001hear you. Um, last Yeah. All right. We're trying. We're trying. I appreciate it. All right. Well, um Oh, no. Because I have to wait till I start. Okay. Um, I'd like to call to order the regular board of education meeting June 14, 2022 at 6:35. Please stand for the pledge. 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. Thank you. Could you imagine if I missed the chair? I know. Um, roll call starting with Vinnie, please. Vinnie Kennedella, Steve Kick, Mike, Stephanie Miller, Joel Matis, Vic Tomski, and Shelley Shelley cast a lot on Zoom. Um, are there any amendments to the agenda? Hearing none, we'll move on. Um, May 24th, 2022 [Music] minutes.
002Any um amendments to the minutes? Hearing none. All those in favor? Opposed or abstain? Motion carries. Okay. Athletic recognitions. Congratulations. You guys are awesome. We're so proud of you and thank you so much for being here. Um I'll turn it over to Dr. Miller first and then Mr. Stocknel. First of all, this one. Here we go. Can you hear me? First of all, what an amazing season to both the boy, the b the baseball and the softball team. You had such an amazing season that it was difficult to get to both games because you're in two different locations simultaneously. So, Mr. Urban and I split duties the afternoon um last week and then I was able to make it to we were both able to make it to the softball game on Saturday. Um and
003despite the the outcomes, you made this community very proud. So, congratulations to all of you. Just amazing work this year. And we're here to celebrate you tonight. What's going to happen is we are going to um we have certificates for each of you. We're going to take um a group shot together. There are five individuals I need to get um a replacement certificate for. There's a mix up on the printer today. Um you're going to get a a copy today and then I'll get you another copy another day. So, we'll do the softing first. Sure. Do you want a mic or you can go? So everyone financial play. [Music] pretty strong at one point. Fortunately, they went on to the state and [Music] Seven months are in that That was [Music] not congratulations. [Applause] stand.
004Okay. [Applause] Good morning. What's your best [Music] Thank you. Oh man, the baby hurt. [Music] season and made it into the [Music] championship tournament where we walked us earlier. in the year and then we lost to Holy Cross [Music] because we started getting ready for state championship run and guys were part to have a first round Take the day away. Take the day away first in last game. And so NC tournament we play this time on and I can only say that we had and our senior [Music] first and a basketball 37 ft over the center which we never cross in that game for us as he's very sweet for us as [Music] After that game was number [Music] seat first and like the number two seed So that we play basketball against a um
005number three and they were very good baseball team and I think issues would have to be able to overcome that [Music] But a tremendous year that tremendous seniors and want to thank that coach and coach for a fantastic team. So thank you That's Okay, so we're bringing My [Applause] son, JJ. [Applause] stool for you. Step the trees. [Music] First What? Once again, a wonderful thank you to Joe for the presentation and for all of our students and for the families. Playing sports does take you away from your home life. It takes away from your academics. Um, but you get a lot out of it in return and the community also gets a lot out of joy watching you play. So, once again, a heartfelt congratulations for just two wonderful seasons. Great job. As as riveting
006as our meetings are, you are free to go, but you're welcome to stay. Is this on? I don't think I don't [Music] think I think it says on. [Music] Yeah. I almost got you in the face there. Thanks, Jai. I have to clear out. Okay. [Music] Um, seeing no one in the audience. I I know. So, I think we can I think we can move on. No audience of citizens. Um, board any board correspondents or communication? Bye bye. Finally. No board communication. Okay. You do? Oh, you have none. I thought I had one. Um, okay. Strategic operating plan draft. Wow, that's quiet now, huh? Um, so I guess that's you, Robert. start that everyone in the audience can hear me in line. The SOP is more than just a year-long process. It if done right,
007it's a multi-year continual reinvestment in the planning of the district and continual reanalysis of the district shouldn't be a plan that just goes on a shelf and just sits there. It needs to be a living breathing document. It took several years to get to the point where we have a draft view tonight. It started with a vision statement and a mission statement that was done through a series of focus groups a couple years ago. This year really became the the focus of sitting down and writing the actual plan itself. We convened a committee in the fall. Um um was the board member on that. We had parents, we had teachers, administrators, um school staff, um district staff that participated, included surveying students and parents and staff. We took a look at the attributes of the
