Board of Education Meeting 4-1-20

001okay go ahead okay so good evening everyone I'm going to call the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order if everyone could please stand where they are 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 okay so we do have all of our members present on Paul so we can actually move on to our first agenda item which is a presentation from Tecton regarding the EHS boys locker room Tecton with us for the presentation he's about to present to all of you regarding the BHS locker room very comprehensive very clear I'm hoping that you know after conclusion of the presentation you know you can give us any questions that you have and we're hoping

002that the slides over there very clear and it's he did a really great job and you know I want to thank Eddie in advance it's enough for all thank you so just as a piece of housekeeping when we ran through this before he 6 o'clock meeting it seemed like there was a delay like when I would advance my slide it took a few seconds before it showed up on your end so if you see me talking about something that doesn't quite matched what's on the screen hopefully just give it a couple seconds and it'll get there everybody hopefully can see the presentation white screen with text on it right now and great all right so we'll first start off just kind of talk a little bit about because it's in conditions so a few pictures

003of a few of the rooms at the existing high school it's a lot of full station that hasn't been cleaned for a while you can see there are chemicals presents they've been busted to be removed it's the repeatedly over the last few years currently there is no physical sub to the home and visitor lock balloons or as they're used during the day the lock broom in the team room there's a request to replace the door repeatedly and hasn't happens right now the spaces are continuous on the hallway existing lockers are in pretty tough physical condition they're all dirty and busted and a lot of them are not functional anymore in terms of boards and operating hardware there's a couple of spaces that are not used there's some non-working showers that have been converted into storage

004rooms there's one bathroom that's been boarded up and instead of being fixed it's just inaccessible am i doing okay in terms of images matching up with what I'm talking about in terms of where there are athletic events that take place outdoors there's no bathrooms available from the buildings though there are one of the bathrooms and have to be brought in and we typically out in this area of building what do the doors get to them and as mentioned before there's just a number of spaces that are really not being used to their fullest and best potential so there are some spaces that could be taken over and converted it was targeted as a possible expansion to the weight room which you'll see in a little bit further detail as we go forward so show you

005we basically met with primarily with Steve Baldwin to develop the program of spaces for the project and this was existing conditions basically everything as it is right now the gray areas are existing walls that would be kept the dashed lines represents items that would be removed so um no you you see me cursor at all when I bring it out probably not gonna work do well alright so we'll start off kind of at the the bottoms part of the plan you see the locker room up in the top the team room the team room really has some tough sight lines because there's lockers and to haves essentially with a shower room in the center there is one toilet room that you can get to from the outside but it's a little bit of an odd

006vestibule and the spaces there are not accessible and then what you see on the right side in the middle of the big open rectangle is the weight room and immediately adjacent to that are the areas that are essentially boarded up and not used that we think could be a nice expansion for the weight room so take you through the those plans what you see separation routine and locker room that's simply done by really putting a door on the existing frame that's there we've pretty much keeping the same configuration for the PE locker room but just all new lockers and benches throughout really kind of overhauling the team room getting the shower an all-new shower area off to one side and storage rooms on the other side so that there's proper sight lines and a wide-open

007team room where everybody can meet benches there so that you can have the entire team sitting at a meeting toilet rooms that would be accessible from the exterior so both men's and women's with girls however you want to say it but fully accessible toilet rooms that would be access from the outside the expansion's to the weight training so you see room for approximately 20 bikes and three treadmills to create a nice cardio area off of the weight training additional offices for coaches and staff inside the locker rooms and further compartment ation of the storage rooms and again every saying all the elements all the spaces would be made fully accessible so what we did here I'm not going to bore you by going through this but this is the detailed lineman and I'm the estimate

008that we put together for the project so every item you see different types of partitions different types and it is toilet partitions we ended everything up we used unit costs that we typically see that we've been seeing on our construction projects so good amount of detail here I'll pin you to the summary page we have anything you'd like to you the one are the three items that we did not do detailed a cost on our looming the mechanical and electrical numbers and the reason is that those really until you get fully developed drawings square-foot costs are really what's pretty common for those as a comparison the project we're doing for the new elementary school where well maybe two-thirds three-quarters of the way through design on that we're in the middle of a design development phase

009and we're still using square foot numbers for those costs because the detail is just not there yet all told if you take the entire project it's about 8,500 square feet a total construction cost of 1.3 million dollars is what we came up with it equates to about a hundred and fifty-five dollars a square foot we typically see on public school projects in the state that are considered a renovate as new we see those usually about 350 dollars a square foot so while this does seem like a pretty sizable price tag it's actually pretty reasonable if you look at it for what's being I'm basically taking advantage of the fact that we're not changing structure around we're not really ripping down an awful lot of walls we're not changing roof we're not doing new mechanical units

010for the most part other than plumbing it's all existing utilities it's really kind of more finishes and amenities inside so that's why it's it's coming in at a pretty reasonable cost so because the project still of wealth far above the 605,000 that had been appropriated or or approved for financing we looked at taking out five we call them alternative pieces that could be done if bidding conditions were favorable but basically saying if we took out certain scopes of work how much would that save so you see five areas here superimposed on the existing plan we also have them on the new plan if that helps but so the first area of was the big one in red needs to remove the expansion of the weight training you know to to not do the new cardio

011area and to not renovate the existing weight training two would be if we didn't do the area in yellow which is essentially an office and a shower room that would become an office in the toilet room it was just to take the shower out but since programmatically it wasn't terribly different we thought maybe that was a good one to target the exterior toilet rooms to the area you see at the top in orange and then the two storage areas in blue and green four and five is really all that was being done there was just kind of subdividing the spaces you said they probably could live as they currently are so and you see those five areas superimposed on the proposed plan and what that would eventually be giving up if we didn't do this

012spaces so similar to the main project this is a summary page but we get the same line-item takeoffs for this as we did for a full project so we figured out you know what seem unit costs as we did for the other estimate and for each of these if we totaled all five areas if we said not doing any of those total cost would be about six hundred and sixteen thousand so would knock the project down to seven hundred and six thousand which is nice but it's still not quite what was approved in the budget we looked at a couple of different options so this plan is showing all of the areas this is if we did everything we're considering the area in purple to be the base work that would be done no matter

013what so this is everything all in full budgets are the full estimate that I mentioned before the 1.3 million dollars and you'll see this approve the number six hundred and five thousand dollars shot and all options will go through so this would be a requirement of an additional seven hundred and almost seven hundred eighteen thousand dollars would be needed to do all of the work so we looked at again as we have talked about for the storage rooms being maybe not the most important thing so if we took that out that's a savings of about a hundred thousand dollars so this would require an additional six hundred and thirteen thousand dollars to do the work that you see here next priority we took out the the toilet and office that knocked it back almost another

014hundred thousand dollars getting down to where the betta is just over half a million five hundred and thirty two thousand to do the three scopes of work you see moving further we said that we understood that the toilet rooms to the exterior were really the priority so we said if what happens if he don't do weight training in the cardio and you can see that stuff belted now of 221,000 and then family if it was just a silly no matter what we didn't do any of the alternates it would still be about another hundred and one thousand that would be required so that is a presentation any questions I'll open it off man you can go back to any slides you like you anybody have any questions for Eddie or the committee I mean one

015of the most important things that we want to kind of gauge you know in addition to answer any questions that you had but what your feelings were far as you know financing this project what parts of it you know you deem as a priority what you would like to see go through for the project kind of the thoughts or conversations we didn't want it to focus on well I I would like to know where you know the committee stands as a sort of what you guys would feel is the best way I mean worried where are you guys generally sitting we we felt that if you can go back to option for any court we felt that the exterior toilet rooms are kind of non-negotiable that that was really an area of concern from safety

016we didn't feel that you know as a district that's that we should be in the position to have to only have exterior porta-johns have to go through that so we really felt like that was really non-negotiable for us yeah yeah so at the very least we felt that option were was was very those are our priority at least at the very least yeah I would agree with that I think you know that's long overdue is that everything really is but yeah I would loop that in as a sort of a non-negotiable where does everybody else stand with these plans any-any uh initial reactions I think sort of the obvious answer at least for me is we want it all you know it's it's all of it is long overdue I mean I can I it's

017very hard to prioritize any of it I feel like you could justify the need of everything all of it I mean our you know weight training area is very small you know we've got all the numbers and the statistics and the amount of activity that goes on in the weight training room and the locker room on a daily basis you know three days a year you know in the summer she's used all the time and there's just so many big volume of things and athletes that use it so a big chunk of the puzzle is the addition of the weight area and also Steve pointed out to me in our last meeting which I didn't really realize the weight training room and the cardio equipment is part of curriculum it's not just sort of a

