001foreign [Music] which it stands nation under God indivisible with liberty welcome to anyone that's watching on our live streaming here at the Bethany Board of Education we Inspire to empower children to thrive in the World of Tomorrow our first call to order on our agenda would be our PTO report there's friends everybody [Music] thank you hello my name is Melissa zaldo I am the secretary for the BCS PTO I'm also a mom to a third grader cool um just provide some updates of what we've been doing and what's going to be happening we have a busy couple months coming up um the PTO recently provided some grants we provided a grant for Unified sports to go up to Duncan Park where they'll be honored on their field with other Unified sports teams from other schools
002we also provided funding for their end-of-year celebration we've also provided funding for a storage unit for the Pre-K kids I guess they're they're outdoor toy storage unit is like falling apart and is not safe so we're providing funding for that we've also provided funding for Reese's toys for the fourth grade for their request and we've also provided funding um for some field trips for the third grade to um they went to the Connecticut historical society and the fourth grade went to Eli Whitney Museum so now our limits for grants for the year has been reached which is good so thank you for all of that we recently sent out a parent interest survey to all the parents in the school to get a sense because we're starting our budget preparations for next year just to
003get a sense of um where we should spend our money what kind of fundraisers and the good news is that they really like our events they really like the book fair Amy uh the snowflake shop sweetheart dance Spring Fling and they really liked um our pie fundraiser that we have in the third around Thanksgiving restaurant nights in our apparels we also got a lot of good suggestions on um additional fundraisers and where we can spend the money for next year because you know we want parents are very generous with their money we want to spend it how they want us to spend it um as far as clubs and assemblies go we've really got the ball rolling on that Lego Club continues to be a big hit they meet every Tuesday I think there's 40
004plus students who attend weekly at our Lego Club we're also planning on funding two assemblies for the students um one is I'm gonna I'm I'm I apologize I'm going to mispronounce this gentleman's name Manny no Guerra he's a BMX performer and he's going to do a BMX show and also provide messaging on working hard preparing for your dreams goal setting and the other one is going to be mad science they do a bunch of crazy science experiments and that's going to be focused around Earth Day and they're going to be doing something with an Earth Day reduce reuse recycle [Music] we also did teacher appreciation on parent-teacher conference we provided dinner for the teachers for their Late Night with a team of talk about our awesome teachers it was a taco themed dinner where parents
005and the PTO provided tacos and all the fixings and everything and dessert so thank you to all our parents Who provided the meals and provided the funding for that also at our parent teacher conferences we had an apparel sale a table set up by the office to sell ECS spirit wear and we're also looking to get our spring online shop up and running as well the big couple events we have coming up which are well underway in planning is Spring Fling I know everybody's looking forward to Spring Fling that is scheduled for May 26th we have received a lot of donations from local businesses so thank you to all the businesses who have donated there is a flyer out there so if you're looking for local business and support please look on that flyer to
006see if one of those businesses meet your meet your needs we would love to support them the way they support us um also in conjunction with Spring Fling we're planning a Senor Pancho's Restaurant night to help support funds for that as well just for people who don't know Spring Fling is an awesome event last year we had 700 people attend we had bounce houses we had food trucks we had sugar cupcakes we had Touch of trucks and everything was included in the price of the ticket there is a link up now to purchase tickets it's gonna be five dollars per child ten dollars per adult which considering the amount you'd get that's a pretty good pretty good price we're also um we're encouraging our teachers to attend teachers will be able to attend at no
007cost to them and their families there's also a link for when parents purchase their tickets if you would like to support a teacher there's also a way to do that on PayPal the other big events we have coming up is quasi night that's going to be May 19th uh quasi night is held in conjunction with Beecher Road School in Woodbridge the park is shut down exclusively for our use it's a super fun event kids just basically run around get to ride the rides all night again everything the it's the price of the ticket there's almost no lines except for the roller coaster that's another fun event we're also planning our baseball game sometime in June we don't have an exact date for that yet our other event coming up is our mother day Mother's Day
008plant sale which is scheduled for May 10th this is a chance for students to come and purchase plants to honor uh women or anybody in their life that they want to give a plan too and also the other thing is yearbook orders the link is up and running for that so we have a lot going on visit our website and um thank you for helping thank you to all of our parents for allowing us to support schools opportunity for anybody in the audience if you can state your name and your address for the record something because answer back thank you hi I'm Shannon Lane I have a second grader and a fourth grader and I just wanted to say that I know April is such an incredibly hard month to schedule in um tonight's the
009first night of passover and so I would love it if that if it's possible to schedule a round Passover in the future so that parents can come to things like these if they're observing the holiday I think that would be a great thing to do I know our bricks don't always line up with Passover it's wonderful this year that our break does so that families can have some more time together and it would be great if families who are observing the holiday could be able to listen to or come to board event meetings as well thank you submitted on March 10th by Dawn Stark and she writes it was a great speech given by Kimberly wilkett on March 8 2023. hoping that things change at Bethany Community School as it is going downhill and issues
