001great okay thanks we're good all right uh good evening everyone today is wednesday june 16th and i call the regular meeting of the brookfield board of education to order please stand for the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we have six of our seven board members in attendance and hopefully jen will be joining us shortly uh a person's public comment do we sorry do we have anybody signed up or you can go ahead up first if you i'm sure it's only and uh just a reminder you'll have three minutes and just state your name and address for the record please my name is ryan rodinis and my address
002is one dark angelo drive in brookfield good evening i first want to take the time and acknowledge the difficult situation all the board members administrators and educators have had to endure during this tough year none of you signed up for this situation and us as a town can appreciate you what you've done for this past year my name is ryan rodinis i've been a resident of brookfield for 11 years my family and my family and i recently moved across town and the major reason we decided to stay in brookfield is because of the school system my wife is a lifelong resident a teacher he's even worked at center school and student taught at huckleberry so we're very well aware of how good the schools are in town and it's a testament to all of you
003my oldest daughter mia was slated slated to start kindergarten at center school at the beginning of the 2020 school year and last minute we decided to pull her out and center to country kids the main reason was due to the hybrid model that brookfield started with in the fall of 2020 we made this personal choice for our daughter based on the fact that the severe illness is extraordinary extraordinarily rare for young children and the fact that we would have to spend that she would have to spend half the year of school on a device we don't allow our children on devices and have maybe read many peer-reviewed studies that show screen time has a direct correlation with lower psychological well-being one specific study from the nih showed that children that are on devices seven plus
004hours a day are more than twice as likely to be have been diagnosed with anxiety treated by mental health professionals or had taken medication for a behavioral issue we understand the plan is not to offer hybrid this year and we applaud the board and administrators for making that change i recognize that there was risk of community spread in 2020 and many vulnerable individuals were not protected via vaccination we are fortunate for our daughter to have an amazing school year country kids and we plan on sending our daughter at center school this year as a parent and a taxpayer i ask the school board to follow old lime and saltington and other school districts around the country and make masks optional to limit quarantine and limit quarantines and death shields according to the data out of
005the cdc 65.3 percent of adults in the state of kinetic are vaccinated the clinic in saint joe's has been open since april and will be closing due to demand with the risk mitigated for adults the risk solely lies lies with children according to the american academy of pediatrics children represent 0.00 percent to 0.23 percent of all coveted deaths and most deaths have come from children with underlying conditions my children's pediatrician is more concerned with art with rsv and flu than covet 19 for school-aged children i'm a financial professional so my expertise is not medicine but it's managing and quantifying risk one risk that has not been addressed enough is that the mask and other mitigation strategies have had on our children's mental health development and socialization my middle daughter madison has developed a speech development
006issue which could be triggered by the fact she's worn mask for for a year at preschool now that the vulnerable people are protected we need to start addressing a return to normal according to the study published by the new england journal of medicine sweden never closed schools during the pandemic instead they encouraged distancing but never required masks that same article cited from march 2020 through the end of the year in 2020 mr adinas we're at three minutes i'm sorry we're at three minutes so just wrap it up thank you thank you so sorry i have the signed up sheet but um if you guys are here for public comment um just step up one at a time each of you will have three minutes please just state your name and address for the record i
007timed it it might be like three minutes and 27 seconds okay my name is jenna scattino i live at 37 white pine drive i have two daughters who just finished first and third grade my husband and i moved here 11 years ago before having children and brookfield schools was the catalyst in picking our top town to settle not only am i speaking as a parent in an effort to be fully transparent i feel it is imperative that i share with you that i'm also speaking as an educator i've taught middle school for 19 years i have a leadership admin position have certain have served on my district's safety task force for seven years which covers everything from fire drill protocols after shooter drills building emergency response team and most recently a global pandemic i've sat
008along my side my building administration staring at grainy cameras helping them to contact trace and i can speak confidently to the fact that both building and district admin have not had a day off since march 12 2020. i do not share with this with you to wave around credentials rather to bring to light that i have multiple perspectives and i truly understand what it is like to be both an educator and a parent during the last two years i do not know of many other professions that have had a complete upheaval of how they do their job with no warning and little training than education before i speak to some of my concerns i wanted to highlight an email that i wrote to the board of education dr barrel and dr ruby in april i
009wanted to express my gratitude to be part of a district that places emphasis into social emotional learning and the whole child my two daughters were fortunate enough to have phenomenal teachers the last two years to help them navigate the roller coaster of emotions that are natural repercussions of these circumstances thank you to ms calucci mrs moore mrs sandu mrs johnson and all the teachers for being absolute rock stars i hope you are watching this from a beach somewhere last march when the two went two weeks into the pandemic we found our youngest child who was in kindergarten at the time locked inside her bathroom closet taking her temperature to make sure she didn't have covet she then admitted to be having done that five times a day since school closed and had worked herself in
010such a panic trying to get her emotions out i was able to tap into some of the strategies taught through social emotional learning like butterfly breasts roller coaster breasts and identifying her emotions to target how she was feeling for the last 16 months we have all heard about the most vulnerable population referring to those age 70 or older i challenge you to explore a different perspective to me the most vulnerable population are our children they have watched their parents struggle and juggle working helping them learn from home social isolation missing four months of formal school last year not seeing family for holidays pivoted from hybrid to virtual to full in person perhaps even a mandated quarantine trauma faced at this developmental stage can continue to affect them across their lifespan and we truly do not
011understand the potential residual effects of this on our youth i wanted to share two more anecdotes quickly um that have my spirit my daughters have experienced two weeks ago when it became very hot my youngest um said that she was having trouble breathing on the bus and she felt like she felt like she was drowning and she said i was afraid to take my mask under my nose because i didn't want to get kicked out of school i want to be very clear nobody has ever said that to her her bus driver is a wonderful wonderful lady but these are the kind of thoughts that for the last two years our children have been indoctrinated to think by society during eve's second quarantine when she desperately wanted to stay in school we got the phone
012call at when i was at work at two o'clock her last date of contact was already on friday yet they were all ushered into the gym they weren't allowed to stay in their classroom and all the parents had to come get them immediately with all of their stuff my daughter who does have some anxiety was then panic strict mrs diamond had to pull her into her office because i was in new york she was why why isn't my mom here do i have covet did i am i going to get someone sick why do i have to be at the gym so these kind of practices and again we as adults understand the necessary for them um i'll try to talk faster which is why it is crucial that any reopening plan for the next
013school year has supports in place for this but also allow for best practice and education when designing a program for a student who has an iep or 504 we always try to place them in the least restrictive environment to the maximum extent appropriate all students should have the least restrictive environment in my own district the desk shields were removed seven weeks ago we can have student desks and collaborative groups no masks outside we only quarantine that when they were in six feet of each other for more than ten minutes not everyone in the class we were open in person for every day and students six k to six we have randomly tested 800 staff and students over the last four months yielding only one possible result from an asymptomatic individual with no community spread i
014am hopeful that when brookfield reopens we can say the same along with masks being optional no desk shields collaborative groups a mix of technology with hands-on kinesthetic learning authentic assessments no hybrid learning for anyone continuing to implement best practice in social emotional learning well i know all of this is a moving target school districts do have some agency and autonomy over these decisions mrs stratino please just wrap it up okay um to quote the late maya angelou do the best you can until you know better then when you know better do better we know better now than we did at the beginning of the pandemic and in august and we can do better for the next reopening our children are counting on it thank you for your time the next person please step up is
015anybody else here for a public comment please just name an address for the record i'm on south mountain road i don't have a plan to come tonight so i don't have anything really prepared we have three girls that we put into the school system we had to enroll them into private school because their schools were shut down locked down um one of my daughters got really depressed from you know being in the fact that she was getting an ipad and getting directives what to do each day sitting there you know in her room crying trying to figure stuff out she didn't have a face to face like some people have so we ended up putting them all into private school so they could at least attend school secondly we have seen it i think it
016was vermont today just released their mass mandate for school so we're hoping that this state will follow suit we saw a guy like cuomo just came out and said new york is getting rid of their mass mandate we saw how you know unsuccessful he was with the nursing home scandals however it seems like he's finally trying to get back on the right track with uh the school system so that's it i really just came to say that i'm hoping that you know the board of education i think that we need you guys to fight for our kids i realize that the state you know defers to nih cdc there's a lot of politics behind it unfortunately i don't like to see that that's the fact but uh that's how we feel so we feel like
017coming here we're going to rely on some of you guys to advocate for our children to not have math for the fall so that's that's really all i like i apologize i didn't really come prepared but that's all i have thank you hi my name is lina lopez and i live at 9 summer pasture lane in brookfield i am a parent of three children who will all be attending brookfield public schools next fall and i'm speaking today to stress the importance of learning to live with kovid while still providing a free and appropriate public education we have entered a new phase of this pandemic this virus is no longer novel vaccination of high-risk populations and advances in treatment means that new cases will not lead to a high surge of covet-related deaths as opposed to
018what we experienced a year ago vaccinated staff members can rest assured that their chances of being hospitalized or dying after exposure to a covet positive student are almost non-existent furthermore the mortality rate amongst children is minimal 3.994 million children have tested positive for covet in the u.s since the start of the pandemic practically speaking millions more have had asymptomatics that went undiagnosed from these nearly 4 million cases there were 327 pediatric death deaths that data was taken from the american academy of pediatrics that means the percent of child cases resulting in deaths was rounded up to 0.01 percent and this number includes earlier data from the pandemic before recent advances in treatment meanwhile newest language language from those who wish to incite fear is that we should be terrified of multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children
