001e e e um March 12th meeting of the Bethany Board of Education ORD we start with plge of Allegiance United States Nation indivisible liy and justice for all thank you all for coming and we're going to start off with a student recognition so miss bird you're on sure so good evening everyone um As We Gather tonight and before I present our scasa awardees I want to take a moment to recognize that March is Board of Education appreciation month this is a special time to pause and express our gratitude to the nine dedicated members of our board education your service is more than attending meetings and making decisions it's about the countless hours you invest through committee work thoughtful discussions and the sacrifices you make to ensure our district arise but beyond that it's your presence
002at school events performances and celebrations that now speaks volumes when our students and staff see you reading in classrooms or in the crowd at concerts and events they see leaders who genuinely care that visibility sends a powerful message of support encouragement and unity on behalf of our entire School District thank you for your unwavering commitment your leadership and your heart for our schools your efforts shape not only policies but the very experiences that enrich the lives of our students and our staff and we are better because of your service thank you now speaking of our students it gives me great pleasure now speaking of our students it gives G me great pleasure to present the regional superintendence award to two very deserving young students the scasta presentation is for the South Central Area superintendent Association
003on April 25th I'm going to have the privilege of escorting two of our very fine sixth grade students to a luncheon Sylvia bartel's and Juliana jwes sill are being honored for their community service academic prowess and leadership in the school Community I could have the girls come stand on this side or next to Jules wherever you're most comfortable so Sylvia Bartels and considering the criteria of the scasa award syvia Sylvia Bartell's name came quickly to mind Sylvia is a dedicated compassionate student and Carries herself with a seasoned maturity that is rare for her age Sylvia serves on the school's Leadership Council she participates in numerous service projects and assists at various school events her leadership is present each day in the class room and she's often eager to lend a helping hand to students and
004staff alike she also serves as a role model in the way that she approaches all of her facets of Education Sylvia is a very focused student taking the time to ensure that each assignment is always representative of her very best work beyond the classroom Sylvia has been a participant in Unified sports since second grade serving as a peer mentor in helping students build their skills and work on teamwork outside of school she's also dedicating her time to work with her Church community BCS is extremely proud of all of Sylvia's amazing efforts and accomplishments and she is welld deserving of this award picture thank you Sylvia next we have Juliana juwes SOS I don't know if anyone knows that Juliana is her real name but Jules is a hardworking studious and kind student it's rare to
005come across Jewels without a book in her hand and a smile on her face and she's always eager to share new worlds that she's discovered through her reading Jules is committed to her academic success and often seeks out feedback on ways to improve her understanding and do better in all of her work during her free time Jules is an active participant in Girl Scouts you might have seen her yesterday on the news at the day at the Capitol pretending to be Richard Blumenthal as she waved to the camera proud moment for us uh in addition to Girl Scouts she's on the school's Green Team and she loves building her strength through gymnastics additionally Jules is a member of the school's Leadership Council helping to lead the school's kindness campaign and teach others to be an
006upstander Jules has also served as an anchor on the BNN broadcast and Bethany Community School is proud of Jules and privileged to have such well-rounded and deserving student honored by this award juul s together so nice thank [Applause] you little brother can't that's my twin all right do we have a PTR report I'll be giving it oh I got it for an email will be giving the PTR report yep we don't have a representative here tonight so good evening spring is a busy time and the PTO has many exciting events and opportunities coming up on Friday March 21st we will hold our annual Bingo night at BCS the night will start in the cafe with a pizza party at 5:30 and then move on to bingo in the gym Pizza is purchased separately from the
007Bingo tickets but all can be found on PT board yearbooks are now on sale the deadline to order is March 31st please do not order one for your sixth graders they will be gifted a copy from the PTO Spring Fling our Spring Fling coordinator Amber Durkin is busy planning the best Spring Fling ever she has a lot of new activities she would like to include for example a NASCAR style race car track make your own s'more station and wiped out to keep the cost to families down there will be a butter braid sale beginning this Wednesday and running through March 31st you may also donate a butter braid to the Jewish Family Services for the greater New Haven area Amber is looking for businesses to sponsor Spring Fling at each level of sponsorship the business
008will receive a certain number of free tickets and placement on our flyer we will be bringing back the fun run again fun raising is scheduled to run April 1st to April 9th and the run will be on April 10th we hope to hold the run outside this year allowing families to attend if weather permits the money raised from the run will go to offsetting the cost for sprinkling and all the amazing new additions we hope to have the March PTO meeting will be March 19th at 6:30 in the in the learning Commons we hope to see you there bring any questions you have about all we have going on that's it thank you D any [Music] comments okay public comment Board of Education welcomes public comment individuals or groups address the word concerning their subject
009was within the board's jurisdiction three minutes will be allocated to each speaker and a maximum of 15 minutes to each subject matter speaker is requested to State their name and address you can submit a public comment online to be read at the next available opportunity how many people online three I don't say do we have any public comment I guess not all right it's going to be an interesting meeting committee reports we'll start with curriculum oh excuse me approval of minutes has anybody had time to peruse them and does anybody have errors omissions additions subtractions do we have a motion I'll make a motion Amy and Sean second any ER any discussion all in favor I Iain all right now we'll go on curriculum Angelo's not here but K sure so um I think we
010can probably defer the curriculum report because everything that Mr would be reporting is going to be in sh's report excellent we defer facilities uh we met last night briefly but we figured that there was nothing of any great shakes Kevin has not gotten um any uh or all the bids he's got one bid uh into to the uh septic repair work and uh he's waiting for more so there's really nothing much else to do the uh we did I did a topographical survey turned it over to um to The Architects for the ramps so they're working on that he claims he has enough information so they're all set uh so we're waiting on that and there's really not much else uh that's cooking right now on facilities so what happened with this is about the
