001we'll use our L's call order at 632 um do um States the stands Nation indivisible and justice for all starting with Joe Joe II M Robert V Debbie shman Mike C Steve k um I just like to have a moment of silence for 911 memorial and um all those families the people who were we lost and for our country and also for our town and the people that we've lost in the last month um and just give the them some reverence any amendments to the agenda no okay uh approval of the 625 minutes there a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve the 62524 Board of Ed regular meeting minutes a second all those in favor I oppos abstain 625 like to make a motion to approve the 71024 Board of Ed special
002meeting minutes second any discussion all those in favor opposed abstaining I was 721 like to make a motion to approve the 72124 Board of Ed special meeting minutes second who's second I'll second any discussion all those in favor I oppos abstain motion carries and I'd like to make a motion approve the 81424 board of special meeting Retreat minutes there second second any discussion all those in favor I I opposed abstain stain motion Carri audience of Citizen anybody that like to speak okay board correspondence nothing update on the opening of school 24 25 okay this was very interesting opening this SCH year um we started with um obviously the the great catastrophe and the flood here in town and um as I said there's been a lot of lives impacted um in this community and while
003opening the school Logistics of buses and getting students in the building was important I think what more important in the lives that have been um shattered and impacted um property damaged um homes um either partially destroyed or completely destroyed um obviously have lives that were lost as well people without businesses people not without the ability to work um and that um part is something that just want to keep in their thoughts and prayers as some of that recovery is going to take an excessive amount of time for those individuals and just send them our positive thoughts as they go through that recovery with that being said um the opening of school was significantly impacted as a result of that um we were unable to from the get-go open SCH because of the roads um 2
004days after the um the flood um I got a call I called all started get an update on the routes and their first reaction to me was they spoke to the local police and the police informed them that it would be weeks before we'd have the ability to open school um the buses were just not allowed to be in the road so I immediately en calleded state bo of education and I asked to speak to Commissioner of Education Charlie Tucker and I said this is the problem we're not going to be opening School scho for a while potentially we have 180 days to get in what do you need me to do what can we do um within 5 minutes I got a phone call from the state part of education's top attorney um who
005um gave me the answers I knew I was going to get which was we need to get 180 school days in until um end of June the state department would ask us if we run out of days in that way to look at vacation days holidays bring staff in on the weekend bring students on the weekend ma out every way we 180 days in there is a waiver process um I've been through this process before in Richfield and very um same year 2018 the state department rely ever does um accept a wait for 480 school days they want you to to max out to the greatest dute possible so at that time I knew that we were not able to open school um on the day that we were expecting um in August so we
006quickly adjusted our plans um we knew that we're not going to start so what we did is we actually made the two press learning days on that week in August into three press learning days we open with the soft commucation we brought staff in mid morning we had a phenomenal guest speaker on growth and opportunities and self-reflection and individual Journeys um and it really tied well into the recovery efforts of this town and what a lot of um staff members and families have gone through and will be going through um the feedback I got from the staff on conation was this is the best conation theyve ever had here the staff needed all positive on feedback across the board staff members how with Monday we spaced out theer events what would have been two days
007and three days um and that included um bringing in expert in on trauma informed because we knew that families kids would be impacted from a social emotional standpoint and if there are triggers that are impacting your ability to learn you're not going to learn effectively so we wanted our staff to really understand what the warning signs are and how to respond to students um if they might be struggling so we did that for First Learning for all staff on that Wednesday morning um we split it between secondary and Elementary um and all staff went through that and they had um intermingle between those three days time to spend in their classrooms all her in had enough time to meet with each other teachers and really prepare a lot of positive feedback on how those three
008days went we then um shut down in terms of required um days Thursday Friday um had Labor Day weekend and Tuesday and Wednesday and then um we work very closely with the town during that period of time on how we could develop routes to get kids in in school um as we had a conversation um at the board level in terms of what the legal requirement is for transporting students we knew we needed to put some sort of transportation system in place for students um so we survey families we found out about 75 to 80% of families would use Community stops um even if it was fewer students taking buses we knew we needed to do something so we worked with the town to develop the routs that we could use I spent a three
009hours drivve around that week um with Mike and with our director security looking at where any Community stops could be located across the community that would be geographically work through um there is one or two that we thought could work whether I wasn't too pleased with in terms of one was in seamour and I did like the security piece of it and then one was a park um a few minutes down the road that um big as ever sources do work there the town said it was not a good idea so he F her down from a larger set to to a little bit less of a less than we rich had wanted to do we then send a registration forms to all parents and said this is these are the stops um tell us
010what your primary choic is tell us what your second choice is rather than have the bus Comey route students we ask parents to make that selection tell what they want or if they needed to take advantage of District run Child Care before school or after school um based on the data that came in it looked like we had to ramp up child care in afternoons um at the El school and middle school at elementary schools and middle school which we've never had before so Megan and I met with um Santa and we discussed the implications of us intermingling our staff with their staff and having kind of a a hybrid system in place so we devop that system we put that into place so right now um we opened school with the community stops um
011last week it went so so the first day um high school was um beautiful um we changed the flow of traffic to try and get um traffic in and out of the campus quickly um buses quickly and that work like a charm middle school work pretty much um factly as well the afternoon Elementary School is the first day and it was a traffic nightmare we had traffic we in addition to Al mexicool parents speaking up about 17 to 20 minutes at Quaker Farms they were then stuck in traffic up to half Aran Quaker Farms over to great and we had traffic stuck on from Governor Hill up over here to greato that half hour as well so traffic was taking forever to get to this campus um this building and I had buses that were
