Board of Education Meeting

001good evening do we got this good evening everybody good evening today is Wednesday June 19th 2019 and I like to call the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order if we could all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance we have six of our seven board members tonight Rosa's unable to make it and first on the agenda is the year-end report from the Brookfield Education Foundation Kristin there we go oh yeah okay my name is Kristin Joshi and I'm the president of the Brookfield Education Foundation our mission is to marshal and provide resources for lifelong learning for Brookfield residents of all ages and a large number of the grants that we fund are for Brookfield public schools however I'd like to note that the BEF does not solely fund grants in our

002schools we fund many community grants for entities such as the Senior Center the library and newly formed relationship this year we have with the Brooke with the Brookfield YMCA each year we briefly review the programs that we have funded both to celebrate the innovators of these projects and to thank our generous donors who make them a reality it's been a fantastic and a diverse year with the be of funding some grants that we've been very excited about I'm pleased to report that this year we have funded seven grants to various community resources more importantly these grants help empower innovative education in our schools in the community it's just a quick rundown of the grants we have the Brookfield parent support network it was granted to Brookfield cares it offers it's a partnership with the youth

003mental health project and it's a pilot program whose mission is to empower students parents and families to act with knowledge skills and community resources they need to support social emotional mental and health and behavioral health of youth the statistics on mental illness in our current health care climate are at an all-time high so programs such as these are necessary to address the situation and provide those affected and their families with education support and guidance to aid their well-being another grant that we funded was an author visit here to Brookfield High School it was a grant for a one-town one read program that the library runs and the authors were brought here to work with the high school students that took place back in September the school year another grant we funded was a unified dance

004team again that took place here at Brookfield High School there are a couple well for a few years now Brookfield has had a unified sports program and there are couples sports programs soccer and basketball so this year they added a dance team this grant was created the innovator was a student which was really nice we we have a couple that are done by students and those are always fun to get that started in the spring of this year another one that we funded was a sensory path at huckleberry Adrianna Hackett championed this grant it's an indoor path that enhances students conduct cognitive functioning through physically engaging activities they're colorful stickers used for the path and they strengthen motor skills such as balance hand-eye coordination spatial awareness and they offer an opportunity for a student centered

005brain break when using the path indoor indoor path the students will be able to use their energy to hop skip step and jump their way through the hallways another grant that we funded was at whisk and ear it was the arts of digital presentations in science this was done by - the two sixth-grade science teachers mr. Smith and mr. Petrino the goal of this was to bring science out of the classroom and into our whole community through the use of technology and digital presentations the program uses a camera Kappa capable of capturing scientific investigations and explorations inside and outside of the classroom students are trained in filming and editing to produce digital presentations these presentations are used as learning experiences in the classroom and throughout the school another grant that we had this year was

006the lego mindstorm education that was at the YMCA this has just been funded and the intent of this it's a it's a hands-on cross curricular stem solution it's being used for their after-school program it engages the children by providing the resources to design and build to design build and program their creation this will help the children develop critical thinking skills learn how to work as teams by working in groups and to help develop communication skills and then the last grant which we just funded recently this past month is community conversations at the Brookfield library the program will bring in local teen groups to set up interactive displays and host conversations open to the public around a variety of topics relevant to the community the grant is funding training for the student participants and interactive end

007panels on the bookshelves that will create an ongoing information rich environment for the program's student groups will receive facilitator training and will develop book displays informational panels and interactive elements that will be on display in the library for a month at a time to allow for the community to participate the goal will be to promote productive civic conversations so in addition I just wanted to mention two other grants that we've previously funded that are ongoing in Brookfield Public Schools one of them is the Entrepreneurship entrepreneurship grant brought to us by deca at Brookfield high school like this grant it's it's for the business students they developed and run their own business and I thought when it came to us I mean it we all felt this phenomenal program it gives these kids real life skills

008while they're in high school they do the they've learned about business structure they evaluate demand calculate pricing marketing production distribution and sales on a personal level I've dealt with the business myself because one of the other hats I wear is for the Booster Club here at the high school we use their business I've had great interaction with the students running the business and also receive great products from them so that's a great experience that they receive here and then the other one I wanted to mention was the ruler program that initiated at whiskey er middle school with Dean rondell champion it but its intent has been to spread throughout all of Brookfield public schools and and it is being rolled out so I just wanted to give that a mention too because some of these

009grants are very successful and they go on and on for years once they initiate with us finally in addition to funding these grants we celebrated our honor and educated educator recognition event in May accepting close to 300 individual recognitions for various Brookfield educators which are primarily our public school teachers year after year we enjoy celebrating our teachers coaches music instructors and other community leaders we continuously find that individuals are thrilled to be recognized and honored through this program so with that the BEF extends our sincere gratitude to everyone who has made these programs a reality from our very generous contributors to those who envisioned and brought these funded projects to life we are truly a reflection of a community invested in and giving back to itself and the other thing that I'll mention is that

010our annual gala is coming up in November and save the date for Friday November 22nd thank you so much thank you really impressive list alright next we have the presentation of literary magazines and yearbooks see shall we start from so I was thinking could we start couple very good sure mrs. lab Rochelle huckleberry team good evening everyone so unfortunately Daniel Danielle brutal who is our yearbook advisor was not able to come tonight because her little one is under the weather so I am here to introduce some of our fourth grade yearbook squad who has worked so diligently and hard this year at creating this amazing yearbook so they have we have about six friends and they are going to tell you a little bit about their roles and responsibilities and the exciting stuff they did

011for this yearbook so I have Olivia Danica Anastacio Kaden Nicholas and Madeline hi my name is Olivia Zaza we are members of the hig s yearbook squad we work together to design create and assemble this year's yearbook hi my name is danica Ginsburg this year we worked on taking pictures of school events like pajama day severe days assemblies Halloween pumpkin decorating out and other events we had to learn to use cameras and computers to upload pictures hi my name is Anastasia Fattah for the first year ever we had to cover winners our front cover was designed by fourth grader maksimka pica a back cover was designed by fourth grader risky Aguilar there are also many honorable mentioned artwork from students in 2nd 3rd and 4th grade throughout the yearbook hi my name is Kaden Carver

