Board of Education Meeting

001foreign good evening everybody I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Brookfield board of education for July 19 2023 to order [Music] um work here today Foster is a way I was out of town this week so um before we start I'd like to make a brief statement if that's what they look forward our last special meeting last week we all had a chance to give our opinions at the end of my opinion I said something that in a new call I said I'd like to donate myself I suppose at whisper at the moment I hadn't planned on saying that and after reflecting on it I concluded it's not fair to the administration to the librarian or to this board to prolong the discussion so I'm going to let you all know that I

002apologize if it's created in consternation or noise but uh which is not the right thing to do as much as but I'm not really changing my opinion that's apologize to all of you because any increasing noise out there so first up is public comment um the board of education does welcome public comment each speaker will have three minutes to provide input to the board at the start of each meeting a maximum of 20 minutes is allowed for comment on any item that's included in the agenda the end of the meeting time is allotted for any item that is within the boards jurisdiction and the reason we do that is very simple we have business items to deal with tonight and we want to hear from the community on the decisions that we're going to be

003making in this evening the items we're going to be talking about but of course we want to hear on any other topics uh and uh the only rules are where there's no discussion of school Personnel individual students or individual members of the board so I have a sign up sheet there's two people who signed up for items not on the agenda and two people who signed up for items that are on the agenda so this is rice here first up Denise rice I read the extremely sad ly sanitized Cracker Pot for it I'll just turn off the mic sorry thanks hello okay okay Denise rice three old Hemlock Road I read the extremely sanitized crack report and saw some very disturbing numbers all of the numbers are quite telling but a glaring red flag was

004page 36. athletes showed the severity of decline of our special ed students on the Smart Balance assessments from 2018-19 to 20 20 21. English scores of specialized students went from 27.7 down to 15.4 maths Force went down from 24 to 10. I have no idea why 2122 was not included while I do understanding understanding no testing was done in 2019-20 due to covid there's no excuse for failing numbers both Guilford and New Fairfield which were referenced repeatedly in this report for comparison went up in both areas this shows no effort has been put in our special ed population I can only imagine after the last catastrophic year how bad the numbers are that being said I sit here month after month hearing about brookfield's portrait of a graduate critical and creative thinkers communicators collaborators and

005change makers what administration and Board of Ed fails to remember is that the over 300 identified students in this District are also portraits of our graduates to me they all fit the criteria only in their own way but without support they will not reach their full potential I'm excited about what I've heard about the new special ed director and what he along with the other two special ed administrators can do to start putting Brookfield back on the right track I only hope you don't put up roadblocks to stop change I also just want to take a second to thank all of the teachers support staff and paraprofessionals who never give up on our kids and are striving to have them reach their goals every day realizing like it or not these kids will be portraits

006of the graduates thank you thank you [Applause] second speaker I'm here this evening to discuss the correct report in the overall climate regarding special education the correct review sadly gave little to no information as you have heard the same issues from parents meeting after meeting for the past 18 months for free for a thirty thousand dollar price tag I was expecting a real picture of what was going on but that is not what was presented in the report sadly the report that stands to make a real difference as far as budget drivers hasn't even been done yet regarding outplacement social emotional and self-contained students while taking the time to really look at the correct review I began to immediately question the validity of it when I learned that only 23.33 of our staff actually participated

007in the survey that is very disappointing numbers to say the least and I'm curious as to what the district did to encourage participation amongst our staff or to fill out a survey of this significance the climate that you have allowed to be created and burn out of control within the special education department this past school year is inexcusable to all the stakeholders but more importantly the students and our staff while I find it absolutely appalling is that this review told special education parents what we suspected all along that there wasn't a plan for our different abled children 71.1 percent of our parents who were surveyed completed the survey and felt that their children could be challenged more if that is not telling that our system is completely broken I don't know what is so I

008ask when you continuously paint beautiful pictures of the new strategic plan and portrait of a graduate that you remember every child no matter how they're classified on paper or regardless of weakness or disability serves deserves to be part of that plan for years parents have been told that our identified students are regular education students first which couldn't be further from the truth and now we have confirmation there has never been a plan for them I would want I would once again like to welcome Bill Roland to the district your communication and responsiveness to questions and concerns has already shown a drastic improvement in what we have been what we've had prior I only hope that the that Bill had the board and the administration's full support to make the necessary changes that are so desperately

009needed [Applause] with me I didn't see a sheet up here but I would like to speak and sign up but a much stronger what we're starting what do you say what agenda what's your gender topic my topic is a lawsuit against the Brookfield okay that's it that'll I'll let you talk but it'll be at the end of itself I'm going to add you to the left right so we're going to move on to and by the way we do not have a long agenda this evening I don't it won't be very long so next up is uh written correspondence Victoria you're going to you're going to cover for anything yes I will right okay uh Adriana Hackett regarding a thank you letter for Dr Berlin Dr Mann and also from Andrea paltoff as well thanking

010them for their leadership Aaron sclera two correspondents regarding foyer requests about legal fees Jillian Doherty support of the book this book is gay and Dupree regarding book Banning and I got Steph Knack regarding the opt-out process for books next up is approval award payments recommended motion that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting on June 7th special meeting on June 15th special meeting on June 22nd special meeting on July 6th and special meeting on July 12th and seconded and he suggested edits over concerns hearing none all in favor okay um bro um so we are moving along with the school project the high school field and painting projects the track project the locker room project course underway is our summer school program and ELC programs so there's a lot of activity

011in school s in addition to that when we get the consent agenda we're actually at the end of my hiring faculty it's really important to know that the district implementation plan Dr Mann and I have been going to work on that um turn forward it's all of our Solutions of course actually Joy is going to do something with us next week so we're actually excited about that opportunity and I appreciate that but that is underway course the principles are working not only on summer work and getting their schools ready but in your faculty ready in terms of their school's Improvement plans based on scores and things like that to that kindergarten enrollment we're right at 156 which is a couple more students than we had the last time I reported so our eight sections that

012gives us 19.5 students per class right there with the range so do want to emphasize we really don't want to talk about the new age for September one on kids turning five or September one next year to start kindergarten because they do not want to confuse any of our new parents they ever commit our parents and start bringing their first child regard enough on their plate with that and wondering when can be like an orientation is going to happen in Canada like that end well we're paying attention to a number of questions group we'll read this that fall if there's any caveats or special things we want to talk about as we plan for Budget we start planning for next year we don't want to start talking about that now because that'll confuse everybody regular