012stuck over ATS and could not get through rad Road over here so they were taking forever so by the time the buses left gr Elementary School it was almost an hour had gone by since they had been dismissed over at Baker Farms so then those buses were significantly late so you had parents that were sitting in traffic forever and buses that were sitting in traffic forever so that was Thursday afternoon so we made some quick adjustments Thursday night on what we could do to treat the whole system um High Good's going to stay the same adjusted the flo traffic to one lane longer Lane and one entrance and exit at the school to make it a little bit more addent and we adjusted the method we were going to use at elementary schools um to
013increase the flow of traffic what we decided is created a loop inside of the middle school property to divert all the cars off of gr Oak Road and held all the buses at quer farm so that with as soon as they were ready to go there would go as a caravan across gr Oak Road and there' be fewer cars on the road so it allowed us to free up the traffic in gr Oak and all to get the buses here quickly um and yesterday and today um the floow traffic was much better um in the afternoons um at M schools in fact it was almost a 15 minute um 15 minutes more efficient um yesterday here than it was on Friday and Friday was more efficient than Thursday so each day it's kind of better
014along the way with that being said this is not a ATT tenable permanent solution what we have right now these stops is an interm solution it's the only solution that we could have to open schools if we didn't do that we wouldn't be able to have transportation and we'd have to go remote we know is not the best interest of kids so where we stand today is as of right now the town has not completed a final assessment of all the roads in town to give us a all clear on the roads that we cannot use we want them to tell us all the roads in town are fine except for this list of roads and bridges from that email and that certification the bus company will then be able to go out and test
015the routes that they have assigned and then make adjustments so we need once Town says go Allstar needs about 24 to 48 hours to test their rout and give us the final ones that we're going to use then we need to turn around as a district and provide that information to the parents we had hope that the town would have that assessment done yesterday which is why we thought we would be able to switch this around and get over to revenue transportation Thursday as of yesterday morning as of today we're still waiting for that final assessment to be done we're hoping that at some point tomorrow will be done it's going to be a fast turnaround time we're hoping we're going to able to pull this off for Monday but that is still If All
016Things fall into place as they need to this is completely out of what we can control the the the domain that we have is work with alar and the systems instrues we have plac in school we're dependent on our cation with the town and the town has been very popular and collaborative with us but it's been a hercula effort in terms of assessing all the roads and saying all the roads are in good shape for the buses to be down and then once that's done as I said allar needs to do their next step so in the inter term we've had staff members and I want to thank all of our staff everybody from custodians to par professionals to teachers to administrators I have got stakeholder groups across the board that are watching kids before
017school and after school that are riding buses in the afternoon when you make sure that every bus leaving at school property going to community stop has an adult other than the the driver that's making sure the kids are getting where they need to go so we've got adults going to community South for security we've got an army of teachers and parents and MERS outside of school making sure that the kids are getting into buses the right way making sure the kids are getting into cars the right way so all this effort is a lot is a lot of Staff lot of time is very intensive not to mention the um Financial implication of us picking up tab for the S piece before and after school so when this is all said and done we're going
018to we're keeping track of the time sheets in a different way than we typically with everything else well after this is done we'll be able to financially sit down with Finance Comm and say this is what the cost of opening in this matter was that was unexpected and then we'll make some decisions with the finance committee on where those funds are going to come we're going to pay for the operating fund and then will make some decisions after that where the money could be transferred to to cover all these unexpected expenses that we've had to um incur now so that's in the a nutshell kind of the from the floods now of what we've been working on and basically all I have been working on is this and I want to thank aesi who's been
019my right hand person putting a lot of this together um as well as how from financing standpoint like from facilities and from a transportation standpoint and um our new director of security Mr Viger has been hand inand with us on now looking at the routes look at security out on the roads out on the bus Loops out the pick up and drop off helping to direct traffic on the school properties and helping to make sure that everybody is safe so this has been a collective effort across the board of all of our staff not just a handful of people the entire district has really come together to make sure that this has been um an opening that but is if all those pieces didn't fall in place we probably would still be shut down or
020looking to go remote learning now this was the best that we could do to get schools in operation so I'll kind of pause for that and answer any questions you might have before I go into any other updates that might have I have something really quickly um the uh I've always told you since I've started here that I would not want to have your inbox um it seems like because I'm not seeing a whole lot of audience of citizens here that it went fairly well fairly smoothly you know as good as it could have been given the the issues that this town has roadwise um would you agree with that I've actually been surprised I've gotten mostly thank you messages I've gotten a couple of frustrated emails here and there some dealt with Friday afternoon
021when we changed and shut down Jenson Farm Road or the town shut down Jenson Farm Road on us that was created a traffic headache that afternoon so how did that work on Monday um it worked better once we got police officers out of the road and there was a miscommunication between the town yeah there was supposed to be a police officer at um by 6:30 6:45 and as 7:00 there was not a police officer at 1 188 right um we had traffic back up as far as you can see past to Road as soon as we got a cop there we're able to I went there the afternoon we had two police officers there and within 10 minutes of dismissal the last cars were off the school property so I was there on Friday I
022witnessed that yeah and then I wasn't there yesterday but I was there today and it seemed like it was going much better than it than it was on and I think we had to keep in mind that a lot of students already in the high school drive are driven to school but we saw it tremendous increase of across the board of parents saying I'm going to drive by my child now right and that increase the number of cars in all the properties two more things I did notice Nichols out directing traffic yes today but barki was like right there so I was hoping Nichols would move in to the the St it's not a barasi literally could have just gotten there I have no idea school no right right at the middle school yeah and
023then um I completely lost my train of thought on the on the second one anybody else touch on that same topic and then you can go back when you figure it out um the cop was on site he was in the wrong position like we said it was miscommunication communication failur is going to happen when we're in crisis mode um that's why the more communication I think would be the better um in terms of the traffic pattern that you said the town changed with Jens Farm Road the town changed that based off the opinion of the fire chief and the resident state trooper because Jensen Farm rode back um um the back way that gate back there is technically a fire entrance and an emergency access area they wanted to keep that in play for
