001e e e flag indiv andice okay that's out of the way PTO report come on down state your name your status and what's up hi everyone uh my name is Melissa zalo I am the President of the BCS PTO um and since the board last met we have had a very busy month um we started with quas well we started with Field Day on May 17th uh the we took in donations of watermelons and Clementines and we had a group of volunteers come in the morning of field day cut up a whole bunch of watermelon peel a bunch of clementines we handed those out to the students throughout the day as they participated in their Field Day activities and we also purchased um popsicles for them so the kindergarten through second graders they took those
002in the morning and they in the classroom and then the third through sixth graders um after they completed their activities um had their popsicles as well then later that night because field day is not busy enough we had quasy night um which is a joint venture between us and between beer School in Woodbridge we had about 1,500 people attend between the two schools um the the park completely closes down so it's just the two schools and the families that go um it was a great time the weather was fantastic um kids loved it it's great cuz you can just let like I my son's older you know just let him run around with his friends and everybody's just watching out for everybody's kids it's it's really a good time and it really helps us because
003the kids you know I'll eventually go back to school together when they hit the middle school and then um the following week was Spring Fling um which was held here we had um I think we had five Inflatables out there for the kids to jump jum on we had a dunk tank that Mr reedvale participated in and so did Miss hulit um we had food trucks we had taco truck we had food from billies we had food from Pizza gr we had an ice cream truck silent auction raffle B it was it was an amazing event the fire departments here did a a touch the truck event a nice part about that is everything is included in the price of admission so for the price of the ticket you can have all you eat from
004the from the food trucks unlimited bouncing again it it was a wonderful night the weather was fantastic um and I just want to shout out the custodial staff they did a fantastic job they help well they help us out with all our events but especially in Spring Fling it's a huge event um and we made sure that we let them know that they're they appreciate I think they end up staying a little bit late that night to help us clean up as well so thanks to M Fallon his amazing custodia staff for helping with that um and then what we did too is we had the fund run back in March earlier this year and while we're one of our goals with it is to do a bigger ticket item but we wanted to have
005the kids see some fruits of their labor earlier so we took some of that money and we purchased well we asked Mr re to ask classes the grades What They Want For Recess equipment now their recess equipment so he compiled a list for us and we just bought we wanted we bought bags and um one of the volunteers Jen gay distributed one recess bag to each class so they got balls badon sets uh whiffle ball bats you name that they got it I actually still had tennis balls in my house I need to get over footballs um and what we're going to do starting in the fall is I'm going to make a list similar to our funding request for um field and for Teacher grants um that distribute to the teachers and if they're
006finding like their sidewalk truck or their bubbles orever going low they can put in a request give us like two weeks and we'll replenish it and we're also going to in the follow look at um supplementing their indoor recess things like games puzzles whatever they think they need for that uh and speaking for fall um the board met last week to kind of start planning um so right now we're still planning our kindergarten play date we're going to move that to the day of kindergarten orientation just because some of the feedback we got was we were having it on Saturday and and there's lack of bathroom facilities because the school wasn't open so we figured if we're going to have it on if we have it on the same day as the orientation you know
007the the school will be open and take use the bathroom facilities we're also going to have um a child walk event the night before school starts um we've started planning our alignment pie sales picture day the book fair it's all still um we're all in the planning stages for that oh and I forgot to mention this upcoming Friday is uh BCS night at the gos um we I think we have only six or seven tickets left for the event hopefully the weather holds out cu it's not looking could be um and like I said it's been a busy month month and a half looking forward to vacation as I'm sure the teachers are thank you thank you uh before we go any further and I apologize to the entire board and staff and everybody a
008lot of commissions Begin by introducing everybody at the table we have Place cards in front of everybody so I don't think it's necessary I mean I can if you'd like for the record but I think you know everybody knows who everybody is and if anybody's got a question we have a tag in front us does anybody feel I should be introducing everybody at every meeting no okay I just you know I this is a committee of nine not a committee of one just because I may not think it's worthwhile somebody else may not agree with that and so everybody has a voice here okay but I have the last voice no okay public comment does anybody in the public um care to speak you got approximately three minutes unless there's nobody here and it's a
009very engaging discussion um Donna are there anybody on Zoom how many people are on by the way uh that Kimberly how many people are live stream eight there's eight people on live stream okay trending down I think we had 26 last month or something but oh is that what it is okay yeah you're at the end of the Little League season not not following baseball anymore I I think Cricket is Cricket uh ton to you must be pakist let me tell you I guess uh the Pakistan Indian game is a barn burner I guess it's one of the most popular sports events in the world yep we got a lot of competition what's that we got a lot of competition all right uh committee reports Finance uh since Amy Linsky is not here first oh
010approval amends I apologize thank you [Applause] guys and your meeting packet are the meeting minutes from May 8th 2024 yeah I'll make the motion to approve Ang second okay anybody have errors discussion auditions additions anything all in favor now we'll go to the finance committee rep um since Amy's not here K will give it sure general education education salaries remain status quo with a deficit of $1,318 benefit projections are now showing a surplus of $56,000 which is slightly higher than last month due to the release of a portion of the staff tuition rep reimbursements general education services remain status quo with a deficit of $1,718 supplies another um budget Li items status quo overall general education sh 8,978 under special education special education salaries is showing a surplus this month of $352 due to a
