001[Music] okay good evening I'd like to call the Brookfield Board of Education meeting for Wednesday November 15th to order as a first order of business let's please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance thank you thank you so we have in terms of our Board of Education members here yes we do we have six we don't have no Paul chap all Jocko is not here Paul Paul is out of town I do know he's out of town we do have a new member Debbie Brooks we have to do this with the other new board members who will be joining us at our December sixth meeting but I see they're here in the audience today so congratulations to all of you for your your recent win in the elections and we can't wait to
002have you join us here at the table and also in our in our in our upcoming retreats where we'll you know come together as a board so this will be great tonight's a interesting bittersweet night we're saying goodbye to some board members this evening who are who have been with us through thick and thin and I just wanted to thank the three board members who are departing this evening Harry shaker Steve Harding and Paul chucko who's not here with us tonight for for their service I'm gonna start Harry with with you you and I ran together for public office the same year into 2003 I ran for the board of Finance and you ran for the Board of Education I served eight years on the Board of Finance and you have served 14 years here
003in on the board of education and that's amazing to me it's so much I think you you and I sat and added it up but I think you've done more than a thousand meetings as a as a Board of Ed member and you've done countless negotiations with with different union groups you've you've I think you've served on almost every single subcommittee that the board has had and have contributed and in so many ways in good times and in tough times Steve not as long as Howard but you know what you've been with us for four years right you and I served together here for the last two but it was a tumultuous four years in a lot of ways it's you know and III think back on some of the stuff you've done both as
004the as a member of this board but also in bridging the gap to the state legislature and giving us so much insight and in areas of you know funding from the state policy and and just general insights to what's going on it's it's just such a contribution to a board like ours and I can I urge you to keep visiting I will but thank you thank you so much for everything and Paul chucko who's not here tonight is it served for six years on this board he was a four year term and then just re-elected as a two-year term recently Paul spend my vice chair and has been a strength for this board in terms of his knowledge and experience on how things get done and how we should be thinking is important I think
005all of us have benefited from Paul's sage advice along with Harry's and Steve sage advice in terms of you know how to do things right as a board he's headed up our facilities and our Finance Committee I think the entire time he's been on the board and and he's bred it brought us strength there and I think that's I talked to Paul earlier today and I thanked him told him I would be you know giving a brief speech for him but boy Paul has been a huge asset it was the Lord as well so we're losing first I just first part for me and then I'll open it up to the rest of the board for any comments they'd like to make but for me we're losing an extraordinary amount of experience and thoughtfulness and
006wisdom with you guys moving on and we'll miss you actively on the board but we do have your phone number so so I'm sure we'll be calling you if we need you so thank you I would like to thank Perry for new years of service and not only that but the institutional knowledge you've been able to breathe which is a valuable when we're debating and discussing something to have someone who has the background knowledge thank you very much for that Steve thank you for all the plates have been juggling in the air thank you um and in addition to that just uh can-do spirit of positivity that you bring with you every single meeting thank you and Paul for his experience and his forceful opinions when did we meet and the thing that thrills me
007most about the three of you all is that you're not really leaving the barn at all we're I mean we're going to have our presentation in the state we're going to have Paul on strategic facilities and we're gonna have areas of Selectmen so I'm happy that everyone is still going to be fighting the good fight for education of Brookfield thank you : okay first is Harry thank you so much Harry my very first meeting is the Board of Education member took me under his wing and gave me sound advice explained everything that was going on I was the newbie no experience and I will never forget that because it was very helpful thank you Steve I'm calling you in heartburn and again like I said when you become governor I don't think so I want
008to be voted in invite ya Paul um check oh I guess the the most valuable thing that I've learned being on the board in the past two years was two years ago when I joined the board if I had believed any of the stories that I had heard or had taken people's comments to face value it would have been a huge huge mistake Paul is a fabulous person I have learned so much from him and I'm so glad that when I came into the board I put all the rumors aside and I just concentrated with a clear head and I wasn't going to prejudge anybody and I'm so glad that I did that because I would have lost some valuable information and a very good board member that I became friendly with so I guess
009I would be my advice to anybody when you come onto a board just put aside anything you've heard about anybody and just work together the voters voted you in your job is to work together and I'm glad that I did that with Paul or the same thing I conference for individual conversations which we've already started all right there you go so thank you to our board members who are leaving and I just want to welcome the four new board members once again we have Debbie who's here at the table because she's been sworn in and for those of you listening on TV the way the process works is when you're filling a two-year slot you take office actually immediately after the election and the those who are taking a four year slot actually are sworn
010in on the first of December and would take office at that point and puts Rosie in an interestingly challenging position because she's been sitting with us for so long and and and as actually it has to take a month officially off but you know we all you know Rosie you you know you're part of us you know and Jan and that joy as well you guys are welcome to come sit up at the table if you'd like it'll squeeze in and do that or if you want to wait until you actually take office it just you can't actually be voting or anything I just want to say thank you to the people who supported me over the years and you know Steve I'm just so proud of Steve because it's very difficult to command and
011try to do two jobs and the value that he has brought to us being our state rep has just been incredible and to our administers administrators you hear a lot around town when you're in shop right and when you're on the fields and everything about what's wrong but I couldn't be prouder of our administration and we're very fortunate to have and you know look forward to working with them in a different capacity for the new board members I think the one thing that I can tell you is that you need to come up and sit in this chair we had to be able to be yourself and not be swayed by party your friends or or situations I think one of the reasons why I've lasted as long as I have is because I've been
012true to my convictions and to my my beliefs and you need to do that because you can it gets tough especially during we've had some very difficult times and I think you just need to make sure that when you come up here you come up with a clear mind and lastly I have to look out here because I can't look at Lisa but uh she is the workhorse of this board this board does not exist without Lisa and I want to thank her very much and Steve and I have something for ya Steve very quickly Harry you have always been a mentor in this sport and to myself and to many other individuals and you have always put kids first and especially the athletic programs has been a real passion of yours and I think
013we've advanced in a lot of sports because of your strong efforts on this board and I want to thank you for 14 years you know four years was tough great times and good times with 14 years multiplied by tenants incredible that is true I'm the young guy I used to get picked on and you're gonna have to find somebody else so Rose is pretty young so you know actually everyone coming on the board actually now that I think about it is young Jan is very young herself as well so and joy is exceedingly young I gotta get reelected in two years I got so anyway I just just quickly this board whether it's the current board members who have always been by my side or the previous board members with Scott and Susan and Viktor
