001Happy last day everybody. Start with comments from the audience. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to make a comment this evening? Uh, do we have any additions to the agenda? To routine. Sorry, moved on a little too quick. I was still getting ready. Um, I have it as well. Public comment. I would like to make a comment. Sure. Name and address for the record, please. uh only because a couple board members asked me to read into the record the response that I sent to a constituent who reached out to me today with the question, well, could Bolton simply hire a part-time superintendent and have one of our principles be the part-time superintendent and a part-time principal? So I I drafted a response and uh with some input from Kristen shared it with
002the constituent and the rest of the board and as I said couple asked if I would read it in. So my response was great question. Uh the short answer is no. The superintendent role could not be effectively combined with that of one of our two principles. Um, of all the Connecticut school districts with part-time superintendent, zero, to my knowledge, have a high school, and most, if not all of them, are considerably smaller than Folton itself. For example, Ashburg has fewer than 400 students. Scotland, uh, I'm sorry, Andover has fewer than 200, Scotland has fewer than 100, and Bullbrook and Norfolk have fewer than 80. Uh, all of those have part-time superintendents. So, while Bolton might seem like a small district, currently 672 students, it is actually considerably larger than most districts that have part-time superintendent.
003Whether a superintendent could simultaneously serve as a principal is also dubious. Under state law, certain responsibilities of a superintendent are not permitted to be delegated to a principal, and combining the positions could also potentially create chain of command and hierarchy issues within the district. The Connecticut State Department of Education would also need to approve a waiver to allow a district to appoint someone to a dual principal superintendent role. And historically, it has been reluctant to do so. Again, that's because a principal and a superintendent have legally distinct roles and best practice is not to blur them. Uh furthermore, the administrative workload has grown tremendously over the last few decades, largely due to unfunded mandates imposed by state and federal governments. The job of meeting these mandates, whether they involve filing additional reports, developing new state
004required courses or implementing updates to school climate legislation, largely falls on our administrators, adding to their existing responsibilities. and Bolton's administration is already stretched thin, especially since the board voted last year to remove the dean of students position. The BHS principal then had to absorb many of the dean's responsibilities. I doubt any one person could successfully manage the scope of duties required by both positions. The only way I could see Bolton succeeding with a part-time superintendent would be if we closed the high school. And even then, I'm not sure it would work unless we were sharing the superintendent with a tiny under 80 students district. It's perhaps also worth noting that spending on B schools has increased at a slower rate than spending on town government over the last decade. Despite the lower budget growth,
005Bolton public schools have arguably added more services and improved existing services more effectively than the town has. For example, Bowling High has added many new course offerings, including new AP courses, new college credit opportunities, partnerships with other districts and local colleges, most at no additional cost to taxpayers. BCS has added dedicated curriculum specialists who help teachers improve their pedigogy and who work with students who need extra help. And districtwide, we've increased extracurriculars and invested heavily in technology access. So every student now has a computer and our computer network is more robust and more secure. In the last decade, our entire curriculum has been revamped to comply with new state standards. The high school was successfully reacredited and we arguably navigated COVID more smoothly than many districts with state test results showing that Bolton continues to
006trend well above the state average. The state seems to agree as it recently named Bolton Kai a school of distinction for our students high performance. Has the town increased or improved services to a similar degree despite being the beneficiary of a 31.27% increase in funding from FY 2016 to FY2025. That doesn't include debt service and capital by the way. In contrast, over the same period, the school budget has increased only 22.86%. 86%. The cumulative rate of inflation from 2015 to 20 2024 was 32.3%. Had the school budget simply kept pace with the increase in the board of selectments budgets, the FY2025 board of ed budget would have been 1.13 million higher. Thank you. That was very well said. I think these kinds of messages can really benefit a lot of people who are asking similar
007questions to us. Uh, anyone else who would like to make a comment from the audience? All right, back to routine business and the approval of minutes. Could we have a motion, please, to approve uh approve the May 8th, 2025 board of education business meeting? So then second motion. Is there anyone who has any questions or edits about these minutes? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Opposed or abstaining? I heard everybody. Uh now looking for a motion to approve the minutes of the May 21st, 2025 board of education special meeting. Second that too. Does anyone have any questions or edits on these minutes? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Everybody. Um on to BOE committee reports and finance. Sure. So finance committee met today. Um
008obviously we're the they did the budget cycle and uh so lots to talk about tonight. Um from a transfer standpoint in your packet listing of transfers. We'll go through those. Um I'd say that routine the first one for $243.13 is class building um administration to cover gifts for staff appreciation. The second one for $79021 is to cover BCS instructional supplies. Third one for $76 is to um for reclasses to pay for pizza for students that helped out with preparation, set up, and take down at the art show um in May. The third one for um $18.39 is to cover shipping costs uh for supply orders for online subscriptions. The next one's for $50 to cover the cost of Connecticut Colt Seal um of by literacy stickers and pins for the for the students. The next
009one for $600 to cover flowers and additional adult graduation gowns for the graduation ceremony. And then the last one um is is split up um totaling $1,779.84 to cover paper shortfall for paper at EHS time sheets and supplies. Uh could we have a motion to approve the May transfers please? So move a second. So anyone have any questions or comments about these particularly substantial? All those in favor of the motion please say I. I opposedaining. Uh the next item to talk about the projected budget balance for this year. We are 83% expended. Um I'm actually going to ask if if Kristen superintendent he um saw would maybe go through some of the details. I think at this point in the budget cycle it's kind of important to go through the different categories. So that might
010be helpful. Um and then we'll go through the you know projected remaining you know balance. Yep. Just let me I'm just pulling it up on my end. So give me one sec please. Okay. So, um we are projecting um a balance in regular instruction of uh um and hopefully we can spend that down um in the last few weeks of the year. Um, in special education, we have a projected budget balance of $40,277. Um, this would have been about 10,000, well, it would have been exactly $10,676 less um with the exception that the legislature passed a one-time additional appropriation for um excess costs and that was Bolton's allotted amount. So, that is to our benefit for sure. Um we have uh $47,697,000 savings in administration support and central services. Just about half of that is
011projected savings in legal services. Um and as you know that is a u fluctuating number depending upon where we are um in various cycles for um negotiations, whether or not we're part of a class action suit, which we were a few years ago. nationwide we were pulled into it. Um or what happens with regards to special education and and how many times we are taken to due process and the cost of that. Beth does an amazing job managing a lot of that on her own, but when we get to a due process situation, most of the time um she has to have legal counsel there as well. But sometimes she's able to even save money and do it herself. Um we don't anticipate any um savings zero uh line in operations and transportation. As you
012know, we have had a number of um operations issues this year that you have transferred money into so that um John could correct the various issues with a um subtotal of um or rather a total I'm sorry in salaries and wages we had $494,199. Some of that is due to our unfilled paraprofessional positions. Some of that is due to people going out on maternity leave and taking additional time without pay. Some of that is due to the fact that we had people who retired or left the district. We brought in people potentially in most cases at a lower rate than the people who left. Um, so in total, we are looking at a projected budget balance of $584,896 with the knowledge that you already committed $150,000 towards next year's budget. Right now, Cassal's projected transfer
