001[Music] we have for board members seated here at the moment Jen will be here in a few minutes he was under the weather and Bob and his wife Jen is actually welcome to grandson yesterday so congratulations to the Belden family and they welcomed little Troy so first up we have the student spotlight for Brookfield High School and Mr bland is on his way to the podium and I promise to not be here long because what we're highlighting tonight is our friends at Rachel Club which is formed recently after our greatest challenge assembly back on September 11th we have I have one of their advisors here this is Laurie Moses two of our students who have stepped up as leaders in this group cake Apicella and anthony o'hara and they're going to talk to you a
002little bit about the Friends of Rachel Club what they're doing and really how this is entirely run by the kids certainly Laurie's here to support them but the importance of this club is that the kids are on you and they have their ideas and Laurie certainly there to support them solid reduce go three of them so come on [Music] good morning dr. Breeland members of the board we're here to talk about the Friends of Rachel Club as mr. melinda introduced and what we've been doing this year in order to form a positive impact in our profile high school community at the start of the year the assembly that was given to us about Rachel Scott a victim in the Columbine shooting moved me and Kate internally to really try and turn this club into something
003big in the high school something that like people wouldn't look at and just like second-guess it or be like oh they're not really doing anything we really wanted to make a positive impact and the first thing that we did to do that was high-five Friday and we had students on Friday morning as the buses came in and as students were being dropped off at the two front entrances we had students stand at the front and give each other high-fives and you know something small but like it was good to see people have smiles on their face as other students greeted them in the morning and then the second thing we did was a compliment box in the cafeteria and that was a huge success we got around whoa a lot of students participated writing compliments
004to teachers fellow students custodians anybody in the school and we distributed during flex pay and after the Flex happened we saw all the students in the school walking out the little paper smiling at what their friends had to say about them so that was also really good for us to see one of the other things we did was a incentive base like kindness challenge where we hung up four posters in the main hallway in front of the main office and we had students who gain stickers by doing like kind activities are showing integrity and respect to other people they had them hang it up on the posters and whoever had the most stickers on their posters whichever grade nine through twelve would gain snacks performing contacts that it was by the great kindness challenge was
005a national campaign Jakarta not for a week snow day kinda mess up during that week so we expended overall the juniors ended up winning they had over 150 stars anyway my hunger game Athena I wanted to really like get the chain reaction as Rachel like challenged in her essay before she died she challenged the reader of three separate times to create a chain reaction of kindness and so we heard about a tragedy involving a suicide DHS so the members of Rachel's challenge came together like pre last minute and created positive posters to hang up in most of the classrooms at DHS and we got over a hundred of them done in just less than like in 45 minutes to an hour so our next big activity is happening on March 20th so we really want
006to do something for national happiness day so every grade 9 through 12 is getting like a color poster board and during lunch later they can come up and cut a piece of paper and write something down it makes them happy and she ever and then connect it to a link so look whatever it is a longest link is gonna get like a surprise at the end so one thing that was Moses and I had to kind of yours to a very big trial and error was these Bobcat passes that we have for you guys we're really jumping out last season a challenge to experiment in here nice moving we came together one day friends Rachel to treat background sorry our kindness not goals but also the so um miss Moses like presented to teachers at
007our school today actually and so these were replaced in packet form in our teachers mailboxes so when they see one of the students or a student acting in like with one of these they can check off the box right the student's name and then write like what the student did on the back and it's placed into a box so at the end of the month it's kind of like a student month program because Anthea had both attended with Samir and the really car like remember like everyone's really excited to see you as a student month Matt and we feel like a lot of kids the high school would be more willing to do something if there was kind of like a little incentive and it's like we do like the pledge every morning mr. Glennon
008and like one of our peers like does the pledge should we thought that like at the end of the month there would be like a little bit of like a prize for like acting with integrity or being a bobcat and to create the chain reaction so the first box that we had on the pass is being responsible which is pretty big for kids in high school because high school is a place for them to learn responsibility and then another the next one for Oh is all for a helping hand which is something that you like to see you of kids who see each other everyday for a night one see here and then it's built a supportive community which is just as important as the other two because who wants to come to a school
009every day for hours and to be supported by their peers um so challenge yourself we thought was like not necessarily like a kindness effort but more like teachers are can see you when kids are going out of their way to really try and class which is just like building a supportive community and like also in addition to like mission statement that we have at BHS actually with integrity and treating others with compassion and showing respect all kind of go hand in hand because like that is what builds a supportive community and when people come to swim feel supported then we are creating like a happy environment to be around and then the last thing that miss Moses Anthony and I are all kind of working on right now is we realize that a lot of
010people that at the beginning of the year decided to be part of the club weren't really participating outside of the club hours so we realized that there was a reason to that and we feel that kindness can sometimes be uncomfortable for people to accomplish so I'm in order to kind of get over this we decided that we're going to try to have an assembly where seniors and sophomores are put into random groups and have to do like activities together as long as well as juniors and freshmen so both underclassmen are causing they're kind of mixing and like becoming friends or at least people that they can like look to in the halls that up to or like whatever goes wrong you want to talk bad they can tease me first about it's great thank you
011thank you so much you know as a principal to see a couple students you know that it was a very moving day I think for everyone there that first day of Rachel's challenging back on September 11th and to see the number of kids that wanted to see their sign up they already signed up initially to do with Friends of Rachel Club training in the afternoon after the morning session so many kids came up said I didn't sign up can I come and show up in that I forget how many kids we had it was you know overeat because that came for that first day training and you know while those numbers have certainly latent and we've gone down these two students you know certainly stepped up Kate and Anthony have really stepped up you know
012Anthony even came back for the nighttime presentation I'll embarrass them a little bit when his mother came up to me and yeah I know he's blushing right now she said I don't know what what you showed him today but he came home and could not stop talking about it and to see it continue now months later that he's still involved Kate as well and then of course you know miss Moses has just been there supporting every idea I think the best part of this whole thing is we know if we're gonna create a positive school climate in a building it could be something that I think of it could be some of the teachers think of but unless the kids buy into it nothing will change and the fact this is being run by our
013students is just it's the most rewarding thing to see and you know their work they're gonna work together to make this exchange happen and this is overall by the way if rate nights gonna be high school night you're gonna hear from a lot of high school people today this is making my dad quite often awesome so that's all I'm saying Oh Thank You Maya - were in middle school what 10 11 years ago when Rachel's challenge was brought to middle school and I was thrilled when I heard that it was the high school version of it was coming and even more thrilled to see everyone embraces so much so it's very very proud and excited that it's therapy this any of the questions [Music] okay I am going to make a motion at this time
014that we take new business agenda items a and B and move them next on the agenda and so we can get all the high schoolers out and back home on a school night [Music] any discussion all in favor aye okay so then that brings us to the robotics Oh mr. blender oh I apologize I'm sorry recommend a motion that the board approve the following trips for the robotics team as requested by robotics advisor jason's asaji oh and BHS principal mark Belinda [Music] okay sorry I had me to push Robert's Rules on you hi Anne nice to see you I'm here mr. Nastasia adores him he's the assistant robotics advisor for the robotics team and he's gonna share a little bit about the challenges this year as well as the ultimate trucks they're looking to go
