Board of Education Meeting

001Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to call to order our regular Board of Ed meeting. Please stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. All right, roll call. We have everyone here except for Joy who is just stepping into the It's an induction National Honor Society. The National Honor Society induction ceremony, so she will be joining us soon. Congratulations to her daughter, I believe it's student. Son, excuse me, her son. Well done. Outstanding. Um okay, public comment. Mark, yes sir. Excuse me, give me one second, Mark. Sorry. Suicide. The Board of Education welcomes public comment. Each speaker will have up

002to 3 minutes to provide input to the board. Uh you may speak on any topic, um any topic that you would like. Discussion of school personnel, individualized students, or of individual board members, members of the board is prohibited. With that, pass the mic to Mr. Mark Nash. Good evening, sir. Good evening. Mark Moorash, 25 Misplaced Drive, Brookfield. A couple of weeks ago a student from CLES spoke here and said, quote, "You want the kids to learn their best, but you're taking away time for them to get more energy." So, let's continue the conversation about lunch. Some facts. It's true the Connecticut General Statute 10-221 states schools must offer not less than 20 minutes, not less. The CDC suggests 30 minutes so the kids get at least 20 minutes seat time. Seat time, cuz if a

003kid wants to wash their hands before eating and then has to wait in line to get food, how long do they actually have to eat? But most importantly, it is a fact that 24% of our student population qualifies for free or reduced lunch. We give them food, we don't give them time to eat it. I sat in on the Chartwells meeting last week for the second time. They're great. What they do for our schools is incredible. And I learned some things. Their foods fall into five categories. Our kids have to take three items for Chartwells to get reimbursed. So, the kids have to take food. Now, what they do is they offer, they don't serve, they don't put five things on the plate. They say, "What would you like?" So, the kids have to take

004at least three. Whether they take three or five, Chartwells gets paid the same. It would be really nice if our kids have the time to take five and eat all that food given that we know the kids who get free and reduced lunch, this may be their only sufficient meal throughout the day. Again, we give them food, we don't give them time to eat it. And we wonder why our kids are checked out of school. They're kids first, then students. If their needs are not being met as kids, no amount of posturing or shoehorning is going to get them to learn. Maybe the problem is not our curriculum or how we teach or any of the things we talk about like money. Maybe it's just simply environment. Maybe we need to provide our kids a

005space where they can learn and take a break. If you're rushing to eat, there is no break. It's another stress. Victor was telling me that he's seen a lot more line cutting now because kids are afraid they're not going to have time to eat their food. We've turned it into the Hunger Games, literally. So, here's the thing. In the teacher contract, our teachers get 30 minutes. Same duration as that of the students and not less than 30 minutes. How do our kids get a reasonable contract for a 30-minute lunch with our school district? Do I need to convince my 9-year-old to get 500 kids to walk out of CLES? Should we get the high schoolers to walk out? Would we then suspend them or expel them because of the student discipline policy where it's now

006going to be a suspendable or expendable offense to walk out or sit in all over 10 minutes of lunch. This is where absurdity comes into play. This is why satire exists. It shouldn't be difficult to give our kids enough time to eat. 30 minutes on the schedule, 20 minutes in their seat so they can take a break so the 24% of our kids who may not get other food throughout the day can take all of the food that is coming to them, enjoy it, refresh, and get back to classes. And maybe it's those little things that we need to see our test scores and our kids happiness go up. Thank you, sir. Okay, we'll move over to written correspondence, please. The following people wrote in to the board since last meeting. Irene Korea, Elena Lopez,

007Janine Jacklett, Mark Morash, Debbie Brooks, Michelle But Baturla, Michelle Fitzgerald, Andy Korea two emails, Michael Assidi, Trina Capone, George Kisslack, and James Tate. Excellent, thank you. Okay, we'll move to approval of board minutes. I move that the board approve the minutes as recommended regular meeting 5 6 2026. Okay. Any comments or discussion from you? I'll second the motion. My apologies. Any comments or second? I just jumped the gun. Any comments or discussion? All right, all those in favor of uh Excuse me, the uh approval of board minutes indicate by saying I. I. >> I. Any nays? Okay, passes five, nothing. Thank you. All right. Sir, superintendent's update. All right, thank you. Well, I just wanted to share first and foremost on the teaching and learning that uh Jason uh is Destazio and Catherine Robinson and

008Jackie Whiting respectively of you know Whisconier Middle School, Catherine of CLES and Jason Brookfield High School are our three teachers of the year. They represent our teaching staff extraordinarily well and all deserving of it and are just model examples of teachers in our district. So very proud and honored for all of them and Jason happens to be the district teacher of the year. So he will represent the district for the state of Connecticut. So we're really excited about that. And they all deserve a ROUND OF APPLAUSE. >> [applause] >> MRS. FERRIS AND I HAD A GREAT opportunity to continue to visit classrooms and you know it's just amazing when staff continue to open up their doors for us to come on in and see the great things that are happening. We saw so many things

009in the past couple of weeks. Everything from high school students engaged in really deep mathematics using vertical whiteboard spaces and collaborative approach to that mathematics. It was just some outstanding learning that we saw at the high school. Today I had a chance to see our career tech teacher teaching our middle school students how to code and they're doing phenomenal coding and really solving real world mathematical problems through the code. So he's really doing a full integration learning in that program. It's just outstanding and unbelievable. And again same types of things hold true when when I get in other classrooms as well. But those are just be a couple of highlights that I'd share that we've been seeing in the area of MTSS we continue to advance using that program that I shared with you earlier

010Branching Minds. We started the onboarding process last week. So we're really excited about that. We meet with the MTSS leadership team. I think that's next week. Mrs. Farias is that next week? Where we'll continue to to work with them also and you know, share with them the product as well as start to work with them on ideas and implementation and practice. So, really excited for that advancement and continuation there. Special Education Advisory Committee and the last meeting the board had approved that that would move forward. So, in between that time and now we've had an opportunity to look well number one we really just wanted to look at what an Special Education Advisory Committee really look at what the requirements were and make sure that we're aligned to that. So, now looking at all the

011volunteers, making sure that 50% of the committee is comprised of parents or community members first. So, making sure we meet that criteria as well as [snorts] then filling in the remaining 50% with either staff here at Brookfield or board members who might have So, we just finalized that work today. We hope to get the invitation out by the end of the week. So, that way we could begin our first committee meeting in June. So, that's where we are there. Great opportunity to see the talented artists at Wiskaneer last night at the art show. It was beautiful. They they lit up the hallways and I'm just so amazed, you know, all the way from the art show at the elementary level to the middle school level and just the fine arts that our students produce. I

012draw stick figures. They draw some very elaborate things and I'm impressed. Spring concert last night at Brookfield High School. Again, outstanding performance. Really just bringing everything together. Again, seeing it from the elementary, middle to the high school, you understand why we are a music program that gets the accolades that it does because we have extraordinary professionals and teachers you know, working with our kids, but then very talented students who you can tell put in the work to make it all come together. So, very proud of both of those fine arts programs. Um leadership related this month, our leadership team started examining um and asking ourselves the questions, what information do we use to know if students are learning? And so, when you really look at that throughout the year and what's the frequency of that

013and how do you know, uh you start to map out throughout the year like what do we use and what do we have and then um where might we be strong and where might there be some gaps in in things that we could maybe learn more about how our students learn. Uh to me that starts to have us really spin our wheels around if the end goal for students going through our pre-K to 22 program is that we understand along that continuum what they're learning and we can make adjustments to help support them to be the very best learners that they can be along the way, then we're doing what what we set out to do, right? Really help them to leave being portraits of the learner that we said we need here in Brookfield.

014So, you start to look at what are those measures, right? And then examine what things we have in place that are helping us with that and maybe where there might be some gaps. And so, now when we identify that, we'll start to fill in those gaps so that way we don't have those. That's critical. And then the next layer will be how do we use all that information to help be informed decision makers because with that information, we need to make really informed decisions daily, weekly, monthly, annually that are going to help our students learn and grow. So, uh we're on that quest. It is um it is nuanced, it is wonderful, it is exciting, uh but it is a quest and that's the work we're doing. Uh and so, our leadership's will our leadership

015team will continue that work next week and I'm just eager to to keep it going. So, really excited for that work. Mrs. Ferris and I also just looked into the possibility of looking at um reading, the science of reading in kindergarten through grade three. [snorts] Leadership team around that. The state is offering a free cohort. It might be their last one. They've done this will be the sixth cohort. We were just on a webinar today. So, we're flirting with that potential opportunity. We're not sure yet if that would be a good direction because we also realize that being focused is important, too. So, we don't want to put too much on the plate because we want to make sure that we get some systems and structures right so that way we can put into the

016system the things that will really produce great outcomes. So, so we're thinking about that. Um but just want to share with you the great things that we're doing. Business and operations, little facility update. The CLES fence project requires prior approval from the Wetlands Commission just based on where it goes in the very back of the um of CLES right where the kind of trail head is if you ever have seen that area. It's kind of that all the way to the basketball court. So, so we're doing that. Casey's been amazing in in working to help with the application process for that. So, hopefully we can work with the Wetlands Commission to get approval to put a fence in the appropriate spot and or take down some shrubbery in that area, too, so the fence can