013to cover food service de fund deficit, which is a much better number than it was before, is $40,000. Um, we had a discussion at finance today and I don't know if Ashley or Ria want to chime in about that, but that tonight wasn't the night to do that transfer. We Cassell would prefer to wait for June to be fully done. And so I've put it on the start of I started the agenda for Dave for your July 16th meeting um and put that on the agenda. So that is a transfer you can make um in the rears because it's still regarding this year's monies for a total uh revised projection um of $394,896. Um the last piece that I just want to say about that amount, and this is in reference to last night's finance
014committee meeting, which I know we're going to get to budget a little bit later, but I I want to call this out right now while it's fresh in everybody's mind. Um, you may or may not know, well, I'm certain that you know that the board of education was cut. You may or may not know that the board of selectman's actual budget for next year was not cut. They were uh able to actualize revenues from this year that were put forward and um in savings that they have in this year's monies. I didn't know where we were yet because Cassaul wasn't done with this yet. Um, but should the referendum not pass, I would advise you that I don't think it's a good idea to put forward this whole amount because we still don't know yet
015the final food service number and we still have some outstanding pieces that we haven't paid for yet that will take us well into July. So, and the other factor that I just want to call out is this town and community has been in the habit for well over 30 years of taking instead of just spending adnauseium money at the end of the years, taking the remaining monies and putting it towards another year's budget a year out from now. So, to help in next year's budget cycle towards the following year. So, that's just also something to consider. Did that sum it up, Ashley? Andrea, thank you. So, in terms of discussion, I'm comfortable with, you know, using that towards next year's budget rather than actualizing that revenues, but open to others thoughts as well. Uh that's
016pretty significant amount of money. It could certainly make a difference if we go to a fourth referendum, but uh All right. We done, right? Okay. Do we have any community meetings to report on? I think we do have to go through the referendum budget. Is that not later on? It's on the It's on the agenda later. Okay. Does anyone have committee meetings to report on Wednesday? We have a PTA update from out in Zoomland. Okay. All right. So I will now turn things over to Director Bolsnider for tonight's superintendent of schools report. Great. Thank you. I will turn this over to Director Jillio Casper who will talk a little bit about their strategic plan. Um very little bit because this is going to be done by some of the amazing teachers who have agreed to
017come here on the last day of school in the evening. So we're very grateful for them. I'm just going to do the very quick introduction um which is our overview of the strategic plan. you've seen the updates throughout the year. Um, and what you will see, um, much as in years past, each school has a plan directly tied to what the Bul Public School strategic plan is. It is reviewed by academic leaders and administrators in the summer. I know this has been discussed as the year begins as well is presented to staff on opening days of school and they revisit it in a number of different areas. sometimes PLC, sometimes staff meetings, sometimes in their own leadership meetings frequently and includes three multi-year goals to improve teaching, learning and family and community partnerships. And with
018that, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Heric and this is Tricky for BCS. Um, no, you can go back. Oh, that's good. I'm Jennifer Heric. I'm the library media specialist at BCS and part of the um instructional leadership team at BCS. Our team includes uh principal Daryl Giard, assistant principal Amela Kellaher, um representing both BCS and BHS um Dan, Stephanie Fouch, Chris Jones, and Chris Palace. um Sandy Mashriki and myself, Diana McCloci, Wendy Pagani and Kelly Bear, Tracy Winch and Donna Fischer, and Rebecca Richard and Larara Eaton. Um we work together as a team throughout the school year to to refine and meet the the goals of this plan. And we'll be working together over the summer. We already have four dates scheduled for a total of 12 hours that we will be
019getting together over the summer to continue work on the strategic plan. U at BCS we have three goals and we've created a little graphic um to represent that we are focusing on community environment and instruction and making connections to enhance teaching and learning. uh painting a picture to show how all our goals are connected and support each other support each other as well as our portrait of a graduate and our strategic plan. So our first goal um is school, family and community partnerships and you can see on the slide the bulleted list of things that we focused on this year or worked on this year. The first was electronic communication. Um, we included we used things such as Parent Square and Powers School to communicate with families. We had bi-weekly newsletters that um, staff sent
020home and we utilized social media to to reach out to parents and the community as well. We had family events at the school including our winter family night, open house, uh our meet and greet at the beginning of the year where the students can come and meet their teachers, parent teacher conferences and student le conferences and several different PTA events. We also had student showcase events which included things such as concerts, the recent art show, sporting events, a poetry slam, our spelling bee, and our academic awards for our par a community partnership or participation. We had guest readers who came in especially during our read across America month. We had uh volunt uh guest speakers come in, parent volunteers helping in classrooms. There were different surveys that went out throughout throughout the year. Uh field
021trips. We have a partnership with Bentley Memorial Library. And our student council partnered with the uh the senior center for two food drives during the school year. And we also have a partnership with local businesses such as Smalltown Fresh. And then our last uh point for this goal, progress toward learning outcomes. We were communicating our teacher clarity plans and we were doing assessment feedback. And so our second goal is all about the learning environment that we create for our students because that's when the best learning occurs. when there is a safe environment when students feel like they can talk and we have that great relationship and I think we do a really good job of that. Wait, what? I am. We went in the wrong order. It's the last day of school. We're going to
022be fine. Everybody fine. It will all be fine. Um because Sandy can speak better to number three because it involves You just pop in. We'll be good. We'll be good. I'll start it. Um, I think we do a really good job of um, of creating a great classroom environment and a schoolwide environment. We do that through PBIS, the positive um, behavior. And we do a lot of things. So, we have like Buster Brags that Mrs. Keller does on Fridays. And the kids love to hear that on announcements like whose name is going to be called. And um, each classroom we all have like incentives and dog bones and our charts and the students really get into that. And every day at the end they all say the bark expectations of being kind and honest and
023acting responsibly. And that really is like they know what the expectations is of how they should treat each other and we treat each other as you know students and teachers. Um we also have social emotional learning that goes on throughout the week. In K5, we have the second step program um that we use. And then in middle school, the school psychologists and social workers actually go into the classrooms and teach those second step lessons. Um and like I said, we also have different incentives in the classrooms that we use with students and they're very invested in those. And um I just think we're really lucky in Bolton to have really kind students who they want to do the right thing and they look out for each other. And that's also in part with the relationships
024that we have with families. It's just like a really nice place to be um and to work. Um and another thing that we've added, I think it was last year, were the town hall meetings that we've been doing um each trimester. So um Mrs. Kella and Mr. yard. They have like an agenda for what the assembly is going to be and they ask for feedback from each grade level like what do you notice is going on like in the cafeteria or out at recess and we kind of come up with a game plan and how we can best meet the needs of each grade level um and to work on improving um school climate and we've talked about things like attendance or um I think at the last one you gave out some awards about
025perfect attendance or recognizing citizenship. So that's like a really nice time to come together as grade levels and to meet with um the principles. And then in the middle school, which I don't have as much um interaction with is they have a planner system. Um and that's a big part of keeping them on track and we have something called RTL, ready to learn. So, we're really trying to encourage students in the the middle grades to be more independent and be ready to learn, like have a pencil, have your planner ready, where's your homework, and really help them build those executive functioning skills. So, as they progress and get into high school, um, they really have a lot of success in those areas. And I think I kind of jumped to ready to learn as well.