015on to compete okay so this year's challenge is called a deep space and so every year the game is that you form an alliance with three other schools you play an asset that's about three minutes and then get about 20 minutes to your next match so it's the same format and aspect but what they have to do the tests they have to accomplish they're different so they share the themes deep space it's kind of like you're traveling we're stuck on Mars we can't boat me out here so we have to send the robot a few tasks and we're gonna move on to the next place so we've got to get our ship loaded our carb loaded everything ready to go we have three minutes to do that as a team and then before that I've
016seen some problems they have to get the robot has to dive to safety essentially though what it comes down to is you got the kids are driving but then after the match they that's the key part we bring over a lot back in there's definitely some damage after the 30 minutes of working it and you don't get hit by other teams whatever may occur if something breaks motor doesn't work so we have that 20 minutes to really work on the robot in this where I think the magic happens for the students that are involved because we have a pit crew and after speed with the drive team what are you guys experiencing after you know soft properties fix it very much this holds on for the entire weekend play anywhere from you know seven to
017fifteen matches so and we're we have super competitions we go depending on how well we perform there we could qualify for districts and those are the times that I have a customer first one is this Friday and water any other questions for success okay all in favor aye great have a great time next we have the deca ICBC true recommend motion of the board approve a trip to deca to attend the international career development conference in Orlando Florida from Friday April 26 to the 19 to Wednesday May 1st 2019 as request by B just business teacher and deca advisor you know Derek Jeter Daugherty and EHS principal mark Belinda second hi again again we're here to you know are well the successful Decker program just came back off the state's yesterday absolutely so should you
018know they'll talk a bit about military progress is looking request but I introduced apne and Brian blown wit as well all right all right thank you good evening everyone how are you and I'm so happy to be here again and it just makes me so proud every single time that I come to stand in front of you with my students because I am so imagined by these young adults that we have here yesterday was our competition where there was over seven hundred forty nine contestants in actively today I had seven confirmed people that are students going to be able to attend with me down to Florida in Orlando it is a great conference there's about 19,000 students from all over the world I'm talking as far as India China South America Canada and of course
019all the states in the US and they strive her professionalism and this year's campaign is ready for it and I'm gonna tell you something these kids are ready for it the work that they did and we did have a group of students that actually won third place and it's Brian's younger brother so he is a great role model for his brother and his freshmen they want in a written project which was a twenty page written project that they have to present as freshman phenomenal you know and I look at the the upperclassmen that are really showing how great this program is so thank you again we're gonna be going on the 27th probably come back on me first we estimated it to be about nine hundred fifty five dollars unfortunately convention areas of Florida are
020very expensive but you know we are looking at other ways to fundraise we do have our everything at easy business of course you know the Salesforce with me all the time she'll make my little plug so excuse me everybody but I must do these things to support our business and I want to have actually my students speak to you about what this means to them and why it's so important and why we just love to have this program run as well as it does so I introduce you to my president of Daka Brian Fallon whele all right so as Miss Audrey said yesterday thousands of thousands of X students competed at the aperture pin in pencil and in eight of them at Hertz were her co-worker Canadian deaf members through a three months of three
021months of operation they were able to craft a a written product I was able to that was able to that was able to evoke and come in as a judge that they were heard any one of the best and their business models we followed these students for Christopher construe I believe a drew over here and William Fox all freshman and I'm so proud to have as part of our club Latos here April 8th at our students will be traveling with us to Orlando to participate and leave for conference as I said three of those members have won that arm on the competition but also three them were able to receive variety response which are tariff on all hated to divert traffic say community service projects since our entire topic believe that the bees are trying
022to Europe to a allocate three spots to our most dedicated members in addition to that we also had to stay out soon if that ran for offices here their names were five ways our who is the who is a maternity member on the on the State Board and a junior this is Mount Airy she will be returning people become invested a state worship percent s on the on the doctor State Board of Education members some as you all probably have heard of our everything at GGC business as you see our native place right here some some everything that's easy that's been revealed a good experience for me for Brian Ms for Liam as well because some is taught us a lot of the fundamentals of business at a very core level such as different processes
023such as accounting marketing and finance because in today's world businesses continue to develop and evolve and at times you can see my things are so complex that they're really hard to understand but what everything SEC did for us was the providing almost from like the first Florida a way of understanding how even complex businesses in today's world work and what they consider like to do every and on top of business skills that is also Ty's communication as well as organizational skills because we need to communicate with different teams whether it's the sales team or the production team as well as how to organize our events so that each team member knows what they have to contribute in order for us to generate a positive business here and thank you thank you here that they you
024it's just another part of work it's just another part of our program that we run through Decca answer Future Business Leaders of America through our business department that really is providing these great skills for our young students and we want to thank you and thank you again for your time thank you I have a question about the business do you have a website or a way that people can find out about we're working on that yes we did what you would call a soft opening because we wanted to make sure that we had all the skills in place and here's our other we are just jam-packed here in business and this is our finance young man and he has also been doing a lot of her invoicing and our web design and all of our
025different Orion we're creating catalogs so well did we did have the pleasure of addressing the board back in April in fact about everything I should easy which is the business run jointly between FPA and deca specifically our Fon and I lead the FBLA at Murphy high school and Bryan is the president of deca for the business recently we have been working on our website which we are interested in publicizing eventually but do some of the constraints that we have as a business related to production we wouldn't be able to bring it to a larger market market outside of Brookfield but we hope to someday we only have two hedging machines downstairs and we have a small production team but we're working on that and also next Tuesday in fact at the FBLA State confidence we'll
026be presenting our business as a part of a workshop thank you so much thank you great thank you thank you thank you very much yeah reach out there any other questions all right good luck you all thank you okay we have board recognition expert dr. broom I see that you have the youth commission on your superintendents update yes and I think I might make a motion if we just move that as a separate item and have them present now so they're not waiting as well or sure there's a hole okay so move that the board receive a presentation from the Youth Commission okay all in favor hi okay it's gentlemen from the Youth Commission please come on up welcome back to the podium lamp turning into mr. Bolander they're coming well thank you again members
027to the board my name is Liam Ania my name is Michael Bates and where are the youth members of the newly reformed or peeled youth commissioner I want to start tonight by reading to you our mission statement for the public and for the board to hear the Brookfield Youth Commission provides an advocacy and information platform for youth representatives to get more engaged in town issues now we find in our we found in our about four month existence what we've actually helped raise more of these concerns to students and it's trying to facilitate a conversation in the student community about the about the issues that would face them specifically from the point of governance our adult members are mr. Robin Montgomery our chairman Marty Guin McNiff who is our Vice Chairman Gillian Vostro who is our