011par professional resignation through the end of the school year special education benefits is showing a decreased surplus of $1,371 and cents difference in the special ed supplies line special education ends the month with a surplus of $ 7,355 operations and overhead operation salaries are now showing a surplus of $2,855 due to the release of custodial salaries uh monies from a resignation that we've had operation benefits is showing a decreased surplus of $2,663 due to a correction that was made on the accounting side for workers compensation a posting error um so that adjustment was made and then the service line item is now showing an increased surplus of $ 9,756 this is due to the other side so where it was posted incorrectly and then moved to the right place um as well as the release
012of legal fees that we had at the end of the year facilities is now showing an increased deficit of $92,400 and the software upgrades all connected to ABS all other accounts remain status quo from last month operations in overhead now ends the month with a surplus of $1,784 which is much lower than last month but it's mainly due to those uh before mentioned facilities expenses overall the budget is showing a total surplus of $29,100 [Music] invo Etc um we're still using a lot of Grant to do a lot of the funding spend down so we don't really have an accurate number at this time where we're going to end for our Surplus Brandon's best guess and again this is a best guess is somewhere between 25 and 50 might be our overall Surplus the next
013two weeks will be when we can really start to get a more accurate picture as we get towards the end of the fiscal year on June 30th as of April 30th the preschool account balance is 88,9 1446 and in our 10-2 48a account there is $363 363,462 and18 and also what was discussed last night at the board of or at the finance committee meeting is whether or not we turn that 29,000 or whatever it is back to the town or we put it in the Ry day fund there's a lot of reason for not turning it back to the town chief of which is um we're looking at uh having some major repairs to the Northwest part of the school and so we may very well be using the um 10-24 AA account for that
014so and $30,000 to be honest with you it doesn't seem like you know enough if it was $135,000 then I would make a recommendation that we turn it back to the town but I think in this particular case I think we might as well put it into the rainy day account the 10 248a account to um to prepare for some substantial uh expenditures that we're going to be having coming up in the next couple months to a year is there anything with the percentages that we supposed to put aside is there like a limit where are we on we talked about we talked about 5% and I think if I'm not mistaken we're just about there we're like 4.97 a little bit but we know we're going to need or we don't know yet and
015and but the bottom line is whether it's 497 or 504 you know there was no hard and fast number it was a recommend recommendation and the recommendation was somewhere around 5% and I would rather use the 248a account which is what we designed it for when we brought this up four years ago four or five years ago you know the idea was it's easier to work out of a 248a account rather than give the money back to the town and then we have a capital expense sh 300,000 pops up at the stairs and the ramp and that and then I have to go through the whole rigor of going back to the town to try to get 300,000 it's easier to do it this way and I think it's more Equitable for the taxpayers you
016know if anybody's got any suggestions or anything else please speak up now is that what the purpose of that account is for the 1048 is a rainy day account day yeah in other words if if the roof starts leaking if if if we have to do a capital roof repair um if we have to do like the stairs are falling apart if we have to fix those stairs it's easier to handle that if the if the number's under you know a couple hundred thousand well just it's okay to use it for facility yes that's what it's there for okay we checked when we when when I brought this up four or five years ago we didn't essentially have one uh if anybody remembers I don't if anybody was on the board of time but we
017didn't have a a a rainy day account and it was my suggestion because we were looking at um budget surpluses of2 or $300,000 to uh to start one for just this purpose and uh we talked to council we talked to the accountants and there's no hard and fast number anywhere on what you should have if you should have but there is a recommendation of 5% and the purpose of 5% is because it seems to be a reasonable number anything like if we had to replace a roof we would probably go to a capital expenditure and have to go back to the town Bond at the whole nine yards but to do stairs or to do the landing or something like that or the doors um we would try to do that in house it makes
018just makes more sense it's less bureaucracy it's more efficient and we can probably get a better price than having a waiting year I get it okay yeah but no we vetted this we we didn't have this a couple you know five years ago we so we vetted this to the attorneys and we vetted this to the accountants it's a good thing to have yes and that's that's why we have it there it's you know not having that there some type of reserve for God forbid something happens and like I said right now it's the stairs okay well I just wanted to verify that there's no limitations on its use and and in keeping with that the reason for doing what we're doing you know for Sean talking to the The Architects and everythings because for
019that we want to put together a capital expenditure plan so in six months we may be going to the town saying here's what the Architects came back with this is what we need need and then we Bond it that's not what this is for this is for if I just want to fix those North stairs and the ramp it comes in $75,000 we do it and be done with it okay on a different note question okay what happens to the balance of the prek so we use that for Sal okay so that number fluctuates because the TU that comes in so we pay professional salaries from okay so like next month we' expect that to be down and just and just to to our own horn the way we set up our accounting about five
020or six years ago when just before Co hit and then when Co hit is now coming to fruition if anybody's following what's going on on a lot of the other uh School boards they're firing teachers and staff left and right because they took all the co money and used to pay salary and now they're all short and they're short big numbers I mean some of these school districts are talking was was it insonia or Seymour 30 teachers you know so we're we're in very good shape but the difference between being in very good shape and very poor shape isn't the whole hell of a lot folks so it's something we got to keep an eye on our finances uh and I think everybody's been doing a very good job of it you know chasing grants
021where we can um trying to get things to offset things but it's it's it's a short distance between being Financial solvent and the last thing I would want to do is have to go back to the town and ask for money it's not a good look okay I apologize for being vertion make a motion to approve the finance report so moved oh wait I can't somebody else want to Second any discussion all in favor motion errors policy Susan G on you can hear me uh the committee met yesterday evening June 11th and we reviewed 29 policies that will go on the board's next meeting agenda those policies included one mandated three recommended 10 technical Corrections and 15 with no changes uh that agenda basically caught us up to complete the review of the 4 odd
