001[Music] all right good evening I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order today is August 16th 2017 so please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the Republic for which it stands one nation is our only meeting in the month of August so it's a quiet time for the board but a very busy time for the the schools as they prepare for our new school year to start up and I'm sure mr. Birrell will get us an update on that as when he does his report before we jump into the agenda I'd like to make a couple of announcements first you may notice that for those are you watching on TV or here in the audience you may notice a new face here on
002the board you may remember back in June that that Tara Lerner our long-standing member had to step down because she was moving out of town the board went through a pretty thorough interview process we had five candidates come forward for the position and a couple of weeks ago we selected Rosa Fernandez who is here with us tonight to to join us on the board Rosa will serve in this interim role between now and the election at which point if there will be a two-year term on the ballot whether this the learner vacancy will be filled for the officially for the next two years so I think you have about what five or six meetings in this role so Rosa would you like to say a couple words so I want to thank all of you
003guys for giving me this opportunity I'm very excited even if it's only for the next five meetings I'm hoping that my experience in education and especially as a parent will come as a great asset to you so thank you thank you welcome we're so glad to have you so thank you alright so a second to administrative item as I was preparing for this evening I realized I needed to do some reset of our committees framework because mrs. learners absence has left a couple of vacancies and I'd like to you know as the chairman I named the the committee vacancy so I'd like to make a couple of changes first of all I'm going to name mrs. Fernandez to the communication subcommittee and the Cape subcommittee as an official assignment during your tenure I think you'll
004find those to be very interesting committees to be on it gets right at the core of you know what we're doing is a district and I get you chai think especially the Cape subcommittee you all have a chance to meet a lot of the administration as we go as you go through with the next couple of months I've asked mrs. Strohm if she would chair temporarily the communication subcommittee but for everybody mrs. Laura had been chair of that subcommittee and so Colette has graciously accepted to cover until we reset the committee's as a whole in the fall after the election I will be stepping off the Cape subcommittee in order to make room for mrs. Fernandez so and I will follow mrs. learners position on the BNF Committee on the business and Facilities Committee so
005I'll join mr. check oh and mrs. Sturdivant on that committee and because that committee also was only ad-hoc committee join the ad-hoc committee as well I think that's all the ones I was going to go do so that that kind of resets it were fully staffed up on all of the committees for the next couple months and we'll continue to operate so did I get all the ones I met brought you about okay so terrible was the magnet school representative um would anybody like to be the magnet school representative for the next couple months all right Thank You Collette so mrs. storm will be the magnets will rep I had overlooked that one if someone can maybe two meetings go ahead so it's not okay I just need notification of the winds and lies all
006right with that let's move into the main part of the agenda I will do have five of our members here tonight two of our members on as a Sturdivant and mr. Shekar are out of town it's that time of year and it happens so but we do have a pool on this evening we don't have anybody who has signed up for public comment and unless anybody here on the audience would like to say something then we will move on do we have any written correspondence thank you written correspondence perfecter beauty regarding the state tests and another regarding the ad hoc committee from Christina Zimmerman regarding the Board of Ed vacancy her mouth anger regarding Horta pet hiring from Kathy Van Gogh's ear is garden policy 5132 Ron Jaffe regarding an article by Kent Pakal sent
007a Capeci regarding the new first grade teachers and Pamela finicky regarding the first grade teachers okay thank you next we have board minutes recommend a motion that the board approved the minutes listed below is recommended the regular meeting of 719 and special meetings of the 26th 27th of July in the 1st of August okay and just for clarity the 26th 27th and the 1st of August were our interview sessions where we actually interviewed the candidates for the vacancy there was not other than that there was no other business conducted at those meetings so second okay it's been we've been seconded any discussion on the minutes okay you know none all in favor any opposed no all right so mr. Beale why don't you give enough an update of what's going on as you said mr.