008graduate. In other words, what we want our students to know and be able to do upon graduation all the way from pre kindergarten up to high school. We built an SOP around how to get the students to a point where they're able to live and breathe and demonstrate mastery of the attributes of the graduate is all built around that. That was the core foundation of the SOP. the work that we're doing. We split into a number of different smaller work teams to focus on various different aspects of interest to the graduate and then came together instead of jigsaw that work together and then began work in writing a series of theories of actions. Theories of actions essentially are if we do X we believe the result will be Y and we built a number of
009priorities around those. So we had theories of actions and then why we thought those theories of actions were important, what those major outcomes would be and then some smart goals around those. So what a smart goal is it's something it's a goal that is u measurable and attainable that's going to allow us to reach a specific target related to the theories of actions and priorities. He then drafted a set of action plans and after he set drafted those action plans we said okay what are those measurable tangible outcomes that we're expecting to do every year and we jigsaw that and we said okay what is it being accomplished in year 1 2 3 and four and do you have computing needs are we biting off more than we can do in a particular year is
010something out of sequence and re reorder that based upon that conversation and the result is the work that you tonight of an SOP that takes over the next 5 years. Actually, there is some work that goes beyond for five years. And we've actually even built into the plan an analysis twice a year for the committee to get back together and to really talk about the work that's being done. Every year um there will be reanalysis and do we need to revise the plan in any way? and then built into the plan before we expired the plan of reconvening at either the same committee or new committee to begin drafting the new plan so that we don't have a plan that expires before we have a new plan that's written. There should always be continual work
011behind that. So, I'm not going to walk you through the entire document. I provided that document in advance. Um I feel strongly that we are presenting a very solid plan that will move this district forward. Um, one of the areas I I really love in this plan is something that I hope that if it gets um launched in the right way can really set this district apart from other district. That's the internship program in the high school. Really talking about providing students an opportunity for four years to become a partner with an industry in town, a restaurant in town, a business in town, a even a library could be the school. It could be any form of organization in the town to really invest hours between 9th and 12th grade and have some tangible work
012that they do with this partner to learn skills and experiences to figure out is this um a work experience that I want to do um um after college and beyond. Is this an area that I want to explore further? Is this an area that I want to explore that I don't like this any further and I want to enforce something different? A lot of schools have an internship program in senior year. I would love to see this k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k kicked off the ground and really be a four-year process. And if this works very nicely, which I think it could, we could end up having a model program that most districts um in the state don't have
013and can really set our district apart and provide students an opportunity leg up before they even get to college. So, I'm open to answer any questions you might have um based upon the plan and Anthony can also answer any questions you have as well. And Vic as well. Yeah, thank you. Um well first thank you for this work and thank you Vic for being on this committee. Um we appreciate it. Um so I can start with any questions that anybody has on this or clarification or one one of the questions I have is so I see things about like action items starts ends taking lead. Is there times during the year where we get to kind of how are we doing? So there's you know there's many multi-year process and do we you know is
014it part of that is the committee going to continue to go are we tracking are we on track are we off track are we pivoting and is the document going to be a living document where it's updated So, so they would come back and they potentially they come and report to the board, you know, the findings like how are we doing? That would be in order for this plan to work, we have to hold ourselves accountable. And that accountability goes back to the committee that drafted the plan. And it goes back to making sure that each of those action items has a person or key set of people that are responsible for spearheading those different areas. Um so when when I see person responsible is the steering committee is that your your the committee that
