001but these are just they're not in good shape and they're 30 year old technology thank you a question about the running track when is that that's available to the entire Community outside of school hours or only when the kid when there aren't kids here then the community can use the traffic absolutely okay and they're going to have a dedication they're they're working on the uh the details of the dedication right now um and then one of the uh somebody wants to plant a tree um in Iran also so that's been working all that is when you work that and uh I'm sure K will have a update for us next week okay thank you I I want to know we had some technical problems with the webcast so for anyone who is trying to watch
002I apologize for that Gap but I'm told we're now back online so we will keep it keep it up I should have mentioned this to you earlier so maybe you could have added to your agenda but I know we had some issues [Music] in town does anybody talk to him about it um I don't know that I don't know if People's true facilities through the board yeah or that's what it always has been and we've always been apologies I ran the numbers it's half what it shouldn't be and it really comes down to um whether it means a constant concentration without sharing without tables it seems you know more about that than I do right now but if it's something you want to discuss all right I'll take the information and I'll do some research
003into it I know uh coming from you you know as an engineer probably there are more weight than me well that's what I've changed I have to dive into it because I just don't know what the problem we have with the octane tool is that kind of construction and I understand that it's uh it's something that should be looked at yeah I mean obviously safety first right and you know within the code you know compliance yeah that's right I want to call him first and have instructions to find out why it was I think it did change a little bit of how can gather as an entire Community is that correct the number we have so they have to break the school in half in order to have assignments at this point and how do
004we notify you guys I'm sorry what do you mean well you said it was reduced how was that was the notification yeah [Music] this seems like a good thing to put on the facilities committee sure sorry yeah do something it's going to take some information and that's why at the first off usually you start with a letter of some kind if a letter was issued I'd like to see a copy the letter and then I can call the fireworks and save them again so John Paul the facilities committee can pursue this yeah um offline uh it's fortunate that we have a wonderful space for our graduation so it won't interfere with that uh and uh we've got the summer to try to figure it out see if we can get some clarification well that's one
005of the things to think about they uh they want to buy a portable stage for the uh yeah which I think is a great idea okay thank you for bringing that point up BJ for the discussion we'll move on to the finance committee may I do the finance and we can we go okay um finance committee met last night uh and um my first thing is as you're as always was to review the expenditures to date uh which are in your board packet um relatively few changes from the preceding month um throughout all of the general education accounts there are no changes in either the balances in our favor or the overages we remain with a balance in our favor 139 311 deriving uh really entirely from salary and benefit lines because of staff changes
006in special education we had a small change which was an increase in the services line items now showing a four thousand dollar balance against us because of some new services that were required to to give our kids what they need leaving us with a balance in our favor of 113 000 to 80 that reflects yes the first payment of excess costs but a second payment is expected later okay so that will uh that will further address uh individual deficit lines in that um finally in operations and overhead uh we do have a change in the utilities specifically electricity costs uh which have been coming in they were already higher than expected they are now higher than higher than expected uh and so that balance against this has gone from fifteen thousand dollars to thirty five
007thousand dollars and that's simply because utility rates have gone through the roof in response to this Mrs Fargo has investigated different ways to get uh get lower rates and has locked us in at a rate that's almost 50 percent less than our current rate and losses there for five years uh the town has done the same uh that's for generation costs not for delivery costs so it's only a portion of the bill but it will reduce our expenditures and this account starting in June we're locked in but it's a good rate and I don't think anyone believes that the rates are going to go you know get go dramatically down over that time so hopefully that'll that'll turn out well for the school I think it's certainly a wise decision um and those are the