008Felder it's been a very busy summer fantastic number as a matter of fact a lot of progress made and just one piece I wanted to share is and we'll get to it when we get the consent agenda we are first grade teachers are hired and dr. sailin actually did communicate with first grade parents of the where teachers weren't for my name yet because dr. sailing was acting with caution and ensuring she would wait for the board board this evening on consent agenda and she sent such communication home to the two sections of first grade last week so parents were informed of it and great knows we've hired the teachers so err in anyway away and if everything goes well is saving with the consent agenda dr. shealynn will be sending a communication out letting the
009parents know in those two particular classes so we're essentially completed our hirings we're in the process of continuing to work on the BCBA position we haven't found someone for that yet and we had a recent resignation of a speech and language teacher and so we've started the interview process looking for replacement of that so photo wise are similar hirings for the most part have been been achieved facilities we the buildings are finished they look great can and Dan with taking tours and the last building to really have a full cleaning now is the high school and that's because the roof project so we're actually marshalling some of our elementary and middle school custodial forces to come up here and give give the team up here a hand so they can move things along in the
010shorter window to make sure that everything ready some of that work on the hallway one weekend you can see it's happening so the team is doing a great job with that the let's see the other piece student so I want to make sure everybody knew that this week beginning on Monday students were permitted to be here in high school some people may recall that over the summer because of the ruse project there was a partial asbestos abatement going on and so when you have an abatement going on students under 18 cannot be in the building and so now they could be in the building and so you know with the exception of where move for innovation areas are still happening so very and spoke to starting this week and next week so kids are in
011there stopping in to guidance when we can and all the activities starting late registrations those kinds of things so kids are allowed in the building case anybody's watching and is wondering David came a moment while I get a bit from my report last month will write within the rain we were seeking which is to have classes at a target around 19 and right now we have 145 students registered in kindergarten but dr. say one just let me know yesterday that five registration packets were picked up so she anticipates that those children will be registering so we're assuming close to 150 if not 150 but that gives us I believe six sections of ranking in two sections of 18 which would mean we actually don't need we have eight sections total we don't need the extra
012section that we had planned for working with the Board of Finance and I know the Board of Finance based on some contingency we're not going to be recommending that we need an additional teacher so we're ready to go with our eight sections thank you very well I communicate that to all or to finance a tomorrow I'd appreciate it if you did okay it is a reminder to everyone um the range is 17 to 20 with the target of 19 correct so we're actually a below target at or below target yes exactly any consistent only the women we have a few more registration so yes anticipate that the first few weeks of school there's always some students who maybe move in late and I figured that by the time we got to August 15th we wouldn't
013be making a decision to add a yet another section it's a little late really are for getting to that later I wanna make that official so you know that that's going on in pod thank you for communicating that to the Board of Finance Gruber in terms of communication yesterday I sent out my welcome back letter not only to faculty and staff but also to parents welcoming everybody back and highlighting some of the priorities and initiatives and things were looking forward to for the beginning of the year and we really want to jump right into a segue of the commissioners back to screaming our state education commissioner has an annual back to school being filled with superintendents and does some state board members and legislators come to that meeting and so forth and unfortunately with all
014the great news I just shared it was really a somber occasion the commissioner representative who represents the superintendent the Alan Taylor the Board of Education chair for the state really talked about the budget situation that we're in and we actually will put a press conference talking about the budget situation the fact that we don't have a budget as a state and the ECS cuts that are that are possibly impending you know that are out there and leaving us in a situation where all the districts in the state really don't know what kind of monies that are going to have coming in in both creatively move forward as as a other boards talked back in in the spring as we were kind of winding down the budget development process but then we had the news from
015the governor and his proposal we were working together and we talked about contingency we talked about options and you know we all decided to no fail because we want to do what's best for the town what's best for the students but he notes that I do want to share regarding the budget situation and just kind of to set a context and talk about some really pretty frankly conservative actions we've taken as an administrative team going forward with the summers work and really that you know the possibility of a 1.4 million dollar cut to Brookfield is out there could really put the town and the school district in the work in terms of funds back in the spring Bob and Steve and Steve Don and Rob gina's and myself we developed the joint letter we sent
016to the state I know some of you have sent individual letters to the state and to the governor trying to help and give suggestions at this point it appears that things are falling on deaf ears to be very frank we didn't have a lot of that in our budget we've had a little bit of iterations including the board making cuts to the superintendent's recommendation borstal echoing having to make some adjustments and also the Board of Finance totaling almost $500,000 from the original proposal going forward there isn't a lot of places to go find it the folks at home watching folks in the audience the board needs to know we are very responsible with our budget if the Ukrainian cuts come through they're going to hurt it is inaudible painful we did everything as spring we