028secretary Aurora Mary Kelly and Sarah Devine so far we've actually ran a survey of the student population of Brookfield which I believe is included in the agenda packet tonight which actually has addressed some of the internet connectivity concerns that students have found in the infrastructural conditions of the school and the Frank existent existence of vaping within the school which has been a big problem and we're trying to work out a way that we can help raise awareness not only to the school which fortunately were able to do tonight but also potentially in administering sucks blocks presentations to students in accordance with the health with the it helps permit at the school and with mr. Belinda who has been a fantastic supporter of ours and we're very glad to be doing things with you found us
029specifically we haven't met with our concerns about that and we've met with him on a few occasions of fact and because we've formed ourselves as a board we've been be able to create a dialogue in the town so we can work on these specific issues as they present themselves there are time as student members of the perk of youth commission we find ourselves in a unique position to bring a student's perspective to many situations around the town particularly in the schools with BIGBANG the situation with bathrooms and Internet connectivity we hope to encourage more student involvement in the school and to encourage more students to really want to take part in the community and other activities as well right and specifically pertain to our municipal government we also we spoke with Eve Sturdivant who I
030see as I was able to attend tonight and we actually hope to bring a member of the Board of Education to serve as a liaison on the borough field Youth Commission and that's something I believe would be up to the deliberations of the Board of Education but we would like to propose that as option so we'd have that direct association with between the board and the Youth Commission and for all of us where some of the student leaders in our school we lead different clubs specifically Michael is a senior class president this year and we really do want to help bring these issues to the attention of our town leaders who are absolutely excellent and even able to hear us on these issues and and I think we'll be able to have a you know
031a prosperous future as a town with more youth leaders working in conjunction with our accounts so thank you so much for your time and we'd love to answer any questions oh yes yes but there's also her Fon and I established a business club at whisky near Middle School which is aimed at helping students understand the basics of economics and we just held our second meeting this last Tuesday which is going very well and we do hope because as of now we're all high school members of the Commission and as per the Charter it actually does permit for students from the ages of 12 and up it says serve on the Commission so when our Terms do expire we would like to bring members up from the middle school from the middle school onto the Commission
032and those entering the high school which will be in a year and a half so we do look forward to that and we like to facilitate as many connections as we can with the other students and keep you know spreading these ideas and making sure that everyone has kind of a platform that they can speak from as well and see if we can help bring them off I'll get them involved in community thanks so much when do you meet we meet on the first Friday of every month yes second I'm sorry are there any other question here what time at five o'clock at Town Hall blame did you share for us the last time the Youth Commission was active I know it's been quite a while approximate how many years because you guys just got
033this started this over I'm proud of you for your engagement of this well thank you I believe it's been about a decade now since it was last in exist a long time all right I look who's looking through the news times archives to see if anything was on and I saw the most recent one was from about 2005 when they were nominating candidates for it from the political parties in our town and that's what I believe is in last night was in the same area I think that's very important in you know you folks taking the initiative to get the Commission going again I'm very proud of you guys great job thank you and I am in support of a Board of Ed Lisa yeah I love the opportunity to work with you guys this
034is wonderful thank you joy [Music] thank you very much thanks so much everybody for presenting tonight and for all the high-school students great job we're very proud of you and thanks to mrs. Stern you're getting out early so no excuses on the homework being due tomorrow so one of the things is everybody's getting up if you could just just listen for just one second on your way out if you haven't partaken already we have cake to celebrate and recognize the Board of Education for all their volunteer hard work year round I think it's the hardest board to serve on in any community is the Board of Education and marches Board of Education Appreciation Month so we want to make sure we're appreciating our board and recognizing them with a little bit of cake so police
035are taking some cake and also as a congratulations to the board for the passing of the referendum for the new school building [Music] like that and just to myself I just wanted to send my own appreciation it has been a privilege sitting at the stable working alongside each and every member the board event so thank you for everything you do [Music] okay next we have public comment we have just one person signed up Robin logo Murray I was that with that Youth Commission you through your parents so is there anyone else here that would like to speak for public comments okay they'll be a student representative report hi everyone it's been a while since I last met and there's been a lot happening in both Delhi most reasonably yes Jamie at our second National Honor
036Society blood drive or we had 33 donors who are both teachers and students who are 17 or older this is a great turnout and NHS is very thankful for all of those who have donated tomorrow at 6 p.m. and the BHS cafeteria peer counseling will be hosting the annual st. Baldrick's fundraiser an event dedicated to raising awareness for pediatric cancer research students and teachers can volunteer to shave their heads for the foundation and the proceeds from all the donations will go to st. Baldrick's also yesterday we had our deca chapter compete at the state level and they performed very well as you heard and multiple students were finalists our winter sports are also wrapping up or are in their state tournaments such as our boys basketball team who is in their second round tonight at
037Waterford High and boys swim and dive next Tuesday all the students are getting ready for their last quarter of the year which is very fast approaching thank you thank you very much napalm up to the total goal for st. Baldrick's did I see yeah Mike Michael is on your counts I don't know how much it is but cuz I'm not their peer counseling list pretty impressive total yeah he's usually almost very successful that's a very lot of volunteers to shave their heads so thanks doctor Burrell having his head shaved again I'm not sure if I'm available that evening oh yeah I have been putting in my time over the years mr. Burrage I'll say he does any other questions thank you very much thanks stewey if you want to breathe for cake it's all cut
038up so if anybody wants to get up and get a piece or whatever let's let's do it five minutes okay okay great for cake all right keep it [Music] back next we thank you for allowing a quick break next we have the written correspondence okay we had Howard lasso regarding news project Lauren Delia earned the PTO Jessica Jessica regarding mr. Martina and his fabulous winter concert and Ron Jaffe we had three correspondence regarding a YouTube video an article in beeping one correspondence regarding an article on placa one correspondence regarding a website on the Jesse Lewis choose love movement and one correspondence about teaching coding thank you next we have approval of Board minutes recommend a motion that the board approve the minutes listed below below is recommended the public forum on 160 19 the regular
039meeting on 116 19 and the special meeting on two 519 second the discussion all right all in favor aye aye next we have the superintendent's update dr. bill Thank You Collette so was we haven't been together in quite a while so I have a number of things on the superintendent's report and some of those I'll be turning over to Ken to go through a few things to update the board in the public first I do want to again congratulate the board and all those who supported the projects a real win for Brookfield yesterday with the passing of the referendum just so everybody knows the education specs that involve kind of a narrative a lengthy narrative regarding what the the new school will look like kind of the big broad vision that is a part of
040the grant application as well as a number of architectural design pieces and initial design pieces in in addition to that many forms state forms that need to be completed by the superintendent and a support of supporting architect Jeff was new ski from tech town will be meeting with me on Friday morning and we've already booked time to initiate that process and get going so the work certainly doesn't stop we keep on rolling and we're excited to get started with that so I wanted to make sure everybody's aware that that's going on it doesn't end with a with a passing of a referendum there's a lot of work to still do yeah just starts right the the other thing is I wanted to thank mr. Lasser and give a shout out to the craft Center the
041Brookfield craft Center is proud to present its fourth annual high school student art competition exhibition excuse me artwork will be showcased by our students from Brookfield high as well as five other high schools and the exhibition opens on March 9th it will go to March 31st and it went is when it opens it will be a 5 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. reception on Martin large night as well and so if you look up to Brookfield Craft Center you can find out all the information on the exhibition but I wanted to make sure we got a plug in for that tonight the next one is an update on the last day of school a number of questions it's so many delays and our latest missiles and that kind of a thing the board in its infinite
