001Welcome. I'll call this meeting to order and we'll start as always with a pledge. Well, welcome welcome everybody. We have a lot of excellence to celebrate tonight. Um, prior to that, we'll open the floor for comments from the audience. Is there anyone out here who would like to make a comment this evening in front of all of our friends? Hearing none, I'll turn things over to the superintendent for tonight's celebration of excellence. Thank you. Welcome everybody. Everybody. Um it's great to see so many people here. Uh and as soon as the kids walked in, um the energy level in the room just like shot through the roof, which is fantastic. Um we are here in the business of uh working with kids. And so we want to start celebrating our students and all the awesome
002things that are going on inside the classroom, outside the classroom. You're going to get treated to something that we all experienced at Veterans Day this past Tuesday. Mrs. Peltier has a nice treat for us with some of her students. Um, and also we want to recognize our cross country athletes in both schools. So, the fall cross country season brought outstanding accomplishments for both the BDCS and BHS boys teams. Our student athletes demonstrated tremendous dedication, teamwork, and perseverance on the course. Um, I want to congratulate the BCS boys cross country team. Are they in one spot? Okay. Uh congratulations to the boys team [clears throat] who captured uh the NESAC conference championship this season. >> Their hard work and determination paid off in a big way earning them top spot among a very competitive field. Thank
003you very much student athletes and coach Glenn and Coach Livingston. Thank you very much. Uh boys cross country team at the high school class S runners up. Um, very very competitive class S race. It was very exciting to watch. Very fun to see. Um, I don't know if you ever been to a cross country meet, you got to run all over the place and try to figure out who's where. I'm really bad at that. I never know what's going on as far as team scores. Uh, but Coach Smith said that the team was way back in a team score and about halfway through the race and then they showed a lot of grit, determination, perseverance and moved all the way up to second. And we think if the race was another 15 or 20 yards
004longer, we would have been first. So, congratulations to the boys. Uh, class desk >> and a coach Paul Smith and coach Ferraro, thank you very much for all your hard work and dedication for our team this year. And we had a couple of phenomenal individual accomplishments starting with Dalia Living Livingston earned all state honors and was the NC girls cross country champion. Congratulations Dr. >> On the boys team we had Andrew Rose earn all state recognition. Congratulations, Andy. >> And Dominic Lombardo not only won the NC uh cross country championship for our league, but also won first place and class S champion uh out of all the schools in Connecticut class S number one. So congratulations. Dominic also earn earned all state honors and represented Connecticut and Bolton at the New England Championships this past
005uh this past Saturday in Vermont and did an outstanding job there. So, we're very proud of Diamond only. Second Bolton athlete ever to make it to New England. Is that right, coach? >> Second only uh student athlete to make it to New England for Bolton. >> No, I've had about seven. seconds sounded better, but thank you. >> Congratulations. Uh, congratulations, Dom, and to all the runners and the coaches. Uh, I've been around cross country for a long, long time, and I have a great deal of respect for the sport. Um, the the level of mental toughness that it takes to do cross country, to go out and practice every day. I mean, their their practice is is running, right? So, um, you have to love that to begin with, and I know it's a lovehate
006relationship for most runners. Um, and that's why we have awesome, dedicated coaches to push them, make sure that they're bringing their best every single day. Um, and I'm always super impressed with uh the level of preparation. And the these coaches, I see them flying by my office uh all summer long and then all fall long. Um I am sad [clears throat] to say that this past Saturday was Coach Smith's last cross country race um with Bolton Public Schools. He's retiring as a coach. Um and u I can't thank him enough, not only as a superintendent of schools, but as a parent of a former athlete of his. Um Coach Smith is everything that's right about kids. Um he teaches them how to work hard, how to overcome obstacles, how to persevere. Um all those things
007are what makes him special and what makes our cross country program what it is. The first place, the all state, all that stuff is fantastic. But uh what he does to help grow young people is really what it's all about. And I thank him for doing that and wish him the best of luck in his retire second retirement. Thank you, coach. All right. Now, we have a special presentation from Bolton Center School and Mrs. Pelier. Good evening. This past Tuesday, we had the honor of celebrating all those who served in the armed forces. Whether their time was in the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, Coast Guard, or Space Force, these brave men and women completed the active duty by fulfilling all of their service obligation obligations during their active duty period and
008then somehow learned to to transition to a normal life, a life that can never fully reflect the realities they faced in service. With such a wide range of duties performed in the military, from national security to fighting in combat to helping with disaster relief and many other things, we can honor their service, but we will never truly understand the full weight of what they went through. So, at BCS, we like to show our appreciation through our annual Veterans Day assembly. Tonight, we will showcase a few of the presentations from Tuesday. We're going to start with our sixth graders. The sixth graders have read the story America's White Table. It tells a story of a family whose uncle John comes over for Thanksgiving dinner. Uncle John is a veteran and served in wartime. He was lucky
