BOE Meeting 12/13/2023

001e um good evening um everyone thank you for coming or watching um I apologize that we started a few minutes late we'll call me to order at 6:36 uh we knew that we had a couple of members that were on our way on their way so we wanted to wait for them be courteous um thank you for attending and watching the Bethany Board of Education December meeting where we Inspire and Empower children to thrive in the World of Tomorrow we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance if everybody please stand to the flag United United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible libery and justice for all I would like to move that the Board of Education move to the election of board officers and return to the regular

002agenda can I get a second I'll second okay all those in favor say I I anybody opposed I'll now turn the meeting over to Mrs bird our superintendent for board officer elections okay so at this time we are going to begin the uh office the nomination for the office of chairperson once the chairperson has been elected the meeting will be then turned over to the chairperson to conduct the remaining elections um for vice chair and um secretary so I'll need a motion um from a member of the board to make um a nomination for the chairperson of the board to accept nominations yep uh I nominate John Paul Garcia for chairperson of the Bethany Board of Education I I just need a motion to accept oh sorry I need a motion to take nominations for

003the chair I jumped the gun there okay I'll make a motion okay I'll second thank you s all right it's been properly moved and seconded that the board accepted nominations for the chairperson of the board board members wishing to nominate any individual for chairperson uh will be recognized at this time okay uh I nominate John Paul Garcia for chairperson of the Bethany Board of Education and uh that's it Mr Garcia do you accept the nomination for chairperson I accept the nomination okay John Paul Garcia is nominated are there any further nominations for chairperson hearing none may have a motion to close the nominations for chairperson I'll make a motion I'll [Music] second all right the nominees or any other board member has an opportunity to speak on behalf of the nominee if they choose to

004do so if not we'll begin the balloting okay I'll entertain a motion to open the balloting make a motion to open the balloting Mr kaso the election of the chairperson will be by written ballot uh Donna richardi is going to uh assist me with being the teller today um so Donna if you would please pass out the Ballance it's very very informal and at this time board members will vote by writing down the name of the person they wish to vote for for chair person secret ballot what's that secret ballot when you have your ballot you can just raise it up and Donna will collect those and bring them to me [Music] this is your scripture yeah nomination of the vice chair after they announce your chair I guess she's G to announce it all

005right the ballots are in and let the record indicate that John Paul Garcia has been elected chairperson of the Bethany Board of Education the new chairperson will now assume leadership of the meeting and continue with the election process all right thank you everybody uh let's continue the nomination of Vice chair um move that the Board of Education accept nominations for the position of Vice chairman I'll move I'll second is that recorded all right do we wish to nominate an individual for vice chairman I'll nominate Angelo [Music] Amada second okay um anybody need to Second this please second okay the sure uh Angelo do you accept the nomination for vice chairperson I'll accept the nomination okay Angelo is nominated for vice chairman are there any fur nominations for vice chairman all right move the nominations for

006vice chair be closed motion requires a second second I'll move all right let's open the balloting for position of Vice chair coming around you're on know if I cut enough paper how many are we here oh we're done secretary I'm going to rip these let's put them in half there you go indust young that works be resource sometimes thanks [Music] oh quick you're on want to make sure you get your steps into it thank you and we have to do it one more time too so don't sit down I I was thinking about where I was getting more paper I can rip my something do anymore she can actually give them to you what's that I said you're you're actually in charge now but if you'd like me to do it I can yes go

007ahead okay it's much easier just want to follow the rules with your commission and I have you do the secretary too [Music] okay all right uh let the record indicate on behalf of the chairman that Angelo Amad has been elected as the vice chairperson of the Bethany Board of Education congratulations thank you I think baby all done all right nomination of the secretary secretary shall perform the duties of the chairperson at Bethany Board of Education meetings in the absence of the chairperson and vice chairperson we move that the Board of Education accept nominations for the position of secretary I'll move uh I'll second and Sue Second Joe moved and Sue seconded uh board members wishing to nominate for an individual or secretary will be recognized by the chair the format will be I nominate so

008and so for secretary for the board of uh Board of Education a member will need second the nomination so does somebody have a nomination for secretary I nominate Caroline Larry and I'll second the nomination do you accept the nomination I accept Carolyn ner is nominated lry is nominated are there any further nominations move the secretary nomination of the secretary be closed a second and Jaso Suson done this is it I think this is the last to open the ball what's that need a motion to open the ballot oh I need a motion to open the ballot oh all right I motion so second thank you all right we have to make sure we get a reporting secretary right now we'll talk about [Music] that and K would you do the honors one last time yes

009good thing I can count at least to [Applause] okay Mr chairman let the record indicate that Caroline liry has been elected Secretary of the Bethany Board of Education all right um before we move on to the PTO report and our regular business are we going to entertain getting a recording secretary that is the discussion of the then I think we should talk about that because I think we need somebody uh on board fairly quickly and um I know we talked about it um and I really think that uh we should have somebody on board ASAP do you have somebody in mind when you say recording secretary are you talking about taking the minutes and but the position of Board of Education elected recording secretary or your administrative assistant Administrative Assistant to take minutes and notes

010as required that's a separate posting I understand that I don't have anyone in mind okay does the board feel strongly one way or the other about it it's my recommendation that we get a paid uh paage staff to to handle uh um recording the uh I mean we have a a tape recording but uh to also take minutes as such so should we there's a there's a description in the bylaws of duties of recording secretary so I guess we should uh well we can either vote as a board to have one of us be it or we can continue to pay somebody a stien like we did for Sue Carpenter okay so that's what we like and that's if that's what we all like to do then K would well what does the board feel

011what's the the board's I think we should move forward with K Post in the position the same way we did with Sue okay um so we'll dump that in klap is everybody on board with that yes yes yes okay did we vote on that the last time do you need to vote on it we had we assigned that role I do not know I was not present okay um on that without it being on the agenda the the bylaw says that the recording secretary is appointed by the chair that's what the B says right that's for one of the members of the Board of Education ah I see that's not for well then I let let's let's uh can we move forward without being on the agenda let's yeah we can modify our agenda so

012motion I'll need a motion to modify the agenda to to have a discussion about the retaining of a uh paid Administrative Assistant to take minutes of meetings how's that I need a second second it all right now we go into discussion and it's serious that everybody's on board with this can I have a vote to uh a motion to uh appoint K as our search committee to hire find and recommend to the board a recording secretary as a paid assistant not a board member I'll make the motion if if appropriate perhaps one of your staff that might benefit from a sing don't know but I yeah I me if if it would be a way to incentivize yeah if it would be a way to incentivize somebody on your staff to make a few extra

013dollars you know I mean I'm not particular about who but I just think we should have somebody a uh I just think we should have somebody that uh and just to clarify so then after this after we vote if it's voted yes that's it you just you hire someone and that's it or do they have to get voted in you were making a comment about in the past that you may have had to I don't I don't know I don't believe it was voted in I think it was just a stiped position just be we agree to have that position and then you're responsible for the hiring of that position right if that is what the Yeah that's the way I I think we could authorize her the fiduciary responsibility to think we could trust

014her yeah that's the way we handled so could you just let me know who was the person that seconded that last motion was you right um that but that said who's our recording secretary for this evening is it I've been doing thank you and plus we have I'm not all that worried about about it because we have the tape recording also but I think going forward that's something that has to be handled K shouldn't be responsible for that thank you there's enough will thump on you that being said uh let's go back to the uh uh to the uh published uh minutes and we'll go to the um you got PTO PTO report and so you'll step up give your name hello uh Melissa zdo PTO president um first off on behalf of the PTO