014we've been through tough times but this experience has been amazing to me I changed my name so fee on certain things and I was talking to Jen actually that bagel man the weekend before about how it's changed the person that I am and it's been an amazing experience I when I came on this board I didn't know my wife I still live with my parents and I didn't have a really able job and since then I've gotten married had my first house and had my own law firm so there's my life has changed but has changed me and I think to the new people coming on this board it's going to change you to in really positive ways that how rewarding this is is truly incredible and I want to thank everyone for specially the
015administration for sharing this experience with me so thank you thank you there is also a yes now we have bookends thank you very much oh we did we switch them you guys will sort that out and I think we're gonna take a brief recess for some refreshments yes oh so if you'll bear with us on TV we're going to go in recess as a board and I join everybody who's here for a slice of cake and a little bit of a thanks to both Harry and to Steve who are leaving us tonight [Music] all right so we're back in session could I you know bring us back to an order here so thank you all for for some patience I hope you all enjoyed a piece of cake and and thank you for those of
016you on TV for your patience next up on our agenda is public comment and first up for public comment is Linda Davies so I'll turn it over you a name and address before you speak please hi everybody the button needs to be up on the speaker there no no that should be up so if there's a down an aisle or at least that can help you then hi I'm Linda Davies I've been coaching the high school dance team for 18 years actually I took a couple years off needed a sabbatical and I'm back again and we are doing a show for all of the Brookfield schools it's called tis the season this is our 11th year we have been running the show in New Milford we were waiting patiently for Fulfilled to do the auditorium
017over with their sound system in their lights so we're so happy to be home in the past we did a benefit for aunt's place for cancer care and we earned over $32,000 for them in the ten years that we were in New Milford so because Diane Patrick Oni and I are from Brookfield our children have all graduated from here and obviously we have a very big stake in the Brookfield high school dance team we are putting on a Christmas show on Friday night all proceeds will go to the for Brookfield schools obviously to the superintendent um to split up as he sees fit but first of all I want you to know that you can go on show ticks for you dot-com and you can order a ticket and if you can't make it Friday
018night you can still make a donation to the Brookfield schools through show ticks they will be writing you a check also and if you want to come on Saturday and Sunday which are additional shows your money can still be donated to the schools so our show consists of the Brookfield high school dance team 21 of them who do the quickest changes you have ever seen in your life because they are the basic part of the show but we do have many young Brookfield kids three years old 5 years a little sick years 6 years old we have a visit from Santa for the kids and I assure you that that the dance team will really really put on an incredible show they're an incredibly talented group of girls I want to thank John and Bob
019and mark and ELISA they have paved the way and made it so simple for us they are advertising and I would so appreciate it if all of you if you can't make the show make a donation before I go I wanted to make a special thanks to Harry Harry I don't know if you remember this but when we put on my daughter was a senior in 2005 we put on stand by me and you came to the premiere and you wrote the most incredible letter to the other we had a paper at that time and we went on to raise $25,000 for our soldiers serving in Iraq and you have always been supportive when the dance team won it's a big loss and I'm so sorry to see you go thank you everybody Linda is
020it this Friday December first Friday night 7:00 o'clock that's when the benefit is and tickets are on sale show ticks for you dot-com and Saturday on Sunday we're doing matinees at 2 o'clock okay any anybody else did I miss anything thank you so much thank you I appreciate your coming okay next up is our mr. Jaffe no you didn't sign up so we have a little confusion on and other people in the same thing mr. Lasser did you did you sign up okay good your neck sent good evening Howard Laster 116 tower Road first I'll join you all in thanking thanking you all for your service thanking the new members elected members for their service I know how much effort this particular job takes my wife was on the board for ten years and so
021you know it was ten years out of that marriage to Harry have known Harry a long time thank you for your service I know your commitment to the community and I hope to see it continue on the board of selectmen and Steve Steve and I share kind of a special relationship from competitors to collaborators and he's always been very supportive of our efforts at the Craft Center and I appreciate your help Steve but I'm here really to talk about an item on your agenda you have an item where you want to appropriate seventy two thousand dollars for an architectural study for the schools I fully support the architectural study for the schools but the proper way to fund this is really through the town should be creating a capital fund and should put money from
022its fund balance essentially to that because eventually it's going to get you know world we're going to do a school project at some point and at that point we'll bond that and then pay that loan back it should not come out of your operating budget if you have seventy thousand dollars that you can that you can scrape together out of your operating budget it means either something else isn't getting done that we plan to do or if something actually you know you did save some money somewhere there's obviously a lot of needs we just sat through an hour worth of conversation where people pointed out some some dire needs showers that need to be fixed bathrooms they need to be fixed why not do those things instead of bonding those in the in the bond
023next year every year we seem to be asking for more and more money for chairs or tables or whatever use the money for that instead of this which really you know from any municipal proper municipal accounting should be done a different way I think you know if anybody has questions I'm glad to answer but I know Steve Bob you know this process no and I'll talk about that when we get to that item is I've had some discussions so the only rationale to do this as expediency but you know I think in this town with a supportive Board of Selectmen and a supportive Board of Finance and doing it the right way I don't see that it's going to really take that much effort to get this is the right way so thank you okay
024and next up is Mary Jo chuckle yes okay Maryjo check oh sorry I'm the other half of the check Oh 29 Dorsett Lane I just wanted to come at public comment because I have an 8th grader who came home incredibly excited recently because she found out the Washington DC trip was happening and I just wanted to thank dr. barillo for his part and making sure these kids had you know something that they're going to remember forever it's such an important trip for kids of this age and I know it's on the agenda tonight for approval but thank you thank you to the board for supporting it and I hear there's a rumor we might have a special chaperone I can guarantee all chaperone to maybe myself but it'll be a great trip and thank you
025for supporting it thank you thank you is there anybody else who wanted to make a public comment before we move on on the agenda this is a well attended meeting with we're gonna start having budget round tables before meetings all the time because we get a chance to have more people here okay so next up on our agenda is a report from our student representative Dan Berryman so Dan I'll turn it over to you and let you give us an update pants movie at 6:30 in the upper gym in addition students were given the honor of naming Brookfield police departments newest k-9 unit and they decided tonight as in a knight in shining armor you just have to be closer to the microphones on all sixth graders will be going on a trip to the