011did the backed up drains yes yeah okay you found the problem yes and the problem was the the problem is is we have a deteriorating 6-in cast iron pipe that feeds from the septic pump in from the septic tank into the pump chamber it was down to about this so we're looking at our options to whether number one line it number two dig it up and replace it or option number three move the pump chamber outside of the building really where it should be and then we don't even have to dig or deal with anything in the floor of the building so we're waiting on quotes for all three aspects of doing that okay so I I know he has one quote for sure I think he told me he has a second one when
012I talked to him the other day we were just waiting for third quote and they were looking at all the options the is original to the building and it was about this big cast IR cast iron deteriorates over time what happens is it it starts to rust and it shrinks and once you rush and shrink it I've had the experience it's you you you know where we're going with this and the problem being is it's about 31 ft inside the building so my feeling is put it outside put it outside where where it's appropriate yes and and we'll fix the whole problem once and be done with it so setic like that inside the building no the pump chamber should not be inside the building and and it's old and it doesn't appear when we
013were looking in it and to be in the best of repair so we may have to just bite the bullet once and fix it right sounds like so the pump chamber is as old as the cast iron it's as old as the building it's original okay sounds like it needs to be replaced okay to so so yes there was a lot of math on to figure actually what we needed to go up there and it's 9 ft down so there's there's a little it's it's easier to put a pump chamber outside yeah to deal with the whole thing okay well there'll be more to come on that anything else with facilities excellent Finance okay the finance committee met last night you'll see in your packet the operating budget summary as of February 2025 under general
014education you'll see that salaries is now showing a surplus of so more subs were needed the benefits line is now showing a surplus of $100,000 as we released some additional health insurance cushion but conservatively because new certified staff could potentially take the insurance again we should have a better idea of benefits projections in the next month or so Services is now showing a deficit of $2,867 as our new Xerox contract took effect in February and there was a price increase supplies and other are both status quo from last month under general education it ends the month of February with a surplus of $1,332 the middle of your sheet under special education you'll see that salaries is now showing a surplus of$ 131,072 we made some adjustments for certified staff and Par Educators plus similar to
015the general education we had to increase the projection for sub costs benefits is now showing a deficit of $22,000 due to an adjustment for health insurance services is now showing a deficit of $168,400 again to reflect the price increase for our contract with Xerox supplies and other remained status quo so you will see that under special education we end the month of February with a deficit of $5 58,216 under operations and overhead salaries remain status quo from last month benefits is now showing a surplus of $31,900 as some of the health insurance cushion was released Services is now showing a deficit of $573 again that's reflecting the Xerox contract price increase utilities is now showing a deficit of $20,000 to reflect electricity bills coming in higher than anticipated all other operations and overhead line item
016projections currently remain status quo from last month so under operations and overhead we end the month of February with a surplus of $742 so as of February 28th 2025 the overall budget is showing a surplus of $ 49,4 se2 this is largely due to savings found in salaries and benefits this number is still fluctuating quite a bit once we hit the end of April and all openings are filled things should start to level out and we'll be able to better to project where we will land at the the end of February we did receive our first excess cost payment of $435 19 which was already earmarked to offset the cost of our contracted nurse at the bottom of the sheet you'll see under our prek account that as of February 28th the balance in that
017account is $595 6298 and below that you'll see our 10 248a account as of February 28th the balance in that account was 424,000 $45.73 we did make our first payment of the school year from this account to Silver petracelli for $83 to pay for the contract documents and then there was an update on the audit the audit was officially completed on February 27th and we did well as new Auditors they just had some internal control recommendations for us for Student Activities and miscellaneous accounts to change asset and liability accounts to expense and revenue accounts in QuickBooks just changing the titles cuz it makes more sense for our sub accounts to use just one accounting system or reconcile monthly between QuickBooks and e finance spend down some of the grant funding which we already have plans
018to do for the next school year maintain a complete listing of outstanding voided cancel checks for the operating account and lastly utilizing a standardized form to document compliance with purchasing for both town and barded and U Mrs Berle report on the budget when she speaks in a little bit that's about it any uh comments [Music] questions all right will uh we have to accept that I'll make a motion to accept the uh Bethy board ification operating budget summary as of February 2025 I'll second oh sorry yeah that's fine and Joe can have it all in favor I I opposed extensions all right we'll uh head on to the approval of the superintendent's proposed 2526 spending plan so just so everyone is aware I know you heard it and seen it multiple times um when last
019Our Heroes met we were at an 8.8% increase we are now down to a 3.25% increase uh over last year's budget so the total budget being requested for the 2526 school year is 8,276 uh which is an increase of $258,500 over last year's budget or a 3.25% increase and the reason for all the Jerry mandering was the insurance and that's now under control so does anybody have any questions for K on the budget Sean K I know when you prepared that document for us on our staffing we had a bunch of positions at Red Grant funded where is that going to impact us and when if we decide to keep those the board decides to keep those positions sure if the board decides to keep those positions we would be impacted in the 26 27
020school year okay we're good for next year and then after that we lose that or is that a renewable Grant those are renewable grants so the IDE a um grants pay for some of the salaries those are renewable grants those aren't the like AR Esser grants or anything like that those are the grants we get every year they entitlement grants so we put in what it is we need it for and then the state gives us the money like the title grants and the special ed grants are entitlement grants for us okay so if if we decide to keep those positions are they needed or how does that kind of outlook look for they're par Educators our registered Behavior technician and a instructional Aid teachers offset some of those salaries with those dollars okay cuz