013December 31st during five coming to kindergarten if you're registered for kindergarten at Candlewood Lake relax nothing's changed the next piece in terms of just District technology Eric's been working very diligently with virtual towns website you're doing major overhaul and update and we're going to have that through our website we'll get a lot more user friendly one of the things that virtual Townsend schools is doing is they're working on firming up their data migration let's start the project until not served up on day a lot of problems they want to take more of an opportunity to files on the website so it can really turn over quite quickly it probably will happen in September October given all the tech work we're doing in the district and of course as part of the tech updates we also

014will have a new phone system in probably about two weeks at school that's the same phone system that's going into the new Source Library C pieces is seven um all right so good evening everyone the office of human resources and curriculum have been pretty um we after completing a pretty busy spring hiring a bunch of Administrators including our new our incoming Director of Finance our new director of special education and our supervisor of Elementary education special education as well as preparing for esy for extended school we are moved right into hiring for the 23 23 for school year including including Pride Staff so I just wanted to give you a few updates on where we are with that we have had 12 openings for fortified staff here when I did a new teacher orientation we

015had 20 20 teachers so we're not anywhere in where we were last year and two of those positions are actually long-term one-year leads events so really we're at 10 um retirements that we were celebrating at the end of the year and so with that at this point we have four of the three of the other three other of those positions are very very very close so we're hoping to get those wrapped up and all of the positions have applicants just a note our end of students position um Garner 68 applicants ton of applicants who are Jewish students and so Dean Brenda has worked really hard to on that and that's one of the ones that so we're hoping for big news with all of these positions I think that one of the reasons for um

016you know our continued excitement for moving into I definitely based on the decision that Dr Burrell had and with the support board to not send out the non-renewal letters we've gotten a lot of really pop py um that support from the board and then come back to grill it's gone a long way with our daddy new teacher orientation is going to be August 28-20 .com we start convocation and back to school work with our teachers um and we're building that agenda and we also as I mentioned our curriculum work with Keith a little bit about the work that we're doing our 10 the cape committee specifically Rose I had a really good idea for maybe middle of the year I can give a presentation and I'd love to work with joy on this enjoys professional

017background to just go over what does it mean to review and revise and reflect on curriculum you know what writing of curriculum process for the need because we talk about it a lot and it's kind of the core and Foundation of our instructional practices but sometimes people don't know what that means so um I'll look forward to folks maybe I'll even have some people who are currently writing directly I don't haven't present what they've done so that's kind of just an update for me I said a quick question for John so you said um we have eight sections of kindergarten correct yes all right so we have four sections of 19 students and four sections of 20. essentially what is our remind me our Board of Ed a target range what is our range here

01817 to 20 right kindergarten 1720. we try to Target 19. it could essentially get if we got four more or even more than four that's the recipient right you forget though last year the board supported in the development of last year's budget we do have the kindergarten Care Professionals which that was one of the we really consulted with our kindergarten team Mary Rose at the time working with that rather do that and have a section and remind me again how many power professionals do we have assigned the kindergarten and again once we're in the new school and everybody's in one place Dr Peterson he's really very strong in scheduling he can really look and along with Bill and Karen um look at special education look at all of our paraprofessionals if there's a supporting special

019education but also be in the kindergarten classroom he did another set of hands in there and we're looking at all ways to continue to support students investment that's all I have thank you good thank you you're welcome next up are the subcommittee reports and and you've got three of them why don't you just do all three at once on Monday the 5th um thankfully all most of these were pretty brief meetings we had one special meeting on Monday June 5th where we discussed the 23-24 operating budget and times and then reductions of 126 275 that were put that was put forth by the board of finance that was brought to and voted upon by the full leader that month we also discussed any budgetary impacts by the event impending negotiations with the custodial Union turned

020out that there was none so that was good on Monday June 12th was our regular meeting we discussed the nearly 400 000 budget overrun for that past year and voted to request Town contingency funding in accordance to the long-standing and communicated agreement that had been in place all year we reviewed the main areas of legal fees that are often incurred by the district and you heard from Ken that our food service contract will have to go out to bid again since we are consolidating from four schools down to three so that is on the agenda for the summer and then on Monday July 10th was another regular meeting we had a brief review of the accounts that would need adjustment due to the overrun and the contingency allocation from the town s is first any

021questions Joy of our facilities okay we met on June 7th for you this old work order reports and discussed what are leaks and building and Equipment repairs the BHS guidance Wing roof update we're under contract for the roof and we're waiting scheduling we learned today that most likely we'll be in early September and it'll be a 10-day project start to finish our maintenance vehicle we learned tonight that it is complete the body and liftgate has been installed and it's on premises project updates the BHS HVAC project is nearly complete in their fine-tuning controls the locker room project demolition is complete and the project is moving along a lot of unknowns have been discovered the masonry is on their way the lockers won't be here until August to be completed by mid to late August um

022the asbestos of eight men exhausted the contingency so we may be okay Mr Golden asked Mr post and Mr Caldwell to get an accounting of the remaining contingency from uh or moving forward with restroom Renovations the electrical service parts of the middle school have arrived security projects are underway door alarms or scheduled training is to be determined cameras are all done security film is done we're replacing broken windows Eric ordered repeaters for the radios and the VHS entry is looking to rescope for summer planning the building condition study we actually had a presentation tonight so we received the draft and the reports and we received a presentation um that we will um discuss in more detail with the board another time the media center AC update on the engineering contractor are working to go to

023Value engineer the project he had a closer to approved budget and we learned tonight it's gone over budget we're going to be working with that Budget moving forward what are notice at the Middle School Mr Colby reported that a recent notice of violation that was veneer had been rescinded due to a state clerical error he noted that the water's safe to drink our goal is a clean bill of health at the beginning of the school year and was also reported that we submitted an application to Aquarian for specification to tie into the water system they said they could Supply sufficient water and pressure but we need it in writing and unfortunately we haven't heard back from them yet it's been hard to get anybody to talk to us Fire Marshal inspections Mr Caldwell accompanying the

024fire marshal during inspections at the middle school and the high school he reported several issues that included extension cords and obstructions most of which were occurred before the inspection was complete a custodian Staffing update there'll be several custodian positions opening in the coming months due to retirements custodian reducing his commute and a custodian going to graduate school out of state there have been interviews for the head custodian position at Candlewood Lake Elementary The Candle Lake Elementary head custodian Union proposal we discussed a proposal from the custodians Union and asked Mr post and Dr Mann to continue discussions with the Union within parameters discussed at the meeting some miscellaneous discussion we discussed the plans for removal and disposable furniture and equipment from Huckleberry and the Portables we are on myself Bob and Sharon are on the