017could to avoid anything to do with direct instruction for students on direct materials and equipment for students furniture etc but the reality is if this comes through we're going to be a situation we're gonna have to make some very serious decisions so it's important to prepare and go back to the Board adopted strategic coherence plan which spans over the next five years and all the work making in focus student support focus and extended course of course offerings and the like all the things we're working on we need to stay the course having said that I want to highlight some of the things we're working on for this year this is just to highlight rich overview summary maintain class size maintaining class size means teachers there's a people and you can't maintain sort of that class
018size guidelines and keep them at a reasonable level if you don't have the bodies to do them supporting program improvements with the pairing of a whisk and your reading teacher a high school reading teacher and at whisking Eric a sixth grade teacher to manage not only our increases in social studies instructional time but also that happens to be one of those bubble groups a lot of kids in that grade so again King class size at a man to vote manageable level and fiscally we worked to manage our headcount we actually are down to 18 - Caze we reduced for paraprofessionals we reduced our athletic trainer and traded that in for athletic training services which saved us money and we also reduce the half the stadium throughout the whole process of developing the budget so we're
019down to only half positions over it even with between a hiring hirings of those those positions we of course replace we had a tremendous amount of teachers retire this year many I anticipated some great people who need through a place as well as those folks who decide to resign over the summer and so we've worked on that by being the best we've actually we'll brought in veteran teachers and you'll see on the consent agenda there there are people with a lot of experience some brand new students and mid-career folks so it's a nice employ all over the state people moving in this direction and wanting to come to Brookfield we also restructured leadership let's not forget about there that was really some budget savings in there when we talk about the special education department chairs
020it was naturally when we worked on the humanities department chair position and the world language English language learning of the purple chair position says a lot of pieces they're working on vertically aligned for curriculum instruction and assessment in social studies tearing rebalancing social studies instructional time in fifth and sixth grade with Spanish and a lot of work in the middle school Raquel 72 the middle school schedule and working with mr. Rendon his team is making sure that's implemented with absolute fidelity this year to working on financial controls in transparency implementing new modules in PowerSchool which is our student database for assessment analytics and si instituting the payment limitation of the world language lab which was years in the making since a lot of great things going on that's the core of our program we need
021to stay the course having said that wait riddle for helping Spring web hoping a budget and facing the governor's proposals we exercise some really prudent actions review a few of those with you so one of the things the board was a part of with administration was not emailing our non-tenured teachers we weren't sure where the budget was going to go we had to be conservative and there was 66 people that we had to non-renew that scares off some people and I'll be very frank with you I think there's there's three teachers that resign in summer because of the budget conditions in Connecticut they're scared of it and they they live over the line there in New York and so they went they wouldn't have looked otherwise but that really scared them and they moved on
022and it's tough when we put a lot of time energy and resources into training new people we held off on hiring and entering into contracts I'm telling you how to local budget once we had our local budget we then receded those oils of non-tenured teachers and and and rigging the contracts with them for the coming year we will be doing a full budget over the summer to replace as I said early replace the resigning teachers and replace our retiring teachers as well as adding those the two leading in the end of one social studies position we reduce the headcount we also as I said earlier we're not asking for another female teacher we really meant you know been very careful in ke- regarding that we've set aside funds and we'll talk about that a little
023bit later in terms of these savings from hiring more teachers that are replacing some of those retiring teachers there's some savings beyond what we already had put into the budget however that's kinda based a little bit itself leave of absences that we already know are going to occur where where I can't tell you who but we anticipate having three leave of absences for maternity leave and so our average on leave of absences for the paternity leave is most people have enough sick time where it's a 10-week payout so you're paying a salary and for your person who's out as well as paying for a substitute teacher so that really is cuts into that with savings seeing the current actions were taking is I want to show you the family tonight at the meeting is I'm
024recommending as a superintendent they're working with the cabinet and had some meetings with the principals already is now that we're in a position relative most of the hiring done I really think it's time to put on a temporary hiring freeze in positions where we have some resignations or things like that in our instructional areas you know first grade teacher happens to leave us that that's that's a priority position we would have to obviously replace that person but I think that's something we have to do specifically we've already acted in two areas many of you know Tom too though our facility director had retired and so Dan clad well our maintenance and he also serves as our plumber has done an incredible job this summer as our internal facilities directors done a really nice job we
