saying that after this motion is voted on another and if it's and if it's rejected, another motion can be placed, I like to now make a motion for us to nominate a vice chair again. If that's second and discussed, that could occur even though it was voted to bring into the selectment >> because that's what they I think what they will need to know before they make this. >> Right. So just Hello, I'm Owen Weaver. I'm town council. >> Sorry for the garb. I came from a basketball draft this evening. So yeah, look um this this board could choose to uh renominate a vice chair and vote on it. You're not procluded. However, as the superintendent discussed and as I think this board is aware, if you don't vote on a vice

090chair this evening, it will go to the selectman um for their choice. So, hopefully that answers your question, Dr. >> So, right now, if we if we do want to vote on vice chair again, we need to vote no on this motion first. >> Correct. Okay. >> You would have to do that. Yes. Correct. >> Okay. Okay. Could you read the motion again? So the motion I made was to um stop the elections uh which would be for board secretary. >> Okay. >> Because we already voted to send it to the selectman. >> Correct. Okay. >> Correct. >> So just be aware if you vote no on this then we're not voting for it. >> Right. And then we can then we can take up the motion to vote again for the vice chair. >>

091Correct. Good. >> And then we vote for it. >> Yeah. Right. >> Okay. Okay. >> And we can do it again. >> Okay. So, we have a motion and discussion. You have to ask for You have to ask for any more discussion. >> Any more discussions? >> All in favor? Not in favor. >> That's unanimous. >> Extensions. >> Unanimous. >> The motion was not passed. >> Okay. >> So, now we need a new motion. Correct. >> So would anyone like >> make a motion? >> Go ahead, Mr. Zimman. >> I I'll make a motion that we try one more time >> for vice chair. >> Revote. Oh, a revote. Okay. [laughter] >> If they have enough pink paper, >> do I will second it? >> I'm sweating. Okay, it's coming off. Sorry. [clears throat] >>

092So, there was a second. >> Yes. >> Lauren, you second it. >> And who was the first? Mr. Zimman. Mrs. Gray. >> Um, any discussion? >> No. >> Do we have to renominate and start from the beginning? >> Yes. >> That's what you had said. Uh, are we re are we voting or do we have to renominate? >> Well, we let me let me finish if there's any discussion. >> Pass. >> All in favor? >> Of the revote >> of a revote. >> A revote. >> That's everybody. That's unanimous. >> Okay. Motion pass. So, we are going to be nominating for vice chair. I am seeking anyone and opening up the nominations for vice chair. Do I have any nominations? Susan >> Betty Hadlock. >> We have a nomination for Betty Hadlock. Any other nominations?

093>> Renette. >> Tatiana Msina Mullen. Any any other nominations? Seeing none, we'll be passing out. Again, we just had to uh you'll see that we just had to write vice chair down. So, if you could pass those out, d more pink paper. >> Ran out of pink paper. crazy. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> And the two problem children. Thank you. Okay. I first started teaching >> and I went through menopause any number of times. >> That's funny. >> It really was. At the beginning they use Oh, you're here. >> The girls pretty much >> Tatiana Missina Mullen six to four. >> Congratulations Tatiana. >> Congratulations. Now we are moving on to secretary. I'll be looking for nominations for secretary. Susan >> Bennett Hadlock. >> Batty Hadllock. Are there any other nominations? Seeing

094none, you may post your votes. Thank you. an attorney. So, it's good to have unanimous. Betty Hodlock for secretary. Congratulations. >> Thank you, Jeff, for um making the another motion. >> And it is it is my pleasure to return the meeting back to you, Mr. Cap. [laughter] >> Thank you. Hi. Um congratulations to both Tatiana and Betty. Um I look forward to working with you guys um for the next couple of years on the board here. So, okay, we are going to move on to business item uh board business item number two, discussion and possible action on the 2026 board of education meeting dates. Uh at the last month's board meeting after the board approved the meeting dates for 2026, it was noted that the Monday, September 21st, 2026 board meeting will need to be

095changed to Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020 2026. Do I have a motion to accept the revised 2026 board meeting dates? Motion. Ronette. Aaron, I I'm sorry I didn't turn my head. I went with Aaron. [snorts] Um, any discussion? >> Yes. >> It has to be after sundown. >> It's it's Yamapur. It has to be after sundown on on that Tuesday. It goes sundown to sundown because they fast and then they can eat after that. >> I don't know what time sundown is. >> Sundown September. >> Sundown is at 7:30 in September according to my Google search earlier. >> I don't know. >> My calendar says that Yankapor is on Monday. >> It starts Monday night. >> So that's what that's >> starts Monday night and then it goes all day Tuesday. >> So then they would