042wisdom we built in as you all will recall we built in three emergency days part of that was to get us to 185 days so we'd be able to schedule the high school graduation earlier than April 1 but in addition to that it was the built in some makeup days we've had three snow days thus far three snow days that are being made up at the end of the year so our last day of school right now is June 19th we that's a Wednesday Lisa right and but I don't want anybody who's hearing these comments to think that we've forgotten we did have another snow day which was back in November that day was made up on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving so just to remind everybody understand the calendar or aware of it the
043next piece that I wanted to share with everybody has been a lot of talk with with the new governor governor Moll Lamont in place and some proposals regarding regionalization the board may recall last week or maybe the week before I shared from 2017 the Connecticut regionalism regionalism study pros/cons and some surprises for people as well I wanted to just take a moment in and share a few comments for people to understand with regionalization that comments that aren't ever found or discussed in sound bites on the news those who are proponents of regionalization with regionalization which is merging districts together with a capital R and making them a new region things that aren't discussed in the proposals and really it goes into the to the old saying the devil is in the details and so when
044discussing economies of scale which is really the reason most people talk about proposing such legislation and regionalizing school systems as a means of cost savings what's not discussed is local citizens having to go through a referendum process to agree to make such an agreement even even possible and the other thing that's not discussed is the legal costs and consultative fees it would take and the time it would take to reach agreement on all the aspects of a very complex organization like a school system it really is a merger where people think of mergers and acquisitions in the corporate world this would be a merger of multi-million dollar organizations so this isn't something like you just say well I went to school I understand schools and we're just gonna merge the schools together we just mix
045them together and the teachers to teach the kids and it would just work there's lots of things to consider I know that's the simplicity of how people look at it we have to think about things like union contracts and seniority and salary schedules and terminating or acquiring existing transportation contracts or the other service contracts that we have in school systems we have to think about where we bring people together and we have to think about the the value that citizens place on especially in New England and in Connecticut moving to small towns they move to small towns so they don't have to face large bureaucracy they appreciate the intimacy and they value that in their small towns and so there's a lot that goes into this kind of thought the time it would take I
046mean I don't have any hard and fast rule on this but I can't imagine with thinking of our strategic plan thinking that it took three years just to get to a referendum on one new school project in one town that it could take any less than five five to eight years that put such a plan together even if it was somehow encouraged and or partly mandated by stick and carrot means in terms of state funding so I really want to put that out there and this isn't a new concept in the most recently in the Malloy administration there was a similar proposal put forward it never ever became law and so for decades this has been talked about while we need to do everything we can to save money and work together and we've talked
047about that many times here in Brookfield how we're doing that in western Connecticut with our neighboring districts whether it's their special education transportation or technology purchases or other things that we do cooperative purchasing that we're already involved in we do a lot with regionalization with a small art where we work together and we share services but we don't combine another thing people don't think about that I have forgot to share it earlier is in regional districts the region owns the school buildings in towns the town owns the school building not the Board of Ed so the complexity of legal services and in trying to figure all this out even if we were able to come to an agreement it's just it's staggering to think about it and so anyway I wanted to just put that
048out to everybody let them know that this study that was just on two years ago it's a very new study is on the superintendent page on our district websites right there right in the center of the page so if anybody's interested there's really some interesting pieces pieces here and the cost of preparing planning and executing a regional situation could possibly be more than the economies of scale you might achieve and and some of that is actually talked about here how you know you don't just immediately save money like you think you would so anyway I wanted to put that out there and at least publicly give a little opinion on that for people and a little bit more perspective maybe any questions or any comments or thoughts about it before I move on to my
049other items on the list for the report okay so I'm gonna turn it over to Ken for a few items that he's been working on we'll start with the teacher retirement another piece that's been talked about with budgeting going on with state sure let's that's been talked about by the state and slightly different from the approach of the previous governor this this governor's proposing that they in towns gradually pick up the normal cost or the current cost of the portion of the current cost of the retired retirees from that town which in his proposal would be honored $31,000 approximately should be in 1920 that approximately double that the following here next I have any questions about that I'm sorry who's heard it already so there really understands that just as a clarification because actually First
050Selectman had sent out some figures today to they're using a base of each municipality paying 25% of the teacher retirement contribution if that districts salary was above average you would slightly need to pay more than that 25% if it's significantly below average then you're in one of the UM Alliance districts and so they pay significantly less brookfield in comparison to irdirc we are 18th out of 21 as far as our salaries so the 18th lowest as far as salaries with turkey however we are still slightly above state average so we would pay with this proposal should it go forward and again it's just a proposal there's about 26% developed over a period of three years of thank you time credits it's gradually introduced although three year period so that is where we're at right now
051the proposal we know all proposals don't go through I do believe though that the Board of Selectmen have put it into the budget just as a worst-case scenario in case it does go through that the talks are there Hey [Music] the next thing was the time and attendance kind of attendance system has met some of you may recall the last year year before we had a capital bonding item for $60,000 to get a purchase a time attendance system that would integrate with our payroll system in units so we're moving forward on that we're developing an RFP munis does have a product but our purchasing policy does require us to go through the RFP process so so we're going to do that and one of our requirements of course will be that it will work seamlessly
052with you notice as the work the same as the newest product would we met with the union presidents yesterday just to to let them know what we're doing and to try to get their input on how best to implement such a system as far as what methods we would use to collect the time whether it be computer-based or um print or or swiping the card and if we use devices like that where would we place them so I'm just to to get them thinking about that so that they can be part of the process and make this you know transition as seamless as possible any questions about that and we're reconvening with the the union leadership and right before the april break to get their feedback from they go back to their bargaining units talk
053to them subbu uh really want this to be successful rollout so we want to troubleshoot so if they you know if the membership who's going to actually be working and utilizing this system a couple of times a day we want to make sure it's implemented correctly so we'll be meeting with them again ken can you skip over Columbus they talk about that afterwards sure the next item is this whole breakfast which I think we've talked about a couple of times prior last month we had what we called advisory board meetings in each school advisory board something required by law we have to discuss get input on the food service included administrators teachers parents staff members at each school and we spoke about school breakfast at each school and it was generally well received and I
054think most people recognize that it it really does need to be done we're I think we were one of the seventeen school districts in the state that do not have the program right now so I think it's time and we actually went over today and met at the faculty meeting at center school to discuss it with the teachers and give them some examples of what type of food we we might be serving for breakfasts and explain the program to them and I'm going to be doing that at the other the algo very next week and we sought to meet with the high school and middle school to figure out how we're going to do with an elementary model is typically done in the classroom so we really want the teachers involved in the discussion on
