001Yes. Bring the Thompson Board of Education regular meeting for April April 7th to order at 701. Uh our first order of business is the pledge of allegiance and hocus pocus. Greg, could you lead us in the pledge, please? to the flag of the United States of America and to the repies nation indivisibley and justice for all. What? Yeah, most next is my chairman update. It's a little bit longer tonight. I've let you off easy the past few months. So, we had a lot going on in the month of March. I want to acknowledge everything that I can possibly think of. Congratulations to the cast crew, the director who was a Turtle High School grad gradu graduate of last year and all who participated in making this year's theater production of Annie possible. It was outstanding.
002It was an outstanding performance and bravo. and the middle school was highly, you know, um participation was by the middle school and Annie was wonderful. Uh, I'd like to thank my fellow board of ed members for their support during the board of finance workshops and the board of finance members for their efforts in what was a difficult task and thank you Bill Stike Stiglets for the keeping it updated and fresh. uh it was put forward the budget was put forward with only 150,000 only reduction to our original ask which is I don't know not great but not terrible either. Um the the town meeting is set for April 10th, which is this Thursday, and the referendum will follow on April 24th from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m. There will be absentee ballots available in the
003town clerk's office, I'm assuming, right after the town meeting. Uh the detailed budgets and presentations are available for you on the town's website and the board of education's website. As board of me board of education members, we are ambassadors for the school and it is our I see it as our duty to promote the school and the town by informing our family, friends, and neighbors of the necessity to get out and vote for the good of our children's education and the future benefit of our town. Um, I just was upstairs at the SC over there, I think, at the science fair uh for the seventh and eighth grade. A great effort by them. Um, now I know what brand of paper towels to buy and and how much water to give my plants and um,
004but I don't dye my hair so I don't worry about what temperature water to wash my hair in. But it was very informative and the kids put forth a great effort. Congratulations to them. Please pass that on. Uh for those of you who are on Facebook, there are multiple sites to get information about the town and school events, not just pertaining to the budget, but I urge you to keep going out to Facebook because there's a lot of information about the budget out there and um things that are happening at the school and around town. Besides the Thompson public school page and the town of Thompson's public page, there is uh Thompson education information page and the Thompson Northgro forum page just to name a few. Uh um coming and the next thing is the
005last thing I have to say is coming up on April 23 is the Integrity Plus award dinner. and I encourage all of my fellow board of ed members to attend. This is a great tradition. It recognizes students not for their athletic ability. We do a great job in covering that or their academic achievements. We do a great job in covering that at scholarship night. But for their allaround contribution to their school and community. So, it's not only the athletes. You don't have to be an athlete. You don't have to be an A student. You just have to be an allaround good kid to be recognized at this dinner. And I think that is wonderful. Uh, unfortunately, I'm out of town that night. So, somebody from the board of ed, please go to that dinner. Uh,
006I've been going ever since I've been on the board of education. Um, and it it is a it is a wonderful night for the average kid to be recognized for his contributions. And that's all I have to say. Uh, next up is citizens comments. Do we have any citizens in the audience? Please state your name and address. Louise Morrison Thompson Education Association president um Connecticut Education Association is doing a new campaign called um teachers going the extra mile and I just wanted to give you an update on some of the extra miles that teachers in this district are going to. Paula Rufo um organized a sixth grade field trip to see Stomp at the Guard in New London, which was a great experience for the kids. All percussion, no talking. They were just blown away.
007Um Lindsay Kolaro coordinated bedtime stories with the help of Lisa Rice, Laura Wizakerski, Kelly Hall, Kaen Taff, Jesse Duket, Lorie Chasonic, Brooke Pinocchi, Tracy Anderson, Jennifer Bessaner, Jackie Tuttle, and Megan Kresvano. Um, many of you saw Annie with the amazing work of Juliana George and Kate Anderson and you know, kudos to Lucy Trudeau for all her work at the science fair. And this isn't a teacher going the extra mile, but a superintendent going the extra mile. For those of you that didn't see, Melinda sewed 40 aprons for little orphans. Um, she was altering costumes. She, you know, comes up and encourages the kids during the intermission. just absolutely amazing selling tickets, selling pizza, you know, handing out pizza. So, I happen to have the pleasure in my opinion of going out and seeing other presidents
008of different districts. We really have a gem here. I have to compliment and you know, I have to compliment our administration because I also attended the Alice training which is the emergency training. Thank you Melinda for you know putting that in place and we are leaps and bounds above districts that have money everywhere. So they Alice people they were from um one of the guys was involved his he was a trooper for Parkland Florida. He his men went into Parkland, Florida and the other guy was just a regular trooper. But they were both so impressed with how our kids do lockdowns, how they know where to go for rally points, how they know all of those things. So, we are moving in the right direction and there are so many positive things going on in
009this district. So, I thank you all for keeping that going. Well, thank you for updating us on that. And can I just make a comment that everybody doesn't know behind the scenes of Annie, those kids would have not come out on stage if Louise wasn't back making sure. And that's Louise, Jason Bruce, um Heather Amber Compuls, and uh Sydney Ratley. I forgot Jason. I should have I should have mentioned Jason also because I do want to make a comment that Justin contributed by making some of the beds. That's right. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Citizens comments from Zoom. Do you have any bills on Bill? Mhm. Okay. Then we move on to student spotlight. The April 2025 board of education leaison report. I'm going to start with the THS events. On April 1st was the next