026CT Science Center science team just going on a trip to the Maritime Center and they celebrated Veterans Day last week by having 12 veterans visit different classrooms and discuss the various military experiences it was a great day to celebrate the veterans let them know how much we appreciate their service to our country dr. Brill also visited WMS and spoke with some of the seventh and eighth graders about their experiences they said that they had some very insightful conversations I mean the students appreciated you coming to speak with them at the high school Key Club is having a fundraiser tomorrow at Outback Steakhouse from 4 to 9 p.m. on 15% of your check will go towards Relay for Life and they're having a second fundraiser at Maggie McFly's on November 27th the staff of the paw
027print our student newspaper was able to raise around three hundred dollars between homecoming carnival earlier in October and a second fundraiser and the money is going to go towards their printing costs all juniors have been visiting the library with their English and history classes on three certain classic American literature and civil rights so mrs. Rocca was pretty excited about that the Gay Straight Alliance participated in an event at Bethel High School on November 3rd in which they allowed and which they were allowed to meet with students from Bethel Danbury and New Fairfield and they were invited to this Saturday to a second event at Newtown High School the best buddiez club had their friends giving today and around 50 students attended they brought food drinks and they had a very large game of bingo the
028annual rican bake was last saturday many clubs and sports participated including our soccer teams swim team Key Club counselling etc today host a volunteer at hands place which is a Cancer Support Centre in Danbury and they're also launching a tobacco awareness campaign as November is the tobacco Awareness Month any NHS is hosting the staff appreciation breakfast this Friday and Spanish Honor Society reached out to me about making mrs. Kappa rows to the official to the advisor to do the budget freeze they have been unable to meet so and then on a lighter note as of November 1st forty-one percent of the senior class has applied to at least one college alright so we said it's always a fun time of year when those applications are due aren't isn't it yeah thank you Dan I appreciate
029it any questions for Dan all right let's move on written correspondence written correspondence from Linda Davies regarding to Holiday Show on December 1st okay board minutes recommend a motion that the board approved the minutes listed below as recommended the regular meeting of October 18 2017 okay do I have a second we're gonna give you all the seconds tonight Harry there you go so any any comments on them on the minutes okay hearing none all in favor any opposed okay next up is the superintendent's update dr. Birol I'll turn it over to you Thank You mr. Weldon so before I leave before I get in I have just a couple of comments I thank Dan for his his work I do appreciate all the work thus far dan you're doing a great job my nephew did
030this in the district he grew up in and school he graduated from he's serving in the Navy now and I often refer to a girl before you and of course you would talk to him about those days and yeah he did a heck of a job at it as well so it's an important job representing the kids and I'm really appreciative of the work so far dan so keep it up dan mentioned some of the Veterans Day ceremonies I ain't got to spend the time at center school like I do annually and dr. sail on her team but I'm just a wonderful veteran ceremony where active veterans actually come in and most of the time it's an uncle or a parent or a grandparent with the kids and the kids are considered sponsors and they're
031introduced and it was just beautiful and then of course there's a beautiful song and it's actually on our Facebook page and I posted it on Twitter that is amazing just to listen to and the the patriotism and pride that the kids exhibited so I wanted to mention that as well and then the other piece you heard Dan talk about classic literature from the English department and civil rights from history to remind everybody in our reorganization mrs. Spencer is now leading our combined English and history to social studies departments which is the now the humanities department and you can see the integration there already when this is raqqa here from the Media Center which is technology in our research and seeing all that come together immediately this year there'll be more reports on how that's going
032as time goes on so I just wanted to draw everybody's attention to that and make sure it's emphasized so you'll notice that dr. ruby is not here sitting beside me tonight dr. ruby is representing the district that the Bushnell and Hartford tonight at the Teacher of the Year state ceremony where mrs. Amy Mac our French teacher as our district Teacher of the Year is being recognized so I wanted to let everybody know that and for the first official item on my superintendents report is our munis update we've got some exciting news coming up with with our conversion immunising I'll let mr. host talk a little bit about that sure thank you there's been a lot of hard work going on particularly with the air conklin our technology director and Joan Reynolds our accounting supervisor very
033cabin our HR specialist Cindy and carolien our payroll folks a lot of tedious work building positions in the system building pay codes building deduction codes they exported the demographic data out of the old system into the new system so now we are ready for our first parallel test which we expect to take place tomorrow so I have in my mind that with all the work that's going in and should come out perfect but for those most like Bob knows going through things like this it won't be but we will we'll run it and figure out what went wrong and keep running it until it stilts right so we're very excited about this time so that's that's our munis update for this month and and thanks Ken for all the leadership in that area so it's
034a great deal of working for those in the audience and those at home the plan is the final part of the Muniz conversion is this human resources and payroll conversion that is to occur for January 1st so we're working up on that that hard deadline update quickly on the huckleberry air quality issue that we had very early in the school year our mitigate mitigation efforts were successful we recently did a follow-up assessment and the indoor air quality actually has less count count of the mold spores than the outdoor air so we're in really good shape there and we are keeping a very close eye on that and the the teachers in the particular rooms have expressed their appreciation for our responsiveness there so that's working out quite well at whisk and year you've heard a
035couple of mentions of this I have to thank mr. Renda for gathering up a number of student leaders seventh eighth graders yesterday we spent what I say about an hour and a half Dean with the kids yesterday talking about all kinds of issues in schools areas they thought we you know could improve things for the incoming generation of middle school kids they were like they felt like the sage wise folks out there the elders of whiskey and air but also you know moving forward for recommendations not only for the kids coming through but as they thought about high school and things they'd like to to see as part of their educational experience it was great actually Debbie son was one of the kids so it was fantastic and every time you go and sit with
036the students you realize just how wonderful the town is and the families in these kids I mean they're just amazing they're wonderful to interact with and we'll be working with mr. Belinda on a similar kind of format for the high school as well that's going on I had the pleasure of meeting with mr. Harding on Monday we accompanied a couple of the 4th grade classes for the state capital trip as part of their unit on state and federal government and so we were really excited about that and Steve has a lot of pictures with kids and he's posted those and the kids were super excited and honored to be with Steve next I did want to mention something that was just tremendous that dr. Cipolla was a part of with Brookfield cares which was the
037no letting go event and actually if Christine could come off here and maybe say a little bit about it the no letting go movie was shown yesterday and it was a community forum and Christine I'll let you talk about the rest of that so yesterday Brookfield cares actually spawned her sponsored a free community event it was a film screening of no letting go which is a film that is about child and adolescent mental health it was really important for awareness and also it was an opportunity for me to talk about how schools partner so the event included a film screening and then presentation and panel discussion with Randy Silverman who was the writer and producer of the film so it's really an excellent event very well attended by over a hundred people and I'm very