008only changes there will be a final uh I think her I think Mrs Fargo's word was scrub of the salary numbers to make sure that estimates on for for benefits and other details are now replaced with actual numbers and so our final numbers will become increasingly precise as we approach the end of the year we should see a little bit of Minor Adjustments in some of these lines in response to that process uh Juniper um so with that I will make a motion to accept the uh report of the operating budget summary as presented for April a second from Amy thank you any questions about anything on this report before we move on to a vote okay so I will call for a vote to accept this report all those in favor please indicate by
009saying aye any opposed any abstentions motion passes the budget report is approved um the other things we did last night at Finance so we are ending the year with a um balance in our favor and we're getting close enough to the end I'm starting to believe it uh and so as we've discussed before the process will be figure out any needs that we have that we weren't able to to cover before and I'll get back to that in a moment then we're going to build up our rainy day fund our non our non-lapsing account which is held by the town but remains available to the school for unexpected needs we're going to build that up to the Target of five percent which is what we are advised by our Auditors and then anything left after
010that will be turned back to Surplus so that that remains our plan um we reviewed in some detail more detail that I'm going to share tonight some of the wish list items that teachers have come to uh so uh call went out to all of the Departments and all of the individual teachers saying if you could have one thing what would it be what does your classroom need what are your missing what do your kids need and uh we had a you know a long list of small items it was actually fairly fairly modest requests the total came to forty thousand I think 48 000 total for all departments all teachers um facilities requested affordable stage to go uh in the Pavilion seems like a good investment there was some maintenance I.T needed to replace
011some computers get a new smart board to replace one that's that's all been falling apart this is all you know standard maintenance stuff the teachers had a variety of things they wanted interestingly to me the um the most popular item the teachers wanted was a sort of squishy comfortable irregular seating like like bean bags and wobble chairs and various things so that kids can you know move around and sit in various places and another thing that was interesting was what was the what was the term for the cube this is privacy cubes privacy privacy Cube so a little you know a little Cube I assume it's made of like plasticky cloth or something and the cortisol kid can go with me in a little little space by themselves either if they need it for self-regulation
012just because they want a little little privacy to read um and then one of the most popular items was a great big sticky posties easels so that people can you know write that kids can write on their on their easels so none of these are extravagant and all of them are the things that the teachers themselves have said this is this is the thing that would uh you know enhance my my classroom so um and so I uh I'm gonna expect that those will be uh I guess we I expect those will be done by the end of the year you say do it it'll happen um so that was what we reviewed um the town meeting is coming up on the 15th which is next week so that'll be the vote the opportunity to
013vote on the budget we have received no change no change in our budget requests um and so I encourage all uh all citizens of Bethany you here and any who are online to come to that meeting um and and uh voice reviews on the budget for the school and for the broader test and that's it any questions about Finance I have a question um I I think it's great I know at the last meeting it was brought up about asking the teachers about what their wish list would be and as you stated it doesn't sound like it's anything super extravagant useful for the classroom I guess where I'm a little concerned is we have to wait till the end of the Year wish list and hope that there's a surplus for a teacher to get
014an easel to be able to display something for students I would hope that there is a process maybe or thinking about how that potentially could be asked for earlier rather than waiting for a surplus some of the extra things like the cube seating and things like that those are larger Furniture purchases I understand things like that benefits something you would think of as a typical classroom Supply I just hope those aren't waiting until the end of the year purchases yeah it's fine it's a luxury rather than in the session but so the way the way it works so every year when we build our budget School Mr reedswell you know builds his budget and that includes what the teachers need the problem is that that's a year in advance um and I certainly know you
015know teachers need and papers book standard stuff there's a budget for the school to manage those so yes those those Necessities or or even wants that are you know reasonable not too expensive yes there's a budget to manage those on the way through I can't speak to why I mean maybe this was not that it was a big item that couldn't otherwise have been purchased maybe it could have been purchased earlier in the year but rather The Prompt hey what do you want what would enhance the school may have brought up some requests that didn't come up spontaneously but you make a good point we want to take care of our teachers we want to make sure that the school has an adequate budget for supplies to manage things as during the course of the