010generation science standards assessment for grade 11. On April 3rd was the ECC leadership conference. On April 4th, report cards were issued. On April 7th was the is the honoral and voter registration assembly. On April 8th is the SAT day for grades 9 through 11th. April 9th is school governance council meeting at 6 p.m. Um April 11th is the TSLT inservice and the spring break. April 23rd is the 23rd annual Integrity Plus night at 6:30 and the Rescavage Auditorium. April 24th is 7th grade shadow day at team jazz. April 26th is the team HS car cruise. April 28th is ballot ballot petitioning for class officers BOE and BOF liazison is when it begins. April 29th is the triam induction. And for other news and highlights, we I'm going to start up with the cereal challenge. The
0112025 cereal challenge was a huge success, surpassing the goal of 2,700 boxes at 2,881 boxes. Thanks to all who donated and participated. A special acknowledgement to Miss Langanger and her volunteers who stood out in the cold at Winnie and the transfer station and helped set up the domino effect on March 7th. Blood drive. The TSLT hosted a Red Cross blood drive on March 11th. We had 25 successful donations which surpassed the goal set by the Red Cross. The don the donations will help 75 hospital patients in need of blood, plasma, and thank you. Midnight madness. Midnight madness was held on March 14th from 6:00 p.m. until midnight. Hosted by the Langanger Collaborative. Participating students enjoyed various activities including bad mitten volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, arts and crafts, video games, and more. There was a ton of
012food and fun for all. Local Government Day. This year's local government roundt culminated on March 21st with members of the TSLT shadowing local leaders and sharing their mock collection campaign materials and speeches with town officials over lunch catered by the teams culinary department in the RCA auditorium. Members and advisers of the TSLT are grateful for their collaboration with the BOE communications committee who make this yearly event possible. Annie, the BOE report would not be complete without a huge sat shout out to the cast and crew who made this amazing production possible. And for student voice, the student council will be asking for student input on possible changes they would like to see for the 2025 2026 school year. The council will share these ideas with the administration. Thank you. Can I make an announcement on
013on top of on top of the students comment? Sure. Josh Carlson was uh I mean Josh Yes. Josh Carlson was selected class S all state first team and will be awarded uh his all state honors on April 22nd at the Aqua Turf Southern at 6:30 basketball. Okay, next up is our administrator reports and we'll start with Mr. Melon from the high school. The sea perch underwater. Oh yeah, the seed perch. We can kind of turn that over to um Miss Granado. We we can uh talk a little bit about Oh, see the the students the students are not here. Maybe you'd like to recognize their names. Okay. And so just a little background on on uh the sea perch uh project. Um, everyone knows that we have a partnership with electric boat and Yukon um,
014school of engineering and fourth graders participated in six weeks of lessons um, earlier this year and then the middle school uh, participated in the Sea Perch underwater robotics program and I'll turn it to Kim to talk about that a little bit. Yeah. So they um they went to compete with other schools, I believe six other schools, and they came back with their second place trophy, which was the first for Thompson. And just a big shout out to Jesus Clevette who was part of that group. And I'll of course give that these certificates to them tomorrow. John Low and Riley Pockin and Shila Becket. Um we're very proud of them. A great shout out to um Kevin Log who is in charge and comes to our school and helps the students uh prepare for this. Shout
015out to Derek Bernier and of course, thank you to our dynamic leader here who um actually gives us the opportunity to compete and attend. So, we're very grateful and thank you to the board members for um supporting that. Thank you very much. And we're proud. Second place is a big deal, right? Come on. We have a lot to celebrate this month at the middle school. And Kevin also brings with him a lot of the uh uh students at Yukon that are um majoring in engineering. So there's usually at least two um Yukon students actually working with our our students in the shop. Um and I can say that Mr. Bernier, a shout out to you wherever you are in cyerspace. Um uh I got to say that what a transformation that department has made. Um
016and we're really excited about what's to come. You want me to continue mine? Yes, please. Since I'm already here. Yeah. Well, I think uh this this month it's just a celebration to our students. Um you know, we have second place in um this contest. Our middle schoolers were carried the Annie show. They were outstanding. Just saying. Um, we also have had the science sphere which was you saw tonight. Lot of dedication. Big shout out to Lucy Trudeau who arranged the whole thing and again support of our superintendent who helped us organize it and you know Lucy ran it to all the teachers who helped get the kids organized. A lot of crosscurriculum was going on there. Um and also um and our student showcase that was also tonight. Um all our teachers worked really hard
017preparing the students to uh showcase their work. Um a lot of hard work these kids, a lot of talent in the middle school. I am so so proud of them. I have to say after the performance of Annie, you know, I drove home and I'm like, "Wow, what a community we have. What a school we have. We are so blessed." So, just a shout out to my students, a shout out to the teachers, Louise, uh, Kate and Juliana, and Lucy. And then one more big shout out was to again the students showed up for ESPback. I only had six students absent. That is a miracle. Usually I have a long list to make up. That shows how much they took it seriously. They worked to the end, right up to the last minute, which again
018is a shift in culture. So I'm just so proud of them. So to all the parents out there, parents here, please be proud of your kids. They are amazing. Thank you. Okay, Larry. Mr. Apprentice. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Uh just on the uh riding the coattails here of Mrs. Granado. Thank you to all the parents that attended parent teacher conferences. always really blessed at the elementary school to have just there's no words that there's just such a tremendous turnout at the elementary school and it's a testament to the uh the teachers that work uh so hard every single day. So uh principal Melon and I were working hand in hand last week to get some high school students down to the elementary school tomorrow to help out some uh to help out some new
019teachers. I think some students have some free time tomorrow in the high school. So trying to to use that time really wisely at the high school level. Attendance meetings at the elementary school continue to take place. uh they have taken place they take place all year long really but uh last week and this week uh really marks a special time for me to be able to reach out to parents either Zoom meeting uh telephone conversations to have open honest dialogue about uh what Connecticut views as chronic absenteeism what that means when students are absent and the correlation between academic performance and social emotional learning So, that's a good opportunity for us to have a good conversation. Uh, on May 1st, there's going to be a great opportunity to see a lot of fun things with