018nice to have I was sort of looking at it initially months ago as sort of a luxury item you know thinking like well what why do we have to give these kids a you know up gym not gym like like the gym way play basketball but you know a workout space I mean you know if I think back to my high school we didn't have that but I didn't realize that it's part of the curriculum now so me you the malls I kind of II were you saying something joy I was just saying the PE class is using right lies on a daily basis yeah I think the only thing that we we sort of said well we could either wait and put it off was the exterior storage room the part that's you know

019that long rectangular piece that we said would be used like for parking of golf carts and some other equipment way over to the left side of the screen I think that to me I think that was the only one that we said well maybe we could find other storage place for that but even that was debatable I think so I have I have a question so on our honor capital improvement plan we have 110,000 that is supposedly for the 24 one-year that says design / construction of outdoor restrooms food service and storage was that is this sort of the outdoor restrooms part like maybe leave that some time I'm just trying to figure out where what sort of each one of those lines was supposed to okay that's a different project that was one that

020was going to be going out like between the fields which we didn't have restrooms store you know things then that hundred thousand dollars was free design money and that's been deferred year after year after year I think it was on the plan before I even started working here we so we would want to have in addition to this an additional set of outdoor restrooms yes I believe so okay I mean because I think like this project is very it's it's so incredibly important but I don't see I I don't know what else we can sort of and I think the other thing that's important to mention here and Ken please or joy correct me if I'm if I'm miss stating this but the six hundred thousand dollars that we're talking about that was originally put

021in as for this locker room project that has not even been approved yet right the $100,000 for the design which is what's being worked on by Tecton right now that was approved last year for the work going on right now hundred thousand is different fifty five thousand was approved last year for the design thank you Ken thank you for the correction on that and so the six hundred thousand worked that that 605,000 that Eddie was trying to get to that that funding has not even been approved yet in this budget cycles capital discussion with with the town folks our elected officials so you know or we don't even have the funds approved so there was also a mechanical kind of conversation with the Facilities Committee as to you know how we might increase that even

022though it's not on the efficiently adopted plan yet in that part that so I don't know joy if you wanted to expand on that a little bit part of that discussion so everybody's on the same page yeah so we talked about budget seasons do we you know if we start a scope of the work then it would really cost more for the project if we you know spread onto food you know to two different time frames so and we don't want to include you know more costs so we definitely have to you know discuss we want to discuss with the board all our different options and put a plan in moving forward to get this kind of ball get the ball moving rolling so we can propose it and bring it to the Board of

023Finance to in town okay and I think the Facilities Committee I mean it's pretty clear in terms of the realization for everybody to understand that the Facilities Committee is living in the real world and there's no way this project would be able to be worked on this summer I mean we're not talking about this summer even if the money was all approved I don't think we'd be able to get to it in terms of the timing right now so this is a next year project regardless is that correct right right so are you looking more for you know just just feedback in questions are you looking for you know just to sort of I mean it sounds like you're you would like to move forward with we definitely want to look for you know there

024were couple goals we wanted to make sure we got all the information out board and you know put forth any questions and answer any questions that you have or concerns we wanted to present you with all the options and but we definitely want to you know move forward with this and you know make some decisions that we can move forward and know where you guys as far as the other board members have as far as support with this and I I think you had mentioned before joy about if we had sort of piecemeal this and you know did everything that's here in the purple and in that orange which is you know those outdoor access toilets if does this cost more in the long run if we do it that way you know leaving the

025weight training in the cardio room for perhaps something know a year or two later of course we discussed that and talked with Eddie as well and I wouldn't you know crew more cost so that would a it's the project where's me you know wanted to look Wade but at the bare minimum we tried to at least use the positive Liberatore cause the project and then as for additional costs for what we felt was the non-negotiables as in option for seats just if I can comment on that if let's say you postponed you know work that works hey we did that you know the purple and the orange summer up play one or you know started at least then and and you did the Reds of a year later yes usually we're looking at on the

026average of an escalation about four percent you know you know that was forget exactly two hundred thousand dollars you know another four percent of that you probably pay a little bit more it might be as much as that's because you're there's some economy of scale obviously when you have contractor out and doing all at once as opposed to coming out you know two sets of mobilization and so the advantage of doing that at least is you know it's a separate room with two separate access if it was a case of you know say if it was that yellow area I wouldn't want to tell you to do that one separately because it's in the same room you really wouldn't want to come back to that multiple times but it is at least easier to do

027from a phasing standpoint though it obviously of course is more money I think as we consider this it's important for the the board members who are not part of the committee and the public to understand that and I know mister boland uh when he was part of these conversations kept coming back to this it's very important for everybody to realize facilities are a major part it's one major component of the the accreditation process and the locker room more than ten years ago was discussed as an issue and it was brought up as a significant need in our recent me ask accreditation so we need to address it and clearly the Facilities Committee is so we have to do something that's there's a no option there and in addition to that and while it's not critically

028important I think the optics of our community people are very sensitive I found in Brookfield looking at different ratings and how we compare to other communities and there's different ratings that people see that are in publications such as the neat ratings and things like that and many times facilities are a part of how people rank schools and share their opinion and that's how these different rankings come up and facilities again is a big part of that so if that matters to people in the community then it's just something I wanted to bring up as another note another component of thinking on this in terms of the overall big picture but the accreditation is very big for the high school and facilities it's an enormous part of that if a locker room was a specific recommendation

029to make a difference on Eddie do you have information on the alternate that has what you see here plus the weight training and cardio yep back a slide there we go maybe a second okay yes no that's if we were gonna do Hector 12 rooms MMA training party up in any from from that right there the 1.1 million dollars what's the difference if we had the rest of the project end I think um it's about two hundred thousand dollars two hundred thousand [Music] about a hundred between the two storage room areas they're roughly about 50 thousand each and then about another hundred for the toilet room and office gadget okay well I do agree with the committee's general opinion that you know the she alternate for I think it was called um you know with

030the what the exterior access toilets are sort of non-negotiable so do we have an idea how much it would cost to actually equip those rooms I mean we you said he had what 24 bikes was that one two three four yeah twenty buddy twenty bucks I mean that's you're not you're not approving that or if you know I think Steve said that he could probably get all that stuff donated didn't Steven mentioned that on there were a lot of grants that we could filed for and someone had brought up fundraising also and he said you know typically fundraising projects are more for the interior for that you know for the choreo seasoning like that you wouldn't really fundraise for the scope of the project fundraise for all those soft costs but I just want to

031mention again so we did a lot of work with you know Steve worked really hard to get all our data and answer our questions as far as the activity in there um he said that you know most teams are in their three to four times a week you know it's utilized every season an average team stays in there for two hours it's utilized 344 345 days that it's 365 it's utilized by all the PE classes during the day before it uses it and it's about on a daily basis is about 250 student to a day so and I know that our members of something that's Mike Debbie said to as part of the curriculum so it's definitely much-needed space and project that's afraid to pull just staging some quick comment like if I could you

032know I was you know I was like college athlete and you know we had we have really really good facilities and it does create excitement it does so there's I think there is an intangible like benefit to all of this that it you know you know you know state a yard or whatever you know a new weight room cardio room it does it does create creates a lot of buzz so I mean I don't actually know like to know what what Steve Dunn's a pain on all this his therapy you guys have reached out to him about all these different alternatives so I some information to the Board of Finance recently they requested it I know a big thing was initially they just heard the the project you know the number the final number and

033they you know had their opinions moving board with that but I mean you know we'd like to present the options yeah I think looks like you've done a lot of work and I think I do think they'd like to see that it's not just okay here's the number then hey alright let's look at the story behind the number I think I think you know we got you know we have to just do a really good job of telling them that I mean I was gonna go throw my two cents out there I mean yeah the the purple in the yellow yeah I think that has to be done so going yeah and that's like I know it's doubling the project but it does it's definitely an exciting project I think a lot of a lot

034of people would be happy to see something like this don't I do think it's important that we Wheatley be able to present them all of these options but it's it's important that we send sort of a unified message as a board as so what what we feel is is our non-negotiables and what we would prefer to see happen so and I I defer to the committee but it sounds like you know we pretty much are as a board in agreement right I mean in terms of one of those shovels on it so that we can tell the story and know that we have the sport or the full board exactly before we go out and give that information and I mean I'm sorry Rosa am i hearing that the full locker room the exterior access