021I I know we talked at one point of doing it under contract so we didn't kind of own that y just an a format comment it would be helpful in the future maybe to see the grant somewhere itemized so we know what grants are exist at a reference point that's actually a bad idea yeah that's a good idea so that because are they are so the the grant funding is woven into the numbers yes okay so boost is that I thought that was Grant funded boost was a grant funded program but we put it into the budget this year um and we're hopeful that if the state releases another Grant to pay for it that'll be $60,000 that can come down off of this budget because the program would then be Grant funded this was
022the LA this current year is the last year of the funding for that program all right so maybe maybe not when will you know so things are a little in flux right now with regards to the Department of Education and the State Department of Education and funding well I don't know where it's coming from if it's coming from the state it comes from the state currently those grants come from the state but again you know dollars kind of funnel through but it's a state Grant it's not one of our federal grants okay we have one Federal grant it's our reap Grant where anywhere between 26 and $32,000 we apply for it each year um it's the rural Ed education um something program went right out of my head what it was um but that's a
023grant for professional learning for teachers so it offsets a lot of the things that are in Cheryl's curriculum budget okay and just to I said this before but it I think it's you know there's still uh you know big jumps where you you're doing the backup server storage and HP switches and you're doing a replacement storage server in the future I I still still think it's a good idea to have you know nonroutine repairs or or Replacements in a separate line so that we can see a a pattern of routine expenses because otherwise it gets choppy I will discuss that with the business manager well I mean that that runs in I mean that runs into my second part of my question that's $200,000 we're doing servers every year no we're not doing servers every
024year that's what I'm just trying to not every year around this is this is a very unique year with things all things facilities and Technology because our system went down completely at the beginning of the year so well why but you say that but 2023 we have 426 2024 you have 31250 then you have 53720 then 91,000 in your con and replacement server there's different pieces of it so that's why I'm asking yeah there's different components we just use that as a generic name for it but if you want more specifics as like it's this many switches it's this many routers it's we can get that detail for you well I mean it just seems like a lot of money there's got to be a better Avenue every year I I don't know I'm asking
025I just I I'll be perfectly honest with you I just finished that's why I said it's been a fun week for me we just finished replacing some stuff M that this is not unreasonable and I know Matt's been chasing this since September when they went down and crashed and we still have we're still working on trying to get the owl to to mesh with our other program so there's a lot involved in that you're talking to a guy who can't get zoomed to work right so I I have you can the work I did um I was in speaking with Mr Brer yesterday asked the same of him the same way we've asked of Mr Fallon for a 5-year technology plan that outlays all of those costs and the plans for what's going to be
026what and what the cost could potentially be CU I mean I would be actually curious to know what we're spending in our whole it Department because you have it all over the place I'd like to see that cond now I want to know what we're spending in well I think I think the way it's broken down here is actually um you got three line I think it's the way it it it should be because it is we can add it it's very simple to to figure out how much we spend on it but you have to you have to um allocate so much in it funds to special education you have to allocate I don't know John that's why I'm I'm asking I'm I'm a numbers person I like to see we put that add
027three numbers I was spending $500,000 a year in if you want chunked out by Department we can do that but to um John Paul's um point it's it's it's broken down split up around each think it's actually over that if you add it up not really it's 10190 one so you're looking just around 300,000 you got 101 yeah yeah 91 yeah I I was just curious so it's it's pretty substantial yeah but think of what we do with an ID Department you know think and and the fact is the new servers are in there and that was a sizeable a chunk of change uh and they're still not up and running we have um I mean there's four over 400 students and each one has a lot of students this well I think what what
028brought it up is I might have attended a meeting today about a server room and a building renovation and this whole thing and they're canning it all and they're going cloudbased because it's $125,000 operate their system it's $36,000 to go cloud-based so it's kind of curious when I started when I and I looked I started that was that was I I don't know John I just it was just it was just interesting when I had this meeting and it started making my wheels spit no that's actually a part of the conf we've had with mat or what are some of the things that we can now move away from as technology continues to change Is it wise to go fully cloud like when we did all of our scanning of old documents into the server
029we lost every single document when those servers went down yep wow so all the all the time and the Manpower of taking things from paper and putting it into the server because the servers were old and then they crashed completely crashed at the beginning of the year we lost all of that and you didn't have a backup the backup went down as well so kind everything my question now kind of after I had this meeting and we're going from this room to this room to Mini Splits everywhere to cool this room to a closet those things are all consideration for that 5year plan okay but it also right it has to be in compliance but you know there there are some State statutes around what can be what what can be housed where so that
030that can be part of that 5-year plan to make sure that we're that we're doing it in the most cost effective way but we're also not out of compliance yes cuz I Love A good rule yeah there's there's a record keeping component to that and the other thing you want to remember is cloudbase is great until some 22y old Russian decides to shut the thing down you know that's why you know a lot of companies go cloud-based but a lot of companies also have redundant servers um well John I I'll I'll go to your point in this discussion we had where doing all this remote and then I'm told that I have to have every computer have its own hardwire thing to the server that we're getting rid of yes it's there redundancy redundancy in
031today's society is not a bad thing and and as Shannon pointed out we're required by law to keep certain records was it 18 years for for some of them some and it's paper copies you know some of the stuff his 18 years in his paper copies o I hope that room was sprinkled any so you know it's it's there's a lot of moving parts to this yeah no it was just it was just something after had meeting and I went back and I looked at our budget after I got through with this meeting I'm like H I'm might ask a question tonight but you know and it's a valid question and and to your point and to somebody else's point you know we're providing an IT department for 400 uh 435 students and 116 staff