009to come home from the war. However, his fellow servicemen, a a friend named Mike, did not come home. Because of this, in the story, the family sets a white table to honor Mike and all the soldiers. Each item on the table has special significance, but no one will sit or eat at this table. Uncle John appreciates what the family has done when he comes over and sees the white table. The white table is a tradition that began after the Vietnam War and many branches of the military and is often set up in military dining halls. This table is meant to show those of you here today our appreciation and remembrance of all of the sacrifices of all veterans. Good evening. A table is set here which is known as the missing man table. It is
010placed here to honor men and what men and women who serve in America's armed forces, especially those who are missing in action or are prisoners of war. Today we have set the table to acknowledge that all of you have bonds with one another as well as with those who served with you but who never returned home. Together you have all chosen to face the challenges of service to country. One of these challenges is losing your fellow soldiers, your friends. We set this table today to honor all of you, our veterans, who have sacrificed so much for us. We also want you to know that we do remember our countrymen and women who served along with you and have been lost. Now, we'd like to share the meaning of each of the items. First, we use
011a small table to show one soldier's lonely battle against many. We cover it with a white cloth to honor one soldier's loan. No, we cover it with a white cloth to honor a soldier's pure heart when he answers to his country's call to duty. We place a lemon slice on the plate to so to show a captive soldiers bitter fate. We poured rain of salt out there for the tears of families waiting for their loved ones to return. We push an empty chair to the table for the missing soldiers who are not here. We lay a black napkin for the sorrow of captivity. We place a white candle for peace. We also we also turn over a glass for the meal that won't be eaten. Finally, we set a red rose in a vase tied
012with a red ribbon for the hope that all are missing will return someday. We have set this table to honor and remember all brave Americans. Thank you veterans for your service and for being here with us today. Then in seventh and eighth grade, I'm going to have our three students who are sharing their writing come on down in seventh grade. social studies classes, students wrote thank you letters to veterans for their service and described what service means to them. We will hear tonight from Ava Rivera and Tada McMahon their letters that were chosen. And then in 8th grade social studies class, the students were tasked with writing a creative poem using Veterans Day as their inspiration. The two students who were chosen were Isabella Corsinowski and Sam Tumi. Unfortunately, Isabella had a prior commitment and
013could not be here. But we will hear from Sam, service to our country. Veterans, you have sacrificed so much over the years to make sure that we can live in a free and safe place. What you do is so much more than people may realize. You have given up years of your life to serve this country. You left your homes, lives, and families to ensure the safety of us. There are many definitions of service, but when veterans serve, it means that courageous men and women respond to the needs of their country to confirm that there is a place for future generations to live in and not be in constant fear. Veterans, what you have done for this country is so much more than serving. There are no words that can define the things that you
014have went through and what you have done for this country. But we can start by thanking you. Thank you veterans for giving up your lives to serve. Thank you veterans for being courageous and ready to face danger. Finally, thank you for making this country whole. Veterans, we thank you. Dear veterans, I want to thank you for your service. I can't imagine what our country would be like without you. You are so inspiring and all of the sacrifices you have made just to protect our country are truly amazing. I am only in seventh grade and I'm trying my best to learn about Veterans Day. I will never really understand what what you guys did for us no matter how much I try to read and learn. But I do know that you guys did a lot
015of hard work that words cannot explain. I appreciate how you always work hard no matter what it may be. Whether that is training, fighting, or staying fit. I think it is amazing that you guys can be strong, not just for us, but also your family. For some veterans, they may not have a family, but I like to think of our country as one big family. It takes more than one person to fight for our country. It is so inspiring that you don't know what you're up against, but are still going to take the risks and fight for your country. And considering you don't know what the outcome of the war will be, whatever danger you have been through isn't even close to what a normal person would consider danger. I know the hardships were disease,
016hunger, and the fear of gas attacks, which could all be seen in World War I. I know that there were way more hardships considering all of the different wars we have fought in history. But those three are very scary. Those three hardships show how brave and strong your veterans truly are. My great-grandfather was a veteran. He is 83 years old, and I'm very grateful for what he did for our country. It makes me happy that I can spend Veterans Day with him. On the other hand, this does make me think of others who will never see their family members again. To me, this day reminds me of how proud the veterans are that aren't here looking down at their family and being happy for what they achieved. This is how every veteran should feel, not