025negotiations for the custodians we will be the board of Representatives on that committee and we discussed a request for teachers to bring newly purchased area rights to the new school any questions we met last week for our special meeting and I'm not going to go too much into the new proposed book because we actually weren't offering the course for the past few years and we are going to be offering it again which warranted a new and updated book we had a committee led by Dr Spencer and the winning book through extensive rigorous review was sorry modern text both traditions and encounters some things I liked about it was the at the end of the chapters there's what's left out which is takes you through historical aspects on what was left out of the of current

026textbooks so something new and then also ATP practice at the end of each chapter the roads are called for a vote and it was passed unanimously that we bring the book before the board for um next opportunity gave us an update on this trend analysis student assessment score analysis curricular work with illustrative math and Ela adjustments reasons five through seven and professional development calendar and pathway planning all this being underway and very much forward to all the results and Diving deep in that documented such a great job with uh also look forward to it any question when do the the test results what are they available early to mid August thank you enough time to start digging through or it's such a summary of scores no it actually that's when they release it forward to

027hearing that Mike any questions for money all right we'll move on thank you all consent agenda recommended motion that the board approve the items on the consent agenda is recommended new hires resignations and transfers and may financials any questions on the uh consent agenda Brolin could be one on time though okay all in favor so now we're going to move to new business the first item is a student request for non-resident attendance recommend a motion that the board approve a student request for non-resident attendance as recommended by superintendent Dr John riddle movement sure so um in there I explained what this request is and my specific recommendation on it this is a young person who lives in the area I'm very careful with the private information obviously their parents we have a policy I should

028start there we have a policy 5118 which is about non-resident students attending our schools very rare and this is specifically leading resident and whose parents don't work in employees for teachers is very different that's why it's coming to the poor and this is a child whose parents are actively searching for purchase a home here in town when they 've been contacting me since late May or formal policy Dr abstv finally requested that they come here as a non-residents who can only continue to look for residents as indicated in an mrtu that's also talks about the policy is any student that um is even considered for this must pay intuition that application for this year is 1974 0 with the first payment before it starts in the second payment school year the parents are prepared to

029pay the district that that feat and of course there's lots of rules and regulations that uh foreign this is a worker we have nine sections in grade four with 100 students because it's about 21 students top end range is 21 students right get housing was purchased during the year this is going to be with us anyway so we've made a decision that we could this tell our child to join us for the year and by policy I commend to the board but before I suppose based on my record s and that's our situation thank you for the explanation if you want any questions at what point do they stop paying tuition and what like when they purchase a home or show this population beliefs the but rather than mine that can have that where that

030comes in and if they purchase it they pay the whatever it would be nine nine thousand dollars and you know 9 500 for the first payment but in October they closed on the house we would certainly prior to that based on that but there's a payment every year so if they're in granted permission to the city subject to enroll in any good behavior and all those kind of things then they gave that fee as it decreases and what budget line does that go into can you talk to that please yeah the miscellaneous Revenue line I'm assuming hypothetically if they didn't find a home to purchase but they decided to rent until something became available became residents once they're a resident they are a resident here treated like any other student and once a student is

031admitted with us whatever the program might be if they're they had a difficult domestic situation and they moved in with a family member they're treated like great thanks I can't move forward without board vote and that's why I brought them for you okay any other questions okay all in favor okay is unanimous thank you thank you John I'll contact Academia tomorrow uh next item is the AP history textbook approval okay recommended motion at the board approve the following AP history textbook to be used as a curricular tool and instructional resource for the AP World History Class beginning in the 2023-2024 school year as recommended by the cape subcommittee and assistant superintendent Dr Ann Mann it's moved and seconded you're welcome so Dr Spencer is here tonight to kind of feed a the main East part

032of the Show and Dr Mike already gave a little preview and we included the um a summary in the keep minutes as well as in the packet under exhibit l so similar to when Mr Hill brought forward the AP environmental science textbook as you have heard before AP uh college board awesome updates their curriculum and their programming and so we have to update our resources as well as Dr Mike mentioned this is a class way that the classes were offered and so it's being brought into back into the curriculum it had been offered prior to that as AP World History now the title of the course is Apu world history modern so it's a little bit more specified um a little less general of the entire world history and so it's of course uh that

033as I said um you know at last ran a couple years ago Dr Spencer's going to speak to that and uh that the through the 2324 school year we have 20 minutes and there are 51 students who signed up for it so a large portion of the class um and uh Dr Spencer had a team of her Educators that did a thorough job through there we kind of winnowing down the titles um and she's going she's going to walk us through the exhibit s available that you have and she has also passed around some samples of the textbooks I've already taken a book for Spencer take it away good evening okay so just to explain a little more about the background of how we got to this point the last time we offered AP World

034was around 2018 2019. at that time the course sequences for students was ancient world ancient history world history modern world history U.S history and then government and other electives were available for students after a year-long process the department and the district decided to stop offering ancient history and instead we brought in human geography as a course for all 10th graders it was well received and our modern world which we now call Global themes of course was moved to ninth grade um and U.S history has remained at 11th grade um teachers feel that and students feel that all of these courses are valuable to their education but as far as the sequence is concerned the Human Geography gives students a background in different systems and geography in the way the relationship between culture and where people

035live why they live there so it really orients them well to be prepared for the rest of their studies in history so we decided last year to move into ninth grade so this year all 9th and 10th graders took human geography and now that um 10th grade these students are will be taking Global themes we felt that it was the appropriate time to bring back the AP World History course it is a difficult course um last year we did offer AP Human Geography two ninth and 10th grade students and the College Board markets that course is kind of like an introductory AP course the test itself was about two hours versus the AP World and the US History course which is a three and a half hour test each so this is rigorous there's a

036lot of content and we felt it was more appropriate to be offered at the 10th grade level in the past we had a section of 10th grade students say anywhere from 20 to 25 students taking AP World so that's what I anticipated for this year and we have a very ambitious and eager class of 10th graders this year because we had 51 sign up so they are very excited for this course um and so the next step was to find the textbook because the textbook we had was from 2014 and the course has changed it used to be AP World like from the beginning of time almost and now it starts at 1200 which is still a long time ago but it it does make a difference so we considered six different textbooks we quickly

037whittled it down to two semi-finalists because those two books were the best aligned to the AP course and they were both strong textbooks but in taking a closer look the committee was unanimous and feeling that this Choice was the front runner because it seemed to be written for students it is organized in a way that prompts students about their thinking as they go through there's a really healthy integration of skills and content um there's more art from around the world in this book and as was mentioned before the what's left out as well as some other supplemental primary sources they're there but it's a very interactive text um and so um this was the one that the committee chose uh the teacher for the course attended the preparation and Taft for teachers to teach the