035bathrooms and the weight room renovation are where the board is at in terms of what no I'm not hearing that in terms of the options I just want to make sure we're all together on the process tonight so just make sure I think I I myself agree with the committee that the the mean obviously the main lock area and the exterior access toilets are non-negotiable I would like to support actually the weight training in the cardio area as part of a plan that I would support I think beyond that it starts you know it's really start I mean it's it already is you know double what we had an initially thought but you know I think these are are sort of the really important parts yeah I don't know everybody out stands can you hear

036me okay yep very saw so the my view is we ought to take the whole project to the Board of Finance and ask for their assistance on figuring out how to finance it they're our partner as opposed to feeling like we're guilty I think we ought to just take it to them I agree with you Bob I mean that was my initial thought good Amy and Jen Debbie where do you guys stand you okay with that I'd like to see the whole project get done now do it do it right the first time and be done with it I agree I didn't realize I was muted I was trying to talk to him and I was wondering why no I'm listening to make sorry I apologize yes I think I agree with Bob we have

037to end the committee we have to say this is what we need and it's obvious that you look through multiple options you know and you really thought carefully about it and the CIM the members of the community for you know quite a few years now this is something that people were embarrassed about and that you know people have raised that this is a priority and this is something that's important so I support we had what three people show up for public comment two or three people showed up a few weeks ago yep South okay and you know I feel like when you when you look at I guess we're calling it option three at one point 1 million you know your spend your your spending over a million already and well I'm not I'm not

038at all trying to be frivolous with money I just feel like it's really not that much more than the 1.1 million to do the whole job right you know and and do everything that we need to do because I feel like we almost never get a chance to go back and you know do part two or or ask for more money and make more improvements after the fact so I agree with Bob I think we should just go in with the whole thing okay Joey is that helpful and kind of thinking about our next steps in preparing to work with the board financed that for Rosa and joy in terms of setting something up with them yeah that's that's very helpful I mean that that's great if everybody supports that you know that's what I

039truly felt from the beginning and I'm ready to paint that picture and you know you know push that forward as what we really feel that we want to do right thank you Thank You Eddie representing this yeah my pleasure thank you for having me thank you great have a good night everyone you too bye-bye so moving on with our agenda we have written correspondence okay Laura Orban wrote regarding the budget Ron Jaffe shared an article from the search Institute Kimberly Abreu Marisa LaFave Jennifer Ramos Marrero Elio Peto and Gina secara Watts wrote regarding reimbursement for the eighth grade Washington DC trip and Carrie Colombo wrote regarding school lunch pickups thank you up next we have approval of Board minutes so I'll make a motion that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended the

040regular meeting on March 18th 2020 thank you okay thank you joy any discussion on these so all those in favor please raise your hand usually for a couple minutes seconds and say aye I thank you motions unanimous next we have our superintendent's update okay thanks Rosa so I have a number of items that I'd like to talk about and frankly it feels like we all of us have probably lived the last six months in just the past two to three weeks with a response to go in 19 and I have to commend the community the board our administrative team has been amazing our teachers parents students we've all really come together and really done a heck of a job and so I just want to Chronicle a few things for everybody in my report tonight

041in the first one actually is mr. Baldwin and one of our students from our athletic advisory group at BHS Jamie high treatise worked at an idea to put a public service announcement together regarding kovin 19 and some of the things you could do to help yourself and help others and while it was a Brookfield high school idea and mr. Baldwin brought it to the CIA see we were going to put an entire video public service announcement together and then of course the CIA seal of the idea and wanted to get students from all of the league's to join in and so so we stepped back and had the students from the other leagues join in and there's this beautiful public service announcement I think Eric you have this queued up I'd love to show it

042for the public into the board and it's led off by BHS senior Jamie high a treatise so we can show that error yep I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and end up prep that right now for sharing okay hang on one second thank you everybody teens and we're asking for we the athletes of Connecticut are coming together to help flatten the curb of Cove in 19 and we're asking for your help we may be rivals on the field but now we must be nice and slow save lives we're all missing athletic events proms plays and more in school but now's the time for you to help us save lives please stay home unless it's an emergency can establish healthy ways to communicate with your friends and family from home best way to stay safe is

043to wash your hands with soap and water after being at a public place or washing your hands after you blow your nose sneeze or cough if soap and water are not readily available use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry by touching your eyes nose and mouth with unwashed hands do it to protect yourself and to protect your loved ones cover your mouth and nose with a tissue whenever you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow throw your used tissues in the trash clean and disinfect frequently touch surfaces daily this includes tables doorknobs light switches countertops handles desks phones keyboards toilets faucets and sinks we're all hoping to drive onto the field to experience the thrill

044of victory but the biggest victory we can achieve is to help flatten the curve we the athletes of Connecticut are taking the pledge to come together and to stay home to flatten the curve please join us Jamal our student athletes together we will persevere even though it's hard for now stay home and stay safe and when the time is right Connecticut will play again [Music] thank you Eric thanks for showing that and thanks to mr. Baldwin and Jamie and the entire BHS athletic advisory group for for having that idea and starting the storyboard that and get that together so really proud of them it's really wonderful yeah really is in addition to that speaking of our athletes and in some work I actually like to turn it over to dr. Ruby for a second she

045had the opportunity with mr. Baldwin to have some connection with students and have a real talk about feeling how they're connecting what they're missing and those kind of things and and maybe dr. Ruby if you could share a little bit about that review so one of the most important things that you can a source that you can get data from for improving anything is feedback and feedback has a very large effect size for making change so when we were thinking at the end of last week about how what we were doing was going and there were a bunch of changes that we were seeing we could make based on what other districts are doing I want not I was talking to Steve about this public service announcement they just saw and I said jeez you

046know let me know how things are going with you using video and audio with kids because we weren't doing that yet because I really would like to connect with kids and ask them because they're the consumers of what we're doing what's working and what isn't working and you all know Steve he's like you can give an idea and he just it's like he picks up the ball and runs with it literally so he he said I can get that together for you and then we were talking later the next day I think and I said you know Steve let's not make this hard you know and have multiple meetings maybe when you have your athletic visor e-meeting we can just ask those students before you get into the end of your meeting these simple questions

047and you know he's like yes let's do that so it was Steve myself and Carla's in oh and I think 25 students and Steve you know Steve brand the meeting he just said so what's what's good about you know what's good about distance learning and I'm gonna tell you it was it was really emotional to listen to those students because this was the first time that they had been like in a video and audio situation and they were so mature and impressive in how they spoke about what was positive they were very complimentary to their teachers even saying things like well you know some classes are too much work but you know those teachers you know they're just trying to do the best they can and you know there it was just it was impressive

048so then we asked them you know what Steve asked them actually what kind of advice would you give teachers for how to improve what what they've done and they gave us really poignant information that is going to be informing what we're going to be doing subsequent to that mr. Belinda met with some students Ernesto davia who is a Spanish teacher at the high school and he's the climate coordinator he did a survey mr. Renda spoke with students at whisk and ear we didn't go down we're working with the most people in the high school first you can't do everything at once but we we got the same information across both populations of students and across the different interviewing situations and surveys we got we got convergent information but what was most moving to me and

049really heartbreaking was as much as these students were when they were talking about you know how their classes are going and what was working and empathy for and compassion for what the teachers were going through as well they you know the teenagers they seemed well these guys they're seem so mature and then all of a sudden the little kid in them really came through where they started saying but I really miss school and and I miss my friends and I want to be in school and and then they said you know dr. Ruby mr. one who makes a decision when when will we know if we can go back to school and it was just it was horrible to hear them one of the things that they really what really came out of it which

050was something that we've been investigating because of the legalities of using a platform like zoom with children and some of the things that you've probably seen on the internet and in the news problems with zoom when you when your teachers aren't trained to use the controls that are built into zoom they said if we could have could we have a meeting like this for a class not every day because the teachers couldn't be online every day just zooming all day they just couldn't do it what like even once a week so we got a lot of valuable information and I know Steve if you're on the line if dr. will indulge us and let you let us say a little bit more about this because I think it's important are you there and you say

051anything or mr. Renda if you can talk about something about your experience because it's the same um like dr. Ruby said we myself mr. Bednarik and mrs. Ryan who's our student council adviser spoke with some of our student council students we did a zoom meeting like this virtual meeting and the kids were just so genuine they were so thankful they gave us some some good feedback and suggestions of what to do similar to what dr. Ruth was saying the thing that was really telling again was there I'm expressing how the social interaction is something that they really missed Missy and they're friends although they a one student said she's leaning on her friends to get through this which was really awesome still in the same point that I think that whole interacting throughout the day