010with teacher retention for years but lately I never understood the 4K slope just how badly the teachers were paid I knew that you couldn't afford to live in the town that they teach in as they weren't paid enough but I didn't see just how low a salary it was I guess this is a school board issue and a town finance issue let's get this corrected ASAP as our children deserve better the teachers we employ deserve better not to mention that your personal real estate will be affected by the ranking that the school gets so it affects everyone in town not just those who have children in the school now public comments typically we go on to the approval of the minutes however our packet has February minutes we need to March minutes so we're going
011to table that for the next meeting at this time our first report would be Aces Susan is there anything to report in Aces have you guys met recently uh well I I attended two of their meetings okay that EJ gave me a link for the March meeting and I basically just showed up and introduced myself because I didn't know what was going on and then they had another meeting this morning and between the two meetings let me see they passed 12 budgets in the March meeting and 10 budgets in this morning's meeting so they if they're busy making budgets uh they had some Appropriations from the legislature for some construction they wanted to do they were very happy about that and they are having some struggles with budgeting for health insurance increases and worker comp
012increases which are causing them to lay off some teachers for economic reasons yep we met last Wednesday I always feel like I'm going to steal Miss kiesel's thunder so I won't say much but we actually had um came present test because you were somewhere special which I will let you talk about Bethany got a very special honor at the New England Symposium of teachers so I'm sure we'll hear from you but we did get a professional development and Grant update and really the majority of the meeting was we had asked for a Spanish program update which we were so thrilled with uh Senor koku came and gave us a an update wonderful slides kind of going from grades K through six and telling us how she was involving these children in Spanish and she's really
013kind of taken it to be multimedia she's using things such as songs videos coloring charts student of the month and really kind of an immersion aspect of Spanish and I've been on the board a long time and we've heard many you know Spanish updates and we were just blown away by her presentation it's students really seem to be thriving in her classroom so it was really nice to hear that these facilities was supposed to meet last evening Paul Garcia was not able to make it and due to the board of finding the final thing so we take all the facilities but there's nothing major on facilities that I believe Finance we also tabled last night's Finance meaning because we would not have had a quorum but there is a finance report to be read that
014Randy in the path that you will see or the numbers that there is your operating budget summary as of March 2023. under general education the salary surplus of 68 810 from last month has changed to 23 810 due to the year-end projections of our certified staff substitute costs benefits remain the same showing the surplus of 166 622 dollars Services is now showing a deficit of 13 290 which is slightly more than last month due to the unbudgeted costs of the Quinnipiac intern for the fall semester fly's Line is now showing a deficit of 32 100 for the unbudgeted cost for the new power school and schoology software for next year other mine has held with the deficit of five thousand six hundred thirty one dollars which was reflected last month general education has ended the
015month with a total surplus of 139 311. under special education you will see that the special education salary Surplus has been has been reduced to 36 682 for the year-round projections of sub costs special education benefits remain the same with the surplus of ninety one thousand three hundred fifty six dollars special education services had a deficit last month of thirty thousand dollars this has been reduced to zero with the use of excess cost funds the special ed supply line Remains the Same special other line remains status quo from last month with a deficit of 8 211 special education has ended the month with a surplus of one hundred and seventeen thousand eighty dollars under operations and overhead there is no change to the salary projections operations and overhead benefits line is now showing a surplus
016of twenty five thousand one hundred fifty eight dollars due to the final billing of our Workman workers compensation policy with surma the operations Services lines deficit of three thousand nine hundred thirty dollars has been reduced and is now showing a surplus of one thousand nine hundred twenty dollars due to the release of unused disability insurance funds operations and overhead other line is now showing a deficit of one thousand dollars due to the purchase of some necessary equipment all other lines for operations and overhead remain status quo from last month operations and overhead ends the month with a surplus of eleven thousand seventy eight dollars the overall budget is showing a surplus of 267 468 which is a decrease over last month mainly due to the purchase of software upgrades and the necessary costs of substitute
017coverage the remaining Surplus is still largely due to savings and salaries and benefits we are still anticipating a second excess cost payment in early May Since the special ed services line is already expended the second payment will not impact the budget with additional savings as the money is already allocated for unbudgeted additional expenses for nursing and the aid for one of the special needs students with regards to the year-end budget we meaning Brandy and Kay will be meeting with department heads this week to start discussions on year end in regards to the budget they will work with them to determine what funding is needed to get us through June and whether or not surplus funds are to be utilized for any wish list items my goal which I the goal is to get the majority
