BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

001[Music] in April six of our seven board members sander and tongue up okay first thing we have is a student spotlight doctor brew thank you mister I'd like to invite dr. Ceylon to the podium she has a student spotlight that she's gonna be sharing via powerpoint in video this evening of some of our students regarding one of I know dr. Ceylon schools this year on student engaged assessment so dr. sale on the floor is yours hi um so this year at center school after some conversations actually this sprang from some work we did in our leadership work as a leadership team last at the end of last school year and we were talking a lot about engagement and out of that we were talking about assessment and there were some comments in the room about

002getting our students more engaged in the assessment we were doing and how that would be beneficial to the students and that really resonated in my in my brain and I started thinking about it and I went home and I looked for some professional literature on it and I came up with some ideas that I thought would be good ideas that um I thought would be good for my staff so as I went and explored I found out that there was actually a whole book written on this idea and um there is Oh up oh and we miss acute kids so will so um so it turns out this bright idea is called student engaged assessment Zulu did I just turn it off again um so there's a whole group of schools called the expeditionary learning

003schools and they are kind of they turn it off again okay so I'm just going to keep going so um and their big focus is on student engagement and they study and I touched it in it kind of it clicked so they focus on student engaged learning and have spent time studying and building theories around student engagement it's back up on the market I just keep hoping she's gonna need it for damn anyway a four so I'm gonna go through so I'm going to keep talking about some of the stuff I knows in the slides I can just skip over I'm worried that you don't really need to see a slide so um it turns out that they've gone the professional step of writing books so um this man his name is Warren Berger um

004he actually wrote a book oh we have this is a great way to go out last one technologies come on yes thank you um so just got mom they um in conjunction with his school again he has written about cults of leaders of their own learning and a large portion of that book is a round student engaged assessment so we purchased that book for every staff member at centre school and the staff members were given the book in October now we don't have there it is oh just for a second there it is Oh third is a gun okay so don't anybody it's the key okay so and we lost okay okay so there's copy of the book everybody was given the book and we read certain parts of the book and we held professional

005discussions so my big point with my staff was to take this very small talk this year and think about what small thing you start with because I wanted the staff to get and I wanted us to be successful this year so our job was to explore the idea of student engaged assessment and think about ways that we could do student engaged assessment and be successful at at center school so why would we do this why would we spend our time with our students and the reason is it's really important to the whole picture of what we're trying to accomplish with our strategic goals and our strategic plan so this is a list of some of the ways that it fits in this is um like I said the that when we look at all the

006things that make for an engaged learning we're focusing a lot on learning targets when you've heard us talk about the guided release model these are all things that fit in the guided release model and that are very important to it learning targets which we've been focusing a lot on at Center schools modeling and critiquing and feedback using data with students that's when you hear us talk about a lot standards-based grading we're working towards that in the district celebrating our learning and student-led conferences so a few of these we've accomplished many of them were on our way to but what we're going to focus on tonight or celebrate tonight is especially using data with students and celebrating our learning so what am I talking about what is to an engaged assessment students are asked themselves while

007they're assessing so it's very easy for us to say sit down we're going to do your we'll sit down we're going to take the star assessment sit down we're going to you know we have do the assessing to the student this says we're going to take it to a new place and we're going to say we're going to assess together and when we're done with this you're going to have learned something about yourself as a learner and you're going to be a little leave here and go do something to learn something new and to be a better strategize or to learn and when you go back you're going to be able to move forward be interested in engaging excited about the possibility what you can learn next right so now we're pulling the learner in

008part of that and the place that we started because it's the easiest hook for teachers was just to have students record their own data so when kids and think about kindergarten the beginning students are learning to recognize and identify their alphabet so some teachers and some students started with alphabet chart to identify their letters they colored them but for student that was pretty powerful because they had five-colored in than they had 8 : and they had 10 : and they could see where if you think about it we're telling students oh this is excited in your learning but they can't picture that well now they can because they've got more colored in than they had before and the goal was that when they got that whole chart colored in they would be able to take

009it home and explain to their parents what they had accomplished and why that was important and that before that they would be able to have a conversation with their peers what had they accomplished and why in some way was that important so that was our little goal for this year obviously that has she this has huge implications and it could be much bigger but again I wanted to start someplace that we could feel really successful so it every time a teacher sits down with a child there's a possibility for a celebration look two more one more five more and for kids to feel that sense of accomplishment and for them to get strategic about making goals and always to relate it to a higher curricular goal we're not just learning letters to say I've got

010two more letters although for a lot of kids that's pretty motivating but there's a reason we're learning our letters why alright so why is this important because we're monitoring the quality of our own work we're getting engaged I want to learn my letters because and even if the base goal is I want to have five more letters at least it's my goal and not just my teacher imposing this goal on me so we want students to develop an ownership of their own goal and their own growth we want to hand this back to our students so this student is gonna talk to us I hope really hear this yep okay this is a kindergartner so Lila can you tell me about what you were keeping track of with your data [Applause] so what does each

011block on your paper mean so how does that make you a better reader [Applause] that [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so the more that you can read on the chart does I hope you read in your books [Music] okay and helps you in your writing so um do you like doing this do you like being able to fill in the chart how come [Music] nice okay now I'm gonna talk to your friend so Aliannah right [Applause] okay I didn't did that feel pretty good so you can see and I had to say I sat down cold with the student the teacher gave me the chart I sat down with her I said okay I'm going to ask you three questions so that was without any prompting so that the conversation that the teacher has with the

012student is much richer because they have just done the assessment so they know which ones they have you know got new they have a goal that they're trying to reach I literally went to the classroom and said can you give me two students and their assessment chart so that was pretty rich conversation for a young child it's not only literacy that we are working on some of the teachers are starting to expand so this is a teacher who has expanded to math with her students so they're looking at their addition facts so I can already do nine addition facts I need to do one more to do ten and then they're moving on to subtraction and you can see in subtraction this child can do three so they need to do seven more so they've

013taken on a new goal and the child is you know got more ways to go in subtraction but because they're getting used to this idea of keeping data and keeping it now on a number line which is another use of a number line it's okay with them they're getting used to this idea so the other way that we look at this is students are also getting used to using what you would know as a rubric in an older grade but they're using a much more meaningfully using a student checklist but instead of just going check check check the teacher can now have a meaningful conversation with the child because they're getting used to this idea of using their own data and thinking oops huh maybe out of this white king we've messed with this a

014few times today no wait here no I won't fiddle with this too much if it doesn't work well just one save there we go okay Eddie so the other day we will paint or writing yeah and you are your own opinion peaceable okay Eddie so the other day we went into writing yeah and you're you're writing opinion piece about what okay okay would you have so far I like Pokemon fan violence capture Pikachu as lightning in speed also beat the Chu and also he sees he's the main characters and he's best at and the main character excellent so tell me about this checklist settings we use it right did you in the beginning you can stick your opinion yes how do you know but we're dependent I fight I will I like go that I

015heard that when you minute so you started you stated your opinion and then in the middle did you add some reasons and details why you like Pokemon dancing egg because it NASA okay so use some words up let them either know you're gonna tell them now how could you use this checklist to kind of finish up your opinion piece think about the ending here are there are some words you might want to use at the end to finish up your opinion piece other words down here like that is why Pokemon is my favorite or again mine is the best but where could you put where could you add that in your writing alright ok so you can see that by he was used that he knew that checklist really well he knew what he had