022policies that were in the October 2023 committee agenda and all revisions prepared by Sue Carpenter and any legislative changes in 2023 I brought up the existing committee goal of reviewing the entire catalog of 250 policies and bylaws at least once every three years which means reviewing 8 about 84 existing policies bylaws per year plus anything that's required by new legislation and the needs of the school uh even the legislature has been so very active lately in changing education laws and standards it's my it was my opinion that the goal is too ambitious and can overwhelm the agenda uh so I propose we modify the goal to 50 per year so that we can get into a fiveyear rotation on the current committee meeting schedule every other month we have five meetings per year so we
023can plan on reviewing 10 existing policies per meeting in the future to keep up with that rotation plus whatever is required by law changes or needs of the school uh there was no objection to that agenda planning strategy from the committee members so unless there is objection by Other Board of Ed members uh the policy committee will operate on that basis going forward comment you don't stretch out over 6 years CU right now and and the reason the only reason I say that is because a term is 6 years and there's a two-year flip every right the terms are still six years right they haven't changed we change what Chang before yeah they did change before yeah oh okay then five say six years and then is yeah okay I was I apologize because what
024I was going to say was it might be easier to do it over six years only because it's a few less I mean I think 10 of 10 of meeting is kind of ambitious but um you know do you guys want to give it a whack well it's not better than 40 was like oh my gosh yeah no that's that's fine so you know you're the committee chair if you and your committee feel that's that's the way to do it by all means okay well we can you know give it a shot and see how it goes stop overwhelming the policy committee agenda only meeting a year and try to roll over these 80 polies make your eyes and some of them are just a matter of reading and say yeah okay well that's what
025I'm talking about the 10 are more so like that okay I'm not expecting that you know there going to be some big change there may be redundancies that we can flag and and take care of too that process I think a lot of that heavy lifting was done five or six years ago well you know they keep changing the laws yes and not for the better so you got to sort of try to keep up with that too because stuff we had on the books they may have made a law about it later i' it got Incorporated somewhere else and we don't need this one anymore that all right so I'm going to go to the the goal of 50 per year okay that was the policy unfinished business approved for the first reading following
026policies are recommended for revision uh move the Bethy Board of Education approve the revisions to policies oh wa minut I have to read the revisions first correct this Susan part two oh that's Susan part two the policy that was a policy committee report knock yourself out all right on our agenda tonight for a second reading are the remaining policies that have been marked mandated on the board's December 2023 agenda except for the bullying policy which will be replaced shortly by a legislative mandate called the school climate so these revisions were authored by Sue Carpenter but since none of them were caused by any changes in law they are now marked recommended the revisions generally clarify some language and practices in keeping with current procedures and contracts update some Personnel changes addresses and legal references and
027our consistent with sample policy is offered from sh good one so if uh if we adopt these tonight then they official all right then we'll move to make a motion to adopt phone rision do want to mention that there's a typo on the the motion it's policies 3260 not 526 just so 322 52 be students 3260 so then move that the bethley Board of Education approv the revisions to policy 3260 3453 3517 411 12.5 42 12.5 41814 42118 or 421 18.14 41 52.6 sl42 52.6 and 5114 as presented any a motion I'll make a motion okay Carol Joe second any discuss all in favor all right okay new business by law 9300 Su is that you or is that you that's you no you okay oh that's AB yeah you've got uh K got those
028so um we have three staff members that will be welcoming their first child in the late summer early fall according to the be contract teachers have the ability to request extended leave in the year that their child is born um so I can certainly sh I'll share with you the three teachers and their request and my recommendation and the board will make whatever decision they deem appropriate so we have special education teacher Hannah Kan mid August she's requested leave until April 1st but recognizes that if that leave is not feasible for the district uh she would request leave until the end of 2024 the 20242 2025 school year and it would be my recommendation that the board accept her request for the full school year for speci we have special education teacher Carrie Pine uh
029who's expecting in late September uh she has requested leave until the end of the 2425 school year and it's my recommendation the board approve that as well and then we have first grade teacher Chelsea plii uh who is expecting in early October and has requested leave until the end of the 2425 school year and is also my recommendation that the request I have spoken with all the building based Administration chery [Music] andest any discussion anybody have a problem with this I don't see any with just that first one is for the full year recommendation she was asking for April it's kind of tough to come back in April you got you can hire full yeah it's not it's not it's not fair to the kids or the or the sub I think it's reasonable all
030right we don't have to act on that do we okay I'll make a motion recommended motion yeah move that the Board of Education granted Child Care leave of absence to Hannah Kane following rury leave to the end of the 20 24 2025 school year move that well we'll do them all once move that the Board of Education what oh we can okay move to the Board of Education granted Child Care leave of absence to carry Pini following her attorney leave to the end of the 2024 2025 school year move that the Board of Education granted Child Care leave of absence to Chelsea pishi following her maternity leave to the end of the 2024 2025 school year anybody make a motion to accept make a motion Angelo Caroline second matter any discussion all in favor all
031nowos Adra yes congratulations congratulations y good luck and God speaked administrative reports sure so I do have recognitions listed under my report and I was going to do a student recognition with regards to some information that we've received from Invention Convention but I'm going to allow Mr Reed SW to share the shine about our amazing to publicly I know I've shared this in other Publications recognize our BCS staff member of the year um the 2025 staff member of the year was Mr Kevin Fallon Kevin as you know stepped in this year as our facility supervisor and has done an amazing job had several recommendations from inside and outside of the school and so he was selected by the committee as the staff member of the year and our 2025 teacher of the year is Carrie