018of our spending squared away by mid-may community school so at the June finance committee meeting they will have a best estimate of our final numbers then at the end here we have 2023-2024 budget proposals health benefits first proposal represents the budget revised with only one family plan cushion for health dental benefits the proposed budget number would be an increase of 2.46 percent for an overall budget increase of 178 904 dollars second proposal represents the budget with zero cushions in place for health and dental insurance benefits the proposed budget number would be an increase of 2.06 percent for an overall budget increase of 149 961 as a reminder the current proposed budget with all cushions in place is at 3.58 percent for an overall budget increase of two hundred and sixty thousand nine hundred and two
019dollars anybody have any questions okay when you go back into department heads what's your wish list what is your goal last year's budget or any things that have come up as a result of students coming into you know we one of our potential wishlist items would be something like if we have to if we don't have our reading waiver approved we we would wish this item you know you know any reading program so it really depends on finding additional softwares it could be specialized equipment it can be any number of things and so they come with their request request books and all of those things and then Randy Knight and we look at whether or not it's actually something truly truly necessary stuff we have another slide on the playground or prioritized and then we
020discuss them amongst ourselves that well my second part of that question is have we given any thought into funding of teachers I have a dream um I know every teacher in every class has that thing that they would love to have that would make the experience students much better have we given any thought into polling each individual sixth grade the fifth grade we figure out what the teachers want to make their experience in their day better and actually let's reward them for the work that they do here I mean simple thing at work you know they came to us with money and they said hey we got some extra money what do we want you know what a poll with 12 guys wanted 139 water cooler and a refrigerator have we given any thought to
021doing that let's find out what the teachers want not what Fred wants not with facilities I would like to know what that our staff wants by great and come back to the board that would be something that would come can we see that I would love to see what the teachers will like I was up the staff specifically are you thinking grade level or teacher by teacher I would say let's pull the grade they have to work together and if they can achieve a common goal of something that they each want come with a proposal I'm good with that okay well let's let's focus on what our staff needs to do their daily thing they all want something to make the experience better in their classroom and I'm pretty sure it's not a large number
022so I would love to know what they all want by Drake yeah it was um one of the overages that you mentioned something about schoology Power School cost what's that I know a trilogy empowers but what's the cost that all of a sudden um additional modules so we're getting oh so you're starting that now as opposed to next year okay yeah when you save money going into 23 24 and 24.25 hey just a move to get away from like Google and Google classroom and just start the transition so it's all One-Stop shopping and it's also One-Stop shopping for teachers with some of the additional modules okay thank you move the Board of Education to accept the report of expenditures and adjustments to the 2022 2023 operating budget through March 31st of 2023. hi opposed no
023motion first we need a motion she made the motion [Music] everybody in favor of accepting the budget the operating budget through March of 23rd 31st and 2023 say I I opposed State here we go [Laughter] okay on to negotiations we have not met recently but we are we have a few dates coming up soon for fire negotiations first meeting of teaching about teacher negotiations for staff so that is coming up and we'll hopefully sorry Kim have something to report soon on that policy Lynette is not here but I know in our agenda we'll be talking about some of the revisions and our first readings so that will come up transportation reports there is no unfinished business for us to go over at this time and your new business healthy food option is recommended under new
024business pursuant to Connecticut General statute section 10-215f the Bethany Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in Bethany Community School and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1st 2023 through June 30th 2024. this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines school cafeteria and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or by non-school organization organizations and groups any information following them you need to provide to work they'll comply with and move the Bethany Board of Education improve the Connecticut State Department of education's healthy
025food option detailed above for the period July 1st 2023 through June 30th 24. all in favor say aye and then second so so I'll make the motion okay everybody in favor say hi hi everybody opposed any abstentions [Music] okay it is recommended doing your new business this is regarding the exemption for food and beverage items the Bethany Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221q of the Connecticut General statutes provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the sale is at the location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not
026sold from a vending machine or store an event is An Occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example volleyball games and school plays are events but volleyball practices and play rehearsals are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales information to that again that's the exemptions for our events so when we have spring clean and different things okay those are not foods that we're getting from Chartwells but they're still okay which I know I knew and probably our board members but I wanted to make sure that anybody in the audience watching also can
027I get a motion okay sure awesome Angelo okay so now I'll move the Board of Education approve the Connecticut State Department of education's exemption for food and beverage items detailed above for the period July 1st 2023 through June 30th 2024. favor say aye aye opposed extensions under new business we have our school calendar which is included in your packet it is the current school calendar which now has the concluded last day for students will be Wednesday June 14th which is early dismissal I believe that is the only change from the previous calendar correct yes it's just I'm requesting that the board forgive one day for the students making Wednesday the 14th of June the last day of school we've had one additional day out of school from our boa colleagues because we had the burst
