Board of Education Meeting

001Wednesday, September 17th. Um, it's nice to see everybody. Could you please rise and join me in saying the pledge of allegiance? >> 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. Um, so we're gonna >> Wendy, sorry to interrupt. I would um respectfully request that we observe a brief moment of silence um andor prayer if you so choose in recognition of Charlie Kirk. While opinions may vary, his work stood for civic engagement, free expression, and encouraging young people to take an active role in shaping their communities regardless of personal beliefs or political views. Moments like these allow us as a community to reflect, practice compassion, and acknowledge the dignity of all

002people. Thank you. >> Uh is this a sort of Are you going to make a motion for this then? If I if yet, then I would like to make a motion that we have a brief moment of silence and or prayer. >> Do we have a second? >> A second. >> Is there discussion on this matter? >> Um then let's go ahead and vote. Um, all in favor of uh the motion to have a moment of silence um to observe this this death, this assassination, um uh please say yes or please. >> I >> Okay. Um all opposed? Nay. All posted, please say nay. Nay. Any abstensions? Okay. So, it passes. Let's observe a moment of silence. Thanks very much everyone. Now we'll move to roll call. Um so first and perhaps foremost our new

003super assist interim superintendent Fonda Tenza is with us. Um we have we have six members of the board. Um Rob Pettto, Sarah Divine, myself, Wendy Youngblood. Um Aaron Scalera, Rose Fernandez and Stephanie Sakura. Uh Joy Greenstein is um gonna be late. She's got an a professional obligation right now. And um our student representative is Emily Jüken. We'll kick off from that. And um I'd like to make a motion to move an item further up um in the agenda to to go now. I'd like to move that we um >> Yes. Yes. Yes. So it's item item 12 on the agenda. I'd like to move that we advance that to to now. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on this matter? Okay. Um, all in favor of moving the superintendent search update to right now,

004please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> All right. Any opposed? >> All right. So, it's unanimous. With that, we would like to um invite um school leadership team to the podium to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about their important work. >> Thank you all. Thanks to the board. Thanks to the community. Um my name is Reena Beer and I'm with together with Roy Monttoasano. We're going to be working with the board on the superintendent search. There are many opportunities to weigh in. We've already started meeting with individuals and groups. Uh the point of doing that, well, let me back up a second and tell you a little bit about myself and who I am. So, I'm a former school board president for a school district in Westchester County. I also served

005on a on school boards that represented three counties in New York State and another one for five counties where I exclusively did lobbying on educational issues. Uh I'd like to call myself a recovering attorney. I no longer practice. And Roy, do you want to say a few words about >> everybody? It's nice to see everybody. Thank you for welcoming us here tonight. A little bit about my background experience. I was 43 years in public education. I spent time in the classroom as an assistant principal, 10 years as a middle school principal, uh, assistant superintendent, and for the last 25 years of my career, I was a superintendent in, uh, partially in New Jersey, and the other time in Westchester, New York. I've been with school leadership for the last couple years since I retired from

006uh, my role as a school superintendent. U, so again, it's a pleasure and I look forward to meeting you all. >> So, I just want to describe the process a little bit. Um, those of you who are going to be participating in focus groups are going to hear this repeated, including my joke, so about being a recovering attorney. So, just smile a little bit. Um, so these focus groups uh are going to be means of collecting input from the community. Uh, we ask three basic questions. What are the qualities, skills, attributes, experiences that you'd like to see in the next superintendent? what would attract an individual to want to apply to be here in Brookfield. Uh we are going to be looking for individuals who we're going to be recruiting individuals who may not necessarily

007be looking to leave their districts. They're very happy where they are. So we're going to be asking what about Brookfield would attract somebody here. We've heard some great things already about this district. I've read some great things about this district. So we think we think that it's a uh a very strong draw. um and a district and a community you should be very proud of. And the third question we ask are is what are the challenges that a new superintendent is going to face? What are the issues that they're going to be that they're going to need to address? And those are the three questions. We ask the same questions in every focus group. The information that we gather is going to go into a report. There's also a survey. I would encourage everybody to

008participate in the survey. That survey is anonymous. It doesn't ask for an email address. It doesn't track email addresses. Um so please feel free. Also students, if student representative, if you would tell students to please fill it out, that would also be very helpful. There are some boxes, there's some space for comments. Um and we would really appreciate getting that feedback. As for the focus groups, um the none of the board members are going to be at the focus groups. We find generally when we're doing superintendent searches that having board members in the room kind of tamps down the freedom people feel to speak. Um so we want to be sure that everybody feels free to speak. And our purpose is looking forward. What's happened in the district will inform things, but we're not here

009to solve issues that may have arisen in the past. We're really forward looking. So, what what information can we gather that will help us find a person who will move Brookfield to the next level of excellence? Um, so it's it's really not intended to be a rehash of what's come before, but how does some of that inform what we look for moving forward? And that's basically uh what we're going to be doing. We're really looking forward to working together with the board. the ultimate decision as to who will be the superintendent rests with the board. It's one of the most important things that a school board does and I'm sure the school board I know the school board takes that job very seriously. Um so please look for that um that uh survey coming out

010and if you have time to participate please participate in the focus groups. We have added one additional focus group. I messed up with the time. It's actually the board is correct. It was at 6 PM. I had thought for some reason it was 6:30, but that uh Zoom is at 6 PM and there'll be a link coming out uh for that Zoom and that's >> 25th >> on the 25th. Thank you. That's pretty much it. Roy, anything. >> Okay. Well, thank you and thank you board for moving us to the beginning of the agenda. >> We look forward to working. We look forward to working with you guys. >> Thanks a lot. >> Okay. So, we're going to move to the um next item, the introduction of uh new staff members. And Mr. Mr. Belinda,

011how about if you go first? >> Good evening. So, I am happy to introduce uh two of my new certified staff members, um two faculty members that join us with a range of experience and education. Uh and first up is uh a new teacher in the business department. That's Mrs. Shaina Bergensali Graham. She is uh a longtime Brookfield resident. I've worked with her previously in other districts as well. And so we're very lucky to have her on board and she will be teaching business. So that's there's Shauna. And then also behind her is another Brookfield resident. That's always a good thing when Brookfield comes home, right, to work with the the school in the community. Um graduates from here as well. So that's fantastic. Uh he's our thanks to the board for approving the new

012position where we have a SLA math/physics. Uh we found I told you we need to find a unicorn. Kind of found one. Um no pressure. >> He took his horn off. Um but so this is Mr. David Honeyford. Uh he comes to us with a lot of experience teaching in the Danbury public school system. So welcome aboard to those two. >> All right. >> Thanks very much you guys. Mr. Renda Good evening. I'm Dean Ren, the middle school principal. They're going to do a dance. Is that all right to do? They didn't know. No. Um, I am very excited to introduce we have uh three new staff members. Our first one is Matt Paola. He is our long-term science for seventh grade. We have Haley Kata who is our sixth grade science. And we have

013Robert Johnson who is eighth grade social studies. >> Welcome to the district. >> Very excited. Thanks team >> Dr. P >> and Dr. P. Yeah. Thanks very much. >> Mr. Belinda mentioned how nice it was to have people from Brookfield come back to want to work in Brookfield. One of my former students, Emma Hasselman, rose to the top out of almost 200 candidates. And she is one of our new teachers this year in second grade. And she has already made quite the name for herself. So, we're very pleased to have her. >> Congratulations. Congratulations, Dr. P. Dr. P. >> Dr. P, why don't you stay because we're going to move to um opening up school reports. Are you Oh, so okay, great. And now we can go from elementary up. >> So, Mr. Render gave

014me a hard time because I have my notes here because I have a lot of people I wanted to thank and a lot of very nice things to say, but I didn't want to leave anybody out. Emma, you're not staying. No, I'm kidding. I'm teasing. Go. Good evening. I'd like to take just a few minutes to share how opening of school went this year and to thank the many people who made this possible. First, our secretaries, Lisa, Sandy, and Claire. Huge round of applause. They deserve because they worked tirelessly all summer long as they always do behind the scenes with our registrations, our parent communications, ordering materials. you name it, they did it and continue to do it. Thank you also to my assistant principles, June and Danielle, and our special education supervisor, Taran, who

015assisted with everything from student and staff schedules, procedures to the handbook, state reports, and the hiring of staff. I even brought my own kids to come in over the summer to serve as students for demo lessons, which is one of the huge drawbacks of having a dad as a principal. Come on, Dad. It's the summer. Do we really have to? Yes, you do. Because I said so, and now get to school. Our custodians once again went above and beyond to make our building shine. Walking in on opening day, it looked absolutely beautiful. Three years later, it's still a magnificent building. Jim and Julie, our curriculum specialists, they assembled our teachers over the summer to write curriculum and served on interview committees. Our climate coordinators, Jen and Laura, spent hours this summer updating our Cubs club's

016lesson plans and outlining monthly pause assemblies. They also organized our back to school find your pair activity. I was Ted Lasso and in my staff of about 180 I had to find my coach beard. So it ended up being Judy Sandborn, Upper LC teacher, but the other pairs included Ken and Barbie, friend or Ken, Barbie, Fred and Wilma, Ricky and Lucy, Elsen, Anna, ultimately just about 90 pairs they created. So the first couple of days and it's still happening now. Just watching Fred Flintstone walk through the hallway saying Wilma for the love of who's Wilma, I need to find my hair. Devon Lindsay and at uh central office kept the hiring process moving smoothly and I want to thank Rich, the interimm superintendent for his steady support throughout the summer and extend a very warm

017welcome to Vonda. Her tremendous guidance and support has already been felt in a very short time. So, thank you and welcome. Before students arrived, our PTO treated us to one of my favorite things, breakfast sandwiches, bacon, egg, and cheeses, sausage, egg, and cheeses for the entire staff. Uh they participated in workshops on CQLA and illustrative math, both now fully implemented in grades 1 through 5 or K through five, excuse me. Deb also brought in a team from Smartboard, which was amazing. This year, she said, "What do you what do your staff want?" Oh, thank you for asking. They would love some Smartboard training. So, she brought in a pair who offered two workshops for the beginners and for the experts. Uh the demonstrating new ways to use a Smartboard to enhance instruction. Feedback has been

018fantastic. Staff had time to get their classrooms looking awesome for opening day. One teacher summed it up perfectly. A veteran staff member came to me on Friday. I'm not making this up. She said, "This has been by far the best opening to the school year of my career." So that was so awesome to hear. On the first day, we greeted 1,083 students, including 38 brand new preK, 134 kindergarteners, and 50 new students across K through five or one through five, excuse me. And as I made my way through the building, popping into classrooms to welcome the students back, energy was palpable. And I felt the same excitement I felt, this still hurts me to say, 30 years ago on my first day as a teacher. And then I did a quick stop in the K1

019cafeteria and it soon reminded me that maybe I don't quite look like it's my first year. As one of my little first graders said, "Hey, Dr. P, welcome back." I said, "Oh, thank you." And then she turned to her friend, a new student, and said, "He's the principal." You know, kind of like the grandpa of the school. Come on. Should I be a big brother of this? But as I said to our staff at opening meeting, last year we really found our rhythm. This year we sore. And based on this opening, I think it's safe to say we're already taking flight. So, thank you. >> That's awesome, Dr. P. Thanks a lot. Mark Blandon next, right? Oh, >> his look alike, >> Mr. Renda. >> Oh, whatever. You guys are all stick anyway. >> Yes.