017go in uh nicely and cleanly. But we may have to do some replanting just to stay in compliance with the Wetlands requirements. So, we're I think we're making good progress there. It's just a work in progress. Equally, many hours have been spent trying to coordinate with system engineers, software control programmers, and manufacturers around the equipment to resolve some of the ongoing issues or lack of cooling in specific locations at CLES. We're kind of on that yesterday. Um, I probably sent a couple of alarm signals to my staff uh because I was very worried with the heat coming in today and seeing some other school districts calling early releases, no school, that you know, if these conditions worsened today for our staff and students, what impact would that have for us? So, we're we're monitoring it

018all last night, here very early this morning uh as well, looking into it. Um, fortunately for students, they had an early release date today. So, we kind of knew that was in play, so that was a a positive to some {quote} unquote degree. Ba ba ba bum. And uh so, you know, we're we're really uh working hard. We got some more answers today, more answers that we feel better about than maybe answers in the past. So, we're hopeful that we're we're nearing solutions for some of the problems that we see in the third and fifth grade wing at CLES. So, uh hats off to those staff members. Um, they're troopers. The students uh everyone's just wonderful about trying to work with the situation. And uh I couldn't I couldn't appreciate the staff more than than

019I do uh for for just their uh resilience, we'll call it. So, thank you. Uh negotiations, we've yeah. Sorry, I just had a a quick question for Casey on that one. Yeah. Is this all related to the same thing that they've been coming out and looking at where the they were like tripping or something? Um, yeah. So, it's all related to the HVAC units um and but we don't believe it's related to the sensors in the classrooms, which resolved a different issue. Um, we do believe it is related to the airflow from specific DOA uh dedicated outdoor air units that are on the roof. Um, and so, we are we're we're very confident that once we resolve that and pinpoint there's three different areas that we're looking at to really diagnose why the airflow is

020restricted on those units. Um, And we have some next steps that we we've been talking with the engineer that engineered the whole system today. We just spoke with them. We've spoke been speaking with the manufacturers of the units. They received our balancing report when the system became commissioned originally. And so there's a lot of information being shared with all the right people. And we do we are very confident that we we will have this resolved in short order. Resolved and costing us money or >> to say what cost So yes, the the likelihood is yes. We are out of warranty. We're out of the warranty. It wasn't a very long warranty. I think it was a one year. And so so and we're you know What we know is that those units are producing the

021cold air but they are not capable right now of getting the cold air um really when things get hot and occupied getting the cold air through the vents in into the classrooms. That's where the hold up is. Now there are a number of reasons why that could be and I don't um at all subscribe to be an HVAC technician. So I won't even go into any of those details. What I know is I heard a lot of words today that sounded logical and things they're going to start looking into. And it it the right people are looking into it. Uh it just we got to get it resolved. Fortunately we have a couple cool days coming up. When when will we have quotes or potential financial I think once they identify what the problem is

022then we know what the or what the solution to the problem is. Then we'll be able to you know figure out how much that will cost. >> Yeah and the I don't the the engineer that I spoke with this morning he believes the fix is quite simple actually. So right now we're we're paying for time to speak with these these people. So I don't you know so that's really what it is but they're sort of directing us exactly. They're directing us on what to be looking at and pinpointing replacing, you know, different, you know, things that are not as expensive, so um that's what what we're looking at. And have you does minute did you let Maniya's spell out the way into >> yep, that was the first Cuz I was We could do that

023too. And then our other some of our schools aren't air conditioned. Do you know what I mean? Our other what? Some of our schools don't have air conditioning. Do you know what I mean? Parts of the building, so I mean these hot days are going to be Especially at the middle school, high school are tough. Mhm. Yeah, we are pretty well >> Middle school's doing really good. The high school gets a little warm on the second floor. >> Yeah, um every rooms do have window air air units which don't cool to the level that we would love, but it does take take the edge off of Yeah. Bodies are hot and kids are in and out, so the door's open a lot. Yeah, it's hard. Um So so that's where we are with that. Any

024any other questions? I don't want to keep going if you have more. >> Nope, go ahead. Yeah, you sure? Okay. Um Uh negotiations um we are entering into negotiations with custodians. I think I've shared that a couple times, but we've actually started now. So uh negotiations committee, I have two folks right beside me that are on that with us. Um we did send an invitation uh a couple to the board of finance. At this time there is not someone on on our committee, um but we welcome anyone at any time if they'd like to join us. Uh we've only had our first meeting where it was just us. So us and our attorney just talking about um um yeah, like just expectations and proposals and really looking at like what things we might propose. So

025we were just doing planning, I'll call it. Um so Yeah, I am potentially interested All right. Well, what would what would it take to Does potential mean I have to sway you or is this like what is this? >> [laughter] >> Yeah, no, we are working on that date. I think >> me the information and >> I will. You're hired. It's a Yeah. >> [laughter] >> It's a good learning opportunity. Well, yeah, that's I'm Sure. hoping for. Okay. >> Yeah. I think we are just working that out with our attorney, the next date, and cuz he's working out with the the union, too. So, once we have that, we will I'll send it over. I'll send it over some information that we've already kind of processed Okay. >> as well. Sounds good. Thank you. Yeah,

026definitely. Um Any other questions or volunteers? Okay. Um Board of Finance. Oh, yeah, I attended uh last week the Board of Finance meeting uh and um and thank uh all of them for um listening to some of the concerns that we had. That was a a meeting where unfortunately we did have to share um and I know we shared with you just some of the concerns with the high school boilers. Uh and I know Casey has some updates on that for later. So, and it's on the agenda, but um I just want to thank them very much for for being open and listening and asking really good questions about it. Um and you know, seeing ways that we could get more information so we could try to work together to make smart decisions about how

027we manage that situation until we're actually able to uh follow through with the full HVAC HVAC renovation that has to happen at the high school, which the RFPs have I think gone out, right, on that? Or are about to go out? Yes, I will share that. >> Okay. So, I'll I'll leave that up to to Casey. But, you can see next uh number of RFPs uh that we've been working on. And I'll let you read that after you, you know, reader to readers. But, um but we have a number of RFPs going out right now, so that way we can manage the multitude of projects that we have to keep these schools in good condition. And the last is just an FYI for you all. Um I believe this will be linked at some point

028where you can go back to it and you can kind of click on some of those links. They're just some updates on school and state finance. Uh and really what they are is about additional aid that was provided to schools. Um, we aren't receiving all that much here in Brookfield. Um, really at all. So, um, but it's some and it's good. So, anything is good. Or did that come from the last cave update? Is that what the cave legislator said? It it did speak to it. Yeah. Right. Right. And so, that is just some information that kind of explained some of it. The last link kind of gives a little more detail because there were uh there was a lot of vague language at first when it first came out about like who gets what?

029Does it go to the town? Does it go to the board? How's that going to work? You know, and they're kind of working that out right now. And but either way, I mean, it's money to the town to offset the educate our budget. And And so, however we work together to manage that, again with the Yeah, we'll figure that out. But, um, but it's good. And has the dollar amount been determined? Yes, it's I I think it's a total like 50-something thousand and like half of it is ours, half of it is the town's. Okay, I just to give everybody listening a um Yeah. Yeah. Some other districts got quite a bit. Um, it was based on per pupil and And the many other factors, I'm sure. Yeah, and needs and all that. So. Um,

030school climate engagement partnerships. Um, social emotional learning. Uh, we're just looking into possibilities of uh pre-K to 12 uh social emotional learning kind of curriculum. Um, what we have been doing is really using the ruler protocol and things that align to what's called CASL standards. That's like the the national standards for social emotional learning. And we we use resources to support teaching those standards uh pre-K to 12. Um, sometimes when you have something like that, the beauty of it is that staff who are are really good at using that and aligning that in the resources um are able to engage students in in wonderful social emotional development. Um, sometimes what you see when you might not have a a full spectrum curriculum is that there may be some gaps or inconsistencies of implementation or fidelity

031thereof. And so you just want to, you know, look into that and see if it would be something that would benefit us as a district or not. And so we're just in the initial stage of looking into it. Of course, that would cost money, right? Curriculum costs money. So we're looking at a few. I would tell you that kind of the going rate, if I were to give a an estimate, would be 30 would be on the high end, 25 would be like low end, so anywhere in between. Right? So that's that's kind of what it is. And we we'd have to look to see if that's something that is is something we need or not. But I think we we always need to look at those things just to make sure that we're not

032missing anything. And it's important that we kind of when we think about academics, behavior, social emotional, right? We we need to kind of look at all three of those pillars and make sure that we are doing the right thing by students when they come to us in all those areas. Quick question. I am not familiar really with this bucket. I mean, do we have measurable in place to say how well our current curriculum is working? Social emotional learning is a tough measurable, but we do a lot of student surveys and we do a lot of teacher surveys that help us gauge how that is going. There are other measurable too that you have that are consistent. So in PowerSchool is where we would house all our discipline data. So you get a lot of information

033through that as well as attendance data because it can correlate. So it's it's a triangulation of a number of data sets that help us to be able to make determinations around that. And just feedback from staff anecdotally. How kids are doing. And so the the ruler, is that the the faces on the wall with like colors? Yeah, I believe it is. Yeah, it's like your mood meter. The mood mood meter, yeah. Is it the Yale program? It's the what program? Yale program, yeah. And it's it's not like really manually understand like ruler sensors. Like are you I'm sure. Oh, L E U and I think it's It's It's R U L R and I remember it's like regulate understands Listen maybe? >> Listen and Respond. >> Respond, I think. So, it's like it's the way