032Payne Carri p is our d preschool teacher and that is my report in terms of recognitions but congratulations to Kevin car for all to our school for school uh enrollment you'll find enrollment numbers from the 21 22 22 23 and now the 23 24 school year we began the year with 445 students as of the end of May we had 450 and as of the end of school yesterday at 1:10 p.m. we had 450 students so we consistent personel update Francine cheski professionals will not be returning tocs next year they're now in the enviable position of retired semi retired jelly but got plenty of time uh Erica Kenyon a PA professional will also not be returning to Bethany Community school next year Erica has been accepted into a master's degree program for occupational therapy beginning
033in September um she will work in our summer school and her last day will be August 1st and we wish Erica all the best in her new program Mrs Linda saffron our it and Facilities cler is choosing to as she shared with staff find new passions in life now that her youngest has graduated from college uh so we thank them all for their service to to Bethany I am pleased to announce that we have hired a new third grade teacher to take the place of our beloved Mel Bari who is retiring um Miss Karina Massie will join our BCS team in the fall she's a recent new Conrad with a strong literacy background and experience working with multi language Learners also joining the VCS uh for the 2425 school year are Mr James Darcy and
034Jared Smith these gentlemen are filling a few of the before mentioned PA professional retirements of in vacancies I also had the uh ability to interview at 3:00 this afternoon um the finals for the fifth grade position and pleased to announce that Jaclyn reuer will be joining our Ela team for in that fifth grade position she comes to us from New Haven so we are fully certified fully staffed with our certified staff for for a few more of the positions to fill these recent re and that concludes my report for now any questions comments thank you uh director of special service curriculum instruction M kessle you're on thank you um for professional development on our last professional development day teachers worked on the uh the curriculum and in the area of curriculum we have 11 teachers
035who came in today on their first day off and worked really hard on the curriculum basically it's constantly you're having to make revisions and changes um they're also going to be here on Friday and Monday to continue the work that we're doing uh we had a grant for a stem summer camp program that we were able to open up to a total of 40 students in grade first grade through sixth grade and we had so much interest that we had to have a lottery to fill every single space uh additionally through grant funding we're able to open some spaces for our students in the boo program to attend Parks and Recreation um and the open students in open Choice were able to have a bus to take them home after Parks and Recreation so a
036lot of great things happening because of Grants and in the world of special services uh extended school year will be starting on July 2nd through August 1st and uh another grant funding we have a program where students will be working on their social skills and that will be out in in the school as well as out in the community and it's program called the out out and about program any questions so what are they do in the out and about program so they're working on social skills so for one student it could be working on greetings another student might be working through um interactions with other students could be going out to the community how how do you interact when you go to uh bowling and and being a good sport and and things like
037that so a variety of different activities are planned for them so two days a week are field trips where they're working with other students and then one day they're in-house and they they'll be doing different centers working on different skills okay this is a voluntary program that they it's a grant funded program and it's offered to U when you write the grant of certain populations that you're working with so um it's parents and children have a choice of going but it's offered to a certain cohort of students okay what kind of you know what are the requirements what do you have to do to get in um so students who that's an area that they could learn that they could grow is social emotional so it's a social emotional social skills yeahp thing yeah okay
038special education in special education it's has a mix that claries some who some are some who are and some who are not who are not it's a mix okay than any other questions okay the principal Mr reu you're on all right uh so I'm sure I'll miss something cuz we've been kind of busy but I wanted to highlight a bunch of the the big ticket items that we've been been up to uh since last we met we had our night of the Arts uh the whole school turned into an art gallery we had our second um musical concert of the year really amazing uh within the better part of like 27 hours uh we had received a donation of $115,000 to the school um but in honor of Barbara Jacks uh and we were able
039to take that money and translate it into a brand new Yamaha upright piano which Mrs Potts is ecstatic about um so we were able to get that money in um through paid for the piano and delivered to the loading dock literally within a day and then um to uh to the concert that night so it was really amazing to be able to get that and we've used it many times since uh and then we still have a lot of money left over and we're looking um at some technology for recording studio uh equipment and then potentially instruments for students so um we're really grateful for that it was donated in memory of Barbara Jac who was a lifelong musician uh and it was just really wonderful to be able to honor her uh several of
040her children were actually present at our concert for night of the Arts um so it it's just really a great moment for their family to to be part of our community um really wonderful so um as you heard we had Field Day absolutely perfect weather uh wonderful time uh we had yearend field trips to sixth grade went to Camp getaway fifth grade to Sturbridge kindergarten to masaro Farms first grade to Beardsley Zoo second grade to Russell homestad uh our community meeting this uh month uh was a wonderful celebration of children we had a lot of kids um who were presenting a multitude of different things including World otter day one of my favorite days of the year uh old schoolhouse second grade went to and did their uh annual tradition of going to old schoolhouse
041um the Club performances of the pirate princess uh was at the end of May and beginning of June uh we had trips to amid uh fifth grade went to steam day sixth grade went to The Amity Middle School uh field day uh we had our sixth grade Awards night um that was outside under the Pavilion uh it was really great to be able to be out there and utilize The Pavilion uh we had our Unified sports celebration which also utilized uh The Pavilion uh we had our prek kindergarten and sixth grade promotions uh really amazing turnouts uh huge thank you to the Bethany volunteer fire department to support us with firat to make sure that we had everybody there and safe um we had and then um finally just a huge shout out you had