012our team was different this year - we choose a chalkboard scooty because it reminded us of the fun we had at hhas but it's different than other yearbooks because one is because we wanted some things to show how unique our classes hi my name is Niclas cylinder laying out the yearbook was hard work we had to choose the best pictures crop them and decide where to put them throughout the yearbook we had to choose colors and fonts - that was the fun part hi my name is Malin Hotel this was a whole team effort even though there are six of us here there were 16 of us that created this yearbook for everyone we hope you all enjoy it that's a really impressive your book that you produced congratulations any questions yes our huckleberry I

013love the artwork that's great great job okay and now we have whisk in here right we want to thank mrs. Weitzman for leading leading the group this evening she's stepping in for mr. Renda who is taking care of his father who is under the weather good evening thank you my co advisors unfortunately couldn't be here this evening sue queen who is just amazing absolutely amazing and J cereth who did the distribution of the yearbooks which is one of the hardest jobs to do our yearbook editors could not be here they are Nate Smith and kayla marie but i have wonderful people here this evening who without whom we would not have the amazing yearbook we have it's been my pleasure and an honor to work with these children it's their show my name is Abby

014my name is Isabella Ortiz I'ma be on Arado and I am Paulina Sanchez and we worked as seventh grade interns this year so we were basically learning how to make the yearbook because next year when we're in eighth grade we're gonna be like the editors so we were the eighth graders were teaching us how to do it and how we could create it next year in the yearbook committee there was so much dedication and like everyone worked on it so hard and I think we're really proud with how it turned out I really enjoyed working with everyone and how the yearbook turned out and everyone also worked together and it was a very great experience we want to say thank you to miss Weitzman and the screen for being such great advisors and helping us

015make our yearbook reality thank you yes and this is our yearbook you'll have to share it yes we only have one copy thank you it's it's been my pleasure my honor to work with these children all year to watch them work together and collaborate and accept other ideas it's just been amazing and that's why we have such an amazing yearbook thank you have a great summer [Applause] good evening unfortunately you just get me tonight today being the last day of school my students have mostly scattered there's one in the audience out there I say but I have two presentations tonight at your tables you've got both a copy of the literary magazine and this year we made sure everybody got a copy of the yearbook so I see most people we're looking at your books

016I think literary magazine will do your books first so your book you know we're really excited that mr. Webb who was our first year art teacher here began with us to go from a Sheeran he's the one who was the advisor for the yearbook at a herculean job with only semesters to work through this and a brand new format his two editors and chiefs were aundrea Kappa loopy and Hannah Greco as well as a support staff that worked to put together this yearbook so we're proud to present that to you we are very pleased yesterday to see a follow up senior yearbook your yearbook video was presented yesterday is about 20 minutes long that in court included pictures from throughout the yearbook and pictures of every student which was fantastic to see the other thing

017I have to present to you is the masquerade which is the annual literary magazine that Brookfield High School produces the advisors there are mrs. Miss Nichols and mr. de marchis there's several different editors the senior sarawak was class president and senior club president and senior editor along with Mariana Garnica Kylee moody Sara Bernardo Maria Thomas Garza lino Kylee moody John Revis and mihika gurram I think one of the ones that I like the most is their dedication and the second page on page three actually despite what I put you through so I'm gonna read it I know this year has been tough and that having me for a student has never been extraordinarily fun but I want to thank you for all that you've done you made sure that I survived the year even though

018I came pretty close to kicking and screaming and throwing a fit yet you saw to it that I never quit I tried my best and all the work you made sure that I did it well you were probably extremely frustrated so kudos to your never-ending patience your guidance has taught me much and despite what I might put you through I'm lucky to have such a wonderful teacher like you thank you so that's what the kids wrote for not just the faculty but also for the advisors as well so and so what I have for you thank you very much you're welcome it's really impressive all right next we have public comment and we do have Suzanne Caruso and Lori Peck signed up good evening everybody I'm Suzanne gerousia I'm a Brookfield resident and I'm Laurie

019pack also Brookfield resident and the reason we're here tonight we are two of the coordinators for the Brookfield High School grad party could you just um state your address - just for the record absolutely I'm I'm at - maple tree Road in Brookfield and I'm at nine can really Drive in Brookfield so again we are here representing the Brookfield High School grad party we apologize for our outfits tonight because we if you have the notice are currently decorating for this year's wonderful evening to celebrate our graduates so everything is being holly vinyls up and starting now so we'll be decorating tonight tomorrow and Friday our walkthrough will be this Saturday 1:30 to 3:30 so we wanted to cordially invite you guys to our walkthrough or if you'd like to attend the evening you need lots

020of volunteers we thank you always for all of your support it really is a community effort it takes us all year to to work on this we have over a hundred volunteers that work tirelessly throughout the whole year and especially these next three days as we decorate and reimagine the high school and it's always such a fun and safe night for the graduates I was lucky enough to be the first class to ever have this at Brookfield High School 33 years ago wow it really has grown and developed it's something extremely special so we thank everybody for all of your continued efforts to to make this a really great night for the graduates thank you thank you for everything you do I'm gonna second to walk through from 1:30 to 3:30 on if anyone has

021knots and done it please come please take your children they're gonna want to you know not only attend the high school but graduate from the high school just so they can if the transformation is absolutely amazing no seniors allowed surprise for the seniors so no pictures posted until Sunday morning please thank you do we have anybody else okay moving on to respondents from Giuseppe etre guarding a recess at WMS poll andrea feresten regarding transportation and stephanie connect regarding lice clinics of america thank you recommend a motion that the board approved the minutes listed below as recommended the regular meeting on June 5th 2019 any discussion it's all in favor opposed to the super dr. Brooke all right Thank You missus sir I do have a brief anecdote about preparing for the for grad night when