028pipe on February 5th so we're giving that one day for students would allow the teachers to do their final professional development on the Thursday and Friday and not have to come back to work on Monday we'll be heroes for the kids correct because we have extra days so we still will be our instructions can I get a motion please Sean and then I got in a meet up so now I will move to Bethany Board of Education shorten the student school year from 182 to 181 days allowing the last day of school for students to be Wednesday June 14 2023 all in favor say aye aye opposed and the abstentions House of committee met on March 7 2023 and are recommending the following policy for first reading what is normally Chris what exactly do we
029read through this I mean it's a lot what is normal the force for this usually they just read the policy just that right down there I didn't think it was all this it's just like you okay so under revisions we're looking to just uh approve our revisions for policy 4112.6 421 2.6 regarding Personnel records policy 411 2.8 or two one two point eight regarding nepotism policy 4115.3 regarding evaluation policy 4116.2 sudden Cardiac Arrest awareness I'll see 4119-4219 prohibition on recommendations for psychotropic drugs policy 5120 non-resident staff policy 5145.12 search and seizure policy 6114.1 fire emergency and crisis response drills policy 6114.81 pandemic economic emergencies can go right into adoptions need to be separate motions okay so do I have a motion for us to accept we can have a discussion I do oh yeah uh
030why are we removing the power of the board and making that decision and giving it to the superintendent politics usually it comes to superintendent and only in the case of having really large Plus Sizes Etc concerned that it might be refuted or what have you it comes to the board it doesn't have to be removed but certainly if you wish in the future to know every staff member who might request I would like to know as a board member that possesses a financial on the town because they're getting 25 percent of the total cost right but I think it should be aborted it should be a board decision it's a financial impact upon the district and our taxpayers that's for you to decide does that mean that has to go back to a revision State
031like if there's not I've never done this one so that's why I'm a little bit like I understand so if that's the only policy there's a question on can we accept revisions on all the rest and then that can either be tabled for the meeting what's the right way to handle that okay okay so it can be approved the way it is right now and then further discuss before it becomes a finalized policy okay so that should have brought up as a question any other questions regarding the other policies under revisions what's happening now exactly so if I have this correct we can approve this is first reading so we can approve the first reading and then it can goes back to the second reading for discussion right yeah so it it can be discussed
032at policy about changing that back to it being the board decision rather than the superintendent and then brought to Second reading that that vote that's when it becomes a final revision correct anybody else have questions under any of the policies for revisions I would say if we're going to bring it back to policy though that maybe if um information can be collected because I know working for a local school district that The Amity School District I know that they have a policy like that that's in there that they have a similar policy so I'd be curious if there are other policies like this that are in the you know in their that's her you know in their policies or is it something that goes at the discretion of the board is it voted on be
033curious to see what other people have in helping to inform any decision we make regarding the policy that'd be cool serious any other questions make a motion to in order to get a vote about the revisions on these policies for the first meeting second vote on the first reading correct paper it's recommended under new business move the Board of Education accept the policies from revision for first reading papers AI thank you next two are under adoptions adopt policy 4116.4 exertional heat illness awareness policy 4116.5 emergency action plan for athletic events okay um can I get a motion for us questions remove the Board of Education accept the policies for adoption for first reading all in favor say aye ready opposed extensions under deletion looking to delete policy 5141.231 prohibition on recommendations for psychotropic drugs anybody
034have a question regarding deleting that policy to get a motion to move to a vote in the deletion of that policy thank you there's no questions move the Board of Education accept the policy of the deletion for first reading under deletion the action item all in favor say aye opposed wow okay under technical revisions or no changes policy zero one zero zero mission for Bethany public should what I don't have to do that one oh thank you [Music] I I'd prefer not but I don't want to you know do the wrong thing so as board members we'll see in your packet there are a number of policies 34 to be exact listed under technical revisions or no changes question on any of the just something to just say just to make you know kind of
035get it out there being a part of the policy committee one of the things that I asked is that why are there things in here that are no changes that's because we're trying to make sure that we're looking at everything and seeing if there is any need for changes and it still has to go through that says that we read through it so that we're keeping everything recent even if there is no change involved so there's a lot of no change on this paper because some of these policies are mandated by state statute statute is there some way that we could get a footnote policies who know whether they're mandated or just recommended or maybe just you know mandating just to help understand what everybody's looking to required by law or if this is just