020Oh, gosh. >> Never. I would never be insult. I wish I was as good looking as him. >> Good evening. I have to say I left my notes at Whiskey here when I got But I did have it on my phone. So, I do have it on my phone. So just so everybody knows I am reading off the phone just so we don't forget anybody. Um every year when we do when we uh you know asked to just do an opening report it's so very exciting to kind of rehash and talk about all the things that happened in the summer all the people like Dr. P said all the people we have to to thank that we can't do it by ourselves obviously and everyone that's so critical to making that first day which we

021all feel is so important so important for every for all the students. So, excuse me. I want to thank to all our uh secretaries and I say this every year. I mean again the glue that that keeps us together um with Mandy and Angie. We have new um district registar business u uh secretary Angie Lisa Sandy and Mary Liz for those you know she's the uh my uh secretary and I always joke around and say she keeps me on track which is is a good thing. Um she's odd behind the behind the curtain. um Ed Bernard for all the work he did over the and also the secretaries with all the work we've done over the summer closing out last year starting and scheduling for this year as we all know that's a huge huge

022thing to to to put together ordering materials state reports whatever it is hiring of staff etc um is is fantastic and we were right on right on time Zach and Seth for our tech uh people for getting our student Chromebooks ready and uh new staff uh laptops shout out to Eric on that Um, but seriously, it it was it was so smooth that it was it was uh made it a lot easier for all the students and families that came in to pick them up. For all the staff that came in for interviews, it's, you know, it's it's their summer and they don't have to, but the amount of staff, I'm always, you know, amazed at the amount of staff. I I I put an email out for, let's say, a sixth grade science. I'll

023put out to sixth grade teachers. I also put it out to um, you know, uh, the science teachers. and we always have at least five, four, five, six people that come in. So, it's it we uh thanks to them for doing that. And then also the students that come in in the summer to do demo lessons. Um it just makes me laugh that they're so excited to do those demo lessons in the summer. I mean, hey, it's awesome. Custodians for all the hard work uh they put in, you know, getting the school uh ready for the first day. Central office, all the central office staff and, you know, also with Vonda coming on. Um Deb was fantastic with helping us with this transition. um and just all the stuff that that that we go through

024with hiring new staff and things that we have to do. Shout out to all the the central office staff. Um big shout out to Debbie Jones because now we're back to the three tier system. It was not an easy task. Um but I can tell you this year we did not have one student miss the bus on the first day which usually there's at least one or two. Um so that was that was fantastic. uh before the school year started like Dave was talking about some of the stuff that we went through was um we have team level uh grade level meetings, we have department meetings, we have um the teams getting ready like what are they're going to do for the first day of school because we have extended home room and then also

025what they're doing for the first week to kind of get to know each other and you know we we joke around and say we want to make sure we all don't want to do the same get to know you lesson in all five of our classes. So we make sure we get together and say listen you I may do that one when we throw the ball to each other but other people are doing some different ones. Um so again it it means a lot and like Dave said the staff member that made it we give them time to prepare and and collaborate that time is huge. getting their class ready for the first day. And then also we had Ed and uh Benar and Rich Napoli like like Dave said, interimm superintendent for a while

026and our dean of students that did a professional development on restorative practices that as you guys all know with the new law um was definitely something we've done and we've done and talked about before, but again it's good to kind of go back over it and and also to know the new uh laws around it. We welcomed in 612 students through the doors the first day. Last year we ended the year at 585. So that's a big jump. Every uh every class uh this year is over 200 uh students. They ended the last year I think we only had one that was right at 200. The others weren't. But uh this year we are over u like I said 600 uh students altogether. We had 35 new students uh and we also have two that

027are actually filling paperwork out now. So we'll have two more added to that. Um they came as far as Pakistan, Nebraska and then uh we always have the ones that are close to us are Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milfords, Bethls that we get a couple students you know here and there and um we also do an orientation for new families and new students where our students come and uh tour them around the building and then I talk with the the new families which uh I think was is always a good thing for them to welcome them to the district. Exciting. I've talked about these things before but I want to just uh talk about them again. We have our web program where everyone belongs. So we have a sixth grade student orientation. Last year was

028the first year we did it. This is the second year we did it. And we have eighth graders who actually come in two days over the summer to get trained because there's a new group of eighth graders. And then they do lessons for the students and they'll do it throughout the year. Um the first day uh I was lucky Vonda walked around with me and I showed her the lessons where the the eighth graders were running the lesson. There was three of them in there and they had a they they all have the same PowerPoint lesson. It's kind of like how to be a middle school stu school student, but also they uh started to talk a little bit about developing the charter for sixth grade. Seventh and eighth grade was a little bit different

029because they had their grade level charter. They talked about that and then also went through, you know, maybe if they wanted to revisit the charter. And then they also started uh talking about the unplugged that we started last year. We're going to continue that they're very excited about. We have some new things for our sixth graders where last year the whole year they did web lessons. this year about half the year they're going to do web lessons because our eighth graders were really like, "Oh, I want to do an unplugged two." So, the second part of it is going to be actually uh all the students sixth through eight are going to have um some the ability to do an unplugged lesson. The unplugged lesson for those who don't know is our staff picks something

030that is exciting to them. We have uh Mrs. Fitz Fancy Nails uh is one of them. We have um uh scrapbooking. We have uh rock music, you know, learning rock, rock music. We have baseball, basketball, volleyball. So, we have all sorts of things that we love the idea. It's a staff member kind of passionate about. And then to be able to to uh have the students in there to do it with them, which is it's just really cool and the kids loved it last year. Um I want to shout out to quick the BEF we talked about last year. We were able to get the live morning announcements. We started it in end of May. It is full rocking right now. And again, Vonyia was able to see this. it is the eighth graders. Um

031they they do put it all together. They have to meet ahead of time to make sure what's going to be on the slideshow and all that. And again, it just makes me laugh when I'm watching them the first days. So we walked in there and one of the students in and they're going sh and they're like Mr. I'm like okay. And they're like this and the kids start talking. It's like you're in a production, you know? It was really it's really cool and such a great leadership opportunity for our kids. Um be uh oh, excuse me. And then also our mini lab is our mini digital lab. Uh thanks to our tech people for putting putting that together, our custodians for putting all the desks together. It is a state-of-the-art um uh lab for our

032our digital music classes. The kids are so excited. The kids that are in there, they're like I mean their eyes are like wide as can be when they go in them. Those iMacs are like this big. I need one of those screens. Um but the kids are very excited about that and it looks gorgeous. And then uh so we've had all three of our uh sixth, seventh, and eighth grade open houses already. And we had our first dance middle school dance of the year when we had about we had about 215 kids there, which was a success. We had a little dance in the small gym, which I laugh because people like, "Did they really dance?" I'm like, "Yeah, they do. They like the uh the ones that they could all do together." Um we

033had dance in there and then in the other uh in the big gym, we put down the middle section. They had basketball and then cornhole and um spikeball. So, I think the kids had a had a really nice time. Yeah. So, so if you're if you're asking me, we had our first middle school dance and we're doing okay. So, we're on a roll. Start to a good year. >> Thank you. >> Thanks so much, Dean. Appreciate that. >> Mr. Bander, you're on. >> Mr. Belinda. >> All right. Good evening. So, I'll start with um kind of an enrollment report. It's ironic that Dean, you had 35 new registrations. We had 35 new registrations as well uh with a couple in process, right, which is always what happens. Um there's always things. 25 withdrawals over the

034course of from July one moving forward. Um puts us to about 811 students total across all four grades, which is down from last year, frankly. Um you know, I think Dean and Dave did a fantastic job thanking the district district personnel for all the things they did. You know, Rich stepping up and Deb. Um, you know, and I I certainly there's a few people I definitely want to highlight, but I don't ever get a chance to really talk about some of the building based people that do all the stuff this summer when it's so crazy. Um, scheduling is no easy thing. Um, as I said before to this board several times, it's like squeezing a balloon when you build a schedule. You find one thing and make another. Um, but Cindy Wartman worked on that

035with Katherine Argo. Dorene helped with the special ed sections. School counselors Jen Jolio, Jackie Cordis, Bianca Nelo, and Caitlyn Johnson. Also put a plug for our college and career counselor who's been here for several times. She's actually going out um with support from the BEF. She's going to the national uh hippie- dippy, sorry, one of the um hippie- dippy, which sounds like I just burped. Excuse me. It's not It's an actual thing. It's a professional development grant that's part of um teachers get the ability to apply for a certain amount of money that they can it's a small amount, but a nominal amount, but they can apply and get um funding to go to do things. So Nicole is actually flying out to I believe it's Ohio tomorrow um to go to the school counselor's

036conference. When I tell you this woman has mapped, she's got a map she showed me today of the floor plan. She's going to make sure she sees Jeff Celingo. She's got to make sure she gets his autograph and all the stuff about how to help kids with colleges. She has everything mapped out. Um so it's really exciting and she's well, while she didn't help with the scheduling piece, she's got our kids rearing and ready to go. Um and so it's exciting. She just told me today other news that um the automatic CT college admissions program which is something that's been in place for a couple years and they the state has made different criteria and certain percentage in the top of your class they now made it so you know uh any student in the

037state of Connecticut with a weighted GPA of 3.0 0 or higher for the class of 2026. Um when they go in the common app and they put their from Connecticut, their weighted GPA, they get auto automatic admissions to Southern, Central, Western, um Ngatuck Valley in addition to others. So that was an interesting they finally made it a more uh unique and there's some also private schools as well. University New Haven, Alberta's Magnus, things like that. So thought I'd share that. I learned that today when I was walking through. Um, as always, Caroline Darkangelo, uh, Karen How and Lisa Genevese, they make sure everything's ready to go in the main office. Rosa Hopcraftoft who's been the registar duties over the summer, which is never no small task. Kristen Lenise is on top of special services and

038CT SS, Jen Van Ro who has to say a thank you because we finally, she works in the library and for those of you that were in the library for many years, understand how warm it was. Imagine what it's like in the summer working here. The AC was working, which is fantastic. She actually had to wear a shawl several times this summer. So that was awesome. >> You could tell her we said you're welcome. >> Yeah, I will. Um Mary Negger and Steve Baldwin getting fall programs. We started a new program called final forms which makes things a lot easier for student uh athlete eligibility. It's a much simpler process. So that's gone well. I know Seth Craig is back there would hate the fact that I'm calling him out and he's probably really zooming

039in on, you know, a wrinkle or something right now because I said it, but thank you Seth back there and Kathy Colivvito and the rest of the tech team and then my maintenance guys and custodians. I want to call them out. Dave, Greg, Pedro, Leo, Ricardo, Brendan, uh, Dan, um, Caldwell, and Joe, uh, who are here, the maintenance guys. They do a great job. Um, in terms of what's going on, uh, what we did to start the school year, opening day PD, the theme this year continues to be community relationships, and that's important. Um, that's one of the things that we talk about, uh, when we talk about the portrait of a graduate as or portrait of a learner that we've moved to, and some of those conversations we'll have throughout the year with the

040board. Um, we talk about um, caring citizens and that's one of the things that we're going to be focused on this year. Um, staff worked on a t-shirt design contest. So, we have a t-shirt, a staff t-shirt. Um, we'll do it a lot earlier next year so be ready to go for day one, but they had a design. They've picked it. Um, it was an interesting like we've suffered from too many submissions. Everybody got excited. So, we had 19 submissions about possible t-shirts and then everybody voted. So, the winning t-shirt I think got like 12 votes because it's split up across all these people. But you'll the kids will see it. It's going to be about the BHS BHS staff. So, that's coming. That was great. Uh we talked about looking back to look forward.