042uh heard we had students go um so Invention Convention as a child who actually went to uh Invention Convention as a kid um it's amazing to see where that has gone in the last um you know 30 40 plus years uh it has become come so large the actual program that they used to just have everybody who you know W your schools um you know who won your schools event you just go to gamp you'd be there um I didn't I was at some Regional High School or something um but then they translated it to GLE and now they have so many kids that gamp couldn't actually hold all of the kids from the towns so they had have like regionals so you go from BCS then you have a regional and then from the
043regional you go to the state and we actually had um four groups of our kids four projects actually go to the State uh Paul and Sam BL uh Alia and long Longo chrishna morthy Luke pilage and indigo Ratner all from our school moved on to the state competition which is amazing um and then in the state competition um they actually earned several Awards honors and opportunities uh so our students earned the Connecticut Fire Marshals Association award The Innovation and chemicals award The Travelers safe home award the Excellence and stem award um we also had several students who were uh had got invitations to a US inventor challenge so they're going to be able to participate they're giving these given these novel situations and they're have to be creatively solving those on the Fly um and
044then Alia and elongo actually um are now US national Invention Convention finalists so they're going to be traveling to Michigan um and we're actually as part of one of their awards are receiving um support towards patent um for their uh uh invention so really impressive stuff uh is there any way that we could or should support those children financially I've I just um I just reached out to their family I saw I saw their folks uh just the other day and I was talking with them uh so we're going to take a look at what the expenses are for them and the cost to their family and then think about you know what we might be able to do as a school as a community to support them does the board this reminds me good
045good time as any to bring it up does the board feel that we should um try to support these young men and women in their Quest through this through the National Convention that's something you guyses the lion club and do some kind of scholarship what's that the Lions Club do some kind of scholarships we can check into it but irrespective of what you know Mr wh is going to find out what the cost is M but what I'm saying is is a school I mean this is a big deal for these kids yeah and I I think it's a feather in their cap it's a feather in their teachers cap you know and I think we should support them as best we can um I'm not saying send you know give them a grant of
046$5,000 and stay at the Hilton for four weeks but at the same token you know is there you're talking about paying travel expenses find out what the cost is Mr re wh is going to find out what the cost is and then we as a board can decide whether or not we want to help to support some of it when is the National it's next year actually I think it's calendar year we have time June of next year right so we have have time to get the information yeah but I'm just does does the board feel like this is something that's worthwhile yeah I think um I mean you guys can look into this a little bit I'm thinking that maybe it's uh something where have the family like apply for a grant for us
047rather than us just say hey we're going to give it because what happens if this expands to 10 kids in the future and we don't have the money for it it more of an apply and if there's the ability then we will give versus hand out good point you know what I mean instead of because we have it then I think we should absolutely support them but if for some reason there's something that comes up where we don't have that extra money at the end of the year or whatever we can't yep well then like could stay on top of this um you know come back maybe in August or September with it you know with what looks like and and definitely I I think this is something that's extremely worthwhile we should support these
048kids as much as we can yeah yeah they were beaming they had their they had their stack of awards and their medals and everything it was really awesome if we do it if we do it that way like in a more of an apply for a grant type thing then there might be opportunity that if it's not Invention Convention but maybe next time something else some massive poetry contest or something like that you can always apply and then if there's the ability then we we can support yeah cuz there's a and there's other things that you know that we that could be on the horizon everything from you know Odyssey of the mind to kid lit quiz to anything you could get kids involved in and then you know there's always kind of a local
049and then a Connecticut and then you know folks kids that make it through there's usually some national or International level of those kind of things well that's what I'm thinking I you know at the local level and at state level I don't think they need the the support that there you do want to Missouri or Mississippi wherever you're going to go yeah yeah keep a line out there should we put that in the budget as a line item about this next year okay um all right so that's what we've been up to so just a lot of stuff really busy and if I could just a huge thank you um I know a lot of board members have been coming to our different events and you know present at sixth grade um promotion but then
050a lot of other things and I think I mean for me it means a lot just to have you there and see you there but I think also for families to see you involved and we talk a lot about like the policy and the finance and the nuts and bolts here but getting to see like what that all translates to for kids and the events and things I think is really meaningful you know I think a for you to be able to experience it and also B for them in the community to see you supported supporting in that way so just thank you for that as well I know it's time out of your day beyond this thanks for the thanks of course good job I have two question actually you know what three questions
051all right oh boy most important what was your invention when you were a kid my invention listen it was a cat bowl that had different um it had suction cups on the bottom because my cats kept knocking the water bowls and the food bowls all over so it suctioned down to the ground it put the bowls into a board and then suction to the ground very cool yeah so one question I'm getting a lot from the community is Summit for next year and people are kind of wondering with fourth grade going up being so large there be four sections for fifth grade and three for six how is so that was a future Tom problem that's a current Tom problem and I think we have some really good Solutions so originally as we did it