016year yeah and I'm just I want to kind of add it when I first started here as a parent of a student here I remember getting a request from a kindergarten teacher for classroom supplies and tissues and one of the first things that set me off was wait the school's not buying tissues which I don't think is the case but those are the kinds of things I'd like to make sure that you know teachers have adequate supplies of writing utensils and paper and things like that and that there's not this kind of weight and and when that need really becomes laid out for we have extra money at the end and that's when we consider this country this isn't that case I agree with 100 reasons the supplies basic Supply this was a wish list
017like the wobble tears and yeah yeah and those are bigger versions even what Kate talked about last night and maybe Cheryl can even weigh in on it later you know I didn't know while the chairs were and we had a brief discussion on it and to be honest with you it makes a lot of sense but thank you and obviously this synergizes with what we heard about during public comment about you know we want to take care of our teachers make sure they have what they need and we are in a position where that there's no reason that should be a problem so duly reinforced thank you um okay we move on to a brief report from negotiations committee um we met with these paraprofessionals for an introductory meeting just sort of to set the
018ground rules um see if there are any particular requests they want us to start considering if they want at the moment so we have another meeting scheduled soon where we will start getting down to the actual worker negotiating in the community thank you and yeah this is the paraprofessionals that we're negotiating with now their contract is up at the end of June 30th you know a a time a timely process and then the teachers whose contract is up on June 30th 2024 we're having a first meeting within June if I'm not enough so just uh and then know what no further meetings over the summer but to sort of get sit down and map out the process and get that going thank you any questions about negotiations and we will have reports from negotiations at
019these meetings now that both the negotiations hasn't met for two months two years but now that the committee is meeting we'll have reports but they won't be very detailed because because the contents of the negotiations are are confidential until an agreement okay thank you we move on to policy okay and we do have some to review but we'll get to that under unfinished and transportation no meeting no meeting okay very good so we do now come on to unfinished business we have a series of policies which are here for first reading is that correct are these for a second reading so if as on the agenda that I have in front of me it's incorrect it says first speak reading so I'll just note for the record that these policies oh these were approved for
020first reading and are now Rec I'm sorry I'll work on my reading that's okay thank you yes these were approved on April 5th and are now presented for second reading and adoption very good that's the motion yeah and then we'll see if anyone has that question recommended motion through the original policy 4118-5120 [Music] thank you and I have a second thank you Amy I'm going to offer a friendly amendment I believe this the number seven was policy 5145.12 I may have misheard but I just want to make sure that's correct is that okay um just for the record um these were all discussed at length um during during the April meeting um is there any uh any of these policies that anyone wants to review and under your review again what has been changed yes
021John I wasn't here for you in the market so maybe I'm missing something but 5120 this is Children of average and staff along with attendance school [Music] I'm half dead so so every year we have to do a state report from the financial system report there's a calculation called the current people expenditure which is a complicated calculation that's done by the state from the report and then that is what it costs the school district to um educate a student and we take that person we take that first people for that year and that's the percentage rather than using our own budget divided by our number of students and that comes up on the student cost [Music] done through the state report it's basically the same thing it's a number it's an auditing number it's the
022same thing but it's an audited official okay and sometimes they take up okay [Music] and and the 25 is something we discussed it at Great length in the past I know that that's why I'm saying I don't remember right because the incremental cost of adding a student isn't the per pupil call that's correct right because you're not hiring new teachers yeah okay I just want to clarify man yeah um any other questions discussion yet on that same policy I think Sean and Angela had some question about changing the uh the process from the board to the superintendent yeah I can update those who weren't here so Sean had um put up a concern about why the superintendent was approving it and raised the question of should it be the Board of Ed that approves it