020the arts and the sciences and reading for Fiserfest on May 1st. So really uh I know I saw several of you there last year and I think not that I think it in my year in my time here at the elementary school that has the has been the best turnout turnout with respect to to parents and really just a wellreceived occasion on Mayh May 1st for um Fiserfest. Uh we have been working at the elementary school. are just starting class placements. Really looking at a lot of different kinds of student data to determine where those students are moving uh to next year in the elementary school. Par evaluations were due in human resources by April 11th. So, we've been working on that in the elementary school. And of course, shout out to Mel Snay and
021Barbara Lzneski for the um awards that they will be receiving. And of course, shout out to Hazel, John, Riley, and Shila for the Sea Perch and Josh Josh Carlson. So that's it at the elementary school. Thank you, Dr. Jones. Okay, good evening. Um I'll just kind of breeze through the numbers because I really want to pay um extra close attention on a couple of the bullets. So currently we have 805 students on site of which 206 are under special education. 7550s out of district is still holding the same at 25. 15 students in Bradley School, Windham County, of which seven are Thompson students. We're hosting four neighboring districts, Killing Lee, Planefield, Stafford, and Woodstock. We've had five referrals since the last board of ed meeting. And our current special education population is at 25.59%. Uh
022bullet one and two is just a breakdown of how the students are disseminated for the Bradley school um high school and middle school classroom. The second bullet is the dissemination of our out of district that we have 18 students offsite because just seven are in the Bradley school uh program. We're still utilizing six vans at this time with seven um out of district schools. In terms of referrals, I'd just like to keep you updated on that. Last year we ended with 66. We're at 58. Of the 58, just did a little bit of leg work. 24 so far have qualified through RTI and evaluations of those 58 referrals. So, uh, look, number four and number five, as up to date as I could possibly get it. So, excess cost threshold change. Originally, the excess cost
023threshold was set to be 96219. Um, that has changed. It's up to 104234. And again, that's with tuition and transportation combined. Reason for that is the per pupil expenditure went up uh by 1,783 multiplied by 4 a.5 that gives you 8,23. Add that to the 96 219 that's where that um 104234 comes from. I gave you a hyperlink so you can see where that is and you can see all of the other districts in the state on how that number has changed for that threshold for excess cost. So then to compound matters um the excess cost reimbursement change you may remember I had passed out a bill that was passed through the Senate through the general assembly that took away they moved away from the tiered reimbursement system typically in the past we were getting
024back 70 roughly 70 to 74% of anything over that threshold it was said we would get 100% of anything beyond the 96 to19. Well, that changed as well. So, no longer getting 100%. Now, it's being reported that we would be receiving roughly 64.19% of anything over the 104234. I knew something was wrong when Mr. Ste talked to me about what we received back with the first check of excess cost. it seemed off immediately. So, we started doing some research. Again, the hyperlink to that is there as well. So, if you want to take a look, you would see that. And if anyone wants this digitally, I'm happy to send that to you. You can just click on it. Um, so neither one of those work to our advantage. We got it on both ends. Um,
025and then lastly, just to keep you um aware, the Bradley School Windham County program still hiring. We did have somebody um come through for middle school, really solid uh prospect. Um we're hoping that they can uh solidify that person. They were off of the position trying to work out some last minute details, but still important to know. Last month when when I was up here, uh CT said it was 189 open positions for just the standard special education. That's a 165 comprehensive K to2 SER mild to moderate. That is now up to 255. I double checked it this morning. So the number of open positions across the state. Any questions? I just have one, Mr. Sure. I may just Yes. Um the data on the special education percentage the 16 out of 167 where are
026you getting that data from? I can get you that. Yeah. Can you mind the pervailance rate? Yeah. I'm trying I'd like to see what those other 16 districts are that are that are above us. Yeah. Um because you'll see like one of them the number of students in the district is so low it's kind of an anomaly to even have that in front of us. Great. But I can get you that link. No problem. Thank you. Yeah. Um, how many of our current students are over the 104 234 threshold? Two or three? Only two or three. So, we're only getting some sort of reimbursement for two or three students. And it's only 64% of of that of over the 104, right? Okay. Pennies. Um, there were comments made in a board of finance meeting that
027we're not getting full or appropriate Medicaid reimbursement. How many of our special education students have services that are Medicaid reimburseable with the Husky insurance? I can get you that number. I I can tell you that it was 40. I just I just did that for you. So 40 out of 206 are only eligible for Medicaid reimbursement. Correct. And I can tell you that if you if I can just get to my email, I can specifically tell you um hang on what that amount of money was last year. It's 206 with IEPs. It's 281 total, right? IEPS and 50. Yes. So we're not assuming that. Yes. So this is Jen Ed, but you can still Okay. So last year last year in 2024. So that's 7123 to 63024. Um our total Medicaid reimbursement for that year
028was 23,81266. I will forward this to you all. Um it was the uh response to a foyer request that you might find interesting. Um and uh basically out of the past seven years, seven years we've received 249,000. And as Bill can explain to you, those checks come in sometime over the summer. I want to say early August, end of July, and we just apply it against special ed expenses. Um but I have the seven years because that was a lawyer. Thank you. Mhm. So, we're not missing out on Medicaid and the state's bending us over in both directions. Is that what you're saying? Okay. You said that. Okay. I I just want to every I want everybody outside this room to hear that because there is nothing we as a town can do against this
