001leading uh the March regular meeting of the Bethany Board of Education to order where we Inspire and Empower children to thrive in the World of Tomorrow we'll begin as we always do the Pledge of Allegiance if you please rise I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America what an annoying voice what's up all right um I would like at the beginning of our meeting today to welcome Susan Bradford as our newest member of the Board of Education it's good to have good ahead all right we've already done our student recognition for those those joining us virtually we were forced to start late today because uh several board board members had conflicts arise we didn't have a quorum we need five of our nine members here before we can start but we
002did have our student recognition prior to the formal start of the board of the board meeting so that has already happened and we'll go on to our PTO report thank you for being patient and and for being here with us today [Music] hi everyone um I'm Melissa zaldo I'm the recording secretary for the PTO I'm also the mom of a third grader Jackson and Mrs tishy's class um so since our last meeting we have held our sweetheart dance over at the middle school it was a very successful event we had 170 families attend and which was about 270 students so thank you to Naomi Rosenstein Carrie rossen and Crystal Jackson for organizing that event from what I heard everybody had a great time we were there we had a fantastic time um also the PTO
003provided popsicles for Valentine's Day for all of the students the Popsicles will be obtained for the cafeteria for nutritional and Allergy um guidelines kids were very excited and I was told that they they displayed very good manners when getting their popsicles um the PTO also provided two Platinum passes to Urban Air in Duckpin Bowling gift certificates as prizes at the most recent community meeting also we wrapped up our sock fundraiser and our toiletry Drive which I chaired along with Jeanette Savo we raised just under recollected just under 40 pairs of socks to donate to youth Continuum youth Continuum is an organization that serves at-risk youth in the greater New Haven area from the ages of 14 to 24 youth experiencing homelessness transitioning in and out of DCF at risk or human trafficking so it's a
004very good organization and to go along with that we sponsored basically a month-long toiletry drive it was a grade level each grade was assigned to toiletry to collect and the prize was an extra recess we raised I don't know I don't have the exact count but I think I think close to 2 000 toiletry items um and the winner was Kindergarten they came from behind um it had always been like between Pre-K and like I don't know where they came up with all these supervisors but it was like always like kind of between fourth grade third grade but Kindergarten kind of come from behind when so they're going to get an extra recess um that's going to be monitored by Mr Reeds well miss noffman um so that the kindergarten teachers um will get a
005little break themselves to do whatever they need to do oh um okay so also what started yesterday was Lego Club we're sponsoring a Lego Club um I think we had about 40 kids sign up for that we received a lot of free donated Legos from the community and also Community member who's not associated with BCL she doesn't have a children child in the school she purchased two storage carts for our use for us to store the Legos in so that's being led by Jeanette Savo and Christine youngberg as long as we had three other parent volunteers as well and I understand that it went very well yesterday uh we also sponsored read Across America a week a Spirit Week where the kids dressed up there was career day I know my son dressed as a
006football player um you know and things like that pajama day was also another big hit with my job um so that's what's happened basically in the past month uh just some things that we have coming up the next over the spring that we're planning we're going to do our Mother's Day plant sale we're going to have our quasi night with Beecher which last year was a lot of fun spring flings coming up and um um those were the main things I have right now but we we have a lot coming up in the spring too thank you and thank you for everything you do for the school they now come to our first opportunity for visitors public comment if anyone here wants to address the book so if you could please come to the podium
007uh state your name and uh we will ask everyone to limit their comments to three minutes and I reserve the right to limit discussion on any particular topic to 15 minutes and I'm sorry and I will remind everyone that this is a good opportunity to talk about policy and things that may come before the court but not the appropriate venue to talk about individual students parents or faculty members those those should be those discussions should be had in a more appropriate private setting good evening my name is Kimberly Wolcott and I serve as the president of the Bethany Education Association I'm here tonight to Advocate on behalf of our membership and against the financial inequity of our teacher contract in the past several negotiating Cycles we have worked within the parameters set forth by the