034the teacher is supposed to help the student and then teaches the student how to respond accordingly. Okay. >> From my understanding with my child and I mean And we teach that within the classroom, too? Okay. >> Yes. Yes. >> We explain how that process should work using that tool. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. Yeah. So, we're just exploring. I like to explore. Um Me too. Student representatives to the board, I just want to kind of give an update uh that uh Principal Velanda uh had solicited some interest from students to participate uh for student representatives to the board. And if you recall, uh I had mentioned, you know, maybe if we could get both a rising Not just a rising senior, but also a rising junior uh to kind of grow and learn and

035then they become kind of the the senior the following year, right? And then we just keep asking for a rising uh junior to come join us. Uh you know, that model I've seen successful uh and so, you know, if we could do that and plus it gives uh students just more leadership opportunity, right? We just added another leadership opportunity to a student's uh tool belt. So, um he has put it out there. Uh from what I learned earlier today, uh he had just um When he put it out uh a week or two ago, he he didn't have any applicants. He put it out again the other day. He does have an applicant right now. I think it's only a 12th grader. Uh so, I think he's still Well, a rising 12th grader, right? I

036think he's still looking for a rising 11th grader. Um so, hopefully we'll have that information very soon. Um Other events, just, you know, sharing some things that I had a go a chance to go and see. Um Just love watching our kids compete and do the great things that they do, right? So, whether it's the art, the band, uh out on the fields that are right right in front of us, uh just doing an awesome job. Really great stuff uh here in Brookfield. So, very proud of our kids. Um school safety, uh you saw that I put uh something out there. Um I'd be remiss not to just share this evening. I couldn't be more thankful and proud for our administration, uh primarily, um you know, Principal Bolland and and uh Assistant Principal Sheath. And

037uh they just did amazing work with our uh Brookfield Police Department and um those responders were incredible. And um together, um we just we had an opportunity to really manage a difficult situation that fortunately turned out um to be as as good as it could be. So, um yeah, just kudos and and hats off to everyone in that. And um you know, we would just ask that if if people are um legally uh allowed uh to do that, um to please, you know, um let someone in the building know who has a badge like this on, uh just so we can, you know, manage it as best as possible. And um conceal it, because that's also uh the law. So. Any questions on that? They yep, they did a great job. And I was just

038there to be able to be a part. So, thankful for the team. Um and just celebrations. Last but not least, Dr. Bill. CONGRATULATIONS. >> [applause] >> I KNOW LAST TIME HE HAD he had spoken shared that he was, you know, getting his doctorate. There was a mention now from the board that they would like to know a little bit about what he did. And so, he's going to share a little bit about what he he the rigor he went through. It could be 40 slides. It's not. I had it by >> you, Bill. Thankfully, >> [laughter] >> it's my gift to you. Um Congratulations. Thank you. And and and again, I appreciate the support and and the the the guidance of the of the board um throughout this process. Um I chose a topic that

039that I think is both interesting to me as a special ed director, but also as something that's informative and and informs and aligns with what we're doing with Bridging Minds. So, I would like to just give a brief overview of what I did, what I found, and what that can help us do. And I promise I'll be brief. Um So, what I did was there the focus of the study was the connection between MTSS systems and special ed special education referral processes. Uh I wanted to look at through through a lens of systems alignment. Um and I looked at it through uh speaking with eight different directors and assistant superintendents uh in other districts, a wide variety of districts and DURGs. Um the problem I felt across the board as I was looking at this

040initially was MTSS implementation and special ed referrals, what's the connection? Should the connection be stronger? How can we make the connection stronger? Um and how do those processes influence special education referrals? Originally, I was looking at whether or not uh it would increase or decrease referrals, but what I found was strong MTSS processes result in um strong special education referrals after interventions have been have been [clears throat] tried. And the theoretical lens I used was coupling theory, which um is more of an organizational theory than it is educational, but I wanted to see if with loose coupling, if you have systems that operate relatively independently, um is there a way that they can become stronger um by remaining sort of independent or does there have to be a strong connection with that? And I looked

041at this again through a qualitative lens, looking at perceptions of district-level special education leaders. Um and the reason I did this because I wanted to get rich and detailed participant perspectives in my interviews. So, while the sample was not large, um, I wanted to get the perspective of special education, um, if if and when I move forward with this research, I would look look at curriculum directors and and other central office personnel to kind of get more perspectives on this. So, I boiled this down to the research questions and what I found. So, the first research question was asking the special education directors to describe the MTSS process in their districts. Um, what I found was it varied across school and grade levels. Elementary level seemed to be the strongest. Um, secondary systems less structured

042and more variable due to the nature of middle schools and high schools. There's not the same model at an elementary level. And the differences that I detected and found through these interviews was influenced by leadership both at central office and in buildings from the principal level through to um, curriculum leaders and special education uh, department heads and and supervisors, structure and communication. Second question was how do stakeholders perceive MTSS in relation to special ed referrals? So, everyone felt it was a valuable framework. As you can see, you know, supporting students, having structured processes. The barriers from the perspectives of these directors and assistant superintendents was inconsistency across schools, uh, communication gaps, and limited time for collaboration. We hear about time uh, all, you know, all the time. Um, but in terms of what we need,

043the the the the the currency should be time. Um, that's where the processes can be made stronger. Um, and that lack of time and structural limits impact. My third question was how does alignment between MTSS and special education systems influence implementation? And as you can see, when there's strong alignment, it leads to consistency and it leads to coherent systems. When there was when there is weak alignment, not necessarily in a specific building, but across the district where where larger districts where there are a lot of different schools, what that system looks like if there is weak alignment both within and without, it can lead to fragmentation and inconsistent practices. And again, communication and collaboration are what drives alignment. My fourth question was, does alignment between MTSS and special education systems influence referral decisions? And that

044alignment, when there is strong, directly influences referral decision-making because the data-driven decisions that are coming from the MTSS teams through to the special education teams, when those are in collaboration and conjunction with each other, those lead to appropriate referrals because all of the data has been vetted. That we are past tier three, we are at the point of special education referrals. When it's not, and that can take a lot of different forms, it can lead to reactive decisions, uh anecdotal referrals, and inconsistent referrals. And again, this was across urban, suburban, uh DRG A's, DRG B's, uh and DRG C's and D's um over the course of the people I spoke to. Just want to give you the major themes and sub-themes. Um over the course of all the people I spoke with, elementary coherence, across

045the board, it was most established and recognizable in elementary settings. And the sub-themes were things like benchmark assessments, clear intervention cycles, clarity of roles, and referral readiness. Secondary had a variability. Basically, departmental structures, weaker intervention scheduling, and you know, greater dependence on local interpretation, what they felt from a student point of view rather than what the data shows them in some cases. And less precise academic support. This is directly from the transcripts of the interviews that I did with these directors. Um usefulness depended on intervention specificity. I'm not going to read everything, but you know, when you match the interventions to deficits and you have progress monitoring data and fewer subjective referrals result when there is solid data coming out of the tier three um, piece of interventions. When there is stronger alignment, there's a

046cleaner handoff. There's a true message coming from tier three interventionists to special education of we're ready to make this referral and here's why and here's what it looks like and here's what we've done. Um, more collaborative problem solving and of course child find always informs all of our decisions. Um, and leadership and capacity shaped implementation. Uh, the influence of the principal, uh, principals in these cases who had backgrounds in intervention, um, maybe had a better, uh, structure in the building having done it themselves as interventionists. Doesn't mean to say that other principals who didn't had weaker systems, but there was a definite tip towards principals who had done this, uh, as interventionists in their previous lives before they became administrators. Staffing and expertise. Again, time for collaboration, training, uh, data systems if we talked about

047Branching Minds and having a common language. And I think the system that we're going to use with Branching Minds will help inform this. So, I was happy to see us using Branching Minds as some of the background of what I had learned through this this study. Finally, recommendations. Obviously, strengthening alignment between MTSS and special education. Establishing clear district-wide expectations. Uh, ensuring inclusion of special education in MTSS processes. Having that person between the tier three and the referral, a special education presence in the intervention systems. Prioritizing, again, time, communication, and collaboration. Having a system that goes across schools so that you can really examine the data across the district. Data-driven decision-making. We say that all the time in a lot of areas including this and structured time and improving intervention planning and progress monitoring. And I

048could go on for another hour and 15 minutes like I did in my defense, but I won't. So, I thank you for the time this evening. I just wanted to share that with you and just and say that the work that I did with this really aligns with what Branching Minds is going to do for us in terms of addressing some of these issues that I learned from other districts and help us strengthen what we have here in Brookfield. Excellent. Thank you, brother. >> Thanks, folks. Thank you, doctor. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, everybody. Right on. Thank you, sir. All right. >> All right. Any questions, comments, or concerns for Stephen in the superintendent's update? All right. Uh move on to subcommittee reports. We'll start with finance. Caroline. >> All right. Thank you, Rob. Yes,

049ma'am. All right. The finance committee last met on May 12th. Um the over uh overall budget is coming in approximately $545,000 favorable, the majority of which again is our known savings from the uh special education out of district transportation. That has not changed since last summer. Um we have a few areas of overages, which is uh one is under professional services, which is uh directly related to special education professional services, uh a slight overage in legal fees, although last month looked uh pretty favorable uh from the invoicing. And then other small areas uh of overages. Again, uh we are trending to a surplus of $545,000 right now for the district uh for uh this year's budget. Um I'd actually like to make a motion if I could um around um uh taking a board vote

050on the budget transfers that was proposed in the finance committee. I think we need to add that we need that add that motion to the consent agenda. Thank you. Uh if we could uh Absolutely. Chairman? Absolutely. So Well I move so. I move I move to add uh a motion on uh approving the budget trans the May budget transfers uh in the consent agenda. All right. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. And you'll you'll see those detailed in the handout this evening. Thank you. I'll review. Excellent. Um I think that's about it. Um we have another major update around the boilers which we talked a lot about in the finance committee meeting. Um but Casey's going to give that a separate time. So. Excellent. All right.