029and the state really is not listening, not caring, not doing anything for us. And I'm beyond furious and I my irritation has only gone up over the years and as have everybody I'm sure. But I'm really trying to express this in in some way that everybody can hear this is nothing that we can control and we just have to keep paying for it until we have some kind of revolt against the clowns in Harford. So it will work its way out. I'm a firm believer and it always comes back around. It looks really challenging right now, but share attrition over a time it will work its way out before or after the town goes bankrupt. Well, so there's a couple of things going on at the state level. Um they are trying there is a
030subcommittee trying to rework excess cost. Yes. Uh today I signed on um as part of the alliance districts. You know there's 36 in the state. I signed on to a raised bill which will put some weight on each special education student in the district. And what the goal of that bill is is that um you would get a separate grant um of money uh to apply for keeping kids in district like for RBTs, extra special education, teachers, speech and language therapy and all of that. Along with that in that same bill is um a provision that if a student moved into our district from Putinham say um then Putnham would be on the hook to pay that tuition until the end of the school year. It works in opposite we would also be required to
031do that but the way we've been experiencing things people are moving in but nobody is leaving. Um so it might it might help. Um, and there was a third thing to that provision. Oh, ELLL. There'd be a wait on ELLL students, although you know that number is only 21 in the district right now, but every little bit helps. So, if that I'll send you the bill tomorrow so that if you want to send in any testimony or any support of that bill, but that is in addition to whatever they're trying to do with excess cost, it's kind of a separate um conversation. So, yes. and to I don't think you were there. Uh actually there were not very many people at Senator Gordon's uh uh appearance last week and I was there and I do
032want to he's not watching but he does look at the minutes and I do want to appreciate uh the work that he's been doing uh or on this on this uh subject because you know there's other districts especially the smaller districts and rural districts that are having this problem right and I you know you know we're not alone and I want you to know that we know that you know we're not alone. Um so it's it's it's daunting and frustrating and it is daunting and angering. Thank you. Yeah, especially since their focus was on supposed to be on special ed this and it's it is it's frustrating to see that and some of it some of it's legislation but so much of it is the the state board of education that is out of touch
033with reality. Yeah. Um so we they need they need more oversight. So, thank you for my rant. Then you land. I'm gonna jump on Matt's rant, but I I think we said it all throughout budget season, and I want to put it again on the record and in public here tonight, 71% between 71 and 73% of our overall request this year was in special education. And when you look at the three bless when you look at the three school general request as well as the administrative request over the last five years I think we've asked for a total of four and a half to 5% total over the last five years in that general department. But when we add in special education that has been the bulk of our increase and as Matt said that's
034completely out of our control. So without some help from the state and if the town continues to not want to fund education, we're going to run the risk of either starting to beat the surplus down or go bankrupt. And I I think Hartford's got to start realizing that we need some help because you know 60 and I got to go back to it. $64.19 for every $100 over $104,000 104,234 is just a juke. It is because at 104,000 you've already broken the back of this this district. That's right. Well, that building didn't go. Sorry. All right, that's it. Sorry. Didn't want to pile a lot of match, but I did. Not yet, I think. Still [Music] floating. Okay. Well, bother services. Now we'll move on to move on to we'll do Heather because she's next
035up in the Heather. Hello. Um I apologize for the missing microphones. We had a last minute change of um staff having to run this tonight. So I had to scramble. Um last month we had 230 tickets. Um, I want to thank my staff as well. Um, Tyler, my technician, for doing a great job with the lights with Annie. Um, and then we did hire outside um, help. John Colossa, who's a sound engineer. We had some previous equipment that we needed to hook up um, from a grant that I had gotten. So, he was able to help hook up that equipment and balance the sound. And I really learned how difficult it is um when you have, you know, kids that project versus kids that don't. And he's constantly just having to sit there and turn
036things up and down throughout the whole play. So, he did a really great job. I thought it sounded great. Um the National Guard came out and performed a cyber security assessment um on the school and the town. Um I think overall it went pretty well. I think we're doing a good job. Um, but there is a cyber security grant coming out that's due in May that I will be applying for to improve our cyber security posture. Um, did we get the results of that assessment? We did. Yes. Oh, I haven't seen I can go over that with you. Okay. Um, we're prelimin we're beginning preliminary planning. Uh we have a lot of computers, laptops, staff, and high school students that we have to collect devices from over the summer to upgrade to upgrade to Windows
03711. So that's going to be a big project. Um but we're already planning and we're prepared to deal with that. Um and then just I'm I'm still working on updating and um creating a business continuity disaster recovery plan for the school and the town. Um just looking to update and add some cyber security information into those plans and then working on building out um and also attending some trainings but building out um from those trainings some staff training on artificial intelligence. So hopefully we can get that um I'll gather that over the summer and we can provide that for the fall. I mean before we start rolling things out to students. So, and you've been kneede in SAT and PSAT. Yeah, that's the other thing I wanted to thank Tyler and Travis. Um, just running
038around and making sure we have Chromebook carts and extra devices and chargers as we're doing all the state testing tomorrow. Crazy. Tomorrow's SAT, so they'll be here at 7:15. I have one for Kathleen. Yes, I may. Um couple months ago there was the power school breach that we all got all the parents got. Do we have any update on that? The update um there's a link on the website if you want you can go and sign up for a free credit monitoring that they're offering for I believe two years. Um but again we didn't store any social security numbers or anything that I mean it's it's up to you what you would want to do with that but it was student and teacher databases that that were leaked. So, it's really just demographics data, um,