015board of directors I want to congratulate the newly elected members of the Board of Ed and newly elected officers in the board education um so we last left off we distributed our our pies from our pie fundraiser that was held outside uh Town Hall um I know I personally distributed the pies that went to the nagat economical Outreach Network they were very grateful for our donations so thank you to everyone who donated and purchased pies uh this past week last week um we held the snowflake shop here in the gy so a big thank you to Agnes cran for organizing that to all our volunteers her who came and helped WAP help the student shop um unfortunately I wasn't here well not unfortunately I was in Florida but um so thank you to everyone who

016helped out I hope the students had a great time shopping and I can't wait to see what the students got for their um for their loved ones our next me PTO meeting is scheduled for uh December 21st here at 6 PM um we have a couple of things we're going be discussing including one of our new events which is coming in January which is going to be a fun run um it's going to be it's the actual event is going to be on the 23rd but it's a week long hype up event there's going to be all sorts of communication going about that in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for that we also have um a restaurant a restaurant night planned for billies on December 10th I'm sorry not December

01710th January 10th um just go to Billy support our local businesses and now we to cut back to the PTO of also um Lego Club the last day Lego Club has been wildly successful uh the last Lego Club for the fall is meeting tomorrow um we did have to cap the winter registration to 50 students just we did that from a safety standpoint everybody's getting sick and we didn't want all these kids coming in with their germs and they volunteers and everybody getting sick so we did cap the winter at 50 and we have met that um and the first um meeting of the winter is going to be on January 11th um we do have a waight list going so if a student is wait listed they will get priority registration for the Sprint

018session um and that's pretty much all I have to offer for right now thank you very much all right public comment um at this time we will entertain comments from the public we will have three minutes to speak please state your name and address clearly for the record oh okay okay we're back okay Switching hats here I here I am again football yay football um so last time I'm sorry Melissa zalo the1 Beacon Road uh so the last time I was here the am and IU football team had just won to nor Connecticut Pop Warner Championship it was progressing to the regional championships this was their medal from regionals Northern Connecticut well they won regionals they won New England and this one they their New England Champions this this win got them into the national

019championships wow also known as the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando Florida so when I said I was in Orlando that's why I was in Orlando last week the team went last week and we didn't with Nationals but the Amity team did make history by being the first Amity team to ever make it into Nationals and they are the top eight in this country the country okay can't tell I'm proud but if you're wondering why I'm bringing this up um when I when we found out we were going to divisionals I reached out to Mr reale Mrs bird to let them know about the boys playing and we played at seamour high school we played against bth from the northern Mr rewell showed up Mrs bir showed up and pre teachers showed up Mrs beer

020Mrs hly Mr gel and they won which meant we went to Regionals and Mr rewell came to our game in Manchester High School when we won against Stafford Springs in the playoffs to Regionals so I just want to say that boys were so excited to have their staff have their teachers their principal their superintendent to watch them I even have parents coming up to me saying how awesome they thought it was that these that they were taking time out of their weekends to come and support our boys so I wanted to thank Mr reale Mrs bird Mrs spear Mrs hly Mr gamela along with all the other teachers and staff at BCS for showing support to our boys 11 of the 21 players on that team are from Bethany which is half of the team

021and we even have one coach from me these administrators and teachers recognize that student successes don't always happen in a classroom and that BCS students are more than just some number on a standardized test and yes they are students first and foremost but they are also athletes musicians artists writers dancers and a whole host of other things beyond the classroom and the lessons that they learn while being athletes musicians artists dancers Etc will translate the classroom so on behalf of the am9 football team especially the Bethany players Jackson zdo C Fischer carine pasarella Carter grey Eric youngberg Gabe morai LJ Valente Marcus sh Mason Shipman and W students I want to present Mr re with a little token of appreciation I do have something coming from Mrs ber but it just didn't arrive yet [Applause]

022and just for the record I had heard from another parent that they were touched that you guys had showed up they were very very appreciative the kids were very appreciative that you guys had showed up also the fact that there were 45 Amity kids down there 10% of the school was down there CU my granddaughter was down team we did have three cheer teams from go we had yeah it was pretty uh the kids had a good time but they were very touched the fact that uh Miss bird and Mr re whale showed up at the game and the other teachers showed up they were the kids I've heard that from at least one parent so thank you very much guys cheer brought home two national number threes so what's that cheer brought home two

023national number threes yeah yeah and they and the girl my granddaughter's team was fifth um and a five y I guess New Britain um was it Britain Britain brist Bristol yep Bristol got took home a number one yeah number one I know there's yeah I think Bristol was number one Connecticut's very well represented in every year first year the W team made way to the Super Bowl they lost well one of the comments said that going into the stadium to play the game was he said you know they may have lost but it's still something the kids are never going to forget a representation of Connecticut wented like Manchester we were alled yeah it was supposedly it's impressive well congratulations everybody okay uh any other public comment all right uh then I'll entertain a motion

024for approval of minutes of the November 8th regular meeting second just a a couple of spelling mistakes on there for Dr sec I can't what's that couple of spelling mistakes on there for Dr W forgive my pronunciation Dr W SEC Nita I see it and then uh Mrs athman yep in the presentation area there other than that good thank you all right anybody want to make a motion sorry I think maybe first selectman's name might be misspelled there under the public comment line as well yeah it's not con it's co yes this is why you need somebody well do we have a motion to accept it as amended so moved I need a second second all in favor uh before we enter the committee reports I think with the exception of Finance which met last

025night um I think given that the first off does everybody submit their um their questionnaire on which committees they would like to be on I know I haven't I have not I was email I was locked out of email as well what's that I've been locked out of email for the past three weeks up until yesterday so is there any way you have a paper cop those I do not okay and I never received a copy it was in the newsletter that Weekly Link in the weekly okay I forget what number but well we we'd like to try to get that done as soon as possible um like I said I know I've been remiss and if anybody else has been remissed let's see if we can get it done um because I would like

026to hold in a bance the uh DEC 8 the various committee reports until we get that resolved who's where who's on what and um and so forth does anybody have any um any issues with that or any discussion about that issues no but I just a question if we how does this normally work is it just we all get our assignments and if so is there going to be any issues with holding it off because is there supposed to be stuff that's supposed to happen between now and the next board meeting or are we just going to get sent in like a week or so or does it have to happen at a board meeting so that's at the discretion of the chairperson of the board the assignment of the subcommittee it doesn't have to

027happen in public form of the board and so that would be at Mr Garcia's discretion uh the assignment of the Committees and the notification and then the only thing that has to happen between now and the January meeting is a finance subcommittee meeting which is why I suggested the only thing that I know of and and correct me if I'm wrong the only thing I know of is the finance has to go and we'll talk about that during the finance finance committee meeting but everything else uh there's nothing here that really facilities meets every 3 months Aces you know curriculum uh policy transportation and uh negotiations that negotiation is not even on the list um so there's nothing here that's in a bance that that can't be held in a bance for 30 days while

028we try to sort out the uh the Committees and if anybody's got anything you know I'm open to any suggestion anybody wants to make so Now's the Time to discuss it you probably just want to make sure you get committees taken care of before the end of the year because we already skipped curriculum this month you don't want the first Wednesday of January to go by without another curriculum meeting I understand that and uh and that's why I I want everybody to get their their their paperwork in as soon as I can so that we can get this resolved because we have to call everybody I mean it's just not a matter of just saying you're on it and you know there's there's decisions have to be made by nine people so Okie DOI well