052on a consistent basis for them is lost I mean they may talk for someone for you know a short period of time it's just not like sitting in the lunchroom with everybody around you they were also very thankful how flexible our teaching staff has been that made me feel really great I'm gonna share with our staff about flexible on assignments and just really understanding everyone's situation is a little bit different I that's something that we really as administrators have all been trying to talk staff about but again I think the biggest thing was they felt pretty empowered they had a voice we told them that we're gonna bring some of this back to our staff and see you know having the zoom meeting maybe once a week in all our office hours and things like

053that which I think would be how it would be helpful and I know that thank you very much mr. anda I know that mr. Baldwin is ready to say something Steve he's connecting to the idea and as we're waiting for Steve board members I appreciate you letting me take a little extra time with a superintendent report there's just a lot to report with this unprecedented situation we're in and I still have some more things I do want to share and I push it on so while we're waiting for Steve are you ready um Eric with that little clip yeah I can either do a clip here of them of the meeting or I'm I heard Steve just chime in so stay oh actually we just lost Eve so I will play a quick little clip

054of of how that zoom meeting wins the eventually lost power in in his town so he Wow what this electricity oh no oh yeah hey Erica oh here he comes back in you all right sorry sorry I was watching online and and I heard that you white guys wanted me to speak this really has been an incredible experience it's been very fun working with the administrators and all of our teachers and the the best thing that I experienced this week was getting in the athletic advisory with dr. Ruby and all the kids and the same to them it was really moving hearing them when they all got together they were so excited to see each other and share what they liked and actually helped us improve on what we can do better and also because

055I came in to another range so I stopped listening for a minute to turn my computer I don't know if doctor will be shared that yesterday there was for Brookfield students dr. Ruby and myself on with the Commissioner of Education Commissioner Cardona and they asked our kids what was going well and our kids did such a great job and there was probably 20 other kids from the state I'm with commissioner Cardona and asking and sharing what is going going well within our own school system and I act was actually a meeting today with Fairfield County physical education and health directors and we were doing very well as far as Fairfield County goes and what we're doing were actually there were a tremendous job and we're able to share everything that we're doing with other teachers

056and with other coordinators in Fairfield County so I just wanted to show that angst Eve and then one last thing if Eric if you're ready and we can just show a little bit of that and then we can hand it back over to dr. pearl so far why don't we just start with Jamie and everybody and we'll see how what do you think what are your thoughts how's it going buses this is whatever we want to share shame for me and I just like think figuring everything out was a little challenging especially cuz like some teachers kind of just posted like a lot of stuff at one time and it was like oh I don't know how to do it but I also like how you kind of can work like at your own pace

057as long as it's done by the due date so like I organize my work in a way so I have like the days I need free to like do other stuff so I kind of art yeah Julia well I've been it's not been that bad I've been just kind of getting all my work done in the morning and prioritizing that and then I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want if you split up all the work throughout like the eight days and be days it's pretty easy to get it all done listen until I call your name mute yourself so we don't get the feedback and I've got to be better for us to listen Sam what do you got for us hi mr. Baldwin he told me Clyde we're on

058Sam right now we're just talking about distance learning and how's it going for us right now okay so I should meet myself yes I'd say I'm only unmute yourself and Sam you got definitely listen to something else in the meeting Steven maybe his computer audio isn't put on yeah thoughts on email - yeah I kind of like distance learning because I get to slick it a little more but um I learned to never leave a bunch of work till the end because there is a time that's due and it could really like you can't leave a lot of work till the end and you have to really conquer it and just like divide all the work do it at the like an earlier time because there will be a time that is going to be

059due and you can't do it after for sure those who just join us for yourself on you until I call on you we're talking about distance learning so far some pluses some minuses are you guys interacting with your teachers so we move on to Anna I I had a rough start with distance learning I'm the artist because all of my teachers kind of just gave us a bunch of stuff and like like I had an 8 page like packet thing and I was do like the next day so some classes are a lot like heavier than others so that's like the stressful part but then like other classes are like like my English class like we had like the whole week to do our like intro to our project which was good yeah so that

060was just the beginning and you could see that they were really trying to learn how to work with zoom and I we don't have the time to look at the rest of the video but I can tell you that they got pretty proficient by the time we were ten more minutes into it so thank you for indulging us we're really proud of the kids we're proud of the teachers as well but we feel that getting the if whatever we're gonna do we're gonna do the best we can it's not going to be perfect but we're gonna continue to make changes and increases as we go along that are based on feedback from the consumers of what we're doing and then our next stage is going to after we meet together as an administrative team looking

061at the lower grades getting feedback from from parents because you know that's a whole different operation when you get to the lower grades and it's a much bigger adjustment but thank you for letting letting us share this with you thanks Maureen and thank you Steve parade for getting on with us and again thanks for for giving us that time it's really appreciated you can see how the kids are just doing so well and speaking of that you know there's a lot of good going on but truth be told the administrative team is exhausted our teachers are very it's been an adjustment for students and parents for sure so we're paying attention to that and to dr. Ruby's point feedback is really important that you know how do we structure lessons how do we structure assignments

062and what are things we can do to make this more fluid for all of us and so we're learning as we go and again we're in unprecedented time tonight I don't think I need to say that again tonight I'm a couple of other things I wanted to share in terms of things we're thinking about I know that for seniors especially but you know all of ours are spring events for kids whether it's our big music goals or our athletics programs or whatever it might be you know we're talking in the early stages right now not only at the state level and at the league level like Steve was starting to talk about but just in general in our district what my closure activities look like you know we don't know just yet I was on

063the phone as the board knows I'm on the phone and I'll be pleased with easy to the Commissioner or the governor in terms of our superintendent conference calls and the Commissioner shared with us yesterday that most likely by April 10th which is next week Good Friday did probably be a decision as to whether we're going to extend that April 20th come back to school extend that further and make that official extend it very far to the the end of the year we don't know that yet and they're really looking at data every single day and looking at steepness of the curve and and where we hit you know the the apex as it's been called as we've all been following so and they're listening the governor and the Commissioner are listening to the public health

064officials on that getting that advice so we are thinking about the end of the year I mean you think about your seniors you think about your juniors the big dances graduation ceremony all those kind of things very special and wanting to provide it appropriate closure to the year in these in this very challenging time that we face so we are thinking about those things I also want to address the fact that as a district and within inter within our collaboration that we have but our whole community we also understand email fatigue I think we're all in this group are going through there's a lot of emails flying around people trying to stay in touch with each other it's hard to keep in touch and so I mean it's hard to track your emails so I

065want to just share and send my best to the community because prior to my specifically numbered updates which now there are 10 updates prior to that I had three public health updates and so that's 13 specific formal communications for me in just two weeks time that have gone out to the kid to the entire community that's not that's a small amount compared to the communications from teachers communications with each other social media principals communicating to families and and then you can imagine in district between all the different employee groups and trying to communicate so there's a lot of electronic communication going on and we're appreciative of the fact that there is there is a fatigue with that and so as a district it's important to know for families out there that we're being mindful and

066while we want to communicate effectively and often we also don't want to burden people with with over communicated we wanted to be very specific and very purposeful let's see here I did want to mention today I absolutely was re-energized once again by our staff and our students at Center School Center school had a teacher and staff parade today thanks to mrs. diamond for organizing that and the police department for keeping us safe and all-star transportation it was planned for two hours and I participated in the first hour thinking it would be two hours and I understand it lasted about four hours it was unbelievable to see the families out there with the signs and waving and honking the horns and I had officer Ron toes behind me and his police cruiser he was playing all

067kinds of dance music and it was just a blast so I really I can't thank the bus company and the police department enough and certainly mrs. Larson one of our kindergarten teachers who was really big and getting things organized with mrs. time and then and of course our families mrs. diamond do you have anything to share about that this evening at all I just wanted to say again how much it was it was great for the community but it's great for the teachers as well so it's been a lot for everybody and seeing all the support and all the kids out there and the families and everyone being responsibly socially distant was great and it was it was really heartwarming and brought a lot of tears to our eyes so we're really grateful for everyone

068thank you and I know a number of the board members were out there cheering and watching and waving and holding signs and doing all kinds of things and it was so appreciated and then I just have a couple more things to go through I wanted to share in terms of community support there's been a lot of talk about personal protective equipment for our first responders and our doctors and our nurses and and all of our medical professionals we not only mrs. Richards our whiskey and your school nurse went to all the nurses office in the district after mr. Dunn asked me to see you know what we had for supplies to help out with our first responders here in town and she went around to all the nurses office office has gathered up the gallons

069and masks and gloves and we donated those to our first responders from the school and in addition to that misses being carry one of our science teachers at the high school went through the science department and did the same thing and so those those are extra supplies now for our first responders that were able to dominate in addition to that unfortunately the Red Cross canceled their blood drive that was scheduled for April 7th but we were able to have that scheduled as well and again working with the town officials really provide that space and so that will get it rescheduled I'm sure and then finally another piece is the food pantry we may depending on town halls usage and availability we may bring the food pantry materials to the high school and store them there