015worked on this? The steering committee is the committee that that drafted the plan and that that will be the committee that will come back together twice a year to evaluate the plan. Okay. So that that's a a huge commitment on like a parent, you know, the parents who were in it. So, you said it was parents. We had parents, we had a couple teachers, we had administrators. Um, we actually have a committee member that's not a parent that was actually part of the committee as well. Okay. Um, there's something that Oh, so in other words, when it says the steering committee will obtain feedback from parents on communication and student progress. So, obviously, you would get that and when you have your meeting, that's when so they're not involved, right? it would they would just
016come to they would get the information come to the meeting and okay that's correct you know the bulk of the work is the work that was done this past year which was um in some cases meetings two or three times a month and meetings it's about work teams and they were doing a lot of the data collection and analysis and research when it comes to the review of the continual work the the people that are running those different areas will report back out to the committee and the committee will then get together and look at that data have those conversations and what CIA stand for um instruction and assessment. The director of cook instruction assessment. It it didn't fit. So I spelling the whole thing out, so I condensed into three letters. I'm sorry. But
017it's the director of cook instruction and assessment. Okay. Thank you. It just didn't fit. So I condensed into three letters. Making sure the government not at all. Um anything else? Anybody else? Shelley, do you have any questions? Takes her a minute. Well, uh, Mike, uh, actually asked the question that I was going to ask. So, um, when, uh, Rob first answered, I didn't hear anything, but, I knew he was talking because his lips were moving. But, um, I think what I heard is that we, uh, will get regular feedback on it. I wasn't sure how often, and that's really my only follow-up question. It was probably answered and I didn't hear it. I think you said twice a year, but it'll be twice a year um if not more often, but it'll definitely in the
018formal basis be twice a year the committee meets and there'll be reporting back out. And actually, if you go to page 23, it tells you right there when the accountability meetings will be. So, yep. Thank you. Thank you. I'm holding ourselves accountable by putting it down on paper. That's right. That's right. Um, so I mean a as you look over this if anybody has questions once you you know delve into it deeper obviously you can see um Robert and Anthony but it sounds like nobody else has anything at this moment. Okay, nice job. Thank you. Thank you. So the the formal step was presenting it to you this evening. And now the next step is to begin to share this and communicate it out to the general community and to the parents and the staff
019and there's some work that actually has written here that will get kick started this summer leading up to the fall. So we're going to get started. So what um I think you said this is a is this a draft? So when when will it be on the website? I will take draft off um either the end of this week or beginning of next week and put online. Oh, good. So you just waiting for this? Yep. Yeah. I thought it was important to to share it with the board of edge first and receive any feedback you had. If we had to make a correction and do so before taking a draft off of it. Great. Thank you so much. Okay, moving on. Bid requirements for endofear expenses. Oh, what strategic bid requirements? Okay, bid requirements. I
020was right. Please note that um for end of for end of year expenses is that you Anthony or Robert whatever I can explain quickly and then Mike can fill in if you want. So we do have a surplus of money at the end of this year and we did meet with the finance committee yesterday or this week at some point this week and there are some bigger items that we do want to purchase this this year before June 30th. In order to do so, we need the board to authorize us to bypass the bid process that would allow us to quickly make a move on an item if we decide to do so between now and June 30th. And to do so, we need the board to have a motion on record allows us to
021bypass the official policy that requires a bid for an item over a certain value. We did this um two years ago um and it allowed us some flexibility to purchase things quickly. bypass the process for your purchases discussion. I'll just add in the discussion when when we did this um we are going to get updates on what they are purchasing right so even though you know they have the authority to you know to purchase whatever we will get we did we did provide you with your updates we are going to even go a step further we're going to make sure that it's a a living breathing Google um drive that the finance committee has access to to see the work transparently as we move forward through this. Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in
022favor oppose or abstain. Motion carries. Now, food service and you know it's funny because I usually just skip food service contract. Okay, so we do have a current contract for food services that expired a year ago. the federal government requires you to go out to form a huge bid process and it's a it's a massive RFP. Um it's a basically a book that the the manager needs to put together. The federal government and the state provided us an opportunity last spring to bypass the bid process and extend our contract a year. We brought that to the board a year ago and that was extended. Um so our contract technically expired a year ago but lived on this current school year. Anthony put a bid together um under the directive of the um state department um