025haven't replaced Dan as the plumber so we're having savings there and that's a essentially at this point in a summer we're calling that a freeze right now and we'll leave it as an interim and until we decide what we want to do again temporary we also have a clerical position that recently resigned at TSO and that's a full-time position we're looking at what is the critical components of that particular job and we're looking to hire just very sad part-time hours to cover shown resources and some of the things we need in that particular department I viewed gate when I talk about hiring freezes not blanket across the board there are some priorities that that we can't ignore there are I'm a PE or special education driven plans and like I said at the outset when
026I was talking about hiring we do have a couple of positions that we still need to fill the BCBA and the speech and language position that would have to be exceptions those are state and federally mandated we can't just not hire people for those positions so we will be very conservative and we're in a pretty good position but we need to act responsibly to do is attempt we purchased the necessary technology for the for the coming year there and some other supplies and equipment for temporary freeze for the next few weeks we'll watch our dollars see where the legislature goes with the budget if we can get a budget in place or if the inevitable cut does come down in some form or another and be very careful about that and like when we did
027a freeze in the middle of the year last year purchases I'll talk to the principal's purchases would have to go through Ken I mean there are certain things you do have to purchase you can just absolutely freeze everything but they will really filter through King and if he has questions certainly walk through me and doctor will be the other pants is a working with mr. diamond we talked about the hold on on Capitol projects at this at this time so there's there's a number of actions we've taken you know so give a little history that we did in the spring that down the summer and then the other piece is thinking about next steps say we've made as a cabinet and had discussions about frankly what we call worst-case scenario you know if the parent
028doesn't get 11.5 million dollars what are some things we're going to have to do and we'll talk about some specifics well we're not in any position to talk about any any ideas technically yet but know that what we're thinking about things the other pieces we had a conversation really in August with principals about the same thing in a big question for the principal's was into it are there things that can be phrased and held off another year been thinking about that because we're gonna have to come back together and have that conversation I'm having a conversation this evening I'm initiating it with a full board BAMF can you be business and Facilities Committee meets on Monday night will be having failure conversation about that that's next week and you know that can't that will continue
029and if we have to have a special meaning that committee will meet there's no doubt about it some of the things I've been talking about this evening gonna change based on conversations you know there's we don't know exactly where we're going to go with this but we have a process in place the other thing you have to think about is that we can identify savings on the replacement for retiring teachers in the neighborhood of the $200,000 range we have to look at impacts and I'm thinking we probably want to look at $200,000 what does that mean $400,000 what might that look like you know kind of case scenarios $600,000 what does that look like you know have those conversations and available painful decisions the last thing I would say when I know I've been a
030little long-winded this evening is well it's not gonna be easy I think it will work together we will find a way through this and I remain optimistic and talking to Steve Hardy was our rep that's up there at the state that you know if the cuts come through and well or any cut in excess funding will be significant perhaps it won't be the full amount and having scenarios in place will put us in a and at least a manageable place where we will be responding rather than reacting responding calmly and rationally I would like to have to be in a meeting or at the Vienna meeting next week maybe talk about setting up a special meeting at some point because we really should probably come back to the board for the first meeting in September
031with some ideas which is September 6th and then need to late September again usually coming in from the state from her foot so lamelle share with the board of fineness kind of where we're happening and you know all of us working together so I apologize for being wrong but I'm going to contextualize where we're at in what we're doing what darling what we're doing and where we think we're going in preparation for for really drastic drastic reductions that will hold us in the state let's hope we don't get there let's hope questions Steve as our state lab in addition to being a member great to have you on board to tell you the truth because usually did get great insights on what's happening up and running good would you like to take a little and
032up and just kind of share with everyone what's our yes John's wrap-up is is so boring but it's true it's what we're dealing with her at the moment this is exactly peace in public while we need to budget now but that's the topic for another day I don't want to get too political here I there are budgets out there which one of them I support wholeheartedly and those leadership in the house representatives for whatever reason won't call it for political reasons and we need to get something done now and we need to provide our communities with the proper funding to go forward on a school year and any any cut that is made to educational cost-sharing funding is going to do nothing but hurt the students of this district and districts throughout the state of
033Connecticut and it's wrong it's just wrong I mean you heard from John what some of these cuts would mean and we can be tried we could try to be as non-instructional as possible but unfortunately everything leads back to the students whether it's maintenance or whether it's something at ESO it eventually trickles down to impacting the students and so we and John and this team will do whatever can I know I know they will and I have full trust in them but unfortunately no matter what we're dealing with in regards to cuts it's gonna eventually trickle down to the students in its wrong we should be getting full fully funding the fact that I don't know if we use that book for this underfunded ECS and so if we get one point five million dollars for