038course and he talked to the instructor there about the textbook who agreed with all the reasons that I just shared with you for why we think it's a good choice so um I'd be happy to answer any any questions that you have I was with Dr Spencer it's also a little cheap ER cheaper than the other access the book from home home school they were able to use their as you can see he said it's really it's an interactive textbook and thank you very much just to reconfirm committee fully supported this unanimous performance excluded in our web choices I said a quick question just curious do most of the textbooks have a you know AP exam practice versus yes so they do however the other textbook we looked at only had a p exam practice

039at the end of each part so the course divided into four parts this book has a practice at the end of each chapter all right thank you very much look forward to hear how many of the 51 said survive the year thank you all right next up on our agenda is that this is the budget adjustment recommend a motion that the board approved the budget adjustment in the amount of 397 579 to account for the supplemental appropriation approved by the boards of Selectmen and finance as recommended by the finance subcommittee do you want to just give a brief overview Ken's coming up just with the audience we did receive approval foreign ninety seven thousand dollars appropriated based on the results that's projected at the end of the day the numbers with practice around them are

040areas where either Revenue exceeded the the budget as in the excess cost revenue or areas where expenditures were lower than the budget such as the salaries supplies and books and regular Transportation the numbers without brackets are areas of where expenditures exceeded the budget such as heating oil especially Transportation Professional Services and tuition and these are areas that you've heard us talk about all year long so projection from roast just to confirm the finance committee that approve this unanimous correct okay are there any questions for Mr post okay hearing none all in favor thank you all right that's it for new business uh we do have a an old business item and this one is an emotion it's just an action that the board receive an update on the correct report um presented by our special

041education director Bill rule so Bill welcome again thank you I'm looking forward to hearing thank you Mr Belden um talk about a little bit it really kills three weeks it is everything I have a complete opportunities um now we're really we are super excited to have Bill here uh you you heard that in public comment obviously he comes with great anticipation and he's already reaching out to families fully integrated with the administrative team the folks that are working ELC in our school e s y our souls excuse me thank you and um really already being part of the candlelight plant ing so we're really actually went over uh and stepped over some equipment on a second day here to make sure we had supplies and materials for the students we're at Center Schools over a

042Candlewood Lake they had gotten I moved over there in the Berkeley he went took care of it so we really appreciate that though um we expect culture to have a big change from where we were this past year again great anticipation we're really excited again connecting with the folks here in town the other piece that's really important is thinking about the Future Vision for special education Bill's going to talk to that a little bit and really evolving our processes we want to make sure that our families feel that our all of our staff are especially especially well organized well first Warm accommodating responses and when we develop IEPs as IEP quality was a big recommendation as we all know in the report is to have IEPs in America they're all everybody collaborating to develop that

043enemy it feels like you we need to get to that Vision so I want to put a few words out like that right um so we're excited for Bill I don't want to continue to take his time he's got about 10 or 12 slides he wants to show us um so thank you Dr Earl and thank you Dr Mann members of the board I'm honored to be here this evening to give you an update on my in the middle of my third week um but to kind of go through um what I've seen in reaching out to families uh emailing phone calls being at pickup and drop off at asy as Dr girl said but also to talk about my entry priorities and much of this is already in motion I realize it within the

044slide I say during the first six months but again with the administrative team at central office reviewing the expectations setting benchmarks setting what we want the vision to be uh in enlisting the concerns from families and listening to concerns and and teachers and staff within the buildings um and again visiting the buildings not just at Center for esy but also at the um middle school and high school and establishing regular meetings with our principals and our administrators I've been at extended school year probably pretty much every day for at least a portion of it while I'm uh integrating myself into the the district and meeting with the students meeting with parents meeting with teachers and to talk about some of the organization in my priorities attending department meetings in each building to align that across

045the across the district as to what our processes are from building to building which will help ease our transitions as students move from one building to the next as they move on in grades next week we have a meeting with the special education PTO but again I've also been in conversation with many parents who've reached out to me and I've reached out to them through emails or phone calls and making sure that they're regular parent meetings to hear their concerns and to integrate what their concerns are into what you're going to see tonight in these slides and again the special education PTO is the official monthly group that we'll be meeting with but again that does not exclude other parents and Community stakeholders who might want to reach out to me and and express their

046their concerns and have questions also uh across across this priority list is the department audit uh regarding programs outplacements budgets and allocations because at the heart of all this we want to do what's right by by students invite by the kids but also demonstrate some physical responsibility so when we're doing this always on my mind as a as a leader is making sure that we're being responsible fiscally to you as members of the board to the district and to the families and uh and the community at Large um one thing that we that we've talked about and in some conversations with parents is a strategic plan that is specific to special education three to five years aligned with the existing District strategic plan and within the correct report there were four domains that were used

047to frame their work for playing tonight I'd like to give you some suggestions and a road map of what I see in these four areas their resources organizational structures and processes student learning and lessons certainly not least communication and collaboration to show what this looks like and where our team is leading us uh over the next 30 60 90 days but throughout the school year so I'd like to begin with resources um you know coordinating professional development Dr Burrell uh referred to it but talking about IEP quality training uh I've just secured an advance to be able to work with our district um to work on IEP quality training many districts have taken part in it I want to make sure that as we move forward as I have the the uh the ability to

048start and look at processes and systems and structures that we look at our IEPs and we go through some quality training as to how we're writing present levels how we're writing goals and objectives how are we measuring them how we're collecting data however progress monitors when we're doing uh professional learning for staff we want to make sure that the that the professional learning is relevant to their roles that it's targeted to what they are doing with our with our students in the schools and again this isn't uh for one of a better terminal one and done these sessions that we're talking about in terms of professional development and needs would be over the course of the year so we can revisit them and uh look at them and see if we need to adjust any

049of our our expectations from when we were doing our first sessions uh and finally within resources developing A needs assessment which goes along with my prior slide about uh Department audit um making sure that our presentations as I said before are relevant and making sure that they are aligned from school to school and from staff to staff and making sure that the message that's received that we are student-centered we are student focused and that our professional development leads to even more uh intensive instruction and measurement of goals and objectives and the ability to show how students Master the content at their level within an IEP and again we're looking at that for this fall uh the second area was organizational excuse this organizational structures and processes so this again is looking to align the pieces

050an in-depth evaluation of Staff resources and Professionals of them in our specialized programs again I like to make sure that we're always aligned with our district strategy and our goals and our strategic plan goal number four was to continuously improve District systems and structures in alignment with the portrait of The Graduate speaking from a special education point of view making sure that we adopt that within our school operations to best support quality education collaborating with crack on the review of specialized programs as we spoke about to address concerns on Staffing IEP compliance and budgeting and as we do this review as we were talking about before engaging the community engaging parents on their concerns to be able to embed some of those areas into what we're doing with this moving forward and also I think