032so and and we have a full-time we're fortunate to have a full-time competent it guy and I and I use that word because there's a lot of it people out there who you know they can't get their Zoom to work either what's that they can't get their Zoom to work either you're not going to let that go are you no nope next time we'll have to make a we'll have to figure out something we're going to meet in person next time yes we will yes I will drive here maybe we meet in person don't feel bad Sean it took two people to get my phone working the other day so don't worry about it all right enough for can we answer your question I think it's a great idea shu to to break that out
033to to break the grants out I really think that the it belongs the way we have it because it's allocated by Department well you need non and routine too because if you're doing equipment you know it distorts the number and makes the budget go up and down believe it or not this this this this spreadsheet has been evolving since I've been a member of the board well you know I'm the one who got the colors because I I that's the way I read spreadsheets is you know red is deficit and green is good you know but I mean you got to remember something too there their budget here is dictated by state law to where it can look so you start adding in cap proven projects you know 90,000 here or whatever you've gained money
034within your budget when that project is complete yeah so that's my other fear is we're adding in too much fluff into the budget in these we've been actually areas it's actually been pretty good we I'm saying I'm very mindful of that Sean if you look at how much we're we're only $50,000 different from the budget you know to date and there have been number of years when that number's been 3 four 350 3 4 so it says to me that we've refined the budget enough that we now have a pretty accurate budget you know a quarter of a percent is I'm good with the budget John I'm just saying I'm just very mindful of that because you can very easiely build money into a budget when you want to do a project you're right because
035you go up you can't come down correct well you can but it's a process that mean k had this discussion you can come down you can to justify the reasons for the significant decrease in your budget so for example in a lot of districts when they have a very high budget um and it drops very quickly they will look at you and say well you know maintenance of effort like are you doing your best to make sure that you have everything you need for Stu for your students but a lot of times it could be that you have a lot of high cost students in your District so if you have a significant swing in your special education population for example that can either drive up the cost of your budget or as those students
036trans transition out of your District can significantly reduce your budget and that's okay so you just have to be able to provide your documentation and explain to the state why there's a change but you're 100% correct too much fluff and it impacts your budget adversely I'll point out in the in the four-year period that we're looking at we've gone up a million bucks we went from 7.2 to 8.2 so that's significant just point that out yeah that's but on the flip side you got to remember something we've been running $250,000 surpluses yeah some years we ran over 300 when these the the variances on the finance report are based off of this forecast I'm not quite sure who's Conjuring up the forecast now but I'm sure it's you know with knowledge of things that are
037coming or not coming and so on and so forth so you know the the forecast were under budget but you know we're still going up 3.25% but I I I also I agree with your point but I also think we need to be very wise or our budget because if Cheryl has a student come in here that needs out of District placement which I've seen when I first came on the board it was catastrophic to our budget yeah it was like everybody was standing there going whoa I I I've seen it happen and and I'm also mindful of that area of our budget too yeah the numbers were huge M and everybody sat and went okay now what do we do yeah our our our placement is a our district placement is a uh real
038thing it's a budget buer it's essentially a budget Buster if you're I I want to make sure that our kids get what they need yes and our teachers have what they need and our building is in good shape yeah I said you've got a budget that's 24 24% usually we running at this time of the year we're running $2 $300,000 Surplus so we've got a budget that's tight that does what it's supposed to do and at the same time it uh doesn't contain an awful lot of fluff and it protects the interest of the town the students teachers and the taxpayers you know we serve three Masters but I'm also familiar like she said that's a million dollar that's that's a Mill and a quarter in this town that's that's a real number I don't
039have any more money to spend well it's better than 8% it's all okay I vote Yes change so this special ed money that's they're all arguing about up at Harford I'm not quite sure if it passed or not got V toen and regurgitated oh the 40 M 4 we're not getting it passed it did did it's not enough for the whole state but something we're not getting a in theory we might get about $112,000 okay just curious the language the language of the um document calls it emergency special education grants for districts we're not sure what that will look like in terms of are we going to have to apply for that um and if we do apply for that is there going to be some sort of priority given to the larger districts versus
040our district um we would like to think that they're going to use it to truly offset and get closer to fully funding excess cost um if they do that then we should get the $122,000 if there's anything kind of going on behind the scenes or anything in the like buried in the paperwork we don't know if we'll get that money but it was about $122,000 okay okay small five got 7 million each I to new business they got more than us well don't we have to adopt the budget what that we got we got vote okay after after a number of complaints we now have to um take a vote on the superintendent's budget what's the uh what's the language move at the Board of Education adop I've got I'm just slow move that the
041Board of Education adopt the superintendent's recommended spending plan for the 2025 2026 school year in the amount of 8,276 and0 any more discussion a vote uh make a motion Sean do I have a second Shannon any further discussion all in favor I I no opposed no exstension so [Music] America you reli okay that's one you feel better now one more headache off I feel I feel good that it's passed but you know I'm worried about the next step like what's coming down the pike in your last conversations with the finance department at the town have they set a date yet for the meeting for the discussion of the Town budget as a whole they did not provide me with any of that information um um when I last communicated with last day I just had