096have had Tuesday off from school. I think it's Sunday to Monday. >> Yes. Oh, then we don't have a problem. >> Is it Sunday to Monday? Do you know? >> No, I don't. >> Oh, you don't know these things. >> I I think it is Sunday because I think someone came up with the Orange Country Fair and I hate to bring that up again. [snorts] >> We don't have a >> Okay. So, it's over with by Tuesday. Okay. >> Thank goodness. >> Okay. Okay. Um that was um where were we? Discussion. >> Okay. All in favor? I'm sorry. Uh that's unanimous. So that motion will pass. Thank you for that. Moving on to uh board business item number three, discussion and possible action on the 2026 2027 school calendar. So everyone should have uh the

097board of ed school calendar that Dr. Scarpetti passed out. And then there's also a copy of the AMD uh school calendar. I know of one little possible change on a date that doesn't match with ours, but I will give it over to Dr. Scarpetti. So currently right now just to inform everyone about the process I share this with um the which is I'm required to to the administrators and uh orange teachers like which they have seen and then the BOA superintendents get together um which we did and typically we present this in November for all all of you to have a whole month to look at it until December. The only um district out of BOA that has voted on it already is Bethany. Um uh but I know AMD presented it and we'll be

098looking for a uh an adoption date on December. Um I did not hear of a date that you you shared, Mr. Cap. What date uh did you share? >> On uh February uh 12th. They have uh winter recess. >> Question would be is >> we do not. >> Does Beth Bethany or Woodbridge also have the 12th off on their calendar? That would be my question. >> I believe they don't, but if you could give me a moment, I could look again out. >> Uh yeah. Well, Dr. Scarp Freddy's looking up. Erin, go ahead. >> Thank you. Um I did notice that assuming that this is what they adopt assuming that um there is one date where it is October 20th 2026 that the younger orange board of ed children have a minimum day um on

099the 20th and the AMD board of education students have a regular day. Um all the other dates that are minimally different um the older students are off and the younger students are in for an early dismissal. So the older students are home for the early dismissal for the younger ones. The only time that's not the case is October 20th, 2026. Um other than what you pointed out about February 12th. >> Okay. >> But just for knowledge. >> Okay. Thank you for catching that. Right. >> I just wanted to say I'm very happy to see that what is in the past was a complaint by parents was that we had way too many minimum days for professional learning and that has been pretty much eliminated. If you look at AMD's calendar, they have many many days.

100I think I counted um eight or nine. And I'm looking um I mean our students have minimum days on February 23rd and February 25th and AMD's in school. >> Oh, so I I I don't know what your point was. I'm trying to understand. Note the only day on this calendar that the older students are in school but the younger students are not is because of a half day minimum day on October 20th >> and February >> and the two and February >> and the two February days. So there's three dates. >> Is it one or two in February? >> Two. Yeah. But that has been traditionally we've had parent conference early dismissals for years. That's >> they don't match up. That's never been an issue. >> Yeah. >> And I do have a question. Is

101um the first day of school also a minimum day? Because it's orange as the first day of school. I'm assuming it's a minimum day also. >> It It is. >> Well, it's just the first two days. Monday uh the 31st and Tuesday the 1st are minimum days. The rest of the days are full days. Yep. Okay. >> Thank you. I do love that it's finally back at the end of August because I felt like this year was so early. >> And I'm not sure what um Bethany and Woodbridge are are looking at as far as the 12th. You said Bethany already made their decision. >> Bethany made the decision and the 12th is an early release day. It is not a day off. Um I I mean to to take a day away and then

102move us a week later, you know, are then we would end on Monday the 14th. I don't >> you know I think you want to reserve >> snow days and what have you. I I don't think we should just automatically want to go into that next week. So I'm I'm fine with the way it looks right now. >> Could it also be a early dismissal day or no? the 12th. >> Could could the board decide to have an early uh dismissal day on the 12th? Yes. >> Just u just so it wouldn't push us into the next week but still somewhat match AMD. >> That that's up to the the entire board's discretion to do that. The why Bethany does that is teachers are here for prof they do professional learning on that half day.