008board adhered to settlement Trends and compromise to meet the board's needs as such we have taken salary freezes concessions of time changes to benefits and eliminated starting steps to ensure no step cost increase to the district as well as to keep Bethany competitive to first-year teachers however this has come at a significant price as we struggle with teacher retention and continue to lose some of our most seasoned professionals next year will be my 13th year teaching as well as my 13th year at Bethany Community School however despite working in Bethany for more than a decade I will only be on step five financially this amounts to roughly twenty seven thousand dollars less than my Woodbridge counterpart eighteen thousand dollars less than Amity twenty thousand dollars less than those in Orange and thirty thousand dollars less
009than our neighbors in region 16 who are two durgs below us while the differences in Pay are significant it also speaks to a larger issue our veteran staff is facing with a base value of step five a new teacher coming into the district with six years experience will surpass me on our salary schedule which is a reality many current members of our staff myself included are already experiencing as such we fail to take into account and value the experience and dedication of those staff who have made Bethany their home year after year on average it has taken 25 years of teaching for someone to reach the top step of our contract a feat that can be achieved in 13 years in most neighboring districts currently we have no one on that step as they have
010all left as veteran and new teachers plan for retirement many have recognized the need of earning more in their final years and begin to look elsewhere it was once stated during a previous negotiation cycle that our staff was all replaceable that there were 200 people in line waiting for our jobs while there may have been some previous truth to that statement it's an undeniable reality that districts everywhere are now facing unprecedented Staffing shortages and while many districts struggle to recover to pre-pandemic achievement levels Bethany has thrived and continued to demonstrate growth however that progress is threatened by the prospect of losing more staff each and every year while we acknowledge that it is extremely unreasonable if not fiscally irresponsible for the board to match the salary cited of neighboring districts we must do more to
011lessen these discrepancies and retain our District's greatest resource its teachers we must do more to invest in our staff and ensure that their hard work is appropriately valued currently only 39 of our staff has worked at Bethany for more than five years speaking to an extremely high rate of turnover that will only continue if something more is not done on behalf of our membership we ask that the board be mindful in planning for this year's negotiations we have done our best to address these problems in the past but more has to be done there needs to be more financial and personal investment more to ensure that teachers feel their full value and more done to preserve the community that is the basis of our district thank you for your time thank you and I can
012assure you that you've been heard at your points are very clear and they will carefully considered as we move to a member on the same age about wanting to take care of our people cultivate the wonderful Community we have priority close as we go to negotiations next year um does anyone else wish to address the board at the beginning of our meeting this evening okay going once going twice God we move on all right uh we move on to review and approval of the minutes from our February 8th meeting board members will sign those minutes in the packet we've had a chance to review them and I'll entertain a motion to approve those minutes I need a thank you in a second thank you any discussion or questions about the minutes as presented hearing none
013I'll call for a vote if you were not present or not a member of the board of the last to be appropriate to abstain so all those in favor please indicate by saying hi any opposed any extensions motion passes the minutes approved and will be posted on our website [Music] all right we move on to our committee reports beginning with Aces so I have taken over the assignment is that correct that's my understanding that um is tomorrow so so Aces is the regional uh the regional uh educational organization there I believe six of them across the state and they provide services to school districts the school districts are unable to provide in-house like we can rent OT Services PT Services Consulting space and they have their own board which consists of Representatives of the constituent
014local groups uh and that's what EJ's referring to there's no need for you to go tomorrow without preparation if that's not convenient yep there's absolutely no absolutely no need or expectation so what I suggest is that the two of you connect so that you can be uh you know the position to attend next month for the month prior meeting um [Music] with results we talked about the new organizational structure more cost conscious repurpose those people might be a little bit different or um where they find themselves not all but a number of magnet school programs mostly Lottery based a lot of the Suburban schools struggled to fill there are a lot a lot in spaces with urban districts are probably okay programs okay thanks for that summary you'll find the aces meeting is always a
015day or two after our meeting which is a little bit annoying so it's the report's always on the meeting that happened [Music] uh we move on to curriculum curriculum last two weeks it was a very quick and efficient meeting I just minutes and it was essentially Miss Kiesel giving her a PD update and Grant updates I'll leave it to her in her minutes to go over that and others will be very repetitive okay very good uh facility okay Finance Finance met last night by zoom and I will uh pick the report you have in your packet a list of the operating budget summary as of the end of February 2023 and there are a few changes which are summarized on this lovely document um so you'll see under general education that salaries are status quo