052we you know we had um all of fifth and sixth grade really in lock step right had the same lunch wave had the same recess wave had the same specials wave all of that and then we could get the kids switching back and forth it worked when we had five you know three and two two and three it worked we made it work with six we really like it with six seven Seven's an awful number um it runs into a problem with specials because you don't have seven Specialists right and so you run into that challenge and then it also runs into a tricky part in terms of personnel and so what we're really looking at is both still having those rotations but splitting out the fifth grade rotation from the sixth grade rotation so
053fifth grade's going to rotate clearly within fifth but their timing of rotations isn't going to coincide with the same timing of sixth grade so we're gonna have three classes of sixth grade rotating and that's going to create three blocks there and we're going to have four classes rotating in fifth grade and they're going to be slightly smaller blocks as we go the super fun is how do we get lunch recess and specials all kind of connected in there with the two different rotations but um I have I have I have a workable solution for both and I think we're in a really good spot and I think the beauty is that we've got a lot of really good people involved on that team um and with Jackie coming in on that Ela side I think
054we got somebody she's got a wealth of experience I just you know we spent an hour talking about a bunch of stuff she's asking all the right questions um and I think we've got a really valuable member coming in on that Ela side and having um Mrs hemperly still in that Summit team but having previously been really successful in fifth grade ELA I think we've got good supports for her there too so the other question I had um regarding the monly meetings in the PBIS award first can you explain a little bit about what PBIS award is yeah and more importantly how is that kind of like handled I know some kids have received it multiple times some have never some teachers use it kind of like a reward system for if you're doing real
055well and others it's just kind of like if they the teacher notices you're doing well so it's not kind of like part of a plan just like hand it out um do you think there's room for improvement on how that's done to make it Equitable for everybody or is it kind working yeah and I think I think the challenge with it is is that Equitable doesn't mean equal and I think we can flate those a lot and It's Tricky I think there's a bunch of challenges that run with it and we're as with anything you you're trying to refine it as you go across the way right so when we think about first I think it's the like it's the Sean's not here but it's part of his alphabet sup need right so positive behavior
056interventions and supports right so it's the whole like we're trying to focus on positive things as opposed to saying don't do that don't do that we're trying to say hey you did a really good job with this so for different kids it's different things right so if I'm if I'm a a straight and narrow and I'm always doing the right thing really it's it's for Tom it might be trying to really acknowledge hey he's been doing a really great job this whole time let's give him some shine that way for I'll just use tan is my son what he's fine and he's straight and narrow but let's say Tegan's a kid who's he's on The Struggle Bus with behavior right he's impulsive he's you know calling out having a really difficult time for Tom we
057might be saying hey you've been doing a really great job here's a chance to acknowledge that for Tan we might be saying Hey listen you're still having a hard time but let's work on this and this and this goal and if you can do that this could be something where we could really acknowledge that hard work so it kind of ser sits in both of those spaces the challenge that you run into is that you got a class to say 20 kids there's 10 months or nine opportunities for that right and so I think that becomes some of the challenges there's a lot of kids that you want to celebrate in a lot of different ways and this is one of those those ways that we're trying to do it I think what we're really
058trying to do now is as this has been something that we've been doing regularly we're trying to look longitudinally so if you've got a kid right who's been going and we look back because we keep the records on it and we go hey you know here's tan he's been working his tail off but it's been two years we haven't found that shine for him he's hitting the front of the list not to say well he's got to get it September cuz that's not authentic but we say let's try and find in those early months of the year a chance to really be able to to bolster that student and say how can we get that shine to him I think the challenge overall is if that becomes the exclusive way that we're given shine and
059community meeting then it feels like a loss to kids that aren't doing that whereas if we think of community meeting not just as an award ceremony but a celebration of kids it could be that I'm getting the PBIS award you're presenting on world otter day which was amazing by the way right there might be another kid that's doing an interview are having you know Alia and elongo might be showing up and we're giving you know we're honoring them with their certificates they might not be getting PBIS but they're getting the shout out of there for Invention Convention and so I think my vision of community meeting is a celebration of children and one way to do that is to be able to honor some of that hard work around those kids who are meeting our
060expectations really put that on a pedestal and be able to say this is a great way to do that I think we got feedback you know that that what about like if there's a really great class that way and that's where we've got the Buster Award with you know with the dogghouse and all so we're trying to find different ways um to get as many kids as much shine as possible um and I think that's the big thing that we're trying to refine right now is to ensure that a kid doesn't make it multiple multiple multiple years without having that chance to have that shine and acknowledgement in some way trust me yeah I don't know if if everybody knows what the Buster oh sorry so uh think PBIS but um for a class right
061so you're trying to acknowledge and we've really looked to specials teachers to say what's the theme of the month so if the theme of the month has been um gratitude then we're looking for a class that's really shown that through the month and we're asking them and then we're acknowledging that class they get Buster um and then uh Wyatt Stevens and his family made a little Buster house it's adorable it's really heavy though um so now Buster has gotten a lot of um he's gotten a lot of swag lately so he it started with just Buster then Buster got a collar and then Buster got a doghouse and then Buster got a dog bed uh and now he's like he's he's slow every yeah the kids are all about no we don't do any of