103program. >> The way I feel as a classroom teacher, um, anytime you have a half day, it really impacts the learning. >> Um, and I I think that that would just end up being a throwaway day. >> And, uh, I would I would rather personally have as much structure as possible. Um, I think the full day you just get more out of it academically. Bethany has always done that for their teachers. Woodbridge does not have that day off or an early release, >> at least what they're proposing. >> I like how I like how clean our calendar looks right now. So, >> it's always a parent's option to pull their kid out if they want to. Also, >> and they will. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> Yeah. And that happens quite a bit. >> So, Mr.

104Cap, a decision does not need to be made tonight. We're not looking for that. >> Understandable. >> Um but again, open to any discussions. >> We still have December to decide to do that. >> Um so me personally not seeing what else could or would change actually. Um I'm personally fine with the way the calendar is presented. um going over this and uh everything that we've asked for from last year was, you know, was given to us um with the uh with the calendar and I like how they're almost identically in sync. I mean, I don't think we're going to get it any closer than what this is. So, this is to me fabulous. Um and I appreciate the hard work that you guys put into this because I know you didn't meet just one

105time to go over this. This this is the closest we've been and again AMD had other options that they want to explore in years past I think related to their seniors >> which would impact our students >> um and the extension of how many days that we would be into June. Um but um I think with uh decisions that they made, they've taken those days back and I think they're just and that's why they have that 12th off. >> But >> yeah. >> Um >> yeah. Yeah. So I we again like Dr. Scarpetti said, we don't have to vote on this tonight. Uh but if you guys feel that the calendar looks good, we can vote on it tonight and it's one less item on our agenda. >> It's your discretion, Mr. I would rather

106wait. [clears throat] Usually, you know, we have this agreement with Boa. I'm not too sure why Bethany did it. >> Okay. >> And I think it had to do with their um positions changing on the board office. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But I would rather stick at least with our my agreement with my colleagues in BOA that >> you'd prefer to hold off if you wouldn't mind. >> Okay. Okay, >> that's what the rest of our board members are in agreeance with >> withholding off. >> Okay. All right. So, we'll leave it as is and then we'll put it on the December. >> Yes. Agenda the vote as as of right now. Okay. All right. >> Thank you on that. So, let's move on to item four, policy first reads. Uh orange, let me read

107from here. Orange uh board of ed policy 4113.12 minimum duty free lunch periods for teachers. Again, this is just a first read. Um and uh and I'll advise our new people um in a second. Uh number five, policy first read Orange Board of Ed policy 4131 uh-4231 professional learning. And a first read is um for item six, orange board of ed policy 5118.1 students who are homeless. Um so these are just first reads. Uh we won't be voting on them until next month's meeting. But again, look through them, read through them. Anything comes up uh anyone on our board um especially our newer board members uh reach out to Betty. She's the chair of the committee. Um and u I'm sure she would be happy to speak to you um any questions or concerns. Okay.

108Okay. Uh let's move on to standing committees. Let's go to finance and operations. Susan, >> the finance subcommittee met prior to this meeting. Um Mr. Gray reviewed the financials. Everything is in order. We reviewed the grants. Uh we discussed the audit. I'll be very happy when they come in at the end of the year. That always makes me happy. Um, spot it. >> Any questions? >> Sounds good. >> Okay. [snorts] Uh, personnel, policy, transportation. Uh, Betty. >> Yes. Our committee met, um, a couple of weeks ago and reviewed these policies that you're seeing here. And you'll notice that at least on number 4131 4231 it's a lot of it was to do with we changed staff development to professional learning >> because that is the way we look at it now. And so that was

109a major change but it's in general it's the same policy just with that change and students who are homeless. Um, this is a much more um complete description of that. And um I want to thank Darlene for going through this policy and changing all the verbiage that said homeless students to students who are homeless or homeless children to children who are homeless. I know that was a lot of going back and forth over that. So, thank you for that. And if you have any questions, yes, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or to Vince. And I guess I'm wondering, do we need to have a policy meeting again? So we will have some second reads before December. Um, that's probably going to happen. And that begs the question, Jeff, about our committee

110makeup. That won't be changing until when? >> So, actually, I was going to um uh make comment that we're going to do committee assignments um at our next meeting in December. Okay. uh you guys will be handed the forms for your selections and then uh they will be decided by January. >> Okay. All right. So if we have a policy meeting it will be the same policy the group that's been meeting. Yes. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any questions for anyone? Okay. Let's move over to buildings and grounds. Anthony >> try to get through this without a coughing fit. >> Uh so as Dr. Dr. Scarpetti shared earlier, the building and grounds committee met on October 27th, reviewed the capital items and the five-year plan. Those discussions led to the items that'll [clears

