001[Music] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Town of Portland Board of Education podcast. We just finished up with Mr. Mike Pelton, and uh now we have our superintendent of schools, Dr. Charles Britain, in the uh in the hot seat here. So, good morning, Charles. How are you, Dave? Everything's good. And I just came in from outside. I can already feel allergy season about to begin. Oh my gosh. You know, it's it's you you can see the uh the pollen collecting on the cars. Like even I come out of my house and the grass is just starting to grow and get a little greener. Oh yeah. It's like it's here. Yep. Yep. Yeah. For sure. Get the uh get the Zantex ready. Yeah. No, we we the days are longer, the clocks are
002ahead. Yep. Um you know, in the life of we educators, March is a a long month. Um there's not not no breaks. We only have one one PD day as a as a break, but you know, it's really the time of year where we get the most consistency with learning and and otherwise, you know, I'm happy sometimes when March is over and April begins and even even happier when May is here. Um, we're we're we are on our way for sure. So, uh, okay. So, where do you want to start? Hey, first of all, shout out. Hope everybody got to see anything goes. Oh, it was awesome. I was there Saturday afternoon and the Saturday afternoon show, of course, we had uh a couple of our teachers in the pit band there. So, uh, they
003did a great job, you know, and Dan and, uh, Alex Kid and so forth, and they, uh, they really did a great job. And, uh, it was amazing. You know, I would get reports from Dan, you know, when he comes down, he says, you know, he started rehearsing with the kids, you know, the kids, uh, they were struggling with lines, but but it all came together. They got it. You know what was neat? This year it was the first time we had middle schoolers in it. Yes. Yes. That was cool. That was really cool to h to you know to have that that you know basically 712 I I had never never seen that anywhere. It's always you know high school and middle school is sort of a you know imaginary line between the two
004but it was really clever idea to you know involve those students in the cast you know build your capacity for the future and develop that talent. Um I'm really proud of all those kids. They worked hard and the teachers and the pit band everything was was spot on. It was fabulous. It really was. It really was. And the attendance was good. Uh attendance was great. The the uh I was there on the Saturday afternoon show and the auditorium is was 3/4 full. So, which is good. That's right. And now if you're up there at the high school, you will hear the sound of leather being hit by a ball. Yes. Which is the sound of spring. Pitchers and catchers are done. The teams are getting together. Y spring sports is underway. Um you know, it's
005it's it's it's here. Yeah. Yeah. And now it goes quick. Well, you know, I'm up there every morning walking on the track. I see all of the hurdles around the track now. The track team is is is out. Uh got a beautiful new track, the timing system, all of the equipment because of the Gilder sleeve grant that helped us out. Um we hosted the um SEC tournament last year. It's just, you know, it everything is in really good a good place. Tennis courts definitely need a little work. We're fixing them. Yeah. Um long term, you know, that's one of our our challenges. Uh, but we're we're we're in we're in a good place. You know, kids kids are are learning and you know, not for nothing, we you know, the biggest I have a couple
006of commendations for Portland. The the first one is Portland parents, you're you're doing an amazing job with your kids. Yes. They they are really the nicest group of kids I think I've ever worked with in my career. Yes. They we've we've they're just they're nice, hardworking, good salt of the earth. Yep. Kids from from from then and they want to do well and they want they're Sure. We're in a good a good place. The kids you we were for all of the concern out there about this generation and co effect and all I feel like we're we're kind of turning the page on some of that we're back to some some normaly. Yeah, there's still children that have you know no doubt some some needs but overall you know the highest praise I could give
007any school district I would send my children to Portland public schools in a heartbeat. I live in Wallallyford um and my kids are happy there. Yeah, but it it's it's a great place. Great kids, fabulous teachers. We're we're rolling and they're engaged, you know, I mean, the the the the music program is, you know, chorus program, uh, you know, look look at the involvement of of in the play. It's the whole thing. It's we do an amazing job with the arts, um, athletics, academics, and then all of the extracurriculars. Sure. Right. It's, you know, for for a a small school district, we offer an awful lot. Y um which is a function of teachers that are willing to give their time and their passions and and support kids as club adviserss and coaches and uh
008and and a town that supports those things. Yes. Right. Um to that end, of course, March is also, you probably heard from Mike, budget month. Yeah. Um Oh, yeah. We we've presented our budget. We we've tried to keep it as lean and reasonable as possible. Um I've gotten pretty good feedback from folks, you know, understanding nobody nobody likes to pay taxes. Nobody nobody really enjoys that. But you know, imagine a world where we didn't, right? We we we wouldn't have kids because we wouldn't have the types of experiences they're having now. You wouldn't be preparing the next generation, right? Um it's it it's the price we pay to live in a first world country that's safe and nice and clean and people are learning and happy and um that's what we do. Now, of course,