019also known as misc however from may 2020 to june 2nd 2021 there have been only 4018 cases and 36 missc deaths nationwide surely any loss of young life is tragic no matter the reason but to con to further contextualize these numbers here is some data from previous flu seasons during the 2009 h1n1 pandemic from april april 09 to september 2010 there were 358 pediatric deaths reported to the cdc the 2017-2018 flu season caused 188 pediatric deaths with the cdc stating that that number was under reported and probably closer to 600. the status shows that certain seasons of the flu are just as deadly if not more deadly than covet to children while we took an ultra-cautious approach last year consequently how have these measures impacted the student population for my family one of my children
020who was performing at or above grade level at the middle of last year dropped to the 22nd percentile in math nationwide this child has also suffered from anxiety and fears about going on play dates due to constant lockdowns one day that in anxiety caused a stomach ache which sent her excuse me which sent her home from school and barred her return without a doctor's note or a negative code vid test and while there were only two possible cases of in-school transmission in our district last year the current protocols mean children with headaches motion sickness from the bus stomach aches and allergies to name a few illnesses we're over three minutes so just wrap it up i'm almost done thanks get sent home until the parents can arrange for a covet test moving forward we must
021look for ways to minimize this whether it be rapid testing in the nurse's office or refining of the supposed covet symptoms that send a child home or a combination of both the point i'm trying to make is that sometimes the treatment is worse than the disease and these mitigation strategies have become a larger threat to the mental well-being and the academic performance of our children than the threat of the virus itself in conclusion we should consider the low pediatric mortality rate from covid along with low mortality rate the vaccinated adults can now enjoy in our risk benefit calculations involving in-person learning and covid mitigation strategies moving into the 21-22 school year we must prioritize full five-day a week in-person learning with educators present in the classroom a decrease in screen time along with a large
022effort for a return to normal allow students to learn on paper and allow teachers to touch that paper allow group activities and shared use of manipulatives allow a class to continue learning while quarantining only the covet positive person and when the virus returns in the fall cases cannot be the driving measure for closure it's time we follow the science and not the fear it's time we remove the barriers that have caused our children to miss out on a free and appropriate public education thank you hello my name is adam juliano i live at 16th run i'm a retired new york city detective i'm disabled i moved to this town because of the schools the last year you know things have been out of hand there was nothing we could do we've done the best we
023could but i think this year shows it doesn't work it doesn't work my child has add he was at or slightly above grade level before this happened and he is in the negative percentiles the computer learning he's playing he's smarter on that computer than any of you me or anyone else they playing video games in class they're listening to music with their headphones on right in front of the teacher all these things are going on and the teachers are completely oblivious because hey they they can't keep up they're not as smart as the students with the computers and the kids are just getting over left and right my son is so attached to his mask that i have to tell him take your mask off we're outside there's no reason to wear your mask outside
024not there's there's no reason as far as this this year coming up you guys have stated that there is no remote learning we have no choice there's no remote learning okay then give us the choice and allow our children not to wear masks if you're going to tell us a then you have to allow us some allotment this is a free country it's all right as a parent to make the decision for our child there are children not here i just want to make the decision the science shows i don't have to beat you over there with it you see it you know the children are they're an emotional wreck this kid comes home at the end of the school day and like i i barely raise my voice and he starts crying hysterically they
025cannot handle the lack of socialization the the impersonalness of it all just the teachers it's like robotic there's no touching there's no there's no learning you like a child needs to learn by putting something on paper take a pencil write it down and you're visualizing and you're physically writing and you're hearing it and it's multiple layers of learning learning on a computer is one way and they're not learning anything these kids are going to be so behind that i i'm worried for my kid i'm paying out of pocket which money i don't have because again i'm retired and disabled so i'm paying out of pocket to make sure my kid stays at least even where he's supposed to be it's your job to represent us that's your job do your job that's all i ask
026do your job you you want the kids to go no remote you want to go to school fine give us the option there are children not yours if someone wants their kid to wear a mask then let them wear their mask if you don't want to do that then put remote is optional and let the people who want their kids to wear masks to leave their kids home because it's time the country opened up enough is enough the science shows and the stats of the children of how miserable they're doing in school is showing it's not working so let's go back to the way it was before all this nonsense happened and just take a step back stop fighting over nonsense just take care of the kids i don't care about everybody's personal feelings i
027care about the kids and the kids are emotionally a wreck a wreck and it's pissing me off good evening my name is kimberly abreu i'm at 50 secor road i'm a mother of four four daughters three of which will be here i'm sorry three of which will be in brookfield school districts in the fall i will have two here at the high school and i will have my little one who will be starting um kindergarten at central school i must start off by saying thank you to the teachers and staff the board of education our superintendent of our school district for the hard work and dedication that was evident in ensuring a safe and educational school year i'm here tonight as a concerned parent for our children that are part of the brookfield school district
028i'm here to be their voice on june 1st the opening plan for the upcoming upcoming school year document was sent to district families which consisted of 41 pages of detailed plans on how our school district would open in the fall i appreciate the detailed plan the advanced notice and the offer for feedback however a few bolded statements that were included in the email did not sit well with me quote it is important to note that at this time at this time of communication there are many recommendations guidelines and requirements yet to be determined by the cdc dph csde and the brookfield health department for example we are awaiting updated guidance regarding mass wearing physical distancing and quarantine protocols beginning in the fall of 2021 therefore please know that as new information is released and updated
029this will change according over the course of the summer end quote as we all know anyone 12 years and older is eligible to be vaccinated therefore our teachers and staff had all had the opportunity to be vaccinated as well as our high school and some whiskey near students whether they have chosen to do so or not is their choice i understand our elementary school children have not yet had the opportunity to be vaccinated however what more needs to be reduced in order to eliminate these mass requirements now is the time to make it optional why are we not pressing the brookfield health department and csde governor whomever it may be to allow mass to be optional for this upcoming school year for governor governor lamont the most current daily positivity rate for our state is
030less than one percent how much lower does it have to go in order to remove the mass requirement enough is enough allow those that do not feel comfortably massless inside to wear them and allow those that feel comfortable the choice not to wear them you allowed students to learn remote this year so now allow those who want to be in school mask list to do so mandating all children to wear them and at times even outside from what i've heard and seen can have negative effects on our children oxygen restrictions bacteria build up not to mention the mental and emotional toll these may have serious long-term physical mental health issues that we cannot immediately determine it breaks my heart that our children cannot see their teachers faces and equally the teachers cannot see the beautiful
031faces of their students the full facial interaction is an important developmental aspect for our children's education why are we continuing to do this to our children my older daughters who is uh 16 by the way came home and told me the best days that she had this year in school were those where she could see their classmates full faces outside of course and interact with each other masculine imagine that this is not how things should be and this is not the new normal for our children every day should be the best day for our children in brookfield public schools that's why i moved here during the last few days of school when the weather were scorching hot and brookfield public schools made the decision to open i informed my daughters to remove their mask if
032they felt hot they refused because of the potential consequences we're at three minutes i'm sorry we're at three minutes okay thanks the fear that has been instilled in our children has become more of threat than the virus itself and will require time to overcome so i'm asking you the board of education the superintendent to do the right thing for our children start the conversations now to remove the mass mandate be the voice for our children our most vulnerable population has had the opportunity to be vaccinated which according to science will reduce the transmission of the virus you made the right choice in eliminating the remote learning option for the upcoming school year but please don't stop there please make the choice in eliminating please make the right choice and eliminate the mass mandy as well
033thank you for your time attention and consideration hi i am sarah emerald i live at 34a old bridge road i have two children in the district my older son lucas is going into 10th grade and then my younger son owen is going into seventh i've lived in brookfield for 10 years as an adult but i also grew up in brookfield i'm a graduate from bsbhs and i can attend to what a wonderful district this is i'm here today to address my concerns over the current plans for the fall nothing has changed with the exception of the removal of the remote learning option due to the limited time i will make this brief i can tell you this has been a very difficult year for all of us but what i can report on is what
034i've seen with my children i have seen them struggling socially and academically i've worried greatly for them over the course of this past year plus i've worried about the impacts of the isolation uh the uncertainty and just everything and not knowing how what i can do as a parent having things out of your control is the worst feeling in the world i've worried about the health implications of them wearing a mask for six to eight hours a day but had no choice because it was either wear the mask or stay at home and it was some two pretty horrible choices i've heard them complain of headaches feeling tired all the time and just done with everything my high schooler told me he avoided using the bathroom because he wanted to limit his contacts because he
035did not want to get traced back to someone that had corn that had covet and end up in quarantine my middle schooler complained that they were constantly being yelled at for one thing or another to the degree that he felt he could no longer he could do nothing without getting into trouble there was a zero tolerance policy and the state guidelines were followed and forced to the nth degree and once again as some of the other parents have said this may or may not have been an actual um you know something that was said to the kids that they had to follow these these rules to this degree however this is how they felt um and you know my my son my younger son did address this at one point he sat down with the
036principal to talk about this and his feelings were brushed off as well are you really feeling this way or is somebody telling you this you know it sounds like maybe this is all just in your head so once again children's feelings just being pushed to the side these are the rules and you have to follow them if you don't want to follow them well then you can stay at home and you can learn remote throughout the year i have tried to be reassuring telling them that this is only temporary we needed time to learn more about this virus develop effective treatments make sure the hospitals don't get overwhelmed vaccines should be distributed and the numbers to go down once we achieved all that i told them things would get back to normal and things are