111throat] be submitted to the capital planning committee. The board's been provided the following items and their rationale, including a building generator for Marielle. Um the paving of the black top and the sidewalk for the back of the building at Racebrook School. uh the bus cameras, ceiling tile [clears throat] replacements for Racebrook, Marielle, and the Board of Ed offices, boiler replacements for PCP place, HVAC upgrades for all the schools. [clears throat] We'd also like to extend our thanks in advance to the capital planning committee and the board of finance for their constant support and look forward to seeing and presenting to them in the near future. Thanks. [clears throat] >> Any questions, Betty? Um, I'm I'm looking at it. It's a I'm rounding off the numbers, so it's about a $13 million request. And I'm just

112wondering, have we ever proposed such a large request in the past? >> We h we have we intentionally put the air conditioning units on there. >> We know that that would never be approved, Mrs. Tlock, but we do that intentionally. That's something that we'll be looking >> and as shared in past meetings of what we're trying to do in order to um >> put our ducks in a row, so to speak, in order to um at one point probably put a bond or request for a bond for air conditioning. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. >> Any other questions? Okay. uh curriculum instruction. Ken, >> we did discuss report cards and it's important for parents to realize these aren't [clears throat] the report cards they grew up with. That was 20 or

113more years ago and they went that okay fine. That world is gone. We don't live that way. We don't teach that way and we don't assess that way anymore. You know, as parents, we really just want to know how's my kid doing? That's what the conferences are for. What the report card can offer is a snapshot of how your child is doing regarding some of the Connecticut standards we address. It's important for sure, but you can't boil down months of work into a one-page document. That said, I'd just like everyone to know how hard Dr. Russo and her team are working to make these as meaningful as possible, and they're still working. When ready, there will be videos to help explain the assessments and implications of the new report cards. That's it. >> Thank you,

114Ken. Does anyone have any questions for Ken? >> No. Okay, we'll move over to uh ASUS report. Susan, >> well, you're should be happy because I actually unfortunately I had to go to awake before this meeting. So, my board my packet for ASUS is in my car and I didn't drive. So you're getting in a bridge version of ASUS's update. ASUS update is first and foremost our director Tom Danahe will be retiring at the end of this year. And so we started the search um for a new uh director. Um so we actually did a couple interviews of CABE and CES and one other um we have one more Wednesday I think it is. Um, and so we're gonna we're trying to figure out which search firm to use and then we're going to be

115looking for a new director of ASES. And that the challenge with the director of ASES is that he's not really a superintendent, but he is. And he's also like a CEO, which he is, but he's not either. So, it's a executive director position, but you have to know about education and you have to know about lots of different things. So, it's not going to be an easy process. But that was one of the big things that we did. Uh we did meet on November 13th, 2025 at a uh for the ASUS governing board meeting. Uh we met at Skiff Street and um uh the good news is that 88 Basset Road um will be pretty much completed as of February, which is where many of our special ed programs are going to go into and

116they will actually be used over the summer. So we're excited about that. and Wintergreen inter interd district magnet school had some pretty major renovations over the summer. We still have a few little items for a final um you know punch list. Um but 99% of it is done and so everything's going well there and we got approval from the state that we can actually start and put out bids for aces at Chase as well. So a lot of progress. >> Any questions? Okay. Uh just a reminder, I we will be handing out the committee assignments at next month's meeting. Um so you'll be choosing your committees that you would ask preferred like to be on. Uh doesn't mean you're definitely going to get on that committee. Um but those will be handed out next month

117and then I'll go through them with the um executive team here and those will get assigned out. Uh, I hope everyone has a very nice Thanksgiving next week. Um, you know, you know, really quick at Thanksgiving, you always go around the table saying what you're thankful for. I be honest, you know, we're we're a new board. Um, not everything's always going to go perfect, but I got to say, I'm thankful for everyone that volunteers their time that's on this board. Um, because, you know, it's the dedication that all 10 of us put up um, you know, for the for the children. Uh it's amazing. So you know our paychecks are quite large [laughter] but um but no thank you again. Um and if uh no one has any problems I'm going to adjourn the meeting

118at 9:45. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Motion. >> Yes. >> Okay. Susan and everybody >> and Aaron and Ken. >> Everyone in favor? >> I think we're all in favor. Okay. >> Have a good night everyone. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.