038grateful to Brookfield cares for bringing that to the district thanks Christine next kind of dovetailing off of that there's a new grant from the federal government it's one of the entitlement grants you the board and those involved in in municipal budgeting over the years have heard of title 1 title 2 in title 3 this is called title 4 it's it's a former school climate grant as a district were of we have available to us up to ten thousand dollars for work and in alignment with the strategic plan also inclusive of our new work with emotional intelligence and we're really gonna work on what's called question formulation which supports collaboration communication higher-order thinking stalwarts of our strategic coherence plan we're going to work not only on capacity of teachers and paraprofessionals and the like but really
039working with our parents and strengthening our school family partnerships so dr. Ruby's going to be heading up the not only the acquisition of that grant the paperwork that goes with that but also some of the pieces of of that grant and the action items that come with that so we'll give you more information on that as time goes by and then the final pieces I sent mr. Harding actually an email about this in his capacity as our state representative there is a program called the team Mentor Program all new teachers participate in it and it is just that it is veteran teachers cooperating teachers working with new teachers as they acclimate into the profession over basically their first two years for the most part there's a lot of work that goes into it the the
040state has typically funded about five hundred dollars per new teacher to provide as compensation for the time for the veteran cooperating teacher at this time with the new state budget the way the legislation was written the funding is eliminated and so in our district that means up to about ten thousand dollars so we're looking at that and I shared this information with Steve they've been in session and hopefully they were able to have some conversations about that and there might be an adjustment but if it isn't fun that it becomes yet another unfunded mandate to all the local districts so I just want to as part of budgeting and December 6th and my proposal coming up those are things the the mandate doesn't go away the teachers have to go through this but the funding
041isn't there so Steve maybe I don't know I don't put you on the spot but you have any update some of the two is OPM sometimes OPM has the discretion to decide how to expend some of the monies and from the discussions I had today that that's part of it so I think maybe working with OPM as opposed to sometimes it doesn't have to be legislation okay so and I think this might be one of those circumstances so I will keep you updated with that thank you sir and that is all I have okay thank you so much for any questions for dr. burrow okay next up is our subcommittee reports we only have one on the agenda and it's the one we always have on the agenda which is our strategic facilities steering committee
042so if you could I know we have the most important thing on the agenda a little bit later but I want you give us an update on what's going on okay um before I start I would like to thank Bob Beldon he has been a huge help to me this week securing funding talking to me we've had many many conversations the past few days and I've driven him crazy the good news is funds were found so that we are able to hire the architect to go forward with the master plan for all four schools and I'm going to actually have Bob speak about that later just because he he actually volunteered to help me with it and I asked him as our chairman if he would step in his information and his knowledge concerning finances
043and different things are outside of my realm so thank you Bob so much for your help also thank you to Kimberly Seacrest I also drove her crazy looking for funding and she came back with some ideas but actually what what bob has and he did discuss it today with First Selectman done it's it's good news so as soon as we do have a vote later on in our agenda to release the money so we can go forward with a contract so we are here just cooking along here last week I did attend a meeting as the head of the strategic steering committee it was the ad hoc committee for the town I met with people from the burfi library and I also met with representative from the police department and it was a really valuable
044meeting all of us were able to sit down talk about where we were in our projects where we wanted to be the group is extremely supportive of one another and that was very encouraging and we've all pledged to help each other along the way so that is my report but I'm going to have you talk about the funding what we get there okay if you don't mind place great thanks Bob okay any questions for you all right let's move on consent agenda recommend a motion that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended you're not receive you gotta jump in here every now and then all right so we don't have a lot of items on the consent agenda usually and for those of you listening and this is normal generally personnel
045changes such as degree changes resignations and new hires that have to be approved by the board but generally we get it in advance and we don't go it but referrals or any particular comments you'd like to make I'm not taking the comments okay any questions from the board okay all in favor new business we have a number of items on new and old business I expect that some of these will go actually rather quickly and first up on our agenda is the swim team truck recommend a motion that the board approve a trip for the BHS swim team to train in Orlando Florida planned from February 15th through February 20th 2018 as requested by swim team coach Bryan Reef and VHS principal mark malanda do we have a second all right so I'll turn it
046over you mr. blenman welcome turn it over to the coach Bryan Reef show who's been here longer than I have it can speak much more eloquently about this trip than I could so but my pleasure to introduce coach Bryan REE Ryan hey guys thanks for having me appreciate it once again we come before you I actually went as far as to put one of our team members on the board this year we got approved but as you know we have never had our own facility here at the high school we rent facility and one of the good pieces of good news is that we're moving from the dive shop where we've been really crunched in and have had some difficulties with pool time and opportunity over to the new facility at the YMCA I'm the
047bubble mister Belinda and our athletic director Steve Baldwin did an amazing job of helping me to negotiate an arrangement where we're not spending any more money on pool time but we've increased our pool time which is exciting for me after all the years that I've been doing which is think I'm well it's my 26th year overall and about to start my 17th year in front field high school so we come before you looking to go on our training trip which is an isolated moment where we take the kids away we go down to Orlando we have we have a world-class facility we have three diving boards I believe three diving boards and we have an Olympic sized pool that we utilize down there so it's ours for this weekend it's not a prep school in
048Orlando and they have been so gracious to us and allowed us to train there so it's been amazing nobody misses any school the trip is fund raised for in partiality and kids work toward that and they know the trip is coming so they've done some great things to prepare for that as well we also have a policy of no student-athlete stays at home which means that if there is any type of financial hardship that it's taken care of through our fundraising efforts so it's exciting for us we've had a great amount of success I've been very fortunate were not eleven state titles where the defending state champion as we sit right now we hope to defend our defense and continue continue the great tradition in Brookfield High School swimming and diving so I ask your
049permission to go in that trip and if you have any questions about it please give so this is the same place you went last year yeah we throw the same thing the same basic structure yes okay for about the last we've been using this facility for about seven or eight years now it's a great facility all right any questions from the board or coffee yes well I just have to make a comment because I can't let this go by okay yeah there are a lot of people who coach and then there are coaches and I just want to thank Brian for his hard work I coach with him at the high school baseball and we're very fortunate the day that he resigns or leaves this program it's going to be a void that probably will