036a preferred way of doing business I think that's easy enough to do okay okay thanks okay thank you Susan there are no other questions regarding any of those technical revisions or no changes can I get a motion for us to be able to move on to a vote John second the Meetup move the Board of Education accept the policies that have technical revisions or no changes for first reading all in favor say aye imposed and Now we move on to our administrative reports bird it's your turn superintendent as of March 31st 2013 BCS enrollment is at 4 six as you know in your package you have a historical enrollment that shows you snapshot for the prior years for each of the reporting months from August through March at this time our kindergarten enrollment for the
037fall 2023 is projected 255 students so we still anticipate three sections currently there are 53 enrolled which puts the class sizes at 17 18. um 15 of those students were not on our enumeration as I've reported previously I have been in contact with the kindergarten teachers talking about what it would look like if we start to hit 1920 for those whether it be you have to add a 4 th class section or we try to find three instructional means as we've done in the past the idea of having a fourth class is appealing to them but nobody wants class sizes under 16 children right so it's trying to find what that balance will be so we'll have a better idea once our kindergarten registration and other activities are so I hope to be able to
038give you some additional numbers and some guidance and as far as a Personnel update um we had a vacancy from a custodial position a part-time custodial position we have hired Curtis Mabry he's joined the PCS team he brings five years of custodial service to the Department we have received some notifications that we're going to be having some staff leaving us in the fall all of them have indicated uh they are all within the special energy compartment and they're all indicated that they're leaving for personal reasons not connected with any displeasure or anything working in Bethany and I can assure you it has nothing to do with this diesel they said so but in order to kind of also protect their privacy give them an opportunity to share with staff tomorrow and then with the families
039that they directly work with I'm not sharing their needs this evening but I certainly will share that after that notification has been made to families specifically and then once that is done then I will work with books on our team to post I do wish to say that these are not you know any kind of underperforming teachers or any issues going on they've been wonderful for us to work with and we wish them the best as they move forward uh by way of facilities even though facilities did not meet I do have some exciting things to share our gym air conditioning project is finally 100 officially closed all the bills have been paid the it has been done the system has been tested it's really well hopefully those people who came and joined us weekend
040for the drama club presentation notice a little bit better temperature control and comfortability in that space I know the students and the staff are going to be very excited about having a cooler gym as these months get public team summary uh The Pavilion we're finishing up those structural electrical touches they're being completed and we still remain hopeful that we're going to be using that space in the spring especially for graduation now that we know when the last day of school will be it's got plugs and light fixtures and locations for access points so we're well on our way there and as soon as that is wrapped up we go to painting it would be the final stage for that speaking of craving last Thursday we held our bid opening for the running track Paving project
041we had four bids submitted and after verifying the packet materials and checking references the contract was awarded to asphalt repair Solutions of Oxford we're very excited they're starting next week will be a running track for us to use for the spring with you know PE classes certainly I know I see lots of people in our community walking around the track we're super excited um you know and then we'll work with you know PTO and the family that the person's check is being named for to try to have some sort of you know event to kind of to kind of take that off but we're super excited also that it's happening during April break so that it won't disrupt construction because Paving as lovely as it is it's kind of smelly um so we're happy that
042uh that's getting done um I have a question sure I know that we are hiring a sixth grade teacher because it's necessary so that means another classrooms needed for sixth grade if we ended up with enough kindergarten students our okay I have some I have some questions for you um a couple months ago our faculty came in and presented a report for us basically the survey that was done which I thought was absolutely phenomenal and I'd love to hear from our staff more three things came out of that thing that really hit home to me the first one was that our students and our faculties don't feel safe talking to more than one person in the building the second thing was we don't even have 85 percent of our staff and our children feeling safe
043in the building that is highly alarming and the number one thing that came out of that is why is the building not clean and why does less than 50 percent of our staff and our students feel the building is dirty along with our bathrooms in my in my world I work firehouse and my other world I handle facilities the key things I learned with that is if people don't feel safe they're not going to stay and if the building is not clean and the bathrooms are not clean that's a problem it's been 60 days have we done anything to address that yes so we're now fully staffed with our custodial team so that's definitely helping we did have some shoes I get that you're having right so Fred has had Plumbing things in the fast
044bar is the safety piece that was one of those things where I don't know if you recall Miss mapman spoke to you got to take that with a little bit of a agreement it's not like kids are afraid to come to school but maybe they don't have relationships with as many teachers as we would like you know when we say they don't feel safe talking to the other adults we want them to feel safe talking to any adult that they come into contact with a big lift with their social emotional learning stuff that we do here at the school as far as the other safety pieces as they alluded to they've been digging a little bit deeper with the kids to find out what it is is it it's a lot of The Kindergartners reporting