055this so that you know we help facilitate this as little disruption as possible [Music] and my last item was online payments we currently allow parents to make payments through a system called Heartland or nutri kids to focus on my school bucks to put money on the food service account the same company allows that will allow us to have parents make names for anything else we want to do actually so we met with a representative last week and met with the principal's earlier this week also about we're going to start off small with it but we're gonna connect with that company to use it for collecting preschool tuition use it for collecting the chromebook fees at the high school and middle school the high school parking fees and initially the middle school Washington DC trip because
056is that such a big-ticket item and once we get some comfort level with the accounting and reporting and everything is some of these monies are going to activity count so we're going to general fund we want to make sure everything works properly and there's a counter for properly then we can start opening it up to other other activities field trips and other things that the principal's have identified where they collect money so we think that's going to be helpful there is a fee that the parent has to pay to use it they can either do it per transaction or they can pay like twelve or thirteen dollars for a year and get unlimited transactions so that'll all be communicated to them once we get it up and running that's great yeah that's gonna replace my
057school bucks by the current it'll expand its assets and it is yes it works with power school too so if for example the eighth grade DC trip any 8th grade parents signing on to power school we'll be able to see that that nobody else will if your trial we get to field trips and you know mrs. Jones's class is going only mrs. Jones Aaronson will see that in that the option debate if there's a surcharge though will there always be an option not to do it if people choose not to pay the fees yes they can still send a check okay we're just getting another it's good shooting another convenient option okay have a question regarding this school breakfast so so let's say for example so huckleberry the kids enter the building at 8:45 so
058that put that students be entering earlier than that to have the breakfast or that's just that that's doing her as far as we need more staffing to supervise children the forceful hours or this is this is all part of the initial discussion with the faculties in the perpetual work or all that's a leg antics and when we ultimately go to roll this out we want this to work and work smoothly and we want all those questions answered and these are the question out to scenter school today when Kent note with the fabulous up in breakfast will be available for everyone yes okay it has to be you can't identify those who are identified for free and reduced lunch [Music] and for that reason also it has to be a can't just be a snack it
059has to be what the USDA defines as a meal which has specific components that have to be met just like just like lunch does just want to make one comment on time and attendance and the online payments time and attendance was a very specific recommendation from Lou Shapiro report from a couple of years ago just as a reminder for everybody that were really at the end of the bloom Shapiro recommendations and really implementing all of them so that's tremendous the other piece is with online payments you notice Ken when he answered mrs. sturms question it with his parents gonna be able to check we've really discouraged the cash payments and that was another balloon Shapiro report was to get to check or electronic since we have the technology for that again tracking tracking some funds
060in student activity and really being transparent aboveboard and having a record of everything and making sure we're doing that correctly so those just important pieces there I'd like to just jump in briefly onto Columbus Day when we met with the union leadership about time and attendance yesterday we also talked to them about Columbus Day I had mentioned to the board that if the board is interested going forward in the 2021 school year fall 2012 2020 not recognizing alone a state with a day off of school that we have to talk to the unions because that's a bargaining issue several of the unions have Columbus Day specifically listed as a holiday so that I think the union leadership was in general open to the idea typically an agreement might look like we would write it up
061where if they don't if we don't have Columbus Day they still would get a floater holiday and be able to apply that an individual basis in working a principal or direct supervisor so I think that'll go in general direction that the board sounds like the board is interested in going at the same time the consequence of not having Columbus say it's important for the board to understand that in this is what we discussed yesterday is you really it all depends on each contract and every contract is different we have six union contracts is a Florida holiday means that the individual employee can take that holiday you know within reason when it's appropriate for them to take it and they would request that of their supervisor what that means is they would be taking the holiday
062while kids are in school many times with many of them so you you lessen the opportunity to have a full complement of your employees in place when people are taking floater holidays at different times so you're just missing people and so we all know we all you know work in different organizations when you don't have everybody and I'm not saying this is going to be the end of the world by any stretch I'm not trying to be dramatic about it but it will have an impact on day-to-day operations and I want to find that yet but when we're ready to go to the make that decision and we've already hash this out with with union leadership I'll have a further breakdown of what that might really look like for everybody but I want to give
063kind of a broad vision of the concept was that is a good name for people just let you know I'd be increasing the substitute costs and I haven't even broken that part down yet and I kind of think so you know like everything we do there's always you know there's a yin and yang there's always an impact and we have to think of the entire organization 2700 students 400 employees it's it's a big organization it's a lot to run and any any move we make it has a ripple effect a domino effect it squeezes the balloon over here but the balloon moves over here on the other end so it's it's just way goes I think when we made the suggestion we didn't realize that it was part of a bargaining unit yeah sure sure
064but doesn't mean we can't go with it so it's just something we need to explore and know everything every every consequence going in so then we can make an important decision and then the last thing I have it's not actually on my report I talked with mrs. Miriam marshal Miriam our town controller she has she's waiting on the 1718 formal audit report but she talked with the auditor today and she said it was okay that I share we are on the school side of things for sure and I think it goes through the town but I'll speak only for the Board of Education we had another cleaning on it and we always the report on that so again thank you Ken and then thanks to everybody at the Finance Committee all the hard work that
065goes into that and John's not here thank you Joe so I'll say that as well and that's it for my report is long tonight thank you any questions or any questions I will give a huge shout out to Kent anthem 13 as well kudos there thank you [Music] next we have subcommittee reports first we have two it's been a while since we've had a meeting so several of these committees have met more than once and we have had two security task force meets one on the 11th of January and one on the 22nd of February really the first one detailed more tying up all the loose ends as far as recommendations hardening schools some of these are items that will be seen in the Capitol requests for security upgrades at each of the schools that
066are going forth in the budget and we did speak and tell about some of those the second meeting as well dan Colville will be going out to check prices on some of those things as well and then we launched more into the threat assessment side of it as far as even looking at certain apps and software that can be installed that will not only protect students from others but also help protect students from harming themselves as well right Eric has done a significant amount of update and research on the different programs and ability of ways that we could go about doing this along with several excellent suggestions from members of the security task force so right now we're just trying to look and see what's going there maybe talk about a modified rollout of a
067product that would start maybe with the eighth graders and their Chromebooks and then go from there but it's still in the early stages and that's all I have there unless there's any questions okay next we have to finance subcommittee meetings and since Bob isn't here Jen did you want to take that I will we have January 14 okay so on January 14th we can reported that the budget variances were similar to the prior month's report so there was no major changes there dr. Cipolla updated us on special education costs particularly highlighting the difficulty and high cost of obtaining transportation for out placed students and that's something that she's working on with some partners on how to consolidate and perhaps lessen those costs the committee discussed requesting an on lapsing fund to be established of $65,000