051this is important to get the voices of Staff within the buildings a professional development committee that will guide topics throughout the process I I talk about relevant topics throughout this presentation I need to know and we need to know as a team what's most important for our teachers to learn what topics can they bring to us that are that is relevant and that we can use as a basis for growth uh and to provide the specialized instruction on a level that uh includes all of our staff throughout the district I talked about it in June with the board on our specialized self-contained programs and on outplacements correct something uh originally back last fall I had talked about and this is something now that the program review is complete and we're using that on move us

052forward this will be another source of data to move us forward and crack is it starting to initiate that work with Bill Wright correct and this allows us thank you Dr brilco it allows us to drill down in the specialized programs where we can really I think make an impact and uh create some change within them to make sure that our most vulnerable students receive the supports that they need on an ongoing basis our third slide third slide of nine and it's probably number six I haven't counted lately um student learning so when you're looking at a district-wide data system and we're looking at subgroups like special education uh we should be able to analyze that at the district building grade department at classroom levels regularly and that only happens when we have these pieces

053aligned um the portrait of The Graduate clear performance standards checkpoints and curriculum integration but what I really want to emphasize here is making sure we are examining and analyzing the data on a regular basis looking at where we're at with goals and objectives looking at our progress monitoring system looking at our intervention systems to talk about referrals to special education this goes from pre-k through through age 22 with our with our students that are that are post High School ensuring Fidelity it's not only the portrait of The Graduate areas but making sure that when we're in CT sets and we're in year two of that implementation that we're making sure that the data in there is realistic relevant uh understandable for parents understandable for teachers and that it makes sense for what the student needs

054and only through regular monthly examination analysis of this data both within our departments on a building level but also district-wide which is why I'm I'm really happy that that we can start aligning this in a kind of a pyramid way to sort of make sure that at every level we're taking that that drilled down kind of look and again getting granular on the data to make sure that we are serving our students the best way that they learn in the best way that we can demonstrate their understanding with them and finally uh this is probably for me the most important in terms of establishing communication and collaboration with our families with our teachers with our staff um regular school-based visits I've spoken in the letter that I sent out to parents and I'll say it

055again tonight um I'm very visible I'm very approachable uh it's it's not hard to find me uh I I'm reachable by phone in person emails uh and that's you know evidenced by the the meetings I've already had your parents and the phone calls I've had um making sure the special education teams know that the support is coming from the director through our supervisory team into our buildings and making sure that I know by just being there and observing it myself with my own two eyes uh the daily routines that are expected in schools and be able to support that and reinforce it um again engagement with staff in the community can't be understated or overstated uh we need to strengthen those relationships within each building we need to strengthen the relationships with families we need

056to strengthen the relationships with our students and to make sure again alignment is a word that I that I use throughout this presentation uh providing access support and ongoing communication for Clear expectations and I think that's key as well so make sure that everyone knows what the expectations are and to produce at that level again I spoke about my Open Door style my visibility what I want to bring is a positive culture and the only way you do that is by modeling it I could write memos I could write letters but until you see me doing it until you see me in the buildings and know that I'm that I'm there and I'm able to have conversations with you as well as with the community um it's not real until you see it done in

057person um and again weekly visits to each building observing classrooms it's not going to be oh Bill's here uh it's going to be a regular that the expectation is that I'm in the buildings the expectation is that I'm in the classrooms in addition to my duties as director at central office to make sure that we connected to make sure that I can see how we're implementing what we're implementing and to be able to support coach provide suggestions and to be able to meet with the teams and to be able to monitor that in a realistic way and in a visible way um in closing I'd like to speak about the special education department strategic plan I spoke about it earlier in the presentation but again the plan that we're working on and in my letter

058to parents I I asked for volunteers to engage with with us on this it's aligned with the district strategic play but we want to make sure that we have a framework for special education that addresses those four domains in the correct program review but also addresses the concerns that we've all heard that we want to make sure that we're addressing and improving upon the process is going to be to develop a coherent structure by listening and creating and working through a process that supports student learning and IEP implementation whether it's the IEP quality training special at tto meetings any sort of structure or system that can bring us more information to create this strategic plan is what I'm looking for and what we're looking for as a team again the strategic planning team is going

059to be in collaboration with Dr Brill Dr man you the board members staff members in every building I want to have student voice in this because that's crucial to being to making sure that we're doing right by them families and Community stakeholders articulating the why why do we need to do this what's the outcome what's the why behind every great idea that someone puts forth is but why are we doing it if we can explain the why we're well on the road to to uh being able to have a strategic plan that's workable and realistic and serves our students again establishing Norms expectations looking at Trends looking at data this allows us to prioritize areas that need the outcomes and what the impact is both within a building even within a classroom and District life

060um just like those of us who've done curriculum mapping um creating essential questions that guide the process so within the Strategic plan just like when we're doing curriculum mapping which is as you're mapping you're you're asking what's the essential question what do we need to be referring back to I want to with our team create those essential questions to keep us focused on the task at hand uh and again I've said it and I want to keep saying it listening feedback from all areas of the district through conversation through meetings and accessibility whether that's staff administrators students family or the community at large but especially with the board and at this point as I close I'd just like to request that I come to you not only just tonight but on a regular basis I

061would request that I have time on a regular basis to meet with you and give you the updates as we move through this process to be able to keep you apprised of it and to be able to have you ask questions and get feedback on what we're doing and why we're doing it so I want to be able to articulate the why for you on a regular basis and I thank you for your time tonight I'm also if there are questions I'm happy to entertain those here um so I think that is probably the most comp 12 flat out introduction to an new special director that I've seen and I've got a lot of them so first I want to say welcome thank you thank you for providing that I just had one small question

062sure um you mentioned audience on programs and outplacements what does that really entail and how often do you anticipate doing so so when I use the term audits apart from in conjunction with the correct piece on the specialized programs when I think audits in terms of our department I think it's almost a departments in each School almost classroom by classroom to elicit what are the needs what What do teachers feel they need in terms of training in terms of uh learning about new techniques behavioral social emotional pieces like that so when I'm looking at an audit I'm trying to find out what we need both physically in terms of what supplies might be or what new programs we might need but also to get a sense of what the needs are of the teachers what

063I see and what we see when we're observing what the needs are in in a classroom and in a building as as you all know within every building there's a culture and within that culture there are needs for each department my feeling with what I presented tonight is that an audit provides us the opportunity to say within each building and even within each classroom this is what the needs are to be able to kind of combine that into a um almost not even numerical but just sequential list of the needs for social emotional seem to be this what can we do about it articulating the why like on your own underground I think I think it's going to be both I think it's going to be starting informally and kind of conversations and checking in