026All right. How do you want to? Sure. Sure. All right. So, the third one is all about um instructional practices. And I think we've also worked really hard as a staff on improving our instructional practices and being reflective practitioners in our own craft. And so, we've looked at standards. We've done a lot with curricula. I think you might have said in the last 10 years almost all of our curricula curriculum is new. And so we've worked really hard on that and reflecting based on the data and the assessments, you know, how can we refine our instructional practices? Um, and looking at the data and assessments. Um, one of the things that we've done is continue to use IABS and FIABs, which is um, they're like a little assessments that do align with ESBAC as well
027as standards that students are supposed to meet in each grade level. and we look at those um that those data points as grade level teams and in PLC's and with the administration and we make decisions about okay what could next steps be for our instruction are there things that we need to retach do we need to de um dig deeper into certain areas so that has I think been really helpful helpful is um to get students to progress along in their learning and in K6 really over the last two years we have done a ton with our reading and writing curriculum um in K3 they just completed their first year of implementing bookworms. Um and I've the feedback I've heard from teachers is that they really love it. And um that's the structured literacy. They're
028really we're really seeing growth in our students as readers and writers. And then um in fourth and fifth grade, this is our second year of implementation with Imagine Learning. In sixth grade, it's their first year. And I know as it being our second year, we've worked a lot um now that we know the program with our instructional practices and like for example at our PLC's this year with the instructional coach, we worked a lot on our writing rubrics and aligning them to the standard or the ESPback um rubrics and so students really know what's expected of them across the writing um the three types of writing so that they um can feel success and generalize a lot of those skills. um tell me when you want to pop in. The other um thing that we've
029worked so reading and writing but also math. So we do continue to use the ready math program and we're always working on those instructional practices but there are has been some updates to the younger grades and K and ones. So I know they've been working extensively with our um math coach Mrs. Nicolocci on that. And then um all of the um I think it's is it elementary and middle doing the screener or elementary? Uh we've actually started using this screener for number sense three times a year and it's really informed us about what our kids are really great at with their number sense and understanding of numbers and foundational skills. And then again areas that like hey we're missing the mark in this one area. Let's you know let's let's change our instruction in this
030area or you know even pulling targeted groups. And um I think the last one I'll and then I'll kick it over to you. Um we also in um in um grades K through eight we have MTSS which used to be known as SRVI but a multi-tered support system in which again we look at data and we talk with the administrators and our grade levels and identify students who might be striving in an area that need extra intervention or something else and we go through cycles with them with targeted instruction to try to quickly meet the need of whatever area they might need. So, um, Miss Keller is great with meeting with us and we make decisions as a team on what students, you know, have met the goal and go on to other things and
031then maybe what, um, students continue to need our support. Also, last year the leadership team was asked to to do peer visits in the classrooms and it was just the leadership team that that took part in that last year. This year it was extended to the the whole staff which was incredible. It was great to have all of the staff get into different classrooms, see what everyone's doing. Some grade level teachers went a grade above to see what was happening in that grade level and then later in the year for a second peer visit they went to the grade below to see what goes on in that that grade level. Um, and then specialist teachers, we it would be kind of great for us because we got to kind of pick where we wanted to
032go and it was fun to see how different teachers teach different grade levels or how they implement different um discipline and things in their classroom that we could carry over into the specials areas um to help us out a little bit. And then the last thing um are the the PLC's, the professional learning. Each grade level has a PLC. Um I say weekly but weekly. Um and they use this time to plan to learn new programs and curriculum to analyze data. Um and then our leadership team meets every two weeks with a focused agenda where we discuss school matters, upcoming professional development, planning for uh PD days, fourth Tuesday meetings, and we also present new learning at the leadership team meetings. Um, each member of the leadership team had a a chance this year to
033present something new to the to the leadership team and we're hoping next year to bring that to some of those things that we learned to the staff as well so that we can share to the larger community. Good evening. I'm Dan Hair and this is Sunonny Singh and we're two members of the high school leadership team and we're going to give you an update on um some of our accomplishments this year in our portion of the improvement plan. And you can see the list of all our leadership team members up there. You met them all at the October meeting. So we'll move on to the next slide. So, our first uh goal here was continuing to promote the school of home and community partnerships to support the learning of students. And a lot of what
034you're going to hear from our presentation here mirrors what happened at the center school. Our goals were really similar. Um but here's some examples uh in the bullets of what we did at the high school. And I'll just give you some examples for each one. So as far as the technologies that we use to communicate, um all of the teachers in the school have been using parent square um as have the administrators, the guidance counselors, and even the athletic directors and coaches to communicate with students and families. Um all the students in the school have the student version of that app um installed on their own devices. So teachers and coaches and we're able to communicate directly with the students as well. So that has been a really valuable tool for us. Um we have
035been posting a lot more on social media um Facebook and Instagram as well as YouTube. We've been Mr. Melli's been posting concerts, art shows, and other events along with a live stream of the graduation ceremony on YouTube. And we've also been putting out a new bimonthly newsletter uh that was created by one of our teachers that gives a glimpse of what's going on in the school. And um I'll actually show a sample of that in a moment on the next slide so you can see what that looks like if you haven't had a chance. Um for that second bullet there, we've done a lot of work um in the community and and in the town with different organizations. And so a few examples are our culinary and bake shop classes um have been really active
036with the senior center. They did a Thanksgiving event. Um they invited senior citizens into the school for a cookie tasting in December. They also supported the Bolton road race with some baked goods. We do blood drives each quarter uh sponsored by the National Honor Society. We've been putting on art displays at the Bentley Library as well as the New England Homes. Um, our students have participated in the community September 11th ceremony as well as the Memorial Day parade and ceremony. Um, and then here in the school, we put on an open house both for grades 9 through 12 students and their families in the early fall and then one for prospective grade 8 students later in the fall. Um, our student council has been really active in the community doing leaf raking and a food
037drive. Um and then finally we brought in a group called amplified that that visited um did a survey with uh the students did some professional development for the faculty and also a workshop with some of our students here. Um so we we really did quite a lot for that second bullet. And then the third one um as far as sharing student achievement and growth we are on our third year of parent teacher conferences offering those at Bolton High School when we did that twice this year to mirror what the center school does. Um we did a lot more with the students um summitative digital portrait of the graduate portfolios this year. Those are a graduation requirement um that scored and all the seniors actually presented their portfolio to other students during one of the connection