034one point for which we usually get it should be more money and I'm still not satisfied but nevertheless that's what we're budgeting for regard to see what's going on you know the governor proposed back in February these drastic cuts no they were even worse than what we're discussing now what in addition to the 1.4 million dollars was the teacher pension obligation which would have cost the town I think a couple million dollars - yeah so you can add two point two million dollars to one point four so you're now you're dealing with three point six million dollars in educational cuts so thankfully that really seems to be off the table even from the governor's perspective the problem is is that since we do not have a budget enacted by July 1st the governor now has
035taken on the role to make executive decisions to cut certain areas when you're facing a five billion dollar deficit if you continue on the revenue excuse me but can few on the expense path that you're on from the prior year you're going to end up five billion dollars in the hole at the end so there's cuts being made we need like state parks you've heard about in the news but some of these when discussing going back to what his ECS plan was now if you look at his NCS plan and something called the ten ones which what those ECS cuts would be to each particular town book field is one of those when you suburban communities throughout the state that completely loses their ECS funding so when we would get one dime from the state
036that's why John we're forcing 1.4 million dollars cut we get one point four million dollars in DCs so we would effectively have no ECS with with that said I was hopeful despite you know my frustrations that I know it at the beginning of my speech here that there would be something done in August or or September but you know trying to get updated yesterday mean that we're gonna have a board meeting tonight discussing this and and speaking with leadership that I have connected you know discussions with it doesn't seem like this is there seems to be a lot of gray area slow there and it seems like the leadership in the house still is not willing and ready to to call for a budget and I don't know when that's that time is going to
037be I you know I keep continuing during September but then prior and I'll be honest part is I was hearing July and July has come and gone now August is almost coming down so I would already hope that legislators that you know maybe supporting the effort of the leadership to not call certain budgets would realize you know specifically the impacts on their towns like we're having on our towns and would encourage their leadership to to get a budget done because you know this is this is hurtful to everyone throughout the state this is not just Brookfield but also is it time for us to write another joint letter do you think yeah I think all about advocacy and but as John said I don't know you know I think he may be now instead of
038the governor which I think we made our initial letter to I think it would behoove us to write a letter to the the Speaker of the House who has the to call us in for a vote we need to vote we need to discuss a budget now because if we dance can impact the children so I'd be more than happy to sign a joint letter and an assistant draft and letter with John and yourself anyone else on the board sending it to the school of the same people we did yeah I'm sure mr. Donald will be more than happy to sign a letter as well and miss Slater I'm looking at her she's nodding her head so I think it's approved yeah and I think that we're taking your irrational step I think that you
039know this and at the end of the day and I spoke about that I want to because I know John and I have discussed this for a little bit but it's important as you never was we discussed earlier that you know the governor's proposals you know there's not really legislative appetite for what the governor proposed and I still think that remains true but nevertheless I think you know the the continued throughout this entire process what I have learned is you know listen I'm done speaking with my first elections superintendents they're all asking me why we budget Steve what are we and what I continue to hear back from everybody is pretty much the same ballpark maybe some you know some small cuts now obviously as I said before every cut means something but not certain
040at the level that you know the one-point floor would be and that's what I mean told but beginning to we have a budget there's no country it's all the things I attend uncertainty and it's very difficult for all of us and and we you know we have to be smart in doing something prepared has to be prepared so that's what we stand honest and I know tonight tomorrow I'll be giving an update to the Board of Finance who also will be addressing this issue all right any discussion questions for for mr Boyle actually not on the budget but just going back up with the communication to the parents yeah normally on on those boorda cc'd and I didn't get into mind or simplicity we get better to the world okay thanks absolutely you did tweet
041it out it's on I believe the letters on Facebook so there's not planning to see if I we can definitely get you copies of lighter all right so it's a sobering situation we're in I'm I'm gonna be bouncing some of what John's implemented on to the Board of Finance tomorrow I talked on mr. Jinnah's at one point we said we should have a joint meeting with the two boards we decided that it's too early for that we should do it when we actually have some of the case worked on talked about and something we can actually have some meaty discussion and maybe have a little bit more insight to what's going on at the state so he and he has a special meeting this month because he did he's not on his regular schedule so
042he's not unfortunately a lot of stuff he wants to do so he actually suggested and I agreed that we not go into full to board sessions and uh so I'll pass on some of this to him as Douglass liaison role I play but I everybody's welcome right I just I don't want it to be it's not it's not like we're trying to keep people away it's just a question of the complexities of putting two full boards into session and how all that has to work at for example I said yeah you're really gonna be able to do that at Town Hall or should we move it over here you know because all of a sudden yeah how do you deal with seats at the table and he started saying no no no no I'm not