023because of being taxpayer fines um I chimed in and said well before making any kind of of assessment why don't we find out what some of the other districts do and that's where um Mrs bird shared some information with us about what other districts do and other other policies that they have related to that who makes the decisions and what policies they have so I know that we saw that in your weekly updates that's why that information was sent out kind of where we left off and do you feel since Sean isn't here but do you feel that more discussion on that is is needed or uh it's it's up to others I mean our policy seems to be in line with the information that was sent out uh I think there's two districts that
024they couldn't get a hold of information on in the local area but almost everyone but one was superintendent approval um one was Board of Ed approval I said it too and when I say I remember the exact number but it was like 10 of them were super inapproval one Board of Ed and two districts they could not find information in their uh contracts okay so I'm I'm comfortable with the policy as is but it's up to others if they have any concerns that they want to raise or if there's like they have anyone wish to explore this topic further are we happy with the information provided okay very good any further questions about any of these policies or discussion before we move on to a book offerable for the second reading and Adoption of the
025policies that Mr White has read into the record all those in favor please indicate by saying aye any opposed any abstentions those policies are approved we now have two policies for adoption these are also second page [Music] can we have a second for that thank you motion's been made and seconded any questions about these new policies that are being adopted proposed for adoption before we move on to a vote okay hearing that I'll call for the boat all those in favor please any abstentions well it passes those policies are approved we have one policy um that is scheduled for deletion because of redundancy sorry move the Board of Education food the deletion of policy 5141.23 thank you any questions about this before we move on to a vote during medical those in favor of deleting
026this policy please indicate by saying aye any approach any abstentions motion passes that policies deleted will be removed from our policy they then have a large number of policies 34 in all that have been reviewed but do not deny our only change is that the policy committee has judged to not change the sense in any way these are things like punctuation and spelling errors and updating language in a way that doesn't change the sense of the policy um we this is actually new like we used to do everything and then we went to not looking at these ones at all and the point was raised that really the whole board should have the opportunity to be aware of what's passing through so so these are presented to you so the board is aware but all
027of these policies have been judged by Sue and the administration and then the policy committee to not have either no changes at all or changes that are Technical and non-substantive um so I will entertain do we have to read all of these kids any takers all right I moved with the Board of Education approved the technical non-substantive Provisions the policies 010100-1120-1317-3524-4000.1 or 112.61-4212.61-4115-4117.5 or 118.64218.6 four one two one four two two one four one three four four two three four four one four eight four two four eight five one three one dot three five one three two five one four one dot two two five one four two five one four two dot one five one four five dot one four five one four five dot one five five one four five one four five
028three six one one four dot eight two six one four one dot three one one six one four one dot three two nine one six one four two dot 102 6142.10 as well as bylaws nine three one one nine three one two nine three one three and nine four zero zero [Music] thank you Egypt any uh did I any did they screaming up they do okay [Music] any uh questions discussion about any of these policies before we move on to it I find the illusion the equality dot as opposed to a point there's a lot of more Dots here . all right one two one squiggled um yeah all right enough of this lemon tea all those in favor please indicate by saying that all right any opposed any obsessions motion passes [Music] of course
029as uh meeting I was asking for a miracle difference [Music] mandated or recommended I didn't know if I did that right so as a matter of procedure is just making that request [Music] uh I think that's fine I mean when we review policies that always is indicated but I guess it's not in the policy manual is that correct that doesn't follow like under the footnote where it says where the policycat was sourced maybe we could just put something mandated or recommended so that it stays yeah so so if I if I'm understanding you correctly so when we have a policy it does say up here if it's mandated but that doesn't go in the policy manual that's just for our reference back here we have the list of actions and so what you're saying is
030you'd like to see on this line that on December 9 2020 this policy was revised and you'd like to see mandated or recommended here so that we can tell whether past actions were mandated or recommended is that I'm trying to differentiate on which policies are mandated by a statute and which ones are recommended do you mean for the policies that are in front of us in the present or do you mean so that when we look back we can tell about decisions that were made in the past a decision made in the past okay so that would be listing mandated versus recommended here because this is our history of the policy I don't see any reason that we couldn't do that but you just increase juice [Music] like if I look back to May 13