038periods during the school day. So that was a new um a new portion of that program that we implemented this year. We also enhanced our capstone um project this year. The projects were also shared with the student body during connections as well as having evening presentations that were open to the public as we've done in previous years. Um, and we've also expanded um our interdisciplinary arts evenings. We've um had concerts. We've had some coffee house events that were supported by community groups like Bolton Music Works. And um we had an interdisciplinary uh coral concert and culinary showcase um as well as art shows at at some of our concerts. So um we've really been trying to collaborate as much as we can and bring community members in um for for different types of events, you
039know, at the same time. Oh, and and this is a sample of a a slide from our newsletter that that we've been doing um twice a month and and that's been posted somewhere on the town website as well as on social media. So, we're hoping to get more of those out next year because uh our chemistry teacher Peter Kazuda did a really amazing job putting that together this year. Good evening everyone. My name is Sunonny Singh and I'm going to be updating you with the second goal. uh we have done very similar to the middle school some of the things going to overlap. Uh so this year we have modified our and enhanced our connection uh structure which basically means uh this year the freshmen are part of the uh the freshmen are now part
040of the uh they were always part of the connection but they're now introduced to the other class upper classman. Uh this is a great idea I think u because it has a lot of different benefits. For example, the upper classman can serve as a peer tutor or they can model strong study habits. So, um especially when these seniors are doing their presentations at the end of the year on their portfolios, the freshmen were able to see that presentations now. They have a meeting behind this portfolio that they will be working on that they'll be presenting at the end of the year. Uh we also have the um the we have also added the grade level meetings for the portfolios that this title bound uh runs. Our second bullet point um we also similar to the
041middle school we have implemented the MTSS structure. Um it's a program very similar to the middle school where students are receiving support in a certain skill. Um I had one student actually I have two students who received the MTSS support this year and uh one of them is actually u in the words of failing. So they did came out at the end passing the class and as well as u gain some skills. Uh our third bullet point uh we continue to celebrate student and staff achievement. Uh there's a lot of things going on here at Bolton High School. Uh for example, one of the thing that we're doing is that uh Miss Lule does the student recognitions of the month, student of the month, and a staff of the month. She'll send out an email
042at the end of each month where the staff has an opportunity to vote on the student of the month. Uh once the student is selected, their names are then um announced in the morning announcements. Uh Miss Lynch continues to send birthday emails. So, if it's a staff's birthday, we receive a friendly email from Miss Lynch. Um, as you may have heard from our graduating class, some of the class um spoke about the spirit day. It's a great thing at Bolton High School. A lot of kids look forward to a spirit day and u they dress up and it's a fun thing that promotes a positive culture at Bolton High School. And that's organized by the student council. All right, moving on to our third goal. Um, some of our accomplishments here, um, again are similar
043to what the center school reported on. We had multiple peer observations with the collaborative reflection component that were part of our PLC structure this year. And um, one of those was uh, actually a student observation. And this was kind of a a new concept that we tried that worked really well. Each teacher chose a student from their class and went to observe that student in a different classroom setting to see how um they interacted with the teacher and their peers in in a different type of classroom. Um and and that was really helpful. Gave us a lot of new insight about our students. Um as well as doing some peer observations where we were observing another teacher and and learning about um their instructional practices. Um, we did a lot of work in our PLC's
044and it was also a PD topic throughout the year as far as enhancing the ways that we provide feedback to students. Um, making it clear, uh, you know, along with the teacher clarity work that we've been doing. Um, helping them understand where they are and and what they need to do um, to to meet expectations and be successful. Um and that really ties into our um MTSS program that we implemented this year. Our whole faculty participated in professional development for tier one strategies. Um and that was all shared at the April board of ed meeting. So you've already heard a whole presentation about that. So we can move on. Um at the high school level, we've added the fourth goal at the beginning of school year. So, we have implemented a new cell phone policy
045and procedure. This year, there's a cell phone caddy uh in in each classroom where a student comes in. I asked them to put their phones away in the caddy and um that's what they do. Uh during assessments, they're supposed to have their phones in the caddy. Uh when students leave the classroom for a bathroom break or they want to have a trip to guidance, they're supposed to leave their phone in the caddy. That's actually a positive change. I believe uh it's just minimizing the distraction from um from cell phones. Uh we also had a training on cyber security. I believe that was a district-wide PD that all staff received. It was a PD on uh cyber security, how to protect oursel and create safe passwords. Uh we have expanded access to platform to foster appropriate
046technology. uh which means uh we've used a lot of different apps and technology this year but to mainly uh to name the few are securely and frisk securely is a tool where the teacher use that tool to monitor students on their Chromebook. So if I have a student um doing an activity in my classroom, I could see what each student is doing in my class um in on their laptop because I have access to securely. Um as well as Brisk. Brisk is another uh tool that our English department and other department uses. It's an AI detector tool. Um it kind of creates a video for uh the teacher of how the document is created. So if there's a large text that's being added to the document, it sort of alerts the teacher, you know, where
047where did that text came from? Is it created by AI? And then the teacher can investigate further. So those are some of the things that we're trying here at Bolton High School. Um, you know, as AI is emerging, it's evolving. We are continuing to have these AI related conversations in our PD and uh PLC's. I think we need to just continue with this because that's not going to go away. Thank you. I hope that this works. If not, someone's going to have to put it for me. Um this is um was a question that was asked last year when we were discussing what happened in uh how our professional development and how our additional trainings took place. Most of the work is done in-house and in school and you've heard all the teachers refer to
048their PLC team PLC time their team time. Uh we also have staff meetings in fourth Tuesday which is an additional hour every month where teachers stay after school both schools uh to discuss relevant issues and to work on things that need to be worked on at their buildings. Uh we have of course our early release days, professional development days um and our teaming content area in addition to the leadership meetings that were just assessed. See if it works. It works. if he is to point it to the computer. Um, so these are just a few of our professional development opportunities that were given to teachers and we're also very careful to make sure that funding is put aside in case someone comes up with something that we didn't plan for. Hey, there's this local conference
049that's happening. We want to be able to say yes, you absolutely can go. So works professional development at the elementary school. We had three staff members do an AI microcredential. McGee Kleper, the library media specialist here, did that and Kelly Bear, the instructional coach, did that at ECS. Um, as did I. The high school has been working on executive functioning within their MTSS and that has been a focus there. The English teachers in both schools, we had five teachers attend the NCT conference. That is a massive national conference. We don't usually have too many come our way. Uh but this one happened to be in Boston and teachers were able to drive and attend which was great. I'm glad they were able to do that. We had a new literacy assessment in K6 and that
050training took place. Also, Reflex Math is a program we've had in district. It was here before I came here. Um but we've had such turnover people weren't sure exactly kind of how to harness that. It's a fact fluency program that kids can use in school and at home and not everybody knew exactly how to use it because sometimes that word of mouth doesn't travel fast enough. So that provided training um and innovation collaboration with um Miss Moore who attended with her students. Uh STEM coach was um common lit was a comprehension assessment that was piloted by middle school and high school ELA teachers. We did have the social studies teachers trained as well in case they had some content that they wanted to um work on that was aligned. Serve safe food safety was Mr.