039email address, address, phone number at this point. Okay. So, that's why I was spam calls again. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have um I'm going by the packet here. Uh, we have Michelle online there. I don't think she's with Oh, she is. Yes, she is. Hello. Hi. Um currently we have two open positions. One para educator at the high school which is a very specific um candidate we are looking for. We have a special education teacher at the high school also open. Tomorrow night we have our panorama surveys. Um we'll be presenting our 2025 climate results by Zoom at 6 p.m. And I'm currently working on the health and wellness fair I9 auditing and I'm prepping summer work. Thank you, Mr. Stelets. Hey everybody. A bit of a mixed bag uh this
040month on the report. Um, I want to remind everyone that this report is through 331 because, as Dr. Jones mentioned, we've had a lot of moving parts since then. Uh, revised budget at that point had not changed. Year-to- date spending was at 71.4% of the budget, just a bit ahead of where we were last year. Uh, year-to- date incumbrances, same thing. Uh, slightly further ahead, and I'll be touching on that in a moment. Total projected spend of 21.4 million, 99.8% 8% of the budget, up almost 1% from where we were last year. The next line in the report, um, all of the previously discussed numbers there are net of our estimated uh, special ed excess cost number, which you'll you'll notice has been adjusted down to 230,000 to reflect our what we expect to receive
041in total for the year. uh that was 255,000 as of our last report and that 255 was meant to only represent a portion of it. The change here reflects the concepts that Dr. Jones addressed in his report. Uh so the 230 is what's baked into these numbers. At the moment we are still showing two departments uh in a deficit position. Uh pupil services driven by the unfortunately the same drivers that we've talked about in the past. uh paraprofessional expenses, special education teacher salaries, RBTs and out of district placements. Um we we continue to still do pretty well in special education transportation costs. That's partially offsets those and ESY again moderately over budgeted by 122 bucks. Um I would like to touch on the fact that since this report has come out um we've had some
042further development in special education. So we have some POS that have been some incumbrances that have put in place uh in the month of April uh to the tune of almost $200,000. Um I'm hopeful that as we continue to scrub through incumbrances that we can start to fill in some of that gap. Um but that's a pretty big hit to take this late in the year. Um, so I just wanted the board to know about that, know that we're on top of it and hopefully we can cover it. But, um, that's a bit of pressure on the numbers that, you know, we didn't know about until really just last week. Any questions? Um, so when when h how wellversed is the board of finance on this sort of stuff? Are they in the know that
043we're over that there's a potential of this additional 200? Well, as of our last report, I mean, we Melinda attends every board of finance meeting. Um, she gives a quick update. I sort of you typically end up echoing her comments in the board of finance. So, they're updated uh monthly also. Yeah. And I think after the May board of ed meeting, we're going to have a better picture of where we stand financially. And if we find ourselves on beyond our budget, then we'll have to inform the board of finance we will need a supplemental allocation. But at this time, um, we're going to start to shut down POS that are open. Um, and Bill just started that work today. Yeah. So once we go through that exercise, we'll see what that number is. Uh, we'll
044have better information I think next month after we close down those POS that are open. Would anyone be opposed to adding the two accounts that we have to this financial report just so they're on the bottom of it is the the two the 2% one and the 1% one just just so we know what those numbers are on the regular. Would anybody be opposed to that? The non-latching account. The non-latching account. Yeah, I think that it's actually probably a good idea to have that so when stuff like this comes up, we know what we're I would think we'll be going there first. Yeah. Also, and I know Melinda, you and I had a quick conversation about it. Um, school lunches. Yes. I got to get those numbers for you. I'm sorry I didn't get that.
045When we I think that would be a good thing to just now that we're here, if we're this tight, a couple thousand dollars in each direction is going to matter. Well, it's trending that way when you think about what your your school's at 1300 or something like that. The high school's just about that. Uh, and I don't have the hard number on Larry's school, but yeah, we could be facing 56 thousand already. Yep. So, I'd like to make sure we have all the numbers on one sheet if you could, please. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Not looking promising. No, I'm sure Bill Burch's good news for us. Yeah, Bill, what's the good news? Nothing but sunshine. Where you been living? Well, I don't have much after that. Um, there's actually I really there's not a
046lot uh no bad news anyways. Uh I bad news is good news. I I could use some warm weather so that I could shut these boilers off. I'd be happy with that. Uh but the HVAC project is going along uh nicely. I've got mechanical contractors on site every day. The electricians are on site every day and the control contractors are actually here now. They're working nights for uh the last two weeks. They've got a lot of progress has been made down in the elementary school and nobody even knows they're here. So, they're apparently doing the job right. We've got one boiler out that's on the grass out behind the oil tank waiting to be picked up for scrap. Uh but we really could shut the other ones down. Would help greatly. Next week, while school
047is closed, uh they're going to tap into the hot water system at the high school for all the rooftop equipment. We're going to have uh probably an electrical shut off one day where we'll shut the power off to the school so the electrician can do something that he's going to do in the in main switch gear. And uh we're going to have one day that there's no water because Connecticut water is uh capping off the old million gallon tank up on top of the hill. and that's going to put us out of water for a day. Uh I know Deb Spanelli's first home track meet is next week. All the equipment's here. Uh so that seems to be ready to go. The baseball fields are in pretty good shape. The grass is starting to turn
048green, although it's a little dug up today, but it was turning green kind of nicely. And the secondary play area is all done. that's open uh for anybody that cares to use it. Um so that's about all I got. As I said, no bad news tonight. No bad news is good news. Thank you. That's very good. Okay. Uh Shannon, any updates on Good evening. I don't have anything new to update you on. Okay. Everybody's healthyish. Healthyish. I would call it is getting better. Each day is better. We're getting to that point, I think, where if we can just get a little bit of even warm weather would be good. Yeah, sunshine would help, wouldn't it? Okay. Well, thank you. Okay, so that's that. I don't see dev. Sorry. Okay. [Music] Approval of minutes is next.