017just on Veterans Day, but every day, no matter where they are. The point of Veterans Day is to honor everyone that served our country in wartime and peace time. And words cannot express the gratitude I have for you all and what you have done. Thank you for your service. My name is Sam Tumi and this is my poem. What does it mean to serve? Do you have to change history's curve? No matter what you do, do you have to be true or just fill others with verve? How do you serve the free? Do you charge into battle, not flee? Do you have to be brave? Take what others have gave to respond to everyone's pleas? Fighting with tooth and with blade, working through light and through shade. Do you have to be strong with persistence
018so long to serve in this nation we've made? And then finally, we like to end our Veterans Day celebration with our adorable prek class and a little video that they prepare to thank our veterans. Yeah. >> Well, just so you know, they saying the Q is It was really great and one of the best parts of the day was the entire school played a role in in the event which was really really nice. Every single grade um had a part in it and it was fantastic um evidenced by our wonderful students here that you saw tonight. So I apologize we couldn't show the video tonight but thank you very much for uh putting this together for us this evening. Um thank you uh Mr. GR for putting this together and during the school day. It
019was it was great for um for our whole school community. I don't know. Did you count how many? We had dozens of veterans. >> How many? >> Over 100 veterans and family members came. Yeah. >> Seat set up and a few more we had to get set up. >> Great. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Uh yeah, we're just going to take a quick break and we can congratulate everybody and People can make their way out if they don't want it and stay with us. >> Yes. I hate >> Yeah. I know. Yeah. That was great. that we understand all of this. You're welcome. No, We're still very I remember that. So they're saying [clears throat] different directions. You can take that. Alrighty. Where did everybody go? Um, our final celebration of excellence tonight is to
020celebrate our departing board of ed members. We have three among us who will not be on the board anymore after this meeting. Two of whom unfortunately cannot be here this evening. Um, Ria Klene has been a board member for four years. She has taken the unenviable task of being on the finance committee um which has been a major time commitment and she has always put in above and beyond effort for everything that she has undertaken and she will be missed on the board. Um Chris Duffy has uh been on the board for a less amount of time, but uh his contributions have been large and he has shown that he's put great thought into all of the business that's come before us since he's been on the board and it's um unfortunate to be losing
021him as well. And then our largest uh vacancy upcoming is Chris Davyy who has been on the board for over a decade. Um along with myself and Chris's shoes are going to be very very large to fill. Um he has always shown great thought in every decision no matter how large or small it has been. um spends a just huge amount of time analyzing data for the on behalf of the board and each budget argument. Um always been a great advocate for the board of ed and for kids in the town of Bolton and you will really be missed. um we've largely uh been able to work together great and even on the couple of things that we've disagreed with in that decade, you know, we've always had thoughtful conversation and argument and um I
022think it shows that the board of ed is largely a nonpartisan place and everyone is here to put the interests of of kids first and you have been just the perfect example of that and you'll really be missed by myself, the board and the people of town. >> Thank you. That's very kindly said to far more than I deserve, I think. But >> I don't think so. Um I'm told that uh there's a a little clock in the bag and that's an example of getting all the time back. >> There is a present there. [laughter] >> I'm guessing what's in there? I'm sorry. I don't know. some time comment. >> Maybe I should get a clock so I can tell by [laughter] >> Well, now we need to know. Is it a clock? >> Yes,
023you can. [laughter] >> You have one guess. What's in a Rolex? >> A Rolex. >> Rolex. >> People of both would have something to say about that. >> [laughter] >> No wonder very lovely. >> Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. That's Oh, very nice. Well deserved. >> I'm sorry. Well deserved. Thank you. This keep it in my office at home. Thank you. Oh, well that concludes. I was worried with all those people and the the kids. I was like, how do you follow that? I don't know say anything. But um all right, moving on to the BHS student representative report. >> So last week we welcomed eight new members into the National Honor Society. Both students and parents enjoyed the ceremony and are looking towards their years in NHS. Along with the 14 current
024members, these eight will be volunteering in ways that help the community in the school through blood drives, study events, toy drives, the annual phonathon to support the Bolton scholarship fund along with service to the high school throughout the school year. We are so excited to be able to welcome these new members. Our fall sports season has just ended. All of our teams took the time to honor the seniors during their annual senior nights. For each of the respected teams, the nights were extremely special to the athletes, coaches, parents, and spectators. We are all super grateful for the hard work the teams put into making these nights memorable. Teams are all celebrating this week and next week at their respective banquetss. Overall, whoa. Overall, teams competed well this season with girls volleyball ending 6 to 12.