016with a balance of approximately 68 000 in our favor um and that is because of staff changes uh benefits the balance in our favor has increased substantially from 69 000 to 166 000 and change in our favor the reason for that is that this time every year Ms Fargo goes through and you know has feels that there's firm enough information to go from estimates to definitive uh definitive um determinations about what the cost of benefits are going to be given staff changes and individual staff members choices about what benefits they want and that's the reason for this adjustment as well as adjustment of the benefit and Below which I'll get to in a moment so that's a substantially increased balance in our favor no adjustments under services or supplies in general I'm sorry I lied
017there are some small adjustments under services including a new expand 19 hundred and ninety dollars in um curriculum that's due to some additional PD software and uh 9000 plus nit and that is due to licenses needed um further down in the general education uh bucket under other there's an additional item in it and that was because of an untargeted unbudgeted price increase for the Chromebooks so we have we buy new Chromebooks every year so that we're on a constant cycle of making sure that our equipment is current um the uh that is budgeted but the price went up a little more than this but then that's what leads to that small balance against us but if you put it all together these new costs are swamped by the balance in our favor and the benefits
018line leaving the general education account with a balance in our favor of 218 000 218 611 dollars uh the story is similar under special education there is no change in salaries which continues to show a balance in our favor of 58 682 there's an increase in the balance in our favor and benefits which is up to 91 356. under Services we maintain a deficit of thirty thousand dollars um that is unchanged from previously there's a small uh New Balance against us in the supplies line item um and that was because of the purchase of additional testing that was finally under operations and overhead we have no change in salaries we have a small increase in the ballots and our favorite benefits from 21 000 and change it to twenty four thousand and change no changes
019in the other line items except under other there's a very small change from a sixteen hundred dollar balance to a 2 a two dollar balance um and why was that purchase of some needed furniture so if you put it all together uh we have a very large uh Surplus at the moment of three hundred thirty three thousand dollars which is about four point five eight percent of our annual and this comes almost entirely from changes in salary and especially so at the finance committee last night after presenting these numbers we had a discussion addressing a question that I raised in response to Mrs Burke's budget last year which is the reason that we have these benefits these large benefit surpluses is because when formulating the budget Mrs bird and her staff make assumptions about that
020we have this many staff this many new staff we need to budget in case they take family benefits then they don't and that leaves a surplus so I asked both at the meeting in February and last night are the assumptions that we're making in terms of who's going to take what reasonable or what are the assumptions too conservative because if we have these large surpluses that suggests that perhaps our assumptions are unnecessarily conservative and it might be possible to save some money in our budget by making slightly less conservative assumptions that does create risk because then if everyone does take family benefits then we map however we do have now have our rainy day fund so we're somewhat buffered against them so I asked Mrs burdener's staff to come back to us with some uh
021proposals some some options for how we could adjust those assumptions um in our budget going forward uh in light of the Surplus we will return to that with some specific numbers and recommendations at our next finance committee meeting which then I would suspect would come to this board is that a fair summary of our discussion it is a large Surplus we will as we always do when we have we have smaller Surplus um when we come to the end of the year we'll look at what is needed in the school new needs that were unbudgeted that have ever risen during the year we'll address those to the extent that they've needed responsible will then top off our um our rainy day fund to five percent of our budget which is what we've agreed on the
022advice of our accountants as a reasonable Target and then the remaining balance would we presume go back to the to those decisions will be made in a final way late in the year but that's that's our conversation um so with that I'll entertain them well now go ahead and make a motion to approve uh this operating budget report as of February 2023. thank you any questions or discussion either about the contents of the report itself or about my summary of the discussion of the report maybe last time I had one comment Chris um the illusion was made at our last meeting that perhaps this one balance that we recruited over these years was prize and something we did without signature discussion I just wanted to really point now this has been intimately discussed among the