022there was number of board members who attended the Whiskey nears moving up ceremony when I was crossing through from the auditorium in the front of the school through the parking lot it was still light out it wasn't quite dark yet it was just a little after 8 o'clock and I was walking out toward my car on the kind of on the guidance social study side of where the high school where I was parked and I hear voices from above near the main entrance saying hey dr. Burrell hey dr. Berlin I look up and then and I hear these these four voices and then I see these four heads and they pop up and go where the grad does and we're everywhere making plans and doing everything already knew was great I told you we're everywhere

023they really are it was fantastic which is why the work that switches where they were probably on the roof oh yeah checking things out yeah from their position I actually thought you were gonna say it was a new air conditioning system saying I were yes yes exactly so yes so that that's just it's the incredible dedication of the parents for our students is just amazing and you know the whole the whole town's taking together and then doing what's right for the kids it's just great so we have a very brief super tenant report for our last meeting first I want to talk about Brookfield high schools ranked as one of the top high schools in the nation according to US News and World Report and that's obviously through all of the growth that's going on

024with our students I have to thank the Board of Education for all of their support these past four years that has gotten us to this point principal bland and his team and teachers I mean it's just been incredible all the hard working dedication and just over to cap very briefly for everybody four short years ago we were all shocked what Brookfield high school has identified as a focus school and that was in 2015 when mr. Blandon was taking over and I was coming into the district and dr. ruby was coming in and there was a lot of change going on and there was an achievement gap between her high need and our non high needs students and through the spearheading of the state and school improvement grant from the state of Connecticut which was nearly

025seven hundred thousand dollars over the last few years to really help the professional development and resources and things like that we've really made some great strides we've also been preparing for the me ask visit which happened this year and we've gone through beautiful knee ask report that gives us a lot of commendations and recommendations to help us with a plan that actually I was just talking about with mr. mole antha today so I just have to thank everyone who was a part of this in working and being dedicated in service to the strategic plan to make great things happen for our students here at Brookfield high school and really for the whole district so we're just very proud and then there's just six pieces that go into that ranking where US News and World Report

026ranks high schools and that's through college readiness math and reading proficiency math and reading performance understood underserved student performance breadth of college of auricular and graduation rating those are combined and they're formula to make that ranking so it really is an honor to be on that list so we're really excited about it and looking forward to continuing to improve improve that ranking and so I wanted to share that and then we have some other really great news that I asked dr. Ruby to share very really briefly this evening so dr. Ruby I'll turn over my time to you thank you as you know the sbox scores for all the schools public schools and kind of are released the end of the summer but we get preliminary data and when we have the preliminary data it's

027not for public dispensing because it is just that preliminary data being preliminary means that they're giving you data on your school based on the assessments of students that they had in their in the hopper that they were able to look at a couple days before the window closed so it doesn't include its preliminary because it doesn't include all of the student data if there were late test takers or if there were any tests that had to be stopped and restarted and then the state has to look at all those tests individually so we didn't happen to have at our particular the middle school which we've been concerned with out the participation we didn't have any really late test takers it's like when I got the data which I'm supposed to keep secret like I live

028with this all summer I called the state and I'm like so like it doesn't say embargo I mean like how secure is this and the fella said well I don't that's a really good question you know I don't really know if we have that defined I said well here's what I want to know I've got some data here that I really would like to share so I need you to tell me who I can share it with without getting in trouble because I can get in enough trouble law by myself so he said let me put you on hold he came back and he goes you can share it with the family sounds like a Godfather movie or something so I said well define family he said well you can share it with the principals

029and but they can't really share it out to the public I said well what about the board because they're my inner circle family they said yes I said what about at a board meeting and they said you can't put the numbers out because your board meetings are public so I'm gonna tell you what I can tell you we're very happy to let you know that and Mark is ecstatic to let you know that 75 percent on average 76 percent in the LA and 74 percent of the incoming ninth graders are at proficient or above in ela and math so that's you know I know that Dean's been really working with his staff so that's very exciting because it's it's showing that you know we've been lagging in math and it's not showing that there's a

030discrepancy between ela and math that we've everybody's been working hard and those are tremendous numbers I don't have the growth numbers that I normally be able to give you in the fall but I'm gonna tell you a little bit about growth in terms of percentage points so the children that are going to ninth grade next year they had I did cohort you know cuz I didn't want to just give you classes they had an increase of six percentage points in math over seventh grade and yes they're even six percentage points in ela the seventh graders upcoming eighth graders had an increase of nine percentage points in math and eight percentage points in ela the incoming seventh graders had an increase of 16 percentage points in math you know math has been that all over the

031state in the past couple of years and you know we've been doing a lot of work in math and in the in ela the 6th graders going into seventh there was a decline of three percentage points in the ela the 5th graders had an increase this rising 6th graders had an increase of 16 percentage points in ela and there was a decrease of 5 percentage points in math if you remember we've seen this three years in a row with in math going from fourth grade to fifth grade a decline so Dean and I have discussed that because there are variables that you look at like what is it that's you know causing this drop you know their their change we know it's not just because they went to the middle school because there was a

032tremendous increase in ela this year so he's already looking at that as I spoke to him this weekend well we just wanted to share this on behalf of the work of of the teachers and the students because it's really quite remarkable so we're very happy to share that yeah great job to everyone involved I can't answer any questions all I can tell you second meeting in September we should that's that's where we go through all the detail principles that's one so they'll have all the data and obviously you know how much work it is to analyze and get those growth they're not gonna do that our preliminary data because it's a waste of time so when they get all their ducks in order then they they're psychometricians do all their manipulations and then they give

033us that wealth of information in late summer and the NGSS test this is the first we were a pilot school the previous year and as you remember we didn't get any scores those it was a pilot and it was all over the lot this year because it's the first time that everybody had to take it they have to do a deeper dive into the cycle metrics and they have to do norm setting etc so they're not anticipating that they'll Billy release that information the results until October so if I'm fall it's a listen to me I'll tell you what though good news is a fun fall so a lot of good news and a lot to be thankful for thank you you're welcome and that's all I have collected all right thank you any other