064with our supervisors and with principals and administrators and I think by the Fall I think by the next time I I speak with you we could have a more formal process I don't want to overlap with other things that we're doing but I also don't want to lose the opportunity to hit the ground running and give us a chance to see you know underneath what people will say about oh I wish we had more PD in this or I wish we had this uh social emotional tool what is that going to look like in your classroom and where's that need really coming from is it a changing demographic is it a change in students is it a change in behaviors all those things I think through my visits and my conversations will then allow me

065to maybe structured so I would say almost like a cliffhanger the next time we talk there'll be there'll be more of a structure so be a sequel you know thank you thank you return to the director or something so what's your vision for the supervisor to see that fitting into your sure uh as a former supervisor I think they are the on the ground representatives in the building of the department they are um not just sharing pvts there's there's more to a supervisory role in that it's again I think you know evaluating teachers but also being the eyes and ears in the building for special education being The Advocates in our meetings when we have our weekly uh department meetings with what I have with supervisors to talk about what they see in the buildings

066from a special education point of view I think I've got a two-pronged approach here which is I'm speaking with principals I'm speaking with building leaders but for me as a former supervisor we were the ones that could go back to central office and this is what my expectations are for the surprise to be able to say again this is what I'm seeing this is what we need and to kind of combine with my my visits but they're on the ground uh in classrooms every day so I I bet that's kind of how I see their their role did they answer today okay so I make sure I didn't I'll Short change the answer it's unengaging obviously not only the special education staff but the general educations teachers and I think you know it's oftentimes those

067of us who've been in special education um we've gone back and forth sometimes we want our own professional development we want to make sure that we're doing our own thing but we also want to be part of the larger Community I think I have an opportunity to be able to have those conversations in terms of whether it's intervention systems or classroom teachers talking about inclusion talking about co-teaching talking about how IEPs are implemented in the classroom I know as a as a case manager and as a teacher and way back as a para when I was helping to implement the IEP but as a case manager I'm now in a position where I can create opportunities for Gen Ed teachers to ask the questions that they might want to know about an IEP because there's

068so much in IEPs that we all know there's there's all the goals objectives and sometimes there's jargon and sometimes there's there's pieces in there that seem so dense and all the general education teacher wants to know is how's that what does that look like in my classroom tell me what that should look like and to be able to coach them through and I think the supervisors are part of that but I also think it's a culture shift of making it so that special education is specialized in structure for our students with IEPs but it's also a lot of the specialized instructions best practices so to be able to introduce that and have those conversations and to say if you don't understand something in IEP it's okay to ask and it's okay to not know because

069he says it's different but I'll go back to on the page eight accommodations sometimes that's as a teacher you're you're focused on that you want to make sure that you get it right on page eight but there's other elements of that that you can look at from reading strategies math strategies what are we doing to make sure that this student understands the four operations in in math what we're looking at in IEP could be incorporated into a whole classroom activity so I want to make sure that there's uh incorporation of the general education classroom not only just for inclusion but in terms of how we do what we do we do enjoys question it's important for folks to know Bill is already working with building Administration here left this one outbound it's very important and

070uh kudos to you bill is taking the vision of the supervisory model that we implemented about years ago where we wanted our regular education to be carving time and developing time to be part of more more a part of this decision-making process in those ppts resources he's already doing that work and that's part of the vision that I think didn't come to fruition and covet had a real impact on that and he certainly need to pay the time and we're going to work that through it's not just the principles it's a system principles it's the department heads could be a part of that as a big partner but I want to get too deep in the weeds here questions so one more quickly I'm just I'm sure this is what you meant but when you

071go and do classroom observations is that engagement with the students um it's not just strictly absurd no no I I wouldn't be in this in this profession if I didn't like working with kids and I think when we talk about the energy you get in a classroom and the energy you get from that that give and take that you have with kids that's part of the reward of this of this job is to be able to still have that connection to the classroom I'm on a level where I can help support and move systems and structures but at the end of the day the interaction with the student that's that's what you remember for the rest of the day and that's what you remember from your classes so all right hearing no other questions um

072bill for three and a half weeks wow I love your energy thank you you asked if you could have a regular time with us I'll speak through the board absolutely but thank you love to hear it I actually think it's important to have to give you a platform absolutely or what you're doing um and if you need anything in your journey here here right speak up thank you because our job is to make you strong right and I I appreciate the support Mr Belden from both the board from our central Office Team and from the staff and the parents of the community it's been a very warm welcome and I I hope to do right by our students and by the district thank you thank you okay um that's it can I join you um

073all right we're back to public comment uh for those of you who had signed up or who are not on items that were on the agenda we're going to do those now and I'll just remind you it's three minutes per speaker need name and address at the beginning can't talk about individual Personnel uh staff or board so first up on the list is uh is that's cool too New York one Spike actually that house does not say okay uh Jeremy Farrell a second on the list and then Linda you're you're third almost hello uh Jeremy Farrell 13 South Lake Shore Drive um so first of all uh yes I did sign up to talk about the books and I am very sorry I'm sure you all are very exhausted about the books as of I

074I promise you that um at least from my perspective that the people I know members of the queer Community you don't enjoy these conversations either they're not very fun they're not excited um but I wanted to come up and say something that I believe um I believe should be said because when I was watching the meeting last week um I realized that I don't know how many queer individuals you've actually heard from up here um I don't believe you've heard from very many up here and I don't know how many are hearing from behind the scenes um and while I do want to say I do not speak for my community as a whole and I do not expect this to change anybody's minds of course I do think it deserves to be said thank

075you very much have a wonderful night thank you um Linda Davies 30 luminona Drive Brookfield Connecticut and I do not thank you very much I'm here tonight to talk about a federal lawsuit filed by two former Brookfield High School students alleging School administrators and the police failed to take appropriate action when a former Brookfield police officer obtained nude images of several underage girls at the school and began sharing them on social media according to the court complaint compliant two plaintiffs say they were contacted in 2021 by a friend who recognized one of the plaintiffs in nude images being shared on Instagram both were minors at the same at the time the images were taken although the woman initially went to Brookfield Police Department to file a complaint the court complaint alleges the police department failed

076to follow through with their investigation and did not contact the Department of Children and Families DCF then they went to the Danbury Police Department who put them in contact with the Department of Homeland Security which launched this investigation DHS eventually centered on officer Stephen rantos the school resource officer assigned to Brookfield High School the DHS investigation determined the pictures were illegally obtained by hacking into their social media accounts and that the images of the plaintiffs had been found pursuant to a search warrant on his cell phone the Department of Children and Families DCF they went to the Danbury Police Department who put them in contact with the Department of Homeland Security which then lost and it launched an investigation DHS eventually centered up around us the DHS investigation determines the pictures were illegally obtained by