023board every year since I've been here and we've always made very deliberate decisions on how to best these stewards of that public dollar and I just want to sort of as we're voting on the budget as you mentioned with some of the things you just said reiterate that commitment to being prudent with our community members dollars it's something that's really top of mind for all of us you know when we discuss these budgets um I think we're being really attentive to making sure that we're being responsible for any inference to the contrary say that I believe we've been very thoughtful and very thoroughly thank you I actually have a question I might not even apply here but given the fact that in benefits that that would include Healthcare with I don't know whether or not
024our teachers get the benefits that some of the other and would it be worth looking into the upping the benefits as a way to take care of the teachers better than having all these Surplus so I don't know the answer it's sort of a point by Point level of how our uh benefits package aligns with that of other districts that is something that's addressed during contract negotiations every year the biggest wide item both in terms of you know value and in terms of cost is salary but they're also discussions about each point of the benefits that's another way that we can take care of our teachers but I'm not able to answer the question of how we align on on individual components of the benefit but yeah the primary the primary thing is that the
025staff teacher or staff member takes an individual versus couple versus family that difference is different cost so when you budget for family but the individual opts to take only the individual or don't take benefits at all because their spouse appropriate benefits then that's what generates this okay um the people no let's vote hearing no further discussion I'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving the report please indicate by saying can you post abstention passes the report isn't approved uh the further discussion at the finance committee last night was very brief we had a brief discussion of the ongoing use of the RF funds to finish our Pavilion which we'll hear more about from Mrs word uh we heard about the audit which is done uh with no concerns at all about our
026our record keep facial management here at the school is as dear and I applaud Mrs bird Mrs Fargo and they're just to the staff for that record there continue to be some work to do in terms of aligning the school and town to making sure that the two budget systems are fully integrated and there's no ambiguity as money passes back between them there's a little work to do there within the school itself there were no concerns in the audit and it's done so we will not be hearing about the audience um I think that's it any further questions about the finance okay hearing then we'll move on to whatever's next negotiations very good thank you yes we have parent negotiations this spring and then we have teacher negotiation um policy policy we met last night
027and we will have forward that completes our committee meetings we move on to unfinished business move on to new business so there is a new item uh concerning a child carriers of absence request Mrs Burton so we have a child League of absence required from Victoria and jtech a speech and language pathologist she is requesting a child care extension for the entire 2023-22 school year per the contract and you have a copy of and if I can clarify my understanding of the contract so all of our teachers are entitled to parental leave of I believe 12 weeks that's a set amount of time and then are in with pay and then are entitled to the remainder of the school year without May and that's their entitled to that by contract this is a request to
028have the job held for the another year after that so A Lead without pay for the following yearbook with the job still here at the end of that is that it was my understanding correct thank you all right um and what do you what are you advise us about this request I would recommend it or division building it this year but it would impose a hardship on the district but another qualified person willing to take the post for an entire year for an entire year without right agenda afford them an additional year so this would be on a Case budget it's a very tough president in the past I think we've honored it I think in the past for a classroom teacher over the last 14 years there have been instances when we've honored these
029requests and there have been there have because it just deployment how many speech and language pathologists more than half of our Speech Pathology okay for the discussion before we move so we need to vote as a board on whether to approve or not we've heard the recommendation any questions for Mrs Burke questions about the contractor policy or other matters prior to moving on to a vote can I ask one more question how is the workload with 1.78 currently is it it's it's it's pretty to manage with the one that's what I'm asking seven eight or eight that we have now they are swamped and I know to lose that one person you are willing to stay for the year is the concern thank you so you're saying you have something to fill in for that