023of education here in Connecticut. Um it's a formal process. You have to follow to the letter what they're asking to do. The bid has come back. It's the same company that we currently have right now. Um the advantage of staying with the company and going with this bid um that we have is that we actually put into the RFP what Anthony put in there. One of the options is to um not allow the company to go into deficit at the end of the year and then to bill back the district for that deficit. That was not in our current contract. So, for example, every year we would get a bill in July or the end of June for anywhere from 10 to $15,000 for a loss from the company and then we had to pay
024that loss back. What the new contract would um require is that they would eat that deficit so that we wouldn't owe money at the end of the year. Right. No. I didn't mean that as a joke, but that's correct. Um, if we chose not to accept this bid, the federal government has allowed us to do one additional year um and then go into RFP again. Um, I don't recommend that um because it is a pretty good um option on the table. There are there are no cost um increases to the students or the district. Um in fact, there's a cost benefit because we wouldn't know any uh money if they did run into deficit next year. um like transportation companies very rarely do food service companies outbid each other. So the fact that we had
025one bid um that came back isn't necessarily um representative that a year that from now we'd have two or three bids on the table that's pretty common that once companies in infrastructure there's a lot of investment that new companies needs to make in order to put all their equipment into a kitchen uh multiple kitchens in a district. So that's kind of the B summary. I can open as Anthony to answer your questions as well. I would wholeheartedly beg you to approve this. Uh this is the RFP. It's about an inch thick. Normally they're just a couple pages. It's about I don't know 40 50 hours worth of work. Uh you can if you'd like see the the bid. I'll pass that around to you. Uh like Rob said, the major uh the the major uh
026benefit to this is the break even clause which we added. U so I would just I would recommend that you do approve this bid and thank you. You're welcome. Um any questions? Does everybody really want to see this? Question. It makes a lot of sense. How do we say that we're going to maintain our current lunch prices in an economy where revenue is going to No, the uh the this bid is based on our current lunch prices. The board of education is uh in this contract always responsible for setting the prices. So it's not the food services management company. So to do that obviously they have you know across their company have to uh you know cut costs somewhere. I don't know where those are but uh it would be um again I I couldn't
027say how they do it. Uh but the same quality of of products or that these are required by law the same uh number of calories per per uh all stay the same. I get that. I was saying we have a certain level quality we've had we're maintaining price theoretically right everything is going up 20 to 40% now and into the next year how do how do we actually forget the calories how do we maintain the ingredient quality which you can't do it that's just the reality it's just that just set by federal law they have to maintain I I had to write down what type of fruits the quality levels that they had to uh in all grade a um where they can source them. 50% comes within uh certain 250 miles of our district
028office. So they had to comply with all those elements um and when putting their bid together uh how they you know how the company itself will maintain their profitability is is uh mostly proprietary. They don't share that with me. I just don't and I don't know. So our standards are our exact standards. What we have now is it it's it's it's um required by the contract. And I will also add that we had this conversation with our superintendent group two weeks ago. Um, and there are some districts that do self-manage where they have their own operations and the difficulty in running that is they are sourcing their own food in a small enterprise. The advantage of going with a large company like this is their ability to purchase in in bulk quantity and then subdivide
029it to the local district. So while prices are going up, they're able to operationalize it in a in a more efficient manner of purchasing in larger bulk. I will also add that it outside of the contract itself that the federal government for the past two years provided um food services to childrens for free. So there all students got a free lunch over the last two years. That goes away starting next year and students have to begin paying for lunches again next year. Second second by Mike. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. That's for you, Anthony. Congratulations. Right. Um, Dr. Miller, report superintendent. I'm gonna be very quick tonight. Okay. Yes. So, our school year is coming to a close on Friday. Um, mad dashed in the last three days.
