001p.m. on Monday, September 8th. And I would like to convene this regularly scheduled meeting of the board of education. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Kathy >> John Gavales Kareem Balikica >> here >> Christine Baressa >> here >> Amy Quinnon >> here >> Jason Malagui >> here >> Christoph Lumba >> here >> Lisa Fecky >> here >> Karen Hoskin >> here >> Elizabeth Lawren >> here >> Cindy Failen thank you board members you should have received your packets on Friday containing the meeting minutes from our board of education meeting on August 25th does anyone have any questions Seeing none, do I have
002a motion to approve the meeting minutes of the regular board of education meeting on August 25th? >> Yes, Madam Chair, I move to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting on August 25th, 2025. >> Do I have a second? >> I second that. >> Sorry. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> opposed abstensions. Motion passes. What was that? Moving on to acting superintendent recommendations and report. Okay. Hey, good evening everybody. Um my first remark um for the evening is really just to connect to the entry plan. Um one of the big buckets in the entry plan was to make sure that there was um consistent and open dialogue and transparent communication, but also plenty of opportunities for stakeholder feedback. Um so I'm just announcing that I have some office
003hours that are set up specifically uh for the intent of anybody in the community, parents, students, teachers that would like to just come and have some open conversation. Um, I've set aside two dates so far in September, and I tried to make them so that they would be um, easy for people to come to either early in the morning or later in the afternoon. Um, I will push out the dates um, via Thrillshare to everybody, but the two dates that I have booked so far are Wednesday, September 17th from 4 to 6:00 p.m. as an afternoon set of hours and then Tuesday, um, September 23rd in the morning from 7:30 to 9:30. Um, and then I'll push those dates out and information of how to schedule a time. Um, and of course, if anybody ever
004wanted to come, I always have an open door policy. Um, but those are just some specific hours. Um, later in the evening, I I'll have some additional updates to share connected to the entry plan and just happenings across the district. Okay, moving on to public participation. In accordance with policy number 950, public participants must state their name and address for the record and limit statements to three minutes. The board encourages speakers not to express defamatory comments about Watertown Board of Education personnel or any other persons associated with the Watertown Public School System. Would anyone like to speak? Please come up to the podium. How you doing? Bruce Chanchcho, 22 Malvin Hill Road, Watertown, Connecticut. Uh I'm currently the uh president of Water Oak Circle of Sports and a while back I brought back to you
005guys about a name in the back field in honor of Keith Borowski and going from the July 7th minutes. Um Miss Fecky, you told everybody about it. Uh the main reason for me being here is I want to know where we are with that process because there's certain t uh lead times that I have to be aware of for getting plaques and people and uh PL pass players to come and so on. So I was just wondering if the uh committee could tell me do they have a idea on where they are in this whole process. >> I will answer that if that's okay. Over the summer, there's a certain criteria of who needs to be a part of the meetings for the committee and getting everyone together over the summer was very difficult. We
006h we finally have all of the players in place and we should be having a meeting in October. So, it's going to be around October at the end of October the latest. >> Okay. >> Very good. Thanks. >> Sorry. We because there's teachers involved and administrators too. The the beginning people >> the school it was difficult. So, >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> Good evening, Michael Maggus, 319 Thomasson Road, unit 37, Watertown. Uh, first off, I want to thank everyone for your time, devoted a lot of your personal time to efforts um as board of ed members. It should be commended. It um takes a lot to to give up free time to to help the community out for the betterment of the community. The reason I came tonight, I had a um couple
007questions I was asking myself and I'm not very smart, so I didn't have good answers, so I figured I'd come here. Maybe I'm not sure if this can be a Q&A session, but I'm going to assume it's not. Um and someone might want to keep a time on me and kick me off when my three minutes are done. >> We're a little more lenient. >> Okay. So, um I know back this was probably early spring when we found out our past superintendent was leaving. It might have been April, May, I'm not sure, but I knew it was early spring. And I just happened to be perusing the CT Reap website the other day and I noticed Watertown placed an ad for a superintendent, which I knew we had an acting superintendent. Lisa, I don't know
008you at all. You don't know me, but uh I'm assuming you are well qualified or they wouldn't put you in that position. My question is I guess I have a couple questions. Why are we waiting till August, end of August, beginning of September to post a superintendent job opening in Watertown when we knew 6 months ago that the old superintendent was leaving. Uh the other thing is I'm sure there's policy and procedure that we have to post the vacancy for in so many different places uh for so long. Um, so I'm not sure if my questions are going to be right, but is there options for us internally, not me, but the district internally to run a the posting? I guess I'm going to the point is are we paying for this search for this
009current superintendent? Is that additional money that we have to pay? Okay, so a lot of data in here. I'm a high school teacher. I don't know if I should mention the school I teach at because we were in competition for Connecticut school of the year. Sorry. Sorry about that. >> Where's the hook? >> Sorry about that. I just happened to be on the uh interviewing committee with the uh Cass board that came in and um I guess we did a pretty good job. But one thing that was that we made and I as a Watertown resident I made sure to highlight is continu continuity. Uh region 16 has had a superintendent there for the past 10 years. A lot of teachers there. I've been there almost 20 years teacher coach. Um we have had a
010lot of continuity. One thing we haven't had in Watertown is continuity in the superintendent position. And it's hard. I get it. Water town, a lot of superintendents will come in. Since I moved into town about 25 years ago, we've had maybe 10. If people have been here, probably about 10 superintendent. So, every time we hire a new superintendent, we seem like we're going through the same process. We're paying CAB, is it? We're paying CAB additional funds. We're we're uh interviewing. I guess my point being is that if that's my wife, well, she's probably saying, "Get off the stage. I could see you." Um, if Lisa is doing a great job, why don't we offer her the job? And I again, I know we have to go through a process. I get that, but why didn't
011we start that process months ago? And it it's a tough decision. And again, I'm not looking for answers from you, but just something to think about. If she's doing a great job, let's give her the job. Let's not pay CB any more money because we know, and again, data, we're all data driven decision makers in education. It's amazing how we survive without data. I mean, we've been working with data for thousands of years. If the fire is hot, you don't touch it. The data says don't touch that fire. Well, again, if she's doing a great job, I think we need to look at her as being our permanent superintendent with also the understanding that maybe in two years she's going to leave. But that's what's been happening in Watertown. If that's not our choice, let's