025Girls soccer 9 to7, boys soccer, seven wins, eight losses, and one tie. We continue to have a cooperative girls swim team with Manchester. This year they placed second at NC's with both Isabella Goodness and Gwennneth Clemens improving their improving their times. We also continue to have a boys cooperative football team with Coventry whose record this year was 1 to7. The student body is extremely proud and would like to congratulate Dolly and Dominic and the entire cross country team. All the teams felt very accomplished and are looking forward to the next season. As fall sports conclude, winter sports will be starting mid- November with many students excited to start. Our athletes are extremely grateful that open that the open gym opportunity before between seasons that started last year has completed this year. Um, as a culmination
026of our homecoming spirit week, our student council held a flag football game this past Friday. Both boys and girls were able to participate where they were split into teams by upper classman, underassmen. Parents were invited to spectate and the upper classman sold concessions to raise money. The upper classroom were able to secure the victory with strategic plays and hard work. We held our homecoming dance this past Saturday. The theme this year was red carpet. There was free food and drinks available for students and our DJ did a fantastic job and the students danced their way and had a lot of fun. More than half of the students currently enrolled at BHS attended the dance. As I'm sure you've already heard by now, Bolton High School was named Connecticut School of Distinction for the second year
027in a row. BHS students were proud of themselves and grateful for the BHS faculty for making attention. >> Thank you very much. If you have studying to do or whatever, you're free to leave and also very free to stay. We have a lot of interesting things coming up. [laughter] >> All righty. Um on to additions to the agenda. Do we have any additions? We do want to move one thing up which is item H2 which is bid waiver and award for copers. >> Yes. So thank you. Um I want to thank Cassaul for all the hard work u she put into um this arduous process of uh renewing or getting a new lease on our copers uh for our buildings. And um we did a lot of we had probably over a dozen meetings with
028different vendors. Uh we we uh hosted multiple tours around the building doing inventory and seeing what's there and and trying to um make sure that our plan moving forward made sense for the school. First of all, made sure that our staff had what they needed in the copier m in the copier rooms. Um and then staff in the offices had what they needed also. um while trying to be as fiscally as responsible as we possibly could. Uh the they were very very aggressive the companies that we worked with um so aggressive that I believe if I'm not mistaken we with inflation everything goes up all the time. Uh we were fortunate to secure um a lease that is going to be $150 a month less expensive >> um based on all the hard work that
029did in and the leg work and all the extra meetings she had with the vendors. So, I appreciate all the time she put in. Um, after careful consideration of all the offers, um, we would like to recommend going with UBO business services. They currently have our printer contract and we've had phenomenal luck with them. We've had really good service. Uh, we call them, they're right here. Uh, and their products have been really good. Also, um, the current vendor is Xerox. They were also, um, very competitive and and did a great job in the bidding process. Um, but there was a couple reasons. Even though, as you can see, their price uh per month is about $50 less than UBO. Uh, and the reason why we're still recommending UBO is because of some of the challenges
030that we've experienced over the past five years. Uh, performance has been inconsistent. Uh, some ongoing challenges with billing and having to go back and forth with things getting build that we should have gotten build for. um frequent paper jams and oftent times they may not have the technicians available so they try to troubles troubleshoot over the phone and oftent times that takes our staff offline and and can be very disruptive to their workday. Uh we have not had that same experience for UBO. Uh so for those main reasons um maintenance and service uh and time that our staff is is taking out of the day to work on the machines uh we would like to have a bid waiver to off and offer the contract to UBO business services >> and you had said that
031we have talked to other people have UBO >> and they've had very favorable reviews. Yes, Cassaul did a really good job of getting references for all the companies and uh reached out to other people that were using the companies and based on that feedback as well as our own experiences in the past five years uh we came to this decision. >> They are um they also held our contract um two contracts ago before this one before Zer. >> So they are a vendor that we do now. They lost the last one to pricing and we kind of paid for it. [clears throat] >> Um, all right. So, we are looking for a motion to wave the bid for the copy lease and service and supply agreement and award the lease in agreement to UBO business
032services. >> So, second. >> Uh, does anyone have any questions or comments about this? How long is this contract? >> 63 months. >> Okay. >> The number. >> Yeah, that's the that's their industry standard for them. They say all their contracts are 63 months. >> Was there anything that Prism offered that the others didn't for $1,000 more a month? >> Just $1,000 more. I I think with the uh the Rico uh the comparable >> equipment um they just didn't get the same pricing. >> They're more of a Tiba house. >> Yes. >> Um yes. And the superintendent and I had a conversation about this the other day and he was wondering if people would be okay with $50 more a month. And I he said, "Well, if we've been having enough problems and I think