037slowly getting back to normal for us adults but not for the kids we are telling them they need to continue to wear a mask and follow all the guidelines even in the fall here in state we vaccinated 95 percent of our most mrs of the general adult population and our positivity rate has continued to decline we've essentially achieved her immunity especially manufacturing natural immunity which nobody wants to discuss because i'm running out of time i want to just say quickly i would encourage everyone to read an article from may 25th in the connecticut mirror that talks about what i would say is the new health crisis here in state the article was entitled children with psychiatric needs overwhelming hospital emergency rooms in connecticut this once again is what we are doing to these kids we
038are driving them to the point of complete insanity and we continue and continue and continue to push this on them and when are we going to say this is no longer their burden to bear so i have so many other things i'd like to say but i will basically end it by saying we have questions and we'd like to know where are we with this who who's making the calls here at what point are like what are we trying to achieve here because everyone's getting up here we're all saying we have crush code that was what we set out to do we've done everything we have been asked to do but here we are a year and a half later still begging for our children to have a normal life and no answers pointing of
039the fingers we deserve to know what the criteria is that the state the town whoever it is that's making these decisions is basing these restrictions off of and i feel like we deserve to have an answer now and not wait until july or august when it's too late i mean the kids have been as we're seeing the kids are anxious they're stressed and they don't know what's going to happen in the fall and sure maybe some parents have the option to say well we've got christian life academy here in town which is opening up with no restrictions we could go here we really need to wrap it up he has that option to do that and so are we going to continue to string them along endlessly i feel like we have elected all of
040you to be our voice okay towns across the state are stepping up school boards across the state are stepping up they're speaking out against us and they're saying in the fall we will not do this okay i realize there's money at stake at state from the state from the state but i really do not feel that there is any way that the state would ever hold funding from a school district for standing up for what is right so once again i beg all of you to please fight for our children they have been through so much we have learned so much thank you thank you for your time i just want to make sure everybody else gets a chance to speak thank you thank you hi my name is sarah coffey i live at one
041sea is this thing ion yep okay i live at 116a tower road um two years ago my husband and i decided to move to brookfield from danbury specifically for the school system last year we enrolled our daughter in kindergarten at center school she had a great teacher by the end of november we had to pull her from center and enroll her at a private school back in danbury she needed a consistent in-person and undisruptive learning environment that brookfield could not provide at the time i look forward to the day where i can send both my children back to brookfield schools but i want to know if the administration and staff will advocate for the rights of our children and what's best for each individual child so i'm here today asking that in the next school
042year mass be made optional and if the board of ed and administration lacked the power to make this possible i ask that you at least advocate for us at a state level connecticut is one of 20 states and i think said vermont this morning today so one of 19 states now left that have not dropped the mass mandate in schools for the 201-2022 year some states are even ruling the mandates unconstitutional but connecticut seems to be failing our children and contributing to the rapid erosion of parental rights in this country my son had an end of the year project where he went to school not in brookfield he had to write a poem about himself it was very typical something you'd expect from a six-year-old boy very cute until i got to the line where
043he had to describe his biggest fear and he wrote coronavirus and i brought it just in case you thought i was lying but it's on there um and i i was blown away by this because he never expressed his fear to me and it just goes to show that we're unknowingly and knowingly helping create a generation of nervous fearful and hyper aware children the effects of this will last a lifetime probably and throughout the pandemic we've heard that children are resilient they're fine they can deal with it go the flow but what i've come to find is that children in general are just quiet about the issues that affect them they've been bearing this heavy burden of taking measures to protect everyone they love from getting coveted especially the elderly population and their teachers but
044now that we know what we know and now that the population most affected by the virus is vaccinated or has had the opportunity to be vaccinated adults need to start acting like adults and start protecting children from fearing a virus that is highly unlikely to make them seriously ill and .01 percent likely to kill them it is much more rational to fear the continuous use of masks which can lead to metabolic changes and proper neuron functioning which a key symptom of that is headaches and my son and daughter had both come home a lot this year complaining of headaches after school but the choice i have as a parent doesn't really seem fair right now i can either send my children to school in an environment that i believe is and has been proven to
045be socially emotionally educationally disruptive as well as physically harmful or i can homeschool we're at three minutes okay last thing i just asked that you consider my comments and studies that have been done in other countries and on children in our country i ask that you follow the decisions made in 30 now 31 other states and that you stand up for our children and for the parents here today they deserve to be in classrooms where proper mask wearing is not a priority and they deserve to see the reassuring smile of their teachers and we as parents deserve to have a choice thank you good evening my name is tanya stanley i'm at 31 laurel drive thank you for allowing me this time to address the board i come forward this evening as a concerned parent
046of four children two of whom attend brookfield schools one who is an incoming freshman and another entering sixth grade at wms due to the mass mandates i decided not to enroll my present kindergartner i did homeschool him i also come forward as an experienced educator of 14 years with a master's in middle level education needless to say i have a solid understanding of the emotional and social impact this last 15 months has had on children i've heard the term resilient tossed around like a badge of honor when it comes to children and the adult expectations that have been placed on them throughout this imp this pandemic in reality the term resilient permits adults to dismiss the social and emotional needs of children it has come to my attention that this board of education as well
047as sports across the state have been deferring to politicians and others in decision making positions when it comes to whether or not masks as well as other mitigation strategies will be required in the fall so my question is simple who at the district level here in the town of brookfield is stepping up to protect the social emotional needs of students disengagement fear and lack of connection all which these parents have talked about today are all problems that have come straight out of trying to solve the problem of pandemic safety through mitigation such as mask wearing i strongly encourage the board of education dr barrell principals and teachers to stand with parents in ensuring these social and emotional needs of children are met as we move into this next academic year best practices for social emotional
048learning comes first and foremost with connection i think we can all agree this year was a big challenge when it comes to making connections for many reasons from kids on zoom to masks all day to teachers and principals acting as if they have to police mask wearing to lack of in-person extracurricular activities for our kids what makes school a unique enviro enviro excuse me unique and vibrant environment was lost continuing to enforce the same or similar mitigation strategies as outlined in the reopening draft for the 2021-22 school year is disappointing at best and completely irresponsible at worst our kids deserve better than the same old from this school year if adults are permitted to sit in a restaurant a movie theater and church massless so too should our children in school i implore you to
049consider the negative social emotional impact the mask requirement has had on students this year and please represent our children at the state level and help make masks optional or non-existent for this upcoming school year thank you for your time hi i'm mickey durkin 7th summer pasture lane here in brookfield um i'm coming as a parent today i think you all are here for the right reasons i want to believe that you are i'm here to speak for my family and my children the most precious and valued thing in my life i'm urging you not to include the math requirement for kids in brookfield's reopening plan as a parent alongside my husband we make the decisions we feel are best for our children it's our job to make sure that they are loved cared for and
050grow to be good human beings i'm an informed parent i'm also the type of person who wants to know the whys regarding rules and regulations when it comes to anything why do my children need to eat healthy foods why do my children need to have regular exercise why do they need to have time outdoors left less time on devices why do they need to learn to be responsible for themselves why they need to be kind to others respectful and apologize when it's necessary these are the things that i do as a parent of my children i went to years of counseling for boundary issues that my parents had with my siblings and i and i feel that right now there are boundary issues again happening in my life but this time from the state and
051local levels i don't feel that i have that i need to have somebody else tell me what is best for my children or what i need to do for them without a good enough why at least right now as it stands and this is really the only reason that i'm here my children are afraid they're afraid of others perceptions of them if they do not wear their mask just the other day we were out and i told them i had to physically tell them to please take your masks off we're outside and they were like that i just blew my mind i'm telling you that it's okay to do that and they were afraid of what i was telling them i don't think that's right if i tell my kids that it's okay to do
052something then it should be okay it shouldn't matter to someone else how i parent my kid that's a boundary issue i don't tell others how to parent their children i don't pretend to know what is best for them that should be up to the parent again i'm only here to urge that you do the right thing for our kids and my kids and let us parents have a choice that want it heck i'll even send a waiver to opt out if i need to but if i'm not given the option to wear the mask or if we're not at least given the option to wear the mass i'm not sure what i will be doing with my children next year and if they do not come here i'll make sure to not vote in future
053budget votes i think it's not too much to ask or to fight for thank you hi my name is cherise payne and i live at 7th juniper lane i come to you not only as a brookfield parent but as a neighbor i have two kids in the elementary schools here won in first grade and one in third this year um my first grader had a very disruptive kindergarten um as most of all the kindergarteners had and first grade you know turned out at the end better once we were back in school full-time he struggled a lot at home it was a challenge for us at home and i was very thankful and grateful that we finally were in person full-time in january what i'd like to share with you is about my daughter who is
054a very successful third grader she's on student council she does girl scouts she's a member of our local chapter of the children of the american revolution she does well she never had a problem with asthma or allergies and this past year we got to know the huckleberry school nurse very well because she had to wear the mask constantly and developed asthma seasonal allergy induced asthma to the point where she's now on two inhalers and has to take a pill every night this is not okay this mask wearing well at first we all had to do it we all agreed we all you know understood that we needed to do this to protect everyone is no longer necessary people who wanted the vaccination got the vaccination we are healthy again covet is on its way out
055and even if it's not on its own way out fully we still have to live we have to live with this and understand that our children also have to live with this and we've all heard the science we've all heard the stats we should not be forcing our kids to wear masks every day case in point the asthma this is not helpful and another side note quickly when we had to make an appointment with the asthma doctor they said they've never been so busy than they have been this year because of all the issues that they're seeing thank you good evening my name is deborah case i live at 21 meadowview drive and i have two children in the district um i didn't prepare anything tonight i'm not going to go over stats and statistics