068and we agreed these funds would be used for a one-time purchase and Ken reported that with one and a half years left on the current contract with all-star transportation the company wanted to propose negotiating an extension but our board policy requires these services go out to bid so we that request and then we met again in February 11th and can again recorded that budget variances are very similar there was we did discuss a shortfall in Medicaid revenues which is something we continue to keep an eye on let's see we discussed a recent joint meeting with the boards of Selectmen and Finance as well as scheduling some upcoming budget meetings can report at that about the regional efficiency group and studying of special ed and and trying to have a more regional approach to bids on
069things like Chromebooks and transportation and then can also present it to the committee to budget transfer requests which I think I see in our agenda later right so I guess we'll go over that in more detail to move some budget items over and we discussed a proposal from the town finance director to report certain BOE revenues in the town budget but we weren't ready to make a decision on that particularly we want to Bob to be there to see yes sort of our financial guru and we wanted him there to weigh in on the issue and I think that was that that was the big big news the Finance Committee any questions all right moving on we have policy communications okay so I apologize I'm losing my voice but it's uh we we met in
070January on the 16th very very briefly I think the meeting was probably about 20 minutes at most um but yeah we had before this meeting but um so our work on the 3000 series has kind of slowed a little bit just because of budget season but the two policies that we are currently working on one is the lunch charging policy which is later in the agenda so we'll talk about that then and the only other one that we're working on right now is the non lapsang education fund policy right now administration is going to be talking with legal counsel I guess a little bit to kind of go over us on the language before we kind of hash it out in committee before I bring it here the only the last thing that we discussed
071more in the communications part of the meeting was the new school building project mailer which everybody hopefully got in the mail and it's beautiful so obviously did its job so that was it in Roza for nostalgia purposes we Lisa and I have a stack that's probably two feet high of more mailers like anybody would like them we have them in historical right now yes yes the archives I'm so grateful for you all to look at that because I think just within like three minutes of you looking at that you're fine yeah there are different type of than things we're just glazed over that was a team effort for sure thank you and next we have facilities here we met on February 6th and he received a presentation by Hilliard really thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and
072you unanimously felt that this was a really positive stuff to take it was a proposal to evaluate our custodial services including materials equipment techniques and labor the service would be provided for a fee or through purchasing custodial supplies from Hilliard we really feel that it would add productivity by going over new processes and it would allow us to set our goals at industry standards we requested that mr. Caldwell compare pricing on the supplies that we purchased most and report back to the committee as next meeting mr. Cole will also reported on the size of projects including the pressbox BHS water project BHS auditorium HVAC HVAC and the closeout of the middle school paving project mr. Powell also reported that the BHS boiler has had to be repaired but now is back online and we discussed
073the cafeteria at CES the floor repair the new school project and other capital projects if referendum failed but it didn't and the the portable walkway at the middle school possibly enclosing a lock light to keep bringing the snow from the area did we close out the press box project so it is closed out but it's open in a sense that they are trying to work on the Wi-Fi and there was one other thing that there's yeah it didn't pass final inspection because the inspector said it needed a step outside of it although the company who produced the practice box says their code people say it doesn't so they're working together sort out but it is usable okay so we have a certified great thank you any other questions okay that is our slew of committee
074reports and now we move on to the consent agenda [Music] recommend motion that the board approved the items listed below on the consent agenda has recommended new hires and resignations second any questions discussion which is the common I know mr. Renda is very happy along with parents and students with having our Spanish French teacher in place and things are working out quite well he mr. Johnson is a hit so far so a thumbs up there from one of our parents so it's been a long struggle in a shortage area and we're happy to have him it's great question with the custodians because it looks like I know we have to that resigns but we really don't see any new hires yet how are we in the custodial process we have posted the positions okay and
075one of them it looks like there's just one open right now and one will be open yes okay yes okay and we're also in the process of the setting up interviews for the okay able to cover the positions that are open right now with the three thing custodians that they have for now yes okay but but we need the positions so it gets tiring for those employees who do it in the extra time and work extra hard to make sure they're covering but we are getting things covered but it's not perfect we're gonna be perfectly honest any other questions all right all in favor aye okay new business we took care of item a and B already so we're on to CEO budget transfer recommend a motion that the board approve to budget transfers as
076requested by director of business and operations can post okay you probably notice that these are the transfers actually these these two transfers are reflected in our budget documents as that case anticipates answers the first one is to transfer budget from teacher salaries and curriculum leader salaries to administrator salaries to recognize the conversion of the special education department at position into special education supervisor positions and this was done late in the spring last year after the budget was already in place for this year and then the other is to transfer savings from teacher retirements from the teacher turnover budget to the teacher salaries budget which gives us a more accurate reflection year-to-year of the actual teacher salaries [Music] any discussion questions all right all in favor aye thank you Ken next we have policy thirty five
077forty two point forty three okay recommended motion that the board approve policy number of three five four two four three lunch charging for first reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee second but you won't sense and even yeah um so they were resting yeah yeah I'm so lunch charging policy essentially kind of just puts forth some language that will limit the number of lunches that students can essentially charge like without having money on their account after a certain amount and of course trying to collect that debt that has to be written off and then the food service account is going to have to be rebalanced on their end i think that's primarily the gist of it the alternate meal that they will get they don't have money for a lunch is a cheese sandwich milk
078a fruit or vegetable um so they can't get the regular lunch was that generally is there anything that you wanted you had that was in florida now the only thing i was going to add was that this it's required by law that we have this policy and the policy really reflects what our practice has been already that's exactly what I was going to ask it's like it doesn't sound any different than what they're doing right now this is this was our practice that we put in place a number of years ago when we were trying to there was a number of students and families that had occurred quite a bit of debt to lunch service and we needed to figure out how we were gonna rectify that would put this process in place but how
079were putting the policy was yeah and there's almost yeah now that there's also some more clarity in here that he's discovered and looking through some of our records that there were instances where somebody had negative balance they were being allowed to charge the second lunch or being allowed to charge on the card items so we've spelled that out in the policy that they are not allowed to do that or get a premium lunch from the deli counter and we've obviously gone through the language on this policy but it is okay policy so it would be easy to update going forward as cable gets their policies regularly okay so this is a first agreed mm-hmm which means that come forward I don't have a calendar in front me all right [Music] yeah because of rain yeah
080April 4th is nice so yeah so would be tonight so it'll be May okay so any questions or comments Rosa needs to come to you Hasan so maybe let's remain first as I remain being okay before them yeah all right so we have a good month to read up and if you have any questions please get them to Rosa all in favor aye post okay that moves us on to employee pension recommend a motion that the board authorized the superintendent to execute the participating employer adoption document concerning continued participation of the Board of Ed in the town of Brookfield's 457 plan so what this is just so everybody knows I think that title is a little misleading so I want to make sure it's not it's not the employee pensions that have been negotiated through
081contracts and those kind of things so probably could have titled this employee pension annuity option or something like that and really the reason for this is the company that holds the 457 is changing some of its plan and so with that the human resources director from the town is this is for townie and Board of Education employees there's just some documentation that the superintendent needs to sign the board to authorize me to do that and they would just keep participating in the 457 but there's justifications to the that opportunity for employees to participate there's no cost to the district or anything like that yeah any questions right all in favor all right thank you all right going on the old business item a policy 3160 transfer of funds recommend a motion that the board approve