033that seems like a negligible amount of money to have a significantly better service, particularly if it saves us hours on our end, because you know, it saves us an hour or two a month and we've paid for it." So, >> yep. I agree. Does anyone have any other questions or comments? >> No, I just appreciate the amount of analysis and work that went into comparing all these. Um, but cheaper isn't always better. I know it's just a little bit more. Um, but I I agree that these types of things in an office setting can be very disruptive. So, I think it's worth it. >> Is there anyone else who has questions or comments? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. >> I. Anyone opposed or abstain? All right, that passes. And
034on to routine business and approval minutes. Do we have a motion, please, to approve the minutes of the October 16th, 2025 board of education business meeting? >> I'll move. >> I'll second the motion. Is >> there anyone who has any questions, comments, or edits to these minutes? >> Not a big deal. But item D1, Ben Davies presented the motion, not Ben Davey. And Chris Davey abstained, not Chris Davies. [laughter] >> That is a big >> Oh, yeah. Good. Catch that. >> Happy to share. Um, anyone else? Um, all those in favor of the amended merchandise say I >> opposed or abstaining. All right, on to board of education committee reports and finance. >> So, finance committee met yesterday. Um, not a ton of updates, but a few to share. Um, from a transfers um perspective
035in your packet, there are two, you know, quite small transfers. The first is for a $5 transfer. It's really a reclass within music to cover shortfalls and dues and fees. And then the second is for $250 to request um building a request within building admin to cover interpreter services at parent meetings um for the school year 2025 2026. Um and so that's a reclass from professional development to professional services for $250. So, looking for a motion to >> We have a motion to approve the October transfers. Some move. >> I'll second. >> Does anyone have any questions or comments? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Understanding. >> Okay. And then from a budget standpoint, um, year to date, we have expended 23% as compared to 21% last year. So, so
036fairly in line there. Um the committee you know did talk through any you know material differences um and you know where we are at this point in the year. There's there's really nothing to call out at this point in the in the budget cycle. So fully projecting full fully expenditures and then um there is also in the packet um a listing of all the the grants as well and I'll I'll turn it over to Casal just to maybe walk through and provide the highlights um for for some of the um the grants. We typically review it each time this year. You want to do this now or did you want to do it during your fourth page? >> We can do it now. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I think just overview. I think page three
037probably the the last page that we review might give everybody a nice summary. >> Okay. >> So, within your first uh first page of your packet, you go through that that just gives you a listing of all the grants that we've gotten last year or that we're projecting this year. If you flip over to the hand color that gives you all of the actual expenses by grant by categories and where everything kind of shook out for last year. And on the side you can see what the use of funds were for each of those grants. Uh so in total we spent $673,818 and 4.3 FTE. Any questions there? I'll move to the blue. Those are the projected grants for this year. Um, [clears throat] so far this year, some of these grants, they're still in
038their uh, approval process. Some of them are just at the application stage, waiting for approval. Um, same format. This is what we're currently projecting for each of the grants and each of the uses. And it's pretty similar to the actuals from last year. If you turn to the last page, you'll see that we'll be getting 744,910 in new monies and we're still at 4.3% FTE for current year. And we also wanted to mention too, there are two grants that are um how do I frame it? in the hopper um that are in the works from the state that we're um >> continuously looking for updates on. One is uh called the seed grant. It's for uh provide support for special education programming and students who who have an IEP and the drip grant which uh
039helps with facilities and um maintenance of of buildings. So, we're still um waiting in the wings for the the state to give us more information about those two grants and we'll update you as we get more information. Um, does anybody have any other questions about any of the finance things? Is that right? >> Thank you. Um, on to community meeting reports. Uh, do we have a PTA representative would like to say things? So school year is also a big front off running. Um we've already had a few dining out nights including Square Peg, Dairy Queen, and Panera. We launched our taco Tuesday mo kits um for um just this week. Um we're getting some things ready for um like Wolfpack tickets, pottery painting, and other fun things. We're gearing up starting to plan for spring
040fest art show ice cream social extra book fair and somewhat special dance. We have pengument patch coming up book fair the week of Thanksgiving with parent teacher conferences. We have math night coming up on 1121. You can go sign up for that. There's two sessions on that one. Um I think we've got crispy cream donuts coming up too. Plus, um, we're hoping to hear back on December 12th about the bonding grant for the playground. So, fingers crossed. Whatever you need to do, send good our way for that. Um, and I think that's it so far. >> Thank you very much. Great job as always. Uh, do we have any other committee meetings reports? >> Yes. Uh, my final scholarship fund uh, community meeting report. I attended the annual meeting the scholarship fund held in October