030right here but it's not guaranteed that person would say if the other so so that so miss Andre chick is currently out and we do have a long-term sub in that position who is willing to fill for this year but there's no guarantee that we could get that person to come back for a year who we might have to cover because it's also a shortage area so there's no way to guarantee that he would come back but the challenge is how do we get a good person who's willing to take the job without any guarantee without any continuation a one year long further questions of discussion depends on how you you acquire that individual if we had to go with an agency it would be much more expensive if it's a long-term sub like a
031medical agency or someone that we've hired as an individual it really depends all right so we need a motion to State our decision which we then need to vote on so I will make a motion to deny with regret the request for an extended leave of absence made by Victoria and Drake come here thank you any further questions or discussion if you're a medical for reboot and obviously people don't agree with that say so what's your vote all those in favor of the vote to deny the request indicate by saying aye any opposed any extensions the motion passes the request is tonight vote say um very important position s thank you uh we move on to the Board of Education goals Media review so I'd like to keep this brief especially given how late we
032started today but to remind everyone um the uh we have severe as a district have several sets of goals the district strategic plan which was revived reviewed every five years we have these superintendent's goals which basically translate that strategic plan on a year-by-year basis into overarching goals for the superintendent herself and for the school that she oversees then that leads into administrator goals and we have our board operational goals and these are not so much of the operation of the school and the details but rather about our function as a board and it's a place for us to put into writing the values that we hold for ourselves in in working together as a board and then twice a year now and at our July Retreat to read them and remind ourselves of them and
033have any needed discussion about whether the things we need to work on um and I'm not going to read through all of these I'm going to read to the goals but not all the bullet points and pause and just see if there's anything that we need to discuss or reflect on as we go through we're not going to edit these goals or revise them at this point that's something we do every year in July we just want to reflect on are there things here that we're letting slip to the crack so that we want to improve on um well one the board will maintain a focus on high standards of learning Social Development and emotional support for all of our children with continual Improvement then we have a series of bullet points about monitoring achievement
034which we did at our meeting last last month engage in regular dialogue with the administration about strength and opportunities for improvement I think we think we continually strive to support a well-rounded education the curriculars and other than the Core curriculum and continually support the social emotional and physical needs of our students both because these are important goals and end upsells and because social emotional and physical health is essential for optimal uh I think this is the focus of most of what we do most of our interactions with the superintendent and the staff but I wonder if others have anything they want to say or things that they'd like to see us doing in these domains okay um goal number two the board will continue and augment efforts in communication and Outreach to staff parents students
035and the broader community open forums twice a year which we do encourage public attendance and participation including by teachers and staff at board meetings I'd just like to say I'm thrilled with the increased attendance we've added to board meetings and the increased public comment over the last few I realize it's not the most exciting thing in the world as we go through our business but it's really valuable and when people come with public comment it it brings important things forward both things we knew about but that are emphasized and their details by people who care about them and sometimes things that we didn't know about so um so that's really valuable and I um communicate through letters and other mechanisms honestly I'm supposed to write a letter once in a while and I've fallen down
036on that a bit and relied on Mrs Berg so that's something and ensure the presence of board members at Major school events to maintain visibility and availability of board members which I think we could probably do better but I think those of us who are parents are always you know from this one and what never miss one excellent you have three reasons yes any comments or discussion on any of those things under Google [Music] speakers welcome that's a that's a good idea many years ago we had an open Forum specifically with staff honestly didn't go well it was at a time of enormous 10 schools a decade ago but and we didn't it didn't become a regular thing but but perhaps a trip or we could certainly think together and think with Mrs bird about
037other ways that we can do that I think that's so maybe we can follow up we do have and this will be announced a little later we have the spotlight spectacular coming up uh that is a celebration of this of the teachers um people are given awards for uh long length you know length of uh service at BCS and other acknowledgments are made at that time um I try to attend that almost every year and speak on behalf of the board um to the teachers but it's usually not heavily attended by board members and that would be an opportunity for a larger presence of the board to be at the edited event that is explicitly about celebration of Art thank you EJ anything else under uh goal too which is both three the board will