0312015 when it was revised I can't tell correct I'm not sure no you can no this would only be going forward this would not be archeology this would just be going forward okay yeah just put recommended recommended dot mandated no recommended not done [Music] I take your point [Music] you can think about what's whatever's easiest for you and will have you know be give the recommended information going forward no no argue [Music] [Applause] or unfinished business so we now move on to our new business item eight on the agenda and with a review of the teacher and administrator evaluation and support plan flexibilities please Orient us sure so the state of Connecticut is revising their guidelines for Teacher evaluation and they have yet to finalize those guidelines I'm surprised and so we had to have
032a conversation between teachers Administration to determine whether or not we want to go ahead and start revising our teacher evaluation Plan before we get any guidance from the state or do we wish to wait until the state makes their guidelines final and then proceed with altering our plan as necessary so that we have a new plan in place for staff in the 24-25 school year so 24 25. we would we will be set for 23 24. that's what the purpose of this action item is is so that we can maintain the status quo with our teacher evaluation plan that we currently have in place wait to get the hopefully soon approved guidelines from the state take that information and then spend next year working with our professional development educator committee to determine if we want
033to make any changes in our teacher evaluation plan and then have a new plan in place that would come before the board obviously to go into effect in the 24-25 school year [Music] I don't believe so based on the changes that we're hearing maybe coming down the pike so if so we don't want it to be a gotcha I don't know anything more worried about changing anything and they're not you know time yeah any other questions for Kay about this item before we move on to emotion okay um and I'll entertain the motion that's in here somewhere how about this one I moved the Bethany Board of Education approve the adoption of the Connecticut state department of education teacher and administrator evaluation plan flexibilities for the 2023 to 2024 school year yeah [Music] any further
034questions or discussion before we move on to a vote okay all those in favor please indicate by saying ah [Music] any extensions have your flexibility yay all right we move on to our administrative reports would be me that would be you yes so before I begin my formal uh report I didn't want to take a moment to thank all of our amazing teachers and staff and the work that they do here at BCS day in and day out we're very fortunate to have such wonderful teachers and staff and I hope that this week they really felt the love from the students families and the community members as well as the Board of Education the ice cream truck was a real hit today and while we honored them this week teachers are outstanding professionals that deserve
035to be respected and valued every day so I encourage everyone to remember how fortunate we are to have our BCS staff today and always right enrollment report numbers keep growing as of April 30th 2023 BCS enrollment is at 434 students you have the historical information in your packet for your reference our kindergarten projections at this time the enrollment for fall is projected to be 56 students we actually have those students registered so we are anticipating three sections those students that are currently enrolled those 56 17 of them were not on Sue's enumeration so there are still at least a dozen or so kindergarten families from the enumeration list that have yet to register at this time my recommendation is to definitely plan to have instructional AIDS in the kindergarten classrooms but to hold on making
036that final decision until we get closer to the end of June or July as it's really possible for those 12 students to join our ranks which would mean opening Garden keep our numbers you know what we like to have here small sizes and so we had I left this out of my finance report because I know you were going to talk about it plus I forgot but the um the uh we did have a brief discussion about the financial implications of opening a classroom so you know if we have three instructional aids for the three classrooms which is what we would do with the current kindergarten class sizes then that has a cost we need to hire a full-time teacher and Supply a whole new kindergarten classroom that has an incremental cost so we didn't
037get into the details yet I trust that a budget will be forthcoming when the if and when those decisions need to be made um we are fortunate I mean this is why we have the rainy day fund for the and why why we talk we have talked away surpluses so this is not a terrifying Prospect because we do have the resources tucked away to manage either contentions which is great no it's interesting numbers it's interesting well then you and I have seen them go down and then yeah come back up again it's interesting to see a 38 a year yeah you know I wonder where the peak is going to be yeah because that's all predicated my real estate so then I have a Personnel update um these staff members have submitted their resume we