045they're afraid of the Bears because if they don't like the buses is it because it's thundering and raining outside and kids are scared of thunder and lightning they're digging deeper with the children to find out what that is and we're hoping to have that reflected in the results of the spring survey so there will be another survey of the sea we've made any confidence let's get back to the cleaning who was responsible to make sure it's done how does that chain of command work within the building and do we have a policy in place to ensure that these things are being done sure we have our Elite custodian Mr Fallon and we have our guys during the day and at night and they go back through and they check and if they're not doing what
046they're supposed to be doing they handle that with the gentleman and make sure that's the chain of command and certainly if Mr Reed's whale or the teachers see anything in the school that is I'll say I don't want to say Regis but it's something that hasn't been done they report it to him and then he takes flights Mr bartolin so we're not just I hate to get into bathrooms but it's it's a big deal to me in my world it is huge and so are we checking these things multiple times I want to get to the bottom of why that is that less than 50 is a big deal to me that that is alarming that people don't feel a simple thing is a bathroom is clean who was responsible to make sure this is
047done at the end result who was responsible okay but it's a clean and you go in at 9 30 and it looks like a pig step Pig style it happens something happened between 9 and 9 30 and then it happens in the school so some you know the issue that we had if we know that some of our but if somebody went in there and they saw that mess they would presume that it hadn't been cleaned by the facility when that actually was not released but it became once it was made known the custodians win anything so I mean we're not just cleaning them in the morning and walking away for the rest of the day from us basically what I'm getting at no no it gets it I was very taken back by that
048and it wasn't even 50 percent of everybody across the board off the same thing I just want to make sure we're getting to the bottom of that and someone ultimately is accountable one of the interesting things with those surveys having been on both sides of it taking it as a parent seeing the results as a teacher giving the results as a teacher one the surveys are always horrible true or do you feel safe yes or no no why why not there's no there's no follow-up question um and also it depends on what just happened when you take those surveys if all of a sudden you hear that there was something that happened in a community that's close to us that puts you on edge and you start to go I don't know I don't know
049if I feel safe but the day you take the survey everything is like schools are awesome they're the best place to be ever and oh yeah I'm so happy at school oh wait no now I'm scared because something just happened down the road the other day like it it kind of it varies what's happening so if there was a particular issue that was going on the bathrooms at the time when they took it it might be the impact that's where the follow-up pieces are important to make sure that there is follow-up but really looking to see sort of what happened and see if it was something that was happening at the moment if done or is it continuing to still happen yeah it comes back and says hey we still have a problem it's not
050clean okay that wasn't the issue it's now clearly an extended issue right and I've learned over time you know I have almost 400 000 square feet of space that I maintain I've learned to sort through reality of somewhere in the middle is the truth but I just found that number to be very low to me and that to me that's a high expectation in my world so I was just curious what we were doing about it we were addressed it immediately to me that's a it's a huge check box [Music] yes that'll be shared with Miss Kiesel oh wait yep thank you on March 17th the entire School focused on social emotional learning received a lot of positive feedback on that day the next professional learning day that we have is tomorrow April 6th Dr
051Marie alcas will be coming to work with the teachers on setting learning strategies and self navigation tools and the special services department will be continuing their work with CT said which is the state system new system this year um on a curriculum update on March 29th and 30th and if you've alluded to this um I traveled with the kindergarten team other sniffing Catholic Albert Rebecca grab and Andrea Hubbard to the reading the New England Symposium of teachers we were asked to present and we did on the magnetic reading program that we started this year and we were able to share the strengths and the needs of the program and give honest feedback to it and we had the CEO sitting right front center and after that he came back and talked to us and we
052are going to be working with them and starting a partnership where they're going to hear our feedback and have developers come and work with us to improve the program to make it as strong as it can be and they the piece that was impactful to us was this will impact 11 million children so I'm pretty excited about that and in the world of special education as you had mentioned um on Monday we had a part-time social worker from Connecticut behavioral health started and it's going to start out as a part-time and then over the summer being a part of the summer Senate school year program and then starting full-time in the fall and we're really excited to have this resource to be available to our families and to our students and it's all thanks to
053the grant that we received so we're really excited about that so I can I can work on getting that so we have a part-time person who will be starting that just started and then we have the full-time person we started so two different people based on availability so I won't be able to get hold of those through so um the focus is going to be working with we have Odessa screener which is allows us to see students who might need additional help and so they would be working with students to make sure that their needs are being met as well as if a teacher makes a referral for extra concerns or if a parent were to have a concern make a referral they might work with them that way there might be certain classroom teachers