041Um I attended a a seminar at Fairfield for the University at the end of the school year actually in July. Um that talked a lot about, you know, resilience and learning and moving forward. We did an exercise about what are you willing to give up and move on and what are you willing to take forward that's positive, you know, moving into the school year. So that was a great opportunity. Always talk about safety and security. I'm that guy. So always have those conversations. And we also did some restorative practices training. Every building did it. All three buildings did restored to practices training. Was part of the new school climate law. A lot of facility stuff. Library AC talked about window units came in. 20 new unit vents. You remember those? The ones of that over

042the winter that all went those are all now replaced. So that's exciting. um down in technology. You know, we're consistently looking to try to upgrade that space. Nothing wrong with some of the older equipment that's down there, but we're looking to recategorize, see if we can move some things out to a different spot, but last this summer, we've got a 3D another 3D printer, which I think we have seven or eight now. Uh and we also got a water jet. So, one of those things you've probably seen on YouTube or Tik Tok, depending what your algorithm shows. Mine shows it where it cuts things out. And we have one of those now, right? Rob knows what I'm talking about. I see him. Um, a new art sink, which sounds like so minuscule, but a sink

043that specifically can handle paint and clay that doesn't clog up the our very delicate sewer and water system. Let's leave it at that. Um, is fantastic. Two new renovated bathrooms in the front. Um, you know, single gender uh any gender bathrooms. They constructed the auditorium gym vestibule. Door swipes are coming in. As you walk in, you'll see the greenhouse. The base is there. So, we're working on getting the actual greenhouse installed. They're changing stuff in the cafeteria. They're moving. We're getting new sandwich lines. This new Chipotle like thing that's great. Breakfast is coming the 22nd of uh September. Stuff's going to be going out about that. So, a lot of great things. We changed what used to be mentor Monday to now connections. It's on Wednesdays. Emily's not in her head yet. It's one of

044those things where now we're expecting kids every Wednesday they have to be in their connections because if our focus is going to be relationships and connections, they're going to stay there. And we're actually doing something different with open house tomorrow night for those parents that are coming. We used to do come to the auditorium and listen to the principal talk for 20 minutes, which I don't blame parents by now after 10 years. We're like, "Yeah, I've heard it. I'm skipping it." Right? We know it. I I've done it myself in Bethl, so I get it. Um we realize that teachers don't I mean um families don't often get to always meet their ILT their students ILT teacher who stays them for four years. So they're going to start tomorrow night at six o'clock with their

045IT teacher. I'm gonna get on and do a brief video like I do for the students occasionally during connections and the parents are going to get a chance to actually talk to their child's ILT teacher and hopefully form those bonds and connections. So, that's something new that came out of work this summer with some of my staff as we developed how this connections program is going to work. Um, PSAT is coming. That's exciting. Senior parking lot that's getting paid on the 27th. Got the homecoming game coming. I get to go to the opera on Friday, which is something that I never knew was a thing. We the high school has uh continually has a relationship with the New York Metropolitan Opera, right? And so they have this program called Access Opera where we're able to

046at a reduced price bring kids to the opera during the day to see a full dress rehearsal. This is going to be a Puchini opera on Friday. Um we bring bag lunches. We go in and we watch. They do a full dress rehearsal. Director tells them what to do. The show is opening uh next week. And then we go in intermission and we go and eat our lunch in the lobby under the chandelier. like I way too bougie for me, but I'm like really excited. I learned that there's translations in the backs of the seats. I had no idea. So, I get they needed a extra chaperon. They wanted to make sure we had somebody there. I'm like, I'll go. So, I get to do that on Friday, which is awesome. What an opportunity. And

047just another thing for the arts that we get to do for kids that, you know, I being here 10 years didn't really fully understand the the scope of what it is because that ticket itself is probably $400 that where we're sitting on any regular day. Um, and then yeah, you know, we used to traditionally, I know he's not here, but the superintendent always wants to tell us something funny. I know Dean and Dave, you know, John used to say, "Make sure you say something funny." Uh, so I've got two of them for you today. Um, I have to keep it going. So, it must have been day two or three. We're in school and I hear on the loudspeaker. It was um, oh my god, what's his name? Dean got on Dean's voice on the

048loudspeaker here. Right. asking for a staff's staff to please call him on his cell phone. And I'm like, why didn't he call me? He didn't let me know he's in my building. We usually have those conversations. Our our phone system is so high-tech that somebody who's based here at the high school, they have an extension at the middle school as well. It is automatically connected. So when Dean picked it up from Wiscaneer Middle School and paged, he paged in my building. So everybody heard Dean's voice, was looking around, even the name of a staff member he was looking for in his building. We have somebody by that same name who called and said, "Why is Dean calling for me?" I don't know what it was crazy. So that was Dean. I appreciated that and I

049realized we finally figured out that was nothing to do with him. >> I didn't know you were in the building. >> It's like why are you What do you mean you're in the building? Didn't come see me. And then um I have to tell you, Eric, um has done a lot of work with always on security, right? Multiffactor authentication. And so he told me I needed to change my password. Um, so I asked him if I could make it beef stew and he said, "No, Mark." And I said, "Why?" He said, "Because it's not stroenoff." Well done. Well done. Yes. >> So, um, Mrs. Tenzel, what you don't know is that that these guys really don't like to stand at the podium very much. So, they they look for strong departures where they won't be

050invited back. I think Mark wins this year. Thanks, guys. So, um I hope Bill you don't feel intimidated um to follow these these folks. >> How do I follow that? >> We're we're moving now to our um special education update. >> That's right. >> So, this is the director of uh special education for the district, Bill Roland. >> I was told to hit the AB mute button. >> Follow instructions. I don't know there it Oh. Oh, there it is. We know technology. Good evening everyone. Let's do slideshow. There we go. Just like in class. I'll wait. Um, good evening everyone. It's it's a pleasure to see you all after after the summer. Um we had a successful ESY. I just want to let everyone know that and we're very happy that the students um benefited

051from the services that we provide this summer. Tonight I come to you with a brief I swear um legislative update because we've heard about the special education law. This is really a bird's eye view. Um Shipman and Goodwin have done like an hour seminar on this. So there's there's a lot more than what I'm presenting tonight, but I wanted to do salient points. The why of this presentation is how it'll benefit Brookfield students and things that the board needs to know and folks who are watching at home can get a sense of what we've seen in the law so far. So again, it's a brief overview of Connecticut's new special education legislation. So what the law aims to do is to help districts build in-house services. How many times have we spoken about that in

052some of my presentations and in speaking with parents? The ability to gain funds in order to maybe bring some services back in district. Um what that might look like uh in conversations with our rest with that advance to be able to bring some areas that we've talked about in past presentations home to us. Um for outplacements, we've talked about the prices of outplacements. The legislation looks at setting fair, predictable service prices uh around what the services are in outplacements almost like a menu of options of what each outplacement offers so that parents have information and that districts have information to know exactly what each outplacement offers as we look to place a student if we need to and to really at the end of the day the legislation is to maintain strong support for all

053students. the task force that was uh tasked with creating some of the recommendations for the legislation. At the heart of it is what we all do. We care about students. We want to make sure especially with students with special education needs and 504s that we have services that are appropriate for them and that we have enough to service them in district. This one really interests me as a as a teacher, as a parent, and as a special ed director. Developmental delay uh is always a category that used to end around age six and it's a category that's used to talk about a significant lag in a child's growth physical cognitive communication social emotional or adaptive. The new legislation moves that age from we had to have a category change from developmental delay at age six.

054This now takes us to age eight. That's key for everyone to understand and that gives us more time to really assess what the student's needs are. Sometimes six, you're still trying to see and assess where the student might need services. Taking it to age eight gives us an extra two years to keep that label of developmental delay while we look in at other areas that would be most appropriate for the student. So, that's a good thing. Um, so again, the the law moves it from 3 to 5 to 3 to 8. Uh and that's just good for parents to know uh at the elementary level and for you as a board to know in case you're ever asked about I talked before about cost control measures. Um fixed annual cost is what's coming down the

055pike in uh the outplacements uh law. Um and rate setting. This is huge. um having an actual rate sheet for outplacements to talk about what the cost would be kind of line by line, rate by rate so that we can appropriately budget for it and that we can appropriately provide parents with information about what their children if the need for outplacement arises, what those outplacements will provide and what that looks like rather than a bulk sort of tuition. So that's coming as well and we can talk more about this when I come back in October. Um I don't want to get into alphabet soup but ABSEPS uh approved private special ed providers which are other name for outplacements have annual visits by teams. I've done them where you go in and you look at curriculum

056and you look at the um budgets and you look at the classroom and you kind of do an accreditation process almost um sight by sight. That's going to increase with this new law. uh unannounced visits, uh corrective action, and non-compliance which could restrict future student placements. This comes from some of the things you've seen in the news. I won't name specific um schools, but there's been some controversy about practices in some of the outplacements in in the state. None of which we have students in any of the ones you might have seen in the news. But this is another oversight and a and a a guidepost and a and a safety valve for us to make sure that we uh ascertain what's going on in the outplacements. Um this one I wanted to make sure