051Jones and he is able to I believe he is now able to offer that. No, next he's finishing up in the fall. Yeah. Yes, he is going to be able to offer that training. So that's great. Um the AP institutes as teachers uh come and go. We want to do some additional AP offerings. Those are offered in the summer. We have two teachers attending this summer. Um and then these next four are things that occur every year. We have the student led conferences. Any state professional conference we encourage the teachers to attend. We have so few um state level um conferences for different content areas. English is just trying to get theirs off the ground. Uh atomic is math. Um I know that Miss Herrick has attended Castle workshops and other things to help develop
052the library. um CMEA for music and the acronym I can never really pronounce if there's a word for it for PE and health but that long one is PE and health I'm not going to try um ongoing instructional coaching you've heard the BCS teachers talk about time in their PLC with the instructional coach that's when that's taking place mostly uh and coaching councils those take place in Hartford and those are half days for our coaches to meet with coaches in the entire CR region Um, we continue the teacher clarity and success criteria that is ongoing. We have books and materials that we give to our new teachers at new teacher induction in August so that they have a copy of that. Um, just reminding myself that I have to order those now. And MTSS planning
053and tier one strategies which is another piece. So that tier one is basically what our core curriculum is. what do we do for all of our students and are they being successful there? Um, and those meetings happen during PLC to look at the data and to determine the level of success. Um, evaluation and feedback and the regular classroom evaluations that we all do. All staff did have the basics of cyber security. We send out fishing emails um, every month and we get a report to see kind of who fell for it. I did once. So, sometimes they're very tricky and they sound very, but this it's just a little test to see how much better we're getting at identifying fishing emails. They also send out a little newsletter that's called scam of the week that
054helps people just in emails that they're getting on their personal email or texts that they're getting on their phone to try to be wary of that and to keep everyone sort of on their toes. Uh in the fall we did have an bias training for all staff to sort of recognize we may have our own personal biases and the pair of professionals um received behavioral and instructional strategy training for their 20 hours. Thank you so much. You have any questions about that PD or anything that any of the teachers can answer for you? I have no specific questions at this time other than could you send us this uh the slides or I I believe question I I have a question. Uh how how is how are the PLC's and the uh team meetings and
055all that going this year as compared to last year? I think that's a question for the building administrators, but from everything I've seen, they've been going extraordinarily well. Um there are some limitations of time. We can't fabricate extra time, but I think everyone's doing the best within the time that they have every week. They come to meetings prepared. They get right to work. They're half the time extending into the next, you know, like just barely making it. Um getting up into class and the meetings go for um 30 minutes twice uh 30 minutes each week at UCS. And I know at BHS it's mixed content areas and grade levels based on their schedule. But yes, I it has a very focused agenda. U some of the weeks it might be the instructional coach working with
056a group of teachers on a specific reading or math piece. Some weeks it's Mrs. Keller and myself maybe Smarter Balance coming up proctoring small groups. So every week has a specific focus. It's 30 minutes. So it's they they get in the door we get right to work. Um there's never enough time. So we make very good use of the time we do. I do have a question. Um that's that was excellent presentation by the way and in terms of stop so much I want I would like to know is and maybe there isn't something for each school. Is there one thing that you're really proud of that like it's the it's going really really well out of all that stuff that I mean what is it like hey we had the most AP credits ever
057in high school or we had the most training of you know in professional development than ever this year is there is there any one thing that you really that's going well because we should keep doing um and I think it was a question Mr. Dave Pos at another meeting about how do we drive these plans and it's very data driven. So like preliminary aspect data has started to come out uh recent survey results from parents student professionals uh surveys have come back. So we've planned on this color myself but we'll bring those surveys to our leadership teams over the summer and from some initial looks some of the things that we're talking about have gleaned some positive successes. So that's just kind of we'll present that data in the fall, but there's been some positive
058things that we've already seen and very recent data that drives this work that we're doing the right things. So kind of a broad answer, but to your question. Thanks. I think if you want about this past year um and again as as Dan mentioned, we did a big presentation in April on MTSS. We took kind of a risk coming into this year. we kind of took the typical model and threw it out and asked the question, how can we service more kids in a meaningful way? Uh, and we were super successful at that. Um, a combination of creative scheduling and some teachers really willing to dig in and some of our new staff that found their voice early on to bring ideas from other districts. Um, what we did supporting those students who needed that
059little extra this year was heads and tails above what we've ever done in the past. So, that's for this year. That's what I'm most That's great. Great. Thanks. Um, yeah, great presentation. I was going to say these these are all wonderful things. Are there certain challenges to this particular year? I guess you know, this is all the good stuff. What would you say has been a challenge there? There's never enough time and we're lucky because we have the early release time that you built into the calendar. So, thank you. If we could continue that, it's amazing. Uh but there's never enough time to share those PLC times with the instructional coach. The items that Mrs. Keller, her and myself have, we're at those meetings with the instructional coaches as well. The time we try to
060squeak out as much as we can is always most No, 100% really. It's that's what it comes down to for sure. Time of the day. All right. I had a couple questions. Um, personally I yeah just echo my colleague said it was a great presentation and um personally I am really appreciative of all of the information presented not only with this one but the MTSS presentation in April. Uh yeah, I came away with that finally understanding what MTSS was and felt like I had a good grasp on it. So the information you're sharing with the board has been great. Um, again, personally, I'm really pleased to see that your emphasis on communication. You know, I know that's something that the board has been asking for um for many years um fairly persistently. So, I'm glad
061to see the continued efforts with that. Um I see the posts online and try to engage with them. So, that's good. So, thank you for all of that work. Um, question for the center school, the town hall meetings. I don't know that I' heard about them before. Are those meetings with the entire student body or just with the staff? It's a great question. Um, so it's all the students by grade level. So each trimester, Mrs. Skyler and myself will pick usually on a Friday and it's literally straight through 3:40 in the morning till 2:30 20 minute meetings 20 25 minute meetings and we'll talk about um some topics recently were like bullying and school climate if there is an issue how to report it also giving them strategies of how to intervene talking through some
062scenarios in that meeting and we showed up a graphic and we try to pair it down so it's age appropriate so we talk to the kindergarters a little little differently than we talk to the first graders and then to the middle schoolers um our most recent town hall as you heard was recognizing students with perfect attendance and then we talked about how it was pretty cool because we we talked there's four kids in the whole school had perfect attendance and so they weren't in every single grade level. Uh but we mentioned those names at every meeting because some of them had siblings or they knew that student or teachers had taught that that student. So it's pretty cool to really wrap around because that was years ago made a big deal for attendance. So we
063kind of brought that back and some kids like well what about if I was sick? We talked through the difficulties of getting to school. Um then we give them a Q&A portion at the end of the town hall meeting. So it's a focused agenda. We reach out to the teachers and say there any specific topics you're seeing. For example, if they mention the cafeteria or other parts of the building and kind of build off of that as well. I was curious if you tied it in at all with kind of the history of the town meeting in New England as a core of democratic governance. Y uh no we don't follow specific models. More just being able to get the the students together. we have a specific uh topic that focus and then we deserve
064a chance to talk as well. Still, I can imagine that the students really appreciate having a chance to have their voices heard and be respected by adults. So, that's that's a great initiative. I think um on the high school side, so I'm curious about the student observations. Um you mentioned that teachers picked one student in your class to observe in a different class. Was the intent behind that to focus on improving education for the individual student or was this to have a broader focus and trying to understand? Yeah. No, that's that's a fair question. So, we've been doing peer observations capturing some of that PLC because we have 80 minutes a week for that. We don't need to always sit in the same room for 80 minutes a week, right? So, we capture some of