050not be filled but I want to thank you so much for now trying teaching kids how to swim with teaching them life skills and discipline and I really appreciate it and coincidentally this is their 14th trip so I have voted YES on all 13 trips and this year when we vote yes if you let me come with you there compressions or comments okay all in favor aye any opposed it's your chance 14 straight years and I'd also like to say in closing to thank Harry and Steve who's actually whose wife has been my diving coach and to Harry's been a great supporter and to all you guys up I wish you guys thank you for the service and I wish the new board members great success and I appreciate you guys taking the time for
051us tonight thank you thank you Brian all right and that's next up is the Washington DC trip recommend a motion that the board approve a trip to Washington DC from Wednesday March 14th to Friday we're here to ask for to have as along after you some of you already knew there was some question and about going to DC because I want to make sure you understand you can cut out of the staff to go because that's very very important for the people that happen to have been here in the world war in the audience it is it's something that is very used for 20 years and we have an agenda the AUSA by the end of the day so having the right staff and enough staff there on chat rooms it is a very very
052important thing to make sure that this trip is done safely Susan to Gitmo hold on a minute just before we hand you we are actually the the difference memorials are exactly the same that hasn't had last year and I know one of them glass that Adaline afternoon air museum which was a huge hit I you know a bunch of the students I had walked around and that that was a new opportunity for us last year which was really fantastic as you can see every minute of the day is taken taken up with anything everywhere from the world war ii memorial to holocaust washington monument Smithsonian Museum of American History Thomas Jefferson the Lincoln Memorial Korean War Memorial Vietnam Veterans Memorial the National Air and Space Museum the walk up to Capitol Hill and what's interesting
053is last year in certain times when people understand too is when we are very lucky the person that does the global endeavors it does is for us Phillip he has it down where they get the tickets ahead of time so you try not to have to sit and wait in certain areas it is a big to do so I got to give him a lot of credit with when we go and and dr. Burrell will see that and I know he's been on some himself before that it is it is something that if things like we had there's times that we have to change pattern or change where we're going and he does it on the spot because last year we had to wait in the parking lot for 45 minutes because we had a
054flat tire so that we were trying not to hold everybody up but we had to wait so it's it's a really interesting trip in that aspect where if we miss one thing or don't maybe get as much time in one area he could we try to fill it in somewhere else but again all the areas and things that we did last year are the same ones that we will do again this year any questions any questions for principal Renda I have a question about the dates yes how were the dates chosen um we didn't have many to choose from I'm gonna be honest with you um because they try to do it in certain times of the year it is insane down there after the cherry blossoms or while they're coming up it is like
055crazy crazy down there so we try to pick times that are not as you know there's not as many people in the area at the time obviously we don't know exactly but uh and again he's been doing this for so many years he has and also his ability to do it turn those dates also was part of it okay we've had a lot of success with this group the Odyssey of the mind state competition is Saturday March 17th okay we're home at Friday yeah I'll make sure he sleeps on the way home yeah no honestly it was honestly we didn't have and one of the other options was right with the s back-testing and so it didn't understood Thanks okay do you know what hotel you're gonna be staying at yep we could actually you
056can meet us down there if you want cuz it's down where's this year's competition uh it's the state one so it's the state one the hotel here it just has a DC area no it has a cabana Bay Beach Resort on a head on the head come in a baby right oh that's that's the next room I don't see you down here now the parents so you know when we now that once it's approved or if it's approved we will send out information with the hotel and everything hi Matt for this actually obviously for the parents and we will have I don't know the exact date yet but I think it's gonna be right after the Thanksgiving break that we will have a parent meeting where parents can come and we'll go through you know
057everything that's involved the hotel and all the different parts of the trip also so what needs to what they need to have and the money and everything that's involved in it so I apologize for not having it on here I thought it was any other questions I just like to thank mr. Aranda for his organization and making sure that the safety is the utmost concern I know you said that at the beginning Dean I do appreciate that and my question is do I get a single a jury suite that's what I want to know and as the kids said yesterday do we have to roam together that's the only thing I thought you told me you were gone unless we had if we could room together as long as you're being the food I'll be
058our quad quad occupancy all right all in favor of the approving the Washington Trip say aye any opposed all right you're approved thank you okay item C is the deka trip recommend a motion that the board approve a trip for Decca to attend the 2018 sports and entertainment conference in Orlando Florida from Wednesday January 31st on Sunday February 4th 2018 as requested by deca advisor Fiona Doherty I really did a second I'm sorry huh do I have a second I'm sorry there you go you're just not you're gonna be quicker man sorry okay sorry mr. Shekar it is certainly my pleasure introduce Miss Fiona Daugherty I also want to take just a quick opportunity to thank everyone for their patience tonight we do have parent conferences which is why the parking lot is so full
059so that's where the voting is tonight so just want to say that and introduce Fiona to talk about the program hello again thank you so much for having us again and thank you for your continued support of our deca program what we're going to do this time is we were going to go down to Orlando to actually give the opportunity for the students that are in sports and entertainment marketing and marketing and any type of a business they're gonna get a back place through all of the theme park and the hotels it is a wonderful opportunity to meet and greet talk to the executives from the theme parks and have an opportunity to do background tours which we normally would not have the possibility of being able to do it is one of the premier
060sports and entertainment marketing conferences they do have every single year we have gone three years ago I believe with miss Garrett so this will be the first opportunity that I get to take our students and I would love for you to have and hear about sports and entertainment marketing from one of my deca officers who had an opportunity to compete on a state level and is really looking forward and continuing his experience and the experience of our other students into this kind of an Avenue so I'm going to welcome up to the podium of Bryan Villanueva thank you so my name is Bryan Villanueva I'm a sophomore at BHS and I'm currently the senator at the deca bored so on January 31st to February third decan will travel to Orlando Florida to learn about to
061learn more about sports and entertainment marketing as they will meet professionals from Orlando sports and also we will go behind the scenes at Universal and Disney as a freshman I competed in the Deaf sports and entertainment marketing challenge for the state competition unfortunately I paid I placed fifth place in the state which is not enough to go to Nationals but hopefully this will help me place third or above so I can go to Nationals it should cost about $140 for the students but this could be lowered by our new laser engraving a company which which could offset the cost and also there is an Orlando Magic game which could be included if we raise enough money this is a great opportunity for all tech students who want to pursue sports annotator marketing or any Demark