030Tomorrow is the senior grad walk, which is the annual tradition. We had a bypass two years ago because of COVID. Um, we brought it back last year and this year we're taking it back to the traditional route where the students actually get a chance to walk the halls of the two schools. Um, and at Quaker the students are going to congregate in the auditorium and actually sing the Quaker songs to the the seniors, something that they were not able to do last year. So, and the school is very excited about that. And then we've got the senior breakfast on Thursday and then promotion ceremony in the afternoon and then graduation Friday um or Thursday evening. Weather right now looks like it's going to hold up and we'll be in good shape. And then Friday is
031the last day of school. Um we have about a week um off and the ESY program the summer programs begin. Um those programs will be housed at um the middle school. A small portion will be housed at Quaker Farms and a couple incidentary programs will be at the high school and a great the bulk of it takes place at Quaker Farms and at um the middle school. and the custodial staff will prep those rooms as best as they can and then clean everything else around that and go back to those rooms once those programs are done um in August. Did you see graduation? No. All right. If I think Oh, yes. No, that's if I think of it, I'll let you know. I should write things down. Um, any questions on end of the year
032stuff or anything for Rob? Okay, go ahead. That's it. Um, mine's going to be short as well. I'll just share that. Um, and don't ask me what day it was, but um, Vic, Deb, and I um were able to uh attend the project lead the way uh capstone uh presentation by the uh seniors uh this one group of seniors and I just have to say how impressive they were. um they were poised. They presented their material. They were knowledgeable. They they created a um a pillbox that has a a a clock embedded in it um through our through the 3D printer. And um and they talked about um you know the process that they went through. I mean this is a year-long year-long thing. And they they talked about the four I think it was
033four kids, right? four four in the group and how each each person brought a unique skill to that group which allowed them to be so successful and um I don't remember who asked them but they said you know what was um what was something that you take away from this that you learn the most and they said patience and I think that that's so key because you know nowadays in in instant gratification in video games and everything they realize that you know they had to have some failures and then they had to go back and they had to fix it and they talked all about that when printed something and realized that it was too thick and it wouldn't the clock wouldn't fit. So, you know, I just want to congratulate um Mr. Juritz on,
034you know, running such a fantastic program and, you know, thank them for inviting us. I think that's it's um so wonderful when we can get into the school and actually see what the kids are doing and not be, you know, this, you know, people behind the the blue curtain here. So, um, so I just wanted to talk about that and, um, I want to give my friend Deb credit for the grad walk because she is the one who started that grad gradwalk if he did not know that and it's so successful and it's so meaningful and the kids love it. So, thank you, Deb. And um graduation um 2 o'clock on Thursday at the high school is the middle school graduation. And is it two? We better check on that. I think it's 2 o'clock.
035And then is it 6:00 or 6:30 for 6:30? 6:30. Okay. 6:30 at the high school. And um so Vinnie, you're you're new to this. Hopefully you can come to the graduation. But when when you go into Oh, is there a place where we can I haven't gotten really any directions on it. I mean, where should we park? Yeah, all of us tell us where to park. Um, you know, and then we we just kind of congregate and um we'll have designated seats at the, you know, on field and um you know, any does anybody have any questions on any of that stuff? Was the audience in the bleachers last year? They were in the bleachers and then we were down um you know the kids were in front of us. Yeah. Who else? Oh, they
036were also kind of like um some families were were down with us too. Both. Both. Okay. Okay. Um, so nothing further from me. Um, except also to to thank you guys for a great year. Um, we do have another meeting on the books. I believe it's the 28th. Um, and we'll check availability if we're going to have quorum and if there's anything that we need to do. Um, so if we have that meeting, that's fine. Uh if if we don't because we have platform because you all go on vacation I hope um then we'll just set up a special meetings to handle whatever business we need to handle and then we'll have um you know Rob and Deb and I and and uh Anthony will plan a retreat in August and um sometime in August
037so before the before the year starts and we'll you know hit the ground running there. So um you guys are great. I love working with you and thank you for Okay. Subcommittees. Joseph. Uh I just wanted to say uh it's been a long year with the stuff going on up at the middle school with that facility and uh the field and but uh we managed to continue to push forward and hopefully we get going on the heating and air conditioning with the support. But um you know with the incident down in Texas uh recently, I want to thank the town's continued support for the armed security and the SRO with the high school. I think it's uh an invaluable uh tool and piece to keep our kids safe in our overall security plan. Um you