024emergency vehicle at all times which is why they rerouted back into the high school and stopped using J F Road does everybody understand what that that layout is yep so that is why that changed per the fire chief and for the resident State work just to clear that up um I was just scar as the percent of kids that took the bus option over driving was it mostly people wanting to drive most parents decided to drive we saw around 80 to 85% of the the student population being driven at this point um most of the buses have anywhere from four to 10 kids we have a couple buses that are 25 to 30 um that are larger lotes um but we don't have a significant number of people um using the buses right now can
025I follow on what was what did the survey the survey told us that it was going to be around that number okay yeah it's what we expected it to be but we still needed it offer it um we were we got lucky that from every location we're able to provide one bus so it's a direct SCH bus Community stop to the school in the morning and then school back to the commune stop in the afternoon so it's shortened the Run for the kids still did you get a decent response rate from the parents or did you kind of have to fudge the numbers no um at the end of the day the registration hit around 1,400 1450 so we got almost every student that let us know a lot of high school parents didn't because
026they were driving anyway or don't need to respond um the problem that we had the first day was we had a flood of parents calling this school telling us that they were changing their choice so up to the minute that the school dismissed and that created an addition to traffic uh logistic challenge for the school to get the kids on the bus or not on the bus before the bus has left here and that slowed everything down the first afternoon as well so I'm glad to hear that parents have been kind up until this point in giving a great and I just wonder how much longer that's going to go I I'm speaking from parents in my neighborhood I have neighbors who have three kids in three different schools and they are pulling their hair
027out and they cannot wait to get neighborhood buses back again so um if there's any way we can expedite that process especially in the neighborhoods that have not been impacted by the flood to get those neighborhood buses going in it's only going to lighten the the traffic patterns here at these School r and I had hoped and I had put in an email to all parents on Friday that we're targeting this Thursday as our transition and I thought we'd be able that Mark um I when I found out yesterday that the town was not going to have that assessment done yesterday or today there's even if I got it at 9 o' there's no way we can turn around for Thursday at this point so we are trying as fast as we can um we
028are limited by Bas to find what's been assessed so the bus company will not go on the road unless they are informed that these the road road you can use either roads you can't use so we're stuck in a concerned that we could we could get into a situation where the bus is dragging its feet because under normal circumstances there's always hiccups in the beginning of the year about well what bus is coming to pick Johnny up and you said he was coming at 7:30 and it's 7:45 and he's not here yet and so those things are going to take time to roll out right I'm afraid that even if it's Monday that you're saying we're ready to go the bus is going to take another week or so that the bus companies all on
029board with us wanting to get going as fast as possible that's not where the hold off is right now they're they're we've got the routes ready they're ready to to go they just need an okay from the town that says 's the road you can use y um two things I did not remember what I was GNA say but first um maybe Joe could give us Enlighten us on where the town's at and if you don't know then I'm sorry I could just put you on the spot and number two um I'm just going to say this out loud um Joy Uzi has along with everybody else that Dr Miller has mentioned has gotten these kids back to school uh he's worked tirelessly he has lost sleep he has been at meetings before he could
030go to sleep after his shift um I would like to personally thank him and I hope board would like to thank him too for how hard he has worked for everything that has been done in the last 14 days do appr name before so to clarify as much as possible Right the hold up is right now assessing the RS that's it allar can't safety check the roads until the town Engineers assess the roads uh as I we had another meeting on this past Friday they've been having meeting almost once a week since this ordeal occurred um at the Friday meeting number one we changed Jensen Farm Road we got rid of that based off the fire and the police um not liking that idea of having the emergency exit block or being completely unusable for
031emergency purposes that was number one number two was to get to the next phase of bosses right to start going away from the community Stouts back to the local kind of a hybrid as you would and then try to get back back to some normal see in a phased out approach like we planned out originally the problem with that it takes time takes time to assess all the bus routes I think we have 12 13 something or other first school so each of the engineers which they're limited to their number I think it's only a handful have to drive every single route for every single bus to assess every single run okay before allar could touch it Allstar will not go out there before that after that meeting I asked Dr Miller not to put
032a timeline on this because how long this takes and we have no control over it um this is completely up to the engineers how they address it we don't tell them how to do their job once they get that information to us then we get it to Allstar Allstar does their checks we change the bus routes I asked for that timeline not to go out because I don't think it's reasonable to give a timeline base on something that we cannot control regard the timeline went out as Thursday of a potential change to the bus routes that's not going to happen like we already said so I don't want to say Monday is going to happen I'm hopeful that we can make Monday happen but I would not put that out there yet I talked to
033Jim gallagan today I talked to him yesterday his guys are working they're they're doing the best job they can and as soon as they get it done they'll get it to me and we'll get it to Allstar and Allstar so far has been fine and cooperating so that's really the update and if anybody has any specific questions I can try to answer yes so we have a finite list of Roads you find a list of footage on those roads or mileage right has anyone done it like hey we have six amount of Engineers they're out eight hours a day they cover I mean someone's got to be able to forecast in terms of what like approximate time to inspect a road driving up and down at check let's go over here like to me the
034routes Jim said he needed two to three days to do all the routes okay CU like rout duplicative right Road's good regardless of which bus rout Road's good or not good Jim got this request Friday afternoon okay he said that he would be starting Monday and he needs two to three days okay which is why Thursday was never happening and I also have to say like Jim's got more on his plate than the road I mean he's got Bridges he's got there's a lot Jim he's the town engineer him and Brian there's two of them we have two we have contractors involved they work together they're contractor no I mean but do we have additional subcontractors under their guidance only the people that work for Jim's company BR anybody have any other questions I guess