034further questions for dr. Baylor dr. Ruby okay moving on we have the subcommittee reports first on the list is personnel in negotiations we met on June 3rd and session to discuss strategy and negotiations as it related to collective bargaining that pretty much entails that next we have the healthy school start times so we had our first meeting of our full committee for healthy school start times on Monday June 3rd and we spent the bulk of the meeting discussing a Wahlstrom 2017 article we really wanted to establish some common understanding on the latest research about the impact of start times on students health and academic performance so that was a really great discussion with the whole team and then we really got into a discussion of what would be sort of our big picture goals or

035guiding principles for the year and those we determined those were that we were going to apply the science behind the impact on sleep we'd focus on a wellness approach we want to think pre-k to 12 in our thinking we want whatever plans we do proposed to be budget neutral we want to think big we want to if we want to make a change and want to think what can be a really impactful change the committee then is going to develop some surveys for specific stakeholders and different members of the committee are going to come back with some sample surveys and we're going to do some research on other districts to look into what they have done in terms of their work and examining start times and we just had a general discussion on the importance

036of engaging the public through various means of communications to make sure that this is something that the whole community is involved in and our next meeting will be July 1st at 4 o'clock any questions for Jen let's have a question is it has there been any discussion or talk about how this would even impact or even possible to pull off with sports we're really just pull in an area at this point that'll definitely be a big part of the discussion and we're gonna be looking at other districts that have done it and how they've managed that particular issue pulling in all the stakeholders yeah but I think to tail under what Jen said when we talked about thinking big the thought behind that is we didn't want to put in all this work to change

037the start time 15 minutes if it's gonna be changed it's going to be one that will be impactful for the students because the science is out there that the further you push it aside the better it is as far as as the students day any other questions okay Thank You Jen moving on to finance so we had our regular finance committee meeting on June 10th you know did our normal review of the financials and the check registers and it looks like the year will land well and anything you want to add to that at the end of it spent some pluses and minuses we actually have been doing the Board of Finance has been receiving our summary sheet now for a couple of months and that seems to be going to cost as well so

038and thank you for doing that analytical bit on that every maliki the new items we talked about a couple of good interesting new news is the town is got the ability to remotely deposit checks that we receive now instead of having to go to the bank it's a little scanner thing that allows us to deposit directly into the accounts that will be better control and more efficient we're also gonna have the ability for online payments so for all the parents who have written checks for field trips they'll have to be able to use the same basic account structure as they do for school lunches and that will start this coming school year yes right that's great news there'll be a lot of communication going out on that so those those are kind of new use

039of technology which is great now that we've kind of gotten stable on our controls we're pressing ahead another thing that we that mister post and mrs. Miriam that the town controller I've been working on you all may remember the there's been this shadow bookkeeping thing that goes on the town ran books for the schools and school ran books for the schools and then they had to reconcile them two meetings ago the two financial leaders came together and said to us we think we can eliminate that just actually closed the books once there's enough trust between the town and the school to be able to make that work we're both on the same system now and it's and it will take all the work of having to reconcile between two different sets of books out of

040the play which you if you all remember a couple years ago that was like the cause celeb Jones a big piece of this emphasis to that though that the town cannot do anything with our numbers other than observe them as we can't do anything with the towns and others other than observe them so we still have the separate financial controls but now we will be able to have a common coordinated closing instead of a mirror close yes right and we have a good honest working relationship together yeah which is so important so thank you no thank you everybody for that next item we talked about was we're looking into retaining and outside service to deal with substitutes you know we spend an awful lot of time dealing with substitutes and some of our neighboring district

041system service is available that will it's much more efficient and has a better pool of substitutes they can manage so we're looking actively into doing that we weren't asked to take a decision on it but it's a big initiative that we're we're working on I'm gonna skip through the next item which we actually spent quite a bit of time on on kindergarten enrollment because it's on the agenda tonight so I'll just for the sake of going quickly I'll pass through that right now it's a challenge that we're gonna we're facing and then we we talked about in general-purpose about capital projects and non lapsing fun but of course we have a Facilities Committee who deals with the capital project so it was more for information than anything so and that was it I just add

042on to the my school box the online payment option for parents that that is exactly that it is an option to pay electronically for parents I want parents to know that they don't have to do that they still can write a check so I want to make sure there's no misunderstanding coming out of this meeting and anything people get nervous about or upset about they still can write a check and that's okay yeah okay thank you any other questions for about thank you okay moving on we have the security task force which met on Friday June 14th and essentially on the majority of the meeting was spent reviewing the homeland security report if you all remember this as a report that was done essentially in preparation for the grant application for the new school project

043but it was also a really good thoughtful thorough way to review the security at all four of our schools now and then we'll head to the new school so we reviewed some of the findings and from them developed and identified some priorities that we will be looking for in the future and in addition to that also discussed maybe the possibility of looking at a third SRO once we do have the new school open it's gonna be a larger school and you know it will have to determine and talk about whether it does deserve it so necessary at that point we will continue to meet probably every three months just to review what's happening down the line as far as the capital projects that are going to be developed with the capital project plan that was

044put to place and the securing report priorities as well any questions thank you all right next we have the consent agenda recommend a motion that the board approved the items on the consent agenda is recommended new hires resignations and retirements a second second I guess I'm designated secondary like that's my night tonight any questions comments [Music] I'm sorry to see you go dr. Cipolla and I'm seriously mad at you my daughter is currently studying something similar to what dr. Cipolla does and you know during her time here she has done some wonderfully amazing things with our students and for our school system and I have been checking up on you and making sure and you have been fantastic and you've been so good for Brookfield and unfortunately I know you're going to be wonderful for