009it's it's a balance. We don't we don't ever ask for more than we need, right? We ask for what we need and and that that's what we've done this year. And I've got to say um we can talk a little bit more and I'd love to you know about the different layers of government and the different layers of dysfunction in those different layers of government. Right. Yes. But here at the local level you we have an I believe an outstanding board of education and board of selectment. Yeah. You know Mike I think the world of he's working hard. Yeah. He he wears his passion on his sleeve, cares about this town, and and wants the best for everybody here. I know we have two new board members and Rick Char and Tim Lavoy. They're joining
010a fabulous group of people that ask hard questions and and hold us accountable. Um but all of them across the board care about the future of the town. Sure. And in terms of our board of education, top notch. Yeah. I mean, they they all want and expect the best for the kids. hold me accountable and our teachers accountable for making sure um you know we're we're doing what we need to do. So, you know, if you're worried about maybe some of the dysfunction at the federal and state level, maybe I share some of those concerns, but at the local level here, you know, I think I think Portland is in really good hands. Yeah. No, no, I think, you know, like I say, the board of selectment, they work they work well together. They work
011well, you know, with the with the board of education. Laurel is the chairman of board of ed. Of course, uh Rick and and and Tim, Tim has been on the board of ed, so he knows what it's all about as well as Rick has been on the board of Selecma before. So, it's not their first rodeo. That's it. And they know how the things work and uh they work together well. You know that. And for anybody, you know, I know I know maybe it's not some of the most riveting TV, but I would encourage folks to to, you know, we do a great job now of recording all of these meetings, you know, putting them out there. Um, it's important that everybody stays informed, you know, stays engaged. Um, watch them, you know, and ask
012questions. Sure. You know, I I love it when people call and ask questions or want more information. I welcome that. That's the heart of transparency. Um, you know, and and of course, you know, Dave, we have some really big conversations to have this spring about the future of the schools. Yeah. Um, we have a a a committee that's meeting regularly. Yeah. Taking a look at the condition of the facilities. As a matter of fact, tomorrow night, today's Wednesday. Yes. Tomorrow night, we're doing our walkthrough at um Gildersleeve, which will be our last walkthrough of of the schools. Yeah. um working with an architect, taking a look at um all of the things we need to know about in terms of the condition of the facilities. Yeah. And um how much it would cost, which is
013not insignificant to do some of the work that needs to be done on them that you know after 30 years of wear and tear. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Needs to be done. I think what you're going to see and and I don't want to get ahead of the committee um so I'll just you know not say which one but I think that there is a conversation that's soon going to come to a conclusion about the possibility of closing one of our elementary schools y right so um we we run three elementary schools y for 600 students y that's a lot of square footage way more than we need a lot of overhead a lot of overhead um and you know obviously to run three schools of 200 kids is is a lot more expensive than to
014run two schools or one school. Right. Right. Right. I think you're going to see out of that committee a recommendation to decommission one. Yeah. Um I'm not prepared to say which one yet. Okay. The it could be any one of the three. Right. The the you there are we could develop plans to close um Valley View, Gildersleeve or Brownstone, right? Depending on the scope of work that needs to be done on the other two. M any one of the three could be decommissioned right now. Does it make that's where we're going. Does it make does it make sense to close Valley View? Well, Valley View is on the same campus as the secondary school, has the most land, so it may not. Does it make sense to close Gildersleeve? Well, the uh voters decided against
015that at the referendum in November. Mhm. And then the last question is, does it make sense to close Brownstone? Right. Well, that's another one we we have to think about, right? Is that, you know, Brownstone is a 1930s era. It's the oldest building high school, right? It was built as a 1932 high school. Y could it be turned into a 20030 elementary school? Yeah. With its location on Main Street? Yeah. With a Nordic spa going in right behind it? Yeah. And with the tremendous amount of work that it would take to turn a 1930s high school into a 2030 elementary school, right? Th those are going to be the hard conversations. Yeah. Right. Um and what do I know about Portland? Portland loves Brownstone. Oh yeah. You know, everybody I talk to has gone to
016or has a family member who went to Brownstone. There's a long history and and the town cherishes it. question has to be if it's no longer a school Yeah. what would it become? Sure. Right. And that's that's that is the elephant in the room. Yeah. You know, and and how we um how we did we convince folks that you know the cost of it, the location of it, um the design of it when we we moved 9 through 12 to the the the high school, right? it it changed what that school was originally designed for. Yeah. Now, I can think of dozens of different options for that building, but I wouldn't be surprised if over the coming coming weeks some of those those uh recommendations had some um some considerations about what what Brownstone could
017be if it were to remain a school or not. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I think you know I've been in town a long time and you know a lot of those conversations happened, okay, when the old central school was boarded up for 16 years, okay, that became a political football, you know, and there was a faction in town that says, you know, we could build something new a lot cheaper, okay, uh than renovating that, okay, to the town hall. Uh but again there's a lot of sentimental value that you know people step forward. Geez I I went to school here and it'd be a shame to to tear this building down. And you know in in retrospect I'm glad that it went the way it went. You know we we we uh you know refurbished
018central school. It's a gorgeous uh town hall uh board of education building uh offices. So you know I can see that same conversation coming into play. Okay. with with browse though def and that's it right that's it if it I think a lot of the decisions and things that the the town would have done um in the past would have been different if it wasn't brownstone sure right if it wasn't this historic building that people loved Sure um different decisions I'm confident would have been made going all the way back to the 1990s yeah about what the configurations of your schools would have been sure right Um so that's what's going to make this hard, right? And uh yes, not there there is no unfortunately easy or inexpensive way through this, right? And you know,
019we just lost a boiler at Brownstone. You know, we have to replace both of them now because you don't just replace one because it takes rigging and it's the same vintage. And you know, that's $286,000 that that we have to do. And that's those things are going to continue to happen. Yeah. if if you don't make the type of I upfront investments. Um so you know it we have a re I'm glad I'm having this podcast with you now. Um mostly to impress upon everybody it's really important for folks to tune in. Yeah. This over the next four or five weeks because the work of this committee is is wrapping up. Yeah. And I don't know exactly what the recommendations are going to be. I have a sneaking suspicion what they're going to be because
020I'm involved in all of those meetings. Yeah. But um we we need to have a hard conversation about how we consolidate schools and if we do which ones we decommission. And um right at the front of everybody's mind needs to be Brownstone. Yeah. because um that's the one that its location and the condition of it and the original design of it as a high school to become an elementary school may not be feasible. Yeah. Well, you know that that's and that's the thing. So, we want people to stay engaged. Okay. to you know because you know the one thing that we don't want to do and you know obviously I think the way we've been approaching and you've been approaching with the board of ed and your committee and so forth um transparency is key.
021Transparency is key, you know, and so forth. And you don't want to get to in a situation, you start going down the rabbit hole and all of a sudden you get the armchair quarterbacks coming out of the woodwork and saying, "Could have, should have, would have," you know, and then, "Well, hey, look, this is this is the way it's been. Okay. Uh, we've this process has been going forward. We've been transparency. Where have you been, you know?" Yeah. And and that's there's always going to be, you know, Mon there is always a function of Monday morning quarterbacking that happens in any any big decision, right? And you know, from that, you know, everybody will, well, they're foolish, they're bad, they're dumb, these ideas are stupid. If if only I were doing it, I I would
022I would do it this way and it would be better. Yeah. Yeah. And there's always going to be some of that. And in democracy, we welcome that. That's that's the the public square debate that makes us great and we should always make sure we cherish and protect that. I would just say to any of those people, get a seat at the table. Yep. And throw your ideas out there. Y and I promise you when you have a seat at the table, we'll deal you in. And we'll deal you in. And if you have a better idea, I will look at you and say, "Thank you. I'm willing to get behind that." But you need to be engaged. Yeah. And you got to present the facts. That's it. You know, otherwise you can go on Facebook
023and rant all you want. Y but and and sometimes until you're you have a seat at the table, things look very different. Well, when you're in the arena, Yeah. Exactly. The shoe fits better, tighter on the other foot. Yeah. It's it's always easy to Monday morning quarterback things or second guess people or question their intelligence and motivations. Um but you know, it we're in a pickle. You know, we're we're we're in a in a place where anybody who has a home or a car or a building that, you know, has been 30 years without significant well, yeah, improvements. Well, you know, the condition of it. Hey, you know, I'm in the process of doing that at home. My house is 30 years old and I'm in the, you know, I'm in the process of redoing
024the kitchen. You know, it's it's, you know, the appliances are 30 years old and, you know, whatever. Uh, you you got to do it. You got to do your roofs, your boilers, your windows, your your your your mechanicals, your structural. You got to redo your driveway, and then you got to maintain it. It's it things fall apart. Yeah, they do. And and that's, you know, that's what you call that entropy. There's a scientific principle that talks about things fall apart. Exactly. And um Exactly. Well, hey, coming up, we got uh we got some some pretty big events coming up. We have April 9th we have the band uh concert band extravaganza and Thursday I think is the coral extravaganza. do. Y so displaying and and showcasing all of our uh you musical talents uh on
025both the uh the coral side and and the band instrument side and you know I think uh yeah all of those end of year events and things and proms and graduations and senior nights and senior trips and everything we do to celebrate um the hard work of our our students who who are are going off into the world and going to do do us proud. There you go. Um, these are all of the things that I know families cherish. I know we remember for the rest of our lives. I remember my graduation. I remember my prom. Um, we do them safely. We do them well. We we give the students the the the appropriate opportunities to celebrate and reflect on their accomplishments. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's and it's the best job in the world. And
026you know and you know the it's amazing to see the the kids you know step out of the high school role and onto the next chapter you know whether it be onto college or not onto college or you know a lot of kids are you know deciding to take the military route kids are starting to take the trade route you know so I mean that's what makes it all happen. Yeah. Well to be young and have the world in front of you right. Yeah. It's both terrifying, exciting, and all of us who are getting to this point in our lives wish we could do it again like like that that Yeah. If we only knew Yeah. We knew what we knew now, right? Um but you know, I would just say I'm grateful for the
027decisions I made in life to go into education. Um any of our young people graduating that are considering that as a career, I promise you it it is incredibly rewarding. So, be a teacher. You're you're on the uh I think the Connecticut Boards of Education. Are you a member, Cabe? I am. Yeah, we are. Okay. So, you know, the the status of you know you know I I do a careers podcast in the water industry and I know you know the the attrition rate and the retirement rate is is staggering. Okay. We got to start uh give us the you know the lowdown on on you know uh teacher availabilities and are are students going into teaching? Um they're starting to again. Okay. Right. So that we had a dip, right? I I there was
028even as early as 3 years ago a significant teacher shortage and it still exists. Yeah. Um it's very different than it was in the early 90s when I got started. When I was starting, right, I was there all the baby boomers were still teaching and and it was hard to get a job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now it's it's easier but there are some areas like special education or AP Chem or Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, there are some some areas that it's still difficult and there not aren't enough people going into them. Yeah. Um, but you you know, the the state and schools and and we're doing as all we can to try to, you know, incentivize people to go into those by, you know, you singing the the value and virtues of our career
029as an educator. And then, you know, providing the financial incentives. Sure. and the program incentives and the alternatives to certification that people can go through and I think you're going to start to see over the coming years it swing back. Yeah. Yeah. I'm hopeful. Um you know and you know look we went through a rough patch with with CO and coming out of CO but that's over like thank goodness that's all behind us. And and you know, I think that people again are starting to recognize a that in this profession there's there's a lot of hard work, but there's just as much joy. And if you can get yourself on a faculty and surround yourself with colleagues of the caliber that we have here in Portland, you're going to have a great life. Yeah. Yeah.
030That's the bottom line. Yeah. And it and it's it's a sec it's a secure job. Secure job. And uh you know you know unfortunately you know fortunately it's it's it's not something that uh you can outsource. You need the boots on the ground. You know and and you know we all have to figure out how we want to spend our trips around the sun. Yes. Right. And you know yes some people are motivated by money or power or influence. Other people have a greater sense of missionary zeal. A greater sense of of contributing their talents literally to make the world a better place. That sounds corny and cliche, but that is what teachers do every day. I get to watch it. Sure. Um and contribute to it. Yeah. Exactly. So, um if you if you're
031you know, if you want to make a lot of money, teachers may teaching may not be it for you. Yeah. You know, if you want to be a master of the universe, okay, go finance or Yeah. whatever. But really, if if if you want to see the fruits of your labor show up in a stable uh community Yeah. that is is producing young people with the skills and talents to make the world a better place. Yes, that's where you land. And you won't be poor. Yeah. You'll have you'll you'll live a nice life. You'll have wonderful friends and colleagues. Um and you know, at some point when you get to be my age and you're closer to retirement, you'll look back on it all and say, "Yes, it was worth it." Well, you know, I'm
032already there, Charles. I'm not too far behind. There you go. Five years. Maybe four or five years. Fantastic. So, all right. Thanks, Dave. Charles, thanks so much for coming in and pleas giving us the the insight. Uh, and then good luck in the coming year going forward. And like I say, we've got graduation, we've got the uh uh in obviously in June, we've got the band extravaganza, the coral extravaganza, a lot of good things. Uh the the the high school play went phenomenally well. So, uh a lot of good stuff here in town. So, anyway, beautiful. Thanks, Dave. Thank you. And that is it for this episode. Our Dr. Charles Britain's in the house with our board of education uh update on the Portland school system. So, thank you Charles. And that is all. [Music]