029if that being the case then um we'll skip Aces we'll skip curriculum we'll skip facilities unless there's anything hanging K there to my knowledge on facilities there was nothing hanging curriculum was there anything hanging you know there wasn't anything hanging but I was kind of going to throw in a a shine on curriculum even though we didn't meet um I wasn't sure if I would say it under public comment or under curriculum but since I was on curriculum well you're on curriculum so yeah so as you know in the meita was a chair right she was so the chair so it's up to you sport let me just give a little bit of shine you know we've talked about sort of the Spanish program and the English program the math program you know I had

030the unique privilege of attending an open house for the oh geez I'm going to forget what it's called the the unified Unified sports program this afternoon and and for those of the people you know also a parent here at the school and for those in the in the audience on the board that don't know what that is it takes the the students here with special needs and it pairs them with another student from the general student population in an after school program where they do some sports activities you know and um the games are mildly competitive you know they're certainly athletic and active and it just really gives those students who might not have an opportunity to be um treated as part of the larger student population uh a chance to do so and I

031was just so darn proud of the kids that that were there you know it it's not something that comes necessarily naturally to people to treat others that are different the same you know and not just the same but to really welcome them into a group and make them feel 100% welcome and natural and these kids did it and I just want to give them so much Shine for for how how cool it was to see them all playing and laughing and just enjoying that hour and I know my daughter comes home from that program and she absolutely loves it and she's beaming for the rest of the day like she just loves being active but she has like a friend that she talks about there um and I and I just think it's a really

032cool program and I'm really glad that our school does that that they just have that little extra time after school um to really enrich each and every kid that is part of that hour after school and so I just wanted to thank everybody and let you you know just the parents and and the school Community know that you know in addition to the educational work we're doing here there's there's some Community work that gets done here that's that's pretty awesome and so thanks that's that's part of our curriculum too that's pretty pretty great thank you um anybody else about curriculum all right then we'll move right to finance amam you might as well Trot that one out finance committee met last night if you look into packet you'll see that we have an operating budget

033summary as of November 2023 a little bit further up too under general education projections remain status quo from last month general education continues to show a surplus of $4,560 which is due to the salary adjustments for your buyers under special education you will see that the special education salaries is now showing a surplus of $35,200 from last month operations and overhead ends the month with a deficit of $4,055 as reported last month the overall budget is now showing a surplus of $80,500 K uh started with the balance of $6,450 6 in July we've expended 50,7 120 for salaries and supplies and have deposited an additional $2,177 41 for tuition payments this leaves the prek with a bank balance of roughly $ 58,5 6427 as of November 30th 2023 our 102 48 account started the year

034with a balance of $369,990 74 we have expended $1,987 197 for salaries Pavilion work and new classroom supplies and we also have deposited $81,400 76 this deposit includes the $78,000 we deposited from the 2022 and 2023 Surplus and interest ACR thus far this account has roughly $349,450 53 as of November 30th 2023 we have still not yet received reimbursement from Asus for our pairs working with open Choice students since the receipt of reimbursements was an issue last year we're holding off on making any other adjustments to the budget until we have the funding in hand the funding is received we are looking at an additional savings of $20,000 in salaries and benefits as for the audit Brandy reported the audit is still underway as far as we know they have not filed for an extension

035so it should be finished up in the next week or so they have requested the documentation needed to review bry's EFS report the report must be certified in an audit report filed with the state by December 31st regard of whether the town audit is finished or not as always we are hopeful they will be done soon at this point nothing major has been flagged or addressed in regards to the Board of Education with regards to our Budget moving forward for 2024 to 2025 although I do have some notes on that I'll turn to Mrs B to report um and give a little like he gave us last night yeah so you'll do that in your report so Mrs ber will report on the budget where she stand so far when she does her uh superintendent

036report later on in our agenda any questions myself John Paul or Mrs bird could potentially answer anybody got any question questions I'll need a motion to accept the uh report on the operating budget for November as presented Amy moved it second second Angel Second it all in favor no opposed okay moving right along policy I'd like to put on hold until that committee gets there's um gets uh restructured there's nothing any great shakes in there that we have to do so we'll put that on hold Transportation um same thing with the transportation unless there's anything K you need to no meeting no issues right unfinished business none new business uh the calendar I think Kay has to walk us through that this is something this is one of the downsides to having a November election

037is that we're coming in um well let me back off first off I'd like to welcome Shannon Joe Caroline and Susan to the board to our merry band of of men and women and um I hate to say this but we're going to have to get up to speed fairly quickly because we're in the middle of a couple of things one of which is we just got presented with the school uh calendar which has to be uh resolved by January so that's not a lot of time so uh I think K we should hit that one right now um and uh we can do that under um new business or superintendent report however you want to handle it I can do on the agenda we put those in advance oh okay we're going to hold

038off I I Susan asked me a question I said as far as policy goes until we get the new policy committee straightened out we'll put that in a bance because there's nothing there of any great shakes so you're talking about report or the item on under new business both because new business is going to be policies so we'll put those we'll put those on hold also so are we going to make a motion to we're out of order oh okay well let's up a second then not go out of order yes please um thank you unfinished business is the calendar first before take care of unfinished business no new business is the uh 20 425 calendar it was started last month right so it's unfinished it's right there and number seven you're looking at the

039meeting minutes Mr gcia not the agenda for well then seven under eight new business policy I would recommend that we put the policy under new business in abeyance until after the policy committee is restructured we have to go to look at the item right number seven unfinished business we have to do that first that's what we talked about calendar we got to vote on it correct don't look at that those don't look at that okay look at the you must have gone by it it's back there keep going there you go okay it takes me a month or two to get straight now don't worry there a lot of paper we to fix that too um policy Transportation unfinished business is the calendar yes I got it right okay so let's discuss that right now

040because that has to be done by uh relatively quickly yes so last month I was asked for additional calendar options um I presented to you previously a calendar uh proposed draft calendar with our standard um President's Day break and then a second option with a full break in February um after my meeting with boa colleagues I did create an additional um option for your consideration that aligned with what um I knew Dr buers was going to be presenting to The Amity board based on some data that she had found as well which is similar to the data that I had presented to you all last month where we do find an uptick and absenteeism the Thursday and Friday before the what we have fately called the fake Break uh in February she did present um

041and have conversation with her board on about that so I presented you I present you with these three drafts one is our standard calendar that we've had the last several years with two days off in a February break one that represents a full week off in February break and one that represented having the two the Thursday Friday before president's weekend and then that Wednesday afterwards giving that total of the 5 days with the goal of trying to add three days to your calendar as had been discussed previously um and I'll share with you that on Monday evening The Amity Board of Education um in their meeting did approve their 2425 calendar with a full break in the week of February so that's draft two that that is our version of draft two yep that's draft

042two correct so our draft two aligns with what was passed uh at Amity on Monday that's for the three Amity schools all three Amity schools that's for all the schools so uh Amity High School Amity Middle School Orange Amity middle school Bethany the cend they will fall so if we do something different does that impact our transportation on the days that we uh am is not in school and we are in school we'd be responsible phisically for those full bus runs because we do share bus runs with Ed for n buses so that's a cost issue and I think there was also a discussion last month of that if families have you know kids in multiple schools that having some variety in the calendars is challenging as well it's probably going to be the the