056and any of that but i feel like i'm angry that i have to share this because i always felt that my children's journey is their journey and there's to tell but i feel if i don't speak up for what's been happening in my home i'm not speaking up for all the children so my son who is in middle school going on to high school plays with his mask all day they play with their mask all day they're actually bringing more germs to their face than if they didn't have a have a mask on at all so that's what i find with the middle schoolers and the high schoolers my daughter if you look at her record she missed more school than the law labs this year she was half remote because she went to school
057in the beginning with all the masks wearing she just couldn't handle it so when we went remote she didn't go back i made the date to go back because we had to follow the guidelines we had to give so much notice ahead of time and i had to cancel it and pull that date back twice i believe because as we were approaching going back to school she was fearful again finally when i brought her in for her assessments um in school because we were remote we had to bring her in for her assessments to school i asked the school psychologist please talk with my makes me emotional please talk with my daughter because i'm like losing her here she's in the beginning of the year she was doing so well if anybody knows my daughter
058she's very smart she's a third grader she served on student council she's a role model she's a darling child she's the child you want your child to be friends with she is the sweetest thing she is so agreeable that's what everyone's always said about her my daughter was also diagnosed with oral apraxia when she was two years old she had medical intervention because she needed oral manipulation in her mouth it is imperative that she sees faces that she sees as effects on people's faces children need to see that it's imperative for them especially at the young school age children so as i come here you know i think about in the years prior when you know we were sending out surveys because we wanted latest later start dates for our kids because they needed more
059sleep well i want surveys to go out because our kids need more oxygen they really do we need to remove the masks at the end of the school year when i was cleaning out my daughter's backpack because when she finally went back to school out a little bit around march she kept complaining that her masks were wet and i kept saying to her you can change your mask i gave her extra mask every day so the end of the school year when it got really hot and the masks were getting really wet i said to her go ahead go ahead put some extra masks in your backpack one or two should do so when i opened up her backpack and i saw that she was packing six and seven and eight masks a day i
060was so angry i feel like i'm failing her and by not speaking up today i i just have to i you we all trusted you last year to make the decisions for our kids and we followed them and we did them and our children followed them like little sheep they really did but now i'm asking you to trust us you know trust us to make the decisions for our children let us decide if we want to have masks on our children or not it's imperative it's crucial my daughter is suffering her mental health is suffering and she's not that kid she's just not we're over three minutes ma'am consider that when you you know when we start this the new school year because i think the trend is is that you're finding more and more
061children it's affecting them so anyway that's just what i wanted to say and i really hope that you consider letting it if other children want to wear their mask let them if parents don't want their children to wear a mask because you know what they wear their mask and they're still not allowed to toss a ball to each other anyway why i don't get that okay thank you thank you i'm sorry we can't it's three minutes at the podium we can't have a dialogue we actually everybody went over three minutes but please if anybody else has a comment please step up to the podium thank you so i don't have speech prepared or anything like that but with those people speaking i i feel that i have to put my could you just state your
062name and address for the record for the contrast from 13 south mountain so my husband spoke here before and he uh spoke about how it impacts our family and i'm sorry if i'm going to start crying but it is what it is we have three girls so you have two in middle school we have one preschooler one of my uh girls is doing just fine with masks she's a unique exception okay she falls all the rules it is what it is my second one got pretty uh pulled out of middle school this year it was emergency situation we pulled you out we had to put you in private school the reason for that is because psychological impact that isolation had on here which ended up in ultimately an emergency room visit with medication and visits
063to psychologists that's continue to this point my youngest who is a preschooler was supposed to go to preschool full time vivian we had to pull you out from full-time preschool and put your part-time because it started impacting your speech development and i want to advocate here for our youngest and i want to advocate here for esl students brookfield and i compare with danbury i moved from denver here for for your school system i think your school system is outstanding so we moved um brookfield does not have as much diversity as danbury has but you do have asl students i'm asl myself and i can tell you that i have been struggling this year myself i have been a united states i have been citizen here i have been here for 20 years if you have
064your mask on i will hard time understanding you i need to see your faces i will not understand sometimes what you tell me i sometimes will not understand what emotion you try to convey to me with what you're saying i will not understand sarcasm so people think that i'm done because i will not laugh at your jokes it has been sometimes so painful i will start crying because i do not understand what people say to me and with my youngest who is going to be four she had hard time developing her speech because she cannot see what your teacher is trying to explain to her right before coming here to the meeting and that's one of the things that made me speak right now i spoke to a kindergarten teacher she said this year we
065all adapted because of circumstances we did what we had to do but she told me it has been painful she said sometimes those children kindergarteners you're trying to explain to them how to pronounce the sounds how to properly read the word um i'm rushing myself to the way you write that the way you read here in english english is like rocket science really yes you probably don't realize that because you grew up with that but really it's it's not a simple language it's not that simple for children to understand combination of letters and put it together with the sounds if they cannot see teacher's mouth how it's moving what it's saying it's extremely difficult she said we have to pull down the masks so a child can understand us and another had three minutes almost
066done once thank you and another thing she said she saw children in kindergarten even outside on playground trying to give each other a hug and another child starts crying saying they're too close to me they don't hug each other it's not normal it really is not normal we need to advocate for our children i know some of you say well that state of connect because there's department of health yada yada all that stuff that's who is trying to dictate those rules i hear where you coming from but passing back is passing the back you need to step you know you need to stand up for our children you really need to advocate for our children you point at the parents who stand over there and you say contact department of health contact of our department
067of education we do we do we really do reach out to them but we also hope that you would also stand up together with us i know if you hear you obviously care so if you did go for board of education you care so that's the time to actually start the accident thank you thank you and sir if you'd like to after everybody is gone if you'd like to come up again and speak that's fine i'm jennifer ramos i'm from 27 berkshire drive i have two children in the district i have one that's not going to be coming in because of the mass mandate she's been home and we don't intend to to bring her in however i just wanted to ask to bring the light to back to why we're keeping the mass maybe
068in the state and other states are lifting it i just wanted to point out something i'm in agreeance with everyone i'm an educator also i came from new york with a teacher in new york we've been here for two years so i agree with olya and everything she's saying in regards to teaching i taught first grade you know for many years um but my issue has been my son has been complacent he's come in he doesn't like wearing it but he wears it all day doesn't take it at all goes for his mask race my older one that's a freshman here in the high school would ask me mom i really don't want to go today i have anxiety i don't feel like she's been going back and forth with the counselor talking to them
069because she just doesn't like it my issue has been that it's been pushing other kids like i've her friends got in trouble they were smoking weed in the bathroom you know it's pushing them to do other things and it's concerning to me you know um just alone my we're a family of five here we have two other children that are older that are out of the nest already they never moved up here to connecticut in january we were exposed to covid only two of us tested positive in the house and we weren't isolated in our home we were very light the department of health said 10 days you could go back to school i didn't feel better and also my mother-in-law didn't test positive until a month later so it's like the science is saying
070keep the mask here but the truth is that even the department of health i would speak to them every day so would call and check in on us and they would say listen it's bewildering it's it's mind-boggling it's this it's that there's families that where one child is not getting sick and everybody else is getting sick and it's the same thing that's been happening in the school in in even in my neighborhood there's been families that chose to be pods together and nobody got sick or somebody gets sick or all of them get sick and the point is you know i just wanted to be able for us to say you can take off your mask and not go to school in a mask if that doesn't make you feel comfortable you want to be
071able to see people because even with me i went back to work finally after convincing my husband i can go back part-time i work as a bookkeeper in this city and he was very fearful of it because i have underlying health conditions and he says no i said i need to go back because i'm going to lose my sanity if i if we're not bringing a certain income in so i'm back to work and i don't recognize people because they have their mask on and then when they walk by me they're like hi jennifer who the heck are you and it's the same thing that's happening in the school you know the kids aren't seeing each other they're not making connections with each other it's like they're completely disconnected and i just want that connection
072back for them because we're human beings and we need that it's overwhelming to feel that they don't have that connection and they can't make associations with people and they can't really trust their teachers because their teachers they don't even know their faces most of the time because they've never seen them without a mask on unless the teacher accompanies them to a mass break and that's the only time that they'll recognize but even so i asked my daughter do you know what your teachers look like she's known the only one i really know is the counselor because i've seen her when she walks out you know for whatever reason so that's it i didn't want to take any more of your time thank you thank you anyone else yeah you're welcome though sorry that's okay adam
073juliano 16 will run again um depression suicide this is something that wasn't mentioned once it's all over the place i'm sitting in my house and my kid's depressed and i'm worried about my 11 year old committing suicide you see it on tv this there was a 10 year old a couple of months ago that killed himself this the kids can't live like this it's got to end you know it's hard enough getting these kids to be social with the cell phones and the computers and the video games and the the butchering of the english language with the lol and all this other nonsense and now you put mass on them so to get a kid out to be social to begin with already now you're adding on masks and they're not seeing each other's faces
074you know they forget what their friends look like my son saw one of his friends from a while ago and even recognize him i'm like dude you're on his baseball team like 40 years in a row it's just enough you know i know you you have a lot of barriers and a lot of things going against you but all these people came here because you represent us we represent our children and we want to make sure that you understand yes there are some people that still want the mass mandates that's fine but the the rule of law the cdc everybody's saying you don't need masses if you're vaccinated the kids it's not really going to affect them it's not an issue that the odds are incredibly ridiculous that they're going to get it or that
075they're even going to die from it they've got a better chance of getting the flu and diet from that we've lived with the flu how long enough is enough that's all thanks for my extra thank him sure yes go ahead it's just that you know we're being videoed so i wanted to make sure that the camera only sees this area so i didn't want to make sure that your anything that you said over there wasn't captured okay ryan rodinis one dark angelo drive again um so i was talking about sweden but i'm going to go on to yankee stadium on friday yankee stadium is opening at full capacity with no mass requirements for anybody how can that be allowed while we require our students and faculty to where to continue to wear masks the town