054that they're working and supporting but really working with students on the general education and end of things supporting them to make sure that we're doing as many proactive supports as we can in place so it might be working with families provider supports we're also going to have them working doing some parent events starting next school year so it might be events on topics that are coming up how do you support your students with coping strategies how do you whatever topics they're seeing as need they might put that out there for the parent population or is that not very because depending on what the situation is um you know so if it's the parent events they can choose to come if it's during the school day and if it's typically if they're leaving their classroom yes
055but if they're going into a classroom supporting then no they wouldn't because they'd be supporting the whole class thank you just one other thing but yeah I was really interested in the Spanish teachers program and how she Incorporated she so on these kids are singing getting into the class at the end of the class very Interactive incorporate you know I know there's a lot of concern because of the music before and after school things starting until the next school year if I understand correctly so it is is there some other way we can incorporate music involvement in your social emotional learning segment in the morning or you know somehow to to interact more on a music level because she was her enthusiasm for that came through and I was thinking that's a really good thing
056to do because because he ate a lot of stress the typically they the teams are planning together and they're Focus that might be on how to have agreed appropriately have different skills or tasks so you could fit in they might you know if it's something like that but um I'm not sure if you yeah I mean I think I think what we see is that in our younger grades especially kindergarten and first grade it helps make things sticky um you know and I think the goal is always trying to have something that engages students and so that's definitely part of that you know and then you might involve the kids you know they're not learning an instrument necessarily it might help bring some other music involvements yeah I think I think important just to notice
057even even with that as we're working to try and bring that back for next year um we're we're really seeing some really great work in the general music from a lot of things uh so uh uh steering committee update we are continuing our work on the our three uh subcommittees uh area focus with Equity uh social emotional learning and high quality instruction also at this time of year we're also taking a look um as we typically do uh at both our professional learning plan for the year coming up and we're also have starting to have discussions around the teacher evaluation process um TiVo and then we'll be sure to review anything that is shared with us from the state of Connecticut um as you know we've been hearing that they're working on some revisions and
058weren't there uh for BCS events uh our family wellness so it was interesting Family Wellness hit like literally the day after um the board meeting but it was a hit uh not as uh as as well a large of a turnout as we wanted but we're trying to take a look at a lot of things that were successful there think about how we can promote it a lot of of feedback from the folks who were in attendance so we were really excited to have those folks we had Zumba going and yoga and um you know and um DeLuca had out we have a company called Kirsten that basically makes interlocking indoor jungle gym equipment and he was able to get a bunch of that out that we've purchased over the years kids had a ton
059of fun going through that so a bunch around nutrition as well so we had a really great event and our goal is to continue that work and try and get the greater participation a huge shout out to Donna Richard who is really instrumental in getting that plan our trimester II report cards were distributed uh on March 16th we had conferences on the 22nd and the 23rd we had we had all but um but nine students connected with their families for conferences it was 98 of our students having a conference either by phone in person or through Zoom we did have several families that have other meetings around their child's programming that they considered in lieu of a conference but some pretty high participation rates that we were really excited we also celebrated National chip and
060dip day VCS staff uh so you know just adding a little levity to our lives um I can't I can't remember how it came up but uh there's nothing I think we were she was looking for um just some things uh and it came up that there was a national shipping today who knew um but you know just one of those fun things that added a little levity added a little bit of uh quirky fun to our week uh we also um we're really excited to have our uh BCS drama club performances of Halloween again on Friday and Saturday really well attended the kids were amazing just so awesome to see them up performing having such an awesome time they've been working so hard since January really proud of them proud of all the work
061a huge lift from everybody involved a huge thank you to Deb Sansone who was taking the lead on that so we're really excited we're now kind of in the debrief stage you know we've we got through we're taking a deep breath taking a look at um you know what went well how can we do it even better um and really looking to to have that continuing next year I think it was a really positive event for the kids and so we're really excited to keep that going we had our March community meeting celebrating the theme of trust women's History Month disability awareness month um and our Leadership Council students continue to take a greater and greater lead for that they're taking the pictures they're the MCS they're running the technology they're you know they're doing
062all the things so we're really really proud of that um and then continuing uh some work with Eagle Scouts uh from town just finishing up some of the work for our Outdoor Classroom space over there we've got our two raised beds they're working on getting some soil there some native plants and getting to finish up so we're really excited there uh upcoming uh we've been sending out information about uh as you heard we've got kindergarten numbers and our pre-registration so we're continuing to um hit the pavement and try and get as many people responding for that and we're starting uh with all of our uh our incoming kindergarten events uh starting with a parent night on the 19th after break um then we've got our screener we've got our link kindergarten orientation in August so