035one simp like so you know as I drive down some of the roads some are fixed and then some that were fixed I could already are not so fixed anymore so I mean it's going to be kind of a like if let's say they open one road and then two days later they're like oh there's a sinkhole on that day do we go backwards what do we do at that point I would imagine that we would shut down an individual part of the route and what we typically would have if we have a tree down on a route we tell the parents 're going here you're going to go here so you might go to the end of the block then so we' work with alter they would have kind of a hybrid solution around
036that one pocket the area that can't get down at that point and we're going to have that anyway because there's still some areas where we can pick up and where we can't we know that a bus cannot turn around so we know that down in 34 there's no way a bus can get down to that sex right now even until they open it up completely which means we're going to have at least one or two Community staffs that we have to be still used for the families that intend to use the transportation speaking of bus this turn around there was a very long Facebook thread uh the bus that picks up at the church on the rotary yes is there a reason why the bus wasn't actually in the parking lot is that one of
037the places you were talking about yeah so the bus company when we gave them location they told us they can't that they would not be able to put the bus into the par class to turn around so they told us that we said okay pick the students up in the morning coming in this direction in the afternoon instead of sitting in the traffic they know TR off in high school we had a that created a huge um conversation on Facebook that we had a conversation with them the next day this happened that Thursday um and then Thursday afternoon we spoke to them we said okay can you actually turn around somewhere in that Park L they said yes we could so starting after that first day they now go into the lot turn around so
038they're not sitting you don't come around the rotary and run into a bus right yes and knowing that that was going to be complicated area we decided not to have that as a drop off in the afternoon that was only pick up in the morning yeah because the pickup is basically bu comes loads and goes in the afternoon it's a little bit longer to get the kids off through us and it's also preschool so they're getting they're in yeah and we had to work with each of these organizations to get permission to use their spaces for buses and cars to go so there's a lot of logistic with that so I'm thankful for everybody that that help participate and also has been very cooperative and um working with us to develop that and we have
039our own in District runs simultaneously we had students that were attending nwag plat EMT and swn school and those schools started before we did and we were not able to get buses in or out of Oxford so we actually worked with Seymour um and we arranged for the students going to Plat M and sound to be picked up at the S at the allstar locations in SE um so the parents were driving them children they were picking them up see more we worked with Woodland High School to get the nauw walk students on that bus they actually created a new bus because they don't have a lot of kids that go to a from Woodland so they created a bus for both schools um to send to M starting on yesterday morning we're able to
040move all of that back in house so those students are now picked up and dropped off here in Oxford again um until so we go to the neighborh do for all of our students um those are going to be still using Community um stuff their Community staffs just happen to be at school locations based on the hours so we have kids in out in the morning and afternoon any else M um it was topic I mentioned to you during the Friday meeting is now a good time not to make it a high priority but like while the Iron's hot so to speak consider getting a stop light at 180 by the high school because I know we have police that are helping the volume of traffic normally it's that's it's normally rough and and difficult
041188 volume of just cars in General on it is much higher and that's not going to change that traffic flow has been altered and it we could be a year plus before that goes back to the way it used to be I know Joe you indicated that this is a it's not a quick fix but even if it's a long fix we're potentially going to need police there longer than we are going to want to pay for police to be there we know that any given normal day there's a lot of traffic there in the morning and afternoons doesn't make sense for us to do as the in the state to do a traffic study there to see the viability of putting it light there I think it's worth putting that request in whether or
042not it has any teeth that anybody does anything it is a store we have no control of that but from a traffic standpoint I would agree that it does make sense to try and do something there especially with the fact that it's almost like we we had a crisis we have a need there's a distinct problem that may not be getting better for a very long time whether it's football games or dismissal because a Ral it's scattered some people are arriving at 7 some are arriving at 7:15 there's a it's still rough but it's scattered the dismissal the Bell hits and every human being who needs to get off that lot are all trying to go to this one spot while cars are doing 70 M hour up and down a 188 this is just
043whether you have police or not it's a problem that's I don't see getting better I don't see six months from now this being a truly fixed I mean they should be looking at Solano drive as well I say they're never going to put a light at Solano so I doubt they're gonna put one for the high school well so I think that was disussed when in my travels with my business and the fact that now I'm temporarily living in New Town um the there are signs on 84 that say Do not travel down 67 go to the next exit get on 88 and take it all the way down yes and then on the other end in Seymour it's the same thing when you're when you're getting off at 8 yeah so there are directing
044traffic down 180 yes like you cannot you cannot physically go down all the way down 67 because of the bridge near PR so that's at least at least this month we be looking at so I don't know if they did when the high school was um originally but there for some reason I'm remembering them doing a traffic study I'm sure they did but um that just never felt it was enough maybe our traffic has increased our traffic is 100% increased and the danger is they're basically they're going to wait until something horrific happens at that intersection before we do something but it wouldn't hurt for us to at least if there's paperwork direct me in the right direction I'll F in our paperwork because we we want to at least make our best effort and
045if the state rejects us we can't control that but we can put in the effort to try to get it SP I'd like to take Mike's idea a little further than than that I'd like to say that um we should be reviewing everything that has been done in the last few weeks and to see what we could do down the road to make it better if you know you know something washes out at the bottom 188 near you know what is that the near where tuttles business is at the bottom of the hill George tuttles business um anyway anyways if that wash is out there with the pond coming across oh Anthony's Pond yes um you know we would we would be better equipped if we did some type of review um for a future
046situation I mean who knows when 34 is going to become available for buses over there maybe we can review something that happened over the last couple of weeks that may help over there you know you just don't know so it would it would be nice to see some type of committee formed um to see if there we and review the full process that happened over the last couple of weeks I think a post analysis would be great once we get get on the other side of it I agree get on the other side of it I can tell you that our school operations we already have done several aftera reports of our own processes even after day one we sat what work you to make change us to um I think that outside of in