076is pointed to the state's guidance which points to the cdc it's all politics during the pandemic the cdc has been very slow at changing policy the policy has slowly been driven by infection disease specialists but with coveted record numbers our state needs to consider other factors this should come down to parents choice give parents a choice be courageous and join the other districts that say they will make masks optional in the fall this is a very popular topic with parents as you can see and as elected officials i call on each of you to consider making the mass states mask mandates optional for 20 21 2022 school year i'm sure this will spill over to the election cycle and this needs to be considered thank you would anyone else like to speak all right well
077thank you all for coming and i applaud your passion and you've certainly given us a lot to think about so thank you for being here um let's move on to written correspondence okay dan fulchetti wrote regarding curriculum joyce pacino rachel alagna jennifer agusto and lori parisi wrote regarding reopening guidelines for fall okay uh approval of board minutes i move that the board approved the minutes from the regular meeting on june 2nd second thanks joy all in favor aye okay the superintendent's update all right thanks rosa so um i i have a covered update so it's it's aligned with uh the parent a lot of the parent public comment tonight so i'll get to that in just a second um but first i wanted to acknowledge the bhs faculty staff and administration for putting on a
078magnificent in the grandparents as well putting on a magnificent graduation ceremony on saturday and the same to the to joy as one of the parents from the middle school and jen um for the uh incredible uh step up ceremony for grade eight uh outside over at town hall it was uh just wonderful absolutely wonderful um i also have a kindergarten enrollment update we're keeping a very close eye on things our current what mrs diamond refers to it registered is 165 students and we had projected 171 so we're we're in a good place there um we don't know what will happen over the summer in terms of move-ins and move outs but we're keeping a close eye on that we'll continue to update the board uh as we go in terms of uh the covet update
079wanted to let everybody know that the dashboard was updated with no positive cases last week for the last time we won't do it over the summer but i wanted everybody to know that that's there and if there's a need to continue the dashboard and put that data out there in the fall obviously we'll we'll continue that in terms of summer planning and thinking about the the fall opening plan and mitigation um i actually had in my notes here i want to make sure we're very crystal clear the opening uh draft very clearly stated that it was a draft open plan was based on the current june 2021 guidelines that have not changed in all the discussion tonight about the mask wearing we continue to have the universal mask policy that came from the state department
080of education in may that said we will continue that for the remainder of the year as well as for the governor's executive order so that is all in place in addition to that in working with dr sullivan he reminded us today that when the children are not in the building um and we can either we know we're vaccinated or we can keep our distance we don't have to wear a mask in a school building but through july 19th the executive order is in place and when children are in school buildings everyone is to be masked he just sent me that email today so i wanted everybody to know that um it is my sincerest hope that we can get to a point where we are not wearing masks we've talked already about a enormous number
081of our faculty and staff being vaccinated so that's a great thing we've uh partnered with the danbury health clinic with our brookfield health clinic for our 12 year olds and above to have opportunities for those children to be vaccinated so we are working like the dickens to make sure this happens um um just a quick comment on i think it was stated that two districts um have said that masks will be optional i only know of one the one district that i know of i know the superintendent well he actually said that masks will be optional in that particular district and then if you followed it it said unless mandated by the state department of education so so we we need to be careful and not rush to judgment on who's the hero and who's
082a villain we need to be thinking about that there are a lot of things that i know myself and our western connecticut superintendents group has been advocating for reducing the quarantine time we were successful in that also pushing dph who hasn't seemed to want to listen to us about quarantine and the fact the facts i've talked to a number of you individually and i've talked to several of the parents that spoke tonight about the quarantine results of all the students over a thousand students as of march that we quarantined when we sent the data to the department of public health just in our district we tallied it around the region there was we could prove that maybe two students had a transmission possible in our schools so of all the students that were supposedly exposed
083and we quarantined we don't have any proof that any of them actually contracted code so quarantine contact tracing mask wearing um in in social distancing and transportation how everything is connected in terms of decisions that need to be made isolation rooms the way we uh monitor and have our lunches all of those different pieces the sharing of equipment all those things that were talked about tonight um we we really are looking to get back to as close to normal as possible um the department of public health it's a weekly meeting with school nurses and superintendents uh there was one held it's every tuesday um and so yesterday there was a meeting mrs laforge our nurse coordinator attended it and they reiterated which is what they said last week the the state department of ed in
084concert with dph will not be giving updates on what the guidance will look like for fall in connecticut for schools until mid july and so we are working with caps we are doing everything we can to push them to move that up it's very frustrating for us because we want to get working on our plans but without that guidance everything is just a guess and we need to have that guidance it's very important so i just want everybody to know that it's critically important we are advocating for the students and there are many points that the parents may that we understand we as administrators and as the board have children ourselves in the schools and are going through we all went through a difficult year so we want to get to the other side of
085this as fast as possible as well and i really think this is probably in my six years the best board meeting we had because of all the parent support we have so we know we have parents out there they're advocating for their kids they're passionate and they're supporting us to do the right thing as they said but to do the best we can with that so we i will continue to push and we'll continue to advocate and get this plan out there in its next iteration as soon as possible but we need that guidance um and so that's what we're waiting on um we're waiting with baited breath frankly so that's the piece on cobot i wanted to share i wanted to stop there for a second is there any questions before we move on
086sure bob please so do we have a point of view as an administration on masks or are you just waiting for guidance we we have a review from dr sullivan we have a point of view from the guidance from the state department of education asking about the state i'm asking about you i'm asking about you your staff and dr sullivan yeah well i can't speak for my staff personally but what i will tell you is if we have the option to not have to wear masks i do not want to have our staff and our students wearing masks however if there is a mandate for those who aren't vaccinated or can't prove they're vaccinated i mean i could imagine the state making some decisions like that so i just don't know at this point but
087i do not want to see us having to wear masks if it's not necessary we will have to wait for the guidance on that and and certainly our local public health will have a big part in that but again mid-july is where we'll wait for it um so the reason i ask that question sure is an advocacy question right it's um as a as a district and as a board what the what i heard mostly from the parents is stand up and advocate yes right and when i heard you and your report sayings we're sitting down and waiting right we're waiting for guidance from up on high i think we need to advocate i mean it's just and i don't know what our opinion is as a board but i think it's time for us
088to take a position and go tell the state board what we think right and if uh i'd like to have that discussion as a board i really would like to have that discussion and get everybody's opinion out on the table get your opinion uh you get any staff that's here's opinion and decide are we gonna advocate right i mean if the answer is we're going to advocate let's go advocate hard right as a as a as a district we ought to do it from the administration we ought to do it from the board um we might want to do it from the town so so that was kind of my first question um when they said the second question i have is when they said that they were going to update the guidance i mean
089part of the issue we had tonight is timing right the state is being too slow in giving updated guidance in your interaction with the state members are they do you sense that they want to raise lift the mass guidance um and are just not there yet or do you sense that they really want to hold to the mass guidance i don't have a sense either way on that bob to be honest with you i know the one thing that they talked about on the dph call is that they do not new york made a decision i guess a couple of weeks ago and they uh and maybe joy could speak to this as an educator in new york um that they took away the mask mandate in schools and then had to put it back
090in place and so what we we don't want to do and that's that's one thing again i want to make sure people understand um we're not going to rush to make decisions we're going to be thoughtful in our decisions and i you know agree with you we can certainly take a stance and go advocate we did that on quarantine and we were able to get some decisions from 14 down to 10 and seven days so that was you know we tried and we continue to try on that quarantine protocol but they do not want to make a mistake and put guidance out and then have to pull it back and change it so that's why they're waiting a little bit it's my understanding yeah the problem is their waiting is um going to put us
091in a position where we're coming up on the opening of school before they go ill-informed waiting right right you can tell them i told them that i told you that we're saying all these things the uh um i mean so i'm sorry i think i think i agree with you i think there's as a parent i would love for my daughter to not go to school wearing a mask i do see that this the state seems to be dragging their feet on this like everything else they did when coveted first happened and they put the burden on administration and boards of ed and that's the only part that i i really have an issue with um is that they're doing that again and so now we're getting pressure from you know from parents rightfully so
092i get it but at the same time you know we're not public health officials correct like i don't i don't know if that's a call we're qualified to make so we're sort of stuck in this rock and a hard place but yeah but that said i i'd be i as a board member would go buck the system yeah there's valid points for sure that really would the system but i would want to do it in a very informed way right right i certainly wouldn't want to do it without you know dr sullivan here giving us direct input for example but if the state's not going to make a decision and we ought to advocate for the state to make the decision then was all good right we can all line up behind it and that's
093all good but if the state's not i want to use our july meeting to make a decision on our own even in the state what's uh dr sullivan's point of view on this as you know there's been some difficulty with uh communication in dr sullivan's situation right um so we haven't had a direct discussion about that at this point yeah and he'd be willing i guess dr sullivan you know reverts back to the executive orders and and again waiting for dph guidance and things like that okay all right i just uh i you know there's a point where you sense all of the momentum is going there but our friends in the state are making a decision right right and and it frustrates our parents but it frustrates me as a board member yeah you
094know we're we're it it feels like we're going to end up there right but the angst level is going to be exciting and why wait another month right if we have a set if we have a sense at the state where we're going to go why wait another month to let everybody know so this is a process thing from my perspective it's the decision needs to be well informed no matter what i sense that i sense the masks are not going to be there in the in the fall by the time we're done um i just we got to push the decision process and i the only thing i can say is people aren't there in my office or on the phone or on the zoom meetings or anywhere else when i'm pushing and there's