042double checked last week just to make sure there wasn't anything from a town side that they wanted additional information on I think they were pleased that it went from the 357 to the 88 down to the 32 um they haven't asked for anything they haven't given any additional feedback about it and so I don't know what the the date is yet but I can find out I can ask her and then I can put it in the in the update she has the date thank you okay now we got policy new business you want to go through the policies sure so we have uh one recommended retirement five recommended revisions and five policies with no changes suggested uh the recommended retirement policy is 31 71.1 and uh last month a mandated shipment policy number 3100
043was approved and has duplicating language and uh also advice from the auditor has indicated that definitions now allow the 10 248a account to be used for Capital and non-recurring expenses so policy 31 71.1 is no longer needed so we're recommending it for retirement uh the revisions we have uh policy 1250 visitors and observations it's a shipment mandated policy that has a regulation but the policy did not authorize the regulation so I added the link uh policy 1312 uh involves public complaints uh it's marked as a cave recommended policy but most of it is a DCS creation uh so the source was updated to reflect that and the language in the section on challenged material was updated to be less determinative and clarify process instead there's there's a lot of chatter in Hartford about this so
044it'll probably be back on our plate no time at all but for the moment uh modified languages to clarify process as opposed to uh determine what is and is not uh policy 1316 is uh conduct on school property it's a recommended K policy uh one line is being deleted as it it seemed a bit heavy-handed and not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the policy um in so far as your know Authority goes so to clarify Authority I I took some language out of policy 1250 which I just noted earlier uh which is a shipment policy so I took some language out of there put it in this one and gave it a legal reference so that there's not any question on on how things should be handled uh policy 1321 public
045performances by students it's a cave recommended policy with a language added by BCS uh there's some furpa language in there that I believe BCS put in so I just added a legal reference to support the uh the BCS language with for Vera uh policy 1330 use of school facilities is a shipment mandated policy y it was updated to add Vape products and corrected typo and legal reference uh the other five policies 1220 13 11.1 13 21.2 1324 there were no changes [Applause] [Music] recommended to V to accept for first read we have to do I have a motion to accept these from first reading I'll make a motion I'll second and any second any discussion all in favor oppos any extensions okay thanks care of that administrative reports superintendent report yes so in your packet
046you have the enrollment summaries that go over the last several years uh we're holding steady at 43 35 students um they do seem to keep wanting to move in we had two tours this week and I received uh three emails about residency requests for coming to school so that could potentially be another five students um I do know that at least one of those families is kind of shopping the area so I don't know that they'll land here or Woodbridge or somewhere else but um we're still a very attractive School District but we're not advertising we're just finding us so they don't live here yet but they're coming to they don't live here yet but they're kind of coming in checking out the community they want to see the school in case they decide to
047move here um do you know what grades those students are I don't I'm just curious that's that's like a real thing it's a real thing yeah I was going to say you're like a realtor well I know one but I'm not one but I know a guy she's showing the school you got to give her some pointers I know I know a guy um Personnel update Nicole cat I had mentioned last month um she is our new part-time uh social worker she's in the role that was vacated by Kayla Grant when she left uh cbh Lao Le Point not Grant I'm Grant is the par um Kayla Le Point left cbh so they refill they filled that position with Nikki cat she's been doing a great job TAA py will begin her position as a
048par educator next week uh filling one of our vacancies there and then I'll be meeting with the PE finalists uh later this week to hopefully hire a PE teacher and they were in the this uh demonstration lesson phase of the Spanish teacher process so things are moving forward in that regard um budget update uh the board has accepted the superintendent spending proposal for their budget for 2526 um but also under budget just wanted to share because I know there's been some question with regards to BCS kids and budgets and all of those kinds of things I know I've shared it with you all but I wanted to say it publicly that there isn't a plan moving forward for us maintaining the before school program at B yes because it's not fiscally uh feasible to do
049so the sole reason that we implemented the program was to address that emergency need of child care once Park and wreck uh closed at the beginning of the school year um while we've made every effort to sustain the program we're actually offsetting the salary uh cost for the staff that are working the program through a grant that we were able to receive we will not be getting that Grant next year um and so it's not feasible and it's definitely not in the budget to pay those uh costs for program next year so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear and on record uh for the public to hear is that we will not be running a program next year just to give you a heads up the cost to run the program
050is around 55 to 60,000 the income from that program is around 12 so we got lucky this year but that's why one of the reasons why you know it's it's not sustainable at that uh at that ratio where did the grant money come from it was at after school grant that Cheryl was able to write that they allowed us we had the grant but they allowed us to flex it to be able to use it for the morning program okay so we got lucky because otherwise the costs for families would have been astronomical compared to what they were planning to pay at the beginning of the year because we're contractually bound to pay the staff at their salary um their hourly rates when they're serving in that capacity and that's higher than the average so
051we've already got lucky it worked out yeah we were very fortunate this year we're happy that we were able to do it but it's just not sustainable and I wanted I wanted that brought out I know Kay and I talked about it we've talked about it in the past but I wanted to en Hammer home one more time because come July or August you know if it is the fan there's there's nothing here I mean then then there's some hard decisions are going to have to get made but they can't get made at this level so as long as everybody understands that and that's why I said it's it was a oneof we got lucky but the the run the program is about 55 or 60 the income from the program is about 12 it's
052not sustainable at our level and I just want to make sure as a board I felt that we had a I I had to bring that to the board's attention one more time just to be safe so if anybody's got anything they want to talk about now's the time to talk about good okay well you know I know Park and wreck is is trying but there seems to be obstacles what would y to say no try do it's we can't do the reality is it's not our job correct correct our job is is to teach the kids to read right inste success we were able we got lucky this year through a lot of hard work on the part of of K and Cheryl and Tom and everybody else we got lucky yeah that ain't