047the moment when we're all said and done with this our district again will will end up doing an review of everything we've done but it would be who the town once they get through this for the town collectively for all the Departments to come together and have that same after action report I also think we can pull it into transportation and safe schools for the facilities and start the work there and then pull it back as we go and I wonder if we can reach out to George temple with the connection to the governor to the you know the state to be able to maybe fast track something on 188 there's the possibility I mean the communication's there we're in a crisis situation it would be it would be a way to alleviate something so
048Joe what do you think yeah I could bring it up at the meeting um I think the the way things are asked probably uh matters more than the context of it itself um so we just got to be careful on how that's presented to so are you guys good to run it through and get up some terminology in our facilities meeting I know nothing about installing traffic lights other than it's a state road and it's a state traffic light so I know a little bit of something because I was on pnz um there has to be a study done it has to be approved um often times it costs the town money in order to have that done because there are Transportation Engineers that have be put into office so um yeah in the interest
049of trying to get something done over there I I'd be more than willing I'm sure Joe would be to to see if we can get uh that ball rolling um I can talk to Pat on the the chairman pnz and see where he falls on that and then honestly that's probably where we should start rather than George because we don't want to yeah we don't want to skip yeah we don't want to go over any so we should talk to Pat and See's Pat C he's the chairman of pnz um and see where he what he feels and then we can go from there awesome I'd be more than willing to talk B about it great thank you B anybody else I do um do we have any idea where we are financially right now
050with everything that we've been doing any ballpark numbers ORS in terms of all the expenses that we didn't think we were going to incr so the only expenses that we've inced so far they just literally just came in last week was the the new expenses were like 1,300 bucks people working in these after program so figur that was how many days last year two days so was $1,300 for two days so $7 800 a day round numbers your figure and that's that we put so payments either yet correct that's yeah so payment so we're not looking at a huge bill here not yet I'm guessing all s probably going to be 20 to 30 30,000 so I there's also facility piece with the 30,000 did you might tell you about that the qfs the that
051yes Mulch and everything so it's like $30,000 worth of mulch that got wiped out the playgrounds so they have have to all so we got ,000 so and repair the Bas got some really wet bags for my basement 30 grand that's you want I guess it's if you want a number it's probably going be the $50,000 range but that 30,000 is also going to be part of the what we're applying for insurance to tell them that that we can get that see we can get that money back with there $10,000 deductible part of the issue is going to be we are being put in with the town's claimes so that $10,000 deductible I have to believe Town takes precedence and it's going to be our $10,000 that doesn't get paid that's going to meet that
052deductible and then anything over 10,000 is what what we get back is any of this stuff that we could uh request back from Fimo no because it's all going on the town's bill for bu everything's going on the town bill so the town will distribute the town will distribute whatever they get back with Fe but I don't so one of the things you can't get back is femo isn't good for it's more of like the way I understand it it's like structural stuff it's not like these added expenses don't count against anything they don't care about that especially even if you have a small business they tell you go to the Small Business Association we don't want to have anything to do with that even when the money does come it's well past yeah yeah
053I think Town's going to take pressing for everything so they to Fig big loss I did ask Z that too during one of the conversations we had about transportation and he said he didn't think that would be fible for us to and we at insurance and we thought origin would be eligible for somebody and then they came back they misread the policy because the policy yeah they they thought initially it was a $25,000 additional expense but that's not what this that's not what this is the way they read the insurance the policy is not the way it's it doesn't count so we're not going to get that right on top of the logistics and then um time intensiveness for the staff to do the work is also signific Financial over every day that we're doing
054this so we're looking at 50 Grand right now I'm thinking that's about okay so it's our Surplus from last year ESS the money that we put in the 2% account yes um just one other thing Bobby do you remember the date of the flood the 18 18th how could you forget I'm just making sure I had the right date what was the what was the first day we met with the town in terms of trying to figure out buses and everything like that that Friday that week no we met twice that week Wednesday and Friday yeah Wednesday we met the third we met four three days after the incident three days okay that's I just was looking at timeline that's all yeah thank you because I met with George temple in his conference room and
055you were there and Roman was there that was the first meeting that was the first meeting and you could make the Friday meeting and I went yeah and I've been to two that's I've the three to are we good on this topic anybody have questions concern okay revised approval for healthy food certification so when we went to submit the minutes to the state um the original minutes the original motions that we had done back in the spring was not correct back in April so we have to redo the Motions for the two they are listed inside of the agenda they have to read into minutes itself okay ready say the motion thing okay pursuant to CGS section 10-21 5f the Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the
056schools under its jurisdiction not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2025 this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines School cafeteras culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups Z second second any discussion no all those in favor I opposed abstain motion Carri okay the next uh motion the board Axford Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food it items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10- 221
057Q of the Connecticut General statutes provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the sales at the location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter Scholastic debates are events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food
058and beverage sales sir second second any discussion that means like concession stands and whatever correct yes anything else all in favor opposed abstain motion carries be happy uh discussion of possible action of a superintendent district goals um just before we get to doing Dr Miller's goals we were going to meet um in our subcommittees and then um come up with our board portion of the goals but I don't think we've gotten to that point yet so if you guys don't mind bump the board goals till October meeting maybe with everything that's given with that's been going on in the last two weeks maybe we should just table this portion what do you think short or long term we're going to want to get the goals in before two if he's ready I just feel like