043issue with that would be more so I think us being off and the older grades not because if you have younger children though if we are not aligned there still runs the risk of potential absences now because if grade 7 through 12 is off maybe maybe people take vacations um what I'm curious to know is was what was the discussions after because I know some of the things that I had raised were how did we start with February break if we the reasoning for adding days was because of needing to extend past June and it started with February break and I know that I had asked was anything else you know discussed or um looked into or researched and it still went back to Let's research when the absences are over February break so was

044there any discussion of it not ever being February break and why was it February break yeah so I can't speak to what hamd finally decided in terms of their vote on Monday we did have additional conversations at our boa superintendent meeting about if we were to add days did we wish to add religious holidays we had conversations about which holidays would you add when would you add them how many holidays are you going to add we looked at adding days to other um days that we already have off so but they wouldn't be static days so let's say that we added a day to when we have we celebrate wases right because that's already a day that we have off if that fell on a Thursday in that particular year we we take the Friday

045as well so then it' be two days there and and two days somewhere else it seemed very disruptive to instructional Cycles to have some additional random days so we tried to condense it so it' be less impactful to instruction so what days like the day before Thanksgiving or things like that discussed those days already count um so you're talking about the Wednesday yeah so we talked about taking off the the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving break and what did that do um to scheduling but those weren't uh supported by the other districts looking at those other days so talking about just globally having the conversation um people didn't want to Monkey around too many of those already standing holidays I did watch The Amity board meeting and I do know that they um there was no

046other opt the only other option was still the February break just adjusting it to a Thursday Friday um Monday through Wednesday but there was praise for Bethany um taking the the action of actually looking at Data before just throwing out dates um and that would praise for that um and then I guess decided to actually follow suit and look at when the actual absences were so um I think that's a speaks volumes of you know you thinking ahead so go ahead no please AMD I had been considering right um or some students had asked about Eden devali but they chose not to put those in the new calendar not for this calendar um in our conversation when Dr buers shared with us that it had been approved um my understanding is that their board um

047asked the students to consider resubmitting that not for the 2425 calendar but potentially for 25 26 or sometime after that which is where my concern lies because if we are are looking to extend and add days fine right we do it as February break okay but then if we now add the three holidays in and potentially with maybe potentially with observed days maybe not if we add in those holidays oh and then we have we're kind of encroaching juneth a little bit so then we have another day for that and then we get three snow days now we're looking at back in the problems we had when we got rid of February break is we're back into June 20th so if they're going to consider the holidays this is where I didn't want to my

048concern was jumping right on adding vacations in if you're going to add days other places maybe wait but I think Amity has a tendency to just jump on things really fast I think in terms of also um considering the the full week for February um it's also a time where the school can shut down and disinfect and kind of reset and and it will help with illness um or stop the spread of illness or hinder it and then that in terms could help the absenteeism so what are the makeup something to consider excuse me yeah no I'm just saying that might be something to consider as well my wife was always a big fan of that it was always a um try to break up the site because that's usually when the everybody in his

049brother starting to get sick get sick um when were the makeup days for snow what was the intent for doing snow if we had snow days if we have snow days if we have we built snow days into the calendar if we exceed the snow days that are built into the calendar those are made up at the end of the year yes okay that's snow days are made up at the end a day but the but the bottom line but the bottom line the bottom line is draft two aligns with Amity so people with kids in both systems should have the same schedules I think it's aw I think it's awfully hard to consider calendar that doesn't align with the m system exactly I I think we have no choice I think we have no

050choice but it's you know does anybody have any um concerns questions or comments Now's the Time to do it because K doesn't need an answer I mean I I agree with Angelo I am worried that if we start adding more it's going to build up so I think if we think about this as and I know it's hard to give people a February break and then potentially take it away but like to try to be as clear as we can that this is what we're going to do for this year but depending on what other days need to be added next year that this is Fe break would be back on the table for that future discussion hopefully because as I think EJ said we're kind of you know it would be hard not to

051follow us and Carol said the same thing would be hard not to follow us now our hands are tied we really aren't getting much of a decision in this they made the decision for us where the tail on the dog do you know what orange district is doing or Woodbridge for beer and their other public schools and you have not um presented their boards with any other Alternatives other than the standard calendar um they did make the their boards aware of the requests from Amity and The Amity students also reached out to those Boards of education but what they had presented at this time is just the regular calendar with the two days off um I don't know where they plan to go we just met yesterday they've not made a decision as to what

052it is that they're going to propose to their board okay so they would ensure the additional cost on busing then too orange and Woodbridge uh orange is not part of our group they their when do we have to make a decision um I have to have an approved calendar by January because I need to in this calendar or also your Board of Education meeting dates and by law I have to present those that information to the town by the end of January so you do have another meeting before then um but I would definitely need an answer by then because I don't want to get in trouble with the town all right keeping with that then before we vote on the calendar um a suggestion does anybody you know we meet Wednesdays at 6:30 um

053does anybody have any suggestions on changing any of the meeting date time or location does anybody want to discuss that if we're going to have to make up a calendar Now's the Time to do it the as a board meeting or the subcommittees oh it's a board meeting in other words we have to by law we have to publish our meeting dates and the times and locations a year in advance that's PL and Zoning everybody has to do that so in order for K to finalize a calendar we have to decide a do we want to continue the meet in the uh School B do we want to continue to meet at 6:30 on Wednesdays second Wednesday I mean Now's the Time to have that discussion we have a new board we have four new

054members uh would you need to make a motion to the agenda to have that discussion because it's not listed I'll make a motion to amend the agenda to dis well no the Calendar's listed the Calendar's listed this Falls changing a board meeting Dae time falls under the school calendar sure because we if we change the school calendar but I mean if you want to do it we can I'll make a motion to uh amend the um amend the uh agenda what agenda agenda to discuss possible uh Board calendar location and meeting times do I have a second I'll second do we have any discussion are you talking about for 2425 or for the remainder of this school year because these well this year we have one more meeting no we can't change that that meeting's

055already been published it's next it's December uh or excuse me um no that's that meeting that meeting January so that's so yeah that would be a change if we two different things I think we have to finish this is just the school but I think we should make the motion to then have the discussion about our dates and everything yeah but she has to put this in this calendar also this is this is just the school calendar the board meeting doesn't have to like we can publish that on our district calendar with our dates but aren't our board meeting dates separate from the school okay one at the time then they're separate but they're they are just listed yeah they're listed here so I think we should probably close this one out but then make

056the motion to then open the the board calendar or the board meeting dates and times all right then let's not let's not confuse the issue let's concentrate on the but but here's here's my question so we're going to move forward with option two and then open the discussion to the board night in time is that what you're saying yes that's yeah okay why don't we do that well what what's discussed is is draft two which aligns with The Amity calendar what everybody feels we should do let's take a preliminary vote and then move it oh make a motion to vote to accept draft two the calendar okay we have a motion Angelo second discussion all in favor I so then I think we go with draft two which aligns with the EMD calendar now I'll

057entertain a motion to have a discussion about the board calendar location and time of meeting second we have a second Angelo all right discussion personally we are Board of Education I can't think of a better place to meet than in the school uh 6:30 seems to work and um Tuesday seems to work or Wednesday excuse me Wednesday Wednesday um but I'm open to any suggestion you know we have like I said we have four new board members there may be something we're not you know seeing maybe somebody wants something different you know Now's the Time to discuss it because we have to set that for the next 13 months is there any economic benefit to having it in town hall or any accessibility benefit well the only problem could be that if we make that