038seek to enhance its efficacy and efficiency through professional development we will institute a structured orientation for new members to familiarize them with their roles and responsibilities we're in the midst of that right now I will say that's largely deferred to this is burden Mrs Carpenter to make sure that our new members have have materials and we'll we'll do uh actually we'll need to think about that next year actually because we've always done that at our July Retreat when we've had turnover but now that the elections are in November we'll have to think about the best way to do someone we'll have to think about the best way to do orientation for new board members when we have a whole new crew um Mrs Bradford I know you've spent time with Mrs Carpenter Mrs Burton had
039gotten materials from them but if you'll find that it takes a little while to sort of get that get a hang of the the meetings and the rhythm of everything goes but please at any time ask if I can help or anything that you're not um continually seek out opportunities for professional development to enhance understanding and ability to function as affected board members so opportunities like include bringing people here to talk to us about new legislation or particular topics we've done that from time to time and we can think about it as a board but if there's something we'd want to do at our July Retreat to for development on a particular topic there are also opportunities like the game conference which Mrs lustinski went to I went to two but I was there for
040like 12 minutes um he had to take a picture and um they're also there's a day on the hill which I used to go to and I haven't gotten to since there are opportunities I think this is something we could do better as a board everyone's busy it takes time but I think it is but we have had some representations finally go forward the board will perform all of its duties with the highest ethical standards the board will be cognizant of the importance of confidentiality of both students and staff I know of no cases of concern for this and then in the year there was a few years ago this is that this showed up on our goals because there was a concern but I know of no recent concerns I hope if anyone else
041does the appropriate form board members will attend and participate in meetings and subcommittee meetings as scheduled I'd say this is an area where we have room for improvement and we saw that today whether we're not able to start our meeting for half an hour because several people not able to come usually for good reasons but it is a an ongoing problem for us full engagement not much there now obviously I'm speaking to the people right here there is one other thing that I want to say under this goal I received Communications after our last board meeting from a number of concerned community members who are in attendance some individually and then one advisable group to express the concern about the comportment of certain board members at our February meeting that was that struck them as
042disrespectful and creating a an environment um was not conducive to inclusive discussion and in particular about the use of language that was offensive to some where it was lynching it was used at our last board meeting by a board member and was offensive to quite a few people um and so I think that we need to take this as an opportunity I have apologized on behalf of the board for that to the people who reached out to me I do think that we need to make sure that we conduct ourselves in a manner that is professional and appropriate and sets a model for the children who are educated and um we also need to be aware I mean we do have we're we're on mic we're on the web and we have more people coming
043than we usually did that's great that's wonderful and it means more people are watching and so I think it's a reminder for us to be aware of the impact that our comportment and professionalism may have uh and I'd like to see that added to these goals um and I apologize to anyone here any members of the public who are troubled by anything uh any comportment or speech at the last coordinating comments or discussion on anything under the School Number Four including what I just have contacts I mean I I'm just a little concerned that we as a board of just learning of this and I don't know I said it I have no idea um sure but you apologize for it I think the appropriate thing was whoever said it was a member of the
044board should be the one to make a decision you should know the context of it and certainly I don't think any of us would want to one of anyone or I mean to be disrespectful or not set a good example so if the context was in a in Mrs Bird's um discussion of the budget and of the uh increases that have been asked for by different districts about across the state which have ranged from two point something up to 11 on something um and uh Mr Garcia said that he's going to just wait till they come for the person who proposed the 11.7 to Lynch them struck a lot of people as inappropriate and there were a few other things in the meeting that some people spoke to me about but that was the key