070so we're able to help those less fortunate and keep keep the food safe and dry and those kind of things so we'll say one last final piece that I wanted to share is for the whole community to know the track the the high school track is still open for people to walk on a lot of things have been closed but mr. Dunn has not made a decision with mr. with dr. Sullivan to close the track at this point so we just wanted to let people know that if you want to go for a walk or run the track still available and that's all I have for tonight and I'm happy to answer anybody's questions thank you hey John come piggyback only said about the track too to remind you that I'm still open and it's

071time for 11 o'clock at night the lights are on on the track right the lights though the push button they can push the button and go on I will based on your yesterday and that works until what I bought a night for those people might want to use the track so correct and that's all I have Rosa thank you thank you and thank you for being so communicative and her everybody's help during this whole thing it's it's really been a lot easier than then you might think you know all the help that teachers and administrators are providing is very helpful so thank you it's been great board support so thank familiar any other questions for dr. Brown okay so we can move on to the well we don't have any subcommittee reports there is nothing

072on our consent agenda so we can move on to new business okay I am making a motion that the board move that pursuant to Connecticut general statute section ten dash 151 the Brookfield Board of Education non-renew the teaching contract of the non-tenured teachers at the end of the 2019 2020 school year as recommended by the superintendent and further moves that the superintendent be directed to communicate this action of the board in writing to the non-tenured teachers and that the superintendent be authorized to respond on behalf of the board to any requests for a hearing if required by law or for other data which may be forthcoming from the teacher and/or his representative pursuant to applicable provisions of Connecticut general statute section ten dash 151 and that the superintendent be directed that any response to a

073request for a hearing if a hearing is required by law indicate that such hearing is to be before the board or at the board's discretion a subcommittee of the board packet Thank You Dwight okay so this just so that our new bullet metals are familiar this is a process that we have to go through every year and most towns have to go through every year because we don't have a budget approved for next year so we have to be able to provide that notice to those particular non-tenured teachers so of course in this particular year you know I hope that we can we can maybe not have to actually send out those formal notices but that will really all depend on on how our our town and school budget gets approved this year so does

074anybody have any questions on this or any comments Bob I think you're trying to talk but I think you're muted okay here you alright let's see if that works the problem the problem is if I turn that on I get an echo so look I want to make sure that we don't send out the notices until we are absolutely sure that we don't have a budget because I think the Board of Finance can act if they choose but that roads gonna kill me I think we can we if we work this right the Board of Finance can approve the budget before we have to send notices and I think we owe that to our teachers in this time of stress to not send notices unless we absolutely have to so John how late can you

075wait to send the notices oh the the way the tenure the Connecticut tenure law works is that teachers have to find out before April 1 that's the deadline so we have to give them a Freedom of Information Act oh I see Terry so here you want to jump in it's a first mate yes May 1st so so say yeah so they um I apologize May 1st meaning that they would have to receive a letter from me of non-renewal by April 30th so we want to get that to them before May 1st in our situation right now I mean every other year in every other community in Connecticut the way this works is the administrator typically with humanity is able to bring this in person and hand-deliver the letter we do that every year we're in

076this very difficult circumstance now and so as Amy read that very long motion that that has to be approved by the board and then authorize the superintendent each year to go forward with that so to answer your question about the latest I could probably send these out is around you know maybe to be safe April 24th or 25th to make sure through us mail the teachers did receive them so if we did have a budget to your point and that's based on the governor's executive order that that the budgets can be moved along without some of the typical process that goes on this year in typical years we could definitely pull it off we do not a rush to get this out tomorrow or next week so I hope that I heard that the Board

077of Finance is having their hearing next week and that soon after that they would meet and work on whether to approve the budget roses that what you're hearing as well yeah so they're they're meeting right now actually and they're meeting tonight will determine whether or not they are from my understanding is they're most likely going to push out 30 days before they set mill rates and approve it actually the first electron has told me that it is now a mandate that that they go ahead and approve budgets without a town vote because I don't think the governor wants municipalities when are waiting until or trying to hold votes in this particular environment so they're going to have to do that and I have strongly urged them to do that before if they're gonna push out

078then you know if there's any way that they can make that determination before April 24th 25th so that we could you know potentially not send those notices out [Music] was there any further questions on under this process at all or anything like that okay so we can proceed to vote okay so all in favor visually and vocally say aye aye okay the motion is unanimous thank you Mary thank you for making sure I said the right date thank you okay moving on we have a few policies but first we have a bylaw waiver okay I make a motion that the board waiver bylaw number 9 3 1 1 policies for the purpose of adopting new policy number six one four six point one nine credit for online courses ok thank you joy okay so um

079I had sent an email to you guys I'm just alerting you guys to this particular item in the agenda and the next one they kind of go together this particular bylaw waiver is needed mostly for the next item on the agenda because we are there is a motion to approve a policy without going through the policy subcommittee so does anybody have any questions on the waiver of this particular policy and our bylaws okay all in favor aye okay the motions unanimous thank you and so now we can move on to that policy okay I move that the board approved new policy number six one four six point one nine credit for online courses as recommended by superintendent dr. John Farrell okay thank you joy okay dr. Brill do you want to explain this particular policy

080of course sure thank thanks Rosa thanks everyone so the the purpose of this new policy is specifically for the situation we're in right now as I've shared before I've been fortunate enough to participate in many calls not only with the governor and the Commissioner of Education but also with our packet super-intense group known as caps Connecticut Association of public school superintendents and we are sharing best practice and talking through and helping advise the Commissioner of Education on all the different issues that have come up and boy there are many with distance learning in the situation that we find ourselves and now one of the key things we were talking about is the needing some uniformity and some protection in some direction from our local boards on what what we have for policies for graduation requirements

081and making sure students with online learning are obtaining the proper credit so with the credit for online courses policy this was a policy was actually developed specific to this situation specific to earning credit via distance learning in the kovat crisis and this was actually developed by a law firm that's very well known in category called shipment of Goodwin and Tom Mooney himself who is the gentleman who actually wrote the Connecticut educational law book practically developed this policy for all of us to consider and so what I did is not only if this policy from him with the strong admonishment and some caps and from the commissioner that each local board adopt this policy I brought it before our board attorney Dan Murphy and I brought it to principal Belinda to ensure that this policy reinforced

082any existing policies that we had and didn't contradict in fact the policy does reinforce our existing policy and it does not contradict and so it works very well for us in terms of making sure we not only have the proper credits being chief but they can earn them through distance learning I didn't know if there was any further questions on this that people had a chance to read this in terms of process we're really going to need to because of the timing of everything the board can act as a committee of the whole and discuss it tonight and since we've just waived the the policy adoption policy we can actually approve this this evening as well and put it into effect immediately so I'm happy to answer any questions and I know mr. Blandon I

083think is on the line so you know there's any questions about anything or wanted to walk through the policy at all more than happy to do that everybody get a chance to read through it when it was sent to the packet mm-hmm what does anybody have any questions or or comments about it concerns edits okay all right so we can proceed to vote so all in favor aye moving on to the bidding procedure waiver okay I move that the board waive the bidding requirements set forth and board policy 33:20 and regulation 33 20.1 and waive its purchasing policy for the purpose of lacking in heating oil and diesel fuel for the 2021 2022 fiscal year as recommended by director of business and operations CEM Coast Thank You Julie one I'm sure Ken can sort of

084add comment to it but this particular waiver would be advantageous for us not only because we can save money this year on our unused heating oil diesel fuel but we could we could roll that over plus lock us in to the lower prices that we're seeing on on heating oil and diesel fuel so um you know this is something that's recommended by I miss her post but Ken do you want to add specific comment to them sure I had to hold us talking points but I don't need to say them all now um yeah we we have the product the opportunity to lock in for this is for 2021 2022 so it's the year after the budget that we've already put forward for next year at the rates right now we believe that we can

085save approximately 40 cents per gallon on eating oil and diesel fuel which amounts to about seventy seven thousand dollars for the year and we're doing this in conjunction with the town and Jerry gay our purchasing agent has found two suppliers willing to contract with us for that year and one of them is our current supplier which is Mitchell oil and they also have our contract for next year because they won the bid for that already a couple of issues one is that with school being out right now and possibly out for the rest of the year we have $25,000 remaining in our commitment to buy from Mitchell this year so if we went with a different supply there at some point in time this year or next year we would have to eat that 25