053going to happen again well that message has been driven home to those who need to know over in the other building right K's been a discussion with the with the town but I wanted to make sure that the board was aware of this because come June or July when some parents call up and they start badgering the board you can know what to tell them is that something that you're going to put in the in a bulletin or your newsletter that the families or we we're going to notify the families that are currently in the program that the program W be continuing but I don't think that's something that has to go into but I I I was more concerned with making sure the board understood what was going on why it was going on
054yeah no I was just saying that you know families there's an awful lot of ahead planning yeah and K will take care of yeah no that's good K will take care of wanted to come here make sure that it was the statement was made and now perfect we'll communicate to the families and if they need to do the after school thing our only involvement is the buses is that correct So currently the um our only involvement is making sure that the students who are signed up for the JCC program actually get on the bus that they send so we don't have any other involvement with after school just making sure the kids get to the bus at the end of the day that never took off and those buses are paid for through the town
055I presume it's not it's not nothing from us nothing okay y through the town all right okay I didn't mean to interrupt it's okay that concludes my report unless there's any questions okay Cheryl you're on thank you um at the curriculum meeting I presented to the uh group about our talent and gifting program called Eureka so good conversation about that and also talking about professional development we had another round of coaching with literacy house and that was with grades four five and six they focused on data analysis and small group instruction and on March 14th this Friday par educators will be learning about discret Trial instruction it's a type of instruction that includes visuals and repetition for students who might need a different approach to learning they will also have some Wellness time available to
056them and teachers will have time to work on the curriculum data teams and time to collaborate with colleagues in addition to having some Wellness time available to them and in the world of curriculum uh we had the request from some families to give some more inform information about our um resources so on the website we have posted um to help families better understand the progression of standards as well as to explain the standards based report card and we're going to continue to keep adding resources over time it does take time to create those and update and as things change then we have to change what we have done so we're working on it and hopefully people've going to have a look at that um and it helps explain things better and kindergarten through grade three
057were observed by Sacred Heart University as a part of research study related to the grant that we received for the science of reading they observed selected teachers and looked for to get the teachers feedback on the science of reading and The Observers had such positive feedback about our teachers so it was really good experience any more questions for Cheryl well I I guess I have something I guess this goes to Cheryl and Tom um I had a great discussion with a parent and Kudos of you guys I guess they most recently had their child evaluated they said you guys were phenomenal they said your staff was great you guys were highly responsive they said it was a tremendously well put together and positive experience So Co is you guys there the team is outstanding it
058is really have incredible teachers we do team everyone I was waiting to get yelled out and it did not go that way they they said it was they they greatly appreciated the experience I don't know what the outcome was it's none of my concern but the overall experience was excellent that's our ultimate goal is transparency collaboration and working together to help the students I'm glad that they had that reaction yeah they said it was really nice and they came from another district and they said it was not the same experience you want to say something I was just going to bounce off with something Cheryl said so um I was up at the capital today for cab on the hill and one of the bills that cab is is opposing has to do with the
059require the mandates for the require ments of curriculum being posted because it's such a vague topic they're afraid that if they push that through it's people are going to push to be like they want absolutely everything posted and that's just an unattainable type of a situation with the amount of things that are done that are are virtual learning or just Hands-On learning you know versus what's paper so they're trying to push for that to either be more detailed and refined or just not to happen at all so just wanted to throw that out there because you said people had asked about that thank [Music] you thank you welcome was anything else of any interest or um there was the discussion about the $40 million that just went through on excess cost and how it's not
060enough there was discussion about a bill to do with um trying I guess there's a bill out there about teacher salary to make minimum like setting a minimum amount of money for teacher salary but a lot of people are opposed to the way it's worded because it only affects like the newcoming teachers like I don't want to say this in a derogatory but like you know the low man on the totem pole so what happens to everybody else that's already been in the system they don't have like a minimum requirement so some people are opposed against that so there was a a whole bunch a whole bunch of us walked chanting about funding schools fully which was kind of exciting um Amy made the video yeah so it was kind of cool so um I
061didn't I I will admit that if I go next year I'll be better prepared I kind of sat there Shand was supposed to come with me but work kept her at at a meeting and she couldn't make it and I was kind of like I don't have my counterpart and I didn't read some of the bills in detail so I just kind of sat there and it was like but it was a good experience so so I would definitely go again and probably read up a little bit more so thank you that it sounds like an interesting day yeah it was [Music] good all right Tom you're on uh Believe It or Not we've been busy um so uh just a lot of really good stuff it was it was fun we had our our
062staff meeting uh this morning and I always try and you know we we we've got two things we've been trying to do on one is just general Kudos shout out to peers um and then we try and do some uh emails of kindness out to families you know take a moment and be mindful to say like you know we reach out and stuff doesn't always go great but we want to reach out and it goes well um you know and usually there's one or two things that I can you know I can always put my things around to point out that staff have been doing really well and it's like over the last week it's been like something every single day um and in what has been just a bit of stressful week for me