058change now the gym is supposed to be renovated soon and then we're right back here it's something we want to move to do it might be something that's a future agenda item I was just thinking like for connectivity or like Zoom like I don't know what the the setup there for we don't really have that now there but once it's renovated it'll be like an ideal location because it'll be all up to date so it might be something to discuss maybe to be considered again at a later date once it's well it have to be considered either you know next year or we would have to amend uh and that's usually pain in the Buns to to amend your uh meeting schedules but I agree but that's I think the school's a good place to

059be you know just so we're going to stick with this time this date and this location agree do I have a motion do we need a motion well then we now have our calendar for the school move to close discussion well like I said it was it was raised it's it's it's something we have a new board we should you know at least Trot it out and see what it looks like because somebody may have an idea [Applause] okay uh under the new business bylaws I'd like to put that in a a bance until we have the curriculum or to the uh policy committee uh put together so I need a motion to um hold off on acting on new business until next month somebody want to make that motion does it affect our mandatories

060because this we have two motions here one for mandatory rision and one for technical there's time for the mandatory and the technical revisions okay so move time ask what is What is the time is there a is there a time frame of we should have it done by most of these are July 1 implementations if there's any substantive change because it would be something connected to regulation so you have time to and yeah and just to be up front one of the things that we're going to be looking into is whether mandatory is actually mandatory or recommended because there seems to be some confusion and we haven't gotten an answer from our attorney yet which is something we have to um we have to chase so these would be so you is the the motion

061is to move these to next month's board meeting or to back to the policy committee yeah you could well I think we need to refer them back to the policy committee to sort out the mandator we have I have to get with Kay about this and I think for the time being we'll carry it to next month but at that next month's meeting we'll have an update for you um but but here's my question John sure if the policy committee the new policy committee reviews this documents and comes back with change then those documents will be go back to First reading correct and then we start the process over so why don't we table them until the policy committee brings them back forward but that's what I'm saying we have July don't put a don't

062say next month let's tap them into review of the policy committee to bring them back to the board we can do that too what I'd like to see let them review them and then let them bring a whole package if you want to put that in the form of a motion we can do that too I think we held these for first reading because we knew we had new new members coming right even though we've been holding them over I think we held them so that every then we can do that also it's it's not a big deal like Cas said there's nothing here that has to be done this week or this month technically we have to take action upon these by the June meeting correct I would say so you would enroll by

063July 1st correct you need to do it in May for at the latest May for first read for a vote very bye okay so why don't we table into review of the policy committee bring make the motion somebody make a motion I'll make a motion think somebody second it I just want to because some of these require the superintendent to promulgate regulations so I just I don't could could we back it up a month to April so that she has time to to make regul well hopefully we'll get it done sooner bring back and then we'll move forward once they did wait a I just want to make sure I have just a point of order if I could just make sure I have the motion correct and then who's moving it who's seconding seconding

064the motion um the motion on the table is to the motion in front of us is to table all new business pertaining to policy and is it to send it back to the policy committee for further review yes yes with the understanding that it has to be completed by the April meeting well first reading has to be at the April meeting to vote in May at a second that's fair that's fine that's awesome that work but we have to have a cut off date in there as Shannon was pointed out we need time for the stuff to get sorted out well and that would give us April May and June so if something comes back for first reading there's discussion goes back to policy committee it still gives us that time frame to move forward

065with the mandatories the person who second that motion lawyer responds somebody asked so if it comes for a first reading and it's edited and it comes back is that a new first reading or is it a second reading when it's edited it's a first read of the edit it's a first read of the edit so April's not could potentially not give us enough time to implement it by July 1st if it has an edit so I think I think one of the bigger questions to direct the policy and I obviously we don't know who's going to be on the policy committee but it sounds like there's some concern about what's mandatory and what's not when it comes from our legal um advisory um you know staff you know it depends on what you consider mandatory

066right you know we trust our legal staff to tell us what's mandatory but they're protecting us from liability right so what we might it might not we have to get a ruling we can't they haven't responded yet yeah I and and to be honest with you anybody who's dealt with attorneys they could they could tell us however they want they can tell you whatever they want it's it's something that we have time let's get it sorted let's get it done correctly so going forward we don't have to have this discussion again and let me just say EJ I brought I brought this up in the November meeting because I looked at the the list of policies I marked as mandated and I compared them with a uh Cab's website and their list of mandated policies

067and there's all there's 11 policies here that are marked mandated and I could only find four of them sure at Cave right and the rest of them were were recommended so there's some confusion somewhere and I don't know if it's a clerical error if it's a difference in legal opinion or some other confusion so it really needs to get sorted out because when you say mandate you feel like the hands are tied you don't have any choice you got to pass it we need to know what is optional what's next so so let me ask you a question should we Define what's m is a mandate policy something that state statute says we must do yes is what I would consider mandated yes yes because I know we've had some problems in the past where

068we said cave and legal councel and it's been drawn out in this forum that that was not the truth so I agree with you we need to get a handle on it and you know even when we say legal counsil and c I always like to to see that supporting documentation cuz we've been proven that that has not been in place we need clarification yes for those policies and I'm I'm sure whoever the policy will handle that appropriately well if Shipman and Goodwood could just give us a list like C has published a list it may be pretty simple maybe there's I don't know if they'll match which would make it less simple but uh you know that there's we need to understand this because right now you know you say mandate it it it

069sort of means we don't have a choice just pass it and off we go and it's a legal basis determination this is one of the things that somebody's going to have to hit the ground running quickly because we don't have a lot of time to to play with it so and correct me when I'm wrong we revisit our policies every three years on a rotating basis correct corre or as State Statute changes is that fair to say that is correct okay okay as we're having this discussion I'm thinking of two things that are coming that one thing is coming up and one thing tied to it potentially Cape training for um new board members that's going to be mandated potentially but also thinking about how at one point in time we had our attorneys we

070had Shipman come in here and this is a couple years ago right where they came in and actually had like a basically ran our p a PD for us professional development for us maybe that's something that we're possibly do for and we have new board members um we have some questions about some of this maybe that might be as our summer Retreat you can have a PD Retreat yeah our summer retreat planning something like that again maybe we can have discussions about these these things with our attorneys essentially and may we can discuss it we can see what the ramifications are we can see what the uh Logistics are and we can uh report back in January is that something we can do between you also have a representative from Cade come I was at

071the leadership conference last week and they're more than happy to do PD Retreats at any time of the year that a board opts to do so you can have a combination of the two or have separate ones that might be something to look into and I know you know based on these discussions I think it sounds like it's pretty important so if we can get that done we have to try to find a time that we can all be there because it's it's great in theory but if there's a date where only four of us can make it then it kind of defeats the purpose so if we can as a group try to you know put that together with K and well that's something I I think we can discuss we'll Chase it and

072I'll get back to you next I'll tell you what I'll give your board report I'll give the board report next month and what we find out how's that okay yeah I guess things are a little rough right now with all the holidays everybody's running around you got to get past the first of the year okay yeah we'll work it out still have yes ma'am you need to vote on the motion yeah it's we got to say I or nay or call a motion for a vote all right call a motion so take your vote all those favor table right the table the policies and refer them back to the committee yes is that everyone I didn't know exactly what we're voting on would you like me to exate the motion the motion was made to