041um at which we elected uh directors to new terms um including myself for another two-year term um and elected reelected president and uh secretary. Let's see. Um we are moving ahead u making plans for the phonathon in the spring. We already have dates picked out and are working with the high schools National Honor Society students once again. Um really appreciate their work uh volunteering with us. Uh both they do both the phonathon and they also help out with our mailing earlier in the year. They help assemble it for us which is huge because it's like you know two two and a half thousand pieces of mail that have to get assembled. Um what was the other thing? Um oh yes and then uh in the spring for the high school musical uh scholarship fund will
042also be helping out uh with the message board which we've done for the last few years. Um we purchase all the supplies and assemble them so that families can leave messages for students and staff who are uh participating in the play. It's been very popular the last few years. So we're excited to continue that. Um, as I am stepping off the board, uh, after today, if there's somebody currently on the board who will be continuing or one of the new members perhaps, um, if they would like to become the board's representative to the vault scholarship fund, we would absolutely welcome uh, more participation um, on our board. So, please keep that in mind and I hope somebody will step forward. What Tuesday or when do teams happen? >> Meetings are the third Monday of each
043month, usually from September to June. All right, that's it. You of course are welcome to attend any meetings. Thank you. >> Yes. Uh it's been wonderful. I'm going to step out a little early. I apologize to everyone who's yet to present um and get over to the library and join in the celebration over there. So, >> thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Is there any other community meetings to report on? Like that's probably it. I may take this to >> All right. Now turn things over to the superintendent for tonight. Superintendent report. >> All right. So, my feel like my report from around the district is going to pale in comparison to um what the students did earlier tonight, but I'll give my best shot. Um I want to first of all thank Mr.
044Humon uh for putting together our senior nights on the lights. So, both soccer teams got to play their senior night games in Manchester on the lights. He did a nice job coordinating with the town of Manchester uh to have that field available for us. It worked out really nicely. I think the kids had a blast. Really well attended. Um, so that that was a great night. Uh, I've been attending regularly my Ursa NASA and my HASSA superintendent network meetings. Um, they've been really really good for me as a new superintendent and I think they're they're good for even seasoned veteran superintendents. Uh, not only for the networking, but having conversations around um, common issues and challenges that we're having. Obviously coming into the budget season that's been a hot topic in our meetings and people
045starting to plan ahead right now and seeing uh already rising costs of insurance um electricity and some other things that are going to be impacting the budget moving forward. So um good to be in those meetings get a sense of what some of the strategies are that they're going to be trying to implement in their districts and uh try to learn to sync from them. So those have been really good. uh BCF BCS roof replacement. Uh we found there's a grant opportunity available for that project. Uh I know we've been in discussion for quite some time now about replacing that roof that desperately needs it. I had a meeting with Cassaul this morning and I went over to town hall and met with Jim Roupert. Um he has some experience in this and we wanted
046to try to get a sense of timeline and next steps. Um, so we talked about the board of selecting because the board of selecting is the governing body in Bolton. They're the ones that have to kick things off. So at their December meeting, uh, they're going to put on their agenda the possibility of adopting resolutions, granting permission to move forward the project. Um, if that happens and they grant the resolution, then they will uh form a a temporary building committee for this project and then that'll get the ball rolling for us and we can start doing things on our end. Um, so we're waiting for December 2nd to see what happens at their meeting. In the meantime, um, I think it would probably be a great idea to have at least one or two representatives
047of the board of education on that committee. I certainly will be on the committee. Um, and so if anybody here is interested or our new members um, we would like to get that information over to uh, the board of selecting before the second if possible. Um, ADP, I know that's that's something we've also talked about quite a bit since I got on board. Um, we've had multiple meetings with them. They've been really uh, good and accommodating with giving us demos and having conversation with us around the services that they can provide for us. Um, and right now we're in a holding pattern because the last meeting we had with them, they uh they expressed some challenges that they would have with uh TRB and our 403b system. Uh, as well as doing projections for the
048following year's budget, teacher salaries when they when they move in in steps. Um, and that was um could get a little bit clunky. So, we had a good conversation with Jim this morning. um and on his end also he wants to put the brakes on that and he's looking uh for other um other avenues to improve efficiencies there. One of the things we talked about was our team here at the board of ed is up and running on our system and is is working pretty efficiently with it. is going really well for us. And so, um, having our team work with their team to try to get them, um, more familiar with the system and using it to its capabilities and hopefully that will help efficiencies on their end as well. We attended the high