082policy number three one six zero transfer of funds for a final reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was on January 16 2019 second I might get me emails from you guys so it's nice and it's nice and concise I mean again look at our old one there was literally a glossary attached yeah and it just that this this is much easier it's simple but it that everything is there yes all right any other questions all right all in favor okay and that moves us up to the board of education budget estimate this is just an action yep that the board continuous discussion goodness trying to forget where we were last time before this we have we had our presentation joint presentation to the Board of Selectmen and Finance the first selectmen put
083forth a budget and I think I had sent a correspondence all to you up to that there was a reduction there of $479,000 at the board of selectmen meeting I had a F was able to discuss with the Board of Selectmen exactly what some of those reductions were and that some of our investments that we had put forward were not just nice to have but in all actuality must haves the items that no matter how much is reduced from our budget proposal we must carry on into next year and so therefore you would have to find the somewhere you know that being the pre-k position the speech-language pathologist the special education teacher the two paraprofessionals that we have now that will lose the I'm a funding for and the science modules and the open court
084reading program so with discussion of that all of those when you back out the 150,000 dollars that we met with a reduction in the services that we contract out at this point that totals two hundred and seventy five thousand two hundred thirty four dollars and the works and weapon did agree to put that back into our budget so the budget carrying forward and I'm sorry I don't have the exact figure with me at this minute but it's it's approximately two hundred forty thousand dollars a reduction from our proposal going forward that does represent everything internet investments aside from what I had mentioned here we can sit and discuss exactly because we haven't really determined where that would come from we can discuss at this point where we would like to see those reductions I I
085would recommend where we're going to be presenting to or having continued conversation with the Board of Finance next Tuesday March twelfth and I would almost recommend waiting to see what happens there before we take you know look at the figures and see exactly what the budget proposal looks like I'm not sure what everyone here we'd recommend doing as well Collette can you just remind us all the process so from the Board of Selectmen it goes to the Board of Finance and then what happens the Board of Finance will make a determination of their budget and that is what would go up for a county a proposal okay so they really make the final yes yes so we've we've been through so it could change in our favor perhaps you could change either way okay it
086goes from the first elected to the Board of Selectmen to the fortifying thanks but it's probably smarter to know what what we're dealing with before we make the decisions I would think I would think so that would be my recommendation I believe in ministration right now it's looking at differences of areas especially once we've gotten the first selectins initial budget proposal until we know the exact number we're dealing with it might make sense to wait it's premature but we did have a lengthy discussion with the you know the leadership team yesterday principal meeting our monthly principal meeting we had some conversations people putting they're being creative and thinking about ways we could be as efficient as possible and in other things so but I think we should we just need to see where things land
087yeah I mean I think it would be great once we serve have that number to sort of hear from you guys like how can we retain our goals so the best as possible yeah well making reductions and sort of keeping that and the forefront instead of just I think sometimes you know we go oh we're gonna snip this take that trim this like let's think about all right what are the goals yeah and like be laser focused on that and then one of the things that we have to I guess live with that sure and what things we must go forward right as I mentioned it's painful yeah it's probably hard to recall cuz it's been a while but I shared a full slide in my presentation on December 5th all of you of all
088the things we reduce and were eliminated last year during the process to get to achieve the budget we have this year right that was born from a list again created with leadership team and Ken had put together and we had shared that at the board meeting in the process last year and kind of had three phases of where we might go so we're always very specific very open but heavy cuts like this hurt and and I just can't say it any other way if we're going to you know when you talk about $200,000 in our budget that's almost a half a percent of the budget and so you know a little $400,000 is 1% so if funding is rose from the state if arbitrary decisions are made and I know it's not easy and I
089know we just approved a building project I understand all of that but when hundreds of thousands of dollars are just cut from or reduced from the budget asked which has been vetted too thoroughly over a few months it hurts it hurts and the community and the parents will not be pleased with it and it won't get us to our goals so Maureen Dee Jeff say that significantly the slide that John's referring to I don't think you could talk to anybody in the district and have them say that they don't feel those cuts on a daily basis because we cut we had to cut people and those people provide services and all of the people of the school people that are here are doing without those services and on many days not very well so we
090don't complain about it because we have an obligation to you know continue to provide the best education we can for kids but know that those cuts from last year are felt every single day and just just as a reminder thanks for reminding me from worrying about that we reduced an administrator position we did our best creatively to create the stand position but we did lose as a supervisor we lost an administrator we lost a custodian we lost the secretary and we lost three part-time clerks and that's just names a few off the top of my head I mean those are that significant services that those people didn't come here and not work they were working when they were here so they were providing services and so when you can't continue to spread people thin and
091expect that we're going to achieve these grandiose goals it just just can't be done it does cost to have the services but we'll get there and hopefully it won't be as significant as some of us might be thinking [Music] any either okay so we will take a look at that after we get our final number and then again I will remind everyone the next Tuesday the 12th is when that word of Finance will be discussing it forgive me a club but I forget in your presentation to the Board of Finance can we remind them of the things from last year oh we won't we won't be doing a presentation again did that joint presentation the first time this time is going to be more question Q&A there they will have had much more time to
092go through the details and specifics of the budget I'm sure there will be many more you know questions that are specific and detailed to the budget we've asked them to compile questions that they have in advance so we can answer them and submit them hopefully with a couple of days in advance so they have time to read them as well once we do get those and the answers to that before that all to every room here so you all know what questions specific questions they have asked as well agenda so you know a my to-do list is to make a copy of that slide yeah to pass out and have as the talking points appear so everybody's reminded it's easy to forget what we cut and then we continue to plow forward and do the
093best we can and provide a great education for the kids so people think it's all sunshine and rainbows and it's not and the reality is when you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars you're talking about people you saw only so many there's not enough toilet paper that you know pencils or crayons it's actual individuals that's how that's how you got that kind of savings that meeting at Town Hall next Tuesday I believe it's here yeah and I think it's police did we ever get feedback on that one is it starting at six o'clock here there's some no no no um we it should be at seven o'clock here it is fibers and ink and that we moved negotiations to here so grab just transitions tonight I could be confused I heard something about six but
094I think it's supposed to the seven so I wanted to just clarify I need I need to clarify that time it's okay good seven there's no 7:30 Oh interesting okay we'll get clear yes before we notice it definitely okay thank you everyone next on our list is just the new school building absolutely um I just wanted to put out my gratitude to everyone involved I mean this starts way back with a strategic facilities committee you really brought this project to life so thank you so much from there it's such an amazing collaborative effort across all three boards and administration you you did a huge amount of work with it as well and then it's amazing how much the community went forth as well we have the DTC the RTC you doing get out the votes