073I yeah it just took me a minute to figure out which of the many things we were talking about was what we were no please if you have questions please let's get them out all right superintendent administrative report you covered some of it so welcome to all of our our new board members and thank you for your willingness to serve uh our community in this way in your packets you'll find the enrollment summaries for the 2021 2022 22 23 uh school years in comparison this year we started the school year with 445 students and as of November 3r 2023 our enrollment is currently at 449 students we've gone up just a few students any questions as I keep going no okay um Personnel update uh the following staff have resigned from their position Courtney Bergen

074uh a part-time custodian uh Christopher gamello a fourth grade teacher he is returning to his old uh District of bridge courts he feels he's better suited to be teaching in an inner city um and Sue Carpenter uh Board of Board of Education administrative assistant and uh HR person and your uh who active assistant as well uh Mr rewell and I did send out a communication home to the families um Tom sent it out uh to the fourth grade families that were affected by Mr gamela with a transition plan uh that went out yesterday um he did share with his students and so all of that they've been notified and at this time we have a plan in place for some consistent coverage with Meredith indorf uh Mrs indorf is our building sub she's also a

075certified teacher and she covered a long-term maternity leave for us last year so she will step into that position while we post and hopefully find a more permanent replacement uh assuming that we have viable applicants it most likely will not happen until after break uh to your point um it'll be posted tomorrow but I don't know that we'll be able to vet applicants and get interviews done in the next five days but we will try our best so how long was this teacher with the school he just joined us this year okay that's what I thought yeah all right just wasn't his passion correct okay def go after your passion he said Bethany is a lovely Place uh he really enjoyed working here gave lots of kudos to our students the family involvement and the

076collaborative efforts of his team but it's not where his heart is so she likes CER study my daughter's the same way yep so my daughter's the same way chase Your Passion otherwise you'll never be happy yep yep yep and you did hear a little bit about uh budget development previously um it's a little more challenging this year we do have more students we have more staff um Supply costs you know less grant opportunities all of those things but we're continuing to plug away at it in hopes of presenting my superintendent spending proposal to you next month um as is tradition but if that changes just let me know uh last month we did share that our status quo number is higher than it was last year right out of the gate um with just contractual

077increas increases we were at 8.11% 8.11% largely due in fact uh to the teacher contract that we just negotiated um after meeting with all the Departments and factoring in their requests I've gotten up to a 99.59% increase um then we factored in some conservative Grant offsets and again we only factor in Grant offsets um for the grants that we know that we have there are other grants out there that could we could potentially get that would also work to our our favor but we only count the money that we have um so when we factored in the grant offsets we were able to lower the budget by [Music] $223,700 out of the 10- 248a account that is also now part of that increase um in health insurance usually Brandy and I have a better sense

078at this point of a not to exceed number we did meet with the town uh it was just last week um they're not able to give us a not to exceed number and they're not looking to give it to us anytime soon they'd like to have some additional time to see what kind of claims come in uh and then they'll get us that number but usually once we get that insurance number we are able to get it down another percentage point or two um that was the case case last year so that is what I have to report on the budget at this 6% what is the dollar figure on that because you went back and forth in numbers right you were percentages then you were dollars I don't have that in front of me

079right now what was the question what was what 9% then she has 258,000 then she had six what's the well last year's budget was 75 so 10% is 750,000 somewhere in the five $500,000 range I don't have but what I was going to suggest is one of the things we talked about is K has to present the board has to present this to the board of Finance in February correct we don't have a lot of time to fool around with this and that you may want to consider thinking about a workshop in January if we need one to go over the budget I definitely think we're going to need one well we we won't know until we refine the numbers a little better but I just want everybody to keep that in the back of

080their mind that we may very well need one we haven't done one in a number of years you know it's been pretty cut and D Dred we've been coming in at you know 2 and a half 3 3 and a half% a couple years we came in flat but um so it's just something to keep in the back of our mind that we may very well need to schedule a uh intermediate budget Workshop once K refines the numbers a little better okay I don't know if you have the answer to this but if you the current teacher contract if that had stayed remain the same and you were going to roll that into next year what is just the cost increase of things like keeping the lights on turning the heat on like what increase

081would it give us solely from that regardless of you know principal expenses or or you know building supplies and I what's that increase I think we would still be high in the 4 and 1 half to five range um in my conversations with some of my local colleagues and in the even small district superintendent meeting most districts that have negotiated a teacher contract and if they negotiate at kind of what the going rate is which is anywhere it was at 12 and a half now they're inching up towards 133% increases over the three years those districts are seeing a significant increase in their their budget proposals for this year many of them are also seeing increases because they kind of are falling off that the Esser Cliff um because they're incorporating staff that they hired

082with Grant funds that's also hitting people's budgets luckily for us that's not the case we a little fiscally smarter than everybody else um so what we're looking at is because of enrollment and also as I shared with you there are some other programs that were Grant funded that are part of this cost so if I were to remove for example our boost program which as I've said for the last three and a half years this is the year it was going to hit the budget removing the Boost program gets a down into the fives but that's one of the things we have to talk about in the budget meeting right that's a student facing thing so with our teacher contract we just approved the hard cost impact is roughly 2 and a qu% or 325,000

083somewhere in that ballpark but I don't want to quote you exact figure because I don't have my binder with me yeah I'd like to know actually what that hard that hard number is of contractual obligations versus old versus new and then we kind of figure out where we are you know it's a reality of a number because people are going to be asking because they got their assessments two I can I can certainly have that information for you and add it to right butd going to go up so we can have it next one no but no say two and a quarter SE should be 17 can you restate your your specific question I can I can provide you with updated information remember correctly our 2 and half% budget increase last year was 258,000 we

084were 3.58 yeah whatever it was 258,000 so I'm just curious what our teacher impact is because I know people are going to be asking what they see these increases look we had to take care of our teachers which was appropriate yeah percentage and dollar and percentage and dollar amount okay so and I and I would say as as a board I you know I know a lot of folks you know are joining us now on this board um there was a lot of pressure from the community um and from the staff to make sure that we were developing a staff that would want to spend their entire career here um to be members of our school community and to feel valued and to drive um results for our children and our families and um I

085I think we really developed a responsible budget uh for the town you know that um um made sure our teachers felt value you know felt valued and so there there was a cost to doing that but I think that it it was something that the town was calling for and that the teachers really deserved you know and so um we were in a rough place you know inflationary uh you know place and and I think the town is going to struggle with that this year as they go into the budget season you know and we all did just get our assessments so it's going to be a conversation in the community right people saw their assessments and they haven't seen what the mill rate is yet but the school budget's going to be prickly you

086know when anybody hits and we got to go to that referendum um it's going to be prickly you know so um you know we'll be thoughtful when we when we look at this budget you know not that we're not always but we'll we'll need if when we're voting for it we got to support it when people ask us why it is what it is we got to be thoughtful with how we respond and let them know every sacrifice advice we make you know in there let's be honest with them you know and any time it's it's more we got to tell them why yeah you know so we you know they feel like we're being honest with them you know so they know what they're getting you know for their dollars I think the teacher

087contract was absolutely well deserved for what they do here yeah I I hope the community feels that way too because I think our teachers are pretty great well and I just want to highlight something else that Mrs bird said right which is just the numbers in front of us we gone from 387 students and Vol 21 to 449 students there's going to be an increased cost to teaching more kids and I think that's needs to be part of the discussion too the Secret's out everything is great stop telling people to move here don't worry they got their put the house up for sale all right all right moving right along what else so just keep that in mind we may have a budget uh Workshop coming up in January uh two two other things K