063it's been this like bright spot of absolute Joy just spend time talking with kids and seeing them smiling and so like proud and confident um so really good stuff we had re Across America day uh on the 3 uh so we had our buddy classrooms reading there and then uh representative Z's office reached out um and so we had a guest reader for our Friday relow so for morning meeting we try and take one of the day plannings off of teachers plates and we do a Friday read loud so she was able to do uh she read Grace for president um as read aloud so that was really great um our third grade uh classes all did their biography projects we had some classes presenting in my room some classes doing a mixture of projects
064and videos uh there was a class down here as wax figures and they had their little buttons and they sit very quiet you press the button hi I'm Pablo Picasso I'm going it was just it was wonderful I it was great um it was really was really well done it was unbelievable uh uh second grade um did an amazing job at our community meeting they did this wonderful presentation um uh for Black History Month on uh black musical artists um and their contributions to multiple genres of music through uh through American history um and it was unbelievable kids were just like they were bold and coming up and to the mic and um and it was just wonderful I was sitting next to a fifth grade and she's sitting there popping she like this is
065really cool I know um our fourth graders did their biome projects uh last week which were unbelievable uh they each class took a particular biome and then the students researched different animals so you you had like a whole different theme in each classroom which was amazing uh Invention Convention uh which as I always point out I wish I had like independent wealth and I could be an angel investor I would just get 70% of all sales on All Children's ideas um but the beauty of it is like Invention Convention for forces kids to have like a $25 budget so that it's kid projects kid work kid ideas and it's everything from like my mittens get snow in them when I take them off and how do I keep them attached to my jacket or I'm
066trying to make cookies and they don't cool fast enough and I run out of rack space or uh I've got an eraser and it always breaks so how do I make a better eraser holder that works like a glue stick and just these amazing like wonderful kid ideas and seeing them put that to practice has been amazing um and just the joy of them like being so proud of their work and you know and being able to show it off uh drama club uh we are again a victim of our own success we have over 60 kids um and I am an absolute softy so uh when people are like can you open up registration for one more kid I'm like no yes good Aaron Stevens is probably going to kill me but I think
067we're good we've got everybody in um and Aaron who a BCS parent is running it this year she's amazing uh she's working really well she's got a really great plan she's starting with our olders then bringing in our younger students um we're really appreciative to the Hol Arts Foundation they've uh had a generous donation to us to help with that program and we're doing Moana Jr which is going to be really great um super excited about that uh BCS kids our enrollment is holding steady um we have one new request and I'm working with that family to work on how we can make that work for them uh and staff remains strong we're we're in a good spot with staff each day uh moving forward uh guess what we're going to continue to be busy
068um so we've got report cards going out next week we shared conference uh we shared conference links uh earlier this week um and then conferences will be the 26th and the 27th um let's see we also uh Cheryl and I have been working on the report card um handbook for families and really trying to make sure that when you're looking at those standards that are reported out on the problem with the report card is real estate you can't articulate every single word of every single standard your report card would be 30 pages long but we can go and we can say here in this document you can take a look and say all right so what standard for phological awareness in first grade is being reported on here it is and so we're really trying
069to make that more attainable uh for families and then I think we wait for feedback and see did we get it right did we not you know accountability without judgment how can we do better tomorrow uh mark 24th is National chip and dip day and we will be celebrating with this staff I just want you to do um we are also looking forward to a partnership with Connecticut Sun uh we're going to have some uh exciting news about that coming forward and an opportunity for our families and our staff um and it's going to coincide with a really great assembly uh members of the Connecticut Sun hopefully team uh and staff are going to be coming for uh for an assembly that's kind of tied to that as well so uh really excited there uh
070you heard a report out from the PTO very excited for um The Fun Run um Jen gck who's both an administrator in another District uh and a parent here at BCS came and just she's a vet of fun runs uh so she came and helped just keep the staff in the know on that um I not going to get pied in the face this year I refuse but there might be something exciting else so stay tuned um and then the last is we've got uh we've got another Parent Academy that's coming up around Internet safety and that's on March 25th so we're really excited with that we're partnering uh with a gentleman from the state police and so we're really excited about that um and he's going to be presenting other safety and then we're
071also thinking about potentially continuing that partnership with him uh for both uh teachers and then potentially if there's some things that he might be able to help us out further uh for students as well um Ron and and Laura so Ron deasio and Laura Stokes who work for our Design Lab uh they do a lot on um Common Sense Media Internet safety all of those things but you know I think especially considering the ubiquitous nature of it and the challenges that I think our children are going to face around Ai and everything and trying to discern that and fact from fiction from opinion to you name it to safety uh I think it's going to be essential for uh them to get as much help as they can you know the people who are right
072on the front edge and have the best information so we're really appreciative of that partnership um and then we're going to be keep it on keep it on uh any of the inventions uh jump out at you is whoa I well so so super fun we have we have two students uh who are going to the National Invention Convention from last year's invention the the door the window that opened CarX amazing so in their travels to the state one and then now going to the National they learned how to file a patent and so their current in yep that none of us were thinking about where the US patent office is and how to how to access it in fifth grade so they their current invention is a life vest that has um has Mobility
073built into it so it had a little propeller on the back right if you're on a life you're sitting out in the middle of the ocean you're just bobbing you're not sinking you're just bobbing how you get anywhere what if you're not a good swimmer so they put they thought well we'll make it so that it can have Mobility they patented that wow it has a GPS attached to it that takes you to land so if you're just floating out there in the middle of the ocean trying to figure out which way to go they got an actual GPS directs you to the nearest body of land and then you can that's crazy yeah the yeah there was a student so there was a student who had a who was devising um a way to