049I have a motion for uh the minutes from our budget meeting and our regular meeting and March 10th. Motion to approve the budget meeting minutes March 3rd, 2025 and regular meeting minutes March 10th, 2025. Second. Okay, I have I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the minutes? Hearing none, I'll put the motion to the floor for a vote. And to uh Bill, you're on Zoom. Yeah. Okay. Um all in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Any opposition? Say no. Any abstensions? No. The vote passes. We're missing two members. So, seven. Okay. Subcommittees. Did we have a We did. Okay. Yep. Um so, the communication subcommittee met on March 24th. Um the summary is that we talked about um high school tours uh to middle school parents and students. Um there is a
050shadow day that's coming up on 424 for the seventh grade. Um we talked about communication methods to parents um that is still ongoing on minimizing apps um and trying to streamline that. Um we talked about the um leadership roundt that had just happened on March 21st. um uh the talk about college accept acceptance and decision day on May 1st and what the plans were for um communication of that. Um capstone marketing and community stakeholders were discussed um that is coming up in May. Um ongoing initiatives is the did you know campaign uh promoting high school uh collaborative projects. One being the car show that's happening um the weekend after Easter whatever 26. Okay. So Saturday and that's over at the high school. Um and it's free to go to $10 if you want to show
051your card. Uh they also talked about the incentive program. Um one of the big things that's coming up is the Wooox. Um for for is that that's high school one, right? It's the high school. Yes. Okay. Um and then there's uh some um thoughts about some peer modeling and some things like that. Um lastly, we discussed um initiatives on how to uh give communication about the upcoming referendum vote um and reaching out to uh folks just to let them know that it's happening and to make sure that we get as many parents uh teachers and community members to come out um to vote. And I think I think that was pretty much it. Okay. Thank you. Oh, and I just want to say thank you for those great videos that she's been Heather's been running
052over to the office air dropping videos that we've been able to put on Facebook that have been phenomenal. Um, and Winnie has picked them up, so they're getting good uh good viewing. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I urge you tell everybody you can go out to Facebook. There's tons of information about the budget, about what the school is doing. uh get the word out and make sure people go out to vote. Okay, I will now turn it over to Superintendent Smith. And so our enrollment report, which is unusual for this time of the year, but we have picked up two students at the high school. Um a total at Marriott Fisher is 361 students, no change over last month. At the middle school 265 again no change but at the high school um we have
053increased two students to 178 brings us uh a total of 805 students and our other highest month was in October of 806. So, we're climbing back up and yeah, that's it for your enrollment report. And just so on a sidebar, uh we had a huge um office of civil rights uh data uh report upload thanks to Heather and Dette. Dette SA does an incredible amount of work. Um, it's laborious, time consuming, and it takes her many months to gather the data. It was submitted on time today. Um, so thank you to Dette for doing all that background work. And to whom was that submitted? Federal or state? Federal. Federal. And so, um, yeah, we we're not sure where it's going, but we sent it. tell as as as Senator Gordon said last week, it you
054know there's plenty of reports that go out and that are a burden on us on you that does anybody do anything with them and if not let's get rid of them and and I I would hope that you know you would be in favor of that too. It's it's important if if data is useful to somebody great. if it's not if it's not getting looked at, what what's what's the point? And and so Dette and I had that conversation today where she said, "All that information lies at the state level. Why there's a separate federal report that has to be done." Back in the day, that report was done every three years. Then when COVID hit, the federal government wanted more information around um you know, just basic school data. So then we were submitting
055that report every year. There is a movement now to take it back to once every three years, but um like the redundancy of it all when she already does it for the state um seems silly and I'm sure it's not in the same format. No, it's different. I will tell you that in my past a district did not submit it on time and I inherit I I came into the district in January and they did not submit it on time and there was hell to pay. Um you know there was just a lot of oversight and a lot of red tape that the district had to go through with legality and everything else. So you don't want to miss that debt. No. So yeah. Yeah. I'm not I'm not dismissing it offhand to say that
056we shouldn't be doing it, but I I just want, you know, it'd be nice if to not do it. It'd be nice if the state could talk to the federal government, say, "Hey, we have this data. Would you like it?" I get it. Or put it in the same format so you could just pass it up to go in somebody else's waste basket. Exactly. And so, yes, we won't have a Department of Education. There's nobody to report. Nobody's going to be looking at it, but it's in there. So, I'm angry tonight. Okay. Next up for healthy food certification approval. We are required and this is going to go by the wayside too because there's no Why are we required? Is there funding attached to this? No. Yes, there is. Yes or no? Yeah. Yes. So,
057well, currently until June 30th, there is. So, we do have to at least read this interrupt. So, there's But this is for July 125 to June 3026. So, I've not received any information that anything has changed for our meal service program yet. And I use the word yet. Yes. Yeah, the local the local food funding program has been dis discontinued. But this says that this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources. Right? So this would be like if we offer something in the culinary program, if we offer if there's a bake sale like anything like that, that's what this covers. So we're not allowed to have like the bake sale. Culinary can't serve competitive foods to students during the day. Uh
058that's why we don't serve student meals out of culinary at all. So what does this fall in? What what this is the include all food offered for sale separately from reimburseable meals. So in other words, we have to make sure that we're following the Connecticut nutrition standards if we did. Okay. So this is a statement. No, I get it. I'm just wondering what it is and why we're approving it. We're because our overlords say we must. Well, for under this is why Tom and I abstain from this vote every year. Yeah. Under what reason? Like if we're not if it's not tied to funding and we're going to put an exemption and the the kicker is the second part of this which is the exemption to it, right? We're going to vote to implement the