057that we talked about as as we close special education expansion and development grants. This is where we can look to seek funds to do in district services. I will talk more in October about the instructional support teacher. That's a new role that is starting next year which will be having a person staff member in each building that is dedicated to compliance uh PPTs uh guidance for staff and guidance for parents almost serving as an in-house. Now, we have a compliance person in the district, you know, Leanne who's been working with us for a few years, but this is the new law is going there's going to have one in every building in every school. Um, so that's great. Uh, there are also competitive grants for in district services. I can speak more about that in

058October as well. And behavioral health support grants because we talk about the mental health needs of our students. the state is aware of it and is recognizing that is providing additional opportunities for us to seek funding in those areas. So, what does this mean for Brookfield? As I close, the why. Why are we doing this presentation? Why am I speaking to you about this? Again, the positive impact of this, applying for grants to build local programs, setting the pricing, as I spoke about, will help us with the budgeting process. So, when we're talking about outplacements, this will be an area where we can be more sure of what the costs will be, and that's important. uh and more early support for students from the developmental delay piece that I spoke about before. Long-term impact uh

059service changes provide increased information for parents when we talk about outplacements, we start talking about rates and definitions and areas of interest for parents as they seek uh services outside of the school district. Um all of this implementation we know will take planning and time. We'll talk about professional development, the partnership that we continue to have with Ed Advance and the continued need for staff training and support. We talked about the Paris support that we've had last year. Par professional development training to provide support for them on areas like dyslexia and regulation and emotional disabilities. So the why of that is very important. I want to make sure that the board heard this and that you have the information. It's an FYI. I'd like to close with just a a a quick plug for our

060SEPTO. Michelle Fitzgerald's here. She's our SEPTO president. I want to make sure that everyone was aware of some of the upcoming events. This this is one of the the put things closest to my heart in terms of Septo. I put the uh email address up there if you want to contact Michelle. There's a kickoff meeting on October 2nd. Uh World Dyslexia Day fundraiser coming, Paint the Town Red. Parent education night. There are a lot of seminars and presentations that SepTO does outside of what we do in the building for parents to get information. Um, and this one's going to be CPAC, uh, one of our partners, even in the legislation, tips and tools for advocating for your child with special education needs. Again, 50,000 foot view of some of this stuff, but I want to

061make sure that everyone got a little sense of where we are, where we're going, and things you're going to hear in my case load report next month. Michelle, thank you for everything that you and Septto do. We appreciate it. And I hope I was as brief as I said I was going to be. >> Thanks everybody. >> Can we ask questions or do you want to wait until October? >> Um >> I might wait till October be but I'm happy to answer questions now. I'd never say you know. >> Well I I have it might be a loaded question but how is the state going to make prices of tuition I guess predictable? I mean, how do they set >> that question has come up at the conc meetings I've been at and it's I

062I want to be I want to be hopeful and I want to be upfront. I think the legislation as it rolls out is going to provide a lot as many questions as answers. Okay. And I think the intent is wonderful. the idea of setting rates and things like that as other states do, but I want to see the mechanism. >> Yeah, >> it's it's great to say and and again, I'm presenting it as what we've received, but it's the devil's always in the details, but it's all also in the implementation. Who's going to do this? How is it and what where is the um question where where the questions come from and who's who's doing that? That's something I can look into and get back to you on if I can get more information because

063it is I I saw a lot of these things. I'm like, "Oh, those grants, that's great." And and it is all it's all wonderful. It's in the how do we get it? What does it look like? How do we follow through on it? And who's overseeing it? And how do we implement it? And what sort of support does that look like on each level? >> Yeah. in particular. I'd be interested in if is this affecting the excess cost grant that we all >> they say they there's language about how this is going to improve all of that. I'd like to see details on that. >> Um because again the need of the student would dictate what the services are and I don't know that you can do a flat a flat rate >> for everything.

064>> Right. >> Although there I think it's an effort to try to improve the the information. >> Yeah. needs are needs and and you know I don't I don't want to name specific places but there are some where there are heavy needs and it costs money and you can't just say oh now it has to be this >> exactly >> without cutting staff without adjusting what you do >> is transportation part of it >> not that I am aware of that's and that and lot of questions >> Rosie you you've asked questions that not only have I asked but other folks in other districts directors have asked the question because that's another piece that we are looking at in terms of we we've talked about transportation. That's a piece that's underneath it, but is also

065a cost that >> could use some some rate setting. >> Yeah. And lastly, and as we approach this new budget season, what resources do you need and your your staff need to, I guess, maximize any positive impact that we can get out of grant writing? like is there professional development funds that would be like utilized like by your office? >> I can speak more to that in October, but I will tell you without giving anything away. I was speaking with Jod Manady from Ed Advance yesterday about that. >> Great. >> And the departments that they have that can help us with that. >> Excited to see it. >> Right. >> Where can parents find more information about SepTo? Is there like a website? Do they have a Facebook page? >> It came through parents today.

066I just want to make sure I make note of >> Michelle. Is it the website or >> Yeah, I mean the the the I would start with the email address. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then um the parent square um >> Facebookia and reading or killing him all those wonderful things for sure. So, um, >> Michelle, what's the name of your Facebook page? Because the mic isn't picking up what you're saying. So, what's what's the name of the Facebook? That's okay. Come on. >> You can come up. >> Oh, yeah. You can come up. >> Thank you for doing this. >> I I started it. I want to have you finish it. Right. >> So, our um our Facebook page is Brookfield CT Septto. So, special education parent teacher organization. It's just abbreviated, but it

067should be at Brookfield CT Septto. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thanks, Michelle. >> Okay, that's it. >> The only other question I have as far as compliance. So, that would be an IEP and accommodation compliance on top of everything else. >> The instructional support teacher I can speak more about in October because I I could go on for about a half an hour. the the >> it's it's an amazing position, but how it's structured is going to be part of my budget >> kind of thing. I don't want to, you know, next time on Bill's report, you know, stay tuned. >> So, thanks folks. >> Thanks so much. >> Appreciate it. >> Um Eric, uh please come and share with us a technology update. >> So, for people who don't know, this is

068Eric Conklin, who holds together, um not only the district, but much of the town. in terms of infrastructure, tech infrastructure. >> Um, thank you. Well, actually, this is going to be an easy one tonight. Um, I think each principle covered something I had on the bullet, so I'm either going to, uh, repeat it or skip it completely. So, uh, thank you principles. Um, so a quick couple updates. Some of this are things that got done over the summer. Some of these are things that are in progress right now. Um, the biggest thing in progress right now is I want to provide an update on the CEN community Wi-Fi grant project. I believe I mentioned this back in a quick update in the spring. Um, if not, it was it was sent out um to the

069boards. This is a grant that was sent out from the Connecticut Education Network, our internet provider um that we applied for jointly as the town, the schools, and the library. And the whole um idea of this grant um is to bring wireless access to community public spaces throughout town. Um and so that includes access points outside of town hall for the townside inside and outside of our library. This also includes some AC wireless internet access to our town parks, Katagan and Williams Park to be exact. Um, but where this impacts the school is the athletic fields here at the high school and at Whiskanir. We all know that cell phone service is not getting any better outside of of the high school and everything's going digital. I know all the football games tickets are being

070taken electronically now and it's creating a pain point. We have a temporary solutions in place for this football season um and we're hoping for the second half of football season to have this done. But what this will do is bring five wireless access points um to the back of the high school to blanket the entire length of the field um and the high school. Uh and then an access point um there's more than one but access points in the front of Whiskaner to service that soccer field um and then also in the back to service the baseball field and then whatever that area that was the portables is going to become. I know that that's going to become a field as well um someday. Um the whole the the only requirements of this grant of

071course with making sure the project is done by the end of this school year is that we have to make the network available to all members of the public all all the time. Um and you do this with different security measures. We make sure it's separated from our regular network. Um but it's a it is a statewide initiative. Some districts have already done it. Um and I I kind of got a taste. My son plays football. We had a game out in Wallingford. I saw Wallingford has already done it. I saw what it was like. Um, and I'm excited to to kind of bring that idea here to Brookfield. And so it'll it'll be a huge benefit to the community. Um, while I'm on the athletic fields, um, I hadn't thought about this until a

072little bit earlier. We are working with one of our local vendors. Um, I'm working with Mr. Baldwin to, uh, upgrade the speakers, um, and add some additional speakers to the football field. Um, if you've ever been to a football game here, you'll notice the speakers are just sitting right on the press box, which makes it very loud for the people right there. Um, and not very loud for the visitors and some of the people. And this has been discussed among the community um, with a number of people. Um, so it's not anything new. Uh, but we are looking to add some speakers to the poles, the light poles on the outside, and then upgrade the existing speakers there. So, um, you'll be seeing some work on that pretty soon. Um over the summer we were

073able to uh thanks to um uh thanks to an approved budget and um some great pricing we got in a bid we were able to purchase 368 new Chromebooks to benefit our onetoone program and the district as a whole. The tech team worked hard. Um it's it's quite the process. We placed the order. A big truck shows up with a bunch of pallets. We have to um when you when you order 368 Chromebooks, they're not um packaged all together. They're individually boxed. So, we have to unbox every single one, set them up, throw out all the boxes, thanks to the custodial staff, and then uh set them up. Um, Mr. Venda mentioned the the whiskey laptops. They got updated this year as part of our five-year replacement life cycle plan. Um, and so this was

074year five. So, their their cycle starts over now. The last project at CLS as part of the construction was finished over the summer. That was the live streaming equipment um at the in the multi-purpose room and the cafeteria. Um so pretty soon we can I know we tried it tried it a couple times. We had some audio issues, but now the um equipment more similar to what you see here is is set up and installed. Um so we'll be able to um do bless you have um uh stream uh school events, town events, maybe some board meetings or anything like that. Um Mr. Mr. Blandon mentioned we are nearing the completion of additional badge readers um that are installed. Um the company came out installed. We had the door company come out and store all

075the hardware and currently right now we have the alarm company back out setting them all up at Whiskey this week hopefully finishing up this week and then finishing up at um at the high school. Um, and so that'll be uh uh better access for staff to get in and out of the building and then also um in needs of an emergency uh for uh anybody else to get in who might have a badge access. Um again with security we installed brand new thanks to an approved capital project. We installed brand new security camera servers. They were aging. Uh the the old ones were aging. Um they were not holding video for a very long time. I mean in some cases not not near the 30 days that we want to achieve. Um and uh so

076we've upgraded those with that gives us increased storage, increased reliability, and we also added room for expansion because we know as time goes on we're going to be looking to add additional cameras. Um I will skip over the MIDI lab which has been going well. Um that that the uh tech team played a part in. Uh we also expanded our service with securely. You may have heard of securely before. We use it to filter student Chromebooks at home. We use it for um awareness of of trends of um of um student harm. No, not not necessarily more student harm um or uh or inappropriate content or anything like that. Um we added securely classroom. This allows teachers, it's been a long time coming. They've been wanting it. Allows teachers uh granular access of um Chromebooks