074be able to protect his chickens because if you have the chicken like right everybody likes to you chicken uh so um so he devised an idea to have an automatically opening gate that would then coincide with like getting them to attract to their food in their coup come in and then when they get in Close the Door Keep men safe um the cookie one was amazing and he had data to show that his cookies with his invention cooled twice as fast than just regular cookies see and the thing about that is not so much as the cookies cooling twice as fast but developing the data yeah that's the thing the research in the mind behind that and everything yeah see that's the thing you know but but that's the kind of stuff that the buding
075scientists there are it's really cool and it's and the beauty of it is it's always kid ideas like last year there were two boys who um who had a scooter and they were complaining because when they were like you know we want to do all these cool you know you see the cool tricks and whatever on on videos and then you try and do it and what ends up happening you get super hurt because you know you're watching people who've done this forever Andor the one take when they get it right and so they took their scooter and they put pool noodles on the sides so that when they tried to flip the the scooter around or do a trick and it hit them in The Shins it didn't bruise the heck out of their
076shins like just you know kid problems kid Solutions and I think you know and I think ultimately right all of that and and I said it this morning I'll say again I think all of it comes down to the guidance and the and the freedom to have that creative thought and the process that K walks them through you know I think that her you know her work there kind of shines through that the kids have that ability to kind of explore try revise because you ask them you go hey you know like what did you have to revise on this they'll tell you like three the kid who did the gloves it was magnetic gloves to your gloves to your to your um jacket I was like that's the first one sell that to Nike
077and just make 7% but she said she originally tried to put the magnets on a bracelet but then they the magnets would unstick from the bracelet because of the magnetism we would just pull them off so she sewed them into a jacket sleeve so they couldn't unstick so she sewed magnets into the glove and sewed magnets into the sleeve and great interesting yeah you God bless these kids that's the stuff we should be pushing yeah kids are great well I'm glad I worked out with that yeah was really good stuff can I ask a follow-up question sure because it is so important for Board of aded members to come to events when is the Connecticut Sun event so the wrote it down too asking for a asking for a yeah I mean you know ining
078Minds might want to know um so they're going to be here April 11th and then we're targeting for a partner ship with them on May 18th so they're going to come to our we have tickets for opening dat they're going to come to our house for April 11th uh we're going to have an opportunity to go to their house for May 18th you can just tell them now go ahead okay yeah we'll be watching so we partnered with Connecticut Sun uh to do a block of tickets uh for the community um and the tickets are going to be $40 to tiet we're going to have um we're going to have pretty good seats in the house uh and then it comes with a Fan Experience we we're doing a meet and greet with the so
079after have a chance to do a meet and with the players I'm very excited I'm going to totally get Dad points with my daughter um and then they're going to come and do kind of three half hour assemblies with the kids are going to have you know K2 3 four five six into the gym and they'll do some some you know passing shooting drills and things that way with the kids so that you know people want to go great but if you can't go for whatever reason you still you know can have a really awesome experience with with folks here in the school that's awesome so we're really excited um I hope this is okay I just wanted to piggy back on that basketball um I don't know if everybody knows that our fourth through
080sixth grade Bethany Hoops girls are in the championship of the orange recreational League this Saturday at 10:00 at Mary L Tracy so if people want to come um we have already had one fabulous uh Team Summit math teacher who has come twice to watch the kids um and the last time all of them said to me she's missing a Yukon game to watch us play that's H so they were just beside themselves with excitement for this um and I um I also just don't know if everybody saw on the news last night but um yesterday was Girl Scout Day at the capital and our sixth grade girl scouts were there and made the news um and many of them stepped up and took leadership they um they met um state senators and state representatives they
081helped to lead the ceremony um and they were just I was just so impressed with their um their maturity and their participation and um you know their willingness to just really like step up and put themselves out there in what can be a sort of intimidating environment even for adults and if I could um I've received a lovely message about our students from the the uh COO of Girl Scouts I was told that the uh food was the yeah I heard that too well nothing tops the BCS lunch they thought the chicken salad was chicken and then it was chicken salad and that was upsetting un expectations it's amazing zero you're laughing people don't like you can't win so they met the lieutenant governor and like four state reps and they talked to them about
082like you know Caroline told the whole room that like people need better sidewalks so that pedestrians in Connecticut will be safer but like definitely yes the lunch [Music] is priorities yeah were super Jazz Jackie said they said they had a great time good she said she had a great good Kudos every all right I have nothing because K covered everything uh corespondence nothing public comment policy Board of Education welcomes public comment individuals or groups address the board concerning any subject this is within the board's jurisdiction three minutes will be allocated to each speaker and a maximum of 15 minutes to each subject matter speakers requested to State their name and address andless Harvey here and we know bar is it's a puka 6 foot invisible rabbit rabbit I was in the play Harvey when I
083was oh here yeah w i was the doctor you know it's it's funny how you say that because when you mention se's an imaginary rabbit yeah he's a six' tall imaginary rabbit James Stewart was it James Stewart was the first time they did it and then they've done it a couple times but unless har sitting out in the audience we got nobody how many people are on line sorry I was laughing right at this point the FR at this point uh we're going to go into executive session to discuss the superintendent goals mid review so we'll take a 5 minute break you have to read are we going to invite K Jesus we didn't invite K yet be board education enter into executive session to discuss the superintendent's midyear goals and kird is invited to
084attend do I want second I you want to come all in favor all right take five minutes then we'll go to Executive session it was oh I Caroline I second second yeah it's amazing with they uh they came away with all I was yeah they had a good time