065that time to do observations and we always try to have some kind of focus when you go out and observe. So the new idea as Mr. mentioned this year was the student piece. Um and the idea was I'm curious especially about a student that maybe is underperforming in my class. How do they look different or even do they look different in somebody else's class? Um and it wasn't just the observation piece. it would that happened but then the next time we came together it was a conversation about this is what I saw and this is what I and the dialogue and then someone else would jump in maybe who wasn't part of that but also had that student or had the student the previous year so in those small confidential groups we could have those
066that level of conversation about individual kids so it sounds like it's just a way to start conversations exactly and and in some cases it was some aha moments for for teachers Great. Then thank you. You're welcome. Can I ask another question? Did you invent that? Like or did you get like where did that particular student piece come in? We invented we we think we invented um it was a it was an idea that came out of conversations with the leadership team and you know the PLC planning um because we tend to talk about students and you know sometimes it's informally in the lunchroom like hey this kid you know did crappy on my test today how are they doing for you and we try to formalize some of those conversations when we talk about attendance
067meetings and those kinds of things and I forget the precursor but it really was an organic kind of conversation that came up and then the leadership team said Well, let's do something with that. Let's let's let's look at these observations from a different lens. I think it's remarkable. Thanks, Chris, for asking that question about it because I didn't quite understand it until you just explained it here now. But I could imagine, right, that um a teacher could be struggling to figure out how do I change, what do I do something to get to get to this kid, yet you just see another teacher do it and it's working. Oh, wow. that accelerated skipped all these other ideas that I'm going to try to get through to the GED and try this because it seems to
068be working the other class you know that students in. So that seems remarkable and makes you brilliant. Thanks. Yeah, it was good activity. You know, I think what Joe and Darl and the teacher leaders have spoken to tonight speaks volumes about the personalized learning experience that children receive in the Bolton public schools. And kudos to our teachers, our administrators, our support staff. Everybody's all in doing what is right and best for kids. And I think this presentation just ex puts that out there for everyone to see. So, thank you everyone. Great job. Anyone else have any questions? Thank you to our teachers who stayed late on your last day of the year. I appreciate it. I know we all do. Um feel free to take that off if you'd like. Celebration of excellence like you're
069welcome. You did your thing. Thank you. Makes sense. And does that conclude right superintendent schools report moving on to unfinished business and the proposed 2025 2026 budget. So if I could provide an update Andrew please. Um, last night, as you may all know, the finance committee uh reduced the board of education FY26 budget by an additional $252,536 for a total reduction thus far of $482,536. While, as you know, you're not voting on this budget tonight because the budget has not yet passed. I just wanted the board to be aware of should it pass um coming up what my reduction recommendations will be um that has come up at several meetings um prior. So, I also want to articulate further that if it does not pass at the next referendum, um, Superintendent Caruso is is going
070to have to bring forward to you uh cuts in teaching positions and programs for kids. Um, there are also cuts embedded in what I'm about to recommend. So the first cut of $230,000 we were able to manage with savings from new hires and insurance savings, open enrollment and life changes and that total 230,000 as of last night's cut. My recommendations will be to you to that first 230,000 that's already there to cut a vacant 1.0 administrative assistant position at Bolton Center School. Uh we just had a resignation a little bit ago for $85,62 to cut a 1.0 vacant para educator position for $67,172 and to reduce special education by $100,32 because we had an outplace student just moved out of district. So we do not need that outplacement money for next year. and that totals
071$482,536. I don't know if Ashley or Ria or anybody else want to speak about last night. Um, yeah, it was it was a long monthly meeting. I'd say the ask probably started a little higher, you know, for for the board of ed, but once we really started talking, you know, we felt the board of selectmen should also share in that as well, maybe not the same weight given that most of the budgets coming from um the board of ed, but then um superintendent had walked us through these potential ones and we were comfortable um or at least this this made sense to us that recommendation. But from a finance standpoint, um we the revised budget will probably come um to a 7% increase in flow rate. Um exactly. If you recall, the past budget referendum
072was a 9% increase and then prior to that it was a 12% 11 12% increase. So yeah, it was a 9 and a half about a 9 and a half% going down to seven. That's on the mill rate, correct? But the actual increase to the budget was like two 3%. The actual money budgeted is much lower. In fact, with this reduction, it's a 1.72% increase for the board of education. And I think that's important that you all know that number. Yeah, I think the Reed Bell situation has really kind of muddied this up because we're usually talking about the overall increase, but the mill rate situation has sort of made it so that the town is focused on that higher number. Yeah, I think it's also the the revenue story too for the town because
073we aren't able we don't have as much revenue as we have in the past to make up for it. So, uh while we only have a you know small increase in expenses, that decline in revenues has caused us to make up for it. I think it's a big part of the picture that not a lot of folks may understand. Well, I guess we call the best on the next go round because it was certainly more lopsidated than in recent years. People are tired overall of paying more and I hurt on town level just as much as everywhere else. And if you listen to the minutes, there was discussion about this is a firm number from the the finance committee and they would make very small increases if we had to come back and that's you
074know that's got to be in a minute for the wording of the of the meeting. I think that's important the state or I think it's important the state too. I mean say again the the small increase in the budget and compare that to inflation like it's it's nothing right it's well below inflation for just this year accounted for previous years that we were below on those years too for the board of edge budget right and then I know there have been some that had said we have to make hard decisions on our spending and make cuts and and here it is I mean we're cutting positions cutting positions and we're well below increasing um compared to to inflation. So it's like there's nothing left. Well, and to that point, while the town had revenue to
075put towards um lowering the mill rate, there was no cut to the board of selectman budget. Correct. Did get cut. No. Still above a mill there. Yes. I think a cut during the press cuts. Yes. Chris Davey had done a very good analysis of uh how we've gone compared to inflation. Not only did he mention it earlier, but was it last year, maybe the year before that had done a very deep dive and shown that boom, we've been below not only the rate of inflation, but the rate of education spending generally statewide and everywhere else, which shows that we've been responsible. But yeah, a lot of credit is due to the administration and the staff for managing the money. the town is perioded extremely well. I don't think there's any question about that. Yeah, I
076wish people in the townwide could understand that a little bit better. Maybe that's a communication thing and we can look forward how we get that out. But well, maybe Chris could share the question and the response on social media. I don't know how he feels about that, but yeah, I that's I could do that share it to the next finance meeting. Yeah, I was going to say the next finance meeting also get actually a real that information. The social media aspect might help. Yeah, the social media is pretty negative out there. I mean, I don't see it myself, but it's my understanding. I did a question. I don't know if you saw my email. Um, we're expecting increase in enrollment next year. Well, yeah, those are our projections. A little increase in enrollment. Um, but
077we don't know, right, until our October first numbers. Those are the numbers that have to be provided statewide um to state department of education and those are considered your enrollment numbers for the year. Is it is it well the projection is a projection specific to one school or the other or is it just all lump together? It's a projection for each grade level just based on the data that we have. Oh okay. Right. Just you know I've heard the concerns too right about uh well the declining enrollment in the mostly in high school but the declining enrollment. Well, we have also been decreasing our budget relative to inflation, right? And then we're not even keeping up this year, right, with inflation, but if we're expecting increase in starting to go the other direction some point,