051>> All right. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. All right, Kate. Oh, sorry. That's okay. So I welcome feedback from um uh board members about the style in which the Kate minutes are um compiled and transcribed because I just noticed when we're sitting there's a meeting of the Debbie Farias Your mic is off. Um so it was me, Debbie Farias, and then uh Andrew Hill and Dr. Spencer. Um and they presented pretty data rich um presentations to us. Mhm. Mhm. Were you there? I was. >> Yeah. And Superintendent Bracy and I Um So it it was I found myself like starting to write down things in conversation, but then getting like caught up in the data, but then we were able to link some of it. I didn't have editing rights or sharing rights for all

052of the documents, which is why some of them will be trickling in. The PSAT and SAT data is linked here and the midterm data maybe will be coming. Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. Okay. That's right. Yes. Did you send the test yesterday? Yeah. There was a whole different Yes, that information was shared with the board because of some of the numbers being under Mhm. um with data suppression, we would not need that information public, >> Okay. Okay. Thanks for the clarification there. So, you you could just see a couple of items here that we thought it noteworthy to to pull out for people who have not been paying attention to the SATs and PSATs, the the style has been reconfigured in the last few years. Mr. Hill thought it was important that we know

053that the math portion at least is what he would term semi-adaptive, meaning there are two sections of the math PSAT and SAT and depending on how a student performs in the first section, that second section is adaptive. Um so, uh pretty much after that I just got sucked into the narrative and stopped writing a lot of detail. Um you will see, however, for people who are unfamiliar with the two tests, the sub sub sub sections and this pertains to something that um Mr. Freeze was talking about earlier. ERW is the English section, English reading and writing, and then there's the math section. You could see these four sub sections per category and we saw the biggest gains in student performance in those sub sections where discrete teaching can best happen. So, for the ERW, Um

054in the standard English convention. So like um how to use certain um punctuation for example and grammatical principles. And with the math, we saw the best um gains in um was it the advanced math? Mhm. Um I don't know. It's It's It's later in these in these um uh bullet points. So um there were a couple of um contextual items at the top of the second page that I thought would be important for the board to know that there was a um departure in uh 11th grade English which um interrupted the flow of teaching and learning. Um and you know, Miss Dr. Spencer did not tell us that as like excuse making, but really she was heralding the the way that the colleagues stepped in and um took on extra duties. Um so so I

055wanted you guys to just have that for context. Oh yeah, but circling back to point that you made earlier about identifying gaps. Um Mr. Hill and Dr. Spencer um were They wanted us to know that they use uh PSAT and SAT subsection data as one um way to uh inform teaching and learning. So for example with math, uh there are some sections subsections of math where our students haven't performed well and Mr. Hill has uh worked those into like um kind of the get started on these like do now type stuff when students come in. So um the the educators are responding using this data to um address those gaps. And then um Stephanie uh asked those educational leaders departmental leaders, you know, how what they perceive they need from us to support their mission.

056Um so we had some conversations around that. Um and then I introduced uh the discussion point of talking about artificial intelligence and how how are we as a board and as a district going to address this sea change in the educational landscape. So uh we had some conversation around that. Um and then um Mrs. Farias uh talked about the sort of the primacy of uh you guys starting off with a with a plan to guide the district and all of these the ability of all of these initiatives to fold into that uh larger plan. So um I think it comes back to like full district coherence. Everything that we do in terms of planning for curriculum and program evaluation should speak to student performance in service of our mission and vision. So those are a

057lot of words. Um and please let me know if you would like any clarifying um information. Or is there anything you would like to add? No? No, I think you did a very good job summarizing. I think that's it. I have a quick question. >> I'm sorry. I called for it. No, I was Sorry. Don't be sorry. You answered my question. >> have a quick question. Um was the presentation and I apologize I haven't looked at it yet. Was the presentation around the structure of the PSATs and the SATs or our actual student data? Like how how did how So how did they do? >> [laughter] >> So there are a couple of uh the biggest bright spots um the biggest bright spots were gains in those places where discrete teaching can happen. You know,

058like um Yeah, exactly. Great job. >> Yeah, yeah, I saw that. But where is that like our scores? Okay. Wait, the Okay. Like there's a summary report of the the district >> much a summary report as like charts. Okay. Yes, what Mr. Hill and Dr. Spencer said were a lot of charts, a lot of data, which we can look at. Um, and it shows both how the tests are structured in terms of what the parts are and what they're teaching, as well as the student performance data and also compared to the previous years' data. And we were able to see a couple of bright spots like this year's, I think it was this year's sophomores, um, had impressive gains in, um, on the English section. I I think that was the the cohort that was

059really like, "Wow." But it doesn't tell a a full story yet. Like it's still kind of a puzzle about like there there's no clear through line about this is how the district students are moving through, either in terms of like COVID recovery, if you will, or or, um, I guess the with the changes, the curricular changes in the elementary level, we haven't seen those kids come all the way up yet to see if those new science of reading and, um, illustrative math, if they are really going to make a difference in how kids do not only testing, but their the other challenges. That's true. Okay. May- maybe we could consider like in when there's data like this, maybe like an executive summary format of like how how it I just guess I didn't take that

060away from these notes. You were looking for feedback on the notes, too. I didn't take away, I guess how you know what the results were, right? Kind of in in an executive summary type format. That's just my own personal opinion. Okay, thank you. That's helpful. I don't know. Others may not share that just given their other level of experience. I'm not experienced in this particular area, so Do you remember how um it was like green Yes. if they if they improved and red means just that information of like there was a gain and like there it I don't remember exactly the story it told, but it was So, my suggestion would be I totally agree with what you're what you're saying and perhaps in terms of the minutes, right? We can move those together to

061kind of just really use more data regarding, you know, okay, they you know, we saw improvements in these areas that you know, X percent, you know, were at proficiency, right? I think that's what you're kind of talking about earlier. Yeah. I don't have the data in front of me, so I can't speak to it. I didn't memorize it, but what I would suggest is certainly look at, you know, the data and if you do have any questions or suggestions, just reach out and, you know, we can always address that. Sure. But the bottom line really, the executive summary, and I didn't phrase it in this way, was that the the biggest gains, the brightest spots were in those subsections both for English and in math where um it's easier to identify discrete skills. So, one

062of the subsections of on the English is um expression of ideas. That's not a discrete skill. That's literacy. You know what I mean? Okay. Um and information and ideas. So, so that's that's a little bit harder to to generate jumps in scores. Mhm. You know what I mean? Um same with the geometry and trigonometry. That's problematic because not every child who has taken um or who is taking the PSAT or SAT has had those courses yet. Right. Okay. So, those are some of the things I guess would go into executive summary. Can I just add to that? One of the was that our students are performing better with the conceptual conceptual understanding and more problem solving and reasoning and there were more challenges with computation. We're actually seeing that as a trend frankly going from

063kindergarten through 12th grade. Okay. So, we we had some conversations around that as well. Okay. Right. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. We'll move on to the youth commission update. Aaron, I'm not sure if you have one but Liam did email me and said that there was supposed to be a career day presentation I believe for or career day um information. They wanted to do something for career day but they weren't able to get the information for this meeting. So, Liam emailed me and asked if he can just do the he's going to keep me updated. I'll add him to the agenda. Yeah. Yeah, it's perfect. Thank you Liam if you're watching. I did jump on a quick zoom with [snorts] them. We have some students graduating, you know, so celebrating our seniors but

064also they are looking for members. I know Mr. Blandina said I saw parent square that today. So, we were just talking they were actually talking about you know, skill sets what they could do and then afterwards we kind of talked about what they can do. It is you know, a commission formed under the first selectman. So, I'm like you know, I really think like when they join that they should actually attend a board of finance meeting, attend a board of selectman meeting like pick you know, come to a board of that meeting, but like pick um a meeting to attend and come back because, I mean, that's why we're doing it, right? Um and I know we talked about, you know, there's a ton of stuff once they get back in session, you know, we've

065talked about going up to the capital and stuff. So, they do have a ton of stuff um on the calendar. They were um talking about um following up with some people on career day. Um I guess there's students looking for um like internships kind of or some guidance on, you know, areas of interest, especially we had some that were very well attended. So, Liam was going to reach out to quite a few of them to see if they were willing to take some of our um older students under their wings, just, you know, maybe shadow them for a day, see if it's something that they're still interested in. So, Liam and Marnie are really working behind the scenes and Ron Jaffy to figure it out. So, All right. Good job. >> have much. They're looking