038have Belinda mcguran a pair of professional she's given her notice Belinda is leaving us to become a Judicial Marshal uh so she will be off to boot camp her last day Friday we did post her position and we have higher replacement who I'll announce momentarily um we may have Rebecca career day after issues she absolutely would probably come back for career day and the kids would love to see her uh Kim Keller our beloved art teacher she has indicated that she will resign at the end of the school year Mrs Keller is beginning what she calls as her transition into retirement and we wish her well Vanessa Crawley A Team Summit teacher she's indicated that she's had a change of plans during her current Child Care leave and that family circumstances will not allow her
039to return next year as planned and Carrie McLaughlin who was our former fourth grade teacher that became our part-time instructional aide has resigned due to her personal reasons as we had shared previously in other board meetings however the following step will be joining our BCS team and I'm sorry the paraprofessional Marshall those were effective soon or immediately yes and the others are effective at the end of the school years correct thank you correct um kellyanne Novelli speech language Pathologists will become our new full-time SLP during the 23-24 school year Mrs Novelli has been with us for the majority of this year covering uh Miss Andrea check's maternity leave and we're really pleased that she's going to stay on and become a permanent member of our staff and Sherry Morris will join BCS as a paraprofessional
040replacing Belinda mcgurn Marshall she's been with us since the beginning of the year as well serving it in various capacities one of our building substitutes we're really pleased to be able to find such good people so quickly and the other positions we'll post [Music] my report any questions [Music] and are you going to do a report at the time maybe about the no typically no so typically our um since the the purpose of the meeting is just to vote on the budget so information about the budget is rolled into the board of finances report and they'll uh both at the at the April meeting that they already had and then at the main meeting they'll have like a slide or two about the school budget um but it will not be dwelled on at any
041length we will make a point of being there so that any questions or discussion that comes up we're in a position to respond okay because there's there's part of the statutes say that the the Board of Ed is supposed to submit to the town uh a report of the doings of the board not my language that was like I don't know if I've ever heard that out of town meeting but maybe I missed it it's it's I believe if I'm not mistaken and you can correct me if I'm wrong I believe it's submitted in writing and it's or there's a report the town report that's printed has a thing about the board event and it's not presented uh in person or verbally it's presents in writing so that is submitted yeah does it contain our
042doings all of the doings all of the things yeah so no no no I have seen that it's in the it's in the town report it's a few paragraphs but that's it's not presented at the town meeting it's just submitted in written form and and goes into the towns you know summary report at the end of the year and also Chris just the clarify with the we present it to or Kay and Chris would present it to the town finance committee who then lumps that in with all the other departments in the town and then presents that whole budget to the town so each individual department is not going to do it yeah so we we gave a detailed presentation to the you know with the background and successes and challenges and the details of
043the budget to the board of Finance but that detailed presentation which is available on the website but that is not given at the town meeting I understand the project this is this was a separate statute from the budget always what does that mean if anyone asks us about our doings we will be prepared okay so keep track of those doing all right any other questions for Kay or discussion about any of the points hearing then we will go on to our director of special services curriculum Etc I want to reiterate what Mrs bird said that the staff here are incredible I have worked in multiple districts and I've been nothing but impressed they're hard-working student-centered dedicated and truly are appreciated and I hope they know that but they just really nothing but impressed with how
044hard they work and when I say staff it's every single person who's in this building really works together for the sake of the kids so thank you to them and just to update some of the things from the curriculum meeting on April 6 we had Dr Marie Alcock come and work with the teachers again this time was on learning strategies and self navigation tools on May 26th the teachers will work collaboratively on class placements for the 23-24 school year on June 15th Sue Carpenter and I will be providing professional learning on the technological updates in PowerSchool that will allow teachers to use one platform to gain many new resources this will streamline all of the tools and hopefully we'll be supporting teachers better on June 16th the day that was added teachers will continue to