078we're going to need more for more people, but I'm optimistic. Um, while you're talking, I got a we got a text from Ashley, and thanks to my hearing aids, it actually got read to me. I know what it was. Ashley would like to know whether the board of ed can put out materials in the same way that uh Amanda uh has put out materials for the finance committee. I guess I it's a I wish we could, but legally at this point you cannot. the the um budget number was set for the first referendum. And once that happens, our ability, let me put it this way, our ability to communicate using a school-based communication system, parent square, is cannot be done. What you all may choose to do on social media is a different story because
079that is not owned by the district. So in our individual capacities, we could split things up. Yes. As this is the board saying go vote or vote a certain way or anything like that. Yeah, you have to be really careful with that unfortunately. But certainly you can share information that you have. Uh do we have any more discussion? We don't go any further. All right, on to policies and the second read. Uh, do we have a motion to approve policy 5131.9 Connecticut school climate policy? A second. Does anybody have any questions or comments or discussion on this policy? All those in favor of the motion please say I oppose or abstaining that passes on to BHS NASK update. Okay. So in September um BHS was required to submit a substantive change report to NIASK um
080as a result of the elimination of dean of students position. Um NIASK outlines what they refer to as substantive change which are any changes in the operations of a high school that fall into this category must be reported to NIAS by the school's principal and NAS co-chairs within 60 days of the change. Typically, NEAS responds to a substantive change by requesting a special progress report. NEAS then required a special progress report from BHS. When any special progress report is required, a letter is sent to the school principal, copied to me and the board chair. Responses are required to be submitted via the accreditation NEAS accreditation portal by the principal and the co-chairs of the steering committee, which are Jen Carvalo and Abby Sako. Only the principal and co-chairs of the steering committee have access to
081the accreditation portal per NEAS. A letter from NEASK explains what information must be submitted via the portal. For the required March special report, the questions requiring response were submitted to the portal on time. In May, NAS requested an additional special progress report due September 1st, providing detailed information on the impacts on the school's ability to align with the standards for accreditation pertaining to the following. provide an update on any activities by the district or the BOE relative to providing additional administrative support for students and staff given the impact of the loss of dean of students. In the letter, NAS states it will review the school's accreditation status when it considers the special progress report which is due September 1st. No additional administrative support has been provided. The commission will consider placing the school on warning
082status. A letter from NASC requiring an additional report by September 1st was again sent to Joe, myself, copied to me and to Andrew. Um myself, Beth, Joe and the co-chairs if they are available next week and uh incoming Superintendent Caruso are going to be meeting next week to discuss the needs and potential ideas. Um Superintendent Caruso will be sharing this with the board at the July meeting. Um so you know and I did share with the board last summer that um this could happen and as we discussed last summer and we've discussed during this year we would need to be discussing and examining the needs as we went through this year and figured out what we had already put in place. Was it working? How did it work? How well did it work? and are
083there other needs that have not been met which we're now able to have that post autopsy look now that the school year is over. Jen, would you like to say anything as co-chair? No, I think you did a great job summarizing the process um for both reports. our initial one that outlined the substantive change and the special report followup. Um it was simply a report of facts we bulleted out these were the duties of Miss Johnson and the Dina students in the past and this is you know where those responsibilities have shifted or if they have not been able to continue due to the lack of a dino students position. So, it was a very factual, literally bulleted out um report. Well, it's very concerning obviously, but I look forward to hearing what our end
084of year analysis is and if that report will uh show anything different than the previous report which I despite being CCD have not seen till yesterday. uh given the budgetary impacts of the current year uh I think it's clear that that position will not be coming back. So if we can think of creative ways to amend whatever we think our deficiencies are um be all ears to hear them. you have any questions? Do you have anything else to add? The only question is so um we'll have a presentation from income superintendent Cruso in July. Um will the board have a chance to review prior to whatever is submitted? Will the presentation be the full letter that you plan to respond with? I don't I don't know that yet. And I don't know if the board
085is actually allowed to review before it's submitted. That is something we're going to have to check with NIASK on because back to who has access to the portal and who doesn't. Um just like when they come to do the accreditation visit, there's like a maybe a five or 10 minute minute meeting with the superintendent and the rest is with the steering committee and the teachers. It really isn't even directed by Joe. And Jen can speak more to that than I can. Yeah, I mean it's very much they want they want to know from from the inside, you know, from the teacher perspective. It's very much all of our committees for NEAS, our subcommittees are chaired by teachers in the school. Um the principal's role is only to serve on the steering committee um and submit
086whatever paperwork is required by NEAS, but everything else is driven by by the teachers um with input from community during our self-study year. Um but the reports themselves, it's teacher driven. That makes sense. I was trying to understand the reason. I think also just for clarity, I think it's two different things, right? So, I think what our incoming superintendent comes up with after our meetings and we talk about like, hey, this is kind of where we're at. Here's a report to the board of status. I think that could be could be very different than where we are in September. They're giving us till the school year start to say, here's stats, not what are you planning, what are you thinking, what are your ideas, what went well, what didn't. It's what you to to gen
087point your factual pieces. So they're a little they're a little different as well. Yeah. I was trying to understand the communication that Andy would have been CCD on what his role is as as the chair. I think it's just an indication of letters that we we did not get. No, I will mention that to the folks that he asked them because it look back. I'm pretty sure that I did not. I had to ask for it yesterday because we only even in preparation for tonight got the response letter but not what was being responded to. nor did we see the change letter. Yeah, I think what Ashley was asking was not to interfere or change but more curiosity of what is being said and how we may be able to have an impact on what
088the factual reporting is. But uh to your point, I don't think that one month from now the report will be done. It'll be doesn't need to be submitted until September. So, and they asked for all of those special reports and to give an analogy for the board. Um when I first started here, we were just starting this building project and the number of special reports, it was every 18 to 24 months. And it's they want a direct answer to a specific question. It's different than the the big process where there's a large report. it's uh specific answer to a specific interrogative and the special reports when anything is going on again like building um are very frequent right um for example a more recent um special report that we had to do was after our
089dennial visit in 2019 we had our follow-up report that we had to submit but because of COVID we had a lot of areas in that report that were to be determined we can't address this right now because of COVID we can't do this right now because of COVID so as a result They asked for a special report where we had a follow up on six or seven different prompts that they specifically said, "Please answer these questions for us." Um, so as Joe mentioned, the the special reports kind of percolate up, pop up um based on needs and what NE ask needs for additional information. So we have no way of predicting when when we're going to get hit with a special report or when we're going to be requested to submit one. So, uh, um,
090I have a question. I I know I didn't print these and read them, and it's pretty there's a lot here, and I wish I I did that. I just don't compre I don't retain as much when I'm reading on a online. But are they It looks to me that they're saying that they expect another replacement supervisor. Is that true? That depression we have? I my interpretation of it was they were looking for us to respond to the change. And the change is not the response doesn't have to be we put a full-time dean back. We understand that's not it's not where any of us are at. Um but I think they're looking to say, you know, for us to say here's the plan to kind of fill the the gaps created there. Do they ask
091for data? Do they ask you to demonstrate student achievement, behavior, any of the areas that uh your professional learning uh teams, any of those things? Do they ask you for specific data to indicate whether you're being successful? Because from where I sit, it sounds like you're doing a, you know, you are successful, that this is a very successful program here. And I'm getting the impression after reading this that that's not the impression they have. So, we um it depends on what aspect of the report you you look at. We did get commended um for certain things that we that are going well. So they did I don't have the sorry I apologize I don't have it pulled up in front of me right now the report but I know they commended the work we were