077hacking into their social media accounts and the images of the place plaintiffs had been found pursuant to a search warrant on a cell phone okay the bombshell findings by DHS resulted in rotano's determination high school principal Mark belanda reportedly took a leave of absence following wrote no's admission resulting in two interim principles one of whom resigned according to the lawsuit the Lander returned from his leave of absence and remains as the high school principal the lawsuit was filed not only against rotonos but against the Brookfield Board of Education the Brookfield superintendent Brookfield Police Department the Brookfield police chief the initial investigating order and the high school principal alleging they failed to properly supervise or tanas alert the necessary authorities and follow through with their investigation I want you to know that by allowing that book

078in and having something like this happen in the school system has hurt our community has hurt our school and something has to be done about this you need to be more transparent the good old boys have got to stop running the school I've worked here for three decades and I've seen it myself this is embarrassing to our town this is embarrassing to our state thank you [Applause] all right that's it for public comment um it's a items left and for those of you who are here I think we have some pictures from the uh of the new school and they'll give us an update yeah okay yeah it'd probably be the best way and while they're getting ready um roses you know pictures worth a thousand words we're always going to go through the updated

079pictures I have a lot to share on the progress of the school and where we're at Communications okay first so um obviously we're extremely excited we are down in the wire it is getting close so what's really important for everybody to understand is that um you see a lot of work going on Candlewood Lake Road the road's been wide in the cycler has begun we've known since uh since about a year ago that the site work will be something that's ongoing with a permanent parking lot a temporary parking lot this fall until all of the asphalts ready and so there's a lot of work that you'll see the bustle is outside in the front of the Huckleberry itself has the gym has been demolished at this point so we can start more work on the

080front of the new school in terms of the bridge over the uh the Waterway and so that's going on but on the inside just had an NBC meeting last night and the school at this point is at on the interior is about 95 percent done and they are bustling about in the school so we're getting really excited about that um really important to know that we met as a Candlewood Lake administrative team today with the project manager and we have another meeting scheduled next Wednesday where we will finalize kind of really hard dates as to when we're going to communicate um a kindergarten orientation what date will that be um can we involve the buses with that so kindergartners can get practice on the buses going to the school when will our teachers if their

081schedule is allowed on a volunteer basis be able to get into their classrooms and start to unpack some of those 50 boxes that are sitting in their classroom and when can our grades one through five students and parents in an organizing or Safeway get in there and take a look a lot of this will probably have to happen after work hours there's so many workers in the building to make sure we're ready we don't want to get in a way we don't want to ask them to stop working so they'll probably be after hours or even weekend opportunities for these kind of so it's really important that I started with that we're looking at the date of August the week of August 14th we're plannable that that'll probably be the week where at some point

082we can start to have our teachers safely navigate their way through and spend some time in their classroom the next week week of August 21st would likely be the week maybe not on August 21st but sometime in that week in the subsequent week and a half after toward Labor Day would be where we would schedule the different business Es as far as an orientation um and of course everything is provocated on safety and Readiness in fact tomorrow excuse me Friday we have a building inspection and I believe a fire inspection and that that will be on a walk through Joy I think you're joining me any board members who want to join please do Dr Mann will be there and we're looking forward to that really exciting so I'm going to go through some of

083the things that have been completed and then Rose will show the pictures main office we have two 12-month secretaries that's Mrs Ruggles and Mrs flown along with Dr pets Austin month administrator We Believe we're hopeful and see how the inspection goes on Friday that at some point next week they'll be working from the main office ready to go um playscape and small Wares smallwares are anything from safe loaders to step schools all the kinds of things custodial supplies um everything is either out to bid or been ordered a POS has been cut the place able is finally approved for that 22 save reimbursement that we received from the state it was signed off on today so we're looking forward to getting the PO out on that ordering getting them on a Premium Rush delivery Priority

084Rush delivery classrooms floors are done cleaning is being scheduled for the rooms in many of the rooms upstairs the furniture is in place or aren't quite ready yet for the logo the boxes are being moved into their proper rooms it's important for everybody to know the Huckleberry teacher materials have been moved to the school they've been in a common area they haven't all been in the classrooms yet those are getting moved soon the center school materials teacher materials are getting moved on tomorrow and Friday that's happening all day on both days we're still waiting on hateful whiskey here part of that is there's purposeful waiting there this school supplies that normally become in the center school at Huckleberry in grade five over the summer all were stationed and delivered to Whiskey here in the summer

085so that part of the whiskey deer move they'll come over and be delivered to the proper places in the school segment the grade three to five wing and Bob get attest to this is practically done in those classrooms the carpeting and so forth and flooring there and Furniture Pre-K hallways are practically complete along the kindergarten hallway now with the the pile of carpet tiles grade one and two halls getting ready to do those Market titles in the hallways there so we're getting very close in the common large space areas um floor coverings are starting to come up you'll see pictures tonight of the lower cafeteria and some hallways with gleaming terrazzo floor it's been covered by plywood to protect it that's starting to come up now which when a person walks through really now you

086start to see a finished building because plug was down on the floor it feels very unfinished so that's another exciting opportunity that's coming up and that also means that the workers aren't dragging all kinds of materials through if we're able to expose the floors the multi-purpose room we're looking probably at that third week of August and pouring the floor that's a process and there's finished work that has to happen on the walls in the multi-purpose room and in the gross motor space and they don't want to tear the floors after they pour them so they need to finish the ceiling working organ the gym has always been scheduled as one of the last last finished the hardwood is in the gym ready to be installed and the walls are being worked on to finish up

087technology Eric did a lot of finished work with the team today we're pretty much ready to go I mentioned phones earlier computers Smartboard um working on cameras to make sure they're all up and ready utilities because people have asked about that I mean we've got natural gas to the school we've got the fire Alliance to the school the Wi-Fi is working um the I think I show them to the board I don't know if we had them in the last June 7th meeting the model police station water fountains those are you know the Plumbing's working and this is this is good stuff the safe work I started to talk about before you'll see sidewalks and Courtyards really getting here finished looking really good I mentioned the Huckleberry gym we have a picture of parking and

088driveway lots of work to go still the psych work folks really do move fast and so there's a little hiccup with some soil in terms of its durability so they're working on that but we've got to to go because it's important for everybody to know we're going to have we have finished parking lot about 280 spaces we have about 200 people at any time working in that school when you when you carry your orders everybody else the roads being white and as I said the two Bridges should be on site and installation starting on the first week in August which is you know less than 10 days away talked about the playscapes again I mentioned those milestones in terms of any Communications album but I think we can wait let Rose do the pictures now