059health defoon certification and then we're going to vote for an exemption to it. So it it's the epitome of irony in my opinion. Didn't Belinda say that there is funding tied to this? She just doesn't know if we're if it's going to happen next year as it has in years past. It is in your um uh school wellness policy. Um so that you prove this annually, but it is written in your school wellness policy. Yeah. No, it's in there. Yeah. You can't do this in the day, but at night at the games you can offer potato chips like in other words, you're not supposed to sell potato chips or candy during the school day. Um, you have to wait until 30 minutes after school has dismissed. So, it really is for any kind of like
060athletic parent group that sells things at night. That's why you can sell c That's why you can sell candy during a basketball game because it's beyond 30 minutes or the Annie production or the Annie production. The alumni sold out on the weekend. Um but it gives us that exemption or leeway, but you can't do it within the school day. I remember Tom being on a rant a few years ago about that. Quite the rant. Yes, if I remember correctly. There were there were times when we could have bake sales, we could sell lollipops. We could do all these crazy things during the school day. Um it's not it's not allowed. Um so well we could if we do the exemption part, right? Not during the school day after states can have a a principal can
061submit a waiver um a few times a year. They don't usually do more than two or three um but say they want to have cookies with Santa, they'll submit a waiver and we'll allow for that. But on a regular basis they cannot. So we just rubber stamp this every cover our butts. But I don't think we've ever been called on it. Nobody's ever and we and we kind of follow the rule. We're follow you know when you when the mothers brought in cupcakes for somebody's birthday. You can't do that anymore. No cookies and no cupcakes for somebody's birthday. Twinkies for you. We do a blanket waiver before the holiday break because I can't control. I'll just put that. Remember there was a piece of All right. Are you satisfied with the answer, Justin? I don't
062sure, but you have to read this into the satisfied with the answer. You're not getting emotion out of me to the minutes. Read it out loud. Oh, come required vote. Okay. First one to CGS section 10-215F. The Thompson Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and 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, 2025 through June 30, 2026. 6. Their certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school
063or non-school organizations. and groups. I second that. Okay. Thank you. Any discussion on this? All right. All in favor of adopting this say I. I. I. I mean, you know, doesn't Yes. Yes. I'm abstaining. I'm opposing. Come on. Nope. Bill said yes. I said yes. Yes. Yes. Abstain. And no. And no. And where's Tom? There's no partisan. Okay. Yes. Okay. A motion uh to board the board Thompson Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards 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 sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food items are not sold from a
064vending machine or school store. An event parenthesis is an an extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic 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 sales. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Okay. Any discussion on this one? Does everybody understand this? I will now take a vote. Bill, yes. Heather. Yes. Yes. Yes. Abstain. No. Okay. Same as the Okay. Next. I don't understand what I was trying to. Okay. Alumni and personnel exemply service recognition and award recipients. And I forgot to bring my pretty little print out.
065That was pretty. This is very nice. Danielle, very good job. Okay, before our next board of our June board of ed meeting, we are going to recognize the following recipients of our 2025 Alumni and Personnel Exemplary Service Recognition Award. And this year it's going to Barbara Lenuski Lesnuski. Okay. And Merril S. And that is going to be in the auditorium. In the auditorium. We usually do it there so we can near the for Okay. Okay. So please be present for that. I thought you going to do that. Please. I thought you were going to do that. We decided these were pending from last year, so we're going to bump that up to next year. All right. Okay. Um the next item on the agenda is the creation church request for Easter services security. So, um
066I'd like to address that. Ordinarily, I would make a decision on my own. Uh but Greg and I talked about this and because the board has a policy about our security being unarmed. Um and um this is the first request that's come in from an outside group. I just wanted to make sure that I am delivering the right message to organizations that rent our space that we are going to be consistent with the board of eds policy. But I wanted to put it out there for discussion and make sure I'm doing what the board would like me to do. Please verbally enlighten. Please, please verbally enlighten. What What is What is it that we're discussing? So So the um uh Creation Church um has their Easter service here every year. Um a couple of years
067ago, the board approved them having a religious service here, and they've been great partners. They're wonderful people and they uh are very respectful of our space, but part of their safety and security measures because of the uh shootings that have happened across the country in church gatherings. They also have a safety plan. Part of their safety plan is to have armed concealed weap uh armed individual security with concealed weapons. And so they asked permission uh to have that during the Easter service. My initial reaction was that doesn't follow the policy that we have. We don't have liability insurance to cover that. Um and then I spoke to Greg and we had a conversation back and forth and we felt we needed to be committed to the policy that we're currently using for school children. Um,
068and so before I deliver that message and I'll deliver it to any organization, I just want to make sure I'm delivering this the the thoughts and will of the board. Greg, I don't know if you have anything else to say to that will approach me on the first thing I thought was liability insurance. I mean, you guys have a standing policy that states no uh firearms on school districts unless you're an active or offduty state trooper or police officer. I mean, they're they're allowed to carry 247. Um, but not being an armed security team up here violates your policy, but the biggest thing is the liability insurance, you know. So, so I just wanted to make Yeah. So, I just wanted to make sure I'm I'm delivering the correct message. Okay. And they're good staff.