088the roof I forgot to during facilities are the roofs scheduled the roofs the 16th what's that on Saturday okay you got any hbac grants cooking anywhere not yet okay all right um director of special services Miss Kesley you're up okay thank you um professional devel vment we continue to have professional development with literacy how and every grade level has now received one rotation of coaching and that's focused on the science of reading and grades five and six have had one day with the math math consultant from Ed advance and they will also get to have three coaching Cycles with our consultant um regard to curriculum um I know that word has gotten out but I just want to share all again that we finally received word on our waiver we've been waiting and waiting um

08916 districts around the state were approved four were partially approved which means they must add an additional component five districts had transitional approval which means they must add and substitute uh specific programmatic curriculum components and 15 districts had limited approval which means it was not approved at all we were pleased to have received a rating of partially meets expectations this means that we'll be able to continue to honor all of the hard work our staff has done to create a strong reading curriculum and supporting resources the CSD is requiring us to add additional resources to support our work in the area of vocabulary and comprehension um basically the partially meets expectation means that we do not have to make drastic changes to our K3 reading by the July 1 2024 implementation date we have time

090to select what our required resources are and thoughtfully plan for its incorporation into our existing program um I was also able to secure a grant so we will not have to find the funds out of our current budget nor will we need them in the proposed uh spending plan for 2425 uh Mrs bird notified uh the Greater Community once we had um confirmation of the grant so that we could let our community know our status and that there would be no Financial impact um one thing that's noteworthy we were the only District in the boa who received a partial approval the others are not approved with a rating of limited and just further information about the grant the grant that we received was for $74,000 to use towards the approved science reading programs and we'll

091be evaluating the state approved programs um for vocabulary and comprehension to determine which one it best meets the needs of our students and our staff and um just finally with special education we continue to have an increase in referrals and the team is working really hard to meet the needs of all of the students uh we currently as of today have 92 students within IEP and this is a trend that's happening across the state some of it's postco but having an increase any questions are you using a platform called amplify um we do have amplify for Science and we've had that for years and then we use that for um mclass which is the state required screener that we use called Dibbles okay yeah I'll just mention that you know that some of these curriculum

092places have started Plastering the board email with promo oh really so I don't know if that's part of their contract or if they just like took Liberties but it's sort of like I think it's inappropriate you know C I understand you know that's the board of it but I'm not so sure that the you know the uh board emails should be at Liberty to any vendor servicing or potentially servicing the school what they tend to do is just go to a district website they'll look up all of the boards of Education or the district because on your your information is on the district website and so what they'll do is they'll just go and take the information and then just kind of start spamming you all right well I'll try to unsubscribe but sometimes that's

093feudal I just Del use it yeah I know but you know you get a couple hundred emails a day it's delete delete delete delete it's ridiculous thanks all right thank you Miss kessle Mr Reed Swale you're on all right so uh as always we've been pretty busy uh uh post our last meeting uh we had our Veterans Day assembly and I wanted to just um be on the record send a de thanks to ad Seth Adam spoke to our younger students uh and Seth spoke to our older students and I think both really kind of brought and represented and presented uh the day really well um you know Adam's Adam's really great at being relatable kind of talking about his his time and his service and really being able to kind of connect and and

094answer questions from students um and Seth kind of switched up this year and um and brought a presentation around the Medal of Honor um a lot of times he'll talk through some of his service um but he really focused on the Medal of Honor and talking about um what it means to earn the Medal of Honor and um and all sorts of different facts around those recipients and I think it was a really great space to kind of think about and really for those kids to learn a little more deeply about something that connects to Veterans so um just really grateful that they continue to be our our Point folks for those assemblies um and that they do such a great job of making it um something that's relatable to the students uh American Education

095week um was really successful we had a ton of Volunteers in um a lot of activity here students writing um notes and letters and a lot of community members and family members coming and joining us um of note uh so we had a student who brought a proposal for an after school computer science for all Club um we were able to lean into that with her uh Mr gasio has uh signed on as the adviser for that uh they've got about 15 sessions on the books and they've been um going really strong with that uh success begets success and so I uh I had two young gentlemen uh in sixth grade who came up to me and asked to start an orts gaming Club to which I was like whoa what are you talking about

096uh and I was like let's be careful with that uh and so I gave them a couple of parameters to think about in terms of researching and things that way uh and they've come back with some ideas is so um we're very much just in the idea phase but it's great to have um spaces where kids feel empowered to to kind of take a lead to come forward with something that's an idea and we as um staff um what appropriate and and able to kind of rally around their ideas and kind of Empower them so uh looking into that and just thinking about what the what that might uh look like maybe not necessarily for this year but um we're starting to see students just kind of stepping forward with leadership and ideas there and

097um we want to just honor that uh our community meeting uh this last month was the theme around gratitude um and then we had our holiday food drive around Thanksgiving uh Leadership Council working with Miss mathman and Miss laskan uh were able to take all of our donations and put together 15 sets of food uh for families and need um they also worked with donations from the PTO um and Bethany Rotary Club as well so it was really great um just a a great amount of food able to get out for families uh picture retake day was on o 8th um and then we had two really great events uh that centered around our choir Mrs pots um had our choir um coming down for the tree lighting um they had the the concert and

098I sing along um it was absolutely adorable um on the 3rd of December and then she followed that up uh that week on the 6th uh with the kids singing for the senior lunch and so that um was really wonderful our snowflake shop was um unbelievably successful it's wonderful like the kids having a space like kids are often not able to share in that idea of of like the the surprise right they have to go with somebody and it's so great that they can kind of come to that shop and have something as small as it might be to kind of be their own and and be their way to be able to surprise and enjoy in that in that gift giving um and so it was really great to have kids be a part

099of that um thank you to the PTO it's a lot of TBS of stuff that come in but it's so great for the kids just to be able to have that um report cards went out on December 8th um and then as you heard Unified sports had their had their their party this afternoon so a lot of things that have been going on um as we look forward we've got our holiday uh toy drive that's ongoing the toys that we donated to troop I um and the youth Continuum uh next week is our spirit week we're very excited for some seriously atrocious sweaters I have to choose between two the light up Stitch or the Savannah bananas it's it's Co flip for me um we also have some really fun things we're trying you know

100um it it it doesn't always you know kind of take away the long hours and the hard work but we're trying to put together some fun things for staff uh we've got a secret snowflake um going with staff and then also um we've got uh Miss naan and I um and she has informed me that we are going to be dressing up um as we do a snack cart at the end of the week for staff so we're just trying to give um a little levity and a little shine to the staff as well uh our um in lie of our um community meeting for December we've got our winter sing along that'll be taking place on the 21st um we're really excited for that so um kids will be in the round um in

101the gym and be uh singing several um winter songs uh and then on uh the 22nd Yours Mine and everyone's favorite highly competitive annual Summit volleyball tournament guaranteed to follow all the expected rules or we will be called out um will be taking place on octember 22nd it's very competitive fifth grade has won it a couple of times recently um so we're just excited to kind of have that as a as a cap off before we go to Winter Break um and then as we return um in January um we're going to really be hitting the ground running our uh winter Benchmark for I ready opens on um January 8th so we're going to be getting into that getting that started um and we've already been doing as um Miss Kel said um part of

102amplify M class which is part of um one of our assessments um and so we've been seeing a lot of um teachers doing some ongoing uh progress monitoring with that and we've been seeing some pretty positive results there and our winter Benchmark uh window is a chance for us um through several different assessments to to gauge what our what our progress and our growth is so far through the year so um that's coming quick upon us and uh and that's what we've got going until um we meet again in January thank you very much I got a couple questions for you we're halfway through the year now yep how's the tininess in the upkeep of the interior of the building then with the janitorial staff I know that was a huge sticking point and I