045comment multiple people Square yes I have spoken to Mr Garcia and we had an understanding that that was not not appropriate behavior and he's committed to me that uh uh try not to engage in any similar Behavior I mean I can't speak for anybody else on the board besides myself but for personally if there's anything that I do that's offensive I would like to know personally so that we can speak about it because you know I just think that's the appropriate thing to do rather than have somebody and Chris is a spokesperson for us but you know things could be misunderstood taken out of context I just think it's important when it comes to communicating and communicating professionally and competently and just you know luckily it shouldn't be one-to-one because you wouldn't want anywhere else
046in life you wouldn't want somebody else speaking for looking for it's just being responsible and accountable and I think that sets it yes and no I think that the you know speaking to people individually absolutely is a good thing and could be done in this case but also we're functioning in an official capacity experience the board as opposed is also appropriate on Philippines I think but I think the board doesn't mean necessarily individuals and I think not on this board I'm sure not everyone agrees or disagrees with what Garcia had said so therefore I think when when it comes to specific language it you know I think it's not representative we can't go out in the public and speak on our own behalf or the board we can speak on our own behalf but we
047can't speak to speak for the board I have the same thing I think it should be no one suggested in the complaints to me that all members of the board were using it I think that's correct all of us the main things that we want to realize what you're saying at all yeah I think you know both both are both in the level of insulation by by it's a good first step yeah that might be outside of you know it's a good first thing and I will say uh Mr Garcia apologized to me for creating this he also apologizes um so so at this you know but it's just as I said I take this as a single event that we can move and a reminder that we are not just talking about school stuff
048and making decisions but also representing the school we are being watched and we are setting a model for our community and for our students for our children and so it's a good reminder of that and I would like to see that put into those guidelines in their next iteration although I won't be here no I guess I will be here in July all right there's no need to vote or anything here but I wonder if anyone has any further discussion about we'll revisit this at our July retreat at which time we can consider all right we move on to our administrative reports before I begin my report I just would like to acknowledge that March is Board of Education appreciation month I would like to recognize here for your dedication your hard work on behalf
049of the children of Bethany I do look forward to our continued partnership as we serve our community and honor our commitment our Collective I feel appreciated and then I'll just jump into port enrollment as of February 28 22 my students 6 the historical enrollment shows a snapshot for which prior years for the months of August through February from 2020 and 2021 for your review and comparison kindergarten projections at this time kindergarten enrollment for fall of 2023 is projected to be 55 which would be 18 18 and 19 uh students in a class and so we are currently still anticipating three sections currently there are 49 students actually enrolled which would be 16 16 17 students in the class in pre-enrolled are those 49 and 14 of those were not on Sue's original enumeration so families
050but we'll continue to monitor those numbers as we've reported to you in the previous meetings if we get to those higher numbers have those conversations instructional age Personnel update for you we are very pleased that Brooke hemperly our new fourth grade teacher she started this week and she hit the ground running started and went right on a field trip so so she's doing great we love having her here there were also some recent changes as I reported out previously in our custodial Department with the resignation of one of our full-time custodians we moved some of the gentlemen around Kevin Fallon is now our lead custodian full-time evening position was vacated by Mr Ayers been reassigned in part-time custodian Kyle Clement moved up it's kind of like the the moving pieces into that full-time position which
051created the mission that I reported out on and we're happy to announce that our part-time custodial vacancy has now been filled and we hired Kendall Ward as that new custodian and he comes to BCS with eight years of custodial and maintenance experience and that's all I have as far as the enrollment projection Personnel update but uh Dr pittinger did mention that I provide a brief update for you as far as the use of the Esser buns our Pavilion project continues to go well last Thursday Mr bartolini and I met with our architect Rob white to do a walkthrough of the project and everything remains on schedule and we really appreciate his attention to detail fire to not only do things correctly but to do them on time there's a few other items I said to
052complete mostly electrical and then Paving we're very hopeful that in April when the paving plans open that we'll be able to get on their list and get them paid ideally they'll pay during the week of April 10th because it is school vacation week and they'll have the place to themselves which would mean that following the April vacation we can start available for this experience it's not necessarily our passer funds but just wanted to give you another have done that bidding process for those track I'm very very pleased if we were able to get that project fit on and then actually paved at or around the same time by ideally the same payment perhaps that does the paving for people on that any questions from Mrs bird about any of the top ICS hearing nothing to