043not this meaning though so so come tomorrow if you can I listen I'm John may have noticed he was leading from it because I'd asked him to kind of take his notes and put it in writing so I had something to work from so it I say the exact same things and I was listening very carefully you see how good I do well I think it's more pop to wait until we have better information from the state because the implications of if the full ECS funding is cut goes far beyond this year oh because we have two and a half percent limit on a budgetary increase that's about three percent of our budget and we have amended one budget requirement so if we have that easiest whatever put it back we can never put it
044back it's going to be a slow rebuild over two or three years given the constraints the state has but yeah that's not a lot that needs to be well that I proposed this year thing and I did just read something that the governor was asking all the municipalities to submit their rainy day funds what which is almost double which is at least punishing punishing the communities who yeah we've done a good job and also you know we're not there for I think as exceedingly high number in the rainy day fund the reason they do is because they're constructing two new schools so if some of these communities are doing it because they're planning to do things not because they just have this money sitting around for whatever well I know central sent around that article
045yesterday that was in the back of the news times unless encrusted reading some of the other districts who are dealing with exactly the same things really some of the districts have huge cuts I think about your hometown Jonathan Milford I think it was in double-digit millions forty million dollars can you imagine what fourteen million less funding would do the would know about it we know it's like ten million I think methyl was like three or four yeah so and now one point four we know how hard that is I mean what that would do and we'll have more meat on those bones but something that the implications of this are on some of it communities is dressed or aegis its catastrophic and that's not being dramatic that really is if this goes throw all the
046way so okay all right so good no further questions Thank You mr. bro you're welcome thank you very informative update I think next on our agenda subcommittee reports so BNF is up first okay I gave most of this the last month because a regular board meeting was after yet are being approval there's only and we haven't had our meeting this month so between will have Monday the roof project as we know is moving a wall with a capital project that being paused can does that come into play with the water projects as well what was that contract signed it was not so that that's been paused as well so things we have like huckleberry portables rustle renovation we have the border project which went up to bulb and contracts were initiated those are all being
047paused at this point so we have nothing to report there the good thing is these projects proceeded it's going to be done very soon it's been an easy there's been a well-managed process and a nice chap and give our accolades to fellow D'Angelo as or watski associates there's been very professional meeting minutes everything has been presented quite well and outside of that really we have nothing moving forward so we have an X PNM ok house - implementation don can't just a quick update so far it's been pretty smooth he actually got a session today with munis about accounting for the grants using their of the unis project accounting module so and we got most of that that was set up today - so that should be really helpful for us it helps us to manage
048the grants and use a minimal number of accounts and as a good reporting so did we go through a end of July accounting close with the town and was a different term that were both on the same system not yet not yet so okay I know it's a hill I'd be really interested in hearing and how that process of every month closing changes right because that's been a you know as we know in audit you know getting all it's done the the crisp of them each month closes the better on it will be and I've been hopeful that one more on the same system that almost becomes automatic right because you can't not beings like right you know there's one with one ledger so like database one day because they can see everything that he
049decided to the 1679 yeah we over actually got a lot of stuff done for ready for the 1617 order we had to be done the large checklist from the town controller and we've sent I think almost everything on that list over to her already Joan our accounting supervisor has been working with them and we've got a general thought actually all of the funds reconciled and Overton I'm so glad we're in light years ahead of where we were at this time last year excellent and they've acknowledged that was something I think I've never written correspondence back and forth and I think that's going to be key yeah here it responds to your request we are providing you with and that we all have now before every issue last year things getting lost so if we've been
050emailing everything and typically we get an email back you know thanking us for it okay good good good good good yeah I'm so glad to hear we're all reconciled to so that that moves things along yes it very well we're on the portables yes said space necessary for purpleberry at this time are we are we cramped without it no we are where we want the portables are being used as a full flow over storage right now the working with mrs. diamond in her team she has classrooms for all the teachers there are they're all a couple of rooms that are regular classrooms that have partitions for some of the special education and tutorial services the kids receive but just like last year we are in the main building and that's that's a-- and mrs. diamond
051i think last at some point last week that was at the week before yeah at the end of last week she put a an update regular update that she sends out to her parent community and she actually talked about the portables and letting everybody know that we're not going to need the portables and because I know the project's been out there and people wondering what's going on with the project and we will be meeting with portables and so at this point you know put things on hold as you're talking about Paul and that kind of a thing we'll move along with the portable project as appropriate but we don't need the portables at this point it's just one play note we were working with one less classroom last year we had firing a unit that's