045work with the curriculum and be reorganizing the prioritized standards to prepare for the 23-24 school year and as you stated previously we haven't heard anything about science of reading waiver everything is looking like it's going to be delayed quite a bit and in special education we have some grant funding that we're going to be utilizing for students with dyslexia and they'll be receiving four weeks of instruction after school on Monday so we're really excited about that and that starts next week thank you very much any questions for Mrs Kiesel or comments on any of the issues that she's reviewed for us how many kids do you have that would participate because of confidentiality I would say it's a fairly small number but it's had to be students with that identification yeah just because it's such
046a small number I don't want it to be identifiable but yeah small number yeah yeah small number yeah other questions are coming [Music] um so uh by way of steering uh just to let everyone know we're continuing to work with our subcommittees and at this point we're both looking to review some of the work that we've completed from this year and then also looking forward to next year um both around current um work that we're doing and other potential areas of focus and then we're also looking with our steering committee develop next year's professional learning plan so Ms Kiesel brought that to steering committee um and so that's an area that we're really focusing on trying to make sure that we're looking at all the needs of the school across everything from staff meetings to
047in-service days to the days at the end of the year and the beginning of the year and making sure that we have a really substantive plan um by way of events uh as has been mentioned uh over and over um it's Teacher Appreciation Week um and I think some of the things that I'm always really appreciative of is that um our teachers when you think of teachers and staff you think of folks who are in front of kids and in front of the classroom and working with students and we do an absolutely an amazing and exceptional job with that but there's also the things above and beyond when people are coming in ahead of time to meet and speak about children when we're sitting down and we're talking about students in their programming and you've
048got folks where they could just be rubber stamping something or letting it go by and they're advocates for kids and their needs and everything that they want for children in every aspect of their day and that's the kind of things where we've got people who are working on steering committee who are working on before and after school programs all those things that are in addition to all the amazing things that they do in front of children and I'm always just amazed by all of the ways in which people give of their time of their effort um and of their care for kids and so it's a great way to be reminded of it this week but they do that all year so I'm just always really appreciative of the folks who are here they're amazing
049um we are really busy and have been really busy so I'm going to go through a lot of things but I think it's really to that end this all comes with the work and the effort of the staff and the teachers here um so since we last met Spring Track has been starting up and the kids are running around that track and they come in and they are flushing it sure as well and they're so ecstatic and excited um so it's great to see that use for the community but also for our students as well I'm not only out of recess but for Spring Track starting up we had our kindergarten welcome night on April 19th we followed that up with our kindergarten screening on April 27th on April 24th we kicked off our Smarter
050Balance assessments starting with our pep rally we had all of our third sixth grade students parading on down our kindergarten to first and second grade classrooms had made all banners for them that they now have been hanging up in their rooms as they've been working clapped and celebrated them on out to the to the rest of their work um we had as you heard the mad science uh assembly both for kindergarten to second grade and third to sixth um on April 28th we had our community meeting where we were we were celebrating all of our students let's see sorry we have had our climate survey out last week and are finishing that up this week I just sent reminders out for that so this is a plug please please fill that out um on the
05110th that's today we have plant sale amazing um success where as as we've shared we had they had to go and restock twice we have our BMX bike assembly coming up on the 15th on the 17th second grade is going to the Russell Homestead which is connected to some of their work for old school house day on the 17th SEC sorry on the 18th Pre-K is going to Common Ground for a field trip on the 23rd kindergarten is going to Massaro Farm on the evening of the 23rd we're having our art showcase and I hear we might have some poetry reading I'm super excited um on the 24th our sixth grade is going to Amity field day on the 25th um fifth grade is taking a field trip to Sturbridge Village are you keeping up