062it the kids just keep adding and adding and adding so now Buster Buster's coming with all his swag to each different class and they add a little bit and add a little bit um you know and they take care of Buster and they've got his little you know dock bowl and all that stuff um but it's just kind of a way you know the whole point is not every kid's going to be really great at that creative side on Invention Convention and that's okay we can acknowledge those kids and not every kid's going to you know be straight and narrow or even be able to fix on that side but we can acknowledge those kids and not every kid's going to have that confidence to get up you know and be one or two kids
063in front of 500 people and be able to talk about a project that they want to but we can acknowledge that you know and so if you do it right you hit just about every kid in some different way throughout the year and that's what we're really trying to think about um you know and think Cathy ell has got a writing group that she's meeting every Thursday during lunch we're trying to think about how we can get that writing celebrated um so we're trying to think all those different ways we can get as many kids as much shine as possible each month this is yeah I've just heard multiple times of parents keeping kids out of school because emotionally they can't handle not getting the wondering if it's like too much empasis on yeah and
064I think that's students understand the difference between especially younger grad yeah and I think that's the that's the Catch 22 right it's you want it to be something that kids aspire to but you also don't want a kid broken down on that disappointment it's kind of the same thing with like with the with say like the smarter balance testing we don't we don't want kids to be like whatever we also want them like sitting there with their blood pressure going through so it's trying to thread that needle of it and I think that if we can create more and more things that way then it doesn't feel as exclusive and as like the only thing and so that's I think that's the challenge on that and I think we got a lot of good things
065coming through cool yeah appreci two things just to kind of bounce off that first one with the absence thing that would be interesting because you know what I would be curious is you could probably track that M notice if there's an excessive number of absences because if it could be that there's one or two parents that have a concern and are saying Well everybody's pulling their kids or they really are so see if maybe there's an increase on Community medeia Days of absences yeah might be worth taking a look at that number and then the other thing I wanted to point out just about Team Summit um I'm really happy to hear that you're you know trying to find it's a difficult thing to do with seven I can totally understand that um but I
066it's admirable that you're trying to keep to that I think that's been a lot of success that I years I currently have a child in there now um so I've been hearing about it seeing it from the board side it seemed very successful seeing it from my child side and I think it's really successful thing of having students have exposure to multiple student multiple um teachers during their time here it gets them ready for middle school for that next transition so I'm happy to hear you're putting the time in to yeah you know keep that going yeah to I mean I think to that I would say you know in terms of the master schedule there's very few absolute sacred cows that I keep the first is common planning time for for classroom teachers I
067think it's essential that they have that time to be able to work as a team and the second is you know at all costs to maintain that Summit model in some way shape or form that allows that transition and that switching of classes um we do um I was thinking about it um I definitely will take a look at the absentee rate on that we do specifically cuz that was a thing that we had heard you know like hey this is you know this is causing some Auda for my my child um and we so we actually put it on the climate survey and we've gotten um some pretty positive feedback from the climate survey around community meeting um but I can definitely look at in terms of like numbers and things that way um
068you know I don't anecdotally I don't see really high absent rates on those days but you know it's one of those things we like trust but verify you know let's take a look at it for sure I just wanted to to add to what angel said I think again like Team Summit was one of those I before I had a kid fifth grade I would hear people talk about C Summit and I would think I don't really know what that is but I guess I'm going to find out at some point um the other thing that I think has been really impressive um is you know we have this goal of every kid having at least two trusted adults in the building and I think the increased exposure to multiple teachers um like my fifth
069grader was able this year for the first time to name two Dr two trusted adults that like immediately without me having to like be like what about this and how about this and I think it's and they were both you know teachers that she saw you know pretty much every day because of the Team Summit model and so I just I think it it is helpful I'm sure when they go into Middle School I think it's helpful for other reasons but also it it um I think is helping make progress towards that goal as well yeah and I had one other question which is it sounds like community meeting The Invention Convention kids are getting to show off their stuff there but I think maybe in the past um I was on the board some
070of the Invention Convention kids would come to board meetings and so it would be yeah really cool if we could see their projects I saw theming a little tricky I saw some examples of them in a couple different places and that really cool yeah yeah yeah we had some really cool projects it was uh so I mean I can just tell you off off the top Paul and Sam made a they made a cart for um they had chores in terms of the trash and recycling so they made a cart to make their lives easier it's all kids stuff this is my favorite like Invention Convention is kid problems and kid Solutions um Al and Al Longo actually they it's their invention's amazing they created a thing they um to they attached a carbon monoxide
071sensor to an actuator to open a Cellar Door so if there was ever a high amount of carbon monoxide in a space it would automatically trigger and open the window so that you would alleviate that being in a space and protect lives um Luke created uh he created a fertilizer um that he was an organic fertilizer that he wanted to be in competition with Miracle Grow uh PS I'm his I'm his first official customer I bought a jar off him I was like I want some of that he was like he's like well I'll just give you it free I'm like no that's not how this works I'm going to pay you for it so then he had to work out the price of it sitting in my office um and then Indigo um she
072created a hairbrush that also had a spot for you could either put you know like a spray bottle for a conditioner or some product or thing that way so that you didn't have to carry all of these two different things I mean I wouldn't know the challenge but iar that some people that could totally help but it's great it's always like kid problems kid Solutions and that's the thing that I love about that is you know and then they can speak to it and it's it's just really awesome to see them it's I'm telling and it was born what that's the one yeah so they're yeah that's the one they're going to be getting some help with the patent it's it's impressive stuff and it was born out of I I believe they had a