052later my classroom was offline that you know ventilator was replaced that classroom came back online so they says well we are a little bit better place than we were last year and I also think the big bubble classes have moved up to whisk in here and the high school even size and it's great classes are now rolling through young huckleberries yeah about 140 150 kid classes okay next up is ad hoc and I had asked on my desk Eve to give me some notes so we need to all do that and then Paul does ask if you'll add a little thing - what so I'm just going to read verbatim what mrs. Sturdivant sent me this is a report of the August 16th meeting the meeting of the ad hoc committee took place on July
05319 so this is a report not of the meeting but that's what she said to me of John July 19th members presently stoven and Josh flowers both shot go because it was a wide range of pricing the initial RFP was hazy and open to a wide range of interpretation so-called josh offered to rewrite the an amend an addendum to the proposal clarifying sections of concern the addendum was given to the purchasing director who added this information recontacting firms of submitted proposals and the deadline for response was August 9th according to the purchase in the clarifications document to which the committee needs to review the next meeting the add our committee is scheduled for August 21st at 6:30 p.m. they'll be a advance will be to nail down our choices set up interviews and discuss any
054other actions necessary the long term objective of the ad hoc committee the purpose of the committee is to hire fund to complete this comprehensive study of the four schools once that study has been done the committee will review and discuss the reports contents reporting back to the board with all recommendations there's been a great deal and media chatter regarding the committee's lack of progress for which I apologize I understand that many people are anxious for progress especially concerning coffee-berry health school I too share those concerns and it committed to positive and timely change so that's each report well anything you'd like that it's generally employ um my question though is for John with I'm sort of pausing anything involving capital will they have the opportunity to move this forward I think that's going to be
055for frank discussion as time goes on and we'd have to work with even capital is approved through the town that is not through a Board of Education so again we're gonna have to work together collaboratively the boys are gonna have to work you know as a team to talk about where we want to go as a community I mean there's lots of projects out there we've talked police station and library for corners and all the projects that are out there and what do we want to do from overall plan for the town I think that's a big part of this discussion as well thanks Steve one question for you is you know the school capital funding is usually a different part of the state budget or and what's been proposed are they cutting that back
056as well or is still relatively stable no it's still well he'll be saved from what I understand the the problem is is that das I think has the unilateral ability to decide how to reimburse and what to reimburse so you know they they may have orders from the governor's office to be a little more strict in their reimbursements of school construction okay and this has been asked obviously because I'm fortunate to represent part of Bethel as well and I just as I just said they're going through to to project right now so this is obviously seriously serious concern of theirs as well but my understanding is that if there's no changes budgetarily to the school construction to the school construction projects but I think des is vulnerable and a process where they're a little more
057strict with what they approve and how much they reimburse for okay because that will actually even be bigger than lower doing our own so we're done right yeah because the state could put the brakes on school construction throughout the state well rather quickly because nobody can almost nobody can afford a 50 plus million dollar project if it was it's available yeah anyway I just said for the board members to understand and for folks at home to know what feels accustomed to about a 30% reimbursement rate so there was to go away or be significantly reduced it puts that much more of a burden on the local taxpayer yep okay anything else you'd like to add okay so the third one is policy and we just discussed in our camp policy was to bring it out
058tonight so it's under new business okay good so that's a subcommittee report so intense agenda is next recommend a motion that the board approve the items on the consent agenda is recommended page on it so just for clarity for those of you who don't listen in all the time the consent agenda is where we do the board actually is getting its official approval on hires on resignations on retiring Hanson and so forth and we do it through what we call the consent agenda so we don't go through each and every one of them but there's got to be one new hires and you know which is what we would expect this time of year and a couple of resignations anything mr. bro you would like to make any comments on any of them before we
059go I'll have a second okay I'm sorry no get the second before we end the discussion would you like the second huh we said what he noted it all right I will do Bennington sector with Michael I would like to share that we actually hired today the Spanish teacher at center school every year that's great I'm excited about that right so superstar superstar we have high hopes we say about all our new people great things from them great okay any comments from the board on the consent agenda there's there's intentionally and Kelly Moore and my wife sought name is Kelly Morin she's also a teacher so it's time to do some introductions ago yeah I guess so okay so all in favor the consent agenda so we have some business policy related matter recommend a