045Bethel so thank you I second that absolutely thank you for everything that you've done I'd also like to thank Susan Berardi for her 17 years of service as a paraeducator at center school else all in favor by the post moving on to new business we have the approval of field trips for the 2019 20 school year recommend a motion that the board approve the attached list of field trips for the 2019 2020 school year is recommended by BHS principal mark Belinda second very much very much second on this topic quite happy so this is one of the things where we've had a discussion where oftentimes we come to you with the same trips year after year and so I don't remember who actually came up with the idea to have this Bob mr. Beldon thank

046you for coming up with this idea so we could kind of these are trips that we take every year generally you know with their really ER and pretty too much exceptions there they occur about the same amount of time every year you know there is one here that is the whisk in your middle school is on there while I speak for mr. Renda that is a trip that's going to continue but the rest of them including deca the music department trips there's actually three different deca trips you know the power trip we may not take every year that's funny the power trip we may not take every year but the sports entertainment conference and the international career the conference we go to every year Key Club is something we always do robotics continues to be

047competitive and then obviously from the district perspective there's the obviously in mind as well so it just would be helpful for us if we could do these in bulk and then we have to keep coming back and having those discussion so I appreciate the foresight and having the discussion about approving these overnight trips any questions for mr. Bohannon all right all in favor aye opposed can't see how you see that is thank you I'm not going anywhere [Music] hey recommend a motion that the board approved the attach list of lists of sports field trips for the 2019 2020 school year as requested by athletic director Steve Baldwin second otherwise known as mr. Blandon so here we have a list of things that include New England tournaments for example wrestling often takes place out of state

048it's an overnight tournament kids have to drive up they have to get weighed in you know so it ends up taking a little bit longer same thing with some of the cross-country and outdoor track New England's dance tournament is again in Vermont we have some cheer competitions that we know highly competitive that are in the spring believe it or not for that's something new that we're looking to do as well and then there's the boy swim and dive is traditionally going to training in Florida as has baseball those are two two trips that were taken this year we're looking to requestor those same things for next year any questions all in favor aye thanks thank you very much for putting it together but I know I'll be sad not to see everyone because I really

049like to wish all of the actually clubs enough you know clubs and maybe include uncertain times reports or things like that yeah well I'll tell you what if somebody has a big achievement let's combine the man and let them complain right yeah absolutely we'll do that thank you thank you moving on we have a recommended action to discuss the 2019-20 click on enrollment all right I'd like to invite mrs. diamond the proud principal of center school up to the podium and I really have to do provide kudos to mrs. diamond and her team they've really kept a very close eye on registration and enrollment for kindergarten this year really tracked the data and actually made a lot of personal calls to ensure that if those students who potentially are coming to ensure that they're actually

050registered so we can manage our enrollment and have a very fruitful discussion this evening so good evening everyone thank you for taking the time to discuss this at this time of the year rather than in August and of August very helpful so this is our current class of kindergartners this is what a hundred fifty-two kindergartners look like so we're talking about adding about 20 more and and keeping the same you know like look with the staff and with looks like just when she had this picture they look so cute throughout the high school from their play day so if you look at the second slide there's a lot of data though that's why i printed printed out with copies for you so we went back and had lisa Ruggles who is phenomenal as many of

051you know the secretary at a center school she went through all of her records because there has not been documentation kept this way as far as I can tell so we went back to look to see a couple of things so when you know how many when we when we leave school in June approximately how many students are registered so that's the first column that you'll see there the next column is the number of students who started this school year that in that same summer so you'll see there's a difference then if you look at the 1516 row in on June 5th it says 2019 that should be 2015 sorry about that June 5th there were 141 students who are registered for kindergarten when school started in August that year 169 students started so that's

052a difference of 28 there are 28 students who've moved in over the summer there were 8 teachers that year which meant there were 21 students in a class the next column shares how many students moved in over the course of the year so that year they're only three students who moved in the next column shows the number of students who moved out over the course of the year and then the next column shows the June enrollment so they started that year in 2015-16 with a hundred 141 registrants in June 169 students actually came and 168 students left kindergarten in June so that was an anomaly and I think that we've gotten much better about in terms of finding students so we have two teachers in kindergarten who have been literally beating the bushes trying to

053see where all the kindergarteners are that potentially could be coming just to center school they've been to all the pre-k we've been in contact with the local pre-k z-- we've been contact with the pediatricians offices we've been really trying to you know know where these kids are because as you can see over the summer there are always there's no no fewer than eight kids that have moved in over the summer from the June to August enrollment so currently this is the kind of historical data currently if you turn to the next slide the next page there are a hundred seventy-six registration packets that have been requested so that means that so you know someone has come in either to the office or from our website and pulled 167 actually 176 registration packets 158 of them

054are students whose parents or guardians have returned all or most of the paperwork so we know they're coming they've come in for an appointment we've done the screening with their child we've gotten all their paperwork we're very confident they're coming at least 18 outstanding packets out there and of those 18 13 are currently in process of being completed so we have one student who's currently in our senator school pre-k who will be coming to kindergarten next year they just haven't parents haven't done the packet yet there are three students who have siblings in the district already so either they're already enrolled in kindergarten for a second I think I don't think there's minute minute middle school students but they're all at the elementary level so we're fairly confident that those kids are coming as well

055their parents just haven't been in yet to fill out all the paperwork there's one student who's transferring from another school we've screened her she's been in we've met with her we're just waiting for mom to bring the packet back there are eight students whose parents have appointments at Center in the next few weeks to return the paperwork so we are fairly confident that they're an additional 13 students so the 158 that are registered there are 13 more that we are very confident will be here that leaves instead of a hundred seventy-one students who we are very confident will be here in the fall for for kindergarten five packets are out we don't know there's a brook field like Oklahoma or something that we frequently get calls about I just had an art teacher apply from

056Wisconsin and I called her are you relocating no so this oh there's a that Brookfield tends to be a little confusing sometimes so again we had 171 if we if we do end up with that number of students if we stick with our eight teachers that'll be twenty one point three students per class obviously there's no point three students there'll be some classes of twenty-one and some classes of twenty-two if we if we were to increase the ninety church that would still put us at nineteen students the range that with the Board of Ed guidelines and again they're only guidelines are seventeen to twenty with it with a goal of nineteen the other thing I just want to mention is that this is if nobody else moves in and I will tell you that we