077in the classroom. they can push out uh websites and links instead of having every kid type in a website. Um they can kind of monitor what the students are on, make sure they're staying on track, staying on focus. Um and that's called securely classroom. There there's a number of other ones out there. Land school is one you may have heard of in the past, very similar concept. Uh the we are in the process currently a very long time coming. Um, when I first got here nine years ago, uh, we had put in the world language lab here at the high school. Um, and we got those computers to run as long as they possibly could with some upgrading of some internal components. We went a little longer than we we were hoping, but this year

078we were able to completely upgrade all new computers in that lab um, and keep that program going um, strong. Um, finally, um, another thing we did was we did some additional upgrades and additions to our phone system. Um, it did not cause the issue that, uh, the paging issue, but that was a fun coincidence. Um, we are consolidating services down to some, uh, local phone vendors. We we have some services that are still with Frontier. We're bringing over to our phone vendor. Um and the final thing the final part of the phone upgrade that's been that's we've had for two years now was to bring um a cellular backup to the phone system. So should the network go down because it is an internet-based phone system. Should our network go down the phones can fail

079over to another network so we could call out. Um and that's the final phase of that project. Um just some things upcoming that we can look forward to that you'll hear us talk about during the year that you'll hear us talk about during budget cycle. things that'll impact next year is uh Brookfield High School is up for new devices per our life cycle. So the teachers at Brookfield High School will get new computers next year. Um we know it was discussed over the summer, but uh administration and it will start to meet in early October as part of the budget process to discuss the onetoone program going forward um and what that will look like um next year and beyond from what we have now. uh our district firewall which is kind of a lifeblood

080of the district. Um it protects uh us on the cyber security wise. It also filters our internet content in the district per our own requirements and state law is going end of life um at the end of the year and that has to be replaced and upgraded. Um again that that is without a firewall. We are wide open to the world. Um and so that will be upgraded. Uh we always will and continue to uh start to upgrade smartboards. Um one of the initiatives we took on years ago was to get a smartboard in every classroom. Um with the CLS project, we were able to do that and then through the project and finish the other schools, but now some of the other boards are getting older. We have some teachers that use them all

081the time. They do wear out after time. Um and uh and we also want to keep a life cycle on those as well. So we'll continue to replace those. Um, the only other thing I want to leave you with is, um, I did not realize this until Monday night, uh, but yesterday was actually National IT Professionals Day. Um, and, uh, so I just want to take a moment to thank the tech team that, um, literally keep this district connected every single day, whether it's um, in the classroom or all the way up to making sure the internet works. Um, and also um, giving us the ability to have this live meeting uh, this meeting live streamed. um and uh um and the audio and the presentations and everything that goes with it. So, at the

082high school, I know they've got mentioned, I'm going to do it again. At the high school, we have Kathy Calivvito, our lead technology technician. At Whiskaner, Zach Maveratis, who's our technology technician at CLS, we have Dustin Mazuko. At district level, um who kind of floats around and and covers all the schools wherever we need the most, Seth Craig, who's back there right now. um our manager of information systems. So the person who does everything and anything P school um Denise Walsh along with um the people who help her out um Cindy Wartman at the high school and Mandy Yusco at uh Wiskanir um and then our part-time uh technology person who's half with the town, half with the board of ed who sits in my office, Ramdy Trann. Um, and then, um, I do want

083to mention him as well. Dan Secor is, um, the technology leader on the town side, um, but he, uh, not only do we work well together every single day, um, but he also, uh, supports if if a TSO staff member comes in and says, "I can't find Eric, but I need help with this." He jumps right in, no questions. And so, um, he's he's as much part of this team as as any of the rest of them. So, that's all I got. >> Happy IT day. Thanks so much, Eric. Thank you. >> We really appreciate that. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um, now after much waiting, we're going to move to public comment. Mr. Moash, we'll welcome you at the podium and you're here to speak on policy handbook. >> Great. >> And just to start,

084thank you for speak on the agenda tonight. >> Certainly. Um, I forgot to say, um, please either give your address or identify yourself as a Brookfield resident. >> Mark 25. >> Well, we want to make sure that your mic is on. >> Sorry. >> And just a a reminder, it's a it's three minutes. >> Yep. I'll can I start over? >> As you wish. >> All right. Mark Moash, 25 Miss Till Drive, Brookfield, Connecticut. I have two boys in the Brookfield Public Schools. I would like to speak on a topic found on page 221 of the 281page agenda from August. Uh the one that contains 190 pages of policy manual changes. Uh this falls under the series of crime and punishment by Dustyki. Section the castle by CFKA. Subsection Harrison Berseron by Vonagget. Oh wait

085I mean series 5144 student discipline. Section three actions leading to disciplinary action. Subsection 9 procedures governing expulsion hearing. Item D4. A student's permitted a hearing and while they are and witnesses are able to be sworn in due to D1 D4 states formal rules of evidence will not be followed. The board or impartial board has the right to accept hearsay and other evidence if it deems that elevant that evidence relevant. The right to accept hearsay. The the the right to accept hearsay. Not if it's true, not if it's found to be accurate. not if it's backed up with evidence, but if it's simply in a subjective manner deemed to be relevant. Um allowing hearsay when a student's future is on the line is not the kind of policy that we need. It's not the right lesson

086to be given our students. Um just like when I spoke last month about kids being expelled for having a sitin, 2022, we had dozens of kids walk out for a sitin. Um I don't understand how a law firm writes these things in. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When it's ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. That's for you Star Wars fans. We ask our kids to be truthful. We ask our kids to be honest. Then we put them at the wrong end of a power dynamic, and tell them that hearsay, the idea that they lose their right to cross-examination, their constitutional right, and given

087that this is 238 years to the day that the Constitution was signed, it's a good day to be speaking about this. Sorry kid, you didn't have the money for a lawyer. You can't really figure out what's going on in this hearing. So, adults, we like to believe, are truthful, but just recently in Stamford, there was a situation where a student was suspended instantly for something when an assistant principal said that the student hit them. Suspended instantly and then the police found the security footage and the incident never happened. That changes a kid's life when they've been suspended or expelled. And yet we're saying that they can have a hearing with the right to hear say. Anyone can say anything. We need to do better. Schools are not prisons. We ask our kids to be truthful.

088We ask our kids to be honest. We need to give them an environment where everybody involved has to be held to the same standard. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Moash. Okay. So, we're going to move next to um of the I don't know what to call it, contribution. We used to say report from the student representative. Um and just before you get started, Emily, I want to um let the board members know that um Miss Tenza and um Emily and I met was that yesterday? Okay. Um per policy 9160, which is a new policy, right? um it it outlines like the the privileges and responsibilities of the student representative. And so there were some things that we hadn't gotten to yet. So we we met we talked about um an expanded role um which

089is all outlined in the policy. So this is going to sound a little bit different. It's going to be a slightly different flavor. were looking for um I don't want to say more meaningful because I don't want to discount what the previous student representatives contributed but um maybe more issue based and less like here are events that are going on although those may still be part of what you contribute. So if you guys have ideas about what you'd like to hear more of um uh let me know and we'll be in discussion as this role evolves. So with that Emily what do you have for us? All right. So, I just have a few updates. I don't have many. Not much is really going on, but we have our club fair next Wednesday during ILT,

090which is exciting. Got all the clubs lined up um to help try to promote their clubs. And then we have a spirit week starting September 30th through October 4th. And we have our homecoming pep rally October 4th, which is a Friday. And then the next day we have our homecoming dance. So, everyone's really excited about that. Um and that's for updates. But I also wanted to share that um previously about the talk with the solar panels over the student um parking lot here at BHS. From what I've heard, students really don't care that much about how it looks at the parking lot. They say that if it's helping shade their car from the sun and if it's not allowing snow to get on their car and ice and things like that, they they think that's

091a plus and they just think that if it helps out the school in terms of money, go for it. I mean, so most mostly people are like for it, but I'll I'll get back to you guys about what even more students think. But thank you guys. That's all I got. >> Awesome. Thanks very much. >> And I think that's that's kind of what I like envision for our student representatives. Like you take stuff from our meetings, go back like get like the student perspective and report back to us. I think that's great. Thank you. So, one of the things we were talking about is like um how much would you coordinate with other student groups? What would that look like? Um how how do you get an expansive reach? And you would do some of

092that maybe in coordination with student government maybe. Um maybe checking in with Mr. Banda of like what are some issues that you're hearing about? I mean, we don't know yet, but this these are things we're talking about as possibilities for Emily to sort of establish a method, a protocol. >> Yeah, definitely. I want to get in touch with student government. Um I'm really close to the president. Um so I definitely want to get that group going and then sit in also with um Mr. Vanda on that meeting just so that he's in the loop with everything. And yeah, I want I want to make sure that I get as much across like from the students to me and me to them as possible because I feel like students don't understand or know what's going on

093much and I it's really sad. So I really want to um spread the word and just take in some information. So, I definitely want to have that breakout groups maybe like couple two times a month, maybe just after a board meeting, something like that, just to Yeah. >> Um, one of the things we talked about in facilities was engaging with you to talk about what do the students feel are the priorities at each school. So, like from an adult parent perspective, we're like, "Oh, it's too hot, it's too cold, and there the, you know, needs to be painted." Maybe the students are like, "No, we don't need any of that. We want more seats or courtyard needs better." You know what I mean? So, >> getting um some real tangible action steps for the board,

094for the facilities committee um and what the students actually want to see as quote unquote improvements at the school would be great. >> Yeah. >> Well, actually that reminds me of the one thing I didn't say. Another provision of the policy is that um uh Emily can be um named to sit on a committee. Um she she won't have a vote, >> but yeah, I was like be careful what you wish for and she I so I said maybe facilities would be the coolest one but to start with >> but Mrs. Aora says join them all and and and actually Emily was like I'm kind of interested in them. So >> check your schedule. >> Okay. We need more student feedback on all those areas. So for sure start with facilities. Yeah. Well, you're more

095than welcome. No, I think it's really great that you, you know, are bringing a student voice, you know, to us because we don't really get to hear about them. >> Yeah. And I I feel like it's so cool that like I can get the opportunity to sit on these things I didn't really know was being taken into account of. So, it should be I'm going to try to get into as many meetings as possible. >> And she said she's going to stay for the entire meeting. So, let's let's move on, shall we? Okay. All right. So, um now let's move to item nine, written correspondence. >> Okay. Hold that one up. Sorry, I'm trying to do three things at once. Okay. The following people have emailed the board of ed since September 4th meeting. Since