062or any marketing in general thank you very much for your attention the Secretary will answer any more of your questions mr. thank you Brian I have to study so so as a freshman Brian placed fifth in this state and slide 800 thank you just kind of breezed right that was the main reason why I wanted Brian to have that opportunity to come up here and really speak of the voice of what this type of a program does for students here in our community and that's why I'm so impatient about this program and I have been for many years because I was a deck of student myself in high school and I helped to run a school based business so this is something that's very important to me because it just gives the opportunity to have
063such experiences that they normally even in college level don't get to see this behind the scenes activity into these great venues so that is why we're here but if there's any specific questions I can address I'd be more than happy to we're actually debating between the third and the fourth and it's going to depend on airfare like anything else we have to really be very cost-conscious so we may come back on a Saturday or Sunday and it's going to be based on the actual airfare we want to have at least four individuals per room so we can really reduce the cost and that's what we're striving for okay any questions that can answer your questions from the board okay all in favor of approving the trip all right you're approved thank you very much support
064thank you thank you happy 30th birthday to mrs. Dakin okay that's it on the trips the next couple of items are our the board needs to receive some reports from the administration so the first up is the class size report yes let's recommend an action that the board receive the class size report is prepared by dr. Roger B Dennis does not need a second so dr. Birol so doctor who prepared these reports its annual reports that the Brookfield Board of Education has received long before our administration and we like to make sure we provide this information the timeliness of these reports is is because of getting ready for budget proposal and thinking about what our needs are so it's important not only to for the board to have received the enrollment report back in October
065but we have the class size report this report is very detailed and it would be a lot to go through line by line but it's our submission tonight to the Board of Education for later discussion and reference during our budget deliberations but it goes through all four schools and rather than a simple enrollment report kind of grade level or sections at the elementary school report it really goes through and looks at those target numbers that we were talking about in range numbers for class sizes that we talked about during the budget roundtable this evening and walks through numbers of class above or below or at the target and really walks through with some charts for both whisk in here and the detail of both whisking there in the high school which become much more complicated
066as we move up the ladder but as it is for all four schools so that's the class size report and forgive me was the motion to there's not a motion at this time into words that's a action to receive actions receive do you want me to go through the other ones well let's just let's just let's just go let me see it the concept here is to receive the report as any of the board members have any questions that our observations that like to make on the report or do we want to hold that for one we're into budget discussions - okay it's dense this is a very lengthy report you're right it gets more complicated as you go up the schools right that's to the point where it's like multiple pages for as you
067get another high school okay any other board members all right so with that we'll move on to the next item which is the e ll by grade report sure that the board receiving a yellow grade report is prepared by dr. Maureen Roby okay dr. Brooke okay this is a two-page report our reports get more simple as we go through so this is really straightforward this is enrollment numbers of those students identified as English language learners for for those who aren't aware our enrollment in this particular area in Brazil the demographics have been changing over the last few years and our our population of students who are second language learners of English has been increasing we have 97 students now in our district identified as English language learners and through our appointment of English language learner
068teacher in last year's budget we actually were really - able to work on our system for identifying and also exiting those students as well as our program and curriculum for for those students and all the instructional components that are going into it our teachers are also receiving a great deal of professional development our regular classroom teachers of how to work with our students who frankly come to our district in a very difficult time speaking us so it's really special to be welcoming them into our country and bringing them along so you can see it's Center school there are 26 students identified as English language learners a total of 13 different languages are spoken for those students at Center School in total at huckleberry 39 students identified with the English language learner needs with 17 different
069languages and you can see that languages are listed there for those who are listening all this was is going to be on the website so that welcomes that go through and all this at whisk and year we have 21 total students with nine different languages being being their native languages and at the high school eleven students with five different languages in total we have 23 different languages spoken represented by our English language learner families it's just amazing and just a fact for those when we think about the program and again this gets into budget discussions is we have one English language learner teacher for 97 students spread across four schools so just you know you don't have to be an educator to understand this that's a very tall task for one individual to be able
070to service that many students across four different schools so we really need to examine that going forward and there is guidelines from the state where if you have 20 students that speak the same language in one school we do need to have an instructor in that particular school we're not in that situation at this point you're getting near that area we need to be monitoring it closely as we have been so we'll be talking about that further I don't know if there's any questions those are our students it's a dedicated teacher once you hit the 20 it's it's a firm guideline it's not a mandate but that's the only guidance we have unfortunately we don't have guidance we've talked about special education and speech and language pathologists and some kind of guidance on caseloads 15
071to 20 per teacher those kinds of things we like to follow some of those guidelines at least those guidelines in other areas can give us some guidance going forward so I think reasonably as we look at almost 100 students we probably could use another couple of teachers in this area so we need to be considering that for sure well I'd like to introduce you as the board hasn't heard from our astute and esteemed new world language and English language learner department chair and that's mrs. chemin Holly who comes to us from Westport and she's been with us since the summer so misty please won't you will answer the question well this is a very interesting question and actually something we're very excited about because I'm not sure if you heard about it but also at
072BHS we are promoting the seal of biliteracy that has been adopted by the state of Connecticut this year and we are using the language lab to provide Apple testing and los links testing for the English language learner students and also we're using the language lab to provide them with this opportunity where if they complete four years of an English course and using the Apple assessment they get in their own language proficiency level of I 3 which is intermediate they will receive the seal of biliteracy in their transcript and on their diploma cool another question second do you think that there'll ever be an opportunity through the language lab to issue credits for people who want to learn Arabic or Mandarin or any of the five languages to where it's not just you can learn because
073you want to learn you can actually get credit for right and that is something that doctor Burrell and mr. Burlando and I have been exploring what you're describing is something that we've been looking into like a distance language learning program and that's in the exploration process of it yeah and mr. Buland Oh with cape committee working on program of studies and while there might not be definitive plans for the coming year the plan is to work on those plans in the in the coming year for sure in all these kinds of things the additional world language and also your point there about the distance learning and how that could work for kraang guaa just that we don't teach so either for their you know for their self enjoyment or for you know future employment so