057already got a call we had another call yesterday requesting a packet so if you look back at the other slide it kind of shows how many students tend to come in over the summer so no fewer than eight in the last four years twenty-eight again I think there was that was an anomaly and then I also we usually have a net of the column all the way in the right shows about how many kids come in over the course of the year so we also show a net between you know four to seven typically in the last couple years so 171 is our pretty firm number right now but I would not be surprised if that increases in the next couple months just out of curiosity it's not going to change the number tremendously the

058three students who have siblings in the in the public schools is there possibility that these families may be like moving out over the summer but what the others have so Sosa at least two of the siblings are currently at center school and we sent home at center we sent home yeah are you returning next year was moving and they both returned that they were those students who are currently enrolled are coming back okay so we're pretty confident that they're that they're going to be back any questions about any of the information or the date of the way it's presented this is a thorough research yeah I know this is very good and so thank you for that early as the magnet school numbers that's all that's all taken iron yep remind me what did we

059assume when we built up our budget I think what's it more than 160 cuz we knew it's gonna be under that yep yep so we're already 11 above melona Bertram yes we have to find a different company to do this well in the course of a month we had even from just May 13 to you know any means so that's that there's they're definitely they're coming they're not in there wait a student come today they're they're moving from Fairfax Virginia they came in today brought their you know brought their son and we met him yeah so they're definitely they're coming in and we're happy to have them we're happy again our kindergarten teachers are excited they're raring to go or placing everyone ever you know we're really happy to have so much business we just

060would be helpful to not have so much in one class in terms of number of students so we can see that Mary Rose did here's with our current eight teachers just to reiterate this for everyone you see that we would have if the 171 holds true and no one else moves in we're looking at twenty one point three students per session which is yeah we're 22 so that's that's above our guidelines not even at target it's above are clearly above our guideline even if we add a teacher we we are then at target and again that's assuming no one no other students move in and over the last three years we've had between four and seven students move in net over the course of the year so one of the things that I find interesting

061is you know our trend which one of the things I've told us as the trend would be coming down slightly over time it would be seeing smaller classes and if I look at the the column at number of students who started the year in kindergarten has 169 158 148 150 and actually will has been sliding down so this is a big change are you getting any signals so why we're seeing a big change is it a family's a big families moving into town or is it there's any other thing going on I would I wouldn't say that we've seen any you know there's a little lot of discussion but the new housing developments being the you know being built we're not even seeing an overwhelming number of students from those from those development it just

062seems like there are a lot of people moving in the profil who happen to have kids are they coming from any particular pre-k program that may have been sending kids also you miss across the board you know we really it's been pretty pretty standard in terms of the the you know where principies country kids the why you know it's not we've it we've I think there are I don't want to I'm not going to quote this absolutely correctly I think there are about 20 students who have not been in any pre-k but we also that those their parents have had registered for them so that we're aware of them as well so we're it's a wide range of pre-k programs as well as you know people kids who have been home with their with their

063families that kind of thing do you think it's the buzz of the new school project it certainly could be you know I wouldn't nothing's been purported to our secretaries then the secretaries are at the front line table with paperwork and going through everything with our families and nothing's been reported in that way but they're not necessarily asking the questions either they're just going through the paperwork so that certainly could be do you have any idea with new families moving into Brookfield if they're from other towns in Brookfield or from out of state the there's not again not been an overwhelming number I can tell you that there have been three or four I mean I can speak to three or four that I've spoken with that are new to Connecticut that we were kind of

064help them come in they've been a number of new housing new homes built so that's been you know there we have a couple of people waiting on contracts to be done so even even within that thirteen they're the eight that are coming in for appointments they're moving the end of June their home is supposed to be done by the end of June or the end of you know the end of July you know that kind of thing so they've been there have been some new construction mm-hmm but nothing that stands out that we could say I mean we I'll go back we can look at the data again we can we could do a poll of parents and that kind of thing we wanted to but nothing that stands out in terms of a necessarily

065reason for this I have a suggestion they could not be a good one but for the new school committee is that something that maybe you guys can incorporate to have an update done or another study done of ferns that I know it's a case one of my neighbors they they moved here two years ago and their kids are going to school in New York because they both work in New York and it's a weekend home for them right now she is waiting for the new school to be built so both of her children can be in the same school at the same time so to answer your question yes I I think that that is a huge thing it's exciting it's been needed and it's a wonderful thing for our town but I'm also concerned

066with I think it's great we're getting more kids this is terrific we're fantastic the whole thing but I capacity I want to make sure that the new school is being drawn up and prepared for this increase or these increases because I know we're going to have more children this will and this is part of the design phase taking a look at this and updating the the study the enrollment study I mean that's something we talked to Jeff about because Maloney McBroom is a subcontractor that works with them Colette and I were part of the team that went up and met with the office of school construction and grants management and the folks there we're talking about you know Malone and Macomb and looking at the enrollment and where things are at you know it's it's

067easy on the face value to say come on Malone enough room you've got to land this better for us and of course we want them to the reality is there's only two or three other vendors I've worked with one of the other vendors and they're all having this the similar issues trying to nail this down because you hear the reports constantly of everybody's fleeing Connecticut the weather the taxes the whole thing and then we're having this surge now you know from because the clients own real estate is up oh yeah new homes are up so it's hard to determine whether this is a trend or whether this is just going to be another one of our bubble crisis yeah in the short term these is that we're gonna I mean we can really bet on

068having at least 171 students based on the data that that mary-rose is presented and the one thing we did do proactively that Mary Rose led with her team is I asked her to build the class rosters with 8 and with nine depending on you know what what the where we go with our discussion tonight and we've also we've kind of our curriculum specialists have done and you know where do we have all the materials we would need for another section our custodians we're working on the technology and the furniture aspect as well we both we've already looked at our where we would put if we got an addition an additional section or honestly I mean you know when the background is ok what if we what if we need to have another an alternate space