066for people though, I do know that and they are extending, um I believe, a message that's going to go to Dean because we have expressed interest in trying to get some of our younger students involved, like maybe at the seventh, eighth grade level. So, we um we were >> [clears throat] >> engaged in those uh communications earlier this morning, uh Principal Beland uh Rend and myself. And so, I know Principal Beland, I saw his come out. I think Dean was getting it situated to go out. So, I'm hoping it goes out within the next day or so, yeah. Yep, definitely. And uh yeah, thank Liam. He's uh he's been, you know, advocating for trying to get that going. So, he's great. Excellent. All right, thank you. All right, that's the subcommittee reports. As for the

067student representative, as you Sorry, Chair. There isn't one more. Can I make a motion that would to give an update from the Brookfield Cares Committee, please? Sure. I'll second that. Thank you. That's yeah, okay. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All right, take it away. I'm just going to uh Marnie actually shared an update. We had, um, a Narcan and QPR training that happened today. Uh, so this is hot off the press. So, I'm just going to read some of her notes here. Um, so we had 11 students attend the training today. Uh, youth officer Heller did the Narcan training and Western Connecticut Coalition did the QPR training. Students will receive certificates for completing the training as well as community service hours. Uh, overall, we are so happy with how it

068went and we'll be talking with the school again about doing a similar program in the fall with the inclusion of a presentation on sports betting, which we learned, um, was, uh, a topic of conversation in in the Search Institute survey, um, that Brookfield did. So, just a big thank you to Brookfield Cares, uh, and Principal Belanger and all the folks that were involved in pulling that together today. Excellent. Thank you. I would just second that. Principal Belanger spoke, um, highly of that and and thought it was just a great opportunity for our kids to be a part of. So, that was great. >> Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. >> Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Um, all right. So, as for student representative, uh, Emily, she's running a little bit late. Congratulations to her as well. She

069is being inducted into the National Honor Society. Uh, so I we did speak to Russell where we can always she can come in whenever she said and make her announcements. Shouldn't be any issues. So, um, on that note, we'll move to the consent agenda. I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as follows: transfers, resignations, retirements, reduction in force, April financials and budget transfers. Second. Any discussion? Comments? Concerns? Questions? Okay. All those in favor of approving the consent Um, do we include Yeah. They did. Those on the Okay, cool. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please indicate by saying I. I. Any nays? I'm going to abstain. Abstain. Okay. Uh four and one abstain. Thank you. All right. Um Oh, sorry. >> Before we move on Yes. I'm

070just shout out to um Terry Park, 24 years. Oh, yeah. >> Thank you. That's right. That is a long time. Congratulations. Enjoy your retirement. >> Absolutely. Yeah, enjoy. Okay, we'll move on to new business. Uh finance and facilities committee restructure proposal. Anyone? Anyone? Floor is open. So >> [laughter] >> Here So it was going to be the one of you wanted to start with, that's fine. >> you were looking at me. No, you know, I was just looking around. I'm [laughter] just looking around. >> everyone was looking at you. Hearing none. >> Hearing No no motion yet. We're just discuss discussing it. Yeah, if we do agree to, yeah. Sure. So I think uh the concept on the table is um So I get I get to go to a lot of, right, subcommittees and

071um when I attend both the finance and facilities subcommittee and when Casey and I meet a lot, you know, to prepare for these, Casey primarily, but we talk a lot about them, um there seems to be a lot of repetitiveness uh that occurs between the two. Um often facilities come with a financial need and, you know, finances are mostly uh taken by a lot of facility matters, uh some heavy finances and other things as well. Um so the question was potentially um could we take those and combine them into a business and operations committee? Um and then the thought was, well, what might that look like? Uh and so Casey has put together a sample agenda of what that could look like and we'd love to share it with the board uh so that way

072you could just kind of see uh a potential model of that. It does not mean that we still wouldn't address all financial matters and all facility matters, but we would just be doing it under one house. Um And and that's just a a concept and an idea that we wanted to put out to the board and gain any feedback or thoughts around. May I add a little bit to the conversation? Thank you. Um I also will say I think over the last year in particular, this past year, um we have added some more standard monthly reports, particularly to finance. Um we're now reporting every month on teacher turnover, which used to take up like sort of a new business or unfinished business agenda item in finance. We would talk about it a couple times of

073the year. Um additionally, we are now month reporting monthly on the special education out of district transportation and tuition and excess cost grant revenue. Um so a lot of those sort of monthly reports are incorporated into just our standard finance financial report um monthly. And um And so, you know, every once in a while there's a new business item to discuss, and we always certainly will. Um but as as um the same is happening I think for for the facilities committee as well. Um There used to be a more of a focus on a lot of the maintenance items throughout the day, you know, which um you know, something was clogged in a bathroom and how was that repaired and like sort of the repair and maintenance. And really with a lot of the capital

074projects um happening you know, more recently, um the focus is really kind of zooming out and looking at planning for those much larger pro- projects and tracking them along the way. Um and through that conversation and and dialogue, we have, you know, and we are now going to be incorporating what what we track internally in our internal tracking document for all of our capital projects. That will now be also become a monthly standard report in facilities. And so, there'll be a lot of standard, as you can see in the sample agenda. Standard reports every month. Um some will be spoken about, you know, more, you know, more time will be taken to some, you know, some months over others. Um and then any new business like um Mr. Freeze he said regarding finance or facilities

075always always always would be on there. But I I I would I envision it like the bulk of um finance and facilities I would say like probably 40 to 60% of those meetings are dupli- duplicative. >> Yeah. Um and you serving on both you could probably attest to that. I can attest that that's a fair statement. Yes. I mean and a good portion to your point is, you know, just reviewing the standard reports, which is good. I uh applaud that we have standard reporting methodologies, right? Consistent standard reporting methodologies month over month. I think that's important. Um so I think that, you know, that month over month is taking less and less time, too, because we're becoming accustomed to those reports and looking for anomalies. >> Exactly. You know, all of the detailed data at

076this point. So. I think my only my only consideration would be, you know, we we give some thought around how the budget process will integrate into this forum. I think it can um for sure, but, you know, there were certainly a lot more meetings necessary. Just think about how that would integrate into this this kind of this new format going forward, but um we probably we haven't talked too specifically about it yet, but I know we both have >> I mean I also shared that we have some thoughts on the budget process um for next year and so um so we can we will we will absolutely take all that into consideration. >> And that was a longer conversation we were going to have anyway about the whole process, right? >> I I think I

077yeah, I think that yeah, I think that needs a lot more discussion and exploration, but you know, that we'll just have to see how that fits in, right, when when we're, you know, when we combine these committees together. Mhm. Okay. And I I can actually one add one little other piece of context. I had reached out to somebody that was part of the board when they separated out the facilities and the finance, and it was really driven because they were planning for the new elementary school about 10 years ago. I see some people, okay, shaking their head. So, I mean, that made sense at the time, right? You want that focus in. But now that we've come to a point where a lot of it is pretty standard business. Um I think it makes sense

078to reassess the focus. I fully support that. I think having been on facilities and then then subsequently part of conversations around finance and board updates or subcommittee updates at the board meetings, I think that makes a lot of sense. I think it um functions them functioning independently creates an overlap as you were saying, and there's a lot of double reporting. So, I think that's a really great idea. I think um considering the membership on both committees, it seems to work to just seamlessly integrate. So, Aaron, Joy, and Caroline with Rob being an ex-officio member. So, I looked into Robert's Rules, um the committee chair can be an ex-officio member of any subcommittee without creating a quorum. Um you just don't have a vote. >> The board chair, not committee chair. Sorry, the board chair. Yes,

079the Board of Ed chair can um be an ex-officio member at any unless our policy states otherwise, and our policy does not We don't have a bylaws. >> No, so if our bylaws dictate something specific about subcommittees and attendance and the chair, then we um we uh conform to our bylaws. Our bylaws simply state that subcommittees are formed, and they report to the Board of Ed. So, um Rob being an integral part of the Finance Committee, obviously it would still be, you know, I think I personally my in thinking about it, you would still attend. Um and then the three of you would continue to do the business that you've been doing just joint. Mhm. >> So, that I I think that would be and then as the new member comes on, we can re-evaluate

080once we, you know, have more information, but >> person. >> Yeah. But it would seem like that would make sense if everyone's >> Yeah. I agree. I I like the efficiency of it and um it's really just about being more efficient really is what it is. I like, you know, just speaking about overlapping and whatnot, so >> Mhm. Mrs. Diar, thank you. This is really helpful. Just just to I don't see it. You don't mind either way? I don't mind either way. There were two >> It doesn't matter to me. I mean, I do need somebody from facilities to attend municipal building cuz I'm still listed and they keep asking where I am and I told them that. Oh. The municipal facilities. Yeah, yeah, there's somebody supposed to be a representative and I did it

081and then it was supposed to be then Sarah took it over and no one's been there. So, >> We attended We attended >> [laughter] >> the last meeting but not last night, right? But at last night was the We would We attended the meeting because >> usually it's usually the day before and sometimes I can make it work, but I don't want to say that I can if I >> like you're still listed as the >> I saw that. Yes. I was like, yeah. >> Yeah, last night there was the art show and then the high school band, so I was like Yeah, and I was at I was at senior night and so it's just um I feel that, but especially with I think with all the Candlewood Lake stuff, right? With all the