069I read through their policy and they got some decent individuals there. Not quite sure if they're retired police officers or not because that didn't indicate that on there to me. If they were, I'm sure they probably should have put that there. You know, could have shed a little bit of light on on their argumentative side, but they didn't. So, yes, ma'am. Uh it's irrelevant what their qualifications are. If they want to if they want to ask the state police to show up, uh fine. If we don't feel that we're needing them during school hours, then I don't see why religious organization should need check. Okay, we need a motion on the floor before we discuss. Okay, I'll make the motion to open this request for Easter services security for discussion. I'll second that. Okay, thank
070you, ma'am. Um, yeah, you can continue. I I just I I stand with Melinda and Ray that it's just irrelevant what their qualifications are. If our policy is that there's no firearms unless you're an active duty police officer that I just don't see how that is and I agree with you. That is their option to have a troop. We we can have state troopers come to our events if we need them. Y so can they. Right. Um they have been great um great partners partners uh on Easter Sunday. They need the space uh and that is an option that you could give them. I will and I appreciate you bringing it to the board uh and asking our opinions rather than um I really appreciate that. Um any for anybody else? Yeah. So I I
071hate creating soft targets and just this discussion of it creates a soft target. Um but I think if they do need if they do feel that they need armed security, they should be asking for law enforcement officers as the policy that it currently states. Agreed. I disagree with soft targets in general, but in this case, we have a policy against it. So hold that. It's hard to see you, Bill, but do you have any input on this? Oh, well, I I did I'm I'm just going to agree with everything that was said. I disagree with Greg that the biggest thing is insurance. The biggest thing is we have a policy with no weapons on the campus and that's that's the end of the story and if there's a credible threat, they should have state police
072or cancel it. Okay. All right. So, there's been a motion. There's been a second. Any further discussion? And I will take a vote. All in all, not in favor, I guess, or just upholding the policy that upholding the policy here of um we're not against them using the auditorium what we are against them having armed. Stick to the policy. Yeah, that's it. our policy. Say I I Okay. And we will allow Melinda to go back to them and suggest that they have a state first um armed state police law enforcement. Yes. Okay. Uh anybody have any old business to bring up at this point? We have I do I have one item that and I will get to it after the referendum uh or pri prior to we had discussed last year that we want
073to get the superintendent's evaluation out prior to the end of the school year so that she can create her goals and and we're going to do a board evaluation ation and November I is an election year and some of us are leaving. Not me, but some of us are leaving. Uh I I don't know who is leaving. I know Danielle is not Danielle. Uhuh. I think it's just Danielle and maybe Tom. Bill's up for reelection. Tom's up for reelection. I know Danielle is not going to I said but I don't know about Thomas Bill but there are three of us up for reelection. Um so I would like to get that out of the way because we said that we are going to base Melinda's goals on our goals. So we need to do that.
074Hopefully we can do that. I know June no there is no good time. Um, so I'm thinking if we do ours in July, she can do hers in August. And um, just to let you know that that's coming. I'll send that out. Jess has been really great in helping us do a fillable form. Um, gotta go find it, but I have it in my drive in my folder. Good. Because I don't know if I have I have it. and I'll get that out, but let's get through the budget and I'll get that out to all of you. Let's fill that in. I know we did a test drive. Um, some of us, not all of us, but some of us did a test drive. Well, this time all of us have to do a test
075drive. And for those of you who are not going to join us again for next year, uh, put down for the new people who are coming on and for the old those of us who are staying, put down what we could do better, what you didn't, I mean, a lot of you, if you're not coming back, maybe uh, or longtime people, um, put down what really, you know, we could do better. That's the whole point of the self-evaluation. What can we do better? And um anyway, so let I'll let you know that that's coming and then in August before the new year starts, we need to have um the superintendent's goals. Okay. So, new business you have before you and do not mention names here, please. Um the nonrenewals as suggested by superintendent andor layoffs.
076Motion to approve the non-renewals/layoffs list from 2025 2026 as presented by the superintendent. Second. Okay. Any discussion on this without mentioning any names? No discussion. I'll put the motion to the floor. Motion to accept the nonrenewal list layoff list as presented by Superintendent Smith. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition say no. extension. Motion passes. Any correspondence? Not like official correspondence, but um Frank McGary had emailed me today and said that he and Eileen had a voter drive um for new registr registra um seniors um and they got 13 students um to register to vote. Um they thought it was a good turnout. Um, several had already been registered. So, those are the only ones that were age eligible to be able to register for the upcoming budget election. That's good news. Get
077out the vote. Yes. As a piggyback, is there the time from what this Thursday is when the town meeting is? Yes. To when the uh 24th vote will be the 24th of this month. Will there be time to do an absentee ballot? Yes, you can get absentee ballots the day after the town meeting. So, come Friday, Friday, um you can go to the town clerks office and pick up an absentee. I think registration is up until three days before. Yeah, it's a couple of days before. Um it's day of if it's a like an election or a presidential election, but for a referendum vote now, it's a couple days. I think it's three days. Okay. Any citizens comments? Any citizens comments from Zoom? Motion to second. Second. Any adjournment?