069what if we wind up with 180 kids you know so that so we're looking at all those alternatives now so we've really contingency this out so we're ready to eat we're ready to make whatever mood needs to be made and and be responsive to them what's the recommendation of building and central administration I will give the recommendation that we we need another we need a night section of kindergarten which means another teacher the more I study this is the more I look at this I can't good conscience go further into the summer without recommending that to the board I agree and I assume can we're not at the point I know we weren't at the finance meeting where we have like an influx of retirements etc that we are able to fund the additional teacher

070that in that manner correct nothing's changed in that regard okay [Music] so one of the things we can do it for an agreement that we do need the additional teacher is request a special appropriation from the Board of Finance to prove it and then bring it to the Board of Selectmen to see if we can get it that way if we're not able to pull it and we don't have the funds in our budget given the cause the cuts we went through we just reduced three million three hundred thousand dollars I don't know I don't know where there's money in our budget yet so we do not have I believe ninth class for these children we're gonna be doing them a disservice and I think you're right it's our most precious great and and in

071I know dr. bro you had mentioned this before the research is out there that small class sizes have a direct effect on student achievement in every grade but especially its most crucial in kindergarten first our primary grades absolutely that's where the where the impact is really seen the most what's the incremental cost of another section typically the average hiring teachers at Master step seven which is six to seven thousand four hundred ninety dollars and do we have sufficient supplies and curriculum materials we have for the most part Mary Rose has what she needs so 67 and 1825 okay 85 40 90 and then go ahead go ahead dr. Rubin 85 we did finish the answer which likely would have to purchase the science kits for kindergarten because the teacher would need those we looked at

072the reading teachers college into study and we would be able to handle that in-house because we have a set that we use for PD and then mathematics I don't we're good on mathematics so I'm only curricular stuff this may be another patent batch of sciences yes and you know I we we've been looking at all of these things as Mara said and John said the furniture why not so the science kits where would be the ones that we would need to know how much is so I don't have that number with me but I think it would be approximately $5,000 because we we bought the the other kindergarten kits over time you know we did that roll in but we we have to do the full thing for that class duh ninety thousand um yes

073although actually I think my recommendation would be if we're going to do the appropriation request we just request the teacher and see if we can find the five thousand somewhere within our house the budget - I think it would do well for an effort to at least do something on our end thank the Lord the town budget at the share of the retirement funding that they have need to do and the extra CCS in the ex piece yeah Wow so if everyone's in agreement with this we can make a motion that the board approved the chair to request a special appropriation of the Board of Finance for eighty five thousand five hundred dollars to fund a ninth alright let's just say an additional kindergarten teacher second and yet further discussion all in favor hi thank

074you very much okay so in people that together and thanks Paris so that so it's not just the Board of Finance I think the the appropriation goes through the Board of Selectmen officially it has to be approved by the Board of Finance and sent to the Board of Selectmen uh I think it goes the other way around backfill okay I think we just we have just pulled it it usually goes the other way around it goes through the selectmen and gets approved by the board interesting cuz we have to do we have looked at the Charter and yeah so did you have the properties that drive it through the process what this do okay now you read the process I'd like to bring up one other one other piece to this is obviously we're in

075hiring season and as we know the creme is that the the creme is at the top and so we want to hire folks in all of our open positions as early in the hiring season as possible rather than wait til the end of the summer so if I could have a little bit of direction I don't certainly we've just authorized the chair to go to the Board of Finance and Board of Selectmen in terms of of hiring for this particular section I know it's not approved I've is there any you know but do we anticipate to support of any comfort level in anticipating that this likely might be approved and then from there can I say likely might be I don't know if that works in maybe a little direction or guidance in terms of

076hiring posting that that kind of stuff because between the different meetings that go on we could be looking at more than a month's time if we wait for the actual formal approval and I perfectly absolutely understand that situation go ahead I just want to give an example for you of the frenzy for districts hiring teachers and Maris correct me if I'm wrong but we are as you know hiring a preschool teacher and they have been working diligently all week well more than a week because they go through the applications but enough like bringing people in for interviews and then the demonstration lessons etc etc and the top three people that they were finalizing sending send out of us when they contacted them to come in they all had taken other jobs and I think did

077you have a similar situation mister Belinda with two English teachers that they wanted to send forward and when they call them when they call anyone and one science and when they call them back they'd already taken other they take in other contracts so this is this is real you know we're not you know that we don't tell you stories but intelligence this is really serious in terms of hiring quality people well is is this a I mean as far as I'm concerned this is not a nice to have this as I must a must have oh this is a must have so if it has not approved the especial appropriation of we yeah we might have to look at class sizes elsewhere um you know just class sizes elsewhere or other priorities that we had

078you know I don't want to give a laundry list but you know other priorities that we have that have to shift because of this need a number of you were were on the board when we lived through the 1516 school year with a very large kindergarten class with only eight sections and it was difficult and we reassigned some paraprofessionals and we did some things to support the more challenging classes but it was very difficult to get through with what whatever it was I whatever the data says here 22 or 23 in a class our teachers are still here from those kindergarten days and they can tell those stories it wasn't easy and that doesn't benefit our kids at the end of the day regardless have a cz4 for the adults it's the high quality instruction

079and attention we need for our kids thoughts on that I think we have to go ahead anywhere and hire Padre I think we have to fire yeah it's unfortunate but we have to get going they do thank you and if it doesn't work out we'll just have to cross that bridge do we need to make a motion on that to authorize him to hire I just to get some air cover they'd be helpful at least authorized to post it post a position in my priority to post it get the process going and then push through the formation on an accelerated schedule and so that by the time you're actually offering we've got the approval I mean it I think we ought to approve in hiring yeah okay because because if it slows down for any