012look at a younger candidate that we will mold with the understanding based on our past 20 years data and maybe more that that person's going to leave in two years. That's what the data has shown. Yes, >> I'm just we have Mary from CABE here. So, I encourage you to stay after your public comment to hear what she has to say. She's going to go through the process and everything. >> Great. And I have nothing against Mary. I don't know Mary, wherever you are, Mary. >> Are you Mary? >> Mary, I have nothing against you. Okay. And I'm >> But I'm a resident of Watertown. I'm trying to look out for the Watertown taxpayers because we've seen the cycle. We've seen the cycle. We used to host host in our neighborhood up in Mount Fair
013when Joe Aardi was superintendent. He would do the community meetings with our neighbors and it was fantastic and like great we're going to keep Joe for a long time. Two years he's gone. Then it just kept revolving and and I'll go back to the CAS school of the year. That was one of the leading points which I made a point of cuz it got out that Watertown was in the running. We weren't supposed to know but it got out to us. So as soon as I knew about that, then I said, I know exactly how we're going to brand ourselves against Watertown. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, but that's the truth. >> That's the truth. So we need to tell people internally they need to keep secrets in house. Number one, but that's passed. So
014we won't worry about that. You're welcome. >> Thank you. Please stick around. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Please. >> Would anyone else like to come up to the podium for public comment? Hi, my name is Amanda Manford, Williamson Circle in Oakville. This is my last year that I will stand before you as a parent of Watertown Public School. I'm sorry. My son is a senior this year and he will be graduating in June. Four years ago, I could not imagine I would get to say this. Three three years ago, this board hired Mr. Perigeni as head principal for Watertown High School. That summer prior to his sophomore year, we were considering homeschooling my son. He was not doing well in classes, and he was so unhappy and depressed, he was begging to be homeschooled. He
015was also frequently getting into trouble with law enforcement. I was distraught and terrified for my son's future. Mr. Peragini reached out that summer before school started and asked if we could meet with him before we formally disenrolled my son from school. He met with both of us for a while and spent some time one-on-one with my son. We left that day with a plan for my son to return to Watertown High School for his sophomore year in the paths program. Now, I won't sugarcoat things. It was a tough road ahead, but Mr. Perageni with the approval of this board brought in Olivia Duca with first solutions. Measured improvements were happening however small they may have been at first but I have to say Mr. Perigini Olivia Duca and later Judy Weiss of First Solutions along
016with guidance counselor Mrs. Robinson, assistant principal co Nico Cody, special education teachers Miss Elves and Miss Per Genie, who is not related to our principal. Um, and par profofessional Mr. Thorne were were able to earn my son's trust and prove to him that he is loved, safe, intelligent, worthy. My son has not had any involvement with law enforcement since that first meeting with Mr. Perigini. He has been successfully passing all of his classes and moved out of the paths program and back to mainstream classes during his junior year. His self-esteem has greatly improved, maybe even a little bit too much. Um, he has plans for his future. He's thriving. This is a huge success story for Watertown Public Schools that began when this board collaborated and collectively chose to bring in Mr. Perigini. And for
017that, I thank you all. Madame Chair Palumba, I do want to address you personally. As we know, I was a very public and vocal critic of yours, and I stand before you today with my figurative hat in hand to tell you that you have proven me wrong. You have shown everyone you are here for the best interest of all our children and care deeply about all of their successes. Whatever hidden agenda I may have thought you had at that time was proven to be a figment of political differences and rumors. Bottom line is you have shown us all that you care first and foremost for all children and work hard collaboratively with all members of this board to make sure all parents and children have the tools and resources to succeed at Watertown Public Schools.
018And for that I thank you. Unfortunately, I cannot end this after what occurred at last month's meeting. I am compelled to speak out about the behavior of a board member. Sorry. >> Our board of education must serve as a model of leadership, respect, and responsibility. Unfortunately, the conduct displayed by this board member has fallen short for those of of those expectations and is causing real harm to the credibility of the board and the trust of our community. I have watched every board of education meet it via Zoom and after what I saw and heard at the August 25th 5th meeting, I felt it was finally time to speak up. The conduct by Dan Devito, chair of the RGC was appalling. During public comment, Mr. Dvito went into the meeting with yet again a political agenda
019that did not have any business being aired at this meeting. Unfortunately for Dion, instead of causing further distrust and separation of town citizens based on political differences, he opened my eyes and many other citizens eyes to the misconduct of another board member. That followed by the public comment where we learned that some this very same board member let her husband yell profanities and throw a chair at a bystander at night on Main Street made it so I had to speak up tonight. Instead of fostering collaboration and focusing on what is best for our students, this board member has chosen a path of misconduct, hostility, and misuse of position. This behavior not only distracts from the important work of supporting our schools, but also creates a toxic atmosphere that undermines confidence in the board's ability to
020govern effectively. Our children, teachers, and families deserve leaders who set an example of integrity and civility. When an elected official disregards those responsibilities, it damages the very foundation of our school system and the community it serves. We cannot allow disruptive >> Miss Man 40 your time. >> I do call for this board member to step down at very least openly address what has occurred and the board member who was bribed to openly address that situation as well. Our town deserves the transparency that we expect from this board. Thank you. Would anyone else like to come to the podium? Good evening, Erica Waznjak of Oak Drive. I just want to thank and give my deepest gratitude to the board of education for their steady guidance and unwavering support, especially Christa, Karen, and Jason. Whenever I've had
021a more complicated issue that needed board attention, they were always willing to help, give advice, and guide me. Your commitment to our students, families, and staff ensures that we continue to go grow stronger together. The time, energy, and thoughtful leadership you dedicate to every decision made to every decision make a meaningful difference in the quality of education and opportunities available to all students. We are truly grateful for your partnership and for the examples you set in prioritizing the well-being and success of our students. Thank you. Would anyone else like to come to the podium for public participation? Seeing none, moving on to G. Presentation of superintendent leadership profile. Please welcome Mary Brickard from uh K. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be back here um meeting with the board after spending some time in your
022community talking with a variety of your constituents and also surveying uh people and uh as you know it was not the easiest of times to engage people and uh I was a little nervous at first that there wouldn't be a whole lot of input uh on which to from which to um have the information to write a leadership profile. But between Kathy's efforts and the efforts of everybody who got the word out, we ended up with quite a decent number of participants, especially in this survey. So, um I'm afraid for those at watching from home that it's going to be very hard to read this. And if you haven't picked one up, there are copies at the end of the aisles. Um I hope I think that there are probably plenty for everybody. Um I