059we were we missed it last time and we it kind of didn't give enough time to so it's the same document that I shared with you back at our Retreat the only difference is you asked me to go back into academic goals on list in there I went back and we had a conversation with our team um and the principls all ask for time for the teachers in the schools to do their their beginning of the year assessments so they could figure out what academic goals are measurable that they could then work towards so they need time to do that so I'm asking asking for the goals to be adopted as they are and then we'll insert those goals will give you a revised version with the academic goals inserted once they're ready to do
060that and I'll probably be ready for when the schools present their um School Improvement plans and their goals of the year which will be the second meeting in October obviously with the start of the school year that kind of pushed everything back a little bit too anybody have any questions on the goals as presented because these are these are after we spoke at then we Chang so the only thing that's changes at the very top of page one is that I put in in go the statement that the academic go will be inserted any questions so we're just doing a um superintendent schs and we're just gonna um add in the academic um goals first meeting in October right you didn't wait for me for first or second second meeting second second meeting I just
061want to make sure [Music] you so we need a motion to approve the superintendent goals I'd like to make a motion to approve the superintendent district goals for 2024 2025 any discussion all those in favor I oppose abstain motion carries thank you for that motion the next one or are we good we're good yeah so we'll do the board goals um at one of the meetings so that'll give us time for us to meet in our subcommittees and then come back with that subcommittee's version of a b superintendence report you get to begin with um again A Remembrance um for the lives that were impacted in Georgia um just a few days ago at a high school anytime that there is um lives um that are shattered um in another academic I'm setting here in
062the country or anywhere in the world it hits home I just would like to take a moment of silence for those that were lost it's also important anytime that a situation like this takes place that we learn lessons from that even though it wasn't our context there are elements to what takes place there that can inform our practices to make us safer here in the schools um obviously there's immediate what you know right now and then there's as time go on more information will come out and you'll learn more lessons later on so right now as of today our director of security has already assessed he's done an initial assessment of all the four schools and and I have that initial assessment from him and we're having those discussions what we can do short and
063a long term but he's now modified some recommendations based on what took place in Georgia um and we're having some initial discussions I'm not going to publicly share what those are because there's security issues with that but we are going to be implementing some changes immediately which will um secure us even more than we currently are um based on those lessons learned from Georgia and I think it's important that um we just take that moment to recognize that um anytime something does happen that we look into our practices and how we can strengthen based upon the lessons that are being learned um elsewhere in the country um I also would like to um acknowledge and have just a moment tomorrow um is the anniversary 11 and um it's obviously a sum time here in the
064country just to take a little moment there's an age appropriateness of how we address 911 um at the high school level Heather will be addressing it through morning announcements um to all classes um I think around 10:00 in the morning um through either one class or advisory so she's going to be addressing at high school level at the middle school level um eighth grade students um will'll be doing Special warning announcement on 9911 um and all students and soci studies will be doing a 9911 themed lesson um tomorrow um it's not in appropriate to cover this at the AL School level but at the secondary level is something that we we do include in the conversations with students um I've been including this in my emails to parents this week and anytime I'm sending emails
065to parents I'm also including the board Thursday is our first meet the teacher night um here in District um it came out kind of a surprise to everybody the fact that we have an early release attached to the meet the teacher night this was not something that we've done in the past here in the district it is something that the teacher collectively bargained a year ago and it kind of slipped through the radar as we develop the calendar for this year that change um the principals did message it out the beginning about August in the middle of August but then obviously everyone's mind was on the recovery from the blood um and it became in the back burner again say there are some parents that um are a little bit surprised by the fact that
066we having an early release on Thursday um parents that are inconveniency are putting together Child Care at the El SCH levels to support those families that need the additional support since the par professionals we be working also have tutors we got staff here that can um support students um in the afternoon and the meet teacher starts at 5:00 um and again it it was clly bargained by the teachers that they can um take care of their own family Logistics the afternoon um and prepare for meet the teacher night it is something that is done um in other school districts so um as the years progress um it'll be something that um will be on the calendars in the future and we become part of the routin will be used to it existing at that point
067um middle middle school did move their teacher night because it was scheduled um earlier um we' had to move it because interfered with opening schools so we decided the date for that um as far as the HVAC work goes um they're obviously still in the building they're more in the roof area if you turn around you can see behind you in the wall here that the big unit has been pulled out of here um those big units have been pulled out of all the classrooms in this building at this point and now they've been pulled out of the spaces here there's a concerted effort and a um actual strategic plan behind the order of how they did things we wanted all classrooms done first um that meant that these office bases here were last so
068we've been living in a construction zone for the last two weeks or three weeks um with them working in drilling and talking over our heads and St falling down on our heads um but we wanted to the work done um for the students first air conditioner was in place um teachers came back and the rooms were well V ventilated and on right temperature and the system is silent we're not up and riding in here yet you just see it here um here and above um Jo you can see the unit in the ceiling that's what the classrooms all have and if you take a look in the hallway you'll see the hallway units as well but all the EAC units got pulled out infrastructure the old system um tile fling in the classroom need to
069be replaced and carpeted area the carpet um to be done and they have every pain and fix the baseb and everything and all the rooms to make it look like they were whole again but the end effect is these rooms in all the entire building will be full AG fact it free out landscape in the room too and Mak it look out nicer without those big units sing back to the room so visual signs that progress is being made we need to find out from the town if and whe they're going to reschedule the vat for the go roof because that was actually scheduled right after the um the flood and that got moved I don't think there's been a new date for that meeting as far as development the specs um it's not ready