060motion that the board approve new policy number 51 41:13 emergency administration of naloxone for first reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee second we have moved and seconded so I think you want to just give a brief overview this is just for clarity this is for a first reading which we receive we had a brief overdue to with you tonight we get a month to review it as a board and we bring it back for the second reading and approval at 30 days or more so I'm not sure what the timing of the meeting sensible either be I think aware are you'll be the second to second please remember to take about 74 days okay so this has been a discussion for for a little while now and I'm very excited that this is going
061forward this is something that we're trying to be proactive as opposed to reactive and address in this particular issue it's not only a crisis throughout the state it's a crisis throughout the country right now that we're dealing with and we have a lot of great things about naloxone and the impact that has in saving lives truly that's that's what it does so we want to create a policy to make it clear that we want our nurses here to be able to stay that and have it readily accessible to the properly trained individuals to treat and anyone who unfortunately to be going through and overdosed to save their life and to give them a second chance at this our nation there's an avi administration of medic medication policy that we do already have and there was
062a few papers that approached me when we were talking about the naloxone policy and some of their concerns that you know there are other food allergies and other things where there might be emergency of Medicine they want to make sure that was covered as well and fortunately we did review that in the policy subcommittee my a super also bringing forward along with Lisa the policies in regards to epi pens and other emergency medication and so we as I said there's a there's an avi administration medication policy that we have there's also currently a within our policy a separate epi pen policy within the administration of medication policy we had a discussion about adding another supplement which would dis the relaxed on policy and administration medication but after discussing with that we will consult and also
063reviewing some of the policies that have already been enacted throughout the state who have been proactive about this it seems to be a continuously a separate policy so we thought it would be best if it would be kept as a separate policy we we want to highlight the importance of this and to to really let everyone know in the community that were being proactive this particular effort but but just a very quick general and this is only a first reading so I want to have the board data read if alien give their Corrections or questions that they may have it it directs the school Nestle director to create standing orders in regards to the administration of relaxing giving requires also nurses to stare you have sufficient support I and in the US is when were
064definitions and other general directions from the board but that but that's a first reading tonight and I look forward to any questions and concerns and maybe parents and maybe additions from the board members at our next meeting or the next meeting we can bring this up when is your next policy meeting is it just before the 20th meeting yeah that's all just urge the board members as we've had in the past it's useful if you have any thoughts as you've been reading it to send a note to Steve and copy Lisa on any edits or changes you might last that policy committee just to consider and then what will be more productive at our meeting if they've had a chance to look at all those before we come to our neck cracks and we can
065sleep here on the board on the blood any recommended changes absolutely yeah say that yet so the only and I think xx would be the next that would be the first elde eligible date to bring this forward for a second reason okay just a factual question was the admit with the nurses in a meeting back in early July or late general and some of them mentioned that they are actually trained already yes they have a supply already so this plc we've actually got it on in the schools right now yeah and we've trained one generator here's another but we didn't have an actual we just have a policy so so factual under this is I think of an interest to our our listeners it's not that we don't have it available today this isn't sailing
066us down from having it is just now caught up on eyeing our policy about it correct okay is it in every school or is it as low overcast yes and this goes well okay that's all right okay any discussion on this take hang on it's been accepted for a while all in favor of accepting it for first reading say aye alright we're off the first reading there all right that's it for business tonight we max on our agendas upcoming events where the school starting up there are many many upcoming events we have Monday August 21st freshman orientation at Brookfield high school at 9 o'clock huckleberry miss clearing of orientation for families need a Brookfield huckleberries is 9 to 10 whisking airs is 10:30 to 11:30 Monday August 28th several events at center school first graders
067new to Brookfield have an orientation 232 225 225 is the magnet for our first graders and they can also find their classroom that's in the center elementary school courtyard and after that there is a Center School PTO and 8a kids came down for all center school the students 3:30 to 5:30 Tector August 29th is the huckleberry PTO family social 3 to 4 and the spear the open at that time so the students can find their classes as well where is it on the 30th first day of school for all but kindergartners it is a full day so parents please I'll send the lunches or lunch money with those students Thursday August 31st first day of school for kindergartners and it is the preschool open house at 9:30 and at 1:30 Monday September there is no
068school in observance of Labor Day Tuesday September 5th is kindergarten open house 6:30 p.m. at Center School and Wednesday September 6th is our next Board of Ed meeting several p.m. here at the media center okay thank you we do have an executive session scheduled for this evening and just before we go make the motion on that I'll just for the public oh you won't see us adjourn the meeting because we go into executive session and then we adjourn when we come out of the executive session so so with that motion on the executive session regular motion that the board enter to executive session to discuss personnel and negotiations [Music] your designated secretary all right moving into executive session and thank you everybody for tuning in this evening and thank you audience for coming [Music]