052it's all and this is the key it's all humans and people here working to make these kind of things happen for kids right uh old school house day is planned for the week of the 29th the rain date would be the week of um the 5th on May 31st our fifth grade students are going to steam day at the high school on June 2nd we have our first grade field trip to the Beardsley Zoo on June 5th we have our sixth grade Awards assembly um on June 6th uh on June 6th we have field day our rain date is the 7th on June 8th we have our sixth grade field trip to the Science Center on June 9th we are tentatively planning to um to open up the Time Capsule super excited trying to get
053all of those plans and thoughts together there um on June 9th um we are also working on our kindergarten promotion and then June 13th we cap off with our sixth grade promotion ceremony hopefully utilizing our new Pavilion so um we have been and are super busy and I'm really excited for all of these things a lot of which are now finally returning post pandemic so we're really excited we just had a conversation um with some of the PTO and Joe De Luca just planning out some things for field day so lots of great things happening and a lot of great things for kids I'm really excited wonderful can you do that again I can I have it all written down thank you any questions for Mr Reeves well comments on any other things okay next
054is Chairman's report um it's always awkward to say the same thing that all the funny said some things are worth repeating uh and that is how fortunate we are as a community to have our teachers here it's something I want to say in particular we've talked about um teacher turnover and how we have staff we do have a young staff and we frequently have new people coming in and so it's remarkable that each and every individual on our staff is as dedicated and committed and wonderful for our kids as they are it's equally remarkable in it when we have turnover that we as a group as a school maintain those values maintain that community so so I want to applaud both the teachers as individuals but also the community that all of you have built
055over time which which uh you know which which you know continues uh year to year decade to decade in the service of the kids do we have any correspondence okay we move on to our second opportunity for visitors public comments is there anyone here who'd like to speak to the board at this time at the end okay please come to the podium foreign hello I'm Shannon Lane I have a second grader and a fourth grader and um as Chris said everybody has already said this but it's worth repeating um that we we are very lucky to have the teachers we do um and I I appreciate that I think the pto's done a great job in highlighting not just our teachers this week but you know the paraprofessionals and the cafeteria folks and the janitorial
056staff and all of the other people who who make BCS run and make it possible for our kids to learn the way they do and I just wanted to say thank you to all of those folks and to those of you who are here tonight the school board and the administrators who who are supporting the teachers this this weekend and uh always um I also wanted to say I had the opportunity this last week to meet our another new addition to our staff our new school social worker and I'm just really appreciative that the school is continuing to put resources into all of the different needs that our kids have and I think that's really important and I'm grateful for it and the last thing I have to say is nothing to do with teachers
057but I came in the other day and noticed that one of the speed humps in front of the building is gone and I know that I'm one of the people who changed the way that I drove in front of the school when those showed up and it's been it's felt a lot safer particularly towards town hall with the parks and rec kids out there to have them and so I just wanted to say I'm sure that there was a reason it came out but I just wanted to say it would be great to to hear about that in maybe a future board meeting and just to know that we're continuing to look at all the ways to keep the physical safety of our kids important in this way so thank you very much thank you
058hi Paula Co Francesco Shannon I'm going to answer your concern the bump that we removed was the town bump the other ones belong to the school and the reason it was removed is because we had vehicles and trucks that were speeding through the town parking lot to avoid that bump and then we had trucks and vehicles that were actually going the wrong way out through the town hall parking lot to avoid that bump so to make it safer um people and there is a tiny bump there still but we were just trying to make it safer because Vehicles were zipping through to avoid that bump and especially because they were going in the wrong direction and especially a dismissal or during the day people and kids getting out of cars we felt safety was first
059so I just wanted to address why that bump was taken out I think people were actually stopping even though it was gone it was just habit so but there is a slight bump that is still there so it was a safety issue and that's why it was removed okay can we have your address um 27 North hummerston Drive sorry okay um that brings us to the end of our public meeting we do have an executive session schedule um so I will move that we enter an executive session we'll then take a brief break five minutes um and then we'll resume the board will reconvene here in executive session thank you all for coming this evening so I moved it to Bethany Board of Education entered into executive session to discuss the superintendent's evaluation and