070to go to bit yet we're working with um airm and with the facility or the building committee to get the specs out um knowing that it's going to take a while we've also been working secondary plan to get developed plans through another company um for the work so there's a dual um strategy that we en goop for both the units here in in this building for the um cafeteria gym and for all Baker farms and then the Staffing um update we started school with everybody on board um we didn't have any vacancies to start the year um all the long-term Subs were filled all of the um permanent um teachers that um were hired were hired before started school year so we even had a last minut resignation longm so today's work school start that
071quickly so um all spots were filled to open school year that included um part-time drivers for the special in the regular vehicle that we have outside that we do our our run for so from a staffing perspective we opened Target you remember that the the deadline for an the Grant and all that stuff regarding Quaker the work itself needs to be done by December 31st 2025 okay and the question is how long the work takes to get done this building needed to um hit the ground um with planning in December and actual physical work in January in order to complete it on time and actually on ahead of schedule right now for this building so what would that be cumulatively in months um if it falls same Target they probably need to full fall stre
072that work in have you asked about the vote happening yet not yet what's the price tag or four was 390 390 so um Mr tell Mr Kylie was supposed to be checking on the new date so we don't have a new date yet but we've asked the question yeah we just have an answer I've asked the question okay that's what I was just clarifying asked the question yeah and I asked what happened because it's supposed to be done within 30 days from when of the board of Finance sent it to swn meeting and nobody seems to be able to answer does it have to be reloaded on does it does it die does it have to go back through with the charter and there's nothing in the charter that talks about it so that's why
073he was looking into' thanks anybody have a question for J um in terms of the security assessments are we G to get those what I'd like to do is just find a time that we'll do an executive session um with Brian so you can go over the findings with the board and answer your question that's publicly died yeah yeah I think it's a perfect opportunity for that and great timing for us to bring in a director of security when we have a Thousand-Year flood and obviously the unfortunate events in Georgia yeah so the timing of him being here is good for us at least um just a couple other things uh the convocation PowerPoint you said that you'd be able to provide I'll share that out with everybody yeah and then the other thing that
074I asked for I think either the meeting before the one prior was the organizational chart of lawyer hadman um kind of who does what where they rank and kind of the flowchart on that you said that you be would that Dr put that together to tr that out with everybody I'm looking for Mafia sty and I apologize for not getting that to the board I just my entire Focus everything I've done from the M get up to go to sleep has been opening of schools all dist body a citizens anybody have a question last something I have a question so do you have to with my son does soccer but they they cancel soccer practice so he's not signed up for the bus so because I saw I dropped my high schooler off and there's
075no room on that bus so do you have to have like a sign up or like do I could I call to school if he say soccer practice is cancelled could he take the bus home or do I um to work let the school know that that need use the bus and they can play them on the bus oh okay what school schol oh the Middle School the boy soccer practice was cancelled tomorrow because it works because it's 5 o'clock so I can just run and grab them right just let Sylvia know and you could CC me I'll make sure that she gets the message okay yeah all right thank you we've got a number of parents that have been letting us know daily you know got Chang that's fine I just they you know
076give them one more phone call you know I just don't want to yeah you know what I mean but in soccer practice is cancel that's when it gets a little carried we know that this is the time that currency the best the the most support because the logistics have been so challenging for everybody so we're very been very flexible with everybody that needs additional changes okay thank you yeah I'm rotating between me my wife and my father-in-law picking up people and it changes every day well my neighbor's been great she's taking care of Marco he just he just jumps on that bus he just jumps on their family bus but with s canell so my other one just takes the high school bus which makes it easy used to come right outside my door the
077bus goes right by my house goes right back and I'm like oh There He Go F soon yeah no it's fine it's it's working we'll get there a parent who utilizes the Child Care thank you it makes it so that somehow I'm still picking them up before a bus would even be at my house so I appreciate just having the extra time even like my husband has been able to handle a warning he's like this is really nice and I'm like okay so he not frustrated by it it's you know a little hairy but nothing that I couldn't breathe through and just practice my patient so who knows my great thank you it's deeply appreciated thank you anybody else okay um part of the chair I just wanted to thank everyone for working together and
078you know there's been a lot meetings that are outside of our board meetings Joe Bobby mik going into the town meetings um everybody at in the buildings um you guys have all done a great job it's not going on noticed and I think that there's we're going to learn from what happened and how we can make things work and not work but we're working everybody's working together you hear a little grumbling but you don't hear a lot so I I just appreciate everyone's hard work and it it makes it for a better environment for everybody and we're doing it for the right reasons to get the kids in school and that's the most important thing I have nothing else so facilities safe schools and transportation our next uh facilities meeting will be before our next
079board meeting uh 5:30 pm on September 24th I confirmed with agasino um and we'll hopefully have Brian biker there as well um for just I don't have much because we've been uh just trying to get everyone back to school but I just wanted to take a moment just to thank some of the people outside of the district that's really been key to getting us getting our kids back into school so I'd start with the the engineers Jim gallagan Brian DK and their teams Public Works Wayne watt so if any of them are listening we want to thank you because uh this doesn't work uh on a silo the fire department Scott pelarian his staff his team his lieutenants everyone who's assisting and helping police Sergeant Roman Gray and his his officers um and then it's
080some of the staff members it's you know a few people to call Out director of security uh Brian Vier has been amazing at getting everything planned and coordinating our chief operating officer Mike dagostino and saw him out there directing traffic like a boss he looked amazing um that that whatever it takes honestly when I when I watch the staff the school administrators I haven't seen every School dismissal or arrival uh but my daughter's it goes and the principle's right out there Amy's out there and the staff looks motivated I drive by Quaker multiple times a day the staff are motivated we're asking a lot of them we're asking for more than what they're contractually obligated to do um and they're meeting us they're meeting us more than halfway we you know we can't do all
081this alone as de said and just a thank you to all the staff all the central office everyone is pitching in and um you know we we made it happen so and the next time we get a Thousand-Year storm hopefully we don't have to deal with this and we've learned from this and they'll they'll be prepared a thousand years from now so operation plan yeah we'll know what to do and I got to see it in action too Mike at the high school with the traffic and everything you saw me dir traffic I saw you directing traffic today was fine uh in the morning everything even though we didn't have gents in it blowed out fairly well and you got like about five other people around the parking lots directing teachers so Stephanie um Paul