096the September 4th meeting, Deborah Casease, Matt Grimes, Katherine and Greg Otis, Mike Ein, Siobhan Sudall, Mark Morash, Irene Korea, three emails, Andy Korea, four emails. >> Great. Thanks very much. Um, okay. Let's go now to approval of board minutes. I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended. Regular meeting 8:20 2025, special board meeting 5:00 p.m. and special board meeting at 5:30 p.m. on that same date. >> Second. >> Any discussion of this? All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. Looks like it's unanimous. Great. Um, and before we move to the superintendent's update, uh, there's just one more thing attached to, uh, Emily's update. Um the policy also says I believe Fonda the policy says that that um the student report will go in with the subcommittee

097reports. Yeah. So we'll be moving it there >> for the future. Yeah. All right. And so now we have our first Tenza update. >> Hi everybody. Um it's really clear that there's much to be proud of. The enthusiasm of the administrators um is sincere and the fact that they willingly jumped on my request. I'd love to come see your building. Would you mind walking around with me? Every single one of them probably responded quicker than I ever would have expected. Um and it was followed by don't forget to come back. You know, as a matter of fact, Dean said, "And if you want to come back tomorrow morning, you could see this." And I do. I do want to see that. And I know that, you know, it's it's going to be tricky to balance

098everything. Um, but that is where the work is with our administrators, with our students, with our staff. That's where the work is. And so that is where I will be um as much as possible. So it it's it's clear that everybody had a lot to be proud of. um our student representation, the student voice, the updates, everything here, theformational updates, everything here points to um our efforts to communicate with the community, all branches of the community, even the student community. So, um communication is important to me and I hope everyone is able to feel that positive energy. As of yesterday, you heard the individual numbers, but as of yesterday, our district is housing 200 learners. Um, which is up only about 20 from last October. October 1st is the state benchmark for attendance. Um, and

099that's because even though some of the buildings saw larger increases, different class sizes have exited. Um, but that's a nice robust number of of students across our district. Um, and again, I spent a great deal of of my week in those buildings, meeting as many staff as possible. Everyone has been incredibly helpful, incredibly welcoming. I wouldn't even pretend to stand up there and name everybody that has helped me. My administrative assistant, Lisa, everybody. I can't even I can't even do it. The administrators, the board, you you've you've been very gracious. So, just a few things as the superintendent that I want to keep you aware of is that um based on some previous interests that I've learned from the town and board of education around our um enrollment process, we are we met yesterday and

100we are looking to kind of tighten up the enrollment process to try to refine some of our paperwork so that it's a little bit more specific and accurate. and we will be um exploring and implementing some checkpoints. Information will come out to families once we're ready later this year, but we we always have any new enrollment person has to prove residency. So, it's usually kindergarten or prek and as well as anybody that moves in. So, we will be looking for that verifying piece to reoccur at the national at the natural bumps from school to school. So, when students enter sixth and when they enter 9th, they'll need to kind of reverify all of that information. And in addition, we'll probably be looking at grade three as a a reference checkpoint where we just maybe print

101their demographics page from P school and ask families to look, is your phone number still accurate? Those change all the time. Is that, you know, still your address? We're looking to try to tighten that up a little bit. So, we will keep the board um apprised, but residency is is a is a important topic for taxpayers to be thinking about and it's important that they know that our administration is working really hard to to try to work on that. So, that's one of the things I wanted to mention to you. And just a few other updates. The board recently ratified our PAR educator contract. I'm just really proud of the work that the board did with the Perry Union to come up with a contract that honors their hard work. PAR educators are critical piece

102of our um success with our learners and so it's it's nice to be able to have a contract that can honor their work. So, thank you for that. uh we are kneedeep in the um educator the teacher negotiation piece and you know really all I can say about that is that all of the meetings are scheduled and the work is unfolding and I expect the same good outcome. This was referenced again just very briefly. Breakfast is rolling out. The district is really excited to offer this opportunity. It is a great opportunity. I've I've come from a district where we had this opportunity for breakfast for all students. Um, any child, if they're free and reduced, the lunch is commensurate, free or reduced. Any other child who wishes to purchase breakfast, it will be available at

103$2.50 at the elementary level. No, $2.20 at the elementary level and $2.50 at the middle and high school level, and it will be available before school. So, they're working out all those kinks. I think our Perry Union um volunteers will be stepping up to help kind of man that in the morning. More details will be coming very soon, but it starts next week at the high school and then it will go out incrementally hopefully week by week after. We're just going to try to start small and see how that goes. So, that's exciting. And just one more plug in terms of communication. Uh, you know, we do use P school, we do use Parent Square. It is critical if you haven't already at this time of the year for the community to check that data

104to make sure it is accurate. That's our emergency dismissal. That's in case anything goes wrong. That's if we're sending out communications to you. It's easy to just think it's accurate. I'm a parent. I know that. Um but sometimes it's not accurate. So, please look at that. And also in that vein, you know, I know I'm new. Yes, I am the interim superintendent, but I am your superintendent for as long as it takes to find a permanent superintendent. This is a good district. It really is. Um I want to I want to try to help make it even better. and I invite you to reach out to me. This is for the community. This is for the board. This is for, you know, anybody. Please email me, call me, make an appointment to come in and

105see me. Um, you know, I know as a parent, if I have something I wanted to discuss or a concern, I learned over time, especially with my son, that it is best to start with the person closest to the issue. So, if I had a concern, I I might have gone to the administrator because I was an administrator and I was quickly reminded that the teacher really knows what happens with that spitball that your son did shoot. Um, so just a reminder, we do have a protocol on the website. I looked at it. It's pretty standard. We want to help you. We want to talk with you and work with you. Um, and I'll end with something that's really important to me as a leader, um, is gratitude. I appreciate this opportunity. I retired. I

106wasn't expecting this, but I've also learned after 37 years of education and more of life that some of the best things are unexpected and unplanned for. I already feel like I've been in this district. I'm already loving this district. My husband said, "You don't seem very retired." I am. Um but but I am also allin. So I um promise to lead you with integrity, high expectations, and kindness. And so I appreciate the community's support in that effort. >> Thanks very much. We look we are really excited to work with you. We're field is lucky to have you at the helm right now. Okay. So um moving on uh subcommittee reports and when I was speaking with Vonda the other day, she reminded me that um these reports are all um they're already public. So we

107have um gotten into a practice of like really thoroughly reviewing and and we don't need to. So So for the committee chairs, would you please just highlight uh the the most important points that you want people to know now and then they can um go and access these uh full reports with minutes um online. So with that, let's start with policy. >> You're in luck because we do not have any policies on the agenda tonight. So my adaptate is very short. Um we are continuing to work through the policies needed for an updated district school policy manual. As discussed in previous meetings, Casey Dat is working very um diligently on making sure that we have uh she's worked with Shipment Goodwin to identify the policies that need to be updated and we're that's not a

108fast process. We have a bunch on the um sort of in on the docket. Everybody has policies from the previous meeting as a first read. Um, and so there's a lot under review, I've only heard from two people on feedback from those. So I did, um, express that since we were not having a meeting, um, and apologies for any confusion. I think the meeting, the policy meeting that was supposed to occur tonight was not taken off the district calendar, um, but we because we had the superintendent search update, um, committee meeting, it needed to be moved. Um, so as soon as we get that rescheduled, it will be put back on the calendar. But um that the as the committee continues to look at those policies, they may or may not appear on the very

109next agenda. Um there's some comp you know there's some that are very um uh not complicated but cumbersome. Yeah. Um one as we mentioned the student discipline policy. It is very Yeah. >> And you know one policy is >> I was going to say and it absorbs I think like eight policies. So, that's one we're going to take a lot of time with. We're going to look very closely at. Um, and one of the things to note about that policy specifically is um that as we do that, we will engage with the administration as we always do. We talked to the principles. I've had a couple of conversations um with Mr. Banda. Um, and I want to make sure as the policy chair I bring all of that information to the committee and you know

110we we talk about um one of the important things to note about that policy specifically is that the shipment and good good policy does not mandate or um dictate any actual discipline. Um it sort of lists out what unlike our current policy that is sort of a broad statement. This sort of lists out what could potentially have a consequence. There are no consequences listed in the policy and in my conversations with uh Mr. Belanda, there's not um there's a lot of leeway, but it is one of those very complicated pro uh policies that we want to have thorough discussions about. So, it is not something we're going to rush through. Um so at our previous meeting in addition to that uh we had um director of technology Eric Conklin uh came and talked through some

111of the policies um regarding student use of district computer systems. Bring your own communication device and personal tech use um in schools. Those policies um have a cave policy, have a shipment and goodwin policy. We've asked him to look kind of in depth at those. Um it's going to be an ongoing conversation. The committee will also engage the administration. Um, and we also felt it was important to engage uh, Superintendent Tenza for her perspective as we move to not only um, see maybe what she's done in her district, what other superintendents are doing as uh, one of the policies we do not have. Um, one of the policies Eric is a little, you know, um, the Shipment and Goodwin policy versus the Cape policy. They're very different. So, there's going to be a lot of

112of ongoing conversations. um both with building administration and um district administration. So again, although those are on the table, they're conversations we're just starting to have um and further discussion will continue to take place after we've consulted um with all the appropriate people. So that's where we're at. >> You um Sarah, the cape update. >> Sure. I was just thinking Emily's like, I'm not doing policy. I'm not like, yeah, no, I'm not I'm not going I'm not going to those meetings. I'm just kidding. Um, so in the interest of time, the first um, great we have two meetings to update you on, but um, the August 21st one is pretty lengthy the minutes. I encourage people to check out the links because we have a lot of the data linked right into the minutes. Um,

113so just really quickly, there was public comment about concerns about academic support in the high school. Um, we looked at finals data, AP data that was um, given to us from Mr. Banda. We looked, we had some findings and questions and trends. Um, and at that point, they hadn't, the administrative team hadn't looked through it yet. So, we kind of had a lot of um, follow-ups for the September meeting, which I'll get to in a second. Um, Joy actually took the finals data and put it on the midterm data that spreadsheet that we had, which was really helpful. Um, we had questions about placement, whether people possib whether students got possibly weren't placed in the right level class. We talked about the waving um the parents able to wave the requirements to get the kids

114into the class. That was another discussion. Um we had a lengthy update on the summer curriculum work and tasks and initiatives that they were doing. It's pretty lengthy. I will not go into that, but I encourage you to check it out on the minutes. Wonderful, wonderful stuff that was going on. Um, and then we looked at the most updated stamp data through the stamp presentation. And then we actually requested that Dominique Galves once she settled into her new um position as the K12 world language administrator um come back and work with us and and get some have some feedback and some questions answered by w with us um conversations with us. That would be great. Um, new courses, forensic science 2, materials and design science and the math workshop were added. Um, there was also