089and then Joey's going to send it for name and we'll talk a little bit about dates and things like thank you for your time all right so Administrative Office totally done Furniture is set up so the principles should hopefully be able to start working from there conference room actually looks like fully finished room furniture technology up another view of that and this is the administrative Corridor which the last time I was in there was still pretty undecisely looking what you can't see here is the this has the sun um the skylight on the top so you get a lot of natural light even though it's a enclosed space some flooring in the Pre-K areas the Cubbies are still protected with the plastic but now there's nothing in these classrooms and the floors are looking beautiful

090and the color is obviously coordinating with the neighborhood themes more classroom pictures blue yellow which I believe is for sure what neighborhood is yellow what about second grade yeah oh well I don't have the theme memorizing I apologize it's grasslands grasslands carpet tiles look really nice and even the carpet tiles have the have color within them so they kind of color coordinate as well and the furniture all the furniture still needs to be delivered to individual classrooms but it's there so that's good the tundra right I think this is fifth grade yeah and the lower cap chorazo flooring so that's been that the oven they're still obviously more finishing the work that needs to be done on the wall art there the wall installations polished up it looks beautiful and the gym acoustic wall paneling

091so all the wood that you see is the flooring that drill was mentioning and the acoustic paneling that's going up there as well and the gym door dividers which I think are on the next there they are yeah yep the uh these large I think can you go back one further for a second yeah uh no we've seen before I apologize there's a partition is in the next light zone there you go petition for the gym there the gym locker room Corridor I think it's an important reminder rose that it's you show this locker room some people like get excited about a lot from others because they care less important that it's done not only for facilities for our students but but the new school it's fully as a full generator it will be used

092as an emergency shelter for that side of town so it's very important for people to know that this is a community project the media center circulation desk is in and I think on the next picture yep we'll be able to see a nice view of the graphic that's in there so the whole school the theme of Nature and made into into the local landscape as well as architectural design is just throughout the building so it's really looking quite beautiful and I love this continuation of the ceiling with the lights that really ties the lower part of the media center into the upper one it's very beautiful and the vertical look door so so this is going to be do you anticipate this being open most of the time it depends on the nature of how

093the librarian feels it you know is going to be used what's right about it is it makes that's from the main hole main hall driver's back is to the multi-purpose room to the lower Media Center that entire barrage opening door makes it one large open space obviously it's down and safe and can hold and then there's a regular door on the side that you would walk through so it all depends on the activity and more of the terrazzo flooring Rosie he could just pause there for a second so when it says West Corridor if to orient people if you're standing on Candlewood Lake Road facing up the hill that's normal so anything that says last in the next couple of size is the kind of toward the moving forward backward into the back part of

094the school this actually is kind of Central in the school it's the end of the main part of the main hallway the plywood in the main hallway has not been taken up yet but Maine Hall will have this similar Terrazzo look uh kind of mirrors the still River and the water in the nature theme is part of this this is a main Corridor um before the neighborhoods but after kind of the common areas of the gym and the sidewalks so the sidewalks are going in which really this is going around this is around the side so this is West Side here rosa sauce for everybody orientation this is the back of the school so there's a full egress sidewalk for fire egress and emergency grass and backside as well and the amphitheater Courtyard this is

095looking beautiful stuff is starting to grow there's sidewalks the wood is finished on the seating so this is looking really nice that's just another view from the back looking at the school and this is the East Brook the actual Eastbrook which after all the rain we've had is Flowing quite nicely um that's actually really nice out of school it's great and so not only do we on this not only as a reminder for everybody this is the front of the school so so we're looking down or down the brook really we have the two bridges that will cross as well as the the wooden Footbridge and there's also an entrance on land on the north side of the school so it's through four different entrances to the front of the school but we literally students

096were excited about this but but the staff needs it it's great for security we have remote from the school so we had some fun with that part of the building that's Pre-K now is that we're looking down from the north side this is kind of near the you see some orange fencing in the top left see that orange fencing top left that is on the construction fence around the Footbridge so that's that Footbridge on again faces the school left side and the widening of Candlelight Road the attorney Lane going into the school and from the other direction as well and lastly the demolition of Huckleberry right CDC were some lower level classrooms and the local gym the gym the main theme park there and it's from the new school looking at so close wow I

097know you've done a lot of visiting in the school I didn't know if you had anything I I I will I will say when they say it's 95 it's feeling it feels like there's the big things left to do with flooring in some places and finishing touches and then the outside yeah would look a lot like Construction fall I think it's important to be fully transparent um we plan to move in at this point looking at this you know we're being very realistic we don't know that it will be 100 shiny and perfect will be a few things that aren't done we're preparing the staff of that we want to prepare the board for that in the public um and get them ready for that but kind of like when you renovate your house or

098you're building a home when it's safe to move in that's one thing but the manhole fireplace might not be ready or the backsplash might not be complete and while those things might be irritating it doesn't mean you can't have a great experience making an organized safe and fun adventure getting okay thank you John okay you're awesome any questions okay uh three main points I was thinking definitely the correct update uh the Candlewood Lake Elementary School update and then I actually thought that Joy's um summary in the facilities everything happening in the facilities committee was important because there's a lot of work going on in the other schools that people don't usually hear about so yeah that's right updated you know I'll give you updated notes like what we gathered tonight and maybe we can even

099fold in a little bit more of the week because we have some info on the locker room I don't want to fully talk about a lot of room in the ball fields yeah it may be the first time we have a committee reports okay uh thank you Debbie upcoming events okay so there's no upcoming event so from now until August 16th our next meeting there's no upcoming events at BHS in the middle school too but for Canada Lake Elementary School we'd like to say that there will be a kindergarten orientation that will be scheduled as well as agreeds one through five orientation an updated letter will be coming will be sent to parents and staff by August 1st so and like John mentioned this Friday will be the building of our in inspection which will

100determine the next steps moving forward and the week of August 14th we're hoping that the faculty will be able to come in and set up their classrooms in an orally fashion on their own time volunteer obviously and that's really it as far as welcome events a whole lot happening in the summer just do a little plug here for the public library only upcoming event really is that our summer reading program is underway at the Brookfield Library we still have tons of programs for kids and teens and they have until August 11th I believe it is Friday August 11th to complete our summer reading challenges and the government lots of kids at the library thank you okay that's it for our agenda tonight um we will be going into executive session we'll take a motion to

101do that momentarily for those of you who are watching uh on on TV or on streaming um the the broadcast will end at this point in time so go ahead recommended motion that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendents contract Okay so we've been seconded all in favor okay good night everybody