Board of Education Meeting

001[Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] all right good evening everybody I'd like to welcome everybody to the uh May 3rd 2023 uh regular meeting of the Board of Education in Brookfield Connecticut um I'll call call us to order we have all our members of the Board of Education are here I'm Dr Burrell and Dr Mann and please join me for 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 um okay so um first up tonight we have a big crowd here tonight this is great um first up tonight um I want to make a couple of proclamations on behalf of the board um you know it it may not be

002obvious but this is teacher and staff appreciation week so the board always wants to recognize our teachers and our staff and our nurses because it's also Nurse Appreciation Week for all the great work they do for everybody so if you bear with me I'm going to read some proclamations and we'll have a representative of the teachers union and then from the nurses Union come up so Teachers Appreciation Week whereas Brookfield teachers opened children's Minds to the magic of ideas knowledge and dreams and B whereas Brookfield teachers keep America democracy Alive by laying the foundation for good citizenship and see I'm sorry and whereas Brookfield teachers demonstrate a passion for teachers that inspires enthusiasm for learning and whereas Brookfield teachers fill many roles as listeners explorers Role Models motivators and mentors and whereas Brookfield teachers are

003the key to the quality and success of the Brookfield schools and whereas Brookfield teachers continue to influence our children long after their school days are only memories is all that the Brookfield Board of Education supports and endorses May 8th to May 12 2023 as teacher and staff appreciation week and that the board extends its wholehearted appreciation to Brookfield teachers for their outstanding contribution to the children of our community and urge all members of our community to take the time to recognize and acknowledge the impact the teachers on our and our children's lives so I'd like to invite Tara Nygaard as a representative of the Brookfield [Applause] and and for our nurses whereas through their skill and expertise our nation's School nurses helped to foster a healthy nurturing community in which our children can learn and

004grow and whereas most often School nurses are the first and sometimes the only line of defense against illnesses and conditions our students face making their contribution to the education and Welfare of the student population invaluable and whereas the nature of the profession calls on their ability to take roles beyond that of a health provider acting as a teacher a confidante mentor and friend to the students of Connecticut whereas today's society presents students with an overwhelming number of physical social and mental ills and School nurses have become an essential component of the effective health programs both in and out of the classroom whereas the overwhelming dedication School nurses show to their profession and to the children they care for stands as a testament to their commitment to the success of Connecticut's future Generations now therefore be

005it resolve that the Brookfield Board of Education supports and endorses May 10 2023 as School nurses day and that the board extends its wholehearted appreciation to the Brookfield nurses for their outstanding contribution to the children of our community and we urge all members of our community to take the time to recognize and acknowledge the roles of these nurses on their and our children's lives please join me in having Beth O'Connor come in and accept our thanks for everything thank you and while Beth is up here it is important to acknowledge and remind everybody we did acknowledge her a couple of months ago Beth is retiring after over 20 years with the school district and serving our students okay and the third item under our recognition is um the uh our annual hrra uh Houston tonic

006resource recovery Authority annual poster contest so Dr Brown I don't know if you want to make any opening remarks sure I'm good can you hear me on the mic because it didn't work before okay thank you um yes so I I really as we just saw Mr Belden and thank you for the proclamations it is an evening of celebrations uh as will the the June meeting be as well there's just so much to celebrate in Spotlight and uh and highlight frankly of all the incredible work that goes on day in and day out in our school district whether it's with our families and our students who are here tonight uh our faculty our staff our Administration um it's just uh incredible and I couldn't be more proud um and I'm just so excited um we

007we annually do the HR ra poster contest we have lots of participation I think our turnout this year is in the 170 to 180 range um near record high for us and Lisa gramling the Board of Education superintendent secretary leads this project for us annually and it is an annual award-winning project and so I'd like to have Lisa come up and talk a little bit about the project itself and then introduce the students in our different winners that we have tonight that are here with us in parents when it's time for students to come up please feel free to come up take pictures enjoy and know that this is also on video so this will all be captured for you as well Thank you Lisa you're welcome and am I on yes welcome to the

00816th annual Housatonic resources recovery Authority poster contest award ceremony or as we call it the hrra we are so happy that all of you could join us this evening this is really uh such a fun project to be a part of and I am glad to take the lead on that I am Lisa gramling I am the secretary to Dr Burrell and also the coordinator for the HRA for Brookfield um a little background on this contest we typically started off in January where the HRA gives us the templates to distribute to the students and in the middle to end of February those uh submissions need to be sent to the local coordinators at each building um the most important thing about this contest is the theme that the hrra gives us so does anybody remember

009what that theme was anybody remember recycle outside the box remember because that's why you guys are here and you did a great job so uh anyway so the buildings judged the posters uh first second third place and then those entries come to central office where we take all of the first place by grade and send it off to be judged regionally and that happens typically in the middle of March and after that the HRA has their big judging and then they have their big celebration which is typically the last weekend uh the last week of April so I'm sure the regional winners that we have um here this evening were there um so again recycle outside the bin it was a very important theme to The HRA this year um just some facts that we

010had 173 participants this year and five Regional winners so you guys did an outstanding job yeah yes absolutely and so um that's really basically the nuts and bolts of the whole contest those of you that won regionally I believe last week you probably got your artwork back so um you'll get a ribbon tonight but I believe you should have your artwork if you don't please let me know a huge thank you to the HRA and the principals and the secretary's teachers and all of the coordinators in the building because we just could not do this without you so um we are going to start this now with our littlest artists and this is various if you could come and help me please so we're going to start right here so our first artist is kindergarten

011first place and also second place Regional winner Brynn Clarkson kindergarten second place is Isabella you Isabella here no okay kindergarten third place Isabella is here Isabella's here yay kindergarten third place Isla Whitmore not here okay first grade first place uh and Regional Regional honorable mention is Rico Flores first grade second place is Luca hanlack are you still here no all right one more for Center School first grade third place Bridget field is Bridget here yes thank you all right Mrs ferius thank you so much Dr P would you like to come up and help me our second grade first place and first place Regional winner is Christian Metz thank you second grade second place is Avery D'Souza can you agree with us all right [Music] second grade third place is Tyler Freeman third grade first

012place is Natalie ziegelmeyer third grade second place is Kaylee Clarkson third grade third place Evelyn chatino [Applause] fourth grade first place Drew fries [Applause] fourth grade second place Natalie Freeman foreign third place Jason noon okay Mr Renda you're up on to Whiskey near our fifth grade first place is Amber Zhang fifth grade oops sorry fifth grade second place is Brianna Lynn fifth grade third place is nikhail manawar thank you sixth grade first place is Brian Rowe sixth grade second place is Caitlin Lynch and sixth grade third place is Bryce Korea foreign ER I do not think we had any uh seventh or 8th grade entries so Mr belanda on to ninth grade we'll start with the ribbon right up top ninth grade first place and first place Regional winner Alexandra contras 9th grade second place

013is Catherine Henderson [Applause] laughs ninth grade third place is Rebecca batterton and finally this was our uh grand prize Regional winner last year this is 10th grade first place and first place Regional winner Alvina Bilal I think that's it so congratulations to all our winners to everybody that submitted an entry thank you so much and hope we see you next year thank you for your time thank you well thank you all for coming thanks everybody congratulations thank you Mrs gramling um so bored I had a request from our student representative because she has a conflicting meeting this evening if we could move her up to next on the agenda would you all be okay with that could I have a motion to move item seven to the next item on the agenda moved in a

014second okay so I moved in second all in favor all right Caitlin thank you so much all right hi everyone it's been a while since my last report um so I do have a lot of updates today um starting off the BHS PTO had its monthly meeting on April 20th they discussed several topics including the recognition of teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week providing options for student athletes to eat after school possible fundraisers a review of The District's strategic plan and how to increase parent involvement in the organization the next meeting will be held on May 18th at 6 30 in the BHS Library a group of ninth grade earth science students visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on April 25th and students visited the American or no students were lucky

015to experience a show in the Hayden Planetarium our college and career counselor Mrs Usher worked with New Milford High School to Chaperone a field trip to Penske Automotive Group in Fairfield on April 25th students were able to learn about careers in the automotive industry and got to see some unbelievably high-end Porsches peer counseling held its annual head shaving event on April 27th to raise money for Childhood Cancer Research Chick-fil-A came to support the vent participants had a great time left with a lot less hair and felt good about supporting a great cause senior prom is next Friday May 12th at the Kenwood Inn with a red carpet theme we are very excited about that several state and local award ceremonies are coming up the ciac Unified sports had their award ceremony on May 1st the

016swc leadership awards are May 4th The ciac Scholar athlete awards are May 7th and the Western Connecticut superintendents Association awards are on May 15th the BHS celebration of Excellence will take place on Monday June 5th at 6 PM in the BHS Auditorium the BHS School climate committee is sponsoring a clean day on Saturday May 20th from 9 to 1. student volunteers will be super supervised by BHS staff and will help to spruce up spaces and just create a cleaner School environment the BHS music department concert will be held on the evening of May 23rd in the auditorium and then the National Honor Society is holding a 5K race on Mother's Day to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma lymphoma Foundation registration is open now also for the National Honor Society we will be inducting

017new members and that will be held on May 25th in the evening in the BHS Auditorium the BHS grad walk takes takes place on June 13th with graduate graduates visiting all schools in their caps and gowns the BHS graduation and festivities will take place on Saturday June 17th with a Car Parade for the 2023-2024 oh no I'm sorry for the 2023 graduates um the ceremony is starting at 11 15 in the morning um scheduling for the 2023 to 2024 school year is well underway the Administration has determined how many sections of each course that will run next year and the next step is building the skeleton for the schedule AP testing began this past Monday May 1st and continues through May 12th next week Mr Tong is holding a study session for the AP statistics

018Exam right now which I'll be attending after this report so thank you Mr Belden for moving me up um finally in May 1st was Bobcat destination day so graduating seniors were closed to Showcase their Pursuits for After High School I proudly wore my University of North Carolina Wilmington sweatshirt around school thank you all for listening today so are there any questions for Caitlin before we let it go to her study group all right thank you Caitlin thank you congratulations thank you so much goodbye um so bored I'd like to change up another item on the agenda we do have families here who are involved with the um the student Spotlight which is talking about the recent French Exchange program I'd like to move that to next and then I'd also like to just we only

019have three people signed up for public speaking I'd like to let them all speak at the beginning right so that they don't have to sit through our rather long agenda tonight if that's okay with all of you that's an exception is that okay so take a motion to um move uh item six to the next item on the agenda second I have a sec do I have a second Amy's second okay um all in favor all right okay so we're going to do the student Spotlight on the French exchange students thank you Mr Belinda I really appreciate you doing that what did I just say I got Mr Poland on the brain I mean it elevated him I have more hair than he does sorry Mr Belden sorry Mr belanda so Mr Belden thank you

020for doing that I publicly as we get ready to begin I want to thank uh Mr Renda uh Mr brego Our World Language MLL coordinator and certainly Mr Johnson Our World Language teacher who came to us in the very beginning of the school year with this idea and we're just thrilled that we were able to plan for it and safely properly and um enrichment wise plan for a really incredible experience for all involved so uh Mr Renda or Catherine would you like to come up and get started floor is yours thank you no yes perfect okay I think this is good so this is just a quick presentation to just sum up what the exchange looked like um as John said I think it was my first day I had to kind of start a

021little bit later in the year as I finished up in a previous district and Mr Renda took me around whiskaneer and when I met Mr Johnson that very first thing was I really want to do a French exchange can we please do that and I was like absolutely um and really you know I stand up here with you as well as Mr runda kind of telling everything that we did and that's great but it wouldn't have happened at all if it wasn't for Mr Johnson and all the work that he did so I just want to commend him for that foreign do you want to tell us a little bit about the school that joined us you can come over here so they can hear you on the mic so um thank you thank you

022for allowing me to speak here about this um so this uh this school this this particular teacher's name is Eve Gust he's uh he's a teacher in a school in central Bay southern part of France we started our Communications uh about three years ago um and we shared projects there was a platform where we could share projects the students they could give feedback to each other and it was just a great way to have that interaction and then two years ago he uh he then approached me a year and a half ago and he said you know why don't we turn this into why don't we take it up a notch and I go well what do you mean and he said well what's why don't we try to have a Exchange program and I

023said well I was little hesitant I didn't know how to you know how to be received here in this district and I had never done anything to that that level and so uh but I did know that he had already done this to seven other schools throughout the United States so he was you know a veteran he knew what he was doing and I said all right well let's make it happen so there's a lot of communication back and forth this school here um there are two schools it's a private school grade eight uh the students that came over here there were 48 of them and it was rigorous for them to come over they had to write essays they had to there was this uh a lot of criteria for them to fulfill and

024they got it's based on a point system and finally they had to be able to they were they were chosen and I didn't know how big I had talked to Mr Renda I said well how many can we receive you know well logistically and uh well let's go for let's try 30 and uh and so we we tried that and it turned out Eve their school they had a number of students of long waiting lists because they really want to take part in this experience and then that all depended on how many families here in Brookfield in the whiskaneer that were willing to receive them and to take them on for an entire week well sure enough we got all the way up to 48 and that was the max that that school would allow

025to go because that would give them five chaperones and I think that was the maximum that I think Dean you were pretty much willing I think any beyond that and I don't know it was a lot to take on um so um they they came over they they spent a week in New York first and then uh they brought it there's a charter bus brought them over to whiskaneer and they spent the entire week uh with their host families and they also were able to Shadow our students every day Monday through Friday through all their classes they took the buses or their parents drove them they had their breakfast at home they had lunches at school they they did everything the students had after school extracurricular activities um they would they would sit and watch

026or I don't know if they were allowed to participate I don't think so but they're at least able to watch and do that and then what was amazing for me was just the community it just it was it was an honor really to just uh of a privilege to to see how the community came together especially the families they they just took Hospitality to a whole new level they were involved in all sorts of activities and events after school uh evenings there's this this uh app called GroupMe app and that just they were just once they set that up it was hard to catch up it was hard to they they were posting uh videos and pictures of everything they were doing and my wife would say why is this thing ringing all the time

027all the time because there's something being posted and it was amazing we had to narrow it down there's a uh whoever did this was I can't remember all the people that were involved in creating this video here but there were just hundreds of pictures and all sorts of videos and I had no idea how to narrow it down but um yeah it was amazing um so the community that was involved it's just great to see that this opportunity brought out the community and then of course there's the authentic cultural exchange experience for them for their students and for hours for the families for the extended relatives for everybody involved in the school so it's just it's a privilege and and um you know once I'm done speaking here this evening I already have a a

028meeting set up with that other teacher to start planning for next year's that's the exchange part where you know we're depending on that but of course I need to present that uh he saw he's salting the oats that's what he's doing right now isn't he yeah I am but uh should we show the video now can we thank you I was not planning on talking that long but that's okay yeah it's it's a process so you summarize it as best you could um so this is our video um that tried to recap all of the Great Moments so we'll take you through that let's see here I can go [Music] there's a teacher in France we started corresponding and sharing our across from our students process with each other watching no I'm gonna have you

029guys start by introducing yourself and sharing your name and how old you are or what grade you're in okay my name is the outside France how it works so they can be they can be open to all the changes and for us teachers it's good to complete because we see how you work and if there is something good maybe we can take some idea and and do the same at home so that's why it's it's good exchange for the kids and for us 10 minutes before the school is beginning you know the fact you you send someone speaking and say oh today we're gonna do that so I like it and maybe I'm I'm gonna try to do this we have a lot of rules the Ambiance can we say ambiance it's really it's sweet

030a lot of people free you know they can move around foreign [Music] speaking people that often like native French speakers so it's a good experience to try to like broaden our understanding of the French language and culture oh yes I have some big Taylor Swift fans amongst my tour guides right now I really want my students to see that they are French speakers that they can use the French that they have and that they learn in the classroom and and use it to be understood by an actual French speaker my name is Frank I am the Headmaster family very good the panels are really kind and there's cool it's really cool so different from friends they realized the kids realize we are different we are um but we are we are the same we are

031different but the same I don't know how to say that [Music] when you walk through [Music] [Applause] so we've got just a little bit we have a few um students who have taken some time out of their evening to you know like how better to hear about it than firsthand from students so you guys can come on up and I think that we've prepared a few things already so it's not too off the cuff but we just we want to know how was it and anything you can tell us about cultural similarities differences a little bit of what we saw in the video and your most memorable moment so however you guys want to start that or whoever wants to start or I can pick one of you and we'll go for it what do

032you think whatever it is you got it let's go get up here yeah you're taking charge over here okay like what grade I'm moving yeah all right hi I'm maroon and I'm in eighth grade so how was it for me I had a great time with them we went to a lot of activities however if I had to say something it was hard because a language barrier it was a lot of Google Translate from a cultural lens what were some similarities and differences they were pretty similar to us whether that be the clothes they wore or the music they listened to but if I had to point out some differences I would say they're very good at soccer they're very polite and they're very eager to see their friends and my most memorable experience with

033them would be going on the hiking trip I really got to socialize with them and get to know who they are and a lot about what they do in France hi I'm Izzy um so my personal experience with hosting the French students was something I definitely will never forget in the short week that I got to spend with with them they became some of my closest friends and I'm so grateful that I got I got the students that I did because we truly bonded and became a family so some of the differences and similarities that I noticed which was similar to a rune um we had like the same fashion trends music tastes like we played the same Sports um and language is definitely a challenge we also used a lot of Google Translate um

034their dress code was a lot stricter than ours and the school the school buses they didn't have the big yellow school buses like we do and one of my most memorable experiences was my students Ann and Lucy came to watch my skating competition the Friday before they got to leave and it was just so nice to see how like excited and happy they were to go and support me and we just had a great time and then the next day was like when we had to say good uh sorry when we had to say goodbye it made me realize how much I really bonded with them and how much I was going to miss them thank you hi I'm Anna and I'm in eighth grade um my experience hosting the French like students it was

035really wonderful actually on one of my French students was fluent in English so like the um oh sorry the like language barrier wasn't really like a problem but it was like super fun and I got to a bond with my students and we like became really really good friends and some cultural similarities and differences are like the size of their school is like way smaller because they're a private school but like overall there isn't really much like difference like again going off of a rune and Izzy said their music tastes are the same and then the um like fashion trends are the same but my most memorable moment was the campfire that took place the day after the French students arrived um everyone got to like meet each other and it was just super fun

036being able to like see everyone for the first time and I just really enjoyed it so I think again a big thank you to all of you for being open you know opening up your homes opening up yourselves to the different experience and would you do it again yeah okay awesome thank you guys for joining us foreign just a quick wrap up now is like a big meta seed to everybody Board of Ed members Dr Burrell Dr Mann um I mean Renda of course right Keith which we already said but again the host family's huge wouldn't have happened they wouldn't have had a home to stay in without that support the students PTO had a part teachers had a part secretaries had a huge part everybody right from I can't even name them all but

037just a huge thanks to everybody there and I think one other thing I'd like to share from the flip side of things I had a bunch of pictures in here in case the video didn't work but they're there if you want to go through them um but there was a letter that a French student wrote to their family when they were leaving so I'll just read that quickly to you so I said hello Jewett family I'm just writing you a little letter to thank you for welcoming us this week it was one of the best weeks of Our Lives we are so happy to have fallen into such an incredible family and we are so happy to have met you um Mia Chloe CJ Mark and jazette thank you again for the activities and the

038time spent together thank you for everything thank you Mark for these superb breakfast thank you Chloe for your superb humor the funniest thank you Mia for helping me in middle school thank you giusette for your sunshine and thank you CJ CG for your kindness I leave you on this uh on this letter I will miss you all when I return to France hope to see you soon bye um and I think again that's we've been talking a lot about the world class of Brookfield and I think this is just a beautiful way to celebrate that is we're really making it a world-class experience and bringing other students here for other parts of the world and then hopefully we can you know they're excited reciprocate for next year so thanks everyone for your time and thanks

039again oh I'm sorry no no I just want to make it if everyone just give a nice round of applause to Keith for the amount of time and effort he put in I mean countless hours after school and times you know he'd say can I meet with you I'm like I think you can handle you got this and um but we did meet a couple times but seriously he was there many late nights trying to put this together and to help obviously of Catherine also and also the staff and the families that were on board it was a little tough we were bringing chairs to classes to make sure we had enough spots for the kids to sit and things like that all the logistical things that does take a lot of time but it

040wouldn't have been done if it wasn't for Keith so thank you so much Keith for making this happen and I am the administrator on that trip to France I should have said the board members were already lobbying for chaperone Duty yeah I went a lot I won a chaperone to Saint Tropez there you go thank you all for coming tonight this was uh very exciting to hear about we've been hearing the build up on this for most of the year and so it was great to see how it came together so thank you thanks everyone bye-bye okay so we're going to move on with the agenda next up is public comment um as I mentioned a few minutes ago we're going to do all a public comment at the beginning of the meeting this evening

041I just think it's fair with only three people here and just for those of you who are going to speak we have a we have an agenda tonight you would have been here till 11 o'clock waiting so so uh so the uh so I'll do it in the order um and Mr Korea where's Mr Korea um I'm gonna I'm Gonna Let You Go first but you signed up for two slots one at the beginning at one at the end I'll give you two slots here in this front-up session too unless you want to do it in your first segment I can do it okay whatever you need okay um Andy Korea 45 westmere road is this on you can hear it okay yeah so um I just wanted to come and talk about something I

042saw on the Press and remind the board that the Boe code of ethics require board members and superintendents to respect all national state and local laws and regulations pertaining to education and public agencies there was an agreement that was listed in an article recently over the weekend that was put forth by the administration and apparently drafted by Council and reviewed and not vacated by the Boe that violates the individuals with Disabilities Act and potentially Connecticut fraud statutes the way the agreement is written is codifying a predetermination of an individualized education plan decision and placement prior prior to a proper legal Ida compliant planning and placement team meeting and that's you know knowingly illegal for some of the roles of folks involved and there's recent examples of other knowingly illegal behavior and as a contract is

043requiring silence as a legal consideration to provide what by law would be right by a right per idea so the silence requirement the district is aggressively pursuing by forcing an outplacement while threatening a lawsuit provides a private benefit to individual administrators and Board of Education members to avoid the shame of facing relevant feedback on the performance in their roles and how it impacts the safety of children that silence protects careers and reputations that the concealment of such concerns concerns that would be up for the public good is dangerous to children in late 2022 federal federal law was passed to rectify a similar risk to adults by Banning the enforcement of non-disclosure agreements regarding sexual harassment in the workplace the non-disclosure attempt is some here is similar to threats that primarily women face in the workplace

044but is aimed at elementary disabled children Additionally the contract stipulates that the parent choose an outplacement service provider that makes the district eligible for excess cost reimbursement for the state of Connecticut so in this agreement Brookfield is intentionally overpaying for the education of a child that excess cost is discretionary spending it's no different than if we bought a coach a truck for winning a championship submitting for excess costs intentionally here would be fraud will employees and Board of Ed members have qualified immunity that immunity is at risk with Reckless and Lawton Behavior such as knowingly going through extraordinary lengths to enforce this more than one person working to codify the intention of doing so is is say like in an outplacement agreement is conspiracy to commit fraud my advice is for the board Brookfield Board

045of Education to immediately rescind the threats if any lawsuits cancel the agreement and exercise its rights under the Boe bylaw 9-15 attorneys to terminate the services of the attorneys that were involved in this both the general War general counsel and special ed attorney and disqualify their firms their firms for a quality of service and work with family in good faith regarding appropriate Services of course it's relevant to incorporate the other poor performance of the administration into the portfolio of failures that have far exceeded the need for termination for cause thank you thank you okay next up is Jeremy Farrell Jeremy I need name and address as you start uh hello my name is Jeremy Farrell 13 South Lakeshore Drive uh okay I'm going to keep this quick a bunch of the people that I wrote

046this uh that I wrote this with in mind do not seem to be here last month there was a lot more people at this Board of Ed meeting with a lot of concerns regarding the content of LGBT books within our library and it seems that already that moment has partially passed they were angry they came here they shared and they're gone personally I don't get to move on and neither do other members of my community as somebody who is LGBT as somebody who walked these halls and as somebody who walked these Halls not knowing they were LGBT this stuff lasts and it has real lasting effects we don't always get to move on what don't we get to move on from well last month we heard a lot of this is a not an attack

047on LGBT people that is ridiculous to even portray it as one but what I would like to say now for anybody who's listening for anybody who thinks that way high school students are smarter than that they're better than that and we need to give them credit they are going to notice that the seven most challenged books in the country are LGBT they are going to notice that the only books brought up last month were LGBT and they are going to notice that the book people are angriest about has gay in the title from their perspective I don't see how this could feel like anything except an attack on LGBT people and they are going to have to wake up every day knowing that this attack could return at any point whenever anybody else wants it

048to I beg everybody listening to this to be aware of what we are actually doing here of the fact that our actions have real consequences I recognize you may disagree with me and I completely understand but please think about what I am saying here care enough to consider what I have to say and how this could affect our students I think we have to consider the ramifications of these choices for the students who walk these hallways thank you thank you and our third speaker is Shannon Reilly Shannon Riley 11 Deer Run Road um good afternoon Board of Education um I was actually um reading through the different pieces of um like items in the agenda and one of the things that struck me was as we were changing policy that there wasn't the move to

049using gender uh inclusive language and I wanted the board to consider that that as they're changing policy instead of in specific the challenging curriculum policy where in the section under instruction students may be found with any racial ethnic or socioeconomic group within all nationalities and as it currently says within both genders I would encourage to change that to all genders and to switch any use of like the his her to the inclusive there or themselves use of that language okay that's all I have to say tonight thank you so much thank you okay that's it for our public comment unless Mr Korea had a second topic okay good I did promise him Andy Korea 45 West Western Air Road so this comment is about the public participation policy and specifically the prohibition about speaking about

050Board of Ed members as well as I understand staff and students of course but senior executive leaders particularly building principals or District level department leads and you know uh administrators that have their own contract that are not part of the Union right in general I agree that you know parents and residents should go up the chain but there's been several incidents issues persistent issues that go up the Chain by several parents that go nowhere and don't get addressed including writing to the board every time I've I've come up here and spoke about something with the board I have gone through the chain and written to the board and it's been ignored we also have misconduct we've had misconduct on the board we've had board members that have lied we have board members with the ethics

051violation we have a board member with that light under oath during the ethics investor ethics hearing we have a board member that went around and questioned why didn't the Ethics Committee come to the board of Ethics come to them and ask them we've had a board of ed attorney during a the initial term here for the board retreat to go over FERPA foa and the laws make a lie lied about that board members misconduct we had the board board member say he understood how that could happen and three board members that knew about that didn't speak up I wrote to the board and asked them to correct it they didn't correct it we've had investigations where children have been harmed and the board did not act in good faith to make sure that the investigation

052was was complete so and recently as a result of that we've had a child um have an interaction with a gym teacher that had that had the board followed up on on the feedback probably would not have happened right so by silencing public to come out and say you know these are problems right the way this board has acted over the past I'd say four years increasingly there's been about eight incidences in the past 18 months the way this board has acted here I'm making it so that parents can't come out here and say this board member did that why did you do that right these issues continue and we're not able to protect children exercise our First Amendment right to redress grievance because things get written to the board of ed otherwise would be

053addressed if it was said out loud so as you look at this you have to remember that there will be other boards and they should be able to citizens have the First Amendment right to be able to come out and say you know this should be changed there is no credible reason to say you can't speak about a board member if you've already written to the board board about what that board member has done we also have a board member that sleeps in meetings and another board member laughs when they see it right so yeah so if somebody's going to sleep during the meeting and maybe they won't next time if somebody says that you know you didn't vote to protect children but you were asleep so I'd ask you to look at the wording

054I will send a follow-up written comment to point precisely what I think needs to be changed thank you okay um next up I gotta make sure I get the order of this right we've moved it around a couple times next up is uh written correspondence okay the career wrote with concerns of how Capital requests are handled and regarding an outplacement agreement violating a code of ethics Dawn DeCosta wrote regarding mosaics at Huckleberry Jamie klavins wrote regarding academic issues at the high school debka case wrote regarding a PPT Sherry stironowski wrote regarding the BPS website Christina Zimmerman wrote regarding school start times and Athletics next year Marnie mcniff wrote regarding a policy Christy rondini wrote concerning a social media post Aaron Scalera wrote regarding a professional development slide Irene Korea wrote regarding policy 6146 and 614-6.1

055bylaw 9325 and class Rank and the following people wrote regarding the removal supporting the removal of books from the BHS Library Tara Carr the Brookfield Children's Advocacy Council Kathleen jowdy Jennifer ackerly Debbie Pizzo Rachel alagna Joyce Woodfield Jim Fisher Elizabeth shaker Austin Montero and Nick Schmidt and the following wrote opposing the removal of books from the BHS Library Leslie Ruggiero Sean hathorne Michelle Sands Ray de Stefan Laura Orbin Phoebe Holmes Shannon Reilly Ronald Orban Kathy Van duzy Aaron Zimmer and Jillian Doherty that's it quite a lot that was a lot of emails to respond to this month um all right so next up is board minutes board approved the minutes from the regular meeting on April 5th second moved in seconded anybody have any comments on the board minutes all in favor aye all right

056next we got all of us all the subcommittees I think reported this month so uh we'll just go through oh no we're skipping you John I want to get the kids first all right well then do the superintendent's update thank you so much it's a lot to keep track of tonight so I haven't missed it I have a number of items to share but I um speaking of AP testing and students that are here that need to get home and study we have Dia in Sharia here tonight and Mr belan is going to talk with them with Mr neuhausel who's also here and there are two of eight students in Connecticut the Andrea um that are going to the international science and engineering Fair on May 14th in Dallas two of eight students in Connecticut

057only eight in Connecticut are going two of them 25 are from Brookfield High School in the whole state of Connecticut we're so proud of them uh their project description and their picture as you can see has been passed out to you I'm going to turn it over to Mr belanda and Mr new hustle to introduce the kids and talk a little bit about the project all right uh good evening board and uh superintendent and Dr Mann uh I'll keep this brief in terms of introductions I did pass around a a one-page it's actually the whole thing on the back side it's actually covered one of the other students that's going as well I have the whole brochure in my office if you'd like to see it but we're very proud of sharia and and Dia

058and so what I would like to do is introduce Mr neuhausel so all I've done in this process is really listen say yes and process things to make things uh happen and so I really uh do appreciate all the work that Mr new house was put in he of course will then turn it over to the students say he didn't do anything so this is just a little bit of humble as we pass it on downs I'm passing into him he'll talk a little bit and then we're gonna have the the girls talk a little bit about their project and you have a description front of you so Mr new house to you good evening thank you for having us my name is John Newhall I'm a technology teacher here at Brookfield High School and

059I've had the pleasure of helping coach uh Dia and Sharia through the Connecticut Science Fair it all started in the fall when uh this is my first year in Brookfield uh teaching here and wonderful school by the way wonderful District to work for and as I was walking I came across a former student Sharia who at my last school her and I worked together on the science fair and she had done very well in the middle school she had gone off to the high school I was still working at the middle school continued that science fair experience anyways I ran into her in the hall and we started talking about the science fair something that was both near and dear to our heart and she talked asked if it was possible that the school would

060sponsor her to compete in the competition so long story short spoke with Mr Blanda he gave me the nod we put together a group of kids that wanted to participate and really like Mr Landa said I was the next level of just kind of listening and helping them navigate I did most the administrative work well I did some of the administrative work with them filing paperwork and kind of coaching them through how judges think and what to think about with topics and presentations but they are the true scientists when we look in our society and wonder what's going on in our world they are our bright future they are here to carry us to that next place and just a a nod to Dr Mann the equivalent of going to ISF is the equivalent of

061going to the Olympics it is 1500 of this world's best Minds at this age and there are prizes up to 250 000 I have a former student that won fifty thousand dollars and is going to MIT for her work with with Alzheimer's disease and so hopefully these two will carry on in that that same light and I'm going to turn it over to them hello everyone I'm srijanalagada and I'm diag and our project was on Parkinson's disease so we created a machine learning framework for Parkinson's Disease severity prediction biomarker identification and Drug discovery I could really talk about my own motivation of going forward with the project topic we both come from a rural Village in India where we don't really have access to a lot of medical treatment so a couple years ago a

062close family friend of ours got diagnosed with Parkinson's disease really late and he figured finally figured out that it was a progressive Disorder so he didn't really get the correct diagnosis in time to get enough or effective treatment so he's still trying to you know combat those symptoms those Tremors but he really isn't able to get the full extent of treatment that he should have so that was really my motivation of going forward with this project we wanted to create a framework that could really diagnose the disease to a high accuracy within a short period of time so I could give it away all right so the first part oh do you want to talk about motivation okay I'll talk about motivation so one of my close family members was also diagnosed with Parkinson's disease

063and I used to live in India and I grew up with him like seeing him all the time and it's really sad to see how he's progressed into the disease and like just how much it's affected him and how he can barely speak now so for both of us it was a very personal project and and that's why we pursued it and we're happy with our results so the first part of our project our framework is biomarker Discovery so we used differential protein analysis to identify the top 10 uh proteins that you could that are differentially expressed in Parkinson's disease and the second part was a severity prediction where we took a XG boost machine learning model and the modification that we made to it was that we iterated through different uh parameters so that's

064like the novelty of our project the last part of our project was a drug repurposing module so we used existing machine learning models and Frameworks such as deep purpose that has like a CNN model and we use that model to come up with drugs that have a high binding binding efficacy um to amyloid beta proteins so we identified 10 drugs that were clinically validated as potential treatments for Parkinson's Disease so yeah and we would uh like to thank our Mentor Mr newhousel he really guided us throughout the whole project the timelines um the paperwork that we have to submit and stuff like that so thank you a lot and he also taught us that it's not just the clinical aspect of our project that was important it's the fact that we're able to communicate that

065idea communicate our work and communicate our impact to others Which is far more important so thank you so much for that [Applause] so yeah what these they said because um you know I know they're going you're going on the 15th 14th they leave for Dallas yep and so they're certainly here to ask any questions but I'm sure that you might get a some short quick answers because they want to get back to AP review so I turn it over them and just I just I appreciate how proud everybody is and we look forward to seeing what they do so would you mind if I talk to you yeah all right I wasn't sure if there was questions for the kids great job ladies study well tonight another incredible like I told you at the beginning

066a lot to celebrate um so I do have a number of things that I'll actually at the end of my remarks invite Mr Bland to back up for uh for uh an update on uh a topic of Interest the most um so the first thing is just a little reminder regarding Communications uh there have been a number of recent school Communications in the last week or so the state of the district essentially the district's newsletter uh in the springtime was disseminated last week the budget flyer was also disseminated last week to to all and both of those documents are posted last night at the town meeting of the hearing uh the hearing that was held the for the town budget which includes the school budget the referendum was voted on it will be May 16th

067polls will be open so it's important that everybody gets out and votes on May 16th Tuesday May 16th 6 a.m to 8 P.M I believe that's the uh hours of the polls yesterday I also sent out an update regarding the correct program review for special education department the correct folks uh were with us for a number of weeks collecting all sorts of data and they're now reviewing that data analyzing it and developing a cogent report they will be here as our guest on June 7th to share what they found um I now like to invite Mr post up to the podium talk a little bit about the school security reimbursement Grant we're really excited about an opportunity uh that could come back to the community thank you uh last week we applied the first school

068security Grant actually it's two parts uh one part is a multimedia communication Grant which as part of the police radio project the part that applies to the schools that allows us to communicate with First Responders is eligible for this grant so that's about 182 thousand dollars or if and it's a competitive Grant so we're not guaranteed to get this our reimbursement rate would be 33.93 which means the town would get back 61 752 if that one is approved the other piece of it was uh just a regular school security project you're in and we applied for projects that where funding has already been approved for us it's all capital funding projects that we've talked about before such as security film cameras Open Door alert alarms uh walkie-talkie repeaters in the schools bollards uh that added

069up to 265 thousand twenty nine dollars and applying the same rate to that if we get approved and awarded this it would be eighty nine thousand nine hundred twenty four dollars going back to the town so in total it's about 150 000 that would come to the town if we get approved so we are hopeful Ken I really appreciate that thank you and I had a lot of help from uh Eric and Joan thank you Eric has always work to get all the information they needed heck of a team thank you really appreciate that work and I know that the community does as well um brief update on kindergarten enrollment right now last check with Mrs ferius we're at 137 students um uh registering in the process of registering for kindergarten that is uh shy

070of at this point of our projected enrollment but we still have a long way to go and we continue to monitor uh kindergarten as we know is always a tricky number and uh with that we also are really cognizant of our Pre-K numbers and we're taking a look at that as well a quick update on spring standardized testing you heard about the AP testing going on at the high school and they didn't get the students home as quickly as possible for studying BHS has completed uh the school day sat with skaneer is in the middle of s back testing and Huckleberry starts the S back testing next week so just everybody knows families are all well aware of this but I just want to make sure the board was aware the Panorama survey uh a

071parent survey and a separate staff survey were sent out last Friday so those end of year surveys that we conduct each year those are out and feedback will come in over the next few weeks we'll use that as we build programming and school Improvement plans over the course of the year we talked about the science and engineering fair and we're just so proud of the students and then lastly I want to invite Mr belanda back up regarding the there was some public comment on it tonight and a number of emails over the course of the last month the BHS library book reconsideration update Mr Blanda has some facts and just kind of an update on where we're at with any recent challenge that the high school may have received thank you Dr Braille um and

072a conversation Dr Burrell asked me to just very quickly summarize where we are in the process in terms of you know according to board policy and regulation so at this point there have been three actual formal requests for a reconsideration form uh one person who did not request the form but must have copied it from someone else and then submitted that so we do have um four forms uh three were actually returned fully completed they are all three are on this book is gay is the one they are challenging and looking for more information we did have an initial discussion as part of the regulation once a form is returned completed we have a discussion with that particular person to go through the form to make sure we understand uh the points that they're asking

073or things they have questioned on we have had that first meeting with uh one of the people that submitted the form we have a scheduled another meeting for someone else that filled out the form hopefully by the end of this week if not it'll be first thing on Monday and then we're still pending to hear back from the other person who submitted the form to have that follow-up discussion to review it in terms of the committee itself I did have to order the book I want to remind the board that this was the e-book which of which we had no copies it is an electronic book and so uh I did have to order several copies for us to read concurrently rather than that's the best way to do it so I did order copies

074of that book The Review Committee is going to be five people and I will sit in an advisory role administrators library media Specialists we have a social worker as well as somebody who is a non-humanities elective teacher to get a different perspective on all these things and I will hopefully be meeting with the committee tomorrow right after school while we'll review the charge of the committee to talk about looking at the selection piece that's in the board policy and regulation we will read the book and then we will follow up with the discussion afterwards connected to the whole part of the policy as to why this book was selected does it meet the criteria that the board has put in place or made suggestions for and then we'll also get into specifics of the particular

075form that and the challenging pieces and develop a rationale whether we support or object to the book being kept or left in and then I will present that to the superintendent I don't have an exact timeline on it we are trying to move this relatively quickly because we want to read the book but I also want to give the team time and so when I meet with them tomorrow to go through the book and the process we'll talk more about timeline probably two and a half maybe three weeks I think from start to finish at the most uh we'll be able to have at least from that first form and as additional forms get submitted we'll talk about that process there but we at this point that's where we are thank you very much I

076know it's a lot of work for everyone thank you and that is all I have for the superintendent report thank you very much thank you I just have a question of the Panorama survey if we didn't receive it because my concern is this happens to me every year right now you didn't receive it it was scheduled and was disseminated I believe on Friday right Eric well Eric would it say panorama on it for the parents yeah it would have come okay we'll look into it joy and we could we could always do a reset no problem thank you for that well I will say for any of you watching this if you are a parent and you think you should have received it and you haven't you should let us know right because that's how

077we find out if there was a snafu somewhere sure so thank you okay okay all right um all right so next up on our agenda is our reports from our subcommittees and we'll start with facilities I'm giving it back to you okay so we met on Wednesday April 5th we reviewed the school did reports um there were no questions with the new work orders one question regarding the steam pipe leak in the BHS locker room tunnel it's an isolated incident and it's a completed repair so it's not a concern moving forward and we don't foresee it as being a problem in the future on April 12th the board of Finance approved the capital for the high school guidance roof and the maintenance truck so that's good news Capital project updates so the HVAC control project

078the high school nine exhaust fans are left and the project will be completed soon in the next couple weeks there'll be a training session value engineering is doing the Diagnostics we will need a cost estimate for phase two the locker room project demo is underway there's there's some asbestos material that they're looking to Abate a lot of work was done over spring break when the students were not in school and they continue to have bi-weekly meetings and we're still on track to finish the second week of August the electrical service at with skinnier is still on track to do work over the summer paving at the high school middle school still on this is pending a budget approval for the budget vote in May cafeteria flooring it was skinnier they pulled sensors out of the

079floor that passed Monday to conduct the moisture test seminar room seating we're still trying to find someone to do that work security items camera updates are done door sensors for the high school are in but not no ETA yet the following Monday the security film on the ground floor at the high school is scheduled to be installed we have some Ballard options repeaters have been ordered we want to discuss other options in regard to the teller window at the high school because that would put us over budget building condition study they're coming to the high school and staying on site for two to three days and they'll give us an in-depth survey to fill out our lovely Media Center update the project is out to bid there was a scheduled walkthrough on the 12th and

080the bid date is on the 25th it will take 16 weeks to get the materials a whole roof tear was repaired we didn't have any new business we did take a tour of the locker room after our meeting after we adjourned at 6 30. to look at the demo so far and that's it are there any questions for joy okay hearing none we'll move on to policy and Communications okay the policy and Communications subcommittee met on Wednesday April 19th um we started off with the discussion of policy 6162.51 survey of students and we made what we thought was our final round of changes and little adjustments to it and thought that it would be ready to bring to you tonight for a final read and then I think a day or two after our meeting

081we got a packet from Cabe with a brand new survey policy for us to review so so we're sort of uh back to square one with surveys part of being change makers yeah yeah so no survey of students on the agenda for tonight um we then started to dive into a bunch of policies that you see on the agenda for later this evening um these are all required policies that we didn't current don't currently have and we'll be suggesting recommending adoption of capes versions that's the grading and assessment systems and weighted grades challenging curriculum Advanced courses or programs eligibility criteria for enrollment and graduation requirements so you'll see those all I'll talk about them all a little bit later on we then talked about um the policy for Public Communication public participation along with the

082regulation that goes with that and the meeting conduct by law and those are also on the agenda for later this evening um we spent a little bit of time on the budget flyer made final changes to that which as Dr Burrell mentioned was sent out to families last week and talked a little bit about the state of the district communication that Dr Brill also set down last week so it was actually a fairly quick short meeting but a lot was packed into our time wow I can see it right here yeah a lot of paper yeah okay any questions for Debbie all right we'll move on uh Kate Mike uh we start our meeting talking about the switch of curricular tools from my math to illustrative math document and Mark Hewitt and James Fitzpatrick detailed

083a committee that was formed as a result of SBA scores and student data around Philip since 2017. and they came to the conclusion that it needed to be explored that we needed new tools to be explored so those new tools were Bridges mathematics Eureka Math luster of math and math and focus so this was a 20-person panel that explored in my opinion a lot of different outcomes in the came to the consensus that luster of math served the best purpose going forward over the past year the seventh graders have already uh piloted some of the programs uh not not everything but just the some of the skills and curriculum tools the I think the takeaway with illustrative math is the collaboration that students get with each other they do a lot more speaking to each

084other there's more collaborative dialogue which definitely covers one of those big Seas and I don't want to take too much weight because I know we're going to talk a lot about that later so I'll leave it with that next we discussed the pdac which is switching from the Ed reflect to the Google Classroom platform to better house the teacher administrator evaluation documents and that will be started next year the next was discuss the k-3 reading program uh probably Dr Matt's favorite subject and basically you you're going to be writing a letter by May 19th to get an extension on the requirement for updating our k33 reading program Dr Bill Rick stole some Thunder on s.a.t and SBA testing so thanks for that uh the only thing I'll add is the the national sorry Next Generation

085science standards test that's going to be administrated at the end of May grades 5th 8th and 11th and as always well that's our as our new mode of operation or how we end the meeting now is we take everything on our agenda and we bring it back to the to the the four c's and uh it was it's a really nice thing it was mostly discussed about the luster of math and how all those really big two is the collaborative and critical thinking aspects were recovered very well okay well done thank you any questions for Mike I'm sorry I forgot one thing we voted to bring Lester path to a vote today okay unanimous okay excellent okay I forget that all right excellent thank you and hearing no questions uh finance committee okay uh we

086met on Monday April 24th and it was a relatively quick meeting as I've been reporting um talking about our deficit projection it's down a little bit from last month so um right now um we are projected to be over budget by 573 224 that was as of that meeting the most significant changes month to month were no surprise of substitute costs building repairs custodial supplies kind of the same story that we've been talking about we did get a little bit more in terms of our excess costs Grant Revenue so that offsets some of those estimates which is primarily what was bringing down or what has brought down that that estimate we'll be talking about the pay rate guidelines that we approved and brought forward a little bit later in the agenda so that was pretty

087much it any questions or comments okay equity and inclusion Amy okay we met um last Thursday it was Rosa myself Mike Dr Mann and also Catherine Abrego who was here earlier Our World Language curriculum leader um it's been about a year since our last meeting so and it's new to Dr Mann and to Mike and to miss Abrego so Dr Mann and was Abrego sort of talked about their experiences they had both dealt with some Equity committees and some issues in their former districts they um talked about their experiences there we sort of went over what we had accomplished here and our last presentation which was last March and sort of the challenges that we had a bit of um discrepancies between maybe board you know expectations and deliverables there it was a not a

088it was hard to give concrete deliverables on this kind of work and um Dr Mann might be able to expand a little bit but she had sort of suggested that maybe we don't have this as a board subcommittee I think when we formed this in 2020 it was a bit reactive we wanted to be more proactive um I might say maybe we kind of bit off more than we can chew a little bit we brought in community members it was a very large committee I think we discussed how that was sometimes challenging and I didn't even really think about it until Dr Mann said like there's never really been a board subcommittee that has you know eight members of the public on the you know so it was just I think we we dove in

089head first and you know it was it was a lot and this is hard work this is ongoing work you know and so Dr Mann had brought the suggestion to possibly discuss not having it as so much a board subcommittee anymore but turning it to more of a district lead committee that would be led by her and miss Abrego with some board partnership and they would report out to the board and bring it down to the building levels in the schools so that it's throughout making the entire school system as Equitable as possible making sure that it's inclusive that all our students feel welcome represented including more of our staff we didn't have a lot of Staff we had a few on the board you know on the subcommittee but more more staff at more

090schools and if you want to you know Dr Mann can maybe expand on that a bit if you have any questions for her but we left it and I'll just say we did Dr Brill was unable to attend so Mike had joked that you know this is my first meeting is this my last meeting that no we will be having another meeting so it's the thought that you'll finalize a thing and bring a motion to the board to dissolve the board committee and then reform it exactly that was the thought but we want to you know doctor yeah but just the idea that of having um you know again this is kind of an ongoing discernment and definitely has um you know falls under curriculum instruction um and assessment and programming you know that's kind

091of and definitely community and partnership with community and the school district so really just where are we going to be able to have um the most the greatest capacity to do this really important work yeah so that's just you know something that we've we've been talking about a little bit my two cents worth it's a broad topic I mean yeah and so one of the things I'll just give you a thought was um another broad topic we had with security and the way we organize the security task force when we did it was we had topics and then we would just talk about this topic this time and then we would meet another time we talked about this topic right so we made it topical but it allowed us to focus in on those topics

092instead of trying to boil the ocean right yeah like we were doing before and we had discussed that well it was hard yeah so uh you know you could pick five topics and then cycle through them in a year right and say okay in February we're going to talk about instruction and then when talk about Staffing or we're going to talk about this type of project or that type of project and it's just a way to kind of compartmentalize which life and it's really it's an exciting time also because of the Strategic plan lending us this Focus um you know every you know a news as Dr Mike preferred to I'm big on using that strategic plan to help guide our work so okay it's a great opportunity okay thank you any questions for Amy

093all right we'll move on that's the end of our subcommittee reports next up is consent agenda I believe that the board approved the items on the consent agenda which are new hires resignations and the March financials second Dr Berlin comments Yes actually it's uh consent agenda is quite exciting uh this month we have a familiar face but new to the board board meetings it's really important we all are aware that Mr post is retiring at the end of September and uh we were able to work quite hard and I have to thank the board members who served as well as Dr Mann and all the other folks who participated in the interview process Dr Mann facilitated the process for us went through a thorough process and Kevin Gervais is going to be our new business

094and operations director as of September 5th 2023 so welcome Kevin congratulations let's give him a round of applause before I ask Kevin to come up and just say a couple of words and hello is letting all of you know that Kevin he's a familiar face because for four years he worked with Marcia Marion on the town side Marcia is our town finance director and Kevin was her Deputy Finance director and that is really a critical role is leveraging the resources and planning the budget and the committee was quite impressed I got to know Kevin over those four years so when I heard that Kevin was a finalist I was actually quite thrilled that he made it through the The Gauntlet the process that Anna laid out for uh for all the candidates and um and

095we really had some strong candidates as as things narrowed down we were quite lucky to be honest with you with the Canada pool um to that end Kevin right now is the East Lyme Finance director for the entire town not not necessarily the board of education so he brings a wealth of experience he is looking to relocate to this area of the state as he prepares for getting married in the fall as well so he's got a lot of great things going on in his life someone I've gotten to know over the last five years now I'm really proud of him I'm really excited for him Mr Kevin Gervais Jr you want to come up and say a few words come get introduced go on up we got to get him used to the microphone

096yes we do yeah thank you very much it's uh really exciting um I know I have big shoes to fill uh Ken's shoes over here um it's like filling in for you know Derek Jeter um as a Yankee fan I could say that um but uh yeah it's exciting to be back after my uh you know it'll be about a year Hiatus down to the Shoreline um and excited to be back working here in Brookfield and I have Ken over here looking for a house in his neighborhood so um you know we're excited to to move to this side of the state and uh start our lives over here yeah a lot of changes this year so yeah does anybody have any questions for Kevin while we have them here or welcome welcome all right

097no questions I love it you'll get plenty of questions that's fine we'll handle those as they come we're just saving them for you all right Kevin congratulations and welcome thank you very much thank you so much I do have a press release [Applause] I do have a press release prepared that uh it will be sent out after the meeting as well as a note to all the faculty and staff and everything will be going excellent all right all in favor of approving the consent agenda please say aye okay next up we're moving to a new business and the first item under new business is the 2023-24 Board of Education meeting dates I will move that the board approved the 2023-2024 Board of Education meeting dates seconded um so uh we received a proposed set of

098dates it's up to us to set our dates so uh I think this is consistent with what we agreed to last year which was more months with just a single meeting and fewer months with two meetings um does anybody want to make any comments about that I like it I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you I would like another meeting in right now not for nothing we have too many things at this meeting is an example a lot of stuff comes together in May and uh and it's the one month where we have um usually just think about the things we have to do with compensation with assessment at the end of the year the a lot of items coming together so for me I would prefer to have a second meeting in May but the

099rest of it seemed fine to me fun with that if you do you do you think let me be very clear I it's it's not mine to choose because I won't be on the board next time for those of you who are still on the board I'm going to schedule an extra meeting for those of you who are on the board so so I don't really really get allowed to say but I'm just telling you we'll talk about it on our executive session later but just getting the timing of the things we have to do is just hard yeah and so I would suggest strongly that we consider that well okay so then is it would it be better than to have a second April meeting and then a mid-may one or something no no

100because you have to do some things after the future reference right okay in the April in April the month of April short because of the week okay that's right and so if we did like a May 16th that's likely the day after the third the third week in May yeah should be the 15th yeah the 15th um it'll be interesting to see how the referendum works next year because let me think because it's usually the it would be um yeah we might want to do it the 22nd yeah it would be actually the it would be the 15th is the third Wednesday I understand I'm thinking that should we do it on the 22nd because the budget referendum won't be most likely it's done before that the 21st and that would be because that's where

101you could do like you're approving of unaffiliated pay increases and stuff like that right timing and uh that's that's the that's kind of perfect time for that it would keep you from having three-hour meetings and it's like the one we're having today yeah I think it's a good idea but I don't think you need many more than that the summer months having one per Christmas time effort in September it's too busy you know with the start of school and we're starting after Labor Day this year so we'd be right up again I looked at the rest of them and all made lots of sense and the school holidays made sense um I did compare it against uh Jewish holidays because they're always on we did a check on we did a cross check on all

102the holidays at the October 4th would be in the middle of it is that an issue okay so the October 4th meeting is potentially we'd have to look at that uh probably because I think the third do we look at October 4th in terms of the Jewish holidays I'm looking up this afternoon [Music] but I would suggest we're very mindful of that one putting this together yeah we could just do just do one meeting on the 11th do one meeting on in the middle of the month in October right right yeah get the 18th to do with the 11th are either one would probably work yeah you could do either one October 11th well so get rid of October 4th yeah just get rid of October 4th keep up the 18th so do two weeks

103no conflict on the fourth October yeah we're not seeing a conflict with the holiday no I mean I wouldn't recommend it let me take a pause yeah sure but I had my back straight okay Rose as we talk about the 11th and the 18th I don't know if we want to go back to back in terms of no no I was suggesting like either we get rid of but I don't think if we just do one meeting on the 11th oh I see or one meeting on the 18th gotcha yeah let's see let's see I we double checked all these so can't hurt to check again so Rosh Hashanah and yeah not it is not affected yeah 23 were not effective you know thank you it was fourth is clean okay we're seeing on this

104one it's not but it's one of those long holiday periods that you just don't want to mess with it okay so you guys want to do the keep it the 18th or the 11th for October I would say just keep it on the 18th it's a month apart yeah okay okay so the the motion would be amended to remove October 4th and add May 5th May 22nd right correct okay right Amy would you like to make an amendment motion I will move that the board approved well you'll automate the muscle improvements exactly all right okay I will amend the emotion to approve the 2023-2024 Board of Education meeting dates removing the October 4th 2023 date and adding the date of May 22nd 2024. I'll second the amendment any further discussion all in favor of approving

105that Amendment say hi hi uh okay all in favor of approving the amended motion say aye aye that just that gets us through the officialness of it okay so that's that one good job um then the next one is the subcommittee meeting dates the board approved the subcommittee meeting schedule from July to December 2023. second it's been moved and seconded had the chairmans of the Committees had a chance to look at this in advance or no yeah have any conflict still meet on October 4th yeah October 4th has a facility so we're gonna have to look at that but that's that's one of the conflict for sharings all right but you will have let's be frank by the time we get there uh this is this October no it'll be there so um why don't

106we move it we're not meeting on the fourth one are we just doing on the 18th because policy and Communications are meeting we might need to move it to the next week you know from the 4th to the 11th sure not on that Mike is on that now yeah right or no you switched right yeah okay so it's there's I don't think there's any conflict there you want you're not a policy but not on Cape so we could do the 11th can we move it to the 11th okay that was the only potential conflict I saw I think I think we're great otherwise okay and just as a reminder this takes us through December as the after the elections the first thing that another thing that will happen in December is uh the board will

107re-elect its officers and then they will reorganize uh committees and I would suggest to everybody who will continue on the board do a committee you haven't been on it's it you know it's always fun to you know touch on all the Committees where you can so yeah okay do you want me to amend yes yep so I will make a motion to amend the um subcommittee meeting dates and remove the October 4th meeting date for facilities and change it to October 11th 2023. I'll second the amendment okay all in favor of approving the amendment please say aye aye aye all in favor of approving the subcommittee meeting schedule as amended please say aye aye okay done all right moving on so now we got policies got a lot of policies tonight so um the next

108um one two three four five six policies are all coming in for a first read and I'm gonna do what I normally do for the public the first read means we as a board are receiving the policy from the policy committee we'll get a brief overview from uh Mrs Brooks but then we have a month to digest it and provide input and the public can provide input so there's nothing being voted on on these six policies tonight we're just receiving them so we can get through the process real quick with a motion a quick description and and and then accept it and move on so first one is policy 6146.1 I will move that the board approve new required policy 6146.1 grading assessment systems weighted grade for a first reading as recommended by the policy

109and Communications subcommittee second okay it's been moved and seconded Debbie you want to do a brief overview on this one yep is required um and we don't currently have it so this is a straight adoption from Cabe it really just does what it says goes over um how grades are weighted um depending on the type of class that it is it goes through um you know the different levels of classes and the different types of level of rigor of the different classes and how the grades are weighted in that system um and we got an input I think by email today from a member of the public who said go take a look at the class class rank language in there make sure it's consistent with what we decided last January and I'm sure you've

110got that you'll just take that in correct and Miss we did get that we actually had an opportunity to talk Mr belanda Dr Amanda myself today actually on that and we're actually looking forward to the next policy committee meeting they already have enough they don't typically come to all the policy committee meetings uh Anna and Mark and there you have that on the calendar ready to go so get these introduced for First Street tonight and then I just wanted to write acknowledge the questions from the member of the public that wrote us so absolutely um okay and then additionally could you also just review um just for gender neutral right the comments in there students generally if you you know it's pretty easy and it would be to think about us as leaders in the

111in the state that's a good suggestion to pass on to cave right because brought up as a member of the public that we uh we thought that was a good idea but they could they could help us all by taking a look at their their Suite of uh policies okay all in favor of accepting it for a first read please say aye aye any opposed all right it's unanimous next one is policy 6141.52 I will move that the board approve new required policy 6141.52 challenging curriculum criteria for identification of eligible grade 8 and 9 students for a first reading as recommended by the policy and Communications subcommittee second thanks moved and seconded Debbie acquired however our practice is in alignment with this prop policy we just we follow everything that's outlined here but we didn't

112have a written policy so we're recommending a straight adoption from cave on this one and um this one really just looks to outline what how an advanced course or program is defined in terms of whether it's an honors class an advanced placement class Etc and um really how students will be prioritized and given placement in these different courses thank you questions all in favor of accepting it for a first read please say aye okay next one is policy 6141.51 I will move that the board approve new required policy 6141.51 Advanced courses or programs eligibility criteria for enrollment for our first reading is recommended by the policy and Communications subcommittee second it's moved and seconded um Debbie like a broken record tonight again I realize kids and probably don't know what no one record no you're

113probably right yeah you've got to feel old um this is another required policy that we don't currently have and we're recommending a straight adoption from Cabe this is um the advanced courses or programs and eligibility criteria for enrollment uh feels very similar to the last one that we just reviewed um but again really outlines the purpose of providing these types of advanced courses and programs to students and defines the different types and the procedures criteria and guiding principles of those programs okay any questions for demi on that one all in favor of moving this to first read please say aye aye okay next one is policy 6146 graduation I'll move that the board approved the deletion of brookfield's policy and regulation 6146 graduation and adopt caves version of policy 6146 graduation required as recommended by

114the policy and Communications subcommittee second second is having any uh any highlights on this one [Music] I have a policy but our policy is quite outdated it's from 2002 and it had um a short policy and then a very long set of regulations along with it so um since our policy is old and outdated and very cumbersome we thought it would be best to um adopt cabe's recommendation their policy is much more comprehensive and includes the regulations within the policy it's much more straightforward so that's what you have here okay we also got a note on this today as well from a member of the public who said part of your engagement with Mr belan no one yes okay any questions they all in favor of approving 6146 for first read hi okay um the

115fifth one is policy and regulation number 1120. I'll move that the board approved the revisions to policy and regulation 1120 public participation as recommended by the policy and communication subcommittee second moved and seconded Debbie okay um this one we have this policy currently it's from 2003 so we thought that we should take a look at it just because it is quite old but there really were no substantial changes I think in one section it referred to bi-monthly meetings so we just changed that but other than that um there were no changes um this one has regulations attached to it so the only thing that we clarified on the regulation was where it said that any person speaking at public comment has to state their name address and group that they're representing we also added that

116they have to include the topic to be discussed but that was it um can I make a suggestion yep uh on the very first page of the actual policy that sort of Standalone sentence regarding the three minutes yep I would suggest changing shell to May okay but you can discuss committee I guess if I agree okay this is one we ought to pay specific very focused attention too because it's how we run our meetings the spirit of this is to make sure we're aligned with actual practice yep any other discussion or comments all in favor of moving uh 1120 to first read please say aye um so I noticed the uh words on the motion there didn't say to first read let's see neither does the next one all right [Music] yeah oh yeah can

117we as long as you actually say it I said it right we'll fix it and graduation as well right yeah okay so um just for clarity yep I'm gonna do this I'd like to move that all the Motions on the the policies we've already approved are for our first read just for clarity can I have a second on that second okay all in favor okay good just for clarity and just put for first reading your words on the upcoming one okay next one is bylaw number 9325. I will move that the board approved the deletion of brookfield's bylaw 9325 meeting conduct and adopt cape's version of bylaw 9325 meeting conduct and bring it to the board for a first read as recommended by the policy and Communications subcommittee second moved and seconded Debbie um this

118one we're just recommending that we delete our old policy and honestly I can't remember exactly why um we decided to strike the whole thing and just go with the new updated cave policy again to align with practice and be cleaner and more up to date okay Council also um provided input okay any discussion okay all in favor of approving uh by law number 9325 for First read please say aye aye any opposed all right good uh next is the approval of a curricular tool illustrative map I will move that the board approved the recommended curricular tool titled illustrative math as the new K-8 curricular tool for math instruction being phased in beginning in the 2023-2024 school year as recommended by the cape subcommittee and Dr anaman second all right it's moved and seconded would you

119like to walk us through absolutely so thank you very much I'm excited to talk about this it's been one of the major focuses of uh my my work in terms of the curricular work this year has been to the K3 reading as Dr Mike already alluded to and then um the uh this what has resulted in illustrative math um in the very beginning of the year Tiffany Johnson and Jim Fitzpatrick and Mark DeWitt came to me to talk about the math curricular tool that is currently used which is my math which was approved in the um 2017 year and um felt that based on our SBA scores from last year and kind of you know over the last couple years as we've all talked about you know really moving out of covid and um and

120moving toward this recovery this learning laws recovery from learning loss um and feeling that they were a little bit stagnated in the approaches and dynamic with regard to math instruction particularly in the K-8 and also with an alignment to um to the high school curriculum and and courses and so we went through a comprehensive uh process as you I was as was outlined in the memo that you saw that I sent to Cape and essentially just to sum up we created a larger team of K-8 teachers and administrators as well as uh Andrew Hill who is the administrator the content leader for stem at the high school it was very important to have his involvement because he really not only provided that kind of nine nine through 12 art articulation component but also is a

121leader in the state with um these with standards and alignment and you know really making uh math be um accessible for all Learners he's done a variety of presentations at a variety of conferences and that kind of thing so his he almost served a little bit as consultant to this group and so his input was very helpful and the way we kind of organized it was a foreshadowing of what we're going to be doing a little bit next year with our professional development so it's kind of nice because it has taken us on this path to alignment and it was also coincided with our strategic plan development so our larger group of teachers and administrators broke up into three teams all kind of shepherded by the either the content or the instructional coach or the

122math tutor Tiffany Johnson and each one of those groups simultaneously reviewed all of the um five curricular tools that were and those were curated by by those three folks and Andrew to kind of find out the ones that are the most aligned to the Connecticut core standards and those are the ones that kind of rose to the top and then each one of the teams went and looked at curriculum tools and looked at or looked at the materials looked at various uh did some research on the different districts that have used these various tools looked at the the alignment excuse me to the standards and we narrowed it down we met a couple different times and kind of built our consensus over time with the larger group and followed that process until we finally got

123down to the two finalists which were his math and illustrative Bridges only goes to to fifth grade and illustrative goes K8 so we kind of had our decision made for at least six eight and then we really took some time from February to March to discern which of the two curricular tools would be the most appropriate and if there wasn't a lot of daylight between the two we kind of agreed that illustrative would make sense for that Continuum and that articulation and so that's when members of the various groups went out on field trips and visited different districts including Newtown and Monroe and a couple other districts and each of whom you know various ones that are being used and implemented and the feedback that came back was they were impressed with both programs both

124curricular tools but really illustrative was just kind of that that one step up because of as Dr Mike talked about um the the inquiry base that it that it uses just kind of as a foundational element of the approach but particularly the dialogue and and conversation and collaboration upon which it is really dependent so there's a lot of focus on students not just learning the material not just kind of you know like turn like Stand and Deliver with the information and then practice it is inquiry-based and exploratory so students really have to Grapple with the various skills and then do a lot of problem solving together and as I said it is aligned to the standards it also um you know is a model that has that has kind of it is research based and

125used in a variety of different places including throughout the world um so uh you know we we ended our conversation with Andrew Mr Hill giving a presentation a summation of a presentation that he had just given at the atomic conference the week before and it aligned directly to this type of approach which was awesome and actually the members of the team said can we have him do our next PD um and they because he just gave the summation of his uh presentation so they were really excited so it not only is a curricular tool upon which we can base these curriculum changes because we talked a lot in this process about how a tool is not your curriculum it is the it is a supplement to your curriculum and you really make those adjustments to

126make sure it works for our district um but also uh the idea of that ongoing professional development that's definitely going to be needed to make sure that our teachers are comfortable with this um not only the tool but really the style of teaching and the delivery of the instruction because it is a kind of a fundamental shift in the way we are uh delivering this instruction in addition it'll have ramifications to scheduling so we'll have to engage the principals and talk to them about that particularly at CLE s um but if it does it is I'm excited about it because it will have I anticipate particularly the instructional changes we'll have kind of a waterfall effect into other areas such as science and social studies it integrates a lot of different disciplines and it is

127that kind of inquiry base which definitely will bring in that idea of not only inquiry based and Science and you know kind of exploratory and really scrutinizing history and social studies but also completely aligns to the Strategic plan and the Brookfield sees so that's where we that's what we talked about first um Mr Jewett also uh and as you see you know it says notes compiled by Mr Jewett some of this is editorialized but a lot of this is taken from the materials of illustrative math from the um Representatives that the key and uh Mr Fitzpatrick are working with um so it kind of just outlines the different uh you know kind of a typical approach to a lesson and how you would use this curricular Tool uh and then also and there's some information

128about the alignment from the State Department of Education and then finally another thing that I think really kind of tipped the scales and Miss nygarde was here earlier but she was a part of the team she was one of the members of the of the group um was the the capacity to support multi-language learners because not only does it uh you know it allows for for students to really grapple with and work on their math skills but then it encourages that dialogue and that conversation and that was something that she was particularly nervous about in the very beginning and so she was one of the ones who went on these field trips and talked with teachers and they said how much how how helpful it has been for their ml students because it encourages that

129conversation not so much on I'm sitting here listening to you present to me and talk to me but let's work on this together so it takes the focus off of the interpersonal conversation and more on to the the actual exploration of the material and so the pressure's kind of off so um you know it was it was a we're they're very excited about it we then had a conversation as a group about Okay so we have a new school building we have K3 reading work that we've been working on we're readjusting the you know the whole kind of dynamic of our district and now we're also going to go how are we going to roll this out in a thoughtful and intentional way because telling K8 that we think we're gonna just put this new

130curricular tool into place and have all the curriculum work and have the professional development and all of that seemed a little bit overwhelming so we came up with a two to three year plan of phasing it in starting with the middle school and actually down to fourth grade and frankly we were going to go fifth to eight but the fourth grade teachers who were on the team wanted it so badly then we put fourth grade in there as well and so with the idea that you know next year we'll be doing um we'll be working toward our or a change a shift exploring for our reading at the at seles and we are hopefully going to be bringing to you next month a universal screener that we have come upon or that we've decided upon

131so that's the next Cape meeting um so they're going to be kind of working on that from the in the lower elementary group and then the um you know middle to Middle Elementary to our Upper Elementary to Middle School we'll be working on infusing this um new math curricular tool with some piloting happening in k-3 so it can kind of see the clouds for the following year when we'd be prepared to rule it out fully K-8 hopefully we want to give ourselves that extra year just in case we have um you know if there are any constraints budgeting scheduling whatever the case may be but we're really excited about this and getting this going starting in the Summer where we would have curriculum uh you know extended due to time to revised curriculum as well

132as some you know kind of professional development time to get folks on board and ready to go for the fall I have a question that I forgot to ask um actually I just thought of it recently but um because this kind of focuses a lot more on just sort of like like working with math right and just working with it actively in the classroom with in a dialogue sort of way and that was like a big Focus I remember using the word dialogue a lot but is there also space for really all Learners not just youngest ones but um for them to do like just regular the practice that you still just need in math just for fluency and you know just you know your basic math facts like is there room for that in

133in a program like this yep that's a good that's okay Debbie's not and Debbie was also a part of this uh process as well as was appropriate um but yes there is it's built in and actually the general lesson plan on that second page has that idea of that cooldown where students are working more independently and doing that kind of repetitive practice of the work that the explicit skill that they had just worked on so there is that piece it really takes the um I would say and Debbie can maybe chime in here but it takes the focus off of the teacher doing that didactic delivery of instruction and really allows the students to explore with the teacher being the guide on the side um and you know but a bit of being able to

134jump in when needed and help them facilitate there's a lot of manipulatives and a lot of exploration that's really what the material costs I have to do it all right so it answered some of the questions so um my math we've been using since 2017 right that's when it was my understanding so in our data to support this is the SBA scores learning loss from covid I think so that's definitely would be part of it and those are good questions about kind of where where it was the Genesis of this right um I I would say that it also has to do with um the lack of flexibility with the myMath curricular tool you know teachers kind of just turn the page a little bit and deliver that particular lesson and so there's not as

135much ability to personalize instruction and differentiate when students are in need of of remediation or support or going more deeply or extending um whereas the illustrative because it's more focused on what's directly to align to Connecticut standards and it's more focused on um you know students really really owning the skill and building on that skill it's less about a a pacing of lesson plans so what's happening now that's not working to make that shift to illustrative so you mean what's the problem with my math right so yeah so that's a that's a good question it's not working right now too if that warrants I think that what what is not working from from what I would got from the teachers and from what I've kind of seen in the curriculum and I would say with

136the SBA scores um is it doesn't seem that it's kind of sticking with kids they're not seeing that transference not only um with the skill building but also year to year as well as much as they would like um also uh one of the focuses of next year is really that curriculum Artic or kind of alignment and K-12 articulation and there's not a seamless uh alignment from the K-8 curriculum to the 912 math classes so it's not quite whereas illustrative because it is so aligned with the state standards it is much more seamless with going into algebra one geometry Algebra 2 pre-calc calc statistics because those are all so based on the Connecticut core standards and out of Newtown Monroe and Wilton who who uses illustrial I believe it was Monroe and Wilton who used

137illustrative and Newtown does Bridges K-5 and illustrative six eight do you know how long they've been using it for um I'm I know that I know I don't know exactly with each one of them I know that Newtown uh started they made the transition I believe two years ago and um when I spoke with the former director of instruction from Newtown who brought that in and it could have been a couple years prior to that but he and I spoke a lot about it um you know he talked about uh that that he really loved Bridges but he thought that it was a little bit the connection between fifth and sixth was a big leap for kids because it was a shift in the way that they were approaching but he was he he really

138liked the bridges program um the Wilton I believe just adopted it last year and that is something who with with whom Mr Fitzpatrick has been speaking a lot because they've done a lot of work on you know they're kind of just fresh off making this move so um and I don't know how long Monroe was had it for so all three habits all three have one of those two yes yeah that's a again because Bridges is only K5 um you know there are a couple different some districts have a couple different ones but Newtown has a k r six eight right yes they roll it out some the same way or tomorrow without K8 or they stagger roll out I I haven't spoken to um the I believe Wilton it rolled it out over a

139phase-in I don't know about Newtown or Monroe that's a good questions though I can certainly find out yes but you know we have two things to consider right um whether to invest in this new curricular tool right and when to roll it out um hence and budget implications right not just the curricular tool but the extended Duty the PD a lot actually so that was one of the important that was absolutely that's a really good point um so that was one of the parameters that we all agreed upon in the very beginning um is that as we were because I knew we weren't going to be prepared to know what the curricular tool was going to be by the time I had to get my budget to Ken and so what we did is I

140said that was one of the expectations of the group is that we would not be able to pursue a curricular tool if it was going to far exceed the the currently budgeted items and so this illustrative with all of the changes and transitions will not be that should probably be a couple thousand dollars less than the mymf materials um certainly the materials will be a little bit though they're about I think two thousand or three thousand dollars less than um if we were to stay with my math but then we will have the extra cost of extended Duty and professional development however we have those budgeted for and we won't exceed what we haven't budgeted for they have workbooks like how is it similar to my math or that it's a totally different um I

141I there are I don't know exactly of all the details in terms of um the the materials that come for students um I don't know Debbie do you have any idea about the difference in terms of materials yeah that one made a gap um so I can I can certainly find out information about that a few times for you I don't believe there's the same kind of um uh same level of material that the students have in terms of going home but they have a lot more in-class manipulatives and then there are a lot of um there are a lot of online well a lot of worksheets that that teachers get through there uh through what they um their access and then they can kind of build their materials that they need to and send

142home based on the needs of the kids during that particular unit so is there an online component obviously for the teachers but is there for the there is not a technology component for the kids no it's all it's very Hands-On and manipulative oriented and I also remember you saying that this opens a lot of opportunity for our instructional coaches because of how explorative it is right that yeah that's a really good point um that this year actually a couple of the teachers who have been piloting it so at the middle school there are teachers who have we have hired over the last couple years who have who were using illustrative in their former districts and so again illustrative is a curricular tool but it's also kind of a little bit of an instructional approach and

143mindset um and so they were bringing that approach and that was actually one of the ways that Mr Jewett um kind of was turned on to the idea of illustrative math um and so he has two teachers in the seventh grade who have been using these approaches pretty regularly with the kind of the materials that we have approved for our district but bringing in some supplemental material so almost kind of an in built-in pilot um and so I think that that's you know one of the ways that we're going to be transitioning but so he's already been kind of in there and been able to use those teachers to give feedback to the rest of the department Mr Fitzpatrick has been as we've been looking at these different materials because two teachers with whom he's

144working in fourth grade and a teacher in third grade who that's really been his in to doing this coaching through the last couple months I would say um and it's one of the they're definitely going to be we're going to be leaning on them pretty strongly too be our professional development embedded but also um to be in into those classrooms questions the document s to do it compiled I could you know share those or I don't because I don't know if you can even answer them but yeah certainly if you want to I would be more than happy to get you answers to your questions if you want to send them to me or send them to us absolutely approving I'm just table this or does it are you okay I mean I would like

145to see like you know you know you know it's there was a lot of fluff in here you know it sounds like you know the steps to the lesson you know the warm-ups kind of sounds like a review like the classroom activities um it's more like your guide to practice or your modeling and a little lesson synthesis it's more like your independent practice and the cooldown's more like the exit ticket right it's um but like Rosa said you know that time for the fluency practice and much needed math facts and things like that that need to be you know kind of skilled skilled and drilled um it's it's hard to kind of weed through all this language to actually see the lesson and know the materials give me a better picture of you know what

146we're really investing in like I'm not you know second guessing the professionals that were on the committee but it's hard to really get a good picture of um you know what we're proposing yeah is there any um if we were to have a comeback for the board is there any time is there a timing implication uh with Summer coming and those kind of things and again we never want to make Rush decisions either right you know we want everybody to be comfortable Sports so can you talk a little bit about that absolutely so um yeah I mean I certainly want you to feel like you have a enough information that you can make a a good decision on this um and I I would definitely say that by the June meeting we would need to

147know because I need to be able to make sure that we have people on in line for setting up Summer work and professional development and that kind of thing and also it will there's a pretty big impact with our professional development plan for next year which um you know will be a K-12 alignment Focus for math but again you know certainly if there are questions I'm more than happy to come back it's like budget implications or what that kind of yeah can I just make a suggestion sure I think they're good questions and I think it'll be good to have the engagement um I think we're going to end up needing a short special meeting anyhow because of another topic which is small Wares on the new school need to be approved and sometime next

148week or the week after but we can't wait for the June meeting because I got to get them ordered um why don't I make it a two topic special meeting and get that would give you guys a chance to connect and then we could just uh I think everybody's had a chance well I've had a chance to think about if they had any further questions but that way we I don't think it'll have to be a long discussion it could just be an item we deal with is that okay with everyone yeah certainly okay um good so we'll table this item okay um for the timing I before I leave it though I had some very dry questions okay that we could maybe address um one is and just confirmed there I live through the

149world of new math that came in and it got a whole generation of kids confused on how to do real math they had lost the traditional method for long division and other things there's no crazy math techniques in here it's all pretty standard math right yes okay good I had to ask um I figured that's a good question right so yes no question it feels a little bit yeah sometimes absolutely second was uh Advanced middle schoolers especially up in eighth grade who were kind of ready to go to like an algebra one type of thing what are we doing with them and what would we do in the with this new set of tools so this these would not supplant um the the classes or the courses this is just the curricular tool so that's

150a good question is you know going to be you know illustrative math 7 and illustrative math 8th um it's not it's this is just going to be the curricular tool so there would still be that opportunity for algebra one of the joys of our district right now we have some really good math kids coming through with what we're doing in middle school and I don't I wouldn't want this to yeah this is not that's a good question this is not a change in scope and sequence at all and this is the curricular tool what is the total spend to do this yep so that's a good question um so for the uh materials um it would be thirty three thousand and eight hundred dollars roughly it's twenty seven dollars a student um and then so

151that would be and then there and it's um it's eighty dollars per teacher I believe um and so those together would when we have 20 teachers you have 80 teacher 20 teachers uh and so if we were to going to go full four eight plus some piloting materials for uh K3 and then professional development would cost anywhere from 2500 to 3 000 for a year and then roughly uh six to eight thousand dollars in curriculum writing possibly with extended Duty we have to kind of see what the availability is what the need is what the you know plan would be with that okay and all of that's built into the budget and right right now materials for um grades four through eight for that we have built into the budget uh for next year is

152three thirty seven thousand seven hundred and fifty three dollars um the uh there's there's also money built into the budget person technology which we don't need um and then the uh professional development um that that I have built in um is fifteen thousand dollars but that's you know that's inclusive of a lot of things so there is money already built into that and then our extended duty at the various class at the various schools as well I think we'll need a schedule when we meet the next time that says here's the next year and here's the total roll-on picture right and how does it compare to what we do tonight it's very simple can can you've done them a thousand times so um I just think there's a board if we're going to approve it

153we're approving a dollar amount that goes with it so I think that's just an important thing that we have and it's just it's a it's a it's a exhibit I'm not dwelling on it I heard what you said it sounds like it's it's similar to what we're using material wise and we have an investment in professional development curriculum writing if I got that right yes okay yeah which is but I'm happy to give up which is in the adopted budget which we've got some every year yeah we are we always have to just pick and choose what we're spending that money on so this is what you're choosing okay any further discussion on this all right so we're tabling this item I don't need a vote to table so we'll go ahead and table without

154objection um the next item on the agenda is substitute pay rates I'll move that the board approved the substitute pay rates as recommended by the finance subcommittee second okay it's moved and seconded it all right I'll just say something briefly about it but I think Ken well all right Ken's coming up so you can probably say it all it doesn't matter who does it no go ahead you're already up there well you have an exhibit in your packet showing the current uh pay rates with the proposed pay rates uh we met a couple of times with ESS and talked about our fill rates and what we could do to to make sure we get quality substitutes and potentially increase our fill rates and they did some research and they came back with these proposals the

155biggest possible biggest impact from my point of view would be the long long term substitute pay rates because at the rate that we were paying now they were having great difficulty in getting long-term substitutes which was then forcing us to go out and hire our own long-term substitutes where we pay them 301 a day so we asked them to do some research and find out at what level would they be able to entice people to to come on board this would actually get us lower cost than we have today yes yes so the the other side of this this as current based on our current fill rates would cost us about fifty thousand dollars more in a year so that would be something we'd have to deal with going forward in the new budget um

156potential savings if they are able to get us a couple of long-term Subs instead of us having to hire our own um if the fill rates increase that could be a cost to us but that would make things less disruptive because it would mean less we wouldn't have to pull as many paraprofessionals from assignments to cover for classes or pay other teachers to cover for classes so that's this is what we are recommending and as Rosa was going to start to talk this was discussed at the finance yeah exactly four times this isn't even all the pay rates that we still have to have to go through no but it's the one that would have the most immediate impact that we want to move on all right are there any questions on for Ken on

157this Ken when would this be implemented we talked about implementing it right away right after the tonight if it is approved and the yeah you did an estimate of the potential cost of this year was relatively small if I recall yes it was about eight or nine thousand dollars yeah how do these rates the proposed rates compare with the neighboring districts they make us much more competitive so roughly in line with them we're not at the top but a little better than in the middle yes yeah there are some districts you need to have higher rates to then their neighboring districts just to get people to go right the big the big cities are harder you actually they pay higher on substitutes because it's harder to get people into the big big schools like that

158so so Danbury is an interesting they're higher rates but the feedback was that these rates people would love to come to Brookfield so yes okay if there's any no questions all in favor of approving The Substitute daily rates for effective immediately we say aye thank you thank you all right that's it for new business you guys actually when we went to one meeting and once you said they were we're okay having one long meeting well this is it [Music] um we're into Old business um the three items under policy are all things that were first read over 30 days ago so we're back for a final approval and so item number one is policy regulation number five one two five I'll move that the board approved to replace brookfield's policy 5125 FERPA with cape's version

159and approve the edits to regulation 5125 FERPA for a final reading as recommended by the policy and Communications subcommittee the first reading was on March 15th second okay it's moved and seconded Debbie any feedback or changes that you received no there any input from anybody around the table on them I read them at length this afternoon um Debbie I I do when I was reading them I I was perfectly fine with the content on them I just so so you know but I did find a couple of editing things um would you would you if we approve these do you mind if I uh just work with Lisa to get the editing things done perfect um you know it's things like indents and things like that and Lisa I know you're over there I'll bring

160them in with me tomorrow when I come to see John and we could just go go through them if they're pretty simple it's like one or two or three things on each one perfect okay um in particular on this one there's yellow we corrected that and the version you got on Friday correct so it's been filled in since I think that was a leftover highlight okay that's corrected all right good all right then I don't have any further issues it's just a funny little indents yeah and fonts um all right with no further discussion all in favor of approving five one two five hi okay that's approved uh next up is policy 5131.911 I'll move that the board approved to replace brookfield's existing policy 5131.911 bullying with cape's version and approved edits to regulation 5131.911

161bullying for a final reading is recommended by the policy and Communications subcommittee first reading was on March 15th second they moved and seconded Debbie anything on this one okay any comments from the board same comment on formatting so uh but all in favor of approving 5131.911 hi okay next one is uh next page policy 5144.1 I'll move that the board approved to delete current policy 5141.1 restraint and seclusion and accept an updated version based on language adopted by Wallingford Public Schools as well as the regulation based on Cave language for a final reading is recommended by the policy and Communications subcommittee first reading was on March 15th second moved in second and anything on this one Debbie answer questions okay and we get all the responses are satisfactory okay I remember seeing your note on

162that okay um on the policy I I I just will tell you the edit it's the social Wallings were down on the bottom okay so that kind of stuff is what I was catching yep and uh I just thought we wouldn't want to publish one of our own policies and said Wallingford on it but okay and then the policy approval date I circled on that too because they had already approved it on their schedule so yep so but that's the kind of things I was looking at okay any further discussion all in favor of approving 5144.1 please say hi hi okay it's approved okay that's uh next item is the budget estimate and it's just a standing item that to give updates on the uh budget and I think the only input I would have

163is uh the referendum date which is the 16th um so uh two weeks from yesterday and uh and it was approved at the town meeting we had we did a presentation uh tarakar did most of it I did the chart for the board of debt on our behalf and and uh got just a couple of questions from the audience and uh and they voted unanimously to move it to reprim so so I would just urge everybody who's watching still after almost three hours um that please get out to vote we need the support um uh that of everybody in the district to pass this budget okay next is an update on Candlewood Lake Elementary School or through a list [Music] um just some items that are completed things that they're working on so completed items

164all the terrazzo on the second floor is complete the art installation hangers those supports have gone in the cloud ceiling which you'll see in here in the tree ceiling is complete all of the exterior brick whiteboard installation wall panels in the multi-purpose room and the steel and the wood for the exterior canopies over in the entrances those are all complete what they're working on now is the channel bed that's in the front the servers Terrazzo on the first floor and they're starting their water and window testing um Bob I know you had a question about delay in terms of move-in time a lot of jargon flies around at those meetings and some other reports always say like delay delay delayed there are some things that are delayed but it's not going to impede on our

165move-in time um what's holding up the main stairwell is the Treads so the stairwell can go in but the Treads themselves are delayed but you can move in without those so they'll have something temporary in place um stairwell the stairwell week is planned to be complete as of July 15th so when we talk about meeting the deadline we're talking about meeting the deadline for teachers Administration secretaries custodians and our technology team moving into the building at the end of June when Huckleberry demolition begins on Huckleberry we're not talking about um August impacts at all right in any of this right it's all all about meeting the end of June deadline um and having uh moving boxes moved into teacher classrooms and elsewhere throughout the building are you sure that's all on time um what may

166need Board of Ed approval I think is maybe a playscape design is that true Bob was just alluding to that so I could just before we get into the the pictures the slideshow um there is similar to the technology package and um Furniture packages known as ffne and some other things the playscape and the small wears package need to be approved by the board and the MBC I know that uh arcadis was feverishly working to get that package prepared for tonight so we could add it to this very long meeting and approve it so we wouldn't have to meet again but as Bob alluded to it's likely uh uh before May 16th which is when the NBC meets again we would have a joint special meeting and Bob and Paul and I have been uncontact

167about about looking at some time next week to do that and we can get that done and ready to go so they could get onto ordering the playscape from game time and the uh the small Wares there's uh I'd invite Dave to come to that meeting as well because he had a really big part in the playscape design with the team at the school as well as meeting some budget restraints and constraints with small Wares and I think we did a great job when we exercised some real leadership and creativity to come in within the budget given inflation over the last couple of years that's one of the areas smallers and playscape where it caught us where we've been ahead of the curve on inflation with the school project having locked in these were two

168areas that caught us so we had a really sharpen uh the pencil the pencil as it were so we're really excited about that but we do have to meet to get moving on that and again as you said Bob maybe we parlay that into a meeting to further discuss the uh illustrative math as well after we break away from The Joint session or something like that yeah yeah um or Bob you've been on a number of Tours was there anything you wanted to add or go every Friday guys if any of you have a chance to join us on Fridays you're all welcome nine o'clock it's moving from a construction site to a beautiful school right and you walk down the halls and you just uh you're just smiling things the gift that this community

169is giving to the children is becoming more and more real it's it's absolutely amazing and one of the one of the greatest Joys I had on Monday afternoon and she doesn't even know she brought this joy into my life was uh our veteran kindergarten teacher Mrs Larson uh was finishing up a pdec meeting and we all know the legendary energy that Mrs Larson brings to any conversation and she was just so excited because she had toured on the Friday before and she was sharing I missed that tour I wasn't able to attend and she was just so excited to share with me how excited she was and she said John I went right right in back into the school and I told everybody oh my God it's the greatest thing ever we can't you know

170you can't wait to get in there and that is driving energy and enthusiasm from teachers to finish the year and get into the new school so um there's just a lot of excitement yeah I I'll say the Friday morning walk-throughs they give John and I a chance to see how progress is going and that's why I do it religiously now but it's also we bring in three to four teachers from Huckleberry and the two to three teachers into Center school and maybe from the fifth grade teachers months and the as time is getting closer going on and the rooms are getting finished we their excitement level is extraordinary they're seeing their own they're seeing their own club literally this last time they brought paint chips with them right because they were looking to figure out

171to make sure they could match the colors of what they wanted to bring in of their own stuff to their classroom and the excitement was you're across that's where you are and you know they they could see their own classrooms which was just a joy um and the when you walk in the fifth grade Wing you walk in it's been the rooms are closed up and locked it's done it's done done right I think there's a little carpet right along the expansion joint that has to be done once those come in there were a supply chain issue but other than that the whole Wing is done fourth grade the wing is done third grade I think the Wing's gonna be done this week in the in the upstairs Terrazzo is complete so there's just so

172much done on the is not just done they've actually put plywood over because they don't want us to damage it while they're still doing construction downstairs is still more in the construction we'll see right on the pictures but the the thing that uh Chris who was uh from uh Arcata so it gives us walks us through make sure we don't go into places we shouldn't um you know where they're working on polishing or grinding or something like that uh he's comment to the teachers was this is going to be the most beautiful school in the state of Connecticut and uh that the the people working on the school are proud of it but they are kind of fun and Chris is a uh a veteran project management around construction for probably 30 plus years and

173for him to say that he has no reason to try to sell the project or anything like that he is he is he is blown away and so full of Pride with where this project is going so I just will say if anybody wants to do it it's a fun walk through and you see the excitement of the teachers and you get a real sense of how close it's getting you know even if it's the night before just sitting the stairs no the stairs the stairs without the Treads are supposed to be going in uh this week I think so they were supposedly the last week but they were on the verge but if you do want to take take uh just get send me a note because we need to make sure we have

174a hard hat for you that's it that's a requirement yeah raise your shirt and then Eric um has a few pictures he wants to share as well after Rosa walks through the the traditional slideshow so there's the outside um so you can start you can see kind of like the the bed in the front is starting to have sort of the rough structure of the Landscaping which is which is nice it'll I don't think we're going to get to any planting that won't be done until next spring so that's right 24th yeah some Falls planting as I think will go in but um it'll still be kind of rough looking on the on the outside dirt wise um next one all right so that's where the playscape will be so hopefully we can start to

175see some changes there over the summer there's the main entrance main entrance hall um stairwell's still not in that's what we just talked about here where there'd be the landing stairwell for the Treads to go I mean the guys yep that is the multi-purpose room so the stage all the walls the lights all the panels for that are are in and actually looks exactly like the picture so it's really coming together this is the main cafeteria large cafeteria so the servery from that picture looks a lot more progressed than the last time I was there the terrazzo was actually just going in the day that we the day I was there so that looks really earlier today earlier today that was all being polished um when I was on site so it's this doesn't do

176a picture the picture's probably a week old yeah this doesn't do justice for what that cafeteria floor looked like today when I left oh yeah so great yeah awesome this is the just kind of a close-up I guess of the floor yeah which yep not polished but it'll look just like the picture which is nice the gym gym still looks um other than the basketball hoops the gym still looks like you know sort of the main storage area but um again I say this every time but not much is being done on on the walls in there the gym floor is like one of the last things to go in because the gym floor will be made of hardwood yeah and so that's they didn't want any damage to that floor Bill one of the

177last as they worked their way out of the building so that'll be one of the last installs the gross motor skills area um you can kind of see the wall panels going in there so that's adjacent to the gym and the cloud ceiling right this is the what they were they were labeling the tree canopy yeah so I think that looks really good small cap the entries entrance into the neighborhood you can't see the art installations because they're hung away from the you know all the way up on the second floor classroom totally done everything's protected another classroom I think all those smart boards are in now um almost they're um I think uh One Wing is depending on I think it's that third grade Wing uh Mr Penny and then some of the other

178non-traditional classroom spaces still made up we're almost there this is one of the breakout spaces in the at the uh the end of the neighborhood so the lighting is really impressive in there it looks really good you can see the uh different color on the wall that's actually it's tackboard material it's a foldable wall that opens up an entire classroom wall so the classroom and the breakout area at the end of the hallway could be one large learning space yep so it's just another another angle of it and this is what I was talking about this is this is actually this is getting a smart board so these are the areas where the boards aren't installed like the non-traditional classrooms so yeah um at the end of the majority of at the end of the

179majority of neighborhoods a reminder for everybody we have really an open classroom area and additional classroom space learning space the wheelchair lift wheelchair lifts installed yeah so the polished Terrazzo right looks really looks awesome incredible there's some more pictures about rainforest and I'm not sure where this is that Savannah that's a deer yeah [Music] the media center I don't know this is kind of what it looks like looked like when I was last there probably a month ago so I don't know if if this is a lot of the framing is going in they're really starting the um sheetrock yeah I would say this one feels the at least along of all the of all the rooms and then the terrazzo wall panels I showed this I showed this to my daughter and she thought

180it was very fancy looking okay the teacher prep room so that looks good the floors the floors weren't in the last uh last time I was in there so those look nice and the entry canopies I mentioned all the way around the school you think that was it that's right that's it and then Eric was over to work with the vendors down from Canada for the installation of the loose system in the gymnasium he also has a few other Tech updates he certainly could share um but you can talk a little bit about the loo system which is extremely exciting yeah I'll start there so if you remember one of the most exciting things in the technology package was the gymnasium um I should put it back right yeah yeah um was the gymnasium loose

181system that's the interactive wall projectors one on the north wall one on the south wall and the students will be able to interact um throw balls at the wall and and have it and I'll show a quick video we actually got to test it today sorry Dr few it was a different time than I planned on it but it wasn't a good it wasn't a good test we'll go back for a better test um um how about Friday morning yeah although they're giving me the controls for it so we could um but yeah this is a very very um impressive system and you'll kind of get a feel for it it doesn't do Justice in pictures um but like I said the professionals that do projector installations Smart Boards all of the stuff for us

182they had to bring in the loo professionals to do this from Canada and they've spent the last three days here um so it is it is a very very impressive system and so you'll see that there's three components there's actually four components to each one um this big thing right here in the middle uh is just lights uh lights up the uh the area the students are standing it kind of strobes and flashes those can be adjusted if needed um but here's a nice kind of close-up shot of what this looks like it's it's a massive just projector looking device on on the ceiling um and you can kind of see so what this is going to do is there's a projector standing right there um and that projector shines right onto the wall and

183it's going to shine right onto the padding which we found out is a nice light gray padding so it'll be a good color um to project onto and the students will be able to see the image and you can see that up here um so I'll show you a quick uh just a quick picture of what it'll look like it's a little tough because the wall is not done yet but you can kind of see the uh what it projects onto the screen uh and then we did take a quick video or two um [Music] so yeah so that was that was not the best video I won't take too much time but here we go and so you'll see that those are the kinds of things the students can do um and that's just

184simple mathematics and um we had that Lou gives you everything they give you the balls to throw at the wall they give you remotes they give you uh they give the teachers um a headset to tie into the audio system so the kids can hear them uh but we didn't inflate the ball so as you saw we flew deflated balls at the uh at the wall um like um specific to that system no we could go we could go to Target or Walmart and buy kickballs yeah it's just one of those nice little things but it's a little tough to see in this video but you can kind of see the lights the lights up here kind of dancing around flashing and doing an exercise program uh it's gonna be really exciting when the room

185is dark so um but uh yeah so that was a lot of fun to uh to see today and uh um while I wanted to show some exciting things of what it looks like I it it will be much much better when you can see it live with the walls in place and all of that stuff so it is exciting I think the kids are going to have a blast we've already included the PE teachers Dr pepsoski Dr rudel on the kickoff meeting with the company they're going to be doing uh training support all of that stuff so the teachers are gonna are gonna know how to use it better than any of us so is literally fresh install yesterday and today I mean it's just happened so we thought let's let's put this together

186quickly and again something we wanted to install before the gym floor to Dr Burrell's point so we're gonna uh put it in they're gonna bag the whole system up no dust no um for Friday Friday's walkthrough so that is correct we could get a little use on that that is correct okay thank you thank you thanks Eric I appreciate it anything else okay all right that's it for our Candlewood Lake Elementary uh project update uh next on the agenda was public comment but we did that at the beginning so next is three main points well we have a lot that we covered tonight um so I think the first thing I'd I'd like to highlight the French Exchange program and the presentation that we heard about that I thought that was really fabulous um I

187had planned to write about the illustrative math curricular tool but I think because we have questions and didn't vote on it and we'll probably discuss it at a second meeting I think we'll hold off on that um I thought actually Joy recommended that we should talk about the new substitute rate structure that we approved there's a lot of people yeah about that so I think that's right so I think that's a good idea and then uh the update on Candlewood Lake Elementary School okay with that science fair yeah yeah well can we put it under are we doing the exchange program yeah so I can put it with put it under a spotlight yeah just call it a double suit as well we had two great student spot ones yeah okay all right good everyone's

188in there seems to be integrated so that's good so um upcoming events okay at Center school on Tuesday May 9th the alphabet countdown to Summer calendar begins Friday May 12th is nappy's puppet show assembly Monday May 15th Tuesday May 16th and Friday May 19th is the kindergarten incoming kindergarten screening and parent Guardian orientation sessions Tuesday May 16th is a first grade field trip to the Ridgefield Playhouse Wednesday May 24th and Thursday May 25th is a Brookfield Historical Society visit with first grade classes Thursday May 25th is the smarts and the art fair from 5 30 to 6 30 p.m and Thursday June 1st is Play Day at Huckleberry the ABC countdown also begins on May 9th May 11th and May 18th are fourth grade trips to Sturbridge Village May 17th 18th and 19th grade 2

189goes to New pond in Fairfield New Fairfield trips to the new Pond Farm May 24th and 25th is field day here at Brookfield High School for Huckleberry students May 26 is career day and May 31st is the band and chorus concert also here at the high school at whiskaneer on May 15th there's a unified theater performance at 5 30 May 10th through 12th is the 8th grade Washington DC trip May 16th is the band concert here at the high school at 7 pm May 17th is the 7th grade field trip to Liberty Science Center in the Statue of Liberty May 18th is the chorus concert here at the high school uh May 19th is the 7th and 8th grade band and chorus field trip to Lyman Hall High School where they will perform and be

190adjudicated by a panel of judges and then go to Lake Compounce for the trills and thrills Festival May 23rd is a PTO meeting May 26 is Unified Arts field day uh June 5th is quasi day for Western Air June 6 is the 8th grade moving up ceremony and at the high school the senior prom is May 12th the 23rd of May is the spring concert and June 1st is the Six Flags senior trip and June 5th is a celebration of Excellence Junior and senior Awards and as we mentioned the budget is on Tuesday May 18th from 6 a.m to 8 P.M Friday May 26th all schools will early release and Monday May 29th close for Memorial Day Amy I think you said May 18th for the budget vote it should be the 16th oh the

19116th thank you yep there's a lot when there's one mile yep that is all I have okay any questions all right so that's it for the televised portion of our meeting we do have a anticipated executive session but for those of you watching we're going to be turning off the broadcast so the motion to go into executive session yep I will move that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's goals evaluation on Affiliates out unaffiliated salaries and contracts second and second and all in favor aye all right thank you very much for listening in tonight [Music]