080reason we're gonna end up doing it anyhow don't Sanders so I'd like to make a motion to authorize the administration to hire an additional kindergarten teacher understanding that we are going through the process of an additional appropriation now second further discussion all in favor hi I post thank you everybody thanks everything that in action it's it's so much easier to approach now than it is in September so I appreciate everyone's forward thinking on this and I just will and I think Eve suggestion of the full update on the on the melona McBroom study to understand if this is a fall or or a trend right is really important right because if we're if we're gonna be seeing something that's a whole section bigger and pervading through our district there's a mikesh you need to design

081fundamentally the design does sure absolutely the budget doesn't change thank you thank you thank you all right moving on to old business we have policies first is policy thirty five twenty four point one recommend a motion that the board approved policy number thirty five twenty four point one hazardous materials in schools pesticide application for a final reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was on May 15 2018 second and since Rosa's not here I'll just win this one was a adopt McCabe proposal and because the K proposal had much better detail and specifics on on this topic and you'll hear me say the same thing I think all of them this evening and there were no comments received from the board between first and second read any further discussion all in favor recommend

082a motion that the board approve policy number 31 11 fiscal year for final reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was on May 15 2009 teen second this one was a really hard we decided on this one just to adopt cabe so that we had it connected to the K policies it's basically the exact same right but it was to be able to say we're connected to cable sure well they spell out first and 30th so what was for the public who's left listening it's a one-sentence policy so that says our fiscal year is July 1st through June 30 that's all it says for the discussion discussion will be longer than the sentence moving under policy 30 to 80 point 1 recommend a motion that the board approved Pals to number 30 to

08380 point 1 hence for a final reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was on May 15 2000 19 second and this one also was an adopt the cave we thought the caves language was was was appropriate and actually crisper than we had an aural policy there was no comments received from anyone on the board it's very similar very it's similar but a little a couple of areas it was clearer we call it really wasn't that different any other discussion all right all in favor aye aye or a host okay thank you to the policy subcommittee and Lisa everyone for pulling this together next we have the UH new school building project it's just an action recommended action that we receive an update um dr. Burrell I think you covered most of it

084just in the know that's that's good so Jeff was in speed from tech Don and dr. Birla myself sat in last week for a follow-up appointment with the school construction office grants management to review the the application was actually received a very good initial reception to the point that cost us who is in charge of it asked for a copy to use the application as an exemplar for other schools that are submitting application he had a few other tweaks he wanted to see to it but for the most part he was quite impressed with the entire part and personal which speaks very well for our application going forward now he did say that applications are still being received for the June 30th deadline but he said this year he was gonna be very careful and

085sincere in that establishing the priorities and getting on a priority one of the priority list is not in automatic this time that you left actually received the grant he said that the highest priorities are going to be given to those whose applications are received in advance who were looking at consolidation of schools and who he's in his words we haven't seen in a while so the first two we are and I so gloating over you I'm sorry first two absolutely you know there we are application that only was received well in advance but obviously was that you know it was quite an apartment quite an impression on the on the department and we are absolutely consolidating schools third one it depends upon what in a while means in terms of years as far as the

086improvements here at the high school but I think we're well within range there as well so the scary report and then also some of the applications that towns are sending Thank You Susan so two other pieces are the security report he was really pleased with the security report and the duck Pesce from homeland security provided to us in addition to that some of the communities that are submitting applications that we believe will submit applications by June 30th do not have their town financing approved via referendum or whatever that processes at this point and will not have it by June 30th so I think that bodes well for us since we have the financing already approved by our citizens so we have a lot working in our favor so we're hopeful and what is about December

087we get it so you will know whether we are on a priority list in the past it's been the priority list a B and C in the past June as he had said most all projects on the priority lists you know a B and C that's not gonna be a definite at this time but we will know in December where they were on a priority list and then the following spring as to whether we actually saved the grant and then just a final announcement about the building project we put it out in writing in the the June celebration edition newsletter as well as posted it everywhere on the school building project the regular web site the Facebook pages etc mr. Dunn will be putting it in the July spotlight for the town input sessions with

088the architects with the building designers will be scheduled for the fall probably in October at November into December date or dates so people can give their input ask questions have in-person meetings and that kind of a thing so I want to make sure that the public knows that input on design is will be proactively sought and if they have any if anyone from the community does have any questions or comments prior to them we still have our email line open ww new school project org and so and just email us there and if it's a technical question or input that will be forwarded to the MBC and or the architect design if it's a procedural question the new school committee will answer it very promptly as we usually do and then post the questions if

089they're appropriate on to the website as well and then one last thing I know that Tecton has been working directly with mr. Dunn and mr. Chekov from the NBC about finalizing the contract and so it may have already happened in terms of finalizing in the last day or two and I just don't know yet but they're working on signatures and that kind of thing and moving forward any other questions okay leads us to three main points kindergarten yeah garnet no that's the number one right yes graduation yes result suspect we don't want to put that out there I need to wait on that how about the US News & World Report we could put that in I sent I sent the school message out yesterday but we certainly could take that language and put that

090in is one of the items so kindergarten US News and World Report and do we want to put in the graduation do that are policies promoting the grand party so people know the three main points mean that it will be published that quickly just celebrate in the grant walk you could just include something about the grad party when you're talking about graduation right we got a report on the graduation and then and a grad party and okay I think that's great we have those upcoming events with Rosa al who will act on those roses usually drafting those up right now she is she is usually after Rosa drafts them dr. Berlin myself kind of take a look and review them and so we can probably pull something together okay with that all right upcoming events

091okay not a lot but none at center school Huckleberry ER in middle school but at the high school again the grad party walked through this here at the high school on Saturday from 1:30 3:30 rehearsal for graduation is on Friday June 21st from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Western Connecticut State University and graduation is this Saturday June 26th 22nd at 6 o'clock at Western Connecticut State University thank you and now we have an executive session anticipated recommend a motion that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing a confidential student matter and the superintendence evaluation second any discussion all in favor aye opposed okay this concludes the public airing portion of our meeting thank you everybody have a great evening [Music]