095a extreme level of frustration uh at the pace in which things are moving so it's not an agenda item but it's could we agree as a board to write a letter of advocacy to make a decision fast right as a as a board again update the guidance because and and maybe i mean if we're all willing advocate for a lifting of the mass mandate i mean um and but it's about advocacy yeah hey you know so and uh and if it were all okay and i'm seeing a lot of nodding heads how do you guys feel jen and debbie down there i haven't seen your heads nod i'm not trying to dictate the answer just so yeah i'm just trying to say make a decision i'm in favor of making a decision quickly i don't
096feel like i'm in a position right now to say that the mask mandate should be lifted i think again i think we need guidance from dr sullivan and the department of health so yes i agree we should make a decision but you know we still have a large population of kids under 12 who are not eligible for a vaccine so i'm not ready to say lift the mask mandate as you see i'm still wearing a mask but yeah a decision one way or the other is important and and just so you know in i know doc sullivan said in school buildings when no children are present you could wear a mask the direction from the town was at least for public buildings and including the library is masks are still required really so the town
097is giving different guidance than the guidance to the district we are wearing masks all day 100 at the library because we serve a large population of kids who are not vaccinated well there's another point of advocacy we ought to be consistent with how we're doing it now the point of serving the public in in a uh it's like being in a store right you see the clerks in stores still wearing masks but the customers are not right so i think it's a little different than that's meaning right but we ought to have clarity from our health director well you said only when there's no children around right that was important correct yeah mike i think you wanted to ask a question yeah i got a couple questions bob i want to echo everything you said
098i i totally agree i think we should uh advocate we should i think there should be a discussion among this board and hopefully we can come to some some sort of a group decision on what that letter should say but i do have a lot of pubmed british journal medical information on mask wearing especially when it comes to cloth masks it's not good it's not good uh it doesn't really protect you much so i would like to make some of that research data part of that letter if you guys want to discuss that on it i've shared this with doc sullivan that we got in bed but uh just just as far as we want to stay consistent has been lacking consistently there's a lot of parents here today uh i learned a lot uh
099you know we kind of see the sunny side of you know what we accomplished but man that was there's some dark stuff mentioned today and uh yeah i think that's i think that needs to be discussed on some of the the health impacts on these children uh john more specifically so s so old line and southernington were mentioned as saying they're not going to do masks or make them optional i forgot the exact word yeah yeah you said you mentioned you had one um no i know that if you go get some mandates that's a funding thing uh dude no liability as well right so do you you don't think you said you knew one did the state reach out to him yet say hey no because is it okay no because the statement is
100being misconstrued the statement was we're not going to have mass next year unless it was qualified unless it's mandated by the state department of education so the first half of the statement was taken and and now that is being used as this rogue superintendent who's the greatest thing since sliced bread to those who don't want to wear masks has there been a reaction um i have no idea what i do know is that the superintendent finished the statement by saying unless mandated by the state department of education so it's the exact same thing we are saying here in the other 167 superintendents are waiting for in terms of right these two superintendents that have made apparently made these statements i know one i know one for sure i don't know the other one it's an
101interesting way to put it i mean it's like you advocate without the advocacy exactly so so that that's the thing i mean i'm trying to be straight honest and and uh not not play with words with people and be as candid as possible and i think i've been that way for 15 straight months about this so we can't have a statement like that correct i think that's a position not to a statement we want to avoid you know what i just found the because new york state was mentioned i just want to kind of get specific so this was yesterday the governor stated covet 19 restrictions including mass wearing are no longer required as new york state now has 70 percent of individuals vaccinated however our schools have not received an executive order or guidance
102from the new york state department of health permitting any changes in schools right now so um mass we're still mandated in new york state schools so just to clarify that yeah there is a lot of misinformation and and word misconstrueing going around for sure yes doctor i want to go back doc you're going to need a microphone sorry i just want to go back to what bob said because i think that that was that's a really important point that we don't want to lose when he was talking about advocacy he wants once he's like you i don't i didn't write it down bob but you said something like doing the research and having all the facts and i think that that's really what's important when we advocate for anything that we have as you said
103all the facts behind us because all these people were very well meaning and very passionate but when people throw out statistics and research and you know we we really where is it coming from because just like the statement that you talked about mike um that was made up here it wasn't the the full statement and i think that you know it's very easy and it's not it's it's well-meaning but cherry-picking facts and data is is very dangerous and so no matter what was presented here orally if we don't have the documentation and know where that data those data are coming from are they coming from some online article are they coming from recollection of something that somebody heard you know on television where is it coming from so i agree with you wholeheartedly yeah but
104you know i'm just going to react we've been done a good job in this district of staying aligned with the state right the state last year drove us crazy on how slow they were in giving out guidance right and we managed our way through that we'll manage our way through this one as well it's a question of how we push this right in my mind and how to push it in a way that because they have more resources than we do right what we have is knowledge of what's going on in brookfield right so and none of this board has had a chance to talk to the um the health director and i'd like that to suggest that we put that on the agenda for our next meeting just hear from them hear what his
105recommendations to us are and in the meantime we draft a letter that's focused not on a bunch of facts and figures but on speed right uh and urge the state to act fast right because it's putting all of the districts in a very difficult point they have a lot of they have a lot of depth of resource and that's what i just want to build on what dr ruby said is they have a lot of information they have a lot of facts that's what they do for a living right and it's and and they give us a good umbrella but we've got to push right and uh and like i said i think it's going to get there eventually i just think it's we are maybe not the most equipped to make that decision but
106we can advocate for the decision and and if new york state does remove the mass made they i'm sure connecticut and the neighboring districts will as well so it's a little bit of who's going to do it first well it may be that they're talking to each other and doing it in coordination with one another that's what happened last year because there's a lot of coordination so it's it may be that there's stuff that none of the people here or us are really aware of and the way the discussions are going and that's okay that's their job we know what our job is right but man yeah i mean they should have made that decision already right else for us to be able to communicate well with parents and you're going to get to late
107july and if they're not going to make a decision until mid-july and you're going to have parents already making decisions about what's going to happen to their children less than a month later right and and that to me that's irresponsible of the state to leave us hanging that wall the one thing that gives me that i can hearken to last summer to give us a little uh optimism with the process and perhaps the speed is we were told we would get the guidance for what the 2020 fall opening plan needed to look like um we were told we would get it july 7th after the holiday weekend we actually got it the second or the third it was before the holiday weekend so while you know this is also i mean there's bureaucracy there's politics
108there's diplomacy there's all kinds of things that go on that we might not be aware of to your point bob um perhaps this is managing expectations right now and in a week or two we'll actually have this information doesn't mean we don't advocate or anything like they're not making a decision based on any politics i hope it's all health based no of course but right dissemination of information timing well at our next meeting joy and i will both not be here so it'll only be five board members that's a quorum though right yeah okay um let's let's schedule uh dr sullivan see if i can get dr and um if you guys are okay i'll take a first draft of an advocacy letter would that be okay with everybody and uh and we'll have to
109figure out how we can review that and send it but i think we need to within days go to the go to the state and tell them this is creating a emotional roller coaster for our residents in town because that's what it is okay thank you okay sorry good thank you i didn't want to do raila your republic no no i still have a little bit to go in the superintendent report with any other questions specifically on on the topic of covet and certainly public comment this evening so there's another piece that has to do with medical it's actually at the bottom of the report before we i want to turn it over to dr ruby on summer school update is we're going to have a new medical advisor and we're actually really excited about
110this although we love dr davis and dr ferreira um they they dr davis and dr ferrell worked for nubonze nuvonz came to us the cfo came to me a couple of months ago to mr poston myself and then we tried to work with him because we enjoyed both doctors so much and they they've been so dedicated to us and they instead of charging us the eight thousand dollar fee that we've been charged for the last several years that we had in our budget they upped it to fifty thousand dollars and so um that just isn't something we can work with and we tried to work with the cfo who wasn't as flexible as we had hoped for so we decided it was time to part ways and look for another medical advisor and we're fortunate
111enough we are um we've worked out an agreement with dr garcia from brookfield pediatrics and he will be starting with us as of july 1. uh in both dr davis i haven't had a chance to actually talk to dr ferreira but in talking with dr davis she was sad to not be working with us loved working with us as we love working with her um and just so everybody knows it's very important and this this is the the back side of administration that people don't always see with these things um mr post and i were told by the cfo of nouvents that it was the doctors that were requesting more money and certainly when i expressed that to dr davis she didn't even know anything about this so that wasn't what was going on but
112we certainly can't go from eight thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars for those services especially when we likely will not need the services to anywhere near the level of what we did this past year so we're excited and and uh if the opportunity comes for july um and we can get dr sullivan perhaps we could have dr garcia not only to be introduced but to weigh in on masks and things like that that would be great to have them so i have only one more piece but i'll save that for after dr ruby uh talks about summer school gives us enough sounds thanks dr ruby so we're busily working on summer school and we currently we we did some changing of location due to the number of classrooms and the the building and whatnot that's
113going on in the district so the k through four will be at ces and the uh five through eight will be at wiscons we're also i think you might recall trying to work with the park and rec with their programs because you know we're just really kind of cramped this summer with everything that's going on so we have a site director at each of the schools we are fortunate that the special ed summer program is also at those schools so we're able to piggyback on the nursing because as many of you know there's a nursing requirement for summer school so we don't have to duplicate those services because we have the nursing services paid for through the special education funding for esy and so what we have is the the students have been invited we've