086thousand gallons but pay some kind of a liquidation charge if we do read up with Mitchell for 21 22 they're willing to let us carry over 7,500 gallons into our next year and then lower our commitment for 21 22 which will be very helpful so for those reasons we're asking the board to waive the the bidding requirements so we can just lock in with Mitchell both the town and us and mr. Dunn was already on board with this it's a great opportunity yeah I think it makes a whole lot of sense does anybody else have any comments on this okay so we can proceed to vote on favor okay thank you the votes an individual okay we can move on to two old business we have a bunch of policies okay I recommend a motion

087that the board approve policy number for one 18.5 to use of new web tools for a final reading as recommended by the policy communications subcommittee first reading was on March 4th 2020 Thank You Jay Debbie did you have any comments on this no I didn't good Amy okay so all in favor aye aye thank you votes unanimous go ahead Amy okay make a motion that the board approve policy number four one one eight point one one two sexual harassment for a final reading is recommended by the policy and communications subcommittee first reading was on March 4th 2020 okay thanks joy Debbie did you if you want to just streamline it all right so all in favor aye aye aye animus okay make a motion at the board approve policy number four one one eight point

088one one three harassment for our final reading as recommended by the policy communications subcommittee first reading was on March 4th 2020 okay all in favor aye Mike I assume you are and I Thanks okay go ahead okay I'll move that the board approved policy number four one one eight point two for staff and student non-fraternization for a final reading as recommended by the policy communications subcommittee first reading was March 4th 2020 okay thank you okay last one I'll make a motion that the board approved policy number four 1/3 for tutoring for a final reading as recommended by the policy communications subcommittee first reading was on March 4th 2020 thank you joy all in favor aye aye fine thank you okay thank you we can move on to our 2019 2020 school calendar and possible motion

089I'm just gonna try and pull this up myself so I have it in front of me dr. Brill do you want to walk us through and third week changes sure so I'm having trouble finding the calendar but that's okay yeah I'm doing it myself if we had some conversation on the March 18th meeting about you know where we might end up we weren't sure exactly where we were and beginner learning it just learned from the commissioner that he was waving the 180 day requirement so the the plan going forward that I'd like to present is in terms of understanding if the board would like to maximize the teacher contract our teachers can work up to 180 seven days that's what the board budget force budget for budgets for excuse me and with the three days

090on March the 18th 18 19 and 20 that the teachers worked on to begin with training in preparation for distance learning to kick in on March 23rd the students had been off during that week so those are three additional days that the teachers essentially conducted professional development if you will and so those are additional days they've already worked so if the teachers were to work the full 180 seven days in this academic year they would maximize and land on 187 on June 22nd which is a Monday now for the students June 22nd would be the hundred and seventy ninth day so that's where we're at it's okay that we only have 179 days we don't have to do 180 this year that was made clear by the Commissioner and the governor's executive Ward so that's

091if the teachers work up to 187 days we'd end on a Monday again June 22nd right now the Board of Education has already approved the graduation Brookville high school graduation for June 20th which is the Saturday prior to this possible lat that so there's always discussion and there's always opportunity the board can decide where we would like to to land would we like to have the teachers work you know only up to that Friday and have the students end on a Friday which would be June 19th students would do 180 excuse me 178 days and the teachers would work 186 days and then we don't we graduate on Saturday we don't even have to carry over into that Monday I don't think not a would that we're going to have any snow anytime soon so

092the fact that could be part of the plan so I wanted to put some options out there for the board to discuss and hear people's opinion and ultimately we can make a decision together here tonight and then tomorrow or Friday I can communicate out to the parents because they've been clamoring for that last day people are wondering I think the parents are wondering more than the students at this point it's all that home teaching that's going on yeah so I I did kind of get a chance to connect with each of our board members and it seems like we are in agreement that we I think and everybody can you know correct me if your opinions have changed at all but I think we would like to just close it up on that Friday I'm

093not worried about coming back on that Monday and obviously you know maintaining April break and I think that's just the cleanest way to close out the year thank you for sharing that rose I forgot to talk about April break that was also part of our discussion last time was to keep April break sacred for everybody that's kind of been our tradition in Brookfield so we can do that if that's what the board would like to do anybody else have any thoughts on the calendar are we all in agreement I think just for the public's sake I don't know how many people are watching I think it's worth explaining what happens if we took away April break and worked right through what does that do to the numbers well what we would do then is we

094just move everything five days of five days earlier that's how that would work because there's five days over the April critical instead of the 22nd being that Monday or in this case let's use the 19th it would be Friday be twelve right it would actually be six wouldn't it cuz a Good Friday the week before no the Good Friday is already counted in this it wouldn't a some practice we have five april days one thing I worry about that is not only the you know we've communicated that April break would still be there for everybody and I know there's the whole argument well people can't really go anywhere at this point I totally understand that is the Commissioner asked us the governor and the Commissioner were gracious enough remember the macro burst we remember other

095local tragedies where the 180-day waiver was absolutely not granted barely was considered in this particular unprecedented situation they're waiving the 180 day requirement and and that is just the connective state Department of Education in concert with the governor and legislature and State Board of Ed they just never do this so there's that piece the commissioner said is long you don't have to get your hundred eighty days in as long as you eat and feel free to end around the time you were going to end anyway now if you look at our calendar that was that June 15 to 20 days I'd like to respect the the commissioners wishes there and not try to play with the April break and try to end earlier than our original end date which was the 15th especially because we're

096not getting the 180 days in so I want to you know I want to be very careful about that as well and and just ending the week that we were supposed to end just short of the hundred eighty bills and I and I think that's acceptable and respects the the wishes and the flexibility of the folks at the state I agree with you and that's a sort of what we talked about amongst ourselves when Rosa was asking for opinions I felt that if we took away April break that would mean we're ending school you sooner than the original June 17th and I I could imagine that for some parents that could be a childcare issue you know if I mean who knows if people would be back to work by then and what the childcare

097situation will be but if you were planning on putting your child in camp or you had other arrangements that started at the end of June now all of a sudden were moving that up almost two weeks so I just thought that that could create a lot of problems for people good point thank you okay so do we need a motion to amend the calendar I think I think it would be because we're not having the teachers work up to the full 187 which was the original intention and because we're going to end with 178 school days rather than the 182 it's important for the board to make that motion okay so I move to the revised 19 2019 2020 school calendar to reflect the last day of school on June 19th which is how many

098days 186 teacher days 130 178 student days so 186 teacher days and 180 you said right 170 878 sorry yeah student days a second thank you Amy any other discussion on that on favor all right thank you okay okay so old business we have just our budget estimate discussion right now I again the board I just got word from the affordable how things are progressing at the Board of Finance meeting right now it does look like they have they are they're goofing everything out 30 days which is something that they they can't tonight they could have set the mill rate for next year approved budgets for both the town and school and they have chosen to push that out 30 days which they can do but then they will be mandated to to set those

099budgets so I am assuming that they're looking for more information in terms of how they will set that mill rate I can again still urge them to try to maybe make that more like 23 days as opposed to 30 days because that would again maybe help us not send out those non-renewals if we could possibly do that but can is there is there any way that you can maybe and this is probably something you had sent this out to us so we can sort of go into that discussion now not only for the reductions for next year but any possible savings that we might see from this closure or even exposures that we might see from this closure this year sure I sent that out to you earlier here today it's and it's really a

100moving target I I've kind of combed through the accounts and I see where we might have explorers we might have savings but a lot of it is gonna depend on a couple things if we can get back in session it changes things it seems like every day there's a new executive order from the governor telling us you know we have to pay people that we may maybe didn't think we had to pay before so it's it's changing so often so yeah I've identified a bunch of areas where I think we will save money in a couple of areas where I think we have some exposure but nothing I can really quantify first Anya okay I know that's helpful yeah if there are there any accounts where even if you don't know the number that we

101we definitely want to see some savings in like as utilities or well certainly diesel fuel for sure possibly electricity propane which we use in our school kitchens extended duty substitutes possibly coaching stipends if we lose the spring sports professional development that's not not happening athletic transportation would certainly be lower even if we can resume partially part of the season so there are a number of areas and with our bus contracts this year I know that we had prepaid and that was you know we had initially well captured a little bit of a savings there because of that creep but now is that sort of are we committed to are we gonna be able to save anything from transportation regular transportation I've already had the conversation with the president of the company about recouping some of

102that and we got some more direct this kind of direction from the state today that they want the bus companies to continue providing benefits and to continue paying their drivers I don't think all star was paying their drivers so again I have to have another conversation with him and they're supposed to quantify what these costs are and we're supposed to pay them at least to cover that and reasonable overhead the objective is to kind of make them whole without letting them profit off the situation right a lot of math has to be done in that and it's complicated by the fact that that we've paid them who knew yes and I think I think Ken mentioned the summer's exactly rewards the other thing that's that's from state law on Friday Congress passed and President Trump