103know we worked towards some goals how would we doing there uh anecdotally I would say that convers I would say from a personal anecdotal speaking I think that the the building is being well maintained and I think um what I see both from tickets that I submit if there's something that needs um addressing or um in conversations that I have with team leaders so I have a monthly team leader meeting um and I think previously I used to get a lot more um feedback around some tickets and things and I think um if if I was um if I was representing what I would say the feedback that I've gotten is that um you know in anything there's tickets that need to be submitted but they're being um addressed quickly um and I think the

104staff is really appreciative of that do you feel they have significant Personnel to maintain the Excellence in the building currently I I haven't seen otherwise um I know that we had the the resignation of the staff members so I know that's always a little stressful especially when you've got a small crew right a crew of five or six you lose one it's a fifth or a sixth of your your group um but I've from what I've seen they've they've been able to maintain their schedules and do well with it at this point we're actually getting teachers sending in emails saying Hey i' would like to give a little shout out to Mr Fallon and his cre you know bathroom looks good or I put in this ticket and something that previously you know took days

105perhaps a week he had it done in two hours so so staff are actually giving positive feedback unsolicited positive feedback about all of the all of the staff we had uh just this last weekend we hosted the Lions craft fair here and got tons of feedback emails from how supportive they were how quickly they cleaned the building when you walked in here on Monday you would never building was full of people and all the things that it had this weekend so very positive change yeah I'm glad to hear that because I know that was a real sticking point before I just wanted to ask you you had mentioned that in January the the I Benchmark opens so when when is that data then become available to things are going the moment at which the kids

106finish the assessment okay so individually so I mean I guess the it's that's like the short of it like once they're done we get the number um the long of it is to really kind of judge by class or by grade or by school we really need to get that we need to get the you know our total sample through um but when for any students that we go once they finish that assessment we immediately get that data it updates their my path and their programs that way um and it can really inform Us in terms of where their growth is or where they might not be growing um but we we take that in a cycle so the it's the forgive me it's the 8th to I want to say the 26th I think

107I'm wrong on the 26th but it's in that that middle of January and then what we do is we use that post that through our data teams we analyze at a grade level and a classroom level as to where we are um and then um Miss nathman um and Mrs Hub myself we meet on a weekly basis and so what we do is we piggyback on that and take more of a global look at that um both by grade and then by school looking and seeing if there's any trends that we have and then based on that any needs for um potential support for either classes grades students um and then along with that on an individual student basis we take a look at what we expected for certain students growth and then whether or

108not we need to re-evaluate on a tier one classroom level tier two or potentially tier three and then we look at what levels of academic support kids might need so by first week of February we've kind of gone through that that whole um cycle because also along with that you have teacher goals that are having to come through um um and their teachers are wanting to report out to us because we have our midor meetings so we try and set that with the window so that there's enough time for them to be able to reflect and then we can have a discussion you know in in the middle of February to be able to discuss where staff are according to their goals and then make plans you know based on their needs to be able

109to help them be successful okay that's really helpful I have a totally different thing to say which is just um you mentioned the toy drive and I you mentioned how great it is with the snowflake shop that kids can actually go and do the shopping themselves and I just want to the fact that kids you know sometimes when we have a toy drive it's up to the parents right to donate toys to it but because the kids can donate their paws and they um can really feel like they're a part of donating to to um uh to kids who wouldn't have toys otherwise I just wanted to shout that out as something that I think is a really tremendous opportunity for our kids to practice that um that giving part of of the holidays well

110just to picky back on that uh I just had a cup of coffee out of my Christmas mug that my youngest who is now a senior at Amity got in the snowflake shop when he was here so um and there was a discussion about it so it left an impact for sure so that's nice anything else thank you chairman report nothing correspondence no correspondence public comment second go around any member of the of the public would like to get up and speak now is the time to uh you have 3 minutes please state your name and Paul you want to come down all right um I just want to kind of circle back on a couple of things that were talked about during the meeting with regard to your calendar for the board meetings not

111the school calendar itself but for your board meetings keep in mind that once you set that calendar any deviation from that becomes a special meeting even if you were to keep the same date but change the time that becomes a special meeting which now means you have a lot in agenda whatever you put on the agenda cannot you cannot add to that agenda so because you have new members on I just wanted to sort of throw that out there so you're aware of that okay um once you set that calendar is pretty much good to go any deviation becomes a special meeting so okay uh couple things with the just with the budget uh K the school the town hamdy and Woodbridge we work together Woodbridge kind of orchestrates it to do a Consortium uh

112they advertise for bids for fuel gas diesel um and then we do the bid opening next week and the lowest bidder will get it for the next year so that sort of helps us with budgeting so we know we give them the amount of gallons now we have some more vehicles that have turned over to gas so we had to kind of up our gas number and lower our diesel because of the vehicles so we have to kind of keep in mind what we what we have to use and what we need to to fill so just keeping in mind that is a budget piece we look at and we try to lock it with numbers for that um just so you know the board of Finance did meet last night we did discuss dates

113for uh budget workshops so right now they have said it to be the last Monday of January which is the 29th and the first Friday of February so they're basically the same week it'll be the Monday and the Friday and we know we usually try to put the Board of Education early on one of those dates so you tell me if you have a preference for one of those dates and I'll make sure that we lock you into that time probably starting at 3:00 again okay so just let me know um oh just to swing back to the very beginning because I think a couple of a point of order couple of motions were made when you discussing appointing K to do the search for a meeting clerk K you may want to just look

114back to your minutes I don't know if those two motions at the very beginning so your your minutes are accurate I don't know if those two motions were ever voted on they were not they were I just kind of caught it as all of a sudden it moved on and I thought you had on the table and neither one of those voted on so that your minutes will be accurate okay oh and happy holidays to everyone so mov so we need to vote on something what I was going to say do we want to Circle back yeah all all that happened John was they were just so moved so let's do wrap up public let's let's let's he's going to dig it out I'm going to try what's that I said I sure going to

115try let's see do you recall which of the Motions that may have been to move forward with the uh hiring a search for a search for a thing and appointing you that was just is so moved okay it was like the third or fourth thing we talked [Music] about her time's [Laughter] up this it would have probably been after the election of Vice chair and nomination of secretary and then we had the discussion question about hiring somebody y well we can do it again let's just stick it um so there was a motion to uh task me with posting and hiring for your uh Poe yes that's correct so all in favor I think that's it then I think that was thought thought there was only one yeah that's the only one that really means

116anything yeah because it just kind of was a so move then we moved on everybody was happy okay I think I think connected to that was the motion to amend the agenda to discuss tasking you with that and then it was sure was the motion specific enough to empower you to research hire and employ this person over the all right is that all taken care of I think you need to still vote on the motion to have modified the agenda to have had that conversation where you then moved then let's make the mo then I need a motion to modify the agenda you made a motion to modify the agenda well then let's call for the vote all in favor no no nay no abstention okay thank you is that it motion to adjourn well

117just one thing um thank you for electing me if anybody has any questions my office is in town I'm here all the time feel free to call there's nothing that nobody uh can bring up that we we can't discuss uh rationally and calmly if anybody's got any questions or anything they'd like to see change let's bring it out and then we can bring it up at the next meeting but I'm in town so if you feel you want to talk about something just give me a call but thank you um now I'm a motion to adour second second all in favor all in favor nice okay