115thought exchange climate survey results that we went through. Lots of um most importantly we want to thank everyone for their thoughtful feedback um comments at all the levels all the schools the parents the staff because they were really crucial and helpful for us to look through and especially the students because we know that they don't always want to share their ideas but that was really great that the participation um we talked about the new final exam exemptions um and that the whole history of where that came from and where it's headed. Um and that's basically the highlights from um the August meeting. And then we had a lot of follow-up for the September 10th meeting. So it was great. We had um uh Mark Belanda, Vonda, Liz Spencer, Andrew Hill, and Katherine Brago join us

116so that we were able to then pe look back at the feedback and the questions we had from the previous meeting and have a conversation about that. So, um, Mark, Liz, and Andrew, Mark, Liz, Andrew, and Katherine all spoke on behalf of the AP exams with their respective departments and noted that their goals around AP teaching patterns, alignment, and have a constant cycle of reflection, and asking how they can do better. They have CLT time built in, which will help out a lot and be really important. There is also a summary and recommendation of the AP human geo textbook review committee. Liz Spencer, Wendy was was very exciting. >> Liz Spencer spoke on behalf of the committee regarding the need to update the AP human um human geo textbook. It's about six years old. Again,

117there's a document at that linked a lot of things are linked into the minutes. Um outlines and compares all of the different textbooks that they looked at and they went along. They chose the cultural landscape and introduction to human geo as their AP human geo book. and Joy made a motion to approve that book and I seconded it and we're all in favor and the motion passed and that was it. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Great. Thank you very much. Um Rob facilities. >> All right. Um we met on Good evening everyone. We met on September 3rd. I was myself, Stephanie, Casey, Dan and um at the meeting. So in summary, we did discuss this the the uh the climate survey results and there was a lot of focus in it on HVAC issues and water

118issues and as Dan had stated and Casey had stated um through capital project the water is being addressed and through the HVAC issues all those are being addressed at all three buildings starting with here especially at this one um uh we took a motion on the athletic board which we had a special meeting for on the uh scoreboard and that looks like to be it's up and running which is great. >> Yeah, it is great. Uh they fixed the uh motherboard I believe. Um as far as old business, we did discuss school dude reports. Um but then those are in those are in the report. The update on the capital projects is important. The gym floor should be finished in two to three weeks. The new floor was delivered on 98. So maybe this week

119or next week it should be finished. I'm not sure if it is complete, but it it's getting there. Um as far as the roof project at um the high school, Dan met with the um architects and they to go over the scope of that project. Um the small roof was replaced at WMS. The warrant uh the inspection is the final step. And for miscellaneous, the fire marshall inspections are all complete. And Miss uh we also took another motion uh we had a motion for a floor scrubber for the high school that they desperately needed. And last but not least, Stephanie just quickly reported on the walkthrough from um that the NBC committee NBC did at CLES on 92 I think it was. And that's all we had. >> Awesome. Great. That's You guys have been

120busy. Thanks for that work. Okay. And finance. >> All right. So, we last met on September 11th. Um I'll just kind of stay We had a pretty productive meeting. It was pretty long, but um I'll just stay like super high level. Um talk about the big things were um how we ended last fiscal year and where we're where we are at this fiscal year. Um, we ended the 2425 year with a uh surplus of around $47,000. So, uh, if you remember, we got a special appropriation for a little over 300,000. We were able to give that back plus another 47,000. That sounds really great, but let's just keep in mind that we did freeze our budget midyear. So, all of that money that went back to the town really kind of came out of things

121that we could have spent money on in the school year. So, just for context, um, and where we're standing this year, um, we're a little bit short on our teacher turnover savings. So, um, for anybody who's listening or for Vonda, if you're if you're not yet aware, we book in a negative $200,000 um, into our budget. um that goes against our salaries because we um expect us to save um essentially $200,000 at least um with teacher retirements and resignations and the hiring of less veteran teachers. So, we are just short of that target. Um there are still some open positions. Um however, they are in teacher shortage areas, which is pretty much what we see every single year. So, that's where we're at. Um, we do have a surplus, a rather sizable one in special

122education. Um, however, we've been looking at the month-to-month snapshots every month, and the fluctuation is wild. So, um, we don't necessarily anticipate that surplus to stay. We have a long school year ahead of us, and we anticipate a lot of changes. So, but it is nice to know that we have that those funds available um for those changes so that we hopefully don't have to freeze our budget mid year again. So, um all of that is really good. The audit is taking place and everything um is pretty positive there. Um we unanimously approve the budget planning calendar which is on the agenda for tonight. Um and that is pretty much it. Those are the big takeaways. >> Um a really healthy ecosystem this year. not starting off with $600,000. >> It is a big relief

123and I I feel like the tension in the business office is like a lot calmer. >> Yeah. Kudos to you guys for that good work. >> Okay. Um next, let's move to the consent agenda. Uh Rosa, I mean, sorry, Stephanie, >> you can read it. That's fine. >> I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended. New hires, transfers, resignations, retirements, and financials. >> Second. Is there any discussion on this? >> All right. Um, all in favor of approving the consent agenda, please indicate by saying I. >> I. I. >> Um, any opposed? >> Any abstensions? Okay. So, that's a 51 with Sarah abstaining. Um, yeah. And so I think it's it's you might be in a better position for this because well, Mrs. Sandra Reed is retiring. I actually

124do. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Tenzel, would you like to say a few words? >> I would. >> Okay, please. >> I would. So, you know, I have met a lot of a lot of people the first week that I was here and one of the people that I met and had a conversation with was Sandra and delightful. And she was in the, you know, kneedeep in the middle school media center library clerk and she said, "I'm retiring." I said, "I already did that." You know, and we laughed about it because she kind of looked at me and she goes, "Why are you back?" Um so you know just 25 years I is noteworthy in any profession. um in education it's significant and as the library clerk she really um had made an impact and actually

125when I was talking with her and with Dean um just briefly she really even went out into their courtyard and kind of like took it over um almost like a like a Martha Stewart of the courtyard and really has made a lasting impact out there and uh so just you know it's it's always kind of like a blessing when people retire and and go off and enjoy their second life or third life or fourth life. And so we we wish her well, but I I actually had met her and she had a lot of impact. Dean was very quick to point out when he was here today just, you know, really how significant she was. So, thank you for the opportunity. >> Sure. Sure. And thank you, Mrs. Reid. Um and best of luck to

126everybody um as they move uh in their various directions from the consent agenda list. Okay. So, we're going to move now to um new business. Um we have got to do the authorization for signature change. So, um, stuff. >> I move that the board approve interim superintendent Von Vonda Tenza as the designated representative authorized to sign the agreement for child nutrition programs and to sign claims for reimbursement for the Connecticut State Department of Education, school health, nutrition, and family services. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on this motion? >> Right. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay, so that's unanimous. Thank you very much. And now let's talk about the budget planning calendar. >> I move that the board approve the 2026 2027 budget planning calendar

127as presented by director of business and operations, Mrs. KCDF. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on the budget planning calendar? >> No. Um but I will say that we we did alter the timelines a little bit from last year. So um you'll see that the presentation to the board from the superintendent is a is I think um a little bit later than it's not in early December. It's in later December. Um and we moved some of the public um participation like roundts hearing um not the hearing the the round table to January. Okay. >> So it will be after the board has a chance to see the budget and digest it a little bit and it'll be like in the middle of our deliberations. So >> some of that also was dictated by the

128new policy that we had passed um as a board in I think October was when we passed that. >> Okay. So it shifted financial reporting. >> All right. So we have the uh we have the motion made and it's been seconded. Is there other discussion on this? >> Are we ready to vote? Right. All in favor please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Okay. Any opposed? So we are 6 on that. You guys. Okay. Uh let's move now to uh the school calendar. Um do we have >> Oh, that's true. That's true. I gota open it up. >> So this is for next year. >> I think like people liked it. >> I don't I don't know. Is your mic on? >> So would you turn it on to ask that question again? >>

129Yeah. So I just I'm just curious why we're still starting after Labor Day. So, it was changed for the new opening of our new school because it wasn't ready. Um, and we just haven't brought it back. >> Next year, we're not Labor Day. Next year, we start on the first. >> Yeah, but we're starting in September, right? We used to start in August and we didn't have this trouble at the end of the year um for graduation, right? Trying to plan graduation with now snow days and, you know, we had to cancel for, you know, we had bomb threats or so. I just I don't know. I think that it's worth talking about. Um or if we're not going if we're going to start that late, I think that we really need to think about

130building into snow days. So I the one thing I'll just say like it's it's just like a a I don't know a bugaboo of mine I guess is just the the building in of snow days is really just it's kind of a psychological concept because like if you know you kind of assume a certain amount of snow days and you say that's the last day of school but if there isn't you're just going to back up the day. So in your mind you can almost no matter what just say like well in my mind I'll just pretend that the last day of school is this day when really it's this day. So like the building in doesn't really like doesn't really change anything except perception. >> Well it it changes that you can schedule graduation.

131So, we saw a lot of people last year, parents just struggling to try and get graduation date, right? Because >> and I think that it's really important that if we can give parents a date, >> um it'll probably help Mark, too. I'm sure his phone was not >> um I mean, we delayed them what, two months before we could even give them a graduation date and then we ended up cutting back time. Um, I just I mean after 15 years in Brookfield, we used to have a week in February, too, you know, which we don't have. So, I don't know. I just think that it's strange. We're the latest district to start um in the area. >> So, there's no there's no motion on the table for this one. This is really more about discussing

132it. And we're having a a a weird Wi-Fi night, so I I'm unable to even pull mine up here right now. Um but we are going to be talking um next month about the current year calendar because um a couple of people have wanted to talk about that very issue. >> So this will give us a couple of weeks to um not only review this calendar but also maybe develop a position or begin to develop a position. How do you feel about this adding on snow days and extending out the graduation date? I think that >> So then can we use this for just sort of like since Mark is here? Yeah. >> Can we can I ask can can you come on off? >> I'd like to just get your ask the same thing

133about Friday being the last day and then you want graduation the next day. >> So right now we have we have June 11th. We have June 11th which is a Friday. >> It's a Friday. >> We have June 11th as the last day. That's a Friday. If we build in let's say I'm just making up a number five snow days, right? That changes the last day of school to the 18th. Why can't we just like now say, "All right, graduation is going to be on the 19th, whether the last day is the 11th or the 18th." >> What are the >> Yeah. So, the parameters, right? So, the parameters are a couple things. So, like state law says that you can set if you have 180 days scheduled in your calendar, right? Which we do.