103signed into law the the cares Act federal cares Act so that's influencing what just came last night which was the I don't know what number but I know it put a summary together and sent it out to the board this morning with links to each of the decade of orders from the governor in fact mrs. Gavin on dr. Ruby and I are going to be meeting with attorney Murphy tomorrow morning to actually discuss the the impact of the governor's recent executive order and the cares act because as the board knows and it's clearly an issue across this nation we have our employees that are working in a distance learning format with their or with their students and when when we have that situation it's very different working conditions than we've had so we've been working

104on developing memorandums of agreement to each of the collective bargaining contracts at this point the teacher of Brookfield Education Association Memorandum of Understanding is the only one that's actually formally executed at this point the rest are still discussion going back and forth between legal counsel and the union representation and so that's part of the discussion we need to have because this executive order may significantly influence that renders of understanding and working conditions and again to what Ken said how we pay and who we pay in that kind of thing including bus contractors so it's very fluid and we're all doing our best to adjust John your point and I'm actually I'm doing it I'm attending a huge attending a huge webinar on that cares Act because obviously it's it affects my business and people that

105work for me and all that so I'm gonna have a I'm actually looking forward to them on a lot more information on that on that cares Act it's it's run by attorney so I'm looking forward to it yeah it's a lot for everybody to take in um does anybody have any questions comments about you know any and at least for this current budget year and how that might affect next the the other if there's heat that can had sent forward is the remainder of the recommendations for reductions for next year so did you want to walk through those Ken yeah I'd like to talk for a moment um the leadership team had met a month or more ago when we were first working on the a whole eight hundred seventeen thousand dollars and then after

106our last board meeting we met again this past Monday to come up with the list that I sent you today of the new the Tier three reductions and we try to be careful to select items and accounts that had the least direct impact on students so you see a lot of postage and copiers and other things on there um and we were able to find enough two or three reductions that allowed us to had twenty thousand dollars back to Amanda Erin's PD as you requested and add eighty two hundred ninety two dollars back to the apt professional learning so many of the Tier three reductions are a result of just going through and looking at every account and comparing our budget request with our historical actual spending with the understanding that historical spending has been

107cut back many years due to budget freezes recently other items are specific reductions for example a tuition reimbursement we're adjusting that down a little bit because the administrators in their contract they get reimbursed if they're in programs and we only have one administrator that we know of is going to be in a doctoral program next year so I set the amount at the maximum that that person you could get professional education services were reducing professional books for teachers and using in-house resources instead of outside providers for some of the school-based professional learning other professional services were eliminating the outside Communication Service and reducing some you know services storage we're eliminating the outside storage unit that's currently used by the business office and Human Resources and travelling conferences we've reduced below the level of our 2018-2019

108spending and most of the other accounts are like I said just a result of going back and and basing it on historical levels of spending I'll take anything but he has any questions about that our process or about specific items I'll do my next answer them I don't have anything else standing you no problem this what's the last travel dues fees is that that separate from travel and conference that's 7075 enchanter 3 and that's the case that was from a bunch of different accounts across the district again we just went back and took a real careful look at comparing it with our historical spending and what we've been able to get away with the you know or do without I should say in the past okay on the potential exposures what does what's the excess

109cost grant that would be an exposure for this year possibly if for some reason we don't fully fund the special education transportation or the outplacement tuition and then the stuff is all up in the air right now we would end up spending less so we get less grand my back how does that an exposure okay yeah okay less revenue so we haven't been reimbursed for that for those costs yet no not entirely sound sounds convenient there like I said before everything's up in the air right now yeah I know are we good because we have because it looks like so many of these accounts and Tier three are the ones that we froze this year you know how much it just looks like you know a lot of it is just sort of just shaved

110you sort of just shaved a lot for me to count I don't know if anybody here could maybe speak to what it is how much are we not restoring back to the levels that we started with at this school year because I know obviously if we if we froze much of these accounts many of these accounts then obviously we're not we're not really recouping anything I think we approached it with the mindset that we've you know but again we've done without stuff in recent years and at least without as much as we would optimally have but these were items since we had to cut something it was farthest away from directly affecting the students so we just made the collective the decision that we're we're doing it this way can can you hear me okay

111yes okay this is a chase am I getting an echo now I'm not thinking here hi the I saw in the governor's latest Proclamation that he is directed the state agencies to pay out the grants as planned does that mean we're locked in at the excess cost grant or is it still in flux or do we not know well the grant in my opinion anyway the grant would be affected if we spent less money right and I don't know that he was referring to the excess cost grant or not I didn't see the full text yeah we ought to exercise that because you know we might spend a little I mean I think what he was if I read that full thing it said they want us to pay the providers whether students are there

112or not and they want us to pay the bus company so they can cover benefits and salaries although as you said that's complex math I would hope that that also means that the towns will get the excess cost grants based on our application not based on things that change and I'd love to get confirmation of that what it is right because I think the more that becomes a refiling let's come up with new numbers let's do something different it just creates an uncertainty for the town and I think we need to have more certainty and the Board of Finance needs more certainty absolutely so are you ready to lock and load with these reductions for next year's budget at this point in time yes we are then you'd like us out on them so we

113can get them done and move on yes we're ready to go Bob okay all right sorry notes have any questions or comments on on these proposed reductions okay so I will move that the board approve the proposed reductions as listed and provided by the superintendent and director of operations can post tell second is there any discussion on that Oh on favor aye okay the vote is unanimous thank you all thank you thanks guys thank you and John and the entire team entire team absolutely okay so up next we have the new school building project and um we had Eddie on the call earlier we should have maybe move that up so yeah we dr. Burrell and I talked with Eddie and some of the team from tech town the other day and we received a

114bit of an update they they continued to work with all the user groups you know the media center folks have sort of have given all their details that they need to really have a fully functioning media center for for all the grades that that the school will service and despite all of this the progress on the new school has not stalled or slow down so we're they're continuing to move forward and and work on everything that they need and the project is moving along there are some changes they were able to to get all classrooms in the building which was you know one of our biggest priorities and now what they are really trying to do is sort of firm up what the interior not only layout but the materials the materials that they're going

115to use on the exterior the materials that are going to be used and it's some of the drawings are really are really nice and they're really you know there's another opportunity I think for for the board to provide some feedback and and to to loop in some some other users you know school psychologists and counselors and guidance that might be able to to help you know sort of start to bring this vision sort of into a reality and some real plans so so I mean I don't know if I miss anything John but um oh yeah just a couple things I wanted to share I think I was very Rosa thank you so just a couple of to get those classrooms and some of the other things that they're doing it's a concept of a

116phrase called space utilization they're really in design development what I've learned from the our our our architects in terms of tech con as well as Paul and Josh on the MVC is this is a state where they're really when something initially might have been 150 feet across they're squeezing things down we only need 148 feet I mean they were looking for every inch they can find in the square footage to stay on time stay on budget and get the the best space utilization we cannot build them in addition to that we're pretty excited mr. Dunn on the talent side I've been working with tacking on and the MVC this entire time it looks as though the way you know the budget we have for the project and also working with the town there's been a

117lot of talk about working with eversource and running the natural gas and running water public water up to the school looks like that the plans are really coming into fruition now how that's gonna look so that's working and we're pretty excited about that rather than having wells so that's going on what was the other one I wanted to share oh the other big one was the board is aware that that originally when we were looking at the floodplain Techcon had the building kind of the back of the building peered into the hill at the back of the property with the mapping and the FEMA waiver that they're going for they've moved the building down to more of a flat area of the back of the property so you don't have to go to the hill

118that's brought the costs down the estimated cost down it also makes a better opportunity for a emergency roadway behind the school and in addition to that I really wanted to let everybody know and the public know that the FEMA waiver process is is well underway and moving forward and they don't see anything at this point getting in the way so that was that's a big hurdle while we don't believe it should be a big hurdle because of the mapping in the history on the site the 500-year floodplain and all the all these technical things that I don't fully understand I'm told things are moving in the right direction with that and once we get the formal waiver from FEMA there should be no issue with the the folks at the safe so that was another

119piece I wanted to share and I think as Rosa said on-time and on-budget so far we keep keep saying that but we're constantly monitoring so we continue to be excited and try to during this time do a few virtual meetings and bring in more a couple more user groups again have some conversation about how we start to bring the interior together that's why I have anybody have any questions on the new school nice all right so that brings us to the end of our meeting our three main points [Music] definitely like to um-hmm yep calendar the calendar sure yeah yeah I'm the last day of school yep and I mean we can talk about our budget reductions doesn't say budget reductions I I actually think I would like to suggest instead that we put in