038know, it's it's not something anybody takes lightly and this district I think does a good job of maintaining that keeping that presence up there and I want to thank them for that. Um, the other thing is I probably should ask for forgiveness and I don't. But uh, I also want to thank Wayne Watt, the public works director. He's been dropping uh, truckloads of wood chips up at the high school to keep some of the needs down along certain fields. So, um, he it's been great. He's always been great. He's one phone call away. He always says if we need it, pick the ball. So, but no, thanks again. So, it's been it's been a good year. We keep it going. All right. Thanks Joe [Music] Deco. I think it share that with everybody on the
039right. So there's a couple not finished. So, we just post it and say, but I really am thankful for everyone's work to get to that point. It looks it looks great. It looks great. Um, we also are going to do [Music] some curriculum writing. Mainly what we're going to work on is physics. We talk about maybe if we don't know maybe purchasing some tweaking it to our standards. Um we've also I know it's attached to the packet but um in the past when we piloted text so this rubric that's been developed I'll send it just gives us a better sense of understanding of quality. We talked about [Music] library program. lot of work done by that committee. Thank you. Um Nicole's not here and I do not believe that we have any policies or that
040we need to to read or anything. So we'll move on with that. Um Mike finance. Sure. Uh so all the great things have already been told but uh we had a finance subcommittee meeting yesterday. Uh the big ticket item that we talked about was a surplus. I think it's a great thing to have a surplus. I think we need to operate our budget in such a way that we try to have a surplus every year because there's so many unexpected expenses that hit us. If we're not going with that in mind, then we're going to have a deficit. Um and I think that uh Anthony and Rob have have done a fabulous job of managing our budget. it's very much appreciated. Um, you know, in in a perfect world, just like with taxes, you get
041nothing back, you give nothing. In a perfect world, you you balance to zero, but we don't live in a perfect world. And you're constantly up until June 30th, you're going to be hit with curve balls. Um, so I'm very proud that we have a budget that's in the green that we are then using to purchase. And some of the items is just purchasing items for for next year for to give us a leg up to uh you know survive all the hurdles we're going to face next year that we we can guess that we're going to face but we just don't know to what extent or how many will be thrown. Uh as well as doing investments in the district that we typically don't have the funds to do because we operate so leanly. Um
042we're able to do things like invest in security uh facilities. uh were able to say yes to pretty much every special interest ask um athletics every school was you know contacted what would they like some of it is just you know supplies for next year but some could be bigger ticket items we get to say yes a lot and that's that's a great thing and I think the school systems and everyone involved appreciates our investment back into the district um I think it's ideal that we hand off as little as possible back to the town. Um, and that we invest as much into into our buildings, our facilities, and our students. Um, so I'm very happy with what we're doing. It's going to be an ever evolving process and a and probably a roller coaster
043in of itself to get to June 30th. Um, Rob and Anthony will be working probably late hours and long days. Uh, it, you know, graduation may hit this week, but their work doesn't doesn't end ever. Um, but we appreciate it and at the end of the day, you know, we're doing right by the the town, the taxpayers and the students. So, thank you. Nicely said. Thank you. Thank you. Um, in addition to the finances, we did discuss at the finance committee asking the board to have a motion to allow Stephanie to execute anou personnel standpoint to allow one science teacher to teach four classes one semester and six the second semester with two duties this semester, four classes and no duties this semester, the six classes. It all equates to the same thing of 10
044classes over course two duties. This is not for differentials, just allows it for an unbalanced schedule. Um, that's required based upon the course though that the teacher needs to teach this year. So, we're asking for the board to we put under this fin under the finance committee. So, it's kind of buried there. It was a separate motion, but we're asking the board to to have that motion tonight. Um, so yes, so just just in case you couldn't get that. So the the you know they're just breaking up the the same amount of work and the same amount of of um duties and just breaking up differently than other teachers as five and five is you know six and four. Um so are there any questions on that? We get it. Um all right [Music] second.
045Any further discussion? All those in favor? I oppose or abstain. Motion carries. Okay. And now Sure. Sorry. [Music] Um are there any liaison reports? End of the year. So that's good. Um all right. So we now need a motion um to go into an executive executive session um to discuss the superintendent's evaluation and invite Dr. Miller into um into that executive session. Any questions or comments? Um all those in favor I oppose or abstain. So motion carries and we will go into executive session at 7:28.