134We have 182. >> You can you can set a graduation date now if we wanted to. We could actually pick it. That's I think as long as it's after the 180th day that's currently scheduled. Now, we could have snow days that that day that we schedule. We could have five, six snow days. Graduation is still that day because we scheduled it while we still had the 18 like after the 180 originally scheduled days. >> Um, as you know, the complexities that go along with that with grad party, right, and try to work with them. And I've had I had a couple conversation over the summer. We met, we kind of came together and had those conversations. Vonda may not necessarily be up to date on grad party or any of that. So it sounds very

135foreign to her maybe. Um >> I understand those >> understand grads party. So um you know typically we would do it on a Saturday. So really looking at that Saturday. Um >> there's there's no win. There's no win on this, right? I think you you pick one day and then it doesn't work. It's it's it's going to be a challenge. Right. With that last day, I can hope there's no snow days and we do it. But that does also put a uh I will say and I'm not saying that the district should make a decision at all based on grad party's ability to prepare but >> yes they should. >> Rob says they should as Rob was here but realistically right with that last day of school being the 11th graduation typically would be the

136day after the last the 12th that's not a lot of time for a grad party or anything else to get prepared. >> So could could Yeah. Go ahead. Can I ask you something? Because one of the discussions we had this year was and one of the concerns that you had brought back >> Yep. >> was that having a full week between the last day of school and the graduation was or the grad party and the graduation and all of that was a lot. People wanted to get out. So from your perspective, >> what is more effective and efficient? Building in the school days, like if you had your your way and there was no other factors, building in the snow days to know that the graduation it could potentially be a week after the last

137day of school if there are no snow days. >> Yep. >> Or having that last day be super close and having to just be like done and whatever results from that has to kind of just be >> meaning grad night only has one night and whatever the consequences are. So knowing where we are with the grad party and so I I would say my ideal >> would be something completely different like we I wish there was a way and this this is my like blue sky. That's what I want to know. I wish there was a way we could have something for the graduates, right? >> At the same time also like have graduation like one of the last days of school like during the I would love to be able to do that. >>

138Still celebrate graduates but >> you can't they're they're too imshed right now. There there's no way to really separate that. Ideally, that's what I would like. I know that happens in other districts, other places. They graduate the last day of school, that's when it is the day after the last day of school. During the week, that's when it is. So, it's a moving target, but you know, as soon as that date is set, families know, okay, graduation is this day. It's always going to be the last day of school. >> Um, there is value to the grad party and the things the grad party does for kids. So, >> we're a mesh. Like, right now, we're we're we're tied to Saturday. That's realistically where we are at this point. Um, it would be too I

139think it would be too tight to do it the day after. Like right now, realistically, >> I think we'd have to do if I was to set a date, it would be that Saturday after. >> We're not going to hold you to that. We're still going to have to >> No, absolutely. But I wanted I wanted to tell you like that's whether you build in >> whether you build in extra snow days or not. Like Rosa said, there's a psychological effect. Is it actually then or is it not? And I know there's a lot of laps time because if we have zero days we miss >> then there's like a whole week >> there's a whole week before graduation >> that's something that we just have to accept and that's where we are in graduation

140ceremony will be this day. Um, >> but you know, weighing the options of us making the decision in May >> and trying to build in all those factors versus us studying it at the beginning of the school year so it's known. What do you feel like is better received and would be more realistic knowing that there is potential for it to be a week in between >> or waiting like we usually do and making that judgment call. Then >> I think I think again there's no right answer. >> Right. I think if we were to tell like families and I'm looking right at Emily who's like really have you seen how she's peaked up like wait I'm a senior what do you think like I honestly would put to you when you think of that

141right >> thank you sorry >> when yeah as a senior thinking about graduation because right now the last day of school um would be a it's it's a half day on the 11th it's the last day of school making June 12th the day that typically we would do graduation but because of all the grad party stuff you imagine like it it changes a whole bunch of dynamics in the school with final exams and kids. That's a challenge. So, we're talking about school would be done. You'd have a whole week and then you'd have graduation on the what is the 18th? No. >> Yeah, we >> 19th. 19th. Sorry, I can't do math today. >> The 19th. >> Um, honestly, like I feel like cramming it in would just feel like a lot. I feel like

142if I was graduating, I would that that week would kind of be nice where it's like I have that week to myself. if I can do whatever. And people like to prepare. They like to make videos, hang out with friends during that time because you can't go anywhere because you're going to be graduating. So, I feel like that that's >> like something that I would probably a week after would be better than the next day cuz I just feel like a lot is going on there. Everyone's very stressed and families over. So, I feel like a week a week away would be like a big a lot of time. But, I think that would be much better than right after. >> Wendy could sorry, go ahead. >> Um, well, a couple of things. We're we're

143spending a lot of time on something where we're not really making a decision tonight, but also we can't predict the weather and so like it's it seems it seems almost irresponsible to set the graduation date >> so early because we have no idea correct what the weather's going to be like. >> But tons of other districts do it. So it wouldn't be an anomaly if we did it. >> Okay. I'm just Yeah, I think I was just trying to get information about like if we build in snow days like we're really just like let's pretend this is the last day when really like it doesn't really >> I think I think my take the right move is to communicate with senior families now to say okay here's here's the like the last day of school

144currently is the 11th right which means graduation likely could be the next day I mean it's a potential I would say pretty low but it's a potential or this like >> it gives options to at least prepare and think about like >> knowing that we're going to probably have to wait to set the date. As much as I'd like to, we're going to have to wait, right? It's >> and other other districts and schools don't have the same type of event that we have. So, you can I can compare it to somebody else, right? Ideally, because I really would love to have like the last day of school for me would be great because we'd have teachers there. Everybody's there like at the ceremony and I had like Mr. um Mr. Kitty was there. I

145don't know if you saw was at graduation and he thanked me probably 15 times at the start of school. We're talking about how we can get more elementary teachers like from the district coming to the graduation ceremony to celebrate the kids. He was so moved. >> He made it sound like I was I moved I moved mountains to get him to come and get like no Rudy that's great. Like you should come and we need to do that more. >> I that's gonna that will realistically not happen probably if it's a week away. And that's one thing we have to we have to balance, right? And make that I think letting families know this is these are the kind of dates we're looking at. Just be aware. Okay. >> These are the two dates would

146be the best thing for now. >> That sounds like a smart communication for us to do. >> Yeah. >> Stephanie, what did you want to say? >> I was going to say something like can we are are we can we say it's we don't like >> do we have to make a decision of yes or no or can we continue with the like >> with Vonda? >> Could this also Yeah. And could this also be something that maybe we ask Emily to engage the student body in? Maybe you work with Vonda and Mr. Blanda and >> that'd be great. >> This could be one of like the things that you comes from you guys. >> Yeah, that would actually be helpful. >> Awesome. Thank you very much, Mr. Bland. I really appreciate your willingness to

147be put on the spot. >> Yeah, >> um is there Okay, you know what? >> Okay, >> it's really >> It's been It's been as early as like October and as late as like February. So, >> we didn't do it in November last year. It's not it's not mandated. >> Yeah, this is Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, um let's move to our uh last item of new business. Stephanie, >> I move that the board approve the following textbook as recommended by the CAPE subcommittee and interim assistant superintendent Deb Fious. Human geography for the AP course 2E by Hildebrand at all Bedford Freeman and Worth 2025. second >> um for >> for discussion on this issue. I'll just say I would like to have a copy of this book in my home. >> Um and

148it comes with a full digital um materials. Oh, there it is. It's a cool >> and practice tests and >> it's fully aligned with the AP test. It's >> Yeah, keep it away from me. Yeah. Right. Right. So, um, is there is there discussion on this? >> I was just going to say as I was reading through the Cape Committee and their the report on this that Lisa had done, I it was very impressive that it was such like a robust um, you know, choice. I was really uh, excited to see that the Cape Committee had worked really really hard on that. So, thank you for that. >> Um, it's expensive, but they but it gets tagged um, like all the other um, support materials. Yeah, it's it's a the the students who take this

149book are really in for a learning treat. All right. Um so with that, all in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, so that's 6 to approve. You guys, we got contrails. We're moving so fast. Okay, so there's no old business um and there's no second public comment. So Stephanie, what have you picked up for the three main points? You've been doing a lot of typing. >> I haven't. I'm trying to keep track of everything. So, I figured the school reports um would be a great first point and I would list the principal's um link to their updates, special education update and the tech update. That could all be one. Um the student update introducing the new policy and Emily and her expanded role and uh her feedback I thought

150would be um great. And then I didn't know what to put maybe the calendar conversation although it wasn't really an action. Well, I was going to say is maybe I should do technology as a separate. >> I think putting it all at once is is going to be too much. I would take the technology out as separate. I think >> I think the people they're going to be so excited that they have service. >> Yeah. Well, that that's why I started with just having technology, but then I was like, well, I also want to I think this the special ed legislation is kind of major, so I wanted to put that in as well, >> but it's like so far out, >> so maybe don't include them. >> Oh, and Bill's going to do his

151report in October. We do it in October. >> We did go through those updates. >> That's true. >> So the only thing really affecting us right now is developmental. >> Yeah, that's true. >> So we'll wait and save bills report in October for that. So we'll do number one as the school reports uh the principal updates and then number two as the tech update and then number three is Emily's student update. >> Yes wonder. >> That's great. >> Perfect. >> Okay. And um upcoming events. >> Yes. Although Emily went through the high school ones, so I don't really have to to do those. But um open houses at um CL are Thursday the 25th, Monday the 29th, and Tuesday the 30th. W is tomorrow night. No, high school is tomorrow night. WMS was last night.

152Um at Whiskanir, Friday the 26th is Hats for Hope and Thursday, October 16th is the annual walk-athon fundraiser. Um and then BHS September 24th is the club fair. Spirit week is the 14th through the 17th with homecoming being the 18th. Um and the football game on the 17th is open to the community. So everybody should uh go support that. It's a really fun game. Districtwide September 23rd, October 2nd, and October 13th are all days off for students. It's a th it's a Tuesday, a Thursday, and a Monday. Um CARES community conversations will be on October 16th at CLS. Registration is at 6:30. The conversation is 7 to 8. students are going to get service hours if they attend. Um, this is an important conversation for the community. They're looking for what are the priorities that

153the community and students would like to see going forward throughout the new year. As we learned um from the um care survey this year, gambling, which none of us as parents had really any idea that that was kind of a a touch point for students and they're really struggling with that right now. So, that's the kind of thing that um cares would like feedback from the community on. Yeah. online gambling. Remember that from the survey? I know it's scary. Um, and their access to it, like how much access they they have to it. Um, and then the Youth Commission election event is October 21st at 7 p.m. in the BHS auditorium. It is not a political event. It is run by the students. Um, it's actually great. They ask questions of the candidates and um

154it's a great opportunity to learn what is important to our students. So, and that's all I have. >> Outstanding. Um, well, uh, I move that we adjourn. >> Oh my god. >> Oh, you're actually doing a motion this time. >> I'm I'm I'm doing a motion to adjurnn. >> Okay. >> Sorry. So, so what what time is it? Uh, so we wait. No, we have So, can I get is there discussion on this motion to adjourn? >> All right. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Okay, great. 6. Thanks very much. And, um, this ends the ends the meeting. See you later.