120dr. burrows remarks about the teachers and how everybody has come through the first two weeks of distance learning and the feedback we heard from students and Steve's part of the meeting yeah I agree I think distance learning should be highlighted a Herculean effort on the part of administration and teachers and I think that should definitely be one of them one of the main points oh do we have poor or do we switch one well I mean I feel like we've kind of we didn't make any changes to the budget discussion the budget items that we discussed last week so at this point we're really waiting for the Board of Finance I mean there were minor tweaks that Ken made so I'm not sure we need to mention the budget again anybody else the budget every

121time because it's still on ongoing issue especially issue before all this now it's announced it continued to be a serious I have a thought if we do for the three main points if we do locker-room budget and distance learning and then how about I put a communication out on the calendar it's a very simple communication tomorrow and then that does you know then we stick to the three main points and I can still get calendar and flow out to two buddy about that okay or even condensed like we can say we finalize the budget and the the school your calendar could combine them yeah yeah I think it's better like John said to do the communication about calendar separate if that also main points okay I think yeah I mean as long as the information

122gets you know I mean it's probably gonna be disseminated anyways right I mean well if I send a school message out I think I think you guys know this already if I send a school that's a Joe Eric immediately posted on Facebook so it kind of goes through the same yeah I news anyway so want to do I'll do whatever you guys would like to do so you know either way we'll make sure the information gets out yeah silence and you know we can let John send the message out about the calendar and we can you know have the three main points about the budget the boys locker room and the distance learning okay sounds good all right in that order um maybe however they appeared on the agenda okay yes yeah Debbie I can

123give me a little blurb if you want to add like one project sure and then Eric if you're able to get it uh you could have the Eddy's PowerPoint set so we could get that linked in and that would be great as well yeah I'll confirm when the me didn't make any changes from the copy that I received earlier this week and then and then we'll post that one on the new school project website and wherever else we need to okay thank you sir okay thank you Eric for facilitating these meetings they've been going off without a hitch pretty much yeah oh thank you little things to figure out here and there and we'll improve on each one but it all went quite well tonight thank you there's a lot to thank Eric and attacked

124the particle there's a lot sure okay so the next is upcoming events there are none well the parade happened so they filled in the blank with whatever you're planning on doing in your own house right we go on much longer John you give this gonna have to tell the school they have to do the st. Baldrick's thing because everybody's gonna need a haircut oh yeah I know she is one up coming a been right the blood drive want pencils for next week so they'll reschedule when it's appropriate I guess yeah we shared my son's head last night actually we went out on the deck and had a great time so we're all getting might be ball I just wanna chime in with thanking here for helping with all of the dis ting and giving tutorials

125to all the teachers and Ben's without Eric it would have been very difficult just a minute hey Steve appreciate that and but but it goes it goes without saying that it is it's it's it's it's a lot but it's also a lot of teamwork and that goes through my department and and every single person on this call and and all the teachers that are hopefully getting some rest this evening for a busy day ahead tomorrow it is truly a group and team effort to do some of the amazing stuff that we've been doing in nearly two and a half weeks it's and been probably more so well we know more but it's it's incredible teamwork by all and I he can keep the meeting going on for everybody but Eric has been working hand in

126glove with dr. Ruby dr. Ruby and her vision and grit along with working directly with our whole council specifically our principals to make this happen has just been incredible it's been a yeoman's task and she's actually online with the State Department as well constantly with her connections up there and make sure we have a top-notch high quality distance learning program per student so it's only gonna get better from here so thank you dr. Ruby and mark I know Mark wanted to give a shout out out he gave it during our Facilities Committee but I think he should give it give one out again mark Turton yeah I do remember joy so she's gonna be embarrassed and upset but I just want to get a shout out to Carolyn D'Arcangelo my secretary at the school since

127day one as soon as Winston's decided to start doing lunches the lunch program it's been a low mossy cooking in the kitchen doing all the lunches he does all the lunches and preps them every day and then after that Carolyn's there initially volunteering and then she has not missed a day rain doesn't matter she is the one handing out bagged lunches to people people are getting to see here on a regular basis she gets to know people she knows exactly how many lunches certain cars get now she those people by name and I just want to say thank you to her specifically because she without her and she's helping the entire district so I just want a a little shout out to her and say Thank You Carolyn and to Alfred all their hard work

128and know that this Friday is gonna be a big one because they're giving out lunches for Friday Saturday and Sunday so it's gonna be significant lines a lot of people working and we have some other secretaries the high school that have volunteered to come help out so you know it's not the easiest thing to do we're really lucky to have them being able to do that so that's what I want to say let me just actually this actually goes towards whisk and air I just wanted to let everybody know that whisking air middle school has received the Michaels cup award for having the the top Unified sports program in the state of Connecticut this year and they were supposed to get recognized in April but that unfortunately has been canceled and I just wanted to

129give a shout out to Dean and Carl and Rafferty coach and evolve that whiskey mirror but that is a tremendous honor because only one school in the state gets recognized as Michael Scott winner and that was with whis Kinnear for their job and unified thank you that's awesome and also Kathy Roman and Nicole forum and you know a bunch of our paraprofessionals that give their time to help out and and also the students and the athletes and the buddies that that participate really make that program very special my quick shout out is to June Gordon she has been in the building handing out and Eric maybe you can help me with another but she has been handing out Chromebooks unbelievable amount of Chromebooks making sure that they are wiped down clean and you know she's

130been ending up instruments and doing her best to help our kids have all the things that they need they she got a couple math books out the door and you know wiped them down and left them on the ledge so I really appreciate all that she's been doing yeah and and Dean thanks for doing that so we didn't leave the meeting without mentioning to her and a perfect example of what I meant by it's it's truly teamwork well outside of technology anybody's willing to jump in and help from Carol and doing lunches and and June during Chromebooks because she's already in the building and and you know limiting limiting social interaction limiting the number of people in the office is certainly way to do it she's got her system down to keep to keep to

131keep everybody at a distance and everybody's safe and we provide her with the Chromebooks and we let her do it and she has been there lack of a better way to put it on send in helping us get as many Chromebooks as we can to as many kids as we can and we continue thanks to her ok my turn HR is has been working unbelievably because you can't imagine we have this many employees and this much crazy stuff going on and if a you know if I didn't know Teri's character it's where she was having an affair of Dan Murphy because the so many cool things that be taken care of and she's like living on on the phone and in paperwork and our are two other personnel Beth and Michelle are working from home

132they've come in so I mean we could stay on here all night just talking about all the people that are doing extra heavy lifts so I mean we can't stay here all night but I can't not talk about the work that Terri in the HR department I think and everybody got paid so you know Joan and all the people and payroll it's just and then Gina bygone ik everything moment you breathe something else changes in special ed at the at the federal level at the state level I don't know if they like know each other's phone numbers because they do the opposite thing sometimes but keeping up with what's going on special ed and making sure that we don't overstep our bounds that we don't break the law that we don't hurt anybody with violating

133their confidentiality it's just like a tornado just won't stop spinning and they're there 24/7 people are working 24/7 I can assure you of that so thank you alright I gave all the shoutouts last week er when I sent my letter so and I know I spoke on behalf of all you guys so thank you for doing that no yeah I mean yeah I know that we couldn't be more proud of where we are right now in terms of a of a team all right the last thing on our agenda is public comment which Eric I was this sort of a live participation where people could have chimed in had the like was the capability or was it just a live stream I set this up similar to the last meeting we can discuss changing the

134format at the next one but for this one I had left it that same format where the public comment we moved to the end and then emails or any communication you received but um if if you know as we grow and adapt these meetings because we all know that our next one will be well I'm sure we'll be on here there is another one in two - we don't know the two weeks would be spring break right so we're yeah okay so we may we may have one of these in May we may not we can certainly adapt and adjust and talk of right now no anybody would have had to send a communication to you like the last meeting yep so I didn't receive anything and so I just I wanted to anybody who

135gets to watch this anybody's watching it now live or anybody who watches this back you know we welcome your public comment and that can either you know you can always send in written correspondence and maybe we can you know at the next meeting you know figure out a capability to do that um like sort of more of a live presentation or live participation you know if that's that's best I don't some talons are doing that so um you know we'll just have to work through this as we go but um of course your comments are always welcome so that is that's it in terms of our agenda is there anything else anyone would like to share before we adjourn okay so thank you very much everyone and this concludes the public meeting and without objection

136the meeting is adjourned thank you thanks everybody