082outstanding school stuff, yeah, someone should be there. We'll also have a new member soon, so hopefully that will >> Somebody who knows facilities because I mean, now if I had to go, I would know, but when they're talking about a roof and I have no idea about a roof, it's tough to be there. Okay. No, I understand. >> So, that aside, we have two uh um schedules for adding of business operations. Did you guys see that? One that has the meetings on Tuesday and one that has the meetings on Wednesday. So, that's where the motion would come in is which one of those we want to adopt if we want to move forward with [clears throat] the So, we would have policy So, the two schedules have policy communications staying as is, right? CAPE staying

083as is, and then business operations there's a schedule for it being the second Tuesday of the month, and then a different schedule for being the first Wednesday of the month. So, I guess members who are here. So, is the thinking that first the board would have to vote on the motion to combine the two committees. And if that is successful, then we go and look at the schedule and see which one would make sense to adopt. >> you could You could make a motion to do I mean, you could theoretically do motions to do both. But Right. I cannot, but you all can. I mean, no. Sorry, [laughter] not you. We could say we vote to adopt the new meeting structure. And the schedule. >> And the schedule that would need have them schedule, whatever

084this is. >> are we doing with communications? Just keeping it up. Oh, so we didn't It's a different separate agenda item. >> Oh, it is? >> It is. Yeah. The schedule. Never mind. >> Right. Yeah, yeah. >> Sorry, that's my bad. I was a little confused on that. >> Oh, it is. You're right. No, that's my That's correct. That's separate. >> It is. Yes. That's my Sorry about that. So, before we move on, we obviously we have a quorum here. Um but this is a sort of a big change. Has anybody um touched base with Joy about this? Oh, that is a good question. Because I I feel like this it would >> Hold off on voting until we can have the way here. >> is a good idea. I I talked to her quickly.

085She serves on both of them. Okay. But I mean, I I feel like One less meeting for her. I don't know. She'd object. >> [laughter] >> Right. But yes, to your point we should have a No, she doesn't serve on finance. She doesn't serve on finance. That's right. She said she doesn't care. I'm okay with waiting as well. I really am. I I don't want to Why don't we table it to the end of the meeting cuz we can always vote on it and see if she if she doesn't >> I don't want to miss that >> since we have an executive session, we can also come out of executive session since our meeting is still continuous at that point and vote at that point if we want. Like we would just note it on

086the agenda to move it to the end of the pub meeting. Okay, so with that I move to table um discussion on this um until uh Joy returns. Yeah, basically for number one and number two under new business. Yeah. Okay. Can I add just a little context to number two just in case it half the conversation happens after executive session and I'm no longer here. Um if if the board were to combine and have you know uh finance and facilities meet um as one Oh, I see what she did here. Okay, never mind. So it's either separate or the second Tuesday. It would have to be it would definitely have to be in the second week because we wouldn't be able to close find the finances by the first week of the month. So that's

087Oh, so it would have to be the agenda that has a second Tuesday. Second Tuesday. I would agree cuz that's closest to when the Board of Finance Exactly. meeting happens, too. And it's still before the Board of Finance meets, right? Cuz that was part of why we moved it back. Yeah, cuz it's a Tuesday. So we got the information before you had to give it to them. Correct. Yes. From what I remember. Yes. Right? Yes. Yes. So we would adopt Yeah, that's why we moved it to the Tuesday rather than the Thursday. >> Yeah. Okay. We're good. Um Wendy made a motion. Any I second I second I got a second. All right. All those in favor of moving discussion for new business to the end of the agenda indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

088All right. Any nays? All right. We'll move right along to unfinished business. Board of Education's adopted budget. Any announcements for us, sir? Oh, thank you. Wrong one. >> [laughter] >> Um discussion No, we just wanted to make sure that the Board of Ed, if they had any questions about the adopted budget, I guess I you know, we we're all waiting for this Saturday and you know, to go through and it did. So, fortunately we have a budget. Yeah, so that that's really what it's on for to announce that our budget passed and so we will go forward with an increase of 3.96% to our budget for the the 2026-2027 school year. So, just wanted to open up to see if there were any questions about that. I have a question. Can I make a comment?

089Absolutely. >> I just wanted to say with the amount of discussion we had as a board around having no voting in the schools while kids were there. I certainly appreciate both as a board member and as a community member and as parent having the voting on Saturday at the community center. I think it was the numbers show that it was successful. So, I'm really glad that there was a lot of engagement. I know we were a little nervous about moving locations, moving to a Saturday. I think I'm so appreciative of the community participating, understanding, you know, that the location moved and the date moved. I think um It was really great to see you know, we'd love more. >> [laughter] >> But the fact that there were more votes cast in this referendum than last

090year's referendum is a you know, really great sign. I appreciate that people are engaging and committed to um no matter where or when it is looking for casting their vote for the hard work that we've done. So, thank you. I think for next year, just to share the data with those that will listen to this. I mean, the voter turnout was still only 13.7% of the voters in town. So, again, would love to see more people involved and out voting for next year's budget. >> say I was really happy to see the parents square go out, right? Like give it to parents. I mean we were out there too just at the fields and and even you know at the game someone's like oh should we go vote? I'm like you have kids in the

091school you have to vote, you know? So I think just really trying to raise awareness of you know, our parents to get out there and vote because it's important. All right. Anything else on the budget? All right. Let's move on to the boiler update. Drum roll, please, Casey. They do say a picture tells a thousand words. Um We like pictures. So I will provide an update because we did start reporting um to the board first facilities committee and then the board of ed the that's the name, I think. Um about this issue. We want to keep the board updated in real time. As Steven said he did also share with the board of finance um the condition of these boilers and the the change in the condition of these boilers um as of late. There

092are it's front and back and so I just want just so that you can see what we're referring to when we talk about the sections of the boilers that are failing and when I say that you know, we're having to cut and cap different sections that are leaking. Um you can see on this first page here um this boiler that has the the ladder in front of it that is um boiler number three which is um completely um offline and does not it's yes, it's it does not work anymore. And it was a great question that came up I believe at the board of finance meeting which was um are we able to sort of harvest parts from that boiler to keep the other two running? And we have exactly, we have done that um

093and we we actually we we took um a section from that boiler uh and replaced um a section in boiler two recently. We did get a quote to fix boiler two. I think this is now two years ago. Um the quote just to fix one of those sections from a you know an outside vendor was just under $20,000. And this is not for a new part. This is for a refurbished part. They don't manufacture these um components of these boilers any longer. Um as you can see they are very old. They are they are they're not Yes. Can Can I just add to that because I want to be clear on what we mean by that? So what they would do is they would take a they take sections out of other old, right? Uh

094aging boilers of this you know suit and um and then they kind of grind them down and rehab them, right? And there is zero warranty. So you pay $20,000 for a zero warranty part potentially that could leak tomorrow if it's put in today and hope it does. Yes. So when when when we were looking at that about a year and a half two years ago um with a boiler number two um we said, "Well, that's way too much money." And fortunately we have um Dan Caldwell who is very experienced with boilers and plumbing and heating. Um and he said, "I think if if if I have a week um Joe and I can do this ourselves." And so he was able they were able to take one of these sections pictured next to that boiler

095with those ladder. Um you can see those sections. They're sort of separated. They were able to take one of those sections from boiler number three and put it into boiler number two. That worked at that time. >> This was last year. This was about I think I don't know if it was last year or the year before. Could have been prior to the previous heating season. >> Okay. We were able to do that at that time because boiler number one had zero leaks. It was running you know beautifully at that time. Um and so because we have to take the boiler totally down and off in order to make this repair. The way we are operating now with boiler number one and boiler number two both having serious leaks in the the boiler number two

096has had a consistent leak that is progressing. Boiler number one is again that boiler that has been um very reliable, has sprung five sections of leaks in the last month, three weeks really even. Um and so so we are not in a position to be able to reliably take any boiler um offline and and know that for we will have um continue to have heat for for a year or for a week. Um and so that that's a real predicament. So, we as you know, we did some research. We said we need to investigate a couple different options, again knowing that the big picture solution to this is is with a full HVAC upgrade plan for the building. Um that RFP, just as an update, that RFP has been released. It is on the town

097website, it's on the state website, so we will, you know, start having, you know, building walk-throughs for that for that project, but that's more long-term. That's, you know, two to three, maybe four heating seasons out. And so what we need is an interim solution to ensure that we have heat beginning, you know, September 15th, October 15th um for the building. And so we looked we got quotes for a boiler rental cuz believe it or not, as as I reported a couple weeks ago, you can rent boilers. The cost of that was about $176,415. That was for the rental, it did not include um site supervision. That would be an additional cost as well as a few additional hookups, engineering hookups. So, all in you're thinking I'm you know, we were estimating maybe 210 to 230

098thousand dollars for a seasonal rental of a boiler. Exactly. Um and so with that thinking, we said, "Okay, well, what what would the cost be of just replacing one of these boilers? If we have one boiler that we know is, you know, um you know, under warranty, can you know, run efficiently, heat the entire building. So, initially, in speaking with um a contractor and seeing the cost of the rental, we were told, "It'll be about" and I think I we reported this, "It'll be um it'll be about the same cost of a boiler rental, if not maybe even a a little bit less." Well, we got the quote Last week. >> Last week. That cannot be the case. >> That is not the case. No. Um that is not the case and right? So, and