114been inviting students on a rotating basis we didn't have as difficult a time hiring teachers as we anticipated so we have eight teachers for the lower grades and we have six teachers for the upper grades and we want to keep the classes quite small so that the students can get the individualized instruction from a certified teacher so in thinking about how we you know engage the children and uh you know keep keep their um like really a sense of joy up we hired the future teachers of america club students and national honor society peer helpers i don't know if that's the right term but peer counselor people these kids are really energetic really interested in tutoring of course the future teachers of america club members want to be teachers so we have hired them to
115work in the program and we'll have i'll call them both teachers two teachers two at the elementary to about 12 students so that's a six to one ratio which is i think quite impressive and we have pd for the the people who are participating as educators in uh late june and what will happen in the k through six there's a difference between what we're doing with k through six and seven and eight for reasons that relate to the involvement of the kids and a lot of other things during the summer k-6 will be having their individualized instruction that's based on their their documented needs and their srbi plans and other data but they're also going to be engaged in a hands-on stem curriculum that we we researched a bunch of different companies that you know
116provide opportunities for in a curriculum that are that address science math art technology speech and language reading and writing all into an engaging format and we got from the national inventors hall of fame which has been producing summer and after school programming for since the mid-80s so they're very successful and it's national as they found out in talking to the company once we decided to use them they actually ran a camp in brookfield before john and i got here one summer and they had contacted me because i ended up talking to the same person to see if we wanted to keep it up but we had something else going on that summer so these just to give you an idea of the how engaging this is for the younger kids there are going to be
117three modules and one is called castles catapults and coats of arm flight site and sos endangered earth and the one of the great things about this company is that they've been doing it for so long and they have it so down packed that you there's nothing i'm breaking something here there's nothing that needs to be purchased in addition to these kits they come all inclusive all the guides for the folks that are working they said it can be used in a camp so it can be done by camp counselors who have no educational experience and but if you have certified teachers and um other people it's like a piece of cake the way it's put together they prepared the pd with me so that's we're going to be using for the teeth with the teachers
118four dean is very excited about he picked out the titles for the middle school his favorite is phys ed physics and motion so that's like really a full body workout um trash island and boulder builders so give me some good stuff you have to wear a mask but if you come by i think you're going to see some really exciting things and those are going to be from 9 to 12 for those children now for seventh and eighth graders these kids are if you have seventh eighth graders or no seventh and eighth years they have a lot of stuff going on in the summer so in order to get the intervention in their sessions are not going to be three hours they're going to be an hour and a half so and they they're getting
119their times and they're coming in from 9 to 10 30 and 10 30 to 12. so that's where we're at we're still it's harder to get the middle school kids enrolled than it is to get the elementary school kids we're at 96 kids so that's the you know the the 12 students per group and the other thing that we have at each program because i think i explained to you about the title iii grant for supporting owls at each site we have a certified tesol teacher who will not have a class but we'll be going in because we're you know mixing mixing all the children together we'll be going into all the classes to support the teachers and the students um that need tesol support so that's what i have to share with you so
120it's 96 kids total yeah right in the k-4 in the k-4 and there's 50-something so far they're still trying to recruit kids right right it's challenging right how many were we expecting how many were invited i don't have that number for you but way more than the people that we got right yeah yeah okay way more um because we did it but i don't really want to go into you know because i think we have to be sensitive to that but it's way more than the number that we got um and then we had to cut it at the 96 because of the number of teachers the number of the amount of space that we have and the funding that we have so we're really looking to be very hands-on with the people who are
121working in the program so that this can be successful and then we can evaluate the program and think about where does the district want to go in the future so now enrollment's closed right you've hit you're i'm sorry so now like enrollment is closed for that no they're actually still they're still still they're still recruiting middle school where the elementary school the element the elementary grades were maxed out i think we had more of a demand than we had spaces yeah which is um it's both unfortunate and a good problem to have for future planning so any other questions all right stay tuned thank you maureen thanks thank you and then just the last piece um rose and i have been talking a little bit we um and i believe she's maybe put some feelers
122out to the board on dates when people are available um so our regular board meeting next board meeting is july 21st um we put a date uh and a time of uh tentatively right now we'll continue to plan at five pm to do a special meeting board retreat um and at that meeting um we thought the beginning part of it would uh be good to talk about next steps and process with the and an update with the equity and inclusion committee uh and also revisiting the objectives to ensure that uh the subcommittee has the direction it needs going forward so we look forward to that and then the other part of that um actually dr ruby and i are meeting next week with mr costa who's worked on our strategic planning process over the years
123done a really nice job for us from ed advance we're going to meet with mr costa and start planning out the process one of the things and i won't belabor it tonight since we've gone longer than i think any of us anticipated um with strategic planning what's i think what's exciting is you know uh 18 months ago in november and december of 2019 we worked on our portrait of the graduate but we we didn't we talked about updating and kind of renewing the strategic plan but we're in a different place 18 months later and i think it's similar to what we did before but i think different um we really need to have an inclusive process where we take our time and we bring the entire community in uh through different tools and processes um
124and and have a committee for the strategic planning process of not only board members administrators and teachers but our stakeholders like we did five years ago because we really do need to start planning and take our time with that plan and develop uh and embellish what that portfolio will grad of the graduate really means all the way back down to pre-k um inclusive of even the operational side of things for the next not only five years but we need to start thinking 10 years out and what that's going to look like so i could tell you the ad council is chomping at the bet they're getting excited about this we want to get to those aspirational goals and move forward you know after surviving what we've all survived and we heard it tonight you know
125we're all tired of this and we want to move forward on really moving things forward and planning and talking about it and getting people together and unified in one direction so that that's i'm really excited about that um and that's that's all i have for um the uh the report so thank you everybody and it was a long one tonight thank you all right uh subcommittee reports first one is facilities okay the facilities committee met on june 2nd for school dude reports we didn't have any formal reports as mr caldwell was on vacation but he filled this in that all the recent building issues were routine seasonal issues with air conditioning that are common this time of year wms water we have spoken to corrosion control a first draft is done and was sent to
126the state for review the following monday we expect the state to approve or suggest revisions and we'll take it from there we have one year from the date of the consent order good news on custodian staffing we had three current openings and we have an upcoming retirement we had four excellent applicants with great references and all those positions are filled for capital projects not as good news the bid opening went out for the bhs locker room and we only received one bid the base bid to complete the work over the summer was 3.1 million and the alternate to work into the fall was 2.1 million which both are considerably over our budget we're working with tekton to go out to bid again we think the reason we only got one bid is because it's very
127late for a summer job that would need to begin so soon and also the documents that they have to review or over a thousand pages and they only had about two weeks to review it so we're working with them is there any more news on that the the girl mr dunn uh was working with mr and uh the purchasing agent and the um it went out for bid again okay um they're also working with a firm that mr dunn has experienced with uh called gordian to try to take a look at the specs and see what kind of uh costs to kind of double check against tech time and see what the the cost is the budget as you said it was over budget amy the budget approved for the project was based on the
128estimate from tecton which was 1.3 million so even the alternate at 2.1 or whatever it was was considerably over so um and certainly so late in the game we'll see what this bid brings um but i i don't know that contractors and supplies and everything else are available for any work to really get going over the summer but we'll see okay um other capital projects the wms building management system we got a quote from johnson controls that came in under budget to upgrade that system a lot of improvements including new server software head engine computer many other needed improvements there and we'll have some security upgrades at center and huckleberry over the summer like additional cameras being installed at bhs the hvac upgrade design is done the construction docks are almost done upon doing some
129physical inspections we're finding that we need things that we didn't realize so we're also working to streamline the building systems and use the same company allerton at the high school that we'll be using for the new school and we're going to need to work with the town on that to approve that as a capital project the wms wall specifications have been delivered to the purchasing agent it should be a straightforward job we found the original plans and we're just matching existing conditions there's only one manufacturer of the box we need so this will take some time but it will go out to bid as a mason job and hopefully start late summer the beginning of the school and should take a few weeks to complete and lastly osha mr caldwell's responded to the findings from
130their second visit the two hazards being the dead mouse and the misuse of extension cords and power strips the following week mr post sent a memo to all personnel regarding the use of appliances that per osha and the fire marshal all personal appliances must be taken out of buildings at the end of the school year and not brought back and that they will work with building principles to be sure that staff has adequate access to district provided appliances and common areas and that's it okay any questions all right finance we had a very brief finance meeting just this past monday you may have noticed we put in those minutes kind of late but we thought it would be good to get it behind behind us the entirety of the meeting was spent discussing the may
131financial report which was all good news and i we had moved from having a projected variance against their budget of about 65 000 down to only about 50 000. so the drivers of that we found additional savings in transportation fuel and instructional supplies it was slightly offset by some special small special ed costs some substitutes and cleaning services but net net there's relatively small gifts and takes but it all worked in the district's favor and and he's continuing to manage toward year end to try and bring it in as close as we can to the original budget despite a million dollars of spending on cobit-related supplies so so all good news we had a brief update on special education but it was there's nothing dramatic in there with some small exposures and some small opportunities
132that he walked us through and we agreed that mrs wagonic will come to an upcoming meeting and give us a more thorough update so on on what's going on around special education costs and that was it it was about a 20 minute meeting okay any questions all right consent agenda i'll move that the board approved the items on the consent agenda which are resignations and the may financials check it okay uh all in favor all right that's unanimous uh we can move on to new business and the first is our athletics update thanks for waiting mr baldwin um good evening everybody um it's nice to see everybody here in person obviously we heard what was going on with the locker room but i just wanted to take a second to thank all of you for