095and our amazing PTO doing it as well at just so many organizations working together to to make this happen and this is this is what this is the best of Brookfield this and what it's all about and so I just put out my appreciation to everyone and most importantly to the entire community for for showing their their confidence and belief in this project moving forward I think it's important to know Colette on that that I received many emails from our teachers very excited about this and you know congratulatory and they can't wait they're excited a couple of hugs today actually walking through the building actually with this level shadow I was actually over huckleberry and a couple teachers are just so thrilled and it's really in heard from some former board members who were part
096of this process before they moved off the board and then I put a call in to a former interim superintendent ralphus Agatha and into Hal Cameron who was our former business director into her business director because they were instrumental in getting things started as well and wanted to let them know where we're at and they couldn't have been more happy so it's been a team effort from everyone so I just thank everyone and I'm just so happy for our students that's just great and for the town it just says a lot about our community that people are willing to be forward thinking and really invests in our students but it's going to benefit everybody in the community so I'm really proud of Brookfield and I did want to elaborate on your point earlier that the
097process doesn't stop now we don't just you know wipe our hands of it and sit back that there's a lot a lot of work that's going to be going on the application that needs to be done by June 30th is is extensive and long and has been worked on somewhat now as much as we could without investing too much time knowing that the referendum wasn't coming through but it's really going to require something to that extent the Facebook page and the website will still be updated as far as progress maybe not as as much but it will be updated as far as progress with the application if we hear anything else about the state Brampton a and everything going forward with that so we the community will continue to remain informed at any time the
098email will the new school project email will still be up if anyone has any questions at any time they can still ask during that venue and will be answered the other thing is we talked about a facility committee is working with engaging the community to seek input from people on you know what they you know some ideas or thoughts they have about the new schools and not only questions and you know we're thinking about we know how we might hold forums when we might do that as well as efficiently utilizing some technology tools that are out there where we can ascertain information from people and that kind of a thanks were pretty excited about that and then I heard from some staff they were talking they had suggestions for names for the new school I
099said we were contest oh that's us no but the great thing about that I don't know if I had mentioned this before we actually have a policy in an annual regarding things and as it stands now it cannot be named for anyone must be named for something geographical and the actual ad hoc committee needs to be formed in regards to that having two community members and representations from administration teachers staff and then if it's a high school it would be students as well that it would big that case they would come up with no less than three and no more than five suggestions which would then be brought to the board and the other board would vote on them so actually somewhat related to that this afternoon I spoke with a small group of second
100graders a very with a Girl Scout Troop so I was there talking about like women and leadership and stuff like that and a lot of them had just heard about the new school project and so they had a lot of questions about it and it was interesting to see that they they really kind of started out a little bit timid you know they were like they're gonna tear down my school yeah you know what's gonna go on so they had a lot of questions about it and I was able to like answer that evidence are like swing the board's role in it and and then you know of course by the end of it they were if they were super excited especially Bella getting to name the project having a cafeteria it's not a gym
101that was actually a really big one and kapha janitorial yeah so um I think like maybe if it's possible like you think sort of like the momentum that would still kind of have going to sort of like reach out to more students and kind of I think it's a great lesson in civic engagement too I mean they can use this as sort of like see what happens when it comes from like an idea to something that's like now you know fully on the way to becoming real so I don't know if there's like like an assembly that could be playing with like huckleberry kids or even just something that teachers can say to them to sort of like give them an outlet of you know sort of express their ideas but really have it what
102would you like to see in the school yeah absolutely and they they loved you know learning about like the whole process and everything really yeah yeah I will face learning getting writing project in there all the time that's great and it all turned up the only other thing I was gonna suggest is a lot of people are asking now so what happens next and what's the timeline and I think they're thinking maybe if we pull out that that slide and you know zoom is on what happens message is a great idea but um but yes I think we need to do that yeah because it's we do have some phenomenal momentum and I just think the best thing one of the best things with this is keeping everyone informed and so we just need to
103continue to keep people informed because there's going to be a whole lot of hurry up and waiting you know pushing it in that application there and then you know waiting until you know we hear from the state back and everything else or we can keep going on for RFP for architect and all those kind of things that we have to do I did hear one a create a fundraising idea those some that someone that well they were remain nameless talked about in the demolition process perhaps you know you can charge per whack at the hill and we might be able to make a lot of money there so yes oh so I worked in a district where the same thing it's the same concept was done we they built a new school in the back
104and they took the old school down and they did fundraising yeah they sold bricks drinks of bricks that came out I mean like people right oh yes great it was unbelievable they sold parts of the building and you know it was almost like when people wanted to buy the seats at the old Yankee Stadium a school because people were very attached and people came from you know they didn't physically but they ordered stuff from out of state it was amazing how you know there's ideas where you can take those bricks to incorporate some of them into the new school project into walkways or whatever else so there's a lot of walls and there's a lot that can be done we can be very creative with us and enjoy the process no I was thinking we
105often stop when something goes wrong and we analyze what did we do wrong how come and didn't work but it feels like this was something that was successful and it seems like it makes sense to pause and sort of analyze what did we do really do well where were all the components and maybe even can we get some feedback from people about you know how did you know why did you vote for you why did you vote YES or how did you learn about it you know be great to sort of capture what was successful about this so we can replicate it for our future our future work great to get back thank you everyone going on to three main points [Music] when we put the new school building project in there yeah well I
106know I said it was pretty straightforward agenda wasn't it we want to know just just the length talk about regionalization I shouldn't put that out there because Big Talk you know there's but but I think actually that will make people less nervous because I like the idea of the regionalization little R versus bigger and how that's how okay people are focused with okay I just thought the high school students were really impressive I don't know that we've ever had that as a main point but I think I was very impressed with them and they represent what this is all about so I would suggest that we have a point about this the success of our students and how well they present themselves and we have the student leadership that seems to be the theme right
107whether it's business or the tasks monix it was all student we said we always you know mention when Rosa puts this together we always you know we were over there can we link the video to it and are all convinced at one spot actually yeah practically that works on I think they took a photo over there before they left and then the first presentation on the Rachel's the Rachel's challenge as well well part of them that's it so it was like leadership and community and I think that's that really captures a lot of what we're all here for besides the the academic achievement without that but what do we have that's a great idea yeah all right upcoming events cats enter the PTO meeting is next Tuesday March 12th from 9:30 to 10:30 at huckleberry
108the book fair is starting March 8th and will run to the 15th the book fair evening hours is next Thursday March 14th at 5 o'clock and the science fair is next Thursday March 14th at 6 o'clock in the upper gym at was skinnier there's an early dismissal on Tuesday March 12 at 11:30 for spring conferences and conferences are from 12:15 to 2:45 and at the high school conferences are on Thursday March 14th Thank You Jay all right executive session recommend a motion that the board entered an executive session for the purpose of receiving a mid-year update on the superintendent's goals and to reveal confidential student matter all right on the saber okay this concludes the public portion of our meeting thank you all for joining us have a good evening [Music]