063we're really excited to kind of get all of that on the calendar as well uh and then uh this uh week as well we sent out the information of families just around our Smarter Balance assessments and our testing window and all of that information uh and it's going to be starting up on them so uh that's exciting oh and as several students have made me aware this is the 25th when the building and um so in 1998 they're very excited so they I've had several that are yeah so they're um I know what's in it I personally am hoping for like a Backstreet Boys or nothing CD movie in there um but we're really excited today I mean so right so um so I think you know the real fun will be one the unveiling
064of it and then I think the other part you know that we really that you know we're really excited about that because we're like how do we get it I'm like Emerson I think um but you know just uh I think it'll be a really fun thing uh that's kind of what's been going on and uh what's coming up and then you know now is we have um dates finalized for the last day of the year for the calendar [Music] uh graduation uh field day and all of those things and really see they're trying those dates on the calendar getting those plans going and really getting there actually had a question um when I was property earlier today there was work being done on the playground for a swing for some of our deceived children
065with disabilities correctly but I heard about it so I know about it but I decided you or Mr reads will could just share about that to our audience sure go in the parent newsletter but we can share it now okay so so we're really pleased that we were able to we're always wanting to be all of our students I work with Mr bartolini and we acquired a wheelchair Suite for our playground outside and what's really really nice about that is I just happen to be outside day before yesterday and there was a young woman from Team Summit and she was like this is bird what is that are we getting a tire swing she was so excited and I said actually no that's going to be a wheelchair she's God I love it she said
066I love that you did that she said that means and she mentioned a particular student she said that means that student is going to have all of the same things on the playground that we have I can see that student sitting in the wheelchair and swinging and being so excited they're gonna love it and I love that we did that it wasn't me it was it was a collaborative effort and she said we need more of that he said well secretly I said it I guess now it's not going to be so sweet I would love to you know expand the playground over by the town hall side of the camp Pacific but you know that takes some time and some planning it's a and some money she goes don't worry she and this other
067little girl they're like we got we'll do a garage sale so I have these two amazing uh young ladies in in the fifth grade they're fifth grade students and they were so excited about this being an opportunity for some of the younger children that we have here in school that they happen to know and they love the idea so much and they think that they said you're doing a good job you're going to include all the kids we're going to fundraise for you we're going to have a garage sale so I I've had to tell the parent afterwards um if you if you if your child should come home today and say Mrs bird really needs some money so we're going to have a garage sale for her it's not anything related to anything other
068than they want us to put them into it they want to support expanding the playground so that all the kids at PCS can I heard from that parent and apparently that child went home and has a giant list of ideas on what she can do to fundraise so she died today and she hasn't she's decided that she and this other little girl are going to start a business and she showed me the flyer today for all of the things that they can do she said but don't worry I know what you're going to say Mrs bird we can't do this during the school day but we can do it on the weekends and we should probably just wait until the summer we have testing coming up so we'll wait yeah so it's just further Testament
069to how amazing you know our children and families are here that they want to do so they know it's good that's one thing and then since I'm sharing I also want to share I did I did get a little notice but I was going to say it anyway um we are very excited about the drama club here but it's also worth noting that amity's presentation of the Beauty and the Beast has also been extremely amazing the lead from Bethany um but also Beyond just having the lead be a former Bethany student in that play we had a third grader Brooklyn Adams from Miss Jessica tissue's class she was Chip so it was the the person playing chip in his is one of our very own PCS students yes so how did you obtain the swing
070or ask no questions I'll tell no lies so um actually I want to give credit to Jamie Bowen one of our special education teachers came up with the idea they were able to find some grant funding to be able to do that's awesome I have to I have to applaud you on your grant funding it is in the years we've been here this is unbelievable the amendment it even goes back to the social work again right I mean just to kind of reiterate what a mental health crisis we have for Children and Families right now be able to obtain these grants it takes a lot of work so many other questions from Mr Isabel move on to our Chairman's report the only item I can report that Dr pittinger would have spoke about is all
071the Board of Ed members should have receive the email about the spotlight spectacular coming up on May 17th I attended last year it's an opportunity where all the staff is invited or the members are invited Administration and it truly is just a moment where the staff are here firstly five years ten years awards are given who just putting them in the spotlight and evening for them so hopefully you received the email there's details in the email as to what time I believe it's it's a it's an orange at a country club there you go birchwoods so do we have to RSVP to them to you at some point that's coming up next okay okay so watch your emails for that coming up that's all it's in the Chairman's report there is no correspondence to be
072read we've now come to our second opportunity for public comment if anybody in the audience would like to get up and have anything that they would like to address the board no one wants to accept the challenge [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay