Board of Education Meeting

001[Music] thank you [Music] all right good evening everybody I'd like to welcome you all to the regular meeting of the Brookfield board of education for Wednesday April 5th we have a big crowd tonight this is kind of fun to see we don't always have this much company so thank you all for coming please join me in Rising 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 [Music] um so on our agenda first up we have our roll call we have six of our seven members of the Board of Education Mrs Bhutto is not here due to observance of the holidays this evening um and uh um Dr Pearl

002did you have something you wanted to say yes I just wanted to let the board know um our wonderful High School company everything etched um put together this wonderful gift for you it's a gift from the TSO team for each of the board members it's for board appreciation month we couldn't get the Tumblers in fast enough and get everything etched to get the work done by the March 15th meeting so they came in and we have them for you and their their personalized so please feel free if you'd like to open them or whatever you like doing certainly we could thank the students for putting them together for us and certainly Mrs gramling and the team for and Mr neuhausel our technology teacher customized for everybody thank you and all the volunteer hours you put

003in thank you very much thank you very much you're welcome [Music] foreign [Music] next on our uh agenda is public comment um we do very much welcome public comment um we do have a process uh for public comment uh that we reserve the early part of the meetings public comment to things that are on the agenda and so I'm actually it's one of the reasons for those of you who are new to this when I do the sign up we do ask for the agenda items that they want to talk to and there's a lot of items here but only one of them by my judgment is has to do with an agenda item this evening so those of you who are here to speak uh we will probably will get to you at the

004end of the meetings public comment period I will tell you we have a short agenda so you're not going to be here until long hours of the night um it's uh there's only one business item on the agenda and then our kind of standard things the rules for public comment are simple um uh which three minutes per speaker and as I said the beginning section is for the part of anything on the agenda um and we just asked that no no discussion of school Personnel or individual students or individual members of the board because that wouldn't be appropriate in this kind of forum so the only person who's on the agenda for uh the early part is Mrs Matthews you'll hold till the end okay thanks that'll be at the end thank you um thank

005you very much um so the uh so with that we will move on to uh um the student Spotlight and uh so Dr bro I'll let you give some opening remarks sure so we have we are we're super excited to have a team from Center School kindergarten Mrs Knapp's class here with us tonight I've been going to invite uh where is Mrs ferius there we go Mrs Ferris to the podium to introduce everybody I think the theme of tying into the Brookfield seas in the Strategic plan will be very exciting uh especially regarding the topic of science tonight so Deb I'll let you take over thank you Dr Burrell I am super excited to be here with the amazing crew of scientists in Mrs Knapp's class along with our K-8 instructional science coach Rachel Cohen

006and along with Mariah Rivera our ABA prior for para professional and by the way power appreciation day today so right um shout out to Brown powders anyway I just really want to introduce I have the honor of introducing our amazing inquisitive scientists who have used inquiry and curiosity and science to solve a real world problem so I don't want to give away the spotlight I want to introduce Mrs Sean Knapp our kindergarten teacher extraordinaire and Rachel Cohen Mrs Cohen to talk about the spotlight so I'll be brief I had the amazing opportunity to work with Sean and her Wonderful class and we worked on their forces and motion unit and the students really were inspired and utilized their play Workshop along with stations and centers in the morning and traditional lessons to solve a problem

007so without further Ado I'm going to introduce Haley [Music] okay [Applause] good evening we are here to show you how we built pickles feeding machine This is Nico nobody [Applause] we have a problem because he's not getting fat this is my friend Evan [Applause] we needed a machine to remind us to feed pickles this is my friend Anthony we needed a a Bell on the bottom of the Martin to remind us to feed pickles here Evelina foreign [Applause] ERS work together to make different parts of the machine we helped each other I would like to introduce Joey [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] the machine doesn't always work we kept trying and trying again really excited yeah [Music] Georgie [Applause] here's our video come on down Georgie [Applause] [Music] play [Music] thank you foreign communicate it's

008Chevy ideas with other [Music] um thank you [Music] forever leaders work with the class for the goal [Music] s [Music] here are our blueprints [Music] I think that car had more Force to push the lever careful thinking with the information creative thinking making something new we made a Marvel track [Music] so it doesn't go crazy [Music] inspired me and me to to make this life Sage maker solving the problem [Music] s [Music] I feel excited because I had fun building a fish machine I am happy that we made a machine to feed pickles I feel happy because we work so hard I feel happy because because everybody did a good job I feel super duper happy because we work together thanks for watching [Applause] Deb you good do you need to say anything else that

009is you're absolutely right yep holy thank you all and please come by G6 and help feed pickles you can try the machine he's he's thriving as Joey said he's excited so please come on by we had a wonderful time working with Mrs Cohen and exploring through play so thank you we're going to show your or show you our pictures now so Jesus come on up here guys come on come on come on up you can bring him here wow oh yeah look at that you're with Mrs you're the marble on the floor oh my gosh let me see wow you got what what did the car do [Music] this really that's cool and and was that part of the how to feed pickles that's great here take your pictures thank you let's see what you

010got oh man look at that good job okay and that's how I built that's how it all starts so get Pickle stuff okay that's let me see what you oh [Music] you both of you seem to have pictures is that's your Design This is how you kind of decided what to make and what is your picture doing it looks like you have got your vehicle going down a ramp right push the car cool is that what I saw on this on the pictures that's so neat good job guys [Music] well that was really really cool and I'll speak for the board to say that that was not only uh one of the most fun exercises we've seen but it's also hits some of the things we've added to the strategy and for those of you

011who haven't watched our strategy presentations it's um it's really clear we've got really good education of subjects you know good Math teachers good English teachers these are the skills that surround that you know how do you make critical decisions how do you collaborate how do you communicate and to see it starting with the kindergarteners it's just fabulous so we're very very happy to see that any one from the board want to add no it was great okay okay all right so um we will continue on our agenda uh and it's any it looks like all of the kids are heading out because it's a late night for them already so um all right next up on our agenda is uh the student representative report Caitlin this is a tough act for you to follow but

012you will you will you will rise to the occasion I am sure it's always the elementary school kids that are like doing so so good and I'm so proud of them too um okay so hi everyone uh to begin updates today I'm pleased to announce that the junior prom was a success um it was held at the Amber Room this past Friday complete with dinner a DJ and a photo booth um preparations continue for senior prom being held at the Kenwood Inn on May 12th and um that event has a red carpet theme and also student government elections for the 2023 to 2024 school year have commenced um the current members are passing down the responsibility to diligent capable students who will successfully lead our student body at BHS um the sophomores within Student Government

013currently are working on a Mario Kart tournament fundraiser to raise money for their class which is very fun um last week all students at BHS were presented with a training program in our ilt and this educated everyone about the Sandy Hook promises say something this is the anonymous reporting system and so students were taught the importance of reporting suspicious or threatening activity that occurs on or outside the school grounds um so we are encouraged to take these necessary measures to keep ourselves safe at all times finally the performance for The Little Shop of Horus has come to an end they had a successful run and a great audience turnout so the dinner and a movie night was a definitely a hit so for athletics the spring Sports have commenced and the Brookfield girls lacrosse team

014won their first game against New Milford this week yay um I'm sad to announce that coach Brian Reeve has retired at the end of the swim season um he spent 31 years in the Brookfield Community coaching boys swim and six years coaching the girl swim so he has led the team to 11 state championships six swc's championships and had 60 All-State swimmers and five All-American swimmers in his career so I work as a lifeguard at the YMCA so I experienced his talent and devotion firsthand while watching him work with the team and it was just really great to see um so he was an amazing coach and will continue to be loved by all that's all for tonight thank you Caitlyn one question I know we don't normally no yeah questions anytime how was it

015received by the students with the see something say something app yeah yeah I figured you guys might want more elaboration on that so um it was delivered during ilt we did have technology issues so we couldn't actually play the video until about 10-15 minutes into iot um so it didn't grab much of the student's attention right away because we were kind of like antsy about it um because it did also lead into some students lunch time um so that had nothing to do with the actual um thing but just the system uh the video was taken okay I feel like um teachers were definitely told to direct students to really pay attention because this is important um so I would say in my classroom like we didn't have phones out we weren't doing anything else

016it was just like we were taking this time to watch the video um and yeah and in my specific class we there were a few kids who had some questions after I think they um some were answered by my teacher and then she told the ones who didn't have questions to go to like some or who like knows more information um but overall I think it was an informative video um yeah I would say that it was organized very well and they did incorporate students into the video too so it wasn't just adults like talking to us because usually that doesn't really grab the kids attention so I would say that it was really informative good yeah very good thanks for questions for uh Caitlin thank you thank you for doing a great job following

017kindergarten [Music] all right so uh next up is written correspondence okay Denise rice wrote regarding a complaint Jeffrey Katz wrote regarding building conditions at the high school Marnie mcneff wrote regarding the correct survey and focus groups Sarah Coffey wrote regarding school security positions Nick Schmidt wrote regarding cardiac screenings for athletes and explicit books at the Brookfield High School library Jennifer pink wrote regarding increasing substitute pay Michelle Santos wrote regarding connect kids Transportation Jamie klavins Monique Matthews Lindsey Davis and Irene Korea wrote regarding the correct focus groups Tanya Stanley and Debbie Pizzo wrote regarding the BHS Library circulation Howard Lasser wrote regarding meeting dates Carrie Colombo wrote supporting vetted access to Library resources Jamie clavens wrote regarding mental health and the lack of support in the high school Andy Correa wrote regarding the failure to oppose

018an sro's accelerated Rehabilitation application and Monique Matthews wrote regarding a special ed petition okay thank you next is approval aboard minutes I'll move that the board approved the minutes from the regular meeting on March 15 2023 and the special meeting on March 15 2023 second any discussion on the minutes okay all in favor all right it's unanimous uh superintendents update Dr Burrell I'll turn it to you all right thanks Mr Belden so um a couple of items tonight and then I'm actually going to turn it over to Dr rudel our assistant principal from Huckleberry to share some information uh that's going on at Huckleberry right now but I'll start with uh just letting everybody know that we have two of our 11th graders who have projects qualifying for the international science and engineering Fair which

019will be in Texas on May I think it's May May 3rd and we are really looking forward to them uh coming to the next board meeting if they can and sharing with us their projects and we're just super proud of both of them and really excited they are only two they are two of only seven students in the entire state that have a project qualifying to even go to this National Conference so we're really really proud of them and really excited I can't wait to have them introduced you I know Mr belanda and certainly Mr Hill are quite proud the next piece is Debbie fairies already mentioned at para education para educator day it's that time of year where we start to recognize our different Educators and celebrate all of their work and we began

020that today with spring kickoff with our para Educators and starting to recognize them we thank all of them and certainly I want to thank our Union president for the para Educators Mrs Kramer she's been an absolutely new president and an absolute pleasure to work with the next piece is kindergarten enrollment update Mrs Ferris and her team are doing a great job over there can't thank them enough we have right now in the pipe line no one's formally fully registered all the way we've begun registration 130 students for this time of year that's a pretty much a typical number so we continue to monitor enrollment pay attention and then the next piece is the pick my kid or pick up my kid app that we are going we just started last week over at Huckleberry working

021with not only it is a technology efficiency item to help with dismissal time it also is a Safety and Security tool and Dr rule is going to share a couple of slides about it You Gotta Dance thank you good evening it has to be up hello there we go good evening I am excited to share our new dismissal management and safety system called pick my kid uh that was just rolled out to our wonderful families and staff last week um it is a dismissal Community among other things it is a dismissal communication um program that allows parents and staff to have constant communication regarding a student's dismissal plan whether it is a change in dismissal how students are going home every day if a parent needs to pick up the student early this all can

022be done on an app that is very parent friendly from what I hear and various staff friendly so no longer do we need to rely on phone calls or emails or notices from the office to alter a student's dismissal plan we are now as teachers able to see it in real time so how this works is um it well it's also aligned to the Brookfield seas in terms of communication and collaborating there are different features available like I said no more dismissal changes eventually we can roll out absentee reporting so you as a fam a parent do not need to email the office for absentee reasons you can now do it right on the app God forbid we ever have a crisis that needs family reunification processes we can do it all on the app

023we can push out notifications to families saying there's something in place where evacuating to so and so please meet us at wherever um there's a messaging option to keep families in the loop which is nice so if bus one is late or some reason um delayed we can send out a message saying the bus has officially left the lot so you know how to plan backwards um which will be turned on eventually so these are just two examples of what the app looks like on the left you'll notice that is the app for a parent pickup um the way that the app works is there is a half a mile radius geofence around our the front of our building when a parent pulls or whoever is designated to pick up the student pulls into that

024half mile radius an alert pops up on their phone that says you can announce yourself if it is after um three o'clock I believe we have it turned on for at that time you click on that green button announcing yourself which then sends a notification to the staff members running dismissal so that we can then notify which students need to go out um for parent pickup it allows us to verify the Guardians that are picking up a student or in the case of um someone out of the ordinary needing to pick up a student mom and dad got caught up doing something else grandpa has to come grandpa doesn't usually pick up we're able to Mom and Dad are able to notify on the app that Grandpa's going to pick up the child today we

025will see exactly who's picking them up we can check ID before we release the student out so those are just a couple of the features for parent pickup side um what's nice is we are doing this all in anticipation of Candlewood Lake so we are going to have over a thousand students to dismiss all at once so we're trying to work The Kinks out over at Huckleberry right now getting everyone at Huckleberry trained all of our parents have been very wonderful we have over 359 parents registered for the app which is about 42 of our apparent population or whoever is the first and secondary contact in PowerSchool So currently like I said we're rolling this out for parent pickup we are on day four I believe of parent pickup after spring break we are going

026to be turning off that Google blue note form and all this missile changes were going to be managed through the app what's also nice about pick my kid is their customer service and tech support is outstanding so if anybody has any issue with the app and we can't answer we're getting pretty good at it but if we can't answer it um tech support is available for parents um at the touch of a button which is nice and they'll walk you right through exactly what needs to be done we're also hoping to roll this out for bust dismissal so that's coming soon um over the summer we're going to get more families and more staff even more comfortable with this so we'll be utilizing it for stem Adventure at CES and hopefully for esy and then

027we'll be fully rolled out for Cle s on day one on the staff side this is what dismissal looks like so this is what parent pickup is going to look like when goofy dog and Daisy Duck I know the names this is from the company come down Candlewood Lake Road and say that they're here to pick up their students they we see them in the announce queue and we are quickly able to push them over into the active line where we're able to get the students out and ready for parent pickup to go that much smoother and faster granted it's a work in process right now and I can't thank the families at Huckleberry enough for being so patient with us and willing to go on this adventure um but it is all in the

028name of safety and ease for dismissal so that we can get your student out of that line as fast as possible like I said what's also nice for the teacher view we can see dismissal changes Any teacher in the building can see dismissal changes as they're happening or I believe two o'clock not 11 A.M two o'clock is when we will be cutting off dismissal changes that you can do on the app um so we'll be able to see at 2 30 2 45 3 o'clock before you go out for dismissal exactly where your students are supposed to be so you'll see if dismissal changes have been made who's staying for an after-school program who's taking which bus if there was a bus change that had to be made at the last minute um and in

029addition if there is a sub we have a plan for that as well we're able to print this out and hand this directly to a sub so even a substitute teacher will have seamless dismissal um at the end of the day so we are super excited about it my dismissal staff has been amazing teachers were trained in this today um Dr P has been an awesome champion of this as well we um saw this in action in Orange and we were sold there they were able to dismiss 60 kids and or 70 kids and 60 in six minutes I believe something along those lines it was very fast we're hoping to get there um other districts like reading and Darien Greenwich I believe Bethlehem um orange obviously you just pick my kid like I said

030but other districts in the state do use a School dismissal manager for ease and safety of um dismissal so we're able to track exactly who goes where so thank you that's a course questions this is great having sat in that line having satin that we're trying to cut down that time the parents are sitting in so this is no uh depending on the district people at different schools use it across the board I know Darian for example uses it across all their schools high school middle school included so we could be the test the test for uh our district yeah thank you thanks Daniel thanks for listening thank you and that's the report all right thank you very much Dr Burrell any questions for Dr Brill on this report this evening all right we're gonna

031move on uh next up are subcommittee reports uh Rosa first up is finance okay okay as usual the check registers um and just for everybody that knows that is where we review any of the expenditures that the district had in that particular month anything over a thousand dollars we then reviewed the February financial report the deficit as you know has been running for since the beginning of the year I'm happy to report that it is 139 000 less than it was the previous month and the most significant change that contributes to that is an increase in the estimated excess cost Grant Revenue so that is how special education is partially funded by the state and so we received essentially more than we had anticipated receiving so that was good news we talked briefly about the

0322324 operating budget and as well as the pay rate guidelines which we still have some open questions about so we will be reviewing at our meeting later this month that's it okay any questions for Rosa just pertinently that pay rate guidelines the we've gotten a letter or two on substitute rates and what we pay substitutes that's part of that process right so that'll come out as the as we finish that and it comes here to the board for our for a final approval okay uh next up is the security task force agenda um and we met on I'll do this one we met on March 30th um it was mostly an executive session where we reviewed the karma vulnerability assessment um went into a lot of detail on things that they found and corrective actions

033and stuff and stuff that we generally wouldn't do in public session we then at the end of that we moved back into public session and and just kind of talked about some of the accomplishments that we've done this year including not just the hiring of the sros which we got a lot of support from last summer and the security monitors but a lot of capital projects in terms of the more cameras on the schools more lock sensors on the school doors the gate at Huckleberry the the security film home on the Windows which helps in case of somebody trying to be an intruder those actually started we heard tonight's facilities meaning they'll start getting installed next week um which is great um and we talked a little bit about the the say something app and

034the rollout which we heard from uh um that uh that it went uh that it went well um and uh and we're now talking about the bollards that we'll put in front of doors um so there's a lot going on there so next meeting will be on May 18th and we're going to actually go through in that meeting uh training and uh and human factors you know what are we doing with staff what are we doing with students in terms of Readiness training so that's the next topic we're going to have I will say a funny little Side Story my wife is a um is in a book club and she came home last night from her book club and she says well the new security monitor is a member of our book club at

035the high school and she says she spent half the evening raving about you know how secure the high school is so I think some of the and really citing door monitors and cameras right so those are noticed which I think you know it makes our kids feel more secure when we do that so which is what it's all about okay oh that's it on the do I have any questions team okay um Joy did you want to talk about the boys locker room I know it's not on the agenda but just uh it's a long time coming the first walkthrough was in 2017 and we just did a walk through tonight great to see it finally come to fruition a lot of demolition has happened so far oh joy you're Mike sorry okay um so

036it was exciting to walk through there tonight and to see all the demolition happening and it really coming together it's been a long time coming so we're excited about it the ETA second week of August we're looking at it to be completed in time for football season the all sports so it's exciting so definitely a construction zone isn't it okay so that's it on subcommittee reports consent agenda is next I'll move that the board approved the items on the consent agenda which are new hires transfers resignations retirements and the February financials second Dr Brill any comments on this month's uh yeah I have two really excited they're they're bittersweet because you're happy for people when they retire but uh at the same time you're going to miss them and their contributions and their institutional knowledge

037and everything they've done for for the the community and of course our students um first uh Lee Morgan after 27 years at uh in District at Huckleberry she is retiring and um it was uh it was bittersweet when I started in the hallway and she was kind of waiting she knew I was visiting and she waited for me and uh had her uh had her letter and we had a nice conversation there in the hallway so we're excited for Lee in her next adventure and um wish her well as she finishes up her last spring uh over at Huckleberry and then uh thinking of Mr zapor another retiree Mr zapor is finishing up uh almost 20 years here at the high school as our technology teacher and done a great job with the program for

038two decades and we're excited for him in his next chapter and just thank him for all of his service thank you any other comments on the consent agenda all in favor okay there's no new business this evening so we'll move on to Old business and the first item is policies uh and the first item it's policy number 5118.111 children of non-resident staff and qualified tuition reduction I'll move that the board approved policy number 5118.111 children of non-resident staff qualified tuition reduction for a final reading as recommended by the policy and Communications subcommittee the first reading was on February 15 2023. second it's moved and seconded Debbie you want to give a brief overview and what changes came in um thank you very much those were good points to raise we Dr Burrell reviewed them and

039we did make some minor adjustments to the second bullet that you see on the policy so I think all of the questions were addressed and those were the only questions I got were from Joy and I think the point to emphasize with the amended from first read point that we put in there and it was a point well taken we struggled with it a little bit of policy committee and Joy's question helped us fine-tune the thought process on that which is while we're lowering tuition for non-resident staff as a retention and recruitment um strategy we're excited about that for for that opportunity our first Allegiance no matter what has to be to our students who live in Brookfield and so we can't have class sizes that balloon up in any way and so the the

040strategy is at the time of enrollment we need to make decisions that are in alignment with um class size guidelines from the board so that's one thing we wanted to be clear about and we added that in so that's the only difference from when you saw this on February 15th and that's the second bullet point I enjoy that addressed your question okay any other questions on on this policy okay we've had a month to read it and for those of you who haven't sat through our uh our our meetings we actually run through a process where we get the policy changes in a for what they call a first read we read them we have a month to review them and then they come back to the board a month later to um for final

041approval and this is a final approval and the reason for that is first to let us have a chance to absorb it the committee is a policy committee which does a great job by the way Deb um in terms of getting through these um has really vetted it gives us a chance to internalize it but it also gives the public a chance to hear it one month and give us any input that may come up don't get a lot of inputs on policies but uh but that's why it's there all right is for us to have time and the public to have time so all in favor of approving the motion uh for 5118.11 please say hi hi hi okay it's unanimous all right next up on the agenda is an update on it's an

042action on updating uh on the uh the budget um and I will um um the last at our last meeting I reported that the board of Finance had finalized the budget um and you know we our budget actually came down from what we submitted because we've locked in along with the town we've locked in better heating rates and diesel fuel rates and secondly the insurance costs came in a little bit lower than we expected those were pretty significant savings and then we took about twenty five thousand dollars of reductions in the discussions with the board of Finance voluntarily and with that they adjusted the budget and it came into at that level so it's acceptable I think to us as a board we do need to meet with Ken after the budget's approved to go

043through the line items as a board right it won't be final until we get to through that but so at this point that 25 000 is just the placeholder until we vote it is gone through the board of finances recommendations they've had a public hearing on it there were no questions about the education budget at the public hearing um and uh and so the next step is to the I think the board of Finance has to convene and decide if that's what they if they learned anything that would change it which I doubt they will um and then it goes to the uh um to the town meeting on the second Tara yeah second of May um and uh and then to a referendum on the 16th of May which the board of selectman just

044voted to set the date of the 16th of May as the referendum Nate although that's not that that's a recommendation until the town meeting actually approves that so so that's kind of where we are on the budget any questions on that okay um Candlewood Lake Elementary School building update okay so um I finally was able to take a tour um this past Friday and I think we've got some updated pictures that we can show which I'm very excited about because you can really start to see some of the major oh sorry some of the major changes so as soon as we get these up we can go through them all right [Music] so over on the your left you'll see sort of the artist rendering and this is probably the most dramatic change of the

045site is starting to actually see what the front landscape is really going to look like as you know there is actually a water um it's called the East Brook and that has been underground in a pipe and that has started to become exposed it's still mostly in a pipe but we have this sort of dry River bed that's going to have two Bridges connecting sort of the parking and driveway area to the actual building which is a really beautiful feature um this is some of the um the back playground area obviously we still have construction vehicles in there but you can start to see some of the um the canopies that are over each entryway the main stairwell has not gone in just yet but you'll see a lot of the drywall and the window

046features are in the terrazzo on the main floor is going to be the absolute like last thing that goes into that building um so but we did start to see in some of the hallways going down to the cafeteria something similar to what you're looking at in the in the renderings that sort of Terrazzo flooring looking like a brook starting to um they're starting to kind of take shape with that um this is the stage that you see on the far side if you can see it in this picture we were looking through into the cafeteria and you can kind of see the servery area and this area in the foreground is the multi-purpose space so the band rooms are off of this the music rooms are off of this this is a going to

047be a phenomenal space to entertain both on either side and then even behind this is the media center which is also wide open to this entire space and it's really you can see the wood finishes on the wall and the lighting for the stage in so that's really exciting this is the terrazzo flooring that's going in in the cafeteria this was actually being poured when we were there um so um it's really starting to look really beautiful you don't really see the wall so much in this but the walls are really you can see some of the wood finishes on the wall going and it's really nice this is the entrance to the admin area so a lot of that is getting finished up the interior doors are in glass things like that the gymnasium

048again this is still kind of a holding place for a lot of construction but the gymnasium is not going to have a whole lot other than the wood floors that's also one of the last thing that's going to be going in is the the gym wood floors but the basketball hoops are in those are adjustable so we were able to see that and that was really nice this is the gross motor area so you can see they're starting to build the trees that will sort of make up this area and this is a very big space and it's right next to the gym so it's almost like another gym honestly um this space has just got so many potential uses for it so that was really nice to see um this is the lower school

049cafeteria so um kindergarten and Pre-K you'll see some of the the trees that they're starting to build over here this is also adjacent to the gross motor area so that's why um you have that continuity with the the trees tree design this is just an entryway into one of the neighborhoods each of the neighborhoods has a theme so what you're seeing here is kind of an example of um maybe the grasslands area so there'll be an art installation sort of at the corner and the color scheme throughout that entire neighborhood is coordinated so the walls and the carpeting and all of the other features are all sort of color coordinated which is really nice to see the classrooms the classrooms we saw were pretty much done the carpet is being protected obviously by plastic but

050aside from the furniture everything from ceiling to walls to the Cubbies has all been installed the whiteboards tack boards are there as well as the Smart Board that goes up and down adjustable that's all been installed so that was really nice to see also just another view of a classroom all of that is a lot of TAC board so teachers can feel free to tack anything up there that's pretty easily um another classroom oh this is one of the classrooms at the end of one of the neighborhoods so in each neighborhood there is a sort of a larger classroom that has if you can picture sort of almost a garage door that can open up into the neighborhood sort of shared space so that can really keep collaboration with other other classrooms or other students

051and kind of just make every single room sort of multi-use and very adaptable some of the lighting features at the end of that sort of shared space where there'll be a lot of adaptable Furniture different tables and chairs that can be reconfigured in any number of ways this is one of the walkways so each neighborhood is one of the very big long arms that's connected to the main part the main sort of body of the building but from the very end of each neighborhood there's also one of these walkways on the second level so that you can get to each neighborhood more easily just just a close-up of some of the terrazzo flooring that's going in there's like a protective sort of Sandy coating on it but once these are polished up you can just

052tell they're going to be really beautiful and again they're color their color and sort of schemed coordinated with um the neighborhood themes so um there is an ocean neighborhood so you'll see Fish and sea turtles on the floor and it was just it was really beautiful to see so a lot of a lot of really good work went into that just some more this is Terrazzo flooring before all the polishing takes place so this is maybe the grasslands and the rainforest theme and this is sort of you know all in that in those areas near the neighborhoods this is the media center so one of the big progressions I take was the um this sort of presentation area where it will eventually be carpeted that's the stairwell that is inside the media center and students

053will be able to kind of grab a book and sit on these nice steps there the media center is really kind of coming along looks great one of the um restrooms so there's Terrazzo features as well on the wall which is again color coordinated and it looks really fabulous the teacher prep room so there's space for teachers to keep um you know there's some teacher storage in here teacher collaboration places for them to take a break as well the entry canopies we actually debated this a little bit back when we were still in sort of the design phase and I think I think they came out really beautiful um there there's this really nice exposed Timber Wood that has a really nice warmth to it that matches what's the wood colors and Grains that we're

054seeing inside the building as well you can see on in that photo over there a lot of the stonework brickwork on the exterior of the building is really coming along and I think that was it that was the last photo so it looks great thank you nice job [Music] thank you very much for that that's uh we uh I'm expecting John you told me that uh the next time we as a group will be able to go into the building is like the end of April I'm thinking because of the holidays because it's good Friday this week and the in Ong uh for next week they actually stopped access so they could do a little bit more work knowing we weren't going to be uh in and out uh quite as much um did you

055want to talk anything about the last walkthrough at all Bob or are you you're good it's really impressive okay I had a few things I wanted to share and a lot of it is important for the public to know which is just this is such an exciting project we do have a web page on our website for the new school and the mission is on there the actual rationale behind the design of the school the security of the school security that we can share but it's very public information there's a whole presentation any historical documents that people might have interested in are interested in we have the ecosystem scheduled there for the neighborhoods um also the the school is going to be used as not only a center for voting like many of our schools

056are but also as a shelter for that side of town so we we're ready to go we have a generator in there and so there's really some good stuff going on um things we worked on this morning was continuing to work on small Wares and all the all the little pieces that if you turn the school upside down and shake it out all the things that have to be purchased for the school and getting those ordered as well as the play areas and playscapes um there's some uh items we're working out with the NBC through budget and design on some of the exterior play areas we're working through that right now the administrative team and a teacher leadership team are working on a new Consolidated handbook bringing the fifth grade all the way down through

057Center school together with Huckleberry so that's going to be wonderful when we have that all organized this Monday uh probably half the boxes that the teachers and staff will need are being delivered to all three sites so when the faculty and staff come back they could begin their they're already on their purging they could start their packing and there's a whole mechanism in place for that really important for people know and I hope it all is able to seamlessly happen next week the beautiful mosaics on the outside of Huckleberry were going to be taken down put up on the outside of Candlewood Lake this should be this week that that happens that's on the schedule so really just super excited about everything going on one of the other things I can't fully promise it yet

058but we're excited about and I know Dr P is really excited about is maybe being able to have some representative students as long as it's safe and in alignment with regulations on a construction site be able to tour them maybe with their teacher or something like that through the school so they could share in the experience of what we've all been able to look at and then as soon as that school in the summertime is ready for administrative and custodial and Technology staff occupancy we are really looking forward to figuring out the schedule on the plan for the public to come through and I see Mrs Carr over here she was with us on Friday on the walk through too thank you for coming with us Tara so um we're really excited and thank you

059for that presentation Rosa I don't know if there's any questions or anything okay hearing none um thank you all right we're back to public comment again so we didn't have a lot of stuff on the agenda tonight other than our reports to one another um and again I'll just reiterate the Board of Education welcomes public comment each speaker does have three minutes I do have a sign up sheet that we're operating under and at the end of the meeting it's for any topic that's under the board's jurisdiction um the uh I'll just repeat it discussion of school personnel and develop individualized student and individual members of the board shall not be considered appropriate now before we start I I just got to say I see a lot of items on the sign up list that

060are about books and library and the like there's been some email correspondence and I uh I know there's people who are here who are going to are here to urge the board to take action um and I will just I just got to say before we start that the topic of the books that have been talked about on social media is not in the board's hands yet we are not in a position where the board could or would take action and I wanted to briefly read from the board policy how we handle library books and uh just and I thought it would be better that I do that before we do public comment than to wait until after because I just think I want to clear the air on that well for those of you

061who are here to say please take a book out of the library that's called requests for reconsideration that's the terminology that is used in the library world and in our policy and it's policy number six five six three if anybody wants to go look it up on on on our website it's out there there's a whole procedure that we operate by as a as a board of education I'm going to read it it's not going to take me very long it says all requests for reconsideration will be handled in the following manner one all requests are referred to the library meet us media specialist initially the library media specialist will supply the requesting person with a copy of the selection policy and Supply the requested person with the library's request for reconsideration materials form and

062that form should be completed then they will take the completed form and meet with the library media specialist then after the completed form's been returned and discussed the library media Specialists discussed the request with a committee assigned by the principal to read or review the material to re-examine reviews and determine any action to be taken the principle well then is are now owning this will notify the person making the request of the action taken if the issue remains unresolved to the satisfaction of all parties it will be referred to the superintendent upon review of the parents request and all actions taken and the superintendent may choose to present an appeal to the board of ed for final decision or recommendation or may take it to handle it himself um and then there's some things that

063continue in about the different organizations we have to communicate with on this on these matters including the Connecticut Library Association and the American Library Association uh office of intellectual Freedom so there's some rules that we have to apply I just wanted to read that to everybody because there will be some people who will say you board go take action today right and there's a reason we step through the process the process that we do because we have professionals who are degreed in library science who who hold responsible for what goes on in our libraries and we have principals who are responsible for what goes on in their school and we have a superintendent who's responsible broadly for the operations of the schools the board is an elected board we're parents like all of you we

064all have our opinions but it would be far too easy for a board to take emotional input and try to act immediately without having done the professional leg work that needs to be done right and we do trust our staff to do that leg work as I understand it as I talked to Mr beland we've had I think Mark you said five Communications to the library they haven't all been a request for reconsideration some have been questions um but that process is at this point starting and there's a board I'll speak for the board we welcome that process starting right it's we take this stuff really really seriously we need to get it through getting the professionals to do their job and before this board I'm not even clear that they might take actions before

065it even comes to the board but we I'm sorry and this is not a give and take ma'am um so you'll have your chance um so so this is uh so I wanted to read that to make sure everyone does it so those of you who are here to talk to we're very interested in your input we really are um all of us are interested in hearing everybody's input I'm sorry we'll get to you when we get to you this is not no I'm not you can't you can you can ask it when you're up Sir no no but it will be all of our policies are reasonable you know please act reasonably I don't have a definition of what's reasonable and Mr Montero Mr Montero you're out of order so please yeah so look

066guys um we're going to open it up to discussion I have a sign up list we'll go through them one at a time uh people have it's not all on books by the way some so there's a couple of other topics in here um and uh it's three minutes per speaker we will we have these handy dandy little uh um uh things that are sitting in front of me and your job is to remind me to turn it over when I do and the reason there's two of them because because I I'm talking away and I'm I'm not uh paying attention um when you're up please name and address for the record so that we can do the minutes correctly um so first up is Mrs Matthews you you said you wanted to wait up

067wait for the end do you want to go now or do you wanna okay no that's okay is this on okay perfect foreign excuse me good evening I'm here tonight to present the petition which I did email to the board of um Ed tonight for the resignation of two special ed administrators since one has already given their resignation this is now just pertains to one that we are asking for the immediate amen for their for her immediate resignation we have received over 330 signatures from parents and staff who have agree that the direct impact of the children's learning environment is being effective non-compliance regarding the delivery of services per students IEPs non-compliance by not assigning paraprofessional support to all students who require one per their IEP attacks on parents questioning appropriate programming failure to keep

068our students personally students personal information safe by committing numerous FERPA violations which continue to happen leading with a hands-off and passive aggressive approach when made aware of issues this administrator has been instrumental in disbanding a self-contained classroom by forcing children out of the program that worked for them prior to them being hired and changing the entire structure placing untrained staff in situations where most vulnerable students require socialized training not attendance to I at IEP and team meetings non-compliance by getting parents IEP documents outside the legal time frame refusal to hold IEP meetings when parents requests run referring to paraprofessionals as pokers and continuing to do so after being asked multiple times to stop inaccurate and falsified documents given to parents for Progress monitoring as well as submitted to the state of Connecticut for review in

069a compliant complete process making changes to student services and schedules without notifying parents forcing staff to resign that are unwilling to participate unethical and unnecessary changes that distributed that disrupted students and services as well as overall classroom climate hostile management style with staff as well as parents and IEP meetings and unfair policing unreasonable and unrealistic demands on teachers and staff thank you Mrs Matthews name and address for the record if you if you don't mind no thank you so much all right next is Mrs Pizzo okay I won't trust me I I usually start it when the name and address is made but this is Matthew's kind of throw me for a curve there uh can you hear me Debbie p09 Arapahoe okay um I'm just going to give a short story I used to

070sub and years back I accept I was called into sub for a special ed student so when you have a special ed you have to go to all the classes and then you have to go to lunch so I went to the lunch cafeteria and I was sitting beside the special ed student and it was Ash Wednesday so I had ashes on my forehead so one of the students said to me what's that dirt on your forehead and I lifted up my bangs and I said it's across I I'm Catholic and that's my belief so it's beginning of Lent so you know that was it and then I I always I always say grace I say thank God for the food and then I got a complaint I was an administrator said I had a

071complaint because I was pushing Catholicism to a student and then I said God at the table which one of the children found offensive so I was told I would not be able to substitute again if that behavior happened again this is true story so I wouldn't be able to sub again if I said God in presence and I was not pushing Catholicism with that said that's my segue into the book of this book is gay now a lot of folks will be like oh lgbtq blah blah blah but this actually has has information about gays versus religion so I read this chapter I'm like get out of here so yeah literally it says gays versus religion and it goes into Hinduism Christianity Catholic methodists and then it goes into how to argue with a Christian

072it has a little duplicate picture of a Bible and then notes so you can take notes on how to attack the Bible when it's presented to you if you're a gay then it goes to how to address it and then it literally how to argue with Leviticus okay that's in the book how and then how to argue with Muslims like personally you don't want to argue the word argue number one argue against religion because of what they believe I just I can't even I can't I can't even and so that was I probably spoke too fast because I'm nervous about this but at the very end of that chapter that said it said haters will be haters and I'm like really it said uh final note a dear friend once told me you can't argue

073with crazy so Catholic Circ Christians are crazy Muslims are crazy because you're going to argue with them well I couldn't talk about Catholic because some student asked me and I said that what it was but yet it's deemed okay to say you can argue with a Catholic with a muslim with the Jewish and in this book I won't even I can't even depict these pictures I'm like what's up but one of the pictures during you know they're having you know oral sex here we go and then on the top it says lesbian terrorists and then there's a bubble above it says from a recent woman approach from a recent one person one woman protest against some visiting Christians lesbian terrorists is the T-shirt that's above the oral sex people and then we have just saying

074you know you're protesting a visiting of a Christian well you know hello so this sort of thing in my world this is what's wrecking things I'm just my opinion this book should not be in neither of them because you know both books are pretty lame because they have terrible am I older yeah I'm too Italian I talk too much all right well [Applause] next up is Mrs Amaral uh Sarah Emerald 34A Old Bridge Road uh so I just wanted to get up here tonight I wasn't going to say anything because we have a room full of people parents that are really passionate about this and we're going to get here and uh speak their minds however I saw a communication that went out and the communication just really bothered me it basically said that there

075is an attack on lgbtq books happening in Brookfield so I just want to say this is not an lgbtq issue I think what you've just heard clearly shows that we are here to talk about is the content of these books and its appropriateness and it has nothing to do with lgbtq and in my mind to do that is just a distraction and it's a way to politicize the issue and a way to demonize those that speak out against it um I understand that we need to have books that basically talk to and can students from all different walks of life can relate to fully understand that and I embrace that however I think that we can do that without having the sexualization without having the step-by-step guides on how to do various different sexual activities

076without the graphic images and without the crude language um is there a book in the library that has the same style of content that is heterosexually related I've not heard of one but if there is I would like to know because I would be here speaking out speaking out against that one as well so basically what I'm simply saying is that we're asking for there to be a standard of content for books in the library we would like for it to be defined and enforced I know many of you sitting here tonight had nothing to do with this book being added into the library many of you probably didn't even know these books existed but now that you do I would like them to be looked at reviewed each one of you to sit take

077it home and decide is this something that we really feel belongs in our library does it really provide educational value a value that cannot be found in another book and that's it thank you thank you very much [Applause] next is Jillian Doherty Mrs Doherty here okay Jillian Doherty 49 hopbrook Road I'd actually like to thank the Boe for their work recognizing and protecting students First Amendment rights to access information through our schools libraries and instructional materials thank you for also for recognizing and supporting the many well-trained school librarians who put thought and time into the books and other resources selected for students in our schools libraries I urge you to continue to recognize that while it is each individual parent's right to censor what their own children read it is not their right to make

078that decision for all other parents thank you thank you [Applause] and Mr Montero and Dr Rowell he's coming up let's make sure we get the message on this topic to everybody that fast means as quickly as we possibly can right on this side Mr Montero asked a question of if there was a standard for response time I think we need to move this one quickly all right good evening Austin Montero 17 Dairy Farm Drive I'm here tonight along with many other parents to express our deep concern concern about some of these books and I use that word lightly and sexually explicit pornographic materials invading our school library most notably this book is gay by Juvenile Dawson I have reached out to the librarian on Monday morning I've not heard back yet so if that is

079the policy I would like to get a response there the concerns I have are as follows and there's really two main concerns here is in what reality is it appropriate for pornographic material to be okay and readily available for minors to access freely in our schools and where does having this in our schools lead us in two five ten years the push to hypersexualized children as we were witnessing in real time throughout Society is a dangerous path to take and I see no moral standard or Reason to move any further down this path than we already have and like Sarah said before I read a few excerpts from his book I want to preface this by saying this in no way shape or form is an attack on anyone's sexual gender identity or sexual preference

080um does not matter at all if the book was called boys have a penis girls have a vagina I'd still be here saying the exact same thing so with that being said um I'm going to read a few excerpts from this book because I think it is powerful so this book is gay Juno Dawson something they don't teach you in school is that in order to be able to come at all you and your partner may need to finish it off with a handy a good handy is all about wrist action rub the head of his back and forth with your hand rubbing two pins together wasn't far off the mark rubbing them together in one hand is awesome should not be in a school two oral sex is popping another dude's peen in your

081mouth or indeed popping yours in his it's more about sliding your mouth up and down the shaft of his letting a guy come in your mouth is a safe sex no no get away from the volcano before it erupts well in the absence of a vagina and here's the good part gay bye gay and by men make excellent use of the back door so now we're talking about adults in school adults having sex and minors reading this and the last one the clitoris really does like being licked and kissed again girls can take it in turns to perform oral sex or feeling adventurous they can perform it at the same time toys dildos vibrators and strap-ons all fulfill the same purpose a prosthesis to insert into the vagina now I mean call me crazy but

082there's no place for that in a school and after listening to that I think everyone can agree that's clearly pornographic material it is clearly obscene material pushed on miners designed for adults and there's another word for that um okay I'd like to give the board one thing we need to print ideas out today that's the Connecticut penal code regarding uh obscenity to minors which is a class of D Felony and I've I've printed out I printed out 10 of these so I mean this is absolutely garbage to have in a school so um I'll give these guys to you and you can it's obviously on the internet here just give them to me I'll make sure everybody gets them weird thank you I'm glad I did too hard call me back okay so next up

083next up next up is Mr Lasser [Music] good evening Howard Lasser 116 Tower Road um got a couple of things first of all I just want to remind everybody it's almost about three and a half weeks to Mother's Day and The Craft Center has great gifts for everybody uh the other thing is um I know you mentioned that I had sent an email um about uh observing people's religious observance days and I hope you'll take that into account in the future future days it was it was just a slip I'm sorry it was we usually try to avoid Phyllis Schneider's not here to to police it so yeah I'm doing this for Phyllis um anyway about books um you know I heard this this controversy and in my opinion there's only two ways a book

084can hurt you one is if somebody throws it at you and the other is if you ignore the lessons um yes books content can be controversial and provocative and in my experience that's an opportunity for conversation and communication I know I don't need to lecture you about bringing up your kids I have my own experiences I'm glad to share it with anybody who wants to know but one thing I learned is every parent has to make those decisions for themselves about how they're going to raise their kids and it is not within their authority to tell somebody else how to raise their kids unfortunately I'm learning that because I've got two kids who each have their own kids and you know butt out dad so I'm sure some of you have that experience right Bob

085so um that's really all I have to say thank you next up is uh Mrs uh Stanley good evening Tanya Stanley 31 Laurel Drive thank you for the opportunity to address the important topic of Library materials available in our Public Schools most specifically at the high school on Tuesday morning I began the inquiry process of the acquisition practices with an email sent directly to the two library media specialists in the Brookfield High School staff directory as well as the principal the books of my inquiry included the book uh this book is gay by Juno Dawson and fun home a family tragic comic by Allison Bechtel I'm pleased to say I received a response this evening from the BHS principal according to the reply this book is gay ebook was made available to students in 2022

086through the Connecticut State library and fun home a family tragic comic in 2008. unfortunately the reply did not address my request for the specific criteria identified for the two books upon acquisition as outlined in the Boe regulations as such nor was my question of whether or not any additional staff members or departments such as English or health were consulted when these books were chosen to be added to circulation for Board of Ed regulations quote participation in the selection process is encouraged by the collaborative efforts of the school's staffs unquote I will be sending a follow-up email as I am trying to gain a better understanding of the process in which books are introduced into our school libraries moving on it is important to make reference to the Connecticut General statutes 53a through 193 through 53a

087200. these statues were developed using court cases centered on Free Speech right to due process and right to protest in the court case Miller vs California of 1973 a 5 to 4 decision upheld that obscene materials did not enjoy First Amendment amendment protection leading to a modification of the test of obscenity the language set forth by the Supreme Court is a part of how the Board of Ed policies were created around acquisition of materials for school libraries in the Connecticut statutes the following language is included quote whether a material or performance is obscene shall be judged by ordinary adults applying contemporary Community standards in applying contemporary Community standards the state of Connecticut is deemed to be the community unquote we are the community we make up the state we are looking closely at the materials

088offered to our children in our schools to be sure the laws are being adhered to definitions set forth in the statutes make it clear that the intent of the law when creating such statutes was to prohibit sexually explicit material to make their ways into the hands of our school children the question now is what is the next step perhaps it would be the best interest of all to reevaluate acquisition regulations to put a new procedure in place one that extends beyond the control of a few people when it relates to controversial books with sexually explicit content available to our students thank you for your time [Applause] okay next up is Mrs Orban foreign 95 Stoney Hill Road this isn't what I plan to start with but the email one of the emails that you received

089about um I'm not sure which book but it was um related to this whole topic of book Banning says this is the first of more emails to follow that deal with lgbtqia plus themed books in the high school library a search of the library catalogs has been completed for 75 of these books 14 were found that is targeting lgbtq material so yes this is about targeting lgbtq books whether or not parents realize it and that is an issue but I'm here tonight I'm here tonight because I believe in participating in the process and I believe that we need to be advocates for the things we want in our community and in our schools whether we benefit directly or not Public Schools need to serve all schools equal all students equally and not every student fits

090into the same box our teachers our classrooms and our libraries have to be ready to meet the needs of every student before they walk through the door the potential for diversity is one of the things about public schools that make them great and it's also one of the challenges we don't necessarily know as a community how we're going to meet the needs of every student but that's our job education is not about telling kids what to think it's about teaching them how to think so they're prepared for what lies ahead administrators Board of Education members and parents should be the example knowing how to think is a process and it requires asking questions our community is facing challenges right now with special education and with book Banning but our job Remains the Same it's to

091ensure that we're serving the students who walk through our doors whether they fit into a box or not when people come before this board asking for books to be banned from our libraries we should ask them to do what Any teacher would do show their work go through the process as you said at the beginning Mr Belden how did the book come to their attention is it even in our library have they read it what did our trained Librarians and media Specialists why did they choose it education is not only for the Young when this board Administration and community's time is spent on outrage that is manufactured and targeted students pay the price especially students whose needs don't fit neatly into a box the opportunity cost to our community every time we go down one

092of these rabbit holes is that the important things get less attention we should recognize that and push back thank you for your time and your service [Music] I'd rather not have my daughter a quick ma'am could we have a little order here please next up is Mr Zimmer uh Aaron Zimmer 50 obtuse Hill Road I'm sort of going to riff a little bit too uh I I think it's I think it's worth saying that that some of the some of the passages we've heard from this evening could be construed as sex ed for somebody who doesn't know uh yeah I mean okay maybe I'm not gonna riff okay all right thanks well we're gonna give him more time could we we don't need commentary when we when when from the audience when somebody's speaking please

093and like everyone who's in favor everybody has a chance to speak I'm sorry like everyone who's in favor of banning these books to imagine for a second that their kid has questions about their own sexual identity and imagine they don't feel comfortable talk talking to you as their parents where do they go my point is a book that doesn't have value to you doesn't mean it's not valuable to somebody else and a bunch of parents stomping up and down online about about the lgbtq pornography books sends a devastating message to the kid who might find that book helpful it does real damage we know that lgbtq youth are more likely to commit suicide than straight kids Falls it's not Mr Montero I'm gonna ask one more time please keep it to yourself some kid is

094going to seek one of these books out identify with it and learn something about themselves in the world around them thanks so sorry for the interruptions [Applause] [Music] Mrs Peterson Tara Peterson 18 Westview Lane yesterday was national school librarians day and um I just want to say that there are professionals who are in charge of curating a collection for all members of a school community a high school library's patrons are students from age 14 to 18. its collection needs to serve all of those students not every book in every library is for every reader that's why there are so many of them every student deserves access to books that reflect who they are their experiences their feelings they need books that they can relate to it's empowering inspiring and affirming to see characters going through

095what they themselves are going through also every student deserves access to books about characters and experiences different from their own to develop understanding and empathy and kindness what is appropriate for one student is not appropriate for all students libraries should not limit their collections to one kind of student or one age of student a high school collection that only contains materials for example appropriate to ninth graders does not serve its entire Community it serves a small fraction of that community it goes without saying every parent has the right the responsibility to determine what their child consumes for media and reads in books that goes without saying it is not every parent's right to determine what other people what other people's children are reading or what is appropriate for them if there is a book that

096a parent does not want their child to read then they shouldn't be allowed to read it but that doesn't mean that nobody else is thank you okay next up is Mary capiello this is capiolo Mary Cappiello 135 Candlewood Lake Road good evening thank you for all that you do for our students teachers and staff how do you raise children to be great readers with Rich vocabularies you let them read how do you raise children to have advanced reading comprehension skills you let them read how do you raise children to be creative you let them read how do you raise children to be problem solvers you let them read how do you raise children to be critical thinkers you let them read how do you raise inquisitive children you let them read how do you raise

097children to be interested in history or far-off places they may never visit you let them read how do you raise children to be kind caring supportive and empathetic to all people you let them read how do you raise children to know that what we all have in common is so much greater than our differences you let them read you might opt your child out of reading something but you let other people's children read you let them read thank you [Applause] okay um next up is Mr Korea where are you um you're up next but we're on a roll on books do you want to go now or do you want to wait to the end since you had a different topic huh I'll leave it to you okay and Mrs Korea yep foreign Korea 45

098West whiskey near Road I'm here to discuss the condition of the BHS guidance Wing roof I attended parent-teacher conferences at BHS on March 9th and was shocked that the number of buckets collecting water in the hallway not only their buckets but missing and heavily stained ceiling tiles all along with missing floor tiles and stained walls from water seepage I can only imagine the damage I could not see above the drop ceiling and the possibility of mold growing in the building I watched the board of selectman meeting this past Monday on April 3rd when a board of education member presented the history of the ceiling condition at BHS the district was made aware of necessary bhf Roofing repairs in 2017 by Techtron that would be eight hundred thousand dollars in roof work that would need to

099be budgeted even though it was carried in the budget in early 2021 conditions deteriorated in the guidance wing the Boe brought forth 325 thousand dollar appropriation for the guidance Wing repaired repairs the beer we waited to send out an RFP in July 2022. once three bits came back higher than budgeted I'm quoting the Boe here we decided to wait the roof is literally a sieve and the Boe decided to wait the price has since increased even further and because the Boe decided to wait students must navigate buckets on their way to class and be careful not to trip on missing floor tiles this is a disgrace every Boe meeting the members sit at this table talk about new elementary school and tour Azo floors while 900 students and staff at the high school work around

100these terrible conditions this board and administration repeatedly State world-class schools this is clearly not the case for our high school students this board and administration have kicked the can down the road too many times this board has moved forward with Paving the locker room projects while the weather Integrity of the building was literally failing in front of them one of the core statutory responsibilities of all Boards of Education in Connecticut is to provide well-maintained buildings and you have failed your high school students and your staff with your decision to wait thank you foreign coffee hello Sarah coffee can you hear me yep thank you uh 116a Tower Road um I do want to say before I start that my daughter tends to read her library books before she gets home so I don't really know

101what she takes out of the library um to your point but um anyway we we hear it every day as parents Educators and health professionals and we live it kids are becoming more and more withdrawn there's a significant increase in depression and emotional issues byproducts probably in large of a society that idolizes sexuality and emphasizes sexual identity introducing it at younger and younger ages and inserting it everywhere you turn and in our school libraries mature content is not processed the Same by an adolescent mind as by mind of an adult when kids become desensitized to graphic sexual images and wording and when it loses its shock value there's a moral shift that puts a child in way of potential harm and maybe this is my background but um I I think of a victim here

102how does an adolescent brain differentiate between the appropriateness of viewing graphic images and sexually explicit material in a school library and sending that same type of content of themselves via Snapchat or text who's there to tell these kids and explain to them why one of them is okay but the other behavior is risky can destroy your life and is illegal according to state law if a student at BHS made a copy of one of these pages of the books and handed it to appear and it made that peer feel uncomfortable that's considered harassment but it's confusing because it was content from a school library per federal law exposing minors to obscene images whether drawings photos videos paintings or even cartoon imagery is illegal say some adult on social media starts messaging your freshman the conversations

103begin to escalate sexually and those blaring warning sirens that are supposed to go off in their heads are not there they no longer exist because the adult author that they read in the school library talked about the same thing by allowing easy access to sexual content we are misguiding our most vulnerable and precious population and setting them up for potential trauma that cannot be undone is there no other literary content that can expand Minds strength and character support representation and help build positive relationships that does not contain pornography and don't we owe it to our children to make it a priority to put those books on the shelves so I'm asking the board to just share in my concern and the concern of 282 other parents most of them who could not be here tonight

104I know you said as a board member at board members there's a process we can't ask you to remove the book because that's not something that you can do but I'm sure you will be hearing from about 282 people on how to start this process these books should never have been allowed in schools in the first place and it's really disturbing to think about what could be appropriate in 10 years if we do not draw a line in the sand thank you all right thank you next up is uh Mrs Adventure I'm gonna I'm gonna mutilate this Mrs ventresca did I get that right okay thank you I am Kristen ventresca of 23 Arapahoe Road I am a former educator a mom of three and a resident of Brookfield for 20 years I attended whiskey

105air middle school as well as well as Brookfield High School when my husband and I had the opportunity to stay in town to raise our three children and have them attend school and the district and Community very near and dear to my heart it was a very proud moment for me needless to say the decline in morale and honestly lack of common sense that I've witnessed over the last few years when it comes to educational decisions made for our children has made a once very proud moment and extremely upsetting one my oldest son is currently in kindergarten learning the basics of how to read how to write how to be a kind Community member within his school to his peers but at this rate once he reaches westmere the high school God forbid Candlewood Lake

106Elementary not only will he be learning how to write a five paragraph essay he'll now be able to go to the school library and access pornographic reading material virtually and physically all it'll take is a few clicks to access an ebook in our catalog find the book this book is gay fluff to page 171 where he can learn tips such as and I quote a gentle spring Breeze can be enough to inspire a stiffy in a super sensitive organ but keep in mind sex doesn't begin to end with your dick be creative or up your bum you have a prostate gland which feels nice when massaged the anus is also sensitive in response to being played with or he could pick up the book Funhouse and see sexual images of two girls having sex while

107commenting that one another tastes delicious almost like peaches it's cringe-worthy and it hurts me to read this in front of adult as an adult to a group of adults and I see similar reactions in this room tonight how can we possibly believe that children can appropriately handle this material let me make myself clear this is not an attack on the lgbtq community any political party or any identity sexual preference and I find it absurd that people are even taking it there I would just be disgusted and Disturbed in material that was just as explicit regardless of it being homosexual or heterosexual material Bottom Line This is pornography never had a place in a school setting it is not the same as book Banning this is not teaching safe sex practices this is not how to

108respect people of all kinds both of which I strongly encourage this is straight up pornographic material never had a place in a school library or an online catalog for our students 18 and under access when they access outside of school is beyond our control I'm not naive but if signing up for a porn related subscription site requires you to be 18 the news say the books containing the same material have no place in the school with our children all underage it should be straight up illegal which sounds like it is I know we're not the only District dealing with this situation but I certainly hope that Brookfield makes the moral decision to put some sort of audit and system in place for how these books even wound up in the hands of our children we

109need to do better foreign [Applause] thank you Mrs Lopez hi Elena Lopez nine summer pasture Lane as we speak our school district is providing access to sexually explicit material to our minor children without parental consent if two consenting adults were reading books like these graphic novels in their place of employment and a supervisor walked in it would be considered sexual harassment we create laws that protect adults from being exposed to uncomfortable and unprofessional content in their place of work so how is it possible children aren't afforded the same rights in our schools shockingly there are community members fighting to keep vulgar content accessible to all minors in the schools parents who want to have access to such material have the right to bring their children to a public library or to purchase it which is

110why referring to this as book Banning is completely false if we were to snap our fingers and remove all this content from the school library tomorrow please understand those parents have access and options but what choices do parents like myself have at the moment none you tell me I can block access by blocking it from being rented by my child but all that does is stop the material coming home for me to see this content being accessible in a school even if rented by other students could be shared with my children in the school hallways in their classrooms on their buses also if a few parents advocated for all children to have access to Pornhub on school Google Chrome Chromebooks would you allow it there's a line it has been crossed are there sexually active

111teenagers yes I don't deny reality but there are also teens who smoke pot yet to my knowledge our school libraries don't contain graphic novels on how to build and use various types of bongs the only anatomical images in the school should be scientific in nature and handled during health class when proper discussion on the topic can be insured currently Health curriculum is shared with parents who can opt their child in or out of health class based on their beliefs on how to have those conversations it is imperative that a district provide a safe Public School environment with standards for Content which is inclusive of families like mine I was going to ask for the the complete review and removal of any sexual explicit books after hearing Mr belden's comments I am going to ask that

112the board set policy on book standards immediately I'd say that there's a level of professionalism in decorum that is lacking in our school libraries but it's more than that this is sexual harassment of our children in their place of work their school this is dissemination of pornographic material to minors both are illegal and a huge liability for this District this is a massive conversation about what's right and what's wrong and one that I can't believe we even have to have [Applause] this is perversion this is grooming and the parents of con and concerned citizens of this town have had enough we will not be silenced and roll over as you Aid in desensitizing our children so they can be easier targets for pedophiles and can you if you could finish your thought you're over here

113three and let me be clear a stance of inaction by the border the district will be [Applause] next up is Mr Hoffman good evening my name is James Hoffman H over Road I would like to speak about the books our children are being exposed to in the schools I'm coming to you as a 15-year educator from teaching health education sex education and currently I'm a district-wide administrator in New York I have witnessed firsthand that inner workings of what's taking place within the nucleus of the school districts I'm not coming to you as someone from the outside I've been inside the graduate programs with two masters I've been inside the schools and what is happening this goes deeper than most are aware hence why many politicians are against a parent's Bill of Rights I am against

114these non-educational books that are in our schools and or the library to be anywhere near our children if someone could please explain the value the educational value I'm listening I'm all for inclusive resources this is not about diversity it's porn this book along with others have no educational value but have serious potential harm moving forward I just want to give you insight to What A Book Like This along with other factors can lead to we are on very thin ice handling in the most delicate of life our children it's just a book what harm can cause here's just a summary of some potential serious ramifications as history has proven if the goal is to destroy the family sexualizing the children will help in reaching that goal in America there's an agenda to educate children to

115accept sexual content in their lives and early impressionable stage in the name of Freedom children are being exposed to erotic images and encouraged to engage in sexualized Behavior think about a bill they tried to pass for mandated sex ed which would have had no opt-out we wouldn't have had a choice if that passed is it making sense yet promoting early sexuality in children and then sending them back into what is a non-sexual environment their homes places pressure on the parents and siblings that was not present before in the most vulnerable populations a sexualized child may be forced out of the family or worse create damaging situations within the family where witness we are witnessing the destruction of the family structure they're trying to confuse our children in certain cultures throughout history excessive sexualization has come

116to dominate life the disconnect of reasonable boundaries to sexual behavior within the family and general Society creates overarching permissions that have led to all sorts of abuse suffering despair substance use and disease we should also have known from the study of history that caution is necessary at every turn but we don't do that anymore what has happened above all please think of our children their freedoms future and innocence thank you [Applause] good afternoon Alan de Liberty a 118 Tower Road um I got a message today from uh on email that said for me to come here and uh I didn't realize how one thought it was going to be but I'm going to be talking about book Banning in general but not the specifics of the people who have made some valid references to pornography

117and um and I think we're only talking about maybe a handful of books uh and I think that I I agree with the the the the the members and people have talked that that that that uh that deserves some uh Merit um but on the other hand we live in an open Society we do live in a social network Society we live in an internet Society uh and it's naive to think that our kids particularly in 17 18 16 year olds aren't exposed to images on the internet among friends and themselves um I've I've a father of two daughters I was now one is a high school English teacher in Brewster and she's 46 years old and the other one is a registered nurse a nurse in Tucson Arizona the reason I bring that up

118is that my wife and I uh had very liberal views on on what they could read and not read particularly when they got into high school and pre-college um you know we realized and my daughter went to college when she was 17 in New York and um you know it's to have a naive young lady go into New York City not knowing the realities of life is not doing our daughter's Justice and uh not I I say that with all due respect to the people who have spoken but I think there's a balance um and I'll give I'll end with one story I I when I was uh 63 years ago I was a 13 year old skinny pimple-faced freshman um my father gave me believe it or not a Catcher in the Rye and

119uh back then it was very controversial it's probably still a controversial some people some kids some schools around the country banned it I think it's one of the most banned books in in history of books anyway that that that really impressed me and in the the the the story of Holland Caulfield and his world and his life made me feel not alone and it impacted me for the rest of my life and that's not that's some people think that's pornographic or some elements of a pornographic and blah blah and I know that's not what you're going to people over here are talking about but I think we're into modification moderation and I think the people having a a a mood like this can extend beyond pornographic pornography and go into other things and somewhat some

120per people's pointer group potent pornography is some other people's acceptable behavior and I think the the what the Board of Education in Connecticut and Brookfield I think you have a tough job but I think I encourage you to be moderate and listen to everybody and particularly at the sides of the parents who are talking about graphical images in the library I think that's very specific I think it's very one-sided and I think it's valid argument but don't let it extend to other people or books like groups of Wrath or some other things so thank you so much thank you [Applause] next next up is Mrs bossio and we're almost at the end folks Patricia bossio to Whitetail Lane April is National Child Abuse Prevention month and what actually does that mean it means the maltreatment

121as in all forms of physical and or emotional ill-treatment sexual abuse neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation resulting in actual or potential harm to a child's health survival development or dignity that's a World Health Organization March 8 2016. so I think this is an appropriate time to discuss the sexually explicit materials and teaching being introduced to the children or educational system which I am sure is being taught under the guise of health or whatever else you want to call it and it's still a form of sexual abuse this information is given to our youngest impressionable and pliable family members and is nothing more than perversion pornography and pedophilia which I believe there are laws against in this state and Country the Declaration of the adverse childhood experiences this study refers to one

122of the traumatic events or circumstances affecting children before age 18 and causing mental or physical harm is sexual abuse not just physical but mental exploitation and indoctrinization some books in the school library shows graphic sexual acts we've been told that totally inappropriate for any school-aged child I will conclude with a scripture verse from Jude 1 4 for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sexuality and deny our only master in Lord Jesus Christ and on that note I will say get rid of the literature and the sexually perverted materials and get back to the teaching of what really matters the essential subjects of Reading Writing and arithmetic thank you all right Mr Korea back to you sir uh

123Andy Korea 45 West Whiskey Road I came to talk about actually the in the executive session there'll be discussion about collective bargaining and strategy um something I wanted to bring up is a long time failure of the Board of Education and the district with respect to the contracts of the administrators and the teachers um there is no provision and the teachers and administrations administrators contract to address improper behavior of teachers um we've had a lot of that in the district over the past 18 months there's been about eight issues that have harmed girls that the administration hasn't handled properly um and the board has covered some of it up and I've come to the board and spoke to them and they've basically done nothing about it other than cover it up and except for two

124coaches that were not teachers so they didn't have a Union contract they were like quietly dismissed but these are ongoing issues and think about it is all of these as far as I've been able to tell through foia's haven't even had letters put in their file right so if this Behavior continues there's no way to track it as administrators come and go you go and look where's the trail bread crumbs in many Union contracts they have predetermined ways to deal with disagreements behaviors Etc right typically there's things like you know longshoremen showing up late teachers berating a child things like that they have lists of infractions lists and description of how it's handled and consequences for that with escalating consequences many Educators contracts have that and in other other states and municipalities there's like a

125process to get a letter in your file that is like last and final so if you have a teacher that does something that's inappropriate three times in a row they get a last and final and then it's not a negotiation in Brookfield it's a negotiation because at the contract signing everybody's going to agree that child sexual abuse shouldn't happen in the schools right but if there's a problem right and it's somebody you've known for 25 years and they're sitting there and there could be a he said she said situation it's a negotiation right and that's happened in Brookfield it happened within a couple months within the past few months okay so the request I have for the board is when they go in contract negotiation especially considering you're probably going to be looking at you

126know higher cost of living increases because the inflation this is the time to ask for that addition to the contract which which the union may obviously push back and fix it so that you know the reason one of the reasons I believe that the administration isn't dealing with it appropriately I think it was two one is we have poor administrators the other one is I don't think they have this tool and in the contract we should have that tool as well as an expectation on administrators to use it okay thank you all right that's it for public comment um thank you all for your input we appreciate it as I said at the beginning especially on this book topic the operational term is I'm going to make sure I get it right a reconsideration of

127materials and contact the library I'm sorry it's a sign up at the beginning man can I say something no no um I thought there was going to be a discussion no it's not it's public comment no ma'am our kids and they are mutilated they are sold 8 million children in this country alone and then there are the children that are being molested every day you're out of order man stop grooming our children okay that's not your job get that all right um we're moving on uh three main points I thought we 'd cover the CE C app present and the CLE s update and Dr Burrell's update by um Rosa and do you think we ought to put a pointer toward this all this public comment the Spotlight by Center School so this we can

128leave off to pick my kid yeah I think their policy for reconsideration of books is important yeah I think I think that's always an important discussion I think it we ought to not not hide from it okay it just wasn't it was a memorable I mean that's very memorable probably the most memorable in my seven years on the board so it just wasn't a board discussion yeah I gotcha yeah everybody okay with that so we'll do the spotlight the second one was the clas update and the third one is uh very significant input on book discussion um yeah include something about uh the request updated policy yeah okay upcoming events all schools are closed for spring break Friday April 7th through Friday April 14th at Center School on April 22nd a Saturday is the Out

129of This World birthday event which is at Center School from two to four sponsored by the PTO Monday April 24th through Friday April 28th is the book fair with a family night on Friday April 20 28th from six to seven Huckleberry has Christine's Critters coming for all grades PTO sponsored on April 20th and 21st and the science fair on April 27th in the evening and in the morning on April 28th for students to view at Whiskey near the week of April 15th to the 22nd 48th French exchange students will be visiting Brookfield and attending classes at whiskoneer on Wednesday April 19th the exchange students and host family students will be going to Hidden Valley Preserve in Washington Depot the week of April 24th to 28th is a Scholastic Book Fair Tuesday April 25th is the

130PTO meeting 6 30 Via zoom and April 27th and 28th as a fifth grade field trip to the institute for the American Indian studies in Washington and I think at BHS we just Mr Belinda's at St baldrick's on the 27th 27th of April is the saint baldrick's event that's all I have okay thank you all right um that's it for the regular part of our schedule we do have a uh executive session anticipated so we will be ending our broadcast at this moment we will do our executive session in the principles conference room and uh so we will not be adjourning here so thank you all for coming and thank you all for coming in we need a motion to go I will move that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of

131discussing strategy and negotiations as it relates to collective bargaining and discussion and possible action regarding attorney-client privilege information and draft agreement with the Brookfield Police Department second any any discussion hearing none all in favor okay so we'll take a five minute recess to relocate and maybe