074that's good to hear and I know I can speak for Kevin in thanking the board for their support of it was our reorganization certainly but the support of the recommendation from I think about seven years ago from the world language consultant that came in and said he needed that dedicated leadership in the world language area from someone who has that world language background certainly can and bring that to the table so thank you for that support as well and it's our new position and we're very glad to have you in the district thank you okay any further questions on the e ll by grade report okay next up is the homeschool report recommended action that the board receive a report on home schooling is prepared by assistant superintendent dr. Marie movie okay so as you
075can see I've been well dr. movie isn't here this evening I have been working her as for sure there's our money's worth so that's good we're making her do a lot of reports here so thank you dr. Ruby so this is the home school report there is a requirement that we work as a district to identify those children who are not in school and are formally being homeschooled by their parents parents have many rights in this particular area including the right to refuse to fill out any paperwork for us and help us understand their particular situation so it that the numbers don't all match an ad just perfectly it's the best we can do to be very honest with you we have 27 students currently in Brookfield being homeschooled they represent 15 different families in
076Brookfield of the 27 students that we have information on regarding home schools status 15 notice of intent to home-school were completed so not everybody completed them ten of the parents did not respond at all and for two students parents sent letters of refusal to complete the paperwork so as you can see on the you know you can see by grade level as best we can do we're making an estimate where we think our best our best educated guest on the information we have of approximately what grade level those students would be in if they were with us and that's the homeschool report John what kind of information or questions was on the it's a very simple form just asking you know what are you doing great level age the approximate grade level age those kinds
077of things are very simple so not anything that would cause somebody he'll say I don't want to provide this in videos nothing that would take a great deal of time many and in the majority of parents are very helpful talk to us ask some questions sometimes even need to you know seek us out for some advice because of their circumstance and you know the poor professionals in the district and we want to help them but others just have no interest in working with a district and that's their title to do that they are okay any further questions on home school report okay thank you for those reports thank God thank you thank dr. Ruby for all her hard work all right next up is item G funding for the architect for the building conditions study
078right away an emotion that the Board discussed the approval of funding protect a master planning in the amount of up to seventy two thousand five hundred dollars to conduct the building condition study is recommended by the strategic facilities steering committee wait a second thank you let me just spend a couple as Yves said I would talk about of this a little bit we've had a lot of discussions with First Selectman done and with with mr. Hathorne who is the remain and one of the remaining returnees on the Board of Finance I spent some time with them today there's a lot of things going on around the finances of our schools we have identified some savings as part of that whole state study that you know when we weren't going to get the grant money we
079had if you remember we had done stepwise prioritized savings and the first tier of that were things that were in the bag they were you know we had savings for extra retirements we had done the change in the insurance that little that got us some additional savings and so forth on I think it was about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars in that first year that actually doesn't we could spend on other things without taking them to us we still have that you under sixty thousand dollars and now that the state has has completed their their funding process it doesn't look like we have to give back to the town in order to deal with a you know a significant but you know budget under run from the state both mr. Dunham mr. Hathorne have
080told me they'd still I would like to explore the opportunity to do this as a capital item as mr. Lasser had mentioned in his comments but they the advice that they've given me is a proven up to approval that we would approve saying because we have to have the budget capability to do it that's why the words up to are in there that we would approve it in order to get it going right and that they would continue to work about whether they can move this into capital and they expect it will take a week or two but this would give us the capability and authority to allow dr. Brill to start the whole engagement with with a consultant in order to get things going without waiting another full month to go through various borders
081and so it's a pragmatic point they're still working on it but the at this point they've asked that we go ahead and approve it because we do have the financial capability to cover up to that amount and then we'll come back and I'll give a further report on that after they've had a chance to deliberate on it so that's requested we may end up spending it out of our funds and but there is a lot going on what I've learned from there's a secrets the town control there's a lot going on around the bonded capital right now that they're trying to land right and the existing bond to capital so I I don't think I would be in favor of bonding a study it's seventy two thousand dollars if it's money that we can you
082know if it's money that it wouldn't be new bond but there's what they're proposing is that we have projects that we had bonded prior yet we understand all right that they might be able to redirect and the question is it's an interesting question because they have to be related topics right so school to school is that enough or is it have to be a building project right to this can you do it can you know there's a lot of discussions going on at range there's no proposal for new bonding okay and the other point if I may inherit is to that to your question on the going at the capital route or is if you go the capital route there is an opportunity for project you know right now that's hovering at the twenty eight
083thirty percent range first day so again a lot going on a lot of moving parts but for pragmatic piece you know and mr. Hathorne told me this afternoon he was he started his conversations in depth with controller Sechrist and he said he'd get back to me hopefully in a week or two so and I looked him in the eye and I said you know I don't want to wait for the December meetings and then we just got to get going and they suggested that we go ahead and approve this with an up - and since it's up - right we can back off of that if we need to so that's that's the kind of back story here and I think we're all bored Finance Board selectmen everyone saying let's get along with us right
084I think everybody the Facilities Committee astana excellent job of selecting a very good consultant to do this work and easier team has done a really good job of going through that selection process and I think I would urge the board to support this so that we can get this more and I actually have a very good committee everyone works together really well we're all on the same page and again Bob thank you for helping me with this I do appreciate it yeah these sorts of things can cut these can go into all morass of I understand God first with your extensive background in finance I appreciate your stepping in to help okay all right any questions either for me or for or for Yvonne the on this building condition study at this point they're not
085really recognizing where the money is coming it's up it we're what we're approving is that we're willing to spend up to seventy two thousand of our money right that's what we're approving seventy two thousand seventy two five right and that is the committee selected Tecton architects and that was there but Colette just for clarity we are approving to spend that money yeah if that's the answer I think that's exactly why it's a good questions Rob really quickly just and this probably more of a question for Ken is I miss I think that we've we have underruns in the retirement account is that that's what we have that seventy two grand or yes we we had more people retire and save money off of those than we had budgeted okay and we have what we're getting