053move on to active stuff the first update I have is for professional development on February 17th we had an opportunity to further our journey with learning more about the Commerce community and we had barbecules in here with us and the professional belt was well received and we're hopeful to continue working with her in the future to have additional professional development and on March 17th we'll be having professional development coming up and that will be focused on social emotional learning I have a legislative update for you our science of reading waiver was submitted to the state on February 27th the document was very detailed there's over 70 pages long and a really huge thank you to Andrea Hubbard for her collaboration in creation as well as Sue Carpenter who assisted us with aggregating the data and
054we're not sure on the timing of ways we'll get a response from the state but it has however this year they sent us notice that um going to be not administering it because of the science of reading so they're going to redo the entire assessment and for special education the Special Education team hosted a family social on February 23rd we had approximately 17 families in a tent and they were able to enjoy quiet games obstacle course bullying parachute games and we had some staff to clean the volunteers but say their names because it was really impressive that they came gave their time to the family you know Jamie Bowen a lot of good feedback from the family and that idea actually came from the community so for our steering update our experience [Music] for [Music]
055um so getting resilient to a good spot is also um uh Leadership Council which is really great uh but we've got kids up there foreign [Music] um yesterday we held our BCS convention convention there's a screen in my backyard they want to get to the other part of my my backyard or like like two questions oh and the best part is it's all like these kids questions so uh but it was really just great to have kids Foundation and then also as you heard our fourth grade song and third grade school uh so we really appreciate for their donations tomorrow we have conferences a lot has been going on yeah um did you get a new capacity number so so we got we got feedback so previously um previously we were of of the impression
056that for our gym the capacity would be enough to uh hold the entire school and a review of that um has the number at 300 I believe uh potentially 360 when you look at it it's a calculation that the fire marshal gave us based on standing room only based on square footage or seated um capacity so it's I believe seven months seven square feet when it's standing room only but then if it's sitting either on the floor or in a chair then it's 15 square feet so when you take the total square footage of the gym divided by those numbers then you get massive so because of that old school events we've had to really kind of rethink some of those and the first one that we've come across has been Community meetings we've had
057a split between K2 I can try and put any any Communications that I have there's policies and things that I am there's numbers um but I'm more and willing to look into the exactly I know Mr bartolini is I contact around sometimes more specific yeah yeah it's the it's the alphabet soup that I am not I am familiar thank you for the questions for Mr B12 hearing none we move on uh chairs report very briefly we do have our spring open Forum coming up on March 28th it'll be 6 30 to 8 and that will be virtual while we see value in gathering together in a space a genuine or attendance and higher attendance to their open forums when they went to Virtual Durham Zoom so I think that's not a completely obvious decision because
058it is nice to be together in the same space but we can include more people so that will be held on Zoom um the spotlight spectacular will be later in the spring I match I'm meant to interact with and celebrate our staff but the date is not here I think it's late in the year again we have no updates so uh as you know Mrs Burton I presented put forward to budget which at that time was the superintendent to budget in January uh the board of Finance is now aware that we've approved that budget so it's now the Court's budget and they are considering it alongside other [Music] so um we move on to correspondence okay and we move on to our second and final opportunity for public comment if anyone who'd like to address
059the board here at the end of our agendency all right uh so in that case it brings us to the end of our public uh meeting we do have a scheduled executive session to review this for the mid-year review of the superintendent schools um so uh I've moved the Bethany Board of Education enter into executive session to discuss their superintendents 2023 2022-2023 mid-year goals and that Cape Byrd is invited to attend second thank you uh so uh once the motion passes that will end our public meeting we'll take about a five minute recess give a chance for people gather up their things and um and then we'll reconvene here uh with Mrs Bert for that executive uh the regular meeting will mean after the executive session for about 27 seconds thank you all for being
060here this evening good night