023did have the opportunity to conduct eight focus groups and a couple of interviews. Um the participation in some of the focus groups was very disappointing, but that really was all about it being the beginning of school. Um so if you go to page three, um you'll see what that participation looked like. There were a total of 28 um individuals who participated either through the interviews focus groups for um the survey and you'll see there were 32 with whom I spoke and then 176 took the survey the breakdown of um so there there were very few teachers very few parents who participated in focus groups but they came through on the survey so even though it was a very low percentage just three teachers teachers and two parents. Um there were 76 teachers who took the
024the survey and there were 50 parents. So we did get some decent representation that way. The same with the community. There were 26 participants and 25 support staff. We had a good showing from administrators in both the focus group and the um survey. Any questions about the data collection? Okay. So what did the data show? Um and I think you will hear echoes of some of the public comment in in what you you hear now. Um by far and away asked first about the strengths. I better move forward here. Remember to do this. Asked about the strengths of Watertown and its schools. By far the the greatest number of participants talked about the dedicated staff and the um teacher quality. Um, the professionalism and loyalty, the fact that teachers and support staff really go beyond
025the call to meet the needs of your students. They build strong bonds with families. They stick around. They have connections to communities so that they're able to do that. They're down to earth. They truly care about student well-being. um the low turnover rate and longevity and the willingness to do more with less um have really added to the district's strength and resilience. 95 mentioned the sense of community um how important that is the actively supporting the schools fostering that close close-knit and family-like atmosphere caring uh creating deep roots across generations. There's a tremendous amount of pride and everybody is really invested in your students. 55 people mentioned uh commitment to students and their well-being as a great strength. There's some redundancy as you go through this. It's just the way the data fell out. Um
026but there is a real effort to put students at the center of decisions, meet kids where they are, um encourage their growth, give them the social and emotional supports they need, and ensure that every student thrives. 35 talked about the breadth of your programming to make a difference for kids. Um enriching learning opportunities, um engaging interests and talents of students. You have athletics, um, theater, music programs, and teched, robotics, and other opportunities. Um, not to mention your sports, which was something a number mentioned, but also your movement toward um, manufacturing pathway was also mentioned. Uh, I I hope this is about the right pace, but if I'm going too slowly or too fast, let me know. >> Mary, >> yes. I I hate to say this, >> if you can move it faster. >> The
027only reason I say that is because and not that this is important. This is so important. There's another meeting in town at 8:00 that everyone is anxious to go to as well. >> So, I'm just letting you know that. Sorry. >> And I'm hoping Kathy will be able to get this posted on the website. We are posted already. Oh, beautiful. >> Uh see, she's on top of everything. >> So, pride and loyalty 25 mentioned how um and that's where sports really came up. Um there there are real points of pride and enduring traditions that help also strengthen the community and school bond. 20 mentioned leadership and collaboration is strengths uh encouraging teamwork um and new administrators who want to make Watertown great and who want to expand the connections with the community. 15 talked about
028communications and relationships. Now we're getting into much lower numbers. the the big numbers were upfront and we're going in order of um of mention. So um parents felt that they believe timely receive timely notices, texts and emails and they get all the information that they need. Um 12 talked about the sense of belonging and openness being very important and then 10 mentioned your facilities and town assets. Um but overall Watertown is invested in the success of its children. Okay. So what are the those are are what people identified as your strengths. How about challenges? It will probably come as a surprise to no one that 92 mentioned budget funding and resource constraints as your greatest challenge. Um that's a concern of your staff, your families and community members. and people want everything and don't want
029it to cost any money. So, um there's there was also um a mention of the chronic budget freezes and a sense of a lack of transparency in the budget development process that has fueled some frustration. um you know that your the financial burden falls in your property owners which in any community that has that condition it's a it's a challenge. Um so 41 mentioned leadership instability as we heard this evening also the frequent leadership challenges leaving leading to fatigue um especially as they come with a vision and people work toward that vision and then it gets changed with a new leader. So that was definitely on a lot of people's minds. 39 mentioned political division and governance challenges and local politics as a distraction. We heard both of these themes tonight, didn't we? Um and
030a disservice to student students. Um and that town council is divided and disrespectful and overly involved in school affairs. um that and that places stress on the schools and embarrasses staff and parents and undermines the focus on students. 34 mentioned trust and transparency and communication as a challenge. Sometimes you hear things as strengths, other people see them the challenges and sometimes they're both. Um again the transparency in the budget development and decisions made in some cases without staff who are really affected by them or family input. Um, another issue I heard was that parents will often bypass the the teacher and administrator um chain of in the chain of command and go straight to the board of ed which strains and puts trust um strains the trust in relationships. Um 28 talked about staff retention
031and morale as issues again with superintendent turnover um that people get jaded with so much change. And there's a sense that there are staffing shortages in some specialized areas and it's also difficult to retain staff without what is viewed as competitive pay. um there's a sense that there's a need to build morale and ensure staff have meaningful input and decisions um that are key to their work um their their work environment. So 19 identified special ed and student needs and the rising cost and this is we're seeing across Connecticut and I'm sure across the country uh significant challenges uh increasingly difficult to recruit and retain qualified staff to meet the kids needs and also balancing um interventions for students with opportunities for high achieving students. There are concerns about student behavior, emotional supports, discipline, and
032there are calls to create more consistent expectations and ensure every child receives the right level of support. 15 mentioned community engagement and buyin and that again comes to leadership and having a s a shared sense of where you want the schools to go as a community. And then 11 mentioned school climate, culture, and morale. Um and again talked about discipline, accountability and the overall culture. There were a handful of others that didn't um have too much but I just mentioned them. Unfunded mandates that you don't have any control over these um pressures of technology and social media. You have to address those. the uh gaps in student achievement left by COVID, the rise of artificial intelligence um me and resistance to change or barriers to increasing um student achievement. Okay, so those are your challenges.
033So what are you looking for in your new leader? Let's see, we gone through those. um a qu the the first part of this is the survey results and the second part is the um it includes all the different comments we got through the survey and through the focus groups. So if you look at page nine in the chart you'll see if you look at people so we asked people to um identify to rank order their top um expectations or hopes the ideal in a new leader. So as far as expertise goes, um the first choice of 30 almost 35% of your participants was builds trusting relationships with students, staff and community. The second choice was um communicates and collaborates effectively. It sort of echoes what you heard in the rest of the profile. The
034third, and this is a little bit unusual, but is possesses strong budget and finance knowledge and skills. And I think when budget is your number one challenge, it's it stands to reason. And the others really didn't have anywhere close to the same numbers of people citing them. If you look at the top three choices, it's a pretty similar breakout uh with those three still really being your top top hopes for your new leader. If we look at qualities again, now we're on page 10. Um people are looking to see number one accessible, approachable, and visible. That's people feel that's really important to building trust with the new leader. Um 29% said that. 21% said trustworthy, honest, and respectful. And 19 and a half% said keep student growth and well-being the primary focus. And again, those
035three are your top three um choices as well. Is that clear to everybody? You got it. Okay. So, what did people say about those? I'll just run through those quite quickly. Um, Watertown is looking for a superintendent who can honor the community's history. Just move on here. Um, while guiding its schools toward a thriving future. And this person has to be deeply committed to students, invested in the town, and able to build the trust and collaboration you need to move the district forward. So that means in terms of trusting relationships, build genuine trusting relationships across the schools and community, listen to understand, respect educators professional judgment, value the insights of those in the trenches, demonstrate humility and empathy and authenticity and commit to Watertown for the long term. Um, communicating and collaborating. They want clear
036and open communications. Um, transparent updates, honest explanations of t tough issues, um, helping people be part of important decisions, seeking input, listening carefully, and synthesizing feedback into a shared vision for the district. Um, ensure that there's alignment and prevent gaps in student learning. Somebody who's charismatic and approachable. a communicator who appreciates teamwork and encourages professional growth. Your your staff really want that. Um, possess a strong budget and finance. Combine financial savvy with creativity and transparency. Um, maximizing limited resources, writing grants, and finding innovative ways to make do. In terms of your Am I going fast enough now? Okay. uh qualities um ex approachable, responsive, consistently present in classrooms and schools and at community events. Having an open door policy, which we heard from um we heard this evening from your current leader. Uh willing to
037spend time in areas where they have less experience in order to make sure that they fully understand what's going on in those areas that they don't know as well. being visible and accessible and building morale and trustworthy, honest and respectful. They want somebody who has a strong moral compass. Uh who demonstrates honesty with the board of ed and the public even when the message is difficult. Um consistent and accountable and humble and able to admit mistakes, genuinely valuing the expertise of educators and the voices of family. And finally, somebody who um places students at the center of every decision, ensures children have the experiences they need from strong academics to extracurricular. Um who advocates for highquality programs, ensures no students fall through the cracks, and focuses on belonging and safety and well-rounded growth. Um by
038supporting the expertise of teachers. And by doing all these things, the superintendent will um keep the well-being of the district's children the guiding guiding principle. Um so what happens with this? Okay. Yes, as your community member mentioned, um this is now posted on C it's been it's been posted all over New England essentially um sent to every um superintendent and assistant superintendent. This document will help the board. It's going to be sent to every candidate you have too because it's very important that your candidates understand the context that they're applying for. Um it will help the board consider its candidate pool, consider um the questions that they'd like to ask in interviews and then analyze the candidate that they see. Um, and it we will be turning this around fairly quickly. It's a short um
039period of time that the vacancy is out there. So, we're receiving applications at this time and the board will be moving forward as quickly as possible um to make a decision. So, any questions, comments? >> I just want to thank you for all your hard work. I know this has been a lot on you, your staff, Tathy, everyone. So, we appreciate you doing this turnaround. Um, all the thoughtful thoughtfulness and everything you've put into it. We are so appreciative. >> Thank you. And and taking the time speaking to uh community members individually, teachers, administrators. I know it was a lot of your time and I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Just want to commend you on the thoroughess of the report. Um, you know, us as representatives, we know what
040we hear, but it's always good to see it in front of us there in case there's something we miss, >> right? >> Uh, and it's also great to see so many community members and stakeholders here in attendance tonight to be a part of the process there. Everybody's learning together. Uh, but again, very impressed with the the scope of work. Nothing here really surprising that came back and uh now we have the blueprint proceeding forward. So, thank you, Mary. Great. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Moving on to updates. Yes. So, remember when you said you have to be willing to not know something? Well, this is it. Luigi Valardi is not here tonight and I have to share the facilities update. Not my area of expertise, but I did. He's he's very
041ill tonight and was sorry that he couldn't make it, but there were some important pieces that I wanted to make sure that I I put out there in the ether. Um, I know there's been some questions on the field lights at the John Mills complex. Um, so I'm happy to report um that Mr. Valardi and his team were able to replace 15 fuses and the majority of the lights right now are functional and they're okay for continued use. Um, we have moved forward with a project. We've partnered with Earth Lights to install new fixtures and lights and we were able to secure a 0% financing plan over 48 months um through Eversource as well as additional incentives due to the fact that we will have a lot of energy efficiency with the lead light bulbs.
042Um, we're just waiting for approval from planning and zoning and the hope is really for an October installation. Um, and it's I think it's going to be um very nice addition to a beautiful field that we were able to get because not only will we have beautiful new lighting, but they're going to actually position the fixtures um and such that the quality of the lighting for the players will um be much better. So, that's really exciting news and um we were really happy to be able to partner with Earthlight and um to get such a good deal given that this was something that we needed to do quickly that wasn't necessarily in the budget. Um I do have a quick update on the roof project. We are reportedly at the home stretch. I see Laura
043Mecca back there. Look at her wave. Woohoo. Um so, so the the there were some missing roof panels. They came in, they were installed. Um there are a few more things that need to be done. Some um handles, some wall panels, and then uh they did do a walk through I believe last week and develop punch list of all of the things that the roofers need to complete. So we are according to Mr. Valardi at the home stretch. Um so those are two facilities updates. Um, and certainly if you have additional questions, I'm happy to try to answer, but certainly Luigi would be the better choice of answering questions beyond what I shared. Um, so any questions or you want me to go on to transportation? Okay. Um, so transportation, there have been challenges as
044there always are in the beginning of the year. Um, I just want to assure people that we are working on them um, diligently. As a matter of fact, Miss Kosuba and I had a meeting with the transportation uh department today. We went through, we had a full list of of items that we went through with her. We're slowly um picking away at getting things resolved. Um in this beginning of the year, typically the the issues with transportation fall under two buckets. One is just growing pains because we're trying to adjust to new roots, etc. And then the other are those specific things that really need us to kind of take a look because there's some kind of something that's preventing this from working out. Um Marie and I have been working on those pieces. Um
045and I really hope that by the end of this week um people will start to see a difference. Um, we have asked our administrators to please keep track of arrival and dismissal times and they're going to report that to us on Friday and then we will revisit with the bus company on Monday and try to close the loop on all of the things um that still may not be working well. Um, and we are committed to fixing all of those things and I thank everybody for um being patient. It's always so hard in in the beginning of the year um but we will get there and we will continue to address those things. The other quick piece about transportation that I wanted to mention was um bus ridership. Um a few things just related to
046that. Um first I'd like to say that it's 100% a parent's right to transport to drive their child in or out of school if they so choose to. Um but I just like to put a plug out there for riding the bus. Um, we have seen such an uptick in parent drop off and pickup since COVID and many of our buildings only have one point of entrance and exit. And so there's a lot of congestion um congestion there. And then another interesting thing that I hear often in the community, people will ask, well, I see buses riding around town, they're empty. Why is that? You know, what are we paying for buses and no kids are on them? Um, the fact of the matter is that regardless of whether students are actually riding the bus
047or not, we are legally by state law required to hold a seat for every student. So, even when people aren't sending their students on the bus, we still have to pay for that that full bus. Um, so certainly, please, I don't want anyone to think that I'm infringing on your rights. Um, but if you're in a place to do so and you could give the bus a go, please give the bus a go because that just might help a little bit with um the congestion and it it's fiscally responsible as well. We're paying for the buses, so it would be great if people um could use them. Okay, cost savings. And I know I'm trying to go quickly as well because I know people want to attend the other meeting. Um, another piece in my
048entry plan was about fiscal responsibility. Um and uh Miss Kashuba and I and cabinet have diligently been going through every time we meet looking at a few more pieces to see if there's any places where we can have some cost savings. Um so tonight I'm just going to quickly review um things in the area of special education that we've looked at and we've been able to capture some savings. Um so we did go out to price out several of our contracted services which was a little bittersweet for us. Some of our contracted services are people that have been with us for years and they're like part of our staff, but you have to balance that with the fiscal responsibility and going out and make sure that you're really getting the the best prices. Um, so
049we look went out and looked at music therapy, all of our aiologist services, OTPT, um, and we went out and looked if there were other um, cost savings that we can have. And honestly, not only do we have quality people, we actually had the best prices. So, it wasn't a cost savings, but I think it's worth doing that exercise because you just never know. Um, we've also been looking at we contract for a lot of behavior technicians for our social emotional classrooms. Um, and we've been implementing training for our PAR educators so that we can begin to reduce um the reliance on outside services. And although we're not seeing the savings now, we predict that moving forward, we'll be able to kind of shuffle those responsibilities onto our own people that we hired, our own
050pair of educators that work in our district. Um, in the uh autism classes is another kind of example of where we've just shifted the focus. So, for many years, we've um just partnered with amazing organizations that have come in and just given direct services to our students. And this year, Miss Gaelic, myself and the special education team worked with our provider and asked for a consultative model. So now we have a hybrid. Half of it is for them providing direct services to our kids. The other half of it is that they're training our people and working side by side so that eventually they can kind of fade themselves out. And they're invested in doing that as well because they're in high demand um across the state. So they know that their model needs to change
051a little bit just because of the costs. Um and the last thing I think was here was nursing coverage. Again, I just used the bucket of special education. Um we were finding that we were spending a very large amount of money on the nurse network. So we've hired a floater nurse and that is a big offset in costs. Instead of paying an agency, we pay our own person to float when people are absent because you have to have coverage in the nurse's office. Um, so all of those pieces, although it's not a huge savings, that one bucket, we're at about $60,000 there that we're able to apply to um the budget reductions that were asked of us um in in the spring. Um, and then I'll come along the next time and we'll kind of
052look at another bucket. I just want to make sure that the community is aware of some of the pieces that we have going on. >> Any questions about the budget? >> Just a really quick comment. After you mentioned that at the last meeting, I had several community members who work for other school districts get in touch with me and we're so thankful you brought up that Amazon. >> Oh, the business partnership. They need more information. >> Yes. >> So, you not only helped our district, >> we'll give you our CSR's name and number and you can give it to many other. >> I'm sure they'll really love me for that. >> We'll do that one next time. We'll do that bucket next time. The supplies. Um, okay. And then I do want to provide a
053quick update on curriculum and instruction. And I think again we're trying to kind of work out to cabinet members to share some pieces with the board so that there's a lot of communication about the things that are happening not just in your binders but things we could share out verbally. Um so first is policy. Um as part of our curriculum work this year, Miss Gaelic and I will be focusing on the development of clear policies and procedures related to curriculum adoption in the selection of instructional materials. We will look forward to working with the board in the coming weeks to establish a thoughtful and transparent process. In the meantime, I want to affirm that Watertown Public Schools remains committed to meaningful conversations with administrators, teachers, and families regarding state standards, instructional practices, and instructional materials.
054Um, this work will be guided by our core values of integrity, transparency, and honesty. Um, I do have an open door policy and always happy to exchange and dialogue around those things. Um so at this time I'm just going to quickly turn it over to Jen Gaelic who will share um some of the curriculum pieces. Um we've had some traction this year which I'm so excited to have a great partner in Jen Gaelic and we've got some traction going so she's going to share some of those pieces. I'm going to sit in Marie's lap so that I can I'll talk really loud use my teacher voice. Um so lots of really exciting things happening. Um, as as Lisa mentioned, I feel like we kind of hit our stride again this year and we were able
055to see some real nice curriculum work even just in those opening days of school um within departments and at the elementary level. So, it was exciting to kind of get back to that work because we did hit pause a little bit there um while our focus shifted elsewhere. Um, so this year marks the implementation of the third edition of Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts. You've heard me refer to that before as CKLA. um that is our core curriculum that we brought in for grades K through five back in the 23 24 school year and part of that was as response to the state's initiative wherein districts had to um pick from a select list of core curriculum for reading. Um so this edition offers some key improvements over the second edition. Um, specifically, there's some
056streamlined pacing and flexibility that allows our teachers to cover all of the material within the 181 school days that we have your little cherubs with us, whereas the old curriculum made it a little bit more challenging to kind of get through everything. Um, there's also the ability to tailor differentiation for diverse learner needs that did not exist. So, there's um some additional ability to differentiate reading levels and question types and response formats. Um, that was really exciting, especially for our special education teachers and our multil- language learner teacher at John Trumbull. There's also integrated writing instruction that draws specifically on the science of writing that was absent in that second edition. Um, and some enhanced digital tools, including something that I actually think is the coolest thing ever, which is autoscored formative assessments. That's a
057piece that actually is in the ELA um, curriculum at the 68 level, but they brought that piece down to the K5 level. Um everything can be autoscored and then overridden by teachers as well. When we first moved to the second edition, we actually had like curriculum or um assessment scoring parties at the schools because it took so long to score all the open-ended responses. Um truly like myself and the whole pulk team sat in a room together and scored assessments. Um but this takes away some of the time component, but again still offers teachers the ability to override those things as well. Um there's also some expanded texts and updated content, so additional alignment with our science and social studies standards across the curriculum. Um last year, um with Amplify, Swift had a partnership with
058an Amplify coach who came in over a series of days and worked with all of the grade level teams, observing in the classroom, providing some classroom coaching and support, and then also working with teams to unpack the curriculum as it was brand new to them. um that received tremendous positive feedback from the staff that participated um and provided targeted professional learning that helped you know everybody kind of meet the um the needs of implementing that curriculum for the first time. Based off of the success with that and the positive feedback, we have expanded that um partnership and we will have coaching um for all K8 ELA teachers this coming school year. Um they will work in all buildings um for a number of days across the year helping to unpack curriculum, helping to foster consensus
059and shared understanding about what um high quality implementation looks like, getting into classrooms, modeling lessons, co-eing lessons, kind of the whole board. Um and the teams will include both classroom teachers, ELA support staff like our reading specialists, as well as building and district administrators so that we kind of build our shared knowledge of what this all looks like. Um we also have implemented a new benchmark um assessment system for math called McLass. Um it is again at the elementary grades K5. Um so it's a benchmarking and progress monitoring tool. It allow us to look at data with I ready as well so that we have a couple of data points and not just one to rely on. Um, the neat thing about this assessment system is that it not only tells whether or not a
060student can arrive at the correct response, but it actually allows you to see like inside their brains their mathematical thinking. Um, because it captures the student work as part of the response. So, you can actually see where a student may have gone arry in their responses. Um, and then it also provides teachers with instructional recommendations both at the tier one kind of everybody gets that level, but then also for tiered intervention and support. um continuing with some of those partnerships. Um now that we have such robust programming in place, we are really looking to strengthen our instructional practice um and use those core curricula that we have with integrity and with finesse. So um it's a little overwhelming, but we have a bunch of different partnerships um that we're going to to go with this
061year. So the Connecticut State Department of Education is offering two key initiatives that are completely free of cost. So we always like free um and we take advantage of those whenever possible. So, we will be participating in the science of readingorked improvement community. Um, this is a K3 initiative. So, it'll be across all three of our elementary schools um with the Connecticut State Department of Ed and West Ed, which is um like a focus group and a kind of professional learning group. It will help us to build evidence-based literacy practice, look at data analysis, and how we can improve K3 K3 reading outcomes with coaching, training, and then shared evaluation structure. So they will come into our schools and be in our classrooms and working with our educators and then we will also have the
062opportunity to go out for professional learning. Um so we've got a team for that and the kickoff is the end of September. We also are in the process of applying for another free um professional development opportunity called Readcon 2.0. Um and this is also a K12 literacy initiative. Um however, we're probably going to structure it more grades four and up since we have that K3 piece already happening. Um this one is online modules and um face-to-face coaching and targeted webinar webinars to address foundational literacy skills, reading comprehension and instructional practice initiatives. Um so we're excited about that piece. And then I would be super remiss if I didn't also mention our math professional learning. Um so we have had a partnership for probably about the last five years with curriculum associates with our core program
063I Ready. Um this year we are working with them to do cycles of instructional coaching in all of our K5 classrooms. So again it will be across all three um elementary schools. It will the team will be um district and building leaders, teachers and then our SRVI or math specialists across the buildings in kind of a trainer of trainer model so that we can build our own internal capacity. Um, across each of the buildings, there will be three coaching cycles, each 5 days in duration. That will include learning walks across all classrooms and then in specific classrooms with participating teachers, co-planning, three coaching days, and then debriefing time as well with the staff developer um so that we can kind of observe and evaluate our instructional pro um practices and then also build our skills
064and our collective efficacy in the area of math. The plan is to start with nine teachers um and then to kind of expand that which is why we're doing it as a trainer of trainer model so that we can kind of take the successes and turnkey it forward ourselves. And then of course we have our co-eing um initiative with ed advance. Um we know we have a um big collective focus on co-eing and improving outcomes for all of our learners. So we had Ed advance in as a kickoff day on one of our professional development days as a joint session with general education teachers and their um special education counterparts. They came to provide some just initial professional learning and then they will come back three times across the year to work specifically with each
065of those teams. They will um plan, observe co-eing, have debriefing and professional development. And again, those teams will include district and building leadership um and then general education and special educations. And we're very excited about the partnership um with Ed Advance. It's Jody Manati and Sheamus Kullahan um that we'll be working with and we're really looking forward to that. So, it's going to be a very busy um but hopefully fruitful and exciting time for the CNI department. >> Thank you. Impressive. >> Yep. >> Lisa, um if I may, there are many parents in the audience tonight, I know they have a concern. >> Yes. >> Can we address that like your plan? >> Sure. >> Okay. Sure. Um so for for those that may not be aware, um there was a question about some reading
066material at the high school and we're always appreciative when families or parents reach out and and express their concerns. That's what we're here for, to listen and to collaborate. And um so um Mr. Perry is in the audience. He um had some conversation with the head of the English department. We all had some collected collective conversations. Um we had some light reading material this weekend. Mr. Perigini, myself and Miss Gaelic all um brought some reading material from the high school home and and read that this weekend. Um, and what we have decided to do is is temporarily pause because I think it's important that we all have some conversation and just re-evaluate and and have some conversation about what was the focus, what was the purpose for picking that the the particular book and um
067so we're going to to pause at this point. We'd like to invite any parents with questions in so that we could just have some dialogue around the teachers reasons for picking those um materials. And then I did announce so that that's the short-term plan is like let's pause have some more dialogue and give some thought to things and be good partners. Um and then I think the longer range plan is what we talked about I mentioned earlier is that we really need to start looking at kind of our practices and our policies in district for how we go about approving curriculum or how we go about selecting instructional materials so that there's um multiple stakeholders around the table and that we're doing that proactively. And also just uh we don't really have a practice or
068a policy for when parents have questions of what to go to and what that chain of communication is. Um so I think we need to identify that. But then in the short term informally I'm I'm happy when parents reach out and and ask questions. That's you being good partners with us and everybody's perspective matters. So um we look forward to addressing that and then looking at some long-term solutions. >> Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Okay, moving on to finance report. Miss Khuba. >> Hello everyone. So just two weeks ago I gave you both the June and the July um finance report for both the end of the year and then where we were as of uh July 31st and now I'm presenting August 31st because we only have one meeting this month. Normally I
069would do it a little closer to the end of the month. Um basically not much more to report than I did in the past uh in the past meeting. We're only two months into fiscal year 26. So expenditures and balances still do not yet represent full trends for the year. At this point, our primary focus is ensuring contracts and encumbrances are set. So we have a clear and accurate picture of available balances as we move forward in the fiscal year. Um I'm going to touch briefly on our major categories and the way that I group all of the expenses um on on the uh monthly reports under salaries and benefits. Obviously, the encumbrances for staff contracts represent the bulk of this category. And then the other bulk would be on employee benefits. Certified staff is
070still showing um as slightly over encumbered. And again, at this stage, it's due to salaries that have yet to be applied um to grant lines. Um I have started working on grant lines the past week. Um it's going to take me until, you know, a few more weeks to get that all down. And we still have some um grants that have the applications have been processed, but they haven't been finalized. I do not like to apply anything to a grant line until I have that grant award letter in my hand and I know it's a done deal, especially with our president making so many changes and we're getting messages that money is being pulled and then it's not being pulled. So, I just really like to wait until everything's solidified and although it's looking like,
071you know, everything's going to go um as expected um we'll move forward with the grants as as everything locks down. Um under purchase services uh minimal activity here so far as well. uh legal counsel um the legal counsel expenditure line is showing um some additional charges related to ongoing uh labor negotiations. Um but this is not a concern. Uh we actually might see that the bills come in a little less than we anticipated, but until we actually finalize um and I receive the actual final invoices, we'll be able to see where we stand with that. But again, it's a small amount. Um under uh facilities, um I believe the only line right now that's showing a negative balance is telephones and software. Uh we obviously have a new telephone contract and I I actually don't
072understand why this is negative. I should have uh investigated a little closer, but again I only had a day on Friday to finish this up. So um I will revisit the incumbrances and as we get a couple more invoices, I can adjust that if needed and I'll report back if I do think it's going to be an issue. But again, small amount right now. I don't anticipate any problems with that. um trans contracted services, transportation and tuition are always the um big lines that we look at here again. But of course, again, we're only um able to currently now have partial invoices that are reflected. Fully year impact will become clearer in the fall. Um we do have contracts. We're just waiting for our first set of invoices as well to just lock and load
073all of the incumbrances to make sure that there's nothing out of the ordinary. Um and then tuition, of course, school just started, so our indist um bills have just arrived. And while I do know the number of buses before the school year starts, I always just like to have those invoices with the actual costs so that we can start comparing and seeing if we have any room, which we usually don't have a lot of room to play with, but I'm hoping that we're right in line with where we need to be. Again, we'll continue to monitor that as the year progresses. I'll have uh more solid information for you. Um supplies and equipment, um nothing out of the ordinary there. Early purchases for instructional supplies and equipment have been made in preparation for school opening.
074custodial supply lines are beginning to reflect orders made for building readiness and um spending here will obviously level out as the year progresses. And again, this is one area that u Miss Becketty and I are also, like I said, I mentioned our bulk buying. We're starting to play with that and see um put some orders in. So hopefully we'll have some cost savings to show you for this year. I I said it before and I'll say it again. I think there's a lot of not a lot. I think there's a good amount of money that could be saved in this, but right now we're it's we're testing the waters, right? because I need to make sure that all the toilet paper rolls are the same in all the facilities. I I I don't know what's
075in all the facilities. So, Luigi and I are working with the group leaders to kind of get a model of what I need to order. Like I told them, bring me a sample of everything so we can make sure. So, but we will incur some cost savings. I'm confident about that. But I'm hoping that after this year, if we work out all the kinks next year, we'll see even greater savings once we we know exactly what the items are and um if we can in fact bulk order those from from Amazon or or any other vendor. I don't want to make it sound like we're only purchasing from Amazon. We are vetting wherever we can, but the bulk ordering right now looks like it's going to pro prove um very beneficial to us. Um all
076in all, at this stage, our finances are unfolding as I expect. The focus remains on um ensuring contracts and known obligations are encumbered early to protect the budget. As we move further into the fall, trends in transportation, tuition, utilities, and benefits will provide a clearer picture of areas requiring close monitoring. It's going to be a game where we're monitoring every line till the end of the year. We know that and it's I'm not intimidated by it. We're prepared to do whatever we need to do. Um and I'm I'm happy to report that we did not start in a freeze. Although we have a plan in place and our administrators are working um collectively with us and I'm very grateful to them because I know every time we have to um limit them in any capacity,
077it makes their job harder. So I'm very appreciative of all our administrators for working with us. But uh it's going to be a good year. I feel it. So hopefully we don't have any major unknowns, >> but if we do, I'll report on them. Thank you. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer. >> Okay, seeing none, moving on to communications. Miss Veressa, >> nothing at this time. >> Okay, committee reports, curriculum, and instruction. Miss Hosking, >> it was wonderful to get a report tonight. Thank you from uh or to uh Miss Gaelic and all. It's great to start the year knowing that all of those pieces are in in place and I know on um Miss Beckad's plan is to kind of as you said there was a little lull and we're pulling
078things back together. So I look forward to our first uh curriculum and instruction committee meeting. >> Thank you. Policy and labor, Mr. Melaguti. >> No update at this time, Madam Chair. >> Budget and finance, Mr. Gavales. Facilities, Mr. Gavales, governance and community engagement myself. No report. Moving on to action items. Adoption of items to be approved by consent. Consideration to approve a donation. James Moore of Deep Sawmill donated 768.1 ft of raw saw Softwood to the Watertown Public Schools with an estimated value of 76810. It is recommended that the board of education accept this donation and a letter of appreciation be sent to the donor. Do I have a motion? Madam Chair, I move to approve the donation of 768.1 ft of rough saw softwood from James Moore of deep sawmill with an estimated value
079of $76810 and a letter of appreciation be sent. >> Do I have a second? >> I second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I I >> opposed. Abstension. Motion motion passes. Future agenda items. Board member comments. Madam Chair, please comment. Um, I appreciate that all our community members and staff and teachers got the chance to candidly share their experiences and their feedback to help guide our um, community priorities, but I don't think we needed that to to see that trust is very fractured on multiple levels across town right now for a variety of reasons. I wanted to propose a couple of ideas. This budget season comes up on us very quickly and I recognize that we may have some coming board turnover. So, my hope is that leadership in the board consider a
080couple of ways to bring the focus back to the schools and help rebuild some of the trust. Um, community listening tours to maybe get some community members and even town council firsthand in the schools, share some of our successes, show them some of our needs, answer questions in real time or public workshops or citizen advisory groups. So, more frequent meetings rather than what we're sharing in the board of education meetings, right from when we start to set um our our school and building budgets all the way through the process. Um I know there's a lot of feedback and we saw it again in this and you know, this isn't really news, but I hope that we can proactively now start thinking of some of these ideas to build trust. Um I think we get into
081a little bit of the community versus the the board of education during budget season and the community is our schools. Um it was in our feedback as well. the our schools are the the gem of our town. Um so I'm just hoping that work can get going on helping to rebuild some trust. If I may, um Miss Becky, Miss Becky and I um were talking about making sure that we launch that parent um council again and really get parents involved. Um it's really important to hear what they have to say. So that is definitely on the agenda to add. >> Thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, moving on to report from the board chair. I just want to thank everyone who participated in the surveys and the focus groups. I know beginning of the
082school year is tough already. So, I want to thank everyone for their time and thoughtful input on that. Um, I want to thank the parents. I know uh the beginning of the school year can be stressful. So, I want to thank parents for their patience, students for their patience with the bus schedules, the school schedules. So, hang in there. We got this. It's only the very beginning. So, it's going to be a lot of fun and uh it's going to be a great school year. Okay, everyone can go to the other meeting now because we have to go to executive session. So, thank you everyone. It is now time.