049school fair at Horus Porter a couple weeks ago. Um, it was a nice follow-up from their visit here. Um, we were in their their gymnasium, their common area with Eio Smith, Ram, a correct high school. Uh and we met families that came to explore their options. We had some nice conversations. Uh gave out some cards, followed up with some emails. So hopefully that leads to some positive connections with students and families from Colombia. Um school year 2627 calendar. We reviewed this with a leadership team. Again, made some suggestions, had some really good conversations around the needs of our staff as it relates to professional learning opportunities. Um, and so I'm going to be sending uh this board out a draft uh of what we were thinking about um for your feedback and and we'll take
050action on that hopefully in the near future and set the calendar for the following year. Um had a visit the superintendent of RAM invited me. They were having an AI presentation uh for their staff. We did something for our staff at the beginning of the school year. They were having somebody different present. So he invited me over there. It was really um interesting, exciting, scary to see what's out there. And so, every district is facing the same challenges we are as far as, you know, um how are we going to utilize this to the best of our abilities? How are we going to educate our kids around this? Um it's here to stay. And so, we want to try to get a handle on what that's going to look like in Bolton Public Schools. And
051and Monica is leading uh a district committee to to do just that. So, more to follow on that, but um hopefully some exciting things down the road with AI. Up next is going to be Monica's report on our student performance. And before she does that, I just want to um to take a minute to congratulate and thank all of our staff members and our administrators and and our students who um did the work. And the results you're going to see are a culmination of a lot of different things. And I know some people like to try to point out one thing that made a difference for our kids. And I think we know after doing this for a long time, it's never just one thing. It's a lot of different things. It's the instructional coaching.
052It's the interventions. It's identifying early what students need and where they're falling down and addressing those needs um quickly. Um it's it's having conversations in data meetings. It's having weekly conversations in PLC's. It's having uh district level conversations about what our needs are in the district and uh and none of this can happen without the support of this board of education. So, I want to thank the board of education for all the support that they give our schools in making sure that our teachers have the tools and the resources that they need to deliver the best possible education we can to our students. So, our students did an awesome job. Um, but it certainly um goes without saying that it is a complete team effort, including this team that's sitting at this table right here.
053So, um, with that, I'll turn it over to Monica. >> Good evening. Be loud enough. Um, although it does say next generation report, we are going to get to that. We are going to start off however um with some information about our annual testing which takes place as you know every year in grades three through eight. I don't know why I pointed out I thought we were going to have another technical difficulty when that screen didn't go on. So great. Our annual state testing as you know if you have children in the system includes a smarter balance assessment and the next generation science standards assessment the NGSS and the SBAC aspect as we commonly call it. It describes student achievement and growth as part of accountability systems measure student progress and attainment of knowledge and
054skills. But we don't use this as a sole measure of success. We use this to identify trends with our students. It is not a substitute for all of the curriculum based assessments. the in cost assessments we have universal screeners that we use as well. Um however this is what is at the forefront when we do get our next generation accountability report. So um our academic assessments here um overall you can see the trajectory we are um I think we have reached finally uh our prepandemic levels we are back up and we have had steady improvement across all grade level. If I can if I can interject, Mike, I'm sorry. Uh to note, um if if a district gets one of 3% that is considered to be uh notable. Um and so you can see there
055we have uh you can see the jumps and the gains that that we've made uh in one year and that's um that's pretty incredible. >> Sorry. >> Nope. So um moving forward to which um Superintendent Caruso referred to earlier um we do have next steps based on what we've observed which is to continue to research and utilize high level instructional strategies. We disagregate state assessment results together with those universal screening assessments and classroom performance to provide targeted interventions where we need them and to review academic trends at the district school department and grade level meetings. And those are the PLC, the instructional leadership team meetings, um after school meetings, faculty meeting time, um early release days and PD often can include all of those and all of our scores contribute to our next generation accountability
056report. The next generation accountability report um is made up of 12 indicators basically to ensure that we're not only looking at test scores. We're looking at attendance. We're looking at how our various groups of students are performing. We're looking at how many students are engaged in the arts. How many students are in CTE and such. So there are 12 indicators. Uh it is a holistic picture of how of how our district is doing. It is an unusual index of taking our percentage of points. It goes into a state formula. Uh sometimes I have a hard time parsing out the math because it doesn't really make uh the state has their own secret formula there. Uh but it does expand accountability to all staff and allows to demonstrate progress in multiple areas. So it doesn't sit