082and sod and like everyone's to your point pitching in and making sure things flow you can feel it firsthand when you're out there and I just wanted to mention that the um Seymour Oxford foping donated to our after school and before school so we dropped off um but they had bins for um each school so they they helped us out as well so it's a a way for the kids have extra snack and not to forget George temple you know he's he's a head of the police department he's our first selectman George and the rest of the Selectmen have been supportive they they're coming to all these meetings they're helping gather all the players so we can on a Friday meetings um make sure that everyone has a voice and we get the schools open
083so also would like to thank Dr conton I'm s superintendent who graciously opened her parking L for athletic teams and um so whatever we needed she's available to support us so the partnership with her neighboring um town was was critical that Joe do you have anything to add you or Bobby no I would say you hit it right on the head this has been a complete Town effort it's not one person that's going to get the school back up and running I said that if we didn't have all these people play we would not be bringing kids back until Columbus Day so and that's my honest opinion right um we have this team in place Howard you're included in that team uh you have a lot of good people working with you now um I
084think we need to utilize them and we have to let them do their job and I think they're doing a great job at it so anybody else for that you good with that I'm good I do have I did bring py cards if you want anything SE from the board one one one card of meeting come on it's not often I get to see everybody get to sign a card for other um curriculum we are meeting on September 30th at 5:30 policy we're meeting virtually on Thursday at 5:45 and sping us yeah so um we met at the close of the Year pretty much in uh August and I didn't make the I don't if we covered anything at the retreat I couldn't make that no okay so um just a few highlights and how
085we can jump in more details but we focused a lot on the operating budget and where we're ending and and the U the amount we're putting in the new fund as well as what was going back to the town um there's a full deck in there a full update document so at the end of the day we ended up um getting our approximately our 50,000 we committed to as a board putting in the uh Fund in addition about 29 or 30,000 um is going back to the town general fund um now Howard this is where we landed is pre- audit yes yeah so it's going to be about 26 that come down a little bit let come down it's always moving till the final the audit to the final but as we were going through
086and and looking at some of the grants they we had ere expenditures in it so we had to bring them back in it's $2,193 64 so well we're pretty tight mean we don't there's no we don't have any expectational there no expectations no exactly this is this is a minor stuff and so it's just but basically it's about 26,000 going back to the town the 499 is what's in what's in your nonline fund so which which could cover these expenses that we're now incurring okay um and that's that's the major highlight item we talked about um family where we can't get buses Down based on the route we went back and forth on how to service that family and we decided to lease a vehicle an allhe drive vehicle it's a bus company won't pick
087them up uh and I think based on the information now Howard says we'll be able to get reimbursed through food Medicaid funding um based on the nature of the students we have that vehicle now white van sitting out in the park okay being used right now by dri that was great work um source that we have two drivers now weed the two-part driv morning one in the afternoon and it's also being us to take the take the students that are in the CP program to I think it's the one they're using they're using that to take them to Monroe because we're working with Monroe now on their program so it's it's getting its use yeah right away yeah right away exactly so yeah we we touched on some of the grants I know some of
088that information has been finalized based on the audit um we also went through a full view of Staffing where we were at that point in time in August who we had hired um what the rates were I believe we had some upside based on for higher you know somebody might have left at a higher step we hired a lower step um I think we ended up at 20 about 20,000 I think was it yeah so it's about 18,000 at the time but uh so again that that didn't include um you had all coded on the vote the 15,000 for the uh supervisor so you got to drop that down so it's pretty much going to be break even break even so I think that's a good story which is a good story absolutely because a
089lot of times which you can end up happening is you can end up having to especially when you have which we did we had math and science teachers that left you can end up hiring for a higher rate and then you have this so we're able to offset some that Stu too and with and within that we also did hire some experienced people I mean the literacy coach it was a better in so it was a balance between veteran and um newer staff based by the roles they were in yeah uh in addition we covered some higher some of the higher number transfers be as you know for policy we have to re allocate the budget power did that um coming into the fiscal year end we're going to have to make a motion on
090that as we always do each month yeah um and I what else I I think I missed something here we went through some some Central activities funds yeah Cal activ as you stated the van's GNA be paid there so it doesn't the operating budget so that's the Medicaid funds will pay for it um cover pretty much everything yeah Student Activities good we did all yeah Central activ and school activity C we went through and then in addition I think yes we need a motion make a motion to approve uh the transfers per the fiscal year end reassignments by Howard second any discussion PA there hi posted obain and we're going to be getting back on the calendar to our opening Finance so committee meeting okay L on reports um I haven't gotten a date no
091I think that they're just trying to weather the storm as well so I will follow up with a DAT but I don't have I know that they um they're doing some their typical federations comp the Halloween costume they got a date scheduled for that that we go in this to news newsletters they're planning their um sh Drive which is I think next week yeah and the bo met last week met last week um we have Bingo scheduled at the Riverside fire department but we're waiting to see if that's actually going to happen um the Oxford Strong shirts what they sold over a th shirts that's um so they'll be presenting I don't know what the monetary money is yet but they'll be presenting a check to the fire departments at I believe halftime of the
092first football game um all acros for going to them um and what else I think that's about it and I got are we still going to do an unveiling or something of the mural I know that Leisa wants to do that I don't think that it was discussed as to when during the meeting itself yeah the other thing we rescheduled was the meet and greet we were supposed to have a meet and greet of with Heather and Brian and AJ so we have to reschedule that date it was supposed to happen and we kind of in a little swamp yeah with all the changes to Logistics of Dr pick up in the afternoon it just it was the wrong time to do it and we'll do it on top of that it was a celebration
093while the town is still covering it a long time to do that anything else is there a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn is there a second second any discussion all those we favor I opposed abstain motion the next yes