133your hard work and getting this project moved forward i also want to thank our athletic kova team dr brill dr sullivan and dr davis for all their guidance of keeping our athletes safe during the pandemic we may be the only school in the state that never quarantined the team all year none of our athletes contracted covet during the season none of our teams had a quarantine several times during the school year or and we'd have to not play games against other schools because they were quarantined we never did um and you know i want to thank you know all of our coaches for making sure the kids were using hand sanitizers wiping the stuff down making sure the kids on the bus weren't eating had their masks on it did everything we were supposed to
134i mean we truly truly did a great job again i don't know of any other school that never quarantined anybody you know with the exception of us the falls winter seasons went went well unfortunately there was no football they did seven on seven competitions um the the fall and winter season did not have postseason only league playoffs and our hockey team won the scc swc championship the spring seasons all of our all of our teams qualified for the state tournaments and had outstanding seasons highlighted by olivia walters a freshman was state champion in the 400 meters for track that's quite an accomplishment for a freshman baseball won the swc regular season championship and boys lacrosse made it to the semifinals we overcame some serious busting issues there was days where i just didn't have any
135buses um we found some unique ways to get our kids to games whether it was coach buses or even limousines which were less expensive than the coach buses but we got our kids there brookfield once again this year was recognized as one of seven schools for the michael michaels cup award winners for having the best overall athletic program in the state this is due to a lot of hard work by our athletic advisory and we're excited to have boys volleyball gymnastics next year i meet with a person um in danbury about you renting their facilities and he's got a coach lined up for us hopefully i may meet with him on monday and just i'm tired to be honest it's been a long year i'm looking forward to a restful summer and you know hopefully
136go back to a normal school year like the parents said without masks but thank you guys for everything thanks for your leadership steve thanks steve anybody have any questions thank you thank you okay uh the next item is the bef update and uh kristen joshi is not here tonight so julie's going to give us that update yes so i'm reporting on behalf of kristin joshi from the bef brookfield education foundation um that supports school and community grants uh this was a slow year for receiving grant requests but they're hopeful that we'll get a lot more grant requests with some new and exciting programs so here's a brief review of the most recent grants this year the blood pressure self-monitoring the why created a virtual blood pressure self-monitoring program to reach those individuals who typically rely
137on in-person support from physicians senior centers et cetera at a time when they they're encouraged to stay home and stay safe the goal of the program is to support individuals with high blood pressure as they work towards making lifestyle changes to lower and or better manage their blood pressure the second grant was that plat 4m education fitness it was um spearheaded by jeremy kasich at bhs this request was for an online platform for education fitness features customizable lessons and units that include video tutorials and assessment tools for our high school students the pe department started using this tool immediately during the second semester of the school year in 2 21 the intent is to utilize it for years to come students download an app and are invited to a class where they can follow along
138with lessons that progressively take them through proper exercise form explain why it's important and how to progress to the next level students have the ability to use tools to track their progress not only in pe but in their extracurricular sports and personal fitness interests as well the results the program has worked really well at home for students along with personal fitness and other elective classes it also is useful for stations in pe class along with introductions to fitness yoga and mobility training so it's really exciting especially in our current past year bhs has a wellness room this is a newly funded grant it has a long-term goal of providing a space where students can connect with support staff for academic social emotional and career related services the room provides counselors and other support staff with
139the opportunity to meet with students parents in small or large groups the goal is to provide students with more opportunities persist to participate in self-care seminars have a safe space to connect with counselors in a more engaging welcoming and casual environment and the goals for students to feel safe and supported emotionally and then in turn this will enhance their ability to learn and find success academically as well so it was just approved on june 1st and will be implemented in the fall and they do want to take a moment to mention past grant past grants that have been awarded the 3d ppe for frontline workers and the mobile maker space at brookfield library they're both funded by the bef utilize equipment for their programs to create and provide pbe during the pandemic and the girl
140scout silver award no the hand sanitizer so that obviously was um they couldn't have anticipated any better prior the pandemic so they believe at this point the expense for the hand sanitizer refills have been built into the school budget and the library story walks debbie brooks thank you brookfield library this program continues to be used for different story books and has been a great way for the community members to learn with their children and be mobile mobile during the pandemic and they felt that it was really important especially this past year to honor the extraordinary educators so everyone has received the um chocolate that they gave in addition to um a gift card a dunkin donuts gift card to enjoy coffee or treat so they had over 300 nominees that received these items and they
141also provided each school all-star and tso with a box of chocolate bars also from bridger chocolate as a small token of their thanks they said as a board we want to recognize the stress and strain that the pandemic has created for our teachers staff administrators and town officials we'd like to thank all of you for your tireless efforts to guide our residents through this unprecedented time we recognize that how we educate has changed dramatically over the past year we also realize the need for social and emotional programs needed for our mental health at this time we'd love to be a part of helping with these obstacles we ask for any teachers curriculum specialists or administrators to please reach out for any assistance we can offer in guiding you through the grant process finally they want
142to extend their sincere gratitude to everyone who has made the programs refund reality from our generous donors to our grant champions that envisioned and brought these funded projects to life and they'd like to add the only way the bef will be doing fundraising this year is through donations on our website at www.brookfieldeducationfoundation.org our annual gala will return in fall 2022. that was gonna be my question thank you okay um item c is approval of field trips for the 2021-2022 school year i moved that the board approved the attached list of field trips for the 2021-2022 school year as recommended by bhs principal mark belanda second thank you any discussion on these all right so all in favor aye hi thanks that's unanimous item d is approval of field trips for the sports uh for sports
143for the 21 22 school year i will move that the board approved the attached list of sports field trips for the 2021-2022 school year as requested by athletic director steve baldwin second all in favor aye thanks that's unanimous as well it's a very good process now yeah you're into a routine all right um on to old business the only point is the candlewood elementary school candled lake there's uh yeah we forgot the world we got the word lake there handled lake elementary school building project um so the nbc had a meeting last night um if you took a walk or if you took a drive over there um you'll see the tall walls going up that's area a what they call and they kind of they're gonna start moving from that right side of the
144areas you're looking at the building over to the left um so the stuff that's on the way left of the building hasn't even doesn't like they're still excavating footings and putting in the foundation and things like that so um it's going to sort of like just follow along as the tall walls go up they're going to start to move on to the foundation and and so on and so forth until the building is totally complete but they have a really good process going they were saying the contractors are working really well together the only potential thing that they're going to be keeping an eye on is the supply chain issue um the steel which is sort of the next big step is there and they don't seem to have a problem with that but they're
145potentially looking at roadblocks in aluminum which is what's going to completely enclose the building and that needs to be done with windows and stuff before they can do anything on the inside so um that's something that's potentially coming down the road as as maybe a little bit of a challenge um but otherwise there's um no other major updates with that it seems moving along really well and definitely go take a look at it if you haven't already because it's pretty oh my god definitely it's amazing take a look at it it's amazing and you don't i went last night and you don't have the sense of the size of the school unless you're physically there yeah and i still i stood outside the the the fence and i'm looking and i'm saying wait a minute
146that's just one little wing one yeah it's a yeah it's a monster yeah big facade and the now that i got the magnitude in my head you realize how big the the there's kind of a building in the front and then another building in the back and you realize that's the classroom wing in the back and it's uh when that thing is built it's going to be a big facility so and you'll probably notice also that some of the construction fencing had been moved so just in case you're wondering that's for the sanitary lines that are starting to put in um so they had to just shift some things around so that they can still get construction vehicles in and parking and stuff so the one question i had looking at it is i thought
147the stream that they were uncovering was actually was kind of in the sports fields oh no yeah but it's it must go under the parking lot uh yeah so it's actually a lot further forward more forward yeah yeah it's a lot more forward and i think [Music] um in terms of the scale about to your point the building is much more front but you're closer to the playground parking lot in the back than people thought yeah i mean yeah when you actually look at that and then obviously once the the huckleberry isn't there anymore and things are reconfigured you'll see how the driveways work the other question i have is what are they going to do with all that dirt there's a lot of dirt on this knuckleberry building yeah we'll make a dirt bike
148park or something yeah yeah right all right that was it was there any questions on that all right uh so we are on to three main points um i was thinking first we should probably talk about the covid discussion and yeah mask issue and our discussion that followed about advocacy to the state um i thought dr ruby's summer school update would be good to include and then maybe the athletics update from steve baldwin sure i like it yeah the befriends too yeah that was important um what do you guys think it has asked me three three four four main points since it's the last meeting of the year so and it sounds like they're struggling to get people to uh yeah to pitch you know to apply so maybe promoting it would yeah maybe that's
149a good idea you know yeah and i think they're important i feel like the athletic we got a lot i've already i saw it a lot on facebook already about attraction that's true i'm a huge fan of olivia walters for the record she's my neighbor oh cool i need to start working out with olivia yeah having ran that 400 in high school i know how difficult it is that's amazing what she's accomplished as a freshman all right so we'll do the bef then yep yep okay all right uh upcoming events okay just a couple um at center school the sweet dream story times with mrs diamond will begin next thursday the 24th at wisconsin restaurant week fundraiser ongoing right now through sunday these businesses are going to give back a portion to the wms pto
150so tomorrow is jj stacks friday hibachi king saturday manja manga sunday agora and also each of those days is the red colony diner and at the high school yearbooks have arrived the class of 2021 can pick up june 17th 18th and the 21st between 7 30 and 2 30 in the main office and underclassmen can pick up um beginning july june 22nd between 7 30 and 2 30 also in the main office and the office is closed on july 5th amy i had one other thing i just uh found out before the meeting that the colleges that our graduates will be attending uh we always have that post that it was posted today it's on the high school website all right so is there anything else okay so then without objection this meeting is adjourned
151thanks everyone thank you why [Music] northeastern [Music] you