057solely on the shoulders of math teachers. It doesn't sit solely on the shoulders of teachers of reading um in those areas. We want to make sure that we have well-rounded students. Um, and that is what this um attempts to try to like convey our accountability index. I know you've seen that old graph that has like the 12 indicators that I know you can't even read from there. So, this is just the bottom highlighted section. As you can see, we have gone steadily steadily up year by year and we continue to outperform the state in every uh academic indicator. Right. Some highlights are there is ongoing improvement in both schools. Um increased preparation for post-secary education. 95% of our students are enrolled in at least two AP dual credit which is also ECE. Um you've heard
058that term. They're interchangeable or CTE courses. So, not just students who are your um AP students headed to a college, but also your students who want are um college and career ready because they may be interested in engineering and construction and design, business. We have an amazing uh CT culinary department. We have incredible options for our students here. Um increased entrance into post-secary programs. Those are two or four-year institutions. They can be two or four-year colleges, but can also be trade programs. And Bolton High School, as we heard from student rep, uh have been named a school of distinction for second straight year, earning their place in the highest performing category. And a huge contributor to that is our advanced placement um students. Uh we have 62 students in grades 11 and 12 who took
059AP courses and together they took 126 advanced placement exams. This is over 55% of those two grades combined. 91%. This is honestly um very unusual that 91% of our students who took the AP exams pass with a three or higher. 60% pass with a score or higher. Um and that is one of the primary areas that are looked at when determining whether or not you have a school of distinction. So for the district, we have strategic priorities and focus areas. As usual, we are going to use our assessment data to identify student needs and adjust adjust instruction accordingly through PLC's, ILTS, grade level department meetings. Um identify barriers to regular attendance and provide interventions and supports because absenteeism is a part of our next generation report. continue our multi-tered systems of support which are targeted
060and strategic interventions and that has been um presented here in the past by the um faculty of Bolton Center School and Bolton High School and support students physical fitness and promote the importance of lifetime fitness which is another indicator in the report and we want to make sure that students understand that that is an important part of their development and continue to ensure that our students are learning in a safe and supportive environment which speaks to caring culture which is the second pillar in our strategic plan and supporting the qualities that are embedded in our portrait of a graduate. So to close, we have a small graphic for our district goal alignment which begins with of course the superintendent's vision for the district informs our building goals which then is conveyed to the departments and
061ultimately through the teacher growth plans so that those are all in alignment with the ultimate goal of being a unified system that is fully aligned with consistent practices. Do you have any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Do we have anything else to say about grants? No. Does anyone have any questions about any of the things we covered under the report? >> Yeah, just very impressed with the scores, especially the AP. I'm sure >> I had said one question about the roof. Um, did we decide we did or did not already have a building commission and what the scope of it was? >> So, I believe we do not currently have a commission. The last evidence of one we could find was 2020. >> Oh, really? People that are no longer >>
062involved in the town or the school. So, uh, we talked today about wiping the slate clean, starting new and having a um a new temporary committee for this particular project. >> Okay. And who was choosing that? >> Um, I think uh we talked today about having I think it was five to seven people on it. um hopefully getting a community somebody from the community or two a couple of board of education members couple of uh board of selectment members um and then I would participate as a non- voting member uh Jim would participate as a non- voting member >> okay but they the selectman will be the people are choosing that formally or are they >> they would like us to send them a couple names of people that we would like to participate on
063it uh from the board of education they will select And then we'll I guess they'll have to have a conversation about who's going to chair that committee. >> Um Okay. And when they was >> December 2nd. >> Okay. So we'll have turnover in the meantime. So how do we now >> correct? I mean the new people are interested in this. >> I can reach out to them. >> Okay. I don't know. I wonder if they might be here tonight and I could talk to them. >> Yeah. >> Um >> I'd be happy to reach out to them. >> Okay. I don't know if any of them have have any particular experience on those or not. So, we'll get to the bottom of that. Anyway, >> I would be willing to participate in that group, too.
064>> Okay. And I would too, but I'll fight people about it, but I think we need some good representation on that. Uh, all right. Anyone have any other questions about anything? on to unfinished business which we don't have any of and new business [clears throat] which we covered the second part but the first part is resignations. >> Yes, we had one resignation in November uh Michael Heimer. He was a BCS parent educator. Um we thank him for um working with our students and he has moved on to something else. So we wish him the best of luck. >> Any future business? All right, looking for a motion to adjurnn. So move. >> One second. >> Any questions or comments? All those in favor, please say I. I. >> All opposed, abstaining. Thank you all for