073family friend that had a pet um that ended up um getting carbon monoxide poisoning they came home and it was it was like over a trip and so they were like we need to come up with something to fix this and it's yeah so it's really cool stuff and like PS like those were just some of them there's amazing other ones you know kids just had brilliant ideas um really cool stuff and they refine them and and work and sometimes you'll see a kid have an idea one year you know and they they run it back the next year and refine it and so really cool stuff yep one of my favorites they had a kid with a scooter they had a scooter and they put bumpers on it cuz they kept nailing their shins
074with their scooters as they were going so like if we just put bumpers on it we won't hurt our shins so much I was like yeah how did nobody think of that first I was like smart you know like good stuff that's what we have to promote that's what we have to support yeah it's really good stuff all right can I just ask you know sixth grade promotion your favorite thing had to do with the stbridge village bus ride oh okay right when you go out of state on a field trip you have to go on a coach bus and the kids are like coach bus oh my gosh in the bathroom yeah that's what so it's so they love it cuz they got the fan they're always used to the school buses that got
075seats like bricks and so now they're sitting there like they're like this is amaz you know so they love it it's it's yeah that's what that is I I asked I asked the principal of the junior high and he Jason looked at me and he says the f yep he says a coach bus and has a bathroom yeah it's the most amazing thing ever and the cushion sees to recline yep yeah it's a really big deal okay yeah I asked that question too so it's vill bu of Quakers you know listen I like I like the S St vill I like a good sers so well but you know what I'm saying it's it's not something you would think sixth gr children would be into yet there was the bus ride that's what everyone explained
076to me was the bus ride God bless them shout out to the bus company whatever F your vot yep anything else all right Chairman's report first thing I would like to say in the same vein as I thought K Tom Cheryl everybody uh the teachers especially uh I I graduation was excellent uh I thought the kids were were marvelous I thought they sung well um I thought Victor bruny was an excellent MC he he responded well Vincent he was great he he responded well to adversity when things didn't go exactly his way um but I thought that I thought it was a a overall it was an admirable uh morning and I think the parents and everybody appreciated it and uh like I said I learned a couple of new things you know but uh
077I think everybody involved should be commended and I think we're fortunate to have a staff that's that dedicated and I think the kids hopefully appreciated it um a lot of other stuff we'll talk about during um executive session uh I think that's basically it for me I don't think I had anything else did I I didn't think I had anything that's all I want to say uh oh yes there is one thing July meeting normally the the first six or eight years I was on the board we had a July Retreat usually at the uh at the Veterans Park and I'm not sure about the value of that um just I'm not sure about the value of it meeting and my gut feeling is if the uh the board is so inclined then I would
078suggest we not have a July meeting uh only because things are are pretty much um winding down from one year and starting on the next and we pretty much know where we are uh there'll be the you know finance committee meeting um if policy wants to meet or some of the other commit want to meet that's fine but does anybody feel uh one way or the other about having a formal board meeting in July so the things that we would just move ahead to the next one would be the policies that we talked about last policy meeting would get their first read then in August instead of July is there anything else time sensitive is there an August meeting there is one on the books for a yeah well August you're you're going to want
079to have a board meeting in August because now you're gearing up um by then hopefully we'll have architectural drawings and uh and Facilities will be underway um anything that pops up over the course of the summer um if anybody has problems or anything else you know I and we can always call an emergency meeting if we have to but I'm just saying that you know July is usually a dead month K is there anything that we could jump in front of and get ahead of schedule if we meet in July not at this time because we have we usually use the summer to prepare those things so I think having for few sents um there's less to do in July but I would definitely say if we're not meeting in July so please meet in
080August so that we can get things that we might need to have in place for September that would be my suggestion okay anything with the new board member training though like the legislation about you're supposed to go to where are we with that the save the date for that's I kind of have pay attention because I don't read that right are you sure but they're not promoting that legisla no C just sent something else out so I'll send that out yeah we just got another email update about it they sent out a lot of things but when it says that this will satisfy the requirement I will that's one I'm so there will be no formal board meeting in July there will be committee meetings there's no committee meetings in July well that's what I'm
081saying K or k will send out a list of who's supposed to meet you might still need a finance committee meeting maybe but right yeah Finance is probably going to be the only one okay that's fine anything else anybody feel strongly about it okay correspondence anything um okay we'll cover that uh public comment policy if anybody from the public uh would like to speak we now have a second opportunity yes ma'am please identify yourself for the record um Al 191 I just wanted to piggy back on that whole coach bus thing okay so my son is a rising fifth grader he's one that's causing Tom all the ad enough with adding the extra in class right we got to solved but um so I picked my my son was swimming all day and I picked
082him up and we're behind we're on driving home there's a coach bus in front of us and he's like Mom he's like you know I really want to ride one of those coach buses they're really Co cool I'm like don't worry about it honey you're going to fifth grade you're going to Sturbridge Village next year you're going to be able to ride that coach he was just excited he's honestly more excited about riding that coach bridge I thought that that's the what we're getting so I just wanted to share that little anote that just happened today so it's amazing what they'll what they'll fix on um is there anybody how many people are on six 10 oh we picked up seven seven seven oh so we lost one okay was a Bard death um okay
083public com that's it all right we're now I have to go into an executive session to discuss the super attendent valuation and contract so um Kim if you can remove these microphones oh I'll make a motion to go into executive session a second