092doing with MTSS. They commended our PLC work. Um so they they did recognize like hey you've made these changes. This looks like it's working out well for you. Kudos for that. here's areas where based on what you told us you've implemented to address this change that we as a NEAS association believe might still be falling short of what our standards are. Um so there there you know it wasn't 100% negative the letter they they did you know give us some commendations for some of the some of the changes we made that you know they acknowledge like that that sounds like a great solution that sounds like that's working. Um MTSS was one of the ones they highlighted. Um and then they said, "But it still seems that there are areas that you know we addressed
093that just said we don't have someone to do this right now." Um that they still from their perspective find concerning. So which letter was that? Because I'd like to What was the date of that? That was the initial one. Yeah. May first week of May. May 6th. That sounds about right. It was the beginning of May. Yeah. It could be that your end of year analysis is that things look better in certain areas than others or maybe it looks worse in certain areas than others. How do this get addressed? And what they ask for is administrative support which is a very loosely defined wording. could mean basically anything. Can you tell me which areas they felt that there was improvement needed? I think a lot of it was in the letter, but we just didn't
094have enough time. I mean, I didn't have enough time to really analy completely aside just looking for the administration's honest feedback. What what what do you think we're struggling with? What is what are those things? I I think um with all due respect, I would want to organize my thoughts and and talk to the superintendent and the acting superintendent kind of put I I don't think I want to answer that right off the off the cop. I want to think I want to organize that for you which I think is the goal for next week. Yeah. And I and I also think to have feedback from Jen and Abby as the teachers because that's what NAS is is seeking as well. I mean right there's Joe's perspective 100%. But NEAS is teacherdriven for accreditation. So
095that is the other important component of it right we put a lot of good things in place you know for example like the PLC captains um additional responsibilities for Todd and and that we we bumped up that stipend. We made Leah um the school psychologist went from 08 to 1.0 I know um to support kids and as well as kind of take over the whole choice component um of support. So you know there's other pieces that we now need to sort of post autopsy right to look at like what are the other pieces that maybe we need to shore up to one ensure we're we're meeting the needs of kids we're meeting the accreditation standards and and doing what we need to be doing. And so I think that's where the recommendations may be coming
096forth that there may be some things maybe there's not but we I we haven't had time to sit down and do that autopsy yet. Yeah. And I'm sure from your end the end of your whirlwind sort of didn't allow that kind of reflection and over coming weeks you need to do that. And from my my standpoint, like I just have gotten all this information in the last 48 hours and I just from a read through have all kinds of questions, but um I not prepared like you to have a significant conversation about it because I don't like I just didn't have time yesterday or the day before to read through and organize my thoughts and say, "Well, how could we help you with this or how could rearrange something to more directly benefit that or
097all of those kinds of things. So like for July we'll be coming back. I'll be in California on a computer eagerly anticipating this conversation. Anything else? I'll just say thanks for explaining more of the the process for this whole topic was just a couple days ago and I'm like what is this all about? I know yeah new this year on the board but still yeah thanks for explaining what else. Alrighty, on to new business and 2025 26 lunch prices. Talk a little about uh yes, just very briefly. I see the motion to raise a little bit. I know that we're have a little bit of a shortfall there. So, so um 2024 2025, the board raised breakfast and lunch prices by 25 cents at each school. Breakfast BCS went to $2.25 and $2.50 50 cents
098at the high school. Lunch at DCS went to 350 and BHS to 375. The USDA paid lunch equity tool has not yet been released. However, the average target price for school year 2425 was 3.85 for lunch. And while we did not meet that, we came close. Further, the state of Connecticut child nutrition has determined the new target price for lunch is $45. Basically, we're at the USDA and state of Connecticut direction for pricing. And if we don't show that we're using the tool and increasing our prices um to get closer to the uh target price, the state can order us to raise our prices or we won't receive USDA funding. Further, if we were to lose USDA funding would mean that we would need to raise prices of lunches to at least $7 or we
099can keep our prices the same and the BOE would have to make up the difference and that's not budgeted item. Lastly, we'll continue to use the same process for applying for free and reduced lunches. So at this point with all the additional federal money is now gone for child nutrition programs in schools with the rising costs of goods and a required increase to minimum wage the recommendation is to raise breakfast and lunch prices by 25 cents at each school. So breakfast at BCS would be $2.50 BHS would be $2.75 lunch at BCS $3.75 and BHS to $4. So that's what we're looking for a motion to date. I'll make a motion. I always ask, but I am asking for a second. I'll second. Is there anyone who has any questions or comments about this? Um,
100does anything change besides the price with the food? I mean, you raised, you know, we raised the prices, but well, we did the food change for the kids. We did do a survey of students this past spring. Um, food services. We sent it out to kids at BCS and high school, all kids. I think it was, do we do it from middle school up? I don't think we did the lower elementary grades. Yeah. And we had a bunch of questions to find out about favorite meals, what they would like to see, and um food services will be using that information to kind of um change some of the foods and get rid of some maybe get rid of some of the things that kids were saying they didn't like or that nobody bought. We are
101trying to increase we were looking at how often students bought breakfast or lunch and to see if we can maybe increase some of the options at breakfast, for example, if those numbers were really low. So, we are looking at some of that. We did collect data and we'll be using that data to kind of drive some of our food services decisions. I know um Christine Wallace had some ideas about some other food items and some things we can do for kids. Maybe making some special occasions, special lunches. So, we are working on that because we did we heard we wanted to hear from the kids and we heard from them. So, now we want to honor some of their the requests. That's great. I think it's good to to tie them together, right? because it's
102like we're raising prices but you're not doing anything or taking the feedback or whatever. But um you know I was poking around online and looking at well school ratings and the initial rating for I think this year for us has us uh as both schools worst grade is a boo. It's like a B minus. It's gotten worse. So just if somebody's coming from out of town or whatever or even in town saying you're raising the prices and we're the worst at this, you know, how do we make it better or should I should I should I go to this school or move to this town? So I think to your your point is a great point and that's we did realize that kids were buying school lunches or school breakfast. So which is why we
103put the survey out to see kind of what they like what they would like to see in the cafeterias. And also we've talked about, you know, changing the appearance of the cafeteria, making it more welcoming, making it more appealing. So those are some of the things that we are working on um moving forward. Thanks. I bet um asking the kids what foods they like and don't like is an amusing conversation. You were going to say Ashley Pie's question, which was, are we still expecting a shortfall next year at the end of the year with this price increase? Um, I Kristen could maybe better answer that, but I would say yes. Yes, I yes, I believe so because wages continue to go up. We we had another increase midyear this year, I think it was, on
104on minimum wage. So, um, that and the rising cost of food is is really hurting us. And to Chris's point, you know, like I I want to applaud the administ, you know, Beth and the group for doing a great job, right? Like trying to dig in and figure out how we make it better, right? And and we are trying. We also have an RFP out right now for a food service um company to see if we get any bids. If not, we're going to be looking for a new um part-time manager. Um, but there is also a um there's some pretty awful constraints on food from the USDA which uh is not helpful either. I'm just going to put that out there. Maybe Trump can blow that up. He's blowing everything else up now. Let's
105just get rid of that. Okay. Anyone else have any questions? comments. Ashley says, "Totally understand very difficult times." Thank you. Uh all those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Opposed or abstaining. And that brings us to resignations. We have no resignations to report on at this time. Lovely. All right. No future business I imagine so looking for a motion to adjourn. So move second questions comments all those in favor please say I oppose abstaining summer is here. The