099it is to replace a one of these steam boilers with a brand new steam boiler that will service the building for the next 30 to 40 years. Mhm. That is not necessarily what we need to do, right? Um we need a reliable boiler that will heat this building for an interim window of time. And so, what we've done and there are many different ways that this could be done. There can be it can be a refurbished boiler that is um still under warranty, right? That will be, you know, reliable for that window of time that we need. Um uh there can be, you know, some some different value engineering. Perhaps we don't need the same size boiler because boilers are much more efficient today than they were probably 50 years ago when these boilers were

100installed. So, we have developed an RFP um to go out that essentially is asking contractors to provide us with an an already value engineered design with this short-term solution. Um we don't want to be spending a a lot of money on something that may not last or you know, depending on what the long-term solution of the HVAC upgrade plan is, that boiler may be ripped out, we may be doing some completely alternative type of heat source. And so, we want to be really thoughtful about that. So, um Dan Caldwell has he's been in touch with three different contractors. One being the one that gave us the quote. It was a a little over $400,000 for a huge boiler to last us 30 to 40 years. But that's I mean still So I mean it's not

101terrible. >> It's not terrible. We're hoping for better. And in having going back and having conversations there are there's already ways that oh, okay. >> That's what you're looking for. You're not looking to just replace it forever to to heat for the next 34 years. Let's look at that. So So Dan Mr. Caldwell is speaking with three contractors right now and really trying to hone in on what we are looking for in this and to give us some options. And we're asking for options. You know, high to low and then and then we will bring it back to the board to make some some decisions. We want to make sure that we're looking at this from every type of angle because we do know that you know, this is likely a temporary solution to to

102a to a really um ongoing problem that that the building has been facing. >> Yeah, need um for for for a couple decades now. Um Are we also looking at the potential of being able to like sell back or That's all part of it. sell the boiler after 5 years or however many years? >> Exactly. That's all all of that is being you know, we want we want them to give us proposals for all of those things. Yes. Yes. All right. Yeah, cuz I think you know, we talked in the finance meeting. I think the concern is right. We know that we need it for October. Right? But we don't know how many Octobers we need it for. Right? So looking at it renting it you're like, well, you know, it's doable. The likelihood that

103anything with the heat is done here. It's going to be years down the road. >> Yep. So we're looking at 200 and something thousand dollars. It could be 5 years down. Yep. By the time all this stuff is done. So, I mean, I don't know. I'm Look, explore every option available, right? But, I mean, I think that yes, we're looking for a band-aid, right? To cover a pretty big cut. You know, but at the end of the day, it's not it just is not the likelihood of it being one heating season is just not what we're looking at. So, um so, I think we have to figure out how we can purchase it. Something. Just trying to be responsible too. Yeah, and then I get it. I appreciate that. But, I mean, renting it if

104the cost of renting it cuz you're like, look, 400,000 and you're just like, great. But, I mean, what is it to rent it for the season? 200 something? 220 to 230. And now, if we were really close to being able to execute the long-term plan, that's one that's a different conversation. But, realistically, 3 to 5 years, right? I mean, it's so So, we're working on both of those, the short-term and the long-term you know, solutions in tandem. Yes. Yeah. And they're both they're equally important, right? But, we do know we have a much tighter timeline for the immediate need, for sure. So, that's that's really the the update on that. We will continue to as we get information, this will be you know, updated with the facilities or the facilities committee coming up. Yes, the

105business operations business operations committee call. Okay. >> [snorts] >> So, so when I mean, I'm assuming we're getting some potential time frames too, right? To do this work. So, when's the drop dead date of having to make these decisions? >> So, I want So, Dan has been working with these three vendors pretty regularly this week. If we can get If we can get solid quotes from those vendors in the next 5 to 7 days, and I've already spoke I've spoken with our our purchasing agent, you know, because of the and I don't want to use the word emergency, but because of the tight timeline and >> a lead time on parts. There's a lead time on install. >> Exactly. Um because of the tight timeline on this, if we have, you know, um options for

106solutions from these three vendors that we've already, you know, reached out to and is already they've already looked at the boiler room and it or assessing, um we will likely go with one of them and and forego putting it out to bid formally. Mhm. Um and if that's the case, then then we're going to we can move fairly quickly. If we do put it out to bid completely, um then the time the timeline I put in the RFP was to have bids due back um by June 26th, I believe, the last Friday of June. Um and, you know, with with milestone completions completion dates, you know, the bulk of the work completed by August 15th with a September 1, you know, operating and Mhm. you know, full commissioning of the unit. Okay. So, that's where

107we are. Okay. So, with the boiler, putting a new boiler in, we would still have a boiler online if staff is here and they can have access to hot water, correct? Like that's what I'm concerned about. If we're doing like a September 1, I mean, I don't think summer school's here, so it won't impact that, right? But the school is used. It could possibly be rented with camps and whatever. I mean, we still need these boilers for hot water. So, we have a another solution to that. >> Okay. Um and uh Mr. Caldwell is is sourcing a electric hot water heater in order to forego the um the boilers altogether. Um it is relatively very inexpensive to be honest with you. It it is a fraction of the cost of what another oil delivery would

108cost today. And our oil is getting low that we would we would likely have to replace get another delivery at least a portion of a delivery before the end of the fiscal year. And so I think the next time we meet as either a facilities committee or as a board, I will have some good news to report on that. And so then that would it would completely eliminate the need to be turning cuz I think part of the problem that we're we're seeing and why they sort of have sprung these new leaks is because now that we're not in the heating season, the boilers are going on and off and on and off. And they're just swelling and then and then just sort of like oozing through the the membranes that are that are thinning

109thinning out. So um So yeah, great question Aaron cuz you're right that that that's a Sorry but does need to be addressed. Yeah. But we accounted for All right. Does that company make electric boilers too or not? >> [laughter] >> That's pretty good though. No, I know it's no such thing. No, it's no such thing. But that I just want to say real quick shout out to Dan and his crew for the amount of work. I remember when he was um when I was on facilities and he was making mixing and matching and I was highly impressed then. I'm even more impressed now seeing the pictures. So shout out to the the team for that. So thank you for that. Um is there anything else on that topic for now? Casey, you have anything else?

110Not Anything on the boilers, Jen? All right. All right. Yeah. Sweet. Mhm. Um I do motion for that? No, we can just go back to it. No, we can just go back to it. Hi Joy, welcome back. Congratulations to your son. Thank you. That's awesome. Really is. That really is awesome. Thank you. Um yeah, so we will go we are going to we are going to go back to the agenda item that we were discussing when you weren't here in regards to new business my agenda Yeah, it's 11. Thank you. I don't know what I'm doing with my agenda. It's supposed to be 11 at the bottom. Yes, about business and operations. So, Wendy brought up a good point that we should probably wait for you because you're on them. >> Yes. Did you guys

111have a discussion at all or not? Very minimal. We were in alignment with thinking that this is a good idea given everything. But, we didn't want to assume that you were in that space as well. Yeah, I think I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I mean, I guess it makes sense. Um, kind of streamline finance and Yeah. I guess that would be the part that Were you on that board when they were combined originally? Cuz we had gone Okay, so we had gone back and they were combined and then we found out that they were separated because of the new school. Which made sense at that time. Yeah. to focus on a lot of the facilities piece of it. Yes. Yeah. And Casey had talked a little bit about how the agendas

112and Steven had talked about how the agendas overlap. Did you have a sample Yeah, Casey dropped off >> Oh, do you have the sample agendas? Oh, okay. And the idea was that the current board members, so you, Aaron, and um, Caroline would be on this new committee with Rob being an ex-officio member attending. Uh, does not create a quorum under Robert's Rules if he and no voting. Um, he just wouldn't have a vote. Okay. He'd be able to contribute, but not vote. Not vote, right. So, we didn't want to make a motion to approve that. Oh, and then the with draft two is the schedule it would have to follow because it has to be in the second week of the month. So, the meetings would be the agenda or the um, schedule we would

113adopt is draft two with that new committee meeting the second Tuesday of the month. Okay. That's fine. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have a strong opinion either way, but it seems to make sense. >> You can always try it and then Yeah. If it's not working If the meeting's 3 hours long then you know >> Well, I just envision that's probably going to be much longer. >> It'd probably be I mean, I'm assuming it would be [clears throat] an hour and a half. Um well, and I think you know, as the budget season starts we're going to have to do [clears throat] special meetings anyways and I think it's a whole different beast. So, maybe we try it and if it doesn't work Okay, can we get Can we get a motion on the

114table then? Yeah. Right. Without neglecting it, but right. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So, we have the language of a motion? That's close enough. Um I move that the board approve of the finance and facilities committee restructure as draft draft as presented. Oh, wait. No, to aren't we combining the the This motion is to combine the So, you can do both. You can do >> Oh, we can You can make one motion to combine the committee and approve the schedule or we can do two separate. >> I thought it was two separate cuz it was two different agenda items. We Oh, yes. You're You already said that. I'm sorry. >> It's all good. Yes, first Yeah, no, we're going to do two separate. So, let's start with that. You're correct, Aaron. Yeah. Yes. So, first make the