086we're due 70,000 pcs this year correct that's what the state budget ended up being is for this year 7,000 no 1 1.4 million is what 70,000 come with well yeah and mr. Dunn and I talked about that it's actually between all the grants it's close to a million a million dollars it's a couple hundred thousand dollars across all the different grants of the town gets but he's working on how that all fits into the budget and if you remember the towns it's with some contingency money aside the ECS money actually ended up being a piece of it but there's other grants that we just heard about that one on the a-team grants oh yes yeah I think we keep discovering oh there's no tiny stuff yeah that adds up okay any further discussion all in
087favor aye all right any opposed all right thank you very much actually that motion was just to discuss the approval so I actually have to make the motion now oh there you go so we've approved the discussion go ahead and make a motion recommend emotion that's the board authorized the superintendent to utilize operational funds of up to seventy two thousand five hundred dollars for Tecton architects for the master plan project and building conditions survey second moved and seconded I can ask for discussion as we've already done it so all in favor any opposed all right passes unanimously thank you again okay okay the next section is old business we're following up on the bylaws that we had put in for first reading a month ago so item number a is bylaw number 932 5.43 recommend
088a motion that the board approved bylaw number ninety three twenty five point four three electronic participation for a final reading is recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was October 4th 2017 second moved and seconded Steve do you want to say anything about yes I'd be remiss it so I've been fortunate to be the policy chairman for the past four years but the real pasta chairman is Lisa I want to thank her for the amount of work that she's done over the past couple years and John and Harry's on the committee with me too and Paul was unfortunately not here but has been a huge help on that committee knows how much work Elyse has put into this it's been incredible we've been revamping the entire policy book and and it's pretty much been Lisa
089revamping the entire policy book for the school so thank you anyway get getting back to 93 to 5.43 in regards to electronic participation for meetings we had a first read one suggestion by Colette was to place in a provision that says that we had the loss the the policy says that you have to notify someone 24 hours in advance so what Colette was recommending was to say well unless unexpected circumstances prevent such advance noticed and that was a good addition it was a smart addition so that's the only addition from the previous first read but everything else remains the same okay any questions on this one we're cover my rationale for that was just that generally when we have someone with electronic participation it's because of an emergency and emergencies are by definition okay good
090suggestion cool thank you yeah I like it all right any other comments all in favor of approving bylaw number nine three to five point four three please say hi any opposed okay item B bylaw number nine three two one time place notification for meetings recommend a motion that the board approved bylaw ninety three twenty one time place notification for meetings for a final reading is recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was on October 4th 2017 okay Steve yes sir oh I'm sorry hang on a second yes second thank you so this was the we've discussed this in the first reading it's a time place and in special meetings notification I think we looked at this again based upon some redundant language and the special meetings aspect of it so we there was no recommended
091change in since the first read and I would ask that we approve what was given us in the first read okay any any comments or questions all in favor any opposed okay next up is by Lambert number nine three 200 meetings delete recommend a motion that the board approved the deletion of the own version of bylaw 9320 meetings as recommended by the policy subcommittee a second I really got Harry tired by the end of and just and just for a new city for clarity items see as a delete and item D is a new policy so we will be we will be replacing this policy in our next item so correct Steve is this he ended it so this one simply deletes the old policy and we will talk about the new policy in the
092next item there any questions on this one all in favor item D bylaw 9320 meetings of the board new and they've changed this motion recommend a motion that the board approved the new version of bylaw 9320 meetings for final reading is recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was in October 4th 2017 moved and seconded Steve so this is the reason why I was brought back to us on the 9000 series because it was redundant with the policy we just deleted but nevertheless we've made some good changes we've collaborated I collaborated made it a good recommendation in regards to the time period for the meetings I think we were a little overly ambitious and try to say that the community should go for about an hour we're already 40 an hour and a half over
093our time limit so what we added is language it says in regards to that particular aspect as a general guideline every effort means it's not a it's not a strict policy but every effort shall be made to conduct the business the board agenda in an appropriate and approximate two hour time period so I think it suffices that you know that's the goal and you know everyone understands that some of the staff has long trips and the board members are tired after long day's work and it's good to try to wrap things up in a two-hour time period but if it goes over everyone understands it's not a strict black and white policy it's more or less a guideline and that's really the only change from what was previously brought before the board one hour is
094you can't get any better we would be we would be missing things I'd love to do them in an hour but but I agree with the way you've done on the policy here so any further discussion on this one all in favor any opposed okay passes unanimously and last is bylaw number 93 22 public and executive session recommend a motion that the board approved by law 90 322 public and executive sessions for final reading is recommended by the policy subcommittee first reading was in October 4th 2017 so this is a really easy one it's just citing the paragraphs so if you look we have an a and B which is correct previously was a and C because we deleted B so we just had to update the paragraph letters that's all and then you change
095shall to May I think that was originally done or the first read in the first read okay because I remember that was the one you had really changed it now okay any questions on that one okay all in favor any opposed okay now coming events okay my princesses are starting here at the high school as principal and had mentioned and at whisking year they were today and they will be tomorrow so there's early dismissal for those schools conferences for center school and huckleberry will be the 28th through the 30th of November and there's early dismissal for those respective schools as well Friday the 17th that's this Friday is as Daniel had mentioned is the huckleberry PTO movie night 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday the 22nd of November is early dismissal for all schools followed by
096Thanksgiving recess on Thursday and Friday the 23rd to the 24th wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving Friday the first as mentioned is the Brookfield high school dance team holiday show 7 p.m. here at the High School Auditorium and our next Board of Ed meeting is Wednesday December 6 ok thank you alright so we are do have an executive session scheduled for this evening so for those of you on TV we will not be journeying but instead going to into executive session and then when we exit executive session we actually officially adjourned but the TV broadcast will end so so you won't see an actual adjournment before we're done but that's what's going on so we have a motion to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing strategy and negotiations with respect to collective bargaining
097the superintendent's 2016 2017 evaluation and pending litigation regarding a special education matter 2nd Harry's last official second all right so thank you all for attending thank you for those of you who stayed here this evening and we will see you all the next time and with new board members the next time [Music]