016done and then when he got to the end he was old soft and Shawn was able to use it to get him to move forward and that is what we want in a student taking ownership of their writing so moving forward now we need to begin to help our students a little bit with their discourse and find ways to you know move this throughout our curriculum as we you know move forward so this makes me a little sad I'm not gonna be here next year to move this forward but I did want to move this out to thank the teachers at center school they embrace this this year it was a lot to add to do everything else they're doing but they really have taken it on and they do tell me in my meetings

017with them that they are really finding it very useful it adds to the time they spend in collecting data but on the other hand it makes the data that they collect much more useful and meaningful so we're real proud of it all right thank you Chris thank you very much you trying about all of this so Dan is and thank you for bringing that to Center how questions don't have any questions next we have public comment there is nobody that signed up is there anyone from the public here that would like to speak right moving forward we have the student representative report evening s hope you enjoy the spring break alright so at high school before it will break Best Buddies had a parent potluck and next week they're having a fundraiser and Maggie McFly's

018on May 15 this month and he just selected 37 new probationary members and this Mother's Day they are also hosting the weekend 5k here at the high school all funds will be going to the amyloidosis foundation in honor of Justin Korres whose father passed in January and they will also be hosting a benefit food truck festival q9 also for mr. Korres yesterday the junior class of 2019 to be in school SAT so scheduled was a little moved around because of that HOSA hosted the spring social for the fifth and sixth graders at whisk in here Key Club is hosting a fundraising for Relay for Life May 12th at dollar bills bowling alley in a Milford this Friday diversity Club will be encouraging students participate in a day of silence by the remaining silent all day

019or wearing a rainbow sticker to support those who are the purpose of this is to silence bullying harassment towards the LGBT community and our youth specifically so this Friday is also senior prom at the water view in Monroe and prior to break supervinlin Burrell and I have sat down with conversation with a couple students in our lunches we had some great conversations we went over the strategic facilities plan right here I believe that's what this is yes yep and we were talking about security different stuff and then we talked to security as well security the state of different buildings all the ongoing projects it was really stimulating a lot of fun and how long you sit there for a good 45 minutes your focus group was about 45 minutes you have to thank mr. Blandon

020he got the snacks ready for you he took area oh that was great Dan thank you was absolutely thank you okay moving on we have written correspondence okay Ron Jaffe sent three articles also information regarding a webinar and one regarding a mental health curriculum Jessica Jessica wrote regarding a security task force and the following people wrote regarding the last day of school so I'll just read the following names the list of names Becky Carvel Kelly Hopkins Alvarez Shannon Sabella dan de Nicola Helen Pearson Denise rice Elaine Donnelly Lisa Carozza Meredith O'Connor Elizabeth Iggy Lisa Miller Kristin Joshi Beth Panepinto Sujata Sequeira Jeannie Burbank kodokor Joe and Michelle veterano Laura Roisin Oh Erin and David sweet and Christina come Burton thank you and we have approval of Board minutes recommend a motion that the board approve

021the minutes listed below is recommended special meeting on 4 to 18 any questions I actually yeah I actually have a comment I'm listed somewhere unfortunately I add vertigo that evening and I didn't make the meeting but I'm listed down as voting I'm sorry consent agenda yeah consent agenda Thank You Debbie and I wasn't there for that so that would be my only correction I would have liked to have been there though you magically voted for I did okay so then we will be voting on approval of the Board minutes with the correction of consent agenda approval all in favor aye opposed okay thank you thanks for bringing that up you know and now we have the superintendent's update dr. brew thank you mrs. Thurm I tell you it feels like we haven't been together in

022quite a while with only one meeting in April especially we March with the make up meetings and all the different times we were together and of course the budget season but we get to make up for that with another meeting next week so we'll be ready to go thank you all and before I ask Dan Caldwell come up and share a little bit about our big projects that were completed over the April break just wanted to comment on and emphasize the expertise that we have here in the district in terms of the systems that we have in place that are ongoing each and every day that we take for granted part of that is maintenance a major part of that is planning for maintenance or the work our facilities committee does and of course the

023resources that support that but a couple of facts I wanted to share just in some of the things that we do take for granted we serve last year we served one hundred and forty eight thousand meals to our students and when you think about that and for the most part all of these systems go out off without a hitch every single day we actually have 3,400 bus stops a year pickups and drop-offs split that in half about 1700 a.m. 1700 p.m. and we maintain in our four buildings what is it for over four hundred and fifty eight thousand square feet of school so it's just incredible some of the things and so what I wanted to do tonight a little different in the superintendent update is to talk about the April projects but rather than

024me talking about it just invite Dan Caldwell our facilities director up to the podium he put together a very brief slideshow with a lot of pictures to talk about the incredible work that was done and it's it's not only the execution of the work in the short timeframe fun up dinner it's the planning over the long haul that's gone into this especially the high-profile project which was the demolition of the portables at huckleberry which took a long time to plan and make sure we dotted every I and crossed every T so Dan I'll let you take over and if we have any technical difficulties we'll all be here to help you and we're off so I'm happy to be here tonight and I'm happy to report and happy to report that we had a very

025busy spring break in the facilities department we're able to kick off and go through five different projects some of them have been a long time in waiting but we were able to start and complete each of them successfully so I just put a little slideshow together because pictures worth a thousand words and we'll talk about the projects that we had on hand the five projects included replacement of windows at Central Elementary School we had two water tank lining projects at huckleberry school at whisk inner middle school we had a floor program at with Skinner middle school as well that finished up an ongoing project that that's been active for a couple of years and then again the crowning glory for for the April break was the work at huckleberry so jnm construction from Danbury Connecticut

026was our contractor at the center Elementary School and that project included replacing 12 of the windows across the front of the gymnasium basically the scope of work was to replace the windows match existing conditions inside and out a little coordination with the historic district as well to make sure that we maintain the look of the front of the building so our contractors got off to a great start day one was nice and sunny and they walked away heart replacing windows getting in the new ones in place and then it got cold on these fellas and they they struggled a little bit but windows went in the new windows er are the smaller windows top and bottom there are 16 of them that are all hinged to open and close matches the existing windows that were

027there however only two or three of them open over the years a tall bench school shop painted shut hmm whatever to do so they were there were difficult repair but they're in now in working so there's a view of trust in front of the building on Sunday morning and they were wrapped up and so I'm happy to report that this project price on this project was fifty six thousand dollars and we were on time and under budget by fourteen thousand dollars with newer have $70,000 budget so we're pleased to be able to to pull that one off the next project was a water tank lining and that was two projects that we combined as one with a contractor this was a mandated project by the state of Connecticut Department Public Health atmospheric storage tanks need

028to be inspected cleaned realigned at eleven year intervals we had exceeded that that timeline by quite some time so we'll bring our self into compliant into compliance so what we see here is the picture of the Westerner middle school the interior of the ten thousand gallon storage tank and when people see these often our comments have to do with all my gosh am i drinking that water however what we're seeing here are just normal accumulations of silt sand sediments minerals that adhere to the sides of the tank and grow as barnacles um often is orange and brown because of oxidation from the iron that's in the water and our contractor on this project was Ametek LLC and I'll fit out of New Hampshire they work nationwide and this is what they do exclusively is clean

029and line tanks so we're very happy to have them on board and this project came in just under budget forty four thousand six hundred and thirty-five dollars so the picture we see here is the in front of the tank the whiskey near middle school and that small oval hole in the bottom is a man waiver these fellows went inside the tank to work and it's 22 inches wide by 16 inches high so they all wiggle a little taper get in and out of there this is the picture of the huckleberry tank 10,000 gallons same size tank different diameters and I do want to comment that the contractor I'm more than one occasion that week they were working 12-hour shifts they had a five-man crew and it was important we talked about logistics of these projects

030on the intro we had to get the work done have the tanks cleaned lined refilled flushed sampled and have state approval before I could open the valve and turn the water back onto the building so of all the projects this was was the one that was most nerve-wracking for me because there were a lot of things that had to come together all at once so great job by our contractors involved in that this is the exterior of the huckleberry tank and I also want to make a note special thanks to hydro technologies there are water testing contractor and in order to finish up this project we had to get two rounds of testing done the major one was for volatile organic chemicals and that typically is a four day test and our lab Beth Donna

031hydro was able to get those turn around and we got back in three days and two days so that we were able to submit to the state so the process involved cleaning sandblasting heating the tanks to remove condensation sandblasting a second time really high standards for for cleaning of the tank for adhesion of the liner and the lining is called a dura chem 580 it is a specific lining similar to an epoxy except there's no VOCs in it sprayed onto the tank hard like a like an epoxy or a fiberglass finish and that goes on and the key here is that it meets the NSF rating NSF 61 which is required for interfacing with potable water systems so that is a dura cam so next we did a flying project at middle school and that

032project was a final phase of an ongoing project and we did three sections of hallway there we selected the hallways by those who had showed the most wear and tear most of our selection was based on moisture issues that had caused the tiles to raise up and and not be smooth which in turn caused for excessive wear and the buffing machines tend to burn them so we did the main hallway in front of the office we did the back hallway leading to the portables and then we also did the main hallway leading down on the music wing so this project was done by red thread there a contractor that had done another aspect of this project earlier on and the price of this project was twenty four thousand nine thirty-seven and that just about exhausted

033our budget on that near to the penny we took unit pricing Li stretched out as much flooring as we could get for money and it worked out really well so this is a hallways as they are stripped once the tiles were up is called shop lasting is basically they sandblast the floor to remove adhesives and any imperfections in the floor or leveling materials and then they apply a thin cement type media on top to level the the floor and then we put on an epoxy moisture mitigation topping on there and that hold the water down and give us more longevity out of the flooring systems that we have and here are the pictures of the finished product and I just want to make a special thanks to how and Pedro custodians at the middle school

034they came in on the weekend to make sure that we had finish and floors buffed so that we could take the foot traffic on Monday when the students returned to the school and after they finished the new floors they looked in this that you see existing floors look a little dingy so they ran right down the hallway and they just kept the machines running so great job from them it's nice that they take pride in their that work for us and danke to share the the one story that Hal told about the teacher first show morning on Monday which are so-so Monday morning Hal met with with one of the staff and she came up and she she looked at the floor and his awful often difficult to match color sense so the new flooring

035is slightly lighter and then the existing floor and she came up and she commented on what a great job how they did clean that floor to the point bed so he got a chuck heated to set her straight he just after her baby the foot a compliment and carried on one little audition that we did differently here on this project is at the exit doors were in the pasture have been floor mats for carpets of different types we integrated carpet tiles as a as a track that and these are our square carpet tiles put into the floor flush with the the vinyl floor and it just helps with cleanup prevents tracking and as they wear or our damaged they're easily removed and replaced we have similar flooring system down yet the gymnasium at the middle

036school as well so that was the end of the flooring project so here is here is the big big event of the week was the work at huckleberry with the modular demolition and site restoration so Nikon Supply Corp was our contractor on this project they're out of Stratford Connecticut and they were the lowest qualified bit with let some pricing out here because there's been some some interest in this project of late and I'm gonna put my glasses on to read this a little bit better but our original budget on this project was $60,000 and while Nikon was our contractor and his his contract price was sixteen thousand eight ninety nine to tear it down there are other costs related to it and that include environmental testing from Brooks environmental we tested the portables for lead

037paint asbestos and PCB contaminations all tests came back negative so we had no contaminants in the system we also had to terminate alarm systems and electrical systems from the building so we could take them down we used a han chaeah lectric was a local contractor we brought in to work with us on that aspect and kind of an unforeseen expense that that might not pop up our phlearn D'Angelo who are the the on-call architects for the for the system and early on in the project they had done design work and so we have three different sets of design work $1,400 fifty four ninety three and twelve thousand eight eighteen and this project initially was set up for design and scope of work it was also to incorporate was potentially going to incorporate replacing modular classrooms

038and then there was another final final phase of design for them so we could get this project underway so and we had a twenty five dollar charge from American waste for a dumpster rental so basically a $60,000 budget we had forty eight thousand seven dollars worth of expenses and at the moment we have eleven thousand nine ninety three left on that budget the building is on the ground and it's just a memory at this point so we have a couple of photos they rolled in on Friday night Friday the 13th at about 4:30 in the afternoon and this was a picture at seven o'clock in the evening they weren't gonna start till the next day but they got a little ambitious and decided to have at it so they started bringing it down and then

039throughout the day they process the material on Saturday there was nothing unexpected found above grade but as we moved along and they got to the final end of it and here they are all on a heap so they processed that material broke up into smaller pieces loaded in dumpsters and hauled away only to discover that underneath the buildings which everybody expected was going to be soiled was in an actual parking lot that that was almost intact we just back up and say the snow here that the the buildings themselves hauled out in our our scale weight was sixty one point two one tons of debris was hauled off site as as part of this they look like little mobile homes but they're certainly handled a little we had one casualty during the project we had

040a piece of debris come out and take out a window in a classroom and so that was promptly cleaned up boarded up and replaced before anybody returned back to class and this is this was what was hidden from us as they were cleaning up and scraping up we found that there was asphalt so we did have a change order to address this we had to remove the asphalt hall and fill to replace it and then on top of that we spread topsoil for the finished product and that conclude our April projects Thank You Ben great work thank you very much I know it was a great presentation thank you very much all right there's any questions from board members for Dan while he's here or Oh God it's not a question but a comment we

041ought to show this presentation of the Board of Finance serratus this month so he proposed a nickname letting you know I think I and letting them hear from Dan what these projects take sometimes it's your easy when you're dealing with money who do not realize the depth of work it takes you just here relying a tank yeah right and you don't realize what that entails it would be a good opportunity and I just wanted to thank Dan for all of his hard work back in January I kiddingly said to him are the portables going to be done or is it gonna interrupt school and he said to me very calmly it'll be done before the year end it was like yeah better bait for Finland and he did it I'm just extremely pleased thank you

042Dan for your dedication to our children and our staff and our school system I appreciate it they work very hard you know we thank you and I echo that and the other thing that needs to be said it you know Dan wasn't busy with just contractors on these five projects the team was in working our custodians and maintenance team for doing deeper cleaning than usual when you can tackle those kind of cleaning projects on a shutdown as well as regular routine cleaning so there's a lot there's a lot that goes into this so it was the regular work and then on top of that were these five big projects so kudos again to Dan and the team and you know everyone really did a great job everyone pulled together and again for the finance our

043elected officials overtime to provide us with the capital monies for this support from the board you know it's all of us working together that makes makes this happen so thank you all unfortunately guys that's not the end of the superintendent report I do have a few things but I'll be very listy about it I'll move through it for you so just an update the security task force which is a new subcommittee of the board our first meeting will be on Friday April 27 at 10:00 in the morning that's actually going to be a core group of our board members who are on the committee and Colet away at a point where we yes I can announce those desks so that would be mr. Belden mrs. Sturm and mrs. Fernandes as well as cheaper selling myself

044a one of the agenda items I know there's a number of community members interested in participating one of the agenda items will be for us to talk about who might participate from from the community so that's on Friday morning I sent out today the strategic planning matrix you're all familiar with that and believe it was handed out this evening as well that's been sent out and posted electronically distributed today that is has been modified just a little bit with some updates since we originally publicized it at the Board of Finance me and on on the board's recommendation I included a cover letter with that as well to explain you know what it is and what we're doing with that the budget flyer was distributed yesterday I thank the Communications Committee and roses work on that

045the Tecton project flyer was for our building project was distributed prior to break and Jeff from tech Don along with even myself you know we will really work hard on that and I think Erin fir again all the work he's done in terms of posting the work for that subcommittee in getting ready and thinking about the building project and connecting with the community we have a date for the building project on the 22nd of May where Eve and I will be and anybody was welcome obviously can come we'll be meeting with the Senior Center at 10:45 the folks from the Senior Center and nope got one o'clock I'm sorry and talking about the budget with Colette and anybody would like to join us at the Senior Center that same day in the morning at 10:45

046last night a number of our students four of our students - from whiskey near and - from Brookfield High were recognized that the unified sports banquet Brookfield High School is recognized as a champion Unified School just so you know that means for one of only ten schools with that recognition in the entire state of Connecticut now let's remember there's 169 pounds and many many more schools than that so it's incredible and as mr. Baldwin says whiskey near is on its way and I know mr. Randolph definitely echoes that comment I also want to congratulate huckleberry Hill um annually they participate in the Northeast reset they're in the Trek's challenge and they are recognized by tracks the company tracks as the Northeast recycling winner misses praise Minh has headed that up four years in a category

047of schools that are 500 to 600 students in the Northeast we were by far the winner among all the states huckleberry specifically out of all the states and all the schools that participate in this recycle challenge Connecticut Massachusetts New Hampshire New York Rhode Island Vermont Maine we were the winner so I mean incredible two misses praise Minh and mrs. president wanted to make sure we thank miss Campbell Miss Borgess mrs. Williams and Miss augusto other moms from huckleberry that helped out with this annual project so congratulations there and then the final piece for my presentation this evening the Union Savings Bank HRR a recycling poster contest that Lisa organizes here in Brookfield we had the most winners of all the neighboring towns that participate Ridgefield and Fairfield Sherman New Milford and all the kids were

048recognized this evening I got to be there with Sheldon Conner facilities director we were there together taking pictures with the kids and having a great time and it was just a another amazing event and the folks at Union Savings Bank have done a nice job next week at the board meeting Lisa will facilitate the presentation with the students and parents will be here so you know just a lot of great things happening since we last met and thank you for the time if anybody has any questions thanks to everybody who did the work on the Flyers well very informative thank you and I can't wait to see all the posters Misa any questions for dr. burrow thank you okay thank you moving on to subcommittee reports the first two are the personnel negotiations committees which

049met on the 27th and 29th of March and with those we entered right into executive to discuss unaffiliated personnel and salaries so the next one we have is facilities okay Dan stole my thunder pretty much he did a better job that I could do danny has and um you know his support staff has been working with us and monthly and they have worked very hard and as this presentation showed everything that we had down on our list that we needed to have done during spring break happened it happened under budget if I did the math correctly it was about twenty-six thousand dollars in savings and that is just terrific because that is how we should be working we should be putting things out to bid we should be reviewing the specs and we should be

050choosing the best qualified vendors at the best possible price because that's part of our job as as board members also to be respectful of the the prices and the taxpayers so thank you again Dan there you are um he's doing an awesome job and so is his staff and I just can't wait for summer because we have a lot of good good things on the horizon that we're planning so he kind of stole my thunder but the huckleberry hill portables are down it's so excited and then I'm just gonna go right into facilities if you know my gesture go ahead the portables was there anything inside them before it and maybe this is no question there is nothing no we actually had walked through them and anything that was salvageable that we could use we

051did do you know we put aside we did recycle it anything that was at the Giammetti that determined what was I know actually it was Dan and staff ok bomb and we really left it up to them because that's their expertise you know waste wat not what not but so anything that was salvageable they they did put aside they will be using it you know another cost-saving you know benefit to the town but pretty much I was reading comments online it was kind of funny they have not been used in two years and I keep saying this they have not been hooked up there you can't use them they're 27 years old Dave actually they're 27 years old at huckleberry they were used from the high school when huckleberry saved them some people forget to

052that okay I know you know a soul diseases um so you know they were just they had served more than their life for Brookfield so we could not reuse them and it was you know it was time for them to go and and now they're just a memory for prevailed and but you did that answer your question yeah yeah okay I was just not what I'm talking about I'm just really excited that they're gone and if you haven't been there you have to go and just walk it in the parking lot I was there Sunday but you know taking pictures walking on it was like wow you can breathe I mean there's just so much room that we didn't even know existed so you know brightness you feel the c---eight that comes through exactly light

053light at the end of the portables right light at the end of the pole there we go so any other questions about that amazing jobs if I could just make a comment sure he never wants to take credit but we all want to thank mark Mulvaney for taking the initiative two years ago when the budget to force that into the budget he doesn't wanna he doesn't want to take credit for it but writers are not about that thank you for the 60,000 and we save 12,000 mark I appreciate it okay going right on to facilities we had our first public forum on March 27th 52 people attended it 51 we're live-streaming it we also had placed to the residents in Brookfield surveys we have had over 600 surveys returned to us mr. superintendent dr. Burrell

054and Eric Conklin are going through the surveys right now and they will be reporting back the findings to the next strategic steering committee meeting on May 1st so I anxiously await that as dr. brill fed we have a meeting with the senior center on May 22nd at 1 p.m. to go over our findings and just kind of talk with them and you know update them what's going on with the committee and you know what we're looking at and get their feedback we're also looking to meet with the PTO s the library and there's something else I'm forgetting which I think we're evil they did that thank you Thank You Debbie so we're gonna be working on that you know continuing to spread the word continuing to get feedback from the community because that's what we

055really want is the feedback from the community and you know what they envision you know this is a whole time project it's just not our project so our next meeting is May 1st we are going to be reviewing the surveys I'm going to see what members of the committee can be present at what days of the library and the PTO etc so again continue to spread the word and Tecton Associates will be there with their findings of weird they feel they're going to make their recommendations to us you know should we add on should we build a new school should we you know combine different age groups they have been very very busy meeting with different staff members going back to the schools doing their research so it's it's exciting the whole thing is very

056exciting you know for the town so we will be having that on May first and then our next big community meeting is June 7th and again we're inviting the entire public to come meet with us come with your questions come with your comments again it's a form of forum means a dialogue between us in the community so that's where we stand I mean all exciting yes and then Eve I just wanted to add two pieces that the other piece of wind touching base with Jeff from Tecton Oh as part of presenting those options to those initial options and thoughts to the committee next week they'll really be talking about cost estimated costs again at Apple to Apple comparison so when people talk renovate or add-on or build new really compare pros cons of all the

057different options with costs and so that'll be a good piece there thank you yeah the other thing I did want to say is when we talk about the different focus groups I know Eve you're talking about we need to still need to we have the senior centers scheduled we're working to schedule PTO and I've folks with the library in what Daniel talked about earlier with the I was able to have to double up essentially on focus groups so we ran four focus groups before the break and we broke them in half and so part of it was for security and the other part was for facilities and having them look back what would they want if their younger brother or sister or they were coming through the schools again what would they like to see

058and so Eric was with me and we we took copious notes so we'll have that to put up is also part of internal focus groups so we ran four focus groups for the kids and we already got a jump on the security task force as well so available Thank You fabulous everybody's working very hard it's it's exciting times for Barfield anybody have any questions okay June 7th please come thank you thank you and last we have the finance subcommittee so finance subcommittee met on April 9th we talked about a lot of different things so I'll kind of skate through at a top level on each of those we went we went through the March financial report and the check registers with with the misterpost and there was nothing dramatic in there I will tell the

059board with our continuing pressures on special ed costs we talked a little bit about that in terms of evaluation costs and things like that that are beyond what we actually got additional funding for so while we continue to scramble they're not anywhere near the magnitude of what we were talking about but at this point given some gives and takes that we've got we think we can still land a budget according to mr. post which is good despite the you know the continuing discoveries that we have on special ed there were no other major findings in that discussion we did talk about munis at a couple of times where we're actually doing Report Writer training and doing a lot of work around doing bank reconciliations in in munis taking what we've learned so far and expanding

060on it and also implementing the balance sheet accounts there are different timelines on each of those the bank reconciliations actually will start the next fiscal year as opposed to this fiscal year just because of some of the internet engagement with town side so on how that works our job talk about everything see actually came [Music] okay recommend a motion that the word along we all sign in and said I really want with us and and well thank you should you be missed and any other malicious host I'm in attacks and the Boyar in regards to change women are nice notice are original and any day of June 13th has a turn which is into the Tuesday of that week we have 182 days your student days the state 100 days day and move image to

061June 2nd the reason to behave as community our malt amenity may actually one is C because of camps the delicate answer is hurry and other session of students going into a tanning doses are pretty much encapsulating the number of other parents mentioned children I have an extended school year this is what would give you about them really not much at all between and anything regularly year starting here so right after a little with right so we amended the discussion we start arguing with this and then we can actually remember this go forward and decide we do have to take a look at this is a year I guess I'm we dedicated at first and the engine of the world was - based on some of your CV which is you and if we were to

062the direction the real feed for teachers we would eat and there's a lot of films do do the room that we wouldn't work as well so this is a fact that people there's going to be a lot on the high school and we managed the one thing that is very difficult to plan in advance the way things are right now we just get into a plan at the same time we don't have to do but what we'll do we have many many many many more many many more that are all right and we although we are you know there are people that have an occasion for differences maybe but he truly did maybe we're past it because maybe hpn work generalize that is a production we have gravity the eating and regulation in the I

063just had one question is there anything outside for extended school year just say sure you can Christine I think you didn't have plans for sources that are really important and educational continuity so you're gonna be just so critical and then they're gonna you know play that you need so you didn't hear and not something they push back and in her because it's families know and her staff promised that acting mom I'll just lose time there's no way to win thank you we received that were in favor continue waiting always just one I thought it would be I'd welcome that opportunity to because I think we'll be shortchanging our children by not you know keeping them till Tuesday we can use up as an opportunity to get them outside do stem activities utilize the garden play

064board games you know they have peer interactions I think both be neglecting being neglectful if we and school on the Friday and I think that's the people that wrote in it was very personal for them you know they have vacation plans but in that this was already determined and it was voted on the calendar with the expectation that any additional days will be added on to the end of the school year so you'd have to keep that in mind when you're scheduling vacations camps I know for my children their extended knowing the circumstances of the surrounding schools so I'm not in favor of ending school on Friday I think it's we're shortchanging our children and it's kind of isn't excuse by saying they'll be checked out I think that we have wonderful teachers and are

065innovative and creative and we can really really utilize that time to you know do positive things with the children schools are a safe haven for a lot of children they you know that's really a safe place for them it's you know a place that a lot of children look forward to going and they thrive on structure and routine and I feel like if we take that away from them that's being neglectful and if parents are really adamant about their children not going then don't send them I agree with joy I've actually sat and thought about this a lot my daughter was in center school the year that we had the whole mess with the SSS and the kids had to go to special school and she went right through school until June 30th and I

066always taught her my job is to go to work your job is to go to school and I just sit back and think thirteen hours of instruction that those kids are going to be missing 13 hours that they can be benefiting from education that they're going to be missing we receive a lot of letters we receive comments how important education is and how parents feel that we don't have enough instructional time but all of a sudden it just seems ironic to me that it's okay now by taking away these 13 hours because we're going Monday and Tuesday that's told to you at the beginning of the year you know do not schedule your vacations based upon the school year because we may have snow days and unfortunately this year was an awful year for snow

067days and I think as a board if we do not have the two days not only are we doing a disservice to the students because again they're going to be missing that 13 hours of educational time that is going to be benefiting them for a lifetime but also bear in mind we're going to be paying approximately a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars per day of taxpayer dollars for teachers to be working at the school educating our children and our children are not receiving the benefit so I have to disagree with stopping school on Friday for those two reasons everybody knew about it I'm sorry I know it stinks but you know I just think that those two days are so precious to our children and to take them away it just we're going to be

068doing them a disservice as far as their education goes and we're we're also doing a disservice to the taxpayers and and that are two things that we're supposed to always be looking at thank you can I ask her just a question to the doctor Borel if we're gonna have the teachers work on curriculum and professional development can we use some savings that we had put in the budget for summertime hours to help solve the budget issues you know that's a is a creative thought I suppose if we you know have some structure at work time we might be able to best time we would get that those two days so we could work with dr. Ruby and see you know what that actually quantifies and what that might work I don't feel I'm right I'd

069like to miss a sturdevant's comment that we're spending taxpayer money right we put a big bubble of money in for writing curriculum into our budgets or if it wasn't that we have a big challenge ahead of us so not commenting one way or the other educational comment and we haven't I saw yeah that one strikes me as an opportunity sure sure you still have some you know reductions to tackle but I don't know that we would be able to use money from the 1819 budget not a thing just actually do the work with this years with the time right and I can cut the budget next year I understand this later in the summer and you know it's just to piggyback on okay we sit and we argue over $10,000 in our budget but we'll

070be giving up about two hundred and thirty thousand dollars in our budget and it just doesn't need good fiscal sense to me um at the high school would students have to come back and take this is a question for but invite us for I know but um what students have to come back and take finals on the day music so in the current schedule was the 26 being the last day I would I have to create a schedule already for seniors to take exams early so they could be done well before the 23rd so they'll be an alter scheduled for finals for seniors underclassmen at this point would take a final finals on Friday take finals again on Monday and Tuesday so it does extend that eat can can you just clarify the last point

071you made about two hundred and thirty four thousand dollars what is that number actually I did a quick calculation were to pay for the teachers and for working that Monday and Tuesday and the limited staff that goes with them for having them in the buildings it's approximately a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars a day we pay if you take our budget divided by X amount of days that everybody works it's an approximate number it's pretty darn close but it is an approximate number so that's per day so that's two hundred and thirty thousand dollars that were they you know they would be working anyway they would be working but their main job is to be teaching the students on those two days and I mean mr. Blandon just brought up and I'm thinking oh my

072gosh so these kids that are taking finals you know if we get rid of Monday and Tuesday talk about crunch time on studying for them also they're going to be missing a weekend of studying too get the exams down before Friday that's a lot of stress for our students they wouldn't be crunching the finals yeah yes but the thing is without those two days of education what are they missing and what do teachers have to quickly teach in their curriculum because it's going to be on the final so now the students have to crunch with their studying because they're missing two days of instructional period that they need and that's what makes Brookfield so great yeah I know the state says 180 days but we take pride in a hundred and eighty-two days and how

073well our students do I think there was at least one letter that I remember from from a teacher who said given that we would be providing so much notice that they felt they had ample time to get in all their instruction and exams and prepare the students and enough time well and on the other hand I didn't see any letters from teachers saying the last two days of school are a waste of time don't worry about it we don't do anything anyway no but you know I mean I think I don't know how many letters we got in total but as we said before if we got 25 letters only one of them was in favor of keeping the schedule the way it is but again the squeaky wheel gets fixed and anybody willing to

074you know it's all up to you this is just my point of view as a Board of Education member when I took my oath of office what I promised to do and this is why I'm being vocal on it because this is not what I promised to do for our children on our staff so a 20 people right in mm-hmm supporting Friday being the last 8:20 being right that's a pretty low number I didn't see anything from a teacher I just feel like if we're valuing education we shouldn't accept 180 days as being acceptable you know we're really we have to look at everybody and the whole staff and all the workers and the children and if we want a value education we have to approve that and I think that if we make Friday

075the last day that we're not really truly valuing education and what the schools bring to our children enjoy me I appreciate both your point you carefully through that I think though this year was unusual you know that's the thing I would say I would agree with you on a normal year but this was such an unusual year in terms of weather you know it sort of reminds me of the year of Hurricane sandy I don't know if we were close for a whole week here but where I worked we were close for a whole week and sometimes you have just really unusual years and yeah I wouldn't want to lose two days of instruction but I think there's a there's validity to ending the school year within a reasonable amount of time if we meet

076you know the legal 180 days I'm concerned that that those are would be too productive days and I agree with your point though joy that parents could choose not to send their kids of course they have that choice but I think if our staff were given enough notice they could bring closure to school that Friday and graduation would have some more finality I think there's some you know some importance to that as well I think for me as it stands right now I think I would be in favor of ending on Friday and not because of the overwhelming public opinion about it but because I do think that those are personal and not as important because they can make that choice but you know I think in terms of like educating kids on those last

077two days and Eve to your point about it you know the cost aspect of that but then I think if these teachers are working those last two days doing professional development curriculum writing those are CDs during the school year the next school year where we don't have to find subs we can have our actual teachers teaching the students and that will save money and between the transportation and the other curriculum writing piece that was those hours in the summer that can negate a lot of those costs so I think from a cost standpoint it's actually perhaps more responsible to and early dr. Berube can guarantee that savings I don't know if that was an IEP and Monday and Tuesday I think over promise that yeah I don't even want to go out on that limb

078because the the way that we've been rolling this out we've been working with a specific team of 40 some people that have been working with Murray Alcock and they've been bringing it the professional learning back to teams of people in the school and we're not in our roll out at the point where everybody it's not till next year that everybody is going to be have a Rubicon Atlas license we did we haven't perty should be prudent we haven't purchased licenses for all the teachers because they haven't been trained on engagement that's part of next year so I think that it would be a misconception to say that everybody would be doing curriculum writing because that's not how the plan is rolled out it just and that won't happen just because we have two days I

079so that I Det so they thought that you brought up was a great thought Bob but it's not it's not really gonna work I don't think you can find $200,000 certainly we could contribute toward the budget challenges that we have it and is there any crash on development that you think could be done on those days or is it really up in here well I'm gonna be really honest with you if we if we don't have children in classrooms I would wonder how many people would do sick days okay so I would also be wouldn't want to be more careful in thinking about bringing in professional development and then having not everybody be there I mean I can't predict that but I would I think all of us who are engaged in this business which

080is everybody at this table at some level there's your board members and we're faculty members and administrators people could call in sick those last two days and so so then in fact that would be costing us more money because we would have to pay them for their sick time plus hire subs well we wouldn't hire subs if there were any kids no I mean if I'm saying if we if there are no kids in school right it's possible that people would could call in sick those last two days so I wouldn't I really wouldn't be in a position to be able to predict what exactly is going to happen on them obviously we had planned for it but sorry for coming in late today but did I miss John and Maureen did you give your

081thoughts on the on the two days wait we went through some of the thoughts okay yeah like and I didn't get numbers but people be talking about some dollar values the savings are not significant but there didn't have to be look you know poorly upon their savings paraprofessionals would not work because they only work on days when kids are in school on that savings is about 6500 dollars that per day or is that total that would be total for both days and transportation savings on the labor because we have a hundred eighty-two day transportation contract but they wouldn't be bringing their bus drivers in so that'd be about seven thousand dollars okay about seven thousand dollars so thirteen thousand dollars something like that it was it from an instructional standpoint howdy how do you feel

082about having those extra two days for kids well I think there's an argument to be made for if you give people enough notice but it's two days that we've planned for and there are activities and things that can be going on on on Monday and Tuesday of course as I always say to people at some point you have to have the last day so there will always be a last day whether the last day is Friday and we're gonna have some feel-good things going on that also could be educational or if it's Tuesday I think joy really summarized it quite nicely some of the things that could be done especially with a lot of lead time for folks to know and when it's health concerns and some other things in temperature and we'd also be

083neglecting peeps out like a pair of professionals that wouldn't be working you know they may be relying on that salary your wage for that day we'd be taking that opportunity away from them and I saw mr. Landis stepped out but I was wondering if we have any plans as far as managing funnels look that you think the grad party he's he's he knew this would be part of the discussion this evening so while he's got plans kind of either way I mean okay the plan is 182 days I mean so that's the plan right now so he's planning for that as he described when he was up at the podium but you know you need to get the seniors done before a graduation but the other students would have to come back for Monday Tuesday

084for exams so if there was change then you know those those plans up accordingly so what do we know about neighboring districts they're the only neighboring district that I know of that you know in that when I've done any research on this it's just that I know is that Bethel prior to they are scheduled for 181 they actually held school on Good Friday and the in and that's because there was a snow D before a Good Friday that they weren't hoping that wouldn't happen but it did happen but if they made it past Good Friday they were still going to go down from 181 to 180 or they there anything on what they believe there I don't know what the day they're ending on maybe move that up maybe but I believe there and they

085end up ending at 180 on the Friday we're on the Thursday even you know but I think their own doing way I hope I'm not miss speaking do we know if any neighboring districts are going to school on Monday Tuesday there are other districts are going longer yeah the ones going right to the end yeah they had more snow days than we do well I will admit that as we were receiving all the letters just before it ran out right around Good Friday I was sitting there in the snowstorm listening but reading letters about how hot it was gonna be and I kept saying I can't wait but it is hot in the schools look I'm married to a schoolteacher I posed the question to her I said so you'll get your teacher what would

086you do she says this is a no-brainer she says I don't get much educational value out of thing you know the last week in the month of June and the kids attentions not there the kids attention has moved on you're spending all your time trying to focus them in she says I'd ended on Friday and move on she says it's been a crazy year and and on this sort of matter I take her input to the bank so I am in favor of ending on Friday for the kids for the heat in the schools and I have heard everything that everybody said I still think it's this is a odd year and we just move on so he's an odd year when you have to call your assistant 16 mornings during a winter to tell

087her there's an early dismissal or there's something at 4:00 yeah yeah yeah so I said you locating those tacks don't you there you go we've heard from you certain thing you wanted to mention about I think I have to echo what Jen said I feel like you know we do actually what everybody has said we have a very strong commitment to the education we give our kids here in Brookfield and I don't think anybody is suggesting that going forward we shorten the school year in future years but I think this year was you know an exceptional case and it's late in a year to have still had snow days in late March early April so by the time we got to March April and people started making plans for camp or vacations or whatever else

088they kind of thought we were in the clear and lo and behold we weren't in the clear so I think you know I I feel very comfortable saying this year I think we can safely make an exception and end on Friday without any detriment to our students I think the teachers can get a lot done with two days without kids in the classroom and from what I've seen from the letters we've gotten from parents and from what I've seen online and heard in the community to me the overwhelming feeling is that parents think we should end on Friday so I'm okay with that I'm good with any good addressed everything all my concerns so and I have to say that I I toss this one for what because I said I want that we shouldn't

089be at taking away days based on convenience and at first thought this is convenience but then I think if you dig deeper into it it's it goes beyond convenience to logistics to student education to delivering it to it very unusual here so I think I would probably be in favor of ending it on Friday as well but if no one has anything else we can call about so the if we recommended motion joy we wanted get up we can't I'm sorry you're uncomfortable reading it because you took your position recommended motion that the board approved moving the last day of school for the 2017-2018 school year to Friday June 22nd keep me in alignment with the state law which requires students to attend school over 180 days second any further comment I'm sorry real I

090just I just jeez they neither comment all in favor aye opposed near five to two in favor of school ending right for 20 seconds thank you everyone I know that wasn't we'll either tonight or tomorrow we'll get a communication out to everyone about this okay I'd like to since the action was to discuss it moving forward as well I'd like to take a moment to start the discussion about next year and the following year so this doesn't happen again because we say this is an unusual year but if there are then other unusual years we wouldn't want it to um we should definitely use it as a learning experience sure we should take this and move forward with it and to that extent I know we have approved next year's calendar it can also be

091revised if we need to I did spend some time because you know I always love to look online and see things two three four five I took a look at the surrounding school districts to see what they actually do in constructing their calendars I have enough here first how many days they have in their calendar their first day that they start the days in session difference are actually days that they meet when we don't with the exception of the asterisks of New Fairfield in Monroe and that's actually a day that they have off that we do meet underneath I describe what those days are the last day without snow days and then under comments some of these districts actually have a last day built in with five or seven snow days that they will use

092and then and earlier than that and you see that in there interestingly enough if you see Bethel and Danbury actually state on their school calendar that they have 186 185 days respectively really does with their built in snow days but what they can do with that is actually set to their graduation date early because per state law if you start the school year with more than 108 185 days or more you can set your graduation day and not have to change it and so because it's my understanding school calendar even though they have 181 and 180 days actually when do you have the built-in snow days that's how they can kind of get around the graduation so what happens if they have more than five snow days I might put that in the comments as

093well some of them are added to the end of it like let's say Newtown their last day with their official last day is the fourteenth but with the five built-in snow days if they're not used they can finish as early as the 7th if they have more than the five snow days they add them on until the twentieth and then they take that spring break actually going past the twentieth or twenty seconds is the exception versus the rule even though the state says we have to end by the end of June many school districts have a firm date well before that and then after the 20th 21st et cetera start taking it off of their Presidents Day if they have excellent for spring break but it's just food for thought going forward it's not to

094say that any any way is perfect but I think we do need to take this year and use it as a learning experience going forward I like the idea of building in snow days but I still don't think you still can't really predict the last day of school because if you have like in the case of Newtown if you have more than five than the last day of school is not the 14th exactly exactly it then it's full you can't be a building like our last day is always the last day and we have six built in snow days and then you know they start with morale day weekend you go backwards from there so those specific days right so you're not - right now they do here which is I had to write another

095point that needs to be added in my first year here though the board talked with me when we were developing the calendar was that they wanted to keep the board at that time wanted to keep April vacation sacred they didn't want any days taken off April break no matter what so everyone community could Bank on a vacation and if they're planning vacation day vacation time away they're not scrambling at them out last-minute looking for special permissions - well I already have plane tickets and I've already done this and booked this I can't get out of it so we also I think as part of this Thank You Claire for doing this is building in those days in you know whatever order it might be that we might take away first yeah but we also have

096to say we should come to consensus if we're gonna go down this road over the spring and summers talk about this what are we gonna hold sacred and not much exactly we have to formally come back and talk about if it was considered you know those are those are big big things I mean my first year here there the April break wasn't sacred and in my former district coming here the April break wasn't hadn't been sacred and that caused a lot of problems with employees who are taking time off that was a time that was off but we're gonna be kids in the building was a perfect time slow time it's not just teachers talking about it's all of our employees who are necessary and in vacation has been a good time for everyone to

097take take the time off and it caused a lot of problems and a lot of headaches and a lot of bad feelings because you have to say - no I can't grant you that permission and they lose out on plane tickets and hotels and stuff so we just need to be mindful of that as well for our parents they don't want to miss school if all of a sudden we're having school during the entire April break because of so many days off they plan a vacation and how kids missed a few days of school so it that can be awkward as well you should definitely consider and I do want to note in this if we were to make any significant changes we would probably have to find extra days within the school year as

098well would you see most of these schools do yeah exactly two of them are professional development days that we have and that's per contract that we have X amount of professional development days there are a lot of though that do not take home on this day off and by state law we can do that we have to have some educate any day that that we hold school that is a state holiday we have to have some sort of lesson plan surrounding why that is our which is why on Thursday we go to school but there is some sort of educational piece regarding Veterans Day we'd have to do the same thing with Columbus Day the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one in many schools also don't have the three-day presidency you know again we use that

099as one professional development day but we could still have two days off instead of a three-day we don't have a teacher that profession they still there so if we were to effect any significant changes when where the other we would probably also have to take a look at that meaning the other thing we're going to do to mitigate some of this cancellations is I've asked the principal's to start thinking about schedules for a 3-hour delay some of our districts locally have BeagleBone from a two-hour - in addition having a rare but a call of a three-hour delay so that's something that considered as well so there were two or three times we if we had another hour we probably could've got the roads into the safe conditions as well as the parking lots of got

100the kids in and so and that may have got us from you know ninety eight nine ten to seven or nine to six days or something like that so and something else that we could also think about that I have asked we couldn't do it going for or looking at next year scheduled because there are contractual issues as well we brought this up and that would be as after X amount of snow days say five snow days we have in a remote learning day where even though the kids aren't in school teachers are in school there are lesson plans that's something that's probably something we would be likely if we were able to plan and get all the clearances on and so forth and all the hurdles would be looking at the year probably I

101think it would be we'd be lucky if it was 1928 more the 2021 year but it is something that we can think forward planners absolutely great idea is education delivered as well as education delivered better remotely on February 6 than it is on January 26 probably I'm sorry like June 46 yes messed up there so what should our process be for focus on the agenda raishin comeback insurance policies I think it deserves a look for next year so this certainly was just meant to start the discussion and started pushing the ball forward it's something that we certainly come to conclusion now but I think the next step would be perhaps you know I can promise you this that can't be ready for next week what's the April 11th Monday many districts have off the Monday

102after spring break um the 22nd well in the charge of the 22nd but on the bottom you have the alas that's what it should be there are two districts now New Fairfield Monroe that have that date off that is literally out of all of the difference in the districts that is the only day in the only two districts that have a day off that we don't every other time we have day off days off even other districts at least the ones that I got here and again this is not a forum exhaustive list I just tried to look regionally all of the towns surrounding our area and I went dirt be a little bit further than the surrounding towns just looking quickly at the numbers I love the structure that says if there's no snow

103snow days you could end as early as six seven harder snow days at 6:14 and to get a lot of snow days you're up the maximum of 620 that's a nice structure yeah because you've got two weeks of buffer and they're in effect right so I can you tell me Bethel you can see that some of those and I like the thought of declaring officially a hundred eighty five days if you can do that so that you can avoid the second graduation day on that and it was like oh my god why don't we just seven that schedule okay that's something even if that's all we do in the coming year with the us that way that's something we can adjust that see the structure and oh sure we're we're kind of running all out

104to get to 614 right so exactly sure and I just wanted to dwell on the on the blank with me Milford I did ask a certain former assistant principal and a current teacher because it wasn't very clear as to what they did to add on days they have a last day of classes it almost seems a little arbitrary year this year was the 26th the year before was a 23rd I believe it was and then if they reach that point then they start taking away from Spring Break okay so maybe we can put this on the calendar for our seconds maybe second maybe yeah the sixteenth might have some room may 16th I think has some more if we're going to make changes they probably need to be you know that second jovi yes I

105mean would like at least to have their parents have some sort of sure planning in advance maybe the calendar can be revised but we need to keep in mind people are making we want to drag it out of two to August or it's like that yeah exactly okay thank you everybody for the discussion okay next we have discussion of possible action concerning the era non-renewals recommended motion that the board move that pursuant to connecticut general statutes section 10 - 151 the book field board of education on renew the teaching contract of the non-tenured teachers listed in exhibit H at the end of the 2017-2018 school year is recommended by the superintendent and further move that the superintendent be directed to communicate this action of the board in writing to the non-tenured teachers listed in exhibit

106H and that the superintendent be authorized to respond on behalf of the board to any requests for a hearing if required by law or for other data which may be forthcoming from the teacher and/or his or her representative pursuant to applicable provisions of gen Connecticut general statutes section 10 - 151 and that the superintendent be directed that any response to a request for a hearing if a hearing is required by law indicate that such hearing is to be before the board or at the board's discretion a subcommittee of the board yeah [Music] Doctorow did you wanna say anything in regards to that's just it while this is an annual because because of tenure law and the way our collective bargaining works we have to do this because we don't have budget at this point budget

107likely will be sent next week for referendum on the budget in May and we have to make these decisions prior to May 1st so this has to be done and if there is a major reduction where we do have to engage in reduction in force we have to have told people and these would be or not and your teachers according to the statute here that notify all the pie makers that before May 1st that they've all you know they'd be without a job and then what we would do is whatever reduction we'd have to make difficult decisions if that was ever to come to fruition we would do that and then we would be in compliance with the law the law and those individuals whose positions would be eliminated without me go back and that's

108basically why we have to do this is unfortunate I've signed each and every letter personally and you look through and I said the same thing last year I mean on tenure folks more than two-thirds maybe three-quarters at this point of the people I brought in so it wrenches the heart when I was a teacher I knew the pink slip was coming my first few years teaching as well for the most part it typically works out we have to see what happens it can't we just can't count any chickens at this point any discussions thank you for that explanation and hiring is extremely expensive and time-consuming you can ask the principal's here and our administrators the time and effort that goes in it is beyond safety of students since that beyond that it is the most

109important thing that we do as educational leaders is hire the best staff in our school obviously the best instructors teachers so it's it's heart-wrenching every time you think about these kind of things okay no further discussion all in favor aye aye aye opposed we will notify some other principals have the letters they're ready to go you will hand deliver those to their staff and meet in person to talks with the effective that means thank you okay first absolutely pass out that budget flyer ten days all right discussion of the 2018-2019 budget recommended action that the board discuss 2018-2019 budget considerations can we put that in there pretty much as a placeholder and I think Bob you pretty well described a lot of it with the Finance Committee report we do have at this point a

110hundred and eighty thousand dollar reduction we are hopeful that seventy-nine thousand of that can be addressed via the non lapsing account which is the underground of our 1617 audit we are also looking to use sixteen thousand that has no clear purpose from the transfer over on the Student Activity front platform it's in a miscellaneous file that's been there under counsel there's a ways there are ways that we can transfer this to the principal's account then use it to purchase and books classroom materials so therefore take that away from our 2018-19 budget of purchased books or classrooms that does leave approximately eighty four thousand dollars we had thought because we aren't official yet with an online font that we would wait and make these decisions after the referendum at least after we get them on maps

111and font established so we know what it is that we're looking forward to further reductions unless anyone has any other discussions at this point for that or does anyone have anything else that they would like to discuss regarding the budget moving forward I'll just make a comment at the Finance Committee meeting we did ask dr. Borel and mr. post to start working through the options so that they would come with a recommendation it's always the hardest you have cuts and as we all know this is a really tight budget we work hard to make you make it sure it was a tight budget no it looks like a very high percentage increase its algorithm by that special edition I say that sincerely to the people listening on TV this is a tight budget so it

112will be a heart-wrenching moment but we did ask experts back to the drawing board started thinking about what those options were and we've all we want we'll do that as we find out what the target is and we've had conversations with principals as well so you know it impacts all of us so so they're part of the decision-making process I would take a moment to encourage everybody to attend the town hall or the town meeting on the first where the budget will be reviewed in great detail and they can have the opportunity at that time to make comments in regards to it hearing no other discussion we can move on to the student request for non-resident attendance recommended action that the Board discussed the student request for non-resident attendance there was a request for a

113non-resident student to attend Brookfield public schools and for a policy while that request came to me I need to bring it before the board because it involves a student and confidentiality I'd recommend that we discussed that in executive session that's okay to the board and then we go to upcoming events okay it's center school the kids are on screen he's on Monday April 30th in the morning huckleberry progress reports will be available on Friday April 27th there's a special ed meet-and-greet on Thursday May 3rd from 9 to 10 and the grade 3 is having a field trip they Connecticut Science Center on Friday May 4th with skinnier on Tuesday May 8th from 8:30 to 30 is the 7th and 8th grade science team field trip to the Eli Whitney Museum it's already mentioned about a

114repeat at the senior prom will be on Friday April 27th from 6 to 11 at the water view high school and there's a grad party meeting on Monday May 7th from 7 to 9 in the cafeteria ok nothing further we can go into executive session recommend a motion that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing strategy and negotiations unaffiliated salaries and a student request for non-resident attendants all in favor okay so that concludes our public portion of the Board of Education meeting thank you all for being here have a good evening [Music]