115motion to combine the committees. Okay, so I move um that the board No, I mean approve the approve the finance and facilities committee restructure as presented. I'll second that. All right. Do we have discussion on anyone else? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any nays? All right, six nothing. All right, thank you very much. Now. >> [laughter] >> On to agenda item Let's see. I lost my agenda. So, I guess the first one >> Oh, there it is. Oh, yes. Yes, so committee communications are we still okay staying Wednesday the 3rd? Okay, but are we still say Okay, saying Wednesday the 2nd of the month and then business operations 2nd Tuesday of the month. Yeah, I mean we're just are we going to keep communications is communications going to be a

116different time? >> So, should we separate policy and communications, right? Did you want to speak to that? At all? Or did you want to say what your opinion is? Sure. I mean Are you going to just say what we No, no. So, so I had um I had shared some thoughts around the >> Can I just ask a question? Is this to vote? I just want to make sure >> right cuz it's I'm just I'm kidding. >> I'm not sure it's on that agenda, right? I just want to make sure that And that's fine. I think we just have to do that. I just want to be This is about the dates of the committee meetings. Right. So, I just want to make sure we're in compliance with that. If we got to add it

117then a more detailed discussion at the next board meeting around other thoughts and ideas. No, he's right. Right. It could be either one. All right. That's fair. Got it. Okay, where are we? Which one are Exhibit two. Exhibit two. Oh, draft two. >> Two. I I did I'm okay with the dates. Um I didn't know if we wanted to make other edits to that schedule. Um cuz I I know we Joy wasn't in the room, but the personnel negotiations committee, I mean Joy, you're still listed on that. I don't know. >> Oh, yeah, no, yeah, we have to change that. You're right. We were going to change that. >> So, we had a question about that because when Carolyn was asking me about that, the personnel negotiations committee is not necessarily the committee that always

118does the negotiations. That is the committee that deals with personnel issues specifically around hiring transfer like things that are more related to personnel evaluation type issues. So, in the in our experience, the superintendent has always said who wants to be part of this because as we found out in some of the past negotiations, like we were here till 2:00 in the morning one time. So, if you're doing three negotiations in a row, it's a lot for three people to commit to. So, I think that was the shift in that. So, the personnel negotiations committee is made up of those people because those people that meet for those specific issues. >> And the chair and vice chair are almost always on it and there needs to be a political balance as well. Which is Joy. Well,

119now it doesn't but Joy is yeah. So, if Joy wants to be off it, that's totally fine. But, it doesn't mean you >> mean to put pressure on Joy. I just know I was looking at all the names and I know we haven't met as that committee or really talked about it when we talked about committees back in 2016. >> Yeah. And Joy as you were saying also I I Yeah. And I appreciate the clarification because No, she wanted to be taken off the custodial >> My wrong one. Yeah. Yeah, that was where the confusion was, I think. >> Sorry. Sorry about that. And that was my just assumption. I didn't know until you just clarified it that that's what it meant. I just thought it meant that's the negotiation team. That's what I'm going

120forward with. Let's go. So, I appreciate all that. And then if you can just take me off municipal building cuz I haven't been there. Um And not because but I have not been. Sarah was supposed to be there. UM AND THEN I >> [applause and cheering] >> YOU KNOW, WHERE I WOULD BE. >> CONGRATULATIONS. UM OKAY, SO take Aaron off and then anyone else have any where they want to be in this committee? Well, that's all Yeah, that's good for now but we Right, but we I I do we have to vote on that. Yeah, let me um Yeah, we can always make the sub committee change them. Okay. All right, so I move that the board approve the sub committee meeting schedule from draft two from July to December 2026. All right. All Any

121Any discussion on that? I second. All those in favor of approving of approving the Board of Education sub-committee schedule, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. Six months. Thank you. Okay, I think that covers our agenda except for And the least >> Honor Society inductee. Welcome. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> UM SO, YEAH, I JUST came from the NHS induction ceremony that we had in the auditorium. It went amazing and there was things like I was like >> [laughter] >> So, we just finished up AP exam week last week and all that is left is just like the makeup testing for everyone. And this week is spirit week, which we're all super excited about. And so, Monday was red, white, and blue. Tuesday was 2016, which I know some people went all out

122for and it was pretty fun. Today was denim. Thursday, tomorrow is Adam Sandler day, and Friday is blue and gold. Adam Sandler day is always a good one. It's the That's great. And so, Friday the high school has field day, which I think is new to this like new to this like year and it's like so exciting. And so, it's for all grades. We were thinking just seniors, but why not open it up to everyone. And so, after a shortened school day, everyone's going outside to the fields and you can go into the gym. There's like other activities in the gym if you want. And you just play games. There's going to be like cornhole, whiffle ball, frisbee, you name it, they're doing it outside. So, >> That's awesome. Um and there's also like barbecue

123like food and good stuff going on and like we rotate stations with the groups. So, I'm really excited for that. And then next Friday, the 29th, um an AP chemist the AP chemistry class are going on a field trip to a chocolate factory in Connecticut to learn how to make chocolate. I'm really excited. I'm a part of that group and we get to we get to go and taste it, although we are learning about like the chemistry behind it and stuff like that, but tasting the chocolate. So, um without I I I got to interrupt for a minute. When I signed off on that, I was so excited. I thought I The first thing I said to my administrative assistant was, "Can I go on that? Like, can we add a number?" It seemed really

124cool. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I hope I don't fall in the chocolate river, but Um so, June 4th is the senior trip to Six Flags, and June 8th and 9th is field day for the other schools, and we have high school students going there to help set up and run it for them. And so, then we have finals and then graduation June 20th. And I just want to say thank you all for having me as your representative. I feel like I've learned a lot being with you guys, and I'm so honored to have experienced this, and I really hope to see you all again just around North Reading in the town. So, thank Absolutely. Yeah, Emily, thank you so much. You're going to be at the next meeting,

125right? >> I'm at June 3rd. YOU'RE NOT GETTING OFF THAT EASY. WE'RE NOT DONE WITH YOU. AT THAT MEETING, WE'LL CHANGE SPEECH SPEECH SO YOU CAN WELL, thank you so much. You have anything else? No, that's all. All right. Any questions for Emily? All right. Excellent. Thank you, Emily. Congratulations again. Um I think it's three main points. All [snorts] right. Obviously, the budget. Budget passing one. The budget. Probably the boiler. Um I think the combination of committees and the fact that everyone can be aware. Yeah. Budget, boiler, and committees. >> Yeah. Everybody's in agreement with that? >> Yeah. Sounds good to me. We need another bait. What's the BBC? So, it's the same as Okay. Yeah. Uh upcoming events. >> Yep. All right. I'm going to overlap. I'm going to try and not say some

126of the ones Emily said, but um obviously um May 25th, there's no school for Memorial Day. Um we'll start with uh CLES Career Day um is on May 28th and they have a kindergarten spring concert at 5:00 p.m. Um June 2nd um third grade is going doing their end of the year party at Kids Kingdom. So, 3A is at 9:15, 3B is at 11:45. June 4th um second grade end of the year party at Kids Kingdom. Um 2A is at 9:15, 2B is at 11:30. Um WMS on May 28th, they have a spring chorus concert at 7:00 p.m. On June 1st, they have their annual field trip to Quassy. Uh June 2nd, they have their spring band concert. Um BHS, which I have field day with a question mark cuz I actually didn't know if

127it was a real thing cuz I've never seen it here before. Yeah. So, I literally it's here with a question mark. So, um May 22nd um here BHS field day, the 26th there's a PTO meeting at 6:00 p.m. They are looking for people to take over the PTO for next year. So, No. Well, if you're interested, contact the contact the school or the PTO representative. Um grad party is Thursday night um at 7:00 p.m. Um so, they still are looking for volunteers. Um they're looking for donations, they're looking for all hands on deck. These kids are graduating soon, so um and that's all I have. All right. I think. Um Emily, um it's going to rain probably on field day, so just dress accordingly. Well, right. Is are we getting ready to have massive rain?

128So So, just grass stains can be part of the fun. I think competitive grass staining could be >> We played in the rain. We played We played last night in the rain. As long as it's not thundering, you're fine. 50% of the time they're wrong all the time. I don't >> [laughter] >> Just Just a couple more quick quick dates. Um the Memorial Day parade is this coming Sunday. And there's a lot of kids my Both my kids, one's marching for the baseball team and one for the band. And that So, there's lots of different Lots of different kids marching in that, I think, on Sunday. Um and then May 30th, um the CLES band is going to Quassy to play at Quassy as well. In the course, too. That is not on their calendar.

129>> Okay. I know. It's >> [laughter] >> I was going to say it's not on All right. Well, with that, we will move to the next agenda item. Um Anyone like to make a motion? Are we ending the regular session? No. We're not ending the regular session. We're moving into executive right. That's what I thought. >> But we should We should clarify that we conducted all board business all the tabled board business. So, we don't have anything Correct. >> anticipated. Right. We conducted all board business And we now that Joyce is back, right? We don't have to. So, right. All regular board business has been been conducted. Okay. So, I move that the board enter executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's performance and evaluation